Chapter 2139: Ice Heart Nine Mysteries (Part 2)
"I beg your pardon!"
Dian Jiuzhi wasted no further words. A silver profound light covered his arms, and gradually, even his eyes became tinged with a faint silver radiance.
Although both Senluo and Dreamweaving's profound lights were silver, their natures were as different as heaven and earth. The profound light of Dreamweaving invades the soul and disturbs the mind, while Senluo's... is the pinnacle of domineering and fierce profound force in the current era beneath the Pure Land.
Before he even made a move, an invisible pressure had almost completely sealed the battlefield, with no trace of Qi flow remaining.
As the Eternal Night Divine Maiden, Dian Jiuzhi could understand Shen Wuyi's coldness, but he could not understand her calmness that remained utterly unruffled until this moment.
He raised his hand, intending to shatter the space where Shen Wuyi was located from afar...
But just an instant before he struck, his vision suddenly became strangely blurred.
Everything around him suddenly became fuzzy, as if silently sealed by an invisible force. Within his field of vision, only Shen Wuyi's eyes remained—eyes that were miles away, yet seemed to be right before him.
Her gaze had been as cold and still as a deep night from start to finish, never shifting by even a single iota. But now, staring into these eyes, he inexplicably felt his soul being pierced...
That icy, unruffled gaze was so pure and flawless, like the most perfect, transparent crystal in the world, untouched by even a speck of ordinary worldly dust. And this pure, spotless gaze seemed to pass through his eyes, reflecting into his soul sea, reaching every soul string, every corner.
It illuminated all the deeply hidden darkness, filth, and even the wounds he was loath to touch in his soul, making them visible in the finest detail.
Gradually, he began to feel an indescribable sense of shame and inferiority... as if under this supremely pure gaze, his own existence seemed filthy and despicable.
Dian Jiuzhi instantly became alert and forcibly averted his gaze.
But that eerie feeling of his soul being completely seen through still lingered.
Is this... a soul attack?
No! Not at all! There is no trace of any invasion into the soul... And that feeling of shame and inferiority clearly arises naturally from the depths of the soul!?
Dian Jiuzhi's sudden hesitation, along with the subtle change in his eyes, made Dian Luohou frown slightly. The others also showed confusion on their faces.
"What's going on?" Meng Jianxi muttered in a low voice. "Dian Jiuzhi seems a bit distracted?"
Yun Che stared intently, not blinking, at Shen Wuyi, unwilling to be distracted for even a moment.
At that moment, Shen Wuyi moved. Her right hand holding the sword dropped naturally, and she slowly raised her left hand. As a white flash flickered, a spike about two feet long appeared in her hand.
The spike was entirely crystalline white, flowing with divine light like moonlight. The occasional strange glint at its tip was so icy cold that it was unbearable to look at directly.
"That's the 'Xuankong Muyue'," Meng Jianxi said. "Oh, no, now it's called 'Heart Severing Thorn'. Her posture... Could it be that she intends to use it as a weapon?"
The Heart Severing Thorn was a Divine Son's artifact containing spatial power, mainly used for traversal and escape. It was a life-saving escape tool given to the Eternal Night Divine Successor, and there was no reason for it to appear in a Pure Land battlefield that posed no danger.
Moreover, as a high-level law surpassing those of water, fire, wind, thunder, earth, light, and darkness, the Space Law was extremely difficult to cultivate and even harder to master. Its activation was slow and consumed immense energy, making it basically impossible to use in combat. Even emergency escapes relied more on space profound artifacts that inherently contained profound spatial power and could be activated quickly.
Because the power level of the Abyss world was far higher than that of the God Realm, its spatial toughness was also an entire dimension higher, making it even harder to traverse or break.
Therefore, this spatial artifact of the Eternal Night Divine Kingdom appearing on the battlefield of the Divine Son battle seemed particularly inexplicable.
At this moment, Yun Che's brows slightly furrowed...
He saw that the space around Shen Wuyi seemed to be blurring, and then seven... colorless rays of light emerged?
"What is... that?" Meng Jianxi questioned aloud.
Those rays of light flickered in and out of existence, seeming both there and not there. They carried no perceptible aura. If not for the obvious distortion of vision when one's gaze passed through them, no one would have been able to detect their presence.
Confusion appeared on everyone's faces... including the various Divine Venerables.
Until, at a certain moment, Hua Fuchen's face suddenly showed an expression of disbelief, and he uttered a soft exclamation tinged with obvious astonishment: "Could it be... the Linglong Mystic Realm!?"
As soon as the words "Linglong Mystic Realm" were spoken, the expressions of the powerhouses from all the Divine Kingdoms underwent a dramatic change. Even the ancient eyes that had witnessed countless vicissitudes snapped wide open to their fullest extent.
A nearly chaotic wave of voices erupted around them.
"Linglong Mystic Realm? That... how is it possible?" Meng Jianxi muttered in shock.
Meng Kongchan's gaze tightened as he spoke softly: "It is indeed hard to believe, but such spatial phenomena... match the descriptions in ancient records exactly."
"But that is said to be a spatial divine body that only awakens in the bodies of ancient True Gods in legends!? Shen Wuyi... she is just..."
Meng Jianxi's voice began to stammer. Even he himself couldn't believe that one day he would doubt his own father god's words.
"What is a 'Linglong Mystic Realm'?" Yun Che asked in bewilderment.
Meng Jianxi shook his head and took a deep breath to calm himself from the shock: "Abyss Brother, nineteen months ago, you asked me whether there was anyone in the current era who possessed a Nine-Xuan Exquisite Body. And according to records, the 'Linglong Mystic Realm' is a special space that can only be created by those who possess the Nine-Xuan Exquisite Body."
Yun Che: "..."
"But," Meng Jianxi's tone changed, "according to the records, even if multiple Nine-Xuan Exquisite Bodies appeared in the current era, it would be absolutely impossible for a 'Linglong Mystic Realm' to manifest. If what Shen Wuyi possesses is truly a Linglong Mystic Realm, then... the records must be grievously mistaken."
"As for the unique aspects of the 'Linglong Mystic Realm'," Meng Jianxi shook his head, "I only glimpsed this term in the records; I know nothing else."
At this moment, Meng Kongchan spoke slowly: "Yuan'er, Jianxi, in the common understanding of the world, the special characteristic of the Nine-Xuan Exquisite Body lies in the fact that after awakening and growth, it can create its own space within the profound vein, accelerating cultivation and making it difficult to encounter bottlenecks."
"Similarly, as a profound vein mutation, Dian Jiuzhi's profound vein is called the 'Great Wilderness Divine Meridian'. But why is the Nine-Xuan Exquisite Body named after the word 'Body', rather than the 'Nine-Xuan Exquisite Meridian'?"
Meng Jianxi did not know, and neither did Yun Che.
"Nine-Xuan Exquisite Body" was a widely known concept; Yun Che had learned of it as early as the lower realm. But his understanding was also limited to "a self-contained world within the profound vein" and... that women possessing the Nine-Xuan Exquisite Body made excellent, even the best, cultivation cauldrons.
As to why it was clearly a type of unusual meridian but was named "Exquisite Body"... Yun Che had never considered it.
Meng Kongchan stared at the rays of light around Shen Wuyi and explained in a low voice: "According to the records, the Nine-Xuan Exquisite originates from the profound vein. When it sprouts, it causes the profound Qi to carry a special aura that is easy to identify. This leads to two fates for women of this quality: either they are born into a very high status, untouchable, and as the Exquisite matures, they are sure to become a great power in their region; or they are born into a humble background, are chosen... or forced... as a cauldron, and end up with a miserable fate."
"When the Exquisite matures, the profound vein forms an inner Exquisite World, allowing for extremely fast cultivation and the ability to surpass laws to a certain extent, with a potential far beyond ordinary people... But this is by no means the true form of the Nine-Xuan Exquisite Body. It is merely its sprout... a sprout that cannot break through the soil."
"Sprout?" Yun Che could not help but interject. "And that is... still just a sprout?"
"Yes, just a sprout. And it can only be a sprout." Meng Kongchan said, "Because, under ordinary circumstances, a mortal body simply cannot bear the Nine-Xuan Exquisite... And even among the ancient divine clans, those with the Nine-Xuan Exquisite Body who could perfectly bear it and give birth to a 'Linglong Mystic Realm' were less than one in a hundred!"
Yun Che: "!"
Linglong Space... Linglong Mystic Realm...
The word "Linglong" in the profound path directly evokes thoughts of space. Yun Che had always thought that the name "Nine-Xuan Exquisite Body" was a reference to the Exquisite World within the profound vein... Now he realized that it was actually a spatial divine body that even ancient True Gods could only hope to encounter.
Meng Kongchan continued: "In the history of the Abyss, although there have been a few recorded cases of the Nine-Xuan Exquisite Body appearing from time to time, there has never been a 'Linglong Mystic Realm'... nor should there have been one manifesting in this world. Hence, this concept has long been blurred."
"Since it has never existed and should not exist, how can Father God and the various seniors be so certain that it is the 'Linglong Mystic Realm'?" Meng Jianxi asked.
Meng Kongchan spoke slowly: "Whenever spatial power is employed, it invariably leaves behind traces of law and dimensional remnants. There are only two exceptions."
"One is the ancient supreme treasure Cosmic Thorn. Even when traversing myriad realms, it leaves no trace. The second is the 'Linglong Mystic Realm', whose existence can be either hidden or revealed, silently and without sound."
"Shen Wuyi..." He softly recited the name of this Eternal Night Divine Kingdom junior, and the gaze he cast upon her had already undergone a tremendous change. "Those seven deliberately manifested spatial ripples... yet even I am unable to sense any trace of spatial law from them."
"Furthermore, she not only bears the Nine-Xuan Exquisite, which should only exist in the bodies of True Gods, with a mere body at the sixth level of the Divine Annihilation Realm, but she has even fused it to the seventh Exquisite level... a full seven 'Linglong Mystic Realms'."
"That is not far from the perfect Nine-Xuan, which, according to ancient records, only appeared eight times in the vast history of the divine clans."
"As for the power of the 'Linglong Mystic Realm', you will witness it with your own eyes very soon."
He stared intently at the battlefield. Not only him, but even the Divine Venerables of all nations had, for the first time, focused their gazes so sharply on the Divine Son battlefield.
The unusual commotion outside the barrier made Dian Jiuzhi suspicious. He looked at the rays of light beside Shen Wuyi... They were clearly spatial ripples, yet bizarrely, there was no aura of spatial disturbance whatsoever.
While he was baffled, the rays of light around Shen Wuyi suddenly vanished. A streak of sword light flared up in his pupils.
Chi!
The sword tore through the air with an exceptionally piercing sound. But just like before, this kind of power posed no threat to him whatsoever, given his strong body and cultivation a full two realms higher than Shen Wuyi's.
Meeting the sword light, he grabbed out. This time, it was not merely a defensive move, but carried a power of obliteration that held back no longer, intent on shattering Shen Wuyi with a single blow.
Where his five fingers reached, space twisted violently and lost its shape... The terrifying spatial traces and aura made those seven rays of light seem like illusory shadows.
Dian Luohou instinctively took a step forward, intending to warn Dian Jiuzhi to be careful of the "Linglong Mystic Realm". But just as the words reached his throat, he swallowed them back.
Even if it were truly the Linglong Mystic Realm, even if the Linglong Mystic Realm were as miraculous as the legends said, so what? There was a difference of a full two realms between them—an unbridgeable gap. If he offered a verbal reminder, it would only make him look inferior.
Boom!
The domineering power of the Senluo Myriad Manifestations Skill erupted, and the space ahead twisted in an extremely terrifying manner in an instant. Shen Wuyi's sword shadow and figure shattered like fragile dead leaves... scattering into countless afterimages.
"...!?" Dian Jiuzhi was startled for a moment, then a chill surged in his heart.
Because a cold gleam was driving straight at his head.
His consciousness barely had time to tell him that this was by no means a body flicker technique, because there was no trace of movement or aura. The speed at which the cold gleam closed in showed not even a hint of delay from before.
It was as if... a spatial shift had suddenly occurred during her attack!
Clang!
With a metallic clang, the Heartless Sword struck Dian Jiuzhi's crown directly, scattering a tuft of severed hair.
His cultivation and body were too strong. Even a sword strike directly at the crown could not fully penetrate his protective profound force.
But the momentary loss of composure and the stinging pain were enough to shake Dian Jiuzhi's heart.
— End of Chapter —