Chapter 72: LEVEL UP!
Battle Qi originates from a person's life force and will; it is the most self-centered power, rejecting everything that is not the self.
Arcane power comes from the residual force of creation at the beginning of the world; it is a universal power that shapes all things.
There is no distinction of high or low between the two, nor do they repel each other. A wielder of Battle Qi can use magic, and a great mage can also cultivate breathing techniques. These are not mutually exclusive powers; it is merely a matter of personal focus.
But Divine Power is different from them.
So-called Divine Power is the power of existence.
Before all things are shaped, they must first exist. Arcane power can mobilize elements and matter to form everything, but it cannot create something from nothing in a void. Divine Power, however, is a force that can create order and a pure land of existence out of the endless chaotic currents of the void—great and noble, unique and unparalleled.
Because each portion of Divine Power is a part of its owner's soul and existence, they each have their own characteristics. But whether it is the Divine Power of the Father of Nature or the Divine Power of the Seven Gods, if used for destruction, they also possess the ability to annihilate everything.
Just like this strike.
Three streams of Divine Power converged together, transforming into cyan divine patterns that coiled around the warrior's raised arm and greatsword. Joshua's eyes flickered with burning flames, as if he were a saint walking among mortals. A gale swirled around him, even forming a terrifying funnel-shaped wind pillar that connected the ground to the sky. On the earth, countless mud, rocks, and trees were blown away, and many smaller Stone Golems were swept up by the wind, spinning endlessly in mid-air.
Facing the countless giants before him, each as massive as a mountain peak and wielding the power of thunder and storms, he let out a disdainful snort, then swung his giant sword downward, carving a vertical straight line from top to bottom.
A miracle descended here.
Accompanied by the furious howl of the gale, the dark clouds in the sky were completely split apart by a condensed cyan light that extended into the infinite distance, revealing the dark void behind the clouds. Then, with a sound like tearing silk, the black dust fog that enveloped the entire world was also split from top to bottom. From the earth revealed beneath the black fog, a bottomless fissure appeared, and even the dim flow of magma at its bottom could be seen.
All the Titan Colossi struck along the way ceased their movements. Their wounds were as smooth as mirrors, as if that part had been completely erased from this world by some force. Before these giants—some split in half, others missing limbs—could react, Joshua swung his giant axe horizontally again.
A beam of light swept across half the world, forming a cyan arc-shaped fan. It intersected with the previous strike, cutting through the black dust fog. The dust fog calamity that had enveloped the entire world was now torn apart by a cross-shaped wound. This time, almost all the Titan Giants were hit. They were severed at the waist, their upper halves sliding diagonally before crashing to the ground, triggering massive explosions.
Instantly, hundreds upon thousands of violent explosions filled the entire world. Even at the edge of vision, where the cyan light reached, explosions occurred that no one could see. But because Joshua's two strikes using Divine Power had erased even the air and the concept of space along their path, the sounds of these explosions were torn apart and became chaotic and mixed.
"Feels..."
The warrior stood in mid-air, the cyan radiance flickering around him dimming considerably, but his eyes remained bright. In just a few breaths, thanks to the protection of the Father of Nature, the small wounds caused by the excessive Divine Power on Joshua's body had healed. After releasing the overly powerful force, he also felt his body become lighter. Gripping his sword and axe tightly, the warrior nodded in satisfaction: "Not bad at all."
His body, after such a high-intensity baptism of Divine Power, had grown significantly stronger than before, even stepping into a higher realm.
That is, the realm of Ultimate Essence.
In fact, when he first arrived in the Ilgena World, Joshua's power was far from this level. Although he had once been a Legendary, that was only in the previous life of the game. While that experience had indeed greatly helped the warrior, in this real world, it was gradually proving insufficient.
So he wanted to take a different path—not the Ultimate Essence of Technique, which he had succeeded in before, but the Ultimate Essence of Force to reach the realm of Ultimate Essence. Through constant battles with the Stone Golems, Joshua gradually approached his goal. He even had a premonition that even without the system's help, he could successfully reach that realm.
The Revelation of Black Iron means mastering the foundation of mortal power. The Radiant Spirit of Silver signifies the evolution of soul and body. The Glory of Gold allows a person to initially merge with mortal power.
And Ultimate Essence means that a person has surpassed their own limits, becoming a transcendent being called human, yet completely different from ordinary people. Battle most easily brings one to their limits and allows them to surpass them.
Now, everything fell into place. With the help of the Father of Nature's Divine Power, whether it was the understanding of the essence of power or the system's tasks, he had achieved both. The only thing left was the breakthrough.
So the warrior, who had already stepped into the realm of transcendence and seen the ultimate truth of power, simply closed his eyes on the battlefield and began to sublimate his essence without hesitation.
Crimson Battle Qi and black killing intent spread from Joshua's heart center throughout his entire body. These two colors even overshadowed the light patterns of the Father of Nature's Divine Power, forming a black-red cocoon of Qi that wrapped around the warrior. This cocoon, just by floating there, dyed the world within hundreds of meters into a black-red hue. Within this domain, terrifying killing intent spread, the aura of destruction overflowed, and the will of rage and battle expanded endlessly, as if turning everything into a hell of strife.
This aura even affected the emotionless puppets. With the Qi cocoon at its center, the area within several kilometers became a forbidden zone. The flying Stone Golems in the sky and the ordinary Stone Golems on the ground all involuntarily detoured, as if something ahead made them feel fear, preventing them from approaching.
Loranda looked from afar and couldn't help but widen his eyes—how was this possible?
He naturally understood what this scene meant. The Sublimation Cocoon of one achieving Ultimate Essence—the Paladin had even witnessed many senior knights of the knight orders reach this step in the church. But no matter who it was, they only dared to fully let go of their worries and step into the realm of transcendence under the protection of the entire knight order and several Archbishops.
And Joshua, he was doing this right on the battlefield, in the midst of fighting against Chaos and Evil Gods? This was simply too insane. Even Loranda couldn't help but exclaim in shock: "By the Seven Gods, how dare he!"
And in reality, Joshua had already done so.
Then, the Paladin also noticed that facing the seemingly defenseless Qi cocoon, the Stone Golems dared not approach. These puppets, which only possessed the most basic common sense for judgment, unanimously judged the area where the warrior was as an 'extremely dangerous' place. Approaching would only cause meaningless losses, so they all simply detoured. This, in turn, increased the density of monsters elsewhere. To withstand the suddenly intensified assault and prevent these flying Stone Golems from approaching the Father of Nature's body, Loranda could only temporarily set aside his attention to Joshua's situation and focus on blocking and destroying these swift flying puppets.
On the ground, Black also felt a bit strained. More and more Mithril-rank and Adamantite-rank Stone Golems were appearing. Its charge couldn't destroy these rank puppets, so it had to occasionally spew dragon breath to completely clear a patch of Stone Golems. Small mushroom clouds rose with each breath and explosion. The violent shockwaves destroyed countless Stone Golems, but the number of these puppets not only didn't decrease under this fierce assault but increased, making defense increasingly difficult.
In the sky, beside the large cocoon, the spirits of Ying and Lin were circling this Qi cocoon. Their true bodies were now held in the hands of the sublimating Joshua, so they could sense that their master was not in danger but was instead growing stronger. This was an essential transformation, like a piece of hard steel being forged by fire and hammered into a sharp blade by a blacksmith. So although the two were worried, they only circled around the large cocoon, not daring to disturb.
The will of the Father of Nature watched from afar. Its spirit gazed at the Qi cocoon floating in mid-air, radiating a powerful aura of despair, and couldn't help but feel emotional.
—Even in their era, the most prosperous age of the races, someone of Joshua's age stepping into the threshold of transcendence was considered extremely fast, a genius that appeared only once every few hundred years. It was precisely because it saw this and sensed the legacy of the Sage on him that it chose these visitors from another world to entrust with the heavy responsibility.
Now, it seemed this was indeed the best choice. That man would not only not disappoint it but, after advancing, might even be able to bear more of its power and fully complete its plan.
Cyan-green light flickered endlessly within the protected range. Stone Golems exposed to this light would have countless tough vines grow all over their bodies, leaving them helpless as Loranda and the others blasted them to pieces. At this moment, most of the petrified tree branches at the foot of the mountain had gradually turned brown. With a continuous series of rumbling sounds, the huge underground cavern was gradually collapsing.
Looking down from the sky, it seemed as if the entire Origin Mountain Range was slowly sinking. The guardian elves on the airship had long been stunned by the successive grand spectacles. They hadn't even recovered from the awakening of the Mother Tree, and their attention was completely captured by the miraculous strike that had appeared in the sky earlier. They hadn't noticed that the ground beneath them had sunk nearly a hundred meters.
—Boom!!!
With a thunderous crash, everyone turned to look back at the Origin Mountain Range. Even though the guardian elves were already numb with shock, they all cried out in astonishment, some even letting out meaningless roars.
Because the original location of the mountain range had completely disappeared. The undulating hills had turned into a huge basin due to the collapse of the underground cavern. In the center of this basin, a giant tree with roots deeply planted in the entire world and branches covered with mud and rock was revealed to everyone.
What a magnificent giant tree this was! Just a part of its crown was as towering and massive as a mountain peak several kilometers high. If its main trunk weren't mostly sunken in the basin, the crown would surely break through the sky and high heavens, reaching into the void.
Now, countless mud and rocks were shaking off from the branches of this divine tree. The rocky shell that had encased it was also gradually cracking, revealing the brown body beneath. As the cyan-green divine wind of power swept by, the branches were instantly covered with buds. The scent of life, nature, and purification filled the entire protected space.
Over a thousand years ago, the Father of Nature brought a group of elves to the Ilgena World. This world was originally full of wilderness and deserts, completely unsuitable for the elves' survival. To change this, it buried itself deep underground, absorbing the arcane power of the entire world to transform nature. Except for places like volcanoes, which it didn't absorb, it took every bit of arcane power to reshape the world into one suitable for elven life.
But for the original world and its original creatures, the Father of Nature's actions were no different from an unprecedented great calamity. This act, without surprise, attracted the Calamity Evil God wandering in the void.
As the Father of Nature revealed its true form, seemingly further awakened, all the Stone Golems instantly became even more frenzied. One by one, powerful arcane radiances lit up on their bodies as they began to operate at overload, preparing to break through Loranda and Black's defenses and completely destroy the giant tree.
The ten light wheels in the sky also spun rapidly without delay, gathering power. Silver light flickered in the sky like stars, piercing through the dust fog and black clouds, descending a beam of heavenly fire that could tear space apart, intending to completely erase the giant tree, just as it had erased Sigma Volcano.
The Evil God's power was Chaos that could turn everything into nothingness. Although it couldn't create like Divine Power, when it came to destructive force, it was more than capable.
But the falling silver beam was blocked by a suddenly appearing cyan-green protective barrier. The massive barrier rippled like water, surging with waves, but it wasn't torn apart. It remained tough and resilient, gradually calming the tremors caused by the attack.
The Calamity Evil God's strike across worlds was ineffective, but both the flying Stone Golems and the various puppets on the ground became even more frenzied. They no longer even sought to attack and kill Loranda and Black but were single-mindedly trying to bypass their defenses to attack the gradually awakening Source Divine Tree. As the black clouds were stirred, several more monsters, like the earlier aerial fortress, appeared in the sky. They released endless magic to suppress the movements and attacks of the two, preventing them from affecting the Stone Golem army's offensive.
On the ground, countless Stone Golems began to combine again. They slowly merged together, becoming brand-new rock giants. But this wasn't the end. As infinite arcane power was injected into these puppets' bodies, the material of their bodies was gradually transforming—from rock to metal, then to a pale yellow similar to gold, as if they wanted to advance again into those terrifying Titan Colossi.
Faced with the suddenly fierce assault, Loranda and Black struggled to hold their ground. Although they were powerful, the disadvantage in numbers was evident—facing the tide of terrifying puppets coming from all directions, they were nearly overwhelmed. While the two continued to destroy the incoming puppets, even more puppets bypassed their defenses and surged toward the Father of Nature.
But just as Loranda and Black were barely holding on, a low male voice suddenly appeared in their ears.
"Sorry for the wait, friends."
This voice contained a hint of unrestrained laughter. He seemed completely unconcerned about the puppets surging toward the Father of Nature and laughed out loud: "I have good news for you!"
A crimson light suddenly appeared. It streaked across the sky like a god, instantly crossing several kilometers. All puppets along its path were completely destroyed without exception, triggering massive explosions. Terrifying shockwaves spread, causing countless flying Stone Golems to fall to the ground like rain, triggering even more explosions.
I leveled up!