Volume One, Chapter Seventy-Eight: The Fire of the Void

Chapter Seventy-Eight: The Fire of the Void

Tu Zhe climbed to his feet from the void, gazing at the fearsome Dragon King Laizha striding toward him, and could not suppress a certain feeling. Damn it, with just a few moves, I redirected the power of this old demon serpent toward the Divine-grade King Brahma Crystal, and all that energy was being whittled away and refined. The power was immense—far faster than I could have absorbed on my own, many times over. In just a few moments, I had already refined about twenty percent of the Brahma Crystal’s world force and absorbed it, allowing me to grow rapidly—dozens of times stronger in an instant.

Sensing his own condition, Tu Zhe realized he could still absorb about another ten percent of the Brahma Crystal, so he laughed uproariously at Laizha:

“You bastards want to kill me, and you expect me to tell you where your Grand Sage has gone? You really think it’s my responsibility? If you’ve got the guts, find them yourself. If you can’t, you’ll never see them again—let me tell you, ha ha—”

Lightning flashed in Laizha’s dragon eyes, rage blazing within. With a slight lift of his hand, a colossal dragon claw blotted out the sky and, with a thunderous crash, sent Tu Zhe hurtling thousands of leagues.

Yet almost at the instant Laizha struck, Tu Zhe circulated his power, redirecting Laizha’s force into the Brahma Crystal, which erupted with boundless world energy that surged through Tu Zhe’s body like a furious tide, reaching the deepest and finest parts of him.

Tu Zhe felt every one of his meridians expand to a width that surprised even himself, the roaring Brahma energy coursing through them, nourishing and strengthening the meridians, while his cells swelled, divided, and multiplied into countless tiny worlds, absorbing and digesting all that Brahma energy.

O Lotus Leaf—

The demon king Mara Pishun, at last regaining his interest, began to comment:

“Ladies and gentlemen of the heavens, we are astonished to witness a being who stands at the very pinnacle of the Three Realms attack a child as insignificant as an ant. I cannot call such conduct shameless, for shamelessness does not even begin to describe it. How is it that a newly born celestial prince has provoked the Naga clan to muster nearly all their strength to hunt him down? Is there some deep-seated grudge between him and the Nagas? Or is there some secret or conspiracy behind this incredible affair, one that cannot be revealed to outsiders?

“Of course, ha ha, even if we confronted that old serpent directly, he would never tell us. If he did, it would no longer be a secret or a conspiracy, would it?”

(2/3)

“Yet, the chance of this conspiracy succeeding seems exceedingly small. Do you see it? Tu Zhe, my apprentice, the little prince, stands up after every onslaught of the old serpent emperor’s spells and might… O Lotus Leaf! I find it laughable. The old serpent has struck him a hundred times already, hasn’t he? At this rate, even after a few hundred or thousand more strikes, he still won’t be able to kill Tu Zhe.

“I wonder, what face does this old serpent have left to continue? We must ask in astonishment: Old serpent, are you truly… an emperor?”

Billions of celestial beings erupted in laughter, for they saw that, though Tu Zhe was being beaten and flung about, his life was in no real danger.

Thus, a tidal wave of shouts shook the heavens of the Desire Realm:

“Tu Zhe the Unkillable! Tu Zhe the Unkillable! Tu Zhe the Unkillable—”

At this, Yueyi protested, “Who are you calling unkillable? You’re unkillable, your whole family’s unkillable! My little brother is a Vajra, that’s what he is—curse you all—!”

Equally displeased were Shudra and his band of nightshades, puffing out their chests and bellies, arms akimbo, pointing and swinging fists and feet, yelling, “You’re unkillable, your whole family’s unkillable!”

But their protests were inevitably drowned out by the cries of the countless heavenly onlookers.

Meanwhile, Huluzhina’s heart was filled with terror and hatred. How could this be? Is he truly impossible to kill? Laizha is a great emperor, on par with my own father. Yet that little brat is still enduring?

He stole a glance at the distant Indra, his father, who sat smiling serenely as if nothing was amiss, appearing completely at ease. Huluzhina cursed inwardly, “Father, why are you pretending now? With things as they are, how can you still put on that smile?”

Beside him, the second son, Qubojia, suddenly seemed to have come to a realization. He gazed calmly at the celestial vision in the sky, swearing to himself, “From now on, my rival will not be the eighth brother. I must grow stronger, become a miracle like Tu Zhe, surpass him by far, and trample him underfoot.”

By now, Tu Zhe felt that his body could no longer absorb the boundless world energy released by the Divine-grade King. Turning his sight inward, he saw his meridians like riverbeds, blood like waves of gold, every cell full and lustrous, crystalline and radiant with nine-colored light. If Laizha did not stop, he would have no choice but to channel the nine-colored Brahma energy into the seed that dwelled within his Alaya-consciousness—the location where all could be stored.

That seed was a bottomless pit.

(3/3)

At this moment, the Dragon King Laizha’s expression had grown grim, and his heart was filled with shock.

He had struck with his dragon claws over a hundred times now. He knew the extent of his own power—he could shatter a star with a swipe, move mountains and fill seas with ease. Such feats were child’s play for a sage; seizing stars and plucking moons was true divine power.

Yet even such divine might could do nothing to a mere Tu Zhe.

How could this be?

What’s more, it seemed that the more he struck, the more spirited Tu Zhe became, his energy growing ever more vigorous. Was he using Laizha’s power to refine some heavenly treasure?

At this thought, Laizha’s anger boiled over. According to Indra, this brat possessed all manner of incredible treasures—clearly, it was true. But thinking of how half his sages had been lost, only one of the great saints, Long Yi, still possessed any strength, and the entire Naga army had been rendered useless—not to mention the losses, but the disgrace! If he could not kill this brat, how could he show his face again in the Great Salty Sea?

He sneered, “Boy, do you really think you can escape with your life from my hands? I didn’t even show much respect to your godfather or your master—do you think I can’t deal with you?”

With a thunderous shout, Laizha swept his dragon claws, gathering the boundless Voidfire drifting in space. Vast swathes of barely visible flame were seized and hurled with the destructive force of his claws straight into Tu Zhe’s body.

Voidfire—the most mysterious flame in all the myriad worlds—was the very fire Tu Zhe needed to perfect his True Samadhi Fire. By a twist of fate, it now entered his body.

Voidfire burns all, leaves nothing unscathed. Especially against the soul, it possesses a strange and devastating power. Yet it is also an indispensable flame for cultivating the Samadhi True Fire.

As the Voidfire entered Tu Zhe, it instantly began to burn along his meridians, vaporizing vast amounts of Brahma energy in a flash, and began to sear the walls of his meridians.

The pain was immediately unbearable. Tu Zhe curled and thrashed through the void, screaming in agony. His already tattered clothes turned to ash, the Voidfire burst from his pores, and his flesh was instantly charred.

He seemed on the verge of collapse, about to be reduced to dust.