His Essence Soul transformed into a painting. Above the scroll, water swirled around the Chaos Hole’s core.
In the early stages of painting, one aimed for form, mind, and heart.
Painting wasn’t a complete replication of reality. Instead, it was a fusion of the features and charms extracted from reality with the painter’s internal understanding.
Paintings originated from reality, but they also transcended reality.
It was the same for cultivation. As a cultivator, Meng Chuan observed the operations of the world and comprehended everything in the universe. He used his heart as a painting and extracted his own understanding from everything before condensing his understanding into laws.
My cultivation path is also the path of painting. In the early days, I painted the world. Now, I paint everything in the universe. Meng Chuan came to a realization. To this day, I only paint space and Chaos Holes.
His true path wasn’t Boulder and Water, nor was it internal indestructibility in the face of infinite calamity and changes according to the situation externally.
Instead, it was painting—painting of the world.
Boulder and Water was only the result of his 7,000 years of painting the world. What if it was 70,000 years or even longer? The paintings he produced would be much more vast and beautiful.
I shall call my Essence Soul formulation ‘Painting World.’ Meng Chuan smiled.
Painting World was to paint everything he saw. When Meng Chuan was young, he painted People Resonance. After winning the war in Archean Eon Realm, he painted Backbone. During his growth, he had painted numerous paintings.
After his Essence Soul transformed, Meng Chuan felt that his Essence Soul was especially bright.
Perhaps he still had many doubts about everything in the universe, but he no longer had any doubts about his cultivation path. His mind and will had also transformed.
Compared to the Chaos Hole Essence Soul that he had previously comprehended, the current painting Essence Soul didn’t seem to have offensive traits, but it was more inclusive and vast.
The size of one’s heart determined their Essence Soul World’s size.
After condensing an Essence Soul from the painting, Meng Chuan’s mind became much more vast.
…
After creating an Essence Soul formulation, his most important goal before transcending the tribulation had been completed. In Archean Eon Realm, Meng Chuan leisurely flipped through the manual filled with 3,000 illusory arrays.
One required a long period of time to comprehend the 3,000 illusory arrays; it was very difficult for even an Eighth Tribulation Eminence to crack them all. Thus, Meng Chuan wasn’t in a hurry.
Time passed quickly. On the 79th year since Meng Chuan grasped the Chaos Hole law—
In a courtyard pavilion on Archean Mountain.
Meng Chuan leisurely sat in the pavilion with a black book in his hand. He suddenly looked up, and his gaze traversed spacetime and landed on an ancient planet in a distant river zone.
This grandson of mine really has quite some luck with opportunities. Meng Chuan smiled. His homeworld’s true body had the Spacetime Token, the silver cube combination treasure, and the many treasures left behind by Ancestral Master Archean Eon. Be it monitoring spacetime or sending an Essence Soul avatar across spacetime, it was very easy for him.
…
Heavenly Cycle River Zone, Seven Star River System.
On a nameless ancient planet, the void distorted as five figures appeared. They had different auras, and the weakest among them was a black-robed youth. This black-robed youth—Meng Yu—was only at the Third Tribulation realm. The other four were at the Fourth Tribulation realm.
“Everyone, let’s part ways here,” said Meng Yu with a smile. His brows were filled with delight; he had gained too much this time.
“Brother Meng, I owe you a favor this time. In the future, you have to visit me often,” said a fat elder.
“Definitely, definitely,” replied Meng Yu warmly.
“Let’s leave quickly. Something might happen if we delay,” said a purple-robed, middle-aged man. He was about to leave with Lesser Void Transference. He was rather good at spatial manipulation, but he had failed this time. The purple-robed man’s expression changed. “Not good.”
The other Tribulation Eminences, including Meng Yu, realized that something was amiss. However, the strongest amongst them was only at the Fourth Tribulation realm. Some of their homeworlds only had one or two Void Transference Talismans, so their outer realm true bodies didn’t carry any Void Transference Talismans with them.
They were prepared to abandon their outer realm true bodies when carrying out operations outside the safety of their homeworlds. After all, it was a trivial matter to reconstruct a body, while obtaining Void Transference Talismans was far harder.
But this time, the five of them were willing to pay a Void Transference Talisman in exchange for a chance to escape.
“Haha…” A deep laugh sounded.
A figure dressed in armor appeared, and his aura enveloped the entire ancient planet. The terrifying aura caused Meng Yu and company’s hearts to turn cold.
Fifth Tribulation Eminence? Meng Yu and company knew that things were going south.
With his excellent sword technique, Meng Yu could fight a Fourth Tribulation Eminence despite them being a realm higher than him. However, the gap grew with each increment in cultivation realm. The difference between a Fourth Tribulation Eminence and a Fifth Tribulation Eminence was huge!
A Fifth Tribulation Eminence could easily crush the five of them. There wouldn’t be any accidents.
“I heard that you discovered a Seventh Tribulation Eminence’s cave abode?” The armored figure’s voice spread throughout the planet. “Your luck sure is good.”
There’s a traitor.
Meng Yu and company were alarmed as they immediately realized that a traitor had appeared amongst them.
Before their team explored the ruin, they didn’t know about the ruin’s true situation. After exploring, they were pleasantly surprised to discover that the ruin was actually where a Seventh Tribulation Eminence lived in seclusion. Although there weren’t many treasures left behind by the Seventh Tribulation Eminence, and there wasn’t a single Eighth Tribulation treasure, the ordinary treasures used in daily life made ordinary Tribulation Eminences like them envious.
For example, the most precious item was nine Heart Calming Beads embedded in the roof of a chamber. Each bead was worth about 10,000 cubes. Back then, they had been fanatical. There were dozens of treasures in the cave abode, worth about 200,000 cubes.
The five of them had become wealthy during their reconnaissance. However, they were ambushed the moment they came out of the cave abode. The other party even claimed that it was a Seventh Tribulation cave abode. Nobody had known that it was a Seventh Tribulation cave abode before they explored it.
“There’s no need to try escaping; I’ve already set up an array formation,” said the armored figure leisurely. “As long as you hand over all your treasures obediently, I promise to let you leave safely.”
“Separate and flee.”
“There’s only one of him. Let’s split up and flee; there’s a chance of escaping!”
“Flee!”
Everyone, including Meng Yu, fled without any hesitation.
Gathering together? Ignoring the fact that there was a traitor among them, even if the five of them joined forces, they would be wiped clean by the Fifth Tribulation Eminence. Only by fleeing separately did they have a chance of escaping. After all, there was only one Fifth Tribulation Eminence.
It was impossible for them to allow themselves to be captured. For the sake of the treasures in their hands, they would do their best to seize any chance of escaping.
Most of the treasures I obtained in the cave abode are cultivation artifacts. The alchemy furnace should be rather precious, but there’s no way to use it to escape. Meng Yu determined a direction and fled quickly. At the same time, he felt rather vexed. That divine sword is quite valuable, but I have no hope of fighting a Fifth Tribulation Eminence with it.
If I had earned the treasures earlier, I would’ve long exchanged for a Void Transference Talisman.
Meng Yu was anxious.
Void Transference Talismans were life-preservation treasures for ordinary Tribulation Eminences, but he was too poor. Ever since he came out of his homeworld—Earth Cloud Mystic Realm—he had never had the chance to obtain a Void Transference Talisman. He had relied on his sword techniques to roam the world.
The reason why he was so accomplished in sword techniques was that he had spent almost all his energy on the Meng family’s ultimate technique—Immeasurable Sword Heart. As he cultivated, he realized how brilliant Immeasurable Sword Heart—which his grandfather had given him—was. At the very least, he had never encountered an ultimate technique more powerful than the Immeasurable Sword Heart in Earth Cloud Mystic Realm.
“No—” As a gray-robed man fled, he was the first to be intercepted by the armored figure. The gray-robed man raised his head in despair and stared at the armored figure. He had obtained the equivalent of 30,000 cubes this time. It was several times more than what he had accumulated over the years. How could he be willing to be robbed?
Boom!
The armored figure enveloped him with a palm strike, freezing the gray-robed man completely. The treasures were easily plundered.
“Next.” The armored figure phased away and chased after Meng Yu.
Meng Yu transformed into a sword beam. Even though he had to resist the array formation’s obstruction, his escaping speed was still extremely fast. However, the armored figure was already chasing after him speedily.
The armored figure wasn’t affected by the array formation, and his realm was extremely high. Every step he took allowed him to traverse over five million kilometers as he constantly approached Meng Yu.
What should I do? What should I do? Meng Yu was extremely anxious. The rare treasure I obtained in the outer realm is about to be snatched away?
Meng Yu watched as the armored figure approached him. However, he felt powerless. The difference in strength was too great; there was no way to put up a fight.
“Grandson, don’t panic.” A familiar voice suddenly sounded in Meng Yu’s mind.
