Five million years later, the eighteenth layer of hell:
“Hah!” A thunderous roar rang out.
Shangguan Hen shone with a bright, golden light as he threw a punch at a giant planet.
Boom!
Shangguan Hen’s glistening, golden fist exploded that planet.
“I can’t take it anymore! Hah! I can’t take this any further!” Shangguan Hen roared in frustration.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Shangguan Hen frantically attacked the surrounding planets, his eyes bloodshot.
The noise startled Gu Hai awake on a distant planet. His hair had turned white once more, and wrinkles filled his face.
Gu Hai stopped looking at the celestial bodies he had arranged neatly and turned to Shangguan Hen.
“Shangguan Hen!” Gu Hai shouted.
The distant Shangguan Hen trembled and returned to his senses.
Whoosh!
Shangguan Hen immediately flew to the plaza Gu Hai stood on.
Bang!
When Shangguan Hen landed, he crushed some rocks with his foot in frustration.
“How goes your cultivation?” Gu Hai asked.
“Your Reverence, I have already completed the sixth set of nines, the fifty-fourth layer. However, I could not break through when I tried. I have not advanced a single layer in a hundred years,” Shangguan Hen said anxiously.
“The fifty-fourth layer? That’s the same as Sun Wukong. Sun Wukong had tempered himself in the Eight Trigram Furnace. We used the True Flame Calabash to temper you. Is that already the limit?” Gu Hai pondered.
“Your Reverence, I feel very frustrated,” Shangguan Hen said bitterly.
“Never mind. It has been five million years. It makes sense that you cannot bear it. Sleep first. Sleep using the Tortoise Breathing Technique. Perhaps it might get better. After that, we will use the Immortal Slaying Calabash to attack you, to help you forge an indestructible body,” Gu Hai said.
“Yes. Many thanks, Your Reverence,” Shangguan Hen said with a bitter smile.
Dry and dull cultivation for five million years. How tortuous was that? Shangguan Hen had been enthusiastic when he started cultivating the Eight Nines Profound Technique. Now, he felt like vomiting at the thought of cultivating.
However, Gu Hai had not allowed Shangguan Hen to sleep previously. He knew that Gu Hai did this for his good, but it felt very uncomfortable.
Now that he could finally sleep, he suddenly felt that being able to sleep was bliss.
Shangguan Hen quickly took out a coffin, lay down in it, and fell asleep.
As Gu Hai watched Shangguan Hen sleep, he smiled bitterly. “This is just the Six Paths Immortal Firmament’s eighteenth layer of hell. Do you know how horrifying Sa’s Immortal Firmament’s eighteenth layer of hell is?”
Gu Hai took a deep breath and looked at the heavens.
The arrangement of the one thousand planets seemed to have changed.
“The Thirty-Three? It is indeed complicated. Is this our Go skills’ limit? No! We will comprehend it. We still have more than one hundred million years. We have plenty of time.” Determination flashed in Gu Hai’s eyes.
At the same time, Gu Hai checked his body.
He harvested another batch of Essence from the Earthly Soul Register.
Buzz!
Gu Hai’s earthly soul trembled before calming down.
Gu Hai: “…”
“The Middle Heavenly Palace Realm’s first layer? Still the first layer? You must be joking, right? The Earthly Soul Register has already been absorbing Essence for five million years!” Gu Hai said bitterly.
“Huh?” He suddenly raised his eyebrows.
“The Karmic Energy pool and the Mending Heaven Energy pool are changing?” Gu Hai’s expression changed.
“The Karmic Energy pool and the Mending Heaven Energy pool were originally attached back to back. Now, they strangely separated and flew towards the Spiritual Progenitor deity king.
“This is…could this be?” Gu Hai’s face suddenly lit up in joy.
The Spiritual Progenitor deity king instinctively sensed a great threat. However, Gu Hai had formed the Karmic Energy pool and the Mending Heaven Energy pool. How could they be a threat?
Gu Hai suppressed his instinctive fear and let the Karmic Energy pool and Mending Heaven Energy pool fly toward the Spiritual Progenitor deity king.
The two pools slowly shrank as they flew toward the Spiritual Progenitor deity king’s eyes.
Boom!
The Karmic Energy pool and the Mending Heaven Energy pool entered the Spiritual Progenitor deity king’s eyes.
Vast energy rushed into the Spiritual Progenitor deity king.
“Ah!” Gu Hai cried out in pain.
The Spiritual Progenitor deity king felt incredible pain.
The Karmic Energy pool and the Mending Heaven Energy pool seemed to be fusing with the Spiritual Progenitor deity king. The pain was so intense that even Gu Hai found it intolerable despite his strong endurance. He screamed in pain.
It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!
Only a Spiritual Progenitor deity king like Gu Hai’s could endure such torment. Had it been another, the agony would have scattered the nascent soul long ago.
Of all the nascent souls in the world, pitifully few were as strong as a Spiritual Progenitor deity king. A Spiritual Progenitor deity king was absolutely the strongest nascent soul.
Even the strongest Spiritual Progenitor deity king nearly could not endure this fusion.
However, the pain happened to fall within its limits. The Spiritual Progenitor deity king trembled a few times but ultimately did not shatter while the Karmic Energy pool fused into its right eye and the Mending Heaven Energy pool fused into its left eye.
Buzz!
The Spiritual Progenitor deity king shuddered.
“Argh!” Gu Hai howled in pain.
The loud howls shook the surrounding space.
He endured this pain for nearly a month before it subsided slowly.
The Spiritual Progenitor deity king immediately became torpid. This lasted for a long time—nearly a year—before it regained its liveliness.
Now, the Mending Heaven Energy pool and the Karmic Energy pool were the deity king’s pupils.
The deity king’s left eye gave off a gentle white light, and its right eye gave off a gentle black light.
“The Worldly Sorrowful Endowment’s third layer? The Eyes of Life and Death?” Gu Hai said upon realizing this.
Why did the Mending Heaven Energy pool and the Karmic Energy pool manifest in the dantian? It was so they could eventually merge with the nascent soul’s eyes.
With their fusion, Gu Hai reached the third layer. This was the result of boundless accumulations.
“Fortunately, I cultivate a Spiritual Progenitor deity king. Without the Spiritual Progenitor deity king, there would be no way to survive reaching the Worldly Sorrowful Endowment’s third layer. That was dangerous. It was excruciating. My nascent soul nearly exploded. The Worldly Sorrowful Endowment? What kind of cultivation technique is it?” Gu Hai wondered in bewilderment.
There are nine layers? I have only reached the third layer.
“I investigated the Mending Heaven Sect before. Only the founding Mending Heaven Sect Master managed to cultivate it to the second layer. That should be the effect of the second layer. No one has ever reached the third layer. The third layer? It is because they did not have a Spiritual Progenitor deity king.” Gu Hai narrowed his eyes.
“The third layer? The Eyes of Life and Death? I wonder what the effects are?” Gu Hai muttered.
He sank his consciousness into his Spiritual Progenitor deity king.
“Huh?” Gu Hai suddenly raised his eyebrows.
The things the Spiritual Progenitor deity king’s eyes saw were different from what ordinary people saw.
Gu Hai saw countless translucent black and white lines—many of them densely packed together. The left eye saw white lines, and the right eye saw black lines.
“This is?” A trace of bewilderment appeared on Gu Hai’s face.
He opened his mouth, swallowed a broken sword, and sent it to his dantian.
First, he closed his right eye and observed with the left.
A sword-shaped object suddenly appeared amid the countless lines. This object also consisted of numerous lines.
He saw that some of the lines were broken and could be mended.
A nine-colored light shot out from the left eye. This was Mending Heaven Energy. It poured into the broken portions and fixed them in the blink of an eye.
“This is a broken enchanted sword. The Mending Heaven Energy restored it by connecting those white lines? The broken white lines were the broken parts. That means that the left eye is the Eye of Life. It can see the essence of an object’s existence, just like a DNA chain? By seeing the DNA chain, one can fix it.” Gu Hai’s expression changed.
He then closed the left eye and opened the right.
Buzz!
This time, Gu Hai saw that the sword-shaped object was made up of black lines. However, there were much fewer black lines than the white lines he had seen.
“The right Eye of Death only sees a portion of what the Eye of Life sees. However, they are indicated in black? The Eye of Death does not see comprehensively?” Gu Hai felt slightly startled.
The deity king appeared curious as it fired a slender energy beam from its finger and cut a black line.
Bang!
It was only one black line, but the sword shattered.
“It shattered? How could it be like this?” Gu Hai felt slightly startled.
Gu Hai tried to use Mending Heaven Energy to fix the sword.
“Although I cut only one black line, I need much more Mending Heaven Energy to restore it? What is this black line?” Gu Hai felt slightly startled.
He then cut a white line that the Eye of Death could not see.
Snap!
When the white line broke, the sword remained the same. Nothing broke.
Gu Hai entered deep thought. After many tests, he finally understood.
“The Eye of Death can see the critical foundations of all things. Once those lines break, the foundations are damaged, nearly always resulting in complete destruction. The Eye of Life can comprehensively see the essence of all objects, clearly seeing everything?” Gu Hai frowned.
“That’s right! The immortal firmament?!” Gu Hai’s expression changed.
He had left the Warring Nation Immortal Firmament in the Mending Heaven Energy pool for restoration.
When Gu Hai looked at it with the Eye of Life, he immediately saw many densely packed lines—a dazzling number. There were many broken parts, which the Mending Heaven Energy was fixing. However, the progress was rather slow.
Then, he looked at the immortal firmament with the Eye of Death.
Only an extensive black framework remained. Although there were countless broken black lines, they were much fewer now.
Gu Hai’s expression changed. “I should fix the critical black lines first!”
Whoosh!
A large amount of Mending Heaven Energy immediately worked on fixing those critical black lines.
Previously, the Warring Nation Immortal Firmament was being fixed comprehensively, with all aspects addressed at the same time. Now, the focus was on the critical elements.
Boom!
The shattered sun in there suddenly reassembled, which seemed to give rise to an urgent demand for heat.
Gu Hai immediately flew towards a star.
Buzz!
The Warring Nation Immortal Firmament quickly absorbed the energy of the surging star and fixed the sun inside.
At the same time, Gu Hai saw, with his Eye of Life, many of the broken white lines recovering without the need for Mending Heaven Energy.
“I understand now! Hahaha! As long as the main framework and the critical parts are restored, the other parts can recover independently. There is no need to expend so much Mending Heaven Energy!” Gu Hai laughed, his eyes lighting up.
