A Will Eternal

As the celestials from both imperial dynasties were in the spiderweb-covered second immortal domain, searching for Bai Xiaochun, he was on the damaged fan, excitedly examining the lizard laying in front of him.

His initial detailed inspection had confirmed that the thing was on its last legs, and was no threat to him. But being the cautious individual that he was, he put quite a few restrictive spells on it anyway, just to be safe. Then he took out the Greatsword of the North and slashed at it a few dozen times.

Although the lizard still wasn’t completely dead, its aura was now so weak that I seemed like little more than a chunk of meat.

Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’s always good to be extra safe!” As far as he was concerned, his extraordinary caution was a very good thing, and it caused his eyes to shine with pride and anticipation.

“I felt a reaction earlier from my Undying Live Forever Technique, and now there’s nobody around to interrupt me. I wonder if I can perfect the technique even more!?” Having reached this point in his train of thought, he took a deep breath, put his hand on the lizard, and then activated his Undying Live Forever Technique.

It was almost like an immobile horse cart that had been shoved with great force. The technique immediately went to work, causing a gravitational force to spring up that grew stronger with every moment thanks to Bai Xiaochun’s promptings.

It happened suddenly, but he had been waiting for something like this to occur. Instead of keeping only one hand clamped down on the lizard, he reached out and pushed his other hand onto its head.

His hands were like two vortexes, and he, a black hole. As for the lizard, it shivered and opened its eyes wide. It was even possible to hear it wheezing a bit.

He wasn’t sure exactly what he was absorbing from it, although he knew it wasn’t life force. It was something in the thing’s blood, something that other celestials would not easily be able to extract, and even archaeans would have trouble with.

Just as he had realized back in Murknine County, his Undying Live Forever Technique and this lizard had similar origins. Therefore, the process went very smoothly.

Only a moment had passed, and yet the lizard was losing its color, turning darker, as if it were rotting away.

And yet, it wasn’t rotting. It was more like a mortal who, despite not being sick, was suddenly listless, as though some unknowable property within them was slowly vanishing.

Bai Xiaochun could sense what was happening, and it caused his eyes to go wide. Although he didn’t know exactly what his Undying Live Forever Technique was absorbing, he could tell that the technique was transforming!!

Rumbling sounds filled him as his blood, flesh, bones, energy passageways, and everything else that made him up began to change!!

Previously, it had seemed an impossibility to do anything with the technique after he had fully mastered it. But right now, his fleshly body power was actually rising!

As the rumbling filled him, he shivered, feeling himself growing stronger, both in his fleshly body, and in his divine abilities and magical techniques.

However, what was being affected was specifically the Undying Codex aspect. The Live Forever Codex remained the same.

Even still, he was already going wild with joy. His fleshly body hadn’t improved for a long time, and as for his Time Immemorial Codex, it was only useful for the cultivation base.

Right now, his fleshly body was improving rapidly. In fact, Bai Xiaochun could also tell that the most precious aspect of the Undying Codex, his powers of regeneration… were also transforming, becoming faster and stronger!

Bai Xiaochun couldn’t have been more excited. For some reason, he now felt as if his fleshly body and powers of regeneration had no limit. The contentment and pleasure he felt from this transformation process was something he had never before experienced with regards to his Undying Live Forever Technique.

Much of his cultivation of the technique had been bitter and painful. The hunger and lack of life force he had dealt with had been uncomfortable, to say the least.

One reason why few people had ever cultivated the Undying Live Forever Technique to completion was a lack of life force, and the other was the sheer pain involved.

But now, things were different. It was as if… this was the true Undying Live Forever Technique, and what Bai Xiaochun had cultivated was an imitation!

As he reveled in the sensation, his fleshly body and powers of regeneration improved by twenty percent, thirty percent, forty percent….

He almost felt like his fleshly body progress might surpass his cultivation base and reach the Archaean Realm first!

However, it was at this point that he realized that whatever substance he was absorbing from the lizard was rapidly diminishing, leaving the lizard almost completely emptied out.

“Huh?” He looked over and confirmed that the lizard had lost all of its vitality, and the flame of its life force was going completely dark. Within moments, it would definitely be completely dead.

As the process continued, it went completely stiff and unmoving. All of that unknown substance was now gone from within it.

Stunned, Bai Xiaochun probed his Undying Live Forever Technique, and confirmed that it had improved by about forty or fifty percent. Although it was still exciting, he felt a bit disappointed.

“Uh… did absorbing that stuff kill it? Or did it stop because it died?” After a long moment passed, he sighed.

“I can’t believe that lizard claimed to be the clone of a sovereign. What a complete wimp!” Muttering to himself, he checked his fleshly body, whereupon his mood improved a bit.

“Ah, whatever, I guess I absorbed as much as I could. As of now, I’m the strongest person in the mid Celestial Realm even without the Greatsword of the North!” Having reached this point in his train of thought, he threw his head back and laughed uproariously.

“There’s no way this lizard, which came from the fleshly body of a sovereign, could possibly be so useless. There must be other valuable aspects to it.” Chuckling, he looked back down at the thing, stroking his chin for a bit before pulling out the Greatsword of the North. Backing it with all of his fleshly body power and cultivation base, he slashed it down toward one of the lizard’s legs.

It was dead, and stiff as a board, but Bai Xiaochun had just benefited from a massive powerup. Booms rang out, and although it took some work, a few dozen slashes to be specific, he managed to cut the leg off.

There was no blood. Apparently, the lizard really had become nothing more than a dried-up corpse.

Grabbing the leg, he studied it closely for quite some time. However, he couldn’t find anything special about it. Whether it was divine sense, or the naked eye, it seemed ordinary in every aspect. Not even using medicine concocting techniques on it did anything.

He also went so far as to try a spirit enhancement, only to have no results.

In the end, he was really starting to get frustrated.

“There’s no way! Don’t tell me that stuff I absorbed was what the Saint-Emperor and Vile-Emperor were hoping would contain the secret to getting to the Sovereign Realm?” He scratched his head, thinking that, if the lizard were really of this little value, then everything that had gone on was really a waste.

“I took such a big risk….” he thought. With that, he hacked the lizard up into a collection of smaller parts, which he then inspected even more closely, hoping to find something like an internal core.

However, in the end, he found nothing. Looking down at the pile of body parts, he frowned.

“What kind of practical joke is this?!” Sighing, he collected up the pieces of the broken corpse and tried to figure out how he would explain it all after returning to the second immortal domain. However, it was at that point that something like a stiff wind rose up on the damaged fan.

As that happened, the spirit automaton awoke.

“Heavens! What is that? The fleshly body of a sovereign?!?! I recognize that aura. It’s him! It’s definitely him!!”