A World Worth Protecting

The short string of words wasn’t some silly poem, they represented six divine powers!

Divine powers weren’t like ordinary spells, they made use of nomological laws and the powers that governed the universe. That was why only powerful cultivators could harness the power of divine powers. In addition, that was also why every divine power passed down the generations was so powerful.

It should have been impossible for Wang Baole to grasp or master the six divine powers through the remnant divine consciousness. This was similar to what he had experienced in the Dark Dream. He had read up on many spells and several divine powers. However, his level of cultivation then had prevented him from mastering them. That had been his greatest limitation.

Such limitations still existed. However, Wang Baole had found a way around them through Dharmic Armaments. By fusing the six divine consciousness remnants successfully into Artifact Souls, he had managed to seal six divine powers into the respective six beads. These beads served as a medium through which he could overcome the limitations of his cultivation. With the beads as a medium and the Artifact Souls as a catalyst, he could now expend less of his cultivation to unleash the power of these divine powers!

Of course, the reduction in cultivation expended was relative. To an extremely powerful cultivator, it was insignificant. To Wang Baole, it was still a sizable degree of cultivation. Nevertheless, it was still within the realm of reason!

Emotions flashed across his face as he lowered his head and studied the bracelet around his wrist. He could feel the power nestled within them as well as the six Artifact Souls resting inside his head. A strange light flickered in his eyes.

Each bead contains a divine power!

Wang Baole had not expected that. No matter how one looked at it, this was a perfect refinement. Wang Baole knew very well the significance behind the bracelet. His knowledge of Dharmic Armaments, as well as his personal hand in refining the item, had led him to that awareness. The bracelet’s significance wasn’t in allowing him to unleash the six divine powers. If that had been its sole benefit, it would be useless after the first few usages. The beads would slowly crack and turn to dust after repeated use, the divine powers lost to the winds.

The value of this bracelet lies in the opportunity it’s given me to understand the divine powers it contains. I can do that repeatedly until I master the divine powers and make them truly mine!

Wang Baole took a deep breath and then looked around. The red worms were all hovering around, swaying. However, ever since he had put on the bracelet, their hostility had lessened significantly. They seemed to submit to a certain aura present on his person.

Wang Baole realized that this place might be one of the rare safe harbors in this world filled with corpses.

He let loose a sigh of relief secretly. He didn’t hasten to leave. Instead, he looked at the bracelet again, then shut his eyes. His mind drifted away. Led by the Dark Fire, it entered the first star-shaped bead.

His vision blurred instantly. When it cleared, he saw the skies transformed into a starlit night. Hanging in the heavens was a gigantic planet.

A battle had just erupted on the planet, and he seemed to be able to see everything happening on the planet. The planet belonged to the Dark Sect. Countless Never-Ending Clan members were engaged in a fierce battle with the disciples of the Dark Sect!

Beyond the planet, in the pitch-black night sky, an enormous hand slowly materialized. It was covered with inscriptions. Each of its five fingers seemed to be a prison for a fearsome demon, with an appearance that was gruesome beyond measure. The enormous hand stretched across the heavens and made a grab for the planet!

The planet rumbled and shook violently. The Never-Ending Clan members on the planet froze instantly, their physical forms immobilized as their souls were yanked out from their bodies. The spirits gathered and formed a Dark River that rushed towards the heavens, into space, and towards the gigantic hand!

That was Soul Guiding!

Wang Baole was shaken to the core. His jolted awake, and his breath quickened as he stared at the star-shaped bead that contained Soul Guiding. He couldn’t stop the racing of his heart. This Soul Guiding technique was another version of the Soul Guidance Glove. In fact, it seemed to be what the Soul Guidance Glove was capable of when pushed to the extreme.

He had read of the various ways of maximizing the impact of the Soul Guidance Glove in various records in the Dark Dream, but Soul Guiding hadn’t been one of them. Wang Baole suddenly realized that even though each faction in the Dark Sect might originate from the same essence, every single one of them had developed divine powers unique to their own faction.

This Soul Guiding technique was a divine power that had belonged to another Dark Sect faction!

Wang Baole contemplated that thought silently for a long moment. Then, he allowed his consciousness to meld with the second star-shaped bead. The divine power contained within the bead was called… Dream Spinning!

He pondered the meaning of its name. When Wang Baole opened his eyes a while later, thus ending his experiencing the Dream Spinning technique, he was left with a similar conclusion as the one he had gathered with Soul Guiding. Dream Spinning was another version of the Dark Dream.

It’s not as all-encompassing as the Dark Dream, but it’s more detailed and precise—especially when used during battle. It can allow someone to enter a dream immediately. The person won’t be able to differentiate dream from reality. At the same time, he would become a puppet, to be controlled by others!

Light flickered in Wang Baole’s eyes before his mind entered the final two star-shaped beads. They contained the Ten Thousand Tribulations and A Thousand Lives techniques. Both were powerful techniques that struck terror into his heart. The former Ten Thousand Tribulations, especially, seemed to serve as a curse that was to be cast prior to battle!

The cursed would be viewed as an enemy by all living creatures for a fixed period of time. He might be crushed by falling boulders while taking a stroll or spiral into madness while meditating.

That was Ten Thousand Tribulations—to suffer the trials and tribulations that came from everything around one!

The latter technique, A Thousand Lives, served a purpose as indicated by its name. It was the complete opposite of Ten Thousand Tribulations and the only divine power that could be used on himself. It served as a boost, giving him the potential vitality of a thousand lives during a fight. Theoretically speaking, it could protect him from a thousand lethal blows. Results might vary in reality though, depending on the circumstances.

Nothing is set in stone. If that were the case, the mighty senior from the Dark Sect wouldn’t have been cleaved into halves… Wang Baole lowered his head and stared at the skull he was sitting on. He set aside the excitement he had from his discovery of A Thousand Lives and calmed down. Then, he began his exploration of the sun-shaped and moon-shaped beads and the divine powers contained within—Rebirth Severing and Five Punishments!

Wang Baole soon found himself having to abandon his attempts. The two divine powers vastly surpassed the last four. The challenge he had faced in crafting them attested to that. Wang Baole wasn’t yet ready to try and understand the workings of these two techniques. He wasn’t able to sense anything from the last two beads.

After a bout of silence, Wang Baole finally sighed and ended his second attempt at the last two beads. He looked around him. Even though this was a safe spot, he still decided to leave the city ruins.

Before he left, Wang Baole gave a deep bow to the skull and the city ruins that sat above the skeletal remains. Countless red worms continued to sway in the air as he leaped into the sky and raced off.

His mission remained unchanged. He continued to search for the sacrificial altar of this world. His luck seemed to have taken a turn for the better. After racing through this world for a few days, Wang Baole suddenly froze in his tracks. He hovered in the dusk-lit skies, his head turned abruptly towards the distance. He could sense the tremors in the earth and hear the clanking of chains ringing. There was a heavy panting in the air, loud like the howling of a tornado. It was coming from the horizon, gushing in like fierce waves.

Wang Baole didn’t hesitate. The Flame Snatch Thearch Armor materialized over him immediately. He retreated a considerable distance, then gazed into the distance again. The tremors grew stronger. The sounds of chains hitting each other became clearer. Tornadoes raged in the sky. Finally, he saw the emergence of a towering, vast figure in the distant horizon!

It wasn’t the beast he had seen previously. The figure that appeared in Wang Baole’s vision was round, growing clearer as it approached. Wang Baole’s eyes widened when he finally saw clearly what it was.

A Star Fang Beast!

It was an extremely enormous Star Fang Beast that was larger than the Beast King Wang Baole had come across in the past. Death exuded from its body. He had no idea how long it had been dead, but the flames on its body were still burning. The air around it warped as it advanced. Everywhere it went, it brought with it the stench of death as well as a sudden hike in temperature!

It was covered in chains, just like the giant ape. The chains ended in a bound, wooden log. It dragged the log forward like a mule. If it slowed down in the slightest, punishment descended in the form of invisible whips!

Wang Baole stopped breathing. He was forced to fall back in the face of such scorching heat. His eyes stayed on the log behind the Star Fang Beast. It stretched on endlessly into the distance. He knew that there was a great chance that at the other end of the log… he was going to find the sacrificial altar!