Chapter 115: Twenty-Four of Heaven and Earth, Twenty-Four Deities of the Human Body!

At this moment, Kongzhi's shock was even greater than before. To be fair, although the strength Chenlong displayed was formidable, Kongzhi had not taken it to heart.

Ninety-nine percent of Chenlong's power relied on his divine weapons. It was only through their intricate coordination that he had managed to tangle with Kongzhi for this short while. Stripped of those artifacts, Chenlong's actual strength was nothing special in his eyes. Moreover... a cultivator at the Tribulation Transcending First Layer was not considered a major cultivator to begin with.

But things were different now.

Tribulation Transcending Second Layer. Surviving the heavenly tribulation. Only cultivators who navigated the three calamities could cultivate Divine Powers. For a cultivator at the Tribulation Transcending Stage, this amounted to a complete rebirth.

Even Kongzhi himself was still on the path to this step.

Yet Chenlong had achieved it.

A mere martial artist?

Kongzhi naturally refused to believe it, but the facts were right in front of him. He was forced to re-evaluate Chenlong with an unprecedented level of seriousness.

"No... it's not Divine Powers."

"It looks the part, but it isn't. You aren't using spells... is it magical treasures? You combined the profound workings of your magical treasures to manifest a might similar to Divine Powers?"

Kongzhi had a sharp eye, after all. Once his brief shock passed, he calmed down and immediately saw through the true nature of the miraculous scene before him.

But that made it even more unbelievable.

Combining different spells to give birth to Divine Powers was possible only because a cultivator endured the torture of heavenly tribulation and the tempering of the three calamities of wind, fire, and lightning. Only then could such an achievement be reached.

How could a martial artist possibly do the same?

"By relying on Divine Intent, naturally."

Chenlong's voice echoed across the peak of the solitary mountain. "We martial artists may use divine weapons as our foundation, but a weapon is ultimately just a weapon. The person wielding it is what truly matters."

"Divine Intent is the root of a martial artist."

"A Grandmaster Rank expert achieves the state of Seeing Divinity and becomes indestructible. The more deities they see, the stronger and more complete their Divine Intent becomes, until finally, they can even use Divine Intent to depict heaven and earth!"

Depict heaven and earth? A martial artist?

Kongzhi shook his head. "An ant ignorant of the vastness of the heavens. Depict heaven and earth? There are twenty-four Qi in heaven and earth, invisible to the mundane. If you cannot even see the Qi, how can you speak of depicting it?"

Chenlong did not argue. Instead, he chuckled.

"That is why I say you are ignorant... The twenty-four solar Qi of heaven and earth. It's true, martial artists are ultimately not an extraordinary person; we cannot perceive those profound things."

"But that doesn't mean we truly have no way to touch those twenty-four Qi. Humans are the essence of heaven and earth. Born as humans, we are inherently complete with profundity. Even if our naked eyes cannot see it, and we lack the spiritual sense to resonate with it, there are other methods... This is the state of Seeing Divinity pioneered by the First Seat!"

"Heaven and earth possess the three realms, the five elements, and the twenty-four Qi."

"The human body possesses the three scenes, the eight divisions, and the twenty-four deities!"

"The two inherently correspond with each other. Therefore, we martial artists only need to see the deities within our own bodies to draw analogies and sense the solar Qi of heaven and earth!"

"A Martial Dao Grandmaster Rank expert who manages to see just one of the three scenes within the body—totaling eight deities—can use their spirit to paint a scene, reflecting the light and colors of heaven and earth into their heart. I saw this solitary peak with my own eyes years ago. Located in the extreme north, its summit is forged day and night by freezing winds, like a blade crafted by this very world."

"That is why it is called the Heavenly Blade."

"And because it was formed by heaven and earth, making it unparalleled in the world, it is also known as the Peerless Slash." Chenlong's voice rode the freezing wind, growing increasingly thunderous.

"Hence the name, Heavenly Blade Peerless Slash!"

As his words fell, the world in Kongzhi's eyes abruptly flipped. He was no longer standing on the cliff of the solitary peak, but had been transported directly to the very summit that pierced the clouds.

He was directly facing the blade of heaven and earth!

In an instant, Kongzhi felt a splitting headache. His spiritual sense shattered inch by inch, and his sea of consciousness cracked open with a boom, as if it were about to be cleaved cleanly in two by that worldly edge!

"...Are you kidding me!"

With those words, Kongzhi's expression finally contorted slightly. Rumbling Sanskrit chants echoed out, and the towering four-armed Buddha statue behind him finally took a step forward.

A second later, the figures of the Buddha statue and Kongzhi overlapped. The male and female halves of Kongzhi's bizarre face smoothed out simultaneously—the female side soft and alluring, the male side imposing and masculine. The four arms followed suit; one pair bulged with muscle, while the other was slender and graceful. The four hands formed a mudra in front of his lips:

"Emptiness!"

The moment the word was spoken, both of Kongzhi's faces opened their mouths in unison. The man was furious, the woman shrill. The dharma voice crashed like thunder, detonating directly between heaven and earth!

In an instant, the myriad phenomena trembled.

The Immortal Gate possessed the Nine-Word Mantra, described as "Tribulation Transcending, Qi Refining, Cultivating Truth to Ascend to Immortality." Legend had it that it was established by the Heavenly Honored One, serving ever since as the foundation of cultivation for the Immortal Gate.

The Brahma Nation, on the other hand, possessed the Six-Word Mantra.

Legend claimed it was spoken by the living Buddha, preaching the equality of all living beings, described as "Meditate on Zen, Awaken to Emptiness, Prove the Fruit." This similarly served as the foundation of cultivation for the Brahma Nation and the salvation of all beings.

Neither of the two mantras was merely empty talk or casual words. They carried the stories of their respective immortals and gods, and their pronunciations held a distinct profundity. To not speak them was one thing, but once spoken, they truly manifested supreme might. Therefore, without tremendous fortune, a single word of either mantra was incredibly difficult to obtain.

That included Kongzhi himself.

Had he not shouldered a heavy responsibility as the Brahma Nation's key mole infiltrated into the Immortal Gate's Eight Trigrams Furnace, he likely never would have been granted this word, "Emptiness."

I don't believe it!

Kongzhi gritted his teeth, continuously pouring magical power into the word.

As if a mere Mortal, relying on cheap tricks to cobble together some imitation of Divine Powers, could withstand this word of Emptiness!

A great collision of heaven and earth!

Chenlong's Heavenly Blade Peerless Slash was a scene painted with the spirit. Although the depicted solitary snow peak did not exist in reality, it possessed the power to influence reality.

If it truly cleaved through Kongzhi's sea of consciousness, the result would genuinely reflect in reality, directly obliterating his consciousness and reducing him to a senseless living corpse.

Yet in the next second, it was as if a massive, invisible hand wiped across the entire solitary snow peak, erasing it into nothingness in an instant. A far more magnificent profundity descended out of thin air, draining the color from the world. There was no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no color, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma. It guided all things toward the exact same conclusion:

All conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows; like dew, and like lightning.

The four elements are all Emptiness!

"Boom!"

The scenery shattered, and Kongzhi's consciousness returned to reality. He only felt his head buzzing. For a moment, he could not perceive the changes in the outside world at all; everything before his eyes was pitch black.

It's the influence of Emptiness!

A profundity descended the moment it was spoken, and such a supreme mantra did not distinguish between friend and foe. While crushing Chenlong, it also affected Kongzhi himself.

However, he was absolutely certain that his opponent was in far worse shape!

"Cough, cough, cough..."

On the other side, Chenlong also stumbled backward. Not only had he lost his sight and hearing, but his entire body felt hollowed out, leaving nothing but an empty husk standing in place.

Dammit... I'm not at the Great Grandmaster Rank!

Divine Communion and Manifesting Divinity—using heaven-reaching Divine Intent to manifest the holiness of the Martial Dao. He had only achieved Divine Communion, successfully depicting the sights of heaven and earth with his Divine Intent.

If he could have gone one step further and achieved Manifesting Divinity, then his Heavenly Blade Peerless Slash would not have been a mere mental illusion. It could have truly turned the ethereal into reality. Using a martial artist's astral aura as a medium and borrowing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, it would have fully materialized in the real world. That was the true mighty power of the Great Grandmaster Rank.

Unfortunately, a hair's difference leads to a thousand miles of divergence.

With only Divine Communion, his technique was ultimately shattered by Kongzhi in a single strike. His body had been wrung dry in the process, leaving him without even the strength to flee.

"To think the Martial Dao has undergone such a drastic transformation in a mere one hundred and twenty years."

At the same time, Kongzhi had already recovered from his daze, his expression regaining its calm. "I must admit, I truly underestimated you."

"A pity it was still in vain."

Although his injuries were significant, as a cultivator, his vitality was far stronger than that of a Mortal martial artist. A mere fatal wound was not enough to claim his life.

But Chenlong possessed no such ability.

This man's destiny is also quite good. I'll devour him, take his magical treasures, retrieve my magical artifact, and then bring the Child of Destiny to Book Mountain to demand an explanation...

At this thought, Kongzhi suddenly froze.

He abruptly felt a wave of heat rushing against his face. But at this point, the outcome was already decided. How could there still be a wave of heat?

No, something is wrong!

Another variable?

In a split second, Kongzhi's gaze fell on Chenlong, only to see that the man had not yet broken free from the influence of Emptiness.

His eyes could not see, nor could he hear any sound. He was fundamentally incapable of mounting any effective resistance—except for his chest. The blazing white radiance that had begun gathering on his breastplate's Heart-Protecting Mirror the very moment the battle started seemed to have finally reached a certain threshold.

"...Heh heh."

Suddenly, Chenlong raised his head. As if sensing something, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. Even though his body was hollowed out and he could not muster a shred of strength, he remained perfectly calm.

He possessed a total of five divine weapons.

He had practically exhausted the other four in the battle just now. Only the breastplate had contributed nothing, leading Kongzhi to conclude it was merely a magical treasure meant for absorbing damage.

That judgment was both right and wrong.

Because while it was indeed used to absorb damage, it did more than just that—it could also harness the absorbed damage and concentrate it upon the Heart-Protecting Mirror on his chest.

And during the fierce battle just now, not only had he endured the extreme pressure of moving at up to a thousand times the speed of sound, but he had also clashed head-on with Kongzhi multiple times.

All of that had been converted into the blazing white radiance on the Heart-Protecting Mirror.

Until this very moment.

Sun-Perching Heart-Guard Armor.

Kongzhi did not hesitate for a second. His figure shot up from the ground, lotus flowers blooming beneath his every step as he prepared to plunge into the clouds. However, Chenlong spoke even faster:

"The sun perches within the armor, guarding the heart and fixing the form."

When the armor shatters, the sun rises!

In an instant, the divine armor on Chenlong's body shattered with a boom. The blazing white radiance at the Heart-Protecting Mirror surged out in all directions like a bursting dam!

And so, heaven and earth turned entirely white.

At this moment, if one were to look down from the zenith, they would see that patch of radiance falling upon the shadow of the firmament, clearly illuminating Kongzhi's wretched, fleeing figure.

Who had won and who had lost was clear at a glance.

Without a doubt, Chenlong had won!