Chapter 453 - 402: I Am Nether Spring! Today, I Attain the Dao

Inside the Celestial Demon Well.

Upon the boundless Blood Sea.

Nether Spring leaped.

That leap was no ordinary jump. It was the culmination of his entire life’s cultivation.

It was every drop of essence blood he had refined, every wisp of a Celestial Demon he had devoured, every Blood God Child he had condensed, and everything from his countless years of bitter endurance within the Blood Sea—

all of it was condensed into this single leap!

"BOOM—!!!"

The moment he leaped, the entire Blood Sea erupted!

Countless bloody waves surged into the sky, transforming into the phantoms of hundreds of millions of Blood God Children, all roaring toward the heavens!

Their roars converged into a terrifying shockwave that shook the firmament, echoing madly within the Celestial Demon Well!

The Twelve-Grade Blood Lotus shone with immense light as all twelve grades of its petals bloomed. From the lotus’s heart, a wisp of the purest, cleanest sanguine origin shot into the sky, aimed straight at the ascending figure!

Ah Bi hummed, and Yuan Tu shrieked!

The two Supreme Treasures of slaughter flew from his hands at once, transforming into two streaks of Flowing Light—one black, one white—that spun madly around Nether Spring’s body!

Where the black and white energies passed, the void was cut with countless fine cracks, as if they were clearing a path for their sovereign!

Around Nether Spring, his Crimson Magic Robe whipped wildly, and his ink-black hair billowed like demonic flames!

He looked up at the approaching Blood Sea Fruit Position, his blood-red eyes burning with a sanguinary glow of unprecedented brilliance!

Closer.

Closer still.

Just as his True Spirit was about to touch the Fruit Position—

"VMMMM—!!!"

An indescribable tremor erupted from within the Fruit Position!

The tremor was not sound, nor was it pressure.

It was something more fundamental, more foundational.

It was... acknowledgment!

This Supreme Fruit Position, which had existed since the creation of the Blood Sea, had finally—opened its gates to the figure before it, a being who took the Blood Sea as his Dao, fed on slaughter, and lived in filth!

Nether Spring’s True Spirit transformed into a streak of blood-red Flowing Light, condensed to its absolute limit. It left his physical body and plunged straight into the slowly rotating Fruit Position!

"RUMBLE—!!!"

The moment his True Spirit was entrusted to the Fruit Position!

The entire Blood Sea began to boil completely!

No, not boil. It was a violent uprising!

The boundless Blood Sea, at this moment, seemed to gain life, to gain a will of its own!

Hundreds of millions of bloody waves surged into the sky at once, forming countless massive pillars of blood. They intertwined, coiled, and converged in the void, finally condensing into a colossal figure that touched the sky and stood firm on the ground...

A Blood Sea Dharma Aspect!

The sheer size of this Dharma Aspect was beyond description!

Its head touched the eternal murk of the Celestial Demon Well, its feet stood upon the darkness in the deepest trenches of the Blood Sea, and a terrifying aura capable of devouring all things flowed from its body!

It lowered its head, gazed upon the blood-robed figure standing in the void, and then—slowly knelt in submission!

At this moment, the entire Blood Sea submitted!

...

Meanwhile, a more fundamental transformation was occurring between Nether Spring’s physical body and his True Spirit.

His Dharma Body—that crimson form condensed from the origin of the Blood Sea—was now trembling violently!

Countless blood-colored Dao Patterns emerged from beneath his skin, flowing and intertwining!

Those Dao Patterns were the foundation of the Blood Spirit Scripture he had cultivated all his life, a direct manifestation of the Blood Sea Dao!

His Immortal Appearance—the phantom of the newly condensed Twelve-Grade Blood Lotus—now unfurled explosively behind him!

The Blood Lotus was so immense it covered tens of thousands of feet of the void!

Upon its Twelfth-Grade Lotus Petals, countless streams of bloody Daoist Intent flowed madly. Each circulation caused every Law related to "blood" between Heaven and Earth to resonate in sympathy!

The Dharma Body and the Immortal Appearance, at this moment—

began to merge!

"ROAR—!!!"

Nether Spring roared at the sky, his cry filled with both tearing agony and the exhilaration of impending transformation!

The fusion of the Dharma Body and Immortal Appearance was a reforging of the very foundation of his existence!

It was a pain more terrifying than a torn body or a shattered Divine Soul. It was the crucible that everyone Seeking Gold and Proving the Dao must endure—the furnace!

But he endured it.

For he was a being born from the Blood Sea itself; his Dharma Body and Immortal Appearance shared the same origin!

"BOOM—!!!"

Another earth-shattering cataclysm!

Nether Spring’s Dharma Body and Immortal Appearance finally merged completely into one!

The being that resulted from the fusion hovered silently in the void, an indescribable, terrifying aura flowing around it—an aura that seemed to coexist with the Blood Sea and with slaughter itself.

It slightly raised its gaze, looking toward the Blood Sea Fruit Position still hanging at a higher altitude.

Then—

It heaved upward!

"RUMBLE!!!"

An indescribably vast and majestic power erupted!

The power was so immense and terrifying, it seemed capable of lifting Heaven and Earth itself!

A pillar of blood-red light, so thick it defied imagination, shot straight toward the Blood Sea Fruit Position!

The instant the pillar of light touched the Fruit Position!

The Fruit Position, which had been hovering motionlessly, finally moved!

It slowly descended toward the pillar of light, toward Nether Spring—

descending upon him!

The moment the Fruit Position descended, Nether Spring felt his entire being enveloped by a power so vast it was beyond description!

Within this mighty power were the endless years since the Blood Sea’s creation, the resentful unwillingness of countless fallen cultivators of the Blood Spirit Scripture, and the fundamental mysteries of the ultimate Supreme Yin and filth!

That was the Dao!

That was the foundation of the Blood Sea Dao, the culmination of everything this Fruit Position had accumulated since the dawn of time!

And now, all of it belonged to him!

"Rise—!!!"

With a furious roar from Nether Spring, the blood-red light formed from his merged Dharma Body and Immortal Appearance erupted with power!

The Blood Sea Fruit Position was instantly heaved upward by him!

The moment he lifted the Fruit Position—

the entire Celestial Demon Well trembled!

At this moment, the eternally murky void was forcefully torn open, revealing a massive rift!

Beyond the rift was a place far higher, vaster, and more fundamental: the Foundation Establishment Heaven!

Lifting the Blood Sea Fruit Position, Nether Spring charged straight into the rift, into the world where the Dao Foundations of countless Foundation Establishment Masters hung high in the sky!

In the Foundation Establishment Heaven, innumerable Dao Foundations were like a dense field of stars, twinkling uncertainly.

Some were as dim as fireflies, others blazed with brilliant light, but regardless of size or brightness, they all floated quietly in this realm, scoured by the River of Years and bound by the Heaven and Earth Laws.

But at this moment—

a figure, lifting a Blood Sea Fruit Position, charged in brazenly!

Wherever the figure passed, countless Dao Foundations frantically retreated!

The Dao Foundations of the usually lofty Foundation Establishment Masters were now like subjects seeing their king, parting to either side to clear a path for that figure—

a path to ascend the heavens!

Nether Spring continued upward, lifting the Fruit Position!

He would shatter the shackles of the Foundation Establishment Heaven!

He would escape the pull of the River of Years!

He would—

fly into the All Marvelous Heaven!

"BOOM—!!!"

Another earth-shattering cataclysm!

Lifting the Fruit Position, Nether Spring slammed brazenly into the formless barrier between the Foundation Establishment Heaven and the higher dimension!

That barrier was the fundamental chasm between a True Monarch and a Master!

That barrier was the ultimate wall that countless Great Masters could not surmount in their entire lifetimes!

But Nether Spring didn’t care.

He lifted the Blood Sea Fruit Position, bearing the will of the entire Blood Sea, the slaughter of Ah Bi Yuan Tu, and the culmination of his entire life’s cultivation—

and smashed into it with all his might!

"CRACK—!!!"

Under this impact, the formless barrier shattered!

An aura even vaster, loftier, and more fundamental than that of the Foundation Establishment Heaven poured down from the shattered point!

That was the All Marvelous Heaven!

That was the origin of the Ten Thousand Laws, the place where the Great Dao manifests, the realm where True Monarchs hang high above!

Lifting the Fruit Position, Nether Spring charged straight into that higher-dimensional realm!

The scenery in the All Marvelous Heaven was completely different from that of the Foundation Establishment Heaven.

There were no star-like Dao Foundations here, only orbs hanging high like suns and moons—Fruit Positions!

They appeared as crystalline Buddha Towers, solitary Sword Peaks, Star Sea Vortexes, or pools of blood from the Yellow Springs. Each one emanated a completely different yet equally vast Dao Rhyme, suspended quietly above the River of Years, gazing down upon the ceaseless torrent of time below.

And now—

a new Fruit Position was slowly rising!

The Fruit Position was blood-red all over, shaped like an egg, and slowly spinning!

With every rotation, countless streams of Blood Sea Dao Rhyme flowed out from it, merging into the fundamental Law of the All Marvelous Heaven!

The Blood Sea Fruit Position!

In the All Marvelous Heaven, a True Monarch was born!

Nether Spring’s True Spirit, suspended high within the Fruit Position, gazed downward.

The *River of Heaven and Earth Years*, that which runs through all of eternity, nourishes all realms, and scours all things, was now "below" him, far, far below.

It was no longer the colossal waterfall spanning Heaven and Earth that he had once looked up at. Instead, it resembled a slowly flowing, gray ribbon winding its way through the endless void.

Its waters still surged, and its waves still churned. Countless fragments of time and motes of dust from ages past rose and fell within it, scouring the innumerable Dao Foundations of Foundation Establishment that hung high above its surface.

But those Dao Foundations of Foundation Establishment, in Nether Spring’s eyes, were now like dust.

Dense as the stars on a summer night, yet dim and insignificant, they flickered uncertainly under the scouring of the River of Years, at risk of being doused and extinguished by a single splash at any moment.

That was the world where he once stood.

That was the height he once gazed up at.

And now—

he was above it.

An indescribable feeling welled up in his heart.

It was transcendence.

It was dominion.

It was—

being a True Monarch!

The instant his Status ascended, Nether Spring felt his senses expand infinitely!

He could seemingly "see" every corner of the Profound Yellow Origin Realm, "hear" the heartbeat of every living being, and "feel" the flow of every single Law!

He slightly raised his hand.

Just this simple movement caused the entire All Marvelous Heaven to tremble slightly!

He lowered his gaze, looking down at the group of True Monarchs still locked in a standoff, at the deep blue figure standing with his hands behind his back, and at the impending war that could destroy the entire Profound Yellow.

The corners of his mouth slowly curled into a savage grin.

Then—

he spoke.

His voice was not loud, yet it echoed clearly throughout the All Marvelous Heaven, across the Fruit Position of every True Monarch, and deep within the Heart and Spirit of every living being:

"I am Nether Spring—"

"Today, I have proven the Dao!"

"Greetings, my fellow Daoists!"

The moment his words fell—

"BOOM—!!!"

The entire All Marvelous Heaven trembled violently!

The tremor was so intense that all the Fruit Positions hanging high in this realm swayed slightly!

Those True Monarchs, who had been lost in a frenzy with their killing intent soaring to the heavens, all froze in unison at this moment!

In their eyes, within the burning madness and killing intent, a sliver of—

clarity finally appeared!

...