581: Chapter 582 A Desperate Gamble!

Within the Reincarnation barrier, every moment a Cultivator spent inside felt as though they had experienced lifetime after lifetime of Reincarnation.

In each lifetime, they would possess different identities; perhaps reincarnating as moisture-born and egg-hatched birds and beasts, or perhaps being noble emperors and generals who sat upon and owned the world, or even falling into starving ghosts and refugees struggling in hunger.

These Reincarnation illusions were incomparably realistic, accompanied by the inheritance of complete memories, emotions, pain, and joy with every Reincarnation.

It was like compressing a living being's entire life into a fleeting instant and pouring it deep into the Sea of Consciousness.

If ordinary Cultivators were trapped within, in less than a moment they would become lost within the illusions of a hundred lifetimes of Reincarnation, unable to distinguish what was real and what was illusory.

The ultimate ending would inevitably be the disintegration of their Divine Soul and the annihilation of their consciousness.

Even a Nascent Soul True Monarch had to split off a massive amount of mental focus under such continuous Reincarnation scouring to stabilize their own dao foundation and distinguish between true and false.

With the slightest carelessness, they could be dragged into the torrent of Reincarnation, unable to extricate themselves.

However, Soul-Devouring Demon Lord knew; he knew that merely relying on the self-detonation of a Heaven-reaching Spirit Treasure to suppress six Nascent Soul True Monarchs and plunge them into eternal Reincarnation was ultimately wishful thinking.

Although that barrier was terrifying and overbearing, the Nascent Soul True Monarchs had long since forged a flawless Dao Heart.

Let alone this merely being a deliberately crafted Reincarnation illusion, even experiencing a true lifetime of Reincarnation, before that Nascent Soul which was nearly transforming into a Primordial Spirit, they would almost certainly not get lost and might instead naturally possess innate wisdom from past lives.

In reality, it was indeed so!

Not long after the Reincarnation barrier descended, cracks began to spread across the barrier's walls, expanding larger and larger like a spiderweb.

Clearly, this could not last long and would completely shatter before long; by then, the six Nascent Soul True Monarchs would also break free.

Soul-Devouring Demon Lord had long anticipated regarding this, and he had never expected a Heaven-reaching Spirit Treasure to suppress the six Nascent Soul True Monarchs here; he was merely stalling for time.

But looking at it now, he had ultimately overestimated the might of the Heaven-reaching Spirit Treasure, as it had not bought him enough time.

Therefore, he had to continue upping the ante!

Soul-Devouring Demon Lord was not an indecisive person; he knew that whether he could successfully obtain the Reincarnation Dao, he had to trap the six True Lords today, otherwise all his previous efforts would be completely wasted.

Thus, a look of ruthlessness flashed across his eyes, and then his Physical Body within the Reincarnation barrier began to become transparent and illusory.

Clearly, Soul-Devouring Demon Lord intended to sacrifice his body to the Law, using his flesh and blood, Essence Blood, dao attainment, cultivation, and all other tangible and intangible things.

To integrate them into the barrier and transform them into fuel to reinforce the Reincarnation barrier.

Of course, doing this was still not safe enough.

After all, a Nascent Soul True Monarch was still a Nascent Soul True Monarch. Although through Soul-Devouring Demon Lord's stunt, the Reincarnation barrier received an epic-level reinforcement.

But ultimately, it could still not trap their steps for long; as long as given enough time, they would still break out of the Seal.

Therefore, Soul-Devouring Demon Lord even personally entered the game. His soul split into tens of thousands, plunging into the Reincarnation barrier and entering one Reincarnation illusion after another.

His goal was very simple: to find ways to stall or even hunt down the various Nascent Soul True Monarchs inside.

To prevent them from distinguishing the gap between illusion and reality in a short period of time.

As long as the setbacks they suffered within were greater and the faster they died in a certain lifetime, the more seamlessly they would transition into the next Reincarnation, leaving them with much less time to react on their own.

Otherwise, as long as the cycle of a single Reincarnation was long enough, the Nascent Soul True Monarchs would quickly see through the illusions.

That was why Soul-Devouring Demon Lord would act as an NPC and three world bosses, continuously hunting the various True Lord Reincarnations within Reincarnation.

However, his situation in reality was not optimistic.

His figure was like a statue undergoing sandification, starting to blur and disintegrate bit by bit from his limbs to his torso, from his skin to his bones.

His face began to blur, his hair scattered into points of light, and even his pupils, surging with the light of Reincarnation, were gradually dimming.

Yet at the corners of his mouth, there always hung a curve of success.

This was merely an empty flesh shell after all.

His true dao attainment was entrusted upon his Nascent Soul; as long as the Nascent Soul was immortal, he could recast his Physical Body in a single thought.

It was just that it was limited to this, and his lost dao attainment could not be quickly made up for.

But this was not a big deal either; as long as he found the Reincarnation Dao, he could retrieve his own cultivation within Reincarnation at any time, and even leverage the power of the Dao to advance to a higher level.

Therefore, using this Physical Body of magic to stall the six True Lords for a moment was already very cost-effective.

However, this premise still required finding the Reincarnation Dao, otherwise this time it would not be a matter of hurting his muscles and bones.

Saying he directly perished would make no difference at all.

Thus, the moment the last trace of flesh and blood completely melted into the barrier, Soul-Devouring Demon Lord's Nascent Soul transformed into a stream of light, piercing through the edge of the barrier like a meteor, crashing into the Void Realm, and fleeing toward that mysterious realm.

Soon, deep within the Reincarnation realm, beneath the grayish-white firmament, the Clone sitting cross-legged beneath the stone pillar suddenly opened its eyes.

A dim yellow light of Reincarnation surged out from those pupils, carrying an unprecedented firmness.

With the Nascent Soul taking charge, Soul-Devouring Demon Lord's consciousness had been entirely injected into this Clone.

Although relying solely on the current power of the Nascent Soul to entrust this Clone and directly seize the Reincarnation Dao was still somewhat difficult.

But he had no other choice.

If he did not succeed this time, he would become a dead man.

Furthermore, he had comprehended the Law of Reincarnation for many years; in terms of understanding and affinity with the Reincarnation Dao, no one present could compare.

As long as he found that Dao, he had absolute confidence to make it recognize him and belong to his own use.

Soul-Devouring Demon Lord's Clone slowly stood up, its withered and thin figure swaying slightly amidst the grayish-white gales, but those eyes were shockingly bright.

His gaze pierced through the grayish-white firmament, piercing through layers of stone forests and evil winds, looking toward a vague source of induction deep within this sealed land.

That was an extremely faint yet incomparably real feeling, like a heart sleeping in the deepest depths, beating slowly.

"Wait..."

His voice was hoarse and low, yet carried a longing and fanaticism that had been suppressed for countless years.

"The Reincarnation Dao is ultimately mine."

However, the moment his words fell, Soul-Devouring Demon Lord suddenly froze slightly.

"Huh?"

A trace of doubt flashed in his pupils, and his gaze slowly swept across the surrounding grayish-white stone forests and barren land.

He let out an involuntary soft sound of surprise, tilting his head slightly, as if he had captured some kind of fleeting anomaly.

The surroundings seemed a bit wrong, but he could not tell exactly what was wrong.

Those stone forests were still as rugged as before, gales carrying Evil Qi whistled and shuttled across the wasteland, and the grayish-white firmament pressed heavily upon his head.

Everything was identical to before his consciousness left.

Yet somehow, Soul-Devouring Demon Lord always felt a trace of wondrous anomaly entangling his heart, making his spiritual sense faintly uneasy.

He pondered for a moment, his brows slightly furrowing, attempting to find the source of that anomaly.

Yet in the end, he still shook his head and pressed this thought down.

Presumably because he sacrificed too much cultivation and suffered too severe a loss, leading to a sharp drop in his own strength, causing some discrepancies between his five senses and six perceptions.

After all, since he became a Nascent Soul True Monarch tens of thousands of years ago, this was the first time he had been weakened to such a degree, making misjudgments in perception inevitable.

This reason quickly convinced him.

After all, experiencing a state he had never experienced before, having illusions was also normal.

Thus, Soul-Devouring Demon Lord no longer dwelled on this, cast that trace of anomaly behind his mind, and raised his step to walk toward the direction of that mysterious source of induction.

Stepping onto this grayish-white barren land, the sand and soil beneath his feet emitted faint frictional sounds, gales carrying Evil Qi whistled past around him, blowing his robes fluttering loudly.

Soul-Devouring Demon Lord did not walk fast, but every step unswervingly followed that vague Reincarnation aura, continuously penetrating deeper.

However, as he walked and walked, Soul-Devouring Demon Lord's brows furrowed deeper and deeper.

It was not that he discovered anything abnormal; on the contrary, Soul-Devouring Demon Lord seemed somewhat familiar with the landscape of this place.

Those rugged stone pillars, grayish-white wasteland, ubiquitous evil winds, and the faintly visible contours of several giant mountain Peaks in the distance were all knocking against a long-sealed memory.

Soul-Devouring Demon Lord's pupils slightly constricted, and his footsteps also slowed down a bit.

He remembered; wasn't this the Jiling Wasteland?

Wasn't this landscape that "Land of Desolate Spirit" left behind in the Xuanxiao Realm after the ancient Great Calamity!

In fact, he had also been curious before, feeling that such ruins remaining after the ancient Great Calamity must surely contain Legacies left behind by mighty figures or some Opportunities.

Therefore, holding this mindset, he had once entered to explore it, so he had a relatively deep impression of it.

However, as his cultivation grew higher and he knew more secrets, understanding that this territory had nothing special, he gradually lost interest.

He just never expected to revisit the old place today.

Hmm... and that wasn't right; Soul-Devouring Demon Lord clearly knew that this could absolutely not be that Jiling Wasteland in the outer region of the Profound Spirit Domain.

Instead, it was a sealed land where false history replaced true history after being cut by time and space.

In other words, this was where the Seal of that Dao Venerable of Spirit Transformation was located.

"Hehe..."

Soul-Devouring Demon Lord suddenly froze in place, then inexplicably began to laugh.

The laughter was not loud, carrying a complex meaning that was unclear whether it was mockery or self-mockery, gently echoing across the empty grayish-white wasteland.

Back in the day, he had racked his brains trying to enter this sealed land, laying out layouts for many years and planning for a long time, yet repeatedly suffering setbacks.

He never expected that now, stumbling into it by accident, he would step into this realm in this manner.

Such was the caprice of fate.

Subsequently, Soul-Devouring Demon Lord figured out another matter; no wonder he had searched bitterly for the Reincarnation Dao for many years yet consistently had no clues.

Heavenly Dao had actually hidden this Dao within the Seal of the Dao Venerable of Spirit Transformation; this handiwork could not be said to be anything less than massive.

Ordinary means were utterly unable to touch this place. To enter this realm, besides waiting for the Xuanling Secret Realm to actively open, the only way was to use Heavenly Dao fortune as a primer to knock open the gates.

No matter which path it was, when all was said and done, it could not bypass Heavenly Dao itself.

Without Heavenly Dao's tacit permission, one couldn't even touch the threshold of this door.

Looked at this way, this Opportunity truly came with extreme good fortune.

If not for him forcing that running dog of Heavenly Dao, True Monarch Chiyan Yinglei, to mistakenly descend Heavenly Dao fortune in his haste and using this as a primer to pry open this passage, he probably wouldn't have been able to step into this place by a single step even if he planned for a few more centuries.

However, Soul-Devouring Demon Lord's thoughts quickly pulled back from these sighs of emotion.

He stood upon the grayish-white wasteland, his gaze as deep and calm as water, beginning to re-examine his current situation and plan.

After figuring out his location, a thought suddenly popped up in his heart.

If there was an Opportunity, he might as well try to untie the Seal of that Dao Venerable of Spirit Transformation.

But calming down and carefully pondering at this moment, he completely vetoed this idea.

Although that Dao Venerable had been trapped in this place for many years, his standing was ultimately at the Soul Transformation level.

Even if suppressed for such long years, it was by no means something that a Nascent Soul True Monarch in a damaged state could provoke.

With his weak strength at this moment, if he rashly undid the Seal, it would be no different from personally releasing an ancestor.

By then, if the other party turned hostile, he wouldn't even have room to maneuver, making him indistinguishable from rations delivered right to the door.

Therefore, the top priority was only one matter.

Find the Reincarnation Dao, refine it, recover his Peak strength, and even advance to a higher level.

By then, when facing that Dao Venerable of Spirit Transformation, he would not be entirely without confidence.

If the existence within that sealed land could be talked to, then they would talk.

If they couldn't be talked to, then he would withdraw completely with the Reincarnation Dao.

Between advancing and retreating, at least he wouldn't get himself dragged in.

Thinking of this, Soul-Devouring Demon Lord stepped forward again, walking toward that increasingly clear source of induction.

Almost there!

Soul-Devouring Demon Lord could feel that the aura of the same sect and origin was becoming clearer and stronger.

Like an invisible thread guiding his footsteps, leading him all the way from the depths of the wasteland toward some indescribable core location.

Soul-Devouring Demon Lord's withered and thin figure shuttled rapidly amidst the gales; every step falling was like compressing the earth into an inch, crossing the rugged stone forests, passing through the pervasive evil fog, and continuously approaching the depths of that source of induction.

The surrounding environment also began to change; the barren soil beneath his feet gradually disappeared, replaced by a pitch-black and viscous texture, as if stepping into a swamp.

Until a grayish-white mist, so dense it almost condensed into substance, appeared ahead, spanning between heaven and earth like a curtain and completely blocking the path forward, did he stop his footsteps.

Within that mist surged extremely mottled and chaotic auras.

Some were blazing like fire, some were icy like iron, some were heavy like mountains...

Countless completely different Law fragments flowed silently within, resembling an intangible barrier converged from countless wills.

Even with Soul-Devouring Demon Lord's discernment, he could not see through what was truly hidden in the depths of that mist.

He only felt that something like an ancient behemoth was sleeping within, making one involuntarily give birth to vigilance and fear.

Soul-Devouring Demon Lord slightly narrowed his eyes, pondered for a moment, and ultimately decided to investigate.

After all, matters had reached this point, and he had no way out.

Even though what lay ahead might be a mountain of blades and a sea of flames or the Nine Nether Purgatory, he still had to bite the bullet and charge through it, fighting for a Heaven-reaching Dao for himself.