Chapter 346: Enduring to Become King

Episode 14, Chapter 22: Finally Becoming a Marquis Goddemon

It was the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, and heavy snow was falling.

Meng Chuan and his wife Liu Qiyue were in the hall, leisurely chatting while enjoying pastries and hot tea. It was a rare day of complete relaxation; they hadn't gone underground to investigate demon monarchs, allowing their minds and bodies to adjust to their peak state. As for killing demon monarchs, once he became a Marquis Goddemon, slaying them would naturally be much faster.

“Hmm?” Meng Chuan and Liu Qiyue suddenly sensed something. Through the hall door, they saw a shadowy figure descending from mid-air—it was Venerable Li Guan’s Essence Soul avatar.

“It’s the Venerable.”

Meng Chuan and Liu Qiyue immediately rose and walked to the corridor outside the hall to greet him.

Venerable Li Guan landed in the courtyard, treading on the accumulated snow, and then smiled. Beside him, two more illusory figures appeared: Qin Wu’s avatar and Luo Tang’s avatar.

“Greetings, Venerable. Greetings, Master,” Meng Chuan and Liu Qiyue said, stepping forward in surprise to bow.

The couple had anticipated the arrival of a Venerable. But for all three to arrive, that was truly rare. Although Qin Wu and Luo Tang were merely Essence Soul avatars with no combat ability, each of them could maintain a maximum of nine Essence Soul avatars, and each avatar required a split of their focus. Furthermore, Essence Soul avatars needed a medium or host. For all three Venerables to come to Jiangzhou City was therefore quite unusual.

“You managed to reach the Dharma Domain realm without a sound?” Qin Wu said with a chuckle. “Your letter certainly gave the three of us a fright.”

“I just practiced every day, and then I broke through,” Meng Chuan replied.

Luo Tang’s eyes sparkled as she looked closely at Meng Chuan, nodding with a smile. “It’s truly remarkable that you could reach the Dharma Domain realm so quickly, despite having to dedicate most of your energy to investigating demon monarchs underground.”

Li Guan also smiled as he looked at Meng Chuan. “When will you enter seclusion for the breakthrough?”

“I’ll enter seclusion shortly,” Meng Chuan said.

“I will protect you,” Li Guan said with a faint smile. “This Essence Soul avatar of mine possesses only thirty to forty percent of my main body’s strength, but it’s more than enough to ensure your safety.” As the undisputed foremost expert in the world, Li Guan’s Essence Soul avatar was confident enough to suppress Demon Saint Nine Abyss, not to mention other demon monarchs.

“Thank you, Venerable,” Meng Chuan said, bowing.

“If you can resolve the threat of a million demon monarchs, then we should be thanking you,” Li Guan said. “Now, you don’t need to stay with us. Go prepare for your breakthrough in seclusion.”

“Understood,” Meng Chuan replied, ready to proceed.

“I’ll wait for you outside,” Liu Qiyue said, standing in the hall just outside the quiet room.

Meng Chuan smiled and nodded, then closed the quiet room door.

Inside the quiet room.

Candlelight burned steadily. Meng Chuan sat cross-legged on a prayer mat, took a cyan jade bottle from his embrace, pulled out the stopper, and drank its contents in one gulp. The Pure Spirit Water entered his body, quickly absorbed by his Essence Soul, making it more ethereal and greatly enhancing his control.

“I’ve been at the fourth level of Essence Soul for many years, and my Undying body can perfectly withstand the pressure of the breakthrough process, so it should be very easy,” Meng Chuan thought, full of confidence. This was the accumulated experience of generations of Goddemons.

“Let’s begin.”

His Essence Soul power merged into his Dantian space and into every wisp of Dark Star True Essence within it. Within the dim Dantian space, there was a solidified dark-red sphere, its surface wreathed in wisps of dark-red energy. Compared to when he first reached the Dark Star realm, this dark-red sphere was more than ten times larger. Due to his cultivation of the Undying body, Meng Chuan’s physical body could withstand a Dantian space that was theoretically the limit for Marquis Goddemons. Throughout history, even those Marquis Goddemons with fortuitous encounters had Dantian spaces no larger than this, and their Dark Star had also reached its limit. Any larger, and the Dark Star itself would begin to break through, and if his realm wasn’t sufficient, breakthrough would mean death.

“Condense True Essence,” Meng Chuan thought. He guided the primordial power from the Grotto-Heaven Pearl into his Dantian space, converting it into Dark Star True Essence, causing the Dark Star to continue growing. With such a vast Dantian space, the Dark Star had reached its maximum volume. As new Dark Star True Essence continuously merged, it finally surpassed its endurance limit—

Rumble, rumble, rumble.

The dark-red sphere rapidly shrank, collapsing precipitously. Meng Chuan’s Essence Soul power infused every part of the dark-red sphere. As it began to collapse, he naturally guided it with the Dharma Domain realm of the Thunder God-demon lineage’s Radiant Form!

“Radiance!”

Under Meng Chuan’s active guidance, the collapse became even more rapid. The dark-red sphere instantly collapsed by more than ten thousand times, becoming invisible even when viewing his Dantian internally. The entire Dantian space was plunged into darkness, with nothing but the solitary Grotto-Heaven Pearl. No, strictly speaking, it wasn’t that there was nothing, but that the small point was too minuscule to be observed internally. This was also the origin of the term Boundless realm.

However, with the guidance of his Essence Soul power, he could faintly sense its existence. It was an extremely tiny point, currently undergoing rapid collapse. Under the guidance of the Radiant Form realm, it began to stabilize. If one's realm wasn't sufficient, it couldn't exist stably, and that tiny point would explode.

“It’s stabilizing,” Meng Chuan could sense. This was the Dharma Domain realm, signifying a sufficiently profound realm, capable of forming its own Dharma Domain. The Dharma Domain was also the rule by which that tiny point existed.

“It’s done.”

He could faintly sense that the small point had completely stabilized, beginning to absorb external energy and emit wisps of True Essence. In the Dantian space, which was previously a void of darkness, a cluster of white light suddenly appeared. Thousands of white light rays shone outwards from its core. The closer to the core, the denser the light, forming a concentrated light source. Towards the periphery, the light rays became sparser, with only a few wisps sweeping by.

“Boundless True Essence,” Meng Chuan thought, filled with joy. He knew these wisps of light were his Boundless True Essence. Though seemingly gentle and harmless, their power was terrifyingly potent. Even across hundreds of miles, thousands of third-tier demon monarchs could be instantly slain.

Almost every Marquis Goddemon possesses unique True Essence. At this stage, True Essence is exceptionally pure, and its control reaches perfection. Marquis Goddemons might not perfectly control their physical bodies, but they can perfectly control their own True Essence.

True Essence is related to three aspects: Dantian space, Essence Soul, and realm. The larger the Dantian space, the more True Essence can be accumulated, allowing the small point of the Boundless realm to collapse even further, making the True Essence even purer. The higher the Essence Soul realm, the stronger the restraint on the small point, allowing it to be suppressed into an even smaller form. The higher the realm, the more sophisticated the operating rules of the small point, making it even smaller.

The cultivation of Marquis Goddemons aims to make the small point of the Boundless realm increasingly smaller. When it reaches its absolute minimum, a Grotto-Heaven can be opened! That is the stage of a Creation Venerable. Moreover, different realms mean different operating rules for the small point, generating distinct powers. For instance, some Marquis Goddemons have dark and evil True Essence. Others have blue and icy True Essence. Another example is True Martial King, who founded the True Martial lineage. His Boundless True Essence is known as True Martial Power, terrifyingly potent. Though he was a Marquis Goddemon, his pure True Essence was no less than that of a Creation Venerable.

“Is this what it means to be a Marquis Goddemon?” Meng Chuan naturally released his True Essence, and white light radiated from his body, illuminating the quiet room. Furthermore, within his Dantian, the invisible small point was constantly emitting ripples of fluctuations. These fluctuations spread in all directions. The ripples of fluctuations, like waves, would expand to a certain range before retracting, forming a self-sustaining cycle that never ceased. A Marquis Goddemon's Boundless Domain is a combination of a spatial domain and a fluctuation domain.

“My Boundless Domain reached two miles right after becoming a Marquis Goddemon?” Meng Chuan was secretly astonished. “True Martial King’s Boundless Domain was only five miles in range.” Combined with the Boundless Domain, one could unleash their strongest combat power.

In the hall.

Venerable Li Guan, Qin Wu, and Luo Tang were together, while Liu Qiyue was standing guard outside the quiet room door.

“Every Marquis Goddemon forges their own path,” Venerable Li Guan said, holding his teacup with a smile. “I wonder what style Meng Chuan will develop?”

“Qin Wu, do you hope your disciple will be like Senior Guo Ke or Senior Ye Hong?” Luo Tang asked with a smile. These two were highly accomplished individuals within the Thunder God-demon lineage.

Qin Wu chuckled, “At the same age, Senior Guo Ke and Senior Ye Hong did not achieve as much as my disciple. My disciple’s Essence Soul talent far surpasses those two seniors. From the peak of the Dao realm to the Dharma Domain realm in just over three years… I believe my disciple might forge an unprecedented path. The strongest path within the Thunder God-demon lineage might even be possible.”

“The strongest path within the Thunder God-demon lineage?” Luo Tang exclaimed in surprise.

“After learning of his breakthrough, I meticulously reviewed his experiences over the years,” Venerable Li Guan also stated. “I noticed one thing: after returning from the world rift, he spent hundreds of millions of merit points to read through all the Thunder God-demon lineage’s ultimate techniques in Archean Mountain. Instead of getting confused by so many ultimate techniques, he broke through in just over three years.”

Luo Tang also nodded in admiration. “To not be bewildered by numerous ultimate techniques, but instead to absorb what he needed and discard what he didn't. To become a Marquis Goddemon in just over three years. Truly impressive.”

“Therefore, I believe we should make all the significant treasures available to Marquis Goddemons in Archean Mountain accessible to Meng Chuan,” Venerable Li Guan said. “Let him choose freely.”

“Open all of them? Including those left by Patriarch Cang Yuan?” Qin Wu and Luo Tang both looked at Venerable Li Guan in astonishment.

“Yes.” Venerable Li Guan nodded. “Purely in terms of investigative ability, it won’t be long before he reaches the Blood Droplet realm, at which point his investigative capabilities will further increase. One person capable of resolving the disaster of a million demon monarchs. Any treasure given to him is worth it. Furthermore, he is so young… he might reach the Invincible Creation realm before the critical moment, capable of dealing with a large group of demon saints on his own. In that case, even if a world entrance that allows demon saints to enter appears, we might still be able to block it. This way, we wouldn’t need to enact World Annihilation, which, after all, would mean extinguishing all life outside Archean Mountain. Making all treasures available also requires your consent. Do you both agree?”

Qin Wu and Luo Tang exchanged glances.

“We agree,” Luo Tang said.

“I agree,” Qin Wu said, also smiling.

“Good,” Li Guan nodded. Meng Chuan becoming a Marquis Goddemon at fifty-five, coupled with his high Essence Soul realm, indeed gave the three Venerables hope.

“Hmm?” All three Venerables sensed fluctuations spreading out.

“It’s the Boundless Fluctuation Domain.” All three Venerables looked towards the quiet room, knowing that Meng Chuan had broken through.

(End of this episode)

(The author will pause updates tomorrow to plan the plot, and Episode 15 will begin updating the day after tomorrow.)