A full four and a half Third-Tier Blue-Cosmos Star Cores. In total, they provided Lu Sheng with nearly forty-five million Extreme Yang Immortal Cells. On average, each Star Core could increase them by roughly ten million.
"If I absorb all the remaining Star Cores, could my Extreme Yang Immortal Cells break the hundred million mark? Could I smoothly advance to level 13?!"
But upon careful consideration he felt it might not be quite enough—probably still a bit short, because the further along he progressed, the fewer Extreme Yang Immortal Cells a single Third-Tier Blue-Cosmos Star Core could help him gain.
The very first star core had granted him a substantial increase of over ten million, nearing fifteen million Extreme Yang Immortal Cells. The second core only yielded just over ten million. The third core fell below ten million. The fourth core yielded even less.
Beyond the competition for energy from previously generated Extreme Yang Immortal Cells, his Martial Body also covertly siphoned off a significant portion of the energy during this process.
"The compatibility between the Extreme Yang Dao and the Immortal Dao far exceeds the compatibility between the Stellar Dao and the Immortal Dao!"
This was a crucial insight Lu Sheng discovered during his cultivation. When practicing Immortal Dao techniques, he attempted to fuse the Immortal Dao with the Martial Dao, striving to forge an unprecedented Immortal-Martial Dao.
He also tried to fuse his original Stellar Supreme Body with the Immortal Dao, transforming it into an Immortal-Martial Supreme Body.
Unfortunately, the process was fraught with difficulties, progressing at an agonizingly slow pace. He had previously pondered whether the compatibility issue was the reason: since the Stellar Dao is domineering while the power of the Immortal Dao is gentler, forcibly squeezing the Immortal Dao into the Stellar Dao's system proved exceedingly difficult.
Now he knew. It was indeed a matter of compatibility.
"Logically, the Extreme Yang Dao should be even more domineering than the Stellar Dao, so why is the compatibility with the gentle Immortal Dao higher?"
Lu Sheng pondered this, suspecting it might stem from the Extreme Yang Dao's broader scope of laws. This Dao combined so many characteristics and powers of the Yang aspect. And the immortal cultivation technique Lu Sheng practices, the *Mysterious Spirit Treasure Record*, was also based on powers of the Yang aspect. The overlap between the two was far greater than the overlap with the Stellar Dao, which focused solely on cultivating the essence of a common star.
This fusion brought profound changes to Lu Sheng. His martial physique underwent another qualitative leap and transformation. When his spiritual energy delved deep into his flesh and bones, he could see countless intricate patterns—like tree roots or flowing light and cloud patterns—intertwined and tangled.
This was the result of the fusion of Immortal and Martial arts. It could be said that Lu Sheng had finally taken a giant stride forward on the path to the Immortal-Martial Supreme Body.
"The core of the Immortal Dao lies in harnessing the natural energies of heaven, earth, and the cosmos. After comprehending the laws at the thirteenth level of martial cultivation, the strength of one's grasp on these laws ultimately boils down to the degree of mastery over the natural energy of the universe. In this regard, the two Daos are fundamentally interconnected. This once again proves that all great Daos, though divergent in their approaches, converge toward the same ultimate destination."
The most tangible benefit this fusion with the Immortal Dao brought Lu Sheng was that his comprehension of his own Law Power remained unchanged yet the power of his attacks had increased at least twofold! In other words, Lu Sheng's combat prowess had doubled.
"This is incredibly powerful. Even a slight difference in strength between martial artists of the same level can lead to a life-or-death situation. So, doubling one's strength... Moreover, I'm only at the initial stage of fusion now. If I fuse at a deeper level later, wouldn't my combat power skyrocket even further?"
Even in the first realm of the Extreme Yang, Lu Sheng's combat power was already absurdly exaggerated. As a level 12, he could slaughter ordinary Level 13s like slaughtering dogs. Now, if he activated the characteristics of the Immortal-Martial Supreme Body on top of that, boosting his combat power several times over... Would anyone else stand a chance?
"It's another trump card."
Lu Sheng felt satisfied. So much so that even though a significant portion of his star core energy had been snatched away by the fusion and transformation of his martial physique, he didn't mind at all.
But there was a problem now. If Lu Sheng wanted to further deepen and explore the path of Immortal-Martial fusion, he would inevitably have to raise his cultivation level on the Immortal Dao side. But the problem was that his cultivation of the Immortal Dao seemed to have hit a snag [TN: seemed to have encountered some setbacks].
The Immortal Golden Core he had condensed was as large as a planet, growing as if it would never reach an end. He couldn't even touch the bottleneck of his current realm, let alone attempt to break through to the next one.
"After the Golden Core Realm of the Immortal Path comes the Nascent Soul Realm. Only by shattering the Golden Core can one form the Nascent Soul. Even if there were a possibility of breaking through, I wouldn't attempt it, because the Golden Core of the Immortal Dao has now become the vessel bearing my martial arts imprint…"
If he shattered the Golden Core, wouldn't Lu Sheng's entire martial arts cultivation also shatter? Lu Sheng didn't know, but he absolutely wouldn't gamble.
"Either I figure out a way..." Lu Sheng stroked his smooth chin, pondering. "Or else, I could have another mutated clone."
Should he manifest another clone dedicated solely to cultivating the Immortal Way? He needed to fully explore the Immortal Dao before he could understand how to completely integrate it into his Martial Dao. Besides, if anything went wrong, he could simply abandon that clone—it wouldn't harm his main body. Lu Sheng found the idea increasingly feasible and planned to put it into practice whenever he had time.
For now, however, he needed to test his newly breakthrough strength.
"The Stellar Dao has transformed into the Extreme Yang Dao, and the number of Extreme Yang Immortal Cells has surged to fifty million. It's time to see just how far my current strength has reached." Lu Sheng thought, diverting most of his consciousness to swiftly enter the dream space universe.
This was the true cultivation ground that belonged to him. Time flew by, and one and a half cosmic months passed in a flash. Yet within a certain space, time had completely frozen, its flow nearly halted. The withered, lifeless starry sky resembled a stagnant pool. Now, however, it was being violently churned, sending ripples of energy crashing across its surface.
"Boom!"
Amidst the starry expanse, two figures collided violently. After the impact, they swiftly separated. Then came the next fierce collision. Throughout this process, the surging energy resembled raging dragons, or the wrath of gods unleashed upon the mortal realm.
Planets were shattered, exploded, and crushed into fragments. The terrifying combat powers reached the level of exploding stars.Yet in the hands of these two figures, it seemed like effortless, casual maneuvers.
One figure bore waist-length silver-white hair, radiating an extreme, dazzling light from head to toe at all times. Like a "god" walking among mortals, every gesture and movement inspired an urge to prostrate in worship.
The other combatant, shrouded in three distinct hues of light, remained veiled in obscurity. Yet with a single flick of the wrist, they unleashed a kaleidoscopic energy strike that even the "god" was compelled to evade.
Suddenly, the silver-haired "god" let out a cold snarl, palms pressed together as arms shot skyward. Using his arms as blades, he assumed a "sword-raising" stance, aiming directly at the figure before him and slashing downward with brutal force.
"Extreme Yang — Void Shattering Slash!"
As the "god" initiated his strike, a blinding, crescent-shaped silver arc of light erupted from his arms—a beam seemingly capable of slicing through and piercing anything. Beneath this arc, the entire starry sky seemed cleaved cleanly in two.
This arc of light moved at an unbelievable speed. It left no trace of its flight path. The moment it appeared, it instantly spanned vast distances, abruptly materializing before the figure shrouded in tricolored light. Then it struck down with brutal force!
"Boom!"
The starry sky itself seemed to tremble.
Terrifying silver-white energy rippled outward in shards, scattering like light radiation while leaving countless dense, pitch-black cracks in the void.
In an instant, this void battlefield became utterly ravaged, a scene of complete devastation.
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Translation notes by dhoo
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Extreme Yang - Sky-Splitting Strike aka Void Shattering Slash
极阳一一裂空杀 (trad. 極陽一一裂空殺), jí yáng yīyī lièkōng shā: 极 extreme 阳 yang 一一 (just a separator) 裂 crack, split 空 void, sky 杀 slash, strike
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極陽之道, jí yáng zhī dào: Extreme Yang Dao
至陽面, zhì yáng miàn: Extreme Yang Aspect
恆星, héngxīng: fixed star aka star (originally so named as to distinguish the "stars" that appear to have a fixed position on the firmament from the "wandering stars", i.e., the planets. )
恆星之意 aspiration/essence of a star
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Immortal-Martial Dao
仙武之道, xiān wǔ zhī dào
I found 4 occurrences of 仙武之道 in chapters 523 (x2), 525, 619.
Immortal Dao
仙道, xiāndào
I found 96 occurrences of 仙道 in chapters 516, 522, 523 (x7), 524 (x7), 525 (x11), 526 (x10), ..., 584 (x14), ..., 619 (x16), ..., 629 (x4), 630 (x4).
Martial Dao
武道, wǔdào
I found 287 occurrences of 武道 in chapters 501 (x2), ..., 513 (x6), 514 (x2), 515 (x6), 516 (x6), ..., 523 (x4), 524 (x9), 525 (x8), 526 (x3), 527 (x5), ..., 530 (x3), ..., 569 (x7), ..., 583 (x9), 584 (x22), ..., 625 (x6), ..., 646.
Martial Arts
武術, wǔshù
I found 1 occurrence of 武術 in chapter 570.
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Stellar Supreme Body [LAST use]
恆星至尊體
I found 15 occurrences of 恆星至尊體 in chapters 501 (x2), 512, 520, 525 (x2), 526 (x2), 528 (x4), 568 (x2), 619.
Immortal Martial Supreme Body aka Immortal Martial Emperor Body
I found 17 occurrences of 仙武至尊體 in chapters 526 (x3), 528, 568 (x5), 601, 614, 619 (x3), 620 (x2), 624.