Chapter 452: Survival. Borrowing The Power of the Stars.
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Emmie's hesitation had inadvertently boosted Yun Yang's spirit.
Emmie was hesitating - it meant that such a way existed, but the price required for it to be executed must be immense.
"I'm not asking for much, as long as I can experience a degree of breakthrough based on what I currently have. I believe that you can sense it too; three thousand feet beneath us, there is a stream of underground water. As long as I can dive under, I can escape. Otherwise, everything ends here for the both of us. We will die, for sure."
Yun Yang was very well aware about his current situation and his chances of survival. It was one thing to know what his chances of survival were but it was also an unavoidable reality that his inadequate cultivation base would not allow him to reach his destination.
The space Mr. Nian had sealed did not stop at the sky and the surface of the earth but also thousands of feet underground. These were the forbidden areas set by the man.
However, Mr. Nian had not extended his power any deeper, and the space beneath was a whole new vicinity that his sword energy had never delved into.
With the Holy Water Charm's ability to sense water sources, Yun Yang could feel the underground river three thousand feet below, but the pressure would mount with every descent of ten feet. The spot Yun Yang was currently hiding in was already at the maximum limit of his cultivation skill; he could not dig deeper. Despite knowing what he had to do to survive, he could only look but not touch.
These kinds of underground rivers were abundant throughout the continent. The only difference was whether they were either deep or shallow. The one that Yun Yang had sensed was exceptionally deep; a good three thousand feet below ground!
Yun Yang thought this was the unluckiest part of his situation. What place throughout the whole continent could have such a deep underground river? One that was three thousand feet below the surface of earth?
Still, against all likelihood, he had encountered it.
Yun Yang had an odd misgiving about this. It was incredibly peculiar for this land to not have any source of water from the surface to three thousand feet under the ground, a situation which caused his dilemma now. Yun Yang had been salivating at this underground river for over twenty days and still he had no way out.
Given, it was also because this underground river was so deep that it was out of Mr. Nian's area of deific consciousness; otherwise, he would not even have had this chance of survival!
So, here was his chance, but Yun Yang's ability was not quite there yet; the opportunity could not be seized and it became an impossible strategy, in addition to the addition of a new enemy. It gave Yun Yang room to catch his breath, but it also brought him the dire news of a spiritual restraint formation being erected above him. If he still did not react, the only way to escape would be through his death.
Seeing Emmie hesitate was like seeing a hope to escape for Yun Yang. He could not help urging it on; there was no time for second guesses. They had to figure something out right away, or else it would be too late!
Yun Yang could distinctly sense the surrounding spiritual Qi of heaven and earth; slowly but surely being squeezed away as if somebody was compressing it into nothingness. It was the Spiritual Restraining Formation taking form.
This place was about to become a spiritual Qi-free area like Zilong City, an area which would render his manifestation powers ineffective. There was not much time left for him.
After all, his physical form would be compressed by the earth above if his powers failed once the spiritual restraint began working,
"Ayaya…"
Emmie sounded very sad.
There was indeed a way… but the price to be paid was too high, so much so that it did not know if it should be executed. Once used, the consequence was unimaginable – Emmie actually thought that it might be better to die here instead.
Being killed physically by the Spiritual Restraining Formation would mean that Yun Yang's soul would still be present. He could reincarnate. By then, he would still be alive while Emmie would go with Yun Yang, so there was not much loss.
If the approach Emmie was thinking about were to used, it was tantamount to suicide! A suicide that took away both the physical form and the soul! There would be no afterlife, only a deep, dark void that would see no end.
Emmi could very well charge all of its current energy into Yun Yang's meridians in a short period of time and make all the forces of vitality and cycles of karma spin and fill him. It would then elevate one of Yun Yang's abilities to a new height.
It was called the Big Bang Embodiment. This was the process of borrowing the power of the stars. The process would extract of all the energy of the cosmos and inject it into the body in a single instance.
However, Emmie did not want to do it at all.
Otherwise, it would not have not mentioned it when Yun Yang had been on the brink of death.
Emmie had three misgivings. One, the battle was unexpected and Yun Yang was in absolute disadvantage since the very beginning; his body and soul was constantly being attacked and there was barely a gap for him to recuperate. The method needed a certain amount of time to be executed, and time was a luxury they did not have.
Two, Yun Yang's cultivation base was still too low. Once the approach was performed, it was highly likely that he would not level up, but would combust and explode on the spot instead; even his soul would cease to exist!
They were talking about the power of the stars! Even if each star had only given a sliver of energy, how could he take the strain of them within him? He was only flesh and blood, but that body would have to contain such massive power…
This would end him even more severely than if Yun Yang had simply been murdered. Yun Yang could die from exhaustion and damage to his cultivation skill, but his soul would still exist. Within a certain duration when Mr. Nian had left, Emmie could possibly reassemble Yun Yang's soul and resurrect him, given how much it knew about the soul now.
Maybe he could be reincarnated.
Yet, if the Big Bang Embodiment failed, Yun Yang would perish at once. It was an absolute ultimate death that was irrecoverable.
This was the primary reason Emmie refused to even mention it when Yun Yang had asked so many times.
The situation was different now. Once the Spiritual Restraining Formation was formed, Yun Yang would lose his powers and Emmie's planned approach would be useless because powers like the Holy Water Charm or the Art of Crimson Soul could not be carried out. It had no choice but to reluctantly reveal the possibility of the Big Bang Embodiment.
After Emmie's repeated judgement – with its power in addition to Yun Yang's meridian resilience that came from constant ingestion of treasured resources and the endless potential of medicinal strength within his body - the possibility of the Big Bang Embodiment being successful was still less than a tenth of a tenth of a chance!
After all, one's initial growth must have already be at a certain basic level if it were to be sped up.
With Yun Yang's current physique, there was none other than three endings left to him to implement this method.
The first possibility was him dying with a grand explosion of his physical body and destruction of his spirit. This was almost an undeniable likelihood.
The second possibility was that he might turn into a mentally challenged man. This was even after the method was correctly and succesfully performed, but his brain would be ruined from the surge of power in the process.
Emmie would not be able to recover him then; he would be a mentally disabled man for his whole life… Thinking about it gave Emmie the shivers.
As for the third possibility, which was the best result, the method would be successful and they could even escape. However, Yun Yang would be severely injured after this and might even lose his ability to cultivate, becoming a normal person. Even when he was just an ordinary person, he would be one that was constantly sick, with a short life expectancy.
As for Emmie, it would return to being a lotus seed, drifting and roaming within the expanses of heaven and earth.
There was a unspoken threat regarding all the possibilities – the Nine Supremes' manifestation powers would be lost forever!
This was because implementing the Big Bang Embodiment was akin to sucking Yun Yang's attributes empty! The Five Elements would gather, heaven and man would become one, and Yin and Yang would melt into each other, thus forming the Big Bang Embodiment.
Of course, there was also another possibility – Yun Yang might not die; instead, his cultivation base would improvement in leaps and bounds, and he would become indomitable from then on!
However, it was a terribly slim chance. Emmie expressed that it did not even consider this probability, that it did not even dare think about it.
Emmie guessed that there was only a one in one hundred billion chance that it would happen that way.
That being said, Emmie knew that Yun Yang was truly running out of time now. The formation was already being set up above and they would have no more chances to act if they did not make a move soon.
Despite Emmie's reluctance for Yun Yang to take the risk, it could only support his wishes. They only had this one shot at survival now!
If they did not go with it, they could be waiting to be turned into a corpse right here. Yun Yang's spirit would still be destroyed, and he would still ultimately die.
However...
"An opportunity is still needed, even if this approach is taken… there will still be signs of me exuding power at the moment of execution. There are two high-level forces above me setting up the trap… with their divine senses, they only have to unleash sword energy in the direction where the aura comes from and it will be the end of me, even faster than anticipated…"
Yun Yang cracked his head, thinking of a way to succeed.
He had a countermeasure now, but what could he do to obstruct the two mighty experts?
He just had to distract them, for the shortest bit of time!
…
Above him, two people were abuzz with energy, tossing about jadestones that were glowing in rainbow colours in different directions. When the jadestone hit the ground, it went deep into the soil and disappeared.
A small-scale Spiritual Restraining Formation needed only a bare amount of materials and mystical Qi cultivation base. The set up was also very fast.
Just the two of them had not needed much effort before they had one last corner left to complete the spiritual restraint now.
As long as the formation was complete, Supreme Cloud would return to his human form whether he was currently manifested as wind, water or any other state. His physical body would be crushed by the layers of earth.
Both the men were about to toss the material in their hands out to finish the trap, but it was at this point of time that an unusual movement came from the earth beneath them.
Has Supreme Cloud finally made a move?
Seeing that the Spiritual Restraining Formation that he feared most was here again, was he making his last struggle before his death arrived?
Mr. Nian frowned, focusing while the sword in his hand began buzzing with a shrill cry. The other person landed beside Mr. Nian from midair, he was also observing the area where the movement was detected with sharp eyes.
Their expressions changed at the very next moment.
"We've been tricked!"
A terribly dominant and straightforward energy had appeared behind them; a ray of rainbow beams had shot out of the ground abruptly.
Swoosh!
The radiance traveled several thousand feet into the sky within an instant!