Chapter 976: Peak Fifth-level Nirvana
Danger was incoming - a true attack at the Heaven's Emergence level far beyond that of a talisman.
Feiyun activated the ashes in his body. They became blindingly bright and shot out intents to form a single strand of sacred aura.
"Boom!" The aura successfully severed the two rays.
"Ahh!" The wisdom master's eyes started bleeding. The pupils were nearly split in halves; his heavenly gaze has been crippled.
Xie Xuan and Cang Jingtian hurriedly helped him up.
Fear filled this wisdom master's wrinkly face: "The power, the power of a saint...?"
"What?!" The other old men from the Yin World became alarmed.
"Just a single strand but it's indeed from a saint." The wisdom master's omniscient-level eyes have been ruined with no chance of recovery. The deteriorating process continued.
"Only a sacred weapon has this much power. Who is he? The successor of a reclusive saint? Or was it Aquamoon Saintess?" A gray-haired old man added.
Blood coagulated in the wisdom master's eyes. He sounded quite sad while shaking his head: "That saintess always does things openly on top of having a pure heart, it has to be someone else."
"He has a saint as a backer then, it's best we don't provoke him lest risk death."
"Yes, we need to avoid him from now on. Be careful."
Everyone became serious. Though they have suffered losses, they didn't dare to think about revenge.
Feiyun naturally didn't know that just a single strand of intent alone frightened his opponents. He continued to fly without stopping because in an actual fight, they might still be able to kill him.
The reason the wisdom master was grievously wounded was due to him underestimating the opponent.
He eventually found a safe spot after confirming the lack of pursuers. He landed and took off his invisible cloak.
"What a harvest this time around, two spirit veins. I should try to reach the mythical level now." He wanted to improve his cultivation first before delving deeper into the ruins. He wasn't qualified to do so right now.
He took out the Buddha inside a broken palace made of stone and opened the path, wanting to use the Buddhist essence to reach the peak level.
He performed many formations within a hundred miles radius. This would allow him to know the presence of any intruder.
With that done, he channeled the energy from the kingdom to the outside world. It floated around him like a golden river.
The energy poured into his body, akin to water fertilizing a farm. Given his current cultivation, he wasn't only absorbing one drop at a time, devouring thousands instead.
The ten thousand beast souls also rushed out, looking fierce and began absorbing the essences as well.
The depletion rate was higher than ever before. Nonetheless, he could sense his power increasing drastically.
"Boom!" The twenty-third phoenix bone appeared and became one with the others to form a perfect circuit.
"Boom!" The twenty-fourth!
"Boom!" The twenty-fifth!
Feiyun became engulfed in flames after the emergence of the twenty-seventh bone. They looked like stars residing in his body.
At the peak stage of the fifth level, his power more than doubled. Fortunately, his mental state was already solid enough. There was no fear of qi deviation from his cultivation improving too quickly.
He believed that there was enough Buddhist essence for him to reach the ninth rebirth. Of course, this required him to be able to do so without dying.
The ninth rebirth was a legend. Only mythical characters in the immemorial era could achieve this. Most saints couldn't do so. The majority only had seven or nine. To have nine rebirths was as rare as a leaf in autumn.
Most historical geniuses could only finish six rebirths at best. Only one in ten thousand would have seven.
Nonetheless, doing six was already good enough. For example, Song Chengming and You Ziling had done six at the peak stage of the fifth level.
Of course, they were proud and couldn't be satisfied so easily. They wanted to perform a seventh rebirth as well.
In the case of success, they would become peerless geniuses capable of fighting paragons of the next realm.
No one wanted to offend them due to their boundless potential. This was the reason why Song Chengming and You Ziling took their time instead of reaching Heaven's Emergence.
Nirvana was a strange realm, filled with danger and being extremely close to death. It was challenging yet rewarding.
At the fourth level, cultivators would have a lifespan of 8,000 to 9,000 years.
At the fifth, 12,000 to 13,000 years.
At the sixth, 15,000 to 20,000 years.
At the seventh, 30,000 to 35,000 years.
At the eighth, 40,000 to 50,000 years.
At the ninth, there were no records of this.
All in all, each rebirth prolonged one's lifespan by a considerable margin.
This only happened for Nirvana and not Heaven's Emergence. The lifespan increase would appear again at the saint realm.
However, the increase isn't as drastic since saints had a foundation called source that didn't follow the same rules. Thus, it wasn't rare for them to die from old age.
Therefore, Nirvana was the realm for the brave. Those who dared to test their limits and face death would be rewarded with higher lifespan.
Breaking through at only the fourth level of Nirvana would limit one's potential.
Meanwhile, the beast souls also became stronger and entered the fifth level. They roared and released their monstrous auras.
Fortunately, the formations created earlier stopped them from being heard across the ruins.
Feiyun grew increasingly mightier. Each inch of flesh and bone was being refined.
Even a hair of his could kill a first-level Nirvana cultivator. One drop of blood could turn a lake evil and inhabitable.
"Boom!" All ten thousand beast souls reached the fifth level and created a primal domain. They pulsed with a Buddhist radiance and nearly gained a physical form.
He became the master of beasts. All would need to heed his command. He felt that he could fight against lower-level Heaven's Emergence cultivators now.
"If I can reach the mythical level, I'll be able to defeat them too."