Chapter 127: The Great Devouring Art, Forbidden Power

Chen Bei’s methods were beyond imagination.

Too powerful.

At this moment, Jiang Ming’s Yin Spirit escaped his body, manifesting a Yin-Yang Dharma image. The rotation of the Taiyin and Taiyang created a suppressive force. The path of the soul, the power of the world, the harmony of light and darkness, combined with the Dao resonance of Yin and Yang, formed a terrifying power that forcibly suppressed the incoming river of light points, before shattering and destroying them.

It looked effortless, but Jiang Ming had already unleashed his full strength.

Just then, Chen Bei threw a punch and stepped into the domain. His body faltered, feeling a heavy, crushing pressure. Most of his power was suppressed, leaving him nearly unable to move.

"You..." Chen Bei revealed a look of shock. "A soul domain evolved to such a degree—this is truly unbelievable."

He was genuinely stunned.

"Actually, you are the one who makes me feel unbelievable," Jiang Ming said. "What kind of ability is this? To be able to house living beings within your body? Reincarnation, reincarnation... could it be that you truly hide a world of reincarnation within you?"

"Something like that!" Chen Bei nodded. "This is the accumulation of so many years. Even releasing it all at once wasn't enough to take you down. Honestly, I am surprised. In this grand examination, even with Saint Bodies, Supreme Bones, monsters like Luo Feng, and Innate Dao Bodies, I had great confidence in competing for the championship. Because this is not just my own power, but the combined strength of many living beings. Yet, I never expected to be brought down by you."

"I feel you still have cards to play!" Jiang Ming remarked.

Chen Bei laughed. "I do have them, but if I use them, I will surely die, and it wouldn't necessarily drag you down with me. So, they are useless!"

"A mutual destruction technique, then?" Jiang Ming grinned, having guessed as much. He asked curiously, "Once we reach the Myriad Worlds Battlefield, will you be even stronger?"

"Of course!" Chen Bei smiled proudly. "When that time comes, Brother Jiang, who suppresses whom will be hard to say. Sigh, truthfully, if not for the unique nature of this secret realm, you would have fallen today. It's a pity, a pity!"

Jiang Ming was speechless. He now fully understood that the other man's Reincarnation Body was truly unique—so unique that even he found it alarming.

"Brother Jiang, I concede this match, but I will do my best to fight for second place!"

The two left and returned to the viewing platform. However, the power unleashed during their battle left even Ye Bai and Shi Lei looking grave. Jiang Ming’s terror was widely acknowledged, but no one had expected that Jiang Ming would be forced back by pure physical force. How incredible was that? And the mystery of the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist was even more terrifying. The final eruption had made their skin crawl.

"I possess a peerless physique and have always been smug and arrogant. Even without diligent cultivation, I believed I could crush everyone and that the title of king for this generation belonged to me," Ye Bai sighed. "But upon coming to this examination, I realized how ignorant I was. Brother Jiang gave me a wake-up call, and Brother Chen made me feel ashamed. I have been too lazy, guarding a treasure mountain without knowing how to mine it."

"You've already worked very hard, okay!" Shi Lei said.

"Compared to Brother Jiang, what does my effort count for?" Ye Bai was truly reflecting on himself.

The competition continued. The carnival went on. Jiang Ming ignored the happenings outside. Back in reality, after chatting with Long Aotian and the others, he continued to immerse himself in cultivation. He would either organize his genes to further tap into his body's potential, refine his Inch Fist in hopes of taking it a step further, or ponder the Myriad-Line Stream, hoping to successfully deduce it.

On the sixteenth day of the finals, his opponent was Luo Feng.

He was dressed in a tight black combat suit, carrying a long blade on his back, and had chosen a thought-master weapon—the Heaven-Escaping Shuttle. A small round shield was strapped to his left arm. He was fully armed.

"Brother Jiang, I won't be polite!" Luo Feng attacked directly. The Heaven-Escaping Shuttle on his back flew up, transforming into thirty-six flying blades, while he leaped into the air, his blade slashing toward Jiang Ming’s head.

He unleashed everything from the start. He was a powerful thought-master. His martial arts cultivation was also extremely high; he was adept at using his blade, with the artistic conceptions of slaughter, destruction, death, and others interwoven into a peerless strike.

Jiang Ming expelled his True Qi, forming Yin-Yang sword qi that rotated to deflect the flying blades while his own sword blocked the opponent’s strike.

"Such strong power!" The moment blade and sword clashed, he understood that his opponent’s physical body was absolute top-tier. Furthermore, he mastered powerful force-exertion techniques, which, combined with his True Qi, meant that the strike he had just faced possessed at least the strength of a thousand Vajras. It was terrifying.

The flying blades rotated, the blade light cold and sharp. His path of offense was definitely in the top three among them all. Seeing he couldn't take down Jiang Ming, the shield on his left arm suddenly detached, and he jumped onto it, soaring into mid-air.

"Heaven-Escaping Shuttle, Tiangang Kill!"

Luo Feng pointed his long blade, and the thirty-six flying blades combined once more into the Heaven-Escaping Shuttle, whistling toward Jiang Ming. The power contained within made Jiang Ming’s eyebrows twitch violently.

"Sword of Absolute Immortality!"

Jiang Ming split the air with one sword, his strongest strike barely blocking the blow.

"A thirty-six-fold amplification? You have actually comprehended the path of thought-power to such a degree." He was genuinely astonished. He, too, could wield weapons and use thought-power via the soul path, but he hadn't spent much time on it. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but time was too scarce, and there was too much to comprehend.

"But I still can't take you down!" Luo Feng gave a bitter smile. On the Myriad Worlds Battlefield, among those of the same rank, he had almost no opponents; even Ji Junning couldn't hold out against him. When he began his slaughter, he was terrifying, a veritable human harvester. He had returned with the intention of winning the championship, never expecting to encounter so many monsters.

"Again!" Luo Feng roared. The Heaven-Escaping Shuttle attacked, and he dove from the air to strike.

The two clashed again. This bout was spectacular; the light of blades and shadows of swords completely covered the arena, the force unleashed distorting the air to the extreme, making it nearly impossible to see. It was magnificent.

They attacked each other for over half an hour before it ended. Luo Feng conceded. The drain was too great, and after failing to win in a prolonged battle and realizing Jiang Ming was still holding back, he stopped. However, this fight was a thrill to watch.

The seventeenth match was against Ye Bai.

"You've become stronger again!" Jiang Ming said, looking at him.

"I have to, when I'm surrounded by freaks like you!" Ye Bai said helplessly. "These past few days are when I've cultivated the most diligently. I even used my connections and paid a heavy price to decrypt the physical development of an ancient Saint Body. And behold, my strength has surged."

"I was ravaged by Chen Bei!"

"If not for the uniqueness of my Saint Body, I would have definitely lost to Jun Qiye!"

"I was also slashed by Luo Feng!"

"I, a dignified Saint Body, am so aggrieved!" Ye Bai complained bitterly.

Jiang Ming couldn't help but laugh. "You can't blame others; it's your own lack of effort. Otherwise, you'd be the one ravaging them!"

"Forget it! Even if I fully developed my Saint Body, I still wouldn't have confidence facing Chen Bei or Fang Qinghan!" Ye Bai shook his head. "Enough, let's not talk about that. Brother Jiang, how about another contest between men?"

"Good!" Jiang Ming agreed.

Ye Bai’s blood energy surged out, forming a tornado, extremely terrifying. The violent aura was felt even by the spectators.

"My Saint Body has been further developed, and my base strength has reached the level of two hundred Vajras."

"With the blood boiling and secret techniques, my explosive power has reached five times!"

"My amplification technique can also boost me fivefold!"

"Brother Jiang, taste this punch of mine!"

Ye Bai’s punch moved mountains and rivers, shattering the void. Jiang Ming did not show weakness and collided with him. It was nearly an even match.

"Your improvement is truly terrifying!" Jiang Ming said with envy. "If I had a Saint Body..."

"If you had a Saint Body, there would be no way for the rest of us to live!" Ye Bai rolled his eyes and shouted, "Saint Body Pressure, Force of Heaviness! Brother Jiang, I am going all out!"

This pressure was even more terrifying than that of celestial phenomena. Jiang Ming felt his own blood circulation stagnate, and his strength was significantly suppressed. With the increase for one and the decrease for the other, Ye Bai became even more formidable. Moreover, his blood energy carried a divine resonance, with the terrifying characteristic of growing stronger the more he fought.

The two engaged in close-quarters combat. It was intense. Fist to flesh. Every collision sounded like ten thousand thunderclaps exploding. Their stamina was also terrifying.

After a full hour of battle, Jiang Ming infused his "Opening the Heavens" resonance into his boundless power, only then managing to beat Ye Bai. The power of "Opening the Heavens" was something he had realized while witnessing Pangu in Ran Xin’s sea of consciousness, and he now considered it an entry-level mastery. This artistic conception was even more terrifying, containing a pure power of destruction that broke everything and could end all things. At the same time, it also contained a vibrant vitality.

On the viewing platform, after Ye Bai was teleported back, he couldn't help but shiver, looking at Jiang Ming with eyes full of resentment. "In the end, after you suppressed me, it took exactly forty-nine punches to beat me to death!"

"I wanted to end it with one, but your physique is too strong. I had to win by quantity," Jiang Ming laughed.

Ye Bai rolled his eyes.

"You two are both freaks; your physical bodies are so strong it's not human!" Luo Qingchen snorted, then added with a complex expression, "I am a Celestial Spirit Body and also have physical potential comparable to a Saint Body, but... should I take up body refining? But what if I become a muscle-woman? I'm conflicted, melancholy, and have a headache!"

"If you were all muscle..." Jun Qiye said, shivering slightly.

The next day, Jiang Ming’s opponent was Fang Qinghan.

The Devouring Body.

"I wonder if you can kill me?" Fang Qinghan’s fighting spirit soared. "Chen Bei lost to me, Luo Feng was no match, and only Shi Lei managed to seriously injure me, though I could have dragged him down to mutual destruction."

"I'm not sure!" Jiang Ming looked grave. He truly wasn't sure. The person before him wasn't as eerie as Chen Bei or as domineering as Ye Bai, but his strength was truly earth-shattering. Just by standing still, he had rendered people like Luo Qingchen and Li Ping'an helpless, forcing them to concede.

"But I can try!" Jiang Ming’s eyes burned. These candidates, selected from the Heavenly Ladder, were worthy of their reputation. Each was powerful beyond imagination, breaking conventional logic, and could easily fight across levels. Furthermore, their strength was bizarre and unfathomable.

"Good, I'll try too, to see if I can stop your path of victory!" Fang Qinghan said, stepping toward Jiang Ming. A formless vortex formed around him. Air and energy were swallowed up; even light was distorted. Space itself vibrated.

Jiang Ming stood still, but Yin-Yang sword qi swept out, spreading to a hundred meters away. Yet, when it reached the area around Fang Qinghan, the sword qi was distorted and devoured. Even with the addition of the Yin-Yang artistic conception, it couldn't be blocked.

"Your path of devouring has already surpassed the level of artistic conception!" Jiang Ming had suspected this early on, but facing it personally, he couldn't help but be shocked.

"Correct!" Fang Qinghan nodded. "My physique is very special; I haven't figured it out yet, but it is very powerful. I have specifically cultivated many devouring methods, and combined with my special physique, I have developed even more terrifying means, which I call the Great Devouring Art."

"Great Devouring Art?" The corners of Jiang Ming’s mouth twitched. He narrowed his eyes, discovering the terror of the other’s devouring path.

"Devouring, darkness, compression, distortion, destruction, digestion, absorption, space..." Jiang Ming clicked his tongue. "It looks like the Great Devouring Art, yet it contains many Dao resonances, and they are fused together perfectly to unleash terrifying power."

He was genuinely shocked, and he vaguely sensed that Fang Qinghan was still hiding something. He hadn't fully unleashed his power.

Fang Qinghan smiled but didn't explain.

Jiang Ming didn't stop; with a wave of his hand, a lightning bolt descended from thin air, yet it was distorted and swallowed by the vortex outside the opponent's body. Fire spears, ice, tornadoes, and the like were unable to do anything to his opponent. He activated his soul domain, fused with the power of the world, but it was still distorted, then torn apart and swallowed. Even mental attacks were useless.

"Brother Jiang, your Divine Path methods are truly terrifying," Fang Qinghan said in shock.

"But they still can't do anything to you!" Jiang Ming frowned. "This is your 'one path breaks all laws'—no, your devouring power can also be considered a path of fusion. Breaking it will be difficult."

He was even more shocked. With his Sixth-Tier Divine Path cultivation and a domain fused with the path of the world, he still couldn't do anything to his opponent; instead, his own domain was being torn apart. This was the first time. Chen Bei had been suppressed when he broke into Jiang Ming’s soul domain, but this man had torn it apart and swallowed it.

"Your devouring power is an extremely terrifying means of attack, but also a super-strong path of defense. To deal with you, one must break the devouring vortex," Jiang Ming said, his sword radiating a destructive light.

Sword qi screamed across the firmament, one sword bringing life to all things, nine suns burning rivers and seas, one sword shaking mountains and rivers...

Streaks of sword qi traversed the sky, tearing through the universe, yet as they fell upon Fang Qinghan, they were distorted, then shattered and swallowed. His powerful swordsmanship couldn't affect his opponent. Not only Jiang Ming, but the spectators also found it unbelievable. Because Jiang Ming was too powerful—how could he not break through his opponent’s defense? It was inconceivable.

Zhu Xian Sword, Lu Xian Sword, Xian Xian Sword, Jue Xian Sword!

The sword light rose again, causing the vortex outside Fang Qinghan to tremble incessantly. By the third sword, it was directly slashed open. As the fourth sword fell, the devouring vortex split in two, but Fang Qinghan lifted his hand, grabbed the sword qi, and with a squeeze, crushed it out of existence.

"This..." Jiang Ming was moved.

"The Devouring Body, I understand, I fully understand!" He looked at the other man with a complex expression and transmitted his voice, "Brother Fang, you shouldn't have been so high-profile."

According to his deduction, the opponent’s ability was clearly a power of taboo.

"I didn't want to, but the reward for first place in the grand examination is too tempting. If I can use the Heart of the Universe once, it will surely take my abilities to the next level," Fang Qinghan said. "It doesn't matter anyway! After participating in the grand examination, I will inevitably enter the Holy Academy, so I will be safe."

"That's good!" Jiang Ming’s sword trembled slightly, glowing with streaks of green light.

"Brother Jiang, make your move. If you can't even break my devouring domain, then you truly can't do anything to me," Fang Qinghan said.

"Not long ago, I just comprehended a sword technique. It should be enough to kill you. Brother Fang, take care."

As Jiang Ming’s voice fell, his figure suddenly vanished.