Lu Sheng suddenly opened his eyes, enveloped in purple lightning plasma and crimson Stellar energy.
"Complete Martial Dao—Golden Crow!"
Sheng lightly touched his glabella. In an instant, surrounded by countless streams of energy, his black hair began to turn crimson-gold, and brilliant golden sun divine patterns rapidly appeared all over his body. After a few breaths, he completely entered the Protostar form of the Stellar Dao.
At this moment, his entire body was burning with raging golden sun divine flames, covered in golden patterns like a god walking out of myths and legends. Handsome, noble, majestic.
Now that the number of Immortal Cells in his body reached five million, Sheng only dared to enter the Protostar form. He didn't dare to step into the Main Sequence Star form, fearing that he would be burst by the surging power.
"With five million Immortal Cells, my Protostar form is several times stronger than my previous Main Sequence Star form with 330,000 cells..."
Sheng raised his right hand and observed the divine patterns on its back. Among the dense and complex golden patterns, there were also some new purple patterns, shaped like lightning. They were hidden among the golden divine patterns, making them difficult to spot without careful observation.
He extended his hand. Solar divine flames surged and burned between his five fingers, accompanied by bright purple lightning, adding a few more points of destructive and explosive power to the originally only intensely hot flames.
"It's different now..."
His eyes gleamed slightly, and purple lightning also flickered in his golden pupils.
"Thunder conceived within the sun... Then this Protostar Golden Crow form should be called the Thunder Golden Crow form..."
Sheng flashed, traversing a large expanse of the desolate universe, and suddenly appeared above a giant, lifeless planet. He had never stopped cultivating in this Dream Universe.
"Let's try it, my power after integrating the power of Thunder."
Sheng looked down at the enormous planet and turned to face it while spreading his arms wide in a starfish position.
"Four Symbols, Spirit Realm Cloak—Hundred Weapons Martial Arts!"
Hundred Weapons Martial Arts. This was the first Martial Saint skill Sheng comprehended on his own after being promoted to a level 9 Martial Saint. Now, this skill had evolved to the level of a divine ability, and because of Sheng's understanding of his own Dao, the Complete Martial Dao, this divine ability was already vastly different from its original form.
As he spread his arms, the void behind him was rapidly filled with brilliant crimson gold. Large swathes of golden flames gathered, followed by purple lightning plasma. The two energies converged and quickly condensed into an incredibly vast curtain. This curtain was like a celestial canopy, almost capable of obscuring one-third of the planet below.
Waves surged and rolled within the curtain of thunder and fire. Soon, various types of weapons emerged from it. Compared to when he was a level 9 Martial Saint, Sheng's martial arts skills had become countless times richer.
Hundred Weapons Martial Arts... It would not be an exaggeration to call it Myriad Weapons Martial Arts now. Every weapon was entwined with thunder and fire, and the power contained in each weapon was enough to easily kill any martial arts expert below level 11.
"Drop!"
With Sheng's command, countless thunder-fire weapons shot towards the massive planet below. In just a blink of an eye, a small part of the planet was completely submerged in an ocean of thunder and flames.
The exploding fireworks were gorgeous. But no sound was heard. Sheng quietly watched below, as countless black smoke clouds rose from the explosion, gathering into an ocean of black mist, converging towards him.
He silently absorbed this massive amount of martial arts memories, extracting what was useful to him and rapidly filling in the techniques that had not yet reached the peak of the Five Realms.
"Only now, with almost inexhaustible energy, I dare to be so extravagant... Otherwise, with this move, even with five million Immortal Cells, my stamina would be instantly drained..."
"This move, Hundred Weapons Martial Arts, comes from Master Yang Yizhou's inheritance, the Four Symbols Spirit Realm Cloak. Now that I use it, it almost completely unveils the essence of Master's Four Extremes Dao."
Sheng didn't know if this was good or bad. Among the three major inheritances he received, Master Yang Yizhou's inheritance was the most profound, directly pointing to level 16. But it was also his inheritance that he comprehended the least. Perhaps it was because the Four Exteme Dao held by Yang Yizhou conflicted with the Complete Martial Dao he himself wanted to diligently develop.
Whether it was Wang He's level 15 Stellar Dao, Duan Yifeng's level 15 Divine Crystal Dao, or the Daos of the level 11, level 12, and even level 13 experts he inherited in the Dream Universe, all could serve as embellishments and supplements within the framework of his Complete Martial Dao.
Only Yang Yizhou's Four Extremes Dao seemed by essence incompatible with his Complete Martial Dao. So, all he could do was break down this inheritance bit by bit and slowly integrate it into his own Dao. This also meant that unless Sheng could completely forge his own Dao, he would lose a broad path directly to level 16. Such a choice could only be made by someone with true great perseverance and resolve.
Regret? Sheng asked himself. Perhaps. But he was very clear about one thing.
"Just level 16 cannot save this universe..."
The desolate and lifeless starry sky before him was the battlefield after Master Yang Yizhou's failed struggle against the Dark Side universe.
As he contemplated, the planet beneath his feet had already been carved away by almost half. Sheng sensed it briefly; the absorption of this part of the planet successfully elevated one of his Fifth Realm martial arts to its peak. Beyond that, his cosmic energy had also increased.
"If I destroy this entire planet, with good luck, I might be able to complete two to three more..." he secretly calculated in his mind.
At this moment, several angry roars suddenly came from the shattered planet below. Soon, several figures broke through the barrier of intertwined lightning and fire and appeared in Sheng's sight. He casually glanced at them, regretting that there were no level 13 existences among these individuals.
"The highest is only level 12, but I don't know how many Powers of Rule they have integrated."
Lu Sheng twisted his neck, and a series of explosive crackling sounds of bone and flesh colliding echoed from his body. He quickly lunged at these figures, trailing a long, brilliant purple-gold tail flame in the dark starry sky.
"Let's see... how strong the Thunder Golden Crow is."
The next second, their figures intersected.
"Boom!"
Even more brilliant fireworks bloomed in the starry sky.
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At the same time, outside the Interdimensional Battlefield's fortress, a brilliant silver light almost submerged a small part of the base. Massive silver light points converged into an ocean of silver.
Countless experts stood inside and outside the base, looking at this scene with shock. In their sight, within this ocean of silver light, a giant reddish-purple cocoon of light was pulsating vigorously, surrounded by dozens of dazzling silver rivers. The scene was so shocking that it was unforgettable.
"Heavens, how many Rules has the person inside this light cocoon comprehended?!" murmured an expert, flabbergasted.
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Translation notes by dhoo
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Complete Martial Dao
The Complete Martial Dao is the improved Martial Dao that Lu Sheng is developing, based on all the Martial Daos he inherited. This term was used in previous story arcs [chapters #502, #506, #511 (x2)] but it's the first time it appears in the Battlefield arc.
十全武道: 十全 complete, perfect (literally ten whole) 武道 Martial Dao
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Golden Crow
A classic in Chinese stories. In Chinese mythology, the golden crow is a three-legged crow living in the sun. Sheng inherited the Stellar Dao and the Golden Crow technique, which consists in materializing a powerful, fiery and destructive golden crow. This term was used in previous story arcs [chapters #506 (x2), #507, #511 (x7), #515] but it's the first time it appears in the Battlefield arc.
金烏: 金烏 gold crow (literally 金 metal, gold 烏 crow, black, not)
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Martial Saint
This is what level 9 martial artists were called on planet Azure. They were the strongest martial artists (no one had ever reached level 10 or higher) and there were around 20 of them in total, worldwide.
武聖
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Four Symbols
The Four Symbols are mythological creatures appearing among the Chinese constellations along the ecliptic, and viewed as the guardians of the four cardinal directions. [quote from Wikipedia]
More about them in chapter #583
四象
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Hundred Weapons Martial Arts
Among chapters #530-#648, this name only appears in this chapter.
百兵演武
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The most powerful martial artists we know of:
Yang Yizhou aka Willow Keel, level 16 Star Domain Lord, developed the Four Extremes Dao
Wang He aka Milway King, level 15 Galaxy Lord, developed the Stellar Dao
Duan Yifeng aka Wish Gale, level 15 Galaxy Lord, developed the Divine Crystal Dao
Sheng calls Willow his master. Willow is also a master to Milway and Wish.