CHAPTER 257: SECOND STAGE OF THE LIFE-AND-DEATH PATH

Luo Feng was comprehending the secret patterns in the deeper layer of the Star Tower.

Countless secret patterns coiled downward, spiraling ever deeper — until time itself began to halt.

Beyond that point, the secret patterns started to radiate in colors.

At the end of those colorful spiraling patterns was a single blood-red scale edged with Twelve Colors.

That blood-red scale seemed to embody the Supreme Laws themselves.

It was—supreme and unmatched.

It was—eternal and indestructible, unshakable through endless tribulations.

“The core of the Star Tower’s secret patterns lies in the essence of life’s density, solidity, and eternal indestructibility.”

Luo Feng had watched this sight countless times.

Every time he stared directly at the blood-red scale, it would send ceaseless waves of impact and corruption toward his mind and will.

Luo Feng temporarily ceased his observation and began circulating his own power.

Buzz—

An illusory high tower appeared, shaped like a triangular pyramid.

The phantom tower gradually condensed as secret patterns flowed across its surface.

Crash!

Suddenly, the illusory tower collapsed.

“Why is it so hard to create a ‘Nine-Branch Fusion Secret Technique’?” Luo Feng sighed softly.

For an ordinary Divine King Second Stage being, creating some peak-level secret techniques of that stage wasn’t difficult.

But to create an Ultimate Realm Secret Technique — the difficulty surged exponentially.

Even figures such as Emperor Guixu, Divine King Wuxin, or some of the Emperors of the Ancient Flame Kingdom and Monarchs of the Ancient Thunder Kingdom, had spent endless ages and yet created only a handful of such Ultimate Realm Secret Techniques.

By the same principle—

Within the Life-and-Death Path, Luo Feng had already created nine fusion secret techniques up to this point.

Techniques like Great Annihilation Form, Heavenlight Silver Shuttle, Blacklight Escape Technique, Blood Droplet, and Prison Cage had all reached the Eight-Branch Fusion level.

“Eight-Branch Fusion is already easy for me—I’ve created nine such secret techniques. But Nine-Branch Fusion... not even one.”

Luo Feng lightly shook his head.

The Nine-Branch Fusion Techniques of the Life-and-Death Path belonged to the Ultimate Realm level, and their difficulty far exceeded that of Eight-Branch Techniques. ꞦâNô𝔟Εš

On the other hand, the Life Path and Destruction Path were easier.

With clear guidance from their respective Paths, and having exchanged for both the Scale of Destruction and Lotus Heart Seed, Luo Feng had been able to create several Ultimate Realm techniques from them.

“The pure Life Path and Destruction Path—creating Ultimate Realm Techniques for them doesn’t feel all that difficult.”

“But after they fuse into the Life-and-Death Path... the Nine-Branch Fusion becomes almost impossibly hard.”

Luo Feng tried again, using his own power to condense an illusory Star Tower.

The illusory Star Tower—served as his shield!

A pursuit of the ultimate defense!

“Why is the tower I condense triangular, not like the nine-tiered Star Tower? Clearly, I’m still far from it. Even if I truly merged the nine branches, that would only touch the Star Tower’s surface.”

He calmed his mind and continued cultivating in earnest.

“Where exactly is the problem with this illusory Star Tower? Why can’t it stabilize?”

Luo Feng studied the mysteries of the secret patterns carefully, day after day.

Until one day—

Long accumulation triggered a qualitative leap.

In Luo Feng’s mind, four branches of the Life-and-Death Path—Heavenlight Branch, Blood Droplet Branch, Wanderer Branch, and Eternal Branch—suddenly fused together perfectly, no longer leaving even a hint of confusion.

At that moment, the Life-and-Death Path stepped into the Second Stage of Divine King Realm!

From then on, Luo Feng had reached the Second Stage in all three Paths—Life, Destruction, and Life-and-Death.

Of course, the first two had been much easier, with several Ultimate Realm Secret Techniques already created.

“Hahaha! Only after creating nine Eight-Branch Fusion techniques did my Life-and-Death Path finally reach Divine King Second Stage. Without any direct Path reference, the accumulation truly required far more effort.” Luo Feng’s mood was excellent.

“I wonder how much the Infinite Space will reward me for this.”

The Infinite Space placed immense importance on two aspects—Mental Will and Path Creation.

Infinite Space

Upon an island in the center of a lake—

There were no mental creatures here, only one of Luo Feng’s clones. Mist spread over half the lake, shrouding it in haze.

“The Second Stage of the Life-and-Death Path.”

Luo Feng sat cross-legged by the shore, gazing at the lake before him. With a single thought, he began displaying the profundities of the Path.

Whoosh.

A wisp of power detached from Luo Feng, drawing an arc through the air. It easily sliced through layers of space, even cutting a black rift into the very membrane of the Infinite Space itself— then condensed into a drop of blood.

That drop of blood transformed into a star, slowly rolling through heaven and earth, making the world tremble.

Then that tiny star collapsed into a dark abyss, naturally beginning to devour all directions.

The dark abyss then imploded—turning into a single point of light. When the light appeared, a terrifying domain spread outward in all directions.

That single wisp of power fully demonstrated the profound mysteries of the four branches of the Life-and-Death Path—Heavenlight, Blood Droplet, Wanderer, and Eternal. Only by truly grasping their profundities could one fuse and transform them at will.

Finally—

Buzz—

An imprint in Luo Feng’s palm transmitted information.

“Trial-Taker: Luo Feng from Origin Continent.”

“Using the Paths of Life and Destruction as foundation, you have opened a new Path.

Evaluation of the new Path: Top Grade. Reward: 100,000 points. You have taken the second step upon this Path. Continue working hard to master it fully.”

“Before mastering a complete Path, your Mental Will has successfully surpassed the Divine King limit. Evaluation of Mental Will: Top Grade. Reward: 100,000 points. Your Mental Will is exceptional—perhaps you can go even further?”

“Reminder: It is forbidden to kill any Mental Creature. Violators will be permanently expelled from Infinite Space.”

“Total Reward Points: 184,193.03.”

Luo Feng read the information, feeling greatly uplifted.

To open a new Path and reach Divine King Second Stage—100,000 points!

And with another 100,000 from surpassing the Divine King-level in Mental Will, that made a total of 200,000 points—his greatest fortune so far.

Having spent so long in the Infinite Space, Luo Feng had always been cautious with his reward points.

His largest expenditures had been on the Lotus Heart Seed and the Scale of Destruction.

As for inheritance exchanges, he had only redeemed the Divine King First and Second Stage inheritances—too costly were the higher ones.

“I can’t kill any Mental Creatures, so the only way to earn points... is by developing new Paths and improving my Mental Will,” Luo Feng thought.

“From the message, it seems mastering the complete Life-and-Death Path should yield another reward.”

But Luo Feng understood one thing clearly.

Paths like Time, Space, Life, Immeasurable, and Destruction already existed within the

Supreme Laws.

Even so, across the endless ages of the Origin Continent, only Emperor Qing and the Ruler of the Myriad Realms had fully comprehended an entire Path on their own!

The Life-and-Death Path had no precedent—no reference. To comprehend it completely... the difficulty was imaginable.

“For ordinary Paths with guidance, even those Emperors and Monarchs who’ve created five or six Ultimate Realm Secret Techniques still might not comprehend a full Path.

So for the Life-and-Death Path without any reference, I’d likely need at least ten Ultimate Realm Secret Techniques before I could hope to grasp it.”

“And that so-called ‘further breakthrough’ of Mental Will—what exactly does it mean?” Luo Feng wondered.

Before mastering a Path, if one’s Mental Will reached the God Emperor Realm, it was rated as Top Grade.

So what could lie beyond that?

“Forget it.”

Luo Feng opened the Infinite Space’s Treasure Vault.

“Hmm?” Luo Feng was surprised.

“Even now, I still can’t view the ‘Ultimate Chapter’ of the Perfect-Level Inheritance for the Divine King Realm?”

The Perfect-Level Inheritance, Divine King Second Stage Chapter, normally required 10,000 points.

But the Ultimate Chapter—even with his current balance—remained inaccessible.

Given Infinite Space’s pricing, the Ultimate Chapter usually cost twenty times more.

“Even with both evaluations being Top Grade, I’m still unqualified to see the Perfect-Level Inheritance’s Ultimate Chapter? Just what kind of genius qualifies for that?” Luo Feng sighed inwardly.

“By using the Formless and Phaseless transformation, the Ultimate Realm Primordial Bloodline Beasts of the Origin Continent are already my transformation limit.

Since I don’t cultivate the Origin Path of Matter, there’s no point in redeeming the Ultimate Chapter of The World Life Form.”

He had to use his points wisely—every one on the blade’s edge.

Luo Feng examined the inheritance catalog carefully.

“Let’s look at the treasures.”

He was especially interested in those, because according to Emperor Qing, treasures worth at least 100,000 points could assist in “escaping the Caged World.”

They were items that external cultivators longed to obtain.

The top-ranked treasure was a sword, costing 180,000 reward points.

It was forged from the corpse materials of a Primordial Ancestor, suitable for cultivators of the Thunder, Destruction, or Matter Paths.

Comprehending it could aid in breaking free of the Caged World.

Reminder: This treasure must remain within the Source World for comprehension.

Taking it outside would bring endless calamity.

The second-ranked treasure was the Time-Space Mirror, also costing 180,000 reward points.

Forged from rare materials of the Primordial Space, this mirror allowed one to retain memories upon reincarnation in any Source World, unaffected by any Supreme Law’s rejection.

Training under different Supreme Laws in different Source Worlds granted immense benefits.

Reminders:

Recommended for cultivators of the Time or Space Paths; others gain less benefit.

Must not be taken out of the Source World.

One treasure after another left Luo Feng astounded.

“Even if one gets Top Grade in both Path Creation and Mental Will, redeeming just one of these treasures would nearly exhaust all reward points.”

He realized how high the bar truly was.

Even among the most dazzling geniuses arranged by the Elder Yuan, only one could redeem such a treasure.

“Only those with truly high talent deserve to wield them.”

Luo Feng continued browsing.

Suddenly—

He noticed the 34th-ranked treasure—Eye of Life and Death, costing 120,000 reward points.

It was forged from the complete corpse of a world-level Primordial Lifeform, the Life-and-Death-Eyed Beast.

Using this Eye of Life and Death, one could perceive the “vital essence” of all things—or discern their “destruction weakness.”

Perfect for cultivators of the Life or Destruction Paths, helping them grasp the mysteries of both and even aiding their escape from the Caged World.

Reminder: This treasure must not be taken out of the Source World.

“What a treasure…” Luo Feng’s heart burned with desire.

Among other high-ranked treasures, some suited Destruction, some Life— but the Eye of Life and Death suited both.