2 Heaven and Earth

Staring at the body sliced in two equal parts, Long Tian heaved a sigh and retracted his killing intent back inside his body. It seemed as though the unmatched war god had turned back into a ragged youth who looked like a beggar.

The upper half of the body's face looked as if it was staring at something frightening as its mouth was mouthing the words...

"How...this....impossible..."

These were the last words of the genius of a millennia, Xia Ling Xing as he slowly lost consciousness and the two halves of his body slowly disintegrated into ash.

As for Long Tian, he had already gone back to his listless state and the dark golden lustre in his eyes had dimmed. He had already grown accustomed to killing and massacring thousands upon thousands in one move, let alone only one opponent.

He felt only boredom after destroying a powerful existence such as this.

'I have lived for close to 10,000 years already. These small-fry still do not help me in attaining a higher level in my cultivation.'

That's right. This monster was thinking of breaking through the widely known final level of cultivation, to break through the bounds of Immortal Sovereign itself.

If any normal practitioner heard this, they would laugh at the person saying they are a hopeless idiot. But one such idiot has been trying for over thousands of years to find a method to achieve this feat. Due to this, almost nothing else occupies his mind.

Hundreds of years after reaching Immortal Sovereign, Long Tian roamed the Immortal Realm in hopes of finding clues towards the next level. He was someone who would not stop until he found a new goal as soon as he finishes one.

Although he struggled in communicating with mortals, he had no problem dealing with those who wished harm to him as he used his overwhelming strength and crushed everyone, including the sect that killed his teacher, and gained many treasures, pills, and information about a myriad of things in the realm.

Albeit the knowledge he gained was plentiful, it could only give him a slight glimpse towards the next level. As long as he persevered in his meditation, he believed that he would be able to forge his own path towards it.

So, he found this place that was quiet and solitary, and decided to stay here to meditate.

It has been over five thousand years since then.

"Still...I have gained quite a bit of insight through the years. At least I know that the next level cannot be reached with further manipulation of Spiritual Energy."

This made his normally unemotional facial expression contort in frustration.

"But no matter how I think about it, the method I had found is completely impossible to do. So crazy only lunatics have tried it before."

As if he had felt no one in his surroundings, he had subconsciously started to think out loud, talking to himself. It was a bad habit gained with centuries of loneliness.

Struggling with his inner self, he finally spoke the method out loud...

"The only way to break through Immortal Sovereign is by...absorbing Heaven and Earth Energy, but countless people have tried before and they all exploded!"

Even a Divine King at the end of his lifespan tried it as a last-ditch effort to break through in hopes in becoming an Immortal Sovereign. Unfortunately he ended up killing himself in the process of extending his life.

"Ah, it's no use thinking about it for so long. It's been unbearable for me to remain at one level for such a long period of time. I want to experience it again, gaining more strength!"

That's right.

The monster people called Long Tian, is a cultivation-crazed-idiot deep inside his aloof outward appearance. His longing for strength is so far gone that he feels that he is only truly alive when and only when, he increases in strength.

No one comes close in his pursuit of never-ending desire for improvement. What was once an innocent goal to surpass others had become something estranged through years of solitude. With no peers to compete with, he can only surpass himself.

A mindset which can both be called commendable and at the same time foolishness.

As they say, an insatiable desire can only end in either fulfilment or death.

"I have made enough preparations. My will won't shake from the challenge and I am sure I can succeed. There has been no precedent of an Immortal Sovereign ever trying to do this, thus there is a slight chance."

Though he failed to recall the fact or was it that he was deliberately ignoring it, the people who reached Immortal Sovereign have no need to absorb Heaven and Earth Energy to increase their strength as their lifespan at this level would have reached near infinite.

Long Tian's eyes shone as if it was saying 'No matter how little the chance, I will take it!'

Truly his was a gaze akin to a drug-addict, a hopeless existence, drowned in the pursuit of pleasure.

"For the first session, I'll only absorb a tiny amount of it then slowly move forward from there. Luckily these mountains are filled with them so I had already learned the method from doing experiments with these..."

His consciousness dived into his 'Spacial Ring' and he arrived at a dark-purple space the size of three or more continents connected with each other.

This amazing place was filled with countless glittering gold and silver, pills shining with blinding lights of different colours, scrolls, books, weapons emitting different radiances, and countless other things he had plundered and gained across his lifetime.

At his current level, all these treasures in the eyes of many were only trash that was worth lower than dirt. It could not help him increase his level in any way.

What he was really looking at with fervent eyes was the half-mountain size slab of black craggy rock with a pointed top. They had countless inscriptions all around its body, signifying their age.

This slab was indeed made of Rune Stone.

The more inscriptions a Rune Stone had, the longer it absorbed Heaven and Earth energy. All these treasures combined were not even a fraction of the worth of this Rune Stone mountain peak he had separated.

Some rocks had been chipped at its side, most likely used up as experiments for Long Tian through the years. But even though this was the case, it hardly made a difference compared to the size of the mountain.

"Unfortunately, I had tried to get more peaks from here but as soon as I attempted to, an unfathomable presence locked its eyes unto me. Most likely an existence I cannot even begin to comprehend, thus I left the other peaks alone."

In the past, a terrifying intent detected Long Tian whenever he tried to cut off another mountain in this place, seeming as if it would crush him as soon as he did so.

It was as if it never expected someone to cut off an entire peak, so he let it go the first time, but the next attempt would be hindered for sure. This was also one of the reasons he stayed behind in this place. In order to learn of its secrets and the existence behind it.

"Well. Let us begin."

Slowly, he extended his arm to touch the mountain peak.

This was the first time he was taking in the energy into his body as his previous experiments only involved extracting the energy from the stones, and controlling it.

Although Long Tian's body was as still as a mountain in the real world, the consciousness inside his Spacial Ring was unprecedentedly nervous beyond belief.

As if each second were as long as a century, a tiny amount of Heaven and Earth Energy slowly withdrew from the stone peak, and entered his body through his skin's open pores.

Entering through its layers of muscle and bone, the energy travelled through his immortal body along his veins and vessels, slowly reaching his 'Immortal Palace'.

This place was located at the core of the cultivator's body. At Immortal Sovereign stage, the cores together had already formed balance, opened the gates, obtained the foundation, and had formed its own kingdom within one's body.

Everlasting and eternal as if it was to represent a person's lifespan and strength.

If this core part was to be destroyed, naturally, the owner's life would end as well.

This was why Long Tian's heart was palpitating with fear. One single mishap, one mistake can cost him his entire life. But if this was the price to pay in order to gain more strength, he knew he had no other choice but to press onwards.

Slowly, he circulated his 'Mist Dragon Forming' cultivation technique and guided the dormant energy to all his meridians and acupoints in his body one step at a time.

There were over hundreds of places he had to distribute the energy and Long Tian had to be extremely careful about it, thus he persevered for over a year before he reached the final hurdle. The last place was his 'Soul Gathering Acupoint' where his true soul resided.

Biting his lips until they were spilling blood, he made his decision and directed the last bit of energy towards it. As soon as he did, he felt the dormant energy inside his body turn rampant and unstable. Fearing the result of explosion, Long Tian hurriedly formed many spells and ingested many life-saving immortal pill medicines in advance to shield against any consequences of failure. He then circulated the energy around his body more quickly than before many times in hopes of calming it down.

Soon after, whether it be due to the pill medicines or his rapid circulation, the energy quickly dissipated into his body, merging with his own.

At that moment, he felt a rumble all over his entire being. Following a large explosion of light from within his body, a feeling of lightness frantically took over him. As if he was above all things.

The familiar feeling, made Long Tian's eyes light up like innumerable stars had shone and the heavens lost their light. Right now he felt as if he was on top of the world. A feeling akin to a god.

"Yes, it worked! Haha!"

In over thousands of years, this was the first time Long Tian had shown happiness from the bottom of his heart. This was obviously because he had just broken through that last obstacle separating him from moving forward.

It was as if his gaze had turned into bright and blazing suns ready to engulf the world and see through the universe itself and delve into its mysteries. A new world had opened up before him.

Just as he was feeling elated and about to peer into the secrets within this new realm, a rumbling sound came from above him. This feeling somehow gave Long Tian, a person who has no fear, feel dread.

Before he could even react, a huge torrent of lightning bolts descended onto his head without warning. Enraptured with his recent breakthrough, he was helpless and immobile to retaliate.

This lightning was anything but normal.

Each bolt felt like it was striking his inner self and caused immense damage to his organs, meridians, blood and flesh. As if he was being burned alive.

Even with his high cultivation state, these bolts of lightning continued without end, only getting stronger and stronger after each wave.

Feeling immense regret and unwillingness, Long Tian felt his Immortal Palace and his kingdom that he had built within collapse into ruins in mere seconds. Without this, he rapidly lost all his power as the energy within him dissipated into nothingness. He could only watch himself break down into a weak mortal helplessly.

Gathering what little willpower he had left, he forced himself to raise his head up to look towards the sky where the lightning bolts ceaselessly rained down from. An immense anger bubbled up from him.

"WHY!!?"

Screaming his heartache towards the heavens, he realised that this was the end. But his unrelenting will would not stop till he found the answer.

Why?

Why were humans like him only treated unfairly by the heavens. He only wanted to see the view of a new realm, only wanted to improve himself.

But it seems that even the heavens do not wish to see a monstrous existence like him enter their ranks.

At this moment, Long Tian, someone who had walked unhindered throughout his life, swore within himself that if he survived this, he would take revenge and shall tear the heavens themselves apart.

'You never could make any friends..'

A strange memory of his master's last words to him suddenly sounded in his mind before he lost consciousness and descended into darkness.

Year 59020 of Soaring Dragon Continent

The 'Lone Conqueror' Long Tian had disappeared.