Enlightenment: Attaining the Dao at Age 8

At this moment, everyone in the Celestial Realm Expeditionary Force was utterly shaken to their core.

They wouldn’t have believed it if they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes: a single Martial Artist fighting an Emperor of the Celestial Realm and four True Gods at once—and still holding the upper hand.

’Is this what one should expect from the progenitor of the Martial Dao?’

’He’s ridiculously strong!’

Nearby, the battle raged on, but even the Sun Emperor was beginning to feel a creeping dread. His opponent’s combat prowess was simply terrifying; he fought without the aid of any Incense, powered by what seemed to be his own monstrous, endless stamina.

The Sun Emperor had a vast supply of Incense, but even that couldn’t sustain this rate of consumption.

If he couldn’t break this stalemate soon, only one outcome awaited him: death!

At this thought, the Sun Emperor took a deep breath, his hesitant expression hardening with resolve. He retreated several thousand meters into the air and stared at Li Chang’an, snarling through gritted teeth, ”I spent more than thirty thousand years to reach this final step. I was about to be restored to my peak, untainted by any Dark Energy. I never imagined it would all be ruined because of you... You truly deserve to die!”

He was obviously furious.

No, ”furious” wasn’t enough to describe the emotion the Sun Emperor was now displaying.

To be precise, the Sun Emperor wanted nothing more than to flay Li Chang’an alive, to slice the flesh from his bones piece by agonizing piece.

As his words faded, the Celestial Realm, which was already trembling violently, began to shake even more.

Deep underground, cracks rapidly spread across the earth. The next second, a massive body wreathed in black mist erupted from the depths.

The body was motionless, showing no signs of life, yet no one dared to look away.

Like a great abyss, the body, resembling a fallen Divine Spirit, transformed into a giant Black Hole. This Black Hole then completely devoured the Sun Emperor’s Essence, Qi, and Spirit!

Once the Sun Emperor had completely merged with that deathly still body, the already rotting, foul-smelling corpse began to exude an aura of life. It slowly sat up, its gaze fixed on Li Chang’an, filled with infinite malice and hatred.

At this sight, it wasn’t just Li Chang’an and the members of the Celestial Realm Expeditionary Force who were stunned; even the soldiers tasked with guarding the Celestial Realm were thrown into utter disarray.

Apparently, they had never imagined that the Guardian God they had always served and worshipped would transform into such a hideous monster—a creature with a severely decayed body, shrouded in the aura of death!

The massive monster stared at Li Chang’an and said slowly, ”Come here, and die!”

The creature radiated a dense aura of death and a terrifying, ink-black Energy, a shocking sight even from a distance. Li Chang’an, however, remained unfazed. He let out a cold laugh and taunted, ”So, this is your true face? Your body has already decayed to such a state. You should have died long ago!”

According to the historical records of the Hell Race, this group of so-called Divine Spirits in the sky had arrived in this world on a starship an unknown time ago.

At the time, the Human Emperor had been gazing at the starry sky and saw their arrival as the key to unlocking an interstellar age.

Instead, he was betrayed, leading to his utter demise.

From that moment on, this band of robbers purged the entire world, then transformed themselves into the so-called Gods of the Celestial Realm.

But no matter how they tried to pretty themselves up, they could never hide their hideous true nature.

’He just never expected that the so-called Sun Emperor was merely a vessel one of these brigands was using to recultivate, and that when cornered, it could summon its original body.’

’He also never imagined it would harbor such a dense concentration of Dark Energy—enough to corrode its once-powerful body, leaving behind only a sliver of life.’

But regardless, now that he was here, Li Chang’an had no intention of fleeing.

’It’s kill or be killed.’

After the Sun Emperor summoned his ruined original body, the entire Celestial Realm was plunged into a momentary darkness. Countless zombie-like monsters crawled from the earth. Their movements were stiff, yet they possessed immense combat strength, and they attacked all living beings in their vicinity indiscriminately, friend and foe alike.

Many people recognized the source of these stiff-limbed monsters—they were, shockingly, the corpses of Divine Spirits who had previously died in the Celestial Realm!

With this, the tense, confrontational atmosphere between the Celestial Realm Expeditionary Force and the Celestial Realm’s soldiers instantly vanished. It was replaced by an even more bone-chilling sense of terror.

Having had his true form revealed, the Sun Emperor was clearly preparing to silence all witnesses.

And he wasn’t just planning to silence one or two people; he intended to eliminate every single person who had witnessed the day’s events!

At this moment, besides desperately fending off the monsters’ onslaught, all they could do was pray that Li Chang’an could hold on.

If Li Chang’an was defeated, or worse, killed, none of them would live to see tomorrow’s sun.

Fortunately, Li Chang’an did not disappoint them.

In fact, if the Sun Emperor were truly at his peak, Li Chang’an would be no match for him. It was highly questionable whether he could even escape with his life, even if he gave it his all.

However, the Sun Emperor’s body was severely decayed. No matter how much power he possessed at his peak, he could now at most wield twenty to thirty percent of it.

This gave Li Chang’an the opportunity to resist and even counterattack.