In the Path of heaven and earth, ten meant perfection. Everything went in a circle with endless changes; the evolution of heaven and everything gave birth to the living, dictating the lifeline of the world.
However, since this was the Path of heaven and earth, it was Heaven that endowed everything. It was impossible for a living thing to achieve perfection and be equal to Heaven.
It was a lock, a natural barrier difficult to break and cross. So the figure "Ninety-nine" was the ultimate.
Unless a person found favor with Heaven, the person would be able to cross the barrier, achieving completeness. Yet the person would likely end up dead rather than alive.
But there was a different type of human. They were not content with being below Heaven. So they resorted to every conceivable means to seek the ultimate power, vowing to surpass Heaven, breaking the law. This type of human was called the Anti-God.
This title of reverence, Anti-God, was a taboo in the Samsara Continent. Any Anti-God that appeared would be killed by the powerful ones on the continent. Besides, anyone who broke the barrier would earn the wrath of Heaven. Those who survived and got out would be unbound by heaven and earth. But those who failed, they would be crushed and their souls annihilated.
This type of human was rare. There had been only a handful of them successfully achieving it since time immemorial. These people were the ones who dictated the world of their respective eras and the legends in the later generations.
Those living beings that complied with the Heavenly mandate, the Ninety-nine was their ultimate realm, which could not be possibly broken. Not even slightly. Despite that, living beings that had reached this Ninety-nine Ultimate Realm were rare. Those who came to this stage would mean they were closest to Heaven, and above everything else.
During the Alpha stage, bodies were placed in trial and flesh cleansed. People would leave their mortal bodies and enter the Path. This was only the beginning, and also the smallest step. After this, those who could achieve the ultimate realm were rare. Unless they were extraordinary and called the sons of Heaven.
Not only was there an ultimate realm in the Alpha stage, but every realm also had an ultimate threshold, a barrier. The ultimate realm of the Meridian's Growth period was 290,000-lb strength.
The fact that Wutian could achieve the ultimate realm in the Reborn Beta stage showed how fearsome he was. If the news leaked out it was set to cause a storm.
Horrible energy swept through everything like a tsunami. Wutian sat cross-legged beside the Stele of Corporeal Incarceration, eyes closed, expression peaceful. His long hair fluttered, some with his clothes. His skin was as soft and smooth as goat's milk and jade, healthy and lustrous, possessing endless energy.
"Screw it! It is his luck. Little Thing, let us cultivate. It would be worth the trouble of this trip if we could attain the Omega stage."
Han Tian sighed softly. As the Essence elixir surged in his body, the mud on his body evaporated. He then instructed the Mud Beasts to swim to the shore. They jumped down to the ground and sat on the ground and started to cultivate.
Han Tian had consumed the divine liquid and had gotten some achievements. His newly gained realm rapidly stabilized and was still increasing. He made the breakthrough from the Gamma to the Omega stage.
Little Tian was the most frustrated. It had wanted to use the naturally born divine being to help it evolve. Little did it expect it had helped Wutian instead. It resigned to its fate, blaming itself for befriending an ungrateful fellow. But it was going to get back what it had lost someday.
It was too lazy to cultivate now and was lying on the ground to take a nap. Despite that, its body was undergoing changes. A silverish color covered most of its skin, its teeth completely turning silverish and sharp as of the Mithril.
Han Tian sighed as he was envious of what was happening to the Gobbler, whose strength was increasing even when it was sleeping. How he wished he could become Little Tian, eating and sleeping all day while his strength increased.
There was divinity in the Stele of Corporeal Incarceration. It protected the area of a hundred feet within the stele. No matter how destructive Wutian's energy was, the place remained unaffected. Not even a bit. And It was incredible.
Wutian's eyelid twitched involuntarily. He opened his eyes and was filled with regret. It turned out that the Ninety-nine Ultimate Realm was an impassable barrier. There was an endless divine liquid essence in his body, but no matter how hard he tried, he still could not break the constraint to attain the Omega stage.
"Perhaps I am being too greedy." Wutian shook his head. Anyone who reached the Ninety-nine Ultimate Realm was already called the son of Heaven. Probably he was being too unrealistic for wanting to attain the Omega stage.
As he recalled his energy, calm returned to the earth, and he looked like any other ordinary person again. There was not the slightest sign that showed he had a badass ability. But only he knew he had an endless physical power that he could summon as he willed it.
But he felt he had not laid a strong enough foundation yet. He had yet attained the Gamma stage. The remaining essence of the divine liquid was absorbed by the mysterious thing in his forehead.
The pain that had not shown up for a long time came again. This time, it was more intense, as if a living thing was being nurtured inside, greedily sucking his essence to aid its growth.
Wutian rubbed his forehead in puzzlement. This thing seemed to appear only when triggered. First, it was Little Tian, then Sikong Lie, the God of War. Now it was the Stele of Soul's Incarceration. All three were exotic beasts. It seemed that only when he bumped into such an existence it would come to his rescue.
What was it, really?
Wutian scratched his head and decided not to worry about it, letting it absorb the essence of the divine liquid.
He took out the ring and the God's Left Hand. He had yet carefully studied these two items since he last got them.
He looked at the black ring. Back then, the warring soul controlled him, fought with Han Tian, and almost hurt Shishi. Those memories were still vividly fresh in his mind. Had it not been for the mysterious thing in his forehead stopping him, Shishi would have been killed by him. He was still having his heart in his mouth whenever he thought of that incident.
"How do I control the warring soul and not enter a state of frenzy?"
Wutian was still none the wiser. He injected his Essence Qi into the ring, using his blood to run a test to control his consciousness. But the ring did not respond and was still as black and cold as ever.
He was in two minds. He wanted to activate the ring to take a peek at the finest realm of Sikong Lie, the God of War. But he was afraid to lose control of his body, entering a state of frenzy and doing something that against his will.
"Let nature take its course. Sikong's War Ring." He exhaled and decided against it. He gave the ring a name.
He put the Sikong's War Ring on the index finger and focused his attention on the God's Left Hand. Since he got this gauntlet, he had been looking for the unscrupulous Taoist. He had encountered the Fire Scorpion, Primordial Scorpion, but had never tested how powerful the gauntlet was. Was it as badass as per the legend?
He wore the God's Left Hand on his left hand. But it immediately slid off. No matter how many times he tried, the same thing happened.
"What's going on?" Wutian frowned. He turned it around, flipped it inside out, trying to find out the cause. But other than the electrical charge, he found nothing else.
He bit his finger, squeezed out a drop of blood, and dropped it on the gauntlet. He had learned from the parchment that many weapons needed blood for them to recognize their masters. So he tried his luck.
Sure enough, when the drop of blood dripped on the gauntlet, a hazy glow appeared, and the gauntlet snapped around his left hand on its own. Following that, energy spread out. It was not powerful but to cause people to palpitate.
Wutian carefully examined it. The God's Left Hand was soft and light as if it was a part of his hand. When he flicked his hand, there was no resistance.
His body suddenly shuddered, his hair standing erect with electrical arcs dancing on it.
The power of lightning of the God's Left Hand might seem weak, but Wutian felt as if he had been struck by lightning. Dark smoke rose from his body, his clothes tattered, and his skin black.
Wutian was quietly shocked. When he took off the gauntlet, the electric arcs rushed to his forehead and disappeared into it.
At last, not a slight power of lightning was left on the God's Left Hand. even the massive amount of divine liquid essence had been fully absorbed. The pain gradually went away. Wutian was struck dumb, and he could not wait to find out what was inside his forehead.
Here was the thing: this was the essence of a naturally born divine being, the power of thunder, not the Qi of the essence elixir or blood of ordinary demonic beats. Yet, it absorbed it just like that.
Nevertheless, Wutian was feeling helpless. He had figured out that he was probably born with the mysterious thing in his forehead, which meant that thing had been with him since the day he was born. He would not have been this clueless had it figured it out earlier.
"Sigh! Let nature take its course."
That said, Wutian did not want to give up, but he still could not figure out the thing that lived inside him. He did not know if it was a good or bad thing, which really troubled him.
He suddenly stood up, his left hand clenched into a fist and he struck it down to the ground. The ground shook, but there was not a single crack in the ground.
"Weird!" Wutian scratched his head. Last time, he could leave a deep pit in the ground with just a punch. Now, even with his strength of the Ninety-nine Ultimate Realm and the God's Left Hand, he could not even make a dent half an inch deep.
Just then, a tremor was felt coming from the wetland, as if something had exploded. The tremor became stronger and stronger, then the mud formed into waves of a thousand feet tall, coming in his direction.
Wutian was shocked and took cover behind the stele, avoiding being hit. But his body had still been splashed with mud, the smell of which was extremely disgusting, making him retching.
"Damn it!" Han Tian swore as he retreated and stood on high ground, looking down with his face twitching uncontrollably.
"Caw, caw!" Little Tian grinned and jumped up and down, gloating over it.
But that Mud Beast was not so lucky. It was huge and slow on land. After getting hit but the wave of mud, he crashed into a hill, cracking the rocks and destroying some giant trees.
It wailed, looking said as tears flowed down its face. It was having the worst day of its life to bump into these humans. Before this, it just needed to worry about food. But now, he was worried about losing his dear life.
How it wished these three horrible fellows, who were worse than those vicious beasts, would leave this place now. If things kept going at this pace, he would probably not live long enough to see the morning sun the next day.
Wutian pinched his nostrils and walked out from behind the stele. There was more to this stele than met the eyes, he thought. He thought of the broken stele earlier, wondering where it was. If he could find it, it would be a horrific weapon, for sure, probably more badass than the God's Left Hand.
"The God's Left Hand should be more powerful than this. I can't sense any presence of the implement spirit. Probably the heavenly tribulation has struck it to hell. The gauntlet is probably just at ten-thousandth of its peak level," Wutian mumbled to himself.
His physical strength had reached the Ninety-nine Ultimate Realm. The God's Left Hand would not add any strength, but it was supplementary in function.
According to Wutian's calculation, the actual strength of his punch was only 50,000 lbs. The rest was made up by the God's Left Hand.
Wutian was excited. It was terrific that the God's Left Hand possessed this level of power. It saved him half of his strength. From now on, he could use half the strength and fight twice longer. He would not have to worry about exhausting his strength too quickly, too soon.
Besides, the God's Left Hand was also incredible protection for his hand. His arm would feel numb whenever he performed a punch last time. But now, that phenomenon was gone.
Now, his left hand became his killer move, which he relied on the most.
It's time to go back. Otherwise, Shishi will be worried when she wakes up. He was happy that the journey to Mount Scorpion had been a fruitful one.
The Mud Beast could not have been happier when it learned that the three vicious beasts were leaving. Peace could finally return to this wetland. And it would be the overlord of this place.
It carried Wutian and swam happily to the shore.