Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

The Monolith of Arts tested one’s intelligence, experience, insight, and adaptability. These traits were essential in mastering arts, regardless of what type. This was true for soul, qi, martial, beastial, or conceptual.

Yan Zaizen arrived and placed his palm on its surface.

Vroom!

A deep sounding vibration reverberated throughout the world. However, this vibration wasn’t reflected on the Monolith, but it emitted from Yan Zaizen’s body.

His body was vibrating intensely, but his expression was calm and his mind was clear.

The others felt a sensation of surrealism, as if this scene shouldn’t exist.

Yan Zaizen felt his mind become drawn into an unknown world. This world was completely grey. It was like a sea of grey as far as the eye could see.

"What is this?" Inquiring, Yan Zaizen analyzed his current state. His current state was similar to when he underwent the opening of the Eight Celestial Gates or underwent Existential Slumber. He was formless and without a mind, body or soul, purely perception.

Woosh!

A sound attracted his attention. Turning towards it, he discovered a man. This man was himself. It was the physical manifestation of himself, an exact copy, all the way down to the lines of his arms, his amber-gold eyes, or his eyes that contained the original warmth of a sovereign and his life.

Looking at him standing tall, it felt surreal.

"How is this possible?" He tried to think, but the moment it was thought, it seemed to have disappeared. He couldn’t recall his earlier thoughts or questions. They vanished as soon as they were conceived. All he could do was vaguely recall his intentions.

"My current state..." he felt like he was on the cusp of discovering something essential, but it dissipated before it could finish.

The copy of Yan Zaizen closed his eyes. Then, a light shone from his eyes that penetrated his lids. Even though it was hidden behind his lids, it felt like two suns. These two suns seemed to be even greater than any sun he had ever seen before.

Yan Zaizen felt his formless state shudder slightly.

Slowly, ’Yan Zaizen’ eyes opened. When it opened, the light did not radiate outwards, but was perfectly contained. It was as if his irises of amber-gold transformed into a vast realm with only a sea. This sea had a core, which was the pupils, and this core emitted rainbow light.

The whites of his eyes were whiter than white itself. They were so pure, so clean, so vast that it was unimaginable.

Without an ounce of light leaking, the radiant amber-gold sea that was his irises, the luminescent rainbow core was the pupils, and the vast, pure white was the scleras.

Wherever this light glanced at, the world unraveled. When this ’Yan Zaizen’ turned his gaze towards Yan Zaizen, it was as if his existence would crumble.

His formlessness transformed into a swirling black hole that seemed to consume an invisible material. Before long, all things were being devoured by this black hole.

As if sensing a threat, the monolith released a human-like cry. This cry caused all the younger generation to feel a headache and felt their minds become discombobulated. Many had to circulate their various cultivation bases to ease their thoughts and pain, but it wasn’t very effective.

"What the hell?! Who the hell is this guy?!" The man who held a standing wager with Ma Xiuren shouted, his eyes turning red and bloodshot from the pain.

Bajie’s expression turned solemn. Vast bestial energy erupted from his body, fighting off this cry.

The others realized that internally circulating their energies didn’t repel the effects, so they took this line. Before long, every cultivator was like a surging tornado. Various forms of energy swirled around them and raged. The cry’s soundwaves were halted by these surging energies.

Ma Xiuren held a tinge of worry in her eyes. Yan Zaizen had caused an anomaly with the Monolith of Source Potential and reached the never-before-seen perfect score of 33 in the Monolith of the Heavens.

Now, the Monolith of Arts were releasing a cry that seemed as if it was in danger. The others also noted the oddity surrounding Yan Zaizen. They each had their own individual thoughts, but curiosity dominated each of their thoughts.

As for Yan Zaizen, the cry earlier attempted to defend against the black hole, but it was useless. The black hole continued to devour all. Luckily, the grey world didn’t have much. However, the manifestation of ’Yan Zaizen’ was viciously pulled into it. With those unfathomable eyes, it attempted to fight, but nothing it did helped.

It was devoured entirely.

Yan Zaizen felt a stinging sensation resound in his head and returned to his body. When he did, he looked upwards subconsciously. His expression turned ugly.

"0."

He had recalled bits of what happened. The manifestation of him was demonstrating the art so that he may understand it, as normally done. Unfortunately, this art seemed to contain a unique concept that targeted one’s core existence. Regardless of how profound it was, it was devoured by the protective seal in his soul.

Because he consumed the avatar, he would be unable to compare a month later, thus failing the test. After all, the art only demonstrates with no other information. The task was to recreate the art the best one could and be scored on it. Perfect replica received a perfect score.

It was like he accepted the test and failed it at the same time.

He was unresigned! If he didn’t do this trial, fine, but he did, and he felt excited a little. After all, he could compare with his fellow geniuses. Unfortunately...

"What did you do?!" A random male genius said. Yan Zaizen directly ignored this nobody. Instead, he tried touching the monolith once more, but there was no response. Gnashing his teeth, he felt like punching this monolith for its unfairness! It wasn’t like he told it to strike his core existence!!

He was brooding when the random male genius once more shouted, "I don’t care if you scored perfectly in the Monolith of the Heavens, if you break this Monolith too, I’ll kill you!" He felt angered that Yan Zaizen ignored him.

However, Yan Zaizen felt a bomb go off in his brain. He turned towards the young man and felt an itch to kill. However, Ma Xiuren appeared before him. She glanced at him with an expression of ’are you okay?’

Seeing this beauty who stole his first kiss, his emotions calmed. Giving a slight nod at her, he looked at the young man and coldly snorted. He took off towards a corner and sat in the lotus position.

When the black hole devoured the manifestation, its energy went into his soul but information funneled into his mind. "Eyes of the Enlightened Origin; See the Origin; See the Source!" He felt the wording odd and the information even odder.

"An Origin Art?" This was the first time he saw an Origin Art, but he recalled Zhou Xiuhei’s earlier words. Apparently, Ezekiel went down the Origin Path. At the time, he didn’t know what it was...but perhaps.

"Wait," as he continued to peruse the information, he became startled, "this isn’t an art! It’s a method?! A cultivation method!!!" Indeed, this was a complete method with two arts.

The first art was called the Gaze of Enlightenment and the second was Gaze of Origin Shock. The first was a perception art while the second was an offensive art. He recalled the description and realized that the last art was used on him. It was the art that triggered his protective seal.

Ruminating over the contents, he felt baffled. "Link the Eyes. Link the Origin. Establish Enlightenment. Four Levels!" This was a whole new path!