Chapter 734: I Am Stronger Than You Now
The Underworld Soul-Washing Scripture was a cultivation art that could connect with Reincarnation, awaken innate wisdom, and summon memories of past lives.
At this very moment, True Monarch Immortal Slayer was circulating the Underworld Soul-Washing Scripture precisely to force Zhang Yu to awaken the memories of his past life, the life before that, and countless other lives from the cycle of Reincarnation.
“Since you believe your choice is the correct one, then today, I will let you convince yourself otherwise.”
“Let the memories of your countless past lives tell you, make you understand… just how foolish and futile your current choice truly is.”
As True Monarch Immortal Slayer spoke, his fingertips seemed to stir the Reincarnation of Heaven and Earth, releasing waves of mystical aura.
Just as he began circulating the Underworld Soul-Washing Scripture, the Divine Monarchs on the Spirit Transformation Battlefield also sensed the anomaly.
Divine Monarch Sinful Lotus spoke with a chilling voice, “This bastard can wield the Power of Reincarnation too!”
He remembered the power of the Underworld Soul-Washing Scripture all too well. After all, Fu Xiantian had just recently used this very technique on the Spirit Transformation Battlefield. A single strike had thrown his Sea of Consciousness into chaos, as if it had fractured into hundreds, even thousands, of separate minds. It had taken him immense effort to regain a semblance of control and temporarily suppress the fragmented consciousness.
“Although the power Immortal Slayer is stirring is far weaker than Fu Xiantian’s, his target is only Zhang Yu.”
“The two were evenly matched before, but if Zhang Yu’s consciousness is thrown into disarray, he’ll immediately be at an absolute disadvantage…”
Divine Monarch Sinful Lotus understood that for a master like Immortal Slayer, even the slightest opening would be seized and exploited to secure victory. The disadvantage Zhang Yu would face after being struck by the Power of Reincarnation would be immense.
As the Divine Monarchs watched the battle with grave expressions, True Monarch Immortal Slayer pointed a finger at Zhang Yu. His will reached out to connect with Reincarnation, intending to summon past-life memories into Zhang Yu’s body.
But as he repeatedly circulated the Underworld Soul-Washing Scripture, True Monarch Immortal Slayer could only perceive a blank void.
“Nothing?”
“Why is there nothing?”
“How can there be nothing?”
As he repeatedly reached out to Reincarnation and focused on Zhang Yu, True Monarch Immortal Slayer found he couldn’t uncover any trace of Zhang Yu’s origins — not even a single fragment of past-life memories.
“Zhang Yu has no past lives?”
True Monarch Immortal Slayer stared at Zhang Yu, his eyes filled with utter astonishment.
“This is your first life? How is that possible… In your very first life, with no accumulated foundation, you’ve already reached this stage?”
True Monarch Immortal Slayer exhaled slowly. “So that’s how it is. It seems your innate talent truly is extraordinary. No wonder Grandmaster took an interest in you and even entrusted you with such precious power.”
His gaze toward Zhang Yu grew complex as he continued, “But what you’re doing now is wasting your talent and potential.”
“Since you don’t know how to use it, let me use it for you.”
As he spoke, True Monarch Immortal Slayer once again activated the power of the Underworld Soul-Washing Scripture. This time, however, he wasn’t trying to awaken Zhang Yu’s past-life memories. Instead, he intended to implant his own past memories into Zhang Yu’s mind.
In an instant, as howling yin winds swept across the world, True Monarch Immortal Slayer’s face turned deathly pale. He felt as if a giant wheel had crushed his Sea of Consciousness, the violent tremors creating the illusion that his mind was about to be torn apart.
True Monarch Immortal Slayer understood this was the side effect of using the Underworld Soul-Washing Scripture to shake the Power of Reincarnation. Since he had not yet reached the Spirit Transformation realm and condensed a Primordial Spirit, the damage to his soul was even greater.
This was one of the reasons he rarely used the Underworld Soul-Washing Scripture. Such soul damage struck at his very foundation. A few more uses would not only severely cripple his combat strength but also shorten his lifespan, making it impossible for him to continue his plans.
Meanwhile, Zhang Yu, who was targeted by True Monarch Immortal Slayer, shuddered. Countless memories flooded his mind, violently churning his sense of self, his worldview, and his values…
“I…”
“I am…”
Zhang Yu clutched his head, forcing out the words in agony, “I am Xiao Wuwang? No, no… I’m Chen Qingfeng?”
In that single moment, Zhang Yu remembered so much.
He remembered that lifetime… To enter the Ten Great Sects, he and his seven companions, who had grown up and cultivated together, slaughtered each other. He emerged as the sole, battered survivor, only to be ambushed and killed by his master, who then took his place in the Ten Great Sects.
He remembered another lifetime. To even earn a chance to join the Ten Great Sects, he fought through one corporate war after another, only to become a sacrifice for his sect, a stepping stone for his Senior Brother to enter the Ten Great Sects.
And in yet another lifetime, he finally made a breakthrough in Immortal Dao research, earning an opportunity to join a sect, only to have his own mother steal all his achievements…
He remembered his failures across three consecutive lifetimes, remembered how the difficulty of entering a sect grew ever higher, the competition ever fiercer.
“But in the end… I finally made it in.”
Recalling the moment he entered the sect, Zhang Yu couldn’t muster even a hint of a smile.
Upon arriving at the sect, he had no housing, no household registration, and no official sect status. He was merely an external contractor serving the sect’s disciples, with a work contract of only ten years.
Within those ten years, he had to overcome countless hardships and compete against innumerable experts just for a slim chance to stay.
At the time, he thought being expelled from the sect was the worst possible outcome.
But he later discovered that simply surviving to return would have been a blessing in itself.
Having fought so hard to stay, he had to maintain his income to maintain his cultivation, his memories, and his lifespan…
Without a job, without income, without money, he wouldn’t even be considered a person — just a pile of rotting flesh.
But the advancement of Immortal Dao Technology made jobs increasingly scarce, while competition grew fiercer year by year.
To stay, he had no choice but to accept ever-lower wages.
His income fell, but his cultivation couldn’t drop, nor could his lifespan. The only thing he could cut was the cost of memory storage.
And so, imperceptibly, his memories began to dwindle.
He gradually forgot his childhood, gradually forgot his life before joining the sect.
His sect, his parents, his family… joy, sorrow, nostalgia… all slipped away from his mind, one by one.
Gradually… he no longer remembered why he was working.
He only remembered the work manual, the daily tasks, the performance reviews. He only remembered that he had to keep working, that he had to work forever…
When he died again and entered Reincarnation once more, seeing the tag “Single-mindedly devoted to the Dao,” he couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
On the battlefield, at this very moment.
True Monarch Immortal Slayer gazed at Zhang Yu and spoke, word by word, “Do you understand now? It should be easy enough to grasp, shouldn’t it?”
“It’s like the moment we all witnessed the Reincarnation process — we understood instantly.”
Zhang Yu opened his mouth, and True Monarch Immortal Slayer’s voice emerged from it: “We are the kindling, thrown into the great furnace of Kunxu again and again, burned like fuel.”
“The people of Kunxu, from top to bottom, are beyond saving. They stopped being human long ago!”
Zhang Yu clutched his head, feeling the chaotic, clamoring voices in his mind, and said with difficulty, “They are human.”
At that moment, Zhang Yu desperately clung to his memories, recalling the faces of Bai Zhenzhen, Zhang Pianpian, Yu Xinghan, Magnetic Pole, Greenwood… one by one.
Gritting his teeth, Zhang Yu said, “If Kunxu could change them, then they can be changed back…”
“Correct! They can be changed,” True Monarch Immortal Slayer said coldly. “And you should already understand the best way to change them: slaughter them all and reshape everything…”
Clutching his increasingly painful head, Zhang Yu retorted angrily, “Changing the living — that’s what it means to change Kunxu!”
“The living?” True Monarch Immortal Slayer scoffed. “I told you, they are no longer human. There’s no value in changing them.”
Zhang Yu stared at True Monarch Immortal Slayer. “Then what if, after slaughtering this generation, you’re still not satisfied in the future? What then? Will you just keep killing?”
“What else?” True Monarch Immortal Slayer said calmly. “Reincarnation changed them, so we’ll use Reincarnation to change them back. Kill until we’re satisfied. That’s what it means for the strongest to decide everything.”
Zhang Yu looked at True Monarch Immortal Slayer in disbelief. “You’re insane! What kind of damn ‘New World’ is a world like yours? It’s nothing more than your personal zoo!”
True Monarch Immortal Slayer’s gaze lowered as rings of Calamity swirled around him, transforming into increasingly turbulent waves of sword qi.
He spoke in a low voice, “Zhang Yu… it seems you don’t truly understand what ‘the strongest decides everything’ means.”
“Your power, your innate talent, your everything… just hand it all over to me. I will put it to far better use.”
The next moment, True Monarch Immortal Slayer’s face turned deathly pale as his soul suffered another grievous blow.
Simultaneously, another fragment of his past-life memories was injected into Zhang Yu’s Sea of Consciousness.
Two Times True Monarch Immortal Slayer!
In an instant, clarity returned to “Zhang Yu’s” eyes. He sighed and said, “Zhang Yu, you’ve lost.”
As he finished speaking, he formed his fingers into a sword and pointed them at his own forehead.
But the next moment, he froze, staring at his palm — a palm covered in beast fur. A flicker of confusion rose within him.
“Me?”
Only then did True Monarch Immortal Slayer realize he wasn’t controlling Zhang Yu’s body, but that of a giant ape.
“Zhang Yu… you…”
Before he could react, shadows of beasts closed in from all sides, intent on slaughter. Under the siege of fifteen Demon Beast Clones, they were moments away from completely suppressing the giant ape whose body was now occupied by True Monarch Immortal Slayer’s memories.
Bang!
The Immortal Slayer Giant Ape’s arms and legs were pinned by pairs of beast claws, and its massive head was slammed into the ground by a dragon’s claw with a deafening crash.
“Immortal Slayer!” the fifteen Demon Beast Clones roared in unison. “Even if the strongest decides everything, on this battlefield, you are far from the strongest!”
Meanwhile, the real True Monarch Immortal Slayer watched this scene unfold, his heart jolting in shock. “A clone? The one I just struck was his clone?”
“He’s been using this giant ape clone, disguised as his true form, to fight me all this time?”
“No, it definitely wasn’t a clone at the beginning!”
“When did he switch? How did I not notice?”
Simultaneously, Zhang Yu, who had been underground, burst from the earth and appeared behind True Monarch Immortal Slayer.
In an instant, space violently distorted, dragging True Monarch Immortal Slayer toward Zhang Yu.
“Don’t even think about it!” True Monarch Immortal Slayer instantly activated a spatial barrier, intending to block the effect of Kunlun in the Palm.
But the next moment, Zhang Yu’s palm expanded explosively, like a long-armed ape. Infused with the power of an Immortal Descendant, it tore through layers of spatial barriers and seized True Monarch Immortal Slayer’s body.
“Immortal Slayer!”
At this moment, Zhang Yu and Immortal Slayer locked eyes, their intense battle intent erupting simultaneously.
“Right now, I am stronger than you!”
In the sky, streaks of purple lightning crackled, descending as pillars of thunder that completely engulfed both figures.
True Monarch Immortal Slayer tried to retreat violently, but Zhang Yu held him in a death grip, forcing them to endure the Calamity’s bombardment together.
“Zhang Yu!” With a furious roar, True Monarch Immortal Slayer pushed Heaven and Earth Are My Sword to its absolute limit, continuously converting the Calamity’s power into his own sword qi and slashing at Zhang Yu.
However, the Calamity’s intensity had stopped increasing. Instead, under True Monarch Immortal Slayer’s attacks, Zhang Yu’s adaptability grew stronger, allowing him to move with increasing ease amidst the storm of lightning.
In contrast, True Monarch Immortal Slayer’s Magic Power was being rapidly depleted. Each time he converted the Calamity’s power, it consumed a vast amount of his Magic Power, energy, and mental focus.
Especially after casting the Underworld Soul-Washing Scripture twice in succession, this burden became even heavier for him.
Amidst the crackling explosions, True Monarch Immortal Slayer’s body began to show faint cracks under the relentless bombardment of lightning.
As sword qi and lightning clashed violently again and again, True Monarch Immortal Slayer glared furiously at Zhang Yu and roared, “Why don’t you understand? Everything you’re doing is meaningless! You can’t change them, and you can’t save anyone!”
Zhang Yu looked coldly at True Monarch Immortal Slayer and said in a deep voice, “Immortal Slayer, in my homeland, I knew of a truly powerful expert. Even when heaven and earth fell into ruin, even when countless people turned into ghosts and zombies, even when everyone told him they were beyond saving and couldn’t be changed, even when his former companions and comrades had given up — he never abandoned hope, not even in the final moments of his life.”
Zhang Yu enunciated each word clearly: “That… is what it means to change the world.”
True Monarch Immortal Slayer roared in fury, “Stubborn fool! Do you really think you can defeat me with that divine power network?”
The Calamity’s power rained down relentlessly, as if it wouldn’t cease until it had utterly annihilated the two mighty powerhouses on the battlefield.
Under this earth-shattering assault, True Monarch Immortal Slayer’s flesh was constantly blasted apart by the lightning. His Magic Power was dwindling rapidly, no longer sufficient to withstand the endless Calamity.
But just as the lightning was about to completely consume his flesh and blood…
The thunderclouds in the sky abruptly dissipated. The once-ferocious Calamity vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
At the same time, messages from Zhang Pianpian flashed across Zhang Yu’s Bionic Eye.
Zhang Pianpian: “The Evil Gods have pacified the divine power network.”
Zhang Pianpian: “I’ll hold them off for you temporarily.”
In the Spirit Realm, Zhang Pianpian and the Evil Gods were locked in a fierce battle. Relying on the immense power of the Supreme Clarity Realm, she temporarily blocked the Evil Gods’ interference on the battlefield.
But Zhang Yu knew his sister couldn’t hold them off forever. He had to defeat Immortal Slayer — and fast.
With a thunderous palm strike, Zhang Yu blasted his hand toward True Monarch Immortal Slayer’s chest.
Covered in blood, True Monarch Immortal Slayer slashed out with his sword, violently colliding with Zhang Yu. The impact unleashed a shockwave of qi that filled the air.
“Immortal Slayer!” Zhang Yu roared, landing another punch that sent a spray of blood mist from the True Monarch’s body. “You’ve lost!”
But just then, waves of immense power swept over the battlefield.
With the Calamity gone, the Nascent Soul experts of the Righteous Qi Alliance had re-entered the combat zone.
Seeing this, True Monarch Immortal Slayer laughed. “Zhang Yu, you’re the one who has lost.”
At that moment, True Monarch Junior College, the first to arrive, bellowed, “True Monarch! I’m here!”
In the next instant, immense forces slammed into Zhang Yu, pulling him outward.
True Monarch Severing Clouds, dragging his half-severed body forward, shouted excitedly, “Don’t attack him! Just use pure brute force to suppress him! Trap him!”
He continued to yell with glee, “I’ve seen through his weakness! No matter how strong his defense is, can he really overpower all of us in raw strength alone?”
“Without the Calamity to shield him, if all of us press down on him at once, I guarantee he won’t be able to move an inch.”
With a dull thud, Zhang Yu felt as if one mountain after another was pressing down on his back.
But he knew it wasn’t mountains — it was the Nascent Soul experts of the Righteous Qi Alliance, one after another, focusing their power upon him.
True Monarch Junior College’s expression grew grim. With a flick of his wrist, he unleashed a ball of Gang Qi that slammed onto Zhang Yu’s shoulder.
“Everyone, lend a hand!” he urged. “Don’t let him move again!”
Boom!
As more and more Nascent Soul experts joined in, Zhang Yu felt as if giant hands were pressing down on him, trying to crush him inch by inch toward the ground, to break his back, to force him to his knees, to make him prostrate himself.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
The ground beneath Zhang Yu’s feet shattered under the immense pressure, instantly exploding into a massive crater.
True Monarch Immortal Slayer was helped to his feet. As he swallowed one medicinal pill after another, he watched the scene coldly. “Without the power of the Calamity surrounding you, you are the weak one.”
“All the efforts of the weak are meaningless. You can’t change anything!”
Meanwhile, more and more Nascent Soul experts from the Righteous Qi Alliance were rushing over.
Before Zhang Yu had broken into the battle formation, hundreds of Nascent Soul True Monarchs from the Alliance had already surrounded the area within a hundred-kilometer radius of the formation core.
Although Zhang Yu, wielding the power of the Calamity, had later repelled nearly a hundred Nascent Soul experts, he couldn’t stop the others from observing from beyond the Calamity’s range.
As the battle between Zhang Yu and True Monarch Immortal Slayer raged, the Alliance’s Nascent Soul experts focused their attention here. However, the continuous eruption of the Calamity had forced them to retreat far away.
Terrified by the Calamity’s horrifying power, they hadn’t dared to cross the line.
But as the Calamity dissipated, they swarmed forward to suppress Zhang Yu together.
With a deafening roar, the Heavenly Sun Radiance God, which had just been shining brilliantly, was jointly suppressed by several Nascent Soul True Monarchs and shattered into pieces.
The twelve Great Sky Sacred Law Flying Swords were captured one by one, each taken into the possession of a different True Monarch.
The fifteen Demon Beast Clones fell to the ground one after another, each suppressed by a different power.
Inside the Spirit Realm Space.
The Herald God spoke coldly, “Demigod, this is not your territory. Get out now.”
Zhang Pianpian replied faintly, “Heh, it’s been a long… a very long time since an Evil God dared to speak to me like that.”
Just then, the Herald God froze slightly, his gaze falling upon his Evil God Register. A flicker of surprise crossed his mind. Fortune God…
At the center of the battlefield, True Monarch Immortal Slayer, who was circulating his energy to recover, watched with an increasingly cold gaze as Zhang Yu’s waist bent inch by inch and his knees slowly lowered toward the ground. True Monarch Junior College’s breathing grew more rapid, while True Monarch Severing Clouds’ eyes shone brighter and brighter with excitement.
At this moment, a circle of lofty figures hovered between heaven and earth, their gazes fixed on Zhang Yu, as if waiting to see this True Monarch Blazing Light kneel before them, surrender, and admit defeat.
Suddenly, whistling sounds filled the air as streaks of Great Void Flying Thunder, controlled by True Monarch Heavenly Slaughter and others, shot toward Zhang Yu.
True Monarch Junior College shouted coldly, “Heavenly Slaughter! Still struggling in your death throes?”
“Stop him!”
“How did you let him slip through?”
“Wait, something’s interfering with our Spirit Realm signals!”
True Monarch Severing Clouds chuckled. “You missed, didn’t you? What’s the point of shooting at Zhang Yu?”
Streaks of Great Void Flying Thunder were blocked by the spatial barrier, but one, radiating a sharp Sword Intent, unexpectedly cut through the barrier layer by layer, ultimately shooting toward Zhang Yu’s chest.
The next moment, however, as the outer shell of the Great Void Flying Thunder shattered, a graceful figure flew out and rushed toward Zhang Yu.
“A-Zhen!”
Feeling Bai Zhenzhen’s arms wrap tightly around him, Zhang Yu was momentarily stunned. “You’re here…”
Bai Zhenzhen hugged him tightly and chuckled softly. “During the battle with Wang Yin on the First Layer, I couldn’t help you, so you got to hog all the glory.”
“This time, we’ll do it together.”
With that, Bai Zhenzhen gripped Zhang Yu’s hand firmly, pouring her Nascent Soul Realm Magic Power into his body.
After arduous cultivation, Bai Zhenzhen had now reached the Nascent Soul Realm.
At the same time, Fu Ji’s voice echoed in Zhang Yu’s mind: “Look at you, so reckless without me around! Who told you to take such a huge risk?”
In the next instant, an earth-shattering sword qi erupted from Bai Zhenzhen’s body and surged into the sword in her hand.
The sword’s blade hummed softly, and the Qingtian Sword Spirit within chuckled. “It’s been a long time since I’ve felt such pure Extreme Emotion Sword Qi… Ah, what a pity. If this Zhang Yu were to die, your sword qi would be even more potent, and I could unleash more of my divine power.”
In the next instant, Bai Zhenzhen slashed upward. A blinding white sword qi erupted from the Qingtian Sword, shattering the layers of suppressive force pinning Zhang Yu down.
The sword qi then continued its relentless ascent, filling the heavens and earth, spreading in all directions like an endless, unstoppable torrent. It surged like a mountain flood, overturning the sea and sky, forcing everyone present to retreat in shock.
As a wisp of the white sword qi approached him, True Monarch Immortal Slayer’s previously calm and detached gaze suddenly sharpened. He tilted his head slightly, dodging the attack.
At the same time, his master’s words echoed in his mind.
“Immortal Slayer, when you cultivate Heaven and Earth Are My Sword, you treat heaven and earth as your blade, transforming the myriad forces of this world — wind, fire, earth, water, light, radiance, thunder — into your own sword qi.”
“But there is one thing, just one thing… that you may never be able to transform.”
Immortal Slayer had asked, puzzled, “What is it?”
Fu Xiantian sighed. “Something you can no longer understand, no longer believe in, and no longer comprehend.”
“That thing is called… emotion.”