‘As expected,’ thought as he felt the poison inside his body; he planned to use this moment of intangibility to remove it from his body. But, Zhen Chao expected this and also blessed the Dragon Binding Grass with intangibility to prevent him from removing it.
Wang Wei had to admit it was very unpleasant when his own power acted against him. So, if he survived this ordeal, he decided to create countermeasures for this possibility.
Wang Wei then contemplated how to buy himself more time. Zhen Chao’s ability to copy his strength significantly delayed the time he needed for his plan to work, so time was not on his side.
‘I could try to reach the Void Stage of Nothingness?’
He previously divided the Path of Nothingness into four stages: Intangible, Void, Emptiness, and True Nothingness. Although all these stages’ names were essentially synonyms of each other, this was intentional to describe certain levels of the concept of ‘nothingness”. It is a way for his mind to understand or define such a vast, complex, and unexplainable concept or existence.
Nevertheless, Wang Wei had to admit he had great fears about the power of Nothingness. Every time he tried to cultivate to a higher level, he could hear a very tempting voice calling him to fuse and become one with nothingness.
If it were now for his terrifying Willpower and probably unique soul, he would have long succumbed to that voice and forever disappeared from the world. So, he stopped cultivating the Power of Nothingness.
Anyway, he discovered long ago the more powerful his body became, the longer he could stay in the intangible state. As for the second stage, he decided to wait until after proving the Dao to take another look.
So, his mind calculated another plan. He divided his mind into two: one part accessed the [Future Buddha Self] to cultivate, and the second part focused on Zhen Chao, who appeared to be waiting for his time in the state to finish before executing him.
‘Based on his behavior, there should be no time limit to how long he can have my power, or the time limit is long enough that he does not need to worry.’
He stood up from the ground, still with both hands missing. In his state, the Duyi Realm no longer affected him, so he could regenerate them. But, he concluded it would waste too much energy even if he used the Life and Death Wheel Innate Talent, energy he will need for the next step of the plan.
“I’m curious about how you became so powerful?” asked Wang Wei. “The Cultivation System you used is obviously not the Origin System. So, how did you acquire it and reach another World Community?”
“I found the Martial Ancestor’s inheritance,” replied Zhen Chao calmly.
“Martial Ancestor? You mean the guy who invented Martial Arts in the Warring State World?”
Wang Wei remembered the martial artists that existed in that world. Some of them could even compete and defeat Divine Sea realm cultivators, and there were rumors of Grandmaster who could defeat Divine Altar cultivators.
And the source of Martial Art in that world was the Martial Ancestor. Wang Wei did not care about the Martial Art path of that world since it seemed very flawed and required extreme harsh conditions to cultivate: most likely because it was a prototype of a new cultivation system.
Nevertheless, he found their spiritual cultivation innovative and helpful to people to reach the Divine Altar Realm, so he took it back home.
“The Martial Ancestor was a person born with a [Leakless Body] like me and could not cultivate the Origin System. So, he developed his own cultivation system. Eventually, he traveled to another World Community, proved the Dao, and made his system the main one.
“Luckily for me, he returned to his home world and left his inheritance.”
Wang Wei could guess the rest of the story. Zhen Chao left home out of fear of being killed and not having anything left in life, full of hatred and pain. Then, he accidentally discovered the inheritance and met the requirement of the Martial Ancestor.
He used the resources he left to travel to another World Community to increase his strength to get his revenge.
“I bet your life from then on was a cliche story of a mediocre protagonist story. Whenever you go, you would find these very rare and uncommon fortunate encounters perfectly suited to help in your revenge.”
“Are you trying to belittle my accomplishment? You have no idea how hard I work, how much I suffered trying to keep up with a monster like you.”
“I’m sure you’ve had to do some horrendous things for strength besides selling your soul.”
“What are you implying?”
“Honestly, I don’t like how I’m portrayed as the bad guy in the story when you have probably committed as many atrocities as me, if not more.”
Zhen Chao looked him deep in the eyes.
“You’re right. But the main difference between us is that I regret every single one of these decisions. When I close my eyes, I can still hear their screams, and instead of accepting and moving on with my life, I carry the burden of my actions.
“Every waking moment of my life, I remind myself that I did what I did for revenge, and after accomplishing my goal, I will die to atone for my actions.”
“Do you think death is enough to atone for your sins?”
“Maybe not, but it is better than a cruel monster like you.”
“Cruel monster? Maybe,” said Wang Wei calmly as he looked at the bright blue sky. “When I decided to walk on the Emperor Path to become free and unfettered one day, I knew my hands would one day stain with the blood of innocent lives.
“But I still chose this path because I understand everything has a price. And the price of becoming powerful is always the loss of one’s humanity. Some people think this price is worth it while others do not.
“Honestly, I personally do not care because I chose to walk on that path, and I know the end result is the same.”
Wang Wei looked at him. “I’m curious, how do you feel about your father? You seem to be the righteous kind of person while he, well, was honestly a terrible individual: a cruel monster, as you elegantly stated.”
Zhen Chao paused for a moment before saying: “I’ve thought about this for thousands of years. And honestly, I think he deserved this outcome.”
“I thought you would make some excuses for him.”
“I used to, but not anymore. However, let me ask you, what about my sister? Did she deserve what happened to her? What about my mother? Did she deserve her fate?”
“It’s a shame what happened to your sister. However, this is how the Laws of Karma function in the universe; she had to pay because of the sins or Karma of her father. And maybe, for her future sins.”
“Future sins?”
“You said it yourself, Zhen Yong prepared to train her as the backbone of the Zhen Clan. With all the shady things he has done, do you think her would not be stained with innocent blood? Do you think she would remain pure and innocent?”
“Are you trying to imply the universe used your hands to enact Karmic retribution on my family for the crimes of the Zhen Clan?” said Zhen Chao with a sneer. “If this is your cheap attempt at absolving your guilt, I will look down on you.”
“No, I just want to share with you some of my understanding of the Order of the Universe and how Fate properly functioned.”
Zhen Chao looked at him deeply. Although he said these words, he genuinely wanted to see some form of remorse or guilt from his enemy before he cut off his head. But it appeared he would not get his wish.
Wang Wei could feel Zhen Chao’s sudden mood change of not wanting to interact with him, but he still asked: “You still have not told me how you knew so much about me?”
Unfortunately, the latter ignored him, so Wang Wei sat down and closed his eyes. Time passed, and the time for the Intangibility State to end arrived. However, a few minutes before the final moment, Wang Wei opened his eyes and said:
“I have to say; you’re quite the disappointment. Even though you have my power, you do not have my battle awareness.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I have a few ways to forcibly remove myself from the Intangibility State.”
Zhen Chao pondered all the information he had about his opponent’s abilities and techniques. Then, his eyes lit up as he thought of something.
‘Wait, why is he telling me this?’ he thought as he prepared to be on guard. Unfortunately, it was too late. The moment Wang Wei saw that glimpse of realization in Zhen Chao’s eyes, he used the Devil God Bones inside his body to control negative emotions, his mother’s technique to bring the hidden darkness from people’s minds, and all his knowledge about emotions he got from Su Ya, and his restored Spiritual power to create an illusion.
After experiencing the illusion, Zhen Chao’s eyes turned red with madness. A terrifying Will emanated from his body, a Will that could sunder Heaven and Earth. The entire space shook for the first time since this battle, and many Space Cracks appeared in every direction.
However, the space was still not destroyed.
Zhen Chao prepared to use that Will to obliterate Wang Wei even in his Intangibility State. Unfortunately, he stopped midway as blood dripped from all the orifices on his face. Then, Zhen Chao screamed in agony.
Wang Wei watched his performance with no surprise on his face. His Willpower is one of his trump cards. Unfortunately, it is not one he can use as he pleases.
To use even a fraction of it, his body, soul, state of mind, and Dao Heart must be at the highest level and in perfect harmony. So, Wang Wei lured Zhen Chao to use it. Although he guessed the latter could only copy a fraction of it like he did his Soul, a fraction was enough to overwhelm him.
Zhen Chao was not him and could never be him: he did not have the quality of his Soul, his state of mind, or Dao Heart. He was now experiencing an unimaginable amount of loneliness and despair flooding his mind.
All the countless eons Wang Wei spent in that endless chaotic space, Zhen Chao had to experience the feeling back then to access the strength of that Willpower. And he could not bear it.
Luckily, the latter acted in time to abandon Wang Wei’s power to end his suffering. So, his aura rapidly turned to its original state.
As for Wang Wei, he was also not in the best shape. The burden of using the Intangibility suddenly hit hard. Before this experience, he did not even know there was a burden to using this ability. With how weak his fleshly body was, he now knew.
As he stood immobile and watched Zhen Chao on the floor, he tried really hard to heal himself and move. He could feel a strange power coming from the surroundings to heal his opponent.
Meanwhile, he could not open and access his space ring the entire fight, so he could not access the pills inside.
He secretly cursed himself for not taking the Origin Pill Dao Sect’s [Ilusory Pill Sutra] as this would greatly help the current situation. He did not know much about Karma back then, so he worried about being too contaminated and only took what he needed instead of taking all of them. Now, he slightly regretted his decision.
‘From now on, I will leave reserved pills inside my Sea of Consciousness and my Divine Sea.’
As he watched Zhen Chao get up from the floor, Wang Wei sighed, knowing he had to use his last resort plan to buy time.