021 : Ascension beyond Heaven..

Then—they moved.

From the cracks of the ruins, shapeless creatures began to emerge.

They had no faces. No true forms.

Just twisting black shadows, shifting constantly, radiating an aura of pure destruction.

Lin Tian narrowed his eyes.

"They're not living creatures… they're remnants of something ancient."

These things were not beasts.

They were fragments of fallen gods.

Lost souls that had been trapped in the Abyss for eternity.

The shadows lunged.

Lin Tian moved faster.

With a single step, he closed the distance—

His fist struck the first creature—

BOOOOOOM!

The entire shadow being shattered, but something strange happened.

Instead of dying, it reformed instantly.

Lin Tian's eyes flickered.

"They can't be destroyed normally?"

A challenge.

A smile spread across his face.

"Good."

He would devour them instead.

The shadow creatures lunged again, but this time—

Lin Tian let them come.

The moment the first one touched him—

His Devourer Nascent Soul trembled.

The creature screeched, its form distorting as it was sucked into Lin Tian's dantian.

Lin Tian's eyes widened.

The energy he absorbed was not just qi.

It was something beyond mortal cultivation.

Not spiritual energy. Not divine essence.

But fragments of laws themselves.

The very foundation of existence.

"So that's what's hidden here."

The Abyssal Ruins did not just contain power.

They contained the broken pieces of the universe itself.

Lin Tian laughed.

If this was what the gods had left behind…

Then he would take it all.

Lin Tian continued forward, devouring every shadow creature that dared to approach.

Each one strengthened him.

Each one pushed him closer to something beyond the Nascent Soul and Divine Transformation Realms.

Then, after what felt like days, he reached it.

At the very center of the Abyssal Ruins—

A single floating monolith stood.

It radiated an aura that was both divine and cursed.

The inscriptions on it were written in a language that even the Immortals had forgotten.

But Lin Tian did not need to read it.

He could feel what it was.

A gate.

A path that led beyond the mortal world.

A way to ascend past even the Celestial Dao Palace.

His heart pounded.

He had devoured qi.

He had consumed lightning.

He had stolen divine power.

And now—

He would surpass even the heavens themselves.

Lin Tian placed his hand on the monolith.

The air cracked.

The sky shattered.

And in that instant—

The entire cultivation world felt it.

Lin Tian was no longer just a rogue cultivator.

He was about to become something else entirely.

And when he returned—

No one would be able to stop him.

The air trembled.

The moment Lin Tian placed his hand on the monolith, the very fabric of space fractured.

The floating ruins, the endless abyss, even the laws of the world themselves—all twisted unnaturally.

Lin Tian felt it.

The power of the gate.

It was not just a relic.

It was a threshold.

A path leading beyond the realms of mortals and immortals alike.

For countless eons, no one had ever crossed it.

Because to do so—

Was to step into the unknown.

Lin Tian's golden-black eyes burned.

"Unknown?"

He smirked.

"That just means it belongs to me now."

And with that thought—

He pushed the gate open.

The moment the gate opened, a force unlike anything Lin Tian had ever felt erupted outward.

It was not just qi.

Not divine essence.

Not even the power of the heavens.

But something greater.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

A massive shockwave sent ripples across the entire cultivation world.

Far away, in the Celestial Dao Palace, the grand elders staggered, their meditations disrupted by an unfathomable pressure.

"What is this…?" one of them whispered.

In the hidden realms of the Immortal Clans, ancient beings who had lived for thousands of years snapped their eyes open in shock.

"This feeling…"

Even in the deepest void of the world, where long-forgotten celestial beings slumbered—

They felt it.

Something had changed.

Lin Tian had taken the first step beyond heaven itself.

And now—

The universe was reacting.

Beyond the gate, Lin Tian found himself standing in an endless space of swirling energy.

There was no land. No sky.

Just pure, raw power.

But he was not alone.

From the depths of the void, beings of pure energy emerged.

They had no faces, no true forms— just shifting figures of light and darkness.

Yet Lin Tian could feel their strength.

They were not cultivators.

They were not even living creatures.

They were something beyond understanding.

And they stood between him and true ascension.

Lin Tian's lips curled into a grin.

"Guardians, huh?"

He cracked his knuckles.

"Let's see what you're made of."

The guardians attacked.

And Lin Tian charged forward.

The first guardian struck with a force that shattered dimensions.

Lin Tian blocked it with a single hand.

BOOOOM!

The shockwave tore through space, but Lin Tian stood firm.

His Devourer Nascent Soul trembled—and then, for the first time, he absorbed something beyond qi, beyond laws.

He absorbed the very essence of existence itself.

His body shook violently.

His soul burned.

He was evolving.

The second guardian came. Then the third. The fourth.

Lin Tian did not run.

He did not defend.

He devoured.

And with every being he consumed, his power rose to new heights.

Until finally—

He was no longer bound by mortal cultivation.

He was beyond it.

Lin Tian stood alone in the void.

The guardians were gone.

Their energy was now his.

His golden-black aura had transformed.

No longer just spiritual energy.

No longer just divine power.

But something completely new.

His dantian, once the home of his Devourer Nascent Soul, had shattered.

In its place—

Something greater had formed.

A Devourer Core of Infinite Existence.

Lin Tian clenched his fist.

With this power, he no longer needed to cultivate.

He no longer needed to steal qi.

Because now—

The universe itself would kneel before him.

The gate behind him began to collapse.

Lin Tian turned toward it, stepping back into reality.

And as he returned to the mortal world—

The sky shattered.

The heavens screamed.

And every being in existence—

Felt the birth of something beyond gods.

Lin Tian was no longer just a cultivator.

He was the Devourer of Everything.

And now, he would decide the fate of the universe itself.

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