Eternal Heavenly Emperor

In the Upper Three Realms, cultivators work on their Divine Sense, which is a fact known to every Martial Artist, and to break through to the War Venerate, one must form a Soul Seed within the Sea of Consciousness.

The Soul Seed is the foundation of the Upper Three Realms, formed from Divine Sense, and the cultivation in the Upper Three Realms revolves around strengthening the Soul Seed step by step. Therefore, even if one hasn't cultivated an Intent Realm, it doesn't matter; the Soul Seed can protect the Divine Sense and resist attacks from Intent Realms.

What is so-called cultivation of Divine Sense in the Upper Three Realms is actually the mastery of Elementals, but how does one cultivate and use this?

It can be achieved through the Soul Seed.

Because the Soul Seed is a complete form of consciousness, it can control the power of the elements. Of course, whether a War Venerate or War Emperor, they only scratch the surface in their control of elements; only the War God has fully mastered the Elemental Power and can even transform into a complete state of an Elemental Body, evading all attacks or forming terrifying offensive power.

And only by fully mastering Elemental Power does one have the qualifications to probe the Laws of nature and truly set foot on the path of the "divine".

—Why is the Intent Realm so powerful? Strictly speaking, the Intent Realm is a Law, just the very superficial layer of it. But even this tiny bit enables a Martial Artist who possesses the Intent Realm to sweep across peers of the same rank.

However, forming the Soul Seed is the most difficult step!

Ninety-nine percent of Peak War Kings will never be able to take this step, utterly obstructed. Thus, only those who become War Venerates are recognized as true powerhouses, standing on the pinnacle of martial arts, looked up to by countless Martial Artists.

What is the Great Dao of heaven and earth?

This question is too vast. Toss a stone into the air, and it will fall; this is part of the Great Dao of heaven and earth, a manifestation of gravity, which belongs to the Earth Series Laws, one of the Paths within the Dao.

No one can directly master the Earth Series Laws, but one can start with the branch of gravity, which when refined further, becomes an application of the Earth Element. The path of the Martial Artist goes from controlling elements to mastering small-scale Laws, then onto complete Laws.

The Five Elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, along with thunder, as well as time and space, are considered the Origins of the world, constituting the Eight Main Paths. Time and space are elusive and belong to the mysteries of heaven and earth. The Five Elements and the Thunder Series Laws derive into three thousand branches, considered Main Laws or First-Level Laws. Each Mother Law can further derive into numerous Laws, known as Child Laws or Second-Level Laws; under Child Laws, there are Third-Level Laws, Fourth-Level Laws, and Five-level Laws.

As for the Laws below Five-level Laws, they are too fragmented to be meaningfully classified, often referred to individually or as a strand. Yet just mastering one fragmented Law... one could become a War God! What the Upper Three Realms control doesn't even qualify as Laws; that's why they are called Intent Realms, up to the War God, who controls domains and realms.

To master a Main Path is to be the most powerful existence between heaven and earth—the Eternal Heavenly Emperor, coexisting with the Dao, indestructible and immortal.

These, of course, were explained by Fat Cat, and it wouldn't have shared so much if Chu Hao wasn't about to break through to the War Venerate and tentatively set foot on the path of Laws.

This made Chu Hao realize that although the War God is the strongest entity on Sky Martial Star, in the entire universe, that strength is insignificant. No wonder Fat Cat said that only by becoming a War God could one have the basic ability to preserve life in the face of the upcoming calamity.

Chu Hao and Su Wanyue, of course, weren't so ambitious to directly aim for the Great Dao or Main Laws; they didn't even have the qualifications for Five-level Laws, but targeted their respective areas of expertise instead.

Su Wanyue, with her Taiyin Body, manifested specifically as frost, so she also aimed for the mastery over the Water Element. As for Chu Hao, it was much simpler: he had already formed an Intent Realm, even two, and could thus form the Soul Seed based on these.

It sounds simple, but it is far from easy to achieve.

The two complemented each other with Yin and Yang Qi, and the vast energy circulating within them meant they did not need to eat or sleep, spending days and nights pondering Elemental Power to form the Soul Seed.

Su Wanyue hadn't formed an Intent Realm yet, and Chu Hao wanted to extract both Intent Realms to form his Soul Seed, so both of their progress was slow. However, they were making solid and reliable progress, one step at a time.

Chu Hao's ambition was great; he wanted to integrate both Intent Realms into his Soul Seed at the same time. Moreover, he also wanted to extract the Laws of Life fused within him to form a third Intent Realm, but that was incredibly difficult. After struggling for several months, he realized it was too far beyond his reach, so he could only ignore it, despite it resting within his body.

He sighed in his heart, gave up the lofty notion, and focused all his attention on merging Chaos Intent Realm and Thunder Intent Realm into one Soul Seed.

But this process turned out to be unexpectedly difficult.

The difficulty lay in the Chaos Intent Realm, as the world lacked a corresponding Great Path for it; it was like a rootless weed, how could it grow strong?

That's why when Chu Hao initially wanted to take this path, Fat Cat was shocked and even tried to stop him, knowing that this path was untrodden, and even uncertain if it had an end.

Without any reference, Chu Hao had to explore on his own.

Of course, if he were to form a Soul Seed with just the Thunder Intent Realm, that would be too simple. He could guarantee reaching the War Venerate Realm within at most three months.

But Chu Hao wanted invincibility within his own realm, not content with being just an ordinary War Venerate.

Yin and Yang Qi whirled within the Sea of Consciousness, struggling to form a humanoid figure, but before it could solidify, it collapsed.

The form of the Soul Seed can vary; Blademasters and others might naturally form a sword or blade-shaped Soul Seed. Some people who encounter fortuitous adventures and advance to War Venerate with the aid of a treasure usually have Soul Seeds related to the shape of that treasure, such as a Treasure Vase, Treasure Pagoda, or Treasure Mirror.

Ferocious beasts on the path of Body Cultivation reach the Upper Three Realms and also follow a similar path of understanding the Laws, but there is a clear distinction—the former continue to strengthen their Star Force, while the latter enhances their Physique with Brute Strength.

Thus, the Soul Seeds formed by ferocious beasts mostly match their own shapes; the Golden Giant Dragon becomes a smaller version of a Golden Dragon, and the Fire Phoenix becomes a miniature Phoenix.

Chu Hao planned to morph his Soul Seed into a small person, sitting in meditation within the Sea of Consciousness, guarding the center.

The Soul Seed was the condensation of his soul.

The reason why the strong in the Upper Three Realms possessed such tenacious life force was precisely that their souls had formed Soul Seeds, making them not easily shattered, as if they had obtained a life force of their own.

If he failed, he would simply try again.

The Yin and Yang Qi continued to entwine and break apart, but Chu Hao was not discouraged.

Normally, even a genius would need three to five years to step into the War Venerate Realm, so it was normal to keep failing. After all, the lifespan of a War King was quite long, and once one broke through to the War Venerate Realm, an additional hundred years could be added to their lifespan. Hence, spending a few years to achieve a breakthrough was really no big deal.

Chu Hao was even less anxious. The Chaos Intent Realm could, in fact, be considered two Laws. Added to the Thunder Intent Realm, if he formed a Soul Seed, he would actually possess three Law fragments. Although the foundation of these Laws was very low, as insignificant as tiny droplets in comparison to the vast ocean, they were not worth mentioning.

But within the War Venerate Realm, wasn't a foundation of three Laws remarkable enough? Not to mention that most War Venerates hadn't even cultivated an Intent Realm and had simply gathered their souls to form a Soul Seed.

Failure, failure, failure.

Chu Hao completely lost track of time and focused solely on stabilizing the Yin and Yang Qi in order to form a Soul Seed.

Su Wanyue was of great help; she supplied the Power of Taiyin which, together with his Taiyang Body, established a balance and kept the Yin and Yang Qi continuously in equilibrium. Chu Hao believed that without Su Wanyue, he would have needed at least ten times as much time.

Slowly, the figure within his Sea of Consciousness took shape.

This was a miniature version of Chu Hao, but his Sea of Consciousness was a Minor World in itself and size was relative. If Chu Hao so wished, this tiny figure could transform into a towering presence, filling the entire Sea of Consciousness.

The Soul Seed is initially formed!

The Soul Seed's front was white while its back was pitch black, both hues of pure unadulterated clarity, free of even a speck of impurity.

Boom! Thunder roared in the sky, as if the heavens and the earth were enraged, threatening to unleash punishment. Yet, it could not penetrate the dense clouds above the Sky Martial Star and could only rage from a distance.

This Soul Seed was Chu Hao's Divine Sense, giving him mastery of his Sea of Consciousness, insight into his own Minor World, and communion with the heavens and the earth.

Hum!

The Soul Seed opened its eyes, and each eye emitted a ray of light, one black and one white. Even though Chu Hao hadn't physically opened his eyes, the entire world seemed to be under his gaze.

Hmm?

On the island, a dense multitude of divine intents shot out at once, directing hostility-fueled scrutiny at the newcomer. These were the Upper Three Realm powerhouses of the He Family; some were weak, mere War Venerates, while others shone brilliantly like the scorching sun, casting other divine intents into dullness by comparison.

There were seven such divine intents.

Chu Hao was shocked, as this indicated that the He Family had no less than seven War Emperors—and that was just on the island; there could be more elsewhere!

It was no wonder they were a great family from Ancient Times. Although they had been unable to produce a second War God after the first one, they truly had numerous War Emperor powerhouses. Compared to them, the Spirit Spring Sect with only one War Emperor seemed truly impoverished.

"Who goes there? Who dares to trespass on the sacred grounds of the He Family!" the divine intents demanded, not through words but direct telepathic communication.

"I am Chu Hao." Chu Hao hastily clarified.

"Oh? You've formed a Soul Seed?" The divine intents showed an expression of "surprise," considering that only two years had passed, and Chu Hao had already formed a Soul Seed, signifying that the doors of the Upper Three Realms had opened for this peerless genius.

Before stepping into the Upper Three Realms, no matter how talented one was, it all amounted to mere potential. The world was full of geniuses who got stuck at certain barriers, their former brilliance faded, and ultimately they decayed just like ordinary grass and trees.

Although everyone had been certain Chu Hao would break through to War Venerate, it wasn't until now that the people of the He Family finally put their minds at ease.

"I'm still lacking that little bit!" Chu Hao said. He had only shaped the primary body of the Soul Seed with the Chaos Intent Realm, not yet integrating the Thunder Intent Realm, so the task was not fully completed.

But the hardest step had been taken, and what followed would not be difficult.

He swept the world with his Divine Sense, seeing the universe in another form, a world woven from countless threads.

This was the Laws. However, his current level was too low, and he could only see fragmented and shattered Laws, and he could not mobilize them with his Divine Sense—a War God could manipulate the Laws of the universe to form attacks, making them an invincible opponent.

That was the power of the universe!

Beings in the Upper Three Realms could only wield Elemental Power, and only those who had cultivated an Intent Realm were qualified to manipulate even a tiny fragment of the Laws, but even this was extraordinary.

Chu Hao withdrew his "gaze" and continued to build the Soul Seed, now preparing to incorporate the Thunder Intent Realm into it. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)