Chapter 1490: Refining the Anatta Tower
However, when the destructive power was about to reach Jian Chen, he suddenly removed a damaged piece of armor from his Space Ring and equipped it.
“Ta Ji’s armor!” The red-robed boy immediately cried out when he spotted the armor. His face was filled with disbelief, and soon afterward, he and Jian Chen were drowned by the destructive power.
…
After quite some time, the destructive power from the Immortal Emperor’s essence blood vanished and the entire floor returned to peace once again.
The space on the ninth floor of the Anatta Tower still existed. The eruption of the blood was like a tiny wave in the vast ocean, unable to damage the tower at all. The sky possessed the same color while the projection of the Heavenly Palace of Bisheng continued to radiate a blinding, golden light. Probably only the cracked ground recorded the brutal scene from earlier.
Jian Chen and the red-robed boy had vanished from the world as well. Neither one of their presences lingered on the ninth floor. Only a damaged piece of armor silently lay on the ground. It was covered with dirt while the person who had been wearing it was nowhere to be seen.
At this moment, light suddenly began to flicker from within the dirty, damaged piece of armor. The next moment, a ball of light flew out and hovered in the air.
Only now was the figure of a person visible. He was only as tall as a finger but glowed with a white light. It was the origin energy of Radiant Saint Force. A golden speck of light flickered within the finger-sized person, and at a closer glance, it was actually a tiny, golden tower.
This was naturally Jian Chen’s soul. After the drop of Immortal Emperor’s blood had erupted, he was unable to completely protect himself even with the help of the damaged armor. His body was destroyed, but in a crucial moment, he hid his soul in the armor, which was why he was able to escape disaster.
Jian Chen’s soul hovered in the air and looked around. He then sat down where he was. In a few seconds, a thrum seeming to ring out. The Zi Ying Sword and Qing Suo Sword erupted from the dirt and emerged from the ground. They arrived beside Jian Chen’s soul. They thrummed loudly, guarding him.
Soon, a bloody thing flew out of the soul. It hovered below Jian Chen’s soul. To no surprise, it was a piece of Jian Chen’s flesh.
The soil near Jian Chen began to surge after the first piece of flesh appeared. More bloody pieces burst forth before gathering below Jian Chen’s soul.
As more and more pieces of flesh gathered from the surroundings, a body completely formed from the remains of various sizes gradually gathered. It was covered with blood but powerful energy pulsed in each droplet of blood.
Jian Chen looked down and saw the body formed from mince meat. He sighed as he shook his head. He had already devoted everything he had to gathering his own flesh and blood, but a section of it had been destroyed by the power of laws and was completely gone, making it impossible to gather. Jian Chen gathered all the pieces of his body he could sense right now, but there were only enough to reassemble a major portion of his body. He still needed his own power to regenerate the other parts.
Fortunately, the vitality of the Chaotic Body was extremely great. Coupled with his abilities as a Class 9 Radiant Saint Master, making a full recovery was nothing difficult.
With a thought, Class 9 Radiant Saint Force origin energy immediately flew out of his soul. It turned into an extremely dense, white light, which enveloped his ruined body. Meanwhile, his chaotic neidan spewed out strands of Chaotic Force. The Chaotic Force was circulated everywhere, not only forcing his flesh to quickly regrow, but it also sped up the regeneration process.
Under the dual effects of Chaotic Force and Class 9 Radiant Saint Force origin energy, Jian Chen’s missing pieces slowly began to regrow. All the cracks and wounds on the body he had pieced together rapidly disappeared as well. Even all his blood flowed back into his body, returning to his flesh.
At the same time, streams of chaotic blood, still wet and hidden beneath the soil, all burst forth and flew out of the ground. They all returned to Jian Chen’s body through his mouth.
The chaotic blood was significant to Jian Chen. Although it was possible for him to replenish the missing blood with his Chaotic Body, it would exhaust a large amount of Chaotic Blood.
Jian Chen would not have needed to care if he had only lost a small portion of his blood, but basically all his blood had been scattered across the land. He needed to get it all back.
Fortunately, he cultivated the Chaotic Body, so every piece of flesh and drop of blood was connected to his consciousness. Finding the droplets was not particularly difficult.
Jian Chen had never been so injured before. He had been reduced to a soul. If his soul had not hidden in the damaged armor, he probably would have died. He had truly been embroiled in a battle of life and death against the artifact spirit. It had been a very long time since Jian Chen had come so close to death.
He used more time than he usually would spend recovering in order to rejuvenate his missing parts. He finally made a full recovery after two whole days and had used three whole strands of Class 9 Radiant Saint Force origin energy.
Jian Chen removed his Space Ring from the artifact space and slowly placed it on his finger. He then took out a new set of clothes from his Space Ring and changed into them. He silently sensed the body that he had just recovered and realized that the comprehensions of the Way of the Sword had not been destroyed, allowing him to let out a breath of relief. At the same time, he discovered that the four strands of sword Qi were still hidden within his right arm, but since they had been overused, it was extremely difficult for them to dish out strong attacks. Even though they could still force out attacks at Receival, they were nowhere near as powerful as a strike from Jian Chen with the Zi Ying Sword.
“This artifact spirit should have dispersed due to the explosion of the blood as well. After all, he had already been weakened after the battle with me. He wouldn’t have had the power to flee when he was so close to me,” Jian Chen thought. Even though the battle against the artifact spirit was extremely brutal, he was a Class 9 Radiant Saint Master, so as long as his soul remained, he could recover his body very quickly, unlike regular experts who needed a very long period of time and high quality medicine.
Jian Chen possessed a huge advantage with this aspect. He did not have to worry about being injured. He could even recover his wounds during battle.
Jian Chen picked the damaged piece of divine armor that had saved his life off the ground. He gently brushed off the dust on it. He could not help but think back to what the artifact spirit had said when he had pulled out the essence blood and his shocked expression when he saw the armor in his final moments after making the blood explode.
“The master of this armor is called Ta Ji. I never thought that he’d actually be the disciple of the Anatta Grand Prime. Looks like the remains scattered throughout the Sea of Despair were left behind by him,” Jian Chen thought. He pondered, “Looks like the Anatta Grand Prime engaged in a great battle here with his disciple and probably died during that battle, which is why the Anatta Tower ended up here. If the Anatta Grand Prime didn’t fall, he definitely would have recovered some strength after so much time and would have found it difficult to remove the seal from the Nirvanic Immortal Exalt.”
After a moment of silent thought, Jian Chen focused his attention. His eyes landed on the projection of the Heavenly Palace of Bisheng nearby. He seemed to see a pure-white stone tablet within it.
The stone tablet was physical and not a projection. It seemed like it had always existed on the ninth floor and had probably been covered up by the projection of the palace. The stone tablet seemed to belong within the palace.
Jian Chen walked toward the palace. There were a total of nine hundred ninety-nine steps outside the palace. They were illusory as well. He could clearly see the ground beneath them.
Jian Chen hesitated as he stood before the steps. He placed his foot on one to test it out, but to his surprise, even though the steps were illusory, they seemed solid when he stood on them.
Jian Chen made his way up the steps step by step. He was heading toward the palace. He entered the structure and made his way to the pure-white tablet.
The stone tablet was white, like jade, and as smooth as a mirror. It was three hundred meters tall. When Jian Chen stood before it, he felt like an ant standing before an elephant.
“Master, this should be the control center for the Anatta Tower. Let out your soul and use your consciousness to sense it,” Zi Ying’s voice rang out. The two swords were revolving around Jian Chen, watching over him.
Jian Chen closed his eyes and let out his soul. He gradually approached the tablet with his consciousness, and when he successfully entered the tablet, the tablet immediately spat out a piece of information.
Jian Chen opened his eyes and excitedly stared at the tablet. The tablet just happened to be something crucial for controlling the Anatta Tower. He had obtained the refinement method from it.
“There are nine layers of the Anatta Tower to refine. Refining the first layer will grant you the most basic controls of the tower. The more layers you refine, the more control you will have over the power. At the same time, the power you can use will grow.You can only use all of the tower’s power after you refine all nine layers.”
Chapter 1491: The Anatta Grand Prime
“Senior Tian Jian has spent ten years and is still not done refining the divine hall from Mercenary City with his strength as a Saint Emperor. The Anatta Tower is clearly much greater than that divine hall, so I wonder how much time I’ll need to refine the first layer of the Anatta Tower with my current strength,” Jian Chen wondered inside before hesitating. The World of Forsaken Saints would invade again in two or three years. He did not know if he could refine the first layer of the Anatta Tower within that time frame.
“Don’t worry, master. The Anatta Tower may be a supreme quality god artifact, but there are nine steps to refining it. It is indeed impossible for master to refine the whole tower with your current strength, but you shouldn’t take long to refine the first layer with our help,” said Zi Ying. The Zi Ying Sword arrived above Jian Chen’s head and projected a handsome young man in violet robes.
“Master, we’ll help you out!” The Qing Suo Sword also arrived above Jian Chen’s head, projecting a beauty in an azure dress.
Jian Chen clenched his teeth and said, “If that’s the case, let’s try to take this tower with us before the foreign world invades again.”
Jian Chen immediately sat down. With assistance from the sword spirits, he began to devote himself to refining the stone tablet.
As Jian Chen refined the three-hundred-meter-tall tablet before him, it immediately experienced some changes. From the very bottom, the pure-white tablet gradually darkened and the dark color spread up at an extremely gradual rate.
The dark portion was the part that Jian Chen had successfully refined. When the entire tablet turned black, he would become the second master of the Anatta Tower.
However, the refinement process became more difficult the further he advanced. When the darkness had reached a height of three meters, it visibly slowed down.
Unknowingly, Jian Chen had already spent a year refining the tablet. During that year, he had refined ninety percent of the first layer. However, the final part was far more difficult than he had imagined. Jian Chen poured everything he had into it, but he was still progressing slowly.
However, Jian Chen did not give up. He desperately refined it, and finally, after another half a year, he successfully refined the first layer. A ninth of the giant tablet was now dark.
The darkness represented that Jian Chen had successfully refined the first layer of the Anatta Tower. He could not utilize the basic controls of the structure.
Jian Chen slowly opened his eyes. His forehead was currently covered with sweat. He was exhausted, but there was an uncontainable excitement in his eyes.
The current him could clearly feel a mental connection with the Anatta Tower. He could vaguely sense everything in the tower, on all nine floors. However, he could only sense the second to the ninth second floor in haze. As for the first floor, he could sense it extremely clearly. He could even vaguely gain an idea as to what was going on in the dark regions that had been annihilated by the Nirvanic Immortal Exalt.
The annihilated regions seemed as vast as the night sky to Jian Chen. They were unimaginably tremendous. Even the Tian Yuan Continent did not seem to be a hundredth of the dark regions.
“The Anatta Grand Prime’s treasury really exists on the ninth floor,” Jian Chen murmured to himself. His eyes shone. He appeared a hundred meters away in the next moment, like he had teleported. He gazed at some empty space before him.
“The treasury’s been hidden in a spatial crack on the ninth floor by the Anatta Grand Prime. Even the artifact spirit can’t open it. Only the master of the tower can. It’s just a pity that I’m too weak right now, so I still can’t open it yet.” Jian Chen gently exhaled in disappointment. In a flash, he returned to the Heavenly Palace of Bisheng.
“I’m actually unable to sense the existence of this palace at all. It must be a projection left behind by the Anatta Grand Prime through an ability in the past,” Jian Chen stared at the palace for a while before entering it with long strides.
A while later, Jian Chen arrived in one of the halls within the palace. He stood at the entrance and stared ahead. There was a structure made from white jade at the end of the hall. It was only the size of a millstone and seemed like a cushion for meditation. Jian Chen’s gaze stopped on the stone structure that was only three inches tall for a while. He then looked behind it. A statue stood there.
The statue depicted a woman in white clothes. Her figure was slender, her beauty: indescribable. She stood there with her head slightly raised, as if she was staring at the void. She did not give off a shocking presence but seemed to have combined and resonated with the world, a transformation of nature itself, having become a law.
“Who’s that? Is that the Anatta Grand Prime?” Jian Chen stood at the entrance and stared at the beauty in a daze. He found it very hard to believe the reality that the Anatta Grand Prime, one of the three strongest experts in the Saints’ World, was female.
Zi Ying and Qing Suo appeared. They also stared at the woman’s statue in a daze and only after quite some time did Zi Ying say, “Former master once clashed with the Anatta Grand Prime several times, but he was surrounded by the ways of the world, causing him to become enshrouded. There’s basically no one in our Immortals’ World who’s seen his true appearance. At the same time, his voice was always fused with the ways of the world, having changed to contain all the sounds of the world, so it was impossible to tell his gender. In reality, there’s many Grand Primes in the Saints’ World who’ve never seen his true appearance either.”
“The Heavenly Balance of Bisheng is the Anatta Grand Prime’s residence. There’s no doubt about that. Yet, there’s actually a statue like this in his residence, so is this really the Anatta Grand Prime’s true appearance? Or is this woman the most important person to the Anatta Grand Prime,” Qing Suo gently furrowed her brows and stared at the statue out of curiosity.
“Sigh.”
At this moment, a vague sigh reverberated through the entire illusory palace. It was a female’s voice and sounded extremely gentle and pleasant. It was enough to take people aback, but it also seemed to be weathered, having gone through and experienced many things in the past.
Jian Chen immediately became shocked when he heard the voice. He looked around but failed to discover anyone at all. He did not succeed at discovering the origins of the voice either. The voice seemed to echo through the entire palace, possibly the entire floor of the tower.
Zi Ying and Qing Suo narrowed their eyes. They had also heard the sigh and looked around, but they failed to discover anything either.
“This isn’t the voice of the tower spirit, nor is it the voice that we’re familiar with from the Anatta Grand Prime. It’s not the Nirvanic Immortal Exalt’s voice either,” Zi Ying said with a heavy voice.
“May I ask who you are?” Jian Chen asked. He looked around cautiously. He could vaguely sense everything on the ninth floor, but the palace exceeded his senses. His soul was suppressed in the palace as well, so it was completely useless.
“I’ve waited here for over three million years for someone to finally come. You are the first after all that time.” The vague voice rang out once again. It echoed through the entire hall, making it difficult to discover its origins.
However, a hazy,white figure gradually emerged from the statue of the woman neat the end of the palace.
The figure was very hazy at the start, only a rough silhouette. However, it gradually cleared up and her facial features became visible. She looked just like the statue, not only possessing the same charm but the same bearing as well.
Jian Chen was shocked inside when he saw the illusory figure. He carefully glanced at the Azulet swords and immediately felt rather unsettled. He asked with a heavy voice, “Are you the Anatta Grand Prime?”
“I am indeed Anatta,” the figure said with a gentle voice. She stared off into the distance as complicated emotions and memories clouded her eyes.
Jian Chen’s heart sank and his face became extremely ugly. Never would he have thought that the Anatta Grand Prime would appear here. Even though the illusionary figure he was seeing right now was probably only a clone of her, it was still terrible news to him.
He refused to believe that the Anatta Grand Prime did not recognize the Azulet swords. Since they were with him, it also meant that he had exposed his connection with the Immortals’ World. He might have even gotten the Anatta Grand Prime to believe that he was a part of that world. The Immortals’ World and the Saints’ World stood on opposing sides. The Anatta Grand Prime had fought the the Nirvanic Immortal Exalt in the past. This was a horrible situation for him.
Jian Chen could even imagine the hellish moment he headed to the Saints’ World after his connection to the Immortals’ World spread through the Saints’ World.
Jian Chen’s face sank. The light in his eyes flickered uneasily. At that moment, he was tempted to disperse the Anatta Grand Prime’s figure, but he was uncertain about the strength of the clone, so he did not act recklessly for the time being.
The Anatta Grand Prime did not seem to notice the changes in Jian Chen’s expression. Her gaze remained fixated on the distant sky. She slowly said, “Back then, I fought the greatest expert of the Immortals’ World, the Nirvanic Immortal Exalt. I was not his opponent, so I fled with heavy injuries. When I made my way back to the Saints’ World, my disciple Ta Ji suddenly ambushed me. Caught off-guard, he succeeded, so I became even more injured. It was also at that moment when I suddenly realized that my disciple had been secretly working with the Grand Prime Yan Zun. He wanted to kill me while I was heavily injured and take my extreme comprehensions of the Laws of Fire.
“I engaged in a battle of life-and-death against the Grand Prime Yan Zun and my traitor of a disciple. I managed to kill my wretched disciple, but I was just too heavily injured from the battle against the Nirvanic Immortal Exalt and the Anatta Tower had been severely damaged as well. It had also been suppressed by the sword formations of the Nirvanic Immortal Exalt, so I was unable to use its power. As a result, I failed to kill Yan Zun, only managing to destroy his body. I watched his soul escape.”