Chapter 4032: Freedom
Lin Moyu suppressed his own rebirth, allowing the Immortal Jade to take effect. Through his own death, he sought to comprehend the essence of the Immortal Jade while reflecting on his entire plan.
Normally, when a living being dies, their true spirit imprint in a world disappears and everything disperses into the heavens and earth. Under the rules of the universe, the core true spirit then takes effect. According to certain rules, the true spirit will reincarnate in some world, becoming a new being this is reincarnation. Where one reincarnates and what one becomes is unknown to all.
However, for some beings who have reached a certain cultivation level and are deeply entangled with their world or due to powerful obsessions their next life is highly likely to be reborn in the same world. Traces of them remain everywhere, and their soul is not fully dissipated. When the true spirit imprint reappears, it can bring memories of the previous life. That's one possibility. Another is if the world itself hasn't given up the true spirit imprint, then after death, the person either revives directly or is guaranteed to reincarnate in that world.
Take Antares, for example: as a dragon, he is part of the first race born from the yin yang origin of the Origin Continent in this era. The entire dragon race's true spirit imprints are deeply intertwined with the Origin Continent. Now that Antares has become the new Dragon God and inherited the Ancestral Dragon's position, his true spirit is deeply branded into the world. That's why just using the Heaven Covering Stone couldn't make the Origin Continent let go of Antares, forcing Lin Moyu to use the True Spirit Life Technique to forcibly seize his true spirit.
During this process, Lin Moyu realized his own true spirit was much the same. But he couldn't forcibly take his own true spirit imprint he had to find another way. Ultimately, he decided to make the world will give him up voluntarily.
To achieve this, he thought of An Yuyan. By having her plant the karmic fruit, the outcome was predetermined, greatly increasing his margin for error. Even if things changed, the result wouldn't. Lin Moyu's goal was for himself to die and his true spirit imprint to dissipate.
The whole process went smoothly, with only the God of Light and Lord of Darkness as minor interruptions. Lin Moyu had prepared for this: he had already arranged with the Discernment Beast and the Human Sovereign that, if those two appeared, the Discernment Beast would handle the God of Light and the Human Sovereign would deal with the Lord of Darkness. The Lord of Darkness was from the Outsider race, making the Human Sovereign the perfect counter.
The outcome was excellent the whole play was a success. The world will wanted nothing more than to grind Lin Moyu's bones to dust, and after killing him, it raged madly. Of course, Lin Moyu wasn't really dead; if he wished, he could revive in a second. But he forcibly suppressed rebirth, letting the Immortal Jade substitute for it. Even so, his true spirit imprint still existed, just as he had expected the Heaven Covering Stone couldn't let his true spirit leave the Origin Continent.
Now it was up to the world will's choice. Although Lin Moyu had arranged everything, at this step, the initiative was no longer his.
The world will howled for a while, asserting its invincibility, then began attacking the Origin Continent. The continent's formation still held, preventing it from destroying the world. And with Lin Moyu having taken most of the true spirit imprints, it couldn't perform a mass sacrifice to break through to the eternal level.
The world will was not stupid it knew what to do, but under the influence of the Dao of Karma, it acted impulsively. It instinctively believed Lin Moyu must have hidden the true spirit imprints within the formation, so it tried to break the formation to retrieve them. Whether it would destroy the era and start over, or try to achieve eternity, it hadn't decided.
Attack after attack landed on the Origin Continent's formation, but it didn't budge. The Divine Continent Cauldron continually released power, making the continent impregnable. Meanwhile, the source spirit veins and the power of the Outer Great Dao were constantly drawn upon, making everyone on the continent feel heavy, their powers suppressed no matter how strong, even Dao Lords were reduced to ordinary people.
Lin Moyu had thought it all through: this way, nothing could go wrong inside the formation, and he only had to face the world will. The world will, unable to break the formation and increasingly affected by karma, grew ever more furious and irrational.
Suddenly, Lin Moyu's phantom appeared atop the Divine Continent Cauldron.
"Impossible! You can't still be alive!"
The world will roared, growing more frenzied, attacking harder than ever. The aftershocks swept through the Outer Great Dao, forcing onlookers to retreat even farther. But the formation still didn't budge, and Lin Moyu's phantom seemed to mock the world will's impotence.
Unable to break the formation, the world will could do nothing. Then, as if struck by a thought, it reached out and grabbed a true spirit imprint Lin Moyu's. Though Lin Moyu was dead, his true spirit imprint had not vanished.
"Die!"
The world will roared, crushing the imprint in its fist. The imprint shattered into countless fragments, dissipating into the void.
An Yuyan saw this and whispered, "It's done!"
Lin Moyu's plan had succeeded. Now he just had to wait for the Immortal Jade to revive him. In the Immortal Jade, laughter echoed, purple light swirling as Lin Moyu was reborn. With the shackle of the true spirit imprint gone, Lin Moyu felt a wave of relief he was finally free.
An Yuyan smiled, "Congratulations, Lin Daoist, on your freedom."
Lin Moyu chuckled, "Thank you."
With a wave of his hand, his soul world finally left the Origin Continent. He condensed his soul world into his soul, making it portable now he could take it anywhere, and many previous restrictions no longer applied.
In the Soul Void, the world will's avatar watched Lin Moyu's soul world depart, sensing something was wrong. But the influence of the Dao of Karma was too strong, so it didn't care, only roaring at the newly revived Lin Moyu.
Lin Moyu smiled, "Now we can have a proper fight."
…
In the real world, the supposedly dead Lin Moyu, wrapped in purple light, was reborn and appeared once more. He now controlled two bodies in both the real and virtual worlds. When people saw Lin Moyu return from the dead, no one was surprised they'd felt all along he wouldn't die so easily. After all, recent years had shown that Dao Lords could die and come back, and Lin Moyu's "fake death" tricks were well known, even if few understood the true reason.
"You're not dead!" the world will's roar echoed across the Origin Continent.
Lin Moyu laughed, "If you want to kill me, you're not up to the task!"