Chapter 2453 - Last Laugh
"Soul Tower!" Tianming grit his teeth tight and advanced like a madman, but Huang Qi's ruthless interruptions made him despair.
"Hehehehe...." Huang Qi's laughter sounded like a dream demon's, ringing from the real world all the way to the Xenoworld. "What’s the point of all this helpless struggling? You knew this was how it would end. Might as well save some energy for your tears. I told you that you would never become an astral god for the rest of your life. My words are the truth in this reality. I'm sure the sea of order is barely visible for you now, right? How does it feel? Are you going to start crying? Now you know what true despair is!"
She had come from the sea of order and was an ordered apian, and as such, she understood the sea of order much more fundamentally than Tianming did. Nothing he was experiencing was foreign to it. The hexagonal sea was now deep within the Xenoworld after Tianming's hundredth attempt, and looked no larger than a single nail. During every single attempt, Huang Qi had a thousand chances to drag him back, but he struggled nevertheless! The situation reminded him of his days in Ignispolis after he had lost Midas. The dreams he’d had back then had suddenly become far and distant, and the more he tried chasing them, the more he suffered. The distance that separated dream from reality was heart-rending.
During the last time he’d entered the Xenoworld, he found that the sea of order had truly gone. The buzzing in his head was completely numbing. Just like the night right before Ying Huo had hatched, he hadn't despaired this much in the past three years. His dreams had scattered like mist in the rain. Once his caelum returned to his body, his dazed mood didn't escape Huang Qi's notice.
"How dare you fight me? Where did you get the gall? Even though I granted you enough of a boon to break through a few levels, you dared to take my treasure from me!" Huang Qi mocked him with cackling laughter.
"You celebrate much too soon, Huang Qi." Tianming gripped his black left fist, finding that he had calmed down despite the fact that the sea of order was gone.
"Are you messing with me? Li! Tian! Ming!"
"Oh, so you know my real name too. Looks like you know quite a bit."
"So what if I do? I'm with you all the time. There’s nothing that escapes my sight!"
"That's right. Then, do you know the true nature of my lifebound beasts?"
Huang Qi was dumbfounded.
"And do you know why they have order even though they're not astral gods?"
Yet again, silence.
"If you don't even know that, on what basis do you claim that you know me?!" Tianming's face was a picture of wrath. "That's right! The sea of order has abandoned me because you interfered. I wasn't able to obtain eight streams of order like I planned, but are you telling me I can't become an astral god with six streams of order?!"
His words stupefied Huang Qi even more. The six walnuts could only operate within Tianming's head, so it didn't notice the shocking changes around his body. And by the time Huang Qi was alerted to them, it was too late!
"Your albi are transforming into astrons?" she cried in shock. How could that happen without a push from order? The first step to becoming an astral god was looking for an order and taking it into the body to trigger the transformation! After obtaining a heptastar cosmic physique, one would then use astral breathing to convert astralforce into cosmoforce! It hadn't been able to detect the six strands of order that had taken root in Tianming's body. The first resided in his beating heart and looked like a hexagonal burning stigma, causing his heart to be bathed in purgatorial flames. The albi that made up the heart glowed bright and hot like stars! Everyone in the council hall could see the crimson heart awakening like a great, slumbering beast. Above the hexagonal brand was an Aeternal Infernal Phoenix, shrieking and burning bright. It was none other than Ying Huo's own infernal order! It didn't come from the sea of order, but the Primordial Chaos Beast itself. The flaming heart caused the blood in his entire body to burn with starlight.
"Heavens! What kind of order is that?!" Lin Xiong and the rest didn't know what to make of the flaming circulation network in Tianming's body. His aeternal infernal heart had formed, but that was only the first step.
The second organ to light up was his liver, which was second only to the heart. A hexagonal brand of multiple colors manifested on it, out of which the silhouette of a gigantic tree appeared, representing the radix order. He had obtained the radix liver.
It was common knowledge that the astral organs of astral gods were much improved compared to the organs of mortals. The heart was the core pillar of an astral god's energy, sending cosmoforce through the network of vessels and capillaries, playing a crucial role. The liver's function, on the other hand, was the internal renewal of the body through astron production. It was the key to an astral god's vitality, which matched perfectly with Xian Xian's aspect! Once his radix liver was fully formed, Tianming's vigor would be completely transformed. The clearest sign of its abilities was how rapidly Tianming's right hand and legs were repaired!
Next were the spleen, lungs, and kidneys. The astral spleen was responsible for detoxification, with the toxins referring to foreign energies, elements, and cosmic impulses. The spleen was just as crucial when it came to expunging threats outside the body. The lungs were just as crucial, being used mainly for the absorption of nova source for use in cultivation and converting it to energy the body could use before sending it to the heart. Powerful astral lungs made cultivation speed much faster. Last came the kidneys, whose function was to destroy damaged astrons, converting them into particulates that were sent back to the astral liver for use again. The kidneys and liver worked in tandem to ensure that an astral god's body was constantly regenerating. As for the brain and genitalia, often referred to as the seventh astral organ, their functions were self-explanatory. The brain, in particular, was the respite of the divine soul.
Tianming's aeternal infernal heart and radix liver had just formed when a brand of monochrome hexagonal lightning formed on his spleen, creating the genesis spleen. The power of genesis order surged within his body, perfect for cleansing it of toxins. Then came the primordial lungs. As the largest lifebound beast with two heads, Lan Huang's primordial order could support both of Tianming's lungs, giving them both a kind of heavenly will. His astral lungs absorbed nova source like a two-headed dragon opening both of its mouths wide. That was also the first astral organ Tianming had to use to complete the process. Lan Huang's unique primordial breathing was ready to use.
Lastly, Tianming's steel kidneys were forming. There were only two of them, but countless Yin Chens. Its immortal order, rather contradictorily, governed the death of his astrons. But in another sense, his astral kidneys broke down damaged astrons for new raw material to use. In that sense, it was a kind of immortality. As long as his damaged astrons were constantly being reused, wouldn't that make him immortal?
So far, five of Tianming's beasts had helped form astral organs. Where would the final stream of order, ancestral order, rest? In the brain, or the seventh astral organ? Tianming didn't see where it went, but he noticed that his entire body started emanating a pink glow. Every single one of his astrons had a small hexagonal brand on it that looked like a bright, glowing star. In other words, Xian Xian's ancestral order had latched onto each of his astrons in a manner unprecedented to all known astral gods. There was no way anybody else had something like that. The six streams of order that he had became the primal push that Tianming required to achieve a heptastar cosmic physique. It didn't take too long at all before the transformation had been completed! Using primordial breathing to convert energy was the natural next step.
However, Tianming knew that what he really needed to do now was absorb the Order Relic. While that was something he had planned to do long ago, he wouldn't miss the chance to relish Huang Qi's cries of despair as he did it. "I told you that you shouldn't celebrate too soon, Huang Qi. It's good that you know my real name, Li Tianming. Now, listen up. I got a completely new beginning and know how much I stand out compared to others. Even if I meet you in your strongest form one day, all you’ll ever be able to do will be to kneel before me."
It was as if six Primordial Chaos Beasts resided within his body, giving him unbelievable confidence.