"I haven’t mentioned it before because you weren’t planning to walk this path, so naturally you couldn’t possibly possess enough Divine power to ignite the Divine Fire. But now, things are different."

Hel’s calm voice sounded.

"That madwoman is using a vast, boundless Divine power to forcibly reforge your Dao Foundation. I don’t know just how much Divine power she has to squander like this, but this is your best chance."

"First, let’s incubate the Divine Embryo. Use the Divine Dao as the base to temporarily bear your Daoist career. It can’t last forever, but it can keep your Heavenly Nature from being tainted by the Divine."

Ji Jingqiu suddenly asked, "Within the Divine Embryo, what exactly will be born?"

"What else can a Divine Embryo give birth to but a ’God’?" Hel said with disdain. "You even need to ask?"

"You know that’s not what I meant." Ji Jingqiu said in a low voice.

"And you also know you have no other choice right now." Hel narrowed her eyes. "Either you let that madwoman forcibly shove you onto the Divine Dao, never to turn back again. You might Step into Heaven in one move, but having your name entered on the Investiture of the Gods may not be a blessing."

"Or... you trust me."

Was he really choosing between Doumu Yuanjun and Hel?

Ji Jingqiu exhaled lightly. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

If he could help it, this was truly a choice he didn’t want to make.

Timing waits for no one.

Ji Jingqiu slowly closed his eyes and, in the end, chose to trust Hel. By his ear, it was as if he heard someone’s faint, low laughter.

The Three Great Secret Treasures linked together at this moment!

As the vast, pure Divine power surged through him, his bones and organs completely transformed into an utterly pure gold. That golden hue spread along the way, until it covered every inch of blood vessels and meridians, encompassing his entire body inside and out.

Within the human body resides a God; the Circulation Acupoints, eight hundred forty million in number, condense and evolve into All Heavens and the universe, forming a number as boundless as grains of sand in a Ganges of worlds.

And at the very center of all the Acupoints stood a towering, Elder Gu, and majestic structure, symbolizing the ultimate mystery of the human-body cosmos—a Divine Temple!

The Divine Embryo, undergoing an unknowable transformation, struggled its way into the Divine Temple.

In that instant.

Outside the Divine Temple, the Void quaked, as if the phantom images of billions of beings and spirits, of all Heavenly Gods and demons, manifested simultaneously, prostrating themselves toward that Divine Temple, toward the Divine Embryo within, bowing in utmost worship, chanting scriptures and offering exaltation!

In that moment, Ji Jingqiu’s aura began to soar once more!

Outside the secluded cultivation site, the two Nine Pure Heavenly Venerables were shocked by the upheaval within, yet they could not approach and did not dare disturb Ji Jingqiu at this moment.

"True Saint? It’s still rising?!"

The Nine Pure Heavenly Venerables and Dangmo Venerable’s expressions shook. Just what was Ji Jingqiu breaking through?!

In this world, how can there be a Heavenly Venerable who Steps into Heaven in a single move to ascend to True Saint?

The gap between these two realms is in no way smaller than that between Heavenly Venerable and Heavenly Person!

...

When the Divine Embryo entered and took charge of the Main Temple, Ji Jingqiu no longer suppressed himself. He completely let go, allowing Doumu Yuanjun to pour what felt like endless, pure Divine power into his body.

"World Venerate Ji, have you finally thought it through?"

Doumu Yuanjun’s voice of praise rang out,

"Not only that Incense Fire Body from just now, but even this Dao Body of yours seems to have long since established a Divine Dao foundation. To not walk the Divine Dao is simply squandering a heavenly treasure!"

Ji Jingqiu’s face was expressionless.

Within the Divine Temple, this Divine Embryo finally emerged into the world!

But at that very moment, an enormous net, formless and intangible yet vast enough to cover All Heavens and Myriads of Worlds, suddenly surfaced from the unseen Void! Upon it flowed countless intricate, icy Divine Rune of the Divine Dao, emanating an aura of the same origin as the Investiture of the Gods!

It descended with perfect precision, then tightly wrapped and bound itself around that "God" which had just broken free from the womb! Immediately after, the Divine Embryo’s aura surged ever higher—

Dao Ancestor, True Saint, Ancient...

Until it became Perfect and Wuque, reaching a shiver-inducing pinnacle!

Gazing upon this scene, Ji Jingqiu’s eyes turned razor sharp.

In just an instant, he both witnessed and experienced the entire process of "Stepping into Heaven in a single step."

And the price was the divine net imposed upon the Divine Embryo.

He looked toward the void, as if he saw the one who held the source of that net—seated high above in the Heavenly Court.

If he had not used the Divine Embryo as a substitution, letting it stand in for himself to receive this "creation" and this "Fruit Position," then the one being completely bound at this moment by the net formed from the power of the Investiture of the Gods, the one becoming a name upon that list, would have been Ji Jingqiu himself!

The shockwaves of Ji Jingqiu’s breakthrough to True Saint were still violently spreading. His proving the Tao as Heavenly Venerable was already known throughout the Realm; let alone this True Saint.

Across the vast Star Sea, one meteor after another fell from the heavens, streaking across the sky with trailing tails of light, as though forming a retinue circling around him, becoming his backdrop, setting him off like a towering, distant, supreme God.

When Ji Jingqiu calmly awoke, his aura had clearly reached a...

Near-Perfect, near-Transcendence state.