Planet Pulverizer: A Mortal's Ascent-Chapter 570: True Self

"The Transcendent Path inheritance!?"

Li Pin stared at the crystal Bai Chao had taken out, surprised.

The Transcendent Path was a power system that only Cosmic Radiance Beings could attempt to comprehend. Moreover, it leaned toward the Void Faction.

To prevent practitioners from delving too deeply and falling into the Void, ordinary cultivators were strictly prohibited from researching it.

Back then, Li Pin made significant contributions by breaking through the Mara Divine Treasure. Yet, even when rewarding him for his achievements, the Mara Divine Treasury Hall never granted anything related to the Transcendent Path.

Yet now, the Divine Treasury Hall was already offering him a Transcendent inheritance before he had even entered the Void Divine Treasure World?

Li Pin thought, A dragon-slaying blade, gifted upon login? [1]

"Gaining insight into the Transcendent Path too early benefits no cultivator. The omniscience and omnipotence of the Transcendents are far beyond your current stage... even for many Brilliant Starshine and Eternal Solar Flare, it's still too soon."

Bai Chao looked at Li Pin with a sigh. "But if you truly end up trapped in the Void Divine Treasure World, there may be no future to speak of. So, we have no choice, even if it means forcing growth.

"Still, like Mi Meng and the others, I believe that unless there's no alternative, stepping onto the Transcendent Path now is unnecessary."

Li Pin nodded. "I understand."

"No, you don't." Bai Chao shook his head. "Transcendence means omniscience and omnipotence. But unless you enter a state of mechanical intellect or possess an innate Divinity immune to external influence, this path leads to death.

"Only beings of Cosmic Radiance are qualified to comprehend it because they have reached a realm beyond Perfection itself."

Li Pin's eyes lit up. "A realm beyond the Perfect Realm?"

"You won't grasp it unless you reach the Astral World. It exists between existence and nonexistence, much like the Astral World itself."

Bai Chao sighed. "Compared to its pre-collapse state, the Astral World now leans more toward existence. That's why people no longer call it a higher-dimensional world, an inverse world, or an anti-world, but rather a high-energy world that is smaller than the universe, compressing the entire cosmos into a single domain."

"The Astral World..."

Li Pin wasn't entirely convinced.

The Perfect Realm, in theory, required harnessing the ever-present Eternal Oblivion Force of the Astral World to forcibly master it. Yet, with the Solar Radiance Divine Weapon and his Clairvoyance talent, he had achieved it ahead of time within the Material World.

Still, he didn't argue the point.

"Remember, this inheritance must never be shared. It will only bring harm to others." Bai Chao's tone grew solemn. "Even for yourself... treat it as a reference. Unless you're trapped in the Void World with no way out, avoid cultivating it if possible."

Li Pin agreed without hesitation, "Understood."

Bai Chao encouraged, "Go then. I look forward to seeing your brilliance. If you truly manage to breach the divine treasure world, the knowledge it contains may hold value no less than raising a Cosmic Radiance for the Human Race.

"With such merit, securing the Divine Treasury Hall's support to help you ascend as an Astral God, establish yourself in the Astral World, and swiftly build a great faction of your own will no longer be an issue."

Li Pin nodded.

He was bearing a great mission, it seemed.

In the mortal world, this would be akin to an internationally renowned figure on the brink of death, with only a rare millennium-old ginseng capable of saving him. It was up to pioneers like them to find it. By doing so, they could secure the dying powerhouse's allegiance to their nation.

And he, having once unearthed a near-millennium ginseng, was the one with the highest chance of finding it again.

That was why the Divine Treasury Hall had such high expectations for him.

Of course, after hearing Bai Chao and Shi Keqing's descriptions, Li Pin had grown eager for the mission. Especially since, according to Bai Chao, the rise of the young Void Emperor had been meteoric. The faster his progress was, the faster the Void Emperor would ascend.

Li Pin's eyes gleamed with curiosity. "How fast exactly?"

Anticipation surged within him. To have an opponent who was always ahead, always stronger—what greater fortune could there be?

He would always have something to learn, always see a path forward, and always sharpen himself through battle to grow stronger.

This was the greatest gift the world could offer a martial artist like him.

*** frёeωebɳovel.com

Before long, Li Pin arrived at his assigned residence. It was a steel fortress—nothing more than a massive iron box. The only difference was its size.

It spanned dozens of floors, each covering thousands of square kilometers, with heights ranging from a hundred meters to ten thousand meters. The upper levels featured all kinds of artificial landscapes, brimming with a futuristic aesthetic.

At that moment, Li Pin lay on a patch of grass... well, it looked like grass, felt like grass, and in every way seemed indistinguishable from real grass. Yet it was made of a different material, not a true botanical lifeform.

Lying there, Li Pin quietly studied the crystal Bai Chao had given him, delving into the intricacies of the Transcendent path.

A long time passed before he finished reading through the inheritance.

"Transcendent Ember."

Li Pin pondered its meaning.

The inheritance known as Transcendent Ember had its final segment, the part on Metamorphosis, deliberately removed.

A vague premonition told him that this missing section was the key to attaining the Transcendent form. Yet, at the same time, it was also the key to leading beings from the Existence Faction into the Void. That was precisely why this part had been excised from the inheritance.

But without it, the Transcendent path passed down among the Human Race became incomplete—ambiguous and flawed. With that thought, he picked up the inheritance once more. Once. Twice. Again and again.

After five careful readings, Li Pin frowned. The descriptions of the Transcendent Realm in this inheritance seemed to revolve around a single crucial concept. That concept... was either mechanical intellect or innate Divinity.

In other words, an existence born incapable of perceiving the fluctuations of emotions and the inner spirit—an innate Divine Being. Or an entity that could seal away all emotions and distractions through mechanical intellect.

All who walked the Transcendent path seemed destined to strip themselves away, to adopt the stance of a third-party observer, viewing the unfolding of events

Once one developed a standpoint, every observation became biased, losing true objectivity. Even what seemed like absolute truth would be tainted by that bias, no longer fair.

It was like the observer effect. When unobserved, an entity remained neutral. But the moment it was perceived, its stance and outcome became fixed.

Li Pin murmured to himself, " Life's essence comes from the inner spirit, the soul. The existence of the soul gives rise to the fluctuating mental spirit. The mental spirit, in turn, controls energy and matter, shaping the body that houses the inner spirit.

"This body's perception of the external world feeds back into the mental spirit as emotion, which then affects the state of the inner spirit. As long as such interference exists, no being can ever achieve omniscience and omnipotence."

Thus, to become a Transcendent, to attain omniscience and omnipotence, a person had to first lock away the inner spirit with mechanical intellect, discarding all emotions. Or they had to be like the innate Divine Beings, inherently incapable of feeling.

All expressions of joy, anger, sorrow, and delight arise only from external observation and adherence to rules.

Just like the description of that Void Emperor.

Li Pin silently reflected on these words. "In the span of a single heartbeat, countless galaxies vanish in dazzling brilliance. Yet, when witnessing such destruction firsthand, there is no sorrow, no sympathy.

"I am Void. I hear nothing, see nothing, feel nothing... A million, a hundred million lives—reduced to nothingness... I am eternal life, eternal death, eternal emptiness, eternal nothingness..."

Transcendent, Transcendent.... Was this the final form of Transcendence? Li Pin wondered.

He tried immersing himself in that state. But instead of feeling its benefits, he was overwhelmed by suffocating pressure.

It felt as though his soul had been trapped in an eternal void—nothing to hear, see, or feel.

A million years, a hundred million years.... That crushing emptiness, that suffocating nothingness, caused even his resilient mind to tremble. His inner spirit seemed on the verge of collapse.

After a long pause, he finally exhaled deeply.

"If such a being truly exists, it wouldn't need to attack. Simply sharing its sense of Void with those of existence would be enough. Few could withstand the weight of eternal emptiness, eternal nothingness."

For the first time, doubt crept into his mind. Was his path truly leading toward Transcendence? What was the point of seeking omniscience and omnipotence?

Evolution. Endless evolution. Endless transcendence.

And no matter how boundless evolution or transcendence became, one core remained—self.

He would never turn himself into nothingness.

With each evolution, he would surpass himself, forging a stronger self.

His path had always been one of existence, opposed to the Transcendent path that led to Void.

Given what had happened, there were two possibilities.

Either my path doesn’t lead to Transcendence, or...

"The Transcendent path is flawed," Li Pin muttered.

A mere Divine Being, daring to claim that the road meant only for Cosmic Radiance Beings was flawed? How audacious!

Yet... Li Pin had never hidden his doubts about authority. He questioned everything. And he... would prove everything.

"Whether Transcendence, omniscient, or omnipotent, all things trace back to one core, one origin. That origin is me. Even if eternal life, eternal death, eternal emptiness, and eternal void truly exist, their sole purpose is to evolve, to transcend, to become a better 'I'!"

His inner spirit slowly began to condense.

The shock and impact from the Transcendent Technique, which had once shaken his inner spirit, quickly faded.

It was as if the dust had been washed from his inner spirit, leaving behind a clarity that shimmered brilliantly.

"I am not eternal life, not eternal death, not eternal emptiness, not eternal void!"

Facing his purified spirit, he declared, "I am me. Existence is me. Destruction is me. Emptiness is me. Void is me. All origins, all causes, all mysteries—are me."

1. A metaphor to question the ease of receiving something, as if it is too easy or premature. ☜

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