The First Immortal of Destiny

When the foreseen images manifested in reality, Shen Mo was still thirty to forty thousand miles from the mountain before him!

However, he could no longer employ the [Sword Escape] to approach the mountain. Firstly, his soul had reached its limit; any further forced use of the Sword Escape would result in the disintegration of his soul and the death of his body. Secondly, oppressed by the True Immortal’s aura, every inch of his flesh and blood, every strand of his Mana, trembled. Even though he maintained clarity of mind with his extraordinary Path Heart, his Dao Body and Mana had already lapsed into a deathly stillness.

The True Immortal’s Finger, having crushed the clouds in the sky, slowly pressed down a little further...

In an instant, every talisman, the magic barrier formed by the Constellations Palm, and the Crystal Brahma Flame on his body were all annihilated. The spirit light on the surface of the spiritual-level magic artifact, the Green Cloud Umbrella, dimmed as if eroded by millennia. The Big Dipper Array and the Demon Soul Generals Creation Array, these two Formations, both exploded. The seven Big Dipper Swords plummeted towards the ground, and millions of Soul Generals dispersed like smoke, returning to the Soul Refining Flag!

All defensive measures, before this relentlessly descending True Immortal’s Finger, were as fragile as a thin sheet of paper.

Even before the True Immortal’s Finger crushed down on Shen Mo, his Dao Body already exhibited various signs of decay...

Sharp, sword-like ghostly winds erupted from his Dantian, blowing outwards. They quickly shredded his viscera, meridians and chakras, flesh and blood, and skin, reducing him to a bloody, mangled mess, barely recognizable as a human figure. An invisible fire ignited beneath his feet, impossible to extinguish. It roared upwards, burning through his Dantian, Heart Palace, and Mind Sea, continuously incinerating his Mana along with his ruined flesh and blood, reducing them to ashes.

More lethally, Shen Mo’s soul descended into a state of dazed confusion, unaware of his impending doom. The flow of his thoughts became exceedingly sluggish, rendering him incapable of any reaction!

All the above were the consequences of Shen Mo directly facing the True Immortal’s Finger, its unfathomable might triggering the ”Three Disasters and Six Tribulations” of a Divine Bridge Realm Immortal Master. Moreover, they came as a threefold calamity!

If this continued, Shen Mo would be shredded by the ghostly winds and incinerated by the invisible fire long before the True Immortal’s Finger even reached him. He would even lose the strength to maintain his aerial stance and plummet from the sky to his death.

The True Immortal’s Finger drew ever closer, yet Shen Mo remained immobile. Under the triple tribulations of wind, fire, and mental confusion, his Dao Body rapidly deteriorated. His flesh and blood, tendons, membranes, and internal organs were all shredded and burned to ash. In the blink of an eye, only a humanoid skeleton, shimmering with spiritual light, remained. Ghostly winds coiled around his bones, continuously scraping away bone dust. The invisible fire still burned, causing every bone to crackle and turn scorched black.

Just as Shen Mo believed his fate was sealed, his muddled mind suddenly heard a clear, sweet reprimand.

”How dare you, demon!”

In Shen Mo’s current state, he could only hear this sound. However, immediately afterward, he perceived the oppressive pressure from the True Immortal’s Finger vanish. This sweet reprimand was like spring thunder, shattering the fog that had enveloped his mind, clearing his soul of its muddled state. Even his Mana, which had fallen into a death-like stillness, returned to normal.

The next moment, Shen Mo mobilized the power of chaotic Yuan within him, activated numerous cultivation methods, and drew upon the power of heaven and earth to begin suppressing the calamitous wind and fire raging upon his body!

He didn’t know how much time had passed. It felt like a mere moment, a snap of the fingers, yet it also seemed as though several months, or even years, had gone by. The ghostly wind and Heartless Fire on Shen Mo’s white bones were completely suppressed, awaiting the next onslaught of the ”Three Disasters and Six Tribulations.”

But at this moment, his viscera, Dantian, chakras, flesh and blood, and hair were all destroyed, leaving only a scorched and battered skeleton!

Shen Mo was not Lin Zhaozai, the Immortal Master of the evil path who had cultivated the ”White Bones Path”. In this state, neither cultivation methods like the ”Three-Heads Six-Arms True Immortal Technique” or the ”Great Sun Tathagata Heart Scripture”, nor any elixirs and herbs with healing powers, could restore his original appearance.

A pair of deep eye sockets in his skull glowed with a faint divine light. The next moment, this light extinguished, triggering the [Rebirth from the Residual Body] Skill. Wrapped in a strange power, the charred bones began to peel off. The dried marrow was consumed by revitalized marrow. His skeleton became even more ragged, yet it pulsed with an incredibly vigorous life force. The essence within his bones thrived and grew. Damaged bones began to repair, and bit by bit, flesh and blood, tendons, membranes, internal organs, Dantian, and chakras began to regenerate, using the skeleton as their foundation...

This process continued for several dozen days. During this time, Shen Mo felt as if he were within a powerful Prohibition. As far as his eyes could see, there was nothing but dazzling light!

When his Dao Body was fully restored and he had completely regained perception of the Outer Realm, the dazzling light abruptly vanished.

My cultivation level has regressed by more than ten years, back to the state when I had just erected the Divine Bridge! Shen Mo assessed his cultivation, a complex expression of resignation and relief on his face.

Such a potent and miraculous Skill naturally came at a significant price. The price was over ten years of Shen Mo’s painstaking cultivation. A typical Immortal Master might have had to sacrifice a hundred or even a thousand years of their cultivation level for such a feat. Fortunately, he had indeed survived the True Immortal’s attack from behind the Hou Corpse Cave. Moreover, his Daoist foundation was undamaged, so this would not affect his future cultivation!

With a thought, he opened his Sword Zone, intending to retrieve a spare magic robe and Dao boots. However, he suddenly discovered a jade box within the Sword Zone.

Opening the jade box, he found a crystal-clear, jade-like finger emitting a faint True Immortal aura, alongside a very common jade slip...

The moment he saw the entire finger, Shen Mo’s gaze froze, a look of horror appearing on his face. Undoubtedly, this was the True Immortal’s Finger that had pressed down on him earlier. He didn’t know who had severed it and sent it into his Sword Zone.

Soon, Shen Mo recalled the sweet reprimand he had heard while in his state of mental stupor!

To be able to save me from a True Immortal and even sever its finger... My rescuer must also be a True Immortal. Perhaps this mountain, teeming with sects and a flourishing Immortal Path, is her cultivation grounds.

But why did she save me? And why gift me a True Immortal’s finger?

With these questions swirling in his mind, Shen Mo picked up the jade slip placed beside the True Immortal’s finger and probed it with his divine sense.

Hollow...

Shen Mo had just begun to speak when he suddenly remembered that uttering the name of a True Immortal would allow them to sense it, so he immediately closed his mouth.

Only a few words were recorded in the jade slip. The messenger had not revealed their identity, merely stating the Daoist title and origins of the True Immortal behind the Hou Corpse Cave. This True Immortal, who had attacked Shen Mo twice, was known as Hallow Venerable, a powerful being who had cultivated to the Human Immortal level within the True Immortal Realm!

Human Immortals are beneath Heavenly Immortals and Divine Immortals. Among Earth Immortals, Human Immortals, and Ghost Immortals, they rank in the lower two positions. Although Hallow Venerable had cultivated to the Human Immortal level, his true form was not of the Human Race but one of the demons and monsters who had attained immortality through cultivation. However, even the female immortal who had rescued Shen Mo did not know his racial origins!