170] – [Painting]

Strolling through the forest under a sudden bout of rain, Alexander leisurely adventured across the green land. The soil turned muddy and the leaves were being blown away by a sharp wind.

A thick fog covered the surroundings, interfering even with one's Celestial Sense.

'I should paint this scenery. I like it.' Looking into the space rings he took from Aurora, Alexander could not find what he searched for.

'Seriously?' Looking left and right, he found himself in need of materials.

'Do I just paint with Qi? I could also go for a time painting… No, it's too easy.' Spreading his Divine Sense even further, Alexander covered almost the entire forest. Therefore, it only took a few seconds to find a young couple.

'Let's see…' Gazing in their general direction, he faded away.

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"…how can you trip on a root?"

"Come on babe! It was a mistake! I was just captivated by your beauty so I-"

"Stop the excuses, you tripped. I'm telling everyone else."

"How could-"

"Hello there. You two lovebirds, do any of you have painting stuff? I want to paint a bit, but I lack everything necessary. Care to help me?" Their fake bickering halting, they turned their cranking necks toward the youth that seemingly appeared out of thin air.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Ouch… My friend, I wouldn't talk to me like that if I were you… As a cultivator, you should properly assess the other party before insulting it. Isn't that a staple of immortal cultivation? You can't go far without it."

Narrowing his eyes, the young man pushed the blonde woman further behind, taking heavy steps forward.

"What~? You little shit, you sure know how to talk big! A little bastard like you, not even at the damn Earth Transcending Realm, and yet you dare look at me?? Are you stupid? Do you not know the difference between a god like me and shit like you?"

Sighing, Alexander shook his head in pity.

"I told you. Mind the other party's level bef-"

"Shut up cunt! I'm-" Having interrupted Alexander, it was obvious how he would immediately give back, slapping the young man's face right off with a crisp sound. Blood rained down, a skull visible amongst the torn flesh, eyeballs unprotected by the skin and muscles of prior.

Left behind was a contrasting expression on Alexander's face, veins almost exploding with a red tint clearly visible.

"Bitch."

"Next time you speak to me this way you're going to end up licking the ass of some soul in Hell! Though it's too late now." Slowly closing in on the fumbling youth still holding his disfigured face with tears, Alexander grabbed his hand.

"I'm taking this." Ripping it off, he directly removed the three space rings before tossing the mangled flesh away.

Putting the sole of his pristine white boot on the man's bloodied face, he simply pushed. Expectedly, the man's skull was sent crashing onto the earth before bursting like a watermelon. Alexander could feel the bone fragments be crushed under his foot, like pieces of pottery turning into crunchy sand. To him, it almost felt like stepping on a piece of fragile curved glass or maybe a bit of ice.

Silence obscured by the sound of blood dripping from leaves and stalks of grass, Alexander raised his now bloody boot back up. Turning his head, his stare pierced the woman.

"Clean it."

"Y-Yes!" Hurrying over, she threw away her pride, faced with death. Taking out a cloth, she immediately wiped his boot clean. But before she could retreat with streams of grief falling off her face, the tip of the boot gently pushed into her throat.

"Who said you could live?" Granting her a rather crude pun in this situation, Alexander extended his leg, his boot still under her chin. Without comprehending anything, the blonde woman gasped as her head was brutally torn apart from her neck, strings of flesh seen extending before snapping. Her head then flew high up, spinning majestically.

"Mphm!" Examining the space rings, Alexander did find the necessary tools.

"Worthless scum!" Angry at the sight, he pulled out a few painting sets. Unfortunately, clear to his anger, the sets were not good enough.

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"Shitty Divine-Tier! What am I supposed to do with this garbage?" Even before he finished speaking, the painting sets began to disintegrate from the sheer pressure alone of Limbo's Core Territory.

Hoping for some luck, he reluctantly inspected their deteriorating internal worlds, but without much luck.

'I suppose some more targets are required… what a pain.' Spitting on the corpses, he flew away.

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In the middle of his flight dodging high reaching trees, Alexander spurred a thought.

'I used spiritual energy to move… and I still do. I do so well. Should I..?'

Even with his body still at the Calamity Enduring Realm, he needed to move it using his soul.

During immortal cultivation, one's body would become a medium to many things. One of them was the obvious perk of moving around. To do so, a brain was needed. Other organs were also needed to keep it alive.

Currently, Alexander only had a brain. No heart, no spleen, no intestines, no lungs, no nothing. Just a brain. Even exhaling was not done through regular means.

Usually, cultivators would also get rid of it. To move, they used spiritual energy instead. But because of his hundreds of thousands of years of life with one, Alexander had kept on going, now trillions of years with one.

To replace his organs, Alexander used muscles or bones. To replace a brain, he would do the same.

There were no real risks involved either. It was a scenario he truly felt bothered about. Not caused by an elaborate or intrusive thought, but simply by habit.

'I guess I should. When my head gets destroyed, I usually have trouble switching to spiritual energy for a moment and get stunned. Same goes for spiritual arts. I need to actively use them with my soul rather than with my body.'

The more he thought, the more he wanted to go through with it.

'Yeah, I'll do it! I'll do it now!' Winds blowing from a beam of light stopping, Alexander landed on short grass.

His head morphing around, it calmed down eventually.

Inside his skull, his brain was being eaten and transformed into muscles and bones.

'Let's go with just bones… Mmmh… never mind. In case shrapnel slash my body from inside out, then it's better to be cautious. I'll do a bit of both instead.'

'Very good.' Nodding, his body moved strangely at first, soon however, it moved as it used to. But compared with before, a pale aura of harmony was glowing.

'I sort of expected this… I… whatever, all is good.'

Smiling wryly, Alexander achieved perfect unity with body, mind and soul. His martial arts were elevated a notch further.

Sigh.

'The next step then should be… should… be… Oh.'

'Oh.'

'Oh!'

'Oh…'

'Oh. Okay. I guess I just passed the wall.'

Silently watching the trees growl and the leaves sway, Alexander received a minor enlightenment, product of his time spent behind this same wall.

Because the next logical step would be to remove the soul and only move with the mind. This required one's existence to be extremely powerful. After which, the body would also be gone.

'…'

Chuckling, a bubbly feeling climbed to his throat.

Before long, he exploded in a savage laughter, freezing the colors and suppressing the wildlife. Cultivators in the far vicinity were brought to their knees without understanding why.

'I get it. I truly do.'

If one did as such, would the end product not be something similar?

'Is it a new saving mean? Or, maybe it is something more potent? I surely don't feel like attempting it right away, but later…' Stroking his chin in ponder, Alexander now knew it.

He knew how the Greater Primordial Deity survived the wrath of Heaven.

With an existence so strong he did not need a body nor a soul.

Becoming a will comparable with the world's will.

Imposing oneself as the new will!

Willing the world!

Willing the very Heavens!

"Hahaha! Amazing! Incredible! Outstanding!!"

"I need this! I need to figure this out!"

"To surpass the Heavens, I must first surpass the Greater Primordial Deity!"

"To then surpass the Martial Dao!"

'To become the new sky of all beings! To rule the three times and original space! Only the Supreme Throne worthy of my being!'

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Waiting for a few years, Alexander painted away his mind. It was not too hard to obtain materials, only taking a third group of people.

His internal world was now churning, trillions upon trillions of clones having lived and died since then.

'Good enough!' Absorbing their memories, his existence itself grew. A faint titan of silver surged like an eternal mountain, soon shooting past the clouds. A single wave of its hand would collapse the sky, a single breath enough to obliterate the horizon.

'Existential power… this is stronger than I remembered..?'

Just his self existing was enough to shake Limbo. If this was not some tyrannical strength, then what was?

Compared with Lu Olghun, his ghostly titan would most likely be unable to win. Yet.

'Can I grow it some more then? I won't stop just because I recovered and strengthened my existence. I'm not stupid, I know when to be greedy too!'

After all, if one was constantly greedy, some moments would be proper, would they not?

Spending a bit more time, Alexander only took some more clones and few thousand years to reach a bottleneck.

'Mmh… I suppose my clones are not good enough now. Is it about popularity? Oh, but I still haven't recovered my cultivation again this time!'

Digging down, he hid himself in a small cave underground, Aurora waiting at the surface. Having taken back his Dantian, Alexander sat cross-legged.

'It will take some time, but do I care? Celestial Realm Alexander is back!'

Leaves detached, flowing with the wind.

Snow and rain piling up their domain.

Life and death competing as usual.

Legends turning into myths, and experts turning into skeletons.

Time and space moving, a river and a mystery.

A powerful relic, a Dantian blemished.

Devoured by the maw of silver. Past meeting present, hoping to see the future.

A hole opening into the cave, a certain youth of silver hair happily humming to the birds and monsters.

'Fruitful, fruitful.'

Across Limbo, dusty and old fragments of Alexander's face or background. Be it paper, metal or some artifact.

All bursting in a pink light. Anyone thinking of his stature clutching their heads in pain. As a deity shall never be vanquished, even in one's dreams!

The terror of the Dream Dominion Realm returning. So close to the peak of Limbo.

Alexander was now ready to enter this new world. He was ready to break the knees of monsters and snap the necks of myths.

'But first, shark inside the sink! Always be a shark inside the sink! Always!' Chuckling at his past mistakes, already forgetting them, Alexander was birthed anew.