Chapter 201: 10,000 Units of Homestead Space, Module: Sequence·History

“Something’s wrong. Why are the Force-Devouring Gu vanishing so quickly now?”

While keeping an eye on the insect armor covering Lin Feng, Chen Xiyi was busy controlling the Force-Devouring Gu, trying to wear down the First Immortal bit by bit. But he noticed something off with the Force-Devouring Gu.

“Bad news, it’s Spirit World contamination.”

Chen Xiyi suddenly realized. Lin Feng could resist or be immune to Spirit World contamination thanks to the Sturdy Enchantment on his alloy helmet. Chen Xiyi himself was even stronger; the contamination just vanished without affecting him because he lacked any status that it could latch onto.

But the Force-Devouring Gu weren’t like that. These Gu insects had no way to resist, nor enough defense.

So, naturally, they died off in huge waves.

His repeated modifications to the Force-Devouring Gu were all meant to counter the Spirit World Mist unleashed by the First Immortal, not this so-called Spirit World contamination. He hadn’t even considered Spirit World contamination possible.

So, he tripped up.

At first, he hadn’t noticed the contamination affecting the Gu. It was only after several waves that the Force-Devouring Gu suffered mass disconnection.

The Gu insects contaminated by the Spirit World didn’t die. Instead, they turned into mist-like, twisted bugs, seemingly empowered by the Spirit World. They became vicious, mindless creatures and turned against Chen Xiyi, attacking his Eighty-Four Thousand Buddha Primordial Spirits formed by the Force-Devouring Gu.

Seeing his enemies swell while his forces shrank, Chen Xiyi felt like he’d shot himself in the foot. Worse, every time Spirit World contamination struck, not only did fresh Gu get corrupted, but the previously contaminated ones also grew even stronger.

“You seem in bad shape. Want to retreat first?” Lin Feng retreated sharply, his Wandering Light Sword sweeping out. Fierce Sword Qi instantly obliterated all the Force-Devouring Gu corrupted by the Spirit World.

“No need. Stick to the plan. It’s just Force-Devouring Gu. The Spirit World can corrupt living ones, but I refuse to believe it can affect dead ones.” Chen Xiyi didn’t want to leave. Besides, they hadn’t reached the end yet.

Honestly, if timing allowed, he’d have loved to whip out his alloy pickaxe and just dig through the whole Spirit World to see what he could find.

“Alright, don’t push it. Leave it to me.” After freeing Chen Xiyi, Lin Feng immediately charged back towards the First Immortal, Wandering Light Sword in hand.

Chen Xiyi’s expression remained serious.

The Force-Devouring Gu had too little resistance. After Spirit World contamination, they just turned into the enemy’s soldiers. Might as well turn them into single-use explosive packs and blow the enemy straight to bits.

They were meant to be consumables anyway. Now that these consumables could empower the foe, he needed to use them up fast.

“Heh, today I’ll show you the complete set of Buddha’s Palm moves you missed last time.”

“First Form: Emergence of Buddha’s Light”

“Second Form: Golden Summit Buddha’s Light”

“Third Form: Buddha Shakes Mountains and Rivers”

“Fourth Form: Buddha Questions Kalanda”

“Fifth Form: Greeting Buddha to the Western Paradise”

“Sixth Form: Universal Illumination by Buddha’s Light”

“Seventh Form: Celestial Buddha Descends to Mortal World”

“Eighth Form: Boundless Buddha Dharma”

“Ninth Form: Ten Thousand Buddhas Pay Homage!”

Inside the Spirit World, a terrifying, savage Buddha opened its eyes. Black flames of resentment surged across the sky. Horrific resentment exploded instantly. The nine forms of the knockoff, demonically altered, and empty-named Buddha’s Palm instantly pushed the entire Spirit World apart.

The cracks, already widened by the Enchantment: Thorns reflecting damage, were strained even further by this assault, sprouting countless new fissures.

“Just the last form left. Better hope you can take it.”

Chen Xiyi’s expression twisted with ferocity. Clearly, unleashing these nine Buddha’s Palm moves put immense strain on him.

He was pushing himself far beyond his limits. Otherwise, he couldn’t have stressed the whole Spirit World like this.

Seeing this, Lin Feng’s heart pounded. He guessed Chen Xiyi’s plan and immediately moved to pull him away.

“You go first. Come back in three seconds.”

Chen Xiyi ordered quickly.

Lin Feng was confused, but didn’t question it. He sheathed his Wandering Light Sword and instantly disappeared from the Spirit World.

“Tenth Form: NIRVANA!”

BOOM!

All the Force-Devouring Gu detonated simultaneously. The First Immortal took the full force of the ninth-form-enhanced blast head-on.

That’s right! The first nine forms of the Buddha’s Palm weren’t meant for direct combat. They were purely groundwork, layers of amplification for the final explosion.

They just fooled everyone into looking like attack moves.

The Force-Devouring Gu were single-use consumables. Chen Xiyi never intended to bring any back.

[You struck yourself for 100% Health Points damage]

[Your Alloy Full Body Armor is destroyed]

[Your Alloy Helmet is destroyed]

[Life-substitution Death Evasion activated. You retain 1% Health Points]

[Dewdrop used Nectar Healing on you. You recovered 100% Health Points]

“Fuck! My gear’s wrecked!” Chen Xiyi frantically tried to equip another suit of Alloy Full Body Armor. Too late. The Game Log for Spirit World contamination had already popped.

[You suffered Spirit World contamination. Obtained Life Mutation. With no required negative status, it converted to Health Points damage]

[Life Mutation dealt 100% Health Points damage to you]

[Life-substitution Death Evasion activated. You retain 1% Health Points]

[Dewdrop used Nectar Healing on you. You recovered 100% Health Points]

[Enchantment: Thorns reflected Spirit World contamination. Dealt 100% Health Points damage to the Spirit World]

[You killed the Spirit World]

Dewdrop furiously used two abilities — restoring Chen Xiyi’s health — to keep him alive.

After he equipped the new Alloy Full Body Armor, the Health Points damage converted from the Spirit World contamination negative status arrived right on schedule.

Chen Xiyi’s attack was brutal. He hadn’t just ignited the Force-Devouring Gu. He detonated the massive resentment and life-force gathered on them. Their very essence came from refining every Martial Artist who’d reached Body Forging stage or higher. The blast was equal to the combined power of hundreds of millions of people unleashed at once.

Against the First Immortal at its peak? Dust motes. But facing the First Immortal already critically wounded and bearing multiple negative status effects? It wasn’t dust motes. It was a bomb.

An explosion of that magnitude could’ve overwhelmed even Lin Feng at his current stage. Hence why Chen Xiyi had ordered him to run.

The entire Spirit World seemed to empty out under the detonation of the tenth-form, Force-Devouring-Gu-fueled Buddha’s Palm.

This “emptied out” wasn’t just an expression. It was literal. The Spirit World began collapsing.

“That’s insane! It died to reflected damage?!!”

Chen Xiyi hadn’t expected this. He thought the Spirit World was special, maybe only able to be worn down 1% per strike. He never imagined the problem lay in his own reflection mechanic.

If an attack broke 1 point of Durability on his Alloy Full Body Armor, he suffered 0 Health Points damage and reflected a minimum of 1% Health Points damage.

That was it. It inflicted just 1% Health Points damage reflected back, with the rest of the damage entirely nullified by game mechanics.

Any negative status effect he couldn’t suffer from, no matter how potent, would only ever cost him 1 Durability. It wasn’t that the negative status was only worth 1 Health Points damage.

“Collect!!”

Chen Xiyi fell along with the massive, crumbling Spirit World. Below, the First Immortal’s form melted into a pool of disgusting flesh and blood.

He didn’t care if the Spirit World counted as a corpse, or if collection was possible after its death. He took action immediately.

[You collected the deceased Spirit World. You obtained: 10,000 units of Homestead Space, Item imbued with Historical Connotation: Shattered Astral Chart, Damaged Module: Sequence·History]

Falling, Chen Xiyi stared at the three items. Holy cow, I can collect Homestead Space like this?!

Suddenly, a hand grabbed his shoulder, yanking him from the plummeting void and hauling him safely back to solid ground.

“What did you do in those three seconds?! You smashed the whole Spirit World!” Lin Feng pointed at the sky slowly stitching itself back together. It had completely caved in earlier, the vast Spirit World hurtling towards the earth before vanishing abruptly.

“I reflected the Spirit World to death.” Chen Xiyi sounded dazed, still processing the reality that the Home Game mechanic could be so overpowered: no damage limits or immunity meant even worlds could be obliterated by reducing their Health Points to zero.

“Are you secretly a three-second hero? Or did you have a way to kill it all along, just using me for grunt labor?” Lin Feng eyed Chen Xiyi suspiciously.

“If I knew I could reflect-kill it, would I need you?” Chen Xiyi truly hadn’t known the specifics. If he’d realized he could exploit the game mechanics to reflect damage back at the perfect moment, why would he have gone to all that trouble and wasted such a huge pile of Nourishment Resources?

“…Wait. Wrong. The First Immortal isn’t dead. It was the Spirit World that died.”

Chen Xiyi suddenly realized something crucial. The Game Log only showed the kill notification for the Spirit World. Nothing for the First Immortal.

“But you said they were life-linked? If you reflected the Spirit World to death, why not the First Immortal too?” Lin Feng found this weird. He trusted Chen Xiyi’s previous analysis implicitly.

Chen Xiyi opened his Game Log. Sure enough, the map of the Fallen Land showed a distinct red dot.

“Exactly as I thought. I always wondered why Wandering Light wouldn’t keep the Bone Slate holding the Ascension Ritual inside his own Chronological World. Such an important item could accidentally create another Immortal. Why risk it?”

“The reason’s simple. It was a resurrection vessel hidden by the First Immortal. What puzzled me was why Wandering Light didn’t destroy it.”

“Now I understand why Wandering Light’s eleven concubines said the Immortal needs to ascend the Sequence. The Sequence is the Spirit World, what the First Immortal called the Spirit World.”

“Wandering Light’s Chronological World was his Spirit World. Your next step, Lin Feng… should be claiming your own Spirit World, your Chronological World.”

Chen Xiyi explained this while directing Lin Feng to head towards the Fallen Land.

“So that’s it! That’s why Wandering Light poured resources into building his Chronological World. He was imitating the First Immortal by crafting his own Spirit World. But why didn’t I find this specific memory?” Lin Feng sounded perplexed.

“Probably self-deleted at the last moment. Otherwise, such vital information wouldn’t be missing. He wanted to screw us over.” Chen Xiyi replied.

With Lin Feng carrying him through the air and Chen Xiyi navigating, they quickly reached the location of the red dot.

It wasn’t a secret vault. It was an ordinary sandy riverbank. The Bone Slate containing the Ascension Ritual lay quietly among the pebbles.

“Hiding it like this… honestly, only you could ever find it, Chen Xiyi.” Lin Feng remarked as Chen Xiyi picked up the Bone Slate.

Chen Xiyi glanced at the Bone Slate’s name: Carrier Bone Slate (First Immortal Resurrection Vessel – Primary Soul). He mused, “Right? Who’d think he’d throw his own resurrection anchor into a river to drift randomly? Without my help, Lin Feng, you might never have found this.”

Finding it stored in a secret location or hidden with clues was one thing. Tossing it into a random river? Impossible to trace, especially over time. The uncertainty increased the risk, but the trade-off was that no schemer could easily locate it.

Sadly, when the First Immortal prepared to use it for resurrection, the Homestead Game’s map system identified the slate as an enemy – not inert material – marking it as a big red dot.

Chen Xiyi raised his alloy firearm instantly and pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The bullet slammed into the Bone Slate. The Game Log instantly updated.