Joe Di did not hesitate in the slightest. He raised his hand and slashed down again, "Titan's Step, be severed!"
In cultivation, hesitation is the greatest taboo. Joe Di understood this better than most cultivators. Since he had decided to sever his path, he would not waste time with indecision—even if it meant starting over from the beginning.
Another jet of blood spurted forth. Joe Di's face grew even paler, yet his movements did not falter for a moment.
"Primordial Thunder Sigil, be severed!"
"Primordial Thunderblade, be severed!"
"Mountain peaks gather, waves rage—be severed!"
"Bleakwind Blade, be severed!"
......
One divine ability after another was severed by Joe Di. His complexion grew increasingly pale, but the aura around him began to slowly condense. A new Dao resonance was gradually forming within him.
"Spirit Shift, be severed!"
"Elemental Veil, be severed!"
After severing the Elemental Veil, Joe Di suddenly felt a sense of relief. The Dao resonance around him rang with clarity, and a sudden enlightenment appeared.
The surrounding divine crystal energy was drawn into Joe Di, rumbling within his body. His cultivation surged rapidly; in that moment, his starry meridians and spiritual sea expanded ceaselessly.
All fragments of law fused with the dense divine essence, then were absorbed by Joe Di.
In the vast Grand Ruins, where others cannot cultivate, Joe Di remained unfazed. No matter how many law fragments were nearby, they were swept up by Joe Di's Dao Forging vortex and absorbed completely.
Time passed little by little. The divine crystals beneath Joe Di gradually diminished, and the remaining immortal essence in his starry meridians slowly dissipated, eventually transforming completely into divine essence.
No one knew how much time had passed; Joe Di's bones, meridians, and even his spiritual sea all rang with clear resonance.
Joe Di opened his eyes and let out a series of joyful, long howls.
A powerful domain aura stretched outward. Joe Di knew his strength had increased by more than tenfold compared to before Dao Forging.
Numerous star rivers formed within his starry meridians. In each river, the sound of divine essence flowing was like a surging river, endlessly rushing. His spiritual sea had widened several times over, his divine sense was now incomparably focused. If measured by Dao sense, Joe Di suspected his divine sense had reached Dao sense level three.
Joe Di gained a clear understanding of his array mastery; he was indeed a Grand Arraymaster, and at the peak of the first tier.
Several Elemental Beasts lingering outside Joe Di's protective array sensed his formidable aura, turned abruptly, and fled in a frenzy.
With a wave of his hand, the defensive and deathtrap arrays Joe Di had set up were crushed to dust.
Ding! Another clear ring sounded. Joe Di reached out again, and the Tiansuo Blade landed in his palm. Joe Di gazed at the blade in delight—it had finally advanced again, becoming a low-grade divine artifact.
Joe Di simply closed his eyes. The Peak Gathering divine ability he had severed instantly reformed into a new ability. Instinctively, Joe Di stepped forward and punched out.
Boom boom boom!
Thunderous rumbles echoed across heaven and earth. One after another, fist mountains seemed to have always existed between heaven and earth, then burst forth with Joe Di's punch.
One fist mountain after another smashed into the gray-brown earth, blasting open a deep chasm.
Joe Di glanced at his fist, thinking to himself—this was the true Peak Gathering. No trace remained; after throwing the punch, the law aura within the divine ability was gone without a trace.
In other words, his Peak Gathering was now flawless.
Indeed, Dao Severance and Dao Forging do not mean losing a divine ability completely, but rather allowing that ability to undergo nirvana—just like his rule-based Dao.
Perhaps only a divine ability reborn through nirvana is a true supreme ability.
After Peak Gathering, came Waves Rage, Titan's Step, Primordial Thunderblade...
One divine ability after another was perfected by Joe Di. After refining the Grand Earth Technique, his physical body reached perfection at the level of the Immortal God Body.
Lightning flashed everywhere in Joe Di's space; blade shadows, fist winds, and footprints crisscrossed. This place became Joe Di's trial ground for perfecting divine abilities—a place of rebirth.
Boom! When Joe Di's thunder blade doubled the size of the chasm before him, he stopped perfecting his divine abilities.
He still had one divine ability left to perfect, one he hadn't even contemplated yet—Elemental Veil.
At the moment he severed Elemental Veil, Joe Di felt a sense of relief. He hadn't thought much about it at the time, focused solely on Dao Forging.
Now that Joe Di had succeeded in Dao Forging, his mind was clearer than ever. He realized that his inability to forge his Dao stemmed not only from incomplete rules of heaven and earth, but also from having learned Elemental Veil.
He had severed many techniques for Dao Forging, but none had brought the same sense of relief as severing Elemental Veil.
Joe Di had long suspected Elemental Veil, but he just couldn't figure out what was wrong with the technique.
Now that Joe Di had severed Elemental Veil, he took out the technique again. At a glance, he could tell it was a true supreme ability, yet he still couldn't see the problem within it.
This left Joe Di helpless. According to what he'd learned and deduced, Elemental Veil was left in the Daihe Palace by Jiang Dai, who was only an Immortal Emperor at the time. For an Immortal Emperor to tamper with Elemental Veil so thoroughly that Joe Di couldn't detect it seemed impossible.
Unable to figure it out, Joe Di simply stopped thinking about it. After all, he still had Mindshift, and with his divine sense now strengthened, even Dao Transformation cultivators might not be able to catch up to him.
Success in Dao Forging was Joe Di's greatest motivation.
Joe Di cast a Dust Removal Technique on himself, cleaned off the dust and tidied up the remaining divine crystals, slung the Tiansuo Blade on his back, and continued deeper into the Grand Ruins.
Even though he had succeeded in Dao Forging, Joe Di did not plan to leave immediately. The Grand Ruins were filled with fragmented rules of heaven and earth; other cultivators came here only to comprehend their divine abilities or search for materials, unable to cultivate. Joe Di was different—he could cultivate here.
[System message skipped: not part of the narrative.]
In the Grand Ruins, aside from Elemental Beasts, there were only various fragmented rules of heaven and earth.
Joe Di did not know how long the Grand Ruins had existed, but the map he bought in a jade slip was very rough. This meant many cultivators who entered the Grand Ruins never brought out a map. Or perhaps, many places in the Grand Ruins looked similar, making it hard to map out.
In cultivation, time has no meaning. Ten years later, Joe Di had long shed his disguise; his hair was long, and even without makeup, his face was covered with a beard.
Compared to when he first entered the Grand Ruins, Joe Di now possessed a majestic aura similar to that of the Grand Ruins itself.
In ten years, Joe Di's divine sense had risen another level, and his cultivation had reached the mid-stage of Dao Forging.
Moreover, he had collected a massive pile of rule materials in his ring. Later, he became too lazy to pick up materials with unclear rule auras. In these ten years, he had slain countless Elemental Beasts. Since their corpses were worthless, Joe Di's ring would have been filled if they were.
In ten years, all of Joe Di's divine abilities became increasingly flawless. Due to long-term array flag placement, his array mastery improved again, making him a second-tier Grand Arraymaster.
What continued to puzzle Joe Di was that after ten years in the Grand Ruins, he still hadn't found the entrance to the second level.
In fact, Joe Di had long grown tired of the first level. He wanted to explore the second level, preferably to obtain a few rule fragments.
One day, Joe Di was still training in the Grand Ruins when he heard a thunderous roar, mixed with the explosion of divine abilities.
Joe Di immediately sent out his divine sense and soon saw a young man in gold robes surrounded by hundreds of Elemental Beasts. Relying on a defensive array disk and a set of powerful artifact armor, the youth barely withstood the attacks.
[Author message skipped: not part of the narrative.]