Cultivating Immortality :I Obtained The Villain's Ascension Code
Chapter 38: Death of the Prince

Chapter 38: Death of the Prince

Wu Shu’s face turned pale as paper. His limbs trembled as if unable to bear the weight of his own cultivation. The faint light in his eyes flickered once, then went out entirely.

A muffled crack sounded from within his body—his dantian collapsing inward as the last traces of spiritual energy dissipated into the air. Without his nascent soul to anchor it, his cultivation foundation crumbled in an instant. Blood leaked from the corners of his mouth, then from his ears, his nose.

His breath hitched once. Then he ceased moving altogether.

Xiao Ning stood a short distance away, his expression calm. After a moment, he walked forward in silence.

He knelt beside the corpse and extended two fingers, gently sliding the space ring from Wu Shu’s right hand. The ring’s restrictions had already faded.

Then, without hurry, Xiao Ning’s gaze swept toward the man’s sleeve. A faint fluctuation of spiritual light lingered near the seam.

He raised his hand and flicked lightly.

A small talisman, about the length of a finger, slid out from the hidden compartment. Its surface was covered in obscure silver-gold markings—clearly a fifth-grade escape talisman, likely infused with a strand of intent from a superior cultivator.

Xiao Ning weighed it in his palm, then tucked it away with the same calm expression.

"With this nascent soul, the first fold of Ignition can proceed without flaw. By my calculations, it will elevate my spiritual power to nearly five times its current strength."

He remained still for a long moment, letting the cold wind brush against his sleeves. His expression didn’t change, but in his mind, calculations flickered like lightning.

The nascent soul he had just obtained was intact. Though weakened by death, it still held the deep vitality of a half-step Heavenly Tribulation cultivator. It was more than sufficient for his purposes.

First fold Ignition.

A rare and dangerous process. It involved refining an external nascent soul into pure spiritual force and integrating it into one’s own cultivation. Most who attempted it failed, their meridians bursting from the spiritual backlash. But Xiao Ning had long since walked the boundary between destruction and balance. If he acted with precision, the result would be a clean fivefold increase in spiritual power.

Fivefold. It sounded simple, but the weight of such an increase was immeasurable.

It was not a mere thickening of qi. It was a qualitative change. And with that came the threshold to awaken his Asura Form.

The Asura Form wasn’t a typical transformation. It wasn’t some bloodline gift or inherited mutation. It was the result of forcibly harmonizing opposing spiritual laws—balance pushed to the brink of destruction, refined into singular purpose.

Once awakened, this form would act as a true spiritual projection, a phantom manifestation of his essence. Its presence alone would passively enhance all of his abilities—amplifying perception, quickening responses, and pushing every technique to the edge of perfection. Its six phantom arms could mirror, weave, or clash with almost any technique, and its silent aura carried an oppressive clarity that could erode weaker souls.

According to the incomplete scrolls he had retrieved from the Drifting Bone Realm, once the Asura Form stabilized, it would stand as a spiritual twin—mirroring his actions and intentions, capable of channeling techniques in unison or opposition.

Even without relying on any external treasures, Xiao Ning would be able to hold his ground against a heavenly tribulation cultivator in the early stage.

And this was before accounting for his other advantages: A fourth-rank physical body, resistant to both internal disruption and external force.

The Yin-Yang Mirror Scripture from his previous life. And more than a dozen powerful arts.

If forced into a true battle, and if he revealed his full hand, then even a mid-stage heavenly tribulation realm expert would find themselves overwhelmed.

This was not arrogance. It was calculation.

Of course, that was only if he didn’t hesitate to burn the last of his hidden means.

Some of the techniques he possessed came with a cost no sane cultivator would be willing to pay.

One in particular—the Dismantling Heaven Incarnation Method—required the partial collapse of one’s own foundation in exchange for temporary authority over higher laws. If employed, he might be able to contend with even a late-stage Heavenly Tribulation expert or higher.

Such feats were the stuff of ancient sect annals and buried war records. Stories dismissed as exaggeration. Tales of Nascent Soul cultivators slaying giants.

But Xiao Ning had long stopped caring for precedent.

He knew the truth. He had seen it with his own eyes.

The path to power did not lie in stability or legacy—it lay in the narrow gap between desperation and opportunity.

Still, it was not a simple matter to challenge the heavenly tribulation realm.

That realm was a turning point. One where spiritual power ceased to be the focus and essence—a condensed reflection of the Dao—took center stage.

Upon entering the Heavenly Tribulation Realm, a cultivator’s spiritual force began to undergo qualitative transformation. Each minor realm advancement triggered a heavenly tribulation, not always lethal, but never optional. It was a trial imposed by the heavens to judge the cultivator’s path.

Only by withstanding this tribulation—and more importantly, by gathering the heavenly tribulation qi it produced—could one advance further.

Heavenly tribulation qi was a volatile and rare essence, imbued with the fury and recognition of the heavens. The more one could absorb during a tribulation, the more stable and refined their cultivation would become. Those who failed to seize enough would find themselves stuck, unable to progress no matter how much spiritual power they accumulated.

This was what made the Heavenly Tribulation Realm fundamentally different from the realms before it.

In the Nascent Soul Realm, advancement was a matter of accumulation and internal harmony.

But in the Heavenly Tribulation Realm, advancement required approval—a kind of metaphysical acknowledgment that the cultivator’s path had value.

And the gap between its stages was vast. Between mid-stage and late-stage, the difference was no longer simply in power, but in resonance with the Dao itself. The cultivator’s soul began to imprint itself onto the world, and their every action carried echoes of a greater truth.

Against such beings, even the smallest mistake could be fatal.

Yet Xiao Ning had no intention of stopping.

His foundation was built precisely to contend with the impossible.

The fivefold ignition, the Asura Form, the forbidden arts—these were not mere tools, but steps in a larger preparation. One that had been quietly preparing since he took over Li Fang’s body.

He lowered his gaze toward the distant horizon, lost in thoughts.

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