Chapter 480: Fusing the Divine Corpse, Advancing to Saint Lord!

Su Mu was a man of action. His ideas never merely stayed on paper; he put them into practice immediately. Thus, he decided to fuse the Divine Corpse right then and there.

He looked at the Flesh Lotus and the Mechanical Heart before him, eventually reaching out for the Mechanical Heart.

He didn't choose the Merciful Holy Mother of Myriad Blossoms. Her abilities belonged to a completely different system from the Giant Demon. Forcing the fusion would not only increase the risk of failure, but even if it succeeded, the conflicting attributes would make him weaker than other Saint Lords at the same level.

In contrast, Fallen Sin Maitreya was a much better fit. As the Lord of Primal Desolation had demonstrated, Fallen Sin Maitreya leaned far more toward the physical body.

Slicing his own chest open, he exposed his scarlet heart, which was tethered by countless blood vessels, and firmly pressed the Mechanical Heart against it.

The moment the two hearts touched, the bronze gears on the Mechanical Heart began to turn. Several tiny mechanical arms extended from it, piercing deep into his fleshy heart.

As the two hearts began to fuse, Su Mu's expression did not waver. With a mere thought, he blocked his sense of pain. He swept his fingers across his chest, and the gruesome wound healed shut in an instant.

"Is this the process of advancing to a Saint Lord? It feels truly wondrous."

He could feel Fallen Sin Maitreya eroding him from the inside. That evil, overbearing divine power was attempting to hijack his body. If he failed to refine this power, he would be reduced to nothing more than a divine puppet, becoming an entity just like the Mechanical Maitreya.

"It seems advancing to a Saint Lord isn't so simple after all. It takes more than just obtaining a Divine Corpse."

Obtaining a Divine Corpse was merely a prerequisite. If one couldn't suppress it, the effort would be in vain.

However, while this would be an impossibly grueling ordeal for any other Saint Grade, it was effortless for Su Mu.

He was already a Saint Lord, and the being he had fused with was the True God Xuan Tian. Using the power of the nightmare to suppress Fallen Sin Maitreya couldn't exactly be called effortless, but it was at most a mild exertion.

It was roughly equivalent to a high schooler planting his foot on his toddler brother's chest to keep the kid pinned to the floor.

Under the suppression of the nightmare's power, Fallen Sin Maitreya quickly and obediently melded into his flesh. Before long, Su Mu's beating heart was entirely replaced by the Mechanical Heart.

The heavy thud of his heartbeat gradually intertwined with the grinding of metal gears.

A cold metallic light erupted from his body. It pierced through heaven and earth, nearly dyeing the entire Dream World in shades of steel.

Rumble, rumble...

The roar of turning gears echoed outward, growing louder and louder until it was deafening.

Several days later, the cold light faded. A figure stepped out, looking as though he had emerged straight from the chaotic crossroads of ancient myth and cyberpunk—a sudden, shocking presence.

An almost tangible aura of oppression exploded outward. Eight bronze mechanical arms were perfectly aligned like a precise matrix. Their sculpted, knotted muscles bulged, radiating the most primal sense of raw power.

Beneath the surface of his skin, interlocking mechanical gears could be faintly seen. They continuously engaged and spun, letting out soft clacking sounds in a wondrous resonance of mechanical rhythm and biological vitality.

Curiously, Su Mu examined his six extra mechanical arms. He curled his fingers into fists, and all eight arms exerted force at the same time. The air caught in his palms was crushed instantly, popping with an ear-piercing crack and sending white jets of compressed air shooting outward.

Seeing this, he couldn't help but chuckle. "Now who will be able to tell the real Yuanhuang from the fake?"

If he impersonated Yuanhuang right now, he would absolutely be more authentic than the original.

...

...

The Illusion Ash Realm.

Inside a white jade palace so immaculate it lacked a single speck of impurity.

Draped in a snow-white robe, the Lord of Illusory Ashes was fishing by the lake. His unkempt white hair fell loosely around his shoulders, catching the sunlight in scattered flashes of silver—just like winter branches heavy with frost.

He sat in perfect posture by the water. A gentle breeze swept past, lifting layers of ripples across the lake's surface. The dancing light reflected in his crystalline blue eyes, making him look as ethereal as an immortal.

The Lord of Illusory Ashes seemed to be in high spirits, a faint smile playing on his handsome face.

"To think a day would come when even I would join the Temple of God Slaying."

Thinking back to a few days ago, when an envoy from the unfathomable Temple of God Slaying had extended an olive branch, promising him exceptional admittance if he simply passed their trial, he couldn't suppress his grin.

To ordinary people, the Temple of God Slaying was nothing but an ethereal myth. However, a Saint Lord of his caliber knew perfectly well that it truly existed. It was a terrifying organization that stood above the world itself. They simply never bothered with mortal squabbles, dedicating themselves entirely to combating the Gods. That was why the public knew nothing about them.

Any Saint Lord who managed to piece together a complete Divine Puzzle and ascend to the Demigod Realm would receive an invitation from the Temple.

The Temple's purpose was exactly what its name implied... God-Slaying!

The scourge of the Gods had turned the mortal world into a living hell, and so humanity yearned to slay them. Thus, several entities who had gathered Divine Puzzles and reached the Demigod Realm founded the Temple, swearing to eradicate the Gods and claim mastery over heaven and earth for the human race!

The Lord of Illusory Ashes scoffed at their grand aspirations. In his eyes, the Temple of God Slaying might have genuinely cared about humanity when it was first founded, but now, it existed mostly for the sake of its own members.

Eradicating the Gods? They merely wanted to become Gods themselves.

Human greed knew no bounds. After enduring untold hardships to complete a Divine Puzzle and reach the Demigod Realm, would those demigods really not want a glimpse into the realm of God?

But none of that mattered. He didn't care about their true motives as long as he could join. With the Temple's backing, he could easily collect the puzzle pieces he needed, advance to the Demigod Realm, and finally use the Temple as a springboard to become a True God!

This was his lifelong goal. It might look ridiculous to outsiders, as despite the Temple of God Slaying dominating the shadows for so long, they had never produced a single True God. It was as if an impassable chasm separated man and God.

But he, the Lord of Illusory Ashes, was different! He knew he was favored by destiny, an utterly unique existence!

He had believed this with absolute certainty since he was an ordinary mortal many years ago. And it all stemmed from... that one peculiar dream!

The dream that had bestowed upon him near-infinite mental strength!

Relying on that special dreamscape, he had clawed his way up from nothing, eventually reaching the heights of a Saint Lord!

Only after taking his place as a Saint Lord did he realize what that dream actually was. It was... a God's dream. A fragment of a fallen True God's origin!

As long as he gathered the entirety of that God's origin, he would become a True God himself!

At this thought, the smile slowly faded from his lips. He hadn't been able to fully merge with that special dream. Back when he first reached the Saint Grade, he had intended to use the dream to advance to Saint Lord, but he had failed. Left with no other choice, he had fused with the Sovereign of Flame Hell instead.

Sitting on a True God's origin but being forced to settle for a demigod—how could he ever be satisfied with that?

The appearance of the Temple of God Slaying had given him hope. Perhaps he could acquire the right method from them.

Just as he was reveling in fantasies of his brilliant future, a young woman clad in snow-white armor sprinted over in a panic.

"Master, something terrible has happened."