Chapter 406: Origin Art, Three Rebirths Return to Their Source

Bai Sha wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of one claw. His injuries had already begun healing, and the power of his remaining phantom Primordial Spirits surged through his body in preparation for another attack. Yet the White Tiger’s expression was no longer completely confident, because Lin Yuan’s words suggested that the man had found a weakness he had never expected an opponent to discover.

“What do you think you have seen?” Bai Sha demanded.

Lin Yuan raised both hands. “The difference between possessing many lives and controlling the cycle that connects them.”

The silver-blue rain began to move.

Rather than gathering into a single formation, the droplets spread outward until they covered the entire battlefield. Every stream of rain carried a faint thread of golden-purple thunder, and the Dao Fruit of Three Rebirths rotated within Lin Yuan’s Primordial Spirit, synchronizing the countless droplets into a single, vast circulation.

Bai Sha immediately attacked. His slaughter intent surged outward, forming a storm of silver-white blades that swept across the battlefield, attempting to sever the rain before Lin Yuan could complete the technique. The blades tore through thousands of droplets, but each fragment continued carrying a trace of Origin energy, and the surrounding thunder connected those fragments to the remaining network.

The White Tiger’s eyes widened as he realized that destroying the rain no longer disrupted the formation in the way it had before. Lin Yuan had spread the technique across the battlefield, making each droplet a small part of a greater circulation, so the destruction of individual components could not easily break the whole.

Lin Yuan brought his hands together, using the origin art that lay within the origin trace of his Dao Fruit. “Origin Art, Three Rebirths Return to Their Source.”

The words echoed across the Grand Court, and the Dao Fruit within his Primordial Spirit released a pulse of silver-blue, golden-purple, and faintly iridescent light. The rain answered immediately, forming countless fine threads that stretched toward Bai Sha, passing through the layers of slaughter intent surrounding his body without attempting to destroy them.

The threads did not attack the White Tiger’s flesh. Instead, they sought the connections between the phantom Primordial Spirits and the bloodline circulation that sustained them, following the hidden paths Lin Yuan had glimpsed during their earlier exchange. The golden-purple thunder stabilized the threads, while the silver-blue rain carried the principle of renewal through every connection.

Bai Sha felt the change and roared. He attempted to sever the threads with his claws, but the Origin energy slipped away from the physical attack and reappeared along the same circulation. His slaughter intent could destroy a manifested technique through overwhelming force, yet these threads were not relying upon a single physical structure that he could simply tear apart.

“What have you done to my bloodline?” the Demon Lord shouted.

Lin Yuan’s expression remained calm. “Nothing that was not already possible. Your bloodline connects your lives to your body, and your body converts their remaining power into strength. I am merely separating those two processes.”

The White Tiger’s body convulsed as the threads tightened. The crimson scars across his chest flared with blinding light, and the sixteen remaining phantom Primordial Spirits began to tremble within their hidden circulation. Bai Sha immediately gathered his power to force them back into place, but the more energy he released, the more clearly the connections became visible to Lin Yuan’s perception.

The Demon Lord understood that allowing the technique to continue would be disastrous. He gathered every trace of slaughter intent into his right claw, compressing the energy until it became a silver-white blade so dense that the surrounding space bent away from its edge. With a furious roar, he swung toward Lin Yuan, intending to destroy the man before the technique could reach completion.

Lin Yuan did not attempt to block the attack directly. He shifted his body to the side, allowing the blade to pass close enough to tear through his sleeve, then raised his left hand and struck Bai Sha’s wrist with a concentrated burst of golden-purple thunder. The White Tiger’s claw deviated from its intended path, and the silver-white blade carved through an empty section of the sky.

Lin Yuan stepped forward and struck again. His fist landed against Bai Sha’s chest, directly upon the crimson scars, and the impact sent a pulse of Origin energy through the bloodline circulation. The Demon Lord staggered, his claws scraping across the broken platform as he struggled to regain his balance.

The rain tightened.

One by one, the threads reached the hidden presences within Bai Sha’s body. The sixteen phantom Primordial Spirits shuddered as the principle of Three Rebirths spread through their connections, revealing the boundary between their individual existence and the bloodline that bound them together. For the first time, the mechanism of the White Tiger’s nineteen lives was no longer hidden behind the overwhelming force of his cultivation.

Bai Sha screamed and unleashed a wave of slaughter intent that shattered the platform beneath him. The surrounding ruins collapsed, and a vast shockwave swept across the Grand Court, forcing the surviving cultivators to reinforce their defenses. Yet Lin Yuan remained close, his True Elemental Body circulating through the Five Great Secret Realms as the Qilin strengthened his attacks and the Black Tortoise anchored him against the force of the Demon Lord’s resistance.

The White Tiger struck him repeatedly. Each blow carried enough power to shatter a mountain, and several attacks broke through Lin Yuan’s defenses, leaving his body trembling beneath the accumulated force. The Azure Dragon Secret Realm supplied the vitality needed to stabilize his injuries, while the Vermilion Bird Secret Realm circulated through his body to help restore the balance of his internal energy.

Lin Yuan did not attempt to overpower every blow with brute strength. He used his perception to move through the narrow openings between Bai Sha’s attacks, striking whenever the White Tiger’s energy circulation became exposed. Every successful blow sent another pulse of Origin energy into the crimson scars, gradually weakening the connections that allowed the phantom Primordial Spirits to remain linked to the Demon Lord’s body.

Bai Sha’s rage grew with every exchange. He had fought for countless years, and his nineteen lives had allowed him to survive enemies who possessed superior techniques, stronger artifacts, and even greater cultivation. Yet he had never faced an opponent who treated the very mechanism of his immortality as something that could be separated from him and examined.

“You think you can take my lives from me?” Bai Sha roared, his voice shaking the surrounding ruins. “These are the gifts of my bloodline, the authority that has allowed me to stand above countless demons! No human can strip them away!”