The moment Solanky returned to the safe zone, he retrieved the lifeless spiritual body of the Half-Step Peak-Turn malevolent spirit.
A pillar of golden light descended upon the corpse.
An ancient mechanical voice echoed throughout the spiritual space.
"Verification complete. Half-Step Peak-Turn malevolent spirit confirmed."
The announcement sent waves of astonishment through every seedling present.
None of them had expected anyone to slay such a terrifying opponent.
When that malevolent spirit had first appeared, it had seemed completely invincible.
Golden chains rose from beneath the safe zone once more.
They coiled around the waist of Solanky's spiritual body before pulling him into the ground.
None of the others found the sight strange.
It was the very same method by which they had entered this spiritual world.
The chains served as a bridge, guiding the seedlings' spiritual bodies back to their physical forms after they had successfully strengthened their spiritual cultivation.
...
The next instant, Solanky's spiritual body merged back into his physical body.
He slowly opened his eyes.
Immediately, he sensed an astonishing change.
His body felt incomparably lighter, as though every movement had become instinctive.
His control over every muscle, every strand of spiritual power, and every breath had reached an entirely new level.
Even his perception of the surrounding world had expanded dramatically.
Standing before him was the Desolate God.
A satisfied smile rested upon the ancient expert's face.
"Excellent."
"You have successfully evolved your spiritual body to the Half-Step Peak-Turn level."
"Now waste no time."
"Break through to the Transcendent Entity realm."
"With your talent, the moment you advance, you will directly become a Saint Emperor Transcendent Entity."
"I look forward to witnessing it."
Solanky immediately rose and respectfully bowed.
"Senior."
"I have one request."
The Desolate God nodded.
"Speak."
"I wish to venture into the Beyond Realm alone."
"I don't want any seniors secretly protecting me from the shadows."
For a brief moment, the Desolate God remained silent.
Then a smile slowly appeared on his face.
"There truly is only one path capable of giving birth to an absolute existence."
"It is forged through the harshest trials."
"It is tempered beneath impossible hardships."
"I approve."
"I shall issue the decree immediately."
"From this day onward, no one will follow you."
"No one will interfere with your path toward transcendence."
His expression became solemn.
"But once your affairs are settled..."
"...return to the Desolate God Region."
Solanky nodded.
"I understand."
The Desolate God casually waved his sleeve.
Space rippled.
In the blink of an eye, Solanky was transported beyond the borders of the Desolate God Region.
...
Now possessing a Half-Step Peak-Turn spiritual body, Solanky no longer regarded someone like the Officiator, an entry-level Saint Emperor, as a genuine threat.
He expanded his spiritual sense.
In an instant, it swept across a radius of nine hundred light-years.
He searched for a suitable place to enter secluded cultivation.
Soon, he discovered a dying star located roughly five hundred light-years away.
Taking a single step, he vanished.
The next moment, he appeared above the collapsing star.
The massive celestial body measured approximately 2.6 light-years in diameter.
Its terrifying temperature alone was sufficient to reduce an Infinite Source God to ashes.
Yet to Solanky, whose body had already reached the Peak Entity realm, such heat was utterly insignificant.
He formed a series of hand seals.
Instantly, the surrounding one hundred and twenty light-years of space became completely isolated.
Blue Source-Defying Flames spread throughout the sealed region, freezing space itself into crystalline stillness.
With another wave of his hand, Solanky released a sphere of Velvet Contamination.
The sphere shattered.
An endless velvet mist quietly spread throughout the sealed region, disguising everything within and making the entire area appear perfectly natural to outside observers.
Satisfied, Solanky descended directly into the core of the dying star.
There, he sat cross-legged.
Deep within his body, the Source-Defying Armor began to tremble violently.
It had fused prematurely with every cell in his body long ago.
Now, as he prepared to become a Transcendent Entity, the armor resonated with unprecedented intensity.
At the Transcendent level, a cultivator's body could no longer remain ordinary flesh and blood.
Every cell had to be reforged through spiritual power.
Every tendon.
Every bone.
Every drop of blood.
Everything had to become an extension of one's will.
Under the crushing pressure of his own spiritual power, Solanky's cells collapsed.
Then they were reborn.
Again.
And again.
The process was unimaginably painful.
Each reconstruction integrated more spiritual power into his body until every fragment of his existence carried his will.
From that point onward, even if his body were completely destroyed, as long as faith and external belief remained, his will could reconstruct his body and restore him to life.
Only techniques belonging to the Peak-Turn realm possessed the power to erase such an existence completely.
Advancing into the Transcendent Entity realm also required another sacrifice.
Every cultivator had to sever their control over their Infinite Source Worlds and every internal world they possessed.
Only then would those worlds truly belong to the lives within them.
Few cultivators were willing to make such a sacrifice.
Most continued manipulating the destinies of those worlds, treating them as future sources of faith or as backups for reincarnation after ascending into sainthood.
Solanky, however, had never agreed with such thinking.
To him, every life possessed equal value.
Power did not determine one's right to choose.
Every being deserved ownership over their own destiny.
Because of that belief, he had already fulfilled that requirement long ago.
With nothing left to sever, he focused entirely upon merging with the Source-Defying Armor.
Yet before long...
His progress came to an abrupt halt.
An invisible wall blocked his advancement.
His thoughts drifted back to the mysterious diagram left behind by the Entity of the Moon.
He had memorized it long ago.
Now, he carefully searched through his memories until he found it once more.
He immersed himself completely in studying its mysteries.
A century passed in absolute silence.
At last, enlightenment arrived.
Solanky began rearranging the structure of the Source-Defying Armor itself.
Starting from his feet, he reconstructed every layer upward until reaching his waist.
His skin.
His muscles.
His tendons.
His bones.
Every part of his lower body transformed completely into genuine Source-Defying Armor.
Previously, only his cells possessed that nature.
Now, his entire lower body had become one with it.
The result was immediate.
Its strength increased fiftyfold.
But Solanky knew this was merely the beginning.
To unlock the armor's complete potential, every part of his body had to undergo the same transformation.
He continued.
For another two hundred years, he repeatedly rearranged his body's internal structure.
Again and again, the harmonization failed.
Rather than force the process, he patiently began anew each time.
Another six hundred years slipped by.
Finally...
Perfect harmony was achieved.
The complete reconstruction of his body required a full thousand years.
Within the lower realms, the same passage of time equaled one hundred thousand years.
As Solanky slowly opened his eyes, overwhelming power surged through every corner of his body.
His strength had increased five thousandfold.
Before entering seclusion, he possessed roughly nine hundred and eighty thousand times the strength of an Infinite Source God.
Now...
His physical strength alone had reached approximately 4.9 billion times that of an Infinite Source God.
A regular Transcendent Saint typically possessed around ten million times the strength of an Infinite Source God.
That was roughly ten times stronger than a Peak Entity with an ordinary special lifeform, whose upper limit was approximately one million times the strength of an Infinite Source God.
Special lifeform Transcendent Saints could reach ten times that level, placing them on par with entry-level Immortal Gods possessing ordinary lifeforms, as well as Venerable Saint Transcendent Entities, whose strength approached one hundred million times that of an Infinite Source God.
At the Transcendent level, however, nearly every cultivator's lifeform was deliberately suppressed.
Regardless of its true potential, most lifeforms could display no more than ten times the strength of ordinary beings.
The suppression existed for a reason.
It concealed their life signatures from the calamitous beings lurking beyond the Beyond Realm.
The restriction had been established by the greatest True Peak-Turn beings, including Supremo, Behan, and the other members of the Council of Peak-Turn Beings.
A Saint Emperor Transcendent Entity normally possessed approximately one billion times the strength of an Infinite Source God.
Exceptional figures, such as the First Venerable One, reached approximately 6.8 billion times that level.
Even special lifeforms remained heavily suppressed at this realm, rarely exceeding four times the strength of ordinary cultivators.
Only extraordinary existences could break that limitation.
Elisa was one such anomaly.
Despite the suppression, she possessed roughly 7.2 billion times the strength of an Infinite Source God.
Half-Step Peak-Turn beings stood far above them all.
Depending on the quality of their lifeforms, their strength ranged between ten and fifty billion times that of an Infinite Source God.
Ordinary Half-Step Peak-Turn cultivators alone possessed approximately fifteen times the strength of a Saint Emperor Transcendent Entity.
Their overwhelming life force could annihilate an Infinite Source God through sheer presence.
Feeling the dramatic increase in his strength, Solanky conceived another idea.
He summoned the Source-Defying Flames.
At the same time, he brought forth his remaining Transcendent Grasses of Eternity.
If he used both together...
Perhaps he could refine his body once again.
As the refinement began, countless mysterious seals surfaced across his flesh.
One after another, Solanky shattered them.
Each broken seal released another portion of his body's hidden potential.
Only after every seal had vanished did he begin merging the medicinal essence of more than ten Transcendent Grasses of Eternity into his body.
This final refinement proved even more time-consuming.
Another three thousand years quietly passed.
While Solanky remained in seclusion, the other seedlings continued advancing.
Most successfully entered the Transcendent Entity realm.
Among them all, the mysterious woman remained the strongest.
She had already become a Saint Emperor Transcendent Entity whose strength measured approximately 3.5 billion times that of an Infinite Source God.
Meanwhile, the inevitable war between the Levians and the Forsakens drew ever closer.
Six thousand years after entering seclusion...
Solanky finally emerged.
With a gentle wave of his hand, every formation and seal surrounding the dying star dispersed.
His long white hair danced through the void.
During those countless years, he had allowed his beard and hair to grow freely, giving him a far more mature and imposing appearance.
After refining more than ten Transcendent Grasses of Eternity and breaking every hidden seal within his body...
His lifeform strength had reached an astonishing ten billion times the strength of an Infinite Source God.
At that moment...
He stood as the strongest existence beneath the Half-Step Peak-Turn realm.