After a thousand years of cultivation, he returns at the pinnacle!

Chapter 146 Investiture of the Gods

First breath.

Jiang Chen's chest was pierced by the Watcher's Sword. Dark golden power of law surged into his meridians, spreading throughout his body along his blood vessels, meridians, and true essence channels. His heart skipped a beat in his chest cavity.

Second breath.

The blade of the Watcher's Sword pierced his heart. Dark golden light surged from the wound on the surface of his heart, spreading along the aorta throughout his body. His consciousness began to fade.

The third breath.

Nesario's absolute stillness has been lifted.

The moment the stillness dissipated, Jiang Chen's true essence surged from his dantian like a tidal wave, rushing along his meridians towards the wound on his chest pierced by the Watcher's Sword. The golden Zhou Tian Star Fire, the dark red Burning Silence Fire, and the icy blue Ice Profound Power—the three heavenly fires intertwined, fused, and burned at the wound, peeling away, evaporating, and negating the invading dark golden law power layer by layer from his blood vessels.

His right hand gripped the Primordial Sword tightly, and the tri-colored light on the blade suddenly blazed, forcing Kahn back three steps. The Watcher's Sword was pulled from his chest, bringing with it a spray of dark red blood. The blood dispersed in the void, transforming into countless tiny droplets, each containing the residual warmth of the three heavenly fires, burning, evaporating, and turning into nothingness in the void.

Jiang Chen knelt on one knee in the void, his right hand supporting himself on the Primordial Sword, his left hand pressed against the still-bleeding wound on his chest. Tri-colored light flashed wildly at the wound, repairing, regenerating, and reshaping the torn muscles, blood vessels, and bones layer by layer. His face was pale, his lips devoid of color, but his eyes shone with an astonishing brilliance—the fiercer fighting spirit that surged from the wound of a hunter bitten by his prey, even more intense than before.

"Three breaths." Jiang Chen raised his head, looked at Kahn, and slightly raised the corners of his mouth. "Your Absolute Stillness has locked me in place for three breaths. Kahn's Watch Sword has pierced my heart."

He rose from the void, removing his left hand from his chest. The wound had healed completely, leaving no scar, but there was a hole in the chest of his uniform where a sword had pierced through, the edges of which were dark gold scorch marks.

"But do you know that there is something in this world that cannot be absolutely stilled, nor pierced by the Watcher's Sword?"

He raised the Primordial Sword, its tip aimed at Kahn's brow. Six stars on the hilt lit up simultaneously, gold, red, and blue light weaving into a three-colored pillar of light that stretched across the heavens and earth. At the center of this pillar, a fourth color was awakening—the Dao Fruit of the fourth Immortal Emperor within the Primordial Sword, a power more ancient than the flames of the Zhou Tian Stars, more intense than the Flame of Burning Soul, and more profound than the power of Ice Profound.

"The Heart of the Dao".

Jiang Chen's voice was very soft, yet it caused the core of the laws of all the apostles in the entire void to tremble simultaneously.

"Nesario, your absolute stillness can imprison my physical body, but it cannot imprison my Dao heart. Karn, your Watcher's Sword can pierce my heart, but it cannot pierce my Dao heart." He took a step forward, and a circle of ripples of gold, red, and blue exploded beneath his feet. "Because my Dao heart was forged through a thousand years of slaughter, a thousand years of solitude, and a thousand years of loss. It is no longer a part of my body—it is my very existence."

On the blade of the Primordial Sword, the fourth kind of light finally fully awakened.

It was a pure black light.

The fourth Immortal Emperor's Daoist title is "Void".

Thirty thousand years ago, a hundred Immortal Emperors besieged the Demon Ancestor. The Primordial Emperor set up an array, burning the heavens and burning the armor, and sealing with ice and mystery. The Void Immortal Emperor's task was the most dangerous—he used his Dao Fruit of "nothingness" to separate the Demon Ancestor's chaotic will from its very existence.

But he failed. The Demon Ancestor's chaotic will was too strong; the Dao Fruit of the Void Immortal Emperor shattered during the stripping process, leaving only a wisp of his soul to escape back into the seal. Thirty thousand years later, this wisp of soul slumbered within the Primordial Sword, awakening the moment Jiang Chen's Dao Heart was pierced by Kahn.

"Jiang Chen." The voice of the Void Immortal Emperor came from the Primordial Sword, as calm as the void itself, "Your Dao Heart is the same as mine when I separated the Demon Ancestor's will."

Jiang Chen gripped the Primordial Sword, feeling the pure black light on its blade resonating with his Dao heart.

"Master Void," Jiang Chen said, looking at the pure black light on the sword blade, "I'll borrow your Dao Fruit."

"It was always yours."

Jiang Chen raised the Primordial Sword, its tip aimed at Kahn. A fourth type of light surged from the blade, intertwining with the gold, red, and blue rays to form a four-colored beam of light. The beam of light slammed into Kahn, so fast that even Neltharion's Absolute Stillness couldn't lock onto it in time.

Kahn raised his Watcher's Sword to parry.

The four beams of light collided with the blade of the Watcher's Sword, the dark golden light clashing violently with the four colors. Fine cracks appeared on the blade of the Watcher's Sword, spreading rapidly from the tip to the hilt. The cracks on the blade were reflected in Kahn's amber pupils, and the smile on his lips finally vanished.

The Watcher's Sword is shattered.

Dark golden fragments drifted through the void, like a silent, dark golden snowfall. Kahn looked down at the Watcher's Sword, now only its hilt remaining, and remained silent for a moment. Then he raised his head, looking at Jiang Chen, and for the first time, genuine fighting spirit appeared in his amber pupils.

"very good."

He tucked the broken sword hilt into his sleeve, spread his arms, and tilted his head back. His black robe fluttered in the air, his short, neat black hair flew in the gale, and the old scar on his forehead gleamed coldly under the four-colored light.

"Thirty thousand years ago, I was not qualified to participate in that war. Thirty thousand years later, I have finally found an opponent worthy of my full strength."

His body began to glow.

"Jiang Chen, didn't you want to know what the First Apostle's laws are?"

His voice echoed in the amber light, deep and resonant, carrying a sense of composure that came with the passage of countless years.

"The ultimate form of the Watcher's Law is not watching. It is—"

He raised his right hand, fingers spread, palm facing up.

"—Investiture of the Gods"

The amber light suddenly intensified. In the void, the phantoms of ten Apostle Temples simultaneously appeared, resonating with the amber light surrounding Kahn. Within each phantom of an Apostle Temple, the core of an Apostle's law pulsated wildly—an absolute domain large enough to cover the entire void, formed by Kahn over tens of thousands of years by deeply fusing the cores of other Apostles' laws with his own Watcher Law.

In this realm, Kahn's will is the law. He can bestow "divinity" upon anything, or strip any being of its "qualification to exist."

"In the realm of the Investiture of the Gods, I am a god."

Kahn's voice came from the amber light, as calm as the unchanging void itself.

"Jiang Chen, how long can your Dao heart hold on?"