Chapter 578: Advancing to Tier 8, Igniting Divine Fire

Chapter 578: Ascending to the Eighth Tier — Kindling Divine Flame

“This is the sun within my heart.”

Li Wei once again unleashed the dragon’s breath that could obliterate all things—the Stellar Annihilation Breath.

Within the breath seemed to flicker countless stars, born and dying in an instant, erupting with boundless power.

This time, Sasha had no divine strength of the void to shield him.

He could only rely on his Void Shield.

In the blink of an eye, the terrifying dragon’s breath shattered the shield.

Sasha attempted to teleport away the moment his shield broke.

But Li Wei gave him no chance.

The breath crushed the space around them entirely.

Even teleportation became impossible without solid ground.

In the end, his body was engulfed by the breath, burned for several seconds, then turned to ash and vanished.

All that remained at the spot was a ball of tricolor flame.

Seeing the colored flame, Li Wei revealed a look of surprise.

“Divine fire?”

After Sasha’s death, the divine flame he had kindled upon becoming a demigod was left behind.

It did not vanish along with him.

Li Wei took the divine flame Sasha had dropped and discovered it still contained a great deal of “objects of faith” that had yet to burn out.

That was precisely why Sasha's divine flame had lingered.

Li Wei had already comprehended the advanced laws of elemental fusion.

He had become a high-tier legendary mage.

And now, he was about to take the step toward the path of the eighth tier—demigodhood.

The divine flame left behind by Sasha would allow Li Wei to glimpse ahead of time how the path of a demigod unfolded.

Li Wei carefully secured the divine flame. As long as the "objects of faith" did not burn out completely, the flame would not extinguish.

This place was unsafe. Li Wei intended to take the divine flame back and find a secure location to comprehend the path of demigodhood that Sasha had walked.

He kicked open a rift between the Void and the Astral Plane, leaving the Void and returning to the Astral Plane.

Back in the Astral Plane—

Though the surroundings were still empty and barren, not even a meteorite in sight,

the oppressive silence of the Void was gone.

At least, twinkling starlight could be seen in the distance.

Having returned to the Astral Plane, Li Wei was no longer where he had been before.

He tried to locate the spatial coordinates he had previously marked.

Opening a portal through the Astral Step spell, he teleported back to the coordinates he had recorded.

Everything around him had changed.

Yet at least—he could see the sun.

That meant he was indeed closer to the path home.

Li Wei corrected his spatial coordinates.

After several consecutive teleportations, he finally arrived near the sun.

Looking at the smaller sun before him, he was somewhat surprised.

He hadn’t expected to have taken the wrong path again.

No matter. Now was the time to meditate on the divine flame left by Sasha, before it faded away.

Li Wei plunged straight into the sun.

To him, there was no safer place than inside the sun.

Here, backed by its immense energy, he wielded nearly infinite power.

Even someone as formidable as Sasha, who possessed the divine might of the Void, could only attempt to kill him after forcibly dragging him out of the sun.

Indeed, Sasha was incredibly powerful.

His strongest attack—"Final Descent"—had reached the peak level of a demigod.

If not for the protective dragon scales gifted by the Sacred Dragon King, Li Wei would have been kicked to death by Sasha.

Dying once wasn’t a big deal.

After all, he had the extraordinary trait of Nirvana Rebirth, which allowed him to come back to life.

But if he died, he wouldn’t have been able to kill Sasha in return.

He could only feign death and flee.

Of course, the way Li Wei ultimately killed Sasha wasn’t some nonsense about the “sun in his heart.”

There truly was a blazing sun within his mind sea.

But that sun merely granted him combat enhancements from the Solar Meditation technique.

Even during the night, when sunlight was absent, he could still gain this boost.

It could not be converted into true power.

Li Wei’s final burst of strength did not come from himself—

but from external sources.

He detonated vast quantities of magic stones and crystals obtained from the Jade Prince.

The energy released from the elemental fusion of those numerous magic stones and crystals briefly pushed him back to his peak.

After unleashing one blast of the Stellar Annihilation Breath, all his power was exhausted.

Still, the total output couldn’t compare to the energy generated by fusing elements from ninety thousand meters of solar matter he had taken from the sun.

But it was enough to kill Sasha.

Li Wei silently expressed gratitude once more to the Jade Prince for his generous gifts.

Without the vast reserves stored in the Jade Prince’s treasury, Li Wei would never have had so many magic stones and crystals to detonate and restore his strength.

The value of items lost in this battle likely exceeded ten million gold coins.

However, in exchange, he had gained a divine flame that had yet to fade.

It was well worth it.

Li Wei plunged into the heart of the sun, drawing in vast quantities of solar matter. Afterward, he lay upon the sun’s surface and transformed into a volcano.

He drew out the Divine Flame and began to contemplate its profound mysteries.

He sought to grasp in advance the path toward becoming a demigod.

Within the Divine Flame lay the path to demigodhood that Sasha had once walked.

As Li Wei meditated upon it, he placed himself within Sasha's shoes, personally experiencing every trial and revelation of that arduous journey.

Half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

Upon the sun, a flame giant towering millions of meters high slowly opened its eyes.

In half a year, Li Wei absorbed and comprehended the insights from Sasha’s journey to demigodhood.

He now understood what lay beyond the eighth realm.

The eighth realm was known as the Demigod Realm—

the final threshold before ascending to godhood.

To cross this path meant standing at the gates of the legendary divine domain.

Yet the path of the demigod was no easy road.

Not all who reached the eighth realm could be called demigods.

After contemplating Sasha’s cultivation insights, Li Wei gained a clear understanding of the stratification within the eighth realm.

One who had just entered the eighth realm but had not yet ignited the Divine Flame

could not be considered a true demigod.

They were the weakest among the eighth realm cultivators.

Examples included various monstrous beings born with eighth-realm power:

Hellfire from the Abyssal Plane, the Sacred Race created by deities, eighth-realm oceanic behemoths, eighth-realm stellar beasts...

These lifeforms possessed immense strength innately,

enabling them to effortlessly crush legendary-level warriors.

Thus, they were classified as eighth-realm existences.

But they were not demigods.

Far from possessing the might worthy of such a title.

Those who could truly be called demigods were those who had already set foot upon the path to divinity.

The most fundamental sign was the ignition of the Divine Flame.

Igniting the Divine Flame was only the beginning—it did not yet grant one the full power of a demigod.

Once ignited, the next step was to strengthen the Divine Flame.

There were two ways to do so.

The first was through self-immolation—burning one’s own offerings, burning one’s strength, burning one’s body, burning one’s soul.

Three stages of self-consuming combustion.

Until even the soul was utterly consumed, everything reduced to nothingness within the Divine Flame, reaching ultimate sublimation.

Only then could one directly transform into a true deity.

Failure, however, meant complete annihilation—soul dissipated, with no possibility of rebirth.

This method was extremely perilous.

Few dared to choose it for their ascension.

The second path involved burning “objects of faith.”

By consuming objects of faith, one could strengthen the Divine Flame. Once sufficiently empowered, the flame could coalesce into a divine core and divine power, allowing one to ascend to godhood.

However, this process required an enormous quantity of objects of faith to elevate the Divine Flame enough to form a divine core and power.

Yet newly ignited demigods were incapable of gathering such faith on their own.

They could only rely on true deities to obtain these objects.

Only gods could gather objects of faith.

This forced every demigod-level powerhouse to make a choice:

either walk the suicidal path of total self-immolation,

or submit to a deity, offering their faith in exchange for objects of faith.

The faith of a demigod brought great benefit to a deity.

No god would ever refuse such an offering.

But there was a problem: if one relied on a god’s faith objects to ascend, they would forever remain subordinate to that deity.

Even after becoming a god, a lingering flaw would remain.

Using faith objects to ascend meant one could only become a lesser deity beneath the one they worshipped.

It made reaching higher realms nearly impossible.

This involved the concept of divine systems.

Regarding divine systems, Sasha knew little.

He only knew that the Void God-King he worshipped belonged to the Void Divine System. The Void God-King held a lofty position within that system, far surpassing ordinary deities.

Deities outside any divine system, due to their mastery of fragmented and unstructured laws—mere fragments of universal principles—

were labeled as evil gods or foreign gods.

Their power was inherently much weaker than those within established divine systems.

Through absorbing Sasha’s insights on the demigod path, Li Wei had learned how to ignite and strengthen the Divine Flame.

All that remained was to break through to the eighth realm, ignite his own Divine Flame, and step into the demigod domain.

“Demigod!”

Li Wei pondered for a moment.

He cast a glance at the endless starry sky beyond.

He had submerged himself deep within the sun, drawing its power for cultivation.

Nowhere else could be more suitable for his training.

Saint Xi would not awaken for several decades yet.

Li Wei intended to cultivate here until he reached the demigod realm, then return to the Celestial World.

Deep within the sun’s core, he immersed himself entirely, merging with the sun itself.

His cultivation grew day by day.

His magical power surged endlessly, boundless and inexhaustible.

His mental power multiplied geometrically.

His Lord of Sacred Flame form had already far exceeded the scope of his mental control.

The massive physique forced his mental power to rapidly increase.

His body continued to grow taller day by day.

In the blink of an eye, ten years passed.

Li Wei's magical power had reached the peak of the seventh tier.

The height of his Lord of Sacred Flame form had expanded to eight million meters.

His mental power had also risen to this level.

He could now perfectly control the power of his entire body.

Whether it was magical power or mental strength, Li Wei had far surpassed the level of ordinary seventh-tier legendary mages.

His total magical power was hundreds of times greater than that of legendary mages of the same tier.

His mental power completely overwhelmed legendary mages of the same tier.

After reaching the peak, Li Wei broke through to the eighth tier in one fell swoop.

His strength had already far exceeded the realm of the seventh tier.

Breaking through to the eighth tier was as natural as water flowing downhill.

The barrier between the seventh and eighth tiers was like a mere illusion—Li Wei pierced through it with ease.

After advancing to the eighth tier, Li Wei could clearly perceive the existence of the laws governing heaven and earth.

He could not yet wield the power of these laws.

Merely perceiving them meant he was approaching the path to divinity.

Li Wei used the method he learned from Sasha's insights into divine fire to ignite his own sacred flame.

The path he chose was to burn himself completely, to burn everything.

Therefore, the way to ignite the sacred flame was quite simple.

First-degree self-immolation.

Burning one's own power.

Extraordinary power, magical energy, sacred might, draconic force... all manner of powers.

After burning everything away, divine power would be born through ultimate sublimation.

Li Wei began burning all the extraordinary traits he had possessed since his early days of weakness.

Basic Magical Control, Intermediate Magical Control, Advanced Magical Control.

Basic Elemental Body of Fire, Intermediate Elemental Body of Fire, Advanced Elemental Body of Fire.

Advanced Extraordinary Trait Dragon Flame.

Lesser Flame Lord, Greater Flame Lord.

Epic Arcane Enlightenment, Epic Core Secret.

Sacred Spirit Level Nirvana Rebirth.

Epic Divine Dragon's Life Sharing, Epic Sacred Dragon Body, Epic Draconic Power, Epic Sacred Might.

Epic Blessing of the Hundred Flowers Goddess.

Epic Arcane Codex, Epic Elemental Fission.

Legendary Divine Dragon's Life Sharing, Legendary Sacred Dragon Body, Legendary Draconic Power, Legendary Sacred Might.

Basic Flame Law, Intermediate Flame Law, Advanced Flame Law.

Legendary Dragon Slayer.

Exclusive Epic Sacred Flame Lord.

Legendary Elemental Fusion.

Basic Elemental Fusion Law, Intermediate Elemental Fusion Law, Advanced Elemental Fusion Law.

Legendary Sacred Flame Lord.

Sacrificial burning of extraordinary traits.

Soon, several of Li Wei's lower-tier extraordinary traits were completely burned away, igniting a faint divine flame.

The divine flame continued burning, becoming increasingly vigorous as it consumed higher-tier extraordinary traits.

The burned extraordinary traits disappeared from Li Wei's body.

This made him feel a sense of emptiness and dislocation.

But the increasingly vigorous divine flame released firelight that filled that void in his heart.

The more extraordinary traits burned, the more vigorous the divine flame became.

The color of the divine flame also gradually diversified.

From a single red, it transformed into dual red and yellow hues.

After all extraordinary traits below epic level were burned away, the divine flame had become two-colored—red and yellow.

Continuing to burn epic-level extraordinary traits.

Epic extraordinary traits required far more time to burn than lower-tier ones.

The longer burning duration meant more fuel for the divine flame, making it burn even more vigorously.

A year later, all of Li Wei's epic extraordinary traits were completely burned away.

The divine flame became three-colored.

Red, yellow, and blue three-colored divine flame.

It had taken Sasha many years to burn and create a three-colored divine flame.

Li Wei accomplished it in just one year.

This was the rapid growth brought by burning one's own power.

The price was enormous.

Li Wei lost all his extraordinary traits except those of legendary level.

Even the Sacred Spirit Level Nirvana Rebirth extraordinary trait disappeared.

He could no longer resurrect himself.

Next came burning the legendary extraordinary traits.

Three years later, the legendary extraordinary traits were completely burned away.

Red, yellow, blue, and azure four-colored divine flame.

Burning the law-based powers he had mastered.

Half a year later, the power of laws burned itself out, and the divine fire transformed into a five-colored divine blaze.

Levi set his own mana ablaze.

Three months later, the mana was completely consumed, and the divine fire transformed into a six-colored divine blaze.

A nine-colored divine fire was required to forge divine power and condense a godhead.

Levi's inherent power had already been entirely incinerated.

To continue the conflagration, he could only offer up his physical form and soul.

Having reached this precipice, there was no room left for regret; he could only press forward relentlessly.

He set his own flesh and blood on fire.

His eight-million-meter-tall body of the Holy Flame Lord began to burn.

Once he forfeited the legendary Holy Flame Lord status and the legendary extraordinary trait of elemental fusion.

After his body was completely consumed, he would never be able to restore his original form.

By the time that eight-million-meter body had burned to ash, the Holy Dragon lineage within him was also entirely consumed.

The flames shifted into a seven-colored divine blaze.

Nothing remained of Levi but his soul.

His mental energy began to burn, until his mental energy was entirely exhausted.

The seven-colored divine fire faintly began its transformation into an eight-colored divine blaze.

With his mental energy spent, his soul itself began to burn.

As his soul incinerated, the eight-colored divine fire stabilized, its hues deepening profoundly.

Yet there was not the slightest sign of it transforming into a nine-colored divine blaze.

Levi's foundations far surpassed those of any eighth-tier practitioner, yet burning his entire being was still not enough to reach the realm of the nine-colored divine fire.

Even his soul had burned to nothingness.

Levi had no fuel left to give.

Only a single cluster of eight-colored divine fire remained, drifting upon the sun.

Unable to transfigure into the nine-colored divine fire, the eight-colored divine fire would sooner or later dissipate.

Once the divine fire vanished, Levi too would disappear from the world.

Levi’s final vestige of consciousness sighed.

"To burn oneself to achieve ultimate sublimation, this is a path to a dead end..."

"No matter how powerful a human body becomes, it can never equal a god, so how could it ever burn to produce the nine-colored divine fire that symbolizes divinity?"

Only by becoming a god could one possess the nine-colored divine fire.

Only when the divine fire sublimated and transformed into nine colors.

Could one become a god.

Without external intervention, this was inherently an impossible feat.

Levi had believed he could achieve it.

But in the end, he had still failed.

Burning his entire being had only yielded a transfiguration into an eight-colored divine fire.