Normally, once a divine artifact is fused, it becomes a consumable and vanishes forever—even high-grade divine artifacts are no exception.

The only exception is an immortal divine artifact.

To be immortal means to endure undying through all ages; even when fused into bone, such artifacts merely continue to exist in another form.

The moment the host dies—or by some special method—they peel away from the bone once more and revert to their original state.

As the former master of the Myriad Image Finality, no one knew its power better than Jiang Wushe.

And to draw that power out to its fullest, the best choice was naturally to fuse it.

Jiang Wushe nodded. "Indeed."

Though he had already stripped the Myriad Image Finality away, a certain exceedingly subtle connection still lingered between it and this lifebound bone of his.

By his original plan, once Wei Zhao fused the Myriad Image Finality by the second method, he would be able to use that subtle connection to exert influence over Wei Zhao.

If all went smoothly, he might even turn Wei Zhao into his puppet.

Unfortunately, it had all fallen apart at the final step.

The black-robed man shook his head. "Your plan has already failed. What good is bringing it out again?"

Jiang Wushe said with certainty, "I told you, I have not failed. No one can resist the temptation of the Myriad Image Finality. Even if Wei Zhao senses something, he will never give up so easily."

The black-robed man was taken aback. "You think he'll choose the Myriad-Realm Reincarnation? Even he cannot be so ignorant—surely he knows the risks involved?"

Jiang Wushe said, "Fortune is sought in peril. That is how I came through it in my day."

The black-robed man shook his head. "Your circumstances were unique. Not everyone has your kind of luck. If you want Wei Zhao to enter the Myriad-Realm Reincarnation, he would have to have water for brains."

Jiang Wushe smiled. "You still do not understand him. I have carefully studied everything he has done since entering Tianjun. The man is bold but meticulous; his actions always defy expectation, yet in hindsight they are always methodical."

"I would wager that he will choose the Myriad-Realm Reincarnation—and that he will find a way to come out unscathed!"

The black-robed man could not help laughing. "You truly do have faith in him."

Jiang Wushe corrected him gravely. "Not faith—intuition."

The black-robed man clicked his tongue. "Fine. Even if your intuition is right, even if he truly passes the trial of the Myriad-Realm Reincarnation, how do you plan to control him?"

By Jiang Wushe's script, only if Wei Zhao chose the second option could he use the lifebound bone in his hand to manipulate Wei Zhao.

But once Wei Zhao chose the Myriad-Realm Reincarnation, then whether he ultimately succeeded or failed, Jiang Wushe could no longer interfere.

Jiang Wushe answered with a smile. "Simple. I stake it."

With that, rings of dark-gold ripples abruptly welled from his palm, completely engulfing the entire lifebound bone.

Under the impact of the ripples, the supposedly indestructible lifebound bone swiftly developed cracks, which then spread across its whole surface as densely as a spider's web.

Then, with a bang, the bone shattered, dissolving into a wisp of incomparably pure energy that vanished into the void—shooting straight through layer upon layer of spatial barriers and surging toward Tianjun.

The black-robed man's eyelids twitched. "You are certainly willing to pay the price."

The so-called lifebound bones are the bones a human body is born with, two hundred and six in all; once destroyed, they can never regrow.

Had Jiang Wushe not done this, he could have chosen another immortal divine artifact to fuse anew and regained the concept points and bonus effects that divine artifact fusion brought.

For a top-tier expert of his caliber, every single lifebound bone had to be developed and utilized to the absolute limit.

To do this now was to permanently give up this one lifebound bone.

Everyone else's ceiling was two hundred and six; his alone was two hundred and five. It seemed a difference of a single hair, yet it might leave him forever a step behind.

The price of this was by no means trivial.

A mad light flickered in Jiang Wushe's eyes. "If one means to do great things, one must be willing to pay the price. If I lacked even this much resolve, what would I be cooperating with you for?"

The black-robed man laughed heartily at that. "Now that makes sense. I was not wrong about you—you are absolutely a man who can accomplish great things."

Then he changed tack. "But are you certain this will let you control Wei Zhao?"

Jiang Wushe's mouth curved. "I have staked even my lifebound bone. If I still cannot control him, would I not be a complete clown?"

The black-robed man grinned. "That is true enough. Now we shall see whether this Wei Zhao really can, as your intuition says, survive the trial of the Myriad-Realm Reincarnation!"

Jiang Wushe looked utterly unruffled, without a trace of worry, and simply closed his eyes and sat in meditation.

Meanwhile, at the New Heavenly Palace of Tianjun.

Just as Jiang Wushe had predicted, after long deliberation Wei Zhao ultimately chose to open the Myriad-Realm Reincarnation.

The moment the rite began, Wei Zhao's entire consciousness gave a violent plunge, dragging his whole sea of consciousness down with it into a bottomless abyss.

When he opened his eyes again, he had already begun to reincarnate.

One life... two lives... three lives...

Each was a complete life.

Birth, growth, battle, aging, death.

The memories of every life were incomparably clear, incomparably real.

A day has eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds; on average each life lasted no more than nine seconds—yet for Wei Zhao, who lived within them, it was the passage of seas into mulberry fields.

As anticipated from the start, Wei Zhao passed the first ten reincarnations with some composure; after all, on the level of consciousness he remained lucid and knew this was merely the trial of reincarnation.

However vivid and profound the sensation of reincarnation might be, he could still calmly withdraw from it.

Through the first twenty lives, Wei Zhao's whole consciousness remained unmoved, like a reef by the sea, letting the waves of years wash over it, indestructible throughout.

But from the thirtieth life onward, imperceptibly, faint traces had begun to appear on the reef's surface.

Though these traces were exceedingly shallow, exceedingly insignificant, water wears through stone; as the years piled up, they grew ever more conspicuous, ever harder to ignore.

By the completion of the fiftieth life, Wei Zhao's formerly resolute consciousness had begun to blur.

Certain anchor points in the deepest, most indestructible reaches had quietly begun to shift.

Immersed within it, Wei Zhao was not unaware of the danger, but once the trial of the Myriad-Realm Reincarnation began, there was no chance to withdraw midway.

He could only grit his teeth and see it through to the end.

The most deadly part was this: if he continued this way, his entire self-conception would be utterly overturned in the baptism of life after life.

The most direct sign of it was that he would unconsciously take the events experienced in these reincarnations as his true, lived reality.

On the level of personal sensation, these reincarnation experiences were no castles in the air—they were his actual lived experiences.

But the problem was that, that being so, just as a reef is finally worn smooth and ground to grit, Wei Zhao's consciousness was bound to be utterly obliterated within the Myriad-Realm Reincarnation.