Four-Star Dou Saint

The Bodhi Ancient Tree's clear aura surged. Freed from the entanglement of the Dou Emperor's resentment, its pure, righteous, and peaceful presence spread forth mightily, gradually expanding in all directions.

At that moment, a mass of radiance the size of a man's torso, like an energy heart, drifted out from the trembling Bodhi Ancient Tree.

A branch immediately stretched out, dragging the glowing mass toward Xiao Xuan and delivering it before him.

The Bodhi Heart—a heavenly treasure said to allow one to become a saint on the spot!

"Thank you, Senior!"

As he spoke, he reached out and touched the radiance before him. At that instant, the Bodhi Heart blazed brightly, yet its form became intangible as it completely merged into his body.

Before Xiao Xuan could carefully comprehend it, a branch of the Bodhi Ancient Tree tapped his head. With that gentle tap, the world immediately spun around him...

The Bodhi Ancient Tree's branches swayed, wrapping around Xiao Xuan and pulling him toward its emerald-green trunk. A cushion woven from branches floated over and placed him upon it.

Ripples spread across the lush green trunk, and a sacred, wise aura emanated from the Bodhi Ancient Tree.

At the same time, this space fell completely silent. Only the soft rustling of leaves brushing against one another could be heard as the canopy swayed.

The Bodhi Ancient Tree—sainthood on the spot!

According to legend, a Two-Star Dou Zun had once earned the favor of the Bodhi Ancient Tree and obtained the heavenly treasure known as the Bodhi Heart. Then, in merely five years, he leaped from a Two-Star Dou Zun to a Dou Saint.

What miraculous efficacy! What an irresistible temptation!

It was enough to make people suppress their fear of Heaven Abandoned Mountain and head toward Heaven Abandoned City without fearing death.

In less than half a month, the entire Central Plains had stirred at the news. Any expert who heard of it and possessed even a trace of ambition hurried there without delay.

It could be said that every force in the Central Plains, whether openly active or hidden from the world, sent their sect's experts to compete for the Bodhi Ancient Tree...

Even the ancient clans that had remained hidden from the world could not resist dispatching their Peak Dou Zun youths after hearing that the Bodhi Ancient Tree had appeared.

Upon entering the Heaven Abandoned Mountain Range, the first obstacle was the poisonous insects and miasma. Even Dou Zun experts would be doomed if they were careless and allowed those poisonous insects to burrow into their bodies.

It could be said that these poisonous insects alone permanently left eight or nine out of every ten people here. Their bodies became breeding grounds for the insects, while the Dou Qi within them became nourishment.

Only a small number of elites could pass this trial.

After paying the price of countless lives, they finally discovered the Bodhi Ancient Tree's location. The true elite Dou Zuns of the Dou Qi Continent gathered a thousand zhang away from it, separated from the tree by a surging tide of magical beasts.

The Hun Clan's Nine-Star Dou Zun Heavenly Emperor, Gu Yuan of the Gu Clan, Lei Ying of the Thunder Clan, Yan Jin of the Flame Clan, and others were all present. It had to be said that the power of their bloodlines was indeed extraordinarily formidable.

As they grew older, their clans devoted more resources to them, and their bloodline powers fully awakened.

Their cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds, with several breakthroughs in a single year.

Even though renowned experts from across the continent had gathered here, the ones faintly taking the lead were still these talented youths from the various clans.

"Xuan... Brother Xuan?"

Xiao Chen and Xiao Xiong were now both Nine-Star Dou Zuns, while Xiao Yun and Xiao Lan were slightly weaker at Eight-Star Dou Zun.

When they saw Xiao Xuan sitting beneath the Bodhi Tree, they were immediately astonished.

Ten years had passed, and under the clan's cultivation, they had also progressed rapidly.

For Emperor Clan prodigies like them, cultivation before reaching the Dou Saint realm was much easier. With powerful resources supporting them, their clans could simply pile resources onto them until they became Dou Zongs or Dou Zuns.

The true difficulty was breaking through to Dou Saint and continuing to improve after becoming one.

A Dou Saint had already begun to involve comprehending heaven and earth. This was not something that could be achieved through resources alone.

Otherwise, the Ancient Emperor Clans would have Saints everywhere.

"He is Xiao Xuan?"

"Aren't you all being a little too optimistic? Cross that beast tide first.

"He may have killed quite a few, but there are still plenty left."

Outside, the Bodhi Ancient Tree's illusion realm originated from its power to send people through a hundred lifetimes of reincarnation. Naturally, the effect was not even one percent of the true thing, but it was still enough to temper one's heart.

If one passed the trial within a certain time, one could receive a Bodhi Seed as a reward. If one failed, one would be permanently expelled from the illusion realm.

That was the situation everyone was in now. Having found the Bodhi Ancient Tree, they naturally gained the chance to undergo its trial and were sent into the illusion realm by it.

Meanwhile, Xiao Xuan's hundred-lifetime reincarnation was already nearing its end. More than a month had passed since he first began his reincarnation trials.

On the cushion beneath the tree, Xiao Xuan slowly opened his eyes. They held the weathered insight of one who had seen through everything, containing boundless light of wisdom.

All aura around him had completely withdrawn, without the slightest trace leaking out. He seemed like an ordinary person.

I really gained immensely from this. I soared straight to the heavens—Four-Star Dou Saint!

I directly crossed the Half-Saint and Early-Stage Dou Saint levels.

Sure enough, whenever it was not time to be stubborn, I should yield a little. That was not cowardice.

Before experiencing the hundred lifetimes of reincarnation, he had been a Nine-Turn Dou Zun.

The Bodhi Heart possessed a kind of expansive power.

As Xiao Xuan refined it, it continuously expanded Xiao Xuan's vessel for containing Dou Qi. By the time it reached the Dou Saint bottleneck, that bottleneck seemed nonexistent before him.

Thus, he easily stepped into the Dou Saint realm. Moreover, with the Bodhi Heart's expansion, his foundation was incomparably solid.

And it did not stop there. The reincarnation continued, and the Bodhi Heart continued to be absorbed.

Of course, this was also because he had helped the Bodhi Tree resolve a problem that had endured for ages. That was why the Bodhi Ancient Tree aided him so greatly.

Even though he had not recklessly increased his Dou Qi, instead constantly compressing it, he suppressed the growth of his Dou Qi in every lifetime.

Yet under the accumulation of those hundred lifetimes, he still reached Four-Star Dou Saint.

Conservatively speaking, each lifetime lasted several decades. A hundred lifetimes meant several thousand years.

After such a lengthy cycle of mental reincarnation, although he appeared to be only in his twenties, his heart had long experienced the vicissitudes of time.

Especially his soul realm—it had broken through in one stroke to the Peak Mid-Heavenly Realm, only a single step away from the late Heavenly Realm.

"Thank you for fulfilling this wish, Senior!"

Looking at the twenty-odd people gathered beneath the Bodhi Tree, none of them were simple. Every one of them was an expert above the Dou Zun realm, a Mount Tai and Big Dipper-level figure of the Central Plains.

Have I become the one standing out?

Forget it. I'll cause less trouble after I leave. As for the future, I refuse to believe they have the nerve to attack the Xiao Clan.

He then looked at his cousins, who had already reached Eight-Star and Nine-Star Dou Zun.

It seemed that during the ten years he had been away, these fellows had also prospered within the clan.