Wang Xuan did not go far. After a few rises and falls, he silently slipped into a long-abandoned cluster of ruined houses on the western side of Jingzhou City.
The walls had collapsed, the houses lay in ruins, and weeds had grown as tall as a person. Even in daylight, few people came here. Now, as dusk closed in and the light gradually faded, the place was deathly silent, with only the wind and the rustle of grass leaves. It was the perfect hiding place.
His gaze swept across the surroundings. He went straight to the innermost corner, enclosed on three sides by broken walls, and sat down cross-legged. His aura instantly withdrew, leaving only the coldness in his eyes.
The hole Blood Blade Ancestor had stabbed through his chest no longer caused intense pain. The powerful self-healing ability of the Lesser Vajra Indestructible Body truly lived up to its reputation. Yet deep within his meridians, the lingering cold inner force left behind by Blood Blade Ancestor still troubled him, pricking at his meridians like tiny ice awls and causing faint pain from time to time.
There's no time to waste. Wang Xuan understood this clearly. The commotion at the Death Prison had been earth-shaking. News of Blood Blade Ancestor's death had surely already spread across the city like wildfire.
After Yu Qingtian and Shen Chenzhou, those two members of the Royal Clan, finished dealing with Ling Tuisi, they would undoubtedly come for him next. He had to seize every moment to improve his strength and prepare for the coming slaughter.
He took a deep breath, suppressed his distracting thoughts, and willed it. A pale blue screen suddenly unfolded before his eyes: his personal System Panel, its words clear at a glance.
[Player Name]: Wang Xuan [Age]: 18 [Talent]: One-Click Max (Unique Rank) [Realm]: Post-Heaven Eighth Layer [Technique]: - Divine Illumination Scripture (Not Learned)
(The techniques that had reached their limits were not displayed.)
Wang Xuan's gaze fixed precisely on the final line. Without the slightest hesitation, he said in an iron-hard voice, "Talent, let me see your limit! One-Click Max!"
An indescribable warm current suddenly erupted from his lower abdomen, instantly sweeping through his entire body!
This feeling was completely different from when he had maxed out Iron Cloth Shirt and Great Monument-Breaking Hand. The previous times, it had been heat coursing through his flesh, accompanied by the crackling refinement of muscles and bones. This time, the instant the warm current erupted, Wang Xuan felt a thunderous boom in his mind, as though some shackle had been directly shattered. His thoughts became several times clearer in an instant.
His vision first went dark. Then countless tiny points of light appeared from nowhere, spinning, gathering, and suddenly scattering apart. A mysterious ability of "inner vision" appeared in his senses. He could clearly "see" the structure of his own meridians and even every strand of sluggish Post-Heaven Realm inner force.
Within his meridians, the Post-Heaven Realm inner force that had grown sluggish from repeated battles and accumulated injuries instantly boiled wildly like scalding water under the enveloping warm current of the Divine Illumination Scripture, surging endlessly along its established route.
The bottleneck between the Post-Heaven Eighth and Ninth Layers was as fragile as thin paper before that vast warm current. With a soft pop, it was completely broken through, and his inner force rose without obstruction to the peak of the Post-Heaven Realm.
But this was not the end.
The warm current carried the peak inner force onward without pausing, charging straight toward the Ren and Du meridians, the two channels regarded by martial artists as an insurmountable heavenly barrier. Yet Wang Xuan did not feel the slightest resistance.
Back when he had cultivated Iron Cloth Shirt to its limit and attained the Lesser Vajra Indestructible Body, the supremely hard and yang horizontal-training inner force had repeatedly washed through and nurtured all his meridians. They had long since become completely unobstructed. Now that the warm current of the Divine Illumination Scripture flowed in, it was as natural as channeling water into a canal.
Boom!
A thunderous sound that only Wang Xuan could hear exploded within him. The Heaven and Earth Bridges opened in response!
A stream of cool, pure heavenly and earthly qi, brimming with vigorous vitality, poured endlessly into his body through the newly opened Heaven and Earth Bridges. It instantly merged with his originally blazing, fierce Post-Heaven Realm inner force, and a heaven-shaking transformation occurred in that instant.
Xiantian!
The warm current gradually lost its violent nature, becoming gentle and enduring as it circulated through his meridians along the complex route recorded in the Divine Illumination Scripture's formula.
With every cycle, Wang Xuan's mind became clearer, his body lighter, and his inner force more condensed. He had truly entered the realm of Sitting in Divine Illumination.
His consciousness seemed to drift away from his body, looking down from above at his seated figure. The three great source powers within him—essence, qi, and spirit—slowly gathered at the Baihui acupoint atop his head under the guidance of the Divine Illumination Scripture. Three Flowers Gather at the Crown was achieved in an instant.
Immediately afterward, a unique strand of qi arose within each of his five organs—the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys. The five strands intertwined and revolved before ultimately returning to his dantian, perfectly merging into one. This was the sign of Five Energies Converge at the Origin.
The process seemed long, but it had actually taken only an instant. It was like a martial artist defying fate, taking one step across the gulf between mortality and Xiantian, attaining a realm beyond the reach of ordinary martial artists.
Wang Xuan slowly opened his eyes. A sharp gleam flashed through them before quickly settling into calmness.
The last ray of the setting sun happened to slant through a gap in the broken wall and fall upon him, making his body faintly glow with a lustrous sheen.
He lowered his head to look at his palm. The faint yellow-jade luster left by the perfected Iron Cloth Shirt remained, but beneath it, a gentle radiance faintly flowed. The savage wound on his chest had long vanished without a trace. His skin was as smooth as before, without even the slightest scar.
The cold stabbing pain deep in his meridians and the exhaustion from his repeated battles had all been washed away by the Pure Yang True Qi of the Divine Illumination Scripture.
He felt as light as a feather. The inner force in his meridians had already transformed. It was no longer like a rushing river, but instead had become a bottomless, tranquil ocean containing terrifying power. With a thought, Xiantian True Qi flowed through his entire body as easily as moving an arm.
He summoned the System Panel again. The [Realm] entry had changed to: Xiantian First Layer! The description beneath Divine Illumination Scripture had also updated: Divine Illumination Scripture (Limit Realm, traits: Pure Yang and Upright, Endless Vitality, Three Flowers Gather at the Crown, Five Energies Converge at the Origin).
"It worked. There are actually four traits." Wang Xuan let out a long breath. It was steady and prolonged, condensing into a clear white stream in the dim air that shot more than three feet before slowly dispersing.
His gaze remained on the System Panel as he examined the effects of each trait. [Pure Yang and Upright] needed no explanation. It could restrain most cold and yin True Qi in the world, and its True Qi was pure and free of impurities, meaning there had never been any risk of cultivation deviation. [Endless Vitality] was the core of the Divine Illumination Art's ability to "bring the dead back to life." Divine Illumination True Qi could forcibly awaken the hidden vitality deep within the human body, allowing even someone recently dead to be saved.
The true strength of the Divine Illumination Scripture, however, lay in [Three Flowers Gather at the Crown] and [Five Energies Converge at the Origin]. The former made him a rare powerhouse whose essence, qi, and spirit had all entered Xiantian simultaneously. Ordinary martial artists, by contrast, usually only achieved Xiantian qi refinement after breaking through, then gradually cultivated spirit or essence. Those who cultivated spirit comprehended the laws of heaven and earth, turned the outer world into an Inner World, drew upon the power of the sun, moon, wind, and frost, and then condensed martial intent. Those who cultivated essence focused on tempering the body, refining it step by step in pursuit of the ultimate realm of Indestructible Diamond.
The latter linked the five qi with the five organs and six bowels, continuously stimulating the body's original vitality. It could also passively temper the flesh, polishing it at every moment until it reached the legendary realm of true Indestructible Diamond.
Almost at the instant his breakthrough was complete, a vast, cold, emotionless voice suddenly rang through the minds of every Player in the Secret of the Linked Cities world, making their thoughts thunder:
[World Announcement!] [Player 'Wang Xuan' has become the first to meet the conditions for 'Ascent to the Martial Peak,' entering the Xiantian realm and completing the Main Quest 'Ascent to the Martial Peak'!] [Reward issued: Random Divine Arts Ultimate Arts draw in progress...] [Draw complete! Congratulations to Player 'Wang Xuan' for obtaining the Divine Arts Ultimate Arts—Divine Blade Slash manual!] [World Announcement: The Main Quest 'Ascent to the Martial Peak' has been completed by Player 'Wang Xuan.' Remaining time in this world: 29 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes. When time expires, all Players will be forcibly removed.]
The string of announcements exploded like thunder, instantly throwing the entire Secret of the Linked Cities world into an uproar. Countless Players were shocked and jealous, yet no one could change the established reality.
Listening to the announcements echo in his mind, Wang Xuan glanced at the information for Divine Blade Slash that had automatically appeared in his thoughts, and an odd expression appeared on his face. Divine Blade Slash came from the Full Moon Scimitar world. It was the Demonic Sect's supreme blade technique, known as the Eight Linked Styles of the Wish-Fulfilling Heavenly Demon. Each style contained thirty-six moves and one hundred and eight variations, totaling more than thirty thousand transformations. At its highest realm, one had to simplify complexity and fuse everything into one, condensing a single blade strike. Legend had it that when this blade emerged, man and blade became one, the crescent moon transformed into a rainbow, nothing could withstand it, and whoever blocked it would die. It could shatter stone and shake heaven, leaving gods and ghosts alike in sorrow!
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