Continuous Breakthroughs! (Please Vote!)

Zhou Hao sat kneeling on the ground with his eyes tightly shut, devoutly holding his hands before him, one hand Taiyin, the other Taiyang.

Two tiny, floating stars radiated the Power of Taiyin and the Power of Taiyang, which continuously flowed into Zhou Hao's body.

Every cell in his body seemed to have been starved for countless years, greedily drinking in the energy. His muscles, bones, and even his internal organs were constantly changing.

Just as the two Divine Patterns on his back finally condensed, marking the completion of the first level of the Chiming Nine Heavens Map...

A sudden transformation erupted!

Zhou Hao felt a terrifying force of devouring suddenly surge from the densely patterned Cloud Seals on his left arm.

The devouring force was so immense, it was as if it meant to drain every last bit of strength from his body.

"What's going on?" Zhou Hao opened his eyes and looked at his left arm.

The nine intertwined Cloud Seals seemed to come alive, constantly shifting and twisting, knotting and winding around one another as if they were about to fly off his arm.

Could it be just as Master once guessed? Now that I've started cultivating and my body is absorbing the essence of the stars, have these patterns finally been activated? Zhou Hao's heart stirred.

Zhou Hao had just completed the first level. The two Divine Patterns of Taiyin and Taiyang had condensed on his back, and their powers were transforming his mortal body, turning it toward a God-Devil body.

But Zhou Hao could sense that the cells in his body, which had only just absorbed enough of the Power of Taiyin and the Power of Taiyang, were now having the mysterious energy inside them devoured by the Cloud Seals on his left arm.

If the devouring continued, Zhou Hao would lose all signs of life and die in no more than the time it took for an incense stick to burn.

"Before, it always devoured slowly. Why is it trying to drain me dry all at once today?!"

There was no choice.

To avoid being drained dry, Zhou Hao could only increase the life energy inside his body.

And the only way he could think of to increase that life energy was to keep cultivating.

Whoosh!

Countless stars, which had already faded away, appeared once more, swirling around Zhou Hao like a vortex. The two tiny stars of Taiyin and Taiyang also appeared again.

"Still cultivating?"

Xiangcao suddenly stopped as she was about to enter the cave. "It's already been eight days."

Even according to the Chiming Nine Heavens Map, the most gifted legendary cultivators could condense the two Divine Patterns on their backs in a single, seamless first session—but there was no precedent for continuing to cultivate afterward.

It wasn't as though you could absorb an unlimited amount just because you were able to draw down enough of the Power of Taiyin and the Power of Taiyang.

It was like eating: you'd already stuffed yourself and hadn't digested a thing, but someone had gone and prepared another whole feast. No matter how delicious it was, you just couldn't eat any more!

"Legendary talent really is something else." Xiangcao felt a little envious. She assumed Zhou Hao simply had an unusual physique.

But she had no idea what kind of torment Zhou Hao was enduring beneath the dense radiance of the stars.

Powerful surges of Taiyin and Taiyang poured continuously from the tiny stars, formed by the descent of the two Supreme Stars. They instantly flowed into every part of Zhou Hao's body, then poured into the shriveled cells whose energy the secret Cloud Seals had just devoured.

The shriveled cells had only just filled with divine power when it was immediately devoured again...

Energy flowed in, only to be lost again, then flowed in and was lost once more... In this endless cycle, Zhou Hao's cells had no choice but to divide and transform at an accelerated rate.

His body was transforming a hundred, even a thousand times faster than that of an ordinary cultivator practicing the Chiming Nine Heavens Map.

In theory, such a violent, rapid transformation should have been too much for Zhou Hao's mortal body to bear, causing it to collapse. Yet as the secret Cloud Seals devoured the energy in his body, they also released a tiny amount of mysterious power, whose quality was even higher than that of the Supreme Stars.

The mysterious power was pale green. As it flowed into him, Zhou Hao's body convulsed, blood seeped out, and his bones trembled, among other things—but at least his body hadn't collapsed.

The pain of his cells transforming hundreds and thousands of times faster, however, was something he had to endure alone.

"Pain..." Zhou Hao's face twisted, his veins bulged, and he had bitten his lips to shreds.

It felt as though countless raging fires were burning every part of his body.

Just when Zhou Hao thought he was about to turn to ashes, the extremely cold Power of Taiyin appeared again.

In an instant, it felt as if countless frigid chisels were carving every one of his cells all over again.

"This won't work! Even if my body doesn't collapse, I'm done for if my soul falls apart."

Zhou Hao had already cultivated his spiritual sense. Even under the alternating torture of extreme heat and cold, he could barely hold on to a shred of clarity.

But he knew that if the pain exceeded what his soul could endure and it shattered, then even if his body remained intact—or even transformed into a genuine God-Devil body—he would be nothing but a walking corpse.

Without a soul, it was no different from death.

"...The Visualization Technique, right! The Visualization Technique!"

Zhou Hao divided his attention. He left only a small portion of his consciousness to keep sensing the two stars of Taiyin and Taiyang and drawing down their power.

With the rest, he tried to visualize the Supreme Clarity Moral Heavenly Venerable Diagram, as he did during his usual cultivation.

But it wasn't that simple!

To practice the Visualization Technique, he first had to enter a state of stillness, then visualize the gods within his body in his sea of consciousness, and finally transform them into the Supreme Clarity Moral Heavenly Venerable.

But while enduring boundless pain, even entering a state of stillness seemed like an impossible dream.

"Ah!!!!"

Zhou Hao wanted to roar in agony, but his lips had been mangled and stuck together with blood and flesh. He couldn't even open his mouth.

The second level of the Chiming Nine Heavens Map, which even cultivators of the same legendary talent needed several years to perfect, took Zhou Hao only half a day.

His body continued to transform, and the boundless pain he endured grew ever more intense.

"Ah!"

Clenching his teeth, Zhou Hao shakily rose to his feet. Slowly, he raised both arms in front of him and bent his knees, lowering himself into the opening stance of the Innate Taiji Fist.

Right Grasp Sparrow's Tail... Left Single Whip... Raise Hand... White Crane Spreads Its Wings...

Zhou Hao performed the movements of the Innate Taiji Fist, one stance at a time.

The torment of ice and fire made him move as slowly as an old man nearing the end of his days, but he couldn't afford to care.

He remembered when he had first begun cultivating under his master, True Person Daoyi. Because he could never enter a state of stillness, his master had called him by his childhood nickname and told him to follow along with the fist forms.

"Changsheng, remember this. Let your heart follow your fists, and your intent follow your heart. Once you grasp your heart and intent, your soul will naturally become clear..."

Whoosh~~~ Whoosh~~~~

"Let the waist flow with life, let the crown of the head hold the spirit, let the back hold divine power, and let it circulate with the breath..."

Zhou Hao repeated the movements of the Innate Taiji Fist again and again. His mind gradually cleared, and his soul seemed to merge with Heaven and Earth.

In his sea of consciousness, the Supreme Clarity Moral Heavenly Venerable—white-bearded and white-haired, with a feather fan in hand—finally manifested. Zhou Hao felt countless rays of rosy light shine from his sea of consciousness, enveloping his entire body.

The boundless pain brought on by his body's frenzied transformation seemed less unbearable, soothed by the warmth of those countless rays.

Whoosh~~~ Whoosh~~~~

Zhou Hao entered a trance as he visualized the Supreme Clarity Moral Heavenly Venerable Diagram. His Innate Taiji Fist movements had reached the Cloud Hands stance.

His hands kept circling past one another. The two tiny stars of Taiyin and Taiyang moved with the motion of his hands, spinning before him as Yin and Yang alternated, the sun rose and the moon set.

Boom~~~~

The Power of Taiyin and the Power of Taiyang descending from the two Supreme Stars doubled once more. Wisps of flame even formed out of thin air inside the cave, while the faint sound of flowing water rang out.

"The third level of the Chiming Nine Heavens Map?!"

Outside the cave, Xiangcao was so stunned by the sight that she forgot to breathe.

"How long has it even been? He's already perfected the second level, and now he's started cultivating the third?!"

The Chiming Nine Heavens Map they had obtained from Motai Jie contained only the cultivation method for the first volume, with nine levels in total.

The first three levels were for the Post-Heaven stage.

The middle three were for Xiantian Lifeforms.

The final three were for the Purple Mansion realm.

The third level marked the peak of the Post-Heaven stage. At that point, the Power of Taiyin and the Power of Taiyang drawn down through cultivation could already stir the power of Heaven and Earth to form flowing water and flames.

Once the power descending from the two Supreme Stars became a true drop of Lunar True Water and a true drop of Solar True Fire, water and fire would give birth to one another, allowing the cultivator to shed their mortal body for good, form an Innate God and Devil Body, and enter the realm of Xiantian Lifeforms.

"At the rate Zhou Hao cultivated the second level, doesn't that mean he can perfect the third in a day at most? He's a monster." Xiangcao exclaimed in wonder.

"But the third level is as far as he can go. To enter the fourth, he'll need to overcome a bottleneck. Good talent and drawing down enough of the power of Taiyin and Taiyang won't be enough to break through."

As the foremost method of God-Devil Body Refining, the Chiming Nine Heavens Map was also indisputably the hardest to cultivate.

The bottleneck before reaching the realm of Xiantian Lifeforms was especially difficult. One had to comprehend "Yin and Yang converging, water and fire merging" before they could draw down Lunar True Water and Solar True Fire from the two Supreme Stars.

Countless geniuses and prodigies had been stopped at this bottleneck over the ages, unable to set foot in the Xiantian realm.

"If he could reach the realm of Xiantian Lifeforms in one go, that would be wonderful," Xiangcao thought. "Then even if the Xiantian Lifeforms of the Black Hand Tribe came after us, they still wouldn't be Zhou Hao's match."

Among all cultivators, those following the Gods and Devils Body Refining Path overwhelmed Qi Refiners at the same stage.

And the Chiming Nine Heavens Map was widely recognized as capable of overwhelming other God-Devil Body Refiners at the same stage.

They had already learned from Ren Liang that the Black Hand Tribe had been founded by its chieftain, Motai Xiao. Its foundations were relatively shallow compared with the other hegemonic tribes, and it had only nine Xiantian Lifeforms.

The strongest, Motai Xiao, was a Qi Refining expert at the peak of the Xiantian realm.

The other eight Xiantian Lifeforms were Motai Xiao's disciples or elders supported with cultivation resources.

If Zhou Hao really broke through, then the threat from the Black Hand Tribe would amount to nothing.

A Golden Winged Eagle soared through the clouds high in the sky. Through the hazy mist, two figures could just barely be seen sitting cross-legged on its back.

"Commander Yuan, since the Iron Ox Tribe didn't go to the Liu Clan's territory, they must have fled toward Jade Dragon City," a young man said, smiling obsequiously.

He had delicate features and was even handsome, but the sycophantic look in his eyes as he spoke ruined his whole bearing.

"Go and look." The burly figure seated in front of the young man spoke one word at a time, as though he had only just learned how to talk and was still unused to it.

"Yes, yes, yes." The young man nodded repeatedly. "We'll just follow that direction and look. If we can't find them, we'll head back."

Seeing that the burly figure said nothing more, and that the Golden Winged Eagle beneath them had turned and was flying toward Jade Dragon City, the young man finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"I wonder what benefits Master offered the Fire Worship Sect to get them to invite this god of slaughter over."

The young man was Ye Feng, Motai Xiao's eldest disciple. His strength was second only to Motai Xiao's in the Black Hand Tribe, and he was an expert in the late Xiantian stage.

They had come out this time to find the culprit who had killed Motai Jie and the great demon Black Wind, then bring him back to Motai City and torture him to death as a warning to all the surrounding factions.

They had followed the traces left behind by the Wild Ox of the Iron Ox Tribe and first searched the Liu Clan's territory. That had even drawn out an Xiantian expert from the Liu Clan to question them.

But the god of slaughter before him hadn't said a word. He had simply slapped the man to death.

Thinking of the god of slaughter's fearsome might, Ye Feng treated him with even greater care and respect, not daring to offend him in the slightest.

After all, this was an Xiantian peak expert of the Gods and Devils Body Refining Path. Even his master, Motai Xiao, was no match for him.

"That good-for-nothing Motai Jie had so many resources and still couldn't reach the Xiantian realm. Good riddance."

Thinking of Motai Jie, who had died at the Iron Ox Tribe, Ye Feng's eyes filled with disdain.

"I've followed Master the longest, and I'm the strongest. Maybe someday Master will even take me as his adopted son. Then..."

Ye Feng was lost in pleasant daydreams when he noticed thick smoke billowing into the sky from a mountain range at the far end of the wilderness.

"Hm? What's happening over there?"

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