"Making the ultimate leap won't be easy. It will take extraordinary measures!"
"All right. When do we start?"
"In a few days, once I've prepared the materials and divine medicines! You should rest and recover in the meantime!"
Over the next few days, Lin Yue and the others recuperated in the cave abode, occasionally joining the siblings in nurturing the Little Heaven-Horned Ant.
"Look, look! Our little brother is responding to me! He can sense us!"
Clearly, Yu adored her unborn little brother. She reached out to sense him every day, and the fluctuations within their bloodlines never ceased. The little fellow inside could sense those outside as well, and both sides played to their hearts' content!
Had their mother not died, the Little Heaven-Horned Ant might have been born in this very era! Now that his origin had been damaged, all they could do was nurture him!
Not long afterward, the old Heavenly Horned Ant woke again and summoned Lin Yue, telling him that the preparations were complete and they could begin!
Looking at the enormous cauldron, Lin Yue leaped straight into it without the slightest hesitation!
Inside the Primordial Mother Cauldron, divine flames even more terrifying than those in Chi Xie's divine furnace tempered Lin Yue. Unfortunately for them, he paid them no mind!
The Martial Dao Divine Infant and the black and white figures within his spiritual platform became three tiny figures standing above Lin Yue's head, likewise undergoing the tempering of the primordial spirit!
These were the two wills represented by the extreme yang and extreme yin Dao bodies, like white and black, good and evil. As time passed, the yin-yang Dao bodies slowly took on Lin Yue's own appearance, their features growing ever clearer! The twelve great circulatory divine meridians within him began expanding into mighty torrents. His grotto-heavens and Cavern Acupoints, along with his divine universes, began radiating divine light as they pushed toward their limits!
Astonishing phenomena began manifesting within the Primordial Mother Cauldron. At times, they were sacred and inviolable; at others, they were eerie beyond measure, as though ten thousand demons had gathered. The domain formed by his flesh pressed upon the surrounding heavens. Had this not been the Primordial Mother Cauldron, it would likely have cracked long ago. Even so, rumbling rang out within it!
Many supreme-grade spiritual medicines were thrown inside, turning it into a medicinal cauldron that simmered and tempered Lin Yue. Endless medicinal fragrance spilled out; a single breath of it could almost heal bodily wounds!
The Heavenly Horned Ant clan's reserves were quite impressive indeed!
As time passed, the divine flames within the cauldron tempered Lin Yue again and again, burning his entire body red and making it glow!
Gradually, lightning began forming within the Primordial Mother Cauldron to hone Lin Yue's flesh. His body had reached its limit, and the Great Dao had sensed it, sending down lightning to destroy his flesh and prevent such a heaven-defying body from appearing!
Watching the lightning temper Lin Yue, the old Heavenly Horned Ant's heart pounded with alarm. This young man's flesh was absurdly powerful, beginning to form a domain naturally, just as his own did. This meant that Lin Yue's body now nearly rivaled those of Immortal Dao figures! Yet he had not even stepped into the extreme dao. He was truly a monster! Even the lightning's attacks were ground away by the domain his flesh created. Such a figure was scarcely seen across the ages!
Was it because the Nine Heavens were about to fall that all their fortune had begun gathering, flaring in one final burst of life to give birth to someone who would tower over an entire era?
As they watched Lin Yue within the cauldron, the Heavenly Horned Ant siblings' initial worry gave way to calm. They exchanged a glance and prepared to undergo their own transformations! They did not want to fall too far behind Lin Yue!
"Come. Leave him to temper himself. This will be a long process! Now it's your turn!"
The old Heavenly Horned Ant spoke to his two children. He was very pleased with them! Their flesh was no weaker than his had been at their age, and was perhaps even stronger. Once they matured, they would be able to battle kings. If they could break through further and truly enter the domain of kings, they would become figures on the level of giants!
Chapter 30: The Ultimate Leap
"How is Lin Yue doing, Father?"
Within a secret realm of chaos, a woman spoke as she watched Thunder Dragons roar around the enormous Primordial Mother Cauldron!
The domain she formed distorted her surroundings into a mass of chaos, making her features difficult to discern. An invincible aura suppressed the heavens all around her, displaying her formidable strength!
Not far from her, a young man stood with his hands behind his back, his invincible bearing no less imposing than hers!
Since completing their transformations, their strength could be described in one phrase: unless the Immortal Dao appeared, who could contend with them? Their flesh was nearly invincible within the human dao domain.
This was what made the Heavenly Horned Ant clan so terrifying. The further they progressed, the more outrageously powerful their bodies became, defying all common sense!
Nearly three years had passed. Including the time before that, Lin Yue had already spent several years being tempered by lightning within the cauldron, and the woman worried that something might go wrong!
"Don't worry. The longer he is tempered, the greater the benefits. Besides, with his body, nothing will happen to him! Even this lightning does no more than scratch an itch for him now!"
Seeing the worry in his children's eyes, the old Heavenly Horned Ant standing beside them could not help speaking!
Just then, thunderclouds slowly gathered. Purple Thunder Dragons poured into the Primordial Mother Cauldron, their dazzling radiance piercing the eyes. At the four extremities of heaven and earth, faint chains slowly began to manifest, extending toward the cauldron!
These were shackles of Dao laws, shackles that the Great Dao of heaven and earth used to restrain living beings. Ordinarily, no matter how extraordinary one's talent or how peerless one was, they could not be sensed. Once a living being passed five hundred years of age, they slowly vanished on their own, because by then it was assumed that the being could have completed the highest degree of tempering within that span, and the restrictions were lifted. Now, however, they had all taken visible form.
Watching the manifested shackles of Dao laws bind Lin Yue's entire body, the others were deeply shocked. Today, they finally witnessed the legendary extreme dao shackles. Such a legend had not manifested even for some kings in their youth!
Lin Yue rose from the Primordial Mother Cauldron like a figure of flame, his entire body shining. The instant he raised his hand, the power of laws manifested within it and shattered the Thunder Dragons outright!
Lin Yue looked upon the chains of Dao laws binding him with utter disdain!
If this was all they amounted to, how could they possibly hold me?
Cultivation! What was cultivation?
It was cultivating the Dao of oneself and walking against heaven.
That was the true purpose of cultivation for living beings. If shackles were not meant to be broken, then their existence had no meaning!
Within the grotto-heaven in Lin Yue's dantian, the seated Martial Dao Divine Infant rose to its feet! The two tiny black and white figures within his spiritual platform, which had already taken on his appearance, also began to stand!
The inner universes throughout his body revived to their utmost. His Zhoutian Divine Meridians and Cavern Acupoints radiated the divine splendor of the ultimate limit, proclaiming to heaven and earth a strength that surpassed this realm!
Three figures stood behind Lin Yue: one gold, one white, and one black. They suppressed the entire expanse of heaven and earth. Space was sealed, the passing years and time itself were cut off, and even the crisscrossing lightning dared not advance half a step!
The three figures raised their hands, seized the manifested chains of Dao laws, and pulled. The chains were brutally torn apart like vines!
Bang! Bang! Bang! The snapping chains of Dao laws rang out, the Great Dao wailed, and then they shattered and vanished between heaven and earth!
In just a few breaths, the chains of Dao laws binding Lin Yue had been swept away completely!
The old Heavenly Horned Ant's mouth twitched at the sight. Across all the ages, he had never seen anyone oppose the laws of heaven and earth with such brute force. There was simply no reasoning with him!
"What an extraordinary young man. He has successfully walked the heaven-defying path of using the self as the seed. He doesn't need his primordial spirit at all. He is using his own flesh to directly connect with the power of the Great Dao of heaven and earth. Such power surpasses the strongest ancient seeds in the world and possesses supreme divine might!"
Clearly, upon learning that although Lin Yue cultivated the Immortal Ancient method, he used himself as the seed to connect with heaven and earth, even the old Heavenly Horned Ant bowed in admiration!
Boom...
Heaven and earth resonated, then rang with immortal music. Countless golden lotuses manifested, surrounded by immortal qi, celebrating the birth of a peerless being!
Feeling endless power surge through his entire body, Lin Yue finally understood just how terrifying the power of the peak of the human dao domain truly was!
The twelve principal meridians of his body interconnected, three hundred and sixty-five grotto-heavens linked together, and Acupoint Firmament Divine Embryos began gestating within seven hundred and twenty acupoints! Now, he had gone a step further and opened one thousand two hundred and ninety-six Divine Repositories!
The divine universes within him showed signs of further evolving into actual universes. The Great Dao of heaven and earth grew clearer as well, and supreme divine abilities could be conjured at his fingertips!
Never mind ten of his former self-even a hundred or a thousand would have been utterly powerless against him now!
For he was no longer merely in the domain of those invincible in the extreme dao. He had sublimated once more beyond that domain, his body evolving myriad worlds and his inner universes reproducing their laws, stepping onto the apex of the extreme dao!
Watching Lin Yue land, his aura almost entirely returned to pristine simplicity, the old Heavenly Horned Ant knew that he had succeeded! Even a lightning tribulation had not dared descend. Only the chains of Dao laws had manifested, and those had been brutally torn apart!
"I succeeded. It wasn't as frightening as you imagined! As long as you're strong enough, even the Great Dao of heaven and earth cannot stop you!"
"Lin Yue! You truly are extraordinary. I concede! You broke the legendary curse and created a legend of your own! None before you have done this, and few after you will ever match it! Moreover, the moment you entered the extreme dao, you reached the Apex of the Extreme Dao! Your flesh rivals that of Immortal Dao figures! Unless a king appears, even a True Immortal cannot kill you. You may even break the divide between immortal and mortal. Perhaps you can now defy the realms and slay immortals from within the human dao domain!"
The old Heavenly Horned Ant spared no praise for Lin Yue, his heart brimming with emotion!
"You flatter me, Senior. We cultivators should cultivate our own Dao and perform deeds that defy heaven. How could those who come after us merely look up to their predecessors without following their example and breaking past the utmost limits? I may be the first, but I certainly won't be the last! There will surely be one outstanding soul after another, perhaps countless outstanding souls, who create new glories and surpass their predecessors!"
"You're right. For ordinary prodigies, five hundred years is indeed a shackle, a curse. But it cannot hold a peerless being like you! Next, I will explain the Indestructible Scripture to you in detail. I hope you can advance even further!"
In the days that followed, Lin Yue cultivated the Indestructible Scripture anew with the old Heavenly Horned Ant's help. Although the siblings Yan and Yu had taught him before, their understanding of the scripture still fell far short of their father's!
As he perfected his cultivation of the Indestructible Scripture and integrated it with the Yin-Yang Dao Chapter Body-Tempering Section, Lin Yue's flesh slowly began manifesting an indestructible quality, just like that of the Heavenly Horned Ant clan!
Boom...
Within the secret realm, two figures, a man and a woman, shone with extreme dao radiance as they darted through space. Like two streaks of aurora twisting heaven and earth, they attacked a young man in the arena!
The three were none other than Lin Yue and the siblings Yan and Yu, engaged in a sparring match!
Following this transformation, the divine power within the Heavenly Horned Ant siblings' bloodlines began awakening fully. The extreme dao divine power that naturally radiated around their bodies formed domains.
Every exchange unleashed Extreme Dao Divine Power that shattered the heavens and split the earth! Had formations not suppressed their power, this secret realm would likely have been battered into ruins!
Now, even ordinary invincible experts could hardly contend with them! Unless the Immortal Dao appeared, it was impossible for the invincible experts of the human dao domain to defeat them, because their flesh was simply too monstrous!
Yet even when these two terrifying figures joined forces, they could gain no advantage against Lin Yue!
The instant Lin Yue raised his hand, a casual slap descended with suppressive force, as though the Great Dao itself had arrived! No matter how heaven-reaching their flesh or how far their divine might broke past its limits, they could not withstand it!
Though he could not injure them, the pair were sent flying again and again, making for a rather comical sight!
"I'm done, I'm done! This is utterly hopeless! Lin Yue, you're so strong!"
Yu spoke and stopped advancing. It was simply too stifling. Just as when the two of them had faced He Wushuang, they felt despair!
"Indeed. If I faced He Wushuang again now, I'm confident I could fight him. Even if I couldn't overpower him, I wouldn't lose! But facing you, I still feel despair! Lin Yue, the Nine Heavens truly are counting on you!"
Lin Yue looked at them and said, "Counting the days, quite a few years have passed. It's time we returned. I hope those people from back then are still alive!"
The three exchanged looks and reached the same resolve!
Chapter 31: Returning to the Border Pass
Boundless Heaven.
At the Heavenly Horned Ant clan's ancestral grounds, the old Heavenly Horned Ant and several elders watched the three prepare to depart for war, deeply reluctant to see them go!
A golden cocoon beside them also emitted fluctuations. The little Heavenly Horn, likewise unwilling to say goodbye to his older brother and sister, was very sad, for he did not know when they would meet again after this farewell!
"Father, focus on recovering from your injuries. The two of us will carry on the Heavenly Horned Ant clan's illustrious name. This time, we'll drive back the Foreign Realm and spread the renown of our Nine Heavens!"
Yan spoke with boundless confidence. The only person who could make him feel despair was now on the side of the Nine Heavens!
After speaking, he glanced at Lin Yue, unable to help marveling inwardly at how dependable he was, how he could give his companions an unparalleled sense of security!
"That's right. This time, I'll make our clan's true name tower above the True Dragons. We won't just surpass them in the Dao of strength-we'll outclass them in overall power too!"
Yu spoke as well, brimming with spirit, declaring that she would knock the True Dragons off their divine pedestal!
As everyone knew, the name of the Ten Fiends had first begun spreading in the Foreign Realm! These ten great fiends possessed heaven-defying combat prowess. Not only did they slaughter the Foreign Realm's immortals like dogs, but even ordinary kings might not gain an advantage against them and could only surround them to kill them!
The descendants of the races they had slaughtered regarded them as peerless great fiends and spread their name far and wide!
Gradually, their fearsome reputation was also celebrated throughout the Nine Heavens to raise morale. Every mention of them reminded the younger generation that the mighty of the Nine Heavens were peerless, and that the Foreign Realm had only won by surrounding them! This could multiply their confidence in battle and allow them to unleash their utmost combat strength!
Although the peerless precious arts of the Ten Fiends had no fixed ranking and each possessed its own unique qualities, the True Dragon's myriad transformations allowed even casually unleashed divine abilities to rend heaven and earth. The Blood Phoenix's art of rebirth through nirvana earned it the title of the undying divine phoenix. Its recovery in battle was astounding; some opponents could not even inflict damage as quickly as it healed, making it extremely troublesome.
As for the Thunder Emperor, nine-leaf sword grass, and the others, little needed to be said. One was reputed to command lightning tribulations and wield supreme power, earning him the name of Emperor of the Lightning Dao.
It had to be understood that "Emperor" was not a title just any being could casually use. This alone showed how fearsome he was. The kings of the Foreign Realm also believed that he could not be allowed to mature, and used despicable means to snuff him out in the cradle!
The other's sword qi could cleave the cosmos and tear heaven and earth apart! It likewise possessed a supreme sword Dao of ultimate slaughter, its razor-sharp sword intent representing the pinnacle of the era's sword Dao. Like the Heavenly Horned Ant clan, both could battle kings.
But the True Dragon was currently confirmed to have entered the domain of kings, with combat prowess comparable to the giants of the king realm. Whenever the Ten Fiends were discussed, everyone named the True Dragon as their leader! How could the other races among them be happy with that? They believed that once they entered the king realm too, the True Dragon would have no claim at all. It merely relied on a slightly higher cultivation realm, which was hardly enough to win their respect!
"Good! Good! Good!"
The old Heavenly Horned Ant's blood surged with excitement as well. Seeing his children's invincible confidence, he was deeply pleased that they had surpassed his younger self. He wished he could create an unrivaled tale of father and children fighting together on the battlefield. Unfortunately, his primordial spirit Dao injury was anything but ordinary. It might take a very long time to heal; even an entire era might not suffice. He could only give up the thought!
Then the three figures vanished into the void!
The Border Pass!
This place was very different from before. The city walls were no longer intact, and breaches gaped everywhere. Some looked as though sharp swords had sliced them open; others had been crushed by enormous divine abilities. In certain places, towering fires still burned, and piles of bones lay nearby, with no time to clear them away!
The last territory of Qingwei Heaven had fallen. Countless cultivators of the Nine Heavens slept within that ancient world. After the lord of Qingwei Heaven died in battle, that ancient world's final dirge fell silent!
Unlike years before, fewer and fewer people came and went here. There were no longer as many sect-leader figures in the Void Dao Realm either; instead, those in the Heavenly God Realm made up the majority!
This was not even the most terrifying sight. What was most frightening was the dead stillness in everyone's eyes. It was unlike the spirit Lin Yue had witnessed on his first visit, when some eyes had still burned with passion and hope! Now they all resembled walking corpses!
Defeat after defeat left the young people heading to the battlefield unable to see any hope. The fall of one territory after another had numbed them!
As the war reached a fever pitch, many people began rushing everywhere to provide support. Countless experts died, and the younger generation could not catch up in time, leaving a gap between the old and the new!
The three emerged from the void and fell into sorrow at the sight of the ruined city. The place remained, but its people had changed!
Among the elders guarding the city was one who had been there before. Already a great sect leader in the Battle Self Realm back then, he had survived countless bloody battles! He had also entered the Escape One Realm, becoming a great cultivator who could be called a supreme expert. Yet he had never transferred away, still wishing to guard this place.
Though he remained alive, he felt no joy. The familiar young people once beside him had died in battle one after another. The white-haired had buried the black-haired, and surviving had become a torment to him. He spent his days dazed and muddled, his spirit lost.
There were quite a few elders like him nearby, all terribly aged. Some still bore severe injuries that had never healed, silently licking their wounds.
Even the approach of Lin Yue and his two companions stirred no emotion in these elders!
Looking at the elder huddled off to one side, Lin Yue asked, "Senior, are there still any inspections required to enter the city?"
"No! Come if you want, leave if you want! Do as you please. The outcome will be the same anyway!"
His defeated tone was infuriating, but no one blamed him. Everyone was struggling in despair now, and some had witnessed so many hopeless scenes that they could no longer bear it and had gone mad!
After answering instinctively, the elder felt that the voice sounded somewhat familiar. The instant he looked up, he saw the same familiar faces from years before. Only now, they had shed their youthful immaturity and become accomplished young adults!
"Lord Lin Yue, honored Heavenly Horned Ants! Why have you come?"
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