As the rules of Lin Yue's inner world gradually became clearer, the rules of the Great Dao slowly entered his flesh. His body gradually adapted to the rules of heaven and earth, tempering itself through this repeated cycle.
Boom... It was as though a door sealed beneath dust for ages had swung open, and everything before him suddenly became clear.
His Void Dao body was complete!
The method Lin Yue cultivated was the body-refining secret art of the Human Immortal Martial Dao from his previous life: the Yin-Yang Dao Chapter!
This method not only corresponded to the yin and yang of the human body, but also combined yin-yang techniques and arts with the immortal martial arts of the inner universe to forge his own path.
Now that Lin Yue had stepped into the Void Dao Realm, the secret art he had created within the Yin-Yang Dao Chapter had advanced further. His Great Yin-Yang Chengli Sword Qi, a secret art that slaughtered primordial spirits, could likely kill even a great sect master in the Self-Slaying Realm!
Then Lin Yue gathered his divine consciousness at his spiritual platform. The two tiny figures, one black and one white, became more solid. Their once-blurred faces began to develop distinct features, bearing a sixty-percent resemblance to Lin Yue.
These were the yin-yang divine bodies nurtured by the Dao Flowers Lin Yue had bloomed with three strands of immortal qi, embodiments of the two extremes of yin and yang. As he perfected the body-refinement section of the Yin-Yang Dao Chapter, the tiny figures grew increasingly distinct! Once their forms were fully imprinted, he could enter the next stage of cultivation!
Meanwhile, Lin Yue had nurtured nothing in his cave heaven. The Great Dao of the human body was the foundation of his cultivation. Only the Dao Flower bloomed by his final strand of immortal qi had transformed into a golden figure sitting cross-legged. Unlike the blurred yin and yang figures at his spiritual platform, this one was clearly visible, like a miniature Lin Yue.
This was the martial dao divine infant nurtured by the martial arts of the human body! In other words, Lin Yue was nurturing his own divine essence spirit within his cave heaven!
Above the divine infant, a black-and-white taiji wheel slowly revolved.
Lin Yue had named this wheel the wheel of yin and yang. He suspected it might be the reason he had transmigrated!
Although the divine infant lacked the ability to slaughter primordial spirits like the Great Yin-Yang Chengli Sword Qi, Lin Yue currently regarded his martial dao divine infant as his ultimate trump card!
When he had stepped onto the God King Path, an eerie presence had descended, seeking to lead him away. It was this divine infant that had emitted golden light, sweeping away all darkness and sinister forces!
A long while later, Lin Yue walked out of the bamboo grove.
It was time to meet the outstanding talents of this world!
The Border Wasteland!
This place was not yet the Imperial Pass of later ages. Although nearly all the Immortal Kings of the Nine Heavens had been killed or wounded, many Immortal Kings from the Immortal Domain were still holding the enemy back.
Recently, however, rumors had spread that the Immortal Domain might abandon the Nine Heavens, and many people had begun to worry!
Above the battlefield, blood stained the sky.
One prodigy after another found eternal rest here. Though he had yet to fully become part of this era, Lin Yue could not help feeling a trace of grief. Too many had died. Even heaven and earth sounded a lament that lingered without fading!
Aboard the flying ship, Lin Qi looked at the youth standing at the bow and sighed softly!
The chaotic battlefield below was truly vast. Though called a battlefield, it was actually an entire ancient world, with fighting everywhere!
Even so, many secret realms remained untouched. After all, the Nine Heavens of this age had not yet been compressed into the Nine Heavens of later times. Though not as enormous as the Foreign Realm or the Immortal Domain, its current population was still insufficient to explore certain secret realms! Some had even existed since previous eras!
High in the heavens, beings of the Immortal Dao clashed, while cultivators of the lower ranks fought on the ground. Although those immortal beings determined the outcome of the war, that did not prevent the enemy from testing the lesser cultivators. The struggle between two realms was never a matter of a single day. Though the Nine Heavens was a small realm, the Immortal Domain's deployment of troops might have given the Foreign Realm pause. Thus, these lower-ranked cultivators represented the struggles of the ages to come. That was probably why the Foreign Realm had sent some of its leading figures to roam the battlefield-to crush the future fortune of the Nine Heavens!
Lin Yue looked at his clan uncle beside him. "Uncle Qi! I'm heading down!"
Looking at the eager youth before him, Lin Qi did not know what to say. Others desperately fled the battlefield, yet he treated it as a training ground. Perhaps this was the mindset a true powerhouse ought to have!
"Perhaps our Lin Family's return to its former heights rests on you!" Lin Qi said. "Remember, if you cannot win, you must preserve your life. Only while you live is there hope! You are the hope of our Longevity Lin Family!"
"Yes!"
Chapter 5: Tempering
Within a mysterious ancient world, the smoke of war rose on all sides!
There was no way to know where this place was.
This was perfectly normal. Entering the battlefield and fighting across a thousand miles described only battles between mortals. Cultivators fought across entire worlds. Once they entered the battlefield, they might no longer know where they were. Enemies were everywhere, and they fought while retreating, ending up wherever the struggle took them!
Within a mysterious ancient land.
Mountains and rivers had crumbled, and the earth had been torn apart. At the center of the battlefield stood a young sect master. Judging by the vitality erupting from his body, he was absurdly young, without a trace of age upon him. He was an exceedingly young prodigy.
Countless corpses lay behind him and all around. Some resembled mountains, while others were no larger than humans.
Yet they all shared one trait: even in death, their auras remained astonishing, radiating endless destructive power that ordinary beings dared not approach!
And still, the battle continued!
Divine abilities and precious arts, along with slashes formed from runes, tore through the sky!
Only two beings from the Foreign Realm remained in the arena, panic flashing through their eyes.
Their original force of more than a dozen had dwindled to two. They had fought all the way here from another ancient world, and the youth from the Nine Heavens before them had already displayed talent worthy of an undying being. So long as he did not perish along the way, he would surely become one of the supreme figures of this age. Even among their own younger generation, he would be an unquestioned leader!
"Boy, which Immortal King are you descended from? At least let me know before I die!"
A humanoid being spoke!
"Heh."
The youth answered softly, those two sounds seemingly laden with boundless disdain!
"Bastard! Don't be too arrogant, boy. The Nine Heavens has already lost. You are nothing but the defeated! The leaders of our realm's younger generation have also arrived on the battlefield. Even if someone like you truly rises, what of it? Can you change the outcome of this war? In the end, it will all be futile! Join us! With your talent, receiving treatment equal to the Emperor Clans would be no problem! Many on your side have already joined us, so there is no need to feel uneasy. Before absolute strength, taking a small step back is sometimes only natural! I can tell you are still very young. Countless years await you. Do not ruin yourself!"
Faced with the youth's derisive laugh, the other being also spoke, not forgetting to try recruiting him. This youth was simply too terrifying, comparable to an Emperor Clan descendant, with heaven-defying combat strength.
"How ugly! Is this your pride? Before life and death, you are nothing but a pack of trash cowering before strength!"
The youth mocked them!
"Haha! Since you're so arrogant, go die!"
The moment those words fell, formation runes lit up on the ground beneath the two surrounding him, isolating heaven and earth. Their earlier words had merely bought time for this move!
The youth seemed to have seen through everything.
"So this is the trump card you worked so hard to reveal? Not bad! Unfortunately, it still isn't enough!"
"Life-Less Yin-Yang Sword!"
Even yin and yang could be severed; nothing could remain uncut!
Facing the approaching divine ability, whose power exceeded the Void Dao Realm, Lin Yue's body became wreathed in three strands of immortal qi. He slashed once, shattering the formation. Every divine ability dissolved into nothing beneath that sword. Its light swept across the sky like a blade through rotten wood, and two corpses crashed to the ground!
After killing the two Foreign Realm sect masters with a single sword strike, Lin Yue sat cross-legged on the ground!
Looking at the torn earth and the corpses of seven or eight sect masters scattered around, anyone who came here would likely refuse to believe that one person had achieved such a glorious feat!
Lin Yue sat cross-legged. Though it sounded astonishing, such a record against opponents in his own realm was nothing remarkable. They were merely trash calling themselves King Clans. If it had been the future Desolate Heaven Emperor, he could probably have tossed them into a pot and cooked them with a wave of his hand.
Still, he remained full of energy after such a prolonged battle. Fortunately, he cultivated the Human Immortal Martial Dao. Once battle began, his formidable physique and the energy hidden in his body's secret treasuries erupted in full, while the divine infant within him frantically replenished the primal energy of heaven and earth, ensuring his expenditure did not exceed his intake!
He felt the vast divine power within him nearly bursting out of his inner universe, seemingly about to force its way beyond the Void Dao Realm and into the Self-Slaying Realm!
He had to admit that war truly was the finest nourishment for growth and progress. In the few years since entering the battlefield, Lin Yue had slain countless people. He had killed prodigies, cut down kings, and slaughtered Emperor Clan members! He had also suffered grievous wounds in battle and nearly died. His record was unquestionably glorious!
It had not been long since Lin Yue entered the Void Dao Realm, yet his dense divine essence showed not the slightest sign of instability.
The Self-Slaying Realm was known as the realm of establishing one's Dao.
Slay the self; understand the path.
This realm required one to slay one's own self, comprehend one's Dao and arts, and establish the path one would follow through the endless years ahead.
If the Void Dao Realm required fusing with a seed, making the choice difficult, then Self-Slaying demanded heart-stopping caution at every step. This was truly the selection of one's path. Once chosen, it was difficult to change. A wrong choice could, at best, shatter the flesh and send one into reincarnation; at worst, it could annihilate the soul, leaving one beyond redemption for ten thousand calamities! It was a matter of utmost importance.
Once someone entered this realm, they would be an expert wherever they went. No longer cannon fodder, they became a pillar of the battlefield and a leader within the great factions. In the Nine Heavens, they could be called a great sect master.
Just as Lin Yue quieted his essence, qi, and spirit to make his final preparations, a surge of earth-shaking killing power spread from afar. This power nearly exceeded the Void Dao Realm, yet the fluctuations of its divine marks had not reached Self-Slaying.
Had some extraordinary prodigy also entered this ancient land? Or had those people carried markers on them, and their reinforcements arrived?
After suppressing his aura, which was on the verge of running wild, Lin Yue's figure slowly dissolved and vanished from the spot.
On another battlefield, eight Foreign Realm prodigies and a Blood Phoenix Lion with two wings on his back were besieging a young man and woman clad in close-fitting battle armor.
These were unquestionable prodigies. The divine runes and power fluctuations revealed with every move almost surpassed the Void Dao Realm. They could likely fight above their realm against Self-Slaying cultivators without difficulty. They were no trash boasting of being kings!
"Yan, you shouldn't have stayed. I'm already injured. You should have left. Preserving our surviving strength would have been the best outcome!"
"Mother died in a sneak attack. Father was surrounded and attacked, and has now withdrawn from the battlefield with severe injuries. We don't even know whether he's alive. How could I abandon my own family and flee alone? Besides, we haven't avenged them yet!"
The young man named Yan spoke, looking into the distance with eyes filled with boundless killing intent. Someone seemed to be wandering across the battlefield over there, yet appeared to pay no attention to this fight!
Judging by the power the two displayed and the surrounding space, which was nearly collapsing beneath their auras, they were unquestionably immortal-seed-level figures of the Nine Heavens. Even against nearly nine kings from the Foreign Realm, they held the upper hand! Their talent was truly terrifying. At the very least, they would become beings of the Immortal Dao in the future.
"Hehe! Neither of you needs to argue. Both of you can stay! Haha! This time, we'll get a taste of the blood of ultimate strength too! Hahahahaha!"
A Foreign Realm king spoke. This creature had two heads, one facing forward and one backward, with bony faces and a body entirely encased in black-and-white bone armor.
The Demon Bone was a King Clan of the Foreign Realm. Since the war began, this clan had been active on the battlefield. Their demonic bones were incomparably hard, and many divine abilities and slashes could not penetrate their defenses. Their eerie teleportation ability and the sinister secret arts engraved upon their bones had earned them a terrifying reputation on the battlefield. They were one of the most renowned King Clans beneath the Emperor Clans of the Foreign Realm, and were said to have several undying beings among them.
"Exactly. Who hasn't heard of the famed blood of the extremity of strength of the Nine Heavens' Heavenly Horned Ants? They brought defeat and death to several undying beings of our realm, and even our kings were driven back. Now, however, we'll reap the benefits." A birdman with six wings on his back spoke solemnly, then extended his tongue and licked his lips!
The Heavenly Horned Ants' reputation was simply too great. They were said to possess the utmost strength in the world. Every cultivator, whether they practiced body refinement or not, was inseparable from the path of the flesh. Whenever that path was discussed, the Heavenly Horned Ants were an unavoidable topic! The innate divine abilities of this race and their ultimate strength were irresistibly alluring. Anyone who obtained their precious blood would surely advance further.
"Stinking lion, you can't fight us for this one. I want his body to forge weapons too. When we use them against his own people, their expressions will surely be spectacular!" another humanoid being said!
As everyone knew, a Heavenly Horned Ant was a treasure from head to toe. Both its body and its heavenly horn could be forged into unparalleled weapons. That heavenly horn in particular possessed the power to split heaven and earth and cleave the cosmos.
"That's easy enough," the Blood Phoenix Lion said. "I'm not interested in the blood of the extremity of strength right now! But we must ask my master first. I imagine my generous master won't fuss over so little!"
Everyone's expressions tightened at those words, but no one objected. They knew perfectly well what sort of person his master was, and what that represented!
"Bastards! A pack of scum! I'll use your departed souls as the appetizer for this slaughter!"
Hearing them discuss him as though he were livestock, the young man named Yan finished speaking, erupted with blood energy, and charged. This time, even the woman did not try to stop him!
Chapter 6: Heavenly Horned Ant
As the young man erupted forward in towering fury, the woman followed close behind.
Watching their enemies charge with blood energy surging skyward, the Foreign Realm kings braced themselves. Though their taunts were meant to unsettle their opponents, they did not dare be careless in their hearts. Without their numerical advantage and a leading figure stationed behind them, they would probably have fled long ago!
The Blood Phoenix Lion was the offspring of a Fallen Blood Phoenix and a Fearless Lion who had defected.
At the beginning of the war between the two realms, after the Immortal Monk King fell, the divine beast that served as his guardian defected to the Foreign Realm. Now that beast's descendant had turned against the cultivators of the Nine Heavens. It was truly infuriating.
Yet anger aside, this Blood Phoenix Lion was genuinely terrifying. With the Fearless Lion Seal in one hand and an incomplete Blood Phoenix Nirvana art in the other, he was no weaker than an Emperor Clan descendant!
Divine abilities intertwined, blanketing heaven and earth as the Great Dao thundered. The battle was extraordinarily fierce. The young man possessed ultimate strength; each punch required at least three opponents to counter together. Alone, he fought a bloody battle against six kings and still held the upper hand. These kings, if they survived, would likely enter the Extreme Dao in the future, or even become undying beings. He truly lived up to the name of the Ten Fiends in later ages! Whenever his opponents could not join forces to meet an attack, they could only evade it!
"Come on! Didn't you want my precious blood? Why are you scurrying and hiding like rats? Your mouths squeak merrily enough, but you're really just a pack of stinking sewer rats cowering before strength! Haha...!" Even while fighting his bloody battle, the young man did not forget to mock his opponents!
"Ah! You bastard! A mere defeated soldier dares boast of valor? All of you, stand aside!"
The bony face of Ku, the Demon Bone clansman, was almost twisted out of shape, showing how furious he was. His clan was a King Clan renowned for its absolute defense. Even Emperor Clans did not dare insult them lightly, let alone a defeated foe! Now he declared that he would confront the young man alone!
"I'll do it!"
"Ku! Don't be reckless!" another woman with a face covered in scales called out. The two evidently shared a close bond.
"Absolute Defense!"
With a furious roar from the Demon Bone king, demonic bones manifested across his body like divine marks, forming an enormous shield! Black-and-white divine marks flowed across its surface. Its defenses were not merely astonishing; the power of rules capable of reflecting every divine ability and Dao art coursed over it.
"Just what I wanted!"
The corners of the young man's mouth lifted slightly, as though his scheme had succeeded, and he threw a punch.
Boom...
A crash like a celestial star striking the earth resounded through heaven and earth. Terrifying energy spread in every direction, and both the ground and the void trembled! The formless void actually rose in towering waves like an ocean.
The torn earth rumbled again and again, and the void shattered!
"Fall back before this king!"
The Demon Bone king likewise erupted with astonishing divine power, trying to force the young man back!
"Back? Not a chance! Die!"
Terrifying divine power shattered the bone shield like glass. The young man's divine fist pierced his opponent's chest like a pillar of fire, and then the king exploded into ashes.
"Ku! Ah! I'll kill you!" an enraged scream rang out!
"Fool! Don't fight him alone!"
Another king nearby, who had witnessed the strength of the young man's clansmen, called out a warning!
Apart from the young man, the woman was also surrounded by several opponents.
"Give up resisting! How about becoming my slave? Don't worry. With a figure like yours, I'll certainly treat you well. I wonder what splendor the offspring of a Blood Phoenix Lion and a Heavenly Horned Ant would possess!"
Before you continue