Lu Xuan slowly rose, feeling the abundant level-83 Soul Power within him.
Since he had completed Asura's Second Trial, he had officially entered the Soul Douluo realm.
Next, he would have to face the Life Second Trial.
Only three years remained before the Life Second Trial's deadline.
Recalling the brutal intensity of Asura's Second Trial, which had nearly driven him mad.
Lu Xuan's gaze sharpened slightly.
Both were God King-level trials.
This Life Second Trial would certainly not be much easier than Asura's trial.
He instinctively looked around, only to discover that the Asura God Sword had vanished again at some point.
"Huh? Why did I say 'again'?"
The corner of Lu Xuan's mouth twitched slightly, and he shook his head helplessly.
He remembered.
Last time, in Slaughter City, the Asura God Sword had followed him all along, until he completed his hundred victories and entered Hell Road.
Then it had quietly disappeared.
Still, he could not be bothered to concern himself with so much. The burden on his shoulders was already heavy enough.
Besides, the Asura God Sword did not belong to him at present.
Across the entire Douluo Continent, there were probably few people or powers capable of truly restraining a Super Divine Artifact with a consciousness of its own.
Lu Xuan took a deep breath and, with a thought, connected with the Life Mark within him.
In an instant, a brilliant yet gentle green light appeared out of thin air, completely enveloping his body.
The next moment, space twisted, and his figure vanished from the dark, blood-soaked chamber.
When his vision cleared again, Lu Xuan was already standing inside the Life Space.
Before him lay a vast, boundless green ocean that seemed to have no end.
Its surface shimmered, radiating an intensely concentrated aura of life.
"Here I come-to cross the Sea of Life!"
Lu Xuan gazed at the magnificent sight before him and murmured to himself.
He looked around and found that the mysterious woman in the green dress had not appeared this time.
Within that enormous space, there was only him and the ocean stretching beyond sight.
Without hesitation, Lu Xuan's gaze hardened.
He resolutely stepped forward into the seawater.
The instant his toes touched the surface.
A vaguely familiar, irresistible sensation of his soul being stripped away swept through his entire body.
"Damn it, this again!"
One second before his consciousness sank completely into darkness and he passed out.
Lu Xuan could not help cursing through gritted teeth.
When his consciousness awakened again.
All Lu Xuan could see was a world of endless green.
He tried to move his body, only to discover that he had neither hands nor feet.
A breeze brushed past, and he could only sway gently to its rhythm.
To his astonishment, he discovered that he was in a vast grassland.
His view was level with the surrounding grass.
Have I... become a blade of grass?
Lu Xuan struggled to keep his composure.
Compared with Asura's trial, which required constant slaughter while resisting its effects on his mind.
That bloody purgatory that could tear his flesh apart at the slightest turn.
The trial of life seemed far too "gentle."
After that, he was forced to experience the long life of a blade of grass.
Sunrise and sunset, wind and rain.
There were no grand, sweeping battles.
No blood-stirring fights to the death.
Only endless silence.
It was boring, utterly tedious.
Lu Xuan's consciousness struggled ceaselessly within that deathly stillness.
What exactly is the meaning of my existence?
Is it merely to add an insignificant touch of green to this land?
Then drift through an entire dull life in a daze, until I wither, yellow, and rot?
Just as that monotony was about to grind his consciousness away completely, the scene before him abruptly shifted.
A salty, briny scent rushed toward him, and he found himself in a deep ocean.
No, that's not right!
He had no physical form. He himself was this vast ocean!
He felt the surging currents and the eruptions of undersea volcanoes.
From a vast, all-knowing perspective, he witnessed the workings of the ocean's ecosystem.
Large fish mercilessly swallowed small fish.
Small fish hunted little shrimp in schools.
And the little shrimp nibbled at the seagrass on the seabed.
The ocean's ecosystem was flourishing and dazzling, yet threaded with naked cruelty.
Within his "body," countless new lives broke free of their eggs every second, giving off faint pulses of life.
And in every second, countless lives were torn apart and devoured, dissolving into bloody water.
Life and death intertwined here in a grand, cold symphony.
He did not know how long he had drifted through that ocean.
The scene before him underwent another violent transformation.
This time, he lost all weight and kept rising.
Now, high above the nine heavens, he became the boundless firmament, looking down upon all things beneath the sky.
He had become the sky.
Above the clouds, he coldly observed everything happening on the earth below.
He saw power change hands in human empires, spears gleaming and iron-clad horses charging, blood flowing in rivers.
Once-prosperous capitals became ruins in the flames of war, and new dynasties rose from those ruins.
He saw sovereignty change hands among the clans in the Soul Beast Forest.
An aged beast king was torn apart by a young challenger.
The new king stood upon the corpse and unleashed a long howl toward the heavens, announcing the arrival of a new era.
He witnessed every facet of the world, seas turning into mulberry fields.
Lu Xuan's consciousness surged through the firmament as he sank deep into thought.
Why, exactly, did life exist?
What was the meaning of existence?
Where would life ultimately lead?
Gradually, a glimmer of understanding lit up in the depths of his soul.
The existence of life was this world's choice.
The meaning of existence was to make this once-silent world richer and more brilliant.
Life was resilient, yet also fragile, something that could be mercilessly taken away.
The weak constantly struggled and evolved on the brink of life and death.
While the strong constantly devoured the weak to maintain their own peak.
Life was destined to end in death and destruction.
But destruction was not the true end.
Destruction represented precisely the return of Life Energy, another continuation and rebirth of life!
Lu Xuan understood.
Perhaps he was not the only one who understood.
Rather, "life" itself was simply that magnificent and spectacular.
A thousand living beings held a thousand different kinds of reverence for and views on life.
In the blink of an eye, that crystalline sense of understanding reached its peak.
The space before Lu Xuan's eyes underwent another violent transformation, like a shattering mirror.
The next moment, the weightlessness vanished, and the sensation of solid ground beneath his feet spread through his entire body.
He abruptly opened his eyes.
He gasped for breath, his eyes still holding the depth of one who had weathered the vicissitudes of time.
He looked down.
The unfathomably deep seawater beneath his feet had turned into solid land at some point.
He turned back.
The boundless Sea of Life now rippled quietly behind him.
The corners of Lu Xuan's mouth lifted slightly.
He understood. He had completed his Second Trial!
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