Such Are the Facts-What Can Defiance Change!

The voice was mild, yet it seemed to douse the scorching heat surging through Qingyang Huan's entire body with a sudden chill. The Stone Spear always appeared abruptly at moments like these.

Qingyang Jue did not notice Qingyang Huan stiffen. His gaze was focused more on the extraordinary manifestations emanating from Qingyang Huan's body.

He had never expected his boy to actually endure it. With Qingyang Huan's cultivation, enduring that seething, scorching blood medicine required bearing tremendous pain.

"Hahaha, brat, you're truly a son of mine!"

At that moment, to Qingyang Jue, the radiant clouds suffusing the entire stone house and the beacon smoke of blood Qi piercing the stone walls were utterly intoxicating. He had not been this excited even when he advanced to the Spirit Seizing Realm.

Soon, several clan elders who had hurried over crowded outside the stone doorway, their aged faces all brimming with joy.

"Beacon smoke of blood Qi! This is beacon smoke of blood Qi!"

"This is the manifestation produced by attaining the Body Casting Extreme Realm! No wonder young Huan wanted my treasured beast bone. It was worth it!"

Looking at the clan elders gathered outside the stone doorway, Qingyang Huan no longer felt any of his earlier excitement after the Stone Spear's abrupt words.

"Father, elders, I need to consolidate my cultivation."

"Yes, yes, yes. You've just broken through. You should consolidate it properly."

The clan elders, including Qingyang Jue, all regarded this as perfectly natural and soon withdrew from the stone house. Qingyang Huan casually kicked the shattered bronze cauldron's fragments aside, sat cross-legged, and eagerly asked.

"Senior Stone Spear, you aren't going to go back on your word, are you?"

The Stone Spear had agreed to teach him the method of opening his hidden reserves once he reached the Body Casting Extreme Realm. Now, with only half the two-year period gone, he had fulfilled their original agreement. Had the Stone Spear suddenly stepped in to discourage him because some unexpected complication was about to arise?

"I would hardly stoop to deceiving a youth."

The Stone Spear's voice rang out in Qingyang Huan's mind, putting him somewhat at ease.

"Then what you said earlier, Senior..."

"Do you truly think that attaining the Body Casting Extreme Realm means you can sweep aside everyone at your level?"

These words stunned Qingyang Huan. Everything he knew about the Body Casting Extreme Realm came from rumors in the Great Wilderness: tempering every step of the Five Body-Forging Realms to its limit, with blood Qi like beacon smoke visible for miles. Now, he had finally reached this stage.

"Try out how much strength you have!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Qingyang Huan punched forward. Surging blood Qi poured into his fist, making the air before him crack explosively.

"A little over thirty thousand jin."

After that strike, Qingyang Huan gained a rough understanding of his strength. Gathering over thirty thousand jin of strength at the peak of body forging had once been utterly unimaginable to him. Not just to him-even the entire Qingyang territory and the several large tribes nearby would find it hard to imagine. Perhaps only in the Ancient City of La Mountain could he find opponents who matched him.

Yet he heard a lack of regard in the Stone Spear's tone.

Wait!

The next instant, booming sounds erupted throughout Qingyang Huan's body again. Billowing blood Qi seethed within him, and scarlet radiant clouds shone out through his body, suffusing the entire stone house. The beacon smoke of blood Qi that had dispersed behind him condensed once more.

Blood Qi surged from every inch of his flesh, and even his breathing carried faint sounds of wind and thunder. Then he roared, "Condense!"

Drawing on all the blood Qi in his body, he sent the beacon smoke of blood Qi behind him rolling like a tide. Yet no matter how he tried to condense it, it would not take the shape of a flood dragon. At most, it resembled a bloated water snake.

"Condense, condense, condense!"

He roared again, stirring every tempered bone in his body. His flesh gave rise to radiant clouds, and surging vitality spilled out, yet the beacon smoke of blood Qi behind him still resembled a bloated water snake.

What happened to the flood dragon manifestation that was supposed to come with the Body Casting Extreme Realm?

"How is this happening?"

A full quarter of an hour passed before Qingyang Huan's imposing presence subsided. He had no choice but to face reality, yet this was precisely what he could not understand. He had brought all five steps of body forging, from skin wrinkling to bone marrow life-nurturing, to their utmost limits, and had even developed tremendous strength exceeding thirty thousand jin. Yet he could not condense the flood dragon manifestation.

"The blood Qi in your body has not yet reached the level needed to condense a flood dragon manifestation," the Stone Spear's voice rang out again.

"How is that possible? I've clearly reached the peak of body forging, and even attained the state of the extreme realm."

"If even a youth from a remote place, from a tribe that barely qualifies as one guarding a territory, can reach this level, do you think the prodigies of the true ancient lands, sacred lands, and secluded great clans, with their high-grade arts and the blood Qi of mighty fiends, would fall short of you?"

"Well..."

Qingyang Huan was somewhat at a loss for words. He had to admit that the Stone Spear was entirely right. How could the descendants of great clans with ancient legacies fail to reach a level he could attain?

The descendants of those ancient great clans would only be stronger than him. From birth, they stood upon fortune, blessed with flourishing providence. Sacred physiques, bloodlines, and Dao arts were all beyond the imagination of ordinary warriors. The things he could only look up to were merely those people's starting points.

Even with the improved body casting art the Stone Spear had given him, he had only barely drawn level with the descendants of those great clans in terms of cultivation arts.

"Across the untamed wilderness, ten thousand races vie for supremacy. The pain you have endured merely allows you to chase after certain people. Yet the fortunes of heaven and earth are limitless. What you achieve by exhausting all your strength may be no more than someone else's starting point!"

"Even if your heart refuses to accept it, that is the truth!"

"The mighty attain mastery that reaches into creation itself. When their descendants are born, their bloodlines are potent, and those whose blood strength exceeds forty thousand jin are everywhere. Do you still think your Body Casting Extreme Realm is some tremendous fortune?"

"You think it is fortune because the world in your eyes is too small-so small that one corner of the world is everything, and the slightest scrap of fortune is a heaven-sent blessing!"

The voice, like the pealing of great bells, shook Qingyang Huan into a daze. He simply sat there cross-legged, drained of vitality.

Just as the Stone Spear had said, even if his heart refused to accept it, what could he do? These were the facts!

Only after a long while did Qingyang Huan regain his vitality. "Since the flood dragon manifestation hasn't condensed, does that mean there is still room to improve within the Body Forging Realm?"

"Correct!"

"The place you live in is far too remote. In truth, thirty thousand jin is the dividing line the races of the Great Wilderness use to distinguish their younger clansmen. Only those whose blood strength exceeds thirty thousand jin can barely qualify as talents among their peers across the races of the Great Wilderness and receive the full support of their respective tribes."

"Thirty thousand jin of strength?" In an instant, Qingyang Huan seized on the Stone Spear's wording. The Stone Spear had said thirty thousand jin, without mentioning the Body Casting Extreme Realm.

Soon, the Stone Spear's voice rang out in his mind again.

"Those ancient great clans of the Great Wilderness carry all manner of powerful bloodlines. From the moment their descendants are born, they possess fortunes surpassing those of countless peers."

"But if that were all, wouldn't the descendants of the mighty be mighty generation after generation, leaving ordinary warriors with no chance to rise? That is why the Body Casting Extreme Realm is the path by which ordinary warriors can stand beside, or even surpass, those born with bloodlines. They have the power of their bloodlines to temper their bodies to the utmost limit, while ordinary warriors rely on their own efforts to reach the Body Casting Extreme Realm and temper their bodies to the utmost limit!"