Among those runes were the runes of Heavenly Will. The moment Xu Ying touched the Heavenly Dao runes upon his mystic pass, the stone statue of Heavenly Will sensed it.
It had been wandering nearby all along, waiting for Xu Ying to emerge from the Other Shore of the Martial Dao.
It never expected Xu Ying to remain on the other shore for more than two months.
During this time, the stone statue of Heavenly Will had not been idle either. Eager to know why the Netherworld would invade the ruined Taichu World, it had explored this ancient battlefield.
Though merely a projection of a heavenly god, it was exceedingly powerful in its own right. Even so, it had encountered peril after peril on this ancient battlefield, narrowly escaping with its life.
It had discovered many shocking things—things that surpassed its understanding and sent chills down its spine.
"Capture Xu Ying first, then uncover the mysteries here!"
Beside the unyielding martial master, Xu Ying stood up and began executing the ultimate techniques he had comprehended during this period. As he performed each movement, the power forged from the essence, qi, and spirit within him shifted in tandem, surging toward the Heavenly Dao runes sealing his mystic pass!
Wholeheartedly devoted to unraveling the runes, Xu Ying's will grew fiercer, and the vitality within his blood turned increasingly formidable. Gradually, his soul was mobilized as well—soul and flesh united, essence and qi merged!
One after another, the Heavenly Dao runes were shaken, flickering between light and shadow!
Xu Ying understood every single Heavenly Dao rune and knew all the flaws within them like the back of his hand. Yet his cultivation remained restricted to the Qi Harvesting stage; no matter how profound his knowledge, he lacked the sheer power to shatter them.
Xu Ying's strikes grew faster and more ferocious. Suddenly, he exhaled and let out a long roar, unleashing the first of the Eight Methods of the God of War: the Heaven-Flipping Method!
This move was a fist seal. His intent anchored to Taiyi; his skin drew taut; his viscera, bones, flesh, and sinews erupted with force all at once!
As the fist seal drove forward, it was as if an imperishable immortal artifact had smashed down from beyond the Nine Heavens, upending the firmament and annihilating all in its path!
*Thump!*
Within Xu Ying's body, essence, qi, spirit, blood vitality, soul, and physical frame fused into one, transforming into the Heaven-Flipping Method to batter the mystic pass!
*Boom!*
Under this single seal, one of the Heavenly Dao runes that had previously held firm instantly shattered into oblivion!
Xu Ying shifted his stance and unleashed the second of the Eight Methods of the God of War: the Earth-Overturning Method!
Planting his feet into the ground, his thighs surged like two furious dragons boring straight into the Yellow Springs and taking root in the earth. The thick muscles on his thighs pulsed, resembling flood dragons coiling around the enraged beasts to bolster their might!
The ground cracked and caved in, several mu collapsing beneath his tread in an instant. Yet the true thrust of the Earth-Overturning Method lay not in his legs, but in his right palm sweeping upward from below!
However immense the force underfoot, the power channeled into his palm was greater still!
As Xu Ying thrust his palm out, the sky violently trembled. The air compressed and detonated with thunderous cracks, bolts of lightning wildly dancing as a giant palm holding lightning pressed forward!
At the same time, before his mystic pass, the seven forces of his essence, qi, spirit, blood vitality, soul, and flesh fused into the Earth-Overturning Method, slamming into the fractured runes!
The bellowing of ten thousand bulls echoed from within Xu Ying, growing louder and louder. Veins bulged and writhed beneath the youth's skin as his power was pushed to the absolute extreme!
Xu Ying flipped his hand into a seal, as though the ocean itself hung suspended in the heavens, unleashing all its weight as downward palm force!
Beneath his palm seal, the earth burst apart with cracking snaps. Countless stones and bones were ground to dust under the crushing pressure. Even the shattered treasures left behind from the primordial era sank under his palm, driven deep into the subterranean depths!
This was the third of the Eight Methods of the God of War: the Sea-Inverting Method!
Xu Ying followed with the fourth: the Mountain-Crashing Method. It was as if Gonggong had crashed into Mount Buzhou—the four pillars collapsed, and the nine provinces split apart!
Then came the fifth: the Dao-Hammer Method. As Xu Ying performed it, he resembled a glorious heavenly god draped in brilliant divine light, wielding the Dao as a hammer to crush all living beings!
The sixth method: the Heaven-Attracting Method. He stood at the center like a stellar vortex, drawing his foes in like stars captured by a colossal celestial body to be ground into dust!
The seventh method: the God-Slaying Method.
As Xu Ying executed this strike, resonant chants of the Martial Dao sounded within him. His sinews and bones chimed in unison like rolling thunder!
Nearly half the Heavenly Dao runes on his Weilu mystic pass had shattered. Most of the broken ones were flawed; though imbued with Heavenly Dao power, finding their seams allowed them to be broken.
The remaining runes, however, were mostly correct, making them exceptionally difficult to dismantle.
At that moment, he unleashed the eighth method: the Dao-Returning Method! As this punch struck, heaven and earth vibrated in harmony, and the Great Dao resonated. Whether it was the sinister, murky gloom of the Nether Court, the unyielding battle intent, murderous aura, and wrongful deaths of those who had fallen here, or the accumulated grievances of the world, all were rallied by his fist and incorporated into its latent power!
As that power erupted, Xu Ying resembled a divine king above the Nine Heavens, commanding every dao method beneath his hands!
At the same time, the shattered Heavenly Dao runes within him were mobilized to become his strength, and even the intact runes seemed faintly swayed by his will!
This was the Dao-Returning Method of the Eight Methods of the God of War!
As his fist blasted forth, a cacophony of dao methods roared inside him, culminating in an earth-shattering explosion.
The Heavenly Dao seal shattered, and the Weilu mystic pass swung wide open!
The moment this pass opened, divine light blazed from Xu Ying. The Heavenly River surged forward, Heavenly Mountains lit up one after another, water and fire achieved harmony, and the Five Sacred Mountains shone with pristine clarity.
Between water and fire, a furnace vessel rose gracefully, the Golden Core within radiating ten thousand beams of light!
Xu Ying's blood and qi surged. Behind him, as many as twenty-one cave-heavens opened in succession, pouring forth a torrent of immortal medicine.
His dharmic power swelled again and again, sweeping away all the gloom and frustration caused by the Heavenly Dao seal during these past months!
His martial true qi skyrocketed. Measured by the Innate realm, his martial true qi instantly leaped from the first thousand levels of the Innate realm to ten thousand, the count multiplying relentlessly!
Soon, his martial true qi reached eighty to ninety thousand levels!
It was not that he did not want to count the exact number, but rather that it was simply impossible to keep track.
"So strong!"
On the Other Shore of the Martial Dao, Yuan Shidao and the others were startled by the aura released when Xu Ying's seal broke. They looked toward his direction one after another, filled with astonishment and doubt.
Earlier, when Zhai Wuxian had brought Xu Ying to the Other Shore of the Martial Dao, his cultivation of a thousand Innate levels would have made him an ancestor-tier figure capable of shattering the void in the eyes of mundane martial artists. But to Yuan Shidao and the others, Xu Ying had barely stepped across the threshold of cultivation.
Although they knew a seal within him locked his power away, they had never imagined that the sealed strength could be so immense!
"Is this Nuo, or Qi Refinement?"
They gazed into the distance. In the dim battlefield, twenty-seven cave-heavens rotated brilliantly, taking on forms such as ovals, perfect circles, and crescent moons, all radiating mesmerizing light.
Amidst these twenty-seven cave-heavens floated immortal mountains, an inverted Heavenly River, and an array of Heavenly Mountains forming celestial phenomena.
They even saw towering gateways, an ocean of fire formed from Samadhi true fire, and a vast expanse of Samadhi divine water undulating with magnificent waves, appearing as though fish and dragons were taking flight.
Zhai Wuxian exclaimed in admiration, "This is the Realm of Xiyi he spoke of before."
The woman in red, named Yu Yanzhi, murmured softly, "If one cultivates both martial arts and Nuo, or both martial arts and qi, can one reach the ultimate peak?"
Yuan Shidao whispered, "Before that, someone must first verify that the Martial Dao can lead to immortality."
The crowd fell silent.
Only by cultivating the Martial Dao to the Ascension stage could it be proven a viable path.
If the path was impassable, how could one even speak of dual cultivation of martial arts and Nuo, or martial arts and qi?
They needed a trailblazer.
Zhai Wuxian's eyes flickered with resolve as he thought to himself, *Ascension through the Martial Dao—I can certainly achieve it!*
Xu Ying's roars continued unabated. Bolstered by his immense martial true qi, more cave-heavens boomed open behind him. Using his Martial Dao to command Yuan Qi and mobilize the power of the six secret depositories, his cultivation and strength reached an unprecedented pinnacle at this very moment!
His Golden Core, tempered by Samadhi true fire and Samadhi divine water, had achieved the three samadhis, yet had never reached the state of no samadhi.
Now, not only had he accomplished the Martial Dao, but his Golden Core had also attained Great Completion!
Xu Ying steadied his breathing, turned, and bowed deeply to the deceased martial predecessor. Straightening his back, he strode into the distance.
His trial was not yet over; he had yet to fully synthesize the martial arts he had learned on the other shore.
He needed to delve deeper into the primordial battlefield to challenge even greater threats!
As he advanced, the demonic monstrosities emerging on the ancient battlefield grew increasingly terrifying. Some had even grown flesh and blood, clinging to the bones of primordial powerhouses and possessing formidable might.
Xu Ying unleashed various martial ultimate techniques to clash head-on with them, only securing victory after grueling battles.
In certain areas, uncoagulated blood left behind by primordial powerhouses lingered.
Contaminated by the battle intent and evil qi of this place, the blood was foul beyond measure, continually spawning bloody silhouettes that crawled and darted rapidly across the ground.
Xu Ying channeled the Great Sun Vajra Seal. Relying on supreme martial arts and fighting a bloody battle for hours, he finally purified a pool of this blood.
There were also shattered treasures retaining the vital essence of primordial masters, haunting the ruins and slaughtering anyone in sight.
Elsewhere, corpses piled into corpse chasms—abysses formed of bodies that shifted ceaselessly.
There were even colossal tornadoes composed of countless corpses and treasures, sweeping away everything in their wake.
Whenever he encountered such hazards, Xu Ying hesitated no longer, immediately activating the Extreme Intent Freedom Technique and fleeing at top speed, far outstripping the corpse chasms and corpse tornadoes.
As he pressed deeper into the ancient battlefield, he passed the remains of martial powerhouses one after another. Hailing from the Other Shore of the Martial Dao, they stood like monuments—men and women who, in their twilight years, had ventured into this desperate land to carve out a path of survival for those who came after.
Xu Ying looked up into the distance. Ahead, the vitality of another martial expert still lingered in the sky.
He continued walking forward. Suddenly, amidst heaps of bones ahead, a stone man was busy bustling about, hauling skeletons, sorting them into categories, and piling them into small hillocks.
The stone man had a triangular head, small eyes, a large nose, and two eyebrows as scribbled and messy as caterpillars.
"Xu Ying, you've finally come."
The stone man continued bustling about, saying, "I have waited here for you for a very long time."
Xu Ying asked tentatively, "Which heavenly god are you?"
The stone man paused and chuckled. "I am the High God of Heavenly Will. As the saying goes, 'Heaven's will is unfathomable; heaven's will is like a blade.' That refers to me."
The stone man of Heavenly Will continued moving bones and remarked, "The reason you have become such a thorn in our side is not because of how powerful you are, nor how clever you are. There are many in this world more powerful than you, and many more clever than you. You became a grave threat simply because in every lifetime, you refuse to accept being ordinary."
He inspected the aura of the bone in his hand, tossed it aside, and said, "Clearly just an insect struggling to survive, yet you refuse to remain ordinary, dreaming of molting into a butterfly, dreaming of ascension. That is who you are."
He sighed with emotion. "Fu Yi and Beichenzi were actually wrong, and the higher-ups were wrong as well. Someone like you, even if thrown into a cesspool, would still think of crawling out. Even if made a maggot, you would still dream of breaking from your cocoon to become a butterfly."
Xu Ying was puzzled and asked, "Yearning for beauty and desiring a better life—isn't that everyone's dream?"
The stone man halted, a sneer spreading across his stony face. "Beneath Heavenly Will, how could they be worthy? Let me tell you what the Heavenly Dao truly is!"
He laughed aloud. "In this world, before anyone is even born, their price has already been marked, and their future already set! Some are born as scions of wealth; some are born as princes and lords; some are born in stables and thatched huts; some are born to be beasts of burden! And some are born destined to keep company with pigs and dogs!"
His body grew taller and more imposing. Clenching his fist, the stone man struck heavily toward Xu Ying. Around the crest of his fist, Heavenly Dao runes swirled, and the sound of the Dao resonated, proclaiming the supreme majesty of Heaven.
Xu Ying raised his hands to block it head-on. The force of the Heavenly Dao erupted, scattering his breath and driving him backward step after step!
"Those who wield authority stand high above, clothed in fine silks and dining on delicacies, never needing to worry about their next meal or where they will sleep! What about you lot? You finish one meal and immediately have to worry about where the next will come from!"
He hammered down with punch after punch. Beneath his fist, the Heavenly Dao crisscrossed, bursting with primordial resonance, immense strength, and boundless might, battering Xu Ying until his aura waned, forcing him back again and again!
"You struggle in the mire, squirming in the cesspool. You think that by risking your lives, by studying diligently, by working tirelessly, or by bowing servilely with flattering smiles, you can change your fate, climb to high office, and ascend to the next stratum!"
The stone man's fist flattened into a blade, slashing downward with a sneer across his face.
"You're dreaming."
Heaven's will was like a blade, slashing down like a torrential storm. In an instant, Xu Ying was covered in wounds!
The blade of Heavenly Will penetrated everywhere, slashing into his body, carving into his Realm of Xiyi, cutting into his divine sense, carving into his Golden Core, and hacking into his spirit!
The stone man intended to crush him with the magnificent Heavenly Dao, destroy his dao heart, and teach him the true meaning of heavenly might!
"You insects, whose entire lives were decided before you were even born—you want to ascend too?"
With another slash from the stone man of Heavenly Will, Xu Ying was drenched in blood. Even his cave-heavens were riddled with cracks, and he tumbled backward like a tattered sack.
The stone man of Heavenly Will sheathed his blade and said impassively, "Xu Ying, do not defy a god who can govern your entire life."
Xu Ying staggered to his feet, keeping his head lowered. "If one lifetime cannot achieve ascension, then can a thousand lifetimes?!"
He raised his head, his face covered in blood, but his gaze was unyielding as iron. He roared:
"Bodies of a thousand lifetimes, return!"
*Boom!*
His blood and vitality erupted. Before and behind him materialized an enormous character for "Prison," written entirely in Immortal Dao runes!
At this moment, that dao rune seal began to relentlessly unravel.
Behind Xu Ying, lifetime after lifetime of Xu Ying appeared, as if standing in the deepest reaches of space and time. Now, unsealed one by one, they merged into his body in succession!
Chapter 182