Xue Shou raised both hands before him, an invisible barrier seeming to manifest in the air and halting all six opposing arms half a meter away.
The two spiritual forces clashed incessantly, causing both of their silhouettes to waver and flicker.
Yet bolstered by the esoteric ritual, Xue Shou’s figure appeared noticeably more solid. Looking up at the silhouette that stood at least twice his height, he smiled faintly, then gave a simple forward push. Like flowers in a mirror or the moon on water, that towering figure abruptly shattered.
Turning his head, Xue Shou said, "I can hold him off one more time. Whatever you plan to do, go do it."
Chen Chuan nodded and took a step back. His body flashed, vanishing abruptly from the spot. When he reappeared, he was already inside the dense woods of the uncharted zone not far behind him.
A man-sized fissure stood here, brilliant light spilling out from within. Chen Chuan had deliberately left it open when he emerged earlier. Factoring in the timing and the terrain outside, he had felt the chances of running into that martial artist were very high, so he had made preparations in advance.
Otherwise, he never would have lingered there to watch.
Once a fissure existed, unstable rifts formed in the surrounding space, allowing him to traverse directly using his Flying Dragon Jin. Though he could not manage the exquisite precision and effortless freedom of Chen Bitong, traveling in straight lines was well within his capability.
Just as he retreated backward, the black-armored general’s second spiritual wave struck. Xue Shou intercepted the impact once again, but his figure turned indistinct, seemingly on the verge of scattering.
Moments later, the black-armored general arrived once more, and this time his mere presence dispersed the last fading remnants of the manifestation, even if his body hitched slightly from the collision.
Chen Chuan had already retreated to the front of the fissure. At that moment, his senses stirred, and he looked up to see the black-armored general looking right at him. His eyes narrowed slightly. He could feel that what had arrived this time was not mere spiritual force, but the man himself.
The instant that thought surfaced, an overwhelming field pressure engulfed him. The unstable gaps around him instantly seemed to freeze solid, and even his body felt pinned in place.
A red shadow flashed. A veiled woman in crimson garments materialized out of thin air, spinning like a dancer with her red skirt billowing. With a crisp clang, the yanling saber in her hand sliced right through the binding constraints.
Feeling weightless once more, Chen Chuan leaned backward and vanished on the spot. When he reappeared, he was already on the other side of the fissure. At the same time, he swept the Xuejun Saber upward, and the passage wide enough for one person rapidly pulled shut.
Meanwhile, Hongfu dissolved into a streak of red, darting through before the fissure fully closed and returning to the fluttering scarf draped around his neck.
The clearing was left instantly vacant, save for grass and leaves swept into the air by the turbulent gusts of wind.
The black-armored general glanced around, stepping forward with heavy strides. Looking at where the fissure had just closed, the four arms flanking his shoulders suddenly reared up, balled into fists, and hammered upward!
Yet the blow landed as if striking something solid. Thin, threadlike cracks splintered across the empty air, brilliant light bleeding from within them. Reclining slightly, he raised his fists and slammed down again. With a loud crack, even more fractures spiderwebbed across the space.
After several strikes in rapid succession, he leaned forward, all six hands digging into the cracks as he slowly exerted outward force. In an instant, the emerging rays of brilliant light seemed to steadily widen.
On the other side of the fissure, Chen Chuan saw it happen. He knew that individuals with exceptional or superior spiritual capabilities could pierce through barriers by their own power and cross over to the other side. As a martial artist, the general was clearly capable of this as well, though it required preparation and specific weak points.
Right now, likely due to the shattering of the Ring of the World and the lingering ripples from the recently closed fissure, the general was able to locate Chen Chuan’s exact position through spirit alone and attempt to pry the door open again.
Fortunately, this was no easy task. A closed fissure naturally contracted on its own, and the narrower the gap, the harder it was to tear open. The general would not be able to cross anytime soon. Even if the rift widened, Chen Chuan could use the Xuejun Saber to erase it, though he chose not to do so right now.
He could feel that the presence on the other side had profoundly stimulated his mutated tissue. Now, that tissue was clamoring to propel him upward, demanding greater strength and a higher life stage to withstand the external threat.
The conditions for him to take the next step were undeniably fulfilled.
Just as he had anticipated, confronting an enemy of this caliber had brought his second self into intense resonance with him, achieving complete alignment with his ego.
The second self was him. With the two unified and no resistance within him, the power accumulated by the second self flooded instantly into his body.
In a flash, his spirit surged upward with a thunderous roar. His biological field expanded outward at blistering speed, covering several kilometers in an instant and continuing to push farther. Within its reach, everything reflected with pristine clarity into his mind.
Yet in the next moment, with a simple shift of intent, he drew it all back. His surge in power was not uncontrollable; it remained entirely governed by his own will.
He drew a breath, feeling the vast, surging vitality flowing through his body, and instinctively clenched his fists.
The power of his second self now belonged completely to his true self. The mutated tissue within him had doubled in both vitality and resilience compared to before.
Even so, the acute sense of menace radiating from across the fissure lingered unabated. The forcibly battered cracks trembled incessantly, seeming to widen by the second, while his mutated tissue urgently pressed him to ascend higher.
A martial artist’s power was wholly incomparable to that of any fighter below the threshold. It was an outright qualitative leap, a jump in life order driven by spiritual sublimation.
It was time, then, to attempt that step.
He looked up. Since stepping through, the rosy glow emanating from the relic had subsided considerably, confining itself to a radius of a few hundred meters around him. Under its light, all outside intrusion was warded off, providing him the bedrock of confidence to attempt his breakthrough here.
Looking ahead, he tore off his outer coat, cast it at his feet, and said, "Hongfu, cover me for a moment."
Hongfu's voice rang out: "Understood!"
Chen Chuan sat down, grabbed his pack, and first took out the shell-shaped relic, placing it beside him.
Once removed and touched by the ambient light, wisps of mist curled off it, noticeably denser than back in their homeland. With merely a breath of it, the slight exhaustion in his body and mind was instantly restored, returning him to his peak.
Next, he retrieved all the medicines provided by the Purist Faction. Although he intended to walk the path of Spirit-Self Unity—which did not rely on drugs to stimulate mutated tissue—advancing one’s life stage nonetheless demanded abundant nutrients and immense energy. Those prerequisites had to be supplied by specialized medicines.
While not as precious as pure substance, acquiring a full set remained extraordinarily difficult for an individual. For the Purist Faction, however, it posed no great challenge.
First, he produced a tube of jade-green pills and swallowed them. This was the Life-Preserving Pill to sustain the body through immense consumption, capable of preserving a taker’s last breath at critical moments until nourishment could be replenished. He kept high-energy drugs like this close at hand, ready to consume at any time.
Next, he took out the Nature-Fortifying Pill to shield his spirit from corruption and swallowed it with equal speed.
Finally, there was the Truth-Preserving Powder. It offered no nourishing benefit, serving only to ensure he did not degenerate into something else during his ascension.
Once a fighter’s spirit crossed over to the other side, overwhelming corruption could cause those who lost their resolve to abandon their humanity and surrender to the opposite realm. Once that single thought took root, there was no turning back.
Thus, this powder was an absolute necessity. Confident though he was, he did not bypass the precaution. Dipping two fingers into the golden powder, he applied it between his brows at the position of the heavenly eye, drawing it downward slightly to leave a vertical mark.
With that, all preparatory work was complete. At this very moment, under the mutual press of internal desire and external threat, every cell, every patch of mutated tissue, and every scrap of spirit within him coalesced into a single unified will: to smash through the limit and break through to a higher realm of life.
Without the slightest hesitation, he held his breath, gathered his qi, and guarded his mind.
The method of breaking through consisted of two stages: the Metamorphosis of Spirit and the Metamorphosis of Body. The Metamorphosis of Spirit came first. His spirit had to shatter that barrier, using the manifold corruptions to temper an unyielding spirit, before returning to cleanse the physical body, establish the true form, and complete the Metamorphosis of Body.
Three trials had to be crossed, each carrying vital points that permitted not the slightest error.
Running through the steps in his mind, he immediately circulated the method of the Taibai Contemplation taught by Teacher Xue. Guarding his heart jade, he used the jade to contemplate the self, the self to contemplate the spirit, and the spirit to reflect inward, achieving thorough communion inside and out until spirit and self became one.
Following the method, everything else faded from his mind until only the heart jade remained, primordial and solitary. Then, as if motion were born from utmost stillness, a thread of light gradually arose from the heart jade. Faint at first, it swiftly swelled after a moment, bursting into brilliant radiance that overflowed outward.
His skin dimmed slightly. In this trial, the robust life force throughout his entire body had to be ignited like firewood to fully empower the spirit's transcendence. Most who reached this stage would end up emaciated, resembling living corpses. As the secret manual decreed: "Ignite essence and life to aid the spirit's ascent; pass through death before rebirth in the first trial."
Chapter 766