Chapter 183 - Smashing Heaven’s Will Apart

Even a journey of a million miles starts with a single step; one could not form rivers and seas without gathering little streams.

Across a thousand lives, Xu Ying had lived every humble existence: a fisherman casting nets alongside his parents, a town embroiderer, a village schoolmaster, a butcher, a blacksmith, or a mason. In some lives, he had also been a scion of noble houses, and occasionally, the son of princes, ministers, or generals.

Yet in every life, he remained mortal.

In every life, he had been under surveillance. Once he reached a certain age, someone erased his memories, sealed his cultivation, implanted a fake past, and cast him into an unfamiliar land to start anew.

Those seals were broken, and the achievements of a thousand lives surged into him. Weak individual sparks merged into a roaring torrent, fusing the unyielding resolve of every lifetime.

At last, he possessed the imposing bearing of a butterfly emerging from its cocoon.

The stone figure of Heaven’s Will was astonished. Runes flashed across the stone figure, transforming into a long saber that slashed down at Xu Ying.

Empowered by the Heavenly Dao, even a basic strike became unstoppable, and this divine blade was far from ordinary.

“A body formed from a thousand lifetimes of peddlers and porters is still mortal, still subject to Heaven’s Will’s manipulation!”

His divine saber fell, and beneath its light, all living beings were equal. Under his divine saber, even a Qi Cultivator at the Ascension Stage was an ant.

Xu Ying planted both feet on the ground. The ground beneath collapsed with a bang, forming a huge pit covering several dozen mu. He swung his palm upward to meet Heaven’s Will's divine saber.

The Earth-Shattering Art drew power from the earth, sending it coursing through him. As his strength erupted, it surged into his right palm.

The moment his force struck the blade, the Heavenly Dao runes shattered. The stone figure saw his divine saber fracture before exploding into flying shards.

Xu Ying twisted, turning half his body with the motion. Following the momentum, he unleashed the third of the Eight Arts of Combat God: the Overturning-Sea Art. His right palm seemed to lift a vast ocean into the sky, then turn it over, bringing the boundless sea crashing down.

The stone figure of Heaven’s Will raised both arms. Heavenly Dao runes danced around them as he sneered, “You little worm. I should throw you into a cesspit...”

Boom!

The sea came crashing down.

The Heavenly Dao runes around the stone man’s arms burst apart one after another. As Xu Ying's strike landed, fractures webbed across his stone limbs until both arms exploded into rubble.

The force of Xu Ying’s vital energy and spirit left the stone figure of Heaven’s Will dazed. In his eyes, Xu Ying’s figure became incomparably imposing. As that fist surged toward him, the stone figure felt as though an immortal king stood beyond the nine heavens, striking down with an eternal, indestructible artifact.

Heaven-Flipping Art!

The stone figure of Heaven’s Will had already lost both arms. Powerful vital energy surged from the crown of his head, transforming into Heavenly Dao runes that formed a seal technique to resist the descending fist.

Bang!

The fist smashed his Heavenly Dao seal technique to pieces. The punch landed on the crown of his head. The stone figure’s head remained unharmed, but everything below it turned into powder.

Xu Ying curled his fingers into a claw, seized the stone head by its crown, and hoisted it into the air.

The stone figure of Heaven’s Will kept talking. “Xu Ying, this is only one of my avatars. Injuring this means nothing to me! Do you know how I’ll deal with you? I’ll wash your memories clean and throw you into a brand-new world.”

Xu Ying walked forward and placed the stone man’s head on the mountain of bones he had piled up.

The stone figure of Heaven’s Will beamed. “I’m different from fools like Bei Chenzi, Yutang, and Fu Yi. I’ve everything planned out. The moment you wake, you’ll hear a ding-dong! Then, the Heaven’s Will system will show up before you. I will give you missions and shower you with rewards for completing them. Simple tasks, naturally, though laced with my own wicked sense of humor.”

Xu Ying adjusted the head so it faced him, then glanced down at his blood-soaked fist.

The stone figure of Heaven’s Will continued, “Complete my missions, and I’ll grant you anything. Techniques, artifacts, aptitude, comprehension, you name it. Heck, I will even give you a harem and revive your dead teammates!”

He added, “I will nurture your strength bit by bit, luring you deeper into my game. Do you think I’ll do all that to make you strong? Of course not! I will give you cheap, effortless happiness and the illusion of power, all while stripping away your warrior’s heart, your drive to reach the summit, and your refusal to yield to mediocrity.”

His tone turned ecstatic. “You will become like a farm bird trained by hand, rushing forward at the sound of the gong. Then one day, you will run toward that sound only to find a butcher’s blade instead of grain.

“Every day, you’ll think about how to wring benefits out of me instead of refining your techniques and Dao heart, or seeking the truth of the Great Dao. I will destroy the foundation you’ve built over thousands of lifetimes in a single life. You’ll never become a true powerhouse—”

Xu Ying took a long breath, stepped back, aimed at that head, and threw a punch.

Bang!

The punch smashed the head before it could finish speaking.

Xu Ying clapped his hands and walked forward, saying coolly, “Today, I killed one of your avatars. Another day, I’ll storm the Heavenly Dao World and butcher your true body.”

“Xu Ying!”

Thunder crashed across the sky. Rolling black clouds coalesced into a colossal face, pressing down onto the primordial battlefield. An oppressive weight descended, choking the air from the realm.

“Xu Ying, one day you will regret humiliating me today!”

The brow of that enormous face in the sky flashed, and the divine saber of Heaven’s Will descended from the heavens, splitting the earth and carving out a massive canyon.

“Regret? Are you even worthy?”

Xu Ying darted aside to avoid the divine saber, tapped the tip of his foot lightly against the back of the blade, and sprang upward to meet the enormous face in the sky. He threw a punch.

Heaven and earth shook. The myriad Daos resonated with it. This punch was the final art among the Eight Arts of the Combat God, the Dao-Returning Art. As he struck, he felt a fierce exhilaration, as though the Great Daos of heaven and earth were all within his grasp.

Boom!

The thunderclouds in the sky tore open, and the face was shredded. A single punch flattened that mass of black cloud and annihilated it. This punch could blast a great hole even in the heavens.

Xu Ying faintly sensed that his fist had seemingly punched into another world and struck an immense body.

His heart stirred. “Is the Dao art of the Eight Arts of the Combat God truly this powerful? Can it shatter the void? Just how terrifying was its creator? After cultivating his Primordial Spirit, he left the Martial Dao Other Shore. An existence like that should have been able to walk out of this place alive, shouldn’t he?”

He dropped from the air. However, his martial vital energy surged, and he stood in midair, his clothes snapping and fluttering in the fierce wind.

He lifted his head to look at the sky. It was calm, yet seemed even more oppressive.

A moment later, the sky was torn open. A great hand reached in from beyond the heavens, and the furious voice of Supreme God Heaven’s Will came from another world, exploding above the primordial battlefield.

“Xu Ying, you have angered me!”

Before he could finish speaking, a white-haired Primordial Spirit flew up from below and struck the great hand from beyond the heavens, punching straight through it.

Xu Ying looked from afar and saw enormous chunks of flesh and shattered bone fly out from the back of the great hand of Heaven's Will. Blood poured from the palm and sprayed in every direction.

The great hand of Heaven's Will was beaten back into the Heavenly Dao World. At last, the blue heavens closed, and everything returned to calm.

Xu Ying froze. He watched as the light of the white-haired Primordial Spirit gradually drew inward, his wild, dancing hair settling as he descended. Xu Ying looked down and saw the safe point below, sustained by the last torch-like martial arts expert.

His heart stirred. He descended and walked toward it.

After breaking the seal and gathering the bodies of a thousand lifetimes, Xu Ying’s physique had become stronger than ever. As his martial arts advanced, his physical strength kept growing.

Xu Ying repeatedly activated the Grand-Unity Guiding Method to refine his vital energy and temper his spirit, advancing his martial cultivation.

Currently, he had the lowest cultivation in the Martial Dao Other Shore. The others were all concentrated at the Second Gate-Knocking Stage and had opened the Central Ridge Pass. Only Heavenly Venerable Wu was at the Pagoda Stage and had cultivated a Primordial Spirit.

Xu Ying, meanwhile, was at the Transmutation Stage and had refined a Golden Core.

He still had to gradually temper his vital energy and spirit, allowing his martial cultivation to catch up with his cultivation realm so he could refine a Martial Dao Golden Core as soon as possible.

The Martial Dao Golden Core is refined from vital energy and spirit. It is different from a Qi Cultivator’s Golden Core. Their Golden Core is refined from divine sense and primordial qi. If I keep cultivating this way, will I end up refining dual inner cores?

Xu Ying considered it carefully for a moment, then shook his head.

He would not.

If he continued tempering his vital energy and spirit through martial arts, his spirit would transform into martial divine sense, and his vital energy would flow into the Golden Core as well. His Golden Core would ultimately contain the traits of martial arts and qi cultivation. He would not produce an additional inner core.

If I were to cultivate dual inner cores, I would still need to combine two souls to transform them into a Primordial Spirit. Only one soul exists within the human body. Dual souls are impossible, so dual Primordial Spirits are naturally impossible as well.

Suddenly, Xu Ying noticed that the monument of vital energy formed from the corpse of that martial arts expert had moved.

He sped up and gave chase. Although he was only at the Transmutation Stage, his abilities were no inferior to those of Dao Master Yuan and the others at the Second Gate-Knocking Stage. Even if he ran into danger, he could handle it, though he would still have to avoid terrifying threats like the corpse abyss.

Fortunately, the Extreme Intent Freedom Art was unmatched in speed. Even if danger struck, he could dodge it.

Before long, Xu Ying caught up to that moving mass of vital energy. Beneath the vital energy, white-haired figures struck out in every direction, purifying the evil spirits and fiends they encountered along the way.

“It really is Heavenly Venerable Wu!”

Xu Ying walked forward and came to the old man’s side.

The white-haired figures attacking in all directions were manifestations of Heavenly Venerable Wu’s Martial Dao Spirit. He had attacked the giant hand of the Supreme God Heaven's Will with a Martial Dao Primordial Spirit and forced him back into the Heavenly Dao World.

Although his realm was the Pagoda Stage, his martial arts cultivation was unfathomably profound. He was the only person whose cultivation realm had caught up to that of the founder of the Eight Arts of the Combat God.

Xu Ying stepped forward and bowed. “Many thanks for your help, Heavenly Venerable Wu.”

The white-haired elder returned the courtesy. “It was a small matter. Why thank me? That Supreme God Heaven's Will was far too shameless. After his avatar was defeated, he sent down a celestial phenomenon. When you shattered that, he brazenly attacked with his true body. I couldn’t stand the sight of it, so I struck him.”

Xu Ying admired him deeply. Walking shoulder to shoulder with him, he asked, “Heavenly Venerable Wu, do you recognize the Heavenly Dao runes on Heaven’s Will?”

Heavenly Venerable Wu shook his head.

Xu Ying said in surprise, “If you do not recognize the runes, how could you see through their weaknesses and pierce his palm?”

Heavenly Venerable Wu rolled up his sleeve, revealing dense, rippling muscles across his arm. “So long as your force is absolute, you can shatter and pierce anything!”

He lowered his sleeve again, looking refined and elegant, and said with a smile, “Besides, must one know Heavenly Dao runes to spot their flaws? I have refined the Martial Dao Third Eye. Though I cannot read the runes, I can see every weakness the instant an opponent moves. Strike through that flaw with a single punch, and their attack collapses.”

Xu Ying admired him even more and asked for guidance on the Martial Dao Third Eye.

Heavenly Venerable Wu said, “Once you cultivate a Primordial Spirit, you will naturally refine it. There is no special activation method.”

Xu Ying asked, “Heavenly Venerable Wu, instead of remaining on the Other Shore, why did you come here alone?”

The white-haired elder looked ahead and said softly, “I do not have much time left. Rather than stay on the Martial Dao Other Shore and wait for death, I chose to walk the path of our predecessors.”

He smiled. “This is the road once taken by the founder of the Eight Arts of the Combat God. Where he went has always been a mystery. While I can still walk, I want to scout the path for those who come after me. Those old men you saw along the road were the same. Before they died, they traveled this path and became monuments along the way.”

Xu Ying was silent for a moment. “Heavenly Venerable Wu, did you not bid farewell to Martial Immortal Zhai and the others?”

The white-haired elder said, “I wished to spare them the sorrow of parting. It was better to set out quietly. By the time they realize I am gone, they will only sigh, rather than let grief disturb their Dao hearts.”

His lifespan had already reached its end. When Xu Ying had first entered the Other Shore, he had said he had only a few months left to live. He had held on for more than two months.

Only after Xu Ying finished learning the Other Shore's supreme martial arts and entered the primordial battlefield to temper himself did Heavenly Venerable Wu leave the Other Shore. Part of his reason for leaving had also been to protect Xu Ying.

Heavenly Venerable Wu was graceful and elegant, dressed in a white robe with broad sleeves. As he walked through this ghostly primordial battlefield, he moved as though the place were completely uninhabited. His martial arts cultivation was too powerful. Even though he was old and his lifespan had reached its end, his strength showed no sign of decline.

He rarely made a move. Merely by manifesting his spirit, he could erase the dark fiends along the way.

When Heavenly Venerable Wu did act, though, he was terrifying beyond measure.

Xu Ying watched as the corpse abyss formed from the flesh and blood of ancient gods and demons was leveled by a single punch from the old man. The domain of phantoms born from the gods’ and demons’ lingering thoughts was pierced by a single palm strike, and every evil thought melted like ice and snow beneath his martial Dao fist intent.

The old man seemed to know no fatigue; his vital energy was as vast as an ocean, as though it would never run dry.

“Heavenly Dao runes!”

Heavenly Venerable Wu used a martial Dao seal technique to shatter the obsession lodged in a withered skeleton’s skull. Xu Ying stepped forward to examine it and froze. Heavenly Dao runes were marked on the bones.

“So these are Heavenly Dao runes?”

Heavenly Venerable Wu was also somewhat curious. He leaned in and said, “Many of the monsters we’ve smashed over the years have had marks like these on them.”

Xu Ying was startled and uncertain. Was martial arts truly this powerful? It could even shatter Heavenly Dao marks with ease!

He straightened and surveyed the ancient battlefield of Primordial Beginning, murmuring, “What exactly happened on this ancient battlefield? Why did so many heavenly gods die here?”

“They were heavenly gods?” Heavenly Venerable Wu asked in confusion. “Why were they so weak?”

Xu Ying continued forward with Heavenly Venerable Wu. The path ahead grew more and more dangerous, and the might of the Heavenly Dao grew stronger. Xu Ying raised his head and saw a corpse hanging from a broken cliff ahead. A damaged weapon had pierced through its chest, pinning it to the mountain.

What was strange was that the bodies of the heavenly gods had all decayed until only skeletons remained, yet this corpse still retained its flesh and blood.

Heavenly Venerable Wu’s expression turned grave. He grabbed Xu Ying’s hand just as Xu Ying was about to step forward and said in a deep voice, “This one is powerful!”