Chapter 512: Ascending to Heaven-Proud, Meeting at the Outer Canyon

"... It is somewhat like the ancient Dao of the Yang Spirit, yet it carries a trace of the lingering will of Xing Tian. It is the beginning of another kind of marvelous method of equal standing, with very deep potential for expansion. Truly worthy of being a heaven-proud one."

The Yang Spirit, corresponding to the Yin Spirit, is a branch of the immortal cultivation path that developed and evolved during the ancient period and flourished for a time. After the Foundation Establishment stage, one cultivates the Yin Spirit; at the Nascent Soul stage, one cultivates the Yang Spirit; the union of Yin and Yang then forms the Primordial Spirit.

Compared to the Golden Core and Nascent Soul path that remains prevalent today, it has its own advantages. One can roam the Great Void early on, allowing oneself to comprehend various principles, preparing for the subsequent Void Refinement stage.

The reason it has not replaced the Golden Core and Nascent Soul path today is that such a route refines the Void too excessively, creating the possibility of self-severing at the Integration stage. Even heaven-proud figures would have their cultivation stagnated because of this, which is why it was gradually abandoned and left in the pile of old papers.

Although some say that if one can cross the great threshold of the Integration stage with this, the Great Dao can be achieved in the future, those who say so have not succeeded. Added to the fact that after the ancient era ended, the Immortal Sects dominated, it was naturally chosen to be discarded.

As for Xing Tian, that was a primordial powerhouse. Legend has it that he rose in anger to resist the God Emperor who ruled the world in the primordial era and possessed a cruel temperament. His head was personally severed, and even his Primordial Spirit was completely obliterated, yet his remaining body could still follow his lingering will, move again to kill the enemy, and become even more terrifying, directly inflicting heavy damage on the God Emperor on the spot, bringing the era of primordial gods to an early curtain call! Xing Tian dances with shield and axe, his fierce will remains forever! "Through karmic encounters, roaming outside the body, transforming Yin into Yang, one can dwell in the world."

"With lingering will carved into the heart, fire refines true gold; if the intent does not perish, one can endure long."

The various marvels drawn out by such remnants of principles were directly refined and integrated by Du En, a great cultivator who already possessed the characteristics of Void Refinement, into his own Primordial Spirit and the origin of the physical body contained within the Primordial Spirit.

Within the ignited divine fire, he irrigated and strengthened the true immortality of his divine body.

The Undying Sacred Source Body began to formally connect into his own Primordial Spirit from this point on. The two were no longer just superficially mixed, but found an opportunity for true unification.

The union of spirit and body brings about a true transformation; this is Integration!

By a twist of fate, it actually allowed him to pry open the beginning of the Integration stage, a very important shackle, ahead of time.

And the Integration stage is the gold standard for testing heaven-proud ones; to be able to step into it and involve oneself in it is to possess the bearing of a heaven-proud one!

Only here can Du En be considered to have escaped the weak flow and truly stepped into the threshold of the heaven-proud ones.

The various things of the future are not yet known, but the changes of the present are very obvious.

The dimness of the Primordial Spirit stopped and gradually steadily recovered. Raising his hand to touch the overcast rain, there was no longer that pain of pulling out nerves and soaking them in concentrated acid. It was as if he had gained the protection of a powerful physical shell, and the overall recovery time for his injuries was directly reduced by half.

"Of course, there isn't a few years of time for me to recover slowly now, so I'll just take it one step at a time."

Du En glanced back at the direction of the Divine Tree Sect hall. Over there, a terrifying phenomenon faintly entered his eyes at this moment. Of course, it had not actually manifested yet, it just let him know that time was very tight. Dragging it out for ten days or half a month might mean facing a newly born resentment monster.

And in his current state, he would only be the best snack for the other party.

"Da Huang, let's go."

"Woof!"

Perhaps because it had been intervened with and adjusted, or perhaps because Du En was now cultivating the method of someone it was familiar with, Da Huang was no longer resistant to him at all. Hearing the sound, it barked with great energy, then pulled the carriage with the damaged bottom forward.

That damage was fixed by the way when Du En was refining his blade later, so the bumping also lessened, and Wu Rui, who was in painful unconsciousness, gradually relaxed her brows.

By the time the blade in his hand was re-refined and strengthened, becoming comparable to a fourth-grade magical tool and the sharpest and sturdiest weapon at hand, the young girl also woke up impatiently.

The brilliance of the divine fire had just dimmed when the depression of the overcast rain surged in, driving away and swallowing the only warmth and light.

Looking at the monotonous and withered scenery passing by on both sides of the road, she just curled up silently, muttering something unclear, looking like someone who had suffered too much of a blow to be otherwise.

"I said it before, the outside world is not a beautiful place."

Du En turned into the shape of a ball of light, accelerating his recovery, his voice flowing out steadily and calmly.

Although not being circuitous made it sound piercing, and it should have been comforting at this time, that calm directness was actually easier to make people settle down than powerless, muddled consolation, as if being assimilated, or rather, finding a calm harbor without wind or waves.

Although sometimes it was also too calm and direct...

Just as Wu Rui was thinking this, her mood becoming lively again, she heard his next plain and straightforward words: "Of course, even so, it is better than being killed by the tentacles of the monster and dying under that withered divine tree."

"..."

She fell into silence, suddenly sighed and shook her head, no longer curling up, but leaning against the cold and hard iron plate, looking up at the ball of light on the tray, and asked: "Du En, what was the place you came from like?"

"An equally rotten place, in urgent need of change."

"No, I meant a hometown or something, there should be one, right? Like the origin of those two warriors."

"Hmm, a quite ordinary place, and nothing very profound happened."

Du En still said it calmly, having no extra sentiment for his hometown.

He had no worries, so naturally, he would not miss it.

This made Wu Rui frown slightly: "There must be something, things worth remembering from this journey!"

"I do remember the key points of cultivation. As for the rest, during the Qi Refining stage, a group of fellows worked hard with me; during the Foundation Establishment stage, my situation began to change; during the Golden Core stage, I traveled everywhere; during the Nascent Soul stage, except for the trip to the Dragon Palace, it was overall thin and plain; and then there is the current Spirit Severing stage..."

"And now?"

"It hasn't finished yet, hard to evaluate."

He said these things, his true nature unchanged, completely without a tone of reminiscence or emotion, and his emotional fluctuations were not great, only relatively much larger when mentioning the Spirit Severing stage.

After all, compared to the ten thousand years of stagnant water in the main territory of the Immortal Sects, which only wasted cultivation power, walking in various star realms with different styles, he had encountered more people and things, and witnessed many kinds of human conditions.

Wu Rui suddenly did not want to continue asking.

Because just like the universe, there are lights like the sun's spiritual source, but more of it is the deep and dark background. Light and dark, Yin and Yang, seem to be born together and equal to each other, but the lights in the universe are often extinguished, while the deep distance is always constant.

She thought, it is different after all.

Just like people's glory, paired with the overcast rain and darkness before her, it is bright, but after it dims and goes out, one cannot help but feel sad and powerless...

"If you have time to let your imagination run wild here, you might as well sleep again to recover your state."

Du En's words at such times always seemed calm and crisp, "Your completion rate looks much worse than the witch priest Qing Lan. She could continue to purify for decades, while you look like you're falling apart after just one day of rushing..."

"Fine, fine, fine, sigh, please, you should have some tact, can you stop being so piercing!"

"You are not a human."

"..."

Wu Rui's slight agitation therefore stagnated and dissipated. Sighing, she felt completely hopeless about him, pouted, and lay down to continue sleeping on the cold steel plate.

As for the words about not being human or completion rates, she did not care at all.

Because the facts were as such, there was no need to deny them.

It is true that being too sincere really doesn't work well...

Muttering about a certain man surnamed Du, she fell asleep again.

When she woke up, it was not peaceful. Boom! A sudden big explosion directly startled her.

She suddenly raised her head to look, only to see Da Huang stopping the carriage in front of a large canyon, looking a bit restless at the moment, moving backward from time to time.

The reason is simple: a fierce battle is erupting inside that grand canyon! Wu Rui quickly sorted out the general environment, and when her gaze focused entirely on the canyon, she saw fireballs the size of houses suddenly descending from the sky, thick and blackened—clearly the methods of a Grudge Demon.

Boom-like explosions rang out incessantly, and the ground trembled slightly.

Then, a blade aura seemed to flash suddenly, slicing through everything in its path, ultimately shearing off the highest mountain peak on one side of the grand canyon.

The severed peak was then caught by some kind of traction, turned around, and plummeted, while a figure flashed back and forth.

The clothes were tattered, black with gray, and the outer garment was a cloak.

The face was aged and gray-stained, revealing a ferocious, twisted look that twitched.

In their hand, they clutched a shield, which was now missing a corner and had a fist-shaped dent, making this old Grudge Demon appear furious, as if their beloved treasure being damaged had enraged them.

Their free hand raised up and grabbed.

Crack!

A bolt of evil lightning descended from the sky!

It fell into the grand canyon, terrifyingly ghastly, making Wu Rui's heart skip a beat.

It was very clear that this was outside the Research Assembly, and they had encountered the teacher of the Heaven's Pride warrior as expected.

That is to say, a Grudge Demon who was a fallen pure cultivator!

After being infected and corrupted by grudge energy and demonic energy, these Grudge Demons, who originally struggled to break through to higher cultivation levels due to their aptitude and environment, were now pulled directly to a periodic extreme as long as their own talent foundation allowed! For instance, this old Grudge Demon, with every gesture, used various high-grade spells at will, shaking a hundred miles, making a Grudge Demon dog like Da Huang also anxious and constantly retreating.

One can imagine how tragic the battle situation in the grand canyon was at this moment!

I must hurry over to help!

Wu Rui was about to jump off the vehicle immediately.

Just at this moment, she saw a fire tornado rise in reverse, swallowing and shredding the continuous, terrifying evil lightning, revealing the Azure Sky Burning Sword within, shining with brilliant majesty, slashing down toward the old Grudge Demon at extreme speed.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn you, Huizheng!"

Seeing this, the old Grudge Demon was furious and quite simply used their greatest killing move.

At that moment, the earth shook and the mountains swayed; the entire grand canyon seemed to be driven by them, beginning to collapse and sink, while pillars of molten fire erupted, further accelerating the overall destruction, intending to submerge and bury the enemy.

Du En's figure flashed through it, and by the time they appeared again, they were already on the mountain behind the old Grudge Demon, moving along the slope and swinging the sharp blade in their hand.

Mana was infused, the blade aura stirred, capable of directly slicing through the opponent's protective shield and cutting them in two!

Then, it missed!

The old Grudge Demon revealed a hateful expression and secretly cast a spell, actually using an Earth Escape technique. Unlike the fake version Du En used by relying on the advantage of the primordial spirit, this was a proper Earth Escape technique, so even far from the ground, they could instantly harness the power of earth and escape in an instant.

A troublesome escape technique; it wasn't forcibly elevated, but a level of mastery they already possessed—a genius-level guy...

Wu Rui seemed to be able to see this thought in those calm eyes, and the other side also noticed her waking up from afar, immediately casting a gaze without hesitation.

This guy is quite difficult to deal with; you come over to act as a target to lure the enemy, and I will subdue them in one blow.

"Fine, fine, fine."

Wu Rui muttered, sighing and chuckling slightly, her mana transforming as she landed.

Heaven's Pride Warrior!

Immediately, she gained an all-around enhancement, as if she had even borrowed part of the Heaven's Pride's talent; her expression appeared heroic, like a Valkyrie, and with light and fast steps upon landing, she approached the collapsing, magma-surging grand canyon in a few leaps.

A blade appeared in her hand, and her other hand formed a seal; the surging magma rolled over, instantly turning into a wave that supported her, carrying her as she sped along.

Amazing; if it weren't for him secretly restricting and helping earlier, I probably wouldn't have been able to beat his corpse at all... No, wait, looking at Du En's performance then, he should still have had ultimate moves left unused.

Beneath Wu Rui's heroic expression was constant amazement, but in the end, she was full of confidence in Du En; that was not without basis, though the key now was how to lure the enemy.

The enemy was easier to lure than she had imagined; they suddenly popped their head out from beside a collapsed boulder, looking somewhat dazed at the figure riding the magma.

Alike, too alike! "Disciple..."

Amidst the murmurs, they were tragically backstabbed! Although their Earth Escape was practiced extremely well, Du En's realm suppressed them; if they had kept hiding, it would have been hard to hit them in one blow, but now that they had popped out to reminisce, they were immediately ambushed, struck down on the spot by a blade, a sword, and a chain that came tearing through the air.

Wu Rui, having discovered the commotion, turned her head and saw the old Grudge Demon already pinned by the blade and sword, bound by chains, roaring in fury because they had seen her face, appearing extremely unwilling.

Strangely, the feeling that she was the perpetrator was very strong.

Then, she had to continue driving the magma forward to "show off," approaching the opponent head-on, which made them even more furious.

After all, with the terrain destroyed like this, she couldn't move without this move, so she could only silently apologize to the old Grudge Demon, who was glaring wildly and felt that she had stolen their disciple's power.

Reaching the shore, she immediately dispelled it.

Having fallen into a Grudge Demon, the old Grudge Demon quickly quieted down.

"Du En, how did you recover so quickly?"

Previously, they were still in a state of being stingy with mana and appearing relatively ordinary, unlike just now, where they used both blade auras and fire tornadoes; the surplus was clearly abundant.

"Because, like you, I obtained someone else's legacy power."

"So that's how it is."

She had only asked casually; the key now was to purify the old Grudge Demon.

However, when it came down to it, facing the old Grudge Demon, whose eyes were wide and who seemed to recognize something and faintly revealed a complex expression, she still appeared somewhat hesitant.

What if she saw something distressing again...

Facts proved that she hadn't thought wrong.

However, this also meant that the purification proceeded as scheduled.

The obsessive memories of the old master of the Research Assembly were slowly presented before the two, who shared and bore the pain together.

(End of this chapter)