Chapter 339: Song of Will

Chen Yan had a concept forming in his mind.

Understanding the history of the Master of Horizontal Refining and the Progenitor of Blood Qi was of great help to his creation of the Path of Will.

At some unknown moment, the vague concept of the realm had become clear.

However, at this moment, no matter how grand the concept was.

Chen Yan's immediate goal was still cultivation.

He looked at the Saint-Breaking Tree.

【Saint-Breaking Tree (Level 7): 211/500】

The progress of the Saint-Breaking Tree was extremely fast, nearly halfway there.

But Chen Yan had not yet used the 【Break】 character Saint-Breaking Fruit brought by the level 7 Saint-Breaking Tree.

And now, the first 【Break】 character Saint-Breaking Fruit had not yet matured.

【Break: 46/100】

Forty-six percent progress.

The 【Break】 character Saint-Breaking Fruit absorbed limit-breaking energy; every time Chen Yan broke his limits, he provided nutrition to the 【Break】 character Saint-Breaking Fruit.

But ever since the Saint-Breaking Tree entered level 7, the number of times Chen Yan had broken his limits was actually not many.

For this period of time, in order to pursue rapid growth in strength, Chen Yan rarely wasted time on breaking limits.

"But to enter the origin of the Horizontal Refining path, these three precious medicines are far from enough," Chen Yan whispered.

The 【Break】 character Saint-Breaking Fruit could act upon other energy-type Saint-Breaking Fruits and directly trigger a one-hundred-fold critical hit.

This effect was even more powerful than a Bright Moon-grade precious medicine.

If Chen Yan wanted to enter the third layer of the Dream Abyss, he had to ensure his own strength was maximized.

Opening the three jade boxes, three golden, round beads about the size of an infant's palm slowly floated up in front of Chen Yan.

Wisps of golden light instantly overflowed into Chen Yan's body, and a scorching sensation arrived.

Chen Yan's flesh and blood hummed and resonated, golden light blazing on his body, as if he were burning like the great sun.

Screech!

Three golden crow phantoms with vast golden fire appeared beside Chen Yan, circling continuously.

Waves of golden crow cries spread out, and for an instant, an aura of immortality emerged from Chen Yan's body.

A sense of power surged over him.

Behind Chen Yan, within that vast Martial Dao Dharma Image diagram, ink-colored light surged and outlined once more.

The vague outline of a vast city appeared.

This great city was surrounded by five large counties including Luo Mountain County, and the whole thing emitted a gray-black light.

That was Yunmeng City.

The place of Chen Yan's birth.

"My Martial Dao Dharma Image diagram is to manifest a Yunmeng City that belongs to me; this is the world I long for, the world I am going to change!"

Chen Yan whispered, his internal flesh and blood being destroyed and reshaped by the powerful medicinal force of the 【Great Sun Golden Crow Melting Crystal】.

His physique became stronger amidst the frailty, and his power increased continuously.

Within the Saint-Breaking Realm, orange light representing power and cyan light representing physical energy emerged.

"Not enough!"

Chen Yan let out a low shout, his eyes flickering.

On his chest, one hundred and ninety-three Extreme Forging patterns appeared.

He wanted to break his limits.

He wanted to completely end the Extreme Forging Realm!

Inside his body, a sense of obstruction emerged, just as if Chen Yan were pushing against a great mountain with the strength of his physical body at this moment.

The great mountain did not budge.

The rules of the realm were far more towering than a great mountain.

The Word Realm shook!

Bloodshot eyes appeared in Chen Yan's eyes, and blue veins bulged all over his body.

With a squelch.

Blood vessels ruptured.

This limit-breaking was difficult to the extreme.

Chen Yan's brain shook, and every nerve seemed to be stretched tight, reaching the edge of snapping.

Chen Yan's eyes widened.

He had not expected it to be this difficult.

And it was in this fleeting moment.

That towering golden giant tower was still standing, and that dark and cruel Slaughter-Cutting Village was still echoing with wails.

"Too... woo-woo... too... hoo-hoo..."

Over a thousand human beings who had been raised like livestock returned to Slaughter-Cutting Village.

They were curious, terrified.

They kept using their own language to anxiously question the original inhabitants of Slaughter-Cutting Village.

Where had the leader who led them out of suffering gone?

In the gray world.

A girl with twin tails walked with a deathly pale face.

The world was gray and dim; terrifying, dream-like whispers seemed to have seized her nerves, wanting to make her sink into total ruin.

She walked, walking down toward the endless abyss.

This was a moment of the world.

It was a moment of Chen Yan.

In this moment, Chen Yan, in a trance, met a pair of eyes.

That was a pair of eyes filled with vicissitudes and indifference, the pupils infinitely deep, the depths of the eyes seemingly containing the birth and destruction of the great world.

This was the gaze of an old man.

It had appeared when Chen Yan's path of Qi and blood escaped into the origin.

This time, it appeared again.

His gaze seemed to traverse the endless void, just looking at Chen Yan with such indifference.

In the depths of his eyes, there was also a trace of disdain.

He sat upon a decaying, dilapidated stone wall, with corpses beneath his feet.

Hundreds and thousands were piled together.

They were roaring, despairing, smiling bitterly, and dying.

Just like that, they stared at the old man.

Yet the old man looked at Chen Yan from across the void, a trace of a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

But it was also at this moment.

Boom!

A mighty sound resonated, as if it were a heavenly tone.

The rules changed.

The smile at the corner of the old man's mouth vanished, and he just looked on with indifference.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

As time passed, these sounds, carved into the rules of the world, made one's spirit tremble.

Someone was pushing the magnificent great world, walking with a stumbling gait, never stopping.

Waves of heart-wrenching pain bombarded Chen Yan's spirit.

Inside the Martial Dao Dharma Image diagram behind Chen Yan, the outline of Yunmeng City became increasingly clear.

On his chest, the number of Extreme Satin Patterns changed continuously.

The one hundred and ninety-fourth!

The one hundred and ninety-fifth!

…………

The two hundredth!

…………

Chen Yan was almost driven mad.

The golden light on his body surged like a raging sea, incomparably terrifying.

One by one, Saint-Breaking Fruits were swallowed by him.

…………

Time passed slowly.

Jiang Yuan, who had left the Dream Abyss far behind, stood in the air.

In his hand, a communication array disk manifested.

A communication array disk is actually carved into the flesh and blood using Qi and blood; even if it does not appear outside the body in daily life, a martial artist can still sense it.

An array disk is a very profound thing.

When the first person to create an array formation outlined a certain form with energy, they discovered that this form of energy triggered a reaction from heaven and earth.

After that, the path of array formations was born.

All kinds of array formations emerged one after another.

The communication array is one such example.

At this moment, Jiang Yuan spoke with a hint of helplessness:

"You are asking me to go kill Chen Yan, but Chen Yan is the one who defeated Qiu Changji."

Inside the array disk, Yu Changsheng's voice rang out:

"Jiang Yuan, don't pretend to be so formidable in front of me; I don't want to hear you refuse me."

Jiang Yuan frowned:

"Old Yu, you..."

"Jiang Yuan, do you still not know who I am?" Yu Changsheng's voice became incomparably cold.

Jiang Yuan's pupils constricted slightly, then he spoke:

"Yes, I will go."

The next moment, the voice inside the communication array disk vanished.

Jiang Yuan stood in mid-air for a long time, his gaze calm and terrifying.

"Kill Chen Yan?"

He spoke indifferently, then suddenly laughed.

The next moment, Jiang Yuan flew toward the Dream Abyss.

He flew for approximately three hours.

He arrived at the second layer of the Dream Abyss.

Upon reaching the entrance to the third layer of the Dream Abyss, which was right beside the Blood Pool, Jiang Yuan frowned.

Had Chen Yan gone in?

He did not enter immediately, but instead patrolled the surroundings for a long time.

Finally, beneath a stretch of ruined walls, Jiang Yuan saw Chen Yan.

Only at this moment, Chen Yan was covered in blood, in an extremely wretched state, with his aura withered to the extreme.

Jiang Yuan frowned:

"Chen Yan?"

Chen Yan did not reply; Jiang Yuan flew slowly closer, stood before Chen Yan, and radiance appeared in his hand.

"Chen Yan?"

He spoke again.

Suddenly!

Boom!

Layers of golden Qi waves emerged from Chen Yan's body, surging out like flames, incomparably scorching.

The terrifying Qi waves impacted Jiang Yuan, causing his pupils to shrink suddenly.

The young man sitting cross-legged amidst the golden fire slowly opened his eyes.

A powerful, indescribable aura suppressed downward instantly, just looking at Jiang Yuan like that.

Jiang Yuan's face twitched:

"You..."

"I had a mishap in my cultivation," Chen Yan said calmly.

Jiang Yuan still had radiance appearing on his hand, and as he raised it, a precious medicine appeared.

"A Blue Vault-grade healing spirit medicine, don't thank me," Jiang Yuan chuckled.

Chen Yan was indeed injured, but he felt even more powerful to him.

Was this Chen Yan's way of cultivating?

Jiang Yuan could not help but feel a tremor in his heart.

A damn lunatic.

Everyone of the Lu Xunyang lineage is a lunatic.

Right, except for Qiu Changji.

Jiang Yuan thought to himself.

Chen Yan took it, swallowed the precious medicine directly into his abdomen, and feeling the reviving energy within his body, Chen Yan slowly stood up.

"Many thanks."

Afterward, Chen Yan spoke nonchalantly:

"Why did you come?"

Jiang Yuan laughed:

"I thought about it, and I also want to go to the third layer of the Dream Abyss."

"Liar." Chen Yan walked quietly, not looking at Jiang Yuan, his voice calm.

"Hey?" Jiang Yuan gave a faint laugh:

"You aren't me, how do you know I'm lying?"

Although Jiang Yuan was smiling, his eyes remained fixed on Chen Yan.

But Chen Yan did not answer, which actually made Jiang Yuan heave a sigh of relief.

The two walked just like that, arriving before the Blood Pool.

"I also lack a companion, so let's go in together," Chen Yan said calmly.

"Good!" Jiang Yuan nodded:

"As long as you fall into the Blood Pool, you can enter the third layer."

Chen Yan nodded, then the two leaned their bodies forward, and their bodies fell straight onto the Blood Pool.

A gray world fell into Jiang Yuan's line of sight:

"Such intense malice," Jiang Yuan sighed, then suddenly looked to his side.

He discovered that Chen Yan hadn't entered at all.

"Chen Yan?"

He shouted loudly, and immediately felt extremely speechless.

"Damn it!"

In the second layer of the Dream Abyss, Chen Yan stopped falling the moment his body touched the Blood Pool.

Upon seeing Jiang Yuan enter, Chen Yan entered again.

His body leaned forward, and the moment his torso directly touched the Blood Pool, he clearly saw the blood-colored pool water turn into hundreds of millions of wriggling blood worms.

These blood worms adhered to Chen Yan's body, pushing Chen Yan down into the Blood Pool.

And within the Blood Pool, it was not water, but a gray world.

The Blood Pool was like a mirror surface, bringing Chen Yan to another world.

Chen Yan's body slowly crawled out from the Blood Pool beneath him, standing once again on the edge of the pool at his feet.

He looked around at his surroundings.

Gray human-faced bricks, gray ruined walls and broken pillars, and a gray sky.

It was a scene identical to the second layer of the Dream Abyss.

The difference was that this world was gray.

"Chen Yan, you..." Beside him, Jiang Yuan was speechless.

Was it really necessary?

Chen Yan walked slowly forward:

"A person only has one life; what if you decide to kill me?"

Jiang Yuan's body paused, and he hurriedly laughed:

"I gain nothing from killing you."

Chen Yan, however, said no more.

He walked quietly along the broken street.

The third layer of the Dream Abyss was an inverted world.

Chen Yan suddenly realized that when he was previously in the second layer of the Dream Abyss, he had felt the sensation of colliding with something.

He had also felt the space beside him shift.

At that time, he had only been suspicious.

But at this moment, he understood that it must have been someone from the third layer of the Dream Abyss trying to communicate with him.

That person must be San Jin.

He walked on quietly.

Suddenly, he saw a bunch of eaten grape stems on the street.

And beside the grape stems, a line of small characters carved into the ground.

【If anyone sees this line, please tell King Xiayue that the grapes have completed their task.

King Xiayue will definitely give you a reward.】

Chen Yan watched quietly, but his expression trembled slightly.

It was King Xiayue, Xia Hanzhou.

He had always wondered why San Jin would help him repeatedly.

So it was Xia Hanzhou.

Beside him, Jiang Yuan also saw this line of text and said nothing.

Chen Yan's pace quickened a little.

Jiang Yuan followed quietly.

But soon, a look of difficulty appeared on Jiang Yuan's face.

He frowned as he looked at the sides of the street, within his line of sight.

Beside the street, wisps of mist formed all sorts of illusions.

What was presented within those illusions were his most painful memories.

The key was that these painful memories brought Jiang Yuan a sensation a hundred or a thousand times more intense than before.

This was malice affecting his heart and mind.

At this moment, even Jiang Yuan could hardly bear it; pain appeared in his eyes, and his steps were tottering.

He looked ahead, where Chen Yan's gait remained calm.

"Chen Yan, do you not see it?!" Jiang Yuan spoke in a hoarse voice.

"See what?" Chen Yan asked.

"The memories!" Jiang Yuan said with difficulty, as waves of dream-babble that threatened to devour his mind entered his brain, trying to gnaw away at his everything.

His body was swaying.

"I see them," Chen Yan said calmly.

"Then... are you not in pain?" Jiang Yuan opened his mouth wide, currently using his willpower to resist these pains.

He regretted coming to the third layer.

Ahead, the handsome-looking young man turned his head to look at Jiang Yuan:

"It is painful, incomparably painful."

Jiang Yuan's eyes widened.

Painful?

He stared fixedly at Chen Yan; the other party was clearly calm the whole time, as if he hadn't been affected at all.

"Chen Yan, stop lying to me. What secret technique do you have to resist the dream-babble?

Tell me!"

"None," Chen Yan said, remaining calm.

In his world.

A wisp of mist turned into an illusion.

Inside the illusion, a young man was wailing at the top of his lungs, throwing punch after punch, shouting something under the weight of endless, immense despair.

The pains of the past were bombarding Chen Yan's heart a hundred or a thousand times over at this moment.

But the young man's eyes remained extremely calm.

"Chen Yan, you..." Jiang Yuan said with difficulty.

The young man wearing the General Star uniform had already turned around and continued forward, his steps steady.

"Brother!!!"

A sharp shriek rang out in Chen Yan's ears.

The illusion transformed into Chen Yu, transformed into Chen Yuhu.

Even images that did not belong to his memories appeared.

He saw Chen Yu die, saw Chen Yuhu being brutally murdered by others.

He saw the destruction of the world, saw everything drifting away from him.

When facing Chen Yan, this illusion began to cheat.

But Chen Yan remained calm throughout.

"There is only one way to not feel pain."

Yet the young man continued walking calmly, and spoke.

"What way?" Jiang Yuan asked hurriedly.

Only to see the young man speak quietly:

"And that is to make the pain you bring upon yourself even more intense than these."