Chapter 357: Today, I Bestow Immortality Upon Myself!

Outside the Xunyang Pagoda, a commotion broke out in an instant; many people wanted to catch a glimpse of the opportunity to awaken the Immortal Body by relying on their senses.

But they were likely to be disappointed.

By mere comprehension alone, it is absolutely impossible to obtain the Immortal Body.

Lu Xunyang's smile was brilliant; at this moment, he did not look like the White-Clad God of Slaughter at all, but rather a teacher overjoyed to see a junior rising up.

Extremely satisfied.

The more brilliant his smile was, the gloomier the old man's expression became.

He stared fixedly at Chen Yan, sensing the changes occurring within Chen Yan's body.

Until a certain moment, the coldness on the old man's face gradually vanished, replaced by a smile.

"Lu Xunyang, you are a talent!"

The old man laughed out loud; at this moment, his exclamation was heartfelt.

This was the third time he had praised Lu Xunyang.

Lu Xunyang's smile faded; the more he heard, the more awkward he felt.

The old man laughed, his mouth pulling into an arc like a sharp blade flashing with cold light in the dark night.

Lu Xunyang clearly sensed something wrong at this moment, and he hurriedly turned his attention back to Chen Yan.

In an instant, his expression froze, and he furrowed his brows deeply.

Immediately, a surging baleful aura erupted from Lu Xunyang's entire body—a baleful aura that could only be cultivated by slaughtering millions; it was incomparably terrifying.

"Xia Lord, you anger me!"

Lu Xunyang's expression turned icy; even though the other party was the Xia Lord, he no longer held a shred of respect.

Chen Yan had clearly already condensed the two hundred and sixteenth Extreme Satin Pattern.

The immortal aura on his body was indeed purer.

But the Immortal Body had not arrived!

Lu Xunyang was furious.

A young man had exhausted everything to accomplish seventy-two things that the people of the world could not accomplish.

This was blood and sweat.

But the Martial Dao had played him for a fool.

Lu Xunyang's baleful aura surged outward like ten thousand sharp blades, his white robes billowing; he was truly about to strike.

In this world, no one could play him for a fool.

"Lu Xunyang, you really are a talent!"

The Xia Lord laughed, not caring in the slightest about Lu Xunyang's threat, his eyes crinkling.

But this voice was exceptionally grating in Lu Xunyang's ears.

"In the path of Hard Tempering, once the number of Extreme Satin Patterns reaches a multiple of seventy-two, one will be rewarded with the Immortal Body.

This was nothing more than your own conjecture!"

The old man stood up, his eyes filled with an expression that held both admiration and mockery.

Lu Xunyang's eyes contained coldness, but at this moment, he froze.

The Xia Lord laughed as if his scheme had succeeded:

"Is it possible that the person who created the Immortal Body was not me at all?"

Lu Xunyang frowned, a look of disbelief appearing in his eyes.

"The person who created the Immortal Body is you yourself, Lu Xunyang."

The Xia Lord sighed:

"You were born the lowliest of existences, changing your physical body time and again, obliterating your own flesh time and again.

You even compiled the methods of destroying the flesh into the Hard Tempering Breathing Technique; you underestimated your own strength.

You underestimated the impact you brought upon this world."

Lu Xunyang's expression was somewhat stunned.

The one who created the Immortal Body was actually himself.

He had had this thought, but the matter of creating a physique was too strange.

It just so happened that at the time, he had forged one hundred and forty-four Extreme Satin Patterns, and he had reason to believe the Immortal Body was brought about by the Hard Tempering Martial Dao.

"This world has too many strange physiques, such as bloodline talents, physical talents, and physical spirituality.

But these physiques are false bodies, because the users do not understand the mysteries of their own flesh at all, merely utilizing it."

The Xia Lord stood with his hands behind his back, speaking indifferently:

"But your Immortal Body is different; you fully understand the way the Immortal Body operates and can fully master the Immortal Body.

The Immortal Body is a true body!"

He raised his head, looking at Lu Xunyang with a complex expression.

He had said it several times: Lu Xunyang was a talent, almost the most outstanding junior he had ever seen.

But he had won.

A look of mockery appeared in his eyes as he looked toward Chen Yan inside the distant Xunyang Pagoda, carrying indifference and sneers.

Will?

If will were useful, why would the ancient human race have become the rations of the Ancient Gods for generations?

How many people longed to gnaw on the Ancient Gods, to eat their flesh and blood; how many people lost friends and family, weeping and wailing all day long?

He was a man who had walked out from a mountain of ancient corpses; stepping over the corpses of his companions, he had long since lost the anger of those years.

He was cold—cold to outsiders, and cold to himself.

In the vast, endless eternal night, he found a glimmer of vitality.

If the world wants to curse him, let them curse.

"Lu Xunyang, Chen Yan!"

His voice was incomparably low, heavy, and filled with ferocious majesty.

Within the distant Xunyang Tower, Chen Yan heard it.

"I have witnessed the weight and shallowness of civilization; I have endured endless darkness and indifference.

I hate, the most disgusting thing is..."

The old man's expression was violent, filled with disappointment and coldness:

"It is that there are always people who use idiotic words to refute me, to oppose me!

Whether it is you or Lu Xunyang, you are all idiots!"

He won, but he was not happy.

He knew Chen Yan could not walk out; that brat had exhausted almost everything to break his limits.

At this moment, his will and physical body were nearly withered.

He might not even be able to contend with the malice shrouding him.

He was too disappointed.

If Chen Yan could truly have defeated him, he would have been happier.

He was tired; who would be happy killing their own descendants over and over?

But the world had proven that without him, the Great Xia would ultimately head toward death.

Chen Yan had walked toward failure on his own.

Such a foolish person was actually the Master of Martial Dao; what hope was there for the future?

Lu Xunyang could not feel happy at this moment.

Even knowing that he had actually accomplished a great deed, he still could not be happy.

He had written his theories into a book, encouraging future generations to work hard to train the Extreme Satin Pattern to a multiple of seventy-two.

Now it seemed that this book was completely misleading.

Of course, he originally had no need to blame himself.

Because, no one could actually accomplish such a thing.

But the most critical point was that someone had done it.

Someone had believed it to be true and foolishly given everything to do it.

That person had practiced the 【Eight Styles of Extreme Refining】, 【Red Heart Fist】, 【Patrolling Heaven】, and 【Patrolling Heaven Extreme Dao】.

Following in Lu Xunyang's footsteps, he had worn down his body, altered his aptitude, and strengthened his flesh just like him.

He had regarded him as the one who led him into the Dao.

Lu Xunyang found it hard to accept; he had trapped Chen Yan.

At this moment, he could not even feel anger; the rage and baleful aura accumulated in his eyes had all turned into dullness and guilt.

After all that, the villain turned out to be myself.

Lu Xunyang could not accept it; at this moment, he opened his mouth, but could not say a single word.

The one hundred and fifty-first floor of Xunyang Tower.

Chen Yan walked in, covered in blood.

This place was a vast expanse of gray, misty mountains.

Far away, ten thousand miles of sky glow bright, in the deepest part of the secluded, dense forest.

He hung his head, blood dripping down continuously.

Just as the Xia Lord had thought, his will was indeed exhausted.

It was an incomparably uncomfortable feeling; he felt as if his entire person was about to explode on the spot, and the sensation of drawing out his strength was like having iron needles driven into his flesh one by one.

Even breathing felt like swallowing clusters of flames into his throat.

It was incomparably painful.

A radiance appeared before Chen Yan, transforming into the figure of Lu Xunyang.

This was the twenty-three-year-old Lu Xunyang; at this moment, the other party was already at the peak of the Origin Realm.

"Chen Yan."

Lu Xunyang spoke in a low voice:

"I was the one who was wrong; it was I who created the Immortal Body."

The young Lu Xunyang looked at Chen Yan, but the latter kept his head lowered; he did not know if Chen Yan had actually heard him.

When a person's will is exhausted to a certain degree, even processing the five senses feels as heavy as pushing a mountain.

"I don't know why you also birthed an Immortal aura; perhaps it is because you walked many of the paths I once walked."

Lu Xunyang's voice was low; even he felt complicated now.

He fell silent.

In this state, could Chen Yan still go to the two hundred and fifty-second floor?

Even if his will recovered, it was hard to say if Chen Yan could reach two hundred and fifty-two based on his strength.

A deficit of will was a terrifying thing.

Even if the one before him was a Master of Will.

The other party was also human.

Lu Xunyang was about to say something more.

Who would have thought that the youth opposite, who had almost no strength left, would actually throw a punch at him.

This punch was soft and powerless.

Lu Xunyang threw a punch, and Chen Yan was sent flying.

This is the mechanism of the Xunyang Tower.

It is inherently a tower for clearing trials; as long as the examinee taking the trial makes a move, the guardian of each floor will make a move.

Lu Xunyang struck toward Chen Yan, yet he sighed incessantly in his heart.

Until a certain moment, his expression froze.

He saw that the youth who had fallen to the ground was actually smiling.

Chen Yan's consciousness was blurred.

He had heard the old man's previous words vaguely.

Is it still not enough even after reaching two hundred and sixteen Extreme Satin Patterns?

He had worked so hard for so long just to reach two hundred and sixteen Extreme Satin Patterns.

This had almost become the great goal on his path of martial arts.

For this, he changed his horizontal-refining martial arts, and he constantly felt the fatigue.

But at this moment, Lu Xunyang's words were almost destroying his will.

As the Summer Lord said, everything Chen Yan did was truly laughable.

Chen Yan asked himself.

What exactly should be done?

Life is heavy, and the eternal night is boundless.

He asked many times, and what answered him was still that youth shouting on the hospital bed.

Memory regression.

Lying on the hospital bed, he reached out his hand with difficulty, looking at the outline of his five fingers through the light outside the window.

Fourteen-year-old Chen Yu sat by the bed peeling an apple for him.

"Brother."

The fourteen-year-old girl stuffed a piece of apple into her brother's mouth and said with a smile:

"Brother, I heard that powerful martial artists can regrow limbs, and no matter how heavy the injury, they can recover."

Chen Yan nodded blankly; he was severely injured, and his father told him that as long as he worked hard to recover, he could stand up again.

But Chen Yan was always hesitant; he worried that his father was just lying to him.

Following his attempts one after another, and failures one after another, he gradually became disheartened.

Noticing his sister's gaze, Chen Yan spoke calmly:

"Powerful martial artists can achieve immortality; even after they die, their physical bodies can remain immortal for countless years.

Even if the physical body dies, the soul can also obtain immortality and continue to live."

He was extremely calm.

As he spoke, he said something that had nothing to do with him at the time.

When a person loses even the opportunity, that is true despair.

At that time, Chen Yan only needed one opportunity.

The memory vanished.

Chen Yan needed to face everything before him once again.

He was tired to the extreme, but his eyes were full of smiles.

Opposite him, Lu Xunyang was surprised while throwing punches.

The youth before him was indeed smiling.

Chen Yan grinned; he whispered in a voice that only he could almost hear:

"I didn't understand a principle back then."

He threw a punch, and he had almost no strength left, but the next moment, a trace of strength was drawn out by him, which could be exerted.

"Above the world, there has never been a so-called dead end; all dead ends are merely the heart's deception of itself."

His voice was weak, but it was filled with a kind of power.

His will was exhausted, then burst forth once again.

Following this, the aura of immortality on his body became increasingly thick.

After hearing Lu Xunyang's story for the first time, Chen Yan was shocked in his heart.

Piercing steel needles into the flesh to forcibly change one's physical aptitude.

What kind of powerful will must this be.

He pondered for a long time.

While containing the energy of the 【Heaven-Patrolling】 technique, he met Lu Xunyang for the first time.

Powerful, majestic, and impossible to look at directly.

It was such a person who created 【Heaven-Patrolling】 and obtained the Immortal Body.

Waves of memories rushed in.

The smile at the corners of Chen Yan's mouth grew more and more intense.

The aura of immortality on his body was also churning.

"Master Lu, you are wrong!"

He laughed out loud with almost all his might, carrying an uplifted will.

Opposite him, Lu Xunyang's eyes trembled; he felt the youth's will reignite.

"I was also wrong."

Chen Yan's face was covered in blood, burning with golden-red flames, laughing wantonly as he threw punch after punch.

"I was wrong?"

Lu Xunyang was puzzled.

Atop the mountain of corpses, the old man gazed distantly at Chen Yan, casting a look of disdain.

Has he already lost his mind?

The disappointment in his heart grew increasingly intense.

He had seen great terrors and great grandeur.

Even if Chen Yan's will had broken its limits, in his eyes, it was merely a tiny ripple in the long river of human civilization.

Chen Yan had failed, yet he still stubbornly resisted, unwilling to understand the truth.

Is this the Path of Will?

Is this the Master of Martial Arts?

The old man sighed.

After countless years and countless storms, the world must still admit one fact.

The future of humanity cannot do without him.

His heavy sigh was incomparably cold, permeated with contempt and disappointment for the new Master of Martial Arts.

But just as he did so, a clanging sound resonated from a distant direction.

"What is immortal has never been the physical tempering, but the will!"

This voice was vast and filled with majesty, not sounding like it came from a youth, but like the low murmur of a giant of heaven and earth.

It was filled with power.

The old man's brows furrowed.

Looking from afar, he wanted to open his mouth to curse.

Inside the Xunyang Tower, the youth's entire body was brilliant golden-red like gorgeous clouds; in the dim dark world, he was like a high-hanging sunset sun.

The old man's pupils constricted; he stood up, staring fixedly.

Yet he saw the youth lift his head, carrying a smile.

"Today, I bestow upon myself..."

The golden-red flames beside the youth drifted out slowly, outlining a blurred human figure behind him.

The golden-red light fell upon him, making him appear as if he were bathing in fire, his momentum striking.

He was to undergo nirvana within these raging golden waves of fire.

Chen Yan spread his arms, his calm expression carrying an unhideable sense of deep emotion:

"Immortality!"

As his voice fell.

Behind him, the blurred figure radiated brilliant light, as if draped in divine robes, resembling a sacred monument cast from light.

The old man's expression trembled, and he immediately let out a low roar:

"Impossible!"

He roared, having seen an unbelievable sight.

A Source Divine Body!

This Source Divine Body was condensed from the aura of immortality, vast and boundless, filled with endless majesty.

Its appearance was exactly the same as Chen Yan's.

Lu Xunyang was also trembling, his mouth agape, unable to speak.

Only the blood-stained youth remained, sacred and incomparable at this moment, illuminated by the radiance of the divine body suspended behind him, as if crowned with rosy clouds.

He looked like an emperor of the mortal world, overlooking the world of men.

"This so-called Immortal Body, why would it need the martial arts of others to bestow it?"

Chen Yan murmured, and the Divine Body of Will behind him wore the same expression as he did.

The divine body was still very blurred; it had only appeared and had not yet solidified.

But it indeed carried an indescribable, miraculous power.

Aside from immortality, there was also the externalization of a powerful will, its pressure flowing incessantly like a flood.

At this moment.

Chen Yan's martial arts meridians were all vibrating.

Within the tips of each meridian, the human figures presented were all astonished.

A strange power was about to descend upon them.

Those were hundreds of living beings.

The Martial Arts of Will was growing, about to revive within them.

At this moment.

A new realm.

Was about to appear!

The Establishment Realm!

The young Master of Will lifted his head at this moment, his spirit still high:

"Master Lu, you are gravely mistaken."

Chen Yan sighed lightly; what he wanted to do was create a Divine Body of Will.

The Immortal characteristic was merely one attribute of the Divine Body of Will.

This was a vision Chen Yan had for establishing his Realm.

But this Immortal characteristic would far surpass Lu Xunyang's Immortal Body.

Lu Xunyang nodded; at this moment, he was completely unable to speak.

Chen Yan was calm, but the Divine Body of Will behind him abruptly opened its eyes, its pupils erupting with golden-red flames, dazzling and eye-catching; the Divine Body of Will spoke:

"Proclaim my fate to Heaven and Earth, establish my heart upon the Ten Thousand Dao Tree, break the shackles of the Ancient Gods, and sever the injustices of the world!"

Establish my heart upon the Ten Thousand Dao Tree!

The Establishment Realm was born, with the Will standing above the Ten Thousand Dao.

Growing within the Ten Thousand Dao, yet higher than the Ten Thousand Dao.

An Immortal Will would bring about an Immortal physical body, Immortal Qi and blood, and an Immortal power of thought!

High in the sky in the distance, the old man stood in the void, his white hair flying, his aura even becoming slightly disordered.

He clenched his fists tightly, his face turning livid.

The Origin Divine Body of the Path of Will had been born, but it lacked an Origin Space.

A young man he had just disdained was doing something he had never imagined.

Inside the Xunyang Tower.

That Divine Body of Will which had appeared in the human world opened its eyes, bursting with divinity, and stared directly at the old man.

It stood there quietly, as if it had existed there since time immemorial, steady and unshakable.

The young man did not speak, but the Divine Body behind him spoke in his stead, incomparably solemn.

"Zu Lianhen, you shall see exactly how I stand above your Martial Dao!"