Chapter 551: The Path to Becoming Stronger, An Unexpected Joy

I shall arrive in person!

This is what Chen Yan told the world himself, and also what Chen Yan told himself.

The Master of Will must appear.

One must face everything in this future head-on.

Face the Five Clans, face the malice of the world.

Regardless of how much shock the appearance of the Master of Will brings to the world today, if the Master of Will does not appear, this can never be changed.

Behind Chen Yan, phantom images of True Dragon Dharma manifestations circled one after another, transforming into a towering and boundless majestic Dragon Domain.

He is currently cultivating in many aspects.

Comprehending the Myriad Manifestation Seed.

True Dragon Flame Marrow.

Saint-Breaking Tree.

Surrounding Huo Yu.

Power of Immortality.

Thought Limit-Breaking!

Multiple layers of superposition made Chen Yan's body-tempering speed faster and faster, more and more ferocious.

At this moment, he seemed to have completely transformed into a magma giant; as he stood up, the surrounding magma surged and churned incessantly.

Woo!

A low, deep roar suddenly shook the entire magma world.

As Chen Yan stepped through layer after layer of magma impact, a gigantic fiery eye appeared before him.

This eye was a hundred meters in diameter, while Chen Yan looked like a tiny particle appearing in front of it.

The two just stared at each other like this.

As that huge eye gazed at Chen Yan, Chen Yan stood face-to-face with the massive pupil.

Its iris was a vortex of liquid lava, with golden-red and ink-black intertwining into an unceasing spiral.

Woo!

As the soul-shaking sound stirred the magma, a vague and massive outline manifested before Chen Yan.

This was an immensely huge magma giant whale; its streamlined body was covered in crimson-gold flame manes, and merely swaying its body would cause the magma for ten thousand miles around to tremble.

The pressure from a Seventh-Order mid-stage being surged over.

"I really... just want to cultivate."

Chen Yan murmured, yet his eyes erupted with fighting spirit.

The next instant, he threw a punch!

Rumble!!!

A heaven-topping sea of fists suppressed outward, countless fist shadows converging into a giant wall, smashing onto the giant whale.

Woo!

The battle began.

The huge fish body collided with Chen Yan, instantly making Chen Yan's body, which was already undergoing tempering, feel as if it were about to dissipate.

Chen Yan pressed down with one hand, a terrifying shockwave erupting from his palm, generating waves of powerful thrust.

The next instant, he transformed into a stream of light again, charging toward the giant whale.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The violent collisions shook the entire magma world, piercing through from top to bottom.

Within the Underground Huo Yu, pairs of eyes opened.

The sixty-seventh level.

Zhang Ting stood up and remarked in surprise:

"Who is fighting?"

He was somewhat uncertain; this terrifying tremor pierced through layer after layer of the magma domain, and it must be at least a battle of the Creation Realm to cause such a violent tremor.

But it was clearly coming from below.

One must know that for every level one passes in the Underground Huo Yu, the flame erosion one must withstand becomes increasingly terrifying.

Zhang Ting could not fathom it.

"Is it Li Xuanxiao?"

Li Xuanxiao is the father of Li Mushen and Li Muyun.

He is also the current head of the Li family of the Talisman Sword Saint Body.

Back then, he was the existence whose leg was kicked and broken directly by his master.

Being able to have one's leg broken by Lu Xunyang is already quite impressive; after all, he is still alive.

Right?

Back then, Zhang Ting and Shen Yiwei had a pretty good relationship, and the two even ranked people specifically.

Head-shot level is very weak, body-burst level is slightly weak, blood-hole level is mediocre, and a broken leg is absolutely a powerhouse.

Today, Li Xuanxiao is at the peak of the Creation Realm, one step away from entering the Eighth Order.

Zhang Ting murmured, then chose to continue sitting cross-legged to cultivate; he opened his eyes and took out a communication array disk again:

"King Changsheng."

"Oh, stop asking me. If you want to ask, just go find Xia Hanzhou directly. Let me tell you, what qualifications do you have to teach Chen Yan how to cultivate?" King Changsheng's impatient voice rang out:

"You have no qualifications. Look at what you've done; when Chen Yan was rising, you didn't pay any attention to him, and Chen Yan..."

"Let me tell you, if you are a genius, hurry up and advance to the late stage of the Creation Realm. You are still at the eighth rank, I tell you..."

"Think about your master, your master..."

"And Shen..., what kind of senior brother are you being..."

"And..."

Zhang Ting hung up the communication and took a deep breath.

Even for him, anger now surfaced.

"Did I do something wrong?!"

Boom!

A terrifying wave of Qi erupted from his physical body.

…………

Hum!

An intense laser beam tore through the giant whale's abdomen, and Chen Yan turned into a streak of fire, charging directly into the giant whale's body.

Boom, boom, boom!

A series of violent explosions resounded, and the entire body of the giant whale burst with huge flashes of fire.

Woo!

Following a miserable, mournful cry that rang out.

The huge flaming whale floated just like that within the magma, everything of its physical body dissipating away.

When a whale falls, ten thousand things flourish.

The dismembered fragments of the corpse dissolved, revealing the figure of Chen Yan.

Chen Yan was wrapped in flames, and at this moment, he himself was extremely uncomfortable.

The True Dragon Flame Marrow was, after all, a Sun-Grade Grade A precious medicine; to digest this drop of precious medicine, Chen Yan really didn't know if thirty days would be enough.

It was also at this moment.

Chen Yan looked ahead, and at the head of the shattered giant whale corpse, there was actually a fire-colored light orb floating.

Around the fire-colored light orb, there was also a faint phantom of the giant whale circling.

Chen Yan grabbed the light orb into his hand, a strange sensation came over him, and memories belonging to the giant whale appeared in the depths of Chen Yan's mind.

It was originally an orca within the ocean, until one day, the seabed collapsed and the Huo Yu appeared.

The orca struggled to survive, gradually adapting to the environment of this Huo Yu.

Then, martial artists from Ji Province began to appear.

Their Qi was powerful; they used magma to temper their bodies, using themselves as a furnace to refine their physical bodies on a grand scale.

The giant whale lurked within the magma, time and again ambushing these hard-tempering martial artists, gnawing on their physical bodies, absorbing the powerful Qi within their bodies, and growing ever stronger.

And its own spiritual intelligence also became stronger and stronger, until one day it was slain by Chen Yan.

Chen Yan felt the residual memories within the light orb, as if he had experienced the giant whale's entire life in a short span of time.

Countless complex and intense truths of hard-tempering flowed within the light orb.

Contained within were the unwillingness before death and the understanding of hard-tempering of every single hard-tempering martial artist the giant whale had devoured.

Chen Yan's eyes flickered slightly; he seemed to have discovered a windfall.

After a brief thought, Chen Yan placed this light orb into his Origin Space.

The light orb circled around the Dao-Enlightenment Myriad-Form Seed, its radiance instantly suppressed by the Dao-Enlightenment Myriad-Form Seed.

Immediately following, Chen Yan pressed down with his Qi and blood, and the light orb shattered instantly.

Hum!

The Dao-Enlightenment Myriad-Form Seed instantly erupted with endless, brilliant radiance.

The countless hard-tempering truths overflowing from the light orb were absorbed by the Dao-Enlightenment Myriad-Form Seed, then transmitted to Chen Yan as the true, pure essence.

Within the Saint-Breaking Realm, the golden light representing skill energy also began to flicker.

Countless hard-tempering truths were being refined by Chen Yan, transforming into his own.

"So that's how it is, so that's how it is!"

Chen Yan laughed out loud; understandings he had previously failed to grasp quietly changed at this moment.

Even 【Forging the Expansion of the Firmament】 seemed to have had many problems unearthed by Chen Yan.

Crude and explosive cultivation did not necessarily bring Chen Yan the maximum rate of improvement.

Only by stepping toward perfection, step by step.

Roar, roar, roar!!

Dragon roars shook, golden light flashed wildly; as Chen Yan moved, his physical muscles and bones chimed together like a divine bow being fired, and his eyes were even more brilliant than the great sun.

The number of True Dragon Dharma Forms surged at this moment.

The five-hundredth.

The five-hundred-and-tenth!!

The five-hundred-and-twentieth!

…………

The six-hundredth!

In a distant direction.

"Such pure power vibration."

A middle-aged man bathed in the divine radiance of talisman swords sensed it from afar, incomparably astonished.

He could sense that the power erupting from the existence in that direction was not strong, but the frequency of the force's vibration was becoming increasingly perfect.

It was as if turning the void into reality, returning to simplicity and truth.

"To be suppressing one's own power and focusing on the study of force, there are very, very few who can reach the Creation Realm and still be like this."

A man named Li Xuanyao spoke:

"Zhang Ting?

He is the only one left after me in this place. Damn Lu Xunyang, if I can't beat you, I will definitely find an opportunity to beat your disciple!

Shen Yiwei is fine, he's too pitiful, I don't even have the heart to bully him,

Zhang Ting is good, a pure animal, I want to beat him!"

He laughed out loud, then flew toward the sea area below.

Zhang Ting had indeed brought him a trace of pressure.

…………

Time passed slowly.

The next day.

Chen Prefecture.

Rows of iron-forest-like puppet legions stood solemnly atop a giant bronze millstone.

Each puppet's body was covered in ghostly blue curse seals, with scarlet crystals embedded in its joints.

The Chen Lord walked quietly in front of these puppets; behind him, an old man in gray clothes followed closely.

"These are the assessment puppets that will be used in the Five Clans Struggle; only those in the mid-stage of the Creation Realm can pass the assessment of these puppets."

The gray-clothed old man said quietly; half of his face was clearly a mechanical structure, much like a bionic person with machinery and a human body synthesized together.

He gave a strange laugh:

"But these puppets, when facing the Chen Clan bloodline, will erupt with combat power exceeding thirty times their normal level; it is impossible to defeat them without being in the late-stage of the Creation Realm.

Moreover, these are pure mechanical puppets and will not be suppressed by the Will of the Will Path at all."

The Chen Lord nodded; in order to restrict Chen Yan, Chen Prefecture had made many sacrifices.

Including these rows of assessment puppets.

The Great Xia also could not have imagined that Chen Prefecture was almost going to restrict Chen Yan in a mutually destructive way.

As long as someone from the Chen Clan encountered these puppets, it would trigger the deep-seated switches of these puppets, and the difficulty of clearing the level would instantly increase by more than thirty times.

More than eighty percent of the Creation Realm experts in Chen Prefecture would be stuck at this level and unable to enter the Five Clans Struggle.

And for the Great Xia, only one Chen Yan would be stuck.

The Great Xia could not have imagined that the Chen Lord would go to such lengths.

"Is the Chen Lord satisfied?" The gray-clothed old man chuckled:

"The Great Xia will definitely inspect this batch of assessment puppets, and might even call Chen Yan to inspect them personally.

But I have already set the puppets' deep-seated switches to activate on the day the Five Clans Struggle begins, and for this, I even consumed three God-level Causality Arrays.

No one will be able to discover it."

The old man smiled faintly; to get all this done, the sacrifice of Chen Prefecture was not insignificant.

He even felt that if it had to be like this, it would be better to just let Chen Yan into the Five Clans Struggle.

But the Chen Lord's emphasis on Chen Yan still made him feel terrified inside.

"Not bad, but it still needs improvement; change it to increase the difficulty by forty times when facing the Chen Clan bloodline."

As the Chen Lord's voice fell, the gray-clothed old man's expression trembled slightly:

"This... the consumption is too great."

"Consumption?" The Chen Lord narrowed his eyes:

"The Great Xia can take out a Soul of the Life Chapter to help Chen Yan, so what does my consumption of these count for?"

The Chen Lord's eyes were cold:

"Chen Yuanyi!"

His voice rang out, and he reached out with one hand; his hand seemed to traverse the void in an instant, grabbing a figure directly from the other side of space.

A man wearing red battle armor appeared, and upon seeing the Chen Lord, he hurriedly bowed respectfully:

"Greetings, Chen Lord!"

"Go and test it." The Chen Lord pointed to the combat puppets in front.

Chen Yuanyi, ranked 165th on the world's Creation Realm Ranking!

Late-stage Creation Realm!

Such an existence has a very high hope of advancing to the Eighth Rank in the future.

Immediately, Chen Yuanyi turned into a stream of light and rushed into the group of combat puppets.

He raised one hand, and blades from his origin space suddenly flew out, stabbing toward the battle armor.

Boom, boom, boom!

Violent explosions resounded.

A puppet flew up instantly and punched Chen Yuanyi's body.

"Hmm?" Chen Yuanyi's expression changed:

"How is this possible?!"

He gave a low shout.

The blades he controlled suddenly disintegrated and reorganized, turning into ninety floating triangular battle blades.

But just as he was about to strike, dozens of combat puppets suddenly appeared all around.

The cannons on the puppets' shoulders fired simultaneously, and a dense rain of armor-piercing shells wove a scarlet net of barrage in the void.

"This...!" Chen Yuanyi was shocked, and was immediately engulfed by the firelight, screaming out loud as he desperately tried to dodge.

"Lord Chen, if it goes like this, my Chen Prefecture might suffer heavy losses." The grey-clothed old man was also shocked.

This was Chen Yuanyi, after all; to think he could be suppressed like this.

He himself had not expected the combat puppet he had developed to perform in such a way.

One must know, the bloodline switch was not just aimed at Chen Yan, but at all the heaven-gifted geniuses of the Chen Clan.

"Not bad."

Not far away, Lord Chen nodded:

"Don't forget, increase the difficulty to forty times."

He stepped away.

…………

Yun Prefecture.

By the shores of Fei Yu Hu.

In the center of the mirror-like azure lake, countless silver scales darted through the turbulent whirlpools.

Suddenly, they broke through the water, turning into a sky full of star-rain, rushing toward the deep blue firmament, before blooming like flower petals and falling into the bottomless heart of the lake.

This was the most famous scenic spot in Yun Prefecture.

Many scholars would even carve their own poems onto the giant rocks by Fei Yu Hu for future generations to evaluate.

"Brother, I've become an Upper Venerable!"

Mysterious talisman light flickered on Chen Yu, and the beautiful young girl with a flushed face looked at her brother who was watching the fish:

"It's all thanks to you explaining the Dao to me earlier, otherwise I couldn't have created a Sun-level array so quickly!"

Chen Yu was full of joy; she had been stuck at the Sun-level array for a long time.

"It's because you are monstrously talented yourself." Chen Yan exclaimed.

His younger sister was indeed a monster.

He had only become an Upper Venerable with the help of Limit-Breaking Thought, the Myriad Manifestations Dao-Enlightenment Seed, and the Saint-Breaking Tree.

Yet his sister had truly become an Upper Venerable just by relying on others' explanations and her own comprehension.

This made Chen Yan sigh with emotion.

The concept of talent seemed to really exist; his sister's talent in the way of arrays was a hundred or a thousand times greater than his own.

Moreover, he only focused on concealment and rapid displacement.

But his sister considered many more directions.

Speed arrays, defensive arrays, combat arrays, teleportation arrays, control arrays...

Chen Yu was simply an all-rounder in the way of arrays.

In the world of consciousness.

The woman in the red dress lifted her head:

"Little Yu, you must strive for success. If your way of mental power can reach the peak of the sixth rank, you will be able to suppress your brother."

Chen Yu pouted:

"Teacher, don't be angry anymore."

The woman in the red dress gave a light huff.

Previously, both Chen Yan and she had been teaching Chen Yu.

But Chen Yan's theories contradicted hers, and many times he had directly called her, Ji Yannan's, array concepts trash.

Ji Yannan was furious.

She wanted to hit someone.

If it weren't for the fact that Chen Yan was a Divine General, she would have really taken action.

She had to give the Great Xia some face, so she had to endure it.

Mm.

That was how it was.

Just at this moment, Chen Yan narrowed his eyes slightly, and Chen Yu, being clever, restrained her aura.

In the distant sky, a woman wearing the uniform of a Chief of the Martial Suppression Division flew over from afar.

"Greetings, Divine General."

The woman named Ke Qingxuan bowed slightly to Chen Yan.

Chen Yan watched the woman quietly, sensing a trace of emotion from her.

"Senior," Chen Yan smiled:

"What brings you here?"

Ke Qingxuan watched Chen Yan quietly; her heart was pounding, and even though Chen Yan was young, she still felt nervous the moment she saw him.

"The Divine General has come to Yun Prefecture, so as the Deputy Chief, I naturally needed to come and see you."

Ke Qingxuan spoke with some hesitation:

"I have already prepared a banquet, would the Divine General do me the honor?"

Chen Yan looked at Chen Yu and smiled:

"Do you want to go?"

"Let's not go..." Chen Yu said with some hesitation.

"Then we won't go; we must head to Gold Prefecture as soon as possible, the State Master has already contacted me." Chen Yan smiled at Ke Qingxuan.

Not far away, Ke Qingxuan watched quietly.

A sigh rose in her heart.

Her path of advancement was, after all, controlled by the Ji Clan's spy organization, and her files had always been within the Ji Clan.

Now she had no choice; she had to go to the Ji Clan.

But looking at the current Chen Yan, Ke Qingxuan still spoke:

"Divine General, the Five Clans Struggle has been set, but please remain vigilant, Divine General; the Five Clans may not let you enter so easily."

Not far away, Chen Yan felt slightly surprised, then nodded:

"Many thanks."

Looking at the current Chen Yan, a rich, complex emotion surfaced in Ke Qingxuan's heart once more.

The current high-level officials of the Great Xia were likely all waiting for Chen Yan's strength.

The State Master even took out the Soul of the Fate Chapter to help Chen Yan enter the Five Clans Struggle.

This was good fortune, and also a sorrow.

"Divine General," Ke Qingxuan said.

"Just call me Chen Yan," Chen Yan smiled.

Ke Qingxuan's expression changed slightly:

"In your view, where does the future of the Great Xia lie now?"

She wanted to know how Chen Yan would answer.

"Rather than the future of the Great Xia, it is better to speak of the future of the world." Chen Yan sat down and looked at the groups of flying fish in the center of the lake, flying wantonly amidst the splashes:

"The world has long since had a way out."

"Where is the way out?" Ke Qingxuan asked hurriedly.

"The Lord of Will," Chen Yan replied calmly.

Ke Qingxuan was stunned.

The Lord of Will?

That unknown, powerful existence, who might be evil or might have compassion for all living beings.

But how was this any different from pinning all hope on the unknown?

"What are your plans after this, Divine General?" Ke Qingxuan asked:

"Before the Five Clans Struggle."

"To walk the human world."

Ke Qingxuan's body stiffened:

"Could it be that you are cultivating some kind of technique that requires experiencing the human world?"

Chen Yan did not speak.

But Ke Qingxuan had a guess in her heart.

The Ji Master told her that Chen Yan had an unconcealable faith in the Lord of Will, and now she saw it.

But she did not believe that the current Chen Yan had given up due to disappointment.

This was Chen Yan, one of the few people in the world who could least be underestimated.

"If there is anything you need help with, please do not hesitate to ask," Ke Qingxuan said earnestly.

"Mm," Chen Yan nodded.

Ke Qingxuan prepared to leave, when Chen Yan suddenly spoke:

"Senior."

"Is there something else?" Ke Qingxuan was startled.

"Do you think the Great Xia should win, or the Five Clans should win?" Chen Yan smiled, his back to Ke Qingxuan.

Ke Qingxuan's pupils shrank instantly, and sweat flowed from her forehead inadvertently.

"Naturally the Great Xia," Ke Qingxuan replied:

"The Five Clans can have today only because of the sacrifice of the Great Xia."

Chen Yan spoke no more.

And Ke Qingxuan left without looking back.

"He... did he ask me that on purpose?"

High in the distant sky, Ke Qingxuan's face turned deathly pale, and an unconcealable panic surfaced in her heart.

What did that sentence of Chen Yan's mean?

How could he possibly see through the fact that she was a spy for the Ji Clan?

The Ji Clan had never let her do anything to betray the Great Xia, because her talent was too good; the Ji Clan's spy organization would not let her take risks.

As such, she naturally had never been discovered by anyone else.

But Chen Yan, what did that sentence just now mean?

Ke Qingxuan smiled with difficulty:

"It was probably just a casual question, playing at mystery."