Chapter 746

"But I almost lost myself," Li Yuan sighed inwardly: "Is just the first Pillar of Soul so difficult? Sixty million years of time actually subtly influenced my self-consciousness."

"And this was evolved and formed from the soul origin of the weakest of the 136 Emperors."

"What about the Pillars of Soul of other, more powerful Emperors?"

"My will, compared to those ancient Emperors, is indeed still relatively weak," Li Yuan pondered to himself.

Soul and will are different.

The strength of a soul is mainly nurtured by the Dao and the divine power of the physical body; the stronger the Eternal Dao a powerhouse opens up, and the stronger their divine body, the more powerful the soul becomes during natural gestation.

Just like mortals, a healthy body naturally leads to a spirited appearance.

Like Li Yuan, in terms of the realm of Dao, physical body, and divine power, he is not inferior to an ordinary Emperor, which has made his soul strength long rival that of an ordinary Emperor.

Will, however, is more ethereal... Generally speaking, the stronger the soul and the longer one has cultivated, the more one will gradually polish their will to be stronger.

But some extremely weak individuals also possess extremely strong wills.

Just like a very small number of mortals who can endure endless torture; they are people with extremely powerful wills.

And Li Yuan, he is actually extremely adept at soul and will, and his will grows extremely fast.

Back when he ascended Mount Zishan and obtained the Ancient Universe Realm... it was because of his strong will, and Xiao Mu's recognition of him was also decisively determined by his will.

Although he has only cultivated for a few thousand years, in terms of will, even some powerful Demigods like Long Ya and the God King Zihuo would find it hard to surpass him.

But compared to those ancient Emperors who have lived for hundreds of millions or even billions of years... Li Yuan's will does not hold an advantage and is even at a disadvantage.

There is no help for it!

Many ancient Emperors may not be as strong as Li Yuan, and their talent is far worse, but their cultivation time is truly too long. They have long had their true bodies stay within Eternal Relics, and although their Eternal Dao progresses slowly, their will is constantly improving under the tempering of time.

"Moreover, sixty million years of endless torture."

"It is indeed different from sixty million years of normal life," Li Yuan pondered.

If it were normal life, with simple passage of time, let alone sixty million years, even six hundred million years would not cause Li Yuan's self-consciousness to collapse.

But endless loneliness and endless torture... are worlds apart.

An ordinary person in such an environment would likely go mad in two or three days.

"Although it was painful torture, it failed to break the shackles of this Pillar of Soul, but the two journeys of consciousness possession and the experience of over sixty million years have indeed brought me no small harvest," Li Yuan smiled again.

Sixty million years of near-real, endless torture.

After this consciousness returned, the intersection of the nine true body consciousnesses also gave Li Yuan many gains.

To say nothing else, in the torture of endless flames, Li Yuan's will was also constantly strengthening, and compared to a hundred years ago, it is already much stronger.

"Compared to a true Emperor, in terms of will alone, I reckon I am now not inferior," Li Yuan was extremely satisfied.

"But at the same time, this experience is also invisibly influencing me," Li Yuan nodded slightly.

How long has he actually been cultivating?

So-called soul consciousness is fundamentally composed of one's own countless memories... It would be strange if experiencing such a long time did not affect self-cognition.

"Experiencing this Pillar of Soul can quickly temper and strengthen the will, but if one is not strong enough, one cannot easily attempt it," Li Yuan realized the pros and cons of the Pillar of Soul: "If one cannot endure it, there is the danger of becoming lost."

He also understood the root of what Jin Yuan said: only by growing fast enough can one quickly pass the test.

"At the very least."

"Before I purge the many distracting consciousnesses, I cannot undergo the Pillar of Soul again," Li Yuan gently closed his eyes.

Whoosh!

This true body of his remained sitting cross-legged, closed its eyes again, and began to meditate.

Not far away.

"As I expected," the towering Jin Yuan shook his head gently.

"How is it?" Xiao Mu asked hurriedly; for the past hundred years, this body of his as the Universe Realm Holy Spirit had also been waiting on the side.

"Failed," Jin Yuan sighed: "To be able to persist for a full hundred years as a God King before failing is terrifying enough, and according to what you, Vice Alliance Leader, said, he has cultivated for less than ten thousand years, which is even more stunning... but he is still far from passing the test of the 136 Pillars of Soul left by the Master."

"That difficult?" Xiao Mu frowned.

He knew the power of Li Yuan's will.

"Naturally difficult; according to the Master's plan, he was supposed to come only after reaching the Emperor realm," Jin Yuan said as a matter of course: "This was originally a test aimed at Emperors."

"However, since he was able to wake up under the first Pillar of Soul, there should be no danger to his life; it just requires an extremely long time, recovering completely time and time again, to gradually pass the tempering and improve his will," Jin Yuan said.

"Does that mean his true body will be trapped here forever?" Xiao Mu frowned.

Although Li Yuan has nine true bodies, every single one is very important.

For contemporary powerhouses, cultivating in the universe's space-time and cultivating within Eternal Relics are vastly different in efficiency.

In Li Yuan and Xiao Mu's plan, they were originally going to have all true bodies return to the Heart Dream Universe Realm to cultivate after obtaining the treasures of the Supreme Hall.

They never expected such a turn of events.

"That depends on the speed at which his true body in the outside world deduces the Eternal Dao," Jin Yuan said: "I reckon he will likely have to step into the Emperor realm to have any hope of escaping."

Xiao Mu's brows furrowed even deeper.

Jin Yuan, as an Emperor-level puppet under the command of the Supreme Hong Ying, had an extremely high perspective; since he said so, he must have his reasons.

Suddenly.

"Hum~" An ethereal and vast aura was released from Li Yuan, making his entire person become ethereal and unfathomable, and his figure even produced a slight sense of unreality.

A brand-new Eternal aura descended.

"This is?" Seeing this scene, Xiao Mu, who was still frowning, instantly lit up: "A breakthrough? Good!"

"Eternal Dao? He opened up another Eternal Dao?" Jin Yuan was even more astonished: "Hasn't he already opened up three Eternal Dao?"

Over the past hundred years.

He and Xiao Mu had communicated much, and he basically understood Li Yuan's situation, knowing that Li Yuan had opened up three top-tier Eternal Dao at the God King realm, which already felt somewhat incredible.

He never expected.

That right before his eyes, he could watch Li Yuan open up a brand-new Eternal Dao.

At this moment.

Not only this true body of Li Yuan, but his other true body hidden in a storage magic treasure, as well as the other seven true bodies in the Heart Dream Universe Realm, were all changing in aura.

"I have been a God King for so long."

"I have contemplated soul evolution for so long." Li Yuan's nine true bodies all had countless flashes of inspiration emerging in their minds, constantly evolving.

Back then, after Xiao Mu became familiar with his situation, he set a goal for him to open up four top-tier Eternal Dao: the World Dao, the Myriad Spirit Dao, the Heart Tool Dao, and the Great Destruction Dao.

At that time, Xiao Mu determined that Li Yuan had the highest talent in the World Dao, followed by the Heart Tool Dao... but thousands of years passed, and even the Myriad Spirit Dao and the Great Destruction Dao were opened up one after another.

Even the World Dao had taken its second step.

Only the Heart Tool Dao had Li Yuan stuck in a bottleneck; especially in the last hundred years, after obtaining a large amount of cultivation resources, he invested a lot of energy into deducing the Heart Tool Dao... and it had been progressing slowly.

Yet it never had a qualitative transformation.

Until today.

The return of that consciousness from the Pillar of Soul, the intersection of the two consciousnesses... the rapid transformation of his will, the long time he experienced, and the crazy deduction of the Heart Tool Dao by the eight true bodies over the past hundred years, all intersecting... finally made him realize the flaws in his past deductions.

"What I lacked was precisely setbacks."

"Before, I opened up three Eternal Dao in one go; since Beichen Star, I have not truly encountered setbacks, advancing triumphantly, and in just a few thousand years, I achieved the name of the universe's number one genius," countless insights in Li Yuan's mind were constantly combining.

"But the soul is the source of life."

"Since it is life, how can there be no reason for it to decay? Where there is Yang, there is Yin; where there is light, there is darkness; where there is hardness, there is softness... the operation of my Void Realm origin should also have the cycle of withering and flourishing," Li Yuan's soul aura was decaying rapidly, and a large amount of soul power was retracting.

Just like gestating a brand-new life.

"Failing in the Pillar of Soul, I was near despair in endless loneliness... that was precisely gestating a brand-new self," Li Yuan's nine true bodies had their soul auras weakened to the extreme at this moment.

In that illusory Heart Void Realm, the once vast 'Heart True Realm' was also collapsing rapidly, until it shrank to a tiny point.

The next instant.

"Boom~" As if a universe big bang, the heart point suddenly erupted, and a brand-new heart world emerged.

"Boom~" The power of this heart world was so great that it completely affected the real world.

Illusion and reality were faintly intersecting.

"Heart Tool Dao," Li Yuan slowly opened his eyes; at this moment, his cognition of everything was changing rapidly.

Apart from the material world.