Chapter 231: The Afternoon of Thirty Years Ago

Hao Yi often thought back to that afternoon more than thirty years ago.

He had accepted an invitation from a close friend to go drinking at a restaurant.

At that time, that friend was not yet called Master Yunshen, had not yet become a monk, and could still drink and eat meat with him.

While passing by a courtyard, he heard cries for help coming from inside.

It was the voice of a little girl.

Without too much hesitation, he pushed open the gate, walked into that courtyard, and discovered the children who had been abducted and trafficked inside.

That was the handiwork of the Shen family, one of the five great clans of Datong Fucheng at the time.

And so, the river of fate changed its course at that very moment.

From then on, Datong Fucheng gained a powerhouse who dared to expose all kinds of evil deeds and feared no struggle against any powerful and influential figures!

Many years later, Shangguan Xiao asked Hao Yi a question:

If he hadn't walked into that courtyard that afternoon, would the subsequent trajectory have been completely different?

Hao Yi smiled; this was actually a question that didn't need answering.

Because the evil of this world was right there, and he would have encountered it sooner or later.

He couldn't avoid it.

The fire in his heart, sooner or later, would always be ignited!

His master told him: You are the entire future of a sect.

And so, for the first dozen or so years of his life, he had been fighting for these words of his master.

That rescue on that afternoon allowed him to see a different side of this world.

In the dark, it seemed as if a voice was telling him: You should do something.

And so, for the latter decades of his life, he traveled everywhere for those victimized commoners, fighting again and again against those 'beasts' in the darkness.

He had been fighting for others his entire life!

Fortunately, he was also always able to achieve victory.

He had fulfilled his master's dying wish.

But this world, he could not change.

After more than thirty years of hard struggle, he wanted to fight from the beginning once more.

But the moment the news about Shangguan Xiao was sent back, he suddenly felt that some things no longer seemed so important.

At this very moment, above the Glory Plaza, Hao Yi once again thought of that afternoon many years ago.

He thought of the wind that day, the clouds that day, and the sunlight that day.

The battles that needed to be fought, he had already fought; the Dao he believed in, he had also already guarded.

For the road ahead, he would walk for himself!

"You suffered intense interference when breaking through your realm, leading to a failed breakthrough, damage to your Dao foundation, and severe trauma to all the implants in your body. It was Master Shi Caiming who stepped forward to protect you, and then asked Master Zhihai of Baoyun Temple to use the Five-Phase Reversal Method to urge the implants in your body to grow in reverse, preventing them from continuing to collapse, which is the only reason your life was saved."

"Brother Yi, we lost."

This was what the only friend who survived said to Hao Yi after he woke up from his coma following his severe injuries back then.

"Master Shi Caiming reached an agreement with those people: you must leave Datong Fucheng alive, and from then on, you cannot step foot into the Fucheng again. If you break the agreement, whether you live or die, Master Shi Caiming can no longer intervene. Senior Brother, no matter where you go next, to the ends of the earth, I will accompany you!"

This was what Shangguan Xiao said to Hao Yi afterwards.

"Master, since the Five-Phase Reversal Method can urge implants to grow in reverse, can it allow implants that have suffered severe trauma to regain their vitality?"

This was the question Hao Yi asked Master Zhihai of Baoyun Temple.

His situation was different from that old ancestor of the Chen family.

That old ancestor of the Chen family had only incorporated one type of implant, and there was still a possibility of taking out this type of implant without losing his life, and then starting his cultivation from scratch.

But Hao Yi had already incorporated five types of implants, and he was only half a step away from building his Dao foundation; the implants had already fused deeply with his body, and taking out any one of the implants would cost him his life!

Therefore, Hao Yi asked Master Zhihai if it was possible to let the severely damaged implants in his body recover.

This was the only path that could possibly allow him to recover.

"Amitabha, this cultivation technique was originally used to correct mistakes. In the process of martial arts cultivation, if there are slight deviations in the growth of the implants, this technique can be used to correct them. But the degree to which it can correct is very limited. Benefactor, the injuries you suffered are too heavy. To let the injuries heal completely, all implants must be reversed to their initial state, and even the person who created this technique cannot do that.

Moreover, even if you could truly create a miracle and start over, you should be very clear that everyone only has one chance in their life to build the foundation of martial arts, and the damage to the root power of the implants cannot be repaired even by the Five-Phase Reversal Method."

Master Zhihai said to Hao Yi.

"Master, could you teach this technique to me? This junior wants to try."

"Alas, you foolish child..."

Later, Hao Yi still learned this unique skill of Baoyun Temple—the Five-Phase Reversal Method.

Afterwards, he told this decision to that only friend of his who survived:

"... The Dao foundation I built is the 【Core of Steel】. After mastering it, I will possess the 'Refining Objects' supernatural ability, which can refine all things. I briefly possessed this supernatural ability when I was breaking through my realm, but it hadn't stabilized at the time. Later, when the incident happened, I thought that since I was going to fall in realm anyway, I took advantage of the fact that I hadn't completely fallen yet and refined an object with the Refining Objects supernatural ability..."

"Perhaps one day I will still be able to use this object, or perhaps I will never be able to use it in this lifetime. You keep it for me."

"Okay."

His friend promised him.

Later, in order to stay in Datong Fucheng more low-key, and also to better help Hao Yi keep this object, his friend chose to escape into the void and become a monk.

And so, many years later, Baoyun Temple gained a Master Yunshen.

At this time, above the Glory Plaza.

Hao Yi reached out and summoned, and that object which had been buried for more than thirty years broke through the soil from that peach blossom forest of Baoyun Temple.

A brilliant stream of light turned into a long rainbow in the sky, and after crossing half the city, it entered the Glory Plaza and fell into Hao Yi's hand.

This was a saber!

'Heaven and earth as a furnace, creation as the craftsman. Melting steel into liquid, refining steel into a core,' this is the description of the Dao foundation 【Core of Steel】.

The Refining Objects supernatural ability can refine all things; it is truly all things in the literal sense.

As long as one can pay an equivalent price.

More than thirty years ago, at the moment before he fell in realm, Hao Yi consumed forty years of his lifespan to refine the power he had when breaking through his realm into his own personal saber!

This power could be preserved in the personal saber for forty years.

Everyone only has one chance in their life to build the foundation of martial arts; once missed, there will never be another.

But Hao Yi used the Refining Objects supernatural ability to preserve this chance for himself for another forty years!

Forty years, this was the deadline Hao Yi set for himself.

The average lifespan of ordinary humans in this world is about 70 years; every time a martial artist incorporates an implant and cultivates it to the Qi Transformation stage, they can increase their lifespan by about 10 years.

Hao Yi broke through to the Dao Foundation stage at twenty, was already at the peak of the Dao Foundation stage at twenty-two, and was only twenty-five when he built his martial arts foundation and broke through to the realm of a Martial Arts Master.

So theoretically, he could still live for about 95 years.

Because of his severe injuries, after deducting more than ten years of lifespan, he could still live for at least 80 years.

So he chose to split this lifespan in half, consuming 40 years of lifespan with the Refining Objects supernatural ability to leave a turning point for his future breakthrough.

And then use the remaining 40 years of lifespan to create a miracle!

Hao Yi did not tell Shangguan Xiao about this matter; he couldn't tell her that he might only be able to live for 40 years, and that he still intended to use these 40 years to make one last gamble.

When making this decision, he didn't leave any time for himself and Shangguan Xiao...

Now, thirty-seven years have passed.

Hao Yi has returned to the place he arrived at back then.

With powerful willpower and transcendent talent, after countless attempts, he successfully used the Five-Phase Reversal Method to restore all the implants in his body to their initial state.

And then, starting from the Embryo Nourishing stage, he returned to the peak of the Dao Foundation step by step!

No one can imagine the hardships involved.

The mountain pass is like iron, but now we step over it from the beginning.

A person who might only have forty years of lifespan left spent thirty-seven years starting over; what kind of powerful willpower does this require?

After arriving in Datong Fucheng, Hao Yi had been preparing for the final breakthrough.

He actually didn't have absolute certainty either.

Let alone ten percent, he actually didn't even have one percent certainty!

Because no one in history had ever done such a thing.

If it weren't for the fact that Zhang Zongyang's case was suddenly closed and Shangguan Xiao was to be executed by slow slicing today, Hao Yi would actually still need to prepare for a while longer.

But today, he had to act in advance.

In the air, that saber fell into Hao Yi's hand, and the power refined into the saber more than thirty years ago also returned to his hand.

This time, because the power and insights after breaking through the realm had already been prepared in advance, success or failure depended only on a single moment, and depended only on Hao Yi himself.

He no longer needed to worry about external interference.

If he succeeded, he could immediately take action to save people.

If he failed, he could at least die together with Shangguan Xiao.

This was the reason he chose to break through his realm at the Glory Plaza.

After appearing, he had been working hard to adjust his state.

Li Fei's appearance bought him more time and also gave him a chance to fully 'warm up'.

Otherwise, if Wen Ke and the others had attacked Hao Yi earlier, Hao Yi definitely wouldn't have been able to hold on and would have only been able to choose to break through his realm immediately.

Actually, Hao Yi could also have waited a bit longer, waited for Xu Jing to take action to kill Li Fei, and then Xu Jing would have continued to let the people below attack Hao Yi.

In this way, Hao Yi could have bought himself even more preparation time.

But even if he chose to go against the 'Dao' he once held, some things would never change.

Seeing that Xu Jing intended to turn around to kill Li Fei, Hao Yi decisively chose to break through his realm.

Even if he still didn't know the true identity of this 'Blood-Faced Ghost'.

Xu Jing was the first person in the entire venue to perceive the power contained in that saber; that was the power of a supernatural ability!

But he didn't have time to take action to stop that saber.

Besides the fact that the saber came fast enough, it was also because the saber was high enough, exceeding the influence distance of his supernatural ability.

This was the reason Hao Yi chose to ascend into the air.

Just as Li Fei speculated, he was a pragmatic person and wouldn't deliberately do anything just to show off his skills.

Above the Glory Plaza, the 'sun' that Hao Yi had turned into suddenly retracted all its light.

Xu Jing looked up into the air.

Li Fei also stopped temporarily and looked up into the air.

Everyone present looked up into the air...

The next second, the 'sun' burst forth with light once again.

This time, the light was ten times, a hundred times more intense than before!

This time, it was true sunlight flooding the city!

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PS: There is some content I didn't explain too much in the main text, such as why Hao Yi suddenly chose to go against the 'Dao' he had held onto for so many years.

Before this, he had even had serious disagreements with the protagonist, emphasizing the importance of the law.

After finishing this chapter, I think everyone might better understand his 'giving up'.

After all, for a person who might only have three years of lifespan left, he had actually already 'guarded all the Dao that should be guarded'.

(End of chapter)