Chapter 969: Desperate Bitter Cultivation
Relying on the Yuluo Ice Soul Pill, his profound strength had greatly increased in a short period of time. However, the profound aura within his body was constantly in a somewhat restless turbulence—an inevitable side effect.
Yun Che summoned the Heaven-Defying Sword, gripping the hilt tightly with both hands, but the blade suddenly drooped and slammed heavily onto the ground.
Although his profound strength had increased, under normal conditions, he still found it difficult to wield the Heaven-Defying Demon-Slaying Sword, which weighed a full ten million jin.
Yun Che's gaze sharpened. "Purgatory" activated, his profound aura exploded, and the Heaven-Defying Sword struck out fiercely. Under the terrifying sword might, the airflow in a vast expanse of space ahead was instantly evacuated. Yun Che let out a great roar as Golden Crow Divine Flame blazed across his entire body. He swung the Heaven-Defying Sword with all his strength, and wherever the blade pointed, cascades of disastrous seas of flame erupted.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The temperature in the training room soared sharply. The icy mist dissipated, and the ice spirits rapidly annihilated in panic. With the final roar of flames, Yun Che dropped to his knees, and the Heaven-Defying Sword crashed heavily onto the ground, nearly flying out of his grasp.
Sixty-seven strikes!
His profound strength had increased by three minor realms, allowing him, under the "Purgatory" state and the empowerment of Golden Crow Flame, to swing the Heaven-Defying Sword with full force sixty-seven times. This was already tremendous progress. If he were to face Ji Hanfeng at this moment, even without activating Heaven-Shattering, he would have ample confidence to defeat him.
But such progress was still far, far too small compared to the goal that was so distant it could not be seen with the eyes.
"If... I could freely wield the Heaven-Defying Sword under normal conditions..." Yun Che panted heavily, muttering to himself in a low voice.
Normal conditions...
He lifted his head and suddenly recalled the spatial storm beneath the Primordial Mystic Ark back then... and within that spatial storm, the near-qualitative leap in the strength of his body and profound power.
He later learned that the initial spatial storm came from the space travel of the Primordial Mystic Ark, while the increasingly violent spatial storm that followed was a deliberate interference from Mo Li... all to tear apart his limits time and time again.
Each "rebirth" after tearing apart his limits was a breakthrough.
Tear apart... the limits...
Deep in Yun Che's pupils, a strange glint suddenly flashed.
He straightened up and took a square strange stone shimmering with starlight from the Heavenly Poison Pearl—the Zhaixing Stone from Mu Sushan.
Yun Che lightly leaped and landed on top of the Zhaixing Stone, then slowly sat down. Instantly, a cool stream of air surged up from the stone, gently enveloping his entire body, clearing his mind and subtly alleviating some of the fatigue throughout his body.
This stream of air would be unfamiliar and mysterious to others, but Yun Che found it extremely familiar... because it was clearly natural world energy!
Its function was actually to gather the energy of heaven and earth!
Previously, some scattered accounts about the Zhaixing Stone had led Yun Che to believe its function was to accelerate the circulation of profound aura, but he never expected it to gather natural energy... truly worthy of a strange stone formed by bathing in the starlight of celestial bodies!
This discovery filled Yun Che with delight. He immediately concentrated his mind and began to circulate the Great Dao Pagoda Art.
The natural energy in the God Realm was already several times purer and denser than in the lower realms. Coupled with the miraculous gathering ability of the Zhaixing Stone, the natural energy surged into Yun Che's body like a torrent, rapidly restoring his depleted profound strength.
After two quarters of an hour, Yun Che opened his eyes.
In just two short quarters of an hour, his depleted profound strength had fully recovered!
Such speed was nothing short of earth-shattering, enough to leave even a powerhouse like Mu Sushan dumbfounded.
Leaping off the Zhaixing Stone, Yun Che grabbed the Heaven-Defying Sword once more, and a fierce, resolute look suddenly appeared in his eyes.
"Heaven-Shattering!!"
Bang!!
The sound of profound aura exploding was as violent as a collapsing mountain range. The rampaging force threw the entire training room into chaos as Yun Che transformed into a furious beast. The Heaven-Defying Sword lashed out wildly, conjuring a nightmare-like storm of catastrophe.
With a deafening roar, the floor of the training room exploded, sending debris flying. With the second strike, the ground itself was upheaved. With the third strike, the scattered debris was all pulverized into fine dust.
Although only three strikes had been made, Yun Che's arms were already cracking, oozing streaks of blood. Yet he showed no intention of stopping. His gaze remained as fierce as a bloodthirsty wolf. With the fourth strike, the Heaven-Defying Sword became wreathed in crimson flames, and the moment it struck, a dozen miles ahead instantly turned into a sea of deadly fire.
Boom! Boom!! Boom—
Each strike was the pinnacle of his strength. Each strike felt as if he were facing a mortal enemy.
After a full seven strikes, Yun Che finally let out a muffled groan. The rampaging profound aura completely drained away, and the Heaven-Defying Sword flew from his hands. He fell heavily to his knees, his entire body trembling violently. Hundreds of streams of blood gushed from various parts of his body, quickly staining him all over.
The "Heaven-Shattering" state was absolutely beyond his current ability to control. The burden of unleashing seven full-powered strikes under "Heaven-Shattering" was unimaginable. Now, there was not a single place on Yun Che's body that was not racked with excruciating pain. Every bone felt as if it had shattered, every muscle twitched violently, and nearly three-tenths of his meridians had ruptured.
"Cough... cough cough..." Yun Che braced himself on the ground and spat out several mouthfuls of blood clots.
Such injuries, if suffered by anyone else, would have made them half-dead.
For the profound veins, it was an irreversible heavy blow.
Yun Che lay there limp, resting for a good while before he began to move his body with difficulty, inching closer to the Zhaixing Stone. As he crawled, a trail of blood grew longer and longer behind him.
Though his body convulsed in extreme agony, his eyes revealed a nearly twisted excitement. His hand touched the Zhaixing Stone, and then he had no strength left to move even a fraction. Even his breathing became especially weak.
This is it...
This feeling... of tearing apart the limits... of being on the verge of death!
Yun Che actually laughed. After lying there for a while, he suddenly gritted his teeth and let out a hoarse roar. With one swift motion, he flipped onto the Zhaixing Stone and sat up with difficulty in a twisted posture, then began circulating the Great Dao Pagoda Art. Under the miraculous power of the Zhaixing Stone, natural energy rapidly gathered, flooding into Yun Che's body to restore his physique and profound veins.
This time was completely different from before. Earlier, it had merely been exhaustion of profound strength. But this time, it was extremely severe trauma to the body, along with an extreme overdraft of profound strength.
Back then, when he first forcibly activated Heaven-Shattering while facing Shiyue Mojun in the Slay Moon Demon Cave, the consequence was that it took him a full seven days to fully recover.
Moreover, across the entire world, only he could fully recover from such a state without any lasting aftereffects. For anyone else, even surviving would be a miracle, let alone complete recovery. Even if they managed to stay alive, they would end up crippled in both body and profound veins.
And this time...
An hour later, Yun Che's complexion had lost its pallor and was turning ruddy.
After two hours, his breath had become remarkably steady.
After four hours... Yun Che slowly opened his eyes, and two sharp glints without any trace of weakness flashed past.
In just four short hours, his injuries and profound strength had completely recovered!
"Good!"
Yun Che leaped down from the Zhaixing Stone, and as he landed, the Heaven-Defying Sword was already back in his grip, while at the same time, a violent surge of air exploded from his body again.
No sooner had he recovered from the nightmare consequences of "Heaven-Shattering" than he forcibly activated "Heaven-Shattering" once more.
In an instant, his power became immensely vast. The ten-million-jin Heaven-Defying Sword felt unusually light in his hand, but at the same time, every cell in his body trembled under the immense pressure, as if it could burst at any moment.
Yun Che's gaze was fierce. The Heaven-Defying Sword, imbued with all his will and the very limits of his power, blasted forward... Every time he activated "Heaven-Shattering," it was almost like placing himself in a dead-end situation. Every full-force strike brought him one step closer to the abyss of death.
He was gambling with his life. Forcibly taking the Yuluo Ice Soul Pill was gambling, and now he was still gambling. He risked everything like this only to have a chance to see Mo Li again.
Because it was Mo Li, it was worth everything to him. Even if it was just an opportunity to meet her.
Clang!!!
The Heaven-Defying Sword flew far away. Yun Che collapsed to the ground once more, his body cowering in tremors. Soon, a large pool of blood spread beneath him.
This time, it was again seven strikes, and the last strike was the most consuming of all—"Annihilation of Heaven and Earth," empowered by flames. It caused almost all the blood vessels and meridians in his arms to burst, especially in his right arm, where blood sprayed out like a fountain.
His vision grew hazy. Even with the excruciating pain throughout his body, he could not stop his consciousness from rapidly dimming. He bit the tip of his tongue fiercely, desperately preventing himself from slipping into unconsciousness, and then dragged his almost alien body toward the Zhaixing Stone.
"Hah... I can... hold on... I definitely... can..."
With barely a last breath, Yun Che climbed onto the Zhaixing Stone and entered his recovery state once more.
If such a thing happened to any other profound practitioner, even once, their body and profound veins would be at least half crippled, if not completely destroyed.
The Dragon God's body, the recovery ability from the Desolate God's power, and the profound veins from the Evil God... in this world, only Yun Che could recklessly gamble his life in this manner.
After four hours, Yun Che recovered again. The moment he left the Zhaixing Stone, "Heaven-Shattering" was activated once more...
Under the "Heaven-Shattering" state, in just an extremely short time, his profound strength would be utterly depleted, and his entire body would be critically injured to the point of near death. If he made the slightest misstep, or if Yun Che's will collapsed before he could recover, he would very likely die on the spot.
Back then in the Primordial Mystic Ark, he had more physical pressure, while the pressure on his profound strength was relatively much smaller.
But this time, it was a double dead-end for both body and profound veins.
The training room was left in a devastated mess. Under the residual destructive power of the Heaven-Defying Sword, even the speed of self-repair slowed. Yun Che continued like this: forcibly activating Heaven-Shattering, madly releasing power until near death, then relying on the Zhaixing Stone and the Desolate God's power to recover, then activating Heaven-Shattering again, then recovering again...
Again and again, day after day, month after month, cycling endlessly.
The immense pain, the sense of despair that accompanied it, and the terrible consequences of a single mistake leading to a miserable death—he seemed to turn a blind eye to all of it, like a madman who had suddenly fallen into demonic obsession, frantically training in this inhumanely cruel manner...
He did not know what the consequences of such training would be. But to achieve that goal, which was far too distant, he had to ruthlessly tear apart his own limits. That was something Mo Li had taught him, and it was also the only method he could think of now.
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(End of this chapter)