The physical body is a tangible substance, the Primordial Spirit (Yuanshen) exists between reality and illusion, and the Dharma Form (Faxiàng) is the manifestation of various intangible laws and principles through the power of heaven and earth, inner scenery, and the Primordial Spirit. These three aspects together form a complete ladder from the material world to the metaphysical root.
At this moment, under the influence of Meng Qi’s formidable martial will, they drew closer. The physical body connected with the primordial spirit, and the primordial spirit connected with the dharma form. The “boundaries” between them underwent subtle transformations, entering a strange and paradoxical state—both illusory and real. This marked the first step toward transcending the third heavenly ladder and attaining the Dharma Body (Fashen).
Amidst the gentle applause, Meng Qi sensed a subtle merging of the three aspects, faintly experiencing a sense of oneness. No longer was there the division where the physical body remained merely physical, the primordial spirit solely the primordial spirit, and the dharma appearance purely the dharma appearance. His inner landscape seemed to have found its “sovereign,” evolving toward becoming a world of its own.
His flesh quivered and slowly regenerated. Although this minor advancement did not fully restore Meng Qi, it replenished his nearly depleted strength slightly. He took out medicinal pills for healing and swallowed them.
“Are you alright?” Ye Yuqi flew over. In her hand, the dreamlike long sword forged from ice radiated faint light, crystalline and transparent.
Meng Qi moved his previously stiff left arm slightly and smiled faintly. “I’m fine.”
To others, such an injury would appear irrecoverable. However, having mastered the Eight-Nine Arcane Art to the Grand Perfection realm, his damage resistance and regenerative abilities far surpassed those of half-step Dharma Body cultivators who lacked specialization in these areas. With each breath and as the medicinal effects took hold, his flesh trembled and regenerated, visibly healing at a perceptible pace.
At this time, Zeng Ruoxuan rescued Mingfa and gathered around, sincerely expressing her gratitude.
She had never imagined that under such circumstances, “Mad Saber” Su Meng would still come to their rescue. Even more unexpectedly, Haswula, wielding a divine weapon, would fall at his hands.
A peak expert of the Outer Scenery realm armed with a divine weapon was typically enough to suppress even the most prominent sects and noble clans. Even if the Sun-Piercing Bow wasn’t personally wielded by Haswula, he still had several Grandmaster-level Golden Tent Warriors assisting him. In the past, even someone as formidable as Su Wuming had never managed to defeat such an opponent.
Indeed, the great river surges forward, wave upon wave pushing the former ones aside—a new generation surpassing the old!
“If you obtained a divine weapon, you could establish your own top sect or aristocratic family,” Zeng Ruoxuan remarked, her gaze filled with admiration, envy, and self-reflection.
“Indeed, my inheritances already surpass many top sects and aristocratic families…” Meng Qi replied modestly.
“Haswula had just obtained the divine weapon, and his mindset changed, making him overly reliant on the weapon itself. The Sun-Shooting Bow contradicted his favored techniques. Once the battle turned into close combat, if he couldn’t abandon his dependence, the weapon instead became a burden—this was the path leading to his demise.”
This idea had only been vague before Meng Qi acted, but now analyzing it felt as though he had long prepared for it.
Previously, he clearly understood how Gourdo relied on the overwhelming power of the Heaven-Sundering Axe, how the humorous elder brother wielded the Emperor’s Sword majestically, and how Kongque Yaowang, after obtaining the Demon Sage Spear, became arrogant. Combined with several observations of divine weapons’ might, he couldn’t help developing a subconscious fear toward them, instinctively believing that an outer-scenery peak expert wielding a divine weapon was unbeatable.
But now, after this battle, the burden in his heart had completely vanished. Divine weapons were indeed important, but one’s own cultivation was even more crucial. If one failed to leverage their own strengths and instead relied entirely on an incompatible divine weapon, then weaknesses and opportunities for defeat would inevitably appear.
Martial cultivation should be pursued precisely like this. In the end, oneself becomes the treasure, oneself becomes the divine weapon, oneself becomes heaven and earth. External objects may be relied upon but must not be depended upon!
Thus, his demand for treasures, secret techniques, and merit points dwindled to near insignificance. Were it not for the absence of the Void Seal and his incomplete mastery of the Yin-Yang Seal, he wouldn’t even need to exchange for items like the Void-Sundering Talisman or the Dongji Everlasting Pill… As these thoughts flashed through Meng Qi’s mind, he quietly collected the damaged Zhan Yu Dao, Haswula’s storage pouch, and the belongings of the first Grandmaster he had slain—the Golden Tent Warrior struck by the Sun-Shooting Bow had turned to ashes along with all his possessions.
“This place is no longer safe. Let’s leave first,” Ye Yuqi cautioned, sensing the changes in energy flows and preliminarily determining the location of the secret realm’s exit while searching along the way for other Grandmasters.
Before long, several of them burst out from the illusory cave entrance, emerging onto a lake where the ice layer had completely shattered, the water gently rippling and slowly refreezing.
Ye Yuqi scanned the surroundings and noticed many mighty experts had already exited earlier. Combined with those she had led out, not only had no one been lost, but two additional individuals had joined them.
As soon as Chen Zhao saw Meng Qi, his eyes lit up and he flew over. “I am Chen Zhao from the Far North. May I ask for your honorable name?”
“Su Meng.” A strange fellow, Meng Qi gave him a glance and casually replied.
“Su Meng…” Chen Zhao repeated the name, seemingly determined to memorize it as a future goal.
In the previous battle, the opponent had not fully displayed his strength. The gap between them was considerable!
At this time, Zeng Ruoxuan addressed Masters He Xiu and others: “Haswula has been slain by Young Hero Su. Additionally, two Grandmaster-level Golden Tent Warriors were defeated, with only two escaping.”
“Golden Tent Warriors? Haswula?” Knowing that Su Meng had been seeking those Grandmasters, Chen Zhao slightly furrowed his brow upon hearing the term “slain.” “That bow-wielding man?”
That was an outer-scenery peak expert wielding a divine weapon!
If they hadn’t wanted to entangle further or cause a major disturbance, he would have perished back then!
“Have you met him?” Zeng Ruoxuan asked, puzzled.
Chen Zhao was momentarily stunned. This “Su Meng, Young Hero Su” had slain an outer-scenery peak expert wielding a divine weapon—an outer-scenery peak expert wielding a divine weapon…
Previously, they had all just entered the Grandmaster stage…
For a moment, he felt a flicker of despair. The gap was too vast, an overwhelming sense of discouragement that he could never catch up.
However, he was no ordinary man. He quickly recovered. One lives but once, cultivates martial arts, and must have such goals to constantly motivate oneself!
Meng Qi paid no attention to his emotional shift and instead asked Ye Yuqi and others: “Where did you go inside the secret realm? I climbed a mountain peak where flight was impossible, with only a single path leading to the summit.”
“So did I,” Ye Yuqi’s eyes seemed to conceal countless brilliant stars.
“So did I.”
“So did I.”
“So did I.”
…
Zeng Ruoxuan, He Xiu, and even Chen Zhao and other Grandmasters answered in unison.
“But we didn’t cross paths?” Meng Qi frowned. “From the third to the sixth generation, I encountered lingering echoes and shadows of the Devil Emperor’s Claw, as well as an ancient bronze coffin. I suspect this secret realm is connected to the Devil Emperor’s Claw. What about you?”
This situation was somewhat suspicious, so Meng Qi spoke openly to gain trust.
Ye Yuqi remained silent for a moment before replying, “I saw the illusion of Meng Po. The bronze coffin was empty, containing only pitch-black, profound, and sinister mist.”
“The bronze coffin I saw was also empty, devoid of even mist, but the inner walls and lid were smeared with blood.” Meng Qi temporarily refrained from mentioning the matter of the Overlord or his speculations.
It seemed he and Ye Yuqi had followed the same path, seeing the same bronze coffin, yet their experiences differed.
“On that path, I encountered the Six Annihilation Nether Demon (Liu Mie Yan Mo). The bronze coffin opened by itself, and a pale, bloodless hand stretched out!” Zeng Ruoxuan hesitated, then blurted out.
“I saw the Evil Deity Huang Quan. Inside the bronze coffin was an overwhelming hatred that despised both heaven and earth,” He Xiu and the others responded one by one, each witnessing something different.
Chen Zhao and Liu Zejun grew increasingly perplexed as they listened, until the former couldn’t help but ask, “Isn’t the Ice Soul Path supposed to reflect one’s own mental shadows?”
What they encountered was something like ghostly things!
“One’s own mental shadows?” Meng Qi pondered slightly before replying, “No. If it were one’s own mental shadows, they should be things one already knows, nothing beyond that scope.”
He was indeed aware of the information regarding Emperor Hate Heaven, Xie Huang, Supreme Tian Mo, and Wu Liang Xie Zhu, but he had never personally witnessed their influence, nor did he know their final words before death. There was no way he could have known about the Ba Wang Zhan strike that hit the “mysterious corpse” inside the bronze coffin!
Could it be that out of fear of the Angler, he had unconsciously fabricated a tale about the successive inheritors of the Demon Emperor’s Claw and the Overlord—entirely fictional, or merely coincidentally similar?
Yet this tale was too meticulously woven, too lifelike. He hadn’t even given much thought to the Demon Emperor’s Claw and its inheritors before!
Ye Yuqi remained silent, seemingly feeling that the vision of Meng Po indeed reflected her own mental shadow.
“I was injured by Han Guang’s Six Annihilation Demon Palm, nearly dying, and it indeed left an unresolved psychological shadow,” Zeng Ruoxuan sighed, feeling Chen Zhao’s explanation fit the situation.
She and Han Guang were contemporaries.
He Xiu shook his head: “Not mental shadows. My maternal clan carries an extremely diluted Huang Quan (Yellow Spring) bloodline.”
The era when the ancient evil gods and demons descended upon the earth was tens of thousands of years ago. Over generations of dilution, some bloodlines had weakened to the point of having no effect whatsoever. He Xiu’s maternal clan was such a case—indistinguishable from ordinary people, perhaps possessing minor supernatural traits like dual-sighted eyes, but without any influence on the mind, and thus not considered part of the evil god lineage.
As a righteous sect Grandmaster and member of a top-tier force, he naturally bore no mental shadows from this.
“I believe what I encountered was evil beings connected to myself,” He Xiu judged.
Because of the matters involving the Overlord and Senior Brother Qi (Shi Xiong Qi), did I witness successive inheritors of the Demon Emperor’s Claw and a blood-stained bronze coffin? Meng Qi nodded slightly, finding this explanation more plausible.
Because the Ice Immortal Palace was related to this secret realm, what we encountered was the Mirror-Heart Path? Chen Zhao and Liu Zejun exchanged glances.
Recalling what he had learned from the Dao Yi Seal, Meng Qi suddenly had an idea: this secret realm was likely left behind by a legendary great being!
Because of Su Wuming, he had specifically learned about the characteristics of legendary beings from Master Lu. The omnipresence wasn’t Su Wuming spreading his body everywhere, but rather his essence reaching a certain mysterious state. In his eyes, every point and every place in heaven and earth merged together, eliminating distance and allowing him to reach anywhere instantly.
Therefore, this was a place integrating everything we had seen, where the objects appearing before each of us varied according to our individual cultivation levels and the connections we triggered. We were in different spaces and times, thus walking the same path without meeting, unable to touch the bronze coffin.
In other words, was that a place where multiple layers of space-time overlapped?
“It seems we haven’t truly entered the core yet,” Meng Qi mused thoughtfully. Similar to the Jade Void Palace, which could only be truly entered under specific conditions, this was likely a secret realm left by a true legendary being.
This was different from the Demon Grave (Mo Fen), which was merely formed from residual consciousness and pollution. Even the shattered Nine Heavens could not be truly entered without the correct entrance!
“Regarding the Demon Emperor’s Claw and the pale hand emerging from the ancient coffin, we should invite several Dharmakaya experts to investigate,” He Xiu suggested.
If the great being who left this secret realm hadn’t intended a true entrance for others, in the current world, only Su Wuming might forcefully break in. However, his recent ascension had been hasty, and he was currently in seclusion to consolidate his power, unlikely to emerge for several years… Meng Qi judged.
Later, because the reincarnation task was imminent, and individual tasks might not necessarily enter the reincarnation plaza first for redemption, Meng Qi half to heal and half to prepare, bid farewell to Ye Yuqi and others, heading toward the Immortal Trace entrance.
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