20: Fighting for your true self on the bloody stage

"You have come at the right time." Her cold voice echoed in the hall as her jade finger tapped the Void Realm lightly. Seven ancient bronze lamps, with primitive designs that seemed to have burned for eternal ages, lit up one by one. The dim flames illuminated the secret patterns flowing within the hall. "I was just about to look for you."

The space rippled like water, and the scene before their eyes changed instantly! The two were already situated within a boundless Void Realm Secret Realm! Beneath their feet were thousands of ancient secret patterns, flowing on their own and exuding the aura of the Dao, while above their heads was a rotating galaxy. Mu Qingge's silver hair moved without wind, her robes fluttering, as if she stood above the long river of time and space.

"Your growth is shockingly fast." Her gaze, deep as an abyss, pierced through the Void Realm and landed on the pale gold divine patterns flowing incessantly on Lin Yuan's body, which contained the power of immortal stars. "However, within the Ancient Battlefield, countless peak Prodigies gather! Those as talented and brilliant as you... are not few!"

She waved her jade hand lightly, and three heart-stopping images slowly unfolded beneath the vast starry sky:

The first: A withered youth with an ancient aura, carrying a huge bronze coffin, sat cross-legged in the Void Realm, refining a shrunken real world where mountains and rivers were manifested! The power of the world was forcibly extracted by him and merged into his own body!

The second: A girl with waterfall-like purple hair and an enchanting appearance, her body wrapped in nine scarlet chains flowing with thick blood of gods and demons! The other ends of the chains delved deep into the Void Realm, as if connecting to nine purgatories! Every time she breathed, it caused the Void Realm to wail!

The third: A pure, absolute shadow that devoured all light! Within it was only a silhouette so blurred that it was extreme; merely letting one's gaze touch it caused one's Divine Soul to ache, as if it would be completely devoured by that shadow in the next moment!

"In the Xuanxiao Great World, at the Spirit Martial Hall headquarters." Mu Qingge's voice carried unprecedented gravity. "The three strongest Ultimate Realm Experts! Half a month ago, their base combat power had already exceeded 200 stars! Their comprehensive combat power... is all above a thousand stars!"

Lin Yuan's gaze suddenly became as sharp as a sword! Although his current comprehensive combat power had soared to 844 stars, the Xuanxiao Great World was only ranked at the six-star level within the vast sea of stars! Above it were seven-star, eight-star, nine-star, and even the legendary ten-star Supreme Great Worlds!

Not to mention the Central Continent, where the strongest Prodigies of all worlds gathered! The Awakening realm Prodigies there... their combat power must be terrifying to an unimaginable degree!

"Hall Master... is there a way to break this deadlock?" Lin Yuan's voice was deep and steady.

Mu Qingge was silent for a moment. With a flip of her hand, a Jade Slip appeared, solid red as if cast from congealed blood and undying Battle Intent! The moment the Jade Slip appeared, the entire Void Realm Secret Realm was filled with a heart-stopping, tragic Evil Qi!

"The last place—the Bloody Battle Platform!" Her voice was ice-cold. "This is... the final trial ground... open only to Awakening realm Ultimate Realm Experts! Ten deaths... no life!"

【Bloody Battle Platform】 Death rate: 99%! Reward: Depending on performance, obtain the Origin 'combat power Empowerment'! Iron Rule: All external objects are prohibited! Rely only on yourself!

"If you go now, you may be able to return within five days." Mu Qingge flicked her finger, and that blood-colored Jade Slip, which seemed to throb with life, shot toward Lin Yuan. "But if you fail... your Divine Soul will be destroyed, and you will fall into the Void Realm forever!"

"I... will not fail." Lin Yuan raised his hand and steadily caught the scalding Jade Slip that seemed to be burning his palm. The Golden star divine patterns flowing on his skin erupted with an even more brilliant, more unyielding light beneath the bleak moonlight!

"Crack!" The Jade Slip exploded in Lin Yuan's palm! Nine chains formed from scarlet god-demon runes instantly wrapped around his entire body! An unprecedented sense of spatial annihilation, as if it were about to tear his Soul into pieces, suddenly descended!

When his vision refocused, Lin Yuan's pupils contracted to pinpoints! Beneath his feet was a small jade path, only wide enough for one foot, floating in the endless Chaos Void Realm—the Dao Questioning Bridge! On both sides of the bridge were churning, boiling, light-devouring Chaos abysses!

Countless hideous ghost faces, formed from resentment, Evil Qi, and broken Laws, floated and shrieked in the Chaos airflow, waiting to devour people! Merely letting one's gaze touch them caused the Divine Soul to feel waves of stinging pain!

"Bloody Battle Platform First Trial: Dao Questioning Bridge." An ancient voice, as if it had traversed eternal time and space, carrying endless vicissitudes and iron-blooded will, exploded directly in the depths of his Soul! Every syllable caused the Void Realm to ripple and the Laws to wail!

Lin Yuan's expression changed instantly! He was horrified to discover that the vast, sea-like power within his body... had disappeared! His Qi Sea was as if frozen by ten-thousand-year black ice! His Sea of Consciousness was completely locked by an invisible, great power!

The star gold patterns of his 30% evolved Golden Body were still branded on the surface of his skin, yet they were like dead objects, having lost all their divine wonders! His Storage Ring, equipment, treasures... he lost all sense of any external objects! At this moment, he was as weak as a Mortal who had never come into contact with cultivation!

"There are three rules." In the Void Realm, three lines of hideous inscriptions written in burning divine blood appeared: "One: A Mortal body questions the Dao, all Laws are forbidden!" "Two: Keep your heart toward the other shore; to look back is to perish!" "Three: Those who fall will have their Divine Soul extinguished forever!"

Lin Yuan took a deep breath, suppressing the stormy waves in his heart, and tentatively took the first step. "Boom!!!" The entire jade bridge, like a primordial Vicious Beast awakened, violently twisted and shook! Beneath the abyss, the churning corrosive Qi, like hundreds of millions of demonic claws smelling fresh blood, frantically climbed onto the bridge surface! Wherever the airflow passed, even the solid space was silently corroded and annihilated, leaving behind pitch-black cracks like spider webs!

"Is this... the fragility of a Mortal body?!" Cold sweat instantly soaked his inner garments. After losing all Transcendent power, Lin Yuan realized with a start that he had long forgotten how to maintain balance amidst turmoil using only his flesh and blood body! As he took the second step, the muscles in his right leg spasmed from the sudden exertion, and he violently stumbled forward!

The corrosive Qi had already reached his ankles! "Ssss!!!" It was like a red-hot branding iron being pressed hard onto flesh! Unimaginable, excruciating pain instantly swept through his Soul! Lin Yuan watched with his own eyes as his leather boots melted like ice under the scorching sun. The parts of his flesh that touched the corrosive Qi emitted acrid smoke and, at a speed visible to the naked eye, became charred and carbonized! In a trance, it was as if he had returned to that humble starting point where he had only 3 points of combat power, struggling to survive in mud and sweat!

"Urghhh—!" The excruciating pain caused Lin Yuan to slam one knee heavily onto the twisted bridge surface, making a dull thud. "No!!!" In the deepest part of his Sea of Consciousness, the silent Primordial Purple Qi, as if ignited by this extreme pain and unyielding will, suddenly flared with a faint yet incredibly tenacious purple light!

"Pfft!" Lin Yuan bit his tongue tip hard, and the strong taste of blood exploded in his mouth! The excruciating pain stimulated his nerves, which were on the verge of collapse! A beast-like, ferocious light erupted in his eyes; he actually abandoned the posture of standing and, in the most primitive, most tragic way—began to crawl forward!

His fingernails broke and peeled off against the hard jade bridge surface! He then used his exposed finger bones to hook tightly into the cracks of the jade! The flesh on his knees was worn through, revealing the stark white patella! He then used his elbows and shoulder blades as support, moving forward inch by inch! The corrosive Qi, like maggots attached to bones, frantically eroded his flesh; wherever it passed, charred blackness spread, and white bones were exposed!

By the time he crawled past the fiftieth step, his arms and legs were almost nothing but stark white bones hanging with charred, residual flesh! Every movement was accompanied by the grating sound of bones rubbing against jade and pain that went deep into the marrow! His consciousness was like a candle in the wind, ready to be extinguished completely at any moment.

Just at the moment when this eternal darkness was about to devour everything, at the end of the bridge, a faint point of golden radiance, containing endless vitality, suddenly lit up! Vaguely visible, a huge bronze gate engraved with ancient battle patterns was slowly opening!

"My... Dao..." A roar like a broken bellows came from Lin Yuan's throat. The sound no longer resembled a human voice, but it contained a resolute will that transcended life and death: "Is to... trample through every desperate situation! To surpass... every limit!!!"

He exhausted the last ounce of strength in this broken body, like a moth flying into a flame, and leaped toward that point of golden light! The moment his body fell toward the endless abyss... a warm golden light, as if originating from the source of life, completely enveloped him...

The heart-rending, lung-splitting pain caused Lin Yuan to wake up instantly! He found himself standing in the center of a huge, boundless ancient bronze hall! Beneath his feet was the cold, hard bronze floor, and on the bronze walls that towered into the clouds all around him were carved countless ancient battle patterns that autonomously writhed and twisted like living things!

They seemed to be silently performing billions of brutal battles!

Even more eerie, the limbs that had been completely corroded by the Chaos Qi on the Questioning Bridge earlier had now miraculously restored to their original state!

However, that terrifying rule that imprisoned all cultivation... still remained!

"The second stage of the Blood Battle Platform: Battle the True Self."

That ancient and vicissitudinous voice sounded once more, carrying a trace of cold mockery.

"Hum—!"

Opposite him, the originally mirror-smooth bronze floor suddenly began to flow like mercury!

A bronze statue of the same height as Lin Yuan slowly "grew" out from the ground!

When the statue's face became completely clear, Lin Yuan's heart felt as if it had been fiercely gripped by an invisible giant hand!

The statue's face, physique, and even every minute detail of the golden star divine patterns flowing on its body... were exactly the same as Lin Yuan's at this moment!

"Defeat me," the bronze "Lin Yuan" slowly raised its arm, its movements fluid and natural, its voice identical to the original, "or... let me become you."

A cold arc curled at the corner of its mouth, "Friendly reminder, I... possess all your combat memories, muscle instincts... and... an absolute desire for victory!"

Before the words faded!

"Swish—!"

The mirror image's figure vanished on the spot like a ghost!

The real Lin Yuan, relying on the combat intuition honed through countless life-and-death battles, dodged to the side at the limit!

"Chirp!"

A purple-gold sword light, condensed to the extreme, grazed his throat!

The sharp Sword Qi left a terrifying, three-foot-deep trench with melted edges on the indestructible bronze wall behind him!

"Purple Heaven Startling Thunder Sword?!" Lin Yuan was both shocked and furious!

This mirror image could perfectly replicate even his Transcendent-level unique sword technique!

"Roar!" Lin Yuan let out a low growl, instantly pushing the Nine Revolutions Battle Soul Art to its limit!

The 80% increase in combat power caused the surrounding air to distort and explode!

No longer holding back, he transformed into a streak of purple-gold lightning and collided fiercely with the mirror image!

"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!!"

The two figures turned into afterimages of flowing light in the empty ancient hall, indistinguishable to the naked eye!

Every collision was like meteors smashing into each other, erupting with deafening sounds of metal clashing.

The bursting Sword Qi, like violent lightning snakes, ravaged the surrounding bronze walls, leaving countless crisscrossing, bottomless, and scorching sword marks!

The entire ancient bronze hall shook violently, as if it would collapse at any moment!

At the moment of the three-hundredth fierce clash, a flash of insight streaked through the depths of Lin Yuan's pupils like lightning!

He captured a pattern—although this mirror image could perfectly replicate all his Moves and instincts, before every fatal attack, there was an extremely brief, almost imperceptible hesitation in thought deep within those cold eyes!

It was as if it were... reading the original's combat intent!

"So that's it..." A cold arc curled at the corner of Lin Yuan's mouth, "You are... 'pre-reading' my thoughts!"

The next sword strike!

Lin Yuan's figure suddenly stalled, intentionally exposing an extremely obvious, fatal opening at his right shoulder!

His sword momentum also showed a hint of disorder that shouldn't have been there!

Like the most precise killing machine, cold light erupted from the mirror image's eyes!

Its body followed the most perfect combat logic, and the Purple Heaven Startling Thunder Sword transformed into a beam of death that tore through the Void Realm, stabbing straight at the exposed vital point of Lin Yuan's right shoulder!

This strike was fast! Accurate! Ruthless! Carrying the will to kill!

Just at the one-billionth of a second before the tip of the sword was about to pierce his skin!

Lin Yuan's body, at an angle that completely defied human structure and transcended physical limits, twisted to the extreme like a boneless snake!

He completely abandoned all defense, pouring all his strength, will, and even life into the sword in his hand!

With the determination to perish together, he thrust out a killing sword strike that returned to simplicity, containing the ultimate truths of his lifelong sword Dao!

Where the sword edge passed, the Void Realm was silently sliced open, leaving a pitch-black crack that devoured light!

"Puchi—!"

The cold sword blade pierced the mirror image's chest with pinpoint accuracy!

Time... seemed to freeze at this moment.

The mirror image's movements froze completely.

It looked down at the sword in its chest and then slowly raised its head.

In those cold eyes, for the first time, a trace of... human-like complexity appeared.

Its body began to disintegrate inch by inch from the point of penetration, turning into countless shimmering particles that dissipated into the air.

Only the final whisper, like a brand, was deeply imprinted into the depths of Lin Yuan's Soul: "Remember... the one who can truly kill you... will always be... yourself..."

Rumble—!!!

Not giving Lin Yuan a moment to breathe!

The ancient bronze hall beneath his feet, the bronze dome above his head, the walls carved with battle patterns all around... the entire space, like a shattered glass mirror, collapsed and annihilated with a roar!

Endless fragments of memory, like a bursting galaxy, ignored his sealed Sea of Consciousness and violently surged into the depths of Lin Yuan's Soul!

He felt his consciousness being torn into billions of pieces in an instant, falling simultaneously into a thousand completely different, bizarre, and grotesque rivers of life:

First Life: He was a mountain woodcutter who spent his years with accumulated snow, his back hunched, using frost-cracked hands to chop firewood that could never be finished.

All for the sake of exchanging it for half a peck of brown rice, yet on a twilight when the wind and snow raged, for the sake of that last bundle of firewood by the cliff, he remained forever in the deep snow on his way home...

Second Life: He was the exalted Crown Prince, enjoying a life of luxury and power that dominated the court.

Yet on the eve of his coronation, he was sent into eternal darkness with a smile by his Grand Tutor, whom he regarded as a father, through a cup of poisoned wine mixed with "Drunken Life and Dreamy Death"...

Third Life: He was an unknown soldier beneath the border beacon towers, setting foot on the Shura field for the first time.

Before he could even see the enemy's face, he was nailed to the cold scorched earth by poison-tipped arrows that filled the sky like locusts...

Seven-hundredth Life: He was a gnarled ancient pine rooted on a ten-thousand-fathom sheer cliff, watching the clouds roll and unfurl, the seas turn into mulberry fields for a thousand years.

Yet on a night of thunderstorms, he was ignited by the world-destroying Purple Heaven Divine Thunder sent down from the Nine Heavens, turning to ashes in the raging heavenly fire...

Nine-hundred-and-ninety-ninth Life: He ascended to the pinnacle of martial arts, becoming a Saint Realm entity ruling over billions of stars!

Yet while attempting to reach that Supreme "Supreme" realm, he was taken advantage of by his Heart Demon, his billions of years of hard cultivation destroyed in an instant, falling into madness amidst boundless karmic fire...

When the one-thousandth Reincarnation began, Lin Yuan opened his eyes to the sound of an infant's crying.

In this life, from the moment he was born, he carried the complete memories and wisdom of the previous nine hundred and ninety-nine lives!

He practiced martial arts at three, understood the ultimate truths of worldly martial arts at seven, and by fifteen, had defeated all the heroes under heaven, shaking the Universe with his name!

However, unlike all previous Reincarnations, in this life, he always maintained a state of mind that was Transcendent and detached from worldly affairs.

He did not deliberately pursue power that could destroy the heavens and earth, nor did he avoid the entanglements of Karma in the Mortal World.

He founded a martial academy, taught students, married and had children, experienced the joys and sorrows of a Mortal, and realized the most authentic beauty and heaviness of life.

The one-thousandth sunset slowly sank below the horizon, dyeing the clouds on the horizon a warm orange-red.

Lin Yuan, with white hair and wrinkles filled with a thousand years of wisdom, sat peacefully in front of the martial academy he had founded with his own hands.

He watched the vibrant children playing and laughing in the courtyard, a calm and satisfied smile flowing in his cloudy eyes.

He slowly closed his eyes, a faint smile that had seen through the ways of the world lingering at the corners of his mouth, his breath returning to eternal tranquility.

Just at the moment his consciousness dissipated, the torrent of memories that had precipitated through a thousand Reincarnations, containing endless joys and sorrows, wisdom and insights, suddenly condensed and sublimated in the deepest part of his Soul!

It transformed into a crystal-clear Dao Seed, flowing with the vicissitudes of eternity and Supreme wisdom!

"So that's it..." A sigh that seemed to come from the end of the Universe sounded in the depths of Lin Yuan's Soul: "Even after passing through a thousand kalpas and ten thousand lives... the True Self... remains consistent..."

"Boom—!!!" Following this realization, that Dao Seed, which had condensed the essence of a thousand Reincarnations, bloomed with a roar!

It transformed into billions of dazzling rays of wisdom starlight, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, surging back into Lin Yuan's Sea of Consciousness and Physical Body!

Lin Yuan suddenly "woke" up!

He was shocked to discover that the Mental Energy barrier, which had been tightly locked by the Blood Battle Platform rules, had actually... shattered under the washing of these thousand Reincarnations!

His Mental Energy, like a prehistoric beast breaking free from its shackles, soared from 70 stars, directly breaking through the constraints to reach a brand new Domain capable of initially peeking into the mysteries of the Law—100 stars!

A thousand lives of sinking and transcendence!

As long as he had lost his original heart in any of those lives, indulging in power, hatred, desire, or despair, his Soul would have been forever lost in those endless Reincarnation illusions, turning into nourishment for the Blood Battle Platform!

But at this moment, this baptism of a thousand lives had not only failed to wear down his will, but instead, like the most intense furnace, tempered his Dao Heart to be indestructible and crystal clear!

His Mental Energy... had also completed an unprecedented qualitative leap!