Chapter 116 Hesitation? Boiling Blood and Burning Soul! (Part 2)

["Rumble—"]

[The entire camp was startled by this sudden, thunderous roar.]

[The reveling believers on the square stopped their movements one after another, looking up in bewilderment.]

[They watched as a deep blue light soared into the sky from the depths of the camp, piercing the night sky like a meteor.]

["That's... the Archbishop?!"]

["A miracle! The Archbishop has achieved Ascension!"]

[The crowd erupted into even more fanatical cheers.]

[On the high platform, a flash of shock and fury flickered within Agu's pure blue right eye.]

["Brat!!!"]

[Even though you had already used your Essence Force to forcibly sever the Divine Thought connection with the soul artifact...]

[Han Ming still let out a shrill roar through Agu's mouth.]

[With the enhancement of vast Divine Power, this sound transformed into a physical soundwave.]

[Like a thunderclap, it penetrated layers of the Void Realm and exploded directly in your ears.]

[His voice no longer carried a high-and-mighty posture, nor did it have the composure of one in control of the situation.]

[Instead, it was exasperated, sounding almost shrill due to extreme anger:]

["Stop! Are you crazy?!"]

["It's not worth it! You've already made a Breakthrough to the Soaring Realm; your obsession has been fulfilled!"]

["Moreover, your Physical Body is already a near-perfect Profound Water Body!"]

["You originally had several hundred years left to live, and you could even have become a supreme ancestor in this Grotto-Heaven. Why rush to your death now?!"]

[Han Ming was truly panicked. Your self-destructive charge, which completely ignored all conventions, had utterly disrupted the rhythm of His revival.]

[In Han Ming's calculations, His 'boiling a frog in lukewarm water' strategy was flawless.]

[He believed He had already seen through you.]

[He continuously provided dimensional secret treasures to remodel your body and significantly increase your lifespan.]

[He thought that someone like you, who possessed a long life and enjoyed supreme power in the Grotto-Heaven...]

[...would gradually lose the drive to move forward under the erosion of easy years and would become extremely afraid of taking risks.]

[Especially when He saw that over the years, for the sake of several stages of Legacy, you began to rely heavily on the Power Of Faith provided by the Divine Cult...]

[Han Ming became certain in His heart.]

[The teeth of you, this captive beast, had been completely pulled out.]

[It was impossible for you to have the courage to endure the price of a shattered Divine Soul to forcibly break the contract.]

[But the truth was, His arrogant divinity had blinded His eyes.]

[Over these decades, not only did you not sink into decadence, but you were also making the most frantic preparations for this moment of flipping the table!]

["Stop! As long as you stop, I will help you re-establish the binding and help you stop the collapse of your Divine Soul!"]

["Stop! Stop!!! We can renegotiate the terms!"]

[This once high-and-mighty god was actually bowing His head to you now, pleading with you, who was just a 'vessel' in His eyes.]

[But you ignored Him.]

[You didn't even want to say a single word of mockery, because saying even one more word would be a waste of your currently burning life.]

[You simply used a determined gaze to stare fixedly at the entrance of the White Jade Heavenly Ladder at the end of the horizon, which was emitting a faint glow.]

["Whoosh!"]

[Soon, you transformed into a streak of light and, with an indomitable Aura, charged straight into the Secret Realm.]

[Light and shadow shifted, and you once again arrived at the 65th stage of the Secret Realm, which had trapped you for ten whole years.]

[The rules of the Heavenly Ladder were not actually absolutely rigid.]

[Starting from the 60th stage, if the examinee realized they could not analyze the divine technique model in the Secret Realm and their Divine Soul was about to be exhausted...]

[...they could actively choose to exit the Secret Realm to preserve their life.]

[This was also the reason you could repeatedly enter and exit over the past ten years, pretending to be impotently furious to paralyze Han Ming's vigilance.]

[But this time, you left yourself no way out.]

["Rumble!"]

[As soon as you stepped into the 65th stage, a composite divine technique Formation base immediately appeared in the sky, consisting of over a hundred interconnected yet conflicting parts.]

[They were like a precise giant net, descending toward you.]

[In the past, you always tried to use your limited computing power to cautiously analyze them, like untangling a ball of yarn.]

[But today, there was no need.]

["Boiling Blood and Burning Soul!"]

[You growled in your heart, directly igniting your newly transformed yet constantly collapsing newborn Divine Soul!]

[At the same time, you detonated all the mental source energy compressed to the limit within your body, along with that massive reserve of sweet dew.]

[You unleashed the secret technique 'Boiling Blood and Burning Soul,' which you had spent decades of full-effort research on using the faith-based computing power.]

[By burning your Qi, blood, and Essence Force to the limit, you enhanced your physical attributes and Divine Soul explosive power in all aspects for a short period.]

["Since I can't untangle it, I'll just smash it all to pieces!"]

[You didn't analyze a single rune; instead, you transformed your burning Divine Soul into a giant heaven-splitting axe.]

[Carrying powerful Essence Force, you hacked down fiercely at that composite divine technique giant net overhead!]

["Crack—Boom!!!"]

[Under the crushing weight of absolute violence, those precise divine technique Formation bases shattered instantly like fragile glass, turning into a sky full of light rain.]

[The 65th stage, which had trapped you for ten years, was forcibly smashed by you in one strike, in the most overbearing and unreasonable way possible!]

[Accompanied by the roar of clearing the stage, the stairs leading to the 66th stage appeared before you.]

[You turned your body into a brilliant supernova, beginning your final desperate sprint.]

[The reason you dared to gamble everything on this charge was that you had conducted a rigorous deduction of the Heavenly Ladder's rules.]

[You carefully studied Han Ming's summary of the Heavenly Ladder's trials from back then: 'All who enter this place must ascend the ladder and comprehend the Form, Concept, and Technique of Profound Water.']

[The trials of 'Form' and 'Technique' were things you had already experienced in the first sixty-five stages.]

[You had even encountered that perverted composite divine technique model at the 65th stage.]

[So you boldly guessed that once you passed the 65th stage, from the 66th stage onward, the focus of the trials would no longer be the complex and time-consuming 'Technique.']

[But rather, 'Concept'!]

[If it was a trial of Concept, it wouldn't require time-consuming deductions like analyzing divine techniques.]

[As long as your understanding of the 'Concept' was deep enough, it was possible to pass the stage with a single thought!]

[But this was only a guess; no one had ever verified its truth.]

[However...]

[You gambled!]

[You gambled on your decades of life-and-death accumulation, and on your understanding of the 'Concept of Vast Billows,' believing it was absolutely enough to support your ascent to the top!]

[And your deduction...]

[...was correct!]

[From the 66th stage onward, there were no more complex Formations, only the myriad aspects of the Profound Water Origin questioning your Soul.]

[The 66th stage... was a bottomless deep sea capable of crushing stars, testing the 'Heaviness of Profound Water'...]

[The Concept of Vast Billows encompasses all things; with your body as the sea, you walked as if on level ground!]

[The 67th stage... was an absolute ice plain where all things were frozen, testing the 'Stillness of Profound Water'...]

[You once comprehended the true meaning of 'Dead River'; with a single thought, the ice plain disintegrated instantly!]

[The 68th stage... was the Weak Water of the Yellow Springs that could even dissolve Karma, testing the 'Erosion of Profound Water'...]

[With the foundation of 'Profound Water Ten Thousand Transformations: Rootless,' you were untainted by Karma and unattached to worldly ties, crossing the Yellow Springs!]

[The 69th stage... was a monstrous billow pouring back into the galaxy, testing the 'Fury of Profound Water'...]

[You operated the 'Cangming Sea-Suppressing Stance,' transforming into a sea-suppressing pillar; with one step down, you suppressed the ten-thousand-foot tsunami!]

[The 70th stage... was a formless and substanceless illusory mist, testing the 'Mutability of Profound Water'...]

[Your martial will was as firm as steel; seeing through the illusion, you cut through the mist with your intent without even unsheathing your blade!]

[71st stage... passed!]

[When your speed was so fast that even time seemed to stagnate, and when the heaviness, stillness, erosion, fury, and Mutability of Profound Water were all stepped upon by your single thought...]

[You finally stepped onto the 72nd stage—the absolute peak representing the highest Legacy of the Xuan Shui Cave Heaven.]

[At this moment, you could no longer be recognized as your original self.]

[Your originally young and vibrant Soaring Realm Physical Body, after enduring the extreme extraction of 'Boiling Blood and Burning Soul' and the torture of a collapsing Divine Soul...]

[...your body had become as withered as a skeleton.]

[Your hair had turned snow-white, and your skin was as shriveled as old tree bark.]

[The bones beneath your shrunken muscles were clearly visible.]

[Your flesh and blood were disintegrating bit by bit.]

[The punishment for breaking the contract and the extreme self-immolation had brought your life to its end.]

[You burned everything to completion, just for this final leap.]

[This last stage had no pressure, nor any illusions, only a Void Realm of utter tranquility.]

[In these final moments of your life...]

[...at the brink of death...]

[There was no fear of death in your eyes.]

[You looked at your withered palms and the gradually extinguishing life force within your body.]

[Yet, in the depths of your Divine Soul, the low murmurs of the eternal cangming echoed.]

[You saw Profound Water condensing into eternal ice in the frigid plains, freezing heaven and earth.]

[Evaporating into a vast sea of clouds under the blazing sun, dispersing into the Great Void.]

[And returning to the Origin in Reincarnation, nourishing the growth and decay of all things.]

[Being frozen is not death; evaporating is not destruction. Flowing and transforming is the true heart of water.]

["The extreme of death is life."]

[With a single thought connecting everything, the true meaning of Profound Water awakened from the desolation.]

[It was the majestic vitality that had slept in the deep sea for hundreds of millions of years, hidden beneath the cold abyss.]

[A sliver of deep blue, like the vast cangming...]

[...a spiritual light as gentle as a warm oceanic current...]

[...quietly sprouted in the depths of your dried-up Meridians.]

[Carrying the immortal vitality of heavy ocean tides and the merging of a hundred rivers, it attempted to reshape your body.]

[However...]

[It was too late.]

[The vitality came too late.]

[Your Divine Soul had completely burned out; not even a speck of ash remained.]

[Even if there was a Concept of vitality, there was no longer a Soul vessel to carry it.]

["Thud..."]

[Your shriveled Physical Body fell heavily onto the stone slabs at the mountain peak, beginning to disintegrate on a large scale.]

[Just as your consciousness was about to sink completely into endless darkness, signaling the end of this simulation...]

["You are not allowed to die!!! You lunatic!"]

[A voice, shrill to the extreme and filled with despair and anger, suddenly exploded in the depths of your Sea of Consciousness.]

[It was Han Ming!]

[He watched helplessly as the perfect vessel He had painstakingly nurtured for nearly a hundred years—even investing His Origin Divine Power into its creation—was about to turn into fly ash.]

[He completely lost His mind.]

["Sizzle—"]

[That core sliver of divine consciousness that had always been hidden in the soul artifact at your brow, nurtured by Him for decades...]

[...at this moment, it actually broke through the soul artifact's constraints regardless of the cost.]

[Like a parasite, it forcibly bored into your disintegrating Sea of Consciousness!]

[He used His precious divine consciousness to forcibly stitch together your broken Physical Body.]

[He protected the last and weakest sliver of vitality at your heart.]

[But you could no longer feel any of this.]

[Your consciousness was falling rapidly, and all external sounds became blurred.]

[You vaguely heard, atop this Heavenly Ladder peak, through Han Ming's Divine Soul connection...]

[...you heard the screams and cries coming from the camp below.]

[It was the bewilderment and helplessness of countless fanatical believers as the descent ceremony was interrupted.]

[It was the despairing wails under the furious backlash of a god.]

["Don't die!!! Grandmaster Xu Liang!"]

["Don't go, don't go!!"]

["What will we do if you die!!"]

["If you die, how long will I have to wait for another chance to get out!!"]

["Don't you dare die!! What will I do if you're dead!!"]

[These countless voices intertwined.]

[It was impossible to distinguish whether they were the desperate shouts of those in the new era within the camp...]

[...or Han Ming's exasperated roars.]

[They turned into an invisible giant net, trying to pull you back into the quagmire of this Grotto-Heaven.]

[The last image you saw was 'Han Ming's' angry and distorted face.]

[You grinned and spoke the final words of your life to Him.]

["The Legacy belongs to me, but I won't be taking the Karma with me."]

["As for the remaining mess... play with it yourself."]

["Hahahaha..."]

[Darkness completely swallowed you.]

[The simulation has ended.]