Library of Heaven’s Path

Instead of answering Ancient Sage Yan Qing’s question, Zhang Xuan turned to Xue Yan and shattered his hopes. “You won’t be able to do it. If you try to do the same, you’ll be struck to death on the spot!”

“Why can’t I do it?” Xue Yan frowned in indignance.

“It’s not just you. Even I would be unable to emulate what Kong Shiyao has just done!” Zhang Xuan replied. “Kong Shiyao possesses Kong shi’s bloodline, and she grew up in the Kunxu Domain. After the cultivation ordeals she has been through, it’s no exaggeration to say that a part of the Kunxu Domain exists within her.”

The crowd pondered for a moment before nodding.

It was mentioned earlier that after Kong Shiyao’s three Ancient Sage Ordeals, her body was already suffused with the energies from the cultivation ordeals.

If she attempted a fourth breakthrough in the Kunxu Domain, it was likely that she would have been assimilated by the energies building up within her.

“And the very existence of the Kunxu Domain is something that is not permissible by the heavens of the Master Teacher Continent!” Zhang Xuan continued. “If she had attempted to resist the cultivation ordeal, she would have incurred the wrath of the heavens, and that would have only placed her in a worse position. The more she struggled, the worse the position she would have found herself in!

“There’s no denying that the heavens wanted to punish Kong Shiyao for attempting a breakthrough, but more than that, they were more desperate to destroy the trace of the Kunxu Domain that exists within her.

“Trying to push off the cultivation ordeal would be equivalent to hindering the heavens’ enforcement of the natural laws, and that would have placed her in a worse position. The heavens would surely have struck her again and again until she was finally destroyed!

“However, by opening her acupoints and allowing the lightning bolts and heavenly flames in instead, it’s equivalent to allowing the enforcers in to do what they needed to do. This has reduced her sins significantly, thus reducing the heavenly retribution falling upon on her. On top of that, she can make use of this opportunity to clear away the energies accumulated within her body, thus killing two birds with one stone!”

“This…”

Everyone’s teeth clattered in shock.

From how the heavens of the Master Teacher Continent were so determined to destroy the Kunxu Domain, it was apparent that the two of them were at odds with one another.

Yet, Zhang Xuan was able to sharply discern this and use it to his advantage, thus wearing the heavenly retribution down through such a method.

This was an extremely risky gamble. If anything had gone wrong, everything would have swiftly descended into a tragedy.

While Ancient Sage Yan Qing was amazed by the feat, he could not help but harbor some reservations toward this risky plan. “In a sense, this is similar to countering poison with poison… But if the two energies weren’t enough to nullify one another, wouldn’t Shiyao be placed in a terrible position?”

It was one of those things that were simple in theory but hard to execute.

There was a fixed amount of accumulated energies within Kong Shiyao’s body. If she had absorbed too little of the heavenly retribution, she would not be able to clear the energies away entirely. But if she absorbed too much, it could lead to her death.

“That’s why I told her to feel with her heart, didn’t I?” Zhang Xuan said. “As Kong shi’s descendant, the number one genius of the Kunxu Domain, if she isn’t even capable of carrying out such basic estimations and controlling how much of the heavenly retribution she has taken in, I will really have nothing to say! If that’s all she has, even if she survives this ordeal, I must say that she won’t be able to go too far in the future!”

It was not out of boredom that Zhang Xuan had spun up an old wives’ tale to deceive Kong Shiyao. If he had revealed the truth to her at the start, her mind would have been preoccupied with other things, and that might have caused her to lose focus on her own body. That would have led to an adverse effect instead.

“This…” Coming to understand the entire situation, the crowd could not help but direct impressed looks at the young man.

His grasp over states of mind, the nature of the heavenly tribulation, and the capabilities of those involved… Everything was in his field of calculation, and he had managed to pull it off impeccably.

As expected of a Celestial Master Teacher! His abilities far surpassed even those of the Ancient Sages!

While everyone else was awestruck after hearing the young man’s explanation, up in the sky, Kong Shiyao, who had experienced everything firsthand, was fully convinced of the young man’s capabilities. Even though this Celestial Master Teacher seemed to be even younger than her, there was no doubt that he was the real deal.

Even though she had not heard the explanation, she already vaguely understood the intentions behind the young man’s actions.

As the lightning bolts and heavenly flames from the Ancient Sage Ordeal washed through her body, all of the energies that she had built up back in the Kunxu Domain were slowly being neutralized and destroyed!

Even though two forces were colliding with one another within her body, her body remained perfectly fine. Not only so, through examining the powers within her body, she was able to further deepen her understanding of the world.

Time slowly ticked by, and soon enough, the energies from the past Ancient Sage Ordeals accumulated within her body had finally been eradicated. Kong Shiyao knew that this was the moment for her to stop, so she decisively sealed all of her acupoints and ignited her bloodline.

“Dissipate!” she commanded.

Word of Law!

At that moment, the Ancient Sage Ordeal that she had summoned weakened significantly, such that it was no longer a match for her. At her command, an entire half of the ominous clouds in the sky dissipated, and the rest were gradually following suit.

Hong long long!

With the departure of the ominous clouds, the young lady released all of her suppressed powers. She crushed all of the bottlenecks in her cultivation and reached Ancient Sage in a breath.

Furthermore, due to the deep accumulation of her cultivation, she did not stop right after her breakthrough. Instead, her cultivation continued charging forth.

Bloodline Continuance realm primary stage!

Bloodline Continuance realm intermediate stage!

In a few moments, she had already reached Ancient Sage 1-dan Bloodline Continuance realm consummation!

And after which…

Great Philosopher realm primary stage!

Great Philosopher realm intermediate stage!

Great Philosopher realm consummation!

In less than a minute, her cultivation soared to Great Philosopher realm consummation stage before gradually receding.

“Incredible,” Ancient Sage Yan Qing muttered in admiration.

For most of their breakthroughs to Ancient Sage, they would usually stop right at Bloodline Continuance primary stage. Even the most talented of them all only managed to push up to intermediate stage before losing the drive.

However, Kong Shiyao had actually leaped two realms up in a single breath, reaching Great Philosopher realm consummation.

Such a feat had never been achieved in the past tens of thousands of years in the Kunxu Domain!

It’s all due to this young man that Shiyao was able to make such a huge leap in her cultivation, Ancient Sage Yan Qing thought in wonderment as he turned to look at Zhang Xuan.

But at that moment, Zhang Xuan was looking at the young lady in the sky with a dissatisfied look on his face. “Continue to push on. With your accumulation, you should be able to push for a breakthrough to the Blood Reincarnation realm!”

“Blood Reincarnation realm?” Kong Shiyao was stunned. She quickly shook her head and replied, “I have already reached my limits. I don’t have enough energy in me to push for another breakthrough anymore…”

Even though she had made great accumulation by suppressing her cultivation through four Ancient Sage Ordeals, she knew that she had already struck her limit by pushing to Ancient Sage 2-dan consummation in a single sitting. She did not think that she would be able to push any further than that.

“Limits? Those are mental constructs that you impose on yourself!” Zhang Xuan remarked as he flicked a droplet of blood toward Kong Shiyao. “Swallow it!”

“Yes!”

By that point, Kong Shiyao was completely trusting of Zhang Xuan. Without any hesitation, she swallowed the droplet of blood.

As soon as the droplet of blood slid down her throat, she immediately felt a burning heat inside of her threatening to combust her from the inside.

“Is this the blood of the deity?” Kong Shiyao widened her eyes.

She had absorbed quite a few blood essences of Blood Reincarnation realm cultivators over the years, and it was for that reason that she was able to make such incredible accomplishments despite your young age. However, the blood essence that the young man had just given her was much more potent than anything she had swallowed before. In terms of power, it was at least ten times greater than the Blood Reincarnation realm blood essences that she had swallowed!

There was only one possibility for this… It was the blood of a Dimension Shatterer realm cultivator!

To think that the young man would willingly give something so invaluable to her…

Kong Shiyao’s face reddened in a mixture of agitation and gratitude, but she knew that this was not the time for her thoughts to be wondering. She quickly drove her zhenqi to assimilate the energy from the blood essence.

An hour later, she shattered her bottleneck once more and successfully advanced to the Blood Reincarnation realm. Her cultivation eventually came to a halt at the intermediate stage.

Feeling the energy pulsating through her body, Kong Shiyao swiftly flew over to Zhang Xuan and kneeled down before him.

“Teacher!”

This time, her feelings of gratitude and respect were truly earnest.

Weng!

Zhang Xuan’s head jolted as a golden page appeared in the Library of Heaven’s Path.