Chapter 186: Life and Death (Part 2)

The Rock Dragon Warrior approached step by step, its heavy sword in hand. Each step brought the approach of death.

Chu Yuechan stared blankly at Yun Che, who lay motionless, his body bleeding profusely. Faced with certain death, she, who had originally sought demise, suddenly felt a powerful surge of the will to live. Her current life was something Yun Che had desperately protected with his own life and unwavering conviction. If she died, all of Yun Che’s efforts and all the injuries he sustained would have been in vain. For her own sake, and even more for everything he had sacrificed, she no longer wanted to die—and she certainly didn’t want Yun Che to die.

Had it been her before today, she could have annihilated this Rock Dragon Warrior in an instant. But now, this enemy, whom she would usually deem beneath her notice, had become an unstoppable harbinger of death. As the Rock Dragon Warrior drew closer, her eyes grew colder and filled with more unwillingness. Then, her gaze suddenly flickered, and she remembered something she had forgotten for many years.

With difficulty, she opened her right hand and took out a tiny white glass bead from her spatial ring. Then, she crushed it with all her might. Instantly, the shattered bead released a brilliant ice-blue radiance. Around Chu Yuechan and Yun Che, it formed a barrier, shimmering with blue light and flowing with icy essence.

At that moment, the Rock Dragon Warrior came within five steps. Its body collided with the barrier and was forcefully repelled. The Rock Dragon Warrior stepped back, lifted its great sword, and slammed it heavily onto the barrier.

Boom!

The Rock Dragon Warrior’s power erupted, but the ice-blue barrier merely quivered slightly, showing no sign of damage. Instead, the Rock Dragon Warrior was repelled two steps backward by the recoil. Undeterred, it continued to advance, striking the barrier again and again with its heavy sword, yet it could not create even the slightest crack.

The bead Chu Yuechan had crushed was called the "Ice Soul Bead." Once crushed, it released the "Ice Soul Barrier," which could last for up to ten hours. Furthermore, profound practitioners below the Sky Profound Realm could not damage it.

Her master had given her this Ice Soul Bead around her twentieth birthday, for use in moments of critical danger. However, just a few years later, she broke through to the Sky Profound Realm, rendering the Ice Soul Bead obsolete for her. Over a decade had passed, and she had largely forgotten about its existence. But when her will to survive intensely flared up moments ago, she suddenly remembered it.

Although the Rock Dragon Warrior wielded a Sky Profound heavy sword, its own profound energy was merely at the Spirit Profound Realm, making it utterly impossible to break through this Ice Soul Barrier. All around, the Rock Dragon soldiers summoned by the Rock Dragon Warrior also swarmed forward, striking the barrier with various weapons. Yet, even if hundreds or thousands more Rock Dragon soldiers arrived, they wouldn't be able to make even the slightest crack in the barrier.

Under the Ice Soul Barrier, they were temporarily safe. Although Yun Che lay motionless, bleeding from his seven orifices and covered in wounds, Chu Yuechan faintly perceived his extremely faint life signs. Under the temporary protection of the Ice Soul Barrier, she silently watched Yun Che, waiting for a glimmer of a miracle to appear. That miracle was Yun Che standing up again; he had risen so many times before, and this time, he surely had to rise again.

Yun Che was indeed not dead. In fact, his consciousness had remained awake. However, he could no longer feel his body's existence at all. He couldn't see anything or hear any sounds. His awakened consciousness was also incredibly blurry. Had he not clung to it with sheer willpower, this flicker of consciousness would have long since dispersed.

Three drops of Phoenix blood actively flowed into his heart. Burning, they protected his last vestiges of life.

I… I cannot die…How can I… die… here…?Little Aunt is waiting for me… Senior Sister is also waiting for me… Jasmine gave me a new life, yet I haven't fulfilled any of my promises to her…Absolutely… cannot… die!!

His remaining consciousness was entirely consumed by the will to survive. He knew clearly that to live, he had to immediately suppress the bodily collapse caused by forcefully activating 'Burning Heart'. However, he could not circulate his internal energy. The activation of Burning Heart had also completely paralyzed his profound veins. The only thing he could mobilize was the Great Way of the Buddha, imprinted in his sea of consciousness.

Unable to perceive anything external, he was naturally undisturbed. In this state, his mind achieved extreme focus. Within his mental sea, the profound art of the Great Way of the Buddha clearly manifested…

All things under heaven and earth, I am their master. With the Buddha in my heart, I am worthy of the Great Way…

The Great Way of the Buddha began to circulate slowly. Starting from his mind, it slowly spread throughout his broken body, gradually absorbing the elemental energy of heaven and earth.

The fundamental principle of the Great Way of the Buddha was to absorb the elemental energy of heaven and earth for one's own use, refining one's body, imbuing it with immense strength and resilience, and also enabling rapid recovery from injuries. In its initial stages, the Great Way of the Buddha absorbed the natural essence within the elemental energy of heaven and earth. In its middle stages, it absorbed the origin of elemental energy. And in its later stages, it was rumored to absorb the Primordial Qi, the origin of deities.

Yun Che's current injuries were too severe; he was but a hair's breadth from death. The circulating Great Way of the Buddha was merely a drop in the bucket. The rate of recovery was far outpaced by the deterioration of his injuries. And the absorbed elemental energy immediately dissipated as his life force drained even faster. However, Yun Che was oblivious to all of this. Driven solely by his desperate will to survive, he stubbornly held on, preventing his last bit of consciousness from dissipating, and frantically circulated the Great Way of the Buddha.

The profound art of the Great Way of the Buddha slowly drifted within Yun Che's sea of consciousness. All of Yun Che's consciousness was focused on it… In a flash, these profound arts suddenly blurred, then rapidly scattered. A slowly rotating small silver pagoda appeared there. Then, as it spun, it gradually expanded, growing larger and larger until it filled his entire sea of consciousness…

Ping…

The silver pagoda shattered with a slight tremor in his sea of consciousness, transforming into countless dispersing silver lights. At the same time, a faint silver glow emerged on the surface of Yun Che's heavily injured body.

The circulation speed of the Great Way of the Buddha suddenly accelerated dramatically. The elemental energy in the surrounding space was drawn in rapidly, as if pulled by an immense force, quickly flowing into Yun Che's body. The shocking fissures on his body's surface now, surprisingly, became the best conduits for the influx of elemental energy.

The Great Way of the Buddha circulated faster and faster, and the elemental energy flowed in more and more rapidly. It gradually reached the limit of what the first stage of the Great Way of the Buddha could achieve. Yet, it did not stop, circulating at a speed even faster than when Yun Che was at his peak.

Chu Yuechan noticed the unusual aura. She turned her face and stared blankly at Yun Che. His body was now enveloped in thick layers of silver light, and this light seemed to be subtly expanding. The distinct fissures on his body's surface were visibly healing at a slow but noticeable pace. The smaller cracks had even completely vanished.

Chu Yuechan's gaze trembled as she silently watched this incredible sight. With her realm and decades of extensive knowledge, she had no idea what was happening to Yun Che.

The silver light grew increasingly intense. Around him, chaotic currents of air swirled, as if something was frantically pouring into his body.

Yun Che's consciousness became increasingly clear. Gradually, he began to feel the presence of his body. His head, chest, limbs… all sent waves of excruciating pain. Yet, this intense pain filled him with ecstasy, because it at least proved that after 'Burning Heart', none of these parts of his body were destroyed.

Immediately, he calmed his mind and spirit. He quietly continued to circulate the Great Way of the Buddha, letting it cycle through his body again and again… once, twice… ten times… a hundred times… three hundred times…

When the Great Way of the Buddha completed thirty cycles, sensation fully returned to all parts of his body. Pain and a sense of presence clearly registered. In his ears, a continuous striking sound could be heard. After a hundred cycles, his profound veins awoke from their paralysis. He could feel surges of external power rapidly flowing into his profound veins through his fifty-four profound orifices, restoring his profound energy at an astonishing rate. The feelings of exhaustion and stiffness throughout his body gradually faded.

After two hundred cycles, the pain throughout his body had almost completely vanished.

After three hundred cycles, Yun Che slowly opened his eyes. From his pupils, a sharp, blade-like glint of light shot forth.

The second stage of the Great Way of the Buddha was miraculously achieved under the brink of death and his desperate will to survive!

As the Profound Art of the God of Malevolence, the Great Way of the Buddha's every breakthrough to a higher stage required immense periods of mental and physical comprehension, as well as rare and elusive opportunities. Yun Che had perfected the first stage of the Great Way of the Buddha in less than a month, which was already a miracle in Jasmine's eyes. In her view, even with Yun Che's astounding comprehension, reaching the second stage would take at least a year. She had never expected, nor had Yun Che himself, that under the impetus of these critical factors—near-death, extreme mental focus, and an unyielding will to survive—the Great Way of the Buddha would break through to its second stage without Yun Che even consciously realizing it.

Each time the Great Way of the Buddha advanced a stage, it brought about a complete metamorphosis.

All of Yun Che's injuries, from internal to external, had completely healed. Not a single trace remained. His hair had grown half a chi, his eyes became clearer, and his hearing sharper. His internal organs, bones, and flesh were all filled with an incredibly resilient sensation. Even his circulating blood seemed subtly thicker, and his heartbeat grew more powerful. His entire body, which had been so weak he couldn't even move a finger, was now filled with an incredible surge of power. This was a profound sense of strength, even without using any profound energy!

Jasmine had once told him that the second stage of the Great Way of the Buddha brought a physical strength of a full eight thousand jin.