Time is an astonishing thing; it grinds down bones, stones, names, and even souls will not escape its erosion. Only those who are willing to exchange a fleeting life, full of peace and cheerful laughter, to walk between life and death, can reach the end of the Grand Dao path.

  Zhi Xuan sat upon a flat stone, positioned right beside the jade essence pool. Week after week he used to study technique scrolls, solidify his foundation, and discover the obstacle preventing him from maximizing his Blood Transformation and achieving a breakthrough to the peak of the realm.

  Today, blue clouds, seemingly overcast, wrestled above the Southern Mountain Range, looking down at the man sitting cross-legged on the flat stone. The man's long black hair fluttered slowly, as if he had found the chains binding him from achieving a realm phase breakthrough.

  Inside the cave, Mei Hua still slept soundly, covered by a blanket embroidered with a thin spiritual essence, crafted by Zhi Xuan from the remnants of the Glimmering Cloud Silk. The Heavenly Moth, Xiao Die, trembled gently at the cave entrance, its wings emitting an illusionary layer, guarding the tranquility of the strange girl who was a karmic will.

  At the edge of the pool, Zhi Xuan opened his sapphire eyes. Seven weeks had passed like seven breaths in the high cultivation world. His cold face looked firmer, his blood aura perfectly suppressed, locked beneath the Sky Samsara Wheel that now spun flawlessly.

  His sapphire eyes radiated a harsh tranquility, like the water of the jade essence pool before him—pitch black on the surface, yet churning with boundless essence in its depths. During these seven weeks, he had not only recovered; he had encountered an obstacle in his realm phase advancement.

  Not only that, he had returned once to Green Cloud City, paying his karmic debt with two medium-grade spiritual stones, replacing the cost of the spiritual cave damage he had previously caused. He thought that with his karmic debts settled one by one, he would be able to break through.

  Zhi Xuan raised his right hand. In his cold palm, a dark bronze bead spun with a slow whizz—the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron.

  Inside the Cauldron, the remaining Azure King Beast meat, which had been refined repeatedly with the Azure Holy Flame, had become four pitch-black Pure Jade Pills, emitting an intoxicating and dense essence aroma.

  The pills had reached an alchemical perfection whose quality was undoubtedly above ordinary. Each pill was equivalent to several medium-grade spiritual stones in terms of purified essence, enough to push an ordinary Blood Transformation cultivator directly to the Zenith Phase.

  However, Zhi Xuan halted. His black jade essence, which had been perfectly locked in the solidified Eclipse, rejected any forceful push. Not because his foundation was weak, but because his foundation was too strong.

  'The core of my Divine Wheel,' Zhi Xuan thought, his breath as cold as the Southern Mountain Range air. 'Has become so dense with pure black jade essence that the natural limits of the Blood Transformation realm have turned into spiritual chains.'

  The Body Transformation realm has three main phases: Blood, Organ, and Consciousness. Zhi Xuan had compressed his Blood beyond the normal standard, creating a phenomenon known as the Sealed Black Jade Foundation.

  His Divine Wheel was not just spinning, but locked at Eclipse, demanding unimaginable energy to shatter its boundaries, far exceeding merely swallowing a Zenith Pill.

  "Perhaps," Zhi Xuan murmured, he lowered his head to see the reflection of his face on the jade essence pool. "I will find the breakthrough another time."

  Zhi Xuan had calculated that this morning was exactly when the Thousand Heavens Sect envoys from the central continent would arrive, he could already feel the fluctuations of high realms spreading to where he cultivated, giving awareness that the heavenly selection would soon begin.

  "Elder Yan Shen, will certainly appear there." Zhi Xuan muttered, raising his head to stare at the darkening sky. "Will I truly not pass the heavenly selection?"

  Zhi Xuan closed his eyes again, letting out a long, cold sigh. Not out of despair, but out of sharp calculation. The question hung in the air, echoing off the mountain peaks, a challenge thrown at his own Dao.

  He opened his eyes again. In his Sea of Consciousness, the shattered Ancient Devil Monument trembled, emitting a cold snort full of contempt.

  "You waste time trying to break the chains you forged yourself, lowly Monkey," Ruo Xianxue hissed, his voice as cold as a sword blade sharpened by dew. "I told you, your black jade foundation transcends the framework of this petty realm. Blood Transformation is just a name, but your essence has already entered the Organ Transformation stage in substance."

  "Organ Transformation? I have not even consolidated the five organs with my Divine Wheel." Zhi Xuan said, smiling bitterly at the situation. "Organ Transformation requires all five organs to resonate with the Divine Wheel, and I have not even felt that resonance."

  Zhi Xuan dropped himself onto the sea of consciousness, staring upward where it was dark and seemingly endless. He had gained enlightenment that Organ Transformation was the consolidation of the five organs. Lungs, kidneys, spleen, liver, and heart. Yet even when he gained enlightenment, he was blocked at Blood Transformation.

  "Is this because of the devil seed," Zhi Xuan muttered, his voice filled with sharp, slightly bitter calculation. "The Heavenly Path does not accept deviation, the blood of slaughter and the karma I carry, it is all clumped in my hand."

  "Naive nonsense!" Ruo Xianxue roared, the Ancient Devil Monument trembled violently, emitting a shockwave that pierced Zhi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness. His howl sounded like an unbearable cosmic echo of disappointment.

  "Heavenly Path? Do you still believe in the lies embroidered by those hypocritical Saints?" Ruo Xianxue sneered. His dark shadow, representing the will of the Eternal Devil, now floated down, approaching the tranquil Devil Seed at the bottom of Zhi Xuan's sea of consciousness.

  "You think the Karmic Chains you created from blood are what hinder you, Monkey?" Ruo Xianxue roared, his voice filled with contempt that crossed thousands of eras. "You place too high a value on that mortal karma you call 'deviation'! It is merely cosmic dust!"

  The dark shadow of the Ancient Devil Monument swirled above the tranquil Devil Seed. The seed, which had now been completely subdued and suppressed by his Dao, felt like a black magnet attracting Ruo Xianxue's scorn.

  "Your problem is not with Heaven," Ruo Xianxue hissed, his tone returning to cold, as if presenting a cruel truth. "Your problem is the foolish framework you cling to. The realms of Blood Transformation, Organ, Consciousness... Those are all cultivation methods designed by people who only look up. They want to climb, to ascend the stairs. But you?"

  The shadow snatched at Zhi Xuan's slowly spinning Divine Wheel, but did not touch it. The aura of the Ancient Devil Monument merely vibrated around it.

  "Your Divine Wheel, forged with the Law of the Four Seasons. The Sky Samsara Wheel, is a foundation that is fiercely cruel," Ruo Xianxue continued, his voice sharp as a blade cutting through space. Before Zhi Xuan, a gigantic shadow finger now appeared, menacingly. "You are a withered branch, yet you possess a will that even the sky will become your stepping stone."

  "You are one who walks between the Dao and the Devil," Ruo Xianxue roared, his gigantic shadow finger pointing at Zhi Xuan's Divine Wheel. "Your Divine Wheel does not want to consolidate the Five Organs gradually like other cultivators! It demands a Total Sacrifice."

  Zhi Xuan, sitting in his Sea of Consciousness, felt the cold tremor of truth spoken by the Eternal Devil. He had carved a Dao that was even sworn to surpass the will of heaven.

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  "Total Sacrifice?" Zhi Xuan repeated, his voice hoarse. He looked at his Divine Wheel locked in Eclipse, a vortex that refused compromise.

  "Yes. You do not need to absorb one by one to consolidate the Spleen, then the Lungs, then the Kidneys, Monkey," Ruo Xianxue explained, his tone returning to flat and authoritative. "That is the method of beggars climbing the stairs. Your Divine Wheel demands that all Five Organs Resonate Simultaneously!"

  Ruo Xianxue’s shadow spread, projecting an image in Zhi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness—five points of light spinning around the Divine Wheel, each representing the Heart, Lungs, Kidneys, Spleen, and Liver.

  "Each organ must be destroyed and re-forged by your essence, instantaneously. Only in this way will your Divine Wheel break the Blood Chains and enter the Organ Transformation realm. Failure means your five organs explode, and you die," Ruo Xianxue hissed, an ominous silence following those words.

  Zhi Xuan got up and stood straight, staring intently at Ruo Xianxue's menacing shadow finger. "Are you insane? That is a Heavenly blessing, not just an 'I have a strong will, I can surely break through'!"

  "Heavenly blessing?" Ruo Xianxue roared, and this time, the Eternal Devil's laughter filled Zhi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness with the whizzing of thousands of piercing swords, a laugh full of baseless scorn. "Who says blessings only come from Heaven, Monkey? Were you not the one who declared yourself to be Heaven itself?"

  The Devil's shadow subsided, and Ruo Xianxue's voice, now an icy whisper, felt more dangerous than his howling. "You have a cauldron. You have a Heaven artifact. And most importantly, you have a will capable of tearing the sky. What else do you need? Help from those false Gods?"

  "You—" Zhi Xuan's speech was cut short, as a small bronze fragment, with an eclipse motif from the remnants of the divine cauldron formation that had been stored in his storage bag all this time, shot out and entered his sea of consciousness.

  The bronze fragment, the size of an ancient coin, spun rapidly in Zhi Xuan's sea of consciousness, right between the locked Divine Wheel and Ruo Xianxue's now silent shadow. Its motif displayed an intricate and subtle pattern of the Eternal Eclipse, a remnant of the failed celestial materials consolidation when the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron was forged.

  The fragment did not emanate the majestic aura of a Heaven Artifact; instead, it carried a very old and cold resonance, a resonance that felt chaotically harmonious and alien.

  Ruo Xianxue, initially silent from his own shock, now let out a sharp snort. "Oh? The residue you picked up from that Cauldron? I forgot you kept that cosmic trash."

  Zhi Xuan ignored Ruo Xianxue's sneer. He stared at the bronze fragment, his sapphire eyes radiating sharp calculation. He knew how precious the remnants of the Divine Cauldron were, reminding him of the vision of the Nine Heavens' fall that he had seen.

  "Why is it suddenly reacting?" Zhi Xuan muttered, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "This fragment cannot even be melted by the Azure Holy Flame."

  However, the bronze fragment only shook a spiritual wave, spinning at a speed that was starting to make his sea of consciousness surge irregularly. Suddenly, the bronze fragment shot forward.

  BUZZZ!

  It did not strike the Divine Wheel, but instead firmly lodged itself onto the Devil Seed that had been tranquil at the bottom of Zhi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness. In an instant, the Eternal Eclipse pattern on the bronze fragment glowed dimly. The dark light did not come from spiritual energy, but from the remnants of ancient celestial law.

  As if the bronze fragment were an ancient key, the Devil Seed responded. The seed, now shrouded in Zhi Xuan's black jade essence, trembled, and thin lines of dark red began to creep out, not aggressively, but seeking a link. These lines met the Eternal Eclipse pattern on the bronze fragment, creating a harmonious resonance.

  WHUMMM!

  The cold shockwave released by the link between the Devil Seed and the Eternal Eclipse fragment did not harm, but purified. Slowly, the bronze fragment was swallowed by the devil seed, then the wave struck the sea of consciousness, causing his Divine Wheel to tremble violently.

  Zhi Xuan felt his Sea of Consciousness churning like a stormy ocean.

  His Divine Wheel, which had been perfectly locked in the Eclipse phase, now spun irregularly, propelled by a cold essence thrust from the Devil Seed that had just absorbed the ancient bronze fragment. His black jade essence, which had been stable, began to move wildly, resonating with the ancient law stored within the Divine Cauldron shard.

  "What are you doing, Monkey!" Ruo Xianxue roared, the shadow of the Eternal Devil sharply retreated, his voice filled with shock. "You have awakened the remnants of the Nine Heavens Destruction Law within that seed! That is cosmic poison!"

  Zhi Xuan ignored the warning. A sharp pain pierced his soul, but along with the pain, a cold and clear enlightenment emerged. The bronze fragment, a remnant of the Cauldron forging failure, held traces of a failed Eternal Dao Law—a Law that did not submit to any Heaven.

  The fragment did not give him a surprise effect, but gave him the key to understanding the resonance. As the shockwave subsided, the Devil Seed at the bottom of Zhi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness now emitted a dimmer, yet far denser, purple-black light.

  Around it, thin lines of dark red began to form, moving with the exact same pattern as the Eternal Eclipse pattern on the absorbed bronze fragment. This was a mutually consuming and interdependent resonance. The devil seed consumed to strengthen the seed, the eclipse bronze sought darkness to complete the devil seed.

  "Eclipse, life and death, Yin-Yang spinning in harmony. When destruction is death, then life is the result of the seed of destruction."

  Immediately, the wave of understanding swept through his entire sea of consciousness. His Divine Wheel spun slowly as if understanding the will and understanding of the Grand Path. That the destruction of something will not always mean destruction. Likewise, the whole is not always whole.

  Zhi Xuan no longer felt pain; all that remained was the bitter silence of cosmic truth. The Devil Seed, now adorned with the Eternal Eclipse pattern, had given him the key to breaking the chain created by his own foundation. The Dao Law demanded the destruction of blood to rebuild blood.

  "I understand," Zhi Xuan said. He dropped himself back onto the sea of consciousness, sitting cross-legged and closing his eyes.

  Zhi Xuan opened his sapphire eyes in the outside world. The jade essence pool and the dawn-shrouded peaks of the Southern Mountain Range looked blurry, as if separated by a veil of reality. He had reached enlightenment, which now demanded an absolute price.

  Time was an illusion for a cultivator about to step on the Immortal path. The Thousand Heavens Sect Selection might be about to begin, but failure to break through his Sealed Black Jade Foundation now meant stagnation in the future.

  Zhi Xuan reached out to the spinning Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron, taking the four pitch-black Pure Jade Pills. He stared at the pills radiating pure essence aroma—the resource prepared to break through to the Zenith Phase. Now, these four pills felt small in the face of his Divine Wheel's demands.

  "Total Sacrifice," Zhi Xuan murmured, repeating Ruo Xianxue's words, which now echoed with a cold truth.

  He could no longer break the Blood Chains gradually. He had to destroy his foundation and rebuild it instantly, using the Pure Jade Pills and the pool essence as energy, and the newly understood enlightenment as a template. Failure was a brutal death, an internal explosion that would leave him bloodless and his meridians severed.

  Zhi Xuan took the first Pure Jade Pill. His sapphire eyes radiated icy determination. He did not swallow the pill; instead, he let the Pill melt on the tip of his tongue.

  The dense Jade essence of the pill exploded, not as gentle energy, but as a brutal shockwave, heading directly toward his Divine Wheel. Zhi Xuan clenched his jaw. The pain was immediate, thousands of essence needles piercing every meridian.

  In his Sea of Consciousness, his Divine Wheel spun uncontrollably. The Pure Jade Pill essence collided with his Sealed Black Jade Foundation.

  WHUMMM!

  This was an internal energy war. Zhi Xuan immediately took the second and third Pills, swallowing them at once without hesitation. The amount of essence injected into his body now surpassed what the Blood Transformation realm should be able to tolerate. His meridians swelled, his blood vessels bulged, and a thin mist of spiritual blood began to seep from his pores.

  "Shatter!" Zhi Xuan roared in his mind.

  He focused the spiritual will newly forged from the Eclipse-Destruction enlightenment. The will, cold and absolute, struck his Divine Wheel. The Wheel responded, not by strengthening itself, but by retracting the Black Jade Blood Foundation itself.

  His spiritual blood, the essence he had compressed during the arena battles and seven weeks of cultivation, began to churn, boiling within his blood vessels. This was controlled self-destruction. At the same time, he reached back, taking the fourth Pill. This was the ultimate Pill. He swallowed it, and the most devastating Pure Jade essence explosion struck the core of his Divine Wheel.

  The Black Jade Essence wave locked in Eclipse shattered. The sound of fine cracking—the sound of shattered spiritual chains—echoed in his Sea of Consciousness. Zhi Xuan's spiritual blood, now a boiling slurry, began to flow wildly, releasing the shackles of the Blood Transformation realm foundation that bound him.

  Zhi Xuan felt every drop of his blood released from control, churning, and then... disintegrating.

  His body slumped onto the flat stone. His skin was pale, and his eyes momentarily went white. If another cultivator saw this, they would assume Zhi Xuan had exploded internally. However, this was the truth of Total Sacrifice.

  His spiritual blood was destroyed, but the pure essence of the four Pure Jade Pills immediately took over. The essence, no longer meeting the realm chains, flowed freely, seeking the new template carved by Zhi Xuan's will.

  "Reincarnate!" Zhi Xuan hissed, his voice barely audible, a Dao will spoken.

  He drew the dense jade essence from the pool beneath him. The pitch-black pool water now trembled violently. A gigantic essence vortex formed, drawing thick spiritual mist from the pool and plunging it into Zhi Xuan's pores.

  The pool essence and the dense Pure Jade Pills met. Under the will of the Eclipse-Destruction, Zhi Xuan's destroyed spiritual blood began to reform. It was not recovery; it was a Total Reforging. This reformed blood was much colder, denser, and radiated an essence aura far surpassing the Blood Transformation realm. Every drop of his blood now felt like a small, spinning black jade bead.