A Will Eternal

“The Undying Emperor’s Fist....” Bai Xiaochun murmured, his emotions surging and his eyes shining. He could already visualize himself, looking down at his opponent disdainfully as he unleashed the Undying Emperor’s Fist to shocking effect.

After a moment, he took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. On the one hand, the Undying Emperor’s Fist could be used as a trump card, drawing upon all of the strength in his body, blessing it, and then using that force to destroy everything in his path. On the other hand, after using it, he would be completely drained, and incredibly weak in terms of his fleshly body.

For the time being, the Undying Emperor’s Fist could definitely only be used as a trump card!

At the moment, it was not something he could just casually use. Generally speaking, it could only be unleashed after reaching the third stratum of the Tempered Bones.

“The fourth level of the Undying Codex... the Undying Bones. To cultivate it, I’ll need so much life force it's difficult to even wrap my mind around it. The third level can’t even compare to it. It would be much easier back in the Heavenspan River region, where I can concoct medicine.” The mere thought of the difficulties involved in cultivating the Undying Live Forever Technique left Bai Xiaochun frowning in anxiety.

“The Wildlands are barren and infertile... I need something that can stand in for life force.” After putting some thought into it, he couldn’t come up with any good ideas. He considered soul medicines, but although they were used like spirit stones by Wildlands soul cultivators, they didn’t contain much life force. After all, they were concocted using souls.

“Maybe I could find some common precious materials and then perform tenfold spirit enhancements on them.... If I enhanced them high enough, they would eventually have indescribable levels of power.” That was the only good idea he had come up with so far.

Taking a deep breath, he sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to utilize the methods described in the fourth level of the Undying Codex to cultivate Undying Bones. Before long, cracking sounds could be heard inside of him. They started out soft, but after enough time passed for two incense sticks to burn, they became so loud that they were like thunder in his ears.

From the nature of that sound, it was easy to tell that Bai Xiaochun’s bones were undergoing profound transformations.

All of his flesh and blood seemed to be quivering, as though incredible pressure were weighing down on them. At the same time, streams of life force power were coursing into his bones.

His skeletal system as a whole was like a black hole, emanating a terrifying gravitational force that sucked in all the life force around it.... At the same time, drastic transformations occurred.

As the process continued, the rumbling sounds grew more intense, and he began to tremble visibly. Sweat even began to pour down him. And then, he gradually realized that his fleshly body was showing signs of withering!

As soon as that happened, he opened his eyes and ceased cultivating. His eyes flickered with bright light, and he frowned.

“I can't keep going. After only two incense sticks’ worth of time, all of the vestiges of life force from the medicinal pills I’ve consumed over the years were sucked away.... Cultivating the Undying Bones is terrifying!

“If I had kept going, it would have damaged the very foundations of my life force!” Shock still lingered within him as he looked down at his hands, and he suddenly sucked in a breath.

“I still haven’t reached the first stratum of the Tempered Bones... and yet I can already tell that my defensive capabilities have improved.” Although it was obvious to him that he was tempering his bones, it also felt as though he were tempering his body as a whole, and making it more pure.

After a moment of thought, he sighed. There was no need to get anxious about the matter. What he needed to do was simply wait until he could find something to stand in for life force, and then resume his cultivation.

“I can tell that if I had enough life force... then I could actually complete the Undying Bones in one shot! The obstacle I face now has nothing to do with time spent cultivating, just life force!” His eyes glittered brightly for a moment before he calmed himself down again. After checking on his cultivation base, and observing his nascent soul for a bit, his aura was beginning to thrum with fluctuations just like before.

“I had a bit of control power within my Gold Core. I wonder why I can’t sense it now that my core has become a nascent soul?” After some thought, he simply couldn’t figure out why that was, except for the possibility that it was connected to his lack of Nascent Soul-level techniques....

“What a pity. Could it be that my Human-Controlling Grand Magic... has been hidden away somehow? Why can’t I feel it? I wonder what other strange things are going to happen now that I'm in the Heaven-Dao Nascent Soul stage!?” It really was true that he didn’t know much about the Heaven-Dao Nascent Soul stage. In truth, few people in the world knew about it, other than the Celestial.

In fact, Bai Xiaochun had the premonition that the miraculous secrets of the Heaven-Dao Nascent Soul would only be uncovered by contemplation on his part.

“For now, I just won't worry about my control power or the Undying Live Forever Technique. Medicinal pills are too rare in the Wildlands. Plus, I don’t have any Nascent Soul techniques. If I want to speed up my cultivation, then there’s only one way to do it....” His eyes shone brightly as a smile of anticipation appeared on his face.

“For anyone else, it would be a deadly risk, but for me... it won’t be dangerous at all!

“Most importantly, it will serve to rapidly increase my cultivation base! I can advance by leaps and bounds! In fact, this will be the most rapidly that my cultivation base has ever improved in my entire life!

“The time has come... to perform some spirit enhancements on my nascent soul!!” Bai Xiaochun’s eyes shone with determination, and didn’t contain the slightest bit of hesitation. He waved his finger, and dazzling light shot out as the turtle-wok appeared.

Thankfully, he had built up quite a stockpile of souls because of all the gifts that he had been given recently. Using them, he was quickly able to create everything from one— to fourteen-colored flame. At that point, he closed his eyes and settled his cultivation base. Then, his nascent soul's eyes opened, and he stepped out of his fleshly body in nascent soul form to appear out in the open!

He shivered at the sensation of being out in the open as a nascent soul; it was almost as if there were some type of frigid qi in the area that he could only detect as a nascent soul. Actually, nascent souls were particularly sensitive to frigid qi, and reacted to it in much the way that a mortal would react if placed naked into a snowy field.

In fact, being in contact with intense frigid qi for too long could cause irreparable damage to nascent souls. Bai Xiaochun could tell that clearly. Actually, there were many things in heaven and earth that could injure and destroy nascent souls, with frigid qi being only one of them. The fleshly body was like a boat, and without that vessel, the nascent soul was like a baby tossed into the ocean....

If any other Nascent Soul cultivator had been present to see Bai Xiaochun bring his nascent soul out into the open, that person would be so shocked they might not believe what they were seeing. Generally speaking, it was impossible for one's nascent soul to emerge after having just stepped into the Nascent Soul stage. Not even extremely strong nascent soul cultivators could do it. The blow struck to it by the frigid qi that naturally existed in heaven and earth would be too severe.

Not even people in the mid Nascent Soul stage would do such a thing lightly. And if they did bring their nascent soul out into the open, they wouldn't do so for very long. Only people in the late Nascent Soul stage, or perhaps those who had reached the great circle, would have nascent souls strong enough to bring them out into the open and face the frigid qi of the world....

The only people who could ignore such frigid qi... were devas!

But here Bai Xiaochun was, just having stepped into the Nascent Soul stage, and already having brought his nascent soul out into the open. Although his nascent soul seemed to be struggling, it wasn’t being hurt. Clearly, that was because this was a Heaven-Dao Nascent Soul!

“It's freezing out here!” he said through his nascent soul’s mouth. Then he turned back to look at his fleshly body, which was a very strange experience. After looking at himself for a moment, he burst into motion, flying over to sit cross-legged in the turtle-wok.

“So, does this count as cooking myself...?” he muttered. Reaching out with his tiny nascent soul hand, he felt at the surface of the wok. “Well, cooking it is.... I just need to add some fire.”

A strange expression could be seen on his face as his right hand flashed with an incantation gesture, and then he waved his finger. Immediately, the one-colored tongue of flame flew out and merged into the turtle-wok. Moments later, a design appeared on the wok that then began to shine with dazzling light.

He was confident in what he was doing, but still felt nervous. After all, when all was said and done... he was performing a spirit enhancement on himself.

If anything went wrong... Bai Xiaochun could only imagine what it would be like if everyone thought he had been in secluded meditation for too long, and the giant ghost king finally came and opened up his meditation chamber to find... a deliciously stir-fried nascent soul waiting for him.

He shivered at the terrifying thought, and even considered flying out of the turtle-wok. However, that was when intense rumbling sounds began to echo out.

He screamed as silver light rose up, completely inundating him. The energy of heaven and earth erupted from the wok, pouring into his nascent soul.

Booming rumbles filled his mind!

Eventually, the sounds faded away, and the silver light disappeared. Bai Xiaochun in nascent soul form flew up into the air, looking terrified. Moments ago, he had felt like a rowboat being tossed about on enormous, angry waves.

“Terrifying! This isn’t spirit enhancement, this is playing with death!” At this point, he decided that he should just give up. However, when he looked down at his nascent soul, he suddenly realized... that there was a silver design on it!

Furthermore, his nascent soul seemed somehow different from before....