I am the villain in the book

One step, two steps, three steps.

Slowly walking through the corpse pile that resembled a purgatory, Wei Changtian sometimes stopped, sometimes swung his blade, his shoulders covered in the faint golden light cast by the Tathagata's illusory figure.

Above him was the golden Buddha, saving all living beings, and beneath his feet were countless white bones.

This scene actually looked somewhat ironic.

Buddhism believes that all living beings are in the cycle of endless kalpas, and its ultimate goal is to transcend reincarnation and help all living beings achieve liberation.

But obviously, "death" is not liberation.

Therefore, I don't know what the Buddha, if he really existed, would think when he saw this scene.

Would he sigh that the sins of the world are deep, and the task of saving all living beings is arduous and far-reaching?

Or would he shake his head and lament that sentient beings are difficult to save?

Wei Changtian didn't know any of this, nor would he even think about it.

He just silently walked in this purgatory, each step particularly heavy.

Although he had already witnessed the deaths of more than 100,000 people in the thunder and fire at Niutou Mountain, this was the first time he had come into such close contact with so many corpses.

Initially, Wei Changtian would occasionally give those seriously injured soldiers a quick end, or give those with less severe injuries a medicinal pill.

But now, as he walked further and further, his vision gradually became numb.

...

Without saying a word, he walked from south to east, and then from east to north.

He didn't know how long it had been, nor how many corpses he had seen.

Wei Changtian just walked silently, and the qi sea in his dantian was expanding little by little.

Yes.

Tonight, he was going to use these vast bones to break through to the Second Rank.

Ever since Wei Changtian absorbed the cultivation of the snake demon in Huangfeng Valley, he had already stepped into the peak of the Third Rank, only one step away from the Second Rank.

Unlike the breakthrough from the Fourth Rank to the Third Rank, which requires experiencing a "hurdle", the breakthrough from the Third Rank to the Second Rank is normally just a process of accumulating internal energy.

As long as you can accumulate a massive amount of cultivation, you can break through to the Second Rank.

However, the reality is that it is very difficult to enter the Second Rank in one's lifetime with only sixty meridians open.

After all, it also takes a lot of time to cultivate from the Ninth Rank to the Third Rank, and there is also the very difficult threshold of "Four to Three" in the middle. After all the tossing and turning, one is almost seventy or eighty years old.

Therefore, almost all martial artists in the Second Rank have the same talent as Wei Changtian, with all sixty-four meridians open.

And it takes these people about ten years to go "from Three to Two".

Ten years is undoubtedly a very small time span in those fantasy novels that often involve hundreds or thousands of years of seclusion.

But in this world where human lifespan is at most just over a hundred years, it is not short.

At the very least, even Wei Xianzhi and Qin Caizhen, who are already middle-aged, have not yet broken through to the Second Rank, and are still at the peak of the Third Rank.

And when they really step into the Second Rank, it is estimated that they will be in their fifties or sixties.

Of course, the above can only be regarded as "normal speed".

People like Xiao Feng, the thirteen Children of Heaven, and even the Kui Dragon people who control a lot of resources, must cultivate faster.

How much faster depends on their opportunities, but it is definitely more than a little faster than ordinary martial artists.

And Wei Changtian is obviously also in this rank.

And he is the most exaggerated one...

It has only been two years since he transmigrated, and as a result, he has soared all the way from the Seventh Rank to the current peak of the Third Rank.

And if there are no accidents, he will break through to the Second Rank tonight.

In two years, others may have just crossed a small realm, while Wei Changtian has crossed five major realms.

This kind of thing cannot even be called "incredible", and ordinary people probably wouldn't even dare to think about it in their dreams.

But it really happened.

Devouring demons, devouring souls, the True Dragon's forehead scale... these supernatural powers, props, and the dead demons and people, all played a crucial role in this process.

Especially the True Dragon's forehead scale.

Although at first glance, it seems like Wei Changtian is wasting it by using it to break through to the Third Rank, it helped Wei Changtian "skip" the "hurdle" that is enough to stump 99% of martial artists.

In other words, if Wei Changtian hadn't been willing to use the forehead scale at the beginning, he would probably only be at the Fourth Rank right now.

Fourth Rank, thinking about it now, it really isn't enough.

Even with "Dream Dao", "Ten Thousand Blades 引", "Starry Sky Knife Sheath" these props and supernatural powers that can greatly increase combat power, and even with the system as a great cheat.

But after experiencing so many things, Wei Changtian realized that the realm is still the most critical.

For example, right now, as long as he breaks through to the Second Rank, his overall combat power can be increased by a large margin again, and basically there will be no more opponents except for Qin Zhengqiu.

Even when facing ordinary Second Rank martial artists, he can completely kill the opponent in a very short period of time.

And when the strength reaches this level, many problems will no longer be problems.

Uh, all fear stems from insufficient firepower?

Suddenly, Wei Changtian inexplicably thought of this sentence from his previous life.

Although it's a joke, it's quite reasonable to think about it carefully...

Curling his lips, Wei Changtian didn't continue to think wildly, but cleared a small space and sat cross-legged in the corpse pile.

He wasn't tired from walking, but at that moment, the qi sea in his dantian finally reached the limit where it could no longer expand.

Then what's next is—

Huh?!

Outside Fengyuan City, in the corpse pile, there was no wind and no sound, only one person sat alone with his eyes closed.

Everything around him obviously hadn't changed.

But in Wei Changtian's eyes, when he activated his internal energy to try to break through to the Second Rank, all the scenes disappeared.

The illusory figure of the Tathagata above his head, the broken limbs and remains around him, the moon in the night sky whose light was taken away by the Buddha's light, the distant, blurry army camp...

Whether it was clearly visible or vaguely invisible, everything disappeared.

The entire world was left with only a strange white light, constantly zooming in, and then zooming in again, quickly building a pure white illusion in the void.

Illusion?

What's going on?

Although he was in an illusion, Wei Changtian's thinking remained normal, so after a brief moment of stunnedness, he had a rough guess.

If there were no accidents, this should be the "hurdle" that should have appeared when breaking through to the Third Rank.

Although the True Dragon's forehead scale allowed Wei Changtian to "skip" the hurdle, this thing did not disappear, but was postponed to the time when he broke through to the Second Rank.

Well, sure enough, I still have to go through this sooner or later.

Shaking his head helplessly, Wei Changtian's expression was not very nervous at this time.

Regarding the issue of the "hurdle", he had asked many people before, but the answers he got were ambiguous.

Obviously, everyone was unwilling to mention this matter again.

If combined with the scattered descriptions in "Martial Arts Great Pinnacle", Wei Changtian had actually already had a rough guess about the "hurdle".

Hurdle, a hurdle in the heart.

In everyone's life, there must be some past that is either guilt, regret, regret, or unwillingness.

Although you feel that you have long forgotten these things, they are still affecting you for a long time, until you completely see through them and think about them.

And "passing the hurdle" undoubtedly refers to this process.

"Huff."

Moving his body a bit, he heavily exhaled a breath of stale air.

Looking at the two silhouettes that were slowly emerging from the white light, Wei Changtian knew that he was about to face the hurdle in his heart that he couldn't get over the most.

But to be honest, even now he can't be sure what this is.

Xiao Feng?

That girl named Liu Yingying?

You Jia?

Li Wutong?

Or the people he killed?

Who knows...

Narrowing his eyes, Wei Changtian stared intently at the two silhouettes that were changing from illusion to reality, and countless possibilities flashed quickly in his mind.

When he faced "阎罗" in Fengyuan, he had already had an experience of falling into the "Heart Demon Illusion", so he had already made all the psychological preparations.

But just as the two silhouettes slowly transformed into a man and a woman, Wei Changtian still widened his eyes in disbelief, and his body trembled suddenly.

He never thought that the people appearing in front of him at this time would actually be—

"Dad, Mom."

"You, why are you here..."