Redemption of a Born Demon

Chapter 182 - 173: Testing the Crowd, Loneliness at the Summit

Under Yi Beidou’s gaze, both Wang Chen and Shu Xuanji felt immense pressure.

But they were, after all, the champions of this martial tournament. They would not shrink back under such circumstances. Instead, their fighting spirit was ignited.

They wanted to know just how far the human body could go after Ascension.

"I’ll be the first to test your skills!"

Wang Chen’s eyes flashed as he took a sudden step forward, pushing against Yi Beidou’s aura.

ROAR!!

His Qi, blood, organs, muscles, and sinews resonated in unison, like the roar of a Divine Dragon.

The form and intent of his Fist Technique were utterly unique.

His hands were like an eagle’s talons, his form that of a fierce tiger, his aura that of a male lion, his eyes like a cunning rabbit, and his legs like a swift swallow. He had fused a multitude of forms and intents into one.

Somehow, he had masterfully combined a variety of temperaments—steadiness, ferocity, agility, and sharpness—all within himself.

His skin vibrated—it was Zhan Yi Shiba Die, the Eight Trigrams Dragon Body, the Golden Bell Shield, and the Iron Cloth Shirt. The intense vibration, combined with his high-speed movement, created the illusion that his skin had grown scales.

At the same time, his True Intent erupted. It was not just his own intent; his Fist Technique was also integrated with the great trend of the nation.

He came from humble origins, yet he seized his moment, leaped over the Dragon Gate, and transformed into a true dragon.

He possessed a hundred skills, yet he managed to master and integrate them all, creating his own divine art.

The dragon is the totem of Donghua, a symbol of the nation’s destiny.

The civilization of Donghua is one of ceaseless self-improvement and constant self-transformation. It asks, ’Are kings and nobles destined by birth?’ It does not judge people by their bloodline, valuing heroes who rise from the common folk above all else.

His life experience and his Martial Arts Dao were perfectly in line with this Great Trend of Donghua civilization.

This was why he had been able to overcome all challengers at the Martial Hero Conference and be the first to break through the Saint Formation Barrier.

Wang Chen’s Fist Technique naturally connected with the Great Trend of Donghua, making it majestic and grand, with a captivating True Intent.

In terms of raw physical strength, Wang Chen was inferior to Meng Qianyuan, who possessed Innate Divine Strength. But in terms of Martial Arts True Intent, Meng Qianyuan was no match for him.

ROAR!!

In Yi Beidou’s eyes, the man seemed to transform into a dragon, shattering all obstacles. He carried the momentum of a great river, risking everything in a single gamble to touch a higher realm and achieve an evolution of his very life.

Leaping the Dragon Gate!!

This was the technique Wang Chen had unleashed.

"Not bad."

Yi Beidou nodded slightly, a flicker of approval in his eyes. Wang Chen’s majestic momentum could not move him in the slightest.

His five fingers gently rotated and pinched, opening and closing like the petals of a Lotus.

Flowers bloom and fall; life and death arise from the will.

In that instant, Wang Chen felt as if the rotating fingers were a bottomless vortex.

Heaven and earth, the Great Trend, his True Intent—all of it shattered and disintegrated within the spin of those five fingers.

He had connected with the Great Trend of his nation, but the Great Trend of heaven and earth itself was held in the hands of the man before him.

CLASP!!

In that fleeting moment of daze, Wang Chen felt a hand firmly grasp the wrist of his outstretched arm.

BANG!!

Then, the Blue-White Demon Flame erupted, instantly enveloping his body. He wanted to struggle or dodge, but the Demon Flame entered his system and interfered with his Life Magnetic Field, paralyzing him and rendering him unable to resist.

Yi Beidou yanked his arm. Wang Chen felt his body go light as he was lifted high into the air, flipped over, and then placed back down on the ground.

The surrounding masters from the conference gasped in astonishment as Wang Chen looked down at his feet.

He realized he had landed in the exact same spot where he had been standing before he attacked Yi Beidou.

Wang Chen’s mouth fell slightly agape. He had never imagined that one of his trump cards could be countered so easily.

It had been a long time since he’d had such a feeling. In front of this young man, who was even younger than him, he felt as if he had returned to the days of his childhood when he first began to practice martial arts.

’Could the gap between two Saints really be this enormous?’

Yi Beidou’s gaze left Wang Chen and fell upon Shu Xuanji.

At this moment, Shu Xuanji’s eyes were half-closed, her aura nearly nonexistent, yet she gave Yi Beidou a faint sense of threat.

The feeling gave him a strong sense of déjà vu.

"Watch out!"

The next moment, Shu Xuanji gave a low cry. Her eyes flashed with brilliant light, and to the astonishment of the onlookers, a tangible radiance burst forth from between her brows.

SWOOSH!!

A beam of light shot out from her Mud Ball Palace. It was the size of a palm and as thin as a cicada’s wing, slicing through the surrounding space and sending a chill down everyone’s spine.

A Magic Sword!

She cultivated the arts of a Sword Immortal. Even before reaching the Saint Realm, she had prioritized her Sword Intent. Normally, her Heart Intent was concealed, making her seem unremarkable. But that was because she was "Nurturing the Sword." Once she made a move, it was with razor-sharp killing intent.

And now, after her Ascension, her Sword Intent had condensed into a tangible form, becoming a powerful magnetic field that she could project outside her body. This was how she had truly become a Sword Immortal who had mastered the "Flying Sword Technique."

’The Flying Sword Technique, huh?’

Yi Beidou recalled the recent ambush by the three Ancient One avatars. The Sword Immortal among them had used this very Dharma Gate, and that was the person who had posed the greatest threat to him.

That person’s ancient identity was likely deeply connected to Qingcheng Mountain.

He had been injured by the Flying Sword Technique once before, so he was already on guard against similar attacks. Besides, Shu Xuanji’s Mana was still a far cry from that of the Cyan Sword’s avatar back then; she couldn’t possibly harm him.

He pinched his two fingers together, and the Demon Flame on his palm erupted. The impossibly fast Flying Sword was caught between them.

Shu Xuanji’s pupils contracted. The Flying Sword vibrated violently, but it could not break free from the Demon Flame’s grasp.

Yi Beidou carefully examined the Flying Sword in front of him.

It was different from the one the Cyan Sword’s avatar had used. This Flying Sword wasn’t a single-use weapon. Its magnetic field was a self-contained system, allowing for freer control, greater power, and fewer side effects.

At the very least, Shu Xuanji didn’t drain her entire body with a single use of the Flying Sword, unlike Cyan Sword.

’A lifebound Flying Sword?’

Yi Beidou mused to himself.

It was similar to the Lifebound Soldiers of Lushan—a self-contained entity nurtured alongside the user’s body. In a way, it could be called an "external organ."

If this kind of lifebound true-form magnetic field was nurtured through extended Sacrificial Refining, its power would become even more terrifying, reaching an unfathomable level.

For example, Lushan’s "Ancestral Master’s Soldiers" had been passed down and continuously refined for generations, becoming the ultimate trump card that anchored the sect’s destiny.

And as for that Cyan Sword, an Ancient One... who knew what kind of power a lifebound Magic Sword, sacrificially refined for a thousand years, might possess.

He couldn’t underestimate those old monsters who had lived for countless ages, just based on the performance of a single avatar.

"Don’t use a technique like this so casually next time. If your lifebound weapon is destroyed, you will suffer a backlash as well."

After observing the Flying Sword for a moment, Yi Beidou relaxed the grip of his Demon Flame. With a SWOOSH, the struggling sword flew back to Shu Xuanji, disappearing into her brow.

Hearing Yi Beidou’s words, Shu Xuanji was already covered in a cold sweat.

A Flying Sword was no ordinary object. Its True Qi was so incredibly condensed that, to a certain extent, it could be called indestructible.

After all, at her current stage of just having entered the Saint Realm, she could already produce a visible radiance when using the Flying Sword Technique. One could only imagine how powerful its True Qi was. For an expert of the same realm, simply blocking it with True Intent would be difficult enough, let alone destroying it.

Furthermore, its speed was extreme. Silent and traceless, it was nearly impossible to defend against.

To use an analogy, her Flying Sword was like forged steel. But who could have imagined that the man across from her could not only catch a bullet with his bare hands but also crush steel as if it were mud?

This man’s power could not be measured by common sense.

"Since the rest of you are here, let’s test our skills all at once."

Yi Beidou treated everyone else the same.

The next moment, he formed a hand seal, one finger pointing to the sky and another to the ground, like a divine statue in a temple.

Zizai Dharma Seal, Condensation Dojo.

BOOM!!

The expressions of the remaining Martial Artists from the conference changed. They watched as the Demon Flame spread rapidly from Yi Beidou’s body, enveloping them all.

Their vision blurred. The entire world seemed to shatter and reassemble, turning black and white upside down in a bizarre, chaotic spectacle. Only Yi Beidou remained unchanged in the center of the mayhem.

The Martial Artists who had not yet reached the Saint Realm immediately sat down cross-legged, adopting the most stable posture to resist the world’s chaotic inversion.

But even so, from an outside perspective, their bodies still swayed involuntarily from side to side, looking somewhat comical.

Circulating their Qi and blood was useless.

Unleashing their Fist Intent was useless.

Controlling their breathing was useless.

None of their techniques could dispel the effect.

However, those present were, after all, the most talented Martial Artists of Donghua’s younger generation. One by one, they quickly began to have epiphanies.

They discovered that the key to resisting the effect lay not in the world around them, but within themselves.

Subdue the monkey mind, still the horse of will, focus the spirit, and quiet the Qi. Then, one would naturally be unaffected.

Yi Beidou was affecting their own Life Magnetic Fields.

As they all focused their spirits and quieted their Qi, Yi Beidou did not rush them. He simply maintained the Zizai Dharma Seal, simultaneously affecting everyone present.

Wang Chen and Shu Xuanji had already retreated to one side, watching everything quietly. As time passed, even the unconscious Meng Qianyuan woke up and rejoined the group.

The longer they watched, the more Wang Chen and Shu Xuanji began to feel a sense of suffocation.

It was the kind of feeling one gets from watching someone perform at their absolute limit; even though they weren’t the ones exerting the effort, just watching the entire process left them feeling exhausted and breathless.

For them, sustaining an eruption of a True Intent magnetic field of this magnitude for even ten minutes would have been an incredible feat.

Yet Yi Beidou maintained it for a full hour before retracting the magnetic field.

And he didn’t stop because he couldn’t go on, but because the seated Martial Artists from the conference could no longer endure it.

Everyone was now drenched in sweat, but their eyes shone with a brilliant light.

They had been tempered. Although this experience couldn’t directly help them break through to the Saint Realm, it had undoubtedly enriched their foundations immensely.

As this foundation grew, it would eventually lead to a qualitative transformation.

"Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Yi."

The crowd stood up, bowing and clasping their hands in a sincere salute to Yi Beidou.

In contrast, Yi Beidou was not even flushed or out of breath. It seemed that the hour-long eruption of True Intent was far from his limit and that he could have continued indefinitely.

"All of you must strive onward, lest the road ahead become a lonely one."

Yi Beidou’s voice was calm, yet it held an inexplicable emotion.

In the past, a month like this would have been enough for his power to advance by leaps and bounds. Now, however, he had merely consolidated his realm, with no other significant progress to show for it.

The great completion of his Demon Body meant that the road ahead had become difficult.

In the current world, without resorting to Forbidden Secret Techniques, there were fewer and fewer opponents who could stand against him.

Loneliness is born at the summit.

This, however, was a feeling few others could possibly understand.