After passing through the tunnel, Xiao Hua stepped into a world divided by two opposing forces.
On one side, twenty-two blazing suns hung suspended in the void, each radiating a distinct aura and hue. With every breath, they shed endless streams of flame, weaving together into a vast, multicolored sea that surged and roared beneath them. The heat here was so intense it warped the void itself, burning through existence with unrelenting might.
On the other side, endless dark clouds churned, heavy with the rumble of thunder. Within their depths, nine colossal lightning dragons of differing colors and auras coiled and danced with unrestrained majesty. Every movement of their vast bodies sent arcs of lightning lashing outward, each strike powerful enough to shatter the void and erase all life it touched.
Fortunately, the protective veil bestowed upon him by Lady Azure and Xue Yue shielded him from their overwhelming might. Without it, his body and soul would have been torn apart or burned to nothing the moment he set foot in this place.
Even so, a chilling sensation lingered at the edge of his senses—the scent of death and utter extinction. He understood clearly: without this thin veil, there would be no peaceful end for him here… only complete obliteration.
It was fortunate that he had closed his divine eyes before entering. Had he not, the sheer brilliance of this realm would have seared them to nothing. Even the eyes formed through his heart and mind would have been shattered beyond recovery, never to awaken again.
"I must be swift… this protection will not last long," Xiao Hua murmured, his tone steady yet laced with urgency.
He sat cross-legged upon the thin boundary where the two opposing forces met and closed his eyes. His hands forming a seal as he began to draw them in—slowly, carefully—allowing his body to adapt to their terrifying might.
As the two forces seeped into him, Xiao Hua instinctively refined them. The searing blaze of the twenty-two flames and the lethal ferocity of the nine lightnings surged within him, filling his body with the deep agony of burning and piercing pain.
Yet he did not falter. This was the only path forward, and he would bear it, no matter the cost.
Meanwhile, his consciousness sank inward, descending into the square of his inner world through the Chaos Mantra he had cultivated.
Though his physical body remained seated, his inner figure rose, extending one hand toward a radiant lotus of twenty-two petals that shimmered in countless hues, and the other toward nine towering pillars wrapped in crackling lightning.
Flames streamed from his left palm, merging into the lotus, which flared with dazzling divine light as its petals slowly unfurled. From his right palm, arcs of lightning surged into the nine pillars, which roared to life, crackling with a majestic and oppressive aura that shook his inner world.
These flames and lightnings were the essence he had successfully refined, now offered to the lotus and pillars to nourish their awakening.
As the lotus and the nine pillars swelled with power, the entire square stirred to life. Brilliant rays burst forth from both the lotus and the pillars, intertwining with a radiant light that rose from the hollow where the Celestial Ancient Frost floated.
Those lights gathered in midair, weaving together to form a luminous bridge that spanned the chasm, linking the platform to the distant staircase.
Yet Xiao Hua did not move toward it. Instead, he remained seated where he was, steadily channeling the remaining strength into the lotus and pillars, ensuring the bridge would fully take shape this time.
Agonizing pain coursed through his body, yet his expression stayed serene—no ripples of joy, no trace of worry, not even the slightest flicker of emotion. His eyes remained closed, his mind unwavering, wholly immersed in the process.
Time slipped from his grasp. He could no longer sense its flow and simply cast it aside.
Whether moments or millennia passed, it mattered not. For Xiao Hua, there was only this: to absorb and refine the remnants of the twenty-two Primordial Heavenly Flames and nine Heavenly Lightnings.
Besides, the protective veil shielding him would endure for less than a month. Why should he care for the passage of time when every breath mattered more than days?
Slowly yet surely, the two forces outside seeped into his body, following the path revealed by the Chaos Mantra as he refined them.
As time flowed on, his body gradually adapted to their destructive might. Bit by bit, he began to increase his rate of absorption and refinement. The progress was agonizingly slow—like the crawl of a snail—yet it was undeniably accelerating.
However, just as he was steadily advancing, a ripple of unease stirred his focus. He could feel the protective veil weakening, its strength fraying like threads on the verge of breaking. Without hesitation, he called out to Lady Azure and Xue Yue, who instantly responded and pulled him out the moment they sensed his call.
No sooner had he emerged than the protective veil dissolved into faint motes of light, crumbling under their solemn gazes.
"Are you okay?" Lady Azure asked softly.
Though she often teased him, her eyes now carried only pure concern, the warmth of an elder sister laid bare.
"I'm fine… Once I've fully rested, I can continue…" Xiao Hua replied, his ragged breaths gradually steadying.
"Don't be reckless. Your well-being matters far more than this," Xue Yue chided. Her voice was cool as ever, yet beneath that icy tone lingered a quiet thread of worry.
"Sister Xue Yue is right. Take at least a full week to recover before attempting it again," Lady Azure said with a firm nod.
Xiao Hua let out a faint, bitter smile. To see the usually aloof Xue Yue and the playful Lady Azure acting like this… it was clear he had truly been pushing himself too far.
He nodded, saying nothing more, and returned to the Dou Qi Continent through the spatial tunnel his sisters had opened for him. What surprised him was that he reappeared at the very same place from which he had departed—yet no one had noticed his absence from the plane.
He now understood why it had taken them two and a half years to open the spatial tunnel leading beyond the Dou Qi Continent.
It was not only to prevent the remaining forces from leaking out of that unique space when he left the Dou Qi Continent, but also to ensure that no one—not even those watching over the Dou Qi Continent—could detect his departure or return.
Regardless, he sat down once more, centering his breath as he sought to restore his condition to its peak. Only then would he resume the arduous task of absorbing and refining the remaining might of the flames and lightnings.
…
Since the day he began absorbing and refining the lingering power of the twenty-two flames and nine lightnings, Xiao Hua's life had settled into an unchanging cycle—recovering his strength, then returning to the ceaseless grind of cultivation.
At times, he would pause for over a week to tend to his future wives and his student, yet even then, he never truly halted his path.
Days blurred together, each one marked by flames consumed and lightning refined. Within this relentless rhythm, five months passed like fleeting sparks fading into the night sky.
Yet his efforts bore fruit at last. He had fully absorbed the remaining strength of the twenty-two Primordial Heavenly Flames and nine Heavenly Lightnings, and the radiant bridge leading to the sealing formation of the second level finally stood complete.
"Ha…ha…"
Xiao Hua's expression pale and breaths came heavy and ragged, each one scraping his lungs like molten iron. His limbs trembled, drained of all strength, while his mind teetered on the edge of collapse. Even the faintest stir of thought felt like grinding broken glass against his soul. Five months of torment had stripped him hollow, leaving only willpower to keep his body upright.
And yet, despite the hollow ache gnawing at his core, his eyes remained calm—unyielding, unwavering—as though pain itself no longer had the right to touch him.
Repeatedly drawing in long, deep breaths, Xiao Hua's seated figure gradually steadied his breathing, regaining his composure. The pallor on his face slowly gave way to a faint flush of vitality. In time, his condition reached its peak, and the lingering exhaustion dissipated like mist under the sun.
"Hu…"
With a long exhale of turbid air, Xiao Hua rose to his feet. As he stretched, the stiffness in his body yielded, and a series of crisp cracks echoed from his bones, releasing the tension that had built up from sitting too long beneath such heavy strain.
Without pause, he stepped forward—passing the lotus that radiated twenty-two shimmering glows, the nine crackling lightning pillars, and the hole where the Celestial Ancient Frost slumbered—moving straight toward the radiant bridge.
His steps were slow yet steady, carrying no hesitation. One after another, they brought him across the bridge, until at last he stood before the stairway that ascended toward the sealed formation.
He lifted his head, eyes narrowing as he gazed at the long stairwell before him, his expression deep and unreadable. From afar, it had seemed neither tall nor distant—yet now, standing before it, the staircase felt impossibly vast, as though it sought to pierce the heavens themselves.
At the summit, an ancient altar stood in solemn silence. Yet what truly unsettled him was the vague silhouette hovering above it—something he had not seen when he first arrived here.
Drawing in a steady breath, Xiao Hua braced himself. He did not know what had triggered this sudden change, but hesitation was no longer a luxury he could afford. Without another pause, he strode forward, each step ringing with resolve.
Buzz—!
The stairwell trembled. The indistinct figure above suddenly erupted with a crushing might, bearing down upon him like the weight of the firmament itself, seeking to force him to his knees before the heavens—and before it.
The pressure did not only assail his flesh. It speared into his mind and spirit.
In his eyes, the once-blurred figure was no longer vague. It loomed like a living, breathing god.
Its spirit, its aura, its divine will—everything about it crashed down on his soul, mind, and body all at once, drowning him in the instinctive urge to kneel.
"Bastard… I've just endured the twenty-two flames and nine lightnings, and now you dare try to make me kneel? This father kneels to no heaven, no god—least of all a blurry silhouette pretending to be one!"
Xiao Hua roared toward the sky, his voice like a dragon that bows to no heaven, like a phoenix that yields to no god.
His path had been carved through endless suffering, yet never once had he bowed. He might suffer defeat, he might bleed, but never would he kneel.
Except for his parents… and his two elder sisters, Lady Azure and Xue Yue—before all others, he shall bow to none!
"You want me to stop? To give up on uncovering the truth behind my countless reincarnations? To surrender and be content with this current life? That won't happen so easily!"
Xiao Hua's heterochromatic eyes—crimson on the left and cyan on the right—turned razor-sharp as a sneer tugged at his lips. Without a hint of hesitation, he stepped forward on the stairwell.
Unmoved by his defiance, the blurry silhouette released another wave of force, the pressure surging tenfold in an instant.
Yet Xiao Hua remained unmoved. Even if this crushing weight grew by a hundredfold, a thousandfold, or even a millionfold, he would still stride forward. He would not kneel, nor would he allow even a single so-called god to dwell within his heart.
As the teachings of Buddhism declare: if there is a Buddha in your heart, it is hard for you to become a Buddha. In one of the novels he had read in his previous life on Earth, it was written: It is easy to destroy the god in the temple, but difficult to destroy the god in your heart.
The gods that dwell within one's heart are all false gods, strange gods. Only by shattering them—by defying them—can one prevent their chains from rooting in the heart and instead erect the presence of one's own god within.
The strength of a true practitioner does not lie merely in the might of his techniques. More than that, it is the indomitable spirit that defines his path.
If one's spirit falters before even a vague and indistinct silhouette, then no matter how powerful one becomes… they are nothing but a failure!
Ever since Xiao Hua was reincarnated into the Dou Qi Continent, he had walked this path with a single, unwavering belief:
Even if he bled without end…
Even if agony carved through his soul…
Even if defeat crushed him countless times…
He would kneel to no one—and to no heaven!
His steps did not halt, nor did his stride falter, as he climbed the endless stairs with unshakable will. At a certain height, he could feel his strength slowly draining away, his spiritual power crumbling bit by bit. Though this sudden weakness shocked him, he never stopped.
He caught sight of the remaining steps—more than a few hundred thousand still awaited. Yet he did not waver. He moved on, undaunted and unafraid.
Each step he took was like a spear aimed at the heavens:
A thrust to pierce the firmament,
A sweep to overturn mountains,
A spin to stir the seas,
And a strike to anchor the earth itself.
He would not halt.
He would reach the summit!
…
The stairwell stretched into the void, soaring endlessly toward the sky where the sealing formation hovered above.
At this moment, a lone crimson figure was climbing that endless stairway.
That figure was Xiao Hua—and the crimson was his own blood, soaking into his tattered robes. He had believed this place existed only within his spiritual world, yet his physical body had somehow been drawn here without his knowing.
Cracks marred his flesh as blood seeped from countless wounds, flowing down his body like scarlet streams. His figure was riddled with fractures, his soul flickering on the edge of collapse—yet still blazing with a spirit of unyielding defiance.
Each step left a trail of blood, but never a puddle, for he never stopped moving. Each stride made his soul tremble, yet he did not bow, no matter how the pressure grew.
At this moment, his cultivation had completely vanished, and his spiritual strength had scattered like mist. It was as if he had been stripped back to a mortal—an ordinary man without the slightest trace of training.
Time passed… yet Xiao Hua continued to climb.
His vision had grown hazy, his heart weary, and his steps grew ever slower. At this point, only sheer will kept his body moving.
At last, his stride faltered. His feet came to a halt as he felt his consciousness slipping away, drifting like sand through his fingers.
He no longer knew how long he had been climbing. Time had become meaningless to him, slipping beyond his grasp. He no longer knew how many stairs he had conquered—or how many still remained. He had long since stopped counting, moving forward like a lifeless corpse driven by nothing but stubborn defiance.
With great effort, he lifted his head and stared at the distant blurry silhouette far above.
Its aura was cold and indifferent, and it looked down upon him as though gazing at nothing more than a crawling maggot.
"…Am I… truly going to fall here?" Xiao Hua muttered, his voice hoarse and trembling. His knees quivered, and his body swayed like a candle battered by the wind. "After all I've endured… after all the blood I've shed… will it end here?"
His eyelids drooped as darkness crept in from the edges of his mind, threatening to swallow him whole.
But then, within the dimming depths of his soul, a spark flickered—faint yet unyielding.
"No…" he whispered. The word trembled yet carried the weight of an unbroken will. "No… I will not fall here."
With effort, he raised his head, eyes bloodshot, glaring at the distant silhouette as if to pierce through its cold indifference.
"I have stood amidst the blazing twenty-two flames of the Primordial Heavenly Flames… endured the unending descent of nine Heavenly Lightnings and their trials."
His voice rose into a roar that shook the endless stairwell.
"This alone will never be enough to make me yield—nor kneel!"
With that roar, his dim eyes blazed once more with defiance. His trembling legs moved, dragging his battered body forward. Blood spilled with every step, yet he pushed on.
Each stride was heavier than the last, yet fiercer than the one before. His soul trembled, yet his will surged higher than ever.
No matter how the heavens pressed down, he would stand tall.
No matter how gods glared down, he would rise to meet their gaze.
Step by step, like a dying beast forcing its heart to beat, Xiao Hua continued to climb toward the top of the stairwell—toward the blurry god that sought to crush him.
While Xiao Hua struggled onward, step by step, he failed to notice the dazzling rays of light that suddenly shot forth from the staircase behind him.
One by one, the steps began to dissolve, fading into strands of light that rose toward the heavens.
Brilliant lights of myriad colours danced through the air behind him before surging toward his slowly climbing figure and pouring into his battered body.
Xiao Hua's entire frame jolted violently.
Sensing the strange phenomenon at last, he jerked his head around—and saw golden light swirling like flocks of birds, darting through the air above the square beneath the staircase, all rushing toward him.
Even the crimson blood that had spilled from his wounds and stained the stairs began to stir. Only then did he notice something peculiar—though much time had passed since he first began his ascent, the blood had not dried.
The blood rose, entwining with the flowing light as it streamed back into him.
The countless cracks within his body swiftly knit together, the exhaustion clouding his soul melted away, and his waning cultivation began to rise once more.
Furthermore, once the crimson blood re-entered his body, it underwent a baptism of sorts—its hue shifting from one shade to another. Within three breaths, the transformation reached its end.
The once-crimson blood had become a dazzling brilliance of myriad colors. It now radiated an incomparably rich vitality, brimming with boundless life force—as though infused with the essence of immortality itself.
Moreover, it gleamed with a divine luster, akin to the radiance of a god. Yet within that glow lingered a transcendent aura, reminiscent of an immortal untouched by the dust of the mortal world. At times, it exuded a pure and peerless grace, like a celestial maiden whose beauty could silence the heavens.
In its stillness, it carried the serene profundity of a Zen master who had merged with the Dao. And when it surged, it roared with a sinister majesty, like a heavenly demon whose mere existence inspired both dread and reverence.
The sight of those countless lights and sensation of auras left Xiao Hua shaken, for he could not fathom the reason behind such a transformation within his blood.
Yet as strength filled his body, vitality coursed through his veins, energy nourished his soul, and his spirit blazed with renewed brilliance, Xiao Hua's expression lit up—followed by a flash of realization.
This staircase… it had not been testing his strength, but his heart—whether he could remain steadfast and unwavering even before a seemingly hopeless goal.
Xiao Hua slowly closed his eyes.
In that instant, the endless staircase suddenly shortened, its countless steps vanishing until the altar lay just before him.
For a staircase forged to temper the heart, once the heart had been tempered, there was no longer any need for its length to remain.
At last, Xiao Hua stood upon the altar—and before him loomed the mysterious, blurry silhouette.
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