A Will Eternal

As the war outside raged like an unstoppable wildfire, the rain vanished within the world of the magical item. Although Bai Xiaochun’s cultivation base didn’t experience a breakthrough, his Undying Blood was now seventy percent complete!

When that happened, Bai Xiaochun became so powerful that the world seemed different to him. It was as if merely looking around caused the light around him to grow darker.

He thrummed with life force to the point where he was fairly certain that although he couldn’t quite live forever… he was very close to that level.

The only sad thing was that there was no way to test his strength. The ghost face was now so weak that he shivered in fear at the mere sight of Bai Xiaochun; doing experiments on him wouldn’t be particularly effective.

However, after some self-examination, he was confident enough to assess himself.

“Even if I only used thirty percent of my cultivation base and fleshly body power, I would be just as strong as I was in the past…. Maybe I'm even strong enough… to fight with a demigod?” He took a deep breath of anticipation at the thought of leaving the world of the magical item and shocking everyone.

“I can still get stronger!” he thought. Exhilarated, he rose to his feet and headed to the last of the four areas in the world, the fire region. Now that the world was bereft of lightning, rain, and wind, it seemed very different from before. Although Bai Xiaochun couldn't be sure, he was fairly certain that, when he went into a trance, he could sense the aura of the baby girl.

“Now that I think about it, she should be close to finishing her work.” After entering the fire region, he found one of the many volcanoes there, where he sat down cross-legged to begin cultivation.

The energy of heaven and earth rushed toward him, slowly pushing his Undying Blood to the eighty percent level. As for his cultivation base, he was now creeping closer and closer to the great circle of the Deva Realm.

By now, he had reached the point where every time he sucked in some of the surrounding spiritual energy, it caused the entire fire region to tremble.

The ghost face could sense what was happening, and it gave birth to increased despair and fear within him. His cultivation base was at the point where he was about to drop from the deva level to the Nascent Soul stage. When that happened, it was likely that if Bai Xiaochun messed with him, he would be killed.

“I have to get out of here….” he thought, weeping. Yet again, he couldn’t help but sympathize with how the Celestial must feel.

“On the outside, I can make mincemeat of this damned Bai Xiaochun!!” The ghost face knew that, once outside of the world of the magical treasure, he would not be restricted and suppressed. He could recover his cultivation base, and be back at the same level he had been at when he had fought the Celestial. And he had long since sworn an oath that, when that happened, he would get payback for all the pain and suffering he had endured by venting on Bai Xiaochun.

As the ghost face wallowed in bitterness, Bai Xiaochun furthered his cultivation, and another year passed.

During that time, Bai Xiaochun did not kill the ghost face…. However, the ghost face wished on many occasions that he could die. The mere fact that he had held on for an entire year seemed like pure luck.

He couldn’t even count how many times Bai Xiaochun had come to beat him up during that time. When Bai Xiaochun was in a good mood, he would beat him once. But if he was in a bad mood, he would beat him over and over again.

It reached the point where the ghost face stopped using his secret magic. Whenever Bai Xiaochun came for him, he would simply lay down and close his eyes in despair….

He had long since reached rock bottom. The more he fought back, the more Bai Xiaochun seemed to enjoy himself, whereas the more he resigned himself to his fate, the more bored he became.

He had now been stuck with Bai Xiaochun for more than two years, and the resulting torment had burned the image of Bai Xiaochun deep into his divine soul, along with a sense of indescribable terror.

As far as he was concerned, Bai Xiaochun was the most fear-inspiring individual he had ever encountered.

Regret plagued him constantly. He regretted even getting close to Bai Xiaochun, and regretted foolishly staying behind when Ghostmother left….

That decision was most likely the worst decision he had ever made in his entire life!

When he had been captured by Ghostmother in the world beyond, he had never experienced torment like this. She had mostly just used him to cast fear into the hearts of her enemies.

On many occasions, he had thought back to that moment when he allowed the Celestial to grab him. At that time, he could never have guessed that fleeing the control of Ghostmother and escaping the Celestial would end up with him being in the clutches of the terrifying Bai Xiaochun.

He had wanted to die on many occasions, and the bitterness he felt had him constantly recalling his past glories to keep himself going.

“This guy is completely inhuman….” Those were the words that echoed in his mind whenever he thought about Bai Xiaochun.

When Bai Xiaochun noticed how the ghost face had given up, and wasn’t even fighting back, he started to feel a bit bad. On the other hand, he enjoyed having turned the tables and being able to beat his own persecutor. On a few occasions, he considered refraining from beating the ghost face, but then he realized that this was a quasi-archaean expert who had relentlessly tried to kill him. The thought of this ghost face very nearly causing him to lose his poor little life ensured that he couldn’t hold back from beating him.

“Now that I think about it, my life is actually pretty legendary. I smacked a demigod, I smacked the Celestial, and now I've smacked a quasi-archaean to the point where he can’t even fight back.” Sighing, he mused that his cultivation base really had become incredibly powerful in the past year.

By now, the flames in the fire region were almost gone. His cultivation base was on the verge of a breakthrough, and his Undying Blood was eighty percent complete.

He was relatively certain that after absorbing the rest of the sea of flames, he would reach the great circle of the Deva Realm!

During the past year, he had sensed the baby girl’s aura growing stronger and stronger. Based on what he could tell, as he had absorbed the spiritual energy from the four main regions in the world, her fusion with the magical item had grown more complete.

“The moment I absorb all of the fire and achieve my breakthrough will definitely be the moment when she fully fuses with the magical item.” Eyes flickering, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture and waved his hands out in front of him.

What remained of the flames began to swirl toward him, surrounding him.

Of course, the fire didn’t hurt him at all. It transformed into spiritual energy which rushed into his pores, converged in his energy passageways, and coursed throughout his body. Then, he used it to fuel the tenth Cloud Lightning Forefather Transformation.

The first nine transformations would lead to the late Deva Realm, with the tenth and eleventh transformations being legendary in nature, and very difficult to cultivate. However, because of how Bai Xiaochun had combined it with the Sun-Moon Vast-Sky Incantation, he was easily able to master it.

Now, if he wanted to achieve his breakthrough, he needed to succeed with the final transformation!

When he did, a blazing sun would appear in his right eye, which would be the perfect foil to the bright moon in his left eye. That would be the ultimate manifestation of the power of the Cloud Lightning Forefather.

Because it was a combination with the Sun-Moon Vast-Sky Incantation, it varied somewhat from Master Cloud Lightning’s version. However, it still surpassed the limits of the technique, and would even be shocking to the person who had originally invented it.

“Cloud Lightning….” Bai Xiaochun murmured, his eyes glittering as the fire rushed toward him.

“Forefather….” Rumbling sounds filled the world of the magical item as Bai Xiaochun trembled, breathed in ragged pants as his cultivation base surged. Suddenly, his right eye turned into something like a black hole that sucked in all of the surrounding flames.

Moments later, the fire region had no flame at all within it!

“Eleventh Transformation!!”

RUUUUUUUUMBLE!!

The world shook violently as his right eye brew brighter and brighter until the image of a sun appeared. At the same time, his cultivation base skyrocketed, breaking through into… the great circle of the Deva Realm!

Bai Xiaochun’s energy rose to incredible heights, shaking the world, causing the ghost face to tremble, causing the lands to quake, and causing the sky to distort. As all of that happened, a face appeared up above.

It was not Bai Xiaochun’s face, but rather… the baby girl’s!

Her eyes were closed, as though this were a critical moment in her journey to becoming the spirit automaton.

Bai Xiaochun rose to his feet, ignoring the baby girl and instead lifting his right hand. Upon clenching it, cracking sounds erupted out, and he felt his blood surging through his body. At the same time, he began to glow with crimson light, as though he had become some sort of blood divinity!

An indescribable pressure began to weigh down around him, crushing everything in the area. If any disciple from the Blood Stream Division had been here to see him, they would have been shaken to the core, and would have been convinced that they were looking at… their Blood Ancestor!

“Undying Blood… eighty percent complete!”