A bell toll that seemed to come from the dawn of creation itself reverberated out from within his body!
Where the bell waves passed, the hidden assassin’s form shattered; the curse master’s runes backlashed upon himself; and the Dark Giant Spirit’s warhammer, along with its arm, broke apart inch by inch!
The three great Dark True Immortals, despite joining forces, were defeated by Lu Xuan in a nearly crushing fashion with a single strike! Two died, and one fled with grievous wounds!
This battle thoroughly established Lu Xuan’s fearsome name upon the border battlefield.
The titles “Golden Crow War God” and “Supreme Immortal-Slayer” spread without wings.
His existence was like a banner, greatly inspiring the morale of the Divine Kingdom’s side.
Deep within the Xi Huang Divine Palace, Xi Huang had been watching the battlefield all along.
When she saw Lu Xuan manifest that phantom containing three kinds of ultimate Dao resonance, a look of understanding—and a trace of true shock—finally appeared in her eyes.
“Three Corpses… severing the self… So that is it… His Dao has already reached such a point…”
Xi Huang murmured to herself.
“Perhaps… he truly is that ‘variable’…”
As for Lu Xuan, through repeated bloody battles and counterattacks against those above his realm, his control over his own power grew ever more exquisite, and his understanding of the practical application of the “Severing the Three Corpses” method deepened further.
He could feel that he was only one opportunity, one deeper insight, away from breaking through the Supreme barrier and stepping into the realm of True Immortals.
He remained active on the most dangerous battlefields, seeking stronger opponents and tempering his own Dao.
His campaign was still continuing.
Again and again, he slew True Immortals above his realm, cutting down generals and seizing banners amid armies of countless soldiers.
The name “Golden Crow Lu Xuan” had become a legend on the border battlefield, and also a thorn in the eye of the dark camp—one they longed to remove as quickly as possible.
However, Lu Xuan did not become complacent because of his successive victories. Instead, he came to understand his own situation even more clearly—the cultivation of a Supreme had its limits after all.
Facing encirclements by Dark True Immortals who grew increasingly cunning and whose cooperation became ever more tacit,
and even the occasional pressure from dark commanders whose auras were comparable to Immortal Kings, he felt an increasingly heavy burden.
Conventional paths of breakthrough, such as secluded bitter cultivation and breathing in and out primal energy, seemed far too slow in this situation of raging war, where time waited for no one.
He needed a faster, fiercer path—one that better suited his current circumstances and his own Great Dao!
He thought of the legends of “Battle Immortals” in later generations—those who did not rely on the accumulation of long years,
who did not depend on piling up external resources, but who, amid ultimate battle and slaughter, comprehended their own Dao on the thin line between life and death, nourishing battle with battle, proving the Dao through killing, and forcibly shattering the barriers of realm!
This was an incomparably perilous road, one with nine deaths and one chance of life. Since ancient times, many had attempted it, but few had succeeded.
Yet in Lu Xuan’s eyes, flames ignited.
“Secluded cultivation is a path, and so is campaigning through blood and fire! I bear the vision of an Immortal King, wield the method of Severing the Three Corpses, and have the protection of the Chaos Bell’s Dao resonance. Why should I fear proving the Dao through battle?”
He completely abandoned the idea of finding a safe place to break through and instead took the initiative to throw himself into the very center of the most brutal, most dangerous battlefield vortex.
He no longer remained satisfied with merely killing ordinary Dark True Immortals. He began consciously seeking out Dark True Immortals with exceptionally powerful auras, bizarre methods, and who could be called kings among their peers as opponents.
He even took the initiative to charge into important strongholds guarded by multiple Dark True Immortals!
He used himself as a furnace, countless powerful enemies as firewood, and boundless war flames as the furnace fire, intending to forcibly refine an immortal Battle Immortal fruit!
One battle after another, each more brutal and soul-stirring than the last, erupted:
In the “God-Burying Starsea,” he fought three fallen Holy Spirits who had inherited ancient dark bloodlines alone, battling until stars collapsed and his true Golden Crow blood spilled across the sky.
In the end, on the verge of death, he triggered the destructive origin of the “Evil Corpse,” transformed into a Chaos Golden Crow, and burned the three great Holy Spirits together with that stretch of starsea into nothingness. Through this, he comprehended the thin thread of life within destruction; his Dao injuries fully recovered, and his cultivation advanced.
On the “Netherworld Ancient Road,” he encountered a curse-killing trap meticulously laid by the dark camp. Seven Dark True Immortals proficient in different schools of curses joined forces, drawing upon the resentment accumulated through eternity to curse his soul to death.
At the center of the curse storm, Lu Xuan manifested the “Good Corpse’s” Glazed Heart Lamp, illuminating the illusory nature of all myriad laws and protecting his original heart from extinguishment. At the same time, with the transcendent state of the “Self Corpse,” he traced the source of the curses in reverse.
He cursed and killed three Dark True Immortals from afar, broke out of the trap, and after his soul underwent the tempering of curses, it instead became even more condensed and resilient.
In the Shattered Dragon Nest, he charged into the lair of a Primordial Dragon Emperor corrupted by darkness and fought a bloody battle against the dragon-descendant army beneath its command.
Although the Dragon Emperor was not an Immortal King, it had already touched the threshold of that level. Its dragon might was vast and mighty, and its laws were like an ocean.
Lu Xuan fought it fiercely for three days. The feathers across his body shattered countless times, and who knew how many of his bones broke. He relied entirely on the Chaos Evolving Yang Scripture and Xi Huang’s origin imprint to keep himself alive.
In the end, within the Dragon Emperor’s strongest breath, he captured a single flaw in the circulation of its power. With the “Clinging Self Corpse’s” ability to govern myriad laws, he forcibly pried apart the structure of its laws, then tore open the Dragon Emperor’s reverse scale with a “Chaos Heaven-Opening Claw,” heavily wounding it and forcing it to retreat!
After this battle, the blood-colored baleful aura surrounding him had almost condensed into substance. It was the invincible battle intent and killing aura accumulated from slaying countless powerful enemies!
His way of fighting grew increasingly wild and domineering, yet also came ever closer to the origin of the Great Dao.
He was no longer confined to the Golden Crow Clan’s divine abilities. Instead, he perfectly integrated the concept of “Severing the Three Corpses” into every strike.
At times he was compassionate and liberating, drawing out the good thoughts within his enemies’ hearts to turn against them.
At times he was cold and destructive, slaughtering multitudes as if cutting down weeds.
At times he stood aloof from all things, finding an opening amid attacks of myriad laws and entering through it.
His cultivation, under this ultimate compression and life-and-death slaughter, rose madly at a speed that left people dumbstruck!
The barrier of the Supreme realm had long since loosened, but he did not rush to break through. Instead, he continued to consolidate, compress, and temper it.
He wanted to polish his foundation to an unprecedented extreme, waiting for the final, earth-shattering leap!
A unique “momentum” began to permeate his body. It was a Battle Immortal momentum formed from the fusion of battle intent, killing intent, and Dao intent!
Wherever he passed, dark creatures whose cultivation was below his had their souls directly crushed by this momentum, while experts of the same realm lost three-tenths of their courage before the battle even began.
He could even draw upon the blood-colored baleful aura above the battlefield and the undying battle intent of fallen heroic spirits, turning them into his own strength to amplify himself!
On this day, Lu Xuan adjusted his breathing in a shattered star domain that had just undergone a bloody battle and was filled with countless drifting corpses.
He had just single-handedly flattened a dark outpost guarded by five Dark True Immortals, and he himself had suffered significant injuries as well. True Golden Crow blood dripped down, burning unceasingly in the void.
He sat cross-legged at the core of a dead star and closed his eyes to look within. The power inside his body surged and roared, having already reached the true summit of the Supreme realm. There was no further path forward.
That barrier leading to the True Immortal realm was clearly visible, as thin as a cicada’s wing, yet it also seemed indestructible.
He knew the time had come.
He no longer suppressed himself. He took the initiative to trigger the battle intent and killing intent that had accumulated to their peak, as well as all the insights he had gained during this period regarding “Severing the Three Corpses,” Chaos Evolving Yang, and the essence of battle!
“Boom!!!”
It was not a lightning tribulation, yet it was more terrifying than any lightning tribulation!