Chapter 1217: Chapter 1211: Trial by Fire
Keep walking forward!
What the hell?
Is there really no end?
If Qin Wudao could move, he’d probably be cursing his head off. Why is it that the stronger his cultivation gets, the more torture he has to endure?
The previous six thousand levels were bitter, but at least there was something to look forward to.
Once he reached level six thousand and one, even that hope was gone.
"Fuck!"
Cursing in his heart, Qin Wudao started thinking of a way to move forward. After all, being frozen hurt like hell too; the sooner he finished this bluestone ancient road, the sooner he’d be freed.
Over the next stretch of time, Qin Wudao circulated his Cultivation Technique, thawing himself bit by bit.
Two hours later.
His stiff limbs could finally move.
"Hoo..."
Qin Wudao let out a turbid breath and forced himself forward. The instant he stepped out, his shoes and clothes shattered from the cold, leaving him barefoot on the bluestone ancient road.
As the soles of his feet touched the ground, a sharp stab of pain ran through him, because his bare feet stuck directly to the bluestone road.
If he kept going, a layer of skin would definitely be torn off.
Qin Wudao’s expression froze.
There were a hundred thousand nasty words he wanted to spit out.
Very soon, Qin Wudao adjusted his mindset and continued forward.
Without a doubt, the soles of his feet were torn open, leaving a bloody footprint on the bluestone surface, glaringly bright.
One step!
Two steps!
Three steps...
Qin Wudao kept moving forward.
Before long, he’d taken over a hundred steps, leaving more than a hundred bloody footprints behind him.
"Healing this fast isn’t necessarily a good thing!"
Qin Wudao gave a bitter smile. He was now in the Pre-saint Realm; ordinary injuries could heal in an instant. So every time his foot landed and then lifted, the torn soles would already be mended.
By the time the next step fell, he’d once again suffer the agony of flesh splitting open.
Over and over again.
"Weird. What’s the point of this level?"
"Tempering my willpower?"
"Or forging the body?"
Qin Wudao raised his head to look ahead, brows slightly furrowed. He really couldn’t figure it out, so he simply kept going.
He walked like this for three days straight!
He no longer remembered how many steps he’d taken.
All he knew was that with his eyesight, he could see through the starry sky in the outside world, yet right now he couldn’t see the starting point of the bluestone ancient road, nor its end. It was as if he’d stepped onto a road of death.
Heaven and earth were silent; aside from his own ragged breathing, there was no other sound.
Gradually, deep in Qin Wudao’s heart, a sense of loneliness and helplessness emerged, like a ghost walking along the Yellow Spring Road, heading toward death.
Walk, and walk, and walk!
Another five days passed.
By now, Qin Wudao could no longer walk upright. He could only crawl along the bluestone ancient road like a worm.
His head throbbed as if it were going to explode, his consciousness began to blur, and illusions started to arise, chaotic scenes flashing by, making his scalp twitch.
"Endure!"
"I must endure!"
"I will clear this trial. I will become a Saint Sovereign for all ages. I will lead the Qin Dynasty to dominate the universe..."
Even so, Qin Wudao did not turn back; he continued forward.
At the very top of the Hongmeng Creation Tower stood a magnificent imperial hall, covered with countless grand formations, radiating immortal imperial light, awe-inspiring to the extreme.
"Three hundred li already!"
"This little fellow is even better than I imagined!"
The Emperor’s phantom stood in the imperial hall, hands clasped behind his back, watching Qin Wudao taking the trial across vast time and space, nodding repeatedly.
As the master of the Hongmeng Creation Tower, he knew the power of the bluestone ancient road better than anyone.
Even he himself could only walk a hundred li.
Beyond a hundred li, his consciousness would dissipate, and he would experience the feeling of death.
Death!
That was the true purpose of level six thousand and one.
"Little fellow, don’t blame me!"
"All the way till now, under the protection of the Qin Dynasty’s ministers, your path has been far too smooth. You’ve never truly gone through catastrophe, nor hovered on the brink of life and death!"
The Emperor’s phantom shook his head, sat back onto the imperial throne, closed his eyes, and said, "Without enduring tribulation and life-and-death, how can one grasp the true meaning of life?"
"The Dao is a person’s entire life."
...
On the bluestone ancient road.
Qin Wudao slowly stretched out his bloodstained right hand, wanting to crawl one step further, but right now he felt his body unbearably heavy, as if bearing the weight of billions of God Mountains.
And before his eyes, an abyss with no visible bottom appeared, endlessly magnifying, devouring all light.
"Am I going to die?"
Qin Wudao’s right hand, raised in midair, lost all strength and crashed heavily onto the stone road.
In that moment, he forgot that he was inside a trial.
Like the last flicker before death, his consciousness became clear again, replaying his life like a lantern show: from the Ninth Prince of the Eastern Ancient Dao Domain, to unifying the Primal Continent, and finally ascending to the myriad heavens...
In the end, all returned to eternal darkness.
Right then, Qin Wudao’s consciousness began to dissipate, his soul left his body, passed through heaven and earth, and entered Reincarnation.
No one knew how much time had passed.
Qin Wudao slowly opened his eyes and found himself amidst a field of ruins.
"Where am I?"
Out of habit, Qin Wudao tried to release his soul force to probe his surroundings.
But in the next instant, he was shocked to find he couldn’t sense any soul force, and his body was incomparably weak, nothing more than an ordinary mortal.
This discovery scared Qin Wudao badly. He hurriedly looked around and saw soldiers in red armor everywhere, charging continuously toward the front.
On the other side, there was another group: tall, burly men wielding long sabers, clad in black armor, mounted as Cavalry.
These Cavalry were extremely strong; every swing of their blades could kill a red-armored soldier.
Usually it took the deaths of more than a dozen red-armored soldiers to bring down a single black-armored Cavalry.
"Li Xiao Wu, don’t just stand there stunned, the General has ordered a charge!"
At this moment, a rough voice rang in Qin Wudao’s ears.
Qin Wudao turned his head and saw a burly man beside him, face full of scruffy beard, eyes wide like bronze bells, glinting with ferocity.
Meeting that gaze, Qin Wudao was certain that he was Li Xiao Wu.
"How did it turn out like this?"
With doubts about his identity, Qin Wudao grabbed his weapon and launched into the charge.
That battle.
Lasted for an hour.
Qin Wudao, at the cost of an injured left arm, managed to kill one enemy Cavalry.
Late at night.
The General handed out rewards based on merit.
Any soldier who had killed an enemy was promoted to leader of ten, commanding nine fresh recruits who’d just been sent to the front lines, all very young, the youngest only fifteen.
"Did I transmigrate again?"
Standing outside the tent, Qin Wudao looked at the moon above and sank into a trace of confusion, along with a faint reluctance.
Had he... lived another life?
That thought sounded exhilarating at first, but as soon as it appeared, countless feelings of loss and pain welled up in Qin Wudao’s heart—a subtle sensation like rootless duckweed.
Compared to the myriad heavens, this place was not his home, nor did it have anything he truly wished to protect.
That night, Qin Wudao did not sleep, his mood unbelievably complicated.
Deep in his bones, he always carried a sense of rejection toward this world.
The next day.
The war drums thundered.
The General stood atop a high platform, commanding the army in battle with no strategy at all, just mindless charges. And this time, it was as if the god of death had his eye on Qin Wudao: after killing five enemies, he was surrounded and attacked by enemy Cavalry.
Under the blades, Qin Wudao once again experienced the feeling of death.
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