Chapter 439
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Chapter 439: Ascension (2)
"Hua strength, shifting stars and changing fate!"
As the moment drew near, Qiao Mu swirled with the wind, his leg swinging like an axe to kick Martial Saint, sending him flying nearly a hundred meters away.
"Success in dreams it seems." Qiao Mu lowered his fist, his face looking somewhat strange.
Mastering this Hua strength martial arts isn’t like playing with a joystick in a game. Pressing a block button within reaction time, then a sword could dissolve everything…
If one cannot even defend against difficult attacks, how can they resolve them?
In reality, Qiao Mu handles Martial Saint’s Ex-human Transformation with incredible speed, relying on the accumulated strength of five thousand years, directly overpowering others with force, and attacking multiple enemies at once to prevent dodging.
But in the present, hundreds of years later, he has already succeeded in his dreams.
"Success once is just luck. To truly understand Martial Saint’s moves, one must succeed one hundred times."
Qiao Mu constantly adjusts and improves in battle with Martial Saint.
Qiao Mu, with a determined spirit, can spend a lot of time in his dreams, studying Martial Saint’s strategies.
By practicing variations of moves countless times in his mind, he can naturally achieve victory in battle.
By practicing relentlessly in his mind, he increases his chances of winning from one percent to ninety-nine percent.
When Qiao Mu emerges from his five hundred years of dreaming, the Ex-human Transformation is within his reach.
Of course, this is if the enemy doesn’t have any hidden, ultimate moves like Xianyi’s hidden Cherry Dance.
During his free time, Qiao Mu read and studied all twelve sets of martial arts skills given by the Founding Emperor Yan as a treat, to relax his mind after meals.
…………………………………..
After spending five hundred years in a Long Life Dream, Qiao Mu, who was 5585 years old, walked out once again.
Just as he came out, he saw a thin old monk with Martial Saint’s face standing with his back towards him in front of Qiao Mu’s previous body.
"Indeed, another member of the Qiao family has arrived. You all never seem to stop coming," Martial Saint said without turning around.
"Just like the Nine Heavenly Immortal Gates in this world, killing one leads to another one appearing endlessly."
"When the Nascent Soul Immortal made the Zhong Province fertile land turn into a Hundred-mile Desert forty years ago, I thought it was the work of immortals," Martial Saint said slowly.
"Little did I know that there would be a sect leader at the Soul Changing Stage afterward."
"And behind that sect leader lies the true essence of the Nine Heavenly Immortal Gates. In the Cave Heaven Small World, perhaps there is an ancestor of the Immortal Gate above Soul Changing."
"Forever and ever."
But human abilities have limits, and human strength is sometimes exhausted. Martial Saint spoke in a low voice:
"In the first half of my life, I was a top-ranking military officer in Great Yan, almost reaching the highest position a courtier could achieve."
"Later, I left my official position and devoted myself entirely to martial arts. Although my martial skills reached a superb level, it was difficult to make further progress."
Wu Qizheng looked at Martial Saint, who looked like an old monk, and the other martial arts experts lying on the ground with their bodies cut in half.
As he spoke, these previous martial arts experts had only just stepped into the first level of the superb rank. The path to the second level, the transformation of internal strength, was still unclear at that time. Only a few people like Earth Sword Immortal had taken this step.
This was a limitation of the era, not a limitation of their talent or ability.
Like the previous generation of martial arts experts, Martial Saint was a top figure in the martial arts world of his time, but ultimately constrained by the era, with high but limited martial skills.
In the previous generation, only Earth Sword Immortal stood out as surpassing the era at that time, but not Martial Saint.
Martial Saint continued:
"Sometimes human strength is limited. If you want to go beyond your limits, you have to pay an extra price."
"No matter how skilled or strong someone is, they are still just human in the end."
"Since we are human, we experience birth, aging, sickness, and death. Everyone has limits and cannot stay forever powerful and successful." Martial Saint, who looked like an old monk, turned around. With wrinkles all over his thin face, his eyes glared at Qiao Mu:
"In this world, there are no immortals or gods. We are all ordinary people!"
"Young man named Joe, tell me, will you also grow old?"
Qiao Mu remained silent.
He did not answer.
Martial Saint then burst into laughter.
Amidst hearty laughter, Martial Saint, with his appearance resembling an old monk, had long gray-white whiskers fluttering in the gentle breeze, giving off a hint of inevitable old age.
Wu Qizheng couldn’t help but shiver slightly and his body started trembling amidst the laughter.
Despite always striving to kill Martial Saint as his lifelong goal, as Martial Saint’s own son, this man had always seemed as insurmountable as a towering mountain in his mind.
However, at this moment, he saw a different side of Martial Saint – one of aging and frailty, unlike the Martial Saint he had imagined and envisioned in his mind.
The Long Life Fist technique preserves vital energy within, while the Human Path Sutra method accumulates strength like building a mountain.
Legendary martial artists like Qiao Mu and Martial Saint had already overcome the hurdle of "old age and declining strength" through their own ways.
Yet, this challenge was not only physical for martial artists but also a mental one.
Who in this world can evade aging?
For three hundred years, the Founding Emperor Yan remained steadfast in guarding the imperial palace and only protecting the royal family’s legacy, like the North Star for the royal clan, yet it was not the Great Yan’s North Star.
What about Qiao Mu and Martial Saint?
When the young martial arts geniuses of their youth, with stable emotions and ambitious hearts, thought they could change their fate, Foundation Building would fight Foundation Building, Nascent Soul would fight Nascent Soul, Soul Changing would slaughter Soul Changing…
As long as one continues to train diligently in martial arts, practicing more and more advanced techniques, with the accumulation of years, one can become stronger and stronger, eventually achieving great aspirations one day…
Can they really keep progressing each year, growing stronger and stronger?
Aging physically is easier than aging emotionally. Once one loses their youthful spirit, it becomes difficult to recover.
"Life, aging, sickness, death – these are unavoidable for mortals."
Martial Saint, who looked like an old monk, pointed casually.
Suddenly, an invisible force emerged, pulling Martial Saint’s body – nearly severed at the waist – floating towards him from seven or eight steps away.
"Even Martial Saint, as a mortal, cannot escape the cycle of life and death, reaching his limits eventually."
He lifted his own body high in the air, like a devoted believer offering a gift to the invisible gods above.
"So, I won’t be human anymore!"
The distorted suction suddenly intensified, the terrifying wind pressure causing the ground to tremble and undulate as if it were rolling waves.
"Blood Meat Oven·Divine Human Transformation!"
Martial Saint, who looked like an old monk, suddenly swelled up incredibly fast.
In the abruptly rising gale, the bodies of eight or nine previous martial arts masters, including Qiao Mu’s, floated up and then merged into this suddenly expanding creature of flesh and blood, transforming into a giant with three heads and six arms, like a small mountain.
Wu Qizheng and the others looked up to see that the three huge faces of this flesh and blood giant seemed to be made up of a thousand smaller human faces. Upon closer inspection, they could vaguely make out the faces of Divine Monk Dried Leaf, White-clothed Spear Saint, Eight-armed Heavenly Dragon, and others inside.
With three heads, thousands of faces, the mouths opening and closing in unison, producing the same syllables, the overlapping voices of a thousand individuals causing the sky to change color and resonate between heaven and earth.
They said:
"Sometimes, human effort runs out."
"Those who can surpass the ordinary and do what others cannot, are considered godlike."
Wu Qizheng frowned deeply.
"This is the ‘Flesh Changing Skill,’ also known as the forbidden art ‘Blood Meat Oven,’ developed differently from the ‘Ex-human Transformation’ for combat purposes? It doesn’t seem right."
"The Ex-human Transformation is already the most suitable form for combat. Anything beyond that is just a variation of the Ex-human Transformation. But this appearance…"
Wu Qizheng assisted Martial Saint in perfecting the ‘Flesh Changing Skill’ and created the ‘Shape Changing Skill’ himself, so he was naturally skilled in this area.
Martial Saint’s current transformation left him completely puzzled, feeling like it transcended Martial Saint’s so-called modern martial arts methods.
If the Martial Saint from before was a sharp knife.
Then, the Martial Saint standing before Qiao Mu in the Western Province had turned into ten sharp knives.
Ten knives were indeed more terrifying, but they could not be combined into one.
But the three-headed, six-armed flesh giant that appeared in front of them was different.
"Has Martial Saint’s Taotie Swallowing Heaven Skill reached its spiritual refining limit?" Wu Qizheng speculated.
"Even with the bodies of two Qiao family elders, this great nourishment, it cannot be ‘digested’ in a short time."
"Facing another Qiao family elder who came from afar, his decision is…"
"To abandon his mortal identity?" Wu Qizheng fell silent.
Martial Saint was one before, ten just now, so now he is… many.
More than thirty years ago, the winner of the ten-year agreement would become a Martial Saint.
Although the surviving Martial Saint was described as a combination of many, representing the strongest martial artists of the previous generation, it was just a figure of speech. The truly surviving individual was one.
However, now… Wu Qizheng was no longer sure.
He jumped up and looked around at the peak of Finger Peak.
Sure enough, in the Nine Immortal Cities of Kuafu Mountain, more than one figure could be seen using their light skills to run towards each other.
Like swallows returning to their nests, densely packed like a group of ants, figures continuously rushed towards the giant of flesh and blood, like a small mountain.
"The calamity of the Human Demon in the Western Province and the Blood Lotus Immortal Kingdom is not just one person, nor just ten people. How many people are there, not just hundreds or thousands…." Wu Qizheng sighed deeply.
