Overdraw the future and become a peerless martial god

Chapter 145 Refining Lightning, Five Breaths to the Abyss

He looked down and saw a faint light in the center of the fox eye pendant, like blood that had not yet cooled, like a fire that had just begun to burn.

His fingertips trembled slightly, and he could faintly sense that dormant will.

Qingli's remnant soul is quietly awakening in response to the call of this homeland.

"We've arrived..." he murmured softly.

"Hmph." A low laugh came from his sea of ​​consciousness. Tun Yuan slowly spoke, his tone unusually complicated, "I never thought... I could set foot in the far north again."

"This icy plain buries too much of the past. The descendants of gods, the fallen spirits, and that... Snow Fox King."

Chu Ning didn't stop walking, but simply gave a cold reply:
"You seem very emotional?"

After a moment of silence, Tun Yuan's laughter grew even deeper:
"What, am I, a sacred soul, not allowed to reminisce about my old homeland?"

Chu Ning stopped, slowly raising his head to look at the icy plain shrouded in the afterglow of the snow, his voice indifferent:

"This icy plain, is it the ancestral home of the Azure-Eyed Snow Fox clan?"

Tun Yuan was taken aback, then his laughter abruptly stopped, and his tone turned slightly cold: "You know?"

Chu Ning gently grasped the fox head pendant, a flash of lightning appearing in her eyes:
"She told me."

"Her?" Tun Yuan was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter. "Ha, so that's it! It's that little fox..."

“That’s right, it was I who wiped out her clan.” His tone suddenly turned sharp, like an ice blade cutting open an old scar. “Their pupils can be used to refine ‘longevity pills,’ which can prolong life and grant divine power.”

"If not for this, how could I have survived until now?"

The voice of the Devouring Abyss seemed to surge from the depths of the Bone Sea, low and cold, like an echo that had not faded for a thousand years:

"Now I am you, and you are me."

“If they had a grudge against you, they should hate you now.”

Chu Ning turned around, the snow crunching softly beneath her feet. A flash of lightning appeared in her eyes, cold as a frost-covered blade.

"So, Qingli's death and the extinction of the fox clan were all just so that your broken body could survive for a few more years?"

Tun Yuan chuckled softly, his mockery undisguised:
"Damaged? Without my guidance, how could you have condensed lightning skin?"

He paused, his voice suddenly lowering as if he had sensed something:
"...Tsk."

"They've come too."

Chu Ning's brows twitched slightly: "Them?"

Tun Yuan sneered: "The old ghosts of the Blood Refining Hall—'Bone-Blazing Ape Marquis,' 'Ghost Throat Actress,' 'Weeping Rain Crimson Child'... Their blood-red eyes have even attracted their attention."

He paused for a moment, then sneered, "You're still up to no good."

Chu Ning's brows furrowed slightly:

"What exactly is the Blood Refining Hall?"

"What are these 'old ghosts' you're talking about? Where are they hiding? Why do their presence also exist in the far north?"

His tone was calm, yet carried a hint of coercion in the snowy wind.

Tun Yuan was silent for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter, a laugh tinged with a hint of desolation and mockery:
"You want to know?"

"So what if you know? Do you think knowing the enemy's name will allow you to kill them?... How naive."

Chu Ning didn't speak, she just stared at him, her gaze as cold and imposing as a mountain.

Tun Yuan sighed softly, his voice turning low:
"So be it, you are destined to share my fate."

"You'll be their enemy sooner or later."

"Then listen carefully..."

The voice of the Devouring Abyss seemed to resonate from the depths of heaven and earth; its tone was slow, yet each word was as clear as a bell.
"The Blood Refining Hall is neither a sect nor a cult; it is a collection of wills."

“We were originally nameless. We came together because of the pursuit of immortality. We refined our blood and sacrificed our souls to the void, and that is how these two words came to be.”

"We are all dead. Dead at the peak."

"The strongest martial artists, demon kings, sorcerers, and ancient spirits in this world... all those who step into the first-grade realm and transcend the mortal realm are considered peerless individuals."

"There was once a gate to heaven for ascension in this world, but it was closed ten thousand years ago."

"The evil spirits were among the first 'remnant gods' to attempt to resist death after the fall of Tianmen."

"Without ascending to the Heavenly Gate, our end is just a desolate hill of bones."

"And for those who are unwilling, our souls will not perish, our hearts will not perish, and our thoughts will not perish."

"Thus, after we die, our remnant souls coalesce and become 'evil spirits,' all echoes of the obsessions of the strongest of the past." "Each evil spirit is a demigod, neither living nor dead, wandering between the mortal world and the underworld, prolonging its life by refining blood and offering its soul as its true body."

Chu Ning's expression was solemn, and he asked in a deep voice:
"Since you reached the pinnacle in life, why are you willing to become monsters after death? Just for eternal life? You're willing to abandon your race, your soul, and your humanity?"

Tun Yuan remained silent for a long time, until the cold wind rose again, then he whispered:
"It's not that we're cruel, it's that... the way of Heaven is cruel."

"You are still young and have not yet seen the true boundaries of this world."

"What do you think martial arts are for? Power? Money?"

"Do not."

"After reaching the first rank, there is only the end."

“Take one more step and you will find that… the path is blocked.”

"There is no ascension, no other shore, no place to return to."

"So we went mad. We didn't want to die, and we couldn't die. Our will was so strong that even the Heavenly Dao couldn't suppress it, and we could only remain in this world."

"And the path we have come to agree on is called... Blood Refining and Soul Offering."

"Refine the soul with blood."

"Use the soul to prolong life."

"Fight with your life for eternity."

The voice of Tun Yuan at this moment carried a sense of antiquity and heaviness, as if the whispers of the twelve evil spirits were also echoing in the air above the icy plains.

Chu Ning's eyes flickered slightly. In the snow, he resembled a cold, aloof statue. After a moment, he uttered a soft sentence:
"So, you're the same."

"You're one of these people, aren't you?"

Tun Yuan chuckled: "It was true before, but we disagreed on our principles, so I withdrew from the meeting."

"But I failed too. My soul was not fully gathered, so I can only cling to you."

"However... I'd like to see if you have the guts to go further than me."

Chu Ning did not respond; he simply looked down at the pendant in his hand.

His fox-like eyes gleamed slightly.

At that moment, he seemed to hear Qingli's voice.

"Live."

"But not like them."

He withdrew his gaze, his eyes flashing with lightning like swords.

"You failed, not because fate is cruel."

"It's because you yourself are no longer worthy to move forward."

Chu Ning stood in the middle of the white snowfield, the wind blowing through his silver hair, his cloak fluttering wildly like shattered ice.

The Flaming Bone Ape Marquis, the Ghostly Throat Actress, and the Weeping Rain Red Child.

The three evil leaders of the Blood Refining Hall have all entered the far north.

They were once the pinnacle warriors of the human or demon races, but now they are like wild ghosts returning to their old lands, relying on sacrifices and remnants of their souls to eke out a living in the snowy region.

Chu Ning was stunned.

If they were once the strongest in the First Rank...

"What do I have to fight against them with?"

He finally spoke, his voice as deep and dull as wind and frost striking stone:

"...Too powerful."

"This is not an enemy I can defeat."

Tun Yuan chuckled:

"Scared?"

“Fear… is not a disgrace.” Chu Ning raised his head, his gaze cold. “But I will not stop here.”

Tun Yuan's tone softened somewhat, as if he somewhat agreed with Tun Yuan's current state of mind:
"There's no need to worry too much. While evil spirits are powerful, that's in their previous life. After becoming evil spirits, their original souls are damaged, and their obsessions backfire, so most of them can only retain two or three tenths of their combat strength."

(End of this chapter)