Cultivation starts from simplifying the exercises

Chapter 2141 All Things Return to Nothingness, Dao Body Burns the Heavens

Shi Pojun forcibly suppressed his fear and anxiety, distracted himself by removing the marks while looking up to observe the surrounding environment and identify the direction.

Being located on the shady side of the ancient Heavenly Court ruins, the spiritual senses of cultivators are greatly suppressed and interfered with. Ordinary Tai Cang Realm cultivators would find their spiritual senses probing extremely limited here, and the scenes they perceive would be blurry and indistinct.

"Fortunately, it's on the dark side, where spiritual energy is severely suppressed, making it very difficult for that kid to track me down." Shi Pojun felt a little more at ease; this might be his only chance.

"The most urgent task is to head towards Tianmen, leave this damned ruin, and then cross Kunyuan to return to the sect's territory. As long as we return to the sect, with the sect rules and the elders in charge, even if I am punished, he will not dare to make a move again."

Shi Pojun had even prepared his explanation, figuring out how to minimize his punishment. Combined with the connections he'd built within the sect over the years, he could reduce the punishment to an acceptable level.

However, as soon as this thought arose, Shi Pojun felt that the location where the first mark he had just painstakingly erased had disappeared still seemed to retain a very faint fluctuation.

The remaining eight marks, however, remained like a persistent, intractable disease, firmly imprinted on his body, and the process of removing them was so slow it was almost despairing.

"No, at this rate, before I can remove even half of the marks, I'm afraid..."

Shi Pojun suddenly turned around and looked at the gray and gloomy forest behind him. It was as if a cold and murderous gaze had pierced through the thick fog and locked onto him.

Shi Pojun gritted his teeth and, no longer caring about erasing the mark, pushed his escape speed to the limit, transforming into a streak of blood-red light and fleeing madly towards the approximate direction of the Heavenly Gate in his memory.

The gray fog rolled and the mountains and forests were silent. Only a frantic streak of blood-red light, like a stray dog, fled for its life in the boundless darkness and oppression.

Far behind it, in a distant direction, a pale golden shadow was moving at an even faster speed, following the mysterious imprint it sensed.

Shi Pojun pushed his speed to the limit, burning away what little essence he had left.

All around was an unchanging mist, like a gray veil, shrouding the jagged rocks, withered ancient trees, and the ancient architectural ruins that had long since collapsed, leaving only broken walls and ruins.

A faint aura of yin energy permeated the air, not only eroding the protective spiritual light but also severely interfering with the perception of divine sense.

However, after flying for a while, according to his calculations, at his current speed at any cost, even if he was in the dark side and his perception was limited, he should have already seen the invisible barrier that stretched across the sky.

Looking ahead, all that could be seen was a thick gray fog and strange shadows. Apart from the occasional ruins, there was no sign of any barrier.

“No… the direction is wrong.” Shi Pojun abruptly stopped his escape, hovering in mid-air, his face turning extremely grim.

He looked around. The gray fog varied in thickness, and the outlines of distant mountains were faintly visible in the fog. None of them matched the terrain and landforms he remembered from the direction of Tianmen.

He couldn't even tell where he was.

The danger of the dark side of the ancient celestial ruins lies not only in the evil spirits and natural hazards that may lurk there, but also in the eerie force field that is naturally formed there, capable of distorting one's sense of direction and interfering with the positioning of one's divine sense.

Even if you fly in a straight line in one direction, you may unknowingly deviate from the path or even circle back to where you started.

Shi Pojun was in a state of mental confusion, only concerned with fleeing for his life. He was also distracted by clearing the mark from his body. Unbeknownst to him, he was affected by the strange force field of the Yin side, which caused him to deviate from the correct path to Tianmen and possibly venture into a more dangerous unknown area.

Damn it!

Shi Pojun couldn't help but curse under his breath, a strong sense of irritation and unease welling up inside him.

Losing his way meant he wouldn't be able to reach Tianmen anytime soon, and he also meant he wouldn't be able to get the protection of the sect's power. Meanwhile, the pursuer behind him could catch up at any moment.

Just as Shi Pojun was shaken and anxious about losing his way, a very faint mark appeared somewhere within his body. Under the continuous cleansing of his soul, it finally emitted a soft sound that only he could perceive before completely dissipating.

"Om..."

An almost imperceptible spatial ripple emanated from Shi Pojun's body, spreading out slightly before being rapidly absorbed and annihilated by the surrounding dense gray mist.

This is the last faint connection between the remaining trace and the caster when the mark is completely removed, a fluctuation that is completely severed.

"The second one..."

Shi Pojun felt a slight sense of relief, but immediately, an even greater sense of heaviness and anxiety, like an icy tide, overwhelmed him.

It took him more than ten breaths to remove the second mark, and that was under the condition that he almost disregarded the consumption of his divine soul.

Inside the body, there are still seven such tracking marks remaining.

They remained stubbornly imprinted on the key points of his body, their auras subtly connected, forming a delicate whole. Clearing two of them would only slightly reduce the difficulty of clearing the rest.

Based on this speed, it would take at least forty to fifty breaths to completely remove the remaining seven marks.

Moreover, this is all under the premise of not being disturbed and being able to concentrate on eliminating the threat. But now he is in a dangerous place, lost, pursued from behind, and his mind is unsettled. How can he concentrate?

An indescribable anxiety and panic gripped Shi Pojun's heart, tightening ever more.

"What should I do? What should I do?" Shi Pojun's forehead was covered in a fine layer of cold sweat, which mixed with the blood flowing from his wounds, making him look extremely disheveled.

He frantically racked his brains for a solution, searching for a secluded spot to set up an array and focus on erasing the marks. But was there enough time? Would Chen Fei give him that chance?

At this moment, he desperately longed to encounter his fellow disciples or even other close friends from other sects in this desolate gray fog.

But no!

As far as the eye can see, there is nothing but gray fog, ruins, and deathly silence.

The world is often full of irony.

Not long ago, Shi Pojun, together with Liu Yanqing and Chang Guwu, meticulously planned to use this secluded and hidden place to destroy the body and cover up the crime without anyone knowing.

His biggest worry at the time was that other disciples or elders of the Danchen Sect might happen to pass by, discover something amiss, interfere, and ruin his plans.

But now, fortunes have changed.

When he became prey, fleeing in panic and hanging by a thread, he desperately longed to meet any of his fellow disciples in this desolate and lifeless land.

He felt as if the entire world had abandoned him in this corner, utterly helpless and desperate. The perfect ambush location he had carefully chosen had now become his own doom.

"Could it be... that Heaven is truly going to destroy me?" A shadow of despair crept into Shi Pojun's heart.

But he was, after all, a powerful expert of the Tai Cang Realm, with a will far stronger than that of ordinary people. The thought of despair only flashed through his mind for a moment before being suppressed by an even stronger will to survive.

"No! I cannot die here. I, Shi Pojun, am a genius of unparalleled talent, destined to become a Heavenly Monarch. How can I perish here?"

Shi Pojun forcibly suppressed his surging blood and restless mind, his gaze once again becoming sharp and frantic.

"Seven more marks... must be removed as soon as possible. There's still a chance. As long as I..."

Before the thought had even finished, Shi Pojun's speeding figure suddenly stopped, abruptly halting in mid-air.

A chilling, bone-chilling warning from the depths of his soul, a terrifying feeling, made the hairs on his body stand on end instantly.

Shi Pojun raised his head stiffly, his gaze fixed on the front.

A hundred feet ahead, in the center of a slope covered with weathered boulders, a figure stood silently, seemingly out of nowhere.

His posture was as upright as a pine tree, and his aura was restrained, as if he had merged with the surrounding gray mist.

Chen Fei wore a faint smile as he looked at Shi Pojun, whose face was pale and eyes were filled with horror. His voice was not loud, but it reached Shi Pojun's ears with perfect clarity:

"Senior Brother Shi is in such a hurry, he can't even tell which way is which. Where is he heading?"

Chen Fei's words were like poison needles piercing Shi Pojun's heart, making his already pale face turn even paler.

The sarcasm and murderous intent contained in that calm tone terrified Shi Pojun more than any direct threat.

Liu Yanqing is dead, Chang Guwu is dead—all of this happened to the young man before him. And he himself was the only one who escaped, only to be caught again.

Shi Pojun took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the metallic taste rising in his throat, as well as the fear and humiliation in his heart.

He knew that at this moment, any pleading or sophistry would seem pale and laughable in the face of the absolute difference in strength and the opponent's cold killing intent. But he couldn't give up; he had to grasp at the last straw.

"Chen Fei".

Shi Pojun's voice was somewhat hoarse, but he tried his best to remain calm. "The sect's ironclad rule strictly forbids disciples from killing each other. Those who violate this rule will, at best, have their cultivation abolished and be permanently imprisoned in the Xu Ning Abyss, and at worst, be completely annihilated, as a warning to others."

"Liu Yanqing and Chang Guwu are outer sect disciples; killing them won't cause much of a problem. But if you kill me, and the news gets out, you'll have nowhere to hide, neither in heaven nor on earth. Do you want to experience the bone-chilling, eternal cold of Xu Ningyuan?"

Shi Pojun spoke sternly, attempting to evoke Chen Fei's fear of the sect's rules.

Chen Fei listened quietly, the playful smile on his face never fading, and even intensified.

"Fellow disciples are forbidden from killing each other? When Senior Brother Shi colluded with outsiders to set up a barrier here, intending to kill me... why didn't he remember this rule? Why wasn't he afraid of the eternal, bone-chilling cold of the Eternal Suppression of the Frosty Abyss?"

"Do you think this place is remote and no one will know, so you can get away with it? Or do you think I, Chen Fei, am weak and alone, so you can just kill me?"

Chen Fei took a step forward, just a small step, but it made Shi Pojun feel an invisible pressure coming towards him, and he couldn't help but take half a step back.

"Senior Brother Shi, you're really adept at using double standards!"

"I……"

Shi Pojun's throat bobbed, and finally, under Chen Fei's all-seeing gaze, he lowered his head with difficulty, his voice dry and trembling slightly, and whispered, "I... I was wrong!"

"You did something wrong?"

The smile on Chen Fei's face gradually faded, replaced by indifference.

He took another step forward, reducing the distance between himself and Shi Pojun to less than fifty feet. For a cultivator in the Tai Cang Realm, this distance was practically face-to-face.

"Shi Pojun".

Chen Fei's voice was calm, yet carried a chilling, judgmental tone: "You don't think you've done anything wrong; you just realize you can't beat me, and you realize you're going to die!"

"The law of the jungle is the norm in the cultivation world. When you are strong, you can decide the life and death of others at will. When you are weak, you expect the rules to protect your life. Is there such a good thing in the world?"

The moment the words left his mouth, Chen Fei moved.

Without roaring or gathering momentum, Chen Fei simply took a step forward and was already in front of Shi Pojun.

The dark golden Qian Yuan Halberd in his hand had been raised at some point, its blade pointing diagonally at the ground, gleaming with a cold light in the dim daylight.

Immediately, the halberd traced an arc, rising diagonally from bottom to top, slashing towards Shi Pojun.

This halberd strike lacked the majestic grandeur of Shi Pojun's Myriad Realms, the dazzling brilliance of Chang Guwu's Wind, Fire, and Thunder, and even the eerie sharpness of Liu Yanqing's Dividing Realm.

It possesses only one pure and extreme power, one extreme speed, and one unwavering will to lock onto everything.

Wherever the halberd blade passed, space seemed to be silently torn apart, leaving a faint black mark.

The chilling killing intent, like a tangible gust of cold wind, instantly locked onto Shi Pojun, making his blood almost freeze.

Shi Pojun stared intently at the dark gold halberd blade that slashed towards him from the side. His pupils reflected not only a cold killing intent, but also a kind of madness driven by being forced into a corner with no way to retreat.

Chen Fei's words were like a red-hot iron, searing his heart and shattering his last shred of hope and pretense.

That's right, he didn't know he was wrong, he was just afraid of dying. He wasn't repentant, he was just unwilling to accept it.

"what!"

A long howl filled with resentment, bitterness, and madness burst forth from deep within Shi Pojun's throat, like the final howl of a wounded and dying beast.

The last trace of color drained from his face, replaced by a sickly flush, his features contorted and grotesque from extreme pain and despair.

He knew that any reservations would be meaningless.

Faced with an absolute disparity in strength, any skill or calculation is utterly futile. Only sheer power—the most extreme, the most ferocious, the most reckless power—offers even a sliver of hope for mutual destruction.

"All things return to nothingness, the Dao body burns the heavens! Burn! Burn! Burn!"

Shi Pojun roared hoarsely, and his already shattered Myriad Manifestations True Realm Dao Domain was completely ignited by him in a frenzied manner.

Not only that, but he also unhesitatingly threw the essence of his life's cultivation, the Tai Cang Origin, his physical blood and qi, and even his already weakened divine soul power into this final sacrifice.

"boom!"

A violent, intense, and chaotic aura suddenly erupted from Shi Pojun's battered body.

Blazing white flames erupted from every pore of his body. These were no ordinary flames, but rather a burning fire produced by the combined combustion of the source of life, the foundation of the Great Dao, and the will of the soul.

The flames devoured everything he had, but also gave him a brief burst of power.

From the hilt of the sword in Shi Pojun's hand, a blazing blade composed entirely of blazing white flames extended. On the blade, faint phantom images of the birth and death of all things and the collapse of the world could be seen flashing by.

"Chen Fei, let's die together!"

Shi Pojun's eyes were bloodshot as he poured all his strength, all his will, all his resentment and unwillingness into this burning, all-consuming slash.

Burn the heavens, annihilate all things!

The blazing blade, carrying the resolute determination to incinerate everything and perish with the enemy, met Chen Fei's sky-piercing halberd strike head-on, which had sealed off all his escape routes.

This strike was the pinnacle, the most brilliant, and also the final blow of Shi Pojun's life.

They did not seek survival, but rather mutual destruction, leaving eternal scars on the enemy.

"clang!"

The dark golden Qian Yuan Halberd blade clashed head-on with the blazing white Blazing Sky Blade, without any frills.

Like a mournful cry of collapsing stars, a wave of destruction, a mixture of dark gold and blazing white, exploded outwards from the point where the two weapons clashed, sweeping wildly in all directions like a raging torrent.

"Boom!"

Wherever the terrifying shockwave passed, the ground was as if it had been ruthlessly plowed by an invisible giant plow, and the hard rocks were instantly turned into dust, with earth waves dozens of miles high being thrown up.

The surrounding gray fog was completely dispelled and lifted into the air, forming a temporary vacuum zone with a diameter of over a hundred miles. In the distance, jagged rocks and withered ancient trees crumbled and broke.

Chen Fei stood holding a halberd, his figure as immovable as a mountain.

The violent shockwave swept to within ten feet of him before being blocked and dissipated by a layer of constantly flowing pale golden force field.

Chen Fei remained expressionless, his gaze calm as he watched the point where the halberd blade and the flaming blade collided, as if the earth-shattering impact was nothing more than a gentle breeze.

On the other side, Shi Pojun's body trembled violently, he groaned, staggered, and took a step back.

"Is this all you have?" Chen Fei's calm voice, piercing through the roar of the energy aftershocks, clearly reached Shi Pojun's ears.

Shi Pojun gritted his teeth. He knew he had lost, utterly and without a doubt.

The power gained from burning everything only allowed him to retreat one step under Chen Fei's halberd, but he couldn't even shake his opponent.

How tragic, how desperate.

"With your strength..."

Chen Fei looked at Shi Pojun and shook his head slightly, "He doesn't seem to be as rumored, able to escape unscathed from the pursuit of a late-stage Tai Cang Realm expert."

Chen Fei's words were not meant to be sarcastic or manipulative, but rather carried a genuine hint of doubt.

According to the information he had previously learned, when Shi Pojun was training outside, he had a blood feud with a veteran late-stage Tai Cang Realm rogue cultivator over a treasure. After fighting for a while, Shi Pojun was seriously injured but managed to escape.

This incident was once widely praised within the Danchen Sect, and it solidified Shi Pojun's status as an outstanding disciple among his generation.

However, in today's battle, Shi Pojun's strength, whether it was the use of the Myriad Realms True World or the burst of power when fighting to the death, can be considered among the best of his level, but he still seems to be a bit short of being able to escape unscathed from the late stage of the Tai Cang Realm.

"kill!"

Chen Fei was met with an even more frantic roar from Shi Pojun.

He stopped thinking about anything else, with only one thought in his mind: before his life was over, he would give his all, even if it meant biting, to take a piece of flesh from Chen Fei.

The flames of calamity engulf all things, burning the heavens and boiling the seas!

Shi Pojun roared, disregarding his own defenses and leaving himself wide open. He gripped the Blazing Blade with both hands and, with an indomitable and desperate spirit, took the initiative to slash at Chen Fei.

"boom!"

The dark golden Qian Yuan halberd blade easily pierced the weakest point of the blazing white flames, and the destructive power contained within the halberd blade erupted with a roar.

Shi Pojun's body trembled, and his aura, which had been at its peak due to the burning, rapidly declined and withered away like a punctured balloon.

The flaming blade in his hand, formed from the flames of his own burning body, let out a mournful cry and began to disintegrate.

"Dengdengdeng!"

Shi Pojun staggered backward uncontrollably, his breathing extremely disordered, and the madness and crimson in his eyes quickly faded, replaced by a look of dejection.

Chen Fei took a step forward, as if stepping on Shi Pojun's heart, causing Shi Pojun's retreating figure to freeze abruptly.

Chen Fei raised the Qian Yuan Halberd in his hand, the blade pointing diagonally to the sky, and then, facing Shi Pojun in front of him, he slashed down from above.

Shi Pojun looked up at the halberd blade that was rapidly enlarging in his eyes. The aura of death, like a cold tide, instantly overwhelmed him.

It's over, it's all over!

All ambition, all pride, all scheming—faced with this absolute disparity in power, they all became a joke. (End of Chapter)