Chapter 667: Third Boundary of the Cultivating Heart
Translator: Radiant Translations Editor: Radiant Translations
'It's been a long time since I last tried cultivating the Cultivating Heart Secret Technique. Now that I've opened up the Dao of Slaughter, I should give it another go,' Xue Ying thought. Because every attempt at reaching the Time Boundary of the Cultivating Heart Secret Technique took a few thousand years, it would affect his heart realm. As such, he usually separated each training session by a period of time. However, over eight million years, he truly attempted it far too many times.
Now that he succeeded in opening the Dao of Slaughter, Xue Ying was once more filled with fighting spirit, and he immediately gave it another try after sitting down.
Snowflakes began falling on his body, to the point where his entire figure seemed to have frozen solid. Gradually, Xue Ying turned into a literal snowman.
The Time Boundary involved living life after life without getting to choose his roles. Instead, he would simply become the protagonist of another person's life.
Some of these lives were filled with darkness and madness, others with freedom and ease, cunning and savageness, or even tyranny and domination… Xue Ying had never experienced so many unfathomable matters during his life as a cultivator so far, yet he now could do so within the Time Boundary! One of his incarnations actually had quite a similar temperament to his own! Such a distortive feeling was time and time again influencing Xue Ying's spirit.
Even Paragons would have a very hard time trying to stabilize their heart realm in the Time Boundary.
'The ninth life…' Xue Ying began experiencing a ninth life in the body of yet another person. Never before had he managed to enter a ninth life prior to this.
The ninth role was a simple and honest one. Before he turned twenty-five, he lived the life of an ordinary mortal who had only been to big cities a few times, but as soon as he reached his 25th birthday, he awakened the World Deity bloodline in him to directly become a Transcendent. Throughout his past, he had simply not experienced enough, and as soon as he became a Transcendent and organizations from everywhere began roping him in, he eventually became intoxicated with several women, sure that each and every one of them was his true love. Over time, however, he was exploited by them time and time again and eventually even imprisoned by a Demigod mage who treated him as an experimental subject.
Only when he found himself in prison did he gain a real understanding of his plight, yet he did not dare believe that the three women he loved most had been deceiving him all that time. The experiments conducted by the mage involved torture, and it was during this process that a different experimental subject locked in the same prison—an incomparably ugly woman—begun conversing with him. Always separated by a wall, he unknowingly became fond of this ugly woman.
He felt that she was the only person in his life who was true to him.
Finally, during an experiment one day, the woman died.
He felt suffocated, mad.
Thunder boomed in the sky that day and a region of 5,000 kilometers wide surrounding that place turned to ruins. The Demigod mage imprisoning him had died instantly in the calamity.
From then on, he lived his life as a madman, his behavior perverse. He was also very powerful, and could even match Deities as a mere Transcendent. In the end, his combat power began growing continuously with no end in sight—Deity, stage one World Deity, stage two… all while acting like a madman. At times, he would fall madly in love with some mortal woman, at other times he would scheme against his enemies and play them to death, and sometimes he would just violently murder anyone who stood in his path…
His character was filled with all kinds of variations.
After becoming a stage four World Deity and then transcended to become a powerful existence, he brought the woman back to life. A period of calm followed, and the woman ended up becoming an ordinary Deity, before dying once her lifespan dried up, followed by the crumbling of her True Deity Heart. He became even more perverse after that point, opening up the Dao of Punishment Thunder, first becoming a Paragon, then even a Ruler.
This life lasted a total of fifty billion years.
During this life, Xue Ying's mood would change according to the weird temper of the protagonist. He soon noticed himself slowly turning into a madman, but he still managed to resist these changes. During these final fifty billion years of his life, the life of a powerful existence, a Paragon, and even a Ruler, Xue Ying managed to achieve an even deeper refinement of his heart realm.
"Hong."
The Time Boundary ended, but this time, it was an ordinary conclusion—the conclusion of his training.
The thick snowman who had remained seated on the mountain peak for so long began to gradually move. Snow started falling off, revealing a layer of ice underneath. Soon, cracks began appearing on this ice, followed by sounds of 'pa pa', and finally, Xue Ying, who had been sitting cross-legged encased by the ice, began opening his eyes. There was a power within them which could chill anyone who saw him. Space itself ahead of him was penetrated and showed signs of cracking.
'Is this the result of cultivating my heart to a deeper level?' Xue Ying muttered to himself. At the same time, he was investigating his True Deity Heart.
Within his consciousness, the child-sized Xue Ying was still sitting cross-legged. He had the appearance of colored glass, albeit with a very bright pair of eyes—so bright that people would not be able to look directly into them. Sharp edges had begun appearing all over this True Deity Heart.
In the past, his True Deity Heart had always been rather ordinary, but now it was just like the blade of a sword. The willpower of his soul could actually exude a tangible sharpness.
'So this is the result of succeeding in cultivating the Cultivating Heart Secret Technique?' Xue Ying stood up. 'I have now succeeded in all three secret techniques. Time to pay the Cultivating Heart Palace a visit.'
"Sou!"
He immediately charged up into the sky, and his body turned illusory soon afterward. "Sou, sou, sou." He began moving towards his destination by means of teleportation.
...
Using the Three Devil Palaces command token, Xue Ying entered the Cultivating Heart Palace once again. This was the same palace hall covered in snow as before.
Within the ancient palace hall, the white-haired old man appeared once again. He looked up towards Xue Ying, his eyes squinted. "You're back. Have you succeeded?"
"I have." Xue Ying nodded.
"Let me witness your willpower, then," said the old man.
Xue Ying's eyes let out an unseen strength which swept across the area ahead of him. It blasted out on the walls of the palace hall, causing them to tremble violently. This was the Cultivating Heart Palace, a region left behind by the Ancestor Devil; to have caused the walls of such a place to tremble, it was easy to see how powerful he was. Many powerful existences could only do so by using their entire strength.
"Heart as a blade. You have indeed succeeded. A stage four World Deity opening their Dao is no easy task, but for you to have succeeded in the Cultivating Heart Secret Technique…" The white-haired old man was slightly stunned. "And you're even a soldier of the Destruction Legion on top of that."
"Heart as a blade?" Xue Ying felt puzzled.
"The cultivation of heart is split into three boundaries as follows: heart like colored glass, heart as a blade, and heart of the world," the old man explained directly.
Xue Ying instantly memorized these words.
Heart like colored glass, heart as a blade, and heart of the world?
"What of the third boundary, the one you call the heart of the world?" Xue Ying could not help but ask.
"Hmph, there's no reason to even consider it. Throughout the many cosmos epochs so far, not many Rulers have ever reached this realm. From my understanding, only the Lake Heart Island Master and the Ancestor Devil have ever reached this realm, one after the other. When the heart's cultivation reaches this level, one could easily kill Rulers with their willpower alone," the old man explained. "But it is too difficult. Across the many cosmos epochs, there have actually been quite a few Rulers who walked that final step, but only two have ever reached the third boundary of the heart realm. As such, brat from the Destruction Legion, you should become a Ruler before it's even worth mentioning. Don't think too far ahead."
"Killing Rulers using one's willpower alone?" Xue Ying was speechless.
It was easy to see by just how much both the Lake Heart Island Master and the Ancestor Devil surpassed all others across the many epochs.
"You've succeeded in all three of the secret techniques, and you shall thus receive the inheritance left behind by the Ancestor Devil." The old man waved his hand, causing an enormous bubble to appear. Taking a step, he entered the bubble and said, "Follow me."
Xue Ying obediently entered.
"Hua."
The bubble burst apart, and the two of them shattered alongside it, being directly teleported through the void.
Soon, space itself began to shift. There was a single, small region of land amidst the primal chaos, and the whole area contained only one structure—a pagoda!
Xue Ying and the old man appeared right at the entrance to this pagoda.
"Follow me inside," the white-haired old man said, entering the pagoda as Xue Ying followed closely behind.