Disappear, reappear, disappear again, then reappear once again... He was like the monarch of the night, constantly flashing through the darkness. He enjoyed this feeling of traversing through space, of soaring in a completely free and uninhibited manner.

That's right, he had finally made a breakthrough to that level. Space could no longer restrict him, and he had finally also found his own path.

He was going to be a spatial traveler, but also a guardian of space. His daggers were merely keys that granted him access to this world, yet they weren't his true martial soul.

He was the Space Time Dragon, a being that was a manifestation of an overlap of light and shadow that only appeared during every violent transition in space and time. He was the loneliest traveler of the dragon clan, and he was once the shadow guardian of the Dragon God.

His powers were extremely unpredictable, yet in his eyes, there was only a single figure, one that seemed to stand as a pillar between heaven and earth.

Even though he was stirring up space, she remained completely unmoved, and she seemed to be sensing the changes taking place within the space around her.

He couldn't approach her carelessly as she possessed the ability to tear open space. She seemed to have always been the bane of his existence, even when it came to the abilities.

Ever since that battle, her Divine Cloudvortex Fists had become more and more fearsome, and it was as if she had attained the ability to stir up heaven and earth. What was even more terrifying was that her aura had become darker and darker, and if she were to adopt her Fallen Angel form, she would become far more powerful than the realm of her cultivation rank.

Thus, the two of them maintained a delicate balance, and neither of them attacked first. They were both far too familiar with one another, and neither of them dared to do anything that could reveal a weakness to the other.

A faint smile appeared on her face. After reaching the Soul Sage level, he had truly become more powerful.

……

Rays of starlight descended from above, shining down upon a certain figure like a shower of shooting stars.

She merely stood on the spot, and those streaks of starlight shone down upon the long staff in her hand.

She had already been here for a very, very long time, to the extent that even she didn't know how long she had been here for. All she knew that was she had become a Soul Sage, and it was as if all of the stars in the sky had become part of her body, while she had become the blessed child of starlight. She wasn't even completely sure where her seventh soul ring had come from. In the instant that she made her breakthrough, she suddenly felt a burst of almighty power descend upon her, immediately following which a strange roar rang out within her mind.

An illusionary being with the head of a lion yet a body that was comprised of countless specks of starlight had appeared in her mental world. After it fused with her body, it silently vanished, and even she was unable to summon it. However, something deep in her mind told her that the being had entered a state of hibernation within her body.

The starlight was extremely captivating, and every single streak of it abided by the paramount laws of heaven and earth. It was as if the stargazing platform had been tailor-made for her, and the glorious starlight was constantly elevating her body and soul to higher levels.

Her staff had also undergone a transformation, which was still ongoing. It no longer resembled a substantial staff and instead, it appeared to have been manifested from starlight. It could take on any length or form, and it was as if it had become a part of her body. Even she herself had become a star.

……

"This doesn't make sense!"

A'Ruheng sat on the ground with a slightly haunted look in his eyes, and murmured to himself, "This doesn't make sense, this doesn't make sense, this doesn't make sense..."

"Lub-dub, lud-dub, lub-dub!" A powerful heartbeat could be heard not far away from him.

A'Ruheng turned to Tang Wulin, who was sitting beside him, and a dejected look appeared on his face as he continued, "This doesn't make sense; this doesn't make sense!"

He could still clearly recall that when he had first begun instructing Tang Wulin to cultivate the Body Sect's congenital secret method, he had told him that the most difficult part of the secret method to cultivate was the first part, which involved body refinement.

The congenital body refinement method essentially completely tore one's body apart before reconstructing it according to the ideal configuration. Not only did countless types of spirit medicines have to be used to facilitate this process, the subject had to possess peerless willpower to be able to endure everything.

Tang Wulin told him that he would give it a try, and so he did.

Three days later, he told A'Ruheng that he had succeeded and seemed to have already completed body refinement.

A'Ruheng was naturally skeptical, so Tang Wulin showed him the fruits of the past three days of his cultivation.

Listening to the violent heartbeat that could set the listener's bloodline alight, A'Ruheng felt as if he had returned to the instant where he had emerged from this living hell.

After countless years of torment, he had finally refined his body to the required degree, thereby completing the most important and most painful step of the congenital secret method. Countless Body Sect predecessors of his had fallen at this step, yet his junior disciple brother had achieved this monumental feat in just three days! How was this possible!

It didn't make sense!

It made no sense at all!

"There's nothing implausible about this; you should just resign yourself to the truth," Sima Jinchi said with a look of gloating pleasure on his face.

In reality, he wasn't feeling much better than A'Ruheng. He had always thought that his Dragonslaying Saber was the most powerful tool martial soul in this world, all the way until he encountered Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon Spear.

During these past three days, he had fought Tang Wulin on countless occasions, and he finally realized the truth. His Dragonslaying Saber and Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon Spear were both divine weapons, but the Golden Dragon Spear was only Tang Wulin's weapon, while the Dragonslaying Saber was his martial soul.

Furthermore, there was a hierarchy even among divine weapons, and relatively speaking, his Dragonslaying Saber was like a whetstone for the Golden Dragon Spear that sharpened it with each and every clash. His Dragonslaying Saber also benefited from these clashes, but why was he always struck by the urge to bow to Tang Wulin in subordination at the conclusions of their battles?

No matter how much he hated to admit it, he knew that his Dragonslaying Saber was pledging its subordination to the Golden Dragon Spear.

Tang Wulin was currently completely immersed in sensing the congenital secret method, and it had to be said that this really was an extraordinary cultivation method.

In essence, the congenital secret method involved guiding the power of heaven and earth to perforate through one's body, cleansing and reforming them in the process. This three-step process was known as body refinement, and it essentially entailed using the power of heaven and earth to remold one's body and forge a golden body.

As such, one could only imagine how painful this process would be. Tang Wulin didn't have that many spirit items from the Body Sect for him to use, but what he did have was the bloodline power of the Golden Dragon King.

After absorbing the Golden Dragon King essence contained within the 11th seal, his cumulative bloodline power had already far exceeded the energy that could be produced from all of the spirit items that the Body Sect had gathered during the past century.

As such, when he truly began to cultivate this congenital secret method, he was able to essentially use the Golden Dragon King's body to experience the paramount laws of heaven and earth, thereby allowing him to be cleansed by the power of heavens and earth to attain a more powerful body.

Body refinement consisted of four stages; perforation, cleansing, remolding, and golden body. After completing those four stages, one would attain a third awakening of their body martial soul, and it had taken A'Ruheng several decades to reach the golden body stage.

Among the four stages, the most painful one was perforation. Perforation from the power of heaven and earth was the process of essentially completely tearing one's body apart, then putting it back together.

The three later stages were also extremely painful, but they were at least bearable. Of course, that was also only relative to the first stage.

Tang Wulin had completed perforation in just three days, and through the secret method of the Body Sect, he was able to sense the power of heaven and earth to cleanse and remold his own body. In this process, he could even sense that his Golden Dragon King power had undergone a certain transformation.

Every time he broke a Golden Dragon King seal, he had to endure excruciating pain, and the main reason behind this was that his body was different from that of the Golden Dragon King. After all, how could a human's body be the same as that of a dragon?

However, during the perforation process, he had attained a hint of enlightenment. As a result, he was struck by the indistinct notion that there seemed to be some area of overlap between his human body and the Golden Dragon King's body.