A Will Eternal

Two months went by in the blink of an eye. As time passed, the 300-meter-tall pill furnaces gradually began to turn crimson, and emanate shocking levels of heat. However, Bai Xiaochun still wasn’t completely satisfied, and would often add more earthflame stones.

To ensure that he got the best results possible, he even went to Bai Lin and asked if any top experts were available who could bless the flames. Bai Lin and Bai Xiaochun were on completely the same train of thought when it came to those ten huge furnaces, so Bai Lin didn’t even hesitate for a moment before agreeing to his request.

In fact, Bai Lin personally went to seal the pill furnaces, and then had ten of his subordinates who were Nascent Soul cultivators come and converge Nascent Soul flames from their cultivation bases to help heat up the furnaces.

When Bai Xiaochun went out every day and saw ten Nascent Soul cultivators looking almost like living earthflame stones, he couldn’t help but anticipate the results.

“I wonder what these things are going to end up doing?” Eventually, he was forced to simply suppress his curiosity and wait. During the two months which passed, he produced batch after batch of Soul Convergence Pills. In fact, he quickly reached the point where he was concocting more than 10,000 per day.

Zhao Long and the others would collect the completed pills, after which Bai Xiaochun would use his command medallion, which was connected to the pagoda and the huge eye, to brand them with divine sense. Then, cultivators sent by Bai Lin would take the pills away to be stored for distribution when the big battle came.

The reason the pills were branded with divine sense was so that Bai Xiaochun would get some battle credit when they were used in the fighting. He wouldn’t get all the credit for each pill, but rather, thirty percent.

That was the agreement he and Bai Lin had come to. As for Bai Lin, since he was the financial backer of the pill, and also a general, he also received a small cut of all battle credit earned by the Skin Flayers. As for pills which ended up being used by the other four legions, Bai Lin would get a thirty percent cut.

The fact that everyone was profiting handsomely was quite pleasing to both Bai Lin and Bai Xiaochun. Bai Lin was already very protective of the Soul Convergence Pills, and had even sent a contingent of men over to stand guard over the Armory.

A large number of Soul Convergence Pills were created during those two months, and at the same time, Bai Xiaochun still managed to set aside plenty of time for cultivation. Although he currently wasn’t making much in terms of battle credit, with all of the medicinal plants that had been delivered by the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect, his cultivation went on as normal. His frigid qi continued to grow stronger, and he was getting closer and closer to the great circle of the Gold Core stage.

However, his most rapid area of advancement was with his Undying Live Forever Technique. With so many earthspirit tubers at his disposal, all of them hundreds of years old, he had a shocking amount of life force to work with. As such, his entire left arm was now filled with Undying Tendons, and he was reaching the point of completion with his right arm.

Bai Xiaochun munched on earthspirit tubers the way a rabbit would munch on carrots on a daily basis. He even tended to nibble a bit here and there when concocting medicine. After another ten days passed, rumbling sounds echoed out into the evening sky as Bai Xiaochun’s right arm came to be fully filled with Undying Tendons.

Everything down to his fingers throbbed with shocking power, and when he shot his right arm out with full speed in the form of a fist, cracking sounds filled the air.

Even more strangely, when he clenched his hand into a fist, it almost felt like he was grasping onto the fabric of space itself, and that by moving his hand, he could twist the air around him.

Looking down excitedly at his arms he said, “I’ve finished cultivating both arms and both legs!”

He could sense that his arms were now filled with incredible power and speed.

“This place is more of a holy land than the Blood Stream Sect was!” Bai Xiaochun was extremely excited. After all, the Undying Live Forever Technique was a huge drain on resources, and that trend only grew more pronounced the more one cultivated the technique. Without the chance occurrences that had led him to large amounts of resources, he would never have been able to cultivate it to its current level.

Before, he had been in the late Gold Core stage, but only had Undying Tendons in one of his legs.

But now, thanks to the indescribably valuable earthspirit tubers, he had advanced by leaps and bounds. Of course, one thing that Bai Xiaochun didn’t know was that the amount of earthspirit tubers he had consumed so far was actually more than half of the available reserves for the entire Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect, reserves that had been built up over the course of many years. After all, few people in the cultivation world raised earthspirit tubers, which were fundamentally hard to grow. Most of them existed in arcane pocket realms, and only transformed into medicinal plants after having grown for a hundred years.

“Now the only parts left are my torso and head. At this rate, it should only be a few more years before I succeed completely with my Undying Tendons. At that point, I should be able to break through... the third shackle!” The more he thought about it, the more excited he got. After experimenting a bit more with his newfound power, he looked up proudly, and mused about the fact that if he had a match with Eldest Brother Zhao Tianjiao, he would actually have a chance at victory.

“Aiya. I wish I could find a Nascent Soul expert to fight.” However, after a moment passed, he realized that such an idea didn’t make much sense, and quickly changed his mind. Clearing his throat, he murmured, “No need to be so impulsive....”

With that, he took a moment to readjust his thinking, then went back to cultivation.

Another month went by. One day, when Bai Xiaochun was in the middle of meditating, he suddenly heard what sounded like a war drum being beaten outside. The thunderous sound filled the entire city, and caused many cultivators to rush out and look up into the sky.

Zhao Long and the others were in the middle of watching over the pill furnaces in the courtyard when they heard the war drum, and their expressions instantly flickered. The ten Nascent Soul cultivators also opened their eyes and looked up in the direction of the tower and the eye.

That eye was where the sound of the war drum was coming from....

“The Drum of the Celestial Warrior!”

“We haven’t heard the Drum of the Celestial Warrior for a long time!”

“Whenever that drum sounds, it means that an army of savages larger than 500,000 strong is coming!”

Even as the cries of alarm rose up, the beating of the drum caused the blood within the veins of the cultivators to flow more swiftly than before, Bai Xiaochun included. The sound of the drum filled them with a desire to fight, and caused their bones and blood to vibrate. The sound even caused their cultivation bases to grow slightly more powerful.

That was the power of the Drum of the Celestial Warrior. Furthermore, there were additional benefits; all of the cultivators in Great Wall City found that they had begun to glow with a faint violet light.

That light was a type of armor that made their defenses stronger, and gave them a slight boost to agility.

Moments later, bugles began to sound, filling the city and drawing the attention of all cultivators of the five legions, no matter what they were doing.

Bai Xiaochun walked out of his room to find that Bai Lin was flying over toward him at top speed. A moment later, he came to a stop up in midair, his expression serious as he looked down at Bai Xiaochun.

“The Wildlands has sent an almighty Deva Realm expert, along with more than 100 necromancers, 1,000 soul cultivators, and 100 savage tribes with 700,000 giants. There are also innumerable beasts and souls. This is the major attack we’ve been waiting for!”

Bai Xiaochun shivered. Despite having been prepared for this moment, the news was still shocking.

“The deva patriarch has sent down orders that all cultivators in the city should prepare for battle. This is going to be the biggest fight we’ve had in years!

“Bai Xiaochun, I’ll be very busy commanding the army, and won’t have time to watch out for you. Make sure to take care of yourself in the coming battle.” With that, Bai Lin looked over at the ten huge pill furnaces. Although they were radiating intense heat, they had not yet reached the point of detonation. Unfortunately, there was nothing else that could be done. Bai Lin nodded at the ten Nascent Soul cultivators, who joined him as he flew off toward the wall.

Zhao Long and the rest of the battalion were already getting into their armor, and from their expressions, they hungered to do battle.

Ever since they had become Bai Xiaochun’s followers, they hadn’t gone out to fight on the battlefield. Now, with the Drum of the Celestial Warrior tugging at their hearts, their killing intent was burning hot, and their eyes were shining with the red light could only be seen among warrior cultivators from Great Wall City.

Bai Xiaochun looked around quietly at Zhao Long, Liu Li, and all of the other soldiers under his command. After a moment, he patted his bag of holding to produce numerous sets of armor, sundry magical items, countless bottles of medicinal pills, and stacks upon stacks of paper talismans. Although he didn’t have so many items that they could be referred to as endless, he definitely had enough to equip more than a thousand soldiers for battle. Without any hesitation, he sent the items flying out to Zhao Long and the other hundred cultivators in the battalion.

“I’m your captain, and you fight under my banner!” he said. “Although I haven’t given you much in the way of rewards up to this point, I’ve long since prepared for this battle. These magical items, medicinal pills, and paper talismans are for you!

“One suit of armor, isn’t enough, so I’ve prepared multiple sets for all of you. Make sure you’re well covered! Ideally, all of you should make sure to wear your spirit helmets at all times! In terms of magical items, I’ve prepared more than twenty for each of you. Even if you just use them for the force they unleash when detonated, at least you’ll be able to take down more of the enemy!

“As we all know, you should never allow yourself to run low on medicinal pills, especially not in the middle of a battle! Therefore, I’ve prepared all sorts of pills for you, including pills to replenish your cultivation base, to heal injuries, and even some poison pills!

“Remember, when you go out into battle, you represent me, Bai Xiaochun!

“Furthermore, I’ve personally prepared a set of 100 Soul Convergence Pills for each of you. As for orders for battle, I only have one.... As you go about killing the enemy... please... you absolutely must make sure to keep yourselves alive!” Bai Xiaochun’s voice quavered a bit by the end of his speech. Waving his sleeve, he sent numerous bottles of Soul Convergence Pills flying out to Zhao Long and the rest of the battalion.

Everyone was stunned, and soon, their eyes brimmed with gratitude. All of them knew that the things Bai Xiaochun was giving them had been purchased with his own battle credit.

Furthermore, everything was high quality, and would give them a clear advantage among anyone of the same cultivation level as them.

With that, Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath and unleashed his murderous aura. Eyes glinting, veins of steel pulsing, he turned into a beam of light as he led his battalion up to the Great Wall. “Let’s go!”