A Will Eternal

Heavenly multi-colored flame could only be conjured by a heavenly necromancer. Whether it was the flame itself, or the heavenly necromancer, both were things of legend.

Neither had appeared within the Wildlands for countless years, and in fact, not even the formula for twenty-one-colored flame could be found.

Besides, Bai Xiaochun only did it with the help of his apprentice and a huge collection of souls. There had also been a chance set of circumstances that led up to a situation where Bai Xiaochun made his attempt without even being completely confident in succeeding.

As soon as the twenty-one-colored flame appeared in the open, and the dramatic signs appeared in heaven and earth, Chen Hetian, Li Xiandao and Bai Zhentian gasped in shock. They had lived for a long time, and valued their own lives. Therefore, the sensation of imminent danger gave them no other option than to back away.

Patriarch Starry River and Patriarch Dao River Court had similar reactions, their eyes bulging and their hearts pounding as they retreated.

The despairing River-Defying Sect disciples saw the bright light, and could feel the pressure radiating out from Bai Xiaochun’s secluded meditation facilities, and instantly, their hearts surged with excitement.

“Patriarch Bai!”

“It’s Patriarch Bai!!”

“We have hope! With the patriarch here, who will dare to offend our River-Defying Sect!!”

Bai Xiaochun was just as excited as all the other cultivators in the sect. As he sat there looking at the tongue of twenty-one-colored flame he had just conjured, he had the strong feeling… that the world around him couldn’t contain something this powerful.

He looked up at the world seal net high above, and suddenly remembered something his apprentice had said, that he suspected twenty-one-colored flame was a limit within the world!

“This world… can only contain twenty-one-colored flame. Twenty-two-colored flame is an impossibility!!” Although it seemed a bit much to take in, he finally understood.

Back in the trial by fire in the labyrinth, he had seen twenty-one-colored flame. However, that had been an illusion, whereas the fire in front of him now was very real. He could clearly feel the terrifying fluctuations coming off of it, and could tell that it was a limit within the world. It was as if the world were using all the power it could to suppress the flame.

In fact… the recently conjured twenty-one-colored flame was already beginning to show signs of fading, as though the world around him… were trying to extinguish it!

There was no time for thought or planning. Without any hesitation, he pulled out his turtle wok, his eyes flashing with both madness and determination. It was only a legend that twenty-one-colored flame could push someone into the Deva Realm, and it was something that no one had ever done.

Bai Xiaochun was the only one throughout all the years who had met the requirements. And now, in the River-Defying Sect’s moment of peril, and in the face of the twenty-one-colored flame teetering on the verge of being extinguished, Bai Xiaochun had no time to ponder what to do.

“Time to go for broke!!” he shouted, a fierce expression twisting his face. Although taking this risk was not something he would normally do, at the moment, he had no choice!

The instant the turtle wok was out in the open, his nascent soul flew out into it. At the same time, he waved his hand!

The twenty-one-colored flame flew into the wok, fusing into it, causing it to tremble violently. Blinding light erupted out, causing heaven and earth to shake, and forcing incomprehensible levels of spiritual power to converge.

It was as if the River-Defying Sect had become a massive vortex, sucking in all the spiritual power of heaven and earth!

The faces of Chen Hetian, Li Xiandao and Bai Zhentian fell dramatically, and they flew backward as quickly as possible, ill premonitions filling their hearts.

“Dao River, Starry River,” shouted Li Xiandao, “get over there and bust open his meditation chamber!”

The hearts of Patriarch Dao River and Patriarch Starry River surged with madness, but they didn’t dare to defy the orders they had been given. Seeing that Chen Hetian and Bai Zhentian weren’t offering any other instructions, they gritted their teeth and charged at full speed toward Bai Xiaochun’s private chamber.

Bruiser howled anxiously, and Patriarch Blood Stream sent the Blood Ancestor forward with him to intercept. Although neither of them were at the deva level, they could at least buy some time.

Rumbling sounds echoed out as the two deva patriarchs knocked Bruiser and the Blood Ancestor out of the way, and then closed in on the meditation chamber, toward which the massive quantities of spiritual energy surged.

“Open up!” Patriarch Dao River roared, hands flashing in a double-handed incantation gesture that sent tens of thousands of beams of sword light out to form the shape of an enormous great sword.

As the sword slashed down toward the meditation chamber, shocking energy filled the area. Patriarch Starry River also went all-out to unleash a similarly devastating attack.

“Starry Meteorite Subjugation!!”

Ear-splitting rumbling sounds filled the air, along with enraged shouts from countless River-Defying Sect cultivators, as countless meteorites materialized around Patriarch Starry River and then began to rain down toward Bai Xiaochun’s secluded meditation facilities!

All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but actually happened in the shortest of moments. In the blink of an eye, the meteorites fell, and the sword slashed down, causing the River-Defying Sect to shake violently. The mountains that contained Bai Xiaochun’s meditation chamber shattered, sending rocks and rubble flying out in all directions before transforming into ash!

Even the meditation chamber itself was destroyed!

“Xiaochun!!” Song Junwan cried. Even as Bruiser howled, Chen Hetian, Li Xiandao and Bai Zhentian all shot down into the River-Defying Sect.

However, a moment later, their faces flickered with wild emotion.

“The will of a deva!!”

“That only happens when someone rises to the deva level, and fuses with the heavens. Bai Xiaochun… actually wasn’t a deva before?!?!”

“How is this even possible!?!?” Crying out in alarm, all three of them fell back rapidly. And yet, even as they did, a shocking will erupted out from the rubble of the recently destroyed meditation chamber.

It was so powerful that as it merged with the heavens, the sky trembled. All previous ripples, all peals of thunder, all of the clouds, were instantly suppressed.

The will of Chen Hetian and the other devas, which had previously locked the area down, were instantly driven away!

Only one will was left, a domineering will that demanded that the wills of all other devas retreat!!

An enormous face materialized in the sky, a face with eyes closed, a face that filled all of the heavens, a face which caused the hearts of everyone in the River-Defying Sect to tremble with unbridled excitement. It was… Bai Xiaochun!

Chen Hetian, Li Xiandao, Bai Zhentian, Patriarch Dao River, and Patriarch Starry River all looked grim and even sick as they retreated. As for the latter two, they felt a sensation of impending death that surpassed anything they had felt in their previous encounter with Bai Xiaochun!!

It was in that moment that the eyes of the enormous face in the sky opened. The eyes locked onto Patriarch Dao River’s nascent divinity, simultaneously causing all color in the world to dim!

Wind screamed and lightning danced, all of which coalesced into a shocking voice.

“Be destroyed!”

The face of Bai Xiaochun twisted, transforming into a beam of light that shot toward Patriarch Dao River. It moved so quickly that Chen Hetian, Li Xiandao and Bai Zhentian couldn’t even react.

To the shock of Patriarch Dao River, before he could even plead for mercy, that beam of light stabbed through his nascent divinity….