A Will Eternal

Bai Xiaochun looked out at the chaos on the battlefield and cleared his throat. Then he stuck his chin up and flicked his sleeve.

“With the snap of a finger, I, Bai Xiaochun gave all savages and beasts no other choice than to be reduced to ashes!” Looking like the picture of a lonely hero, he turned and strolled dramatically off the Great Wall. As he did, the cultivators behind him watched him leave, shock and other mixed emotions clearly visible on their faces.

Some of those expressions were those of reverence, some were fear, and others were plain terror....

As Bai Xiaochun left, the magical cannons on the Great Wall rumbled to life. How could the five legions not take advantage of this spectacular opportunity? Some of the cultivators even charged onto the battlefield itself, where every enemy in their path was crushed like twigs. Bai Xiaochun didn’t need to know the final outcome of the battle. He was content knowing that his message had been clearly sent to the Wildlands: provoke Bai Xiaochun, and pay the price!

The Aphrodisiac Pill was not without fault. For example, although it worked quite well on beasts, if the savage giants wished to protect themselves from its effects, they could do so in many ways. The only reason it had worked so effectively in this situation was because of the element of surprise. And of course, Bai Xiaochun was well aware of that.

However, he didn’t plan to use the Aphrodisiac Pill as a way to accumulate battle credit. He simply wanted to use it to frighten the Wildlands, and ensure that they didn’t dare to send beasts to consume his exploding furnaces.

“Hmph! Well, exploding furnaces can't be a long-term tactic anyway. I need to switch things up a bit, and the key to that is my Soul Convergence Pill.” As Bai Xiaochun left, Zhao Long and the others followed him, their hearts trembling, the mere sight of Bai Xiaochun’s back causing their hair to stand on end.

When it came to thoughts of Bai Xiaochun’s terrifying Aphrodisiac Pill, both Zhao Long and Liu Li felt the same. Not only were they scared to death, but they also couldn’t help but muse that he was truly born for battle....

In the following few days, word spread to all of the cultivators in Great Wall City. Stories abounded about what had occurred when Bai Xiaochun made his move, and yet again, his name shook the entire city.

Not only were his pill concocting techniques fear-inspiring, but his medicinal pills were horrific. Most of the grandmasters who lived near him in the Armory were so scared that they moved away....

By that point, the Armory was almost half empty, and when Bai Xiaochun realized that, he simply waved his sleeve and had the empty half consolidated into his own personal headquarters.

Of course, because of his actions, he earned a huge amount of battle credit, which immediately got him promoted from lieutenant to captain.

Because of that, despite his residence being much larger than before, the increased number of subordinates under his control ensured that it didn’t feel empty at all.

Not only was Bai Xiaochun famous within Great Wall City, but he was now well-known beyond the wall as well.

Of the hundreds of tribes that occupied the eastern Wildlands, all had heard of Bai Xiaochun and his horrifying Aphrodisiac Pill, as well as the tragic defeat the Wildlands had suffered because of them. For those reasons, Bai Xiaochun’s name rose high on the Wildlands Execution List. Before, he had been in the top 100, but now, he was in 27th place!

Of the people higher than him on the list, the weakest were Nascent Soul cultivators. In fact, many of the people below him on the list were in that same cultivation level. Bai Xiaochun was the only Core Formation cultivator in the top 50.

He was now famous, had a huge accumulation of battle credit, and had earned the rank of captain. Everywhere he went in Great Wall City, the cultivators who saw him would salute with clasped hands.

It was a wonderful feeling that Bai Xiaochun loved, and he couldn’t help but muse that staying here had been a good decision. In fact, he would often take out his copper mirror and ask all sorts of questions that drove imposter Nightcrypt crazy.

Imposter Nightcrypt would wrack his brains with new ways to flatter Bai Xiaochun, until Bai Xiaochun would eventually start to get embarrassed and stop asking questions.

Meanwhile, Bai Xiaochun’s cultivation by no means stagnated. With all his battle credit, he was able to get plenty of medicinal pills to help with his Frigid School Will-Evolving Incantation. At the same time, he continued to work on his Soul Convergence Pill.

Although his cultivation speed was actually moving along quite rapidly, whenever he thought about how much it cost to get the Nascent Soul Pill that would propel him into the great circle of the Gold Core stage, he would always worry that he was going too slow.

However, despite his cultivation base rising at a relatively slow rate, his Undying Live Forever Technique was making huge progress. After all, Bai Lin had been utterly shocked by Bai Xiaochun’s skill in the Dao of medicine, and was more than happy to provide him with anything he asked for.

He didn’t even mind that some of the medicinal plants being requested were actually for personal use. As far as he was concerned, Bai Xiaochun was just too important.

With so many medicinal plants at his disposal, Bai Xiaochun’s speed with the Undying Live Forever Technique picked up. By this point, he had Undying Tendons spreading throughout his left arm. One night, his left arm even began to glow with bright light, and turned translucent to the point of being able to see his blood and veins inside.

Eyes widening, he clenched his hand into a fist, which caused cracking sounds to emanate out. Then he punched out into the air, and his hand moved so quickly it was almost invisible.

The sensation of incredible power which spread out from his body gave him a very clear idea of how much fleshly body strength he had at his disposal.

“Success! I have Undying Tendons in both legs as well as my left arm. Now I just need to finish my head, right arm, and torso!

“When that happens, I’ll have completed my work with the Undying Tendons, and as such, the third volume of the Undying Codex. Then, all I’ll have to do is break through from Gold Core to Nascent Soul!

“Once I'm in the Nascent Soul stage, I can finally cultivate Undying Bones!” The mere thought of Undying Bones caused Bai Xiaochun to purse his lips in excitement.

According to the descriptions in the Undying Codex, once he cultivated the Undying Bones, he would essentially have reached the point of having an indestructible fleshly body.

“Skin, flesh, tendons, bones, blood!” he said softly.

“Undying Skin is for defensive purposes. Undying Flesh gives power. Undying Tendons helps with speed. Undying Bones provides the unifying factor for all three, allowing one to unleash incredible force!” Having considered all these matters, his anticipation regarding the Undying Bones grew even greater.

“Even without Undying Bones, and only being half-finished with my Undying Tendons, my fleshly body power combined with my Gold Core cultivation base puts me in an incredible position with my cultivation level.” A flicker of pride appeared in his eyes as he thought back to his fight with the statue of Gongsun Wan’er. Back then, although he had a Heaven-Dao Gold Core, he was still only in the mid Core Formation stage.

During the fight, he had been unable to truly unleash what he was capable of. After all, even an ocean of water that has to pass through a tiny bottleneck, will be limited.

Things were different now, though. As he inched closer to the great circle, and had half a body’s worth of Undying Tendons, he was completely confident that if he had to fight that Gongsun Wan’er statue again, he would be able to secure victory as easy as flipping over his hand!

“Elder Brother Zhao Tianjiao could kill Nascent Soul experts when in Core Formation.... I should be able to as well.” Bai Xiaochun could tell that if he truly unleashed the full power of his cultivation base, the terrifying level of power would be no weaker than what Zhao Tianjiao was capable of.

“From now on, not a single person beneath late Core Formation will be a match for me!” Flicking his sleeve, he laughed loudly.

Sometimes, good things come in waves. It was only three days after the Undying Tendons in his left arm were finished that, after nearly half a year of endless experimentation, he produced a batch of Soul Convergence Pills that were exactly what he had been looking for!

These Soul Convergence Pills were no longer black, but rather, gold!

They emanated an invisible aura that distorted the air around them, and in addition to that, a black hole could be seen spinning inside of them.

Furthermore, if you looked at one of the pills for too long, you would almost feel like your soul was going to be tugged out of you.

The moment the golden Soul Convergence Pills appeared, he knew that they were high-grade pills. Although they still had some impurities, those impurities wouldn’t cause too many problems.

These were the most perfect Soul Convergence Pills he had concocted so far.

Excited, he sent a message to Bai Lin, and then took Zhao Long and his other guards up to the Great Wall.

Bai Lin was there to meet him, and immediately noticed the golden medicinal pill he was holding.

“Soul Convergence Pill?” he asked, looking excited.

“Exactly!” Bai Xiaochun replied, a proud smile on his face as he held the pill in his hand and looked out beyond the wall, his eyes glittering.