As that aura surged into Chen Chao's palm, the barrier that had stood before his meridians grew even more solid.

Then, Chen Chao even began gathering the "raindrops" once again, channeling them back into the furnace!

With the reinforcement of this aura, he gained better control over the other furnaces. One by one, furnaces shattered, their qi refined, and a continuous stream of aura began to flow into his meridians. Only then did Chen Chao finally breathe a sigh of relief, he knew the most dangerous part was over.

All that remained was to proceed step by step, letting the hundred and eight furnaces fully refine the remaining auras. Then the work would be complete.

Chen Chao glanced at the now-still furnace with lingering fear. He had nearly failed, everything had nearly been undone by this single furnace.

Though he had pulled through, Chen Chao still felt uneasy. That brush with death just now had left him with an unfamiliar feeling; one of complete loss of control. He had not felt that in a very long time.

It was like being plunged into a curtain of night, with no light to be seen. It was a feeling Chen Chao had never known before.

Fortunately, he had pulled through.

Chen Chao took a deep breath.

Over the following dozen or so days, furnace after furnace shattered. Countless streams of qi began to flow back into his meridians. A river that had once been no more than a thin trickle was now being filled with surging water, revived with vitality.

A small rowboat once again appeared beneath Chen Chao's feet. Standing at the bow, he felt the “river” beneath him moving, its rhythm distinctly different than before, and it felt good.

At this moment, it felt as though he had finally gained full control over his own body. With a single thought, he could sense any part of himself, down to the last strand of hair.

The flow of blood, the paths of his meridians, everything was crystal clear.

This sensation was entirely new. In the present day, only a rare few martial artists could achieve such complete command over their own bodies.

And those few were, without exception, the most powerful martial artists of the current era.

Reaching this stage, it could truly be said that his body had been tempered to perfection.

Under ordinary cultivation methods, Chen Chao would likely have needed to cultivate all the way to the end of Nepenthe and spend a great deal of time tempering his body to this level. But because he had taken such a perilous path, he had received his reward.

And this was only Nepenthe.

To be able to achieve this at this realm, Chen Chao was undoubtedly the only one in the world.

The furnaces continued to shatter. Another dozen days passed, and of the hundred and eight furnaces, only one remained, quietly operating in the most critical aperture of all.

Chen Chao focused his entire mind on this final furnace. Once it shattered and refined the last trace of aura, it would be complete.

Only one step remained from success, yet Chen Chao was more focused than ever. He understood a simple truth: even if one had walked ninety-nine of a hundred steps, failing to take the last one still meant failure.

At last, under his full focus, that final furnace began to show cracks. Wisps of aura slowly began to seep out from those cracks.

Chen Chao stared fixedly at the last furnace

Crack-

A crisp sound rang out. A shard split from the furnace, and the refined aura began to pour steadily from the breach, joining the river.

Chen Chao let out a sigh of relief.

But just as this final stream of aura entered his meridians, Chen Chao's eyes widened in shock. That previously calm flow within his meridians suddenly stirred into turbulence.

That seemingly ordinary river was currently raging.

The surging current swept through acupoint after acupoint, smashing through like a torrent breaking through dikes. Even after filling all the acupoints, the river still raged, waves pounding against the banks.

Standing at the bow, Chen Chao felt the transformation within his body. He quickly realized something -

He might be taking another step forward.

After refining all that qi into one unified aura, Chen Chao had believed he was unmatched within the Nepenthe Realm. Even if he encountered Autumn again, even after she had refined all those sword qi, he was confident he could kill her.

But even he had not expected that after refining that qi, not only would he become "truly invincible" within the Nepenthe Realm, but there might even be a possibility to take one more step forward and become one of the most prominent figures of the current age.

Feeling the qi surge within him and the shock to his meridians, Chen Chao took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes. Though he had only cultivated for a few years, and had his share of fortunate encounters, getting to this point had relied far more on his own strength than any outside force.

Now that he stood at the threshold of the end of Nepenthe, Chen Chao could not be bothered to worry whether advancing too quickly would make his foundation unstable. Throughout his journey, he had never once rushed ahead carelessly. Now that he had reached this point, there was no longer any question of an unstable foundation.

It was merely a matter of going with the flow.

Since he was at the gate, then he would take a good look at what lay beyond. If he could walk through it, then he would.

As for whether he would become the youngest martial artist in recorded history to reach the end of Nepenthe Realm, or even the youngest cultivator to achieve the end of Nepenthe, Chen Chao did not care.

Those titles meant nothing.

The Great Dao was long. Only those who walk it to the end truly matter.

As for those so-called dazzling prodigies who dominated for a moment, outshone their peers for a time, they did not count for much.

It was not impressive to laugh, being the one laughing at the end was what's truly impressive.

......

......

These days, Li Yu often found himself sighing. How could someone like Yun Jianyue, such an outlier, emerge from that group of daoists who only cared about seeking immortality? One outlier was one thing, after all, even the most upright family background could not guarantee that no descendants would turn out to be crooks, and even the most crooked family might still produce a virtuous descendant.

But what Li Yu could not understand was how an outlier like Yun Jianyue could remain in the Infatuation Daoist Temple without being assimilated by those daoists, but even went on to become the current temple master of Infatuation Daoist Temple.

After Yun Jianyue came up the mountain, he did not do much in the first few days, just strolled around Mount Xi and spoke quite a bit with the always gloomy Saintess. Only then did the lifeless look on Zhu Xia's face begin to fade, and a bit of a smile returned. Though still far from the lively Zhu Xia of the past, it was much better than the days after Chen Chao left the mountain.

After doing that, while strolling around the mountain, Yun Jianyue would quietly observe whenever he came across young disciples of the Myriad Heaven Palace cultivating. At first, he said nothing, and those disciples, not daring to disturb the young temple master of Infatuation Daoist Temple, maintained a subtle distance from him. Until one day, Yun Jianyue ran into a young daoist reading a daoist scripture but failing to comprehend it. Only then did he speak to offer clarification. He was young, but clever since childhood, with extraordinary insight, otherwise he would not have been regarded as one of the Twin Pillars of Daoism all these years. In recent years, he even became the undisputed top genius of the younger generation in the Daoism world.

After he explained profound theories in simple terms to the young daoist, over the next few days, more and more young disciples of the Myriad Heaven Palace began seeking out this young temple master for guidance. At first, Li Yu felt uneasy about it, firstly out of fear that it might delay Yun Jianyue's cultivation, and secondly out of concern that Yun Jianyue himself might not be willing to waste time on such trivial matters.

But before Li Yu could decide whether to warn the disciples on the mountain, Yun Jianyue had already blended in with the group of young disciples. Often, when Yun Jianyue spoke on the Dao to someone, a whole crowd would soon gather around to listen. Gradually, Yun Jianyue's prestige on Mount Xi also began to rise.

Later, Yun Jianyue gave it some thought and decided to simply pick a spot every morning to discuss the Dao with these young disciples. It was not him lecturing alone; he also listened to the views of the young disciples. Li Yu had attended a few times in the beginning. He thought it would just be Yun Jianyue speaking while the disciples listened. But after going a few times, he discovered that it was not a one-way lecture, it truly was a discussion. Many of the past legends of the Daoism world were being interpreted by these young people in entirely new ways.

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