The old man put away his manifestation, and that terrifying furious will vanished. The pressure enveloping all of them also faded.
“Old man, are you alright?” Long Chen hastily asked upon seeing the old man was also sweating. There was an unhealthy rosiness to his face.
The old man shook his head, indicating to him not to worry. Once his aura calmed down, he finally said, “I really have grown old. Just entering this state is too heavy of a burden.”
The old man sighed. Long Chen took out a chair for him.
“You brats, what are you staring at? Are you blind?” The old man started cursing Boss Bao and the others.
Boss Bao and the others rubbed their heads. They were lost as to what the old man was cursing them for.
“This is the Heavens’ Wrath state. To use your own anger to draw out the emotions of the Heavenly Daos, causing the wrath of the heavens to infect the world. Using the heart as the foundation and your manifestation as the bridge, having the world energy within your astral space merge into heaven and earth, allowing you to control the laws of the world. Legend has it that when you train to the pinnacle of the ninth form, with a single thought, you can cause mountains to collapse and seas to dry up. You can kill people without moving a finger,” said the old man.
Bao Buping and the others clenched their fists excitedly. They hadn’t expected the ninth form to possess such power. Bao Buping was so excited that he wanted to press on with questions, but Chang Hao covered his mouth. He didn’t want Bao Buping to get beaten again.
“This is using one’s will to control the Heavenly Daos. Then doesn’t that mean it will be even easier upon entering the Heaven Merging realm?” asked Long Chen.
The old man nodded. “You are correct. The Heaven Splitting Battle Sect’s disciples truly start standing out upon entering the Heaven Merging realm. They can look down on all others in the same realm. However, your current realm is the best for controlling the ninth form of Split the Heavens. Once you enter the Heaven Merging realm, you will be overwhelmed by how much power starts to surge toward you. If you can’t control it, you’ll die.”
The old man then pointed toward the sky, continuing, “This is the Heaven Splitting Divine Tablet’s space. The outside world’s energy is absorbed inside here and diluted. Drawing out the Heavens’ Wrath in this place is extremely difficult, which is why I’m so tired. But it is also due to this that the danger is the lowest here. There won’t be a backlash if you fail. Since you are all at the Netherpassage realm, the optimal realm for controlling the Heavens’ Wrath, I will now teach you the mnemonic. Memorize it. Start at Shenxuan, Shenxuan to Chongtian; Yin Yang to the spirit platform, anger grows in the head…”
Runes began to light up around the old man’s body, indicating how the technique was supposed to work. It was a simple and straightforward mnemonic.
However, when Long Chen tried to follow this mnemonic, as his essence, qi, and spirit merged, his anger suddenly flared. It was as if countless grudges were about to burst out of him. He had an urge to start randomly hacking his saber. Because of it, he jumped and hastily suppressed that feeling.
He looked toward Bao Buping and the others, which had furious auras. Their hair was floating in their anger, and their eyes were scarlet as if they had become bedeviled.
“Why did you stop? Keep going!” shouted the old man upon seeing Long Chen exit the state.
Long Chen tried again. When his essence, qi, and spirit once more merged, his anger exploded again. All his past grievances filled his mind.
“Control it!”
The old man’s shout was condensed into a single thread that entered Long Chen’s ear. However, to Long Chen, it felt as if his voice was coming from a great distance, and it was very muddled.
With his second attempt, he was able to control it ever so slightly. But after a few seconds, he retreated from the state again. He was already sweating and panting for breath.
His face was pale. Just now, if he hadn’t left the state, he would have lost his mind. He very likely would have started randomly killing.
“What is wrong with you? You can’t even control a bit of rage?” demanded the old man.
Long Chen shook his head. “Let me first get used to it slowly. Once I find the feeling, I should be able to do it.”
“Die!”
Suddenly, Bao Buping attacked with his broadsword. The old man was prepared and blocked with his cane. After that, he kicked him in the chest, shaking him. As he flew back, his furious aura vanished. He could only lie on the ground, unable to get up.
Chang Hao also attacked in the next instant. However, he didn’t attack the old man. Instead, he was just randomly swinging his weapon. The old man also kicked him.
“It’s only been an incense stick’s worth of time.” The old man didn’t have a good expression.
Long Chen’s expression was worse. Bao Buping and Chang Hao had lasted an incense stick’s worth of time, while he had only lasted a single breath’s time.
Rubbing their chests, Bao Buping and Chang Hao staggered over. They saw Long Chen looking at them.
“You couldn’t hold on?”
“Maybe… I just didn’t find the feeling…” said Long Chen awkwardly. It seemed these two brothers of his were really direct. If they were such good brothers, was there a need to throw salt on the wound?
After another incense stick’s worth of time, the sixth boss was the first to reach his limit. With a whack from the old man’s cane, he woke up. Then was the fifth boss, seventh boss, second boss, fourth boss, and third boss.
Only Boss Bao was able to endure for an extra few breaths before also reaching his limit and being knocked to the ground by the old man.
“What just happened?” asked Boss Bao and the others.
“In the state of Heavens’ Wrath, you still have to retain your sanity. If your consciousness is devoured, a person will go crazy. You are using your rage to influence the Heavenly Daos, but the wrath of the Heavenly Daos will draw you in, affecting you. If your will isn’t strong enough, you will be the one consumed by the Heavenly Daos, and you will not be able to differentiate between friend and foe.”
“You’re saying that my will isn’t strong enough?” asked Long Chen in disbelief.
Bao Buping and the others also didn’t believe it. A powerful expert like Long Chen had to have a correspondingly powerful will. There was no shortcut to becoming an expert. The will was the foundation.
“It most likely isn’t a problem of will with you. It’s that your own control over yourself is so weak that you can’t control yourself,” said the old man. “The others were beaten by me. Even if they have a temper, they know when to control it. Although from the outside they look like they have explosive powers, they actually have great endurance. As for you, you have always been free and had no restrictions. When you encounter something you don’t like, you can explode however you like. You have no such endurance.”
The old man couldn’t help frowning. Long Chen’s current situation was extremely thorny.
“If you can’t control your own anger, then you can’t train in the ninth form of Split the Heavens, can you?” asked Bao Buping.
“You can, but if you can’t control your anger, you will be the one controlled by the Heavens’ Wrath. You’ll end up unleashing your entire being into one attack. After one attack, you’ll be dead,” said the old man.
Bao Buping and the others sucked in a cold gasp of air. This ninth form was incredibly ruthless. If they were unable to control the Heavens’ Wrath, then they would only be able to unleash it once in this lifetime.
Long Chen’s expression also changed. He was the one clearest on his own condition. It wasn’t that he couldn’t control it, but there was another arrogant soul deep within him. The will of that soul was constantly influencing him.
This was why Long Chen was like a fool jumping into the most childish traps on the continent.
When he got angry, it didn’t matter who he was against, he would directly attack. The consequences of such a thing were not considered.
If controlling his own anger was necessary to use the ninth form of Split the Heavens, then training in it would be as difficult as defying the heavens.
Long Chen suddenly thought of Qu Jianying’s expression. So Qu Jianying had predicted this in advance.
“Long Chen’s cultivation base is also different from ours. Perhaps there’s a rejection, but there’s nothing to be done about it. Go into the training room and see the result. Perhaps there will be a turn for the better.” The old man brought them to a sliding door. When they entered, they saw a bustling city before them.
The old man said, “Take a walk straight through this place. Everything inside is an illusion that you don’t need to care about. You will see countless things that anger you, but you have to endure. Do not strike back no matter what. This is a process for tempering the heart. You can start now.”
Bao Buping stepped inside without hesitation. He vanished.
After that, Long Chen clenched his teeth and entered. Then it was Chang Hao, the seventh boss, the sixth boss…
When Boss Bao also vanished, the old man scrunched his face. He hadn’t expected Long Chen’s control to be so lacking. Now it was troublesome.
“Hopefully Long Chen can last a bit longer inside the training grounds…”
Just as the old man was praying for him, a figure appeared in front of him that made him curse.
“Isn’t this too fast?!”
Naturally, this figure was Long Chen. Boss Bao had just vanished into the training grounds when Long Chen came out. Hence, the old man had an urge to beat him with his cane.
“That idiot cursed my mother. I wasn’t going to let him get away with it.” Long Chen shrugged, aggrieved.
“You…” The old man almost coughed up blood. He had just said that this was all an illusion.
The only goal of this training was to ignore everyone inside and continue pressing onward. Then Long Chen would see different trials. But because of one person cursing him, he directly killed them and failed.
“Get in again! You better take this seriously and grow a brain. Remember, everything inside is an illusion! They’re all illusions! Illusions! Understand?!” The old man sputtered at Long Chen angrily.
“Alright, I’ll try harder this time.” Long Chen took a deep breath and walked in again.
The old man took a deep breath to calm his own anger. When he saw Long Chen still standing in front of him, he angrily shouted, “Why haven’t you gone in yet?!”
“Old man… I… already came back…”
