The Protagonists' Chat Group: Beyond the Boundaries — Chapter 377

Chapter 377: Xiao Yan and Lin Dong Awaken Martial Souls, Immortal King Combat Power

In Lin Feng’s world, Peerless Martial God, the entire cultivation system is fundamentally named for the ability to Cultivate Martial Souls.

When the core members of the chat group first invited Lin Feng to join, they did so after careful consideration, believing that the Martial Soul system held immense merit and unique power.

Everyone in the group had, at one point, visited Lin Feng’s world with the intention of Awakening Martial Souls.

However, they ultimately failed. It wasn’t a lack of ability, but rather that the individual strength of the chat group members was too immense, making a normal Martial Soul Awakening impossible.

They realized that to succeed, they would need to leverage the world’s Heavenly Dao rules at a much higher intensity.

To put it simply, ordinary, small-scale methods could not facilitate the Awakening for powerhouses of their caliber. They needed to increase the sheer intensity and scope of the process.

At that time, they didn’t possess the means to safely access or manipulate the core Heavenly Dao for such an intense procedure.

Therefore, after a collective visit to Lin Feng’s world, they temporarily shelved the matter.

But now, years later, every member of the chat group has ascended to an incredibly formidable level of power, far beyond their initial entry point.

They can now directly touch and communicate with the Heavenly Dao Origin of this world.

Naturally, they can also safely utilize the world’s Heavenly Dao Origin as a tool to successfully Awaken Martial Souls.

And so, Xiao Yan and Lin Dong came here, intending to communicate directly with the Heavenly Dao Origin, seizing this unique opportunity to achieve a crucial, high-level Martial Soul Awakening that would guide their future paths.

“A Martial Soul is not an external power; it is a special, individualized manifestation of your own core power’s unique rules,” Lin Feng instructed.

“Follow your true feelings; everything in existence has a point of resonance with your Dao Heart.”

Lin Feng sat cross-legged on a vast Void Realm platform, looking every bit like the Dominator of his own world. He spoke slowly and carefully to Lin Dong and Xiao Yan.

This was, after all, the world he himself had created and mastered. Within his domain, he was the Dominator.

The two fundamental Qi of circulation—Yin and Yang—permeated all Heavens in this small universe. With a single, focused thought, all manner of natural forces converged towards him.

He was expertly simulating the exact Heavenly Dao rules related to Martial Souls within his internal world.

He wanted to use this perfect environment to help Lin Dong and Xiao Yan succeed in their Awakening.

Lin Dong and Xiao Yan sat cross-legged opposite him, their forms bathed in an utterly dazzling golden light that enveloped the platform.

This golden light was the highly-refined essence of the Heavenly Dao, expertly sorting out the complex, chaotic power within their bodies and preparing their spirits.

Lin Dong and Xiao Yan were immediately immersed in this serene, powerful process, feeling their own vast power continuously being sorted, refined, and gathered under the guidance of the golden light.

It felt as if a fundamental, unique aspect of their being needed to burst forth, something that had been contained for too long.

“Fire…”

Xiao Yan was the first of the two to gain a profound insight. The golden light surrounding him gradually and violently transformed into a raging, fiery light.

This fiery light completely engulfed him, and an indescribably noble, all-encompassing Qi bloomed from his form.

“My entire Cultivation has always been centered on fire and the Dao of Flames,” Xiao Yan realized in a flash of enlightenment.

“Now, I command all fires under the Heavens. I will achieve Dao through fire, and the Martial Soul I awaken must also be related to fire!”

“In all the Heavens and Worlds, I am the Dominator, encompassing all flames and their fundamental principles…”

Xiao Yan saw through the superficial physical manifestation of his power. He saw the pure, unchanging core of his Dao.

In that vast and boundless Realm of his inner mind, where all things perished and were reborn, only a single cluster of golden flames quietly burned in the Void Realm.

It was not ordinary fire, nor was it a simple exotic fire like the Heavenly Flames he had collected.

It was the Origin of all creation and destruction—the Fire of Life.

The flame itself was merely a manifestation. Its true core was Xiao Yan’s unyielding inner pursuit.

An unquenchable fire always burned in his heart—that was the supreme desire for battle, the relentless pursuit of strength, and the unflinching belief in his own power.

Even if the world collapsed entirely and Heaven and Earth returned to primal stillness, as long as the Fire of Life continued to burn within him, anything was still possible.

This was his Martial Soul.

“Life Candle True Flame!”

The Life Candle represented his unbreakable Dao Heart—the eternal fire burning within his spirit. The True Flame was the manifestation of the supreme flames he controlled, capable of incinerating all Heavens.

Xiao Yan suddenly snapped his eyes open. His entire physical body was engulfed in blazing, golden-red flames. These pure flames burned fiercely in the Void Realm, twisting the very fabric of space and reality.

This was the Life Candle True Flame made manifest!

This Life Candle True Flame Martial Soul was an absolute, perfect reflection of Xiao Yan’s full power, a crystallization of his own Great Dao.

With this Martial Soul, when he used exotic fires, or supreme Divine Abilities in the future, he would no longer need to mobilize the individual exotic fires within his body one by one.

This was because all his exotic fires, including the Heavenly Flames, had been integrated, unified, and perfected into the conceptual core of the “Life Candle.”

The Life Candle was not an item; it was his Dao.

Previously, Xiao Yan subdued and controlled exotic fires by using his own physical body as a medium, incorporating various flames into himself. Then, as the Flame Emperor, he commanded them.

But now, the exotic fires had fundamentally merged into his “Dao.”

He no longer commanded exotic fires by relying on his Physical Body, nor by relying on his Red Emperor Fire Emperor Qi.

He commanded them solely by his “Heart”—by the sheer power of his will.

“This Martial Soul, it was truly the right one to Awaken!”

A spark of brilliant comprehension flashed in Xiao Yan’s eyes. Martial Souls were profoundly peculiar and astonishing.

This system was essentially a “career development plan” customized for you by the Heavenly Dao itself!

Do you have fire-element talent but are unsure how to fully develop it? No problem. The Heavenly Dao gives you a Fire-Element Martial Soul.

You just need to follow the path indicated by this Martial Soul. That was the underlying principle.

Xiao Yan’s Awakening of the Life Candle True Flame Martial Soul was significant, not just for the immediate increase in strength.

It pointed out the definitive direction of his future Cultivation: controlling fire with the heart, controlling fire with the Dao—a simple, powerful path to ultimate supremacy.

A Martial Soul was the Heavenly Dao teaching you how to Cultivate hand-in-hand, guiding you along the fastest shortcut to ultimate power.

Without it, you might wander, but with it, you would absolutely take the most efficient, direct shortcut!

At the same moment Xiao Yan awakened his Martial Soul, Lin Dong also completed his Awakening, and his entire being underwent a similar, but distinct, profound transformation.

His Martial Soul was certainly different from Xiao Yan’s, reflecting the different focus of their Cultivation and the opposing natures of their Dao Hearts.

People live in the world, each with their own unique persistence, fighting and living for what they uphold as their core belief.

In the Martial Dao world, human hearts are often cold, the world is ruthless, and people vie for fame and profit. Lin Dong experienced countless hardships and betrayals.

He often appeared impulsive and reckless on the surface, but in reality, he was meticulously measured and calculating.

In his heart, he held firm to his own absolute logic for action, refusing to bend to the will of others, never going against his original intention—his intention to protect.

The path of Cultivation that Lin Dong rigidly adhered to was not to blindly follow fate, nor to merely defy Heaven.

His principle was to control the Heavenly Dao, to seize destiny, and to treat everything as merely a tool, borrowing from the Heavenly Dao to act and borrowing from destiny to strengthen himself. This was the principle of ‘Only Me’ (唯我).

This was Lin Dong’s Dao.

Under the unique, focused Heavenly Dao power of the Martial God world, Lin Dong felt as if he had fallen into a deep, meditative dream.

In this dream, he re-experienced all the profound insights from the years he had lived and the chaotic lives of other people he had encountered.

The various powers he had learned from the chat group—the Great Five Elements Technique, the Original True Understanding, the Divine Elephant Suppressing Prison Force, the Great Desolate Imprisoning Heaven Finger—countless Divine Abilities flashed like ephemeral bursts of light, unable to be eternal!

Even his most beloved Great Desolate Imprisoning Heaven Finger was not truly eternal.

What was truly eternal was only a singular, resolute connection of brilliant light spots in his mind, full of imperial Qi, exuding a majestic aura, displaying an astonishing dominance.

Himself!

“So handsome! So domineering!”

“This is my Martial Soul? Myself, perfected?”

Lin Dong snapped his eyes open, and an incomparably brilliant light shone from them, illuminating the Void Realm. A colossal golden divine image slowly appeared behind him.

Countless sacred Qi permeated the space, and an incomparably domineering aura spread out, crushing all lesser concepts.

The divine image was naturally formed, uncarved and perfect. After fully appearing, one hand pointed towards Heaven, and the other pointed towards the ground.

A booming voice echoed from its mouth, resonating across all space and time:

“Above Heaven and below Earth, I alone am Supreme!”

The face of the divine image was none other than Lin Dong himself, perfected and supreme.

“World-Ending True Body!”

Lin Dong slowly opened his mouth and uttered the name of his Martial Soul.

World-Ending represented an extreme, fundamental destructive power. True Body represented not an illusion or a phantom, but a real, complete existence—a Physical Body tempered to the extreme from within and without!

Lin Dong had awakened a core Main Body Martial Soul. That is, he himself was the Martial Soul—the ultimate, self-perfected weapon.

“Finally broke through! Thank you, Lin Feng!”

After the successful Awakening of their Martial Souls, the two stood and immediately thanked Lin Feng.

Their Cultivation systems in their respective worlds had long since reached their inherent limits.

However, with the help of so many supreme Cultivation Techniques gathered from the chat group, they knew they wouldn’t stop there.

After the pivotal battle in the Foreign Realm, Xiao Yan and Lin Dong had actively wandered and experienced various other powerful worlds.

Their individual strength had vastly improved. Previously, when they first broke through to the Dominator Realm, they only possessed the combat power of an initial stage True Immortal Rank expert.

Now, after hundreds of years of relentless experience and tempering, the combat power of both of them was already comparable to a Quasi-Immortal King (Quasi-King), and they already had the profound foundation needed to impact the actual Immortal King Realm.

However, they themselves had been unable to comprehend that crucial final step for a long time.

Now, with the direct help of the Heavenly Dao and the Awakening of their personalized Martial Souls, both of them finally clarified their future Cultivation paths, thus taking the ultimate, crucial step.

Now, their individual combat power had reached the Immortal King Realm!

“Brothers, it’s all in the heart…”

Lin Feng clenched his fist, thumped his chest with a smile, and congratulated the two of them.

Lin Feng’s current Cultivation had also reached the pinnacle of his own world. The world level of his universe was inherently higher than that of Xiao Yan’s and Lin Dong’s worlds.

He was able to create a unique world and refine the entire world’s power within his physical body.

When he made a move, every strike automatically carried the crushing might of a world. Cultivating to this extreme, he too possessed Immortal King-level power.

Next, Lin Feng also planned to leave his world, just like Xiao Yan and Lin Dong, and then visit the worlds of other chat group members to seek further Cultivation and breakthroughs.

His goal was to pursue an even higher Realm.

“Our strengths seem to be evenly matched now…”

“How about a friendly spar?”

With his Martial Soul now clarifying his future Cultivation path and granting him a massive breakthrough, Lin Dong felt a massive, powerful urge to fight at this moment.

“Just say you want a beating…” Xiao Yan grinned, though his eyes showed the exact same intention.

“Then let’s have a Royal City PK—a battle worthy of kings!” Lin Feng didn’t refuse the opportunity for a test.

“Boom!”

Lin Feng was the first to unleash the full might of his inner world, simultaneously striking with both the Dominator and Destruction Seals.

One punch instantly transformed into shifting mountains and rivers; his body was the world, and the destructive power of the primordial Chaos shattered everything. He attacked both of them with a single, massive strike.

“Arrogant!”

Lin Dong coldly shouted. His body rapidly grew taller, becoming as majestic as the entire Star River. His body was the boundless Universe, his eyes were as vast as twinkling stars, and his surging blood was the endless Star River!

He unleashed a punch, a simple strike, but one that contained the absolute, annihilating power of a divine blow, capable of destroying all living beings in Heaven and Earth.

Xiao Yan also made his move at the exact same time, endless, blinding flames rising in the Void Realm.

These flames were not physical, but rather reflections of his spiritual world, his ultimate Dao.

With a single thought, he could fundamentally change Heaven and Earth, transforming the entire world into a single, unified sea of fire!

Wherever his gaze reached, wherever his thoughts went, the Life Candle True Flame blazed into existence.

Flames simultaneously ignited on Lin Dong and Lin Feng—this was the subtle Fire of the Body and the deeper, more dangerous Fire of the Heart!

The three of them thus began to battle fiercely in the Void Realm.

One controlled the power of the world, each strike carrying the ultimate might of a collapsing universe.

One controlled the fires of all worlds. What his heart desired, what his thoughts reached—that was the Dao of Flames. He was truly the Supreme of all fires!

One transformed his very body into Heaven and Earth, using himself as the weapon, battling the cosmos itself.

In just a moment, countless Void Realms were shattered, collapsing into primal Chaos.

Xiao Yan, Lin Dong, and Lin Feng—all three had reached the undisputed Immortal King combat power.

Secondary Plot: Li Changshou’s Heavenly Anxiety 😥

Meanwhile, in Senior Brother’s world—the sealed, overly stable Primordial World—Li Changshou’s current Cultivation had reached an extremely terrifying, unimaginable level.

He had also successfully comprehended the profound Dao of Emptiness (虚空之道).

Now, by his own meticulous, absolute calculation, he possessed an 80% chance of successfully defeating the Hongjun Dao Ancestor after the Ancestor had fully merged with the Heavenly Dao.

However, for Li Changshou, this 80% winning rate was no different from a reckless, unacceptable suicide attempt.

The fate of countless living beings in his Primordial World was tied to him. More importantly, his own cherished dog’s life—his life of peace and stability—was on the line.

“Endurance. I still have to continue to endure and wait!” Li Changshou sighed, his face a mask of weary caution.

The Heavenly Dao’s selfish desires and distorted will had already negatively affected the harmonious operation of the Three Realms.

Currently, he had already quietly united most of the forces above the Primordial World to secretly resist the corrupted Heavenly Dao together.

The Heavenly Court, including the Heavenly River Naval Forces, the Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals, and the Eight Divisions of Righteous Gods, all awaited his silent command to rise up in revolt!

The Queen Mother and the Jade Emperor could, at any given moment, suppress the Investiture of the Gods and the Divine Punishment Hall operations that ran under the Heavenly Dao’s control.

The valiant souls of the Human Realm, the countless Human Race heroes who died in ancient battles, after receiving endless incense offerings, had their beliefs remain fully intact. They only awaited Li Changshou’s command to instantly charge up to the Nine Heavens!

Goddess Nuwa had even personally led countless Human Race Immortals and the remaining Yao Race armies, poised and ready to move.

As soon as Goddess Nuwa made her move, the Three Kings of Huoyun Cave would immediately follow, throwing their divine support behind the rebellion.

Countless ghost Immortals from the Underworld, led by the wise Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, were already positioned for action.

The disciples of the Jie Sect were all holding their breath, waiting for the signal, dreaming of finally overpowering the other two sects and seeing the dawn of a new Dao era.

Zhao Gongming’s characteristically “smug face” was already prepared for the victory celebration.

Even Zhenyuanzi of Wuzhuang Temple, the oldest and most neutral sage, was quietly practicing his most powerful Sleeve Universe technique.

It was no exaggeration to say that Li Changshou’s words now were more effective and decisive than the Heavenly Dao’s own decrees.

However, even if all living beings in the Three Realms and Six Paths listened to him without question, he still felt the plan wasn’t stable enough for his liking.

“Brothers in the chat group, put in more effort… Quickly Break through a few more major Realms!”

Now, Li Changshou was just playing the ultimate waiting game, buying time for the powerhouses in the group to grow.

Lin Feng and Lin Dong might not call others to fight their final boss, but he, Li Changshou, would definitely call.

Regardless of whether he could win on his own or not, he needed the highest possible margin of safety.

Combining all living beings in the Three Realms and Six Paths gave him that 80% chance of victory.

Adding the overpowered people from the group would easily raise his victory chance to 99.99%—a number that finally felt acceptable.

But he deliberately kept delaying the call to the group. He just wanted to drag it out a bit longer so that the group members could Break through a few more Realms.

The higher the win rate, the steadier I am.

“Shi Jian is about to Break through; I’ll call after he successfully Breaks through to the next level…”

“It seems Fang Han and Yang Qi are also close to Breaking through… When they also Break through, the winning rate can be raised even higher!”

“I also need to inform them well in advance to ensure that every single group member can come; there can be absolutely no accidents.”

Li Changshou looked towards the direction beyond Heaven, muttering to himself with profound anxiety.

Although he was incredibly strong now—strong enough that he might even be able to defeat the Hongjun Dao Ancestor in a one-on-one duel—

But that was the Heavenly Dao, after all!

Although he had united all living beings in the Three Realms and Six Paths—enough power to essentially drown the Hongjun Dao Ancestor by sheer force—

But that was the Heavenly Dao, after all!

Although he could call the people from the group, and Li Qiye alone could probably steadily defeat the Hongjun Dao Ancestor—

But that was the Heavenly Dao, after all!

“We’re about to Execute Heaven; what should I do… I’m so anxious!” Li Changshou sighed, wringing his hands. Just thinking about dealing with a monster like the Heavenly Dao made him feel utterly uneasy.

“No, three thousand backup plans are too few…”

“I’ve joined a chat group, but what if the Heavenly Dao has also joined a Heavenly Dao Chat Group?”

“I still need more plans! The time for absolute certainty is not yet here!”