Chapter 181 - 164: Make Way for the World’s Number Two!

Chapter 181: Chapter 164: Make Way for the World’s Number Two!

"Spirit shattering is the Broken Void, while physical body shattering is the Broken Vajra?"

Hearing Wang Zaixiang mention the directions and paths his father had proposed back then, Chen Sha’s spirit jolted. He immediately recalled the varying annotations left by certain individuals in the First Heaven behind the Southern Heavenly Gate. Some had achieved the Broken Void. Others had attained the Broken Vajra. It turned out these were the results of shattering in two different directions—one of the spirit and one of the physical body.

He immediately looked at Long Zaitian’s remains. The reason Pang Saint had fought over this corpse was precisely because the world speculated that he had achieved the shattered state. But now, it seemed the man was truly dead, leaving behind only an empty husk of a physical body. Was this the result of a successfully shattered spirit?

During the month he spent hunting down Pang Saint, Chen Sha had ventured into the world of the First Heaven to search for clues. However, there were simply too many temples within the First Heaven, and he had found nothing. Perhaps a new temple dedicated to Long Zaitian had already appeared there. Or perhaps Long Zaitian hadn’t successfully shattered at all; perhaps he was simply dead.

At this moment, Wang Zaixiang also looked at Long Zaitian’s remains and said slowly, "Back then, your father found the inspiration and concept of shattering from my *Yangru’s Handwriting*. After leaving my place, he would write to me every two years. By the tenth year, in his fourth letter, he claimed that the path to shattering had been completely severed. Therefore, Long Zaitian’s shattered state is indeed open to debate."

Chen Sha frowned slightly. "What do you mean? What does it mean that the path to shattering is severed?"

Wang Zaixiang slowly exhaled and retrieved several letters from a Jade Disc nearby, handing them all to Chen Sha. "These are the letters exchanged between your father and me over the past thirty years. You can take a look."

Chen Sha expressed his mild gratitude before opening the letters in chronological order. The first letter read:

"Brother Zaixiang, it has been two years since we parted. After returning to the mountain, I began to thoroughly study the path beyond the Great Yellow Court, building upon some foundations from *Yangru’s Handwriting*. Since there is a shattered state above the Innate realm, the Twenty-four Gods of the Yellow Court cannot be the end. Thus, I have made some discoveries that I wish to share with you..."

As Chen Sha read this first letter, a wave of emotion swelled in his heart. It turned out that decades ago, his old man had thought of the exact same thing he had—that there was another path after the Twenty-four Gods.

Chen Sha had deduced this by extensively referencing classics like the Buddhist Sect’s Brahma Chakra, the Demon Sect’s Celestial Demon Strategy, and Zhang Daoxuan’s Jade Emperor Tower after annihilating the Pure Land Zen Sect. He hadn’t expected his father, Chen Canxuan, to have had a similar fortuitous encounter decades ago, seeing a broader direction through a copy of *Yangru’s Handwriting* here with Wang Zaixiang.

Chen Sha’s heart stirred. "Since the old man also believed the Twenty-four Gods weren’t the end, did he manage to create the Cultivation Technique that comes after the Great Yellow Court?"

He directly opened the second letter. It read: "Brother Zaixiang, four years have passed. As I traveled the world, I gained many insights. Suddenly, a Spiritual Mechanism struck me. Since the path ahead involves the spirit achieving the Broken Void, it should be ’shattering the void to achieve Seeing God’..."

Chen Sha’s gaze focused intently. He was instantly shaken by his old man’s Spiritual Mechanism. Once the Cultivation of the Twenty-four Body Gods concluded, if one wanted to see new gods, they would need to shatter the void...

Shattering the void... the Brahma Chakra above the head...

In an instant, Chen Sha experienced a series of Spiritual Mechanisms. "Could it be that the end of the path of the human body’s Body Gods lies in the concept that ’the divine spirits dwell just three feet above one’s head’?"

He then unfolded the third letter.

"In eight years’ time, I have finally found the Divine Spirits outside the human body. As expected, there are Body Gods within the body responsible for the vitality of the organs’ operations—these are the guarding gods. Meanwhile, outside the body, there are Dharma Protector gods. There are Twelve Gods in total, existing in the gap between the human spirit and the void. They ward off evil and protect the spirit."

Chen Sha’s mind raced. He never expected that years ago, his father had already found the direction beyond the Twenty-four Gods. Building upon the Twenty-four Gods, he had discovered the Twelve Gods outside the body. These Twelve Gods existed in the space between the spirit and the void.

Unfortunately, the letter did not detail exactly who these Twelve Gods were, what their names were, what forms they took, what abilities they possessed, or the method for their Cultivation. However, this was enough to point out a clear direction for Chen Sha. That direction was that in the gap between the spirit and the void, there existed twelve Divine Spirits. This would be the path following the Great Innate realm.

Having finished the three letters, Chen Sha was just about to open the fourth when his fingers stiffened slightly. It seemed that it was regarding this fourth letter that Wang Zaixiang mentioned hearing his father say...

Sure enough, having been forewarned by Wang Zaixiang, he opened the letter to find these words:

"Brother Zaixiang, for the past eight years, I have been using the ’Immortal Spirit’ concept contained within *Yangru’s Handwriting* as my direction, until I found the twelve Divine Spirits in the gap between the void and the spirit. However, after two years of Cultivation based on this, I was shocked to discover that while the principle is correct, the ’void’ simply cannot be broken...

"I pondered this for half a year and finally realized that it is not our human strength that is limited, but rather that the world is flawed."

Looking at the bold characters for "the world is flawed," Chen Sha suddenly felt a strong emotional impact. It was as if he could see his father leaning over the desk to write this letter—dressed in Daoist robes, frowning as he penned those helpless words.

"The world is flawed," Chen Sha unconsciously read out loud.

"I don’t know how many times I’ve read your father’s letters. Sigh..." Wang Zaixiang said. "I originally thought it was his own empty speculation, but he never stopped sending me letters after that. He provided multiple examples for his conclusion that the world is flawed. You will see when you continue reading."

Chen Sha did as he was told and continued flipping through the pages. True enough, he found relevant details in the subsequent letters. His father had written:

"The heavens and earth are incomplete, which is why over the past five thousand years of history, not a single person who achieved the shattered state has appeared. It is not due to a lack of talent, but because the world has lost a certain ’rule’ that allows one to achieve the shattered state...

"The path to shattering is broken!"

Chen Sha stared at these shocking words. He couldn’t help but look up at Long Zaitian again, dragging himself back to reality. If the path to shattering was severed, then what was going on with Long Zaitian? If he was merely dead, why had his physical body become so hard, just like a diamond?

That was until Chen Sha opened the final letter. Calculating the time, this letter had been sent to Wang Zaixiang ten years ago.

"Spirit shattering is a broken path. Perhaps, our generation can pursue taking the physical body one step further in strength. With this thought, my years of bitter contemplation were not in vain, and I finally saw a different direction for the physical body threshold."

Another new discovery!

"The physical body still has a Vajra God!

"However, the previous dead end for the spirit serves as a warning. Whether this physical body path will also fail to achieve the Broken Vajra in the end requires further verification on my part..."

Chen Sha finished reading the letters his old man had written to Wang Zaixiang over the past twenty to thirty years. This was the first time he realized that his father actually had a friend like Wang Zaixiang in this world. Judging from the tone of the letters, he truly considered Wang Zaixiang a confidant.

Perhaps it all boiled down to the fact that his old man’s various deductions originated from Wang Zaixiang’s *Yangru’s Handwriting*. Without the direction provided by *Yangru’s Handwriting*, it might not have been so simple for his old man to find the Twelve Dharma Gods between the spirit and the physical exterior, as well as a Vajra God within the body...

However, focusing on the contents of the final letter...

Ten years ago, his old man had already embarked on the path of the Vajra God. From then on, he stopped sending letters to Wang Zaixiang and never mentioned whether he succeeded or not. Yet, three years ago, he had passed away right in front of Chen Sha.

So, what was the ultimate result of his journey through this final threshold of the Physical Body Vajra God, which was the path of the "Physical Body Broken Great Vajra"? Why hadn’t he told the people on Dao Yi Mountain about this? Even when passing down the Great Yellow Court to him, his father hadn’t mentioned a single word about the Twelve Dharma Gods outside the body or the Vajra God inside the body that came after the Twenty-four Gods.

Chen Sha pondered for a moment before slowly asking Wang Zaixiang, "Senior, what do you think ultimately happened to my father?"

Wang Zaixiang looked at him silently. "Your father died right in front of you, yet you’re asking me? That is precisely the question I want to ask you."

He hadn’t received a letter from Chen Canxuan for ten years. His understanding of Chen Canxuan was still stuck at the point ten years ago when the man declared he would walk the second path of the Vajra God.

Chen Sha couldn’t help but turn his gaze toward Long Zaitian’s body. As his thoughts drifted, his fingers inadvertently flicked against Long Zaitian’s body, producing a heavy CLANG that sounded like the striking of metal.

"Senior, would you be willing to study this Golden Body with me?"

Knowing that his old man had deduced the path ahead with this person, and considering that the other party possessed *Yangru’s Handwriting*, which was the foremost inheritance regarding the spirit, Chen Sha had built up some trust in him.

To his surprise, Wang Zaixiang shook his head. "As I’ve said, I am merely a scholar. I have never really tempered my physique, only knowing how to read and nurture my vital energy. With this Golden Body being so hard, it is clearly not a creation aligned with my lineage’s philosophy. Even if you invite me to comprehend it together, my path is poles apart from it. You should just take it back to Dao Yi Mountain yourself. If you manage to uncover the secret of your father’s life and death from this Golden Body, just don’t forget to tell me."

Hearing the old man say this, Chen Sha couldn’t help but feel a sense of reverence for him. It was now apparent that the man had helped him take down Pang Saint without harboring any ulterior motives toward the Golden Body. It was purely the conduct of an old Confucian scholar—clearly distinguishing right from wrong, indifferent to fame and fortune. Coupled with the fact that he was a peer and close friend of his father’s, he was certainly worthy of Chen Sha’s respect.

Chen Sha let out a breath and said, "Thank you, Senior, for telling me all this. Since you have no interest in it, I won’t force the matter. I will take my leave now and head back to Dao Yi Mountain."

Something had happened back at Dao Yi Mountain, and he indeed needed to return as soon as possible to see what was going on.

"Alright. Let me see you out," the old man, ranked second in the world, said as he stood up.

At the doorway, he watched Chen Sha step onto Teng Zijing’s back and fly off into the sky.

"He really takes after his father," Wang Zaixiang murmured slowly. "Help me send a message out."

His three sons and his disciples were confused. "What message?"

"The same message as back then. I am old and ashamed of my inferiority. It’s time to step down."

Meanwhile, as Chen Sha stood on Teng Zijing’s back on his journey back to Dao Yi Mountain, he had no idea what happened after his departure.

A piece of news spread from the Pine Garden on Shaobai Mountain.

The old man had yielded his position as the second in the world, willingly stepping down to third place...

And replacing him was...

By Wang Zaixiang stepping down, Chen Sha, who had slain Pang Saint, was directly pushed into the seat of the second in the world.

Ahead of him, there was only one person left—Yuan Ruhua!