His chest had been pierced, and his body was about to fall apart. One could even see bones sticking out from one of his shoulders and both thighs. It was a ghastly sight.

But Long Chen’s sword had pierced through his opponent’s head. This was the result of Long Chen taking two nearly fatal injuries in the end.

The figure exploded into runes, which then transformed into a ray of light that shot toward a wall. Lines lit up on that wall, and a door appeared.

Long Chen collapsed on the ground. This battle had been too dangerous. Now that he had killed his opponent, he immediately went limp. He was this close to passing out.

Long Chen hadn’t used the Nirvana Scripture or the divine ring or the battle armor. He also hadn’t used the primal chaos bead’s healing ability.

Only now did he slowly draw out the life energy from the primal chaos space. His body began to heal.

He smiled self-mockingly. “I really am stupid. I actually had to compete with myself. But this is also good. It just once more proves that my theory is correct.”

In theory, a person could only use one hundred percent of their power. But his theory was that this limit could be broken through willpower.

In the Xiao tribe, Long Chen had used this theory to help Xiao Fei awaken. And what had occurred this time also validated his theory.

If he had retreated at this time, it would have been a grave blow to his confidence. He probably wouldn’t even be able to believe his own bragging in the future.

So despite knowing it was foolish to the max, Long Chen had still chosen to use that exceedingly foolish method to challenge his limits.

As a result, he had succeeded. When he had succeeded in killing another version of himself that was stronger in every aspect, his mental realm had immediately become crystal clear. That increase in mental realm would bring unimaginable benefits to his future cultivation.

“Good thing these Spirit World trees have enough energy. Completely recovering only took a third of their life energy.”

Looking at those slightly dispirited trees in the primal chaos space, many emotions filled Long Chen. As expected, danger was directly proportional to profit.

Those trees possessed shocking amounts of life energy, which was good, as his physical body had already reached an extremely powerful level. He wouldn’t be easily injured, but once he was, it required a ridiculous amount of life energy to heal.

“Ah, fine. I don’t really need this Hidden Ground Gold Spider King’s corpse anyways.”

Long Chen thought about it and decided to toss the precious spider king’s corpse into the black soil as nutrients for the trees.

Although there were many precious parts to the spider king’s corpse, the most valuable thing to Long Chen was the life energy it could offer.

As its corpse sank into the black soil, endless life energy entered the dispirited trees. They once more began to flourish.

But there were too many trees that were splitting the nutrients. They grew a bit, but they were still a ways off their peak state.

Long Chen wasn’t worried about that. Instead, he was happy. The larger the trees grew, the more life energy they could hold.

He continued to rest for a bit. Although his body had recovered, his mind hadn’t fully calmed itself after that heart-pounding battle.

During that battle, he had used a hypnotic art on himself to make him see his doppelganger as his cultivation path’s shackles. If he couldn’t kill it, he couldn’t grow and become an expert.

If he was unable to become an expert, he would be unable to find his parents, let alone get revenge against whoever had harmed him. Furthermore, in the countless battles in the future, his brothers and sisters would die one by one. That had released a surging battle intent within him, and as a result, each one of his moves had been attacks with his life on the line.

Of course, Long Chen wasn’t an idiot. He cherished his life more than anyone. There were far too many things he had to protect. So while he might not have been afraid while fighting, the effect of the lingering fear afterward was still very strong.

After all, he had exchanged thousands of blows with his stronger duplicate, and each one of those moves had been a brush past the Grim Reaper’s shoulder. Anyone without a steady will as strong as his would have cracked under that pressure.

His body stopped trembling, and he walked over to the door. Inside should be the ultimate reward of this trial.

He didn’t know whether that would be able to let him regrow his Spirit Root, Spirit Blood, and Spirit Bone, but if it could... Thinking of that, Long Chen’s heartbeat quickened.

Passing through the door, he entered a square room thirty meters wide. Next to the wall, there was a platform with a jade bottle on it.

The jade bottle was only a foot tall. It was covered in lines that should be a kind of rune. It seemed it had to be an exceedingly high grade spatial storage item.

There was a jade stopper on top of it. Long Chen snuck his Spiritual Strength through the stopper and into the bottle.

“Fuck, what bastard stole my treasure?!” he roared furiously. The jade bottle had a thirty-meter space inside it, but it was completely empty.

He couldn’t stop his fury. After fighting to the brink of death, he hadn’t obtained anything. He was about to go crazy. He crushed the bottle into smithereens.

“Cough, young people shouldn’t be so easily angered.” Suddenly, an ephemeral voice rang out in Long Chen’s ears.

He was startled, and Flying Rainbow instantly entered his hand. His Spiritual Strength spread, but he didn’t notice any oddities.

“Who are you!?” shouted Long Chen.

“I didn’t expect someone to actually manage to get here after all these years. Young fellow, you’re not bad.” That voice once more rang out, but Long Chen couldn’t tell where it was coming from, or even whether it was male or female.

“Reveal yourself!”

He didn’t know whether this person was a friend or foe, so he had to be cautious. This ending was a bit strange, and he didn’t dare to be careless.

Suddenly, the wall in front of him collapsed, causing him to jump. He hastily retreated, but he found that the collapsed wall merely revealed another room. That room also had a platform in it, and there was a bronze bell a foot tall on it.

“Little fellow, I’ve revealed myself. Are you still not going to come over and pay your respects to this lord?” The bell suddenly spoke. Its voice sounded ancient and venerable.

Long Chen was naturally startled. He looked around and saw that there really was nothing out of the ordinary before walking over.

Once he was closer, he saw that the bell was badly damaged. It was covered in cracks and also missing a piece as if someone had smashed it with a hammer.

“Brat, what’s with that look?! Are you looking down on this lord?!” raged the bell.

Long Chen suddenly thought of something and asked, “Did you steal the Heaven Earth Spirit Source?!”

“Cough, don’t say that I stole it. I just borrowed it. Yes, I drank it,” said the bell awkwardly.

“You goddamn bastard, the treasure I risked my life for was actually drunk by you?!” Long Chen immediately flew into a rage. He took out a hammer and smashed it onto the bell.

BOOM!

As a result, that middle grade Enchanted hammer, whose head was as big as a table, instantly exploded upon striking the bell. As for Long Chen, he was sent flying by a powerful qi wave and slammed into a wall. He almost coughed up blood.

“You dare to strike this lord?! You must be tired of life!” raged the bell.

“Fuck off! You stole what’s mine and you still think you’re justified?!” Long Chen was even more enraged. The Heaven Earth Spirit Source had been stolen. He now took out a saber and directly used Split the Heavens.

When his Saber Qi struck the bell, a faint layer of light appeared on it. His saber-image was blown apart.

“Brat, if you continue to be rude, I’ll have to teach you a lesson!” warned the bell.

“Rude?! You’re the damn thief, you shameless old thing!” cursed Long Chen. That Heaven Earth Spirit Source had been extremely important to him, but now, all his previous hopes vanished into thin air. He felt like he was about to go crazy.

“Cough, that does seem to be my mistake. But how was I supposed to know that someone would come here after all these years?” The bell felt a bit guilty.

“Cough up all that Heaven Earth Spirit Source you drank!” Long Chen directly took out a barrel and placed it in front of the bell.

“Are you planning on drinking my piss?” said the bell icily.

“You bitch!” Now that it had said this, then even if it did hand over the Heaven Earth Spirit Source, would he dare to drink it? He directly smashed the barrel onto the bell, and the barrel instantly exploded.

“That’s enough. If we didn’t come from the same place, I’d have long since put you in your place. Do you believe me when I say that if I release the slightest bit of my divine might, you’ll be crushed in body and soul?”

Its reply was another barrel. Long Chen cursed, “Do you think I’m an idiot? Those runic chains have bound you completely. Do you want to try crushing me?”

“You... you can see those divine chains?” The bell’s tone was a bit shocked.

Long Chen was so furious that he couldn’t be bothered to reply. The Heaven Earth Spirit Source was gone now. His hope to regain what he had lost popped like a bubble. There was nothing more to say. With the bell in its broken-down state, it was clear it had taken the Heaven Earth Spirit Source to recover. It wouldn’t have left any for him.

Although he couldn’t see them, his sharp perception allowed him to sense invisible chains in the air that tightly bound the bell. It was a prisoner, so Long Chen wasn’t afraid of it.

“Little fellow, I might have stolen your Heaven Earth Spirit Source, but I can make it up to you. Don’t worry, since we come from the same place, I wouldn’t trick you,” said the bell. Its words caused Long Chen to be a bit flabbergasted. The same place?