Finally, Quinn Shepherd led the crowd out of the South Heaven Gate. The crushing pressure vanished in an instant, and everyone felt as if a great weight had been lifted from their shoulders.
"Brother, where are you from?"
A man who looked most like a human among the group stepped forward and asked, "I am Hugh No-Return of the Three-Eyed God-Race. I haven't seen you in the War-Ox Realm before, Brother. Just now I saw you speaking with the Celestial Teacher, so I didn't dare approach."
"Quinn Shepherd. Quinn Fengqing."
Quinn sized up this Three-Eyed God-Race man. He noticed that the man's hands and feet were unusually large, his shoulders broad, and the muscles on his shoulders bunched together, while his upper arms were thin and out of proportion. At the elbows, his forearms were thick and strong, but his wrists tapered off again, showing little muscle.
His waist was the same—tiger-backed and wasp-waisted, with his back and waist forming a triangle. His thighs were thickly muscled, but narrowed at the knees; his calves were bulky at the top, but slimmed down at the ankles.
He had trained his muscles into terrifying knots of explosive power, a style quite different from Quinn's.
Quinn's build was well-proportioned, while Hugh No-Return had forged his muscles into dense clusters, unleashing raw strength in sudden, shocking bursts.
Quinn's muscles, on the other hand, were refined into streamlined lines, increasing their toughness. He lacked the exaggerated bulk, but every time he exerted force it was like drawing a bow—power building up to the limit, then released in a single instant.
In terms of mobilizing strength, Hugh No-Return was faster; his attacks would strike like thunder in rapid succession, allowing him to land countless blows in a short time. However, Quinn's streamlined muscles, when charged and unleashed, produced greater force—though his reaction speed was slower than Hugh's.
"I'm from the Great Ruins. This is my first time meeting all you senior brothers and sisters."
Quinn Shepherd asked in confusion, "Hugh No-Return—does your name mean 'Why not go home?' Is there a story behind it?"
Hugh No-Return walked alongside the others for a while in silence, then said, "My parents left the War-Ox Realm and had me outside. They were searching for a way to break through, to solve the problem of our race having no Divine Bridge Realm, but never succeeded. Later, when they wanted to return, they found they couldn't—by then, even if they came back, their hearts were no longer here. So they named me Hugh No-Return."
He smiled. "Why not go home? My parents gave me this name to remind themselves to find a sense of belonging. The other senior brothers and sisters in the War-Ox Realm always teased me for it, but now they all call me Senior Brother."
Quinn nodded. He had already noticed that among these Life-and-Death Realm martial artists, Hugh No-Return had the highest cultivation. Under the South Heaven Gate, his physical body was taller than the others'.
It was Quinn who had united everyone's spirits to withstand the pressure of the South Heaven Gate, but Hugh No-Return was the first to restore his body to full size.
In the War-Ox Realm, it didn't matter if you started cultivating later than others, because everyone would eventually be stuck at the Life-and-Death Realm. It was just like in the old Everpeace days, when all divine arts practitioners would be trapped at the Divine Bridge Realm, unable to break through.
That Hugh No-Return could surpass his peers and become Senior Brother here spoke to both his talent and his effort.
Up ahead, the group had already entered a palace. The paths of the War-Ox Palace were strange—they passed through one hall after another, leading straight to the Jade Pool, Godsever Platform, Jade Capital, and Lingxiao.
Quinn and Hugh No-Return hung back, discussing the methods of cultivating the Martial Soul.
Quinn knew little about the Martial Soul; all he'd ever heard from the old farmer was that using martial arts to cultivate godhood was called Martial Soul, and that when the Martial Soul entered the Dao, it became Martial Dao. But as for how the Martial Soul was actually formed, he was in the dark.
"The Martial Soul is, in fact, the martial Primordial Spirit."
Hugh No-Return hesitated, glanced around, and lowered his voice. "I use methods from outside to cultivate my Martial Soul. In the War-Ox Realm, there's an unwritten rule strictly forbidding the study of outside divine arts and Dao techniques. But since I followed my parents outside, I learned some of those arts and have a different understanding of the Primordial Spirit than most people here."
Quinn was even more curious. "So what's the difference between a martial Primordial Spirit and a regular Primordial Spirit?"
"You don't awaken the Spirit Embryo first. You forge the Martial Soul before anything else."
Hugh No-Return explained, "Instead of awakening the Spirit Embryo, you temper your soul until it's hard as steel. As a youth, you fight tigers, slay horned pythons, kill flood dragons! Not many kids in the War-Ox Realm pass these trials—most die young."
Quinn was startled—even in his own childhood, he'd never experienced such brutal training!
The Oldridge Village elders had put him through some rough training, but never to the point of risking his life. In the War-Ox Realm, they actually sent kids to fight tigers, horned pythons, and flood dragons—like they didn't care if the children lived or died!
Suddenly, from the hall ahead came the thunderous crash of bodies colliding, like a thousand storms rolling at once. That was the sound of martial experts moving at full speed—the thunderous roar of muscles forged through endless tempering, clashing in an instant, sweat raining down like a storm!
Hugh No-Return took it all in stride, walking forward as he continued, "Once you've tempered your soul enough, it fuses with your flesh. The spirit of martial arts seeps into your blood and bones—move, and you're thunder; stand still, and you're lightning. Your martial divine arts carry your will and spirit—that's the Martial Soul taking hold. Only then do you break open the Spirit Embryo. The Spirit Embryo is just support, nourishing your body with yuanqi. Because I lived outside for so long, my Spirit Embryo was already awakened when I came back, so forging my Martial Soul was much harder—I suffered more than any of my brothers and sisters."