Li Qiye only chuckled and didn’t dwell on the topic. Destroying a system to him wasn’t a big deal.

“You’re peerless, Senior.” Cloudcrossing Progenitor praised: “We’ll never be able to catch up to you on the path towards the dao.”

“Yes.” Martial Ancestor joined in: “I think only one or two people at the expanse are at your level.”

“Your martial dao is fleshed out enough to be its own school.” Li Qiye smiled at the muscular man.

“I’m turning back again to the rugged path, that’s why I’m starting from the basics, building up this bag of skin.” Martial Ancestor begrudgingly said.

“It’s not necessarily a bad thing.” Li Qiye replied.

“If this body is useful and can endure, there is still hope. Otherwise, all of my efforts would have been in vain. All of my fortunes and resources are in it now, it’s a huge risk.” Martial Ancestor responded.

He used martial arts to reach the dao back then. In the beginning, he trained mortal martial arts and eventually abandoned them for the dao.

However, after becoming a progenitor and training at the expanse, he once again embarked on the path of martial arts with a focus on the physique. He wanted to refine his body into the strongest weapon and container - excelling at both offense and defense on top of containing many grand dao.

“Martial art and the dao are the same things.” Li Qiye said: “All laws start from a single thought or thing, even the tiniest creation and the weakest thought can become a supreme grand dao. Your body is a grand dao that can accommodate everything once you reach that level.”

“Thank you for your words of encouragement, I will keep going.” Martial Ancestor bowed.

Using regular martial arts to reach the dao wasn’t easy. Training this art again after becoming a progenitor was even harder.

He spent all of his vitality and resources on rebuilding his body, a different path from the other progenitors.

“Brother Wu’s determination is something else, that’s why his future height will be far greater than mine.” Cloudcrossing Progenitor added.

“Brother Yun, please don’t tease me, I’m simply risking it all for a bet, who knows if this will work? It’s only an experiment.” Martial Ancestor shook his head, lacking confidence.

“Yes, we can’t compare to the wise sages of the past and are nearing the end so we need to take shortcuts in order to break through.” Cloudcrossing replied: “I just don’t have the same boldness as you. Picking the martial dao again is an amazing choice.”

He was telling the truth. Though they were quite powerful, there were others above them such as the members from the Decemvirate. They would never be able to surpass these characters since they were inferior in all aspects.

Since these ten served as the peaks, they could see where they stood as well as their limit. They had no chance of surpassing the Decemvirate, let alone breaking through the limit of the grand dao.

That’s why Martial Ancestor made a bold move - picking martial arts. This was a path unwalked.

Of course, regular mortals have turned into cultivators by perfecting martial arts. However, he was doing so while being a progenitor.

The regular path of orthodox cultivation wouldn’t allow them to defeat the top ten progenitors. On the other hand, the martial dao might open an unprecedented path, a new height.

Martial Ancestor might not be able to beat the ten with this path, but at least he still created something new. Just surpassing himself could be considered a success.

“Life is unpredictable, who knows, maybe I’ll need your help in the future to stay alive again.” Martial Ancestor said.

These two have seen and experienced enough to make light of death by this point.

“You must be chasing the darkness here, Senior.” Cloudcrossing asked Li Qiye.

“You can put it that way, it’s just out of convenience though, a minor task while I train and kill.” Li Qiye smiled.

Though he put it so nonchalantly, these two smiled wryly at each other. They looked around and saw the carnage.

What if he were to get serious? Maybe a tsunami of blood would engulf all of the expanse. They didn’t dare to think about it much longer.

“I’m sad to say that we couldn’t help with that.” Martial Ancestor said.

“It’s not your fault. You have only entered the martial dao again when Zither Empress mobilized, not enough time to accomplish anything.” Cloudcrossing revealed.

Darkness invaded the expanse in the past. Zither Empress and the other progenitors formed an alliance against it.

Martial Ancestor was too weak back then to join the battle. Cloudcrossing also stayed behind in order to protect him.

“This will end eventually, the expanse belongs to Three Immortals. We will never let it fall to foreign invaders.” Martial Ancestor said while gazing towards the horizon.

“Soon.” Li Qiye had a calm expression.

“It’s a shame that the mastermind behind this had disappeared without a single trace. Many have searched to no avail. Some are still looking.” Cloudcrossing put on a helpless smile.

The war back then was shocking. Numerous progenitors fell as a result. These two didn’t participate so they didn’t know the actual outcome.

However, the dark lord disappeared afterward along with many brilliant progenitors. Later on, they found out that some progenitors have died while others chose the darkness. The latter group also stopped showing up.

Their side kept on searching but couldn’t figure out the dark lord’s hiding location. The expanse was just too vast. A powerful being of that level wouldn’t have a hard time hiding at all.

“An opportunity will arise unless he wants to be a turtle forever, no longer wanting to divide the spoils.” Li Qiye smiled faintly.

“I hope I’ll be able to join that battle and contribute to this world.” Cloudcrossing said.

“Count me in as well. I’ve lived long enough already.” Martial Ancestor laughed.

Both of them sounded quite heroic at this moment.

“Rumble!” Suddenly, loud quaking came from below, culminating in monstrous tsunamis.

A terrible aura oozed out of the grotto. “Boom!” The water inside the grotto surged to the sky like a spring.

“Burden.” Both progenitors recognized the aura.

“Finally came out.” Li Qiye stood up and laughed: “It hid in there earlier. I’m full now, time to kill it too.”

The two knew that Burden was dead for sure today regardless of how powerful it was.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

A while later, dark energy surged out from the grotto. This dark energy instantly swept through the stars above, causing them to fall down like shooting stars. This was a testament to Burden’s might.

“Not bad, it survived one punch earlier too. Okay, time to take it down.” Li Qiye smiled at this sight.