Qian Jin relaxed his state of mind, proactively swallowing the surging hot current pouring into his body. The massive current circulated through his life-and-death core points and meridians, reinforcing everything it passed through. After being tempered by the hot current, the core meridians became even sturdier than before!

The shield combat technique within his body also began to grow scorching hot under the impact of the current! At this moment! Qian Jin’s mind suddenly moved, shifting his internal hammer battle spirit backward, and he violently struck his own combat technique with it—Clang, bang!

Boom! Qian Jin felt as if his internal organs were on the verge of shattering; his surging blood and qi made him feel nauseous enough to vomit, but the shield combat technique only wavered slightly before settling back into its original stillness. Forging!

If a weapon can be forged, then perhaps a combat technique can be forged too, right? Qian Jin bit his lip. The shield was a part of his body; if he treated himself as a piece of equipment to be forged, it should be possible!

Ignite Soul Domain, open! Qian Jin’s body seemed to instantly ignite, and the hammer battle spirit blazed with scorching light as it smashed down upon the shield combat technique once more. Bang!

Bang! Bang! Qian Jin felt an impulse to stop; he had never imagined a day when he would resort to such self-mutilation, but the best way to grow stronger was to merge his two protective combat techniques into one—the combined power would be far greater than them operating separately.

Smash it! Opportunities like this are rare! While the heat from the Heart of the Sharp Mountain is abundant, softening them up through relative burning would be beneficial.

In the sandy ground, forging sounds continuously erupted from within Qian Jin’s body. If he hadn't been submerged a hundred meters beneath the sand, the noise would have already reached the surface. One strike… one strike… one strike… Qian Jin experienced a long-forgotten pain, the kind that even the body of Falak, the Seventh Prince of the Barbarians, could not inflict.

Finally, the shield combat technique within him showed a slight crack. The [Death] aspect of the Life and Death Star Seal kept coiling around the shield technique, urging it to collapse sooner. Rumble!

The shield shattered! Qian Jin knew this was because he had deliberately controlled the shield combat technique to its lowest defensive state; otherwise, if it had unleashed its full power, he truly would have no way to break his own protective technique. Wind and Cloud Golden Body!

Absorb everything! Star Power enters my warrior body! Reshape the body!

A surge of heroic spirit rose in Qian Jin’s heart. The [Life] character of the Life and Death Star Seal began to manifest around the Wind and Cloud Golden Body. The shattered shield rapidly reformed, starting its true integration with the Wind and Cloud Golden Body.

One minute, one hour… five hours… ten hours… twenty hours… fifty hours… Done! Qian Jin suddenly opened his eyes. He had expected that shattering the shield would lead to easy fusion, but he hadn't anticipated it would take a full fifty hours.

Fifty hours only completed the preliminary fusion, not the deep integration he had initially envisioned. The shield resembled something inlaid onto the Wind and Cloud Golden Body rather than being truly merged with it. Even at this initial level of integration, the protective might of the Wind and Cloud Golden Body had significantly increased.

Facing that one strike from Qian Zhan Xuan back then, he could probably block it now! Qian Jin gently moved his shoulders. Although Qian Zhan Xuan’s strike hadn't been at full power, it was still an attack launched by the strongest bloodline warrior of the era.

Does the Heart of the Volcano still have power? Qian Jin felt that the power in the Heart of the Volcano in his hands seemed undiminished. The idea of reaching Sainthood, which had previously faded, rose again in his mind.

Charge towards Sainthood! Qian Jin’s five fingers suddenly clenched, pouring the surging hot current from the Heart of the Volcano further into his body. The hammer battle spirit inside him began to vibrate—a peculiar oscillation!

A Soul Weapon must perfectly align its battle qi fluctuation with that of a Saint! But a Saint Artifact does not require this condition! The Heart of the Volcano belongs neither to a Soul Artifact nor a Saint Artifact; it is more like a state of primordial material.

This primordial state fortunately does not require mutual harmonization. The hammer battle spirit began to oscillate, its speed increasing rapidly, layers and circles of battle spirit energy expanding outward. In mere seconds, Qian Jin’s hammer battle spirit vibrated to its extreme.

The entire spirit seemed like a gigantic furnace, and it suddenly detached from Qian Jin’s body, plunging directly into the Heart of the Volcano to begin merging! Yes, merging! This was the combination of two different substances, just as forging a Soul Weapon Saint Artifact requires different materials.

The process of reaching Sainthood, in principle, was exactly the same for ordinary warriors. The hammer shrank to the size of a fist, spinning at high speed within the Heart of the Volcano. All the hot current poured into the hammer’s body without restraint.

Rumble… rumble… Bang! The Heart of the Volcano in Qian Jin’s hand suddenly exploded. The hammer battle spirit, shrunk to fist-size, shot towards the sky, transforming into a colossal war hammer thirty meters high.

The entire hammer body burned with raging flames, and the nascent form of the Burning Soul Domain began to expand, expand, its outer skin flashing with a unique oily sheen, as if coated in bright lacquer. Duan Feng Bu’er suddenly leaped out of the sand, staring at the gigantic soul hammer piercing the sky above the disturbed sand, repeatedly clicking his tongue: “My heavens! What in the world is this?

Such a huge battle spirit? I’ve only ever seen battle spirits five or six meters tall; ten meters is considered the largest! Comrad, what is going on with this battle spirit?” Not having reached Sainthood?

Qian Jin felt the surging power within his body. The moment the Heart of the Volcano exploded, all three battle hearts received a massive influx of fiery power. The other two battle spirits seemed reborn from fire, their quality elevated countless times beyond what they were before, but the hammer battle spirit received the greatest benefit.

The hammer battle spirit, which should have reached Sainthood, did not. Instead, it became incomparably huge, turning into the ultimate freak among battle spirits. On the thirty-meter giant hammer, a third empty groove appeared.

A massive amount of fiery power surged into the first groove, which held the nascent seed of the Burning Soul Domain. That seed was exceptionally brilliant but failed to truly grow and expand. What happened?

Qian Jin climbed out of the sand and looked up at his battle spirit. Could it be that because the Heart of the Volcano was neither a Soul Artifact nor a Saint Artifact, it failed to achieve Sainthood? And because of this, it mutated?

“Comrad…” Duan Feng Bu’er stared up in awe at Qian Jin’s battle spirit. “If you strike down with that hammer, do you think you could blast a Saint-level expert straight into the ground?” No Sainthood! Qian Jin felt the surging battle qi within him, sensing the might of that enormous hammer battle spirit.

It had indeed increased exponentially compared to before. The purity of his battle qi was absolutely comparable to that of a Saint-level expert, yet the Soul Domain had not unfolded, and the sensation of effortlessly communing with the endless primal energy of the world was absent. What was present was still only the power of the battle spirit communicating with the world, borrowing power and drawing it into the body, rather than the feeling of the person merging entirely with everything in the world.

Qian Jin remembered how Mu Gui Wuxin had described the feeling of reaching Sainthood more than once, but he did not feel that sensation now. He only felt that his internal meridians were wider and sturdier, and his core points had also become more robust. The shattering of the Soul Weapon and the fusion with the battle spirit had been a complete baptism for his battle qi and body, elevating the warrior to the realm of a warrior.

Since the Heart of the Volcano was neither a Soul Weapon nor a Saint Artifact, the vibration and absorption had only resulted in an unimaginable further strengthening of the battle meridians and core points. In terms of sheer strength, they absolutely possessed the level of a Saint expert, capable of enduring the battle qi burst of a Saint in an instant. Qian Jin didn't know what this state—half-Saint, half-not—represented.

He only knew that in this condition, if he faced the Seventh Barbarian Prince from not long ago, even if the prince held a Saint Artifact, he could dispatch him with a single punch. He was genuinely stronger! Qian Jin sighed.

He had intended to take a shortcut to Sainthood, but the Heart of the Volcano, after all, only possessed the potential for a Saint Artifact, not true qualification, and thus failed to achieve actual Sainthood. “No Sainthood,” Qiao Wufa smacked his lips and chuckled. This wasn't entirely a bad thing.

This time, the Heart of the Volcano had intensely fortified his entire network of battle meridians and core points, and the battle spirit produced by the Heart of the Earth Fire had undergone a new evolution! When he eventually reaches Sainthood, it will be even more formidable than the Sainthood achieved by ordinary warriors. Rumble!

The earth shook violently, and endless yellow sand surged into the sky, creating a yellow cloud that completely enveloped the area. Qian Jin felt as if a god had just been born in this small world. Everything around him seemed to slip beyond his control.

A strange guiding force stimulated the core points within his body, causing the battle meridians to surge again. More battle qi was generated and circulated ceaselessly; the power that had just spiked was soaring even higher. Sainthood!

Someone is reaching Sainthood! And this method of achieving Sainthood is not the method that awakens bloodline power! Qian Jin was alarmed.

Could Fen Tu Kuang Ge have seized a Saint Artifact to ascend? The method of achieving Sainthood through bloodline power awakening only causes the bloodline warrior’s personal strength to surge and step into the Saint realm; it does not allow them, like ordinary warriors reaching Sainthood through Soul Weapons or Saint Artifacts, to commune with the primal energy of the earth beneath the stars and draw it into their bodies. Wait!

This is not the battle qi flavor of Fen Tu Kuang Ge! Qian Jin keenly sensed that this battle qi… this is… Chek Fu’er’s battle qi flavor! That’s right!

Pure, dense, and even carrying a hint of aesthetically pleasing, fallen angel bloodline battle qi and battle spirit essence! Chek Fu’er, who had been silent after the accident during the bloodline awakening surge in the Ancient Desolate Sand Sea, was now choosing the path of ordinary warrior Sainthood, resolutely opting to use a Saint Artifact for his ascent! The most extravagant method of reaching Sainthood!

Using a Saint Artifact to ascend! Even the most talented bloodline warriors from the three ultimate bloodline families, who possessed profound foundations rooted in the dynasty for countless years, had never been so extravagant as to use a Saint Artifact for ascension! Saint Artifacts are limited in number; every one used is one less.

It might take countless years for a supremely lucky genius to occasionally find a new Saint Artifact in ancient ruins outside and bring it back to the family, granting them one more. After all, currently, whether among the Barbarians, Humans, or Demons, there has been no news of any Forging Master capable of forging a Saint Artifact, and finding anyone who can even forge a Soul Weapon is rare.