My power has slightly increased, this is an unreasonable occurrence.

Although the Third Door is famous for being "unreasonable," not all forms of unreasonableness can be achieved. I have already demonstrated this in front of Little Bowl. Right now, I can only create a stone that I cannot lift and then lift it, but I am still unable to achieve this challenge while strictly following mathematical rules and without invoking a Doomsday phenomenon.

And using this unreasonable power to break the limits of power to strengthen oneself, and then using the unreasonable power after breaking the limits to break the limits again to strengthen oneself... This kind of endless ascension by standing on one's own shoulders, this unreasonable cycle, is something I cannot achieve at present. I can't even take the first step.

But my power has genuinely increased, this is an undeniable fact... So, could it be that I have truly become stronger under the stimulation of a life-and-death struggle, just like the protagonist in a royal road battle manga?

Perhaps this isn't entirely without theoretical support. A person's growth requires interaction and stimulation from the outside world, and the same goes for someone at my Manifestation Realm.

If it were in the Void, I could only rely on digesting past experiences to become stronger. Without new opportunities and encounters, along with truly unknown and unfamiliar things, once one reaches a bottleneck, one must return to the real world to possibly advance further. Otherwise, even a "slow growing plateau period" wouldn't exist. Even if one recreates countless creations surrounding oneself, it merely summons known existences, essentially enclosing oneself in a cyclical dream.

On the other extreme, like enduring the stimulation of life-and-death battles, especially when the enemy is also a strong Third Door person with power surpassing mine, then of course, I can gain the most growth-related nutrients.

But this still does not sufficiently explain my current increase in strength.

In ancient terms, attempting to get stronger in the Void is "thinking without learning is dangerous"; attempting to get stronger in battle is "learning without thinking is perilous." In a fight where even catching one's breath is challenging, one can indeed absorb a lot of new experiences, but there isn't the room to settle down and digest it carefully.

In the past, I too have experienced growing stronger in battle. But that was because I inherently had latent power that needed the pressure of life-and-death crises to be unleashed. Right now, I don't have such good conditions. Furthermore, all the skills I could conceive of that could strengthen my power have been applied and stacked upon myself, and presently it's not like I have unconsciously used any method I forgot at the outset.

What is the nature of this abnormal phenomenon? I can hardly spare the time to analyze this matter, and can only hastily accept this bizarre situation, concentrating the slightly enhanced black flame.

The Solar Eclipse Fire, once defined as "erroneous evolution," now simply becomes a powerful and handy power attribute because I have turned into a Manifestation and Enlightenment practitioner who accommodates everything. Although using it is not as habitual as normal flames, it possesses nearly the same usability as the latter. I transformed it into a black sun, from which destructive waves emanated.

I aimed the black sun at the Old Fist God, who intended to advance. The Old Fist God attempted to evade the attack but got caught by its gravity, requiring a direct confrontation. He punched the black sun, blasting it apart with a single blow.

Just as I expected, the Old Fist God indeed couldn't use the Destructive Death Point skill to cleverly destroy the Solar Eclipse Fire and could only use power against power. However, I used ranged attacks this time, so although the Solar Eclipse Fire's intensity slightly increased, it wasn't the nearly-contact Solar Eclipse Sword, so its actual lethality inevitably decreased.

The Old Fist God's fist was severely burned, but such injuries, horrific to normal humans, weren't fundamentally damaging to someone like the Old Fist God, a strong Third Door individual with a fervent battle spirit.

I even noticed the burn on his fist was gradually healing, and the deep wound on his chest, down to the bone, was also slowly regenerating. In truth, I had already imbued a killer intent into my attack, even simulating numerous abilities related to "prohibiting enemy damage repair." And this is the regeneration power specialized by strong Third Door individuals proficient in the body.

Right now, I lack a Divine Seal Fragment at hand and cannot output True Spirit Power myself, moreover cannot cause "irreparable real damage." Perhaps even then, merely mixing a small portion of True Spirit Power into my attack wouldn't truly threaten the Old Fist God.

The only way is to continue risking and using the close-range Solar Eclipse Sword to gradually stack the damage up.

"Excellent, Zhuang Cheng, you really did not disappoint me!" the Old Fist God exclaimed joyfully.

"I don't understand, what exactly are you so happy about?" I asked.

"A rare and worthy opponent is right in front of me, what reason do I have not to be happy?" the Old Fist God said with a smile.

"A worthy opponent? You really overestimate me. I don't believe you haven't seen it, I'm the weaker one now, with a very small chance of defeating you. And didn't you just say? The purpose of this fight is also for 'Great Renunciation,'" I said, "I highly doubt this level of combat can indeed provide you with a strong enough life-and-death pressure?"

"No, it's not merely a question of whether the life-and-death pressure is sufficient. I've also challenged the path of 'Great Renunciation,' so I can clearly conclude. 'Great Renunciation' is not something that can be simply passed with battle stimulus and life-and-death pressure alone."

"Everyone has a different disposition," Old Fist God said unperturbed, "Some people are able to find breakthrough directions in battle, while others must survive to digest and absorb the lessons gained from battle. In my view, you are certainly the latter, so how can you conclude that the former is impossible?"

"Since you're so confident, you must be the former," I said. "So why not give me the Current World Divine Seal? After all, you don't need it now, so just hand it over to me, and let me bring you absolute pressure from a dire situation."

"You're thinking too beautifully. Want to snatch the white wolf from me with bare hands?" Old Fist God chuckled, "I'm not a fool. If it really comes to that, I'm afraid I wouldn't even have time to taste the edge of life and death before I die under the power of the divine seal."

I countered, "Since you wish to purely rely on the crisis of the edge of life and death to achieve the 'Great Renunciation', how can you not reach this extent? Without facing such an extraordinary predicament, how can you achieve a truly extraordinary sublimation?

"The power of external objects has no soul... you seemed to have said this earlier. But whether there's a soul or not, power is power, life and death are life and death, adventure is adventure, none of these change. Or are you afraid, so you use the excuse of soul or no soul to avoid adventure?"

Though there was an element of provocation, I also intended to explore Old Fist God's deep psyche in the heated battle, hoping to find his flaw from a perspective outside of combat.

Old Fist God paused slightly, but his face did not show any sign of being provoked. Instead, his eyes brightened, and he said, "You're right... I'm stuck in a vicious circle.

"Alright, then after defeating you, I'll give the divine seal to the little girl beside you. Let her use this power for your revenge, and bring me the 'extraordinary predicament' you speak of!"

He laughed openly as if solving some kind of riddle, and I felt that he was actually serious, that he truly intended to follow through with this strategy!

I originally thought about whether I could convince him to hand over the Current World Divine Seal. Not that I really thought this approach had potential, but I initially expressed it as a means to solve a difficulty. Although the outcome wasn't entirely fruitless, it was of no help to this battle. He still wanted to continue the current format and decide life and death with me.

"If it's about being the 'enemy of the user of the divine seal,' then it doesn't matter who it is," Old Fist God said, "Anyway, a divine seal is a divine seal, regardless of whose hands it's in, it won't transform into a powerless waste. If the user truly cannot unleash its power, I can lend a hand.

"However, you are different... Zhuang Cheng."

His voice was filled with battle desire, "The opportunity to fight with the controller of a divine seal is always available, but the opportunity to battle with you, an authentic Manifestation and Enlightenment, is unique and must be savored!"

For the first time in my life, someone described me as "authentic."

As soon as he finished speaking, Old Fist God stepped forward in the Cosmic Space, instantly reaching my front, and that terrifying iron fist once again assaulted my head.

I conjured another Solar Eclipse Sword while avoiding and slicing, but I did not hope for the ability to truly evade. As the exchanges increased, the locking capacity deepened, and Old Fist God's accuracy towards me became higher. Since I hadn't evaded smoothly before, this time I was even less likely to succeed.

However, the reality was contrary to my prediction. I narrowly dodged Old Fist God's strike, and simultaneously, the slash of the Solar Eclipse Sword reached his arm. The hit point exploded, and I used the shockwave to retreat to a distance after completing the attack. A deep gash, exposing the bone, appeared on Old Fist God's arm, part of it was charred, and blood continuously spouted from the wound.

I actually evaded... Was this luck? Did my luck suddenly peak? No, a Third Door cultivator cannot be influenced by fortune or misfortune; then did Old Fist God go easy? That's impossible, even when facing his foster daughter Qilin, he never showed mercy.

The blood seemed to ignite Old Fist God's passion further. He charged excitedly, strong mana fluctuations spreading out as if constantly exploding.

"And... you don't have to belittle yourself, Zhuang Cheng. You have ample opportunity to defeat me," he laughed aloud. "You're still getting stronger... aren't you?"

Yes, the answer is only this. The reason I could evade and counterattack Old Fist God was that I just got stronger again, strong enough to briefly surpass Old Fist God's locking progress.

But I still don't understand why I can continue to get stronger?

At this time, I noticed two strange details.

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