Chapter 265 - 246: 500 Years Later
Waves vast and boundless.
Nameless island.
Formation’s spiritual light twinkles, covered with countless thunders and blazing fires.
Roar!
The sound of a tiger’s roar reverberates, a tiger-shaped Nascent Soul with wings on its back, dodging left and right amidst the thunder.
"Senior, spare my life!"
"This tiger is willing to be your mount, capable of flying and escaping without bounds."
"This junior’s bloodline carries the inheritance of the ancients, aware of many closely guarded secrets, including the whereabouts of a Demon Saint..."
The tiger demon looked outside the Formation, at the cultivator in ancient Taoist robe—it was "Heavenly Monarch Yuanling" from its memories—continuously pleading for mercy.
"The whereabouts of the Demon Saint? Go on, speak."
Zhou Yi’s gaze grew sharp, yet he did not stop the Formation and Prohibition, more interested in sending the tiger demon’s soul to its doom than exploring ancient secrets.
After all, it was a Nascent Soul ancestor with ancient bloodline; who knows if it held any ace-in-the-hole secret techniques!
After twenty years of secluded cultivation in the Eastern Sea, as usual, he practiced the cursing technique and broke the seal of the tiger teeth, freeing the Demon Emperor of the Winged-Tiger clan from within.
The Tiger Emperor hurriedly answered, "In ancient times, as the Spiritual Energy gradually depleted, my ancestor Demon Saint sought survival, venturing deep into Beihai to explore the edge of the sky, and ultimately found an Outer Realm Continent."
Zhou Yi shook his head and said, "Even though the Demon Saint’s escaping speed might match returning to the void, even if I knew the route, it would be difficult to reach."
While saying so outwardly, he took note of this information inwardly. Owning the Everlasting Immortality and Kunlun Cave Heaven, with enough patience, he could eventually reach the Outer Realm. However, this news was of little use, as Zhou Yi’s interest in the Outer Realm was limited; the Nine Continents were much safer than any Outer Realm Continent.
"This is just one thing."
The Tiger Emperor said, "Senior can make a soul contract with me; I will have many more ancient secrets for you in the future!"
The demon race integrates its inheritance into its bloodline, awakening the bloodline to obtain the memories of ancient demons, much more reliable than the oral transmissions or jade slip records of the human race.
When speaking of this with Heavenly Monarch Yuanling in the past, it was said that in ancient times, some powerful beings attempted to imitate the demon race to ensure the unbroken lineage of the human race, but no one was willing to accept the inheritance mark.
Even the most ordinary mortals suspected that the powerful ones intended to seize their bodies through this, to achieve a different form of Everlasting Immortality!
"Demons must be slain!" Nôv(el)B\\\\jnn
Zhou Yi formed spell hand signs, the Supreme Clarity Divine Talisman shining with spiritual light, trapping the Tiger Emperor fixed within the Formation.
The Tiger Emperor roared towards the heavens, realizing there was no escaping its soul scattering, pleadings suddenly turned into curses. Cultivators covetously seek longevity, willing to pay any price, yet they are truly not afraid of death.
"You old furball, I’ll be waiting for you down below!"
Three years later.
The Nascent Soul shattered, the soul scattered to the winds.
Zhou Yi collected the left behind transparent tiger teeth, his Divine Sense scanning them, and inside was a space tens of zhang in radius.
"Several old fellows’ self-sealing methods, the origins seem to stem from the same Divine Skills. It’s rumored once there was a great doctrine ruling the Nine Continents, with both human and demon races as its disciples, perhaps it’s from that time these secret techniques were passed down!"
With a wave of his sleeve, he swept away all the Formation and Prohibition, his figure flickering and vanishing from sight.
Kunlun Cave Heaven.
The abundance of Spiritual Energy congeals into clouds and rain, nourishing the Spiritual Medicines in the spiritual fields.
A thousand years have passed since the decline of the law; many precious Spiritual Medicines have matured, and refining them into pills has made Zhou Yi’s cultivation grow much faster than anticipated.
Among them are some that enhance the consolidation of the Nascent Soul, and they would mature after a few hundred years.
Zhou Yi materialized, seeing the Spirit Ginseng child sitting beneath a tree, listlessly yawning.
Without a network in the deep Eastern Sea, the mobile phone became obsolete, only good for playing some single-player games.
The Spirit Ginseng child instantly lost its favorite hobby; ever since then, it has been drowsy day in and day out, seemingly uninterested in all the wonders of the world.
"This is a heart demon. It must realize its own way out!"
Zhou Yi never imagined that a mere mobile phone could spoil the Spirit Ginseng child’s immortal heart. Yet, putting himself in its place, if there were no more celebrations in the world, he too would find the cultivation path tasteless.
"Remember to take care of the spiritual fields. I am going into closed-door cultivation!"
With that command, Zhou Yi retreated into the cultivation chamber of the Taoist temple.
He took out the Treasure Bead from the storage bag, which was left behind after Yuan Ling died, containing a soul fragment diligently boring through.
The Yi Qi Sect once ruled Yu Continent, their resources far surpassing those of the Dragon Emperor, hence the space inside the Treasure Bead was a thousand zhang in area, and its barriers even more robust.
"My divine soul is several times stronger than it was back then. Based on the past twenty-odd years, it will approximately take three hundred years..."
Zhou Yi took out a tiger tooth and pinched a spell, splitting off another sliver of divine soul.
"The Soul Splitting Technique can be used to cast two at the same time, indeed a significant time-saver!"
...
Time flows gently.
Within closed-door cultivation, there are no years.
One year after another, gone in the blink of an eye.
Zhou Yi only left his retreat once during that period, which was for his two-thousandth birthday, but he did not leave the Eastern Sea to celebrate. Instead, he spent the whole night alone on a deserted island drinking Spiritual Wine.
"Everlasting Immortality is so solitary!"
Afterward, he continued his deep cultivation until two hundred years passed, and the tiger tooth was the first to break through, transforming into a Cave Heaven.
"Next step, shattering the tiger tooth within Kunlun to see if I can expand the Cave Heaven."
Zhou Yi was not particularly confident about this, since there was no record of this in the Taoist canonical texts; he could only proceed through trial and experimentation.
He exhaled the Light Dividing Sword, Bodhi Treasure Wheel, Mountain and River Cauldron, Supreme Clarity Divine Talisman—four treasures that had reached the pinnacle of magic artifacts, entering the tiger tooth and beginning to break apart from the inside.
The power of the Soul-Calming Mirror had returned to its peak, but due to its intrinsic characteristics, its power increased at an extremely slow pace.
"If this method doesn’t work, I’ll have to layer Cave Heavens one over another within Kunlun and seek a fusion method later!"
In Zhou Yi’s heart, there was no worry or concern; mana cycled through as he continued to cultivate the Too Mysterious Scripture, aiming for a breakthrough to the later stages of the Golden Core when he emerged from seclusion.
Since then...
Day after day of cultivation, divination, and speeding up the growth of the Jianmu tree.
With the passage of hundreds of years, the Spirit Ginseng child finally managed to quit its internet addiction temporary, and after its Dao heart returned, it finally remembered that Zhou Yi had promised him a branch of the Jianmu tree long ago.
"The Jianmu tree is already twenty zhang high, when will it start to fork?"
"I do not know either, probably still needs several thousand years."
Zhou Yi asked, "Child, do you have a lifespan limit?"
"I should have one."
The Spirit Ginseng child wrinkled its little face and said, "According to the inherited memories, there was once a Spirit Ginseng that lived for one hundred thousand years and turned into a divine medicine, but instead of dying of old age, it was refined into a medicinal pill by a Divine Transformation Heavenly Monarch!"
"The heavens are truly just, for having nearly endless longevity, practicing for one hundred thousand years but still no match for a Heavenly Monarch!"
Zhou Yi felt a fair amount of sympathy in his heart, yet when he thought about himself, he felt his talents might not even compare to the Spirit Ginseng child.
"Lest I become a medicinal pill in the future, I must continue the arduous cultivation!"
In the blink of an eye, another hundred years passed by.
The Yuan Ling Treasure Pearl finally broke open, but Zhou Yi did not proceed with experiments, deciding to wait until the tiger tooth shattered.
Time passed.
In total, he had spent five hundred years in closed-door cultivation at the Eastern Sea.
The tiger tooth finally could not withstand the grinding of the magic treasures and shattered from the inside out, turning into several pieces of translucent glass-like fragments.
Hum!
Kunlun Cave Heaven trembled slightly, the mist around the space beginning to extend outward, the area expanding to twice its original size.
Zhou Yi’s face showed delight, as he used his mana to maintain the stability of the land within the Cave Heaven and pulled in several islands from outside to fill it up, reaching an area of over four hundred zhang.
"It really worked, the Great Saint’s hardships were not in vain!"
"Five hundred years have passed, I wonder what Nine Continents has become. The Yi Qi Sect’s official website had many Dual Cultivation secret techniques. Cultivators are hard to punish with modern laws; maybe the Spring Breeze Building has continued on..."
"With the Cave Heaven expanded, it’s time to celebrate!"
Zhou Yi sent a message to the Spirit Ginseng child, stating they would return to the Nine Continents today.
The Spirit Ginseng child’s face flushed with excitement as it pulled out a magic artifact resembling a cell phone from its sleeve, asking eagerly.
"Immortal, do you think after five hundred years, ’Honor of Kings’ is still around?"