Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

An hour later, Li Yao appeared at the foot of a majestic meteorite mountain.

The meteorites from space were apparently of different origins. Some of them contain abundant spiritual energy and resources that were necessary for living creatures. This majestic meteorite mountain was a good example. Although it was surrounded by a bleak desert, a lot of green plants were thriving on the mountain, making it seem like an oasis in the desert.

However, the ‘oasis’ was not as peaceful as it appeared to be.

Li Yao lunged forward and climbed up to the middle of the mountain. There was an inconspicuous crevice covered by bushes and grass.

The bushes beside the crevice, noticing that a stranger was drawing near, suddenly wriggled as if they were animals. A cluster of bright grey thorns danced like hundreds of vipers. Their front ends blossomed and spewed dirty sap as they hissed like snakes.

Li Yao held his saber tightly and put on a dangerous look. He yelled, “Do you want to die?”

The thorns shook for a moment. There was no telling whether they understood what Li Yao said or they perceived the killing intent from him, but they did not dare get closer to him anymore.

Li Yao raised his hand and tossed a slice of worm meat to the thorns. It was immediately bound up by dozens of thorns and melted by their corrosive sap. Very soon, it became a delicious meal for the thorns.

Li Yao took the opportunity to dash past the thorns into the crevice behind them.

There was quite a spacious cave behind the crevice.

Li Yao had paved the ground with ash and sand. Therefore, the cave was quite clean and dry.

The cave was not the largest one on this meteorite mountain, nor did it boast the most abundant spiritual energy. There were several other caves with better conditions.

But Li Yao had chosen this cave because of the thorns growing outside the cave.

They were greedy carnivores that would not let any intruder past. Also, whenever they were alarmed, they would always make rattling noises, which made them the best watch dogs at present.

Deep inside the cave, where the thorns could not reach, Li Yao took off his Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and lay down, stretching out in relief.

Then, he suddenly jerked up and, unwilling to admit his failure, tried to break his limits with the ‘Soul Igniting Law’!

BOOM!

A glittering rune array seemed to have been formed inside the cave. Mysterious rays of light were flowing around Li Yao’s body!

“Refinement Stage Level One! Level Four! Level Seven!

“Refinement Stage Level Nine! Level Eleven! Level Thirteen!

“Peak of the Refinement Stage!”

When he reached the peak of the Refinement Stage, the spiritual gas surrounding Li Yao had reached the maximum. The whole cave was soaked in an ocean of gold brightness. Even the most ordinary rock was glittering like the most precious diamond.

However, just when the spiritual gas was about to be compressed and liquefied as he approached the Building Foundation Stage, nine black streaks suddenly popped around Li Yao heart. They bit each other’s tails and locked up his heart like a vicious shackle!

Li Yao grunted in pain. Cold sweat was pouring off his forehead, but he could not condense his spiritual gas anyhow.

A moment later, Li Yao let go of his spiritual gas helplessly and maintained his spiritual energy in the third level of the Refinement Stage with the Soul Converging Technique.

“Black Spider Death Curse, what a creepy one!”

Li Yao tore open his mustard-seed battle suit and observed his stomach. Nine black stripes that interweaved into a weird chain of nine snakes were looming on his left chest. It was deep into his skin and flesh and tied up his heart.

Scratching the ‘tattoo’ softly, Li Yao felt that it was directly connected to his heart. A gentle touch was enough to make his heart race. It was not hard to guess what would happen if it was removed by force.

Li Yao had complicated feelings as he looked at the tattoo, wondering whether or not he should regret joining the battle a month ago.

It was true that, when he had learned that Storm Prison was ambushing the Great Horn Exo Society, an untamable, crazy notion had occurred to him, which was to take down the Core Formation Stage Cultivator Fengyu Zhong!

The reason was simple. Li Yao had never believed that any secret was safe forever.

Although few clues had been left to link him to Fengyu Ming’s death, there were still too many coincidences.

Before, he had not been known for his capabilities yet, and other people might not have associated him with the event.

But as he appeared out of nowhere in the Skyhill Sword Seminar, and when he rose to fame in Heavenly Saints City in the future, his capabilities would become known by the world sooner or later.

By then, with Fengyu Zhong’s wisdom and Black Spider Tower’s intelligence network, some traces would definitely be found.

Li Yao had never been a passive man.

Neither was he willing to bear the thought that a Core Formation Stage Cultivator would be making plans against him in secret someday in the future.

It was to kill or to be killed. It seemed to be a better option to slay the father before he found out the truth about his son’s death than to wait for Fengyu Zhong to figure everything out.

Li Yao had not been aware of the existence of the planetary ring before; he only knew that the Iron Plateau Space Zone was full of stone belts.

Therefore, his plan had been to hide inside the stone belts while planting all the crystal bombs he carried during his escape. Then, the environment inside the stone belts would be completely disrupted, and Fengyu Zhong would be stalled.

He was wagering on the hope that the reinforcements of Cultivators would arrive in time and surround Fengyu Zhong. If so, Fengyu Zhong would certainly have died!

The chance was slim. But how could a Building Foundation Stage Cultivator kill a Core Formation Stage Cultivator without taking his chances?

When he’d discovered that the planetary ring around Iron Plateau was a piece of powerful defensive magical equipment, he had changed his plan and decided to activate the defensive magical equipment with the crystal bombs as triggers!

In order to fully convince Fengyu Zhong, he had even fought Fengyu Zhong the hard way once and suffered heavy wounds because of it.

He had taken every detail into consideration.

It had never occurred to him that Fengyu Zhong’s nose would be so sharp. There were no loopholes at all, but he had still sensed danger and run away beforehand.

Li Yao had also failed to anticipate that the blast released by the planetary ring when it was triggered to be as strong!

His original plan was to hide in the interior side of the planetary ring while he waited for the reinforcements.

As it turned out, the blast was like a surging tide and easily blew him into the gravitational pull of Iron Plateau. The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit had been seriously damaged, too, and lost most of its impetus. He was not able to alter his route and could only perform an emergency landing on Iron Plateau.

After he fell onto the planet that was even harsher than the Grand Desolate Plateau, the trickiest issue Li Yao was faced with was not the brutal demon beasts, but the Black Spider Death Curse, which Su Jiuzhen had cast upon him on his death with the power of his soul.

If the weird curse targeted his brain and tried to kill him, Li Yao could resist it by relying on Ou Yezi’s soul power and eliminate it directly.

Yet, the Black Spider Death Curse seemed to be alive and was very adaptive to the environment. It was even able to select the most suitable method of attack.

After the previous outbreak when it was almost banished by him, the curse seemed to know that it was not strong enough to kill him and had been lurking near his heart where it had stabilized into a weird shackle.

The shackle was intangible in peacetime, and it did not affect him during a battle. But every time when he was about to rise into the Building Foundation Stage by liquefying his spiritual gas with the Soul Igniting Law, the vicious power of the curse would be triggered at the critical moment and pierce into his heart!

He was locked in the Refinement Stage by nine invisible chains. Over the past month, however hard he tried and burnt his soul, he had not been able to break this limit.

Li Yao was not depressed at yet another failure. He smacked his lips and leaned against the wall of the cave, meditating.

The stubbornness inside his eyes was as bright as before, not in the least diminished.

It might not be a bad thing now that I’m confined in the Refinement Stage by the Black Spider Death Curse!

From the time when his spiritual root awakened, a mark that he became a Cultivator, to the time when he advanced into the high level of the Building Foundation Stage and boasted combat ability at the peak of the Building Foundation Stage occasionally, it had taken less than five years.

Five years, from an ordinary person to a Cultivator in the high level of the Building Foundation Stage. Such a speed of advancement was appalling in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, the Flying Star Sector, the Star Ocean Imperium, and even the ancient Cultivation world!

Advancing too fast was not necessarily a good thing. Breaking into the next level hastily without consolidating one’s current knowledge might prove to be a hinderance in the future training.

Since he had stepped into the high level of the Building Foundation Stage, Li Yao had always been a bit lost as to how to further proceed in his path of Cultivation.

The training of his hands with Purple Ring Sword Ants and the building of his body with the Thousand Tempering Hundred Refining technique were just improvements in specific areas.

As to his overall Cultivation, he hadn’t made any progress recently and felt like that he was trapped in a maze.

The advancement from the beginning level of the Building Foundation Stage to the middle level was based on the spiritual seed of Iron God Yan Ba, a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator.

The breakthrough from the middle level of the Building Foundation Stage to the high level was because of the adventure inside the True Fusion and the space swirl.

How was he going to progress further?

The Black Spider Death Curse and the shackle it imposed on him might prove to be of great help.

Li Yao’s Soul Igniting Law was known as ‘Soaring into Heaven in One Leap’. The main trick of the method was to imagine oneself as a proud king of eagles that had been caged inside a valley from a young age and never tasted the feeling of flying freely. It could only watch countless ordinary birds swooping past itself.

Just like that. Anger, patience, struggle, concealment. Then, one day, the shackle was broken, and the king of sky ascended to its throne!

It was the core of ‘Soaring into Heaven in One Leap’.

Wasn’t Li Yao an eagle king who was locked up in a deep valley? It was exactly the scenario inside his Soul Igniting Law.

Maybe, this is going to be my turning point.

It took me only four years to advance into the high level of the Building Foundation Stage from an ordinary person. The speed was too high for me to lay a solid foundation.

If I train myself with the regular methods according to traditions, I might have to spend another four years building myself up and consolidating my knowledge. Then, it would take me twenty years to solidify my spiritual energy in order to enter the Core Formation Stage!

To be honest, it was already incredible to form the core in one’s forties. For other Cultivators, they can only make such an achievement if they are extremely lucky and everything goes their way.

But I cannot wait that long!

Five years! In five years, I’m going to succeed in forming the core so that I will be qualified to fight for the planetary-level magical equipment, which will be the biggest guarantee for the final war when I return to the Heaven’s Origin Sector!

The fight against Fengyu Zhong had taught Li Yao a good lesson about his weakness. Plots, calculations, and schemes were absolutely useless when faced with overwhelming strength.

If one wants to get rich quick, one must take risks. It is not an easy task to form the core in five years!

The Black Spider Death Curse may have shackled me to the Refinement Stage for now, but isn’t it a great opportunity for me to form the core?

As long as I attack the Black Spider Death Curse with ‘Soaring into Heaven in One Leap’ continuously and shatter it one day, I will definitely be able to experience the ultimate feeling of the eagle who soars in the sky. Even if I cannot form the core, I will at least be able to stand firmly at the peak of the Building Foundation Stage and see clearly how I am going to break into the Core Formation Stage!