I became an immortal in the mountains

Chapter 791 Hard work pays off

Li Miaoxuan smiled gently, her gaze falling into the distance, and said calmly, "The title of elder of the Tribulation Control Alliance is just that—a title. In the cultivation world, strength ultimately speaks volumes. Otherwise, even if you speak within the Tribulation Control Alliance, who cares? Although the Spirit Ruins Sect is listed as a top-tier sect, we know ourselves that in terms of strength, we are still far behind the truly top-tier forces. Moreover, I was able to become an elder thanks to you."

Gu Yuanqing shook his head and smiled, saying, "I don't have that much influence. This is the recognition of you by the cultivators of the Spirit Realm sects. As for strength, the Spirit Ruins Sect occupies a blessed land and has a profound foundation. It just lacks strong individuals, but it will always grow stronger."

At Li Miaoxuan's age, she could be called a prodigy below the Chaos Realm, but at the Chaos Realm level, she could be called a strong person, and a strong person with a promising future. Many cultivators from various sects in the Spirit Realm were naturally willing to befriend her.

Li Miaoxuan said, "Let's not talk about that for now. What about you? Have you found anything in the outer realms?"

Gu Yuanqing said, "It's even more difficult than expected. The search has been ongoing for nearly twenty years, but everywhere we've been, there's nothing. We haven't even found a trace of the Heavenly Demon."

Li Miaoxuan said softly, "That's normal. If it were really that easy to find, then over the years, not a single cultivator would have been able to find the Heavenly Demon's lair."

Although the Undying Realm is currently considered the pinnacle of the cultivation world, countless years ago, before the cultivation world was completely destroyed, experts at the Void Immortal level emerged in abundance. Records from the Spirit Ruins Sect show that several Void Immortal experts ventured into outer space-time to search for the Heavenly Demon, but all returned empty-handed.

Gu Yuanqing nodded slightly: "There are similar records in Qingping Dao Palace. The judgment on the lair of the Heavenly Demons is that its location should not be too far from the cultivation world. Otherwise, there would not be so many low-level Heavenly Demons. It is very likely that there is a similar small world around the cultivation world, or even the Great Thousand World has been lost and completely become the breeding ground of Heavenly Demons."

Heavenly demons are born from thoughts and are the condensation of various desires and negative emotions such as greed, anger, ignorance, and doubt of all living beings in the world. Ordinary people have scattered thoughts and find it difficult to generate demons. Only cultivators with strong consciousness and soul have enough resources to give birth to them.

There are also rumors that the Heavenly Demons live in the Heaven of Other Transformation, and only when a cultivator's inner demons are born and clash with the Heavenly Dao will they naturally descend into the world. However, the origin of the Heavenly Demons beyond the Spirit Realm is obviously not like this.

Therefore, it can be concluded that a world not too far from the cultivation world has fallen, and a continuous stream of celestial demons have come to attack.

Li Miaoxuan said, "As long as a world has not completely collapsed, it has a membrane that separates the inside from the outside. Even spatial rifts like those outside the Spirit Realm are hard to find unless you get close. In the vast void, it is even more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack. Don't spend too much time on this. After all, if your mind is distracted, it will only delay your cultivation."

Gu Yuanqing smiled slightly: "Don't worry, I have my own plans. Whether I can find it or not depends on fate. I won't be fixated on it."

Li Miaoxuan nodded slightly.

……

Two years passed.

A calamity of yin and yang suddenly descended upon Beiquan Cave Heaven, which was Li Chengyi's further advancement.

The most crucial point in advancing from the Yin-Yang Longevity Realm to the Yin-Yang Void Breaking Realm is to break through illusions and move the Celestial World towards reality. In addition to nurturing the Celestial World, this requires comprehending the Great Dao.

His talent was extraordinary, and with the Nine-Turn Divine Pearl given to him by Li Miaoxuan to nourish his soul, as the son of Gu Yuanqing, top-tier resources were inexhaustible.

Gu Yuanqing was not stingy in spending some time helping Li Chengyi comprehend the Great Dao, and it was only natural that he would take another step forward in the Yin-Yang Realm after more than a hundred years.

Although she cannot compare to Gu Yuanqing and Li Miaoxuan, her progress in cultivation is still outstanding in the Linglong Realm, the Demon Realm, and the Spirit Realm.

He possesses a profound foundation, is well-versed in the three paths of wind, fire, and thunder, and has also achieved remarkable mastery of the path of space. Although his own celestial world is not as close to the real world as Gu Yuanqing's, it is still much more complete than that of other cultivators.

The cultivation method he practiced was also carefully deduced and constantly adjusted by Gu Yuanqing, pointing directly to the path of the Immortal Realm. It can be said that his cultivation has achieved the perfect balance of Yin and Yang and the longevity of immortality.

Therefore, although this tribulation was more powerful than before, he found it much easier to deal with.

As the heavenly lightning continued to fall, the nascent Yin-Yang Tribulation Fire ignited on his body. As he passed through the heavenly lightning, he used the tribulation energy to help it grow.

Gu Yuanqing watched quietly from the main peak. If an accident were to occur, he would naturally step in to protect the person in charge, but it was clear that he would not need to do so this time.

At the same time, his gaze fell on another place within the cave.

The celestial steed hid in a cave rich in spiritual energy, lying on the ground and fast asleep.

However, the power within its body quietly transformed from the Yin-Yang Void Breaking level to the Yin-Yang Heavenly Cycle level. This process did not even cause any changes in the heavens and earth, nor did any calamity energy arise. The only disturbance was that the surrounding spiritual energy rapidly entered its body.

Everything was so natural, flowing smoothly and without any obstacles.

This spirit beast seems to be a favorite of heaven and earth, breaking through a realm every hundred years or so, and its growth is simply unbelievable.

Gu Yuanqing even suspected that one day, while he was still trapped in the realm of the illusory immortals, this guy would be able to transcend the shackles of this world before him.

"With the bloodline of the Heavenly Horse, one can ascend to the heavens and descend to the netherworld. Its words do indeed seem somewhat true; such a spirit beast should not exist in the cultivation world."

"No wonder Demon God Mountain wants it so much! Many cultivation techniques in the Demon Realm use the essence and blood of demons as a guide. Obtaining their essence and blood is beneficial to cultivation; if it can be tamed, it will also be of great use."

……

Li Chengyi survived his tribulation without incident, and afterwards sat cross-legged atop the mountain to comprehend the Dao and solidify his cultivation.

The Celestial World transitioned from illusion to reality, laying the foundation for his future cultivation. His strength underwent a tremendous transformation, and with his aptitude, it was only a matter of time before he could break through the Yin-Yang cycle through his cultivation.

Upon seeing this, Gu Yuanqing smiled slightly and went into seclusion again.

More than half a year later, his clone, which was traveling in the outer space, suddenly made a discovery.

In the darkness that should have been empty, a physical object was suddenly touched: a scattered stone, floating silently in the void.

Following the trail, as they got closer, their perception of the place became clearer. In the center of a huge rocky area, there was a death continent floating in eternal darkness.

At the core of the continent, there is still a relatively intact landmass, roughly estimated to be hundreds of thousands of miles in diameter. It is surrounded by countless broken rocks, which together form a silent graveyard covering tens of millions of miles of void.

Gu Yuanqing stepped onto it.

There is no light, no sound, no air, and not a trace of spiritual energy here.

Absolute silence and nothingness, as if stepping into a giant graveyard forgotten by time.

His divine sense swept over the area meticulously and quickly detected the unnatural traces:

Traces of biological remains hidden in the stone, glassy material formed by energy impacts, and layers of petrified building foundation remains.

"The remains of a small world after its destruction."

This place was once home to a civilization, but in an unknown calamity, the boundary membrane shattered, spiritual energy dissipated, and all things perished, leaving only this cold, broken body, eternally drifting in the void. Gu Yuanqing paused briefly before continuing on his way.

Searching for traces of the Heavenly Demon in this extraterrestrial void seems somewhat presumptuous.

Although his divine sense could cover tens of thousands of miles, it was still too small compared to the vast void.

This reminded him of the universe in his previous life, where the distance between the solar system and the nearest star system was more than ten million light-years, and his current speed had not yet reached the speed of light.

In the universe, there is still light, and we can find some traces and directions with our eyes, but here, we can't see anything.

The few wisps of demonic essence in his hand remained lifeless, offering him no guidance whatsoever.

"Let's search some more. If we still can't find any trace of it, we'll have to give up for now."

Refining the Heavenly Demon was indeed very beneficial to his cultivation, and could greatly improve his progress. However, after so long without any results, his patience was about to run out.

In fact, if he hadn't been in the void, far from the Great Dao of the world, which gave him a different understanding of his own cultivation, he probably would have given up long ago. After all, it wasn't that he had no path to cultivation; he just wanted to take some shortcuts by refining the Heavenly Demon.

But half a month later, a glint suddenly flashed in Gu Yuanqing's eyes.

Suddenly, at the edge of his divine sense, he caught a faint trace of aura.

"Devil!"

Gu Yuanqing immediately figured it out.

He concealed all his presence, his figure blending into the darkness, silently approaching the source of the disturbance.

A moment later, he sensed that the number of demons was increasing, and he was overjoyed, thinking that his hard work had finally paid off.

He continued to approach and figured out the situation. To his slight disappointment, this was not the lair of the Heavenly Demon, but a spatial rift similar to the battlefield outside the Spirit Realm.

Clearly, there is a world here, and the aura of this world is constantly seeping out from the spatial cracks on its boundary membrane.

Countless demons of various shapes and sizes lingered and lurked around the area like hyenas that had smelled blood.

These demons are not particularly strong, mostly only equivalent to the Heavenly Transformation level in the cultivation system. For Gu Yuanqing now, they can be wiped out with a wave of his hand.

Gu Yuanqing did not act immediately. His divine sense curiously probed into the small world through the crack in the boundary membrane, wanting to see what this world was like.

However, as soon as his divine sense entered, before he could carefully explore the landscape of this world, a fierce, resolute, and battle-ready spiritual will struck his divine sense like a drawn sword!

"How dare these extraterrestrial demons invade our land! Kill them!"

A roar containing the true essence of martial arts exploded in Gu Yuanqing's mind.

That was the divine soul and will of a top martial arts master in this world. He clearly mistook Gu Yuanqing's divine sense for a giant demon trying to invade him, and was willing to burn his soul power to fight to the death!
Gu Yuanqing raised an eyebrow slightly, showing no anger and not harming him in the slightest.

With just a slight thought, a gentle force swept over like a tide, easily "pushing" back that hostile and resolute martial will.

Within the small world, atop a majestic altar guarding the space rift, a middle-aged man clad in ancient armor, wielding a long sword, and exuding an aura of profound power, suddenly opened his eyes. His expression changed drastically, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead.

"That will just now... was as vast as the sea, definitely not an ordinary demon! But... it... it didn't seem to have any malice? Or rather, it wasn't a demon at all?"

As one of the few remaining martial arts saints in this world, he clearly felt the power that his opponent possessed in that instant contact was far beyond his comprehension, which greatly shocked him.

He felt the other party's will sweep around him, and then he shrank back. At this moment, he didn't even dare to make any other moves. The difference in strength made him not want to offend the other party rashly before the other party showed any hostility.

Only after the other party's breath completely disappeared did the middle-aged man exhale a long breath, his hand holding the battle knife trembling involuntarily.

"Master, what's wrong?" A man who looked a few years older than the middle-aged man quickly came over.

"There's a master!" The middle-aged man said solemnly.

Gu Yuanqing smiled calmly, as if he had just frightened the other party.

This realm follows the pure path of martial arts, tempering the physical body and consolidating the will. The highest level, the "Martial Arts Saint," has a life level and power intensity roughly equivalent to a Heavenly Transformation Realm cultivator in the cultivation system.

Gu Yuanqing wasn't too surprised. There are countless paths to cultivation in the myriad worlds, but it's not easy to reach the Heavenly Transformation level in martial arts in this world.

He had little interest in conquering such a small world, and turned his attention back to the demons outside the boundary membrane who were still stirring.

"Let's just clean it up while we're at it, after all, this is the human world."

He did not appear; he simply raised his sword and made a sweeping motion in the air.

In an instant, an invisible sword intent arose, sweeping away fallen leaves like autumn wind! The celestial demons lingering around didn't even have time to scream before they were annihilated by the sword energy.

Gu Yuanqing had no interest in using the Chaotic Primordial Flame, as the power he gained from refining this small amount of Heavenly Demon was not even comparable to the power generated from cultivating for a few breaths.

He did not slaughter them all, but deliberately left some of the Heavenly Transformation level demons who had managed to escape first, and even released a faint aura to force the demons to flee.

The group of demons immediately reacted like startled rabbits, letting out silent screams of fear in an attempt to hinder Gu Yuanqing. They then turned and fled desperately into the depths of the void!

"Go ahead, and it would be best if you could take me to see your lair."

Gu Yuanqing's figure disappeared quietly, his aura concealed, and he followed the fleeing demons at a leisurely pace.

Upon encountering the Heavenly Demon, Gu Yuanqing naturally changed his strategy. Searching in the air was like looking for a needle in a haystack; it would be better to try to find its traces.

Although these demons are too weak and this attempt may not succeed, it is still more likely than blindly wandering in the void.

Whenever the demons ahead showed signs of stopping, Gu Yuanqing would release a wisp of his aura again, stimulating them so much that they dared not linger. The threat lingered in his mind. The demons were cowardly but also cunning. Only by scaring them out of their wits could they be made to rush towards his lair at all costs!

(End of this chapter)