Journey to the West: From Fish-Chasing Boy to the Boundless Heavenly Venerable of the Golden Palace

The elixir arises from nothingness, but the inner elixir cannot truly be generated out of thin air. The internal cultivation of one's life essence is actually the condensation of one's essence, energy, and spirit.

To refine one's essence, energy, and spirit into an inner elixir, one must rely on the yin and yang energies of heaven and earth, transforming them into water and fire to be tempered day and night.

Li Yue practiced cultivation according to the law, and two or three months passed in the blink of an eye.

As the winter snow melts, it's time to wear warm clothes and see flowers bloom again.

Click!

That night, Li Yue surfaced and used the moonlight to cultivate.

A faint, crisp sound reached my ears, as if something was about to hatch.

He had a vague feeling that he was about to succeed.

But after that fleeting thought, Li Yue calmed his mind and focused on his cultivation.

In the past two or three months, Li Yue had thought more than once that he was about to succeed and transform into human form, but each time it was all in vain.

After this happened several times, he became indifferent to it.

Success comes naturally with enough effort. If one's cultivation reaches a certain level, one will naturally take human form. Why be like that stubborn old turtle, rushing for the present and only trapping himself in it?

In this way, it aligns even more closely with the essence of "a calm mind," and the speed of cultivation progresses by leaps and bounds.

Tonight, the moon hangs high in the sky, its light abundant; it is the perfect time for him to achieve his goal.

Like a chick hatching from its shell, a dark red nebula-shaped mass slowly emerges from the flesh and blood.

Li Yue was so engrossed in his cultivation that he was completely unaware of the changes in his body...

After a long while, when the moon had set and the sun had risen, Li Yue finally snapped out of his cultivation.

Whoosh!

It habitually flicks its tail, creating bubbles, only to find that its tail seems to have split in two.

How could a tail be split in two?

"This is……"

Li Yue was taken aback, but his two hands had already floated to his eyes.

Looking down again, I saw that the tail had turned into two legs.

Li Yue's eyes widened slightly, and he suddenly realized that he had already transformed!

The next moment, Li Yue suddenly surfaced and stood quietly. When the water calmed down, his figure was reflected in the rising sun.

Human body, fish head, and covered in silver scales!

It has indeed taken human form, but only at a rudimentary stage; it has not yet achieved a complete human form.

"Very good!"

But having entered the transformation stage, Li Yue was filled with excitement. With a whoosh, he leaped out of the water, drew an arc in the air, and then plunged back into the water with a splash.

From a distance, one might mistake it for a fisherman who is a skilled swimmer playing in the water.

After playing on the surface and underwater for a while, Li Yue finally stopped, returned to the bottom of the water, and carefully observed the changes in himself.

It can be roughly described in four words.

It began to take on a human form.

Aside from its head and its body covered in scales, it has webbed fingers that allow it to swim. Lungs have grown inside its chest cavity, and although its gills haven't disappeared, it can already breathe through its nostrils on land.

It's neither fish nor human; it's more like an amphibian.

As his cultivation improves and his inner core gradually becomes more perfect, his physical transformation will become more complete. After five hundred years of cultivation, he will be able to fully possess human form.

"Finally, it's done!"

None of that matters for now; what matters is that Li Yue can finally reach the shore.

In this way, they could leave the Tongtian River before the Journey to the West began and avoid that undeserved disaster.

Thinking of this, Li Yue couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief, as if a huge weight had been lifted from his chest.

[The requirements for promotion to General Anchor have been met!]

Just then, a notification sounded.

The Fish Chasing Boy is at level ten, with the cultivation level of the Transformation Stage, which meets all the requirements for advancing to the Iron Anchor General.

Li Yue glanced at it, smiled, and ignored it for the time being.

"This is the inner core..."

After observing the changes in his appearance from the outside in, Li Yue then looked inward.

In his lower dantian, a dark red, gaseous substance gathered and slowly rotated, like a solidified cloud. This was his inner core.

Actually, this is not yet a complete inner elixir; more accurately, it should be called a "sacred embryo." Only by continuously improving one's cultivation and infusing it with essence, energy, and spirit day and night will it further gather and solidify, eventually becoming an inner elixir resembling a pill.

Buzz!

However, even though it is still in its nascent stage, its divine power has already begun to emerge.

As Li Yue's mind stirred, a ball of flame surged out from his inner core—it was the core fire.

The fire of the elixir is similar to the fire of the heart; it cannot burn physical objects, but can only temper itself.

Sizzle!

Under the tempering of the alchemical fire, Li Yue's scales suddenly rose all over his body, faintly revealing a dark red color, like a red-hot iron sheet, emitting a harsh sound like blades rubbing together.

Enlighten the spirit and strengthen the body; transform into form and refine treasures.

Unlike the Awakening stage, which focuses solely on strengthening the physical body, the Transformation stage allows for the refinement of magical artifacts using alchemical fire.

If one possesses rare and precious materials, that would be ideal, but most rogue cultivators and wild demons don't have such substantial resources, so they mostly treasure themselves and use them for tempering.

Li Yue began strengthening his scales after two hundred years of cultivation. Now, with three hundred and twenty years of cultivation, it is equivalent to strengthening them for one hundred and twenty years!

At this moment, his scales were as hard as steel, which was why he had been tempered by the fire of cinnabar.

After two hundred years of tempering and refinement, and until its transformation is complete, this natal magic weapon will be finished.

As a red-eyed carp, it has no sharp teeth or claws and is born weak. Refining this magic weapon can be considered as having a decent weapon.

"Shall we go ashore?"

After the alchemical fire tempered itself and Li Yue finished observing its changes, he gradually calmed down and looked towards the land with a deep gaze.

The safest way to avoid the calamity of the Journey to the West three hundred years later is to leave this body of water.

There are four choices in total: east, south, west, and north.

South of Tongtian River, that is, downstream, lies the Western Ocean, 2,100 li away.

The West Sea Dragon Palace is located there, inhabited by the West Sea Dragon King, one of the Four Dragon Kings of the Seas, who rules over all aquatic creatures in the world.

The ocean is vast and equally unfathomable; the waters of the Western Sea are much deeper than the Tongtian River. Even aquatic creatures could drown if they ventured in rashly.

Three thousand two hundred miles to the north, there is a sheer cliff ten thousand feet high, from which the river rushes down as if descending from the sky, hence the name Tongtian (meaning "reaching the heavens").

Ordinary aquatic creatures cannot cross the high cliff. Li Yue, with his three hundred years of cultivation, could climb it slowly without much problem. However, the black mist rising from the cliff and the baleful aura surrounding it clearly indicated that it was not a benevolent place and that some kind of demons and monsters might be gathered there.

Going there on your own without a referral is tantamount to suicide.

Therefore, Li Yue thought that the only options were to land on the east or west sides.

Forget about the west bank for now. The Mengzhonglang Temple was destroyed, and he is still in fear. He doesn't dare to go to the western waters, let alone the west bank.

That leaves only the east bank.

"East..."

The east bank of the Tongtian River is the territory of the Chechi Kingdom, which should be a good place.

First go to Chechi Kingdom, then head south or north to completely avoid the Journey to the West route.

But during his nighttime stroll, he discovered that Chechi Kingdom was infested with evil spirits for some unknown reason. If he hadn't run fast, his soul would have been captured by the demons.

It wouldn't be safe for him to land with his current level of cultivation.

"Sigh~!"

After some thought, Li Yue couldn't help but sigh softly.

The world is so vast, yet it's hard to find a place to settle down.

As the saying goes, it is difficult to leave one's homeland. Leaving a familiar environment and going to an unknown area inherently represents many dangers.

Fortunately, there are still three hundred years left.

Three hundred years to improve one's cultivation and practice supernatural powers. Once the skills are mastered, one can go anywhere!

"That's exactly right."

With that thought, Li Yue's figure flickered, and he transformed once again into a seven-foot-long carp.

It floats to the surface of the water, inhaling and exhaling the essence of the sun.

The intense heat of the sun enters the abdomen, quickly flows to the limbs and bones, and finally transforms into magical power that returns to the inner elixir.

"really!"

After transforming, Li Yue now possessed nine orifices, and his speed of absorbing the essence of the sun and moon was more than twice as fast as before.