Starting as a stray dog, I embarked on a journey of cultivation.

One day later.

Shen Yu piloted the flying boat, heading towards the Hundred Refinements Sect.

Gou An didn't know the way, so he lay down on a deck chair and dozed off.

Gou An couldn't sleep, so he started talking to Shen Yu: "Young Master Shen, what's going on between you and Princess Yun Yao? I have a feeling that things aren't as simple as you say, there must be something going on."

Faced with Gou An's questioning, Shen Yu did not answer immediately.

His gaze was fixed on the sea of ​​clouds ahead, as if he were lost in thought.

Seeing that he was being ignored, Gou An stopped talking.

To Gou An's surprise, after a short while, Shen Yu, seemingly slow to react, actually addressed Gou An's question: "This matter is a long story; it happened fifty or sixty years ago..."

Gou An woke up when he heard Shen Yu speak, and pricked up his ears to wait for him to tell his story.

Although Shen Yu looked young at this time, he was already over eighty years old.

However, their cultivation level had long since reached the Golden Core stage, and their lifespan could generally reach seven or eight hundred years.

Therefore, Shen Yu, who was over eighty years old at this time, was indeed very young.

More than fifty years ago, Shen Yu was only in his twenties when he successfully entered the Core Formation stage and became a Void Core cultivator.

According to Shen Yu, at that time his father was not the Lord of the Black Domain, but an elder of a certain force.

So Shen Yu began his journey to various places, cultivating his skills while broadening his horizons.

During this process, Shen Yu met a stunningly beautiful female cultivator.

The two were of one mind and soon naturally became a couple.

This female cultivator's name is Xia Qingwei.

Although she was born into an ordinary farming family, she possessed exceptional talent, being a genius with a high-grade Earth-rank spiritual root.

At that time, Du Xia Qingwei was a disciple of the sect leader of a second-rate sect, and she had gone down the mountain to gain experience after successfully forming her core.

The two traveled together to many places.

They enjoyed the scenery together, ventured into secret realms, slew evil cultivators, and suppressed demons, so their relationship naturally grew stronger.

Shen Yu even wanted to marry Xia Qingwei and was prepared to go to the sect to propose marriage.

Xia Qingwei was very excited and told Shen Yu that she would wait for him to come to the sect.

Then, when it was time for them to go back, they reluctantly parted ways.

But when Shen Yu returned home and prepared everything for the marriage proposal, he received a shocking message upon arriving at the sect.

Xia Qingwei has disappeared.

Moreover, during his conversation with the sect leader, Shen Yu learned that Xia Qingwei had disappeared without a trace after their parting.

She did not return to the sect, and no one knows where she went.

The sect also sent people out to search, but to no avail.

Shen Yu then began his search. He went to the place where he first met Xia Qingwei and retraced the path they had once walked. He searched for Xia Qingwei all over the world for more than ten years, but still found no trace of her.

Even Xia Qingwei's sect had long since given up the search and advised Shen Yu to stop, saying that in such a situation, it was usually because she had encountered a violent disaster and had no chance of survival.

The turning point came more than 30 years ago.

Shen Yu, who was about to give up, saw someone who looked extremely similar to Xia Qingwei in Luofeng City, where he was meeting with Gou An.

So he chased after her, but she told Shen Yu that she didn't know anyone named Xia Qingwei, and that her name was Yun Yao.

But Shen Yu did not give up, because although the woman in front of him who called herself Yun Yao looked somewhat different from Xia Qingwei, she had several features in one place.

The most noticeable thing is the mole at the corner of his eye.

They are exactly the same in both size and position.

Even the angle and location of an inconspicuous little scar on his wrist are exactly the same.

This made Shen Yu realize the seriousness of the matter, so he pretended to give up but secretly followed along.

Finally, Shen Yu discovered that although the woman who called herself Yun Yao did not have any demonic aura, she was indeed a monster.

So Shen Yu stopped her in the wilderness and pressed her for details about Xia Qingwei.

Seeing this, Yun Yao stopped hiding it and said that she had eaten Xia Qingwei because she was beautiful and fair-skinned. After absorbing the nutrients from her, she naturally had her own characteristics.

Upon learning this news, Shen Yu flew into a rage and charged straight at the other party.

At this time, Shen Yu had already reached the Golden Core stage and possessed considerable strength.

Yun Yao was also a Golden Core demon, and the two were evenly matched in strength.

This battle lasted a long time.

Shen Yu had already severely injured Yun Yao with a single palm strike, and just as he was about to deliver the fatal blow, he simply couldn't bring himself to do it.

Because Yun Yao and Xia Qingwei look so alike, when he saw Yun Yao's pitiful appearance after she was seriously injured, he was reminded of the days he spent with Xia Qingwei.

But just as Shen Yu had made all the preparations and was about to strike with his sword...

Yun Yao actually called out "Brother Shen Yu," and her voice and tone were exactly the same as Xia Qingwei, whom she deeply loved.

But in that moment of panic, Yun Yao suddenly launched a sneak attack.

Although Shen Yu chose to dodge immediately, he was still pierced by the poison needle, while the female demon Yun Yao took the opportunity to escape, heading straight for the Demon Beast Mountain Range.

Shen Yu wanted to give chase, but discovered that she had been poisoned.

Left with no other choice, he immediately took out the protective magic item his father had given him and stuck it to his chest, and crushed a piece of jade his father had given him.

If this thing is crushed, his father will immediately sense his location and be able to save him in the first instance.

Shen Yu was then taken away by his father, beginning a thirty-year journey to detoxify.

Throughout these thirty years, Shen Yu never gave up the search.

Although he was injured by Yun Yao, he had a feeling that Xia Qingwei was not dead yet.

Because the way she called out to herself back then didn't sound like someone else was faking it.

Unfortunately, Shen Yu was too severely poisoned to travel far.

It wasn't until Gou An appeared that things changed.

At this point, Shen Yu sighed deeply before continuing slowly, "When I saw what you said in the communication jade—that the female demon named Yun Yao needs to live on another's body—I knew my guess was correct; Qingwei is indeed still alive!"

"I understand now!" Gou An nodded and analyzed, "No wonder Princess Yun Yao was injured in spirit that time. In addition to your serious injury, Xia Qingwei's symbiotic soul began to awaken."

"When two souls fight each other, problems will naturally arise in the divine soul. Even though Princess Yunyao has managed to stabilize her split divine soul after taking the pill, Xia Qingwei's consciousness is still in her mind."

"That is why Princess Yunyao sometimes feels a splitting headache."

After listening to Gou An's analysis, Shen Yu remained silent for a long time, simply gazing quietly at the distant sea of ​​clouds.

"But..." Gou An felt uneasy and said, "Yun Yao is protected by a demon king with the cultivation of the Nascent Soul stage. Even if you go, you probably won't be able to do anything to her, will you?"

"There's always a way!" Shen Yu said, and suddenly took out a golden pill.

Gou An looked closely and saw that it was actually the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir.

"I'm only one step away from breaking through to the Divine Transcending Realm!" Shen Yu said slowly. "After swallowing this Golden Rejuvenation Pill that I stole from my father, it will help me break through this bottleneck."

As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Yu tilted his head back and swallowed the pill in his hand.

The Nine-Turn Golden Elixir melted instantly upon entering his mouth, and Shen Yu's body suddenly burst forth with dazzling golden light. A violent whirlwind of spiritual energy swept outwards from him, forcefully dispersing the surging sea of ​​clouds around him.

The clouds within a radius of several miles completely dissipated.

He immediately sat cross-legged on the deck of the flying boat, and the golden core within his body began to tremble wildly under the influence of the medicinal power.

The barrier that had bound him for decades began to crack and crumble inch by inch.

Rumble!

Immediately afterwards, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth began to converge wildly, visibly entering Shen Yu's body from the top of his head.

The originally solidified golden elixir slowly began to melt, transform, shed its elixir essence, and gradually condense its divine essence.

Before long, the golden light subsided, as if the breakthrough had been completed.

Shen Yu then slowly opened his eyes, his eyes shining brightly, and his temperament had completely changed.

His restrained aura became unfathomable, and he was shrouded in a faint divine power. With every move he made, he exuded the aura of a top-tier powerhouse.

"He broke through like that?" Gou An, who witnessed the whole thing, was very surprised.

At this moment, Shen Yu had already broken through from the Golden Core stage of the Core Formation realm to the Divine Transcending realm of the Divine Control stage.

The foundation of a cultivator's power in the Golden Core stage is the Golden Core within their body; the storage of spiritual power and the casting of spells all depend on the Golden Core.

However, the soul still depends on the physical body, the scope of divine sense is limited, and the soul is still bound by the physical body.

After breaking through the Transcendent God Realm and the God Controlling Stage, the Golden Core shatters and transforms into Divine Essence, giving birth to an independent and detachable Divine Thought.

Furthermore, they can drive spells with their divine sense, making their power and accuracy far exceed those of spells cast solely with spiritual power.

For example, a Golden Core cultivator can control a thousand swords at the same time, but a Divine Realm cultivator can control ten thousand swords.

Under the same talent level, without the aid of divine artifacts, a cultivator at the Divine Control stage can directly overwhelm multiple cultivators at the Golden Core stage who join forces to attack.

Most importantly, the lifespan of a Golden Core cultivator is only seven or eight hundred years, but when they reach the Divine Control stage, their lifespan will increase dramatically, reaching around two thousand years.

Before Gou An, he had heard someone say a common saying about this world.

The Golden Core is the pinnacle of mortal cultivation, while the Divine Control is the starting point for great beings.

A cultivator with mediocre talent, no matter how many rare treasures and cultivation resources he accumulates, can only cultivate to the Golden Core stage at most.

The Divine Transcendence Realm belongs only to those who are talented and hardworking.

After completing his breakthrough, Shen Yu reached out and grasped at the air, then slowly took a deep breath, feeling the new realm he was in.

After a long pause, he finally said, "In that case, we have the strength to fight."