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Ten years later, the island was filled with nothing but the rumbling of mining. Little Red had mined tirelessly, leaving no scraps behind as he dug everywhere. Above the mining pits lay remnants of teleportation arrays and fragments of the Starshifting Blackstones, which even made Little Red feel a bit pained by the waste, though the big black ox seemed unfazed by the lack of success.
On the ground, three small teleportation arrays stood close to each other. The big black ox, his gaze intense, placed a small stone on one of them.
"Moo~~" the big black ox swung his hoof, and one of the teleportation arrays began to emit a faint glow as the three arrays linked together. In the grooves inside, however, there weren’t just middle-grade spirit stones.
Instead, they were God-killing Stones from the Tian Duan Plains!
These stones resonate with the natural energy of the heavens and earth; using their divine energy, they expelled the destructive winds and were refined into "Five Elements Stones" to serve as a medium.
However, the power of the five elements within varied depending on the size of the God-killing Stone.
For now, this was as far as he could go, though he had wasted many God-killing Stones in the process. He wondered if Chen Xun would scold him for it.
The big black ox exhaled a hot breath, glancing at Little Red. Little Red had helped a lot with creating these Five Elements Stones; his fiery spiritual senses seemed to restrain the destructive winds, even absorbing them slightly.
If not for Little Red wrapping the winds tightly, any contact from the big black ox’s Five Elements power would decompose the God-killing Stones into their raw divine energy.
These Five Elements Stones were the product of his and Little Red’s combined efforts and had sparked many new ideas for the big black ox. Perhaps God-killing Stones could act as a medium to help Little Red enhance his spiritual strength.
But to reach the Transformation stage, spirit medicines alone wouldn’t be enough; God-killing Stones never truly boosted spiritual power.
Following the usual cultivation path, Little Red would only reach the peak of the Nascent Soul stage at best in his lifetime. In The Great Li Realm, opportunities to boost spiritual strength forcefully were scarce, and so far, none had crossed their paths.
The big black ox valued Little Red greatly, genuinely treating him as his little brother, a feeling entirely different from what he felt for Chen Xun.
Boom!
The pebble suddenly exploded when it reached the second teleportation array, and the big black ox shook his head. The power of the Five Elements array often seemed to dissolve into nothing, breaking down any energy that attempted to transmit.
He stood on all fours, moving to the center of the array, deeply frowning as he pondered how to resolve the tearing and decomposition caused by the Five Elements teleportation array, as it couldn’t even transmit a stone.
Behind the big black ox were several ordinary teleportation arrays, which he found quite easy to set up now with formation diagrams at hand.
The biggest difference between these and the Five Elements array was that the ordinary ones didn’t consume much material or spirit stones and could absorb the energy of the five elements from nature autonomously through the Five Elements Stones.
As a result, these formations could transmit across much farther distances compared to others of the same level, though stability was still an issue. Yet the big black ox had a hunch that once he set up a large-scale teleportation array, it would reach its peak!
"Moo, moo~"
The big black ox sat down, muttering as he pulled out a small booklet from his storage ring, reading through the notes his elder brother had left on the Five Elements Immortal Path.
His elder brother was the true pioneer of the Five Elements Immortal Path, but he was currently in seclusion, creating his own methods.
The big black ox didn’t dare disturb him and instead used the excuse of nurturing spirit medicine on the giant boat to watch him from afar for an hour each day. The surrounding area was full of terrifying arcs of lightning, and no one dared approach.
The big black ox looked out to the sea and couldn’t help but smile. So many years had passed, yet his elder brother’s demeanor remained unchanged, and they were living better lives each day.
“Brother Ox, there’s still plenty of Starshifting Blackstone Ore; give me a shout if you need help!”
A vigorous shout echoed from the mine as the big black ox’s dazed expression shifted to one of joy. The rumbling of the mining sounds surprisingly pleasant to the ears.
“Moo!” The big black ox bellowed back, his smile widening as he continued his studies.
However, they were unaware that, over the years, the Yu family had dispatched a large number of cultivators to search the Forbidden Sea. They weren’t looking for secret realms but seemed to be searching for something specific.
This behavior aroused the suspicions of various factions, and they too began seeking information in the Forbidden Sea.
But they found nothing. The Yu family kept a tight lid on the matter, though they eventually suffered significant losses in the Forbidden Sea and didn’t dare send so many people there in the following years.
The Yu family gradually backed off from the search, realizing that looking for three unattached cultivators in the vast Forbidden Sea was like finding a needle in a haystack. They hadn’t even glimpsed a shadow.
After obtaining resources from his deal with Chen Xun, Yu Chen also shut himself in for secluded cultivation. The family wasn’t interested in the resources gained by the younger generation; their main concern remained the grand secrets of the Forbidden Sea.
Yu Chen’s behavior became increasingly brooding, and he began to prepare in secret for the journey, consulting only his seventh sister and no one else.
Although it was a path of no return, it was also the only shortcut to power.
“Those lacking the will and ambition will merely live out their lives in the Great Li Realm. A thousand years is more than enough for an eventful life.”
This was once said by a formidable cultivator from the Four Immortal Mountains overseas, and even now, the phrase circulated among the great factions. Yet, though it was an obvious insult, no one dared refute it.
...
In the Forbidden Sea, the mists rose from the demon’s nest as the sea breeze died down. Years passed, like footprints in the sand, carrying away the regrets and sorrow of past cultivators, dissolving into the gloomy sky as fifty years quietly elapsed.
On the shore of an unknown island in the Forbidden Sea, a figure cloaked in white light slowly opened his eyes, appearing somewhat lost.
In that instant, terrifying arcs of electricity streaked across the sea, vaporizing the mist on the surface in a flash.
A dreadful rumbling sounded from an unknown origin, resonating across the island.
A fearsome phantom grew clearer, standing like a divine mountain above the heavens and earth, coldly gazing down upon the Forbidden Sea. The phantom stretched its hand towards the void, splitting the waves below.
He hadn’t used any spiritual energy, nor had he gathered even a trace of the Five Elements energy from heaven and earth. This awe-inspiring scene was solely the result of the essence of heaven and earth infusing his Nascent Soul aura.
Uncertain of future dangers, he knew that while the Five Elements energy of heaven and earth was boundless, the three apertures—heaven, earth, and human—within his body had their limits. If he ever found himself unable to draw upon the Five Elements energy, he would resort to this method.
“Br-Br-Brother Ox!” Little Red’s lips trembled as he crouched low on the ground, every strand of fur on his body standing on end. “Brother Xun... has awakened!”
He let out a low, astonished cry, nervously glancing at the sky above the island. That ominous rumbling—there was no way it could come from a human! Could Brother Xun’s true identity be some kind of ancient monstrous being?
Little Red felt his own vital energy begin to boil, responding to the intense vibration, his expression twisting in discomfort, his features almost contorting together.
Spirit beasts were known for their robust flesh and blood, naturally inclined toward physical cultivation. Yet, for the first time, he felt doubt about the body he had always taken pride in.
It was as if something in the sky was staring directly at his flesh and blood, and his vital energy was resonating with the terrifying vibration, completely... suppressed.