Chapter 388

388. Chapter 384: Jin Xian

Puff! Streams of blood shot out from Wu Hongtian's body.

Wu Hongtian's soul nearly fled in terror; just as he was about to frantically burn his essence blood, he felt a chill at his third eye—he saw Ding Huan's Wheel of Reincarnation Spear pierce through his forehead.

How is this possible? How could this be possible?

Wu Hongtian, now immobilized, screamed wildly from deep within his heart.

Ding Huan sighed: "I thought you'd at least give me a chance to test my spear—you're a Jin Xian of the fourth layer, yet that's all you've got?"

Ding Huan wasn't pretending.

He had summoned Wu Hongtian here specifically to test the strength of a mid-stage Jin Xian.

Wu Hongtian was a mid-stage Jin Xian, and with years of traveling through the void, his combat ability was undoubtedly formidable.

Unfortunately, he and Wu Hongtian had barely warmed up when the fight was already over.

Ding Huan truly hadn't expected Wu Hongtian couldn't even block his Ninth Spear, Second Strike.

He was the worst whetstone Ding Huan had ever seen.

He had originally planned to bring out the Evening Drum—apparently, he had overestimated this guy. This power level was truly disappointing.

"You knew I was a mid-stage Jin Xian?" Wu Hongtian spat blood, finally snapping out of his shock.

Ding Huan replied coolly: "What do you think?"

If he weren't a mid-stage Jin Xian, why would Ding Huan have bothered summoning him here to test techniques? He'd have crushed him with a single punch long ago.

"Puff!" Wu Hongtian spat another jet of blood, his entire body withering.

He never entered the Fourth Immortal Realm for two reasons: first, he had been there before, and the celestial laws there were utterly unsuitable for cultivation.

To cultivate, one must enter an Immortal Gate, yet even the promotion rules of the Immortal Gates seemed incomplete.

Second, the Fourth Immortal Realm felt strange—this was his personal feeling.

In the boundless void, his cultivation advanced rapidly, resources were always available, and here, in this stretch of void, he was the undisputed master—why would anyone with such a blissful cultivation life bother going to the Fourth Immortal Realm?

Wu Hongtian had always believed he was pretending to be weak to lure in the strong.

Some True Immortals had come to the void to kill him, only to end up delivering him Immortal Crystals and all kinds of resources.

Now he finally understood—who was truly pretending to be weak?

He was certain that Ding Huan had already been a Jin Xian before entering the Fourth Immortal Realm.

Ding Huan unleashed Immortal Qi from his spear; Wu Hongtian's thoughts plunged into darkness, his Primordial Spirit dissolving into nothingness at that very moment.

His final thought before death: Had he been pretending to be foolish all along… and gotten it wrong?

As Ding Huan retrieved Wu Hongtian's ring, Qi Qi Yonghan and Mu Zhen hurried over.

"Lord Ding, I didn't expect you killed Wu the Madman? I heard he was a True Immortal." Qi Qi Yonghan and Mu Zhen had been too far away earlier; Ding Huan's voice had been sealed within his domain, so they hadn't heard a thing.

"I'm a True Immortal too now—killing him is normal. I plan to cultivate here for a while; if you're willing, you can cultivate here too…"

Ding Huan decided to search the void for an opportunity to ascend to Jin Xian.

"Lord Ding, we'll follow you to cultivate," Mu Zhen said without hesitation.

He had already witnessed Ding Huan's power—it was incomparably greater than that fake valley lord, Wu Zhanxia.

And Ding Huan was generous—he had given each of them twenty thousand Immortal Crystals in their rings just now.

"Good. First, let's find an abandoned planet," Ding Huan decided he would take Qi Qi Yonghan and Mu Zhen to the Immortal Mist Alchemy Sect once he reached Jin Xian.

He himself had no intention of joining any Immortal Gate—the Fourth Immortal Realm was no good place at all.

Better to cultivate in the void, a choice he now believed Wu Hongtian had made wisely.

…

Half a month later, Ding Huan's group had not found any abandoned planet, but they discovered a massive meteorite.

"Here," Ding Huan landed his ship on the meteorite and began setting up defensive arrays.

Ding Huan laid down layers of defensive arrays, then embedded a Spirit Gathering Immortal Array and a pile of Immortal Crystals within it.

The meteorite spanned dozens of li in diameter.

Three people could cultivate inside it without any interference.

Qi Qi Yonghan and Mu Zhen knew full well that weakness meant being at the mercy of others; after receiving the Immortal Crystals, they began their seclusion even earlier than Ding Huan.

Ding Huan had long been at the peak of True Immortal Level Twelve; he now directly sought the Dao principles of the Jin Xian realm.

As expected, during his long seclusion in the Fourth Immortal Realm, he had been unable to touch the Jin Xian barrier—but here in the void, after just one Zhou Tian, he sensed the Dao resonance of the Jin Xian level.

Ding Huan did not undergo Tribulation Crossing on the meteorite; he chose a distant stretch of void.

There, he set up a Void Spirit Gathering Array, tossed out a pile of Immortal Crystals, and surged toward the Jin Xian realm.

The Great Cosmos Art had no bottlenecks—once one comprehended a new Dao principle, one could immediately challenge a new realm.

After three Zhou Tian, the first wave of Lei Jie arcs descended.

To Ding Huan, nine Lei Jie arcs as thick as an adult's wrist were perfectly normal—but what was abnormal was that these arcs were blue, tinged with a faint black.

Before the lightning arcs even struck him, Ding Huan felt the aura of death.

Before forming a Star River, facing such Lei Jie arcs, Ding Huan would have had to summon his iron pot.

Without summoning the iron pot, under this lightning pressure, death was certain.

Now, he could channel the Lei Jie energy into his Great Cosmos Dao Universe—far better than blocking it directly with the iron pot.

Boom—boom—boom! The nine Lei Jie arcs struck in rapid succession, almost continuous, hammering Ding Huan's body.

"Puff—puff—puff!" Clouds of blood exploded across Ding Huan's body.

Even though half the Lei Jie energy was channeled into his mind's Great Cosmos Dao Universe, he was still left horrifically scarred by the lightning arcs.

Flesh torn apart, bones shattered piece by piece—he was even more gruesome than Wu Hongtian had been.

Ding Huan wasn't startled at all—this scene was nothing new to him.

He had never cultivated his body, so while his flesh might be stronger than an ordinary cultivator's, it was still far behind that of a body-cultivation cultivator.

His advantage was his recovery ability, surpassing anyone else's; as his cultivation advanced, his capacity to heal from injuries grew stronger day by day.

Moreover, he had the Great Universe of his consciousness sea—if his endurance exceeded his recovery, the thunder source could be channeled into the Great Universe of his consciousness sea.

In the void, the next wave of lightning was still brewing, while Ding Huan's body was frantically recovering.

As wave after wave of immortal spiritual sources and thunder sources were sucked in by Ding Huan, his power surged upward, and his understanding of the Jin Xian Dao principles became ever clearer.

The second wave of Lei Jie descended with twenty-seven arcs, as if it would not rest until Ding Huan was reduced to death.

Seeing the twenty-seven arcs of this wave descend, Ding Huan could only summon the Wheel of Rebirth Spear.

At the same moment, the Great Universe Art drew the Wheel of Rebirth Spear into Zhou Tian.

Amidst roaring thunder, wave after wave of Lei Jie arcs slammed into the Wheel of Rebirth Spear, transforming into a curtain of lightning that fell upon him; Ding Huan felt the spear was changing.

He could not yet perceive the nature of this change—he could only desperately channel the Great Universe Art, seeking deeper insights into the Jin Xian Dao principles.

His body, just barely restored, was shattered once more, his bones broken again.

The only difference was that Ding Huan's understanding of the Jin Xian Dao principles grew ever clearer; he even felt he could reach out and grasp the Dao principles of the Jin Xian realm.

Before the second wave's twenty-seven arcs had fully passed, the third wave of twenty-seven Lei Jie arcs crashed down.

Boom—boom—boom!

One after another, wave after wave…

Like a death decree, Ding Huan's Wheel of Rebirth Spear likewise transformed into a spear curtain that caught these arcs.

Crack! Crack!

As Ding Huan's body was repeatedly torn apart by the Lei Jie arcs, his understanding of the Jin Xian Dao finally reached perfection—the cultivation barrier shattered under the impact of the Lei Jie arcs.

Around him, immortal crystals shattered one by one, transforming into pure immortal spiritual energy that repaired Ding Huan's body and elevated his cultivation.

Ding Huan's consciousness sea expanded exponentially; the star river grew more brilliant, the starry sky more dazzling and profound.

The fourth and fifth waves of Lei Jie descended together, totaling eighteen arcs.

Ding Huan had fully entered the Jin Xian realm; these eighteen Lei Jie arcs served only to solidify his cultivation.

At the same moment, Ding Huan heard a clear chime.

He widened his eyes and stared at his Wheel of Rebirth Spear.

The Wheel of Rebirth Spear had, even under the Lei Jie, ascended to a Low-grade Immortal Artifact.

The Wheel of Rebirth Spear ascending to a Low-grade Immortal Artifact thrilled Ding Huan more than his own entry into the Jin Xian realm.

His entry into the Jin Xian realm was inevitable—if he had sufficient cultivation resources and the cosmic rules permitted, he could ascend.

But the Wheel of Rebirth Spear was different—he knew his spear was extraordinary, likely capable of ascending, yet he never expected it to happen so soon.

More importantly, Ding Huan understood how his Wheel of Rebirth Spear ascended: through Tribulation Crossing.

It seemed that in the future, he should let the Wheel of Rebirth Spear endure more Lei Jie—only then would it ascend faster.

After absorbing a pile of immortal crystals, Ding Huan's cultivation was fully stabilized at Jin Xian Layer One.

Several days later, Ding Huan returned to the meteor where he had cultivated, gripping the Wheel of Rebirth Spear.

He decided that from now on, he would carry the Wheel of Rebirth Spear with him—whether cultivating, undergoing Tribulation Crossing, or traveling.

Since the Wheel of Rebirth Spear could ascend, letting it remain outside and absorb the Dao principles of his cultivation should be better than keeping it inside his ring.

Qi Yonghan and Mu Zhen were still in seclusion, completely unaware that Ding Huan had returned from Tribulation Crossing and elevated his cultivation once more.

With his cultivation stabilized at Jin Xian Layer One, Ding Huan had no intention of continuing to cultivate—he pulled out Wu Hongtian's ring.

Once he organized the contents of Wu Hongtian's ring, he would begin studying Array Dao.

He must raise his Array Dao proficiency to the point where he could break the array tablet Shen Yi had lent him.