Chapter 322: 14th Realm!

With the system prompt sound falling, the void before Gu Yuan suddenly twisted violently.

There was no heaven-shaking phenomenon, no blinding divine light, but at the very moment those two things appeared, the heavenly dao laws of the entire Primeval Immortal Realm seemed to freeze for an instant.

Above the Gu Family Divine Island, the originally clear Heavenly Dome instantly darkened.

If not for the Gu Family Divine Island now having the peerless great array laid down by Gu Cangsheng during his breakthrough to conceal it, this aura, once leaked, would surely provoke a tremor across the entire immortal realm in an instant.

Gu Yuan's gaze fixed on the two objects hovering before him.

On the left, a crystal only the size of a fist, its whole body a translucent grayish-white.

This crystal seemed utterly ordinary, its surface even pitted and dim, lacking any brilliant luster.

But if one probes it with divine sense, they would be shocked to discover that within this tiny crystal lie the illusory images of mountains, rivers, lakes, seas, sun, moon, stars, and even countless beings.

It is like an extremely compressed cosmic singularity, its interior containing terrifying energy enough to cleave heaven and earth.

This is the World Source Core!

When a great world is destroyed or reborn, it is the most core, purest crystallization of law and matter!

On the right, an unadorned small bottle neither of metal nor jade.

The bottle has no lid; at its mouth hovers a droplet of emerald-green liquid the size of a soybean.

This droplet is so green it makes one's heart race; it has no weight, simply hovering in midair, yet the life aura it emits causes even Gu Yuan, possessor of an immortal longevity body, to feel a deep soul-shaking tremor.

World Tree Advanced Nutrient

This is absolutely not a mundane item, nor can it be matched by even heavenly treasures of an Immortal King grade.

Gu Yuan could sense within it a law of vitality that transcends the limits of the Primeval Immortal Realm's understanding, belonging to a higher dimension.

"Good stuff."

Gu Yuan took a deep breath, suppressing the throbbing in his heart.

He hesitated not at all, slamming his hands together to form a complicated seal before him.

"Open!"

Gu Yuan gave a low shout, and brilliant seven-colored light burst from his dantian.

He flung wide the gate of his inner world, and an extremely greedy, voracious suction surged forth from its depths.

The source of that suction was none other than the World Tree, rooted at the center of his inner world, bearing the Heavenly Pivot Realm and the Three Thousand Great Dao laws!

The moment the World Tree sensed the World Source Core and the Advanced Nutrient, it plunged completely into frenzy.

Its already sky-covering vast canopy shook violently; billions of branches condensed from Great Dao laws, like countless hungry dragons, shot out from Gu Yuan's dantian, instantly entwining the gray-white crystal and the emerald droplet in a death grip.

"Boom—"

When these two treasures were drawn into his inner world by the World Tree, Gu Yuan's mind seemed to be struck by ten thousand thunderclaps.

The ascension has begun!

The first to undergo transformation was that droplet of World Tree Advanced Nutrient.

The emerald liquid, upon contacting the World Tree's trunk, seeped into the bark like melting ice and snow.

Immediately after, an immeasurable surge of vigorous life erupted from the World Tree as its center, spreading explosively throughout the inner world.

The World Tree's trunk, already as stout as a heaven‑supporting pillar, began to shoot up and thicken at a visible pace!

Three thousand zhang! Ten thousand zhang! Hundred thousand zhang! Million zhang!

The World Tree's growth seemed to have no limit.

Its roots frenziedly drilled downward, not only piercing the Heavenly Pivot Realm's earth veins, but directly delving into the inner world's lowest layer of chaotic void, greedily drawing the chaotic qi from the void.

Its canopy stretched upward without end, as if to pierce the inner world's Heavenly Dome and reach that unknown far shore.

As the World Tree grew madly, every leaf on its canopy underwent an astonishing change.

Originally those leaves bore only illusory images of miniature worlds, but now, catalyzed by the Advanced Nutrient, those illusions began to become real!

A single leaf is an entire small thousand‑world!

Billions of leaves are billions of worlds in the process of gestation!

"Crack! Crack!"

Along with the World Tree's metamorphosis, the border of Gu Yuan's inner world began to buckle under that terrifying expansion force, emitting a sound like shattering porcelain.

Just as the inner world stood on the brink of bursting, the World Source Core stirred.

The gray‑white crystal exploded with a deafening blast at the treetop of the World Tree!

There was no destructive shockwave, only an endless, purest world‑source power that turned into a gray‑white rain of light, pouring down upon every corner of the inner world.

This source power acted like the perfect binder and expander; the inner world's border, on the verge of collapse, instantly became indestructible upon contact with the light rain, then began to expand outward in a frenzied, violent manner!

An inner world spanning three thousand li broke through ten thousand li in the blink of an eye!

Twenty thousand li… thirty thousand li… one hundred thousand li!

During this process, the inner world's internal structure underwent a complete transformation.

The regulatory power contained within the World Source Core perfectly fused with the Three Thousand Great Dao that Gu Yuan had originally comprehended.

The Three Thousand Great Dao, which he had only just begun to glimpse, now surged forward like a rocket.

The Five Elements laws became the inner world's five heavenly pillars, supporting the four extremes and eight wildernesses; the Time Law turned into a ceaselessly flowing river of years encircling the World Tree; the Space Law became layered dimensional walls that kept the inner world watertight; the Destruction and Creation Laws intertwined, evolving into the inner world's original cycle of reincarnation…

As the bearer and anchor of all this, Gu Yuan's flesh and soul are undergoing an unimaginable baptism and remolding.

He remained seated quietly in the chair of the purple bamboo forest, yet his body had taken on a semi‑transparent glazed state.

Under the terrifying feedback energy of the inner world, his Immortal Longevity Body was forcibly pushed to an entirely new height.

Every inch of his flesh, every bone, even each cell, was branded with the inner world's Three Thousand Great Dao laws.

He is the world, and the world is him!

Gu Yuan's cultivation, at this moment, finally broke through a four‑year stagnation.

The barrier of the Void God Realm (Tenth Realm) proved as fragile as a water‑soaked tissue before the terrifying foundation of the inner world's ascension—it offered no resistance even for a breath, and was shattered with a deafening crash!

Eleventh stage! Twelfth stage! Thirteenth stage!

Gu Yuan's cultivation realm did not rise like ordinary cultivators, step by step with footprints, but like a breached dam's flood, rushing a thousand li!

His soul strength had already reached the level of a half-step Immortal King, even the peak of a True Immortal; now, under the support of the inner world's heavenly Dao will, his soul directly crossed that uncrossable chasm, exuding a trace of the terrifying, immortal, indestructible might possessed only by true Immortal Kings!

Only after the inner world's evolution completely stabilized and the World Tree ceased its frenzied growth did Gu Yuan's soaring cultivation finally stagnate at the 14th stage, Quasi-Sage Realm!

Leaping from the 10th stage straight to the 14th stage, Quasi-Sage Realm!

Crossing four major realms in a row!

If such breakthrough speed were spread to the outside world, it would make the absolute top geniuses of the entire Primordial Immortal Realm, and even the Immortal Realm, ashamed enough to commit suicide.

What's more terrifying is that this is only his surface cultivation. With an inner world that is vast and boundless, with perfected laws, and possessing an advanced World Tree as its foundation, Gu Yuan's true combat power has now reached a terrifying state that even he himself cannot accurately assess.

He lightly clenched his fist.

"Crack—"

Without using any spiritual power, merely the instinctive muscle contraction of his flesh squeezed the space within a ten-zhang radius of the Purple Bamboo Forest, producing countless fine black cracks.

"This is… the power of the World Master?"

Gu Yuan slowly exhaled a turbid breath, a flash of extremely restrained light flickering in his eyes.

He could clearly feel that, as long as he wished, he could at any moment mobilize the inner world to suppress all enemies!

His intuition told him.

His present self.

He ought not be much weaker than his old ancestor grandfather before the breakthrough!

"But, it's still not enough."

Gu Yuan quickly gathered his mind.

He knew very well that, although he is now strong, if he were to face those true Jue Dian Immortal Kings of the Immortal Realm, or even the hidden big shots behind the scenes, or that mysterious Lord of the Now Faction: Zang Tian Ge, there would still be an uncrossable chasm.

"My path has only just begun."

Gu Yuan lifted the cup of completely cooled Enlightenment Tea and drained it in one gulp.

His gaze pierced the formation of Divine Island and looked toward the endless, profound cosmic void.