Chapter 654: The Arduous Path of Cultivation

Seven days after entering the dream realm, Seeing Ji Liuli ended the dream. Wei Yuan received the news and arrived, and Seeing Ji Liuli asked Wei Yuan to take her around Qingming to have a good look.

Wei Yuan naturally agreed, so he piloted his flight craft, and he and Seeing Ji Liuli toured the weapon-forging workshops, fields, mines, medicinal gardens, brocade workshops, the military academy, and the new city, one by one.

This tour took an entire day.

Seeing Ji Liuli asked questions as they went, and Wei Yuan answered them patiently, one by one.

Late at night, they returned to the main peak. Seeing Ji Liuli couldn't help but feel moved: "I didn't expect Qingming to have changed so much in such a short time, and I didn't even get to participate in the bloody battle in the Rain Kingdom. Actually, thinking about it, the affairs of the mortal world are quite magnificent, not a bit inferior to the immortal path; there's really no need to dwell on the past."

Wei Yuan also said: "Indeed, watching millions of people live better and better, this sense of accomplishment is truly incomparable. But Senior Sister, what exactly is your heart-tribulation? How could it be so serious?"

Seeing Ji Liuli said: "Actually, it's not that serious; it's just a bit troublesome. I can't quite explain it clearly myself. After a few more days, when I have more dreams, it will appear, and I will call you then. Alright, I'm going to sleep now."

"Don't you want to rest for a while?"

"I don't want to go into the dream realm right now. I plan to go to your Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo to take on some tasks and play around. I haven't exercised my spiritual sense for a long time; I want to see if my level has regressed. How many tasks can your teacher control now?"

"Teacher is re-cultivating; her current level is average, about five hundred or so."

*Bang! * The courtyard gate slammed shut right in front of Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan reflected on himself, wondering what he had said wrong to make Senior Sister unhappy again. But wasn't that how everyone spoke?

Besides, five hundred tasks really wasn't anything special—it was just equivalent to five hundred divine sense splits... just?

In Wei Yuan's impression, there seemed to be a Dao scripture that said that after reaching the late stage of the Dharma Form Realm, one's divine sense splits are countless, capable of controlling thousands of magic treasures to attack the enemy simultaneously, with infinite power.

Given the habit of ancient scriptures and Daoist texts to exaggerate, Wei Yuan estimated that thousands were impossible, but hundreds should be certain, roughly around two or three hundred magic treasures.

Could it be that Zhang Sheng's ability to control magic treasures was already at the Dharma Form level?

Wei Yuan immediately decided to try it out in the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo to see exactly how much higher his level was compared to Zhang Sheng's.

The Creator Immortal descended upon the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo, and his treatment was naturally different. Although the workstation size was the same, there were at least partitions around him, blocking others' spiritual sense so they wouldn't discover that the Creator Immortal was experiencing life.

Wei Yuan excitedly waved his hand to pull down the light orb in front of him, probed his spiritual sense into it, and directly accepted a task.

Now that the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo had cracked the data architecture of the bizarre small worlds and successfully installed it, the way tasks were distributed was completely different.

Anyone entering the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo for the first time started with one task. Only when the progress of one task met the standard would another be issued. If two met the standard, two more would be issued, doubling all the way.

If the speed after doubling failed to meet the standard, a few would be subtracted. For example, if sixty-four tasks couldn't be completed, sixteen would be subtracted, becoming forty-eight. If that still didn't work, eight more would be subtracted, returning all the way to thirty-two.

In this way, the number of tasks could quickly be determined within the capacity of the practitioner.

Wei Yuan had originally been full of confidence, but when he saw the first task, he suddenly couldn't laugh anymore.

The first task was a willow-leaf-shaped object moving forward through waves in water; he had to calculate what speed was needed to achieve the best balance between spiritual power consumption and speed.

The parameters given for this task were dense, including how heavy the water was, how viscous it was, etc., totaling over a hundred.

Wei Yuan knew the problem itself; he had once devoured the works of the Listening Sea Immortal Monarch when researching the Golden Light Water Blade Art. Not long ago, he had been forced to cram a lesson on the Five Elements Dao Soldiers by the Immortal Monarch, so his level had improved significantly.

Thus, Wei Yuan bit the bullet and began the long calculation. Immediately after, the second task came down: under given conditions, how to make a piece of spiritual wood burn at the fastest speed.

The smile on Wei Yuan's face had faded quite a bit.

Then came the third and fourth tasks, which were, respectively, the stable burning problem of spiritual wood under given conditions, and the most complete burning problem. Next was how to convert the fire of combustion into kinetic energy.

Wei Yuan was familiar with this; in a sense, a spray-tube was exactly that. But the next question was how to increase the power of the spray-tube...

By the sixteenth question, Wei Yuan was already grimacing, gnashing his teeth, his spiritual sense flowing away like a great river, and in the blink of an eye, he was exhausted and weary.

After a full hour, Wei Yuan didn't care whether he had finished them or not; he submitted all sixteen problems at once, stood up with a flick of his sleeves, and glared around.

The surroundings were silent; most people were focused on their own tasks, with only a few occasionally looking around. These were the ones with spare energy who could spare a moment to pay attention to others.

Suddenly, Wei Yuan saw Seeing Ji Liuli and Feng Tingyu.

Wei Yuan knew that in this area, everyone saw only scenery except for themselves. Only Wei Yuan could see the full picture of the great hall. He walked to Seeing Ji Liuli's side and checked her situation.

At this moment, Seeing Ji Liuli had stabilized at sixty-four tasks, but she was clearly still a bit unfamiliar, failing repeatedly in her attempts to challenge one hundred and twenty-eight tasks. However, she hadn't yet used the Demon-Suppressing Nine-Layer Pagoda; the Nine-Layer Pagoda had previously served as a node, and once activated, her processing power would surely increase accordingly.

Wei Yuan nodded secretly; Seeing Ji Liuli was worthy of being a veteran Dharma Form practitioner, her foundation was incredibly strong. Cui Yu had been extremely strained at sixteen tasks, and Bao Yun was currently at thirty-two, failing repeatedly at sixty-four.

Naturally, Wei Yuan ignored the fact that he had almost been killed by sixteen tasks just moments ago.

Wei Yuan went behind Feng Tingyu again; he didn't know how many tasks this girl could handle—four or eight?

Feng Tingyu was leaning leisurely on her cushion, her hands and feet dancing, and each of the toes on her two snow-white little feet was acting on its own, processing anywhere from a few to over a dozen tasks.

The task light orbs in front of her were dense, almost endless, with countless lines of spiritual sense connected to every part of her body. Her thighs and buttocks had the most, and her arms, chest, and abdomen also had quite a few, while her back had nearly a hundred lines. Conversely, there wasn't a single line of spiritual sense on her head: she was dozing off.

Wei Yuan probed with his spiritual sense and immediately knew the number of tasks she was processing simultaneously: one thousand and twenty-four!

The first thousand-task milestone in the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo had actually been broken by Feng Tingyu. But no matter how unwilling he was, the fact was right in front of Wei Yuan's eyes; he really couldn't even compare to her little calf, and was only equivalent to one of her toes.

Wei Yuan still wasn't quite willing to give up, so he opened one of the tasks to look. The task content was: under given clear sky conditions, with given wind speed and direction, a heavy arrow flies over; how should one intercept it at a given location to achieve the highest efficiency?

Wei Yuan had just listed a pile of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches in his mind when he saw one of Feng Tingyu's crystal-clear toes move, drawing a line that accurately hit the incoming heavy arrow, and the task was completed.

Wei Yuan retreated silently from the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo, preparing to find a quiet place to think about life properly. People shouldn't be born too unequally.

Half a day later, after long deliberation, Wei Yuan decided not to fight for the few job opportunities in the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo and instead changed his track.

He returned to the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo once more, and this time his spiritual sense rose continuously. When he leaped outside the firmament and continued to rise, the edge of the originally vast Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo finally vaguely appeared.

At this point, wanting to rise further, Wei Yuan's primordial spirit felt a burst of bone-chilling cold, and a strange, numbing sensation. He looked down and saw a layer of faint light appearing on the surface of his body, constantly being struck by something invisible.

Wei Yuan had a rough idea; this was the Void Gale mentioned in Daoist books that could extinguish a primordial spirit. He had only just approached, and he was already unable to bear it.

Below, the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo had turned into a vast blue world, most of which was a boundless ocean.

He had reached his limit and could not rise any further. Wei Yuan followed the method taught by the Immortal Monarch and constructed a magic array; one layer wasn't enough, he had to build twelve layers to complete the first step.

It took Wei Yuan a full hour to construct the first magic array. He rested for only a moment before continuing to construct the second. Three days later, all twelve arrays were constructed, and Wei Yuan activated them all at once, instantly losing a third of his magic power.

This was equivalent to the magic power of fifty ordinary Dharma Form practitioners, just to activate these arrays.

After activation, the arrays automatically drew spiritual energy from the void, slowly converging into a small green jade knife. Although the knife was small and exquisite, when Wei Yuan saw it, his primordial spirit felt a sense of trembling.

The array was called the Twelve Heavens Forging Immortal Array, and the jade knife produced was condensed from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, infused with a trace of the Great Dao's aura, called the Chaos Immortal Blade.

Wei Yuan carefully gripped the hilt and pulled upward, but he couldn't lift it!

At this moment, although the state of his primordial spirit wasn't calculated according to the weight of the current realm, the feeling this small knife gave Wei Yuan was similar to moving a heavy object weighing hundreds of thousands of catties.

He exerted all his magic power, finally lifted the small knife, and then gripped it with both hands, pushing with all his might, finally slashing a cut through the void. In an instant, Wei Yuan's magic power was like a waterfall falling from the nine heavens, instantly bottoming out.

Wherever the edge of the Chaos Immortal Blade passed, the originally empty void suddenly became solid, then collapsed in pieces, turning into chaotic energy that fell toward the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo below.

These chaotic energies didn't enter the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo but were attracted by it, gathering and settling on its outer edge. Wei Yuan couldn't see the chaotic energy, but he could feel it.

Just this one slash had completely drained Wei Yuan's magic power, the Chaos Immortal Blade vanished, and the Twelve Heavens Forging Immortal Array disappeared as well.

Wei Yuan spent several days and exhausted his magic power, only to obtain a small cluster of chaotic energy. Compared to the entire Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo, this bit of chaotic energy could simply be ignored.

After trying it, Wei Yuan already knew that this was his way of cultivation. Only when enough chaotic energy completely enveloped the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo would the Myriad Transformation Realm be considered a minor success.

The Chaos Immortal Blade breaking the void and drawing chaos was, after all, an immortal's method, which was why the consumption was so enormous.

Although he really didn't want to calculate it, Wei Yuan still gritted his teeth and estimated his cultivation progress. If it continued like this, assuming Wei Yuan didn't eat, drink, or do anything else, it would take roughly over two thousand three hundred years of closed-door cultivation to reach the perfection of the Myriad Transformation Realm and enter the next realm.

The problem was, Wei Yuan didn't have that much lifespan.

A genius wasn't so easy to be. It seemed the ordinary path was impassable.

Following the Jade Toad Body Forging, Wei Yuan once again felt the danger on the path of immortal cultivation.

(End of chapter)