Chapter 920

Time flies like a shuttle.

In the blink of an eye, ten years passed; within the realm, the celestial star veins connected from all sides, converging upon Li Hao.

He sat cross-legged, before him stood a five-colored, mottled divine tree, its branches and leaves lush, divine light flowing like meridians across its leaves.

The boy’s gaze fixed on the tiny figure in his hand, time as the chisel, carving each feature of the little figure stroke by stroke.

In an instant, an aged figure appeared vividly in his palm—wrinkled face, gentle eyes, a faint three-part smile on his lips, with a touch of untamed spirit; his gaze shimmered, as if alive.

“Master Feng…”

Li Hao whispered softly.

Years flowed by; they had been apart for centuries, yet in Li Hao’s heart, their faces remained clear, familiar and dear.

Now, where were Master Feng and Emperor Yu and the others? Among Li family members, Second Aunt had treated him well—he wondered where she was now.

“Wait for me…”

Li Hao murmured.

A panel prompt flickered before his eyes.

【Carving experience accumulated to full—please attain inner state soon】

After ten years of carving, using these five divine trees as sacred material, Li Hao had finally accumulated enough carving experience to reach perfection.

Now he only needed to comprehend the inner state.

Yet over these ten years, aside from accumulating carving experience, he had long been searching for the inner state—but the thirteen-stage carving inner state remained elusive, like mist, invisible and intangible.

“Time is the blade; the essence of carving is time…”

“Where, then, lies the deeper truth of carving?”

A hint of confusion flickered in Li Hao’s eyes.

But his Dao heart remained unshaken, calm and unruffled; he settled into quiet stillness, slowly unraveling his thoughts thread by thread.

When lost, look back to the origin—perhaps what you’ve spent your life seeking was already in your hands from the start.

“The essence of carving…”

Li Hao murmured, placing the carving of Master Feng down.

Beside him lay a row of figures—all familiar faces carved from wood.

The Sword Master, the Dream Master, Emperor Yu, Second Aunt…

Gazing at them lined up beside him, Li Hao felt a warmth in his chest.

He gathered his spirit, took out the divine wood again, and began carving slowly—this time, each stroke he pondered deeply.

In the blink of an eye, another fifty years passed unnoticed.

For mortals, half a century is an entire lifetime.

From a naive child to a passionate youth, to building a family and livelihood, to the slow decline of age and gradual withdrawal from the world… the end of life becomes visible.

But for an Immortal King, this is but a speck of dust in the blink of an eye.

Deep in contemplation within the realm, Li Hao suddenly felt a surge of warmth through his body, his pores opening wide, a sensation of transformation and rebirth.

Li Hao snapped back to awareness, astonished by his own change—then realized his cultivation base had quietly ascended to Immortal King Realm, Second Layer.

After sixty years of cultivation here, though he had never deliberately sought to raise his realm, his Immortal body had passively absorbed heavenly Immortal energy, triggering the breakthrough.

Li Hao was astonished, yet couldn’t help but feel moved.

They say cultivating the Immortal King Realm is extremely difficult, with vast gaps between each layer; in the outside world, rising one layer in thousands of years counts as rapid progress—and even then, one must gather many divine herbs and perform countless rituals to achieve it.

Here, in this Emperor’s Dao Field, merely sixty years had brought advancement—no wonder this is an Emperor-grade sacred land.

“No wonder the gaps between Immortal King layers are so immense… this Immortal energy has surged fivefold!”

Feeling the changes in his Immortal body, Li Hao finally understood the chasm between each Immortal King layer.

Immortal King Realm, First Layer: the Immortal energy within is ten thousand times greater than that of a perfected Immortal Lord!

Now, having reached Second Layer, it is at least fifty to sixty thousand times greater.

This means the instantaneous burst of power is enough to effortlessly crush an Immortal King of First Layer.

Moreover, as his realm rose, Li Hao clearly felt his realm had been refined—celestial forces now flowed into it more densely, the realm growing firmer and expanding to three times its original size.

“Such a massive leap!”

Li Hao was astonished—he suddenly realized his earlier feat of slaying an Immortal King of Fifth Layer while only in First Layer had seemed exaggerated, almost monstrous.

Remember, this enhancement is cumulative; after three or four layers, the gap becomes staggering.

No wonder those who awakened Ancestral Emperor power could only challenge up to Immortal King Fourth Layer.

“Emperor-level foundation can only erase a three-layer gap.”

“Had my True Divine Blood not far surpassed other Immortal Kings, and had I not possessed my Master’s Wuji Emperor Art to triple my foundation, I could never have slain across so many layers.”

Li Hao thought silently.

He felt more deeply than ever the greatness of his Master, Dao Source Emperor.

“Now, I should be able to challenge the 60th level of the Celestial Tower!”

Li Hao thought silently.

Though he had not tested it, he could roughly estimate based on his previous victory over the 53rd level of the Celestial Tower.

The higher the level, the smaller the realm gap one can bridge.

Shi Miao, ruler of the Wangquan Realm, once a monarch, could only bridge four layers at Immortal King Fourth Layer—challenging Immortal King Eighth Layer was her absolute limit.

Remember, Shi Miao’s past life had reached the Pretender Emperor Realm, wielding multiple Emperor-level combat arts—her power was immense, unless she held back.

When the physical changes faded, Li Hao sensed the thick vitality within his Life Sea—its rate of generating life had accelerated, and the Heavenly Dao energy previously absorbed into his realm had now merged into the Life Sea; all life born from it now possessed the ability to cultivate.

In Li Hao’s eyes, the Life Sea resembled a small pond, from which tiny tadpole-like beings continuously crawled out—each shaped differently, like countless strange little insects.

These little creatures possessed thoughts, thoughts Li Hao could sense; among them, the few with stronger energy had the most active minds—he felt their intense curiosity and desire to explore the world beyond, yet they could not climb over the mountains he had built for them.

“Their growth is too slow. Other Immortal Kings can nurture life within their realms, using them as pawns to deduce their arts and Dao… but I cannot wait.”

Li Hao gazed at the lifeforms emerging from the Life Sea, sighing inwardly.

These lifeforms must cultivate and reproduce endlessly before they can become useful warriors—now they remain in the earliest, primitive age.

Li Hao withdrew his thoughts from these tiny beings and returned to contemplating his carving Dao.

“The essence of carving…”

“All things can be carved…”

“He was once a piece of wood; I carved him into a man—or a beast.”

“Time etching wrinkles upon a face is also carving—bestowing…”

“Bestowing… life?”

Li Hao sank into contemplation, his eyes flickering constantly, ignoring all outside matters.

In the blink of an eye, another thirty years passed.

Within the realm, the boy sat cross-legged, holding a wooden carving.

The carving was a white fox, endearing and plump, its narrow, fox-like eyes radiating a natural, seductive charm.

As if recalling the boy of long ago, beneath star and moon, with only the white fox beside him.

“Using time to bestow wrinkles, to bestow power—these are all abilities of carving.”

“But at its root… it is altering one’s destiny.”