Chapter 689: Fortune and Destiny
Time flies.
Ten years have passed in the blink of an eye. Within the realm, the celestial veins of the heavens connect from all directions and converge on Li Hao within the realm.
He sat cross-legged, before him a divine tree with mottled five colors, its branches and leaves lush, and divine light emanating from its leaves like veins.
The boy's gaze was fixed on the little figure in his hand, and time, like a knife, carved the little figure's features stroke by stroke.
In the blink of an eye, an old man with a weathered face, gentle eyes, a slight smile on his lips, and a touch of unruliness appeared lifelike in his hands, his eyes flowing as if they were alive.
"Old Feng..."
Li Hao murmured softly.
Time has flowed by, and hundreds of years have passed since they parted, but in Li Hao's heart, their features are still clearly visible, familiar and dear.
At this moment, I don't know where Feng Lao and Yu Huang are. Among the people in the Li family, Er Niang treated him well, but I don't know where she is now.
"wait for me……"
Li Hao said softly.
A notification panel popped up in front of him.
[Your carving experience points are full. Please strive to attain a higher state of mind as soon as possible.]
After ten years of carving, using these five divine trees as materials, Li Hao finally accumulated enough experience points in the art of carving to reach perfection.
Now all that's missing is understanding the state of mind.
However, in the past ten years, in addition to accumulating experience in carving, he had long been exploring his state of mind. But the state of mind for carving the thirteenth stage was like clouds and mist, nowhere to be seen or touched.
"Time is the sharpest blade, and the essence of its sculpting is time itself..."
"Where are the deeper carvings located?"
A hint of confusion appeared in Li Hao's eyes.
But his resolve remained unshaken, and he was neither impatient nor anxious. Instead, he calmed down and slowly began to ponder, like unraveling a complex mystery.
When you feel lost, you might as well look back at where you started. Perhaps what you've been pursuing all your life was something you already had from the beginning.
"The essence of sculpture..."
Li Hao murmured and put down the old man in his hand.
Beside him stood a row of figures, all familiar faces sculpted from stone.
Sword Master, Great Dream Master, Emperor Yu, Second Mother...
Looking at them lined up on the side, Li Hao felt a sense of warmth.
He calmed his mind, took out the sacred wood again, and slowly began to carve. This time, he carefully studied each carving.
In the blink of an eye, I've passed fifty again.
For ordinary people, fifty years of life is already their entire life.
From innocent childhood to passionate adolescence, to building a family business after marriage, and then to the aging body in one's fifties, gradually retiring from the limelight... one can already see the end of life ahead.
But to the Celestial King, it was just a wisp of dust in the blink of an eye.
Within the realm, Li Hao, immersed in enlightenment, suddenly felt a surge of heat throughout his body, his pores opening up, giving him a feeling of transformation and rebirth.
Li Hao snapped out of his thoughts and looked at the changes in himself in surprise. He then realized that his cultivation level had unknowingly risen to the second level of the Immortal King Realm.
Having cultivated here for sixty years, although he did not deliberately try to improve his cultivation level, his immortal body passively absorbed the immortal power of heaven and earth, leading to a breakthrough in his cultivation realm.
While Li Hao was surprised, he couldn't help but feel a little emotional.
It is said that cultivation in the Immortal King realm is extremely difficult, and the gap between each realm is also huge. In the outside world, it is considered to have advanced one realm in thousands of years, and it also requires a lot of work and the collection of many divine medicines to help it.
Now, in this Great Emperor's Daoist Temple, his cultivation has advanced in just sixty years. It truly deserves to be called an Emperor-level treasure land.
"No wonder the gap between Immortal Kings is so large... this immortal power has increased four or five times!"
As Li Hao sensed the changes in his immortal body, he immediately understood the differences between each level of the Immortal King Realm.
The first level of the Immortal King realm, just in terms of the immortal power within the body, is ten thousand times that of the perfect Immortal Monarch realm!
Now that it has been upgraded to level two, it is at least fifty to sixty thousand times greater.
This means that the power that can be unleashed instantly is enough to easily crush a first-level Immortal King!
Moreover, as his cultivation level improved, Li Hao clearly felt that his domain was also being tempered. The power of heaven and earth flowed into his domain, making it more solid and expanding in size to three times its original size!
"What a huge improvement!"
Li Hao was astonished. He suddenly realized that his previous ability to kill a fifth-level Immortal King while only being at the first level of the Immortal King Realm was somewhat exaggerated and abnormal.
It's important to understand that this improvement is cumulative; once it doubles to the third or fourth level, the difference becomes incredibly significant.
No wonder those who awakened the power of the Primordial Emperor could only challenge the fourth level of the Immortal King Realm, even if they were above their level.
"Even with Emperor-level foundation, one can only erase the gap of three realms."
"If my true god blood were not far superior to that of other immortal kings, and if my master's limitless emperor technique had not tripled my foundation, it would have been impossible to kill someone so many realms above me."
Li Hao thought to himself.
He increasingly felt the power of his master, Dao Yuan Immortal Emperor.
"Now, I should be able to reach the 60th floor of the Tower of All Heavens!"
Li Hao thought to himself.
Although he didn't try it, he was able to roughly deduce it based on his previous victory over the 53-story Tower of Heaven.
The further you go, the smaller the realms you can cross.
Shi Miao is the realm of royal power. The former king could only cross four realms when he was at the fourth level of the Immortal King Realm. He could only challenge the eighth level of the Immortal King Realm. This was the limit.
It should be noted that Shi Miao had cultivated to the Quasi-Emperor realm in her previous life and possessed a variety of Emperor-level battle techniques, making her extremely powerful, unless she hadn't used them.
Once the changes in his body subsided, Li Hao felt the rich life force within his Sea of Life. The speed at which life was being nurtured within it had increased. Moreover, the Heavenly Dao power he had previously absorbed from the realm had also merged into his Sea of Life, and the life forms born from it all possessed the ability to cultivate.
In Li Hao's eyes, this Sea of Life was like a small pond, from which tadpole-like creatures kept crawling out, each with a different shape, like a variety of strange little insects.
These little insects also have thoughts, which Li Hao can sense. Among them, the few with stronger energy have the most active thoughts. Li Hao can sense their desire to explore and their curiosity about everything outside, but they cannot cross the mountain range that Li Hao has created for them.
“Their growth is too slow. If it were another Immortal King, they could cultivate the life in their own realm and use them as pawns to deduce their cultivation techniques and the Great Dao... but I can't wait for them.”
Li Hao gazed at the creatures crawling out of the Sea of Life and sighed inwardly.
These beings need to constantly cultivate and reproduce before they can gradually form useful combat power; they are currently only in their initial, primitive stage.
Li Hao withdrew his attention from these tiny lives and continued to comprehend his own sculpting path.
"The essence of sculpture..."
"Everything can be sculpted..."
"He was originally a piece of wood, which I carved into a human or a beast."
"Time etches wrinkles on the face of life, but it is also a form of sculpting, a gift..."
"To give...life?"
Li Hao was completely absorbed in his work, his eyes sparkling, oblivious to everything around him.
Thirty years have passed in the blink of an eye.
Within the realm, the boy sat cross-legged, holding a wooden sculpture in his hand.
The wood carving depicts a small white fox, endearing and charming, with narrow, fox-like eyes that exude a natural allure.
It's as if that boy from many years ago, under the stars and moon, had only the little white fox by his side for company.
“The ability of sculpting is to imbue wrinkles with strength through the passage of time.”
"But fundamentally... it's about changing its destiny!"
The boy muttered to himself.
The little white fox met him. She was a wounded little fox in the wild and came to the mansion of the famous general. From then on, she lived a life of luxury.
The long years bring endless changes to life.
The changes of time are uncontrollable, but the changes in carving... are a gift of nature!
"The Life-Carving Blade, the Realm of Creation!"
Li Hao opened his eyes, and it was as if endless starlight gathered and shimmered in them. It was the light of enlightenment that came from a sudden realization. His soul was clear at this moment, as if he had touched the origin of heaven and earth.
[You have grasped the thirteen stages of the sculpting mindset, the essence of creation!]
As the panel displayed the prompts, a multitude of insights flooded into Li Hao's mind.
At that moment, he seemed to see countless sculpting techniques changing before his eyes, from that time, from that portrait of all living beings, from that elusive blade of time, carving all things, carving all living beings, carving flowers, trees, birds and beasts with each stroke.
Everything is sculpted, everything is endowed, a creation!
"I see……"
Li Hao murmured, his eyes revealing clarity and understanding; this was the essence of sculpture.
To bestow upon all things something they do not possess themselves—this is creation for the sculpted object!
"A single cut reveals a world, a single carving reveals a multitude of beings; the engraving marks serve as the law, and all things are formed from them!"
At this moment, Li Hao finally understood the essence of carving.
However, a thought soon surfaced in his mind: if the thirteen carvings touched the origin, what level would the fourteen carvings reach?
A deeper form of art than simply bestowing creation... the Way of Sculpture?
Li Hao's eyes were filled with confusion, as if he had fallen into an extremely deep vortex, a vortex that was so deep and so far away that he dared not touch it and could not even imagine it.
After an unknown amount of time, Li Hao regained consciousness and immediately felt a cold sweat soaking through his clothes.
With his current mindset after just breaking through to the thirteenth dan, trying to figure out the path to the fourteenth dan feels like sinking into the ocean.
Li Hao felt that the fourteenth stage should correspond to the Immortal Emperor realm.
Is that a road to the emperor?
"Now, the Way of the Body, the Way of Control, and the Way of the Sword have all been integrated, leaving only the Way of Movement and the Way of Fist."
"First, improve your movement techniques!"
For Li Hao, the improvement from boxing was not significant, since boxing is also a form of attack and killing technique, which overlaps with swordsmanship.
However, the benefits of improving one's physical abilities are immense, allowing one to quickly comprehend many top-tier immortal techniques.
"If it is embedded, there is no turning back. We must repeatedly enter the Tower of All Heavens until all four World Centers are stabilized before we can catch our breath."
Li Hao's expression turned serious.
He had already exhausted a great deal of mental energy with the previous three World Hearts, and with four World Hearts existing simultaneously, he currently had no clue what to do.
If we use the method of stabilizing three boundary centers to form four corners of the four boundary centers, can we fix it?
Li Hao pondered deeply.
As he was lost in thought, a soft voice suddenly reached his ears:
"Those who can hear my voice may stop what they are doing. I have been transmitting the Daoist scriptures for three years. How much you can comprehend is all that matters. This is also a form of training for you."
Li Hao recognized the voice as that of the Star Empress. He opened his eyes and saw that many of the surrounding realms had dispersed, revealing the figures inside, all looking towards the Tower of All Heavens with surprise and delight.
"The Daoist Canon?"
Li Hao thought of one of the top-tier resources he had previously exchanged: the Daoist scriptures.
As one of the core treasures of the Dao Clan, although it is not the complete version, once comprehended, one can understand and cultivate all the myriad paths of the heavens to the tenth level of perfection!
Such a treasure is undoubtedly extremely precious.
"The Immortal Emperor imparting his teachings? It's actually the Daoist Canon!"
"This is a sacred text of the Dao Clan, how could the Star Empress know about it?"
"That goes without saying. The Immortal Emperor knows everything, but he probably doesn't know the most crucial part. Even if he does know it, there might be some agreement that prevents it from being revealed casually."
Many people were excited, talking in hushed tones.
The three Yanhuo clan members beside Li Hao opened their eyes, their faces full of joy.
"This is the first time in my life that I have heard the Immortal Emperor preach."
The young man whispered, his eyes gleaming.
The Yanhuo Clan is not considered a powerful clan. They do not have any Immortal Emperors within their ranks, and to them, Immortal Emperors are extremely mysterious and distant beings.
Li Hao looked at Shi Miao and found that she was still in the realm, wondering if she was in seclusion to comprehend the Daoist teachings or if she had no interest in listening to them.
Given the extensive spread of the Dao, it's unlikely that the texts are extremely profound; otherwise, the Daoist scriptures he used as top-tier resources for exchange would be rather comical.
However, Li Hao still intended to listen; three years of preaching wouldn't be too long of a delay.
Faced with numerous discussions, the Star Empress raised her hand, and the abyss instantly fell silent. Then, she parted her red lips and slowly uttered the Daoist Canon.
As the profound and mysterious Taoist scriptures and incantations were chanted, the Great Dao surrounded the area, and the people in the imperial arena seemed to see the myriad laws within the imperial arena changing and demonstrating the shapes of the Great Dao as the Star Empress preached.
Li Hao took out the Daoist scriptures he had exchanged, opened them for comparison, and found that the other party had imparted the third chapter.
This comprehension can help you cultivate the origin of all paths to the seventh and eighth levels!
The fourth chapter of the Daoist Canon corresponds to the ninth realm.
The fifth chapter contains the secrets that the Daoist clan does not pass down.
The Star Empress was preaching, and Li Hao, having access to the Daoist canon, was able to understand and comprehend it. However, for others, it would require careful study and contemplation.
"Is this the difference between having textbooks and not having textbooks?"
Li Hao saw the blank looks in many people's eyes, but the Star Empress ignored them and continued to preach. Clearly, for the Star Empress, being able to comprehend things on her own was also a test, an assessment of her talent and comprehension.
Time flies.
Three years have passed in the blink of an eye.
Li Hao compared the teachings with the Daoist canon and found that he could understand almost everything the Star Empress had taught him.
Besides the Dao of Time and the Dao of Space, his Nine Orders Origin Realm also includes many other Great Dao Realms, all of which are at the fifth or sixth level.
Now, thanks to the teachings of the Star Empress, he has gained a great deal in just three years, and his strength has even made a small leap.
"If all ten levels of the Dao are perfected, one will be a quasi-Emperor. Unfortunately, the Dao Canon I have only has the fourth chapter, not the final chapter."
Li Hao sighed inwardly, for the final chapter was the core of the Dao Clan, the method for advancing to the Quasi-Emperor realm.
As the Star Empress finished her sermon, a powerful aura suddenly burst forth from the Great Emperor's Dojo, rushing towards the Tower of All Heavens.
Many people's eyes narrowed when they saw that figure. He wore a silver robe and exuded a noble and unique aura. He was none other than a member of the imperial family.
"It's Di Mingyuan. Is he going to challenge the Tower of All Heavens again?"
"His last challenge was 20 years ago, when he broke through from 125 floors to 29 floors. Is he planning to sprint to 130 floors this time?"
Many people were shocked. Di Mingyuan was the number one person with a huge gap among the many Immortal Kings. The second person was only at level 121, a difference of eight levels.
"As expected of the Heavenly Emperor Clan, Di Mingyuan should be the number one person below the Quasi-Emperor Realm."
"That goes without saying. Those who can come here are basically the top of the myriad races of the True Realm, unless they are currently serving and guarding the border."
“Di Mingyuan…” Dao Qingyin, dressed in a black Daoist robe, narrowed her eyes as she watched the figure rushing towards the 130th floor of the Tower of All Heavens. This time, the Heavenly Emperor Clan had really stolen the show, while their Daoist family was in a period of transition and was being compared to others, completely overshadowed.
“Aside from the Dao of Time, the Dao of Space, and the Dao of Metal, he has already comprehended all the myriad Daos of the heavens to the tenth level, and he can be considered to have one foot in the Quasi-Emperor realm!”
At the top of the Tower of All Heavens, the Immortal Emperor's eyes flashed, and a smile appeared on his lips. "It is not an exaggeration to say that he is the number one person below the Quasi-Emperor Realm. I wonder if he can make further progress in the remaining hundreds of years and comprehend one of the Dao of Time and the Dao of Space to the tenth level. That would make his improvement even more obvious."
(End of this chapter)
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