Chapter 1411 - Ninth-Level Primal Origin Realm

A cave soon came into view ahead of Liu Wuxie. A stone stele stood before its entrance, bearing the three characters that said, "Immortal Stone Cave."

He followed the stone path up to the stele, where an invisible barrier suddenly rose before him, blocking the way and preventing anyone from entering.

"I'm Liu Wuxie, and I have come here to cultivate by the order of my master," Liu Wuxie said, cupping his fists toward the surroundings as though he were addressing empty air.

He knew, however, that a hidden expert had been watching over this place, ensuring that no one could ever trespass.

"Go on in." A voice echoed, and the invisible barrier opened on its own, parting like a curtain, revealing a passage for Liu Wuxie to step into the Immortal Stone Cave.

By now, all of the Heavenly Dragon Sect's upper echelons knew Liu Wuxie's name from the heated debate some time ago, and news of his journey to the Blood Fiend Battlefield to rescue more than forty disciples had already spread among them.

Disciples like Bu Wenxing and Guan Jinpeng were protégés of the elders of the Heaven Gaze Realm, and both wielded considerable influence and status. Once they returned, they naturally praised Liu Wuxie to their masters.

At this point, Liu Wuxie's reputation blazed like a rising sun among the Heavenly Dragon Sect's upper echelons, and more and more people had begun to support him.

Stepping past the barrier, Liu Wuxie entered the Immortal Stone Cave. To his surprise, the interior was brightly lit, with luminous pearls embedded in the stone walls on both sides. The deeper he walked, the stronger the immortal energy he sensed flowing out from the depths of the cave.

Liu Wuxie quickened his pace. If an immortal stone truly lay within, it would be an immense boon to him. Ordinary people could barely extract any energy from an immortal stone, even if they trained beside it; at best, they could use the ambient immortal energy to temper their bodies. Liu Wuxie, however, cultivated the Desolate Devouring Art, capable of devouring all things under heaven.

As the reincarnation of an Immortal Emperor, he understood the value of an immortal stone better than anyone. With the desolate world within him, he could store an endless amount of energy, and he felt that the immortal energy would trigger a qualitative transformation in that inner world.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, a stone house appeared ahead, and the immortal stone lay within it. The stone house existed for a single purpose—to prevent the immortal energy from leaking out.

When Liu Wuxie pushed open the stone door and stepped inside, he saw a stone the size of a washbasin at the center. It was gray-white, and immortal energy pulsed faintly within it, though much thinner than he had hoped.

"This is just an ordinary stone that's been infused with immortal energy, not a true immortal stone. But the immortal energy itself is genuine." Liu Wuxie judged at a glance. The stone's surface was smooth and worn, proof that many cultivators had sat on it. After so many years of absorption, the immortal energy remaining inside it was nearly exhausted.

Time was short, and Liu Wuxie had to use every remaining moment to push his cultivation to the pinnacle of the Primal Origin Realm. The immortal energy left in the stone was limited, but it was still more than enough for what he needed.

In the Fleeting Cloud Celestial Realm, people would toss such a stone by the roadside without a second thought, indicating the markedly difference in the standards between the two places.

Liu Wuxie sat down cross-legged on the stone and began circulating the Desolate Devouring Art. The energy within the stone flowed out into him, coursing through his meridians, before finally entering the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, where it condensed into milky-white mist.

Other cultivators would need a long time to digest even a single strand of immortal energy, but Liu Wuxie was different. The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron rapidly dissolved the immortal energy, drawing it into the desolate world.

After absorbing two strands of immortal energy, Liu Wuxie felt his cultivation stir restlessly. As the immortal energy merged into the desolate world, the inner world let out a faint creak, expanding ever so slightly.

Liu Wuxie did not rush to make a breakthrough. Instead, he planned to accumulate even more energy in preparation for his eventual step into the Void Realm. Once his foundation became sufficiently profound, breaking through twice in a row would no longer be difficult.

As more immortal energy poured into the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, the immortal energy within the stone steadily dwindled, and its gray-white color grew increasingly pale.

The Desolate Devouring Art circulated faster and faster. In just two hours, Liu Wuxie devoured fifty strands of immortal energy, and the number continued to climb.

If anyone else had absorbed that much, their bodies would have exploded under the pressure. Even Heaven Gaze Realm experts would reach their limit after taking in dozens of strands.

The desolate world inside Liu Wuxie, however, had already evolved into a complete world of its own, and the addition of immortal energy only made that world more complete and stable.

Liu Wuxie didn't dump all of the immortal energy into it at once. Instead, he gradually channeled it. As it accumulated, the desolate world expanded faster and faster.

What truly shocked him were the immortal runes that appeared on the crystalline walls surrounding the desolate world—those runes were crucial to him. They signified that no one below the Immortal Realm could harm the desolate world's structure.

The gateway to the eighth-level Primal Origin Realm appeared, yet Liu Wuxie continued to suppress his urge to break through it. He wanted to leap directly to the pinnacle of the Primal Origin Realm after absorbing enough immortal energy.

As for whether he would reach the Void Realm afterward, it depended on his fortune.

Time flowed by as the Heavenly Dragon Sect bustled with activity, especially within the Auspicious Cloud Hall. The news had already spread that the sect master would take Liu Wuxie as his personal disciple.

Liu Wuxie had dealt with urgent matters ever since his return from the Myriad Race Ceremony, so they had to postpone the apprenticeship ceremony until now.

Many different sects received the Heavenly Dragon Sect's invitations and began discussing whom to send to offer their congratulations. After much deliberation, many decided that their sect masters would attend in person, mainly because of Liu Wuxie's monstrous talent.

Everyone wanted to see him with their own eyes. Even the planet lords from different worlds had received the news and started making preparations.

After all, Liu Wuxie securing first place in all four events of the Myriad Race Ceremony with such a relatively low cultivation was an astonishing feat.

The Heavenly Dragon Sect was thrown into organized chaos by all the preparations. Even the elders in charge of reception were so busy that they barely had time to rest.

As the immortal energy in the stone dwindled, Liu Wuxie's absorption rate gradually slowed down. The desolate world approached saturation, and absorbing further would yield diminishing returns. He also did not intend to thoroughly drain the stone, as it was part of the sect's foundation.

Emptying it would be far too ungrateful on his end.

He spent an entire day refining immortal energy, absorbing one hundred and fifty strands in total. If word of this spread, it would frighten countless people out of their wits.

"Time to make my breakthrough," Liu Wuxie murmured on the second day. He intended to skip the eighth-level Primal Origin Realm entirely and jump straight to the ninth level in one go.

The circulation of the Desolate Devouring Art picked up speed. Spiritual energy and pure yang energy in the lesser realm were incredibly dense, and both began pouring into his body through the cave.

The pure yang energy surrounding the Immortal Stone Cave condensed into a thick fog, nearly forming liquid droplets like a hazy drizzle.

The commotion alarmed many elders in seclusion. Their eyes snapped open as they all turned toward the Immortal Stone Cave.

"Is someone making a breakthrough to the Earth Immortal Realm?" one elder asked. A disturbance of this scale rarely occurred unless someone attempted to step into the Earth Immortal Realm.

"It doesn't feel like Earth Immortal Realm fluctuations—it seems more like the Primal Origin Realm," another elder commented.

Their divine senses spread out like liquid mercury, sweeping across the sect, but the barrier around the Immortal Stone Cave blocked them the moment they drew near, preventing them from probing a step further. An invisible force field surrounded the Immortal Stone Cave, cutting it off from all outside divine sense.

"Could it be Liu Wuxie? I heard he returned yesterday." the elders discussed among themselves. Given Liu Wuxie's achievements, no one could question the fact that he received cultivation time in the Immortal Stone Cave.

No one felt jealous about it as well.

After all, he had accomplished the impossible, and any reward he obtained was well deserved.

Inside the cave, Liu Wuxie's true essence surged like a tidal wave, crashing against the gateway of the ninth-level Primal Origin Realm. Immortal energy now infused his true essence. Even before his cultivation broke through, his combat strength had already multiplied several times over.

However, his greatest profit in the Immortal Stone Cave was the qualitative transformation of his true essence. With this change, every mythical art he cast struck with greater strength.

Moreover, the immortal energy's benefits didn't stop there. As his cultivation continued to rise, he would be able to draw upon even more immortal energy in battle.

The desolate world had already formed a complete cycle of its own, and the amount of immortal energy within would only increase as that world grew. This was something ordinary people could never hope to achieve.

Everything within the desolate world began to flourish—the sun, the moon, the stars, and the trees all grew more vivid and complete.

The increase in immortal energy was only one part of that cycle. As the immortal energy accumulated, Liu Wuxie's combat strength would naturally climb higher as well.

At last, the gateway to the ninth-level Primal Origin Realm could no longer withstand the impact of his immortal-infused true essence. It shattered into fragments, which dissolved into the laws of the Primal Origin Realm.

He had long lost count of how many Primal Origin Realm laws he held within him. Ordinary cultivators at the pinnacle of the Primal Origin Realm possessed tens of thousands of such laws at most, and even then, they rarely surpassed a million.

The Primal Origin Realm laws within Liu Wuxie, however, had already reached into the tens of millions. That level of accumulation stood on an entirely different plane, something even ten pinnacle Primal Origin Realm experts joining forces could not match.

After all, it was not a simple matter of adding one plus one.

Liu Wuxie's breakthrough proceeded smoothly, and he felt no surprise. He had long known this step was only a matter of time. He had already built up a deep foundation on the Celestial Immortal Star, but lacked the time to make a breakthrough there.

Thus, advancing two levels in succession no longer shocked him.

As dozens more strands of immortal energy surged into the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, the desolate world expanded even more.

Even Liu Wuxie had lost track of his true essence reserves. If he were to take the time to examine his strength, he would realize that his current power rivaled that of high-level Void Realm cultivators.

Back when he was only at the fourth-level Primal Origin Realm, he could already defeat third-level Void Realm experts. With his current cultivation, if he unleashed all his trump cards, he could even contend with ninth-level Void Realm enemies.

With the two days nearly over, Liu Wuxie decided to spend the remaining time consolidating his cultivation and comprehending his various mythical arts, focusing primarily on the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms.

If someone challenged him during the apprenticeship ceremony and he relied on other mythical arts, people would undoubtedly mock him for neglecting his own sect's signature technique.

The Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms had once been the Heavenly Dragon Sect's supreme mythical art, but an ancient battle destroyed several of them.

Liu Wuxie, however, had already restored them. He had fully mastered the first four forms and was still probing the fifth and sixth.

Even with the Heavenly Dao Book's analysis, he hadn't been able to fully grasp them, as his cultivation was insufficient. Now that his cultivation had caught up, mastering them with the Heavenly Dao Book's help became much easier.

The fifth form, Dragon's Roar, Tiger Howl, was already brewing within his soul sea; the sixth form, Dragon Dive, had taken shape; and the seventh form, Dragon Ascent, had reached its initial stage.

As for the eighth form, Dragon and Tiger Roar, he had yet to gain much comprehension of it. That form was a sonic attack, and he suspected he would need to reach the Void Realm before he could cultivate it properly.

Even so, the first seven forms were more than enough for Liu Wuxie to wield. He also understood that relying solely on the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms wouldn't be enough, so he turned his attention to comprehending the Great Asura Sword.

The Great Asura Sword was in no way inferior to the Divine Nine Sun Sword.

Liu Wuxie had only put it aside because he had focused on cultivating the Heaven-Severing Strike.

However, he knew it would be inconvenient to display other sects' techniques during the apprenticeship ceremony, which meant he would need the Great Asura Sword as one of his primary methods to battle.

His senior brother had already taught him the Divine Nine Sun Sword. Paired with his current true essence, its raw power surpassed that of the Great Asura Sword, but it was mainly because Sun Xiao had passed down all his own comprehension of the Divine Nine Sun Sword, saving Liu Wuxie a great deal of time.

The Heavenly Dao Book, on the other hand, only provided analysis. Liu Wuxie still had to practice and comprehend each technique himself if he wanted to grasp its true essence.