Chapter 1256 - Thousand Strikes Hundred Refinement

A month had already passed, but there was still no news about Huang. He still didn’t emerge from seclusion.

Two months. That area in Heavenly Deity Institution was shrouded in a great formation, not displaying any changes, no news coming out.

In the outside world, the corners of a few people’s lips curled up. They couldn’t help but smile, feeling like Huang was likely in trouble, the chances of failure greater than success.

“Two months have passed, but he still hasn’t emerged from seclusion, what is he doing? Is he giving birth or something? Haha!”

“Immortal Academy has people with unmatched seeds, these people undergoing great rebirths one after the other, walking out from trials of life and death. Huang doesn’t have a perfect seed, but is still in seclusion, still trying so hard, now that I am saying this out loud, it really is hilarious!”

Two months had passed, but there was still no news of Huang. This type of silence produced a bit of disturbance in the outside world, some people ridiculing him.

There were many people who believed that this type of continued seclusion meant that he failed!

Without a dao seed that matched his talent, and no opportunity to defy his own fate, what was he going to use to break through? There was simply no way of rising up!

With his aptitude, becoming a powerful sect master shouldn’t be a problem, but everyone knew that he wouldn’t be satisfied with just this. There was long news that went out that he had been preparing all this time, wishing to become the most powerful in one move.

Three months passed. There was still no news of Shi Hao. In the depths of Heavenly Deity Institution, weeds were even growing tall in the Great Elder’s residence. Under the nourishment of spiritual essence, they could be said to be frantically growing, now already about the height of a person.

This place was full of weeds, lacking traces of inhabitation. It looked somewhat wild and abandoned.

No one came to disturb this place, because the Great Elder had ordered that no one was permitted to approach to avoid disturbing Shi Hao who was currently cultivating in seclusion.

“Will Huang really be able to make an astonishing breakthrough?”

“He’ll definitely be stronger than ordinary people, but without a suitable seed, it is already impossible for him to compare to those exceptional freaks.”

“What a pity it is that he wasn’t able to draw the attention of the two academies. Huang is destined to fall, difficult for him to tread a path of extreme glory. In the future, he will be much stronger than us, far greater than ordinary geniuses, but he already lost the qualifications to compete with the best geniuses from the two academies.”

Even the students who remained in Heavenly Deity Institution thought this way, no longer viewing him in a favorable light. It was because this was the cruel reality; without the assistance of the two academies, there were no bright prospects ahead.

Even those from this academy were already like this, so there was even less of a need to talk about the outside world. Those people’s faces had long been covered in smiles, already seeing a dim path waiting after Shi Hao’s defeat.

“Haha, we are waiting for him to appear, truly looking forward to the day when we can see that Huang again!” Someone snickered, the expression on his face quite calm, as well as a bit cold.

While everyone was making their guesses, under all of this hostility, Shi Hao continued to remain in seclusion.

Right now, at the foot of a spiritual mountain, Shi Hao had already lost track of how many medicinal pools he soaked in. He had endured torment of every means possible, continuously having his body tempered, from medicinal baths to soaking in extreme poison, and then having blades added to his body, it continued without end.

For example, the Great Elder had previously ruthlessly raised a bronze war spear, the edge leaving injuries all over his body, his flesh full of holes, a truly miserable sight.

Then, he was baptised in medicinal liquid. During this process, Shi Hao endured the intense pain, operated the Bone Hammering Method, cultivating in a hell-like circumstance.

According to what the Great Elder said, Shi hao’s generation looked like they experienced a lot, but they were actually too lacking. The amount of suffering and torment was limited, far from enough, all flowers grown in greenhouses.

When the true turmoil began, that would be hell on earth. Great battles would continue endlessly, wounds and sickness everywhere. If one didn’t have an unbreakable physique that had been refined a hundred times over, just that scene alone would leave one frightened beyond their wits.

The Great Elder wasn’t trying to torment him for no reason, but was truly refining his muscles, bones, and skin, forging an imperishable golden body, helping him reach the most ideal state.

“If one wishes to use the body as the seed, without a perfect body, there is no need to keep fooling yourself. Your body would just break apart halfway, exploding on its own.”

During this period of time, Shi Hao had been blasted by divine mountains until his body broke apart, almost turning into a puddle of bloody paste, even more so hacked and broken down by ten thousand blades, slicked down into white bones.

Despite this, the Great Elder continuously had Shi Hao operate the Bone Tempering Method. Even Shi Hao with his powerful mind almost collapsed.

He clenched his teeth, holding on, not complaining or howling out. He could only take this path to its end.

It was because the Great Elder had said that all of the suffering now was for the great transformation that was to follow, for the sake of a perfect rebirth!

The Great Elder had previously walked this path as well, but it was a pity, he ultimately failed. That was why he applied a thousand strikes, hundreds of types of refinement to Shi Hao’s body, turning him into a piece of precious iron. He wanted to polish a piece of Immortal Gold, had to succeed!

During the third month, Shi Hao already went from a grinding of the flesh to a tempering of the mind. The latter was clearly even more dangerous.

During this process, the Great Elder’s methods fully appeared, inciting his mind, smelting his primordial spirit, continuously pressuring it, squeezing out his potential.

“Second primordial spirit!”

The Great Elder had great expectations, forcing him to forge a second primordial spirit. It was because his primordial spirit force was extremely powerful, long exceeding other heavenly deities at his level.

Silver spiritual flames raged. Shi Hao’s second primordial spirit was growing, eventually becoming vivid and lifelike, identical to Shi Hao’s first primordial spirit, just that it was a bit smaller.

“This...” The Great Elder was inwardly shocked. He just wanted to try something with this youth, but never expected to truly produce a rough core! He wanted to use this method to refine his soul and spirit, not expecting that it would actually succeed.

Right now, Shi Hao felt a strange sensation. There was two of him, one mind able to be used on different things, it was extremely strange, yet also wonderful. It could completely be called an unconventional rebirth.

Like this, wouldn’t he be able to do many things?

Only, the Great Elder’s following words shattered this thought.

“The great dao has to be returned to the most simple, the intrinsic essence must be one. What external spiritual bodies, puppet primordial spirit, second magical body, three immeasurable bodies? These are all the wrong way, short-term glory. In the end, they will all be shattered and broken, only one’s origin is true, from one to the dao.”

The so-called dao returning to the most simple wasn’t just hot air. The second primordial spirit, external bodies and other things were just methods on the path of cultivation, not the unmatched path to take.

“By being born in this heaven and earth, we ourselves are also a part of this world. A piece of nascent cosmos is already equipped with everything. All we need to do is to evolve, to continue improving ourselves and transcend above, reach great heights, forge our true selves, not to draw legs on a snake, adding external limbs or souls to our bodies.” The Great Elder spoke extremely bluntly.

What he spoke wasn’t absolute logic, but there was indeed some reasoning behind what he said. Perhaps because he wasn’t on the level of the most powerful ancient immortals yet, what he said might contain some errors, but for the most part, it was precious truth.

Soon afterwards, Shi Hao’s second primordial spirit was turned into a divine flame, used to burn his first primordial spirit. Fiery light surged, continuously jumping about, entering his main primordial spirit.

The second primordial spirit became nourishment, strengthening his main primordial spirit.

It could be said that after forming a second primordial spirit, and then smelting them back into one, this type of forging process was a great refinement, perfecting something that was already outstanding.

The primordial spirit was treated like a piece of iron core. It was continuously refined, the impurities within the divine soul erased, making it pure and perfect, turning it into repeatedly refined essence steel, Immortal Gold that had been tempered ten thousand times.

This wasn’t the end, but the beginning!

“The Mind Tempering Method originated from Immortal Academy, the exceptional talents there definitely undergoing this type of transformation as well. Only, you have to strive to do even better, do even more!” The Great Elder warned.

In the end, the Great Elder passed on a few even stranger ancient methods, not only those secret methods limited to Immortal Academy.

He had Shi Hao forge his primordial spirit into a weapon, and not like a second primordial spirit or other things. This was extremely dangerous, but it would greatly sharpen his will. This was a path of transcendence!

If one was defeated, they would die on the spot, leaving behind a flesh shell without a consciousness. However, if they succeeded, their vital energy would be gradually strengthened!

At first, the main primordial spirit was still there, holding the weapon formed from primordial spirit force, brandishing it about, the scene astonishing.

Later on, even the main primordial spirit disappeared, turning into a sword core itself, becoming a golden war spear, producing an unstoppable heavenly blade and other things!

This was extremely astonishing, remoulding a thousand times over, refined ten thousand times, repeatedly forging the primordial spirit, removing all of the so-called impurities within, only leaving behind the essence, strengthening it further.

Shi Hao couldn’t help but say with a trembling voice, “Isn’t this the Chaos Calming Art?”

That type of great method known as one of the three great extreme sword arts from the ancient times had previously unleashed a bloodbath against the foreign intruders, corpses piling up into mountains, calming an entire era!

Meanwhile, this method was to turn the primordial spirit into a sword core, its power boundless. Wherever it passed, mountains would collapse and seas would roar, stars destroyed, nothing able to stop its strike!

“Just a damaged sword art, still passable when used to refine the primordial spirit. If you want to use it for attack, it is still far from enough. This type of mysterious great method was enigmatic even in Immortal Ancient Great Era. If one wanted to obtain it for themselves, it is just too difficult.”

Shi Hao’s primordial spirit was continuously sharpened, becoming more and more pure, now extremely powerful.

This was a soul weapon, one forged to destroy an enemy’s primordial spirit.

One could well imagine how frightening Shi Hao’s following experiences were. Using his primordial spirit to resist a soul weapon, this was just dangerous to the extreme. There was a chance that he might just directly die here.

“Your body can compare to divine weapons, extremely powerful, currently transforming towards an unbreakable golden body, so the primordial spirit should also be like this, able to face soul weapons!”

The great elder told him directly that there were many extremely frightening soul weapons on the other side. Back then, the reason why this world suffered a great defeat during Immortal Ancient’s last days was because the other side used many soul weapons, and that was why the creatures of the Nine Heavens Ten Earths suffered such great losses.

Among them, there were a few unmatched soul weapons that even more so cut down true immortals, wiping out the primordial spirits of some existences on that level, shocking this realm.

When Shi Hao heard this, he gasped. He was momentarily silent, and then he had the Great Elder continuously use the pure golden staff to attack his primordial spirit. He defended himself with his naked primordial spirit, resisting it bare-handedly.

“It seems like the Chaos Calming Art is even more valuable than what I had thought! The day will come when not only my flesh is unbreakable, even my primordial spirit will be cultivated to that step so that I won’t fear any type of attacks!” Shi Hao’s expression was serious.

It was clear that since the Chaos Calming Art could turn the primordial spirit into a weapon, kill countless enemies, wipe out everything in its path, then it could definitely strengthen the primordial spirit to the extreme.

If even its offensive potential was penetrating and unmatched, there was less of a need to talk about passively defending against soul weapons. It was definitely an unmatched ancient method!

Four months passed, Shi Hao still didn’t emerge from seclusion.

Five months passed. Heavenly Deity Institution was still quiet.

Half a year passed. Some people in the outside world shook their heads. A genius who didn’t have any hope had been locked up for so long already, what kind of pleasant surprises could there be?

“Wu, four geniuses from Immortal Academy came out of seclusion, the most powerful few from Sacred Academy have pretty much all appeared, all of them achieving perfection, yet Huang is still nowhere to be seen. Can I say that he is putting on quite the airs? Haha..” Someone laughed loudly.

“Those young supreme beings have perfect ancient seeds, yet they didn’t use up that much time. Meanwhile, Huang is so ‘reserved’, not willing to come out, he really is bashful and adorable, heh heh!”

A few people laughed coldly, not concealing their mockery and ridicule at all. Quite a few people were waiting for Shi Hao to make a fool of himself.