Chapter 229: A Thousand Tribulations Cannot Destroy This Body; I Swear Not to Return Until I Reach Deity Transformation

Several hours later, a low hum echoed from deep within the cave dwelling. A spherical barrier of light rose from the ground, enveloping the entire cave dwelling and the surrounding area for several miles. The spiritual light flashed and vanished, quickly blending seamlessly into the ambient yin energy, leaving no trace of its presence.

Jiuyou stood in the center of the quiet room. A streak of golden light darted from the ground, and Xuan Zhenzi's figure materialized in midair. He patted nonexistent dust from his clothes, adopting the look of someone content to retire after achieving success.

"Alright, kid. The grand formation here was created by Linghu Shou," Xuan Zhenzi said. "Linghu gave it to little Jinli before he left. I seized his memories, so repairing it wasn't too much trouble. With the Universal Pivot mediating things, that Deity Transformation cultivator won't be able to discover us anytime soon."

Jiuyou nodded slightly, his tone calm but solemn. "Thank you, Ancestral Master."

Xuan Zhenzi gave him a complex look and let out a long sigh. With a flash of golden light, a jade slip faintly traced with golden patterns floated up from his palm and drifted slowly toward Jiuyou.

"My cultivation insights from when I broke through to Deity Transformation are all recorded in this jade slip," Xuan Zhenzi said. "Although the environment of heaven and earth is vastly different now, it might still give you some reference."

Jiuyou took the jade slip and sent his divine sense into it, memorizing the contents word for word. Comparing it with the Deity Transformation insights left behind by Perfected Jinli, he found many similarities: the details of merging the Nascent Soul with the soul, the optimal timing for their fusion, and how to sense the origin energy of heaven and earth at the final juncture. But Xuan Zhenzi had been a genuine Deity Transformation cultivator when he was alive; his cultivation insights were naturally far more comprehensive.

With the two sets of insights verifying each other, he could easily distinguish true from false.

Both sets of insights spoke of an extremely special type of qi—"origin energy"—which was completely different from ordinary spiritual qi.

It was far more profound—the very foundation of the world's origin and the essence of life. A sliver of this foundational origin energy existed within every living creature, though ordinary cultivators simply could not perceive it. Only by reaching the Deity Transformation level and cultivating a primordial spirit could one truly sense its presence.

Deity Transformation cultivators could use the foundational origin energy within their primordial spirits to indirectly draw upon the origin energy of heaven and earth, and then use that worldly origin energy to control the flow of spiritual qi. This was a divine ability unique to Deity Transformation cultivators.

In battles between Deity Transformation cultivators, spiritual qi was never in short supply. Instead, it was always a matter of who exhausted their foundational origin energy first. Therefore, the amount of origin energy stored within a Deity Transformation cultivator's primordial spirit largely determined the outcome of any clash at that level.

However, to manifest a primordial spirit, the fusion of the Nascent Soul and the soul was far from enough. One also had to integrate the sliver of foundational origin energy from within their own body, using it as a catalyst to gather the surrounding origin energy of heaven and earth. Only when this gathered origin energy reached a critical mass would a cultivator qualify to manifest their primordial spirit and cross that threshold.

The reason the Daoyang Ten Palaces Art was so tyrannical lay in the grand divine ability known as "Unity of the Ten Palaces." During the condensation of the primordial spirit, this ability could increase the amount of gathered origin energy, allowing the manifested primordial spirit to refine far more foundational origin energy. As a result, the cultivator's foundation would be infinitely more stable and their strength far greater.

For this exact reason, the threshold to break through to Deity Transformation using this art was much higher, its difficulty far exceeding that of ordinary cultivation methods. This was why Jiuyou needed the assistance of the Five Elements Heaven and Earth Ring. Only by borrowing this treasure's divine ability to draw the surrounding origin energy of heaven and earth into himself could he smoothly refine his primordial spirit and complete that final step.

Jiuyou reviewed the contents of the jade slip twice. Once he confirmed there were no errors, he stored it away in his Qiankun Pouch. He looked up at the gloomy world outside the cave, now sealed off by the light barrier. His gaze was calm, devoid of any excess emotion.

Xuan Zhenzi gave Jiuyou an affirming nod. He didn't rush him; he simply hovered quietly to the side, waiting for a moment that no longer required any words to arrive on its own.

Jiuyou withdrew his gaze. He turned and walked toward the flat stone platform in the center of the quiet room, his footsteps unhurried and steady.

He stopped in front of the platform, sat down cross-legged, and closed his eyes to regulate his breathing. The Five Elements Heaven and Earth Ring floated out from his dantian, hovering above his head as it slowly rotated. Five halos of light lit up in sequence, casting a flickering glow across the entire room.

The moment he closed his eyes, his thoughts involuntarily drifted back into the past.

He thought back to the scenes of those bygone years.

He remembered sitting withered in his cave dwelling as his lifespan neared its end, watching his fingertips grow more haggard by the day, his blood vitality drying up inch by inch. Every effort he made had felt like pouring water into a bottomless well. He still remembered that suffocating sense of powerlessness. It was like an iron block pressing down on his chest—crushingly heavy, leaving him almost without the strength to struggle.

That was until the Little Green Bottle fell into his hands. It brought a kind of hope he had never experienced before, as if a crack had suddenly split open in a pitch-black room, letting a sliver of light stream through.

Over the years, he had killed too many people, and had been hunted down far too many times. The blood on Tianyuan Mountain, the injuries in Blood-Demon Valley, the desperate flight through the heartland of Ganzhou—every step he took had been on the edge of a blade. He had never stopped to wonder if it was all worth it. He had simply kept walking, moving forward again and again, until he became the man he was today.

He didn't dwell on those old memories any longer. By the time he opened his eyes again, his gaze had already returned to a pool of utter calm. The light in the quiet room was dim. The Five Elements Heaven and Earth Ring rotated silently above his head, its five halos flickering unsteadily, as though lighting an unextinguishable lamp for him on this final stretch of his journey.

He looked down at his own hand, slowly clenched it into a fist, and then let it fall open.

Half a day later.

Halos of light spread out from his palms, layering over the edges of the entire cave. This was the formation he had laid down, though Xuan Zhenzi had slightly modified it to better harmonize with the cold, gloomy aura of this Ancient Battlefield. Not only had its might increased by several degrees, but it would also last much longer.

Several more months passed.

Jiuyou sat firmly with his legs crossed. Hovering in front of him was a black soul seed. It was completely dark, without a single trace of bloody baleful energy. This was the result of him fusing the nine main ingredients one by one, following the secret art of the Blood Soul Restriction that Xuan Zhenzi had modified. Unlike the original forbidden art, this soul seed did not devour the caster's own soul. Instead, all those insidious, toxic energies had been completely stripped away, leaving behind only the purest, most refined soul power.

This place was already a natural convergence point for yin fiend energy. Jiuyou planted the soul seed into the eye of the formation. According to the original records of the Blood Soul Restriction, it would take a full eighty-one years for it to mature.

But here, deep within this Ancient Battlefield, the yin energy was so thick it was practically condensing into liquid. Paired with the guidance of the Universal Pivot, yin fiend energy from all directions could be ceaselessly drawn in. After being refined by the Universal Pivot, it was injected directly into the soul seed, vastly shortening the time required for it to mature.

Everything was ready. Now, he only had to wait for that soul seed to drink its fill of yin energy, transforming into the final key he needed to throw open the gates to Deity Transformation.

Outside the cave, the yin wind howled. It was as if countless pairs of eyes were staring at this place across the long river of time, waiting to see whether or not that door would finally open.

Before entering secluded meditation, Jiuyou softly murmured one last phrase.

"A thousand tribulations cannot destroy this body; I swear not to return until I reach Deity Transformation."