Tian Lao left and never appeared again.
Zhang Ruochen could not hold back in the end. He was worried about the safety of Prajna, Xiao Hei and the others. He planned to leave this black desert.
Cultivating the absolute fleshly body transformation was undoubtedly important, but it was not something that had to be done. Since ancient times, how many brilliant figures, successive heavenly venerables, the seven great Buddha ancestors, the nine great witch ancestors… None of them had reached that level, yet they could still dominate the world and be invincible for an era.
Even the Heavenly Dao had flaws. How could the human dao be perfect?
If he lost his most important friends and lover because of cultivating the absolute fleshly body transformation, what was the point of cultivation? Would he not fall into a lifetime of self-blame?
“Awoo!”
In the black desert, great winds arose.
Black sand swept up, forming a seven-armed fire demon fox. It stood upright, over seventy zhang tall, blocking Zhang Ruochen’s path.
The seven-armed fire demon fox breathed flames, its momentum surging like a true god. Its seven arms waved together, each punch stronger than the last. It sent Zhang Ruochen flying back, his body crashing heavily into a demon god stone pillar.
Zhang Ruochen’s bones felt like they were about to fall apart. The pain was extreme. He slid down from the stone pillar and fell right in front of Gu She Jing.
Gu She Jing sat quietly on the ground, her breath steady and long. She did not even open her eyes. She said, “Do not disturb my meditation.”
Zhang Ruochen stood up. His blood surged like rivers. After circulating once, his injuries healed.
He strode forward. His steps grew faster and faster. Origin rules from heaven and earth continuously merged into his body. His momentum grew stronger and stronger. Holding the supreme holy artefact, the Wujin Zhan Tian Pillar, he attacked the seven-armed fire demon fox.
“Bang bang!”
…
“Boom!”
Moments later, Zhang Ruochen flew back again and crashed into the stone pillar.
The stone pillar stood like a mountain, unmoving.
Zhang Ruochen’s body fell lightly like a piece of paper, landing once more in front of Gu She Jing. He looked very dishevelled. His hairband was broken. His saint robe was torn to shreds. The bones in his legs seemed fractured. When he tried to stand, he slipped many times.
In the end, he propped himself up with the Wujin Zhan Tian Pillar and stood up unsteadily.
But…
“Pfft!”
He spat out a mouthful of blood!
With a bang, Zhang Ruochen fell to the ground again.
The blood sprayed onto Gu She Jing, dotting her face, body, and hands like plum blossoms, stained with blood spots.
Gu She Jing was thoroughly angry. She thought Zhang Ruochen was deliberately causing trouble. She opened a pair of cold eyes and said, “If you want to die, go to a place far away. Do not die in front of me.”
She was about to wipe the blood from her face.
“Wait a moment.”
Zhang Ruochen took a deep breath. At once, the blood he had just spat out turned into strands of blood qi and surged back into his body through his nostrils. His blood contained Bai Cang Blood Soil. Of course, he did not want to lose it easily.
“Disgusting.”
Gu She Jing showed a look of disgust. She stood up and walked towards another demon god stone pillar.
Zhang Ruochen supported his body and sat up. After resting for a moment, his injuries healed quickly.
This was the benefit of refining the Bai Cang Blood Soil. No matter how severe the damage to the fleshly body, it could self-heal. Of course, the heavier the injury, the more time it took.
Zhang Ruochen did not rush to challenge the black desert again.
With his current cultivation, plus the strangeness of this place, where demonic dao power was abundant and covered a vast area of heaven and earth, making it difficult to mobilise too many origin rules with origin mysteries, leaving was almost impossible.
It also made Zhang Ruochen understand one thing. Mysteries were indeed just a means. Cultivation was the foundation.
Even for an origin envoy, if their cultivation was not strong enough, once suppressed by a powerful god into a divine realm world, mobilising origin rules would be as hard as ascending to heaven.
Just like now.
Just like inside the God Venerable’s body.
Not only mysteries, but time power and space power were the same. They all required sufficiently powerful cultivation to support them before one could overturn heaven and earth.
Thinking of this, Zhang Ruochen took out the sun dial.
“If I really cannot leave, then I can only raise my cultivation as quickly as possible.”
Zhang Ruochen came to the side of the heavenly well and activated the sun dial to cultivate.
For martial dao, it was already very hard to improve now.
But beside the Udumbara Flower, it was an excellent place to cultivate mental power. Moreover, Zhang Ruochen had the Buddha ancestor’s relic in his body.
In the blink of an eye, three years passed under the sun dial.
Zhang Ruochen’s mental power rose at ten times, a hundred times the speed, reaching the peak of the seventy-first rank.
In these three years, although Zhang Ruochen had shrunk the range covered by the sun dial to the minimum, the divine stones were still consumed like water. It was not like before, where cultivating for three years only used three divine stones.
After becoming a mental power god, the sun dial’s consumption of divine stones increased by more than ten times.
After three years of cultivation, Zhang Ruochen’s restless, worried, and irritable heart had completely calmed down.
If he could not leave this place, worrying would be meaningless no matter what.
He stood up and walked towards the seventy-two god and demon stone pillars. He saw that three days had passed, yet Gu She Jing was still sitting motionless in her original spot, meditating and cultivating.
“Zhang Ruochen!”
Gu She Jing stood up and gave a cold shout.
Zhang Ruochen turned back in confusion.
Gu She Jing seemed to realise her attitude had been poor earlier. Her tone softened a lot. She said, “May I borrow the sun dial for a use?”
It was rare for Gu She Jing to be so humble. Zhang Ruochen said, “You want to borrow the sun dial to give yourself more time to comprehend the seventy-two demon god stone pillars?”
“That is exactly it. Are you willing to lend it to me?” Gu She Jing said.
Zhang Ruochen sighed. “Actually, I think Tian Lao letting you comprehend the seventy-two demon god stone pillars has no deeper hidden meaning.”
“What do you mean?” Gu She Jing said.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Think about it. You are different from me. You are the eye of the Tian Ge in Luo Zu Yun Shan Realm, the future master. Tian Lao must truly want to nurture you. It is impossible for her to give you riddles, test you, or make you deliberately guess the meaning of comprehending the seventy-two demon god stone pillars.”
“So?” Gu She Jing asked.
Zhang Ruochen said, “So, Tian Lao’s purpose is only one, to let you comprehend the cultivation dao of the seventy-two demon gods. Moreover, mainly the Heavenly Demon stone pillar and those demon god stone pillars inherited from great demon gods. In this way, you will gather the cultivation methods of the three great demon sources in one body. Your future achievements will be limitless.”
After saying this, ignoring Gu She Jing who had fallen into contemplation, Zhang Ruochen continued walking in the direction Tian Lao had left, all the way to the end of the seventy-two demon god stone pillars, arriving below the Heavenly Demon stone pillar.
Turning his head to look, Zhang Ruochen’s face showed surprise, but he quickly calmed down. He bowed and saluted. “Greetings, Senior Tian Lao.”
Tian Lao, in a red robe with a head full of white hair, was standing below the Heavenly Demon stone pillar, leaning against the stone wall. She seemed to have been waiting for him for a long time.
Tian Lao said, “Are you not curious why I am standing here?”
“This junior boldly guesses that three days ago, senior was already standing here, waiting for this junior for three days. Unfortunately, this junior is dull and only realised it today.” Zhang Ruochen said respectfully.
Tian Lao said, “Actually, it was three years, right?”
Zhang Ruochen was a bit embarrassed. “That is correct.”
Tian Lao said, “Do you know why it took you three years to think that I never left and was waiting for you here?”
“Because at that time, this junior’s mind was not calm and lacked patience. So, I never walked to the end of the seventy-two demon god stone pillars and never thought that senior would test this junior’s state of mind in this way.” Zhang Ruochen said.
“You know only one part, but not the second.”
Tian Lao’s red robe fluttered. She was stunningly beautiful. She rose with the wind and flew to the top of the Heavenly Demon stone pillar.
Zhang Ruochen also rose with the wind and stood at the top of the stone pillar.
From here, one could see the entire black desert. It was spectacular, yet also desolate. Apart from the Udumbara Flower, no life breath could be seen.
The top of the Heavenly Demon stone pillar was very vast. Below was mist like a cloud bridge.
Tian Lao sat at the edge of the stone pillar, gazing into the distance. Her red robe danced in the wind, bright and beautiful.
Zhang Ruochen stood behind her and could not help asking, “Senior, you have stayed here for hundreds of thousands of years. Do you not feel lonely at all?”
“When the heart is strong enough, where is there knowledge of loneliness?”
Tian Lao crossed her ten fingers and placed them leisurely between her legs. She said, “The second reason I want to tell you is related to the heart. The Demon Ancestor lineage emphasises not only refining the body, but also cultivating the heart. Only when cultivating the heart and refining the body are combined as one is the strongest fleshly body.”
“Three days ago, your heart was too chaotic and impatient. Even if I told you the method to impact the absolute fleshly body transformation then, you could not do it. So, I could only wait for you to adjust your state of mind yourself and calm down.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “My heart is calm enough now.”
Tian Lao said, “Do you know that before seeing you, I did not believe anyone in the world could reach the absolute fleshly body transformation? But your physique is too special, and you have unprecedentedly cultivated the perfect first-grade saint intent.”
“Actually, with these conditions, you must be able to reach the absolute fleshly body transformation.”
“Why must I be able to reach the absolute fleshly body transformation?” Zhang Ruochen asked in confusion.
Tian Lao said, “Must be able means that a normal person must be able to grow ten fingers. A flower must be able to bloom.”
“Senior means that with my physique and saint intent, cultivating to the absolute fleshly body transformation is a matter of course?” Zhang Ruochen said.
“This is only for you. It is hard to find a second in the world.”
Tian Lao stared at Zhang Ruochen and said again, “But it is not absolute. Some people are born missing fingers. Some flowers wither before they bloom.”
“Senior, may you point the way out of confusion? How can this junior reach the absolute fleshly body transformation?” Zhang Ruochen asked.
“I already said it earlier. I do not want to say it a second time.”
Suddenly, Tian Lao said, “You stay here and cultivate well. Go down only after reaching the absolute fleshly body transformation.”
“Whoosh!”
Tian Lao was graceful and flew downwards.
Not straight down, but towards a certain position in the black desert.
“Already said it?”
A puzzled look appeared on Zhang Ruochen’s face. For a person like Tian Lao, sometimes it was truly hard to know whether to think shallowly or deeply about her words. If thought too deeply, one might end up like Gu She Jing, where cleverness backfired.
If thought too shallowly, would there be deviations in cultivation?
Zhang Ruochen looked down. He saw that in the direction Tian Lao flew, three figures were hurrying rapidly in the black desert, their faces showing joy. So, he hurriedly called out, “Senior, show mercy. They are my friends.”
