Jian Mengyuan had already severed her path and begun cultivating the Seven Cosmos Creation Technique, while Lan Xiaobu put away a puppet he had crafted.
The Great Dream Dao principles that Mengyuan had severed were all absorbed by Lan Xiaobu.
The puppet, infused with these principles, might prove useful in the future.
At this moment, Mengyuan’s strength was steadily rising, and Lan Xiaobu was also continuously enhancing his own power.
Soon, Mengyuan was shocked to discover that cultivating on the Seven Realms Stone not only provided the finest quality primal energy from top-grade Dao veins, concentrated to the extreme, but also carried the aura of chaotic rule essence.
Chaotic rule essence, a product of the primordial creation of the cosmos, was undeniably one of the most precious substances in the vast cosmos.
In just thirty years, Mengyuan had restored her cultivation to the fourth step of the Great Dao, and when her Great Dao cycled, there was no longer the slightest trace of the Great Dream Dao principles.
Taking a deep breath, Mengyuan stepped out of her secluded cave. Though her cultivation had dropped from the fifth step to the fourth step of the Great Dao, her heart was filled only with relief.
She had not only broken free from the nightmarish control of Mengmu Dayan but also escaped Qin Qingtian’s grasp. From this day forward, she would fully control her own path and destiny.
Yet, this was not her greatest gain. The true prize was that, from this day, she had the chance to attain the eighth step of the Great Dao, perhaps even the ninth.
Her aptitude for the Great Dao was already top-tier, but because she had cultivated the Great Dream Dao principles, she had been controlled by Mengmu Dayan. Even without this pursuit and escape, her cultivation would have peaked at the sixth step of the Great Dao.
To Mengmu Dayan, a steward was merely a tool to serve for a lifetime. Mengmu Dayan would nurture top-tier experts but never a tool. As a tool in Mengmu Dayan, Mengyuan would have been unable to progress beyond the sixth step.
Looking at the place where Lan Xiaobu was in seclusion, where the charm of the Great Dao flowed ceaselessly, Mengyuan resolved in her heart that she must help Lan Xiaobu find Mengmu Dayan’s warehouse.
From a certain perspective, she and Lan Xiaobu were even adversaries. She knew exactly why Lan Xiaobu had saved her: first, to have her lead the way to Mengmu Dayan’s lair, and more importantly, because Lan Xiaobu coveted Mengmu Dayan’s warehouse. Otherwise, he would have had no reason to rescue her.
Checking the direction of the Seven Realms Stone and the formation controlling its orientation, Mengyuan returned to seclusion. The fourth step of the Great Dao was formidable in ordinary places, but in the vast cosmos, it was merely average.
Lan Xiaobu was immersed in deep seclusion, with the rich primal energy from top-grade Dao veins and chaotic rule essence allowing his strength to improve every moment. He had not even used the cosmic Dao fruit; if he had, he might already be glimpsing the edge of the eighth step of the Great Dao.
If this continued, he could touch the edge of the eighth step within a century. However, surprises always arise, and he was jolted awake by the Seven Realms Stone’s alarm.
Mengyuan was similarly startled. When she rushed out, Lan Xiaobu was already standing at the edge of the Seven Realms Stone.
Her gaze fell on the void beyond, her eyes filled with shock and fear, “What is this?”
Lan Xiaobu took a deep breath and said slowly, “This is a cosmic wall.”
Before him stretched a long, deep void trench, and his divine sense, crossing the trench, seemed to encounter a faint, massive wall.
Lan Xiaobu had seen a cosmic wall before, a barrier separating the cultivation and technological civilisations.
But the cosmic wall he had seen then was like a grain of sand compared to the desert that was this cosmic wall.
The rules of this cosmic wall were so advanced that, with his seventh-step Great Dao strength, Lan Xiaobu could not discern even a fraction of them.
If this cosmic wall was artificially created, how powerful must its creator be?
“I’m certain there was no cosmic wall here before,” Mengyuan said, her voice trembling as she came to her senses. Clearly, she too was wondering who could create such a cosmic wall. A ninth-step Great Dao practitioner?
Lan Xiaobu studied the directional jade slip given to him by Ding Chongchen for a long while before saying, “The cosmic wall must have appeared recently. Whether it formed naturally or was artificially created, it shouldn’t affect our search for the vast cosmos.”
Even without Mengyuan’s words, Lan Xiaobu knew there had been no cosmic wall here before. If there had been, Ding Chongchen’s jade slip would not have charted a path through it.
“Shall we investigate?” Mengyuan asked hesitantly.
Lan Xiaobu shook his head, “Let’s head to the vast cosmos first, but remember to search for Mengmu Dayan’s lair along the way.”
He had a faint feeling that his current strength was insufficient to probe this cosmic wall.
Because of the sudden discovery of the cosmic wall, Lan Xiaobu did not continue cultivating but instead personally controlled the Seven Realms Stone to swiftly travel along its edge.
His divine sense lingered at the cosmic wall’s boundary, while his cosmic dimensional model began constructing the wall’s dimensional structure.
When he had just begun cultivating, his cosmic dimensional model could construct the dimensional structure of the first universe’s cosmic wall. Now, at the seventh step of the Great Dao…
Lan Xiaobu paused in his thoughts. When he had crossed from the technological realm to the cultivation realm, he had encountered the first universe’s cosmic wall.
Now, encountering a cosmic wall again, could this be the second universe’s wall? Or perhaps the third, or an even higher-grade cosmic wall?
Unlike when he constructed the first universe’s cosmic wall, even at the seventh step, the speed of constructing this cosmic wall’s dimensional structure was excruciatingly slow. Half a day passed without progress, only a faint sense that the model was building, with no visible advancement.
After his strength had increased, constructing dimensional models had always been rapid, but now his cosmic dimensional model was hundreds of times slower than a snail.
“Lord Lan, I feel like Mengmu Dayan’s lair is in this space,” Mengyuan suddenly said, then closed her eyes.
It was purely intuition. She had been here multiple times, each time with her spatial senses locked, but as a Great Dao expert, she still had her own instincts.
Lan Xiaobu seemed not to hear her, for the cosmic wall had vanished. As if incomplete, it abruptly broke off in the middle.
“Lord Lan, it’s nearby,” Mengyuan opened her eyes, her tone now certain. But when her gaze fell on the void, she exclaimed in surprise, “Lord Lan, why has the cosmic wall disappeared?”
Lan Xiaobu said slowly, “Though the cosmic wall is gone here, I have a feeling it will reappear in the future. I’ll set up some array patterns, and you continue searching for Mengmu Dayan’s lair.”
As he spoke, Lan Xiaobu began setting up teleportation arrays with array flags, thinking that if the cosmic wall reappeared, he could cross it via teleportation.
But after setting up the first teleportation array, he stopped.
With his current array mastery, crossing a cosmic wall of this level via teleportation seemed unrealistic. He glanced at the Seven Realms Stone beneath his feet. If he split the Seven Realms Stone again, leaving one realm here, he might cross the cosmic wall in the future. But if even the Seven Realms Stone couldn’t cross it, wouldn’t that be a huge loss?
Seeing Lan Xiaobu set up the teleportation array, Mengyuan said, “Lord Lan, if the cosmic wall reappears here, I’m afraid this teleportation array won’t be able to cross it.”
Lan Xiaobu nodded, fully aware that his teleportation array couldn’t cross a cosmic wall of this level. But he couldn’t just do nothing, could he?
Mengyuan suddenly added, “Lord Lan, I feel the Chaos Path could cross the cosmic wall.”
Lan Xiaobu had also thought of the Chaos Path, but of its six paths, he only had five, missing the crucial Chaos Dao.
Mengyuan continued, “I heard Qin Qingtian say you took four of the Chaos Path’s six paths. With the Chaos River, you should have five. If you leave the Chaos Tablet and place the other four paths here, once you find the Chaos Dao and place it on the other side of the cosmic wall, you could cross it using the Chaos Tablet.”
“Haha…” Lan Xiaobu laughed, “That’s exactly what I’ll do. By keeping the Chaos Tablet, if I capture Qin Qingtian and take his Chaos Dao, I’ll have a chance to cross the cosmic wall.”
The cosmic wall was formidable, but if he placed the Chaos Path on both sides, it would be no obstacle to him.
Acting on the thought, Lan Xiaobu began setting up the four paths of the Chaos Path. Though he hadn’t obtained the Chaos Dao, he had refined all five paths he possessed, except for the Chaos River, which wouldn’t take long to refine.
