88: Chapter 88: Insight into the Universe 88: Chapter 88: Insight into the Universe Just a moment ago, Ye Zhen was still among the mortal realm, yet in the next breath, it was as if he had arrived in the Stone Forest Fairyland.

Stone pillars of varying shapes and sizes formed what seemed like an endless expanse of stone forest, with misty fog rising everywhere.

The moment he entered, Ye Zhen’s spirit was invigorated, and he felt as though his energy had multiplied dramatically.

Looking up, the sky remained the same, only the sun was no longer blinding, and the stars, originally invisible to the naked eye, were now clearly visible.

The myriad stars appearing in the sky cast down beams of cold light, blanketing the Universe Stone Forest Secret Realm with a layer of chilly and mystical radiance.

Wandering among the stones, navigating past one strangely shaped pillar after another, Ye Zhen gradually developed a peculiar feeling.

It was as if each stone pillar was meant to be exactly where it was, that it was meant to grow just so, positioned there as the most appropriate and fitting place in the heavens and earth.

As he moved along, it seemed that it wasn’t just a stone forest passing by his sides, but rather a mysterious and profound trajectory.

The moment this profound trajectory caught Ye Zhen’s eye, the True Essence inside Ye Zhen’s Dantian seemed to be drawn by something, and it began to circulate on its own.

What was even more astonishing was that the path which Ye Zhen’s True Essence took within his body seemed to resonate faintly with the trajectory of the stone forest.

As the extending trajectory of the stone forest became more mystical and perfect, the speed at which the True Essence circulated within Ye Zhen also increased, as did its fluctuations.

When the profound trajectory that the stone forest induced in Ye Zhen reached perfection, his body trembled involuntarily and he fell to the ground.

Boom!

It was as if some barrier within him had been shattered, and the space in Ye Zhen’s Dantian suddenly expanded, causing the True Essence inside to start growing wildly.

“To break through so quickly, True Essence Fourth Realm!”

Ye Zhen, who opened his eyes, wore a face of surprise.

Originally, his cultivation at the late stage of True Essence Third Realm was due to the absorption of a trace of the Silver Line Demon Eagle King’s power, and his foundation was not particularly stable.

Under normal circumstances, it would not have been possible for Ye Zhen to break through to the True Essence Fourth Realm without half a year of persistent effort.

But upon first entering the stone forest and wandering within, it seemed he had entered an extraordinary state, and before long, Ye Zhen’s cultivation had advanced directly from the Third Realm Late Stage to the Fourth Stage of True Essence.

After rising to his feet, Ye Zhen, rather greedily, continued to walk within the stone forest, hoping to re-enter that extraordinary state to enhance his cultivation.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard Ye Zhen tried, he could not recapture that same feeling.

“It seems that the state I was in just now happens by chance and cannot be sought!”

After attempts proved fruitless, Ye Zhen simply began exploring the Universe Stone Forest.

Even with Ye Zhen’s speed, after running day and night, the Universe Stone Forest still had no end, as if it were boundless.

Having explored in many ways to no avail, Ye Zhen’s heart calmed down, and he focused single-mindedly on taking out a sword technique to practice.

This sword technique was quite ordinary, named the Flying Frost Sword Art, a Human-Level Lower Sword Technique.

When cultivated to the extreme, the sword light would spread like white frost across the ground.

A few days ago, after slightly recovering from his injuries, Ye Zhen had gone to the second floor of the Scripture Storage Tower to select this Sword Technique Secret Manual.

During his battle with Yuen Chengzu, Ye Zhen realized that although his True Essence Sword Finger was extremely sharp, he lacked a suitable sword technique to wield it.

Otherwise, he would not have struggled so greatly when defeating Yuen Chengzu that day.

Swoosh!

Ye Zhen, holding the Sky Crystal Sword, thrust it forward, bringing with it a wisp of white qi.

Within the Universe Stone Forest, Ye Zhen started practicing diligently.

Although the sun, moon, and stars above the Universe Stone Forest showed little change during day or night, the rising and setting of the sun still enabled Ye Zhen to roughly determine the time.

Ye Zhen practiced swordsmanship during the daytime and circulated the One Qi Mixture Skill in the morning and evening to condense his True Essence.

As time passed day by day, so too did Ye Zhen’s steadfast and diligent cultivation.

In the Universe Stone Forest, all was silent; except for Ye Zhen, there wasn’t a single moving creature in sight.

All Ye Zhen could do was to cultivate, and cultivate more.

This was a true test of endurance; every day, Ye Zhen would exhaust himself to the point of collapse, sleeping instantly.

Otherwise, he feared that the silent environment might drive him mad.

In the blink of an eye, three months had passed.

During these three months, apart from his round-the-clock diligence, Ye Zhen had also consumed the Demon Spirit Essence Elixir awarded by the Eldest Prince Zhu Xuan, and his cultivation had risen from the early stage to the middle stage of True Essence Fourth Realm.

But afterwards, his cultivation speed slowed to a crawl.

The Bloodline Talent that Ye Zhen had managed to barely enhance to Four Veins using the Stone Marrow Spirit Liquid created a significant barrier in his cultivation speed.

Without pills, Ye Zhen’s cultivation speed was agonizingly slow, comparable to a turtle’s.

He estimated that at this rate, it would take him at least a year to advance from the True Essence Fourth Realm Middle Stage to the Late Stage, even with accelerated cultivation speed in the Universe Stone Forest.

To Ye Zhen’s disappointment, that mystical feeling he had experienced upon first entering the stone forest never appeared again in those three months.

“Could it be that my only gain in the Universe Stone Forest is breaking through a cultivation bottleneck?” Ye Zhen felt quite disappointed.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Ye Zhen’s Sky Crystal Sword thrust out like lightning, with each thrust emitting a vast expanse of white fog.

After around a dozen lightning-fast thrusts, the stone forest around Ye Zhen had turned into a blanket of white.

With a long howl, Ye Zhen propelled himself off a pillar, vigorously driving the Sky Crystal Sword in his hand.

A ray of ice-cold Sword Light shot out fiercely, and almost at the same time, Ye Zhen’s empty left hand shot out two zhang-long Sword Qi beams.

Instantly, the Sword Lights intertwined into one.

The exact moment the Sword Lights intertwined, Ye Zhen kicked off repeatedly, soaring more than thirty meters and leaping atop a stone pillar.

Standing atop the pillar, he sheathed his sword, and the energetic Ye Zhen suddenly became somewhat despondent, as he flopped down to sit on the summit of the pillar.

I’ve got nothing to do!

Within three months, Ye Zhen had not only brought his White Frost Sword Technique to the ultimate level, but he had also diligently trained in all the martial arts he had ever learned, causing his overall skills to almost form an integrated whole.

Now, aside from his daily routine of condensing True Essence, Ye Zhen had nothing else to do.

He somewhat regretted not choosing more secret manuals back then.

Sitting cross-legged at the top of a stone pillar, Ye Zhen gazed absentmindedly at the endless Universe Stone Forest, watching as streaks of starlight fell from the sky onto the tops of the pillars.

This was the only special feature Ye Zhen had discovered about the Universe Stone Forest so far—the stone forest moved!

The stone forest would rotate in accordance with the movement of the sun, moon, and stars in the sky.

This was something Ye Zhen had found out a few days ago when he had flown out of boredom to the top of a pillar.

Ever since discovering this unique trait of the Universe Stone Forest, it had become the thing that Ye Zhen did most every day.

No other reason, standing at the top of the stone forest, Ye Zhen could at least see something other than himself that moved, preventing him from going mad with boredom.

As usual, Ye Zhen propped his face with his hands, staring steadily at the boundless stone forest ahead.

Oh God, as the stars in the sky made their rotation according to the time, the starlight from countless stars falling from the sky suddenly shifted, and the stone pillar in front of Ye Zhen seemed to come alive, abruptly rotating in a perfectly timed manner to catch the falling starlight.

Ye Zhen was startled, then froze in shock.

A sense of mystery surged in his heart, far surpassing the feeling he had when he first entered the stone forest.

Especially that rotation of the stone pillar, which seemed incredibly mysterious, as if it contained some kind of pattern.

This discovery instantly invigorated Ye Zhen.

Standing stiffly on top of the stone pillar, Ye Zhen’s eyes continued to savor that mysterious rotation he just witnessed.

Suddenly, Ye Zhen stamped forcefully, his body also mysteriously turned, and he shot across the sky, aiming for another pillar dozens of meters away.

The moment he traversed the air, that mysteriousness abruptly disappeared, and Ye Zhen, who had just been supported by a strange force formed by his True Essence, instantly lost all support, falling from dozens of meters in the air like a stone.

“Ah…”

Crying out, Ye Zhen landed on the ground with the intimacy of an octopus, luckily using his Protective Gang Qi to cushion his fall, which spared him from a terrible crash, but even so, he was shaken till he was sore all over.

The next moment, Ye Zhen quickly climbed back up the pillar and closed his eyes again to recall that previous moment, taking another step out.

Crack!

Mid-step, that feeling of mystery was interrupted again, and Ye Zhen once more intimately contacted the ground.

Getting up, Ye Zhen climbed up the pillar again.

He stepped out, fell down, and repeated the cycle, with no reprieve.

After Ye Zhen fell countless times, the starlight overhead rotated once more, and he, already waiting there, watched the movement of the stars intently, then stepped out in rhythm with it.

Crack!

Ye Zhen fell once again from dozens of meters in the air.

However, his eyes filled with excitement.

Progress!

Because from this fall, Ye Zhen realized he had improved.

With that step, the mysterious body skill could now cover a distance of twenty-one meters, one meter more than before.

“Again!”

With a roar, Ye Zhen, sore all over, climbed back up onto the pillar, relishing the mysterious feeling, and stepped out again.

Two days later, when the starlight projected from the sky turned in response to the change of time, Ye Zhen’s figure followed the shifting stone pillar and stepped out.

Whoosh!

Ye Zhen’s mysteriously swift figure flashed through the air, and wherever he went, the omnipresent Heaven and Earth Primordial Power seemed to be summoned by some force, resonating with the True Essence rippling inside Ye Zhen, and gathered around him.

Swish!

With the sound of wind piercing his ears, Ye Zhen’s feet spanned a distance of over forty meters, firmly landing on top of a stone pillar.

Simultaneously, the starlight from above also fell upon his head.

It worked!

Just as Ye Zhen’s mystic step succeeded, in the Silent Chamber, Sect Leader Guo Qijing, who had been cultivating in silence, suddenly opened his eyes, emitting a strange light and appearing quite excited,

“This…

This…

How is this possible!”

***********

PS: So few recommendation tickets,…

this…

this…

this is impossible!

Fellows, where are your recommendation tickets!