Chapter 1700: Rapid Ascent

Back in the Cangxuan Realm, Li Yan gazed at his surroundings with a profound sense of relief. They were finally back.

Had it not been for the absurdly powerful Dong Fuyi, he couldn’t have imagined how long it would have taken to settle his relatives and then Mu Guyue. People likely would have died along the way. Crossing realms was not a task for the weak.

Dong Fuyi had bypassed the normal inter-realm arrays once it was just the two of them. He had torn through the void and traversed the turbulence directly. The speed was terrifying; Li Yan felt his heart hammering as the scenes within the turbulence became a blur of motion. The astral winds howling against their shield sounded like a storm of ten thousand arrows.

Li Yan had instinctively spread his divine sense to its limit and circulated the Five Elements Chaotic Wind technique to anticipate danger. But this only made him more anxious. His sense was flooded with warnings of bone-chilling spatial rifts and black holes. Yet, before he could even register a threat, it was gone—Dong Fuyi had already carried him past it.

In his terror, Li Yan eventually chose to simply shut down his senses.

Whenever Dong Fuyi stopped, he would tear the void to return to the Cangxuan Realm. He would then check his jade maps. Half the time, they would find a nearby teleportation array. After using it, he would find a secluded spot and tear the void again, repeating the cycle.

A few miles in the turbulence was often equivalent to thousands of miles in the real world. This was the first time Li Yan truly understood what it meant to have “great divine abilities.” His own skills felt like child’s play in comparison. It also showed just how intimately familiar Dong Fuyi was with the Cangxuan Realm. He could navigate the real-world positions from within the turbulence as if he had done it a thousand times.

What should have taken decades or centuries to complete—crossing the realm twice—was achieved in a fraction of the time.

Li Yan was filled with envy. Yu Banjiang had once told him how vast the Immortal Spirit Realm was, claiming that even Body Integration monsters had to fly for ages to get anywhere. Li Yan realized Yu Banjiang’s cultivation had been too low; he lived in a corner of the world and couldn’t imagine the heights of true power. Great abilities didn’t rely on “hard flight”; they relied on manipulating the fabric of reality itself.

Of course, this required a level of mastery like Dong Fuyi’s and the experience of having roamed the realms in his youth. Even Dong Fuyi couldn’t stay in the turbulence indefinitely; he too would lose his way if he didn’t periodically check his position against the real world.

“We can… go back now!” Dong Fuyi looked at the sea of clouds. Though he had returned to the Cangxuan Realm multiple times over the last few decades, his mood was different now. They were finally heading home to the Gui Water Immortal Sect.

“Master, how much further is the sect?” Li Yan asked with anticipation.

“We are at the edge of the realm, far from the center. The journey is not short, though our destination is not at the exact opposite end. If we travel as we have been, we should arrive within thirty years,” Dong Fuyi said.

Through their travels, he had found that many places from his memory had changed beyond recognition. Fortunately, he was experienced and knew which markets or sects held the most detailed maps. He had spent the journey collecting jade maps, sometimes stealing them from high-level cultivators or even performing quick soul-searches. By chaining these maps together, he had built a comprehensive guide to the current realm.

He also noted that many sects had realized the value of distant resources and had established long-range teleportation arrays. By chaining these together, they could move far faster than any flight could allow.

“Enough talk. Let’s move!” Dong Fuyi was eager to return.

Several decades had passed since they left the Malevolent Spirit Sect. During the long stretches of travel where he was not needed, Li Yan’s cultivation had undergone an explosive breakthrough. His Gui Water True Scripture, which had been lagging, had long since passed the Mid-stage Spirit Transformation.

With Dong Fuyi’s constant pointers, every unrefined detail or misunderstanding in his technique was resolved. Over these decades, the True Scripture had surged ahead, surpassing both the Qiongqi Purgatory Art and the Sacred Soul Transformation. It felt as though he were gliding effortlessly toward the Late-stage Spirit Transformation.

As he neared the peak of that stage, the momentum didn’t slow. Without any prompting from Dong Fuyi, Li Yan had to forcibly suppress his own progress. He felt that if he didn’t, he might have accidentally triggered a breakthrough to the Void Refinement realm.

Dong Fuyi was immensely satisfied. Li Yan’s foundation was incredibly solid, and his control over his own progress surpassed anything Dong Fuyi had achieved at that age. Because Li Yan had taught himself for so long, he had built a mountain of potential but had overlooked many fine details. While these details seemed minor, they were vital for polishing one’s realm. While Li Yan would have eventually figured them out, it would have taken him much longer.

When Dong Fuyi found him, Li Yan was no longer a piece of raw jade; he was a gem nearly finished. With just a few key pointers, his cultivation speed experienced an incredible burst. However, in such a state, one had to control their speed. If the Dantian and Sea of Consciousness expanded too quickly without being solidified, it would damage the foundation. Li Yan had slowed himself down, allowing his progress to flow like a steady, thickening stream.

In his spare time, Li Yan continued to cultivate the Qiongqi Purgatory Art. As his cultivation rose, his physical body needed to be strengthened in parallel. Dong Fuyi knew the origin of this art. Since Li Yan was already committed to Dual Dharma-Body Cultivation, it couldn’t be changed now. Besides, it was a top-tier body-tempering art that Dong Fuyi admitted provided an immense boost to Li Yan’s combat power, allowing him to fight far above his rank.

Li Yan also maintained his Limb-Severing Poison Body. Dong Fuyi had asked Li Yan to demonstrate some of his toxins—not to pry into his secrets, but to understand his disciple better. He was shocked by the results. Even as a Body Integration expert, Li Yan’s toxins had a noticeable effect on him. While they couldn’t kill him, they could certainly slay a Void Refinement cultivator. Only a Late-stage Void Refinement master might have a fifty-fifty chance of neutralizing them.

Dong Fuyi was baffled by how the Malevolent Spirit Sect had produced such a thing. He suspected it was linked to some of their more obscure manuals, but the pattern was too hidden to discern. After a thorough physical examination with Li Yan’s consent, he confirmed the poison body did not interfere with the Gui Water techniques or Li Yan’s specialized spirit root. He was relieved; he had feared the toxin might eventually erode that “trash” root which he valued as a supreme treasure.

Li Yan’s Purgatory Art had not yet reached the Late-stage Spirit Transformation, but it was close. He had also made some breakthroughs in his prison-breaking techniques, though he found them still too complex to manifest fully.

The Sacred Soul Transformation had seen the least progress. He had limited time between Dong Fuyi’s pointers and his body tempering. Furthermore, he didn’t dare cultivate it openly beside Dong Fuyi. Though his master knew of his soul arts, he viewed them as a supplementary skill. Dong Fuyi assumed Li Yan had only found a crude, fragmented manual; he never imagined it was a top-tier inheritance.

Li Yan didn’t want to expose too much. The Soul Suppression Palace was hostile to other powers, and until he understood the Soul-Prison Tribe better—and devised a way to slowly reveal his multiple identities—it was better to keep the secret. He needed to gauge the reactions of Elders Hao and Tang before making his next move.