https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-222-Slashing-the-Prodigy-Elevating-the-Divine-Name/13450317/
Chapter 221: The Young Man Enters the Great Wasteland
Chapter 221: The Young Man Enters the Great Wasteland
The Donghuang Continent is vast and boundless. If the Great Yu Divine Dynasty is at the center, the Imperial Capital is like the bullseye of a target.
The contours of the Nineteen Provinces resemble a teapot.
The spout of the teapot is Heavenly Gate Pass. Extending outward from Heavenly Gate Pass, one traverses the gray demon territories, where demons nest and roam. Beyond that, on the map, lies the deep black region of the Great Wasteland Sky Realm.
The Dayu Military Department has four divisions, responsible for martial selections, cartography, transportation in various provinces, and armor and weapons.
The Department of Cartography manages the maps of the entire realm, regularly updating them.
Throughout the Great Yu Divine Dynasty's three-thousand-year history, countless maps have been revised and updated, reflecting changes in the terrain of the provinces.
The demon territories outside the borders are marked in gray, but over the years, various landscapes such as mountains and peaks have been discovered and named, providing significant convenience for the Demon Suppression Bureau in tracking down wanted demons. Drawing these maps has cost the lives of many talented individuals.
However, no matter how the maps have changed, the region beyond the demon territories, the Great Wasteland Sky, which was named by the Former Emperor during his expedition, remains a deep black.
There are no descriptions or illustrations of its terrain.
It is like a black abyss surrounding the edge of the continent, a perilous and forbidden land for the human race, shrouded in mystery and danger.
For thousands of years, many talented individuals from the Military Department have attempted to explore the Great Wasteland Sky, but countless sacrifices have been made, and only a few pieces of information have been brought back.
These blood-written pieces of information were compiled into a book called the Great Wasteland Scripture.
It consists of only two pages with a few hundred words of brief narration.
Life is as fragile as paper.
Despite this, these two thin pages are carefully preserved in the Imperial Palace, and only top-tier forces like the Divine General Manor have copies.
At this moment, on the edge of the Great Wasteland Sky, a young man is walking through a primeval forest with towering trees and a misty, damp atmosphere.
The surroundings are filled with tall trees, and a thick fog hangs in the air.
"According to the records, the Great Wasteland Sky is filled with miasma, giant beasts, and rampaging demons. There are also rumors of ancient and fearsome creatures."
As Li Hao walks forward, he carefully observes his surroundings.
The records are indeed accurate. Although he hasn't encountered any giant beasts or demons yet, he can already feel the damp and toxic miasma in the forest.
Fortunately, his Indestructible Treasure Body is highly condensed, allowing him to easily resist and remain unharmed.
But if it were another Three Eternities Realm cultivator, staying in this forest for too long would damage their Treasure Body.
For cultivators of lower realms, it would be even more difficult.
Mother actually lives in such a place... Li Hao's eyes flicker with thought as he asks the old man from the Ji Family, who is hiding and shrunk down on his person:
"Are there really humans living here?"
"Not humans, but the Holy Race!"
The old man from the Ji Family immediately corrects him.
He has developed a fondness for Li Hao's talent and is willing to explain more:
"My Ji Family is an Ancient Holy Clan. Although we are of human origin, our clan members possess ancient holy blood, making our physiques far stronger than those of primitive humans. Moreover, our clan is protected by a Holy Land, which shields us from the miasma. It is a place that can be described as a paradise."
Hearing this, Li Hao feels a bit relieved, thinking that his mother's living environment must be quite good.
As he walks, Li Hao begins to chat with the old man from the Ji Family.
He learns that the old man's name is Ji Yunge.
While the old man only briefly discusses matters related to the Ji Family, he provides Li Hao with a lot of guidance about the Great Wasteland Sky, helping Li Hao understand that the Great Wasteland Sky is indeed as perilous as described by the countless explorers from the Military Department.
However, this peril is divided into different regions.
For example, the area they are currently in is the outer edge of the Great Wasteland Sky. Although they might encounter extremely terrifying demons, the probability is low.
Most of the area is dominated by low-bloodline demons and fierce beasts.
However, the Heavenly and Earth Energy here is abundant, and even low-bloodline demons have the potential to cultivate to the Demon King realm. Therefore, the warning from the Great Yu Divine Dynasty that cultivators below the Fourth Establishment Realm should not easily enter the Great Wasteland Sky is quite reliable.
Amidst the towering ancient trees, Li Hao followed Ji Yunge's guidance, swiftly making his way through the forest.
He darted between the massive trunks, each with a diameter of several dozen meters, and every branch was wide enough to comfortably lie several people across.
As he was moving forward, a sudden shadow shot toward him.
The Dao Resonance pulled at him, making the attack unavoidable, as if there was no way to evade it.
Li Hao was momentarily taken aback, but his foot, which had just landed, quickly shot forward again. With the Heaven and Earth Traceless technique, he vanished with a whoosh, escaping the Dao Resonance's pull.
Before the Dao Resonance could reconnect, Li Hao reappeared at the source of the attack, moving as fast as lightning. He saw a woman hidden behind the thick leaves at the treetop.
She was half-human, half-demon, with mantis-like lower limbs that were both fierce and grotesque.
Seeing Li Hao suddenly appear before her, the woman was also startled. Clearly, she hadn't expected this young man, whose aura was not overtly powerful but who was clearly of the Human Race, to have such remarkable skills!
Her pupils constricted, but she reacted quickly, spewing a jet of green Toxic Liquid.
Bang!
Li Hao raised his hand and punched, the violent wind from his fist directly dispersing the Toxic Liquid and smashing into the female demon's face, shattering her delicate and fair features, revealing the chitinous bones beneath and causing her to scream in agony.
"Ancient Genius?!"
The female demon's body retreated, and she stared at Li Hao in shock.
At such a young age, he possessed such terrifying explosive power. To encounter an Ancient Genius at the edge of the Great Wasteland Sky was beyond her expectations!
She cursed her bad luck, ignoring the pain on her face, and turned to flee.
Li Hao's reaction was incredibly swift. With the Thousand Mountain Flying Bird Diagram activated and the Heaven and Earth Traceless technique, he almost instantly caught up to her. In the female demon's shocked gaze, he punched through her skull.
Blood splattered, splashing onto the nearby trees.
A Divine Soul emerged from the female demon's body, looking at Li Hao with terror, and turned to scream and flee.
Her Divine Soul burned, exploding into full speed, but Li Hao's Object Manipulation Power had already condensed into a sword, slicing through her body in an instant. He then rapidly split the Sword Qi, shredding her severed Divine Soul and utterly annihilating it.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye, and the Dao Mind Realm Demon King had fallen at Li Hao's hands.
Ji Yunge, hidden within Li Hao, saw this and couldn't help but smile.
In the Mourning River, he had seen Li Hao display extraordinary talent, but to some extent, it was due to Li Tianzong's lingering influence.
Now, Li Hao's true explosive power and skill showed that he was no less impressive than he was in the Mourning River, which put his mind at ease and made him feel satisfied.
He thought that when Li Hao returned him to the Ji Family, he could recommend Li Hao. If Li Hao could cultivate within the Ji Family, it would be excellent cultivation.
At this moment, as Li Hao killed the female Demon King with a single punch, he felt a sharp pain in his fist, realizing that the Toxic Liquid had seeped onto it, corroding his skin.
Even with his physical strength, he was being corroded. If it were an ordinary Three Eternities Realm practitioner, they would have been reduced to a mass of rotting flesh and exposed bones long ago.
Li Hao took a deep breath. He hadn't expected to encounter a Demon King's ambush so soon after arriving in the Great Wasteland Sky, and he hadn't even traveled a few dozen miles.
He glanced at the female Demon King's corpse, which was intact except for the smashed head.
He quickly flew back, approached the corpse, and raised his hand to absorb the life essence within her body.
The female Demon King's body rapidly withered, eventually turning into a shriveled, grayish mass of decay.
Li Hao casually struck it, reducing it to dust to avoid leaving any traces.
After absorbing the female Demon King's life essence, Li Hao circulated it within his body, and the pain in his hand immediately subsided. The corrosive effects stopped, and his flesh began to regenerate.
He had just emerged from the Mourning River, and his true body still possessed the strength it had before the Liangzhou battle, where his physical body was comparable to a Divine Weapon that had undergone seven fusions.
Now, he had improved even further.
This demonstrated just how potent the female Demon King's Toxic Liquid was. Even a Demon King at the Ultimate Mastery Realm like Lu Yuan would find it difficult to cause him serious injury, yet a mere Dao Mind Realm Demon King had managed to draw blood!
Being injured by a Dao Mind Realm cultivator—this is the Demon King of the Great Wasteland Sky? It feels even more formidable than those outside.
Li Hao muttered to himself.
When Ji Yunge heard this, he couldn't help but laugh.
Wounding you, a Three Immortalities realm cultivator, with just Dao Mind Realm—does that even deserve praise?
It’s truly heaven-defying.
However, Ancient Geniuses are all like this. They defy adversity and slay Demon Kings, shocking the barbarians in the outer lands. But in the Great Wasteland Sky, they are merely considered excellent.
But he knew that Li Hao's true strength was far greater. Even in the Ancient Holy Clan, Li Hao could be considered a prodigy, and that was why he valued his talent!
After dealing with the female Demon King, Li Hao didn’t linger and continued on his journey.
With his Omni Attributes, he could conceal his aura, but the sounds of his movements still attracted some Demons along the way.
Li Hao dealt with two more, both at the Three Eternities Realm, who tried to ambush him but were killed with a single palm strike.
Without any weapons, Li Hao's body itself was at the Divine Weapon level, making his punches and kicks incredibly destructive.
While traveling, Li Hao also absorbed the memories and Martial Dao Cultivation Techniques he brought out from the Mourning River.
Due to his memory, these Cultivation Techniques were directly recorded in his Panel. Inside the Panel, after being refined by the Seventh Stage of Physical Body Dao, they evolved into new Cultivation Techniques.
For example, the originally deduced True Demon Blood Technique had now become the Spirit Sacrifice True Demon Art.
The proportion of Demon essence and blood absorbed and refined was now much higher.
This allowed Li Hao's physical body to condense to its limit more quickly.
Ji Yunge guided Li Hao, helping him avoid some of the more dangerous Forbidden Areas in the Great Wasteland Sky.
These areas were inhabited by renowned Great Demon Kings, and one should not venture into them lightly.
Li Hao had no intention of risking his life to hunt them. His current priority was to safely return Ji Yunge to the Ji Family. If possible, he also wanted to see his mother, just to know she was safe.
The night was as cool as water.
In the endless ancient forest of the Great Wasteland, the occasional white bone or carcass could be seen scattered.
A pile of dry leaves and twigs formed a small flame on a thick branch, but the flame did not ignite the branch.
The thick branch was rich in moisture and vitality, making it difficult for ordinary flames to start a forest fire or burn these ancient trees.
Moreover, the area was damp with miasma, and without a constant supply of fuel, the flame would quickly extinguish.
At the moment, Li Hao stopped by the fire to rest and adjust his state.
He leaned against the tree trunk, picked up a blade of grass, and folded it into a makeshift mouth harp, gently playing a tune.
The moonlight scattered, and the ancient trees stood as companions. The soft whistling sound gently drifted, then was blocked by the Soundproofing Barrier Li Hao had set up, echoing only among the branches.
His Music experience slowly increased.
This, too, was a form of cultivation.
With nothing around him, he couldn’t delve into painting, calligraphy, or chess, so he entertained himself with music.
Ji Yunge stood at the other end of the branch, hands behind his back, gazing at the distant stars and moon, his eyes filled with the longing to return home.
At the sound of Li Hao's melodious and reverberating grass whistle, his heart's yearning grew even deeper in the silent moonlit night.
He turned to look at the young man, who was quietly gazing into the dark ancient forest, lost in thought.
“What’s the name of this tune?”
“Moonlight.”
“You said in the Mourning River that you didn’t want to go home, but your music is filled with longing,” Ji Yunge said, his gaze focused.
“Two different things.”
Li Hao removed the blade of grass from his mouth and said softly, “I miss my friends.”
Ji Yunge looked at him, “Are your friends very powerful?”
“That depends on which aspects you’re talking about.”
Li Hao smiled, “Some are good at fishing, some at eating and drinking, and some have no special talents but are very happy.”
“I think being able to enjoy life is a skill in itself.”
Ji Yunge's eyes flickered slightly, “I saw you spend a lot of time in the Mourning River, enjoying a comfortable life. In such a dangerous environment, you still had the heart to entertain yourself. Are you not afraid of death?”
“You can’t live in fear of death and give up on life, that would be putting the cart before the horse.”
Li Hao didn’t explain about the Panel but shared his thoughts, “Cultivating hard is for the sake of living, but if you spend all your time cultivating and neglect living, what’s the point?”
"Without Power, in the face of life and death, and in the presence of Demons, there is only despair."
Ji Yunge said.
Li Hao smiled slightly. "But don't many Martial Artists with Power die too? Many of them don't even get a chance to enjoy life. Like you, Senior, your Cultivation isn't low, right?"
Ji Yunge was taken aback, his face changing slightly. Li Hao's words implied that even someone as powerful as him could die. This was clearly a bit offensive.
However, he didn't get angry. Instead, he seemed somewhat lost in thought.
Reflecting on his life, he had lived for a long time, but most of his time was spent on Cultivation.
Now, when he looked back, the things he often reminisced about in the Mourning River were not his Cultivation, but the events outside of it.
Fooling around with those guys, drinking, competing in hunting, and the warm conversations and ordinary moments...
He fell silent.
In the face of life and death, what he recalled were not the methods of Cultivation, but people and events.
Not to mention, he was now a dead man.
His obsession with returning to the Ji Family was about going home, and the purpose of going home was that he couldn't bear to part with the Holy Mountain and the people on it.
Seeing the other man's silence, Li Hao didn't say anything more. He continued to hold the blade of grass in his mouth, gently whistling.
He didn't oppose Cultivation, but he believed that in the midst of busy Cultivation, one should also take a break to drink tea and chat.
That's what a "living" life should be like.
The night was slightly cool, with a cluster of flames, the clear and resonant whistle of a 1st Rank technique, and two souls with different thoughts.
And there was a bright, full moon...
...
For several days, Li Hao continued his journey.
During the journey, he also practiced the Cultivation Techniques recorded on the Panel one by one.
Each practice refined and enhanced his body, and the Demons he hunted along the way provided their essence blood, which further accelerated his progress. His physical body was now reaching a level comparable to an Eight-Forged Divine Weapon.
In the Mourning River, his physical body was comparable to a Nine-Forged level, and it could barely hold up in the Peaceful Dao Domain.
Now, he was getting closer to that level.
After all, in this reality, he didn't have as many Divine Medicines to consume, and even if he did, he couldn't absorb them fully. He relied on Cultivation Techniques to absorb and convert energy, which, fortunately, was just as effective, though it required more time.
"Hmm? Something seems off here."
Li Hao stepped into a blood-red mountain range, surrounded by a crimson mist. The mist, upon touching his body, made him feel as if his flesh was softening.
This was more terrifying than miasma, seemingly weakening his physical Power.
"This is the Crimson Wood Corpse Ridge", Ji Yunge said. "It's where a Pathfinder fell, and their Dao Domain didn't dissipate, forming a special restricted area, which is extremely dangerous."
Then he changed the subject. "However, it shouldn't be much of a problem for you. The Dao Domain rules here are not as strong as they were in life, but they will continuously decompose your blood and qi. If you stay too long, you'll become weak and eventually age and die. But with your physique, you can withstand it."
"Deep within, there is a Blood Vine King rooted in the Pathfinder's remains. Every sixty years, it produces a Dao Essence Blood Fruit, which is highly effective in enhancing one's physique and can significantly boost physical Power, helping to reach the Ultimate Force State and even activate the Divine Power State."
"You can look for the Blood Vine King. It has absorbed too much of the Pathfinder's blood and flesh and is trapped here, unable to escape. However, its combat strength is average, and you should be able to defeat it."
Li Hao was taken aback, somewhat speechless. The Dao Essence Blood Fruit probably wouldn't be of much use to him.
But since he was here, he might as well check it out. If he couldn't use it, he could bring it back for Qianqian.
As Li Hao was thinking, several breaking sounds suddenly came from ahead.
"Stop!"
"Who is that? Quick, help me stop him! I am from the Ancient Holy Clan Qin Family!"
Several angry shouts echoed.
Li Hao looked over to see a short man fleeing in front, with three figures chasing him at full speed, using Body Movement Techniques.
The short man, seeing Li Hao standing in mid-air, his face changed, and he quickly said, "Don't block me! I'll give you the treasure!"
As he spoke, he reached Li Hao's side.
Li Hao was puzzled when the man suddenly attacked, slapping a palm at Li Hao's face.
Pang!
The man's wrist was caught by Li Hao, who then snapped it with a crack.
"..."
Li Hao asked, puzzled, "What are you trying to do?"
(End of Chapter)
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