"Very good. I have chosen a worthy person!" a faint smile appeared on the Old Man's face when he saw the manner in which Ye Xiwen had crossed the Heavenly Tribulation. "You're more mysterious than I thought!"
"Come; I'll transfer some of my power inside you. You'll reach the heavens in a single jump. I will help you enter the half-step sage realm!" that Old Man said as an evil ray of light flickered in his eyes.
"Ye Xiwen, be careful!" Ye Mo reminded Ye Xiwen.
Ye Xiwen nodded secretly. He couldn't imagine why this Old Man would be so kind to him that he would help him level up to the half-step sage realm in one-fell-swoop. It was only half-step sage realm; but the word 'sage' was attached it. Ye Xiwen reckoned that it would take him at least five to ten years to enter the semi-sage realm(1).
But, did Ye Xiwen have any other option under these circumstances?
He had already accepted something as fishy as the magic seed. So, he wasn't afraid of anything at this point.
Ye Xiwen arrived beside that Old Man and sat cross-legged. A stream of blood was gushing out from the earth under his body. Boundless energy boiled in that blood which had moistened this stretch of earth. This very earth had given birth to those star beasts.
"Good; very good!" A strange evil light flickered in the eyes of that Old Man. "You're good to go!"
That Old Man roared lightly. Then, he instantly shot his big hand, and it went inside Ye Xiwen's mind.
Ye Xiwen sensed that something was wrong. He shouted, "What do you want?"
The Old Man had gone inside Ye Xiwen's mind. He laughed evilly and said, "Ha ha, I never expected that a human like you would've possessed such a body. Barring those ancient human experts… I'm witnessing such astonishing flesh for the first time. I'll have boundless future prospects if I can temporarily reside inside this body!"
"Ha ha ha, I'll finally get out of this dam*ed trap. I'll break out of this trap and release my main body. Then, I shall swallow this whole da*n world!" that Old Man laughed like a madman.
Ye Xiwen coldly looked at that Old Man. They were both inside his mind at the moment. Ye Xiwen stood on astonishing golden divinities. These golden divinities were surging as unceasingly as the waves in the ocean. There was a chaotic and dusky atmosphere as far as the eyes could see. This place appeared similar to a Dantian.
It was well-known fact that the so-called human body had three Dantian regions. One was located in the lower abdomen; the second was inside the chest, and the third — inside the mind. And that's where Ye Xiwen had stored his golden divinities.
Ye Xiwen could feel the presence of his mysterious space in that dusky atmosphere. He clenched his fist.
"You have such an impressive amount of divinities. Have you slaughtered gods?" That Old Man was extremely surprised to find these many golden divinities rolling inside Ye Xiwen's mind. "He he, but these divinities will soon be mine!"
"Weren't you planning to turn me into your puppet? Why did you change your mind so suddenly?" Ye Xiwen coldly asked. It was needless to say that he was so angered that he had no reservations for giving face to the Old Man.
He had been very careful thus far, but he eventually ended-up speaking his mind.
"You knew!" the Old Man exclaimed in surprise. "It seems that you're no fool. I wanted to turn you into my puppet because the body you humans possess is too weak. I could barely instill a wisp of my soul into it. Therefore, the next best thing that I could do was to turn you into a puppet. But, I didn't know that your body was so strong. It's on par with the bodies of those ancient experts. I can instill my soul inside your body without any problems!"
The Old Man had only intended to control Ye Xiwen as a puppet. But the Old Man changed his mind after he witnessed Ye Xiwen's intrepid performance against the Heavenly Tribulation. He now wanted to seize control of Ye Xiwen's body through his mind.
"I hadn't wished to be on bad terms with you; I'm not kidding! So, you can only blame your luck for this!" that Old Man coldly said. His stature suddenly swooped towards Ye Xiwen. "Your death shall bring success to my supreme cause!"
The Old Man's terrifying attack swept-over.
Ye Xiwen had no choice but to mobilize his divinities to block this attack.
"Roar!"
"Roar!"
The divinities under Ye Xiwen's feet reverse-transformed into a terrifying-ominous beast. The divinities Ye Xiwen had refined had come from different races. And these races were the descendants of the 'ancient races of beast-gods'. The divinities had reverse-transformed into a unique-ominous beast. It advanced towards that Old Man to bite him.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
That Old Man suddenly launched an attack. The divinities which had taken the form of an ominous beast were no match for him, and got crushed. He had unleashed the sage realm's terrifying strength.
"Don't struggle. Sincerely allow this Old Man to swallow you!" that Old Man laughed strangely and said.
"Ye Mo, begin!" Ye Xiwen retreated as he shouted. Suddenly, an astonishing scarlet light lased-out from the surrounding chaos, and maliciously crashed into the Old Man's body.
"Bang!" the Old Man was caught off-guard by this surprise attack, and a section of his flesh was parched-off. However, he regained his composure. He then roared again-and-again as he rushed towards Ye Xiwen. His complexion had turned fierce. He stretched-out his big hand towards Ye Xiwen to grab him, and broke-through the protective layers of the golden divinities.
Ye Xiwen opened his devil wings, and avoided that Old Man's attack.
They were pursuing and attacking each other inside Ye Xiwen's mind. That Old Man was only a wisp of the Star Colossus's soul, but he possessed the strength of sage realm. Ye Xiwen was no match for him. But that Old Man was somewhat worried. He wanted to seize Ye Xiwen's body, but he didn't wish to injure Ye Xiwen inside his mind space; any injuries received in this part of the body could be very hard to restore.
This was a rarely-seen human body, and was capable of holding his soul. And he had made-up his mind to take over Ye Xiwen's body.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
Their fight had been setting-off wild waves of divinities, and these waves kept rising unceasingly; one after another. It was an extremely terrifying scene.
Ye Xiwen retreated inside the mysterious space.
"Boy, you cannot escape!" that Old Man roared and followed Ye Xiwen inside the mysterious space.
"Die you Old Fogy!" Ye Xiwen shouted. A multicolored divine beam covered the entire area inside the mysterious space. It seemed as if the mysterious space had sensed a foreign invader, and had reacted to their presence. The mysterious space suddenly tensed-up and endless rays of light began to spread.
The Old Man realized that something was wrong. He figured that he might have fallen into Ye Xiwen's trap. He hadn't paid any attention to Ye Xiwen's strength. Any plan or scheme was like fleeting clouds in front of his sage realm's tyrannical strength. It was radically impossible for Ye Xiwen to injure that Old Man even if he were to have the strength of semi-sage realm.
That multicolored divine beam wrapped the Old Man. He couldn't free himself — no matter how much he struggled.
Meanwhile, Ye Xiwen was crazily burning 'Spirit Dans'. He was consuming more than 10 'Spirit Dans' every second. The strength of this Star Colossus was far beyond his imagination. Perhaps, he was only one step away from entering the Great Sage realm.
That Star Colossus was so strong that it would be very difficult to imprison him for long… even if Ye Xiwen were to push the mysterious space to its limits.
After all said and done… Ye Xiwen's strength was indeed far inferior to the Old Man's…
He had discovered that this mysterious space's intervention was little-to-none while he was fighting with the Old Man outside. However, the mysterious space would react ferociously whenever there was a psychic invasion.
"Shua!" a red-colored shackle flew-out and penetrated that Old Man's body. It locked around that Old Man's collarbone. He bellowed, but he was entirely wrapped in that multicolored divine beam; he couldn't move. It seemed as if he was caught in quagmire. There was no way for him to move.
He roared repeatedly. However, he couldn't do anything since his collarbone had been locked by the red spirit-chain. His magical powers had also been sealed by the chain. His real form had been revealed since his powers had been subdued. He was a giant monster; fish-like black scales covered his entire body. Its massive tail was waving vigorously. It had four strong hooves. Fortunately, this was his soul state. The size would've been beyond imagination if it had been its real body.
Ye Xiwen found it hard to imagine the real size of a monster that could devour stars.
Ye Xiwen heaved a sigh of relief once he saw that the Old Man had been chained. He then shouted, "Ye Mo, I'm throwing him inside the blood pool. I'd like to turn him into a blood slave!"
Ye Xiwen had been forced into tough situations by this Old Man; again and again. So much so that he had turn himself into a furnace to practice 'Heart Seed Devil Method'. He had been set down a road from where he couldn't return... So, he was furious and couldn't restrain his anger anymore.
"Young man, you will die a dog's death once my true body comes out. I'll massacre your entire True Martial World!" the Star Colossus's prototype roared. He was unwilling to give-up. He had always known everything to be in his control. He had lived for thousands of years. He wasn't 'some' young and inexperienced creature. He was skilled in planning rigorous schemes and possessed deep foresight. He would calculate and fortify every step of his plan before he'd proceed with it. He had put all his effort even while facing Ye Xiwen; a youngster whose strength was much inferior to his own. He had never believed in leaving loopholes. However, he had never calculated that something like this mysterious space would exist inside Ye Xiwen's mind. An item like this mysterious space went against the Heaven's will. It had jeopardized his plan and had pushed him into a very perilous situation.
"You're paralyzed. Yet you dream of coming out? Try in the next life!" Ye Xiwen kicked him. Ye Xiwen's kick wouldn't have budged him if it had been his real body. However, this was a wisp of the beast's soul; nothing more. Hence, he restrained himself from kicking the Star Colossus to death.
Ye Mo pulled at that Star Colossus after he heard Ye Xiwen's words, and threw him into the blood pool.
"Roar!"
The Star Colossus roared in pain as he entered the blood pond. His constant struggles set-off gigantic waves in the blood pool. But, how could Ye Mo possibly allow him to escape? The Star Colossus had been shackled in the chains. The chains had pierced his body, and had made several large holes in it. And the Star Colossus's energy was being gradually transferred from these holes — and into Ye Xiwen's body — through the chains.
(To be continued)
Half-step legendary ninth stage < Half-stage legendary ninth peak < Half-stage legendry's great complete realm < Semi-sage realm < Half-step sage realm < Sage first stage
Treat 'half-step legendary realm' as 'Legendary realm' itself. That's because true geniuses choose to stay within half-step legendary realm and treat it like a replacement for legendary realm.
The pinnacle of half-step legendary realm is 'Semi-sage realm'.
It's called semi-sage realm because the next breakthrough will basically take you across 'ten stages at once' and you will directly reach the pinnacle of legendary realm. But what's the pinnacle of legendary realm? Checkout the hierarchy below:-
Legendary first stage < …… < Legendary ninth stage < Legendary ninth peak < Legendry's great complete realm < Half-step sage realm
Yes, the pinnacle of legendary realm is Half-step sage realm. In other words, the Old Man is offering Ye Xiwen to help him insta-reach the Half-step sage realm. Then he will be only half a step away from becoming a Sage expert.