From time to time, beams of colorful light could be seen streaming across the dark and hazy space. They came in different sizes; the thickest was over ten thousand miles wide, and the narrowest was only the size of a man's waist. Powerful immortals and buddhas in all kinds of outfits were seen flying through those narrow beams, while various magical artifacts were traveling back and forth at a high speed in those thicker ones.
The flying ship under which Wu Qi was hiding was flying swiftly through a beam of light with a thickness of a thousand feet. Not far away, a thousands of miles wide, scenic continent was flying inside of a beam that was almost ten thousand miles thick, filling the space with a muffled rumble like that of distant thunder. On the tallest mountain in the middle of that continent, a Buddha, with a height of a hundred miles and a skin that was as fair as jade, was lying on a giant white lotus flower and sleeping. His snore was so loud that it made the void all around him sway.
This was an alien dimension that Wu Qi was not familiar with, and those beams of light were the almighty experts who traveled between different realms of the universe.
The universe consisted of the Nine Heavens, the Thirty-three Heavens, the Ghost Realm, Fiend Realm, Demon Realm, and all the outer heavenly realms. Although these realms centered around Pangu Continent, many of them did not reside in the same dimension. Some realms were isolated by natural hazards, and some were sealed in other dimensions. In addition to great power, it required one to be very familiar with the passages in the alien dimension to travel between them.
Hiding under a large green feather, Wu Qi activated his Chaotic Divine Eyes. Immediately, the three-dimensional structure of this world was revealed to him.
It was a world shaped like an olive. At its thickest part was Pangu Continent, surrounded by a few small realms isolated by roiling mists and clouds of different colors: the Ghost Realm, the Fiend Realm, the Demon Realm, and other realms that were occupied by some almighty experts. Above Pangu Continent were all the countless outer heavenly realms, and further up were the Thirty-three Heavens, shrouded in golden rays and purple mists.
Above the Thirty-three Heavens were nine realms enveloped by mists and fogs, which Wu Qi could not see through even with his Chaotic Divine Eyes. Those were the legendary Nine Heavens, where countless Primordial experts dwelt in seclusion.
Beneath Pangu Continent was a shadowy space formed from the energy projection of all the realms above. The mortal worlds the immortals and buddhas had created existed in this shadowy space. All the stars in the mortal worlds were actually the projection of the billions of stars in the outer heavenly realms. The immortals and buddhas had conjured the projection with their great magic power, forming into what seemed the boundless cosmos filled with stars to the mortals in these worlds.
Outside this three-dimensional olive-shaped world was the boundless Primal Chaos, from where Pangu Continent was constantly drawing chaotic energy to expand itself. It was also where countless tiny realms were born, some of which had all kinds of connection with the space where Pangu Continent existed. In fact, almost all the Ancestor Gods Great Yu's Oracles worshiped came from these tiny realms.
And the fiends of outer domains who terrified immortal cultivators were from the Primal Chaos as well. Several of the Apocalypses of Heaven and Earth in the past were actually caused by the opening of doorways to these tiny realms after the resentment in the space where Pangu Continent was situated accumulated to a certain limit. That allowed those powerful and bizarre beings to launch invasions and cause severe losses to the immortals in the outer heavenly realms.
Pangu Continent was the heart of this space, surrounded by outer heavenly realms and the countless stars. Therefore, whenever beings from outer domains launched an invasion against it, the forces of the Heaven and those itinerant immortals were the first to bear the brunt. And this was the reason Great Yu was able to station its armies in outer heavenly realms, because the Heaven, having suffered several major losses, strongly invited it to do so. It was clear that the Heaven wanted more cannon fodder as its shield, while Great Yu was more than happy to expand its influence in the outer heavenly realms. Hence, both sides hit it off instantly. As a result, the Protectors of the People like Yu Zong were stationed in each outer heavenly realm.
After glancing around with his Chaotic Divine Eyes and branding the exact structure of this universe into his divine soul, Wu Qi shifted his attention to those almighty experts who were traveling in this dimension. However, the more he observed them, the deeper his heart sank. The flying ship had been traveling for almost twenty-four hours, and all he saw were immortals and buddhas. They traveled between different realms in great numbers like a school of silver carps moving up and down a stream, on businesses he did not know about.
He did not see one Great Yu's Oracle among them. Clearly, Great Yu was only clinging to its very roots, the Pangu Continent, and had lost sight of the strategic importance of the outer realms. Worse still, the Heaven and Buddhist League had constructed several outposts in this dimension.
One of such outposts was a small planet Wu Qi saw six hours ago, which measured about a thousand miles in diameter, suspending alone in the boundless void. It had palaces and pavilions, thirty-six layers of defensive formation, and a garrison of a hundred thousand soldiers!
From Wu Qi's point of view, the sentry posts on the planet were enough to choke off Pangu Continent's passage to the Fiend Realm. If anyone from Great Yu wanted to do something in Fiend Realm, as long as they broke the void from Pangu Continent and entered this boundless dimension, they would be immediately detected by the soldiers stationed on this planet.
He saw dozens of similar outposts along the way. The Heaven and Buddhist League had cut off almost all of Pangu Continent's access to the outer realms.
No wonder Prince Chang Qin had to use an alternative route—that was through the mortal world—to smuggle Wu Qi back to Pangu Continent, as the proper route was already cut off. By just placing a few experts in the dimension, the enemy had isolated Pangu Continent's access to all the outer realms. Fortunately, the teleportation formations Prince Chang Qin and the others constructed were not discovered by the enemy, so there were still a few routes they could use.
Shaking his head, Wu Qi decided not to waste his time worrying about Great Yu's future, for that was something almighty experts like the Yellow Emperor should worry about. Stealthily, he unleashed Dark Yin Celestial Tower and made it hover over him, quietly hastening the time within a few feet around him.
With his cultivation level advancing from the fifth-tier to the second-tier of the Gold Immortal realm, Wu Qi was now able to control the Dark Yin Celestial Tower to increase the speed of time by five hundred times. With that, whenever a day passed in the outside world, he had already spent a year and a half in the twisted vortex of time he was in. Liu Bang's flying ship had been traveling for ten days and ten nights, which meant Wu Qi was given more than ten years of quiet time for a secluded meditation.
Chaotic energy was surging and circulating rapidly in him, and his natal true flame was crazily burning the ancient immortal's skeleton in his interstitial world. Golden specks kept falling off of the skeleton and fusing with his bones. For every additional speck he absorbed, the strength of his bones increased by a certain degree. Finally, when three months had passed around him, Wu Qi had fully digested the remains of the ancient immortal.
Every bone in his body had turned purple that was streaked with gold, as transparent as crystal. His bone marrow had turned deep purple, as soft and fine as the finest purple jade, emanating a rich life force. The strength of his bones was so strong now that even he himself could not judge it. He tried to cut himself with the Blood Centipede Sword, but it only managed to cut open a tiny trace on his finger bone.
Even the fresh blood in his body had a faint hint of purple and gold. The chaotic energy contained in his blood cells was a thousand times greater than before, and his blood had turned sticky like paste, emitting a delicate fragrance like that of a supreme-grade jade essence. At this moment, his blood had become a rare and precious treasure, with the miraculous ability to bring the dying back to life.
It was said that when Primordial experts were concocting immortal pills, they often added their own blood. Wu Qi finally believed the rumor after he had discovered the transformation of his own blood.
Meanwhile, the enormous willpower he seized from Buddha Futu had been fully digested as well. The chaotic energy in his body was now ten thousand times greater than before; and because of the Kunwu Swords, it had been compressed and purified by more than a hundredfold. Now, any magic he cast—even the simplest one such as a palm-thunder—was at least a thousand times more powerful than before. In addition, he had gained a little success in the cultivation of Great Light Indestructible Amitabha Treasure Scripture. As the cultivation technique of the Buddhist League focused mainly on nourishing one's divine soul and divine sense, his divine soul was dozens of time stronger. His intelligence was boasted, and his understanding of the Heavenly Dao had also improved significantly.
With such a powerful divine soul, in the next ten years, Wu Qi carefully cultivated all the cultivation techniques he had learned, which included techniques from the human race, the immortals, the Buddha, and the Fiends, and pushed them to the peak realm of Gold Immortal. As his bones and flesh were strong and his magic power vast, when his cultivation level improved, he naturally reached the peak-level of Gold Immortal.
One foot in the realm of Primordial, another in the realm of Gold Immortal…This was Wu Qi's current situation.
Actually, by relying on the Great Dao he inherited from the Song of Gale, he could easily push his cultivation level to the realm of Primordial. But, it was a pity that he did not have enough energy to do that now. He had depleted all the energy stored in the Dark Yin Celestial Tower, and all the energy stones and immortal stones he possessed had been devoured by Taotie, his beast soul. He did not have anything else on him that he could draw energy from.
Moreover, as he was hiding beneath the flying ship, he could not absorb energy from the surroundings. If he did that, he would certainly alert Liu Bang and the others.
Although there were large energy veins in his interstitial world plundered from several planets, they were the foundation of his interstitial world's development, and Wu Qi could never touch them before his interstitial world was fully formed. How could he draw energy from his own interstitial world when he still needed to supply it with more energy veins?
As a result, Wu Qi could only stay at the peak realm of Gold Immortal, helplessly looking at the door to the Primordial realm that had been opened in front of him while drooling.
How he missed the rich and inexhaustible natural energy in You Xiong Plain! He had made up his mind to live there permanently…not just for his own sake. For him to use the Dark Yin Celestial Tower to cultivate his subjects in Dong Hai Province, he needed an enormous amount of natural energy. As Dark Yin Celestial Tower could not produce natural energy on its own, it needed to draw energy from the outside world to work properly.
Since he could not make any further breakthrough in his cultivation level, Wu Qi spent the rest of the years studying all the cultivation techniques in his mind, gradually perfecting all the various divine abilities and mystic arts. As time went by, he managed to compare the few not so excellent techniques, such as the Inferno Hell Fiend Scripture, to the profound secrets in the Song of Gale and Great Light Indestructible Amitabha Treasure Scripture; and eventually modified them to the level of peak realm of Gold Immortal.
Just as he was immersed in the ocean of profound knowledge, the flying ship slowed down abruptly. Liu Bang had reached his destination.