Su Yueli nodded. With a flash of her figure, she plunged straight into the deepest depths of the mountains.
This was the old mountain where she had once bitterly cultivated and practiced her fist techniques with her master, Lu Chen.
The ancient cave was deep and dark, draped with hanging vines.
On the giant boulder outside the cave, there were even deep fist prints left behind from when she and her master had practiced hundreds of years ago.
Now, moss covered the stone surface. Things remained, but people had changed. As the wind swept through the mouth of the cave, it let out a low, muffled wail.
Su Yueli stood before the giant boulder, her fingertips gently brushing over the weathered fist prints as a sigh rose in her heart.
"Buzz—"
Suddenly, a streak of black light spiraled out from the depths of her soul, transforming into a miniature black qilin that was pitch-black all over and exuded a faint, primeval aura. It hovered in midair above her shoulder.
It was Xiaohei.
Years ago, it had entered the fist blades to become a weapon spirit, and its mind was connected with Su Yueli's.
Right now, it was nudging Su Yueli's neck with its horn, letting out low, muffled grunts from its throat, its tone filled with displeasure and grievance.
Su Yueli's mind stirred, and she instantly understood its meaning.
Over the years, she had been constantly running about and busy with various matters. It had been a long time since she last summoned Xiaohei, let alone hunted high-grade demon beasts for it to feast on blood qi like in the old days.
Now that she was about to enter seclusion for several years or even decades, Xiaohei was naturally suffocating from boredom.
“Alright, alright, it's my fault for neglecting you.”
Feeling a bit guilty, Su Yueli gently stroked its horn and patiently coaxed, “How about... you go search for some high-grade demon beasts nearby on your own? Hunt some flesh and blood to satisfy your cravings?”
Xiaohei swished its tail, glared at her with its cold eyes, and snorted in extreme dissatisfaction.
Hunt on its own? How could that compare to the joy of following her and devouring the rare treasures of heaven and earth!
“Then what do you want?” Su Yueli said, somewhat helpless.
The next moment, Xiaohei's body shifted, and it forced its way into the storage bag at Su Yueli's waist like a streak of dark light!
“Riiip—”
A scraping sound echoed, and Xiaohei flew out with a cold, gleaming blade in its mouth. It was none other than the Emperor-grade weapon previously gifted to Su Yueli by the Emperor of Great Yan.
Before Su Yueli could even react, Xiaohei opened its mouth wide. Its fangs glinted with a strange dark light, and with a loud crunch, it bit off a large chunk of that incredibly hard Emperor-grade weapon!
Then, as if chewing on soft cartilage, it munched and swallowed it down.
Su Yueli froze on the spot, utterly stunned.
“Wait, that's...”
Between laughter and tears, she tapped its head. “This is the first Emperor-grade weapon I've ever obtained! And you just ate it as a snack like that?!
Xiaohei let out a loud burp, the black light radiating from its entire body intensifying.
After completely eating and digesting the Emperor-grade weapon, the aura on its body grew noticeably deeper.
Immediately after, it blinked at Su Yueli. Its figure suddenly twisted, and in a flash of flowing dark light, it transformed into a pair of ferocious and overbearing black fist blades that glinted with a bloodthirsty, cold light, quietly hovering in midair.
The next moment, the light shifted again. The fist blades elongated and reorganized, transforming into a dark spear that was as robust as a dragon and exuded a bone-chilling killing intent!
It could change freely, shifting at will!
Su Yueli's eyes gleamed with wonder. She reached out to grasp the spear and swung it in a flourish, causing the air to erupt in a sharp, ear-piercing sonic boom.
“You can actually absorb the material of an Emperor-grade weapon and transform into various forms?”
The corners of Su Yueli's mouth curled up. She casually stroked the shaft of the spear, and a pleasing warmth immediately emanated from the originally icy-cold weapon.
“Interesting. I suppose you didn't eat it for nothing.”
Xiaohei let out a low cry, transformed into a streak of dark light, and sank back into Su Yueli's right wrist, condensing into a simple, ancient black dragon totem.
After the banter, the cave fell back into silence.
Su Yueli sat cross-legged in the deep, dark cave. Quieting her mind, she adjusted her state to one of pure, ethereal emptiness, devoid of joy or sorrow.
With a wave of her hand, the jade box containing the Dragon Blood Red Marrow Pill flew into her palm.
Peeling off the seal, this miraculous pill—which bordered on Grade Nine—turned into a brilliant, crimson glow and slid down her throat into her abdomen.
"Boom—!!"
In an instant, it was as if a star had violently exploded in her lower abdomen!
An unimaginable torrent of vast blood qi and medicinal power of heaven and earth surged like a broken dam, frantically battering her limbs, bones, and eight extraordinary meridians!
If her blood qi were insufficient to suppress it, she would have been blown to pieces in an instant!
But Su Yueli's physical body had long been tempered to the imperishable Thirteenth Realm of Myriad Tribulations!
She let out a low grunt as a strange light enveloped her skin. Every pore on her body spewed radiant light, and the vast, ocean-like blood qi within her began to circulate, compress, and transform along a mysterious pathway at a frenzied pace!
At the same time, the Martial Soul deep within her soul manifested with a roar!
The massive phantom sat cross-legged in the void above her head. Possessing its own consciousness, it greedily absorbed the vast divine splendor radiated by the Dragon Blood Red Marrow Pill, its size constantly expanding and condensing at an astonishing speed!
However, the further she progressed, the more terrifying the resistance became.
The Fourteenth Realm.
In the history of the martial path of both humans and the myriad races, there had never been any record of this. It was a realm of complete desolation and dense fog.
The world believed the Tenth Realm was the absolute peak of the martial path. The Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Realms were stairways she had carved out of sheer cliffs with her own fists, relying on her longevity and endless years!
And now, a seemingly impassable chasm lay before this Fourteenth Realm.
With no peak breathing technique and no guidance from predecessors, the martial path seemed to have been completely severed here by the laws of heaven and earth!
She could feel that if she wanted to break through this fog, the accumulation of blood qi alone was far from enough. She had to make her Martial Soul undergo an indescribable qualitative change!
“Since no one has walked this path before, I shall blaze the trail.”
Su Yueli closed her eyes, her mind sinking into endless silence.
Time holds no meaning in the mountains, while autumns pass in the mortal world.
Time lost all meaning in this dark cave. A day, a month, a year...
The four seasons outside rotated endlessly.
Spring departed and autumn arrived. The wild grass in the valley withered and flourished again, and the ancient trees grew a few more rings.
In the outside world, the martial world shifted, empires rose and fell, and the clamor and strife of the mortal realm continued to play out in full swing. Yet, none of this had anything to do with this silent, ancient mountain.
Longevity was long, and it was also extremely tedious and lonely.
When all the prosperity of the world turned into yellow dust in the flow of time, only cold rocks and eternal darkness remained as companions.
In front of the ruins, Han Yu painstakingly practiced her fist techniques every day, her cultivation climbing steadily.
Occasionally, she would halt her movements, silently walk to the top of a distant peak, and gaze from afar toward the ancient cave shrouded in thick fog.
The cave mouth was dead silent. Fallen leaves covered the stone steps, and even moss grew over them.
Viewed from afar, her master's faintly seated silhouette of blood qi looked like an ancient stone carving that had long merged with heaven and earth—completely motionless, exuding an eternal sense of change and desolation.
Han Yu watched for a moment, let out a soft sigh, withdrew her gaze, and lowered her head to continue throwing punches.
Year after year.
The stone carving remained, and the wind and snow fell silently.
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