Only I am Venerable

Chapter 278: Chapter 276: Advancing to the Celestial Embracing Realm

’Oh my god, give me a break! Why am I so damn unlucky?’

Qin Li thought resentfully, for he could already feel it: right above his head, another Spirit Beast had appeared, one in no way inferior to this giant Golden Eagle!

Just then, Qin Li noticed the Golden Eagle let out an angry, shrill cry that carried a hint of a threat... ’Wait, a threat?’ A thought flashed through Qin Li’s mind like lightning. ’Could the Golden Eagle be afraid of the Spirit Beast above my head?’

Sure enough, the Golden Eagle stopped its attack. Qin Li, not being a fool, didn’t try to climb any higher. He remained where he was, desperately circulating the Innate Purple Qi Technique. The Innate Purple Qi within him became incredibly active, while the stunning violet hue on the horizon condensed into rays of purple light that shone down into his body.

The giant Golden Eagle circled and soared in the clear blue morning sky, letting out a few unwilling cries from time to time.

Qin Li concentrated, calming his mind. At this point, he couldn’t worry about anything else. It was the first time he’d ever had to cultivate so frantically in a life-or-death situation.

The key was that the Innate Purple Qi he could absorb here was just so pure. The stuff he’d absorbed before was complete garbage in comparison!

Gradually, Qin Li’s body began to feel full. The Purple Crystal Core in his Dantian, which had been dormant for so long, actually started to rotate slowly. It then began absorbing the Innate Purple Qi at an incredible speed, and its volume slowly began to increase!

Qin Li’s eyes gradually grew as clear as water, profound and pure. His gaze pierced through the void at the edge of Profound Island, looking toward the distant East!

An indescribably profound and mysterious feeling suddenly erupted from the depths of Qin Li’s heart like a fountain!

Qin Li felt so blissful that even his soul felt the urge to moan aloud. The feeling of being filled to the brim with power made all of his fatigue vanish completely!

It was as if, in that instant, he had merged with the heavens and the earth!

An extremely powerful aura loomed above him, and the resentful giant Golden Eagle circled in the sky. And yet, in this situation, Qin Li had, unbelievably... broken through!

This was truly unbelievable. Especially when he advanced to the Celestial Embracing Realm, the powerful aura that erupted from his body made the giant Golden Eagle in the sky involuntarily flap its wings and fly farther away. It then came to its senses and let out a sharp, threatening cry at Qin Li.

A look of joy on his face, Qin Li glanced deeply toward the east. A single thought arose in his mind: he had to reach the summit of Black Tortoise Peak and personally confirm a few things that had troubled him for a long time.

As he thought this, Qin Li raised his head and looked out once more. The thing that had left him dumbfounded just a moment ago was nothing other than the sight of an atmosphere stretching for what seemed like hundreds of thousands of miles!

Profound Island was only about ten thousand li across, and Black Tortoise Peak was near its edge. Yet, Qin Li could see an atmosphere that stretched on without end! What did this mean?

Because he was being hunted by the giant Golden Eagle, Qin Li hadn’t paid any attention to how high he’d climbed, nor did he have the energy to admire the view. However, that one fleeting glance had suddenly given him the feeling of being back in his past life, on an airplane!

A height of twenty-seven or twenty-eight li was already fourteen or fifteen thousand meters! And that was just counting from the Xuanwu Platform, not including the four to five thousand meters below it!

The vast Cloud Sea was just a few kilometers below his feet. Otherwise, how could that Innate Purple Qi have been so pure as to allow him to break through directly from the Celestial Integration Realm to the Celestial Embracing Realm?

In truth, none of this was what truly shocked Qin Li. After all, seeing a sea of clouds below wasn’t so strange if you were high enough. What truly astounded him was the question of how this Mysterious Land had been formed!

In Qin Li’s previous understanding, the Mysterious Land was like a Little World. Although everything seemed the same as the outside world—for instance, it had sunrises, sunsets, and four seasons—it was a world completely cut off from the outside. If there were no portal to enter the Mysterious Land, the place where he now stood would just be a vast stretch of jungle and canyons on the western border of the New Qin Empire. Therefore, the Mysterious Land had to be a separate plane of existence!

But the scene Qin Li had just witnessed showed, clearly and unmistakably, that this Mysterious Land, Profound Island, and the countries of the Mortal Realm were under the very same sky!

What did this imply? It implied that if all the Mysterious Lands were like this, sharing the same sky as the Mortal Realm, then... these places, shrouded in countless veils of mystery, had to have been artificially created!

Perhaps some Great Power, strong to the extreme, or maybe even a god, had used their immense Magical Power to forcibly seal off these Mysterious Lands with a special technique. This would have made these places rich in Spiritual Qi, turning them into independent worlds, isolated from everything else!

Qin Li believed there were two pieces of powerful supporting evidence. The first, of course, was the magical Ancient Scroll that marked the locations of the Mysterious Lands. The second was the fact that one could use Spirit Stones to teleport out!

Almost every disciple of Profound Island knew the incantation. By using a special technique to activate the Spiritual Power within a Spirit Stone, they could enter and leave Profound Island.

In Qin Li’s view, the Mysterious Land of the Paradise Celestial Palace was no different.

As for who did this and why, Qin Li couldn’t even begin to imagine. After all, these were just thoughts that had flashed through his mind in an instant.

Regardless, this discovery was a pleasant surprise for Qin Li. Perhaps that Supreme Powerhouse who had entered the Land of the Far West long ago hadn’t been lying after all. Only by possessing the power of the Shattered Void could one truly explore this mysterious Celestial Essence Continent!

In the sky above, fierce gales battered the giant Golden Eagle’s feathers, making them rustle loudly. Flying at this altitude wasn’t particularly difficult, but doing so for an extended period was hardly pleasant.

And so, after letting out another resentful cry at the small black dot clinging to the cliff face, the Golden Eagle dove headfirst. Moving faster than the speed of sound, it plunged into the thick layer of clouds and vanished.

’Damn it, it just left? How irresponsible!’ At this point, Qin Li seemed to have forgotten that his original purpose was to find a Spirit Beast to help him.

Even if he had remembered, Qin Li would have already dismissed the idea. ’What a joke,’ he thought. ’That Golden Eagle is definitely in the Venerable Realm. It might have even surpassed the Human Venerable stage and reached the Earth Venerable stage. What makes me think I could possibly tame such a fierce and cunning Spirit Beast?’

Spirit Beasts like Xiaohai and the Little Fox certainly existed, but they were incredibly rare—as rare as a phoenix’s feather. Now, Qin Li wanted to climb to the very summit of Black Tortoise Peak, but the powerful aura above him was giving him a headache.

He raised his head and looked at the endless cliff face above, sighing. He couldn’t see anything, but that terrifying aura was definitely there.

Viewed from a distance, the scale of Qin Li against the cliff face was like that of a single drop of water to a massive lake. From slightly farther away, he would be completely invisible.

He watched as the sun leaped up from the horizon of the Cloud Sea, and in an instant, a boundless golden light filled the sky!

Qin Li was so stunned by the beautiful sight that he nearly fell off the cliff. In an instant, all the white, black, and gray clouds transformed into a golden ocean!

Between heaven and earth, only this single color remained!

The warmth of the sunlight was also unprecedented, and as it shone on Qin Li’s body, the feeling was so wonderful it made one wish time could stop at this very moment forever.

Even the terrifying aura from above diminished greatly in that instant!

Apparently, the being that made one’s very soul tremble did not seem to like the sunlight. A thought stirred in Qin Li’s mind. ’There are still a few days until the Golden Palace appears. I’m going for it!’

After making his decision, Qin Li retracted his aura completely. After his promotion to the Celestial Embracing Realm, the Purple Crystal Core in his Dantian had nearly doubled in size! Moreover, it had transformed into a perfect rhombus, suspended in the very center of his Dantian. Surrounding it on all sides was the Spiritual Power converted from the Spiritual Qi he had absorbed. Of course, on the Celestial Essence Continent, this was called Primordial Power!

Qin Li’s Primordial Power was exceptionally abundant, and it created no fluctuations whatsoever. Thus, he was quite confident about reaching the summit of Black Tortoise Peak. He reasoned that the more powerful a being, the less it bothered with the weak. Otherwise, if all the weak were gone from the world, there would be no reason for the strong to exist.

The unexpected breakthrough also gave Qin Li a massive boost of confidence. So, after preparing himself, he once again began to scale the rock face, climbing upward with great speed!

But the cliff before him was simply too high and too steep! It was almost beyond human limits. Otherwise, how could an expert at Elder Yu’s Venerable Realm have been forced off the edge by two giant eagles and fallen to his death?

This just went to show that human Martial Artists were still incredibly weak in the face of nature. Even a Supreme Martial Artist would find it difficult to withstand the terrifying power of an ordinary avalanche.

Just as he’d hoped, Qin Li’s climb did not attract the attention of the unseen, powerful being above. This time, after nearly four hours, he actually made it to the summit of Black Tortoise Peak!

THWACK!

Qin Li’s hand slapped onto the last protruding boulder. His body hung in the air over an abyss of unimaginable depth. Yet his face showed not a trace of fear. Instead, he broke into a happy grin, like a mischievous child who, after much effort, had finally managed to climb a tree and snatch a bird’s egg.

Qin Li’s other hand gripped the boulder tightly. With a slight heave of his arms—SWOOSH—he vaulted onto the rock. At that moment, Qin Li felt a surge of triumph. If not for the thin air and the presence of the unknown powerhouse, he would have let out a long, triumphant roar.

Suddenly, something dazzling caught Qin Li’s eye. He subconsciously raised his head, and his jaw immediately dropped. The corners of his mouth began to twitch... violently.