Chapter 624: Chapter 623: Huge Gains
"Who exactly left this all behind?"
Sitting cross-legged on the solitary island, Shi Xiaole surveyed his surroundings.
Whether it was the aura that blocked the old man in the robe, or the Array System that’s currently active, they weren’t something that just any average person could manipulate. It’s highly likely that Terrestrial Immortals were responsible, and not just ordinary ones at that.
"I can’t decipher it, and neither can those two. It’s best to heal before anything else."
Harrowingly escaping death, Shi Xiaole quickly calmed down. He experienced this kind of ordeal countless times and had long gotten used to it.
However, this time was indeed more dangerous than ever before. In the end, he was left without any trump cards to play.
Stimulating Vigorous Air with the mystery of Life and Death True Intent, he began to wholeheartedly heal himself. Approximately three 2-hour periods later, Shi Xiaole slowly woke up, his injuries fully healed.
As one of the world’s Supreme True Means, the mysteries of Life and Death True Intent are indescribable. Shi Xiaole could recover from any injury as long as he had a breath of life left.
Of course, this only pertains to internal injuries. For visible injuries like missing arms or legs, there was nothing he could do unless someday, he could elevate Life and Death True Intent to the level of Life and Death Dao. Perhaps things would be different then.
The reason for his speedy recovery was that the robed old man and the round-faced man were cautious. They did not intentionally harm Shi Xiaole, or else he wouldn’t have even had the opportunity to heal himself.
The far-off mountains and rivers were quiet. Like a lone traveling blue whale, Shi Xiaole stood up, thought for a moment, and then walked in a randomly chosen direction.
The Array System severely interfered with his mental energy, making it impossible for him to discern direction. If that’s the case, might as well follow his intuition.
The solitary island lacked a clear distinction between day and night. The sun always hung high in the sky, and the flow of the river never changed. Everything seemed to be frozen in time.
One day.
Two days.
Shi Xiaole used his Flying Skill to rush around. When tired, he rested. He persisted for seven days and seven nights, but still couldn’t leave the island.
The monotonous calm and loneliness made his heart restless.
Almost unconsciously, a month had passed, and Shi Xiaole was still circling around in the same place.
There were no traces of life on the solitary island, not even the sound of wind. What was even more terrifying was that Shi Xiaole couldn’t hear any sound, even when he deliberately made a loud noise.
Gradually, his vision started to blur, and then everything went dark. He couldn’t see anything.
Luckily, his nose was sharp. He could smell the fragrance of flowers and the fresh scent of soil in the air. However, even these disappeared merely three days later.
Shi Xiaole had to navigate by touch. Before long, he bumped into a tree, stumbled and fell. As soon as he stood up, he got tripped by the tree roots. After his sight, hearing, and smell, he now also lost his sense of direction.
Another month passed, and Shi Xiaole kept stumbling, unaware of his clumsiness. He inadvertently fell into the river and harshly hit his head on a rock, all without blinking an eye.
He even lost his sense of touch!
Stumbling and bumbling, Shi Xiaole wandered alone in the dark and silent world. He couldn’t feel anything and wasn’t aware of what he was doing. He seemed like he was stuck at the deepest depths of the ocean, suffocated and unable to breathe.
"It’s all an illusion, the deceptions of the Array System."
Nevertheless, Shi Xiaole was not flustered, nor irritable, firmly believing it was the effects of the Array System, that he would definitely recover.
Two months.
Three months.
...
One year passed. Days filled with nothing but thoughts, where he couldn’t feel anything, were unbearable. Should any normal person go through the same ordeal, they would likely lose their minds within a day.
In fact, even with Shi Xiaole’s level of composure and state of mind, he was now on the brink of going mad, his body suffused with violent energy.
Everything was too real. Could it be that he fell prey to the toxic influences of the Array System on the back of the blue whale, and he would continue living like this until death?
"Ahh!"
Shi Xiaole screamed aloud, but all that greeted his ears was the perpetual silence.
He mustered all his strength, sending countless Sword Qi in all directions. His Sword Qi had a hallucinogenic aura, circulating between black and white Life and Death Dual Qi, and created an enchantingly terrifying world. A ferocious red demonic skull, with its gaping mouth, floated at the center of this world.
The loss of his five senses meant that Shi Xiaole also lost control of his Vigorous Air. Thus, within the past year, he immersed himself in a continuous meditation on the Sword Realm and Demonic True Intent.
But this endless cultivation without respite, which unexpectedly turned monotonous, felt meaningless.
Unexpectedly, Shi Xiaole’s Sword Realm reached the pinnacle of the Heavenly Sword. The Demonic True Intent, which hadn’t advanced for a long time, probably due to the violence and killing intent in his heart, also increased from 30% to 50%. In terms of killing power, it was comparable to 70% Wind True Intent.
One could say that the current Shi Xiaole, should he regain his Vigorous Air, would immediately become the Invincible Lord, the most powerful one at that,.
But what use was that? He was trapped in the darkness, unable to break free.
When the thirteenth month came around, Shi Xiaole felt as if he had reached his limit, fearing that this might be his last breath. However, he was incredibly grateful, eager to end this unbearable existence.
Eighteen months.
Twenty-one months.
Soon it was the second year.
A desire known as ’destruction’ filled Shi Xiaole’s heart. He wanted to kill, to avenge himself on the world, and to destroy everything in sight!
Boom!
The red demonic skull gradually turned dark red, and underneath the skull, a blurry body started to form.
The Demonic True Intent, which was virtually impossible to elevate in the past, was now soaring inside Shi Xiaole’s mind, driven by all the negative emotions, like a rocket taking off, growing every day at a rate he couldn’t comprehend.
"Kill, kill, kill..."
With a grimace more terrifying than ever before, Shi Xiaole’s eyes grew unfathomably deep as if they were reflecting the underworld, causing anyone who looked into them to shudder.
Third year.
Shi Xiaole could no longer bear it. He wielded his Heavenly Sword Realm, fiercely thrusting all at himself. If he couldn’t end this life, he would end himself.
Yet, having lost all sense of direction, he couldn’t even commit suicide. All the Sword Qi was aimed elsewhere, consumed by the darkness.
Crack crack crack...
The hideous and fierce crimson skull of the demon began to twist and mutate, eventually turning into a handsome face rarely seen in the world. The body beneath the skull also became clear, from the muscles and skeleton to the body lines, it was flawless, filled with the masculine charm of a man.
Who else could it be but Shi Xiaole?
But this Shi Xiaole was far too bewitching. Even as his eyes moved and his lips curled into a smile, he exuded an insidious and horrific aura, dangerously tantalizingly.
Whoosh.
The sinister Shi Xiaole drilled into Shi Xiaole’s body.
Demonic True Intent, perfected!
At this moment, Shi Xiaole finally understood. The Demonic True Intent was not as simple as surpassing the top-level True Intent, it was on par with the Life and Death True Intent, a Supreme Intent!
Fifth year.
Sixth year.
From calmness to madness, and then gradually reverting to tranquility, no one knew the mental journey that Shi Xiaole had gone through. His steps and expressions had returned to their previous state.
But upon closer inspection, he was somewhat different from the past, as if he had eradicated a deeper level of impulsiveness. He had become like clear water, unperturbed, flowing freely.
"If this is my life, everything I need to face, then let me walk through it earnestly and without regret," he thought.
No one could predict the future, whether splendid or mundane, joyful or painful; it was just an experience in life. Shi Xiaole had no distractions in his mind.
He kept moving forward, not caring whether there was an end or not, not caring whether it was dull or not.
Seventh year.
Eighth year.
...
Not knowing how long he had walked, when he had nothing to do, Shi Xiaole pondered on the method of breaking through the Divine Barrier Realm. Sorting out everything from the Nine-Colored Granny’s transformation of Vigorous Air into silk to the various methods of the ten experts of Pudu Peak, he surprisingly discovered many key points he had ignored in the past.
A strange sense of realization and understanding emerged in Shi Xiaole’s heart.
Tenth year.
Twentieth year.
After thirty years, Shi Xiaole, based on his own situation, had built all possible and impossible breakthrough methods in his mind, creating his own breakthrough method. He took the best of it, removed the dross, and continuously improved and refined it.
He had exhausted all his understanding and imagination, and yet he had only completed 80% of the breakthrough method.
Actually, if he really wanted to, Shi Xiaole could immediately devise three complete breakthrough methods, each of which would cause a sensation if they were to be spread out.
But in Shi Xiaole’s eyes, they were not perfect enough.
He wanted something flawless, absolutely unprecedented. The slightest flaw would mean restarting from the beginning. It wasn’t for conquering the world, or for becoming the strongest, but for his own sake.
Crack!
On this day, the eternal silence was suddenly broken by a cracking sound. Then the darkness before his eyes shattered, a ray of light shot into Shi Xiaole’s eyes and then radiated to the world.
The sounds of seagulls and waves reached his ears, and the warm sunshine shone on him. Shi Xiaole truly felt his own existence.
Where was any deserted island?
Where Shi Xiaole was standing was, in fact, the back of a blue whale. And not far in front of him stood three yellow stone men in various poses.
The stone man directly facing Shi Xiaole, which was in a thinking pose, suddenly shattered into a pile of stone fragments.
Presumably, it was responsible for plunging him into that horrible illusion.
Mobilizing his powers, Shi Xiaole was pleasantly surprised to find that the gains he had made in the illusion were wholly intact. As for whether a long time had passed or not, he wasn’t worried.
The distant ships belonging to the Whale Alliance were approaching, and the shouting and crying were all mixed up. Obviously, it was the aftermath of the intense battle between the two Terrestrial Immortals.
In the blink of an eye.
Taking a look around, Shi Xiaole noticed the elderly man in a robe and the round-faced man on his sides, vigorously moving their limbs and screaming like beasts.
Intricate auras were emanating from the stone men facing them.
Shi Xiaole simultaneously shot a Sword Finger at the two.
Bang, bang two sounds.
The Sword Qi disappeared like a clay ox entering the sea. In the next instant, it bounced back at Shi Xiaole at an even faster speed, which he easily sidestepped.
"Can’t interfere?"
Shi Xiaole frowned slightly.
The three figures must each correspond to a test, and it seemed that others couldn’t interfere. But if you can’t pass the test, like Shi Xiaole who couldn’t dispel the inner demon in the dark just now, you might die right there.
Masking his killing intent, Shi Xiaole skipped over the shattered stone statue, and soon, in front of a mound closed on three sides, he discovered three horizontally lying skeletons.
