Ji Yuan had been completely drained by his fight and he had fallen into a deep slumber.
In his deep sleep, he began to dream of Jiajia…
He remembered the first time that he had met with Xia Jiajia and he had already been completely smitten by her.
At that time, he had offended Xue Qianxue and Ling Feiyue somewhat, so he was forced into lying low for the time being.
But not before he had extracted a promise from Xia Jiajia to wait for him for a hundred years while he had gone for his cultivation breakthrough.
To his startled surprise, Xia Jiajia had actually agreed to pledge a promise to wait for him for 100 years while he was attempting for his sacred saint breakthrough.
And she had even given him an earth-step divine sword as a pledge.
Actually, Ji Yuan had no intention to actually breakthrough to the sacred saint level since he did not have a divine sword or any cultivation resources.
He had actually lied to Jiajia about breaking through to the sacred saint cultivation as he did not know what to say to her in order to make her wait for him.
He was actually just going to find a cave to practice his sword arts for a hundred years since there was an unspoken rule in the Desolate Celestial Fraternity that as long as it was not a blood feud, if a cultivator would be willing to disappear for a hundred years, then everything would be forgiven.
He was not exactly afraid of Xue Qianxue or Ling Feiyue since he felt he could escape from their pursues. But he was a little afraid of the celestial powerhouses behind them and he did not want to cause any troubles to his own Orthodox Sword Sect or to the Five Heavens Peak.
So, he quickly abdicated his position as sect leader of the Orthodox Sword Sect to Ye Chengxi who was his core protégé.
Before his abdication, Ye Chengxi was already acting sect leader anyway since Ji Yuan was always not in the Five Heavens Peak.
Ji Yuan did not actually care to stay behind in the Five Heavens Peak since this was a poor region and he got a feeling that he was being tricked into becoming sect leader by his old master.
He summoned his two core protégés Ye Chengxi and Shangguan Yan to his presence as he bade his farewell.
He lied to Ye Chengxi, "Chengxi, today your old master is going to cultivate for a hundred years to try to have my breakthrough to the sacred saint level. From this day onward, you shall be the sect leader of the Orthodox Sword Sect."
Ye Chengxi was startled and she quickly protested, "Master, maybe this can wait until you have exited your seclusion? Your Chengxi is too young to be a sect leader…"
But Ji Yuan interrupted her, "You have already been acting sect leader while I was away. And you did good."
Then he turned to look at Shangguan Yan, "Yan'Er, from today onward, listen to your senior protégé sister. And practice hard. You are still too slow with your sword."
Shangguan Yan lowered her eyes to say bitterly, "Master, sorry if your Yan'Er is unable to meet your expectations…"
But Ji Yuan waved his hand to stop her, "I may not return…"
He was actually thinking of looking to look for Xia Jiajia wherever she was after 100 years.
But first, he had to pretend to cultivate for his breakthrough first.
He told them, "We have few or little saints in our Five Heavens Peak for the past 10 000 years. So, I don't expect to really return. Just do whatever you want with the Orthodox Sword Sect from now onward. It is perfectly alright to assume that I am dead. Farewell."
As Ji Yuan ran off for his fake cultivation, Ye Chengxi and Shangguan Yan had both kneeled down on the ground as a show of respect to show their old master off and they only slowly got up until he had long disappeared into the mountains.
There were numerous mountains in the Five Heavens Peak and there was a hidden cave that Ji Yuan had long decided that this would be the place where he would use for his secret cultivation one day.
And to think that today he would be using this hidden cave.
Cultivation to the sacred saint level?
Ji Yuan thought this may be a joke at his age since he was still so young at 400 years.
What if he has failed?
Then won't he have wasted his young life by getting himself killed for trying to make a forceful breakthrough?
Better to wait for his cultivation to be more matured and when he was more ready.
One must know that there were many cultivators that were from the major celestial sects that were all dreaming of the sacred saint level as well and even though they may have the cultivation resources from their celestial sects to back them but they still lack the destinies for it.
Even Ji Yuan's bitter rival Jin Yilong was only at the sixth cultivation realm even though he had been a golden celestial far longer than Ji Yuan and he had the best cultivation resources from his celestial sect to back him up.
Therefore, Ji Yuan's cultivation was already considered to be quite speedy.
But it was still no match for the cultivation speed of Ling Feiyue and Xue Qianxue who were both much younger than him.
But Ji Yuan did not care for their cultivation speed even though they may be powerful saintesses of the seventh cultivation sacred saint realm now.
He was just wondering how the heck did he manage to offend these two powerful saintesses at the same time and he was even caught watching their secret duel which was a taboo to watch.
When Ling Feiyue had caused Xue Qianxue to fall down the cliff, Ji Yuan was actually feeling guilty that he was the one that had caused Xue Qianxue to lose with his random babblings to Ling Feiyue.
And somehow his martial honor pushed him to catch Xue Qianxue when she was falling even though he knows that she would not die from a fall but she may end up being injured and got killed by Ling Feiyue because of him.
He did not want to spoil the fairness of their duel because this was against his martial honor.
Screwed it!
It doesn't matter to him anymore!
Since he had already offended Xue Qianxue once before and offending one more Ling Feiyue did not matter to him anymore especially when he was on his way to his 100 years of seclusion anyway.
As long as they could not find him, he would still be a winner in the end.
He could already imagine himself holding Xia Jiajia with his hand 100 years later. Haha…
There was a high chance that these two saintesses may have already forgotten about him 100 years later anyway since they had no real blood feud. Surely, they can't be so bored as to remember a nobody like him?
If they have so much time, they may as well try to fight each other since they are both from the opposing orthodox and unorthodox celestial sects.
Ji Yuan spent the first 10 years practicing with his sword in the cave as he was too restless to cultivate.
He would swing 10 000 times daily with his sword on his right hand and 15 000 times daily with his sword on his left hand.
Unknown to him, Jiajia had already found him in the cave and she was invisible to him.
She was worried that Ji Yuan may really go for his breakthrough so she had secretly setup a formidable array to help him.
At the same time, she had also moved to the Five Heavens Peak and founded the Emperor Hall Sect so that she would be nearby to him.
Using just her hearing, Jiajia was quick to deduct that Ji Yuan was actually a left-hander while pretending to be a right hander. His left hand was actually stronger and quicker than his right hand.
Almost every day, she would secretly pay a visit to this secret cave to check on Ji Yuan.
By the 10th year, Ji Yuan was bored of his seclusion.
So, he spent the next 30 years going down the desolate mists to test his skills against the desolate beasts below.
By the 40th year, he had thought of paying Guo Taiming or Xiao Muhan a visit but he was afraid that news of him exiting his seclusion would spread quickly and this would be a slap on his face in front of Jiajia.
So, he sucked his thumb and actually cultivate a little very day.
Compared to cultivation, he was more interested to train his speed with his sword.
At the end of the 90 years, he managed to swing 15 000 times with his sword on his right hand and 21 000 times with his left hand.
This was in additional to his speed and stealth training which he trained by going down below the desolate mist often.
But he was a little panicky after 90 years when he began to question what would Jiajia think of him if he fails to cultivate to the sacred saint level?
And also because he seemed to have heard Jiajia's voice in his ears suggesting to him, "May you should try to attempt for your breakthrough. I can help you..."
So, he sucked his thumb again and he began to cultivate for a forceful breakthrough for real.
Maybe this is the power of the irrational love that cause Ji Yuan to gamble on his forceful breakthrough!
While he was cultivating, he did not know that Jiajia would secretly place a couple of high-level spirit stones near to the cave for him to drawn upon his spiritual aura to cultivate.
Jiajia did not want to make it so obvious that she was there to help him and it did not matter to her even if Ji Yuan had failed in his breakthrough to the sacred saint level.
But Ji Yuan had actually figured out how to breakthrough to the half-step sacred saint level during his last 10 years with just a divine sword in his hand.
With some tips from Jiajias' voice of course.
Sometimes he would cultivate wrongly but he would always hear Jiajia's encouraging voice in his mind as she correctly pointed to him on the right way to cultivate for a breakthrough, saving him plenty of wrongful cultivations.
Naturally Ji Yuan thought that it must be because he had missed Jiajia so much that he was even hearing her voice.
He did not receive any back lash to his cultivation core on his very first attempt for the forceful breakthrough to the sacred saint level.
Unknown to him, Jiajia had secretly watched him with her divine sense and she would step in to intervene if things go haywire.
That was also the reason why Jiajia was so inattentive to the affairs at the Emperor Hall Sect because her only concern was just Ji Yuan.
Actually, there was a little back lash after Ji Yuan had breakthrough to the sacred saint level; something went terribly wrong during his cultivation breakthrough and he had actually lost his precious beard…
But this was not an unexpected news for Jiajia because she had deliberately misled Ji Yuan a little...
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Author Note:
1. I'd really appreciate it if the readers can contribute power stones to this story as a show of support even if you are reading from other websites. Your spirit stones are crucial for motivations and releases. Also, it means alot me/ story, Many love and thanks! ?(⌒▽⌒?)
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