At Submerged Spirit Palace, Gu An finished picking medicinal herbs and turned his gaze to the distance, where Chen Luo and Xu Ling were cultivating. Both of them had already reached the Loose Immortal Realm, but progressing from Loose Immortal to Wandering Immortal was a long and arduous process. Even among the disciples of Wushi Dao Field, many were still stuck in the Loose Immortal Realm, struggling to break through.
So many years had passed, and Chen Chuan had not encountered any mysterious karmic attacks again. Gu An was now considering whether he should allow Chen Luo and Xu Ling to leave.
Not everyone was content with cultivating in seclusion forever.
At that moment, Deep Sea Dragon Koi approached Gu An's side. As always, he was dressed in white robes. His face still carried some feminine softness, but compared to ten thousand years ago, he had an air of sharp determination. Anyone who looked at him would immediately know that he was no ordinary demon.
"Master, do you need me to call them over?" Deep Sea Dragon Koi asked respectfully. Like Chen Luo and Xu Ling, he was also in the Loose Immortal Realm, but his cultivation foundation was far superior to theirs.
Unlike them, Deep Sea Dragon Koi had a much simpler desire—he only wanted to cultivate.
To enter Submerged Spirit Palace back then, he had endured countless hardships, and he still vividly remembered them. Because of that, he had no desire to leave.
"There's no need. What kind of treasure do you want?" Gu An asked while stretching his limbs.
"A treasure?" Deep Sea Dragon Koi's eyes lit up. He pondered for a moment before answering, "I want a banner, one that can control the ocean."
Even though he now knew about the vastness of the worlds beyond, his heart still belonged to the sea.
The more he read and learned, the more he set his sights on a singular goal—dominating the oceans.
He wanted to make all the beings of the sea bow to him, to revere him as their master.
Hearing his request, Gu An nodded slightly but did not say anything.
Forging ten Dao treasures in the past had not exhausted him in the slightest. In fact, during the process, he had also gained further insights into the Grand Dao, making it a rather fulfilling experience.
So, he planned to continue crafting Dao treasures. However, not everyone was worthy of receiving them—Chen Luo and Xu Ling were not among the ones who could.
Gu An had saved them only because of Chen Chuan's sake.
As his cultivation continued to reach new heights, Gu An's heart had also become increasingly unshakable. To truly enter his inner circle and become someone he cared about was now more difficult than ascending the heavens.
At his core, he was someone who remembered old ties, but sentiment alone was not enough.
"Go cultivate. I'll be leaving soon." Seeing Deep Sea Dragon Koi still standing there, Gu An waved him away.
He remained where he was, gazing at the sprawling medicine gardens of Submerged Spirit Palace. Then, he activated his Lifespan Breakthrough.
[You have activated the Lifespan Breakthrough function. Based on your current realm, the following locations are available for your breakthrough:]
Nine Heavens Extreme Sky
Ascending Yellow Heavens
Taiwei Earth Core
Netherworld Deep Sea
Desolation Tomb
Path of the Grand Dao
Xuan You Divine Abyss
Misty Celestial Court
Spirit Mountain
Many of these places had appeared before. This time, Gu An immediately dismissed Nine Heavens Extreme Sky.
He carefully examined the names of the locations and found himself intrigued by Spirit Mountain.
In ancient Huaxia mythology, Spirit Mountain was the Buddhist holy land. Now that even the Heavenly Court had appeared, he wondered whether this Spirit Mountain was the same as the one in those myths.
Though curious, Gu An had no intention of going to Spirit Mountain.
For some reason, he had an uneasy feeling about that place. While the other locations seemed vast and expansive, Spirit Mountain felt small and confined—even though the Lifespan Breakthrough function guaranteed temporary safety, he was unwilling to take the risk.
For Gu An, the larger the breakthrough location, the better. That way, even if he triggered some heavenly phenomenon, there would be less chance of someone stumbling into his Lifespan Barrier.
After some thought, he decided to choose Desolation Tomb.
There shouldn't be any powerful beings lurking inside a tomb. Even if there were, they would likely be sealed.
Moreover, for reasons he could not explain, the name Desolation Tomb resonated with him—it felt connected to his fate.
[Teleporting to Desolation Tomb will consume 10,000,000,000 years of lifespan. Do you wish to proceed?]
Proceed!
As soon as the thought surfaced in his mind, the long-familiar unusual state enveloped Gu An. He closed his eyes and lost all sensation.
A while later.
Gu An felt solid ground beneath his feet. Immediately, he activated his Lifespan Barrier, then slowly opened his eyes.
The sight before him was a series of ruined palaces, their walls cracked and crumbling. Towering ancient stone pillars reached into the clouds, and the ground was uneven, devoid of any grass or flowers. Only yellow dust and jagged rocks stretched across the landscape. In the far distance, a dense haze of dust obscured the horizon, making it impossible to see the end of the scene.
Vast and desolate.
This was Gu An's first impression of the place.
The spiritual energy in this place was exceptionally dense, even richer than that of Nine Heavens Extreme Sky. However, the Grand Dao aura here was not as diverse, with the Dao of Karma being the most prominent.
For Gu An, this was actually a great advantage. Although he had already started to delve into other Great Daos, the Dao of Karma was still his main cultivation path.
Sweeping his gaze around, he did not sense the presence of any living beings.
Desolation Tomb was far larger than he had expected. His spiritual perception extended endlessly, yet he could not see the boundaries. He was curious—was this entire world inside the tomb, or was the tomb hidden somewhere within this world?
Sitting cross-legged, he activated his status panel to check his attributes.
[Name: Gu An]
[Lifespan: 20,587/338,542,709,068]
[Physique: Hunyuan Reincarnation Immortal Physique]
[Cultivation: Measuring the Heavens Golden Immortal Realm (Perfected)]
[...]
More than 330 billion years of lifespan!
This time, he was confident in achieving a successful breakthrough!
During his last tribulation, each attempt required a waiting period of one billion years. However, since his abilities had improved in every aspect, the required waiting time for the next tribulation shouldn't increase too drastically.
He immediately invested 10 billion years of lifespan into his cultivation.
[You have cultivated for 200 million years, using your profound mastery of the Grand Dao Sovereign Art to forcibly break through to the Supreme Purity Golden Immortal Realm. Tribulation begins. You failed to withstand the Three Thousand Golden Immortal Dao Severing Tribulation. Breakthrough failed.]
[You have cultivated for 400 million years, using your profound mastery of the Grand Dao Sovereign Art to forcibly break through to the Supreme Purity Golden Immortal Realm. Tribulation begins. You failed to withstand the Three Thousand Golden Immortal Dao Severing Tribulation. Breakthrough failed.]
[...]
As expected, breaking through to the Supreme Purity Golden Immortal Realm was a monumental challenge!
A 200-million-year waiting period for each tribulation wasn't too unreasonable.
In reality, failing a tribulation usually meant severe injury or complete annihilation. For someone at his level, being able to recover within 200 million years was already an extraordinary rarity.
Before long, the 10 billion years of lifespan he invested were completely exhausted. Every attempt had ended in failure.
Yet Gu An remained calm—this was only the beginning.
He immediately invested another 10 billion years.
As the notifications appeared one after another, his attention was suddenly drawn to a massive palace in the distance.
That palace was over a million miles away from him. Compared to the surrounding ruins, it stood out immensely, towering above everything else. Just its gate alone was over ten thousand zhang high.
A moment ago, Gu An had sensed a strange and sinister aura emanating from within the palace. It vanished almost instantly, making it seem as though it had never existed.
Had it been just an illusion?
It seemed that Desolation Tomb was hiding some secrets.
He shifted his focus back to his breakthrough. Once all the notifications had settled, he invested another 10 billion years of lifespan.
Failure!
Another attempt.
Failure!
Yet another attempt.
Failure!
Finally—
[You have cultivated for 5.8 billion years, using your profound mastery of the Grand Dao Sovereign Art to forcibly break through to the Supreme Purity Golden Immortal Realm. Tribulation begins. You have withstood the Three Thousand Golden Immortal Dao Severing Tribulation. Breakthrough successful. Your cultivation has advanced to the Initial Stage of the Supreme Purity Golden Immortal Realm.]
[You have cultivated for 10 billion years. Your cultivation has improved.]
As soon as he broke through, an immense surge of Grand Dao energy flooded toward him. But he did not stop—instead, he continued investing more lifespan.
Reaching the Middle Stage of the Supreme Purity Golden Immortal Realm took far more lifespan than he had expected. In the end, it required an astonishing 20 billion years of lifespan!
This was terrifying!
However, recalling that the Nine Heavens Azure Bird was already over two billion years old and was still at the Initial Stage of the Supreme Purity Golden Immortal Realm, Gu An felt more at ease.
After all, this was Supreme Purity Golden Immortal Realm, a level beyond the imagination of ordinary beings in the Heavenly Spirit World.
He continuously poured in lifespan, advancing steadily until he finally reached the Perfected Stage of the Supreme Purity Golden Immortal Realm. From Initial Stage to Perfected Stage, he had spent nearly 100 billion years of lifespan.
Even so, he still had over 180 billion years of lifespan remaining!
At that moment, Desolation Tomb began to undergo monumental changes. From all directions, Grand Dao energy erupted, forming devastating vortex storms. The sky above was filled with countless arcane symbols, flickering like heavenly lightning, exuding an overwhelming sense of oppression.
Gu An's gaze shifted back toward the massive palace in the distance.
The eerie aura he had sensed earlier surfaced once again. His eyes narrowed as he fixated on the half-open gate. Inside, only darkness loomed—deep, cold, and unfathomable.
Moments later, as Grand Dao light enveloped him, Gu An's expression turned sharp.
From within the palace gate, a shadowy figure was emerging.
That silhouette was the size of an ordinary human, yet within the massive gate, it appeared as insignificant as a speck of dust.
Judging by its form, it seemed to be a person?