Gradually, the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant went from staring at Li Yan intently to lying down. In the end, it placed its massive head on its outstretched paws. Finally, its eyes grew sore from staring, and it fell into a deep sleep.
One day, as the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant was dream-walking in the great void, it heard the rumbling sound of surging Spirit Power from its side. It opened its eyes in surprise.
It found that the Spirit Power on Li Yan's body was surging even more wildly, shining brilliantly. Then, Li Yan's aura suddenly contracted, then sharply rose. Then, it saw waves of heat visibly spreading out from Li Yan's body.
"He's finally broken through to the Late-stage Foundation Establishment. It's been two months!"
The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant thought to itself. With such dense Spiritual Energy here, Li Yan had long reached the peak of the Mid-stage Foundation Establishment. Logically, he should have succeeded in breaking through to the Late-stage Foundation Establishment in a dozen or so days, but it had taken him more than two months.
"Next, another month to stabilize, and he will be fully consolidated at the initial Late-stage Foundation Establishment."
The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant thought, but the next moment, its eyes widened, because Li Yan's aura, which had just broken through, only paused slightly before rising again.
"This... is this... a continuous breakthrough?"
"Initial Late-stage Foundation Establishment... Mid Late-stage Foundation Establishment, Peak Late-stage Foundation Establishment..."
Boom, boom, boom! The Spirit Power vibrations from Li Yan's body were continuous. His aura, under the horrified gaze of the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant, soared all the way up without the slightest pause in between, like a straight line being rapidly pulled up.
"This... this... is not logical. No one cultivates like this..." The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant felt that it was witnessing a ridiculous scene, something that surpassed its inherited memories.
In its memories, breakthroughs were made one level at a time, seeking opportunities, whether for major realms or minor realms.
Finally, when Li Yan's aura reached the peak of the Late-stage Foundation Establishment, it finally slowed down. The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant shook its head and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"At least it's just a cultivation improvement within a major realm."
In the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's view, overall, Li Yan was still in the Late-stage Foundation Establishment. Although it usually took at least two months to go from just entering the initial Late-stage Foundation Establishment to the peak, perhaps this Li Yan was a special exception.
However, just as the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant was thinking this, Li Yan's already weakening aura once again struck like a raging fire. With a boom, the air waves in the secret chamber surged violently again, and Li Yan's long hair flew wildly without any wind.
"He broke through to... to the Great... Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment!" The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant shot up from the ground with a thump. It felt that perhaps its newly acknowledged master had encountered a problem in his cultivation.
Would he explode from the Spirit Power in the next moment and die? It hurriedly locked its Divine Sense firmly on Li Yan and was about to forcibly suppress and interrupt his cultivation.
But then, the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant hesitated and temporarily suppressed its idea. Although the Spirit Power on Li Yan's body was violent, it was not flowing chaotically. It was still strengthening along a predetermined path of circulation. This clearly meant that Li Yan was still in control of the Spirit Power's circulation.
Then, to the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's absurd thoughts, Li Yan's aura once again rose all the way up.
"Initial Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment... Mid Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment, Peak Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment..."
Just like with the Late-stage Foundation Establishment before, it was another straight shot up. The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's mouth hung open involuntarily.
"This won't be endless, will it? Then what's the point of cultivating immortality? How can this let others cultivate? What kind of damned cultivation method is this?" it muttered to itself. It didn't know that there was such a way of advancing in the world.
In fact, Li Yan's breakthrough this time was a case of thick accumulation and explosive release.
First, the Fire Spirit Qi here was extremely dense.
Second, the Spirit Power cultivated by the True Scripture of Gui Water was far more than what his displayed realm suggested. The depth of his stamina and Spirit Power had long reached the requirements of the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment.
Third, and most crucial, was that the black passage had tempered Li Yan's Spirit Power to the point of bitterness. He had to circulate the Spirit Power in his body almost every moment, while also needing to meticulously calculate the use of every single wisp of Spirit Power. This had made the purity of his Spirit Power long surpass the realm of the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment.
All of this was just a natural progression for Li Yan, but the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant didn't see it that way. Besides shock, there were no other words to describe its mood at this moment.
Just as the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant felt that it had had a ridiculous dream today, Li Yan's advancement finally stopped at the peak of the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment. The circulation speed of the Spirit Power in his body finally slowed down and gradually calmed.
"It... it finally stopped!" The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant didn't notice that its own voice was trembling slightly as it muttered to itself. Today had given it a feeling that it couldn't see through this new master.
But just as the aura on Li Yan's body was slowly descending, suddenly, the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant went from a standing state to taking two steps forward. Its entire body began to tremble violently and involuntarily, because it had seen a scene that shocked it beyond measure.
Above the head of Li Yan, whose aura had already returned to calm, appeared an extremely faint black ball of light, as if it could be blown away by a single breath at any time. Although it was blurry, the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant still clearly recognized that it was a black Lotus Throne.
"This... this is a trace... of the Golden... Golden... Golden Core Lotus Throne's true meaning. Impossible! This is something that can only be touched upon when one reaches the extreme of the Pseudo-Core realm."
The corner of the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's eye twitched continuously, completely unaware of how violently its body was trembling. This did not conform to anything it knew.
How could a black Lotus Throne appear so easily above Li Yan's head? From the looks of it, it was clearly not something that had just taken shape.
The comprehension of the Lotus Throne was a slow and very ethereal process. In this process, a cultivator would comprehend the true meaning through their own understanding, and only then might they have a flash of insight one day, and the Lotus Throne would condense. And according to the strength of their comprehension, it would manifest in different states of solidity.
But Li Yan had clearly just broken through to the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment. The black Lotus Throne just now had formed in an instant. This was a sign of having already comprehended it.
At the same time, there was one point that the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant couldn't understand. Li Yan's Lotus Throne was black, which was a characteristic of a water-type cultivator. But since it had woken up, Li Yan had displayed fire-attribute Spirit Power, absorbing the surrounding fire-type Spiritual Energy like a whale drinking water. How could this be explained?
And right then, streams of colored light erupted from Li Yan's body, making him look as if he were sitting in a colored auspicious cloud.
The moment the colored light appeared, the entire secret chamber shook slightly, emitting a buzzing sound. Then, Li Yan, who had been sitting motionless, let out a long howl from his mouth, like the roar of a dragon and the cry of a tiger, echoing throughout the secret chamber.
Amidst the long howl, Li Yan's long hair flew wildly as if blown by a chaotic wind, and his black robes billowed with loud thumps.
The Spirit Power on his body condensed into a tangible heavy hammer, colliding with the dense Fire Spirit Qi around him, producing a loud sound like a war drum.
Then, under the incredulous, and even somewhat terrified, gaze of the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant, Li Yan broke through to the Pseudo-Core Realm.
"Don't you try to fool me, don't you try to fool me. What you're cultivating today must be an illusion art."
The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant thought in a daze. It was unwilling to accept what it was seeing, but at this moment, it was already somewhat numb. At the same time, another strange thought arose in its mind. "Is he going to continue to soar all the way up like before? That would be the Golden Core. This is too absurd..."
Amidst the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's chaotic thoughts, the five-colored light streams around Li Yan finally dissipated, and his aura once again slowly calmed down.
But the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant still stared fixedly at Li Yan's figure. It felt that he might suddenly have his aura rise again. But until a cup of tea's time had passed, Li Yan remained with his eyes closed, his aura as calm as the deep abyss. Only then did the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant let out a long sigh of relief.
But now, the way it looked at Li Yan had already changed greatly from before. Initially, it was shocked to see through Li Yan's ninth-rank Foundation Establishment. Today, it had seen the power and mystery of the cultivation method Li Yan practiced, as well as the true meaning of the Lotus Throne he had comprehended.
All of this made the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant feel that Li Yan was extremely mysterious. Even with its ancient inherited memories, it still couldn't explain any of this.
Only now did it truly have the intention to submit to Li Yan. But it was not complete submission. That would require Li Yan to fully grow up one day, until he could completely suppress its proud bloodline.
...
The Bright Fire Qilin stared blankly at the pitch-black passage. Just now, it had dived headfirst into it. This caught it off guard, as it had long grown accustomed to being repelled. But then, excitement welled up in its heart.
"I'm in, I'm in! I'm finally in! That damn human, he's finally dead..."
After a burst of excitement, the Bright Fire Qilin transformed into a wisp of flame and sped forward.
An hour later, the Bright Fire Qilin reached the end of the black passage. Looking at the passage, which no longer had an exit, it looked around in a daze.
Along the way, it had searched carefully but had not found any Storage Pouch. It was possible that after Li Yan died and lost the protection of his Spirit Power, his body was quickly turned to ash by the high temperature here. But treasures with spatial abilities could not be destroyed here.
The exit at the end had already disappeared. Even it could not enter the secret chamber. Following this, earth-shattering roars echoed through the dark passage...
When Li Yan opened his eyes, he only felt that the Spirit Power in his body was so abundant that it was unimaginable. This was a feeling he had never had before. Even when he had previously cultivated The Five Elements Return to Primordial Genesis and instantly raised his magic power to an unprecedented height, he had not had this feeling of fullness.
After sensing the power it brought, Li Yan was also stunned, because he was not clear about the breakthrough process.
At that time, he had entered a wonderful state, his whole person in a state of emptiness and clarity. "The mind is like a clear mirror without distractions; without wind, how can ripples arise?" The circulation of his Spirit Power was completely at his will.
Just then, a voice came over. "Master, you don't even know what realm you've broken through to?"
Hearing this, Li Yan came back to his senses. He first nodded, then looked at the massive head of the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant that had almost reached right in front of him, and only then did he push it a little farther away.
Seeing Li Yan's reaction, the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant sighed inwardly again. When others broke through and advanced, the whole process was not only dangerous, but they also needed to grasp the strength and circulation method of their Spirit Power at all times. But he didn't even know his own breakthrough process. How could this be?