Day turned to night, sun gave way to snow. Five months later, in a mountain cave, Li Yan, who had been sitting motionless, was covered in a layer of dust.
Suddenly, his eyelids twitched. The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant, which had been lying beside him in utter boredom, immediately focused its attention on him.
The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant had already fully recovered two months ago.
When they first arrived at this cave, Li Yan had set up the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation" and had also released it, casually throwing out several thousand Vicious Souls for it to recover on its own.
Previously, at the bottom of the deep sea, the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant had been operating the formation at full power at all times. So, although it had devoured a large number of Vicious Souls then, it was not enough to cover such high-intensity consumption. On the contrary, it was constantly contributing its own soul power, and its main body had also been severely damaged.
Later, during the chase, although Li Yan had allowed it to recover somewhat, he still had no choice but to have the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant set up the formation for concealment when necessary, to give himself some breathing room. It was only now, in a safe place, that it could finally recover in peace.
The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's previous issue was mainly the excessive consumption of its soul body. After settling down and having a large number of Vicious Souls to devour, it naturally recovered to its peak state quickly. This was one of the benefits of not having a physical body.
Unlike Li Yan, most of whose injuries were to his organs and bones, which required a long period of rest and recovery. Otherwise, if some injuries were not healed in time, they could cause permanent, irreversible damage.
After the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant recovered, it lay beside Li Yan, acting as his protector, alert to all movements outside. Fortunately, everything remained calm and normal.
For several months, apart from some low-level Demonic Beasts occasionally passing by, not a single cultivator had appeared. It showed just how remote the far north of the Jingtu Sect was.
A tall circle of Spirit Stones was piled beside Li Yan. These Spirit Stones had already turned dark gray, all having been consumed in large quantities by Li Yan during his cultivation over the past few months.
Li Yan's eyelids twitched a few more times, and he finally opened his eyes, a misty essence flowing within them.
The first thing that met Li Yan's eyes was the large head of the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant leaning over. Li Yan smiled slightly, and then, with a shake of his spiritual power, the dust on his hair and robes instantly vanished. The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant was immediately covered in dust, but fortunately, it had no physical body and was not afraid of choking. It just shook its head in dissatisfaction.
Li Yan reached out his right hand, patted the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant on the head, smiled slightly, and then stood up.
After nearly half a year of meditation, the hidden injuries left in Li Yan's body had been completely cleared. But there was also an unexpected surprise. After his meridians had been repeatedly ravaged by the "Five Elements Return to Primordial Genesis" grand art for several months, his meridians and bones had reached a state of near-shattering.
Li Yan had carefully and slowly repaired them, inch by inch, and it took a full two and a half months to re-nourish all the meridians and bones in his body.
After these meridians and bones were repaired, the width of the meridians had expanded by twenty to thirty percent, which increased the flow rate of spiritual power in the meridians by about half.
The benefits of this roughly twenty percent increase in flow rate were immeasurable. Now, when Li Yan cast the same spell, the time it took was about ten percent less than five months ago.
This might seem insignificant, but in a life-and-death battle, which often happens in a flash, being a fraction of a second ahead could be the difference between life and death.
At the same time, the bones in his body were also a circle thicker than before, and his physical body had become tougher and more resilient.
So, after his injuries had healed, Li Yan continued to cultivate for another two months without interruption. After all his other injuries were healed, Li Yan found that after this near-death experience, by constantly pushing his physical strength and will under the threat of death, he had unexpectedly gained even more benefits after fully recovering.
"A cultivator's path is one against the heavens, like a mortal walking on a perilous path along a cliff. Victory means seeing the beautiful scenery on the opposite peak; one misstep means eternal reincarnation. But sometimes, for a cultivator, even the desire for reincarnation is a luxury."
Now, Li Yan's cultivation was approaching the mid-stage of the Pseudo-Core realm. He estimated that if he continued to meditate for a while longer, he could truly break through to the mid-stage of the Pseudo-Core realm.
Li Yan knew the principle of not overdoing it, so he decisively stopped his cultivation today.
Afterward, Li Yan waved his hand, used the "Cloud and Rain Art" to wash his body inside the cave, and changed into a fresh set of green robes.
Then, he immediately used his divine sense to inspect the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's body. After confirming that the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant had also not suffered any major harm in this protracted battle, he then asked about recent events. Hearing that everything nearby was as usual, he was relieved.
After taking out several hundred more Vicious Souls and tossing them to the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant, Li Yan sat down cross-legged again. Next, he needed to properly sort out his gains from this trip.
He wiped his left wrist, and a black light flashed. As soon as this light appeared, the entire cave was instantly filled with layers of gray mist, as if they had plunged into a sea of clouds.
At the same time, even the spiritual power in the cave became somewhat heavy and thick, instantly losing its previous lively and jumping feeling. This was caused by the extreme concentration of water spiritual energy.
After nearly half a year, this was the first time Li Yan had seen the "Infinite Wanderer" tree again—or more accurately, a large, straight, ink-black branch. The branch was about two chi long, enough for Li Yan to refine a pair of Gui-Yi Water-Parting Spikes. (TN: 1 chi is about 1/3 of a meter)
The branch was entirely black, with a faint, dark luster, like a piece of exquisite black porcelain. The branch was as thick as an adult's middle finger.
Its surface had fine, vertical, light gray patterns, like rows of sharp, tiny teeth. At a glance, it made the entire branch look particularly strange and sinister, like a slender, patterned black snake.
This was one of the three thickest branches on that "Infinite Wanderer" tree. Li Yan had guarded the nameless deserted island for more than three months, and it was only when that "Blue Demon Flood Dragon" finally went on a long hunting trip that Li Yan's hard work finally paid off.
He immediately sneaked over. He had originally thought of taking the entire "Infinite Wanderer" tree, roots and all, but it was simply impossible. Firstly, time was tight; he only had a few breaths to steal and escape. Secondly, he had tried to take the whole tree first, and although he had the unique harvesting method from the "True Scripture of Gui Water," he knew at once that it was not feasible.
So he settled for the next best thing, wanting to take away the thickest branch besides the main trunk. Unfortunately, to Li Yan's great anxiety, after another breath and a half, he had only cut less than twenty percent of the base of this branch. At this time, he had at most a little over two breaths left; there was no way he could take it.
And at that moment, the angry roar of the "Blue Demon Flood Dragon" had already come from the horizon, shaking ten thousand li.
Li Yan was anxious, but he also knew that this was the fastest he could break it off. Helpless, he had no choice but to retreat again, finally targeting the thinnest of the three thickest branches.
At this time, he no longer hid his figure but poured all the spiritual power in his body out in one go. Aided by the incantation from the "Gui Water Immortal Sect," he finally managed to cut off a branch of the "Infinite Wanderer" just half a breath before the last moment.
Next came a desperate flight for his life. If he had gone for this branch from the very beginning, the outcome might have been much better.
"Insatiable greed!" Li Yan looked at the pitch-black branch in his hand and laughed at himself inwardly.
He felt a wave of luck. This rash action of his had been too dangerous. After lamenting for a while, Li Yan finally refocused his attention on the "Infinite Wanderer" branch.
A spiritual light flashed on Li Yan's other hand, and a golden spiritual power instantly transformed into a three-chi-long, gleaming sharp blade, which in the next moment, chopped heavily onto the branch.
With an almost inaudible "hiss," the originally straight, spear-like black branch, the moment the sharp blade made contact, a small cloud of black qi churned at the point of contact under the golden blade's edge.
It made the sharp, straight-down blade feel as if it had instantly sunk into a muddy swamp. And the black branch, with the blade's edge as the fulcrum, the entire branch actually bent downwards, with its two ends slightly curling up.
Li Yan couldn't help but increase the golden spiritual power in his hand. The "Infinite Wanderer" branch bent more and more, emitting a continuous "hissing" sound of water vapor.
But the three-chi-long sharp blade in Li Yan's hand was still unable to cut it. Finally, when Li Yan infused ninety percent of his magical power, the golden sharp blade finally cut into the branch.
But the moment the blade cut in, it was as if it was stuck there by a strong, sticky, squeezing force.
"I'm already at the Pseudo-Core realm, yet even at almost full power, I can't even move it a bit. It's truly not easy to pick the 'Infinite Wanderer' tree."
Thinking of this, Li Yan immediately dispersed the spiritual power blade, and the "Infinite Wanderer" branch instantly returned to its straight state.
A black water mist billowed on the tiny cut on its surface, healing at a speed visible to the naked eye. In just two or three breaths, the entire branch was as good as new.
Metal-attribute spiritual power, the sharpest attack among the five elements. With Li Yan's current Pseudo-Core realm cultivation, at nearly full power, he could only achieve this much.
Although Li Yan was mentally prepared, he was still quite surprised. With such brute force, and with the aid of his Qiongqi Purgatory Art, he could probably force even an initial-stage Golden Core cultivator back.
Then, spiritual power appeared in Li Yan's hand again, this time it was black water-attribute spiritual power.
Water, the foundation of softness in the world.
The moment the black water-attribute spiritual power appeared, the surface of the equally pitch-black "Infinite Wanderer" branch shimmered with a flowing light, the black qi circulating faster, as if it had sensed the threat of its own kind.
The black spiritual power flew out from Li Yan's hand, transforming into a ferocious flood dragon, and wrapped directly around the equally black branch, like a giant dragon coiling around a pillar.
After the black flood dragon coiled around the black branch, the black flood dragon let out a low roar. The black scales formed by the spiritual power on its body surface suddenly stood on end, and then its coiled body fiercely contracted.
It squeezed tightly towards the black branch within, and the black branch, upon sensing the threat, shot out black mist from all over, which was squeezed out from the gaps in the black flood dragon's coils.
Under the tight coiling and squeezing of the black flood dragon, a teeth-grinding "creaking" sound was produced.
In Li Yan's eyes, the originally finger-thick black branch actually began to slowly expand. Thus, these two opposing forces confronted each other without reservation.
Two breaths later, the vivid flood dragon formed by Li Yan's black spiritual power, with a "bang," shattered into specks of spiritual power that scattered in all directions, finally disappearing into the world.
And the originally expanded black branch then slowly returned to its previous size.