Chapter 62: The Evolutionary Path of the Heavenly Book

With that, Li Yao stopped spending and began his seclusion and cultivation. Originally, he had planned to deduce the Source arts and those Phoenix Dao patterns.

However, since he now had a new hypothesis regarding the Heavenly Book's new usage, it would not be too late to perform the deductions when he reached the ninth transformation of the Other Shore realm.

If his hypothesis proved true, performing the deductions now would be equivalent to three years of cultivation. If he performed them after the ninth transformation of the Other Shore and mastered them in five years, he would completely save two years in between.

How long would it take him to reach the ninth transformation of the Other Shore? Li Yao did not know, but it certainly would not exceed two years, and might not even require a full year.

……

Just as Zhang Chong had promised, with Li Yao staying in the Sacred City to cultivate, no one disturbed him at all.

Of course, during this period, there were certainly some disciples ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth who attempted to challenge him in order to achieve a leap in status.

To put it without exaggeration, given Li Yao's current reputation, there were far too many people who wanted to step on him to climb upward.

Li Yao did not refuse these people either; cultivation was tedious, and there were times when he wanted to stretch his muscles.

However, he would not rush out of seclusion to accept challenges the moment someone threw down the gauntlet. If he were to do that, the effectiveness of his cultivation would inevitably plummet.

Therefore, he proclaimed to the outside world that he would set aside one day a month to accept challenges from others.

When Li Yao was in the Divine Bridge realm, he was already capable of dominating the Other Shore realm. Now that he had broken through into the Other Shore realm himself, his strength was even more terrifying.

Thus, when the period of one month arrived, the eighty-one Other Shore disciples who challenged him were directly swept away by him in a single irresistible push, without a single one proving to be a match for even a single blow.

The fates of these people were not too miserable, at least compared to Li Tianqi; they fared much better, with the most severely injured merely needing to spend a few months bedridden.

He had originally thought that after this, no one would dare to challenge him anymore.

Yet when the second month arrived, Li Yao realized that he had underestimated the stubborn thick-headedness of the people in this world. Even knowing how powerful he was, more than fifty people still came to challenge him.

However, at least half of the cultivators who came this time were not driven by the desire to defeat him for fame, but genuinely just wanted to test themselves against him.

These people were very courageous, but unfortunately, Li Yao this month was far more powerful than he had been in the first month. Now, when fighting disciples of the same realm, he did not even need to throw a punch; he simply charged forward and waved his hand, beating the challengers until their bones fractured.

Next, amidst the mundane routine of cultivation, sleeping, and beating up disciples, time flew by. In the blink of an eye, four months passed, and Li Yao successfully completed nine transformations.

The nine transformations made him even stronger, and at the same time, his Wheel and Sea became entirely different.

Inside the immortal cave, Li Yao remained unmoving as a mountain. Electric arcs coiled around his body, accompanied by a blazing sun, with a vast firmament appearing above his head as he sat within the Bitter Sea.

This was not a true divine manifestation, but merely a prototype—an advanced evolution of the Wheel and Sea that broke through the shackles of the physical shell and truly manifested in reality.

Li Yao's cultivation in the Wheel and Sea was undoubtedly perfect, and he had reaped rewards accordingly: the prototype of a divine manifestation was born within his Wheel and Sea. Once its evolution was complete, it could be released outside the body to become a supreme offensive sacred art.

In the early stages, if you did not possess a divine manifestation, you would be too embarrassed to call yourself a peerless prodigy when walking out in the world.

Li Yao's divine manifestation was a blazing sun roaming the firmament, scorching and bright, casting down radiance that enveloped his body as if he had donned a layer of dazzling battle armor.

That expanse of firmament was as clear and pure as a gemstone, with electric dragons swimming below it, intertwining countless bolts of thunder that resembled the apocalyptic tribulations of creation itself, extending all the way here.

The Bitter Sea rose and fell, yet Li Yao remained steadfast like a boulder, unmoving, letting the rising and falling tides surge around him.

This was a wondrous sight. At first, the sound of the waves and the lightning were deafening, but later everything grew calm, transforming into a serene and harmonious picture.

Although it was merely the prototype of a manifestation, it was comparable to a complete manifestation, encircling him and making him seem as though he stood within a wondrous realm of heaven and earth.

At this moment, Li Yao was free of ripples, merging as one with the pulse of heaven and earth, his serenity containing wondrous and mighty power.

After a long while, he finally opened his eyes, and the blazing sun, the firmament, the lightning, and the Bitter Sea all retracted and vanished from sight.

"From this moment on, the Wheel and Sea is consummated, and the first major secret realm of the human body is thoroughly accomplished!"

Li Yao felt as though he possessed boundless divine power. A gentle stamp of his foot was enough to tear the earth apart, and a single punch with his raised hand was enough to shatter the firmament.

This was an unimaginable mighty power. Through the nine transformations of the Other Shore, he had passed through nine cycles of life and death, and his divine power, physical body, and divine sense had likewise undergone nine transformations.

He was now countless times stronger than he had been before the transformations. His former self, even with all methods unleashed, would be nothing more than a single punch's worth of effort before him now.

All sorts of techniques were utterly useless in the face of absolute strength.

Now, Li Yao could test whether his hypothesis about the Heavenly Book was correct. Impatiently, he took out ten thousand catties of Source and let the Heavenly Book absorb it.

To his surprise, however, the Heavenly Book did not perform any deductions, because the ten thousand catties of Source did not fully charge the book—it only reached two-thirds capacity.

Seeing this, Li Yao, wealthy and unfazed, took out another five thousand catties of Source.

The light of enlightenment suddenly blazed, and Li Yao once again entered that wondrous realm. An instant, two instants... nineteen instants, one flash!

Li Yao pulled himself out of that wondrous realm, and at the same time, a Saint King-level Source art appeared in his mind. Although it had just been deduced, Li Yao felt a profound degree of mastery over this Saint King Source art, simply... as if he had spent a decade of bitter cultivation practicing this very Source art.

"It's correct. This time I lingered in that wondrous realm for a single flash, personally participating in the process of creating the technique, and my comprehension of the scripture has also increased by a large margin." Boundless excitement surged in Li Yao's heart.

His hypothesis had been verified successfully. He had indeed discovered another marvelous use of the Heavenly Book. With this innate talent by his side, he could master any divine skill or marvelous formula almost instantly in the future, and perhaps even reach a level that surpassed the original creator.

After thrilling in excitement for quite a while, Li Yao finally calmed down and began to experience the new changes in the Saint King Source art.

First, the scripture had become even more wondrous, its exposition on the Great Dao of heaven and earth profound and pithy, every single character containing great wisdom.

Second, two heaven-defying supreme techniques had been added. The first was called: The Great Art of Changing the Heavens and Switching Earth, capable of altering the grand momentum of mountains and rivers as well as transforming one's own appearance. The second was: The Earth Vein Dragon-Transforming Art, capable of gathering the boundless vital energy of heaven and earth for one's own use, augmenting oneself and enhancing one's strength, though it required specific locations to be executed.

These two secret techniques were both core supreme arts within the Source Heavenly Book, incomparably wondrous, and no less inferior to the taboo methods found within various ancient scriptures—though the ancient scriptures here did not include Emperor scriptures.

"The Great Art of Changing the Heavens and Switching Earth—this happens to be a very practical secret art that will come in useful when traveling outside in the future." When Li Yao saw this art, his very first reaction was that it suited him perfectly.

There was no help for it; the good things on his person right now were simply too numerous, while his cultivation realm was still too weak. Within the Sacred City, no one dared to make a move, but once outside the Sacred City, lacking a protector, those people who licked blood off their blades would definitely take the gamble.

Recalling his focus, Li Yao once again waved his hand and took out fifteen thousand catties of Source...

The light of enlightenment blazed, and he once again entered the wondrous realm, participating in the creation of the technique. A flash later, the Saint King-level Blazing Sun Divine Radiance appeared in his mind.

The divine art had become even more profound and complex, but his mastery of it did not recede; instead, it advanced, reaching an even deeper level.

Li Yao did not stop. He waved his hand and took out another twenty thousand catties of Source, and finding it insufficient, took out yet another ten thousand catties before the Heavenly Book began its continued deduction.

A flash later, the Blazing Sun Divine Radiance had reached the Great Saint level—a height that even the original creator could only look up to with a sigh of unattainable reach.

"A Great Saint-level divine art is definitely enough for now, especially since I have also mastered the Blazing Sun Divine Radiance to the realm of pure perfection."

Li Yao did not continue to deduce the Blazing Sun Divine Radiance, but he did not stop either.

For today, there was still one final heavyweight item: the Dao patterns on the bone fragments within the divine Source, those phoenix-like runes that were ancient beyond imagination.

Over the past few months, Li Yao had also tried to comprehend them, but those runes were far too severely damaged for anyone to cultivate them directly.

Yet Li Yao believed that with his near-immortal comprehension, he could attempt to deduce and complete them. He possessed this self-confidence.

The unadorned bone fragment was taken out. As he looked at the lines carved upon the bone fragment, corresponding Dao pattern textures also began to appear on the Heavenly Book.

Suddenly, Li Yao's expression changed drastically. The moment the very first Dao pattern was carved onto the Heavenly Book, an unexpected event occurred.

That Dao pattern seemed to be some sort of astonishing, supreme tonic, causing the Heavenly Book to tremble. The Great Dao laws and profound mysteries that Li Yao had been unable to understand were actually absorbed by the Heavenly Book for their comprehension of the Great Dao.

And then, Li Yao clearly sensed that the Heavenly Book... was actually evolving.

At the same time, a thought naturally and unmistakably arose within Li Yao's mind.

"Collecting scriptures and carving them onto the Heavenly Book allows its exposition on the Great Dao laws to drive the evolution of the Heavenly Book."

However, scriptures from the Human Dao realm were useless, because the Heavenly Book itself was already no longer an entity of the Human Dao realm; it required at least Immortal scriptures.