Quasi-Emperor Killing Intent

"Failed again... Do I need a divine medicine, or to open ten Heavenly Caves, to activate the Wheel Sea?" Zhou Tong sighed once more.

Yet this time, when he attempted to break into the Wheel Sea, he could sense that his Life Wheel was as hard as divine iron. Even when he assaulted it with the essence cultivated from five Heavenly Caves, he could not break through it, only make it tremble slightly.

Previously, when he had tried to cultivate, there had been complete silence where his Wheel Sea should have been. He could sense nothing at all. Even when he attacked it, it merely felt as though he had struck an iron plate. But now, he could much more clearly sense exactly what he was crashing into.

"Then I'll keep cultivating. If five Heavenly Caves aren't enough, then I'll open ten!" Zhou Tong had a ruthless streak as well. Since he had decided to embark on this path of cultivation, he would never allow himself to give up halfway.

"First, it's still Thunder Body Tempering. Now that I've reached the Heavenly Cave Realm, this secret art can be cultivated further!" Zhou Tong continued along the safe path through the Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains and soon discovered another Spirit Herb that was thirty to forty thousand years old.

Without giving it much thought, he once again activated the Thunder Emperor Method. A massive thunder dragon immediately appeared and slammed heavily into Zhou Tong's body, tearing his flesh apart.

At the same time, he guided the Spirit Herb within his body, using all its medicinal power to repair his injuries and strengthen his physique.

He cultivated as he advanced, and the countless Spirit Herbs along the way were enough to sustain his cultivation. The deeper he went, the more astonishing the age of the Spirit Herbs became, and the easier Zhou Tong's cultivation grew.

Suddenly, Zhou Tong's expression tightened. Within a stone forest, he saw someone seated cross-legged atop a slab of Cyan Jade, looking solemn and sacred as Immortal Qi swirled around him.

Terrifying auras radiated from the figure, incredibly intimidating. Every strand weighed more than ten thousand jun, like a Demon Mountain pressing down upon him.

"What terrifying pressure..." The instant Zhou Tong saw the man, he felt his body trembling.

This power was simply too astonishing.

"A Great Sage, definitely a Great Sage! He died here!" Zhou Tong was utterly shaken. This was the first time he had seen such a powerful being.

If this person were still alive, his aura alone would have crushed Zhou Tong to death.

"What a pity. I can't examine this Great Sage's corpse, or I might have obtained a Great Sage treasure!" Zhou Tong felt somewhat regretful. If he could acquire such a treasure, then for a long time to come, he might not lack something to protect his path.

"But this is fine too. With the pressure from this Great Sage's corpse and that Spirit Herb I just picked, perhaps I can forge my sixth Heavenly Cave!" Zhou Tong immediately sat cross-legged before the Great Sage. As he contemplated the Thunder Emperor Method, he swallowed a leaf from one of the Spirit Herbs he had obtained earlier.

At once, the immense medicinal power within that Spirit Leaf transformed into a mass of cyan flames inside Zhou Tong's body. They blazed fiercely, scorching his sinews and bones and tempering his flesh.

In the end, Zhou Tong opened his eyes. A brand-new "Volcano" appeared beside him.

With that, he had opened his sixth Heavenly Cave, and his strength rose another level!

At that moment, Zhou Tong's essence surged through his body. The sixth Heavenly Cave continuously spewed essence as runes intertwined, lightning flashed, and thunder roared, as though it were creating a world.

For an entire day, Zhou Tong did not move. He contemplated the mysteries of the runes and experienced this newfound power.

"Actually, with the cultivation experience of Desolate Heaven Emperor's Disciple-Grandchild, cultivation in the Heavenly Cave Realm isn't too difficult for me. There are methods to comprehend the things that need to be understood..." Zhou Tong silently reviewed the cultivation method in his mind once more.

At the beginning of cultivation, the simplest path was to imitate those who came before, because during the early stages, there was no need for anything uniquely one's own. Only after reaching a certain level of cultivation did one need to comprehend one's own Dao.

Of course, if one blindly imitated the predecessors in the early stages, then when the time came to carve out one's own path, one might not know how to proceed.

This was also why many descendants of Great Emperors and ancient Emperors ultimately failed to attain the Dao.

They had taken shortcuts from the start, so when it came time to create their own path, they lacked a measure of the resolve and experience possessed by those who had fought their way up from the bottom.

Why was the Desolate Heaven Emperor so powerful, even creating an entire cultivation system? It was because from the very beginning of his cultivation, he had his own thoughts. Every path he walked had been conceived by himself, without following the roads of those before him.

"Although I am also merely imitating, the Chaotic Ancient Method is only a temporary measure for me. What I need is to use the Heavenly Caves to open the Wheel Sea, then directly switch to the Sky Shrouding Method!" Zhou Tong had already made his plans. Without stopping, he continued onward.

After winding left and right, he entered a hilly region. Zhou Tong soon sensed waves of Blood Evil Qi. Everything ahead was scarlet, with blood qi steaming into the air. Beyond the safe area, another Great Sage was burning. He was in a far worse state than the previous one, with half his body already withered.

He continued onward, and before long, the corpse of a third Great Sage appeared before him. This Great Sage's corpse was even more horrifying. Nearly his entire body had burned away, leaving behind only a single bone and scattered traces of blood.

The farther he advanced, the more terrifying the formation became. When Zhou Tong neared the Immortal Nurturing Valley surrounded by ten thousand Dragon Head Peaks, he suddenly felt a chilling Killing Intent targeting every inch of his body, as though it wished to slice him into a thousand pieces. His muscles involuntarily tensed and bulged.

This Killing Intent targeted not only his physical body, but also his primordial spirit.

"Mm... What terrifying Killing Intent!!" Zhou Tong's breathing became rapid.

He was certain that if he had not previously endured the agonizing trial of Thunder Body Tempering, a pain akin to being sliced into a thousand pieces, this Killing Intent would have driven him mad and forced him into the dangerous region nearby.

"I can't continue forward for the time being!" Zhou Tong murmured inwardly. He then sat down cross-legged, resisting the Killing Intent while quietly contemplating the Thunder Emperor Method and the cultivation mysteries of the Heavenly Cave secret realm.

Days passed one after another, and in the blink of an eye, half a year had gone by.

At last, relying on the immense essence of Dragon Mountain, the ever-present stimulation of Killing Intent, and the Spirit Herbs scattered everywhere, Zhou Tong finally opened his ninth Heavenly Cave.

All kinds of symbols flickered as vast quantities of runes spewed from the nine Heavenly Caves. The runes transformed into a Star River that circled Zhou Tong as it danced through the air.

The scene became increasingly mysterious and astonishing. In the end, the nine Heavenly Caves around Zhou Tong successively manifested the Thunder Emperor, Suanni, Thunder Sky Sparrow, Golden-Winged Great Peng, Taotie, Pixiu, Five-Colored Peacock, Primordial Vast Ox, and Lightning Bug—nine kinds of Divine Birds and ferocious beasts. They existed only in the form of runes and possessed no spirituality.

These nine Divine Birds and ferocious beasts were all treasure techniques contained in the memories Zhou Tong had inherited from Desolate Heaven Emperor's Disciple-Grandchild. However, apart from the Thunder Emperor Treasure Technique, Suanni Treasure Technique, and Thunder Sky Sparrow Treasure Technique, the others were merely incomplete fragments.

This was an opportunity that arose after opening nine Heavenly Caves. He could manifest all the treasure technique runes stored in his mind, making this a rare chance to comprehend those runes.

In that instant, Zhou Tong felt as though he had transformed into a Suanni, majestic and sacred, soaring up from the earth, invincible beneath the heavens.

Then, Zhou Tong felt as though he had become a Golden-Winged Great Peng, rising with the wind and roaming freely through the nine heavens.

After that, he felt as though he had transformed into the Thunder Emperor, commanding lightning, wielding Heavenly Tribulation, and ruling over all living beings.

Finally, all the runes surged toward him at once, allowing Zhou Tong to see an unprecedented new world.

Only after a long while did the nine Heavenly Caves slowly withdraw. The runes entered Zhou Tong's body, and everything returned to calm.