After Bai Ye returned to Azure Cloud Sect.
He devoted nearly all his time to cultivation.
With a thought, he stepped into Dust Star Valley Lesser World.
Within Dust Star Valley, the Divine Essence Concentration was astonishingly high.
The dense Divine Essence had nearly condensed into liquid, flowing through the valleys like streams. One breath was enough to equal several days of arduous cultivation outside!
Bai Ye sat cross-legged before the Immortal Ancient Dao Stele, circulating the Chaos Sword Canon and the Ancient Immortal Inheritance he had just obtained. Divine Essence surged through his meridians into the Divine Origin Apertures. The Nine Divine Origin Apertures operated at full force, transforming the Divine Essence into pure Divine Power.
The Heavenly Path's power within Dust Star Valley also assisted his cultivation invisibly.
Not only that, the boost brought by the Earth-grade Merit Golden Body allowed him to comprehend the laws of the Heavenly God Realm with twice the result for half the effort!
In the blink of an eye, a hundred years passed quietly.
On this day, a vast Heavenly God pressure suddenly erupted within the Lesser World!
Bai Ye slowly opened his eyes. Divine radiance flickered in his pupils, while the Heavenly God power swirling around him formed a pale-golden vortex!
At the vortex's center, the Nine Divine Origin Apertures had expanded to over three meters across.
A shocking aura of Divine Power coiled within them!
His cultivation had steadily entered the Heavenly God Third Layer!
Such a speed of advancement could be called heaven-defying even in the Upper Realm!
One had to know that ordinary Heavenly God Realm cultivators needed at least a thousand years of accumulation and vast resources to advance by a minor realm!
Even talented disciples of great powers needed several hundred years to break through a single tier with the aid of various heavenly treasures!
Yet Bai Ye had used only a hundred years to leap from the True God Peak to the Heavenly God Third Layer!
Naturally, this was inseparable from the multiple boosts of Dust Star Valley's Divine Essence, Ten Thousand Times Comprehension, the Merit Golden Body, and the Divine King-level inheritance.
"I'm at the Heavenly God Third Layer..."
Bai Ye murmured softly, his thoughts stirring.
In an instant, the space behind him began to churn violently.
Golden Divine Rule power madly converged, and a Manifestation standing a thousand zhang tall slowly emerged!
This Manifestation wore Chaos Battle Armor. Complex Ancient Immortal Runes were carved across the armor, flowing with a faint golden radiance!
A Purple Gold Crown rested on its head. Its features were identical to Bai Ye's, and its gaze was as imposing as the heavens as it looked down upon all living beings!
Its left hand gripped a miniature Dragon Slaying Sacred Sword, while its right hand supported a golden seal containing terrifying energy—the condensed form of the Immortal Heaven Profound Extreme Seal!
Behind it unfolded a pair of Divine Wings woven from starlight and thunder. Every flap could rouse an echo from heaven and earth, radiating terrifying pressure that crushed the True God Realm!
The instant this Manifestation appeared, the mountains and rivers within the Lesser World trembled, the streams stopped flowing, and even the Divine Essence in the air was forcibly suppressed!
This was one of the core differences between the Heavenly God Realm and the True God Realm.
Manifestation Incarnation!
The True God Realm's Manifestation could only lie dormant within the Sea of Consciousness, serving to amplify Divine Power.
But a Heavenly God Realm Manifestation could directly manifest in the outside world. It could not only participate in battle, but also draw upon more Heavenly Laws, causing combat power to surge several times over!
Recalling how the two Heavenly Gods from the Upper Realm had been slain a hundred years ago without even managing to unleash their Manifestations before they perished, Bai Ye could now feel the terror of the Immortal Heaven Profound Extreme Seal even more deeply.
Before a Divine King-level secret technique, those two Heavenly God Realm experts had been utterly powerless to fight back.
With a thought, the thousand-zhang Manifestation slowly shrank, finally transforming into a streak of golden light that merged into his body. The surrounding celestial phenomena vanished along with it.
Immediately afterward, Bai Ye took a token from his storage ring.
The token was a pale purple throughout. Its material seemed like jade but not jade, gold but not gold.
A pattern of stars filling the heavens was carved across its surface. Set in the center was a fist-sized purple Divine Crystal, within which a faint Divine King aura coiled.
The four ancient seal-script characters "Heavenly Star Sacred Sect" were carved along the token's edge. It was one of the inheritance items left behind by Dust Star Daoist.
The Heavenly Star Sacred Sect Master Token!
According to the notes left behind by Dust Star Daoist, the Heavenly Star Sacred Sect was a sect he had founded in the Upper Realm. At its peak, it had been an Eighth-tier Power.
The Upper Realm's powers were divided into nine tiers. Their rank was determined by the number of Destiny Stairway steps their power had ignited. The more steps the stairway possessed, the deeper the power's foundation, the greater its strength, and the more impressive its standing.
Among them, a Seventh-Tier Power needed at least one Divine King to preside over it. Otherwise, it could not maintain the stability of its Destiny Stairway. An Eighth-tier Power needed the support of several Divine Kings, or even a Divine King Titan.
"By taking this Sect Master Token to the Heavenly Star Sacred Sect, I can obtain the blessing of the sect's Destiny Stairway."
Bai Ye caressed the star patterns on the token, a thoughtful gleam flickering in his eyes. "With the assistance of the Destiny Stairway, my chances of breaking through to the Divine King Realm in the future should increase by at least sixty percent."
"However, Dust Star Daoist has been dead for ten million years. Does the Heavenly Star Sacred Sect still exist? And what state has it fallen into?"
His heart was filled with questions, but he could only wait until he reached the Upper Realm to investigate.
Over the next few days, Bai Ye temporarily left Dust Star Valley and began preparing to leave the Lower Realm.
Using the array classics left behind by Dust Star Daoist as a foundation, he spent a vast amount of Divine Crystals and rare materials to lay a Heavenly God-level concealed defensive array beneath the Seventy-two Peaks of Azure Cloud Sect. It would protect Azure Cloud after his departure.
This grand array could conceal every trace of the sect's presence. Even if attacked by a Heavenly God Realm expert, it could hold out for several months—more than enough to shield Azure Cloud Sect and keep it safe.
Afterward, he gave the resources needed to break through to the True God Realm—including a hundred Five-Colored Divine Crystals, ten True God-grade Pills, and several True God-grade Spirit Grass—to Azure Cloud Sect's Sect Master Su Wenxuan and the Head of Bai Family, instructing them to keep the resources safe and use them to nurture the younger generations of the sect and lineage.
With everything prepared, Bai Ye was finally ready to embark on his journey to the Upper Realm.
According to his original plan, he had intended to ascend through the Artificial Heavenly Gate of Wasteland Heaven Divine Sect.
However, among the two Heavenly Gods from the Upper Realm he had slain a hundred years ago, Profound Desolate Heavenly God was an elder of Wasteland Heaven Divine Sect's upper sect.
If he left through the Heavenly Gate, he would inevitably risk falling into their ambush. Should he become surrounded, the consequences would be unimaginable.
However, he had another method.
Among Dust Star Daoist's inheritance were several Divine King-level Spatial Talismans called Star Realm Divine Talismans.
These talismans were refined from Divine King Divine Origin and the Law of Space. Once used, they could directly tear space apart and open a hidden passage to the Upper Realm. It would be as stealthy as a ghost and god, leaving no trace for outsiders to detect!
On this day, Bai Ye arrived at an uninhabited region deep within Azure Cloud Mountain Range.
He took out the Star Realm Divine Talisman.
The talisman was silver-white throughout, with complex spatial runes drawn across its surface. A faint Divine King aura coiled between the runes.
Bai Ye injected a thread of Heavenly God power into the talisman.
The next moment, the talisman erupted with dazzling silver light!
Silver-white radiance shot into the sky, forming a pillar of light dozens of zhang tall!
At the pillar's center, space began to twist violently. Countless tiny Spatial Rifts interwove, gradually forming a circular Space Channel.
The inside of the channel was pitch-black. Faintly, one could see the illusory shadows of countless stars flowing through it. A pure Divine Essence aura from the Upper Realm spilled out from the channel, standing in stark contrast to the spiritual energy of the Lower Realm.
Silver-white Spatial Lightning Arcs flickered along the channel's edges, radiating a dangerous and mysterious aura.
Bai Ye took one last look back toward Azure Cloud Sect. Clouds and mist coiled there, and the Seventy-two Peaks could be seen faintly.
There was not much reluctance in his eyes, only a faint trace of emotion.
That place was the starting point of his cultivation path, bearing several hundred years of his life.
Though he was leaving now, with his current strength, returning in the future would take no more than a thought.
Without any further hesitation, Bai Ye turned and stepped into the Space Channel.
His figure was swallowed by the starry phantoms within the channel.
As he entered, the Space Channel began to slowly contract.
The silver-white pillar of light gradually dimmed before finally vanishing completely between heaven and earth, as though it had never appeared.
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