Meeting the Ancient Kingdom

Over the next few dozen days, Bai Yixin hacked through thorns and thistles, pushing forward through the Great Wilderness. He encountered batch after batch of powerful ferocious beasts, surviving hundreds, if not thousands, of bloody battles, until he finally neared the border of an ancient kingdom.

For a child to traverse endless mountain ranges in under a year, battling numerous fierce birds and strange beasts while pushing forward for millions of miles, was an absolutely astonishing feat.

If word of this were to spread, it would inevitably cause a massive uproar, shocking even those ancient families with deep foundations.

Even the most powerful Primordial Remnants, when training their young, would hardly push them further. Such perilous trials sound easy to speak of, but to actually put them into action is a matter of nine deaths and one life.

The beasts were too numerous; everywhere was dense, ancient forest, devoid of human presence. Vicious beasts and ferocious birds were everywhere—it was a truly terrifying primordial land. Let alone a child, even a group of adult experts traveling together would struggle to cross it, liable to be devoured by a suddenly emerging Primordial Remnant at any moment, leaving not even bones behind.

Bai Yixin's spiritual senses were sharp. Throughout the journey, he avoided countless terrifying crises and faced many life-and-death trials. Though he suffered heavy injuries several times along the way, he finally broke through.

He was only eight years old, yet he had accomplished such a feat! This was something he wouldn't have dared to imagine in his past life, where he would agonize for a long time just to visit a neighboring province. Now, Bai Yixin fought bloody battles across thousands and tens of thousands of miles daily—it was truly unimaginable!

After another two or three days, Bai Yixin trekked across the wilderness and arrived at a magnificent ancient city.

People came and went in an endless stream. This grand ancient city was extremely prosperous, with a population numbering in the millions. It was bustling with noise and excitement, and walking on the main street, pedestrians rubbed shoulders.

Of course, what was most surprising was that creatures of all races were present; some were so strange they couldn't even be classified, and he had never seen them before.

Bai Yixin saw several races with bizarre appearances that he had never heard of, yet the pedestrians on the road dared not point at or discuss them.

Clearly, such creatures were very powerful, and for the common folk who had lived here for a long time, they knew that trouble often stems from a loose tongue.

There were many shops along the streets, many of them time-honored brands. There was no shortage of establishments like pill pavilions and weapon smithies, and with many cultivators coming and going, business was booming.

Bai Yixin felt very relaxed as he wandered around. He had spent over a year in the mountains, which could be described as extremely tranquil, even a bit desolate. Now, suddenly entering this world of mortals, he felt quite comfortable.

"Tiring of the hustle and bustle of the mortal world, entering a paradise is a pleasure. But after staying in a quiet place for so long, coming to this prosperous capital, I have a different kind of realization."

Bai Yixin muttered to himself, deeply moved, and for a moment, he was even a bit dazed.

He thought of cultivation—the bitter ascetics in seclusion versus the free-spirited eccentrics in the mortal world. They chose two different lives, and it was much the same.

Bai Yixin sold some of the spoils he had obtained from his bloody battles, exchanged them for local currency, and checked into a high-end-looking restaurant to rest and recuperate.

"It feels like a lifetime ago. Who would have thought that traveling alone through the wilderness would take nearly a year to emerge?"

Bai Yixin bought a crude map and compared it with his own route, only to discover that he had been going in circles for much of the time.

"Ah, this... am I a terrible navigator? That can't be!"

The ancient kingdom was truly too vast, governing hundreds of millions of miles of territory. A single fiefdom of a powerful prince alone held hundreds of millions, or even over a billion people; its territory was boundless.

Bai Yixin had thought he might have reached another ancient kingdom, but after inquiring, he learned that despite his year of trekking through the endless mountain ranges, he was still within the northern borders of the Stone Kingdom.

During this year of bloody battles, Bai Yixin's progress had been significant; he was already a new man.

[Name]: Bai Yixin.
[Age]: 8.
[Realm]: Foundation Establishment 5th Layer (36697/50000), Cave Heaven - Five Cave Heavens (690/1000).
[Cultivation Method]: Nine-Turn Heavenly Art - Second Turn.
[Skills]: Silver Moon Precious Technique - Mastery (3968/10000), Suanni Precious Technique - Proficient (558/1000), Grass Sword Art - Slightly Accomplished (66/100), Luan Bird Precious Technique - Proficient (586/1000), Six Paths of Reincarnation Heavenly Art - Entry Level (6/10)...
[Experience]: 239338
[Money]: 40,000,000
[Talent]: Dao of Grinding. The Liver Emperor is all liver; when entering the 'liver-bursting' state, efficiency increases exponentially over time.

His greatest harvest among them was grasping a tiny bit of the Grass Sword Art.

With a thought from Bai Yixin, a cave appeared above his head, resembling a volcano.

It was so realistic, as if it were truly carved from rock. It was grayish-brown, grand and ancient, suspended three inches above his crown.

Inside this crater-like cave, there was vigorous life force, bright red and brilliant, dazzling to the eye, truly resembling flowing magma.

This was not the only volcano; there were five in total. On the left and right sides of his body, two more grayish-brown volcanoes appeared for each side, continuously drawing power from the void. Red, silver, purple, blue, and yellow "magma" surged, merging into his body.

These were the five Cave Heavens Bai Yixin had opened.

Opening a Cave Heaven and entering this realm was equivalent to seizing the fortune of heaven and earth, directly absorbing the essence of the gods from the boundless outside world to replenish oneself.

At this stage, by communicating with the boundless void and refining the marrow of heaven and earth from it, one's internal runes and divine power would surge, far surpassing the past, naturally becoming extremely powerful.

From then on, the supply would be endless and continuous, constantly extracting energy to keep the human body's vitality vigorous. As long as one did not engage in overly tragic battles, it would be difficult to exhaust one's own power, allowing one to remain in a peak state.

Beyond the basic function of replenishing consumption, the Cave Heaven Realm had another noteworthy ability: nourishing precious techniques, or "Cave Heaven Nourishing Spirits."

However, that would require reaching the third stage of the Spirit Transformation Realm. Although it was too early to mention, one of his Cave Heavens would definitely be reserved for the Grass Sword Art.

As one of the three great sword arts, the Grass Sword Art used the tempering of matter as a sword embryo; every part of the body could be transformed into a sword embryo. If one could cultivate it to the absolute peak, one could sever the past and present, glimpse eternity, and possess incomparable power.

For this reason, Bai Yixin had invested a lot into the Grass Sword Art over the past year. It was hard-won, but he had managed to grind it to "Slightly Accomplished," and it had already become his strongest killing move.

Additionally, during this year, Bai Yixin studied the system panel and made another major discovery.

That was, the items in the system shop were even more all-encompassing than he had imagined.

At first, Bai Yixin thought it was just a low-tier golden finger, but he hadn't realized he simply didn't know how to use it.

Later, when he had some free time, he searched for the Nine-Turn Heavenly Art again, and there were over 18,000 search results in the shop, every single one of them being a version of the Nine-Turn Heavenly Art.

Some were divine abilities, secret techniques, while others were martial arts and cultivation methods.

Take the Nine-Turn Heavenly Art that Bai Yixin bought for himself; he also saw another Nine-Turn Heavenly Art with a similar introduction, both claiming that nine turns lead to immortality.

But the immortal cultivated by that version was omniscient and omnipotent, possessing eternal attainment, the origin of the Great Dao, transcending everything, encompassing all phenomena, mysterious and profound, the gateway to all wonders.

With the Three Flowers gathered at the crown and the Five Qis returning to the origin, the three flowers represented the Primordial, the Existing, and the Finality, where all heavens and myriad worlds were but illusions, and only the self was real.

Ten thousand Daos were all his Dao, everything was transformed by him; he was the origin, the primordial, the Great Dao, the Heavens, the eternal, the unique, the immeasurable, the end, all living beings, all things, fate, space-time, Reincarnation, the limit, and the Supreme.

The flowery, long-winded description left Bai Yixin dumbfounded.

Bai Yixin took another look at the price, and sighing at the dizzying number of zeros, he realized what it meant to get what you pay for; he was simply too poor.

The previously deduced comparison of an Immortal King to a Heavenly Immortal or Golden Immortal was only based on the immortals cultivated by the filtered techniques.

As the saying goes, people are different, and naturally, immortals are different too.

Golden Immortals of different systems could also be worlds apart in strength.

But no matter how things change, strength and one's own fists remain the only truth.

The road ahead is long and arduous, and he still has a very long way to go!

Bai Yixin sighed, but he was neither anxious nor impatient; how far he could eventually go still required taking it one step at a time, with his feet firmly on the ground.

No matter what kind of immortality one cultivates, one's state of mind is the most important thing.

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