Millennial Suppression, Fleshly Body Inscription

Within the formation, Bai Ze sensed everything in the Outer Landscape. He regulated his breath and absorbed qi, sitting as still as an old monk in meditation, allowing petals and leaves to drift onto his body.

Within the Inner Landscape, his Primordial Spirit sat cross-legged, gazing at the dim space around him as thoughts intertwined.

Everything sensed in the Outer Landscape was reflected back into the Inner Landscape.

Threads appeared out of thin air, transforming into formation patterns that interwove and staggered, gradually spreading outward from beneath him.

As node after node lit up.

Before long, a magnificent grand formation detached from the mountains, rocks, grass, and trees appeared.

Until it reached three hundred zhang!

He attached his awareness to the mountains, rocks, grass, and trees in the Outer Landscape, carefully sensing the circulation of Dao essence within every patterned node.

This Dao essence was vast and majestic, yet it could merge perfectly with the false constructs of nature, seamless and whole.

Relying on his Insight Talent, he calmed himself and observed with utmost care, capturing the changes and patterns of those nodes that contained Dao essence.

Yet these nodes seemed like mayflies, constantly drifting about. Still, he did not give up. Instead, he found endless delight in it, thoroughly enjoying the thrill of every successful capture.

As his progress in the Outer Landscape continued, the formation patterns in the Inner Landscape slowly and methodically extended farther outward as well.

At this moment, time seemed utterly meaningless to him.

Until five hundred years later.

The formation in the Inner Landscape began to tremble. He abruptly opened his eyes, his brows tightly furrowed.

"Only five hundred years have passed. How has my cultivation already become somewhat impossible to suppress?"

He immediately stopped comprehending the formation, calmed his mind and qi, and did his utmost to suppress the restless Primordial Spiritual Qi within his body.

In the small courtyard, Duobao and Guang Chengzi, having awakened from cultivation, came before the formation spirit as agreed.

They looked at Bai Ze, whose aura was unstable and on the verge of a breakthrough.

A trace of pain flashed through Duobao's eyes. Though he had long anticipated Bai Ze's breakthrough, he had not expected Bai Ze to be breaking through after merely five hundred years.

Fortunately, little brother Bai Ze had made swift progress in formations. According to their wager, the two Acquired Spirit Treasures were as good as his!

He then prepared to draw out his own blood essence.

But just then, Guang Chengzi spoke. "Junior Brother, no hurry. Bai Ze does not seem to intend to break through."

Hearing this, Duobao hurriedly looked over.

Bai Ze's brows were tightly knit and his aura violent, but in the end, it was slowly suppressed.

"Little brother Bai Ze truly knows how to endure. After so long, he can still hold himself back from breaking through."

Guang Chengzi smiled, a thoughtful look in his calm eyes.

"The Great Dao has ten thousand paths. Bai Ze is so devoted to tempering his fleshly True Form that it seems he may be taking the path of Force-Proving Dao."

Duobao was somewhat astonished. "Impossible, surely? Force-Proving Dao is the most difficult path among the myriad Great Daos.

With his talent in formations, he should not be taking this path.

Look, Senior Brother. Five hundred years have passed, yet his mastery of the forbidden formation has increased by another one hundred and fifty zhang!

Bai Ze is no fool. With such talent, if he changes to Force-Proving Dao, would he not be spinning a cocoon around himself?"

Guang Chengzi's eyes flickered as he gave a soft laugh.

"What Junior Brother says is reasonable. Since chaos was cleaved open, only Pangu has barely attained Force-Proving Dao. Those who dream of achieving it have all, without exception, ultimately changed to another path.

But Junior Brother, do not forget that this Mountain-Guarding Forbidden Formation is easy to learn but difficult to master. The farther one goes, the harder it becomes.

He has only mastered four hundred and fifty zhang thus far. Once he reaches five hundred zhang, perhaps he will not progress so quickly."

Duobao nodded with deep feeling, then turned to Guang Chengzi.

"Senior Brother, how long do you think this Bai Ze will need to master it completely?"

Guang Chengzi silently calculated. Although Bai Ze's talent in formations was impressive, even if he was exceptionally gifted, would it not still take nearly ten thousand years?

"I think at the fastest, it will take around ten thousand years. The margin of error should not exceed one thousand years."

Duobao looked at Bai Ze, his gaze flickering. He knew just how formidable Bai Ze's talent in formations was! In his view, Bai Ze would only be faster than that estimate!

"I do not think so. How about we add another wager?"

Guang Chengzi glanced at Duobao. "No need. When you lost two Spirit Treasures earlier, it was like carving flesh from your body. If you lose again, would you not roll all over the ground?"

Duobao's face fell. Was I really that obvious?

Time flowed on, and the years sped by like a shuttle.

Five hundred years later, Duobao and Guang Chengzi met again, only to discover that Bai Ze had not broken through in cultivation, while his comprehension of the forbidden formation had remained at five hundred zhang.

Looking at Bai Ze in seclusion, Duobao sighed. "It seems little brother Bai Ze has encountered an obstacle."

Guang Chengzi nodded slightly. "The operational laws of the first five hundred zhang and the latter five hundred zhang of the forbidden formation are as different as heaven and earth. Whether one can comprehend them lies in a single thought!

Yet this single thought has still barred countless heavenly prodigies who wished to enter the mountain gate."

Hearing this, Duobao could not help recalling when he had first entered the mountain gate. He had quickly comprehended the first five hundred zhang as well, but the latter five hundred had trapped him for several thousand years!

Duobao studied Bai Ze, who sat meditating, and frowned slightly. "A thousand years have passed. Why has little brother Bai Ze still not broken through?"

As Guang Chengzi looked at Bai Ze within the formation, he too fell silent. If Bai Ze wished to perfect himself, spending five hundred years tempering himself was understandable.

But now that a thousand years had passed and Bai Ze still had not broken through, it was rather baffling.

After watching Bai Ze for a while, the two exchanged insights on the Dao for a hundred years. Seeing no sign that Bai Ze would break through either in cultivation or formation comprehension, they agreed to return in another thousand years.

After Guang Chengzi left, Duobao remained standing there and watched for a while longer, unable to suppress his puzzlement.

"What is little brother Bai Ze doing? Setting aside suppressing his cultivation, why has he stopped comprehending the forbidden formation as well?"

Within the formation, Bai Ze let out a light breath of turbid air. He had originally planned to temper himself for five hundred years before preparing to break through, but with such prolonged suppression.

He had unexpectedly discovered certain secrets of the fleshly body.

At this moment, by examining himself inwardly, he could see that his limbs, bones, and organs were crystalline and translucent, like white jade.

Only a mysterious inscription upon the bones of his hand was especially glaring!

This had spontaneously gathered within his fleshly body after he suppressed his cultivation for a thousand years.

The inscription was incomparably profound. It had not arisen from comprehending the Dao, but had formed entirely from the essence of his whole body after his fleshly body had been tempered to a certain realm.

He raised the palm bearing the inscription and gently pushed forward.

In an instant, fine spatial cracks emerged in the air.

Streams of terrifying Chaos Qi spilled out from them, eroding his palm.

Yet the bones of his hand glimmered faintly, and in an instant, they shattered the spreading Chaos Qi.

As the formation patterns around him flickered, the spatial cracks slowly closed. His palm remained as warm and lustrous as jade, without the slightest injury.

Yet the incomparably sturdy rocks of Kunlun Mountain were instantly corroded by the Chaos Qi, leaving behind countless pits and hollows.

Had the forbidden formation patterns not flickered and ground away the remaining Chaos Qi, the damage this place suffered would only have been far worse!