Outside the Desolate Forbidden Land lay a vast primeval forest. The elderly tour group from Earth supported one another as they finally emerged from the forbidden land.
Looking back, Qin Sheng felt somewhat moved.
"I wonder whether I'll ever enter the Desolate Forbidden Land again in the future?"
Of course, not to become a Desolate Slave.
Qin Sheng greeted Ye Fan and Pang Bo, left them a few things, and quietly slipped away from the group.
However, he did not go far. He waited until a streak of rainbow light flew in from afar and picked up Ye Fan and the others. Only after confirming that everyone was safe did he leave in another direction.
"Spirit Ruins Paradise is Ye Fan's starting point. He can establish his cultivation foundation there and get through those earliest days."
"But it isn't my starting point."
Qin Sheng was about to advance to the Other Shore Realm. There was no point in following them to Spirit Ruins Paradise.
Among Yan Nation's Six Great Caves-Heavens, even the elders were only at the Divine Bridge Realm, while the sect masters were at the Other Shore Realm. The foundation-level ancestors and Supreme Elders were probably only at the first or second heaven of the Dao Palace Secret Realm.
Qin Sheng possessed four times his combat power. Once he broke through, his strength would not be much inferior to theirs.
The Six Great Caves-Heavens could not give Qin Sheng what he wanted.
"First, I'll find a place to break through." Qin Sheng had already made his decision.
Yan Nation stretched two thousand li from north to south and three thousand li from east to west. The Desolate Forbidden Land lay in the center of the nation.
There were countless nations like this throughout the boundless Southern Territory of the Eastern Wilderness.
Qin Sheng casually found a remote mountain forest, carved out a temporary cave residence, and began further refining the medicinal power of the divine medicine in hopes of breaking through.
Meanwhile, in a small town outside the Desolate Forbidden Land, Ye Fan and the others had met with people from the Six Great Caves-Heavens.
"What? One of the people who came here from the Western Desert with you has disappeared? And he was a cultivator?"
Elder Ma Yun of Jade Cauldron Paradise frowned. After exchanging views with the elders of the other Grotto-Heavens, he shook his head.
"Since he is a cultivator, he likely has his own plans and does not wish to contact us."
"Let him go."
Soon afterward, Ye Fan and the other promising cultivation seedlings were divided among the Six Great Caves-Heavens. Ye Fan and Pang Bo still went to Spirit Ruins Paradise.
His Ancient Desolate Saint Body made people sigh in regret.
One day, two days, three days...
Seven days passed. Qin Sheng had reached the final step of his breakthrough, but he suddenly discovered that everything before him had become hazy. He could no longer see anything.
Qin Sheng did not panic. He knew this was a normal occurrence in cultivation.
The Shrouding Method cultivated the Body-as-Seed Path, continuously developing the body's Minor World.
A speck of dust, a flower—each was a world.
This system believed that the human body contained countless Gates of Potential, as numerous as grains of sand. Behind every Gate of Potential was a "world" containing the "True Self."
Opening the Gates of Potential and uncovering the "True Self" was cultivation.
The starting point of cultivation, its most fundamental secret realm, was the Wheel of Life and the Sea of Bitterness, collectively known as the Sea of Reincarnation.
Below the navel lay the Wheel of Life, the foundation of life itself. The Sea of Bitterness overlapped with the Wheel of Life, with the former above and the latter below.
The Sea of Bitterness obscured and eroded the Wheel of Life, causing a person's vitality to continuously fade as they aged. With every passing year, another mark appeared upon the Wheel of Life, like the rings of a tree.
The first step of the Sea of Reincarnation Secret Realm was to open the Sea of Bitterness and release the vital essence of the Wheel of Life.
The second step was to dig downward through the Sea of Bitterness and open a passage connected to the Wheel of Life. At that point, a Life Divine Spring would form within the Sea of Bitterness, releasing even greater life force.
This was essentially the conversion of the Sea of Bitterness.
However, the Sea of Bitterness was boundless and endless. It could never be fully converted.
To obtain a longer lifespan and greater power, one had to leave the Sea of Bitterness behind and cultivate other secret realms.
The third step of the Sea of Reincarnation Secret Realm was to construct a Divine Bridge leading to the "Other Shore" of the Sea of Bitterness. This was the foundation for leaving it.
But the problem was that the Sea of Bitterness was endless. The Divine Bridge stretched across the void—where should it grow, and how long would it take to reach the "Other Shore"?
This was an enormous problem. If one could not see through this layer of confusion, the best outcome was a failed breakthrough; the worst was becoming crippled.
This was the Calamity of Losing Oneself.
Countless geniuses throughout history had sunk into the Calamity of Losing Oneself, forever unable to escape.
But Qin Sheng had confidence.
Indeed, he was currently lost, but his four selves in worlds such as Heavenly Dragon were perfectly lucid.
"The Sea of Bitterness has no shore; turn back and reach the shore? Ridiculous. Once I turn back, I will never reach the Other Shore."
His selves across the worlds observed together, seeing through the fog of loss. Qin Sheng did not hesitate and took a single step forward.
With that step, the Divine Bridge grew once more. He crossed the Sea of Bitterness and arrived at its end.
This was a Pure Land, no longer lifeless, pitch-black, and silent. Looking upward, he seemed to see clouds, a blazing sun, and heavenly palaces.
At the highest point stood an enormous Dao Palace.
That was the next secret realm after the Sea of Reincarnation: the Dao Palace Secret Realm.
However, Qin Sheng had only just reached the Other Shore. The Dao Palace Secret Realm was still far away.
After sensing the power he now possessed, Qin Sheng was very satisfied.
"Having crossed the Sea of Bitterness and reached the Other Shore, I can start preparing for Reduction to Emptiness!" He was in a good mood and joked to himself.
If this were The World's Best, reaching the Other Shore so easily at his age would truly terrify people.
"After Ye Fan advanced to the Other Shore, he had already begun nurturing his Sacred Physique Phenomenon."
Qin Sheng looked at his own Sea of Bitterness. There was not the slightest movement.
A Mortal Body was still a Mortal Body.
"Now that I've broken through smoothly, it's time to carry out my plan. Shaking Light Holy Land..."
The reason Qin Sheng did not go to Spirit Ruins Paradise was because he wanted to join Shaking Light Holy Land directly.
He could accomplish his goal through Spirit Ruins Paradise as well, but once Ye Fan and the others' origins were exposed in the future, that would bring considerable trouble.
What Qin Sheng wanted was to join as a native of Beidou who had never consumed an Immortal Elixir.
As a Mortal Body, he did not have to fear being "eaten" after joining Shaking Light. He would not even qualify to stand in line.
Besides, Qin Sheng was heading straight for the Ruthless lineage.
Qin Sheng had carefully considered how he should act after arriving in Beidou while he was still on Earth.
Which faction should he join? Whom should he seek as a patron? Which Emperor Scripture should he cultivate?
He had thought about these questions more than once.
"Yaochi only accepts women. Even if I considered myself psychologically female, I still couldn't sneak in."
"The Jiang Family and Ji Family are clans. Although they recruit cultivators with other surnames, it would still be difficult to obtain an Emperor Scripture. There are too many restrictions; joining them would basically mean becoming a dog."
"The Emperor Qing Lineage belongs to the Demon Race. I'm not a human-demon like Pang Bo, and I can't cultivate the Emperor Qing Scripture. Otherwise, I honestly wouldn't mind becoming a live-in son-in-law."
"The Beginningless Scripture cannot be cultivated without the right physique; the Dao Scripture only has the Sea of Suffering Chapter; and places like the Central Plains are far too distant, so there's no need to even mention them."
"If I tried to imitate Ye Fan by piecing together various scriptures and cultivating them all, a Mortal Body like mine would be courting death."
Qin Sheng sighed toward the sky and muttered inwardly.
"Great sun, in the end, I still need you to guide my path!"
After much consideration, Qin Sheng realized that the infamous Heaven Devouring Demonic Art was actually the most suitable for him.
It was an Emperor Scripture, powerful enough and with tremendous potential. If it could be perfected, its final Dao Fruit could be said to surpass all other scriptures.
Furthermore, the Heaven Devouring Demonic Art was highly compatible with Qin Sheng's golden finger.
Infinite Land's fixed combat power amplification increased Qin Sheng's base combat power.
That was to say, excluding factors such as secret arts, weapons, and treasures, it only amplified his original strength, speed, defense, recovery, and so on.
Suppose his base combat power at the Other Shore Realm was one hundred. With a fourfold amplification, it would now be four hundred.
But if his base combat power were five hundred, then after amplification, it would become two thousand!
What an enormous difference that was!
And in the Shrouding the Heavens World, what kind of people possessed higher base combat power?
Of course, those with special physiques!
Could the base combat power of a Mortal Body compare to that of a Sacred Physique?
The difference was like heaven and earth!
"In the Shrouding the Heavens World, the only method I can currently access to alter my physique is the Heaven Devouring Demonic Art. It is extremely important to me. I must obtain it." Qin Sheng was resolute.
"Only by improving my foundation can I truly bring out the effects of combat power multipliers."
As for the claim that Mortal Bodies were the strongest?
Say that to Ye Fan at the Four Extremes or Dragon Transformation Realm and see whether he laughs.
Damn it, if I were the richest man in the world, I could say I wasn't interested in money either.
It was fine to fool others, but don't fool yourself too.
When Ye Fan said those words in the original Plot, how many lifetimes had he already lived? Of course physique no longer mattered to him.
Looking at it from another angle, Heavenly Emperor Ye's surname was Ye and his given name was Fan. His physique was called a "Mortal Body." There was nothing wrong with calling it the strongest.
If Qin Sheng successfully reversed himself into a Chaotic Body in the future, then possessed tenfold or hundredfold the base combat power of a Chaotic Body...
Send Emperor Qing at me!
And beyond the consideration of combat power amplification, Qin Sheng was genuinely very suited to cultivating this Ancient Scripture.
The Heaven Devouring Demonic Art required devouring the Origin of others to strengthen oneself, forging a Chaotic Body step by step.
Qin Sheng did not need to devour the Origin of others. He only needed to devour the Origins of those dead Qin Shengs.
Devouring others would lead to Origins being mixed and incompatible with his own, eventually leaving flaws in the Chaotic Body.
How could devouring his own Origin cause such a problem? It would be a perfect match.
The Immortal Heavenly Technique created by Ruthless in her second life was fundamentally based on this principle.
Shedding one's own "Demonic Embryo" and transforming it into a "Divine Embryo," thereby achieving a flawless Chaotic Body.
Qin Sheng, however, could accomplish it in one step. He did not need to undergo that transformation at all. It could be said that he was even more suited to the Heaven Devouring Demonic Art than Ruthless herself.
Now that was what it meant to be a heaven-chosen Ruthless Successor!
Empress who does not belong to this era, mysterious Ruler of the Desolate Forbidden Land, immortal of the mortal world who commands obsessions—please grant me your power!
Before you continue