Courage had nothing to do with strength.

The rage of a commoner could cause blood to flow five steps¹. However, as powerful as a Celestial King might be, there would also be times when they bowed their heads to save their skin.

Ling Han charged back with Cheng Tao and Fu Yuan, destroying seven of the Dark Frost Celestial King’s camps in just half a month. Only then were they willing to stop for a rest.

Cheng Tao and Fu Yuan naturally did most of the hard work. They were afraid that Ling Han would be dissatisfied with them and suspect that they were still loyal to the Dark Frost Celestial King.

Ling Han temporarily stopped his advance. This was because they had already occupied more than nine camps. Occupying any more than this would be useless. Moreover, if they continued to advance, they would get closer and closer to the Dark Frost Celestial King.

Even though they had greatly hurt the Dark Frost Celestial King at this moment, they still hadn’t crossed his bottom line yet. However, if they occupied all but two or three of his camps, he would definitely be forced into action. He would stop at nothing to charge forward and fight with them. At that time, things would become much more troublesome.

After all, Ling Han’s Vitality Index was still far from reaching 8000.

Moreover, the others indeed needed some time to rest.

Feeling pressured by Ling Han’s advance, Huo Furong, Ji Wuming, the Rain Emperor, and the others also started to consider breaking through. Their Celestial Seed Marks were also nearing a state of perfection. Of course, this notion of perfection differed for each person. It was dependent on their resources and knowledge. Thus, it was possible that their notions of perfection were completely different.

Meanwhile, Ling Han chose to stabilize his cultivation first. He would then forge the Divine Demon Sword into a true Celestial Tool. Afterward, he would advance the level of his Body Art. By doing all this, he was confident that he would be able to rival a Third Heaven Celestial King. In fact, with the suppression of the purple light, perhaps even those at the peak stage of the Third Heaven were no match for him.

This was because his Body Arts wouldn’t be affected by the purple light. This was his own power, and it wasn’t reliant on the power of Regulations.

One day, two days… One month, two months… One year, 10 years!

Time flew by. Ling Han and the others were all fully concentrated on cultivating. They were self-aware, and they understood that they were too weak to charge into the center of the ruins at this moment. They had to become stronger first.

90 years later, Ling Han finally managed to fully stabilize his cultivation. At the same time, he also reached the middle stage of the First Heaven, causing his battle prowess to rise significantly again.

He started to reforge the Divine Demon Sword.

Using the Greatest Eternity Everlasting Physique, he experienced 1000 days when others only experienced one. The Divine Demon Sword started to change drastically, with symbols appearing on it one after another. They all radiated with an indescribably domineering aura.

Celestial Tool!

At this moment, Ling Han no longer needed to funnel his power into the Divine Demon Sword. With a single thought, the Divine Demon Sword would actively attack his opponents, unleashing a boundless might.

Because it was so sharp, and because it was indestructible, even Third Heaven Celestial Kings wouldn’t dare to face its might.

Ling Han wore a faint smile. Just by relying on the Divine Demon Sword alone, he would already possess the right to challenge a Third Heaven Celestial King. However, it was never his habit to rely on external power. This was even though he had raised the Divine Demon Sword from the very beginning.

Only his own strength was true strength. He had never forgotten this.

He started to practice his Body Arts.

With the Dimension Scroll in his hands, he started to channel the model given to him by Wally. Mysterious formulas continued to float through his mind, allowing him to extract energy from the Dimension Scroll.

Boom!

Paramount power surged into his body. However, he was still unable to grasp this power. Even so, it tempered his muscles, bones, and meridians as it flowed through him.

Rumble…

Heavenly tribulation was on the verge of forming again. Void Particle Energy was the most fundamental energy of the Genesis World, and theoretically speaking, only Heavenly Venerates could wield this energy. Moreover, whenever a Heavenly Venerate appeared, they would be targeted by heaven and earth. Now that he was interacting with Void Particle Energy, Ling Han was no exception to this rule. Heavenly tribulation formed overhead, yearning to strike him down.

Ling Han flirted with danger as he continued to grow his strength.

However, after becoming a Celestial King, each step forward would require an exorbitant amount of time. This was an extremely slow process. Another 100 years passed, yet Ling Han was still unable to raise the power of his Body Arts to its limits. There was still room for improvement.

Meanwhile, Huo Furong, Ji Wuming, the Empress, and the others all advanced to the Celestial King Tier one after another. They all became significantly stronger.

The most terrifying among them was none other than Huo Furong. Even though she had only just advanced to the First Heaven, she could already rival Ling Han. She indeed lived up to her title as the number one Celestial Maiden in history.

Of course, this was under the condition that Ling Han didn’t use his Divine Demon Sword or Body Arts.

In reality, Regulations were only tools that helped them become Heavenly Venerates. Upon becoming a Heavenly Venerate, what they would wield was the fundamental power of the Genesis World, which could be used in any one of the realms—with the exception of First Tier Heavenly Venerates. However, Regulations were different. If a Ninth Heaven Celestial King from the Celestial Realm ran over to the Foreign Realm, they would be nothing but trash.

Ling Han had already interacted with the fundamental power of the Genesis World in advance. With regards to this, he had already surpassed Huo Furong by a huge margin. When they reached the peak stage of the Nine Heaven and started to cultivate toward the Heavenly Venerable Tier, Ling Han’s advantage would become far more obvious. He would leave Huo Furong in the dust.

Meanwhile, Ji Wuming also continued to stay on Ling Han’s heels. If they battled at the same cultivation level, he would be no weaker than Ling Han.

Again, this was under the condition that Ling Han didn’t use his Divine Demon Sword or Body Arts.

Right now, they weren’t in a hurry to set off. Instead, those who needed to chose to stabilize their cultivation, and those who needed to chose to continue their advance.

Upon witnessing the sparring sessions between Ling Han and the others, the final bit of vexation in Cheng Tao’s and Fu Yuan’s mind vanished.

These people were absolute freaks!

Just how crazy was this? These people had only just become Celestial Kings, yet they were all far more powerful than them! How was this fair?!

The Empress, Hu Niu, and the Rain Emperor also advanced to the Celestial King Tier. However, they were slightly weaker than the freaks in Ji Wuming and Huo Furong. With that said, this was only by a little bit. The gap between them wasn’t big at all.

Right now, there were still 500 years until the 10,000-year limit.

After some discussions, they decided to rest and cultivate for another 100 years. After everyone’s cultivation was stabilized, they would set off for the center of the ruins. From the information they had gathered, none of the forces had conquered the last few areas yet. They were all locked in a stalemate.

Thus, there was no need to hurry.

Ling Han continued to refine his Body Arts. Even though a Dimension Scroll could help a mortal human become a Heavenly Venerate, signifying the immense energy that it possessed, the manner in which Ling Han was using it was extremely inefficient. As he continually extracted the energy, it would only flow through his body once before dissipating back into heaven and earth.

Could this last until he became a Nine Heaven Celestial King?

It would be extremely difficult!

He wondered if such Dimension Scrolls existed in the transcendent dimension. Theoretically speaking, that dimension was being attacked by Hysteria and at risk of collapse at any moment, so it would most likely develop a “sense of danger.” This would then result in more Heavenly Venerates being produced. Thus, it was possible for Dimension Scrolls to exist in abundance.

He would worry about this later.

Ling Han continued to extract power from the Dimension Scroll to refine his Body Arts.

However, even though he had already accelerated time for himself, his progress was still extremely slow. Perhaps it would really take him another 100 years to reach the limit.

However, was this truly slow?

He was at the Celestial King Tier, where advancing one minor tier every epoch wouldn’t be considered slow. Meanwhile, he had only spent several hundred years. Even accounting for the accelerated time, he had only spent a few hundred thousand years. Yet, his Body Arts could already rival those at the Second Heaven or even Third Heaven. Just how terrifying was this?

In the blink of an eye, 100 years had already passed.

Compared to when they had just broken through, they were all much more powerful. This was largely thanks to the peculiar light and peculiar fragrance, which allowed them to rapidly stabilize their cultivation and even see improvement.

“Time for battle!”