Ninth In the World

Di Jiu knew that he could not let his Spiritual Sea shatter totally, or he would die for sure. He also did not count on the Small Gray Stone in the Spiritual Sea, as he could not ask it to do anything. The only thing he could depend on was the Forging Spiritual Art.

The Forging Spiritual Art circulated furiously, drawing out waves after waves of cooling aura from the Spirit Baptism Pith. This aura worked very hard to prevent the Spiritual Sea from shattering even more, all the while repairing his Spiritual Sea.

The aura squeezed out of the Spirit Baptism Pith through the Forging Spiritual Art could indeed slowly repair the cracks in Di Jiu’s Spiritual Sea. However, the speed of reparation was way slower than the speed at which it was shattering.

Di Jiu could only use the Qi Circulation of the Galaxy Art to draw out the terrifying burning aura and transfer it to the galaxy meridian network.

Di Jiu did not care whether the Starry Sky meridian would collapse as a result. If his Spiritual Sea shattered, it would not matter whether he was dead or alive.

Thanks to the continuous circulation of the Forging Spiritual Art and the Galaxy Art, Di Jiu’s Spiritual Sea finally stopped cracking. When it did, the Spiritual Force started to increase and condense.

After an unknown period of time, Di Jiu felt a roar explode out of his Purple Palace. A light golden aura spread out from the middle of his Spiritual Sea, while the shattered Spiritual Sea was repaired almost instantly. What followed was an expansion of the Spiritual Sea and the increment of the Spiritual Force.

Boom! An explosion rang out like a thunder strike in the spring within his Spiritual Sea. As it expanded even more rapidly, the Spiritual Force grew even faster. Di Jiu knew that his Spiritual Sea was going to level up. Although the growth of the Spiritual Sea seemed to be somewhat terrifying, Di Jiu had no time to observe it. He wanted to upgrade his Spiritual Sea and break through to the Pioneer Sea Realm. Thus, he had to grab this opportunity. All he did at that point in time was circulate the Galaxy Art to pound the Pioneer Sea Realm.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Just three Qi circulations later, Di Jiu’s cultivation level had reached the perfected stage of the Void Spirit Realm. Then, his Quintessential Essence touched the barrier of the Pioneer Sea Realm.

The violent Qi circulation of the Galaxy Art brought out a stronger Quintessential Essence, which kept bashing on the Pioneer Sea Realm’s barrier, causing quivering waves to shake Di Jiu’s body. Luckily, his body had been tempered to the Monarch Realm, so he could bear this pounding.

Crack! A bolt of lightning appeared in the sky above him. Di Jiu was not shocked. Actually, he was rather delighted. He knew that he was finally welcoming the Pioneer Sea Realm’s Thunder Tribulation.

Whether he could survive this Thunder Tribulation and break through to the Pioneer Sea Realm would depend entirely on him. Di Jiu did not wait for the thunder streaks to land. He started to circulate the Colossal Kun Body-Tempering Art immediately.

The Colossal Kun Art, the Forging Spiritual Art and the Galaxy Art all circulated together at once, which was nothing new to Di Jiu. This time, when he did it again, what appeared in his head had nothing to do with the tribulation transcendency. What would happen if he combined these three arts and cultivated them together next time?

The thunder streaks did not wait for Di Jiu to think of an answer. They actually landed before he could do so. The first thunder streak included nine strikes. As nine thick thunder streaks landed on Di Jiu’s body, cracking sounds could be heard from his Monarch Realm Body.

This was the sound of bones breaking. Di Jiu was already prepared for this. Thanks to the Body-Tempering Art, the broken bones recovered rapidly. The extra lightning source was absorbed by Di Jiu and converted through the Galaxy Art into waves of pounding motions that attacked the barrier of the Pioneer Sea Realm.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Just as Di Jiu had guessed, he did touch the barrier to the Pioneer Sea Realm. However, it was extremely tough. There was not even a crack after these multiple poundings.

When the second wave of thunder streaks landed, just like the wave of the Void Spirit Realm, it included 18 strikes. The only difference was that these thunder streaks were more than 10 times stronger than the last ones.

Bam! A bloody mist exploded around Di Jiu, who remained unfazed. He knew that his cultivation progress was considered fast, yet it was difficult to break through to another realm every single time. Now that he was making use of the thunder streaks to break through the Pioneer Sea Realm barrier, his body could still remain intact. There was only some bloody mist, which was considered quite a good outcome for him.

The third wave came, and then the fourth wave followed…

By the time the fifth wave of the Thunder Tribulation struck him, his whole body was covered in blood and half his bones were broken. However, Di Jiu heard a crack as he finally broke the barrier to the Pioneer Sea Realm.

Seemingly unlimited Spirit Qi moved towards him, causing his cultivation and power to increase very rapidly. How could he let go of the Thunder Tribulation now?

During the Thunder Tribulation, the cultivation progress was the fastest, as the Heaven and Earth Law was the clearest. Cultivation effects that usually required more than a year only took a few hours during the tribulation transcendence.

Now that he had finally reached the Pioneer Sea Realm, the Thunder Tribulation was also coming to an end. Di Jiu needed to make them strike him with more vigor.

Thus, he used the Heavenly Aqua Saber to strike a green flare on the Thunder Tribulation!

His provocation caused the sixth wave of thunder streaks to become thicker. This was not just a single wave. The thunder streaks struck Di Jiu repeatedly right on the top of his head.

The Spirit Baptism Pith pool below Di Jiu had long ago been blasted into smithereens by the Thunder Tribulation. The shredded spirit meridian and the intact supreme-grade spirit meridian next to him were still providing him with unlimited Spirit Qi.

The Spirit Qi drawn out from the spirit meridian was of a totally different quality than when Di Jiu had been cultivating previously. This Spirit Qi was completely absorbed by Di Jiu, who felt like he was falling into a bottomless pit.

Di Jiu could clearly feel his cultivation stabilizing rapidly, moving towards the perfected level-one Pioneer Sea Realm.

When the seventh wave of the Thunder Tribulation struck him, Di Jiu had already broken through the first level of the Pioneer Sea Realm and reached the second level.

Suddenly, Di Jiu could feel all the benefits of the Thunder Tribulation. The eighth wave was going to be weaker, so Di Jiu cast the level-seven Sky Screen Saber Array immediately. He knew very well that the Thunder Tribulation wanted to kill him badly before he broke through the bottleneck of his cultivation. Once he had successfully broken through, however, his cultivation level increased and the force of the Thunder Tribulation weakened.

A few thousand sabers shot out with a boom, shredding the thunder streaks all around him.

Di Jiu’s actions infuriated the Thunder Tribulation greatly. The eighth and ninth wave almost landed on Di Jiu at the same time. Thick, continuous thunder streaks fell on him, as if they would not stop unless Di Jiu was killed.

That was what Di Jiu had been waiting for. He did not have any time to think about how easily he had cast the level-seven Sky Screen Saber Array, as he was busy circulating the Galaxy Art and Colossal Kun Body-Tempering Art to the maximum.

Boom!

Even though Di Jiu had entered the level-two Pioneer Sea Realm and could absorb lightning source now, the terrifying, concentrated thunder streak attack broke his bones once again. The Colossal Kun Body-Tempering Art caused his bones to vibrate with a buzzing sound, followed by a mysterious, esoteric aura. Di Jiu’s broken bones started to reform yet again.

Bam! The last few thunder streaks blasted the reconstructed body. However, they only caused a few superficial cuts.

Quintessential Essence exploded outwards with a boom, while Di Jiu’s cultivation level reached level three of the Pioneer Sea Realm.

The space quietened as Di Jiu stood up silently, peaceful as a pine tree.

Di Jiu stopped cultivating and tempering his Spiritual Force and body. He merely sensed the changes inside him quietly.

His Spiritual Sea was as vast and endless as the ocean. Di Jiu was certain that even if he stood in front of the Principal Spirit shadow and let her attack his Spiritual Sea with the condensation of a Spiritual Force sword, his Spiritual Sea would definitely remain unmoved.

The gray patterned circles inside his Spiritual Sea disappeared and got replaced by golden patterned circles. Di Jiu had never envisioned such a vast, endless Spiritual Sea before he achieved it. Now his Spiritual Sea was not just several times stronger than it had been at level nine. It actually had a completely different nature.

This was the real level-ten Spiritual Sea, or rather, a higher-level Spiritual Sea. The Principal Spirit shadow that had attacked him must also have had a level-ten Spiritual Sea. However, Di Jiu was certain that her level-ten Spiritual Sea could not compare to his level-ten Spiritual Sea.

Given the state of his Spiritual Sea now, even a level-nine array would be nothing to him, let alone a mere level-seven saber array full of supreme-grade spirit weapons.

Compared to breaking through to the level-ten Spiritual Sea, Di Jiu thought that breaking through to the third level of the Pioneer Sea Realm was not even worth mentioning. On the other hand, his body had broken through to the Three-Deity Realm due to the abuse of the Thunder Tribulation. Compared to the Three-Monarch Realm, this also had a qualitative change.

The destruction of the Spirit Baptism Pith pool and the fact that the remaining supreme-grade spirit meridian was broken into multiple pieces did not cause Di Jiu any pain. What was the use of cultivating resources? Was it not to help one become stronger?

After nearly three years in seclusion, he could finally go out now.

The first thing Di Jiu was going to do when he left was visit the Herald Night Lake. He would not have broken through to the tenth level without the Roast Divine Herb.

However, the green and half-red Roast Divine Herb had no effect on him anymore. Only the red and legendary black Roast Divine Herb would be useful to him.

Thanks to his level-ten Spiritual Force, he believed that he should be able to acquire some black Roast Divine Herb now.

Before he left, he would throw all the geocentric pattern gold, the broken spirit meridian and the spirit meridian that had been shredded by his level-seven saber array into his Small World.