Chapter 73

With this thought, Su Yang sat cross-legged on the spot, his divine consciousness spreading out like an octopus, swiftly enveloping the entire canyon. Every stone, every grain of sand, every blade of grass, and every tree was imprinted in his mind, as if he were seeing them in person. He also sensed many things that his eyes had not seen before.

Suddenly, a strange energy stirred the divine consciousness Su Yang had released. It was a nondescript dark rock in the center of the canyon.

Su Yang enveloped the rock with his divine consciousness and received a continuous flow of energy feedback. In an instant, Su Yang had a sudden realization.

This was a gateway, a gateway to the Spirit Realm!

Excited, Su Yang suddenly stood up and rushed toward the unremarkable dark rock at an astonishing speed.

Black Diamond, not knowing what was going on, saw Su Yang touching and examining the black rock with great interest and couldn't help but shake his head and think, "Boss, what's so good about this broken rock? If you like it, I can find you some bigger and blacker ones later..."

Su Yang smiled and said, "You don't understand. This black rock is the entrance to the Spirit Realm."

Although Black Diamond's sensing ability was strong, it was far from Su Yang's divine consciousness, so he couldn't see the significance. However, he always firmly believed in Su Yang's words.

After hearing this, Black Diamond's snake tail swung, and he darted up like an arrow, jumping around the black rock for a while but found no way to interact with it, acting like a curious child.

Half an hour later, Su Yang was no longer as excited as before. He stared at the five-meter-tall black rock in front of him with a complex expression, feeling a sense of helplessness rising in his heart.

During this time, he had tried various methods, including using his divine consciousness, the True Qi of the Azure Sky, qi sensing, and various secret techniques of the demonic sect, on the rock he considered the gateway to the Spirit Realm. However, the results were disappointing.

Apart from being able to see the strange energy within the rock through his divine consciousness, all other attempts were fruitless.

"Could my discovery be wrong?"

Feeling frustrated, Su Yang gathered all his strength and struck the rock with a palm. With his current cultivation, one palm could shatter a mountain ten times the size of the rock, but this immense destructive power vanished like a stone into the sea, unable to even leave a palm print on the rock.

This phenomenon made Su Yang calm down instantly. A thought flashed through his mind, recalling the content recorded in the general principles of the *Nine Transformations of the Azure Sky*, leading to a realization.

"Once the divine consciousness is formed, the foundation of the Purple Mansion is established, and the Spirit Realm can be glimpsed, with profound mysteries to be unraveled..."

"The palm strike just now has proven that this rock is no ordinary object. My use of divine consciousness to observe it was not wrong. The reason I cannot open it is that my cultivation has not reached the required level. I can see the door, but I don't know how to enter."

"From this, it seems that the key to opening this gateway lies in the four words 'establishing the foundation of the Purple Mansion.'"

With this thought, Su Yang suddenly felt enlightened.

"Old friend, the天地灵气 here is abundant, and there is no one to disturb me. I am going to cultivate and break through. During this period of seclusion, please guard me."

Black Diamond had followed Su Yang for a hundred years and had seen him have epiphanies before. He knew that when his boss was determined to cultivate, he would be completely absorbed, like a madman.

Although he couldn't understand why a black rock could have such an impact on his boss, he still agreed.

Clearly, Black Diamond's understanding of Su Yang was profound. Once Su Yang had a goal, his cultivation speed and intensity were almost insane. In just seven days and nights, he successfully broke through to the fifth level of the *Nine Transformations of the Azure Sky*.

However, what made Su Yang feel frustrated was that this breakthrough did not bring about the significant changes that occurred when he advanced from the third to the fourth level.

At that time, his cultivation had increased dramatically, his body had grown, and he had gained divine consciousness. This time, the breakthrough only deepened his cultivation without any new gains.

The *Nine Transformations of the Azure Sky* has three major bottlenecks: breaking from the third to the fourth level, from the sixth to the seventh level, and from the ninth to the ultimate level. Could the key to establishing the foundation of the Purple Mansion lie in breaking through to the seventh level?

With this guess, Su Yang was determined not to leave seclusion until he achieved the "establishing the foundation of the Purple Mansion."

In the following days, in this area with abundant天地灵气, Su Yang entered a frenzied state of cultivation, almost forgetting everything, focusing solely on continuous cultivation.

Three months passed, and the weather turned cold. The snow covered the vast mountains, turning them into a white expanse. In a certain mountain stream, a forty-meter-long unicorn python suddenly emerged from the water, charging at a tiger drinking by the stream with lightning speed.

The tiger, facing this sudden attack, was completely overwhelmed by the python's immense pressure, trembling and unable to react, let alone think of resistance or escape.

Suddenly, a clear whistle echoed through the mountains, and the unicorn python, which was about to swallow the tiger, turned and left, heading toward the source of the whistle.

"Boss, is that you? Have you come out of seclusion?"

Black Diamond, having knocked down countless trees, rushed to the mysterious canyon, transmitting his excited thoughts.

In the dark canyon, a man with a faint smile, exuding an otherworldly charm, appeared in front of Black Diamond in an instant. It could only be Su Yang.

"Old friend, it's been a while..."

Su Yang lightly stepped, his figure rising into the air, landing on Black Diamond's back, and said with his divine consciousness, "Now I understand that I was just a frog in a well. The path of martial arts is just the beginning."

Feeling the familiar yet new and strange aura emanating from Su Yang, Black Diamond keenly sensed something and thought, "Boss, you seem like a different person."

"I am still me, but I have taken a step that I have never taken in the past thousand years and understood some truths."

Su Yang said calmly, "It's like when you transformed into a dragon in the East Sea, understanding many things in your life imprint. There is no difference."

Black Diamond nodded, somewhat understanding.

During this hundred days of frenzied cultivation, Su Yang rapidly advanced to the peak of the sixth level. Then he encountered a bottleneck that was difficult to break through.

After nine lifetimes of rebirth, each time re-cultivating the *Nine Transformations of the Azure Sky*, Su Yang felt that this cultivation breakthrough was the most challenging in his thousand-year immortal life.

The *Nine Transformations of the Azure Sky* he was familiar with had changed, and the cultivation process and stages were different, as if he were cultivating a completely new technique.

His understanding of the concept of "establishing the foundation of the Purple Mansion" was aided by his early immersion in alchemy, which gave him some insight into Daoist principles. This helped him avoid many detours in the breakthrough from the sixth to the seventh level.

At the same time, Su Yang's rapid progress in a hundred days was also due to the abundant天地灵气 in the canyon. The longer he was stuck at the bottleneck, the more天地灵气 he absorbed, and the more True Qi of the Azure Sky he converted.

Until one day, even with his superior constitution after nine lifetimes of rebirth, he could no longer contain more True Qi of the Azure Sky, and a transformation occurred.

The True Qi of the Azure Sky in his body uncontrollably surged into his dantian and the Purple Mansion, repeatedly washing and refining, transforming into a powerful and strange energy that Su Yang called True Essence.

This transformation process was extremely slow and difficult. The True Qi of the Azure Sky gathered through ninety-nine major cycles could only refine a drop of True Essence.

It took dozens of days, repeatedly gathering and refining True Qi, to gradually reveal a crack in the bottleneck from the sixth to the seventh level.

When the True Essence in Su Yang's dantian and the Purple Mansion reached saturation, something unexpected happened. The天地灵气 that usually took great effort to absorb rushed into his body at an astonishing speed. In just one day, he absorbed more天地灵气 than he had in the past hundred days.

A hundred drops of True Essence merged in Su Yang's dantian and the Purple Mansion, forming a glowing ball with a white luster. A force ten times stronger than the True Qi of the Azure Sky filled his meridians and integrated into his body.

At this moment, Su Yang felt a sudden enlightenment. He understood that he had succeeded, broken through, and completed the elusive "establishing the foundation of the Purple Mansion."

He also realized that this breakthrough had taken him into a new realm.

This was a realm beyond the scope of martial arts, allowing Su Yang to instantly grasp the mystery of how the martial geniuses of the past had transcended the physical world.

Following this, the principles recorded in the general principles of the *Nine Transformations of the Azure Sky* appeared in Su Yang's mind: "Once the foundation of the Purple Mansion is established, the outer world can be glimpsed. The immortal body does not exist, but the eternal Dharmic body breaks through the Azure Sky."

"Damn, the *Nine Transformations of the Azure Sky* is not just a martial arts treasure..."

PS: I stayed up late to update. I am a working professional, and all my free time is spent typing. It's not easy, and I hope readers can give some encouragement. Your support means a lot to me. I appreciate your collection, recommendation, and 5-star reviews. It gives me more motivation.