Chapter 157 Mission Accomplished

Venerable Dayu’s foundation was inferior to Venerable Kun’s, and he only managed to hold on for less than two days before giving out.

Then Venerable Tunhai stepped up to take his place.

Venerable Tunhai was somewhat stronger than Venerable Dayu, but the margin was limited, and he too collapsed in defeat after lasting less than three days.

By this moment, Wang Li was utterly exhausted. Lacking any influx of energy, he felt as though he would grind to a complete halt before long.

"Let this old man do it!"

Venerable Shou narrowed his eyes and placed one hand against Wang Li’s back.

Wang Li instantly felt an extraordinarily majestic surge of power flood into his body, instantly revitalizing his withered meridians with immense strength.

After a brief moment of perception, he realized that Venerable Shou’s energy was exceptionally pure and gentle, entirely devoid of the explosive volatility found in Venerable Kun and the others’ power.

Moreover, this energy felt remarkably lingering and enduring, bearing a striking resemblance to the power Wang Li himself had cultivated.

"Focus entirely on your artifact forging and pay no mind to anything else. This old man may not have much, but primordial Qi is something I have in abundance."

Venerable Shou’s voice echoed directly in Wang Li’s mind.

"Understood. Senior should also pace yourself, though. If it truly becomes too much, we can simply wait for Venerable Kun and the others to recover before supplying me with energy again."

"There's no need for such trouble. Your artifact crafting is nearly finished anyway, and this old man can easily bear it."

Seven days later, Wang Li finally completed the array diagram inscriptions, successfully connecting the undersea graveyard with the bodies of water across various regions, while conveniently incorporating several densely populated cities into the network as well.

Only then did he notice that the one supplying him with energy from behind was still Venerable Shou.

"Has Senior been continuously channeling energy into me this entire time?" Wang Li asked.

"Heh, those three fellows expended too much and still haven't recovered yet, so this old man simply picked up the slack for a bit longer."

Venerable Shou’s long eyebrows twitched slightly, his expression entirely relaxed and carefree, as if the intense depletion over the past seven days had not affected him in the slightest.

Wang Li was profoundly shocked; it turned out that Venerable Shou was the true hidden powerhouse among the demon race.

Indeed, one could never underestimate those who lived long enough.

Compared to Venerable Shou, Venerable Kun was visibly lacking by more than just a single tier.

Seeming to perceive what Wang Li was thinking, Venerable Shou chuckled and said, "This old man is hardly any sort of supreme expert. In terms of offensive power, I'm not even as capable as Dayu; I've simply lived longer than you all and accumulated more over time, that's all."

"Furthermore, possessing the bloodline of the Black Tortoise allows me to break through the realm-based limits on power accumulation and continuously store up strength—nothing more. If you ever need to pick a fight with someone in the future, Fellow Daoist, you should still look for Venerable Kun to back you up. This old man is terrible at taking beatings, haha!"

"Haha, Senior is far too modest. If junior possessed accumulation like yours, I would have already grown arrogant long ago."

After exchanging a couple of lighthearted laughs, Wang Li temporarily set aside his work to sit in meditation and rest.

Crossing his legs to recover for over eighty days, Wang Li finally restored himself to his absolute peak condition.

"I cannot do this ever again; it is simply too damaging to the body. Even with myself and four Celestial-realm experts, we were nearly drained dry. Fortunately, the three sacred artifacts won't require anything this troublesome."

Unlike the undersea graveyard, which had only recently established a means to communicate with the world's will through acquired methods, sacred artifacts were items inherently materialized by the world's will itself. They naturally integrated into the rules of the world and did not require the establishment of such complex connecting channels. Much like the Heaven's Pride Rankings, they simply functioned as receivers, requiring very little consumption.

Once Wang Li had fully recovered, he began the wrap-up work. Meanwhile, Venerable Kun and the other two were still in recovery, which gave a clear indication of just how massive their energy expenditure had been.

Wang Li held deep admiration for them; being able to sacrifice themselves to such an extent for the future of their clan was truly remarkable. Even more admirable was that their internal power struggles were not nearly as fierce as those of the human race—once a single leader was chosen, everyone would follow suit.

He was not attempting to judge the overall comparison between humans and demons; he was simply thoroughly disgusted by the sight of a group of powerful veterans beating each other black and blue.

Half a month later, Wang Li finally accomplished his monumental task.

The undersea pasture had transformed into an aspiration-power collection station. Any aspiration power generated by the demons inhabiting various bodies of water would be automatically drawn here, where it could be used to supplement cultivation when combined with corresponding techniques.

The sacrificial hall had already displayed the methods for guiding sentient beings to generate aspiration power, and Wang Li had no intention of teaching them hand-in-hand.

After returning to the undersea city to enjoy a period of relaxation, Wang Li brought Jiang Yue back to the Pure Yang Temple. He lingered there for three months, re-organizing and smoothing out the cultivation techniques within the Scripture Pavilion. After checking on the still-unconscious True Immortal Chuxuan, the two of them returned to their own immortal dwelling.

In truth, True Immortal Chuxuan was recovering quite well; the damage to her divine soul was on the verge of being fully mended, and her Dao heart had completely healed with the aid of aspiration power. The only reason she remained asleep was likely because she wished to seize the opportunity to attempt a breakthrough.

Seeing that his master was safe and sound, Wang Li finally set his mind at ease.

Having toiled relentlessly through a series of grueling events, Wang Li resolved to take a proper rest; even if swords were to rain from the skies, he would not step a foot outside.

Jiang Yu was currently in seclusion.

Wang Li could sense that her opportunity for a breakthrough had materialized. It was hard to say precisely when she would step into the True Immortal realm, but it was bound to happen within a millennium.

Breaking through to the True Immortal realm was no simple feat. One must not assume that leveling up was effortless simply because Jiang Yue, Wang Li, Daoist Mirror, True Immortal Nirvana, Wuliu Zhengying, Huaying, and others had smoothly advanced all the way from the Golden Core and Spirit Awakening realms to the Celestial realm.

Every single one of them possessed extraordinary fortuitous encounters or was bolstered by sacred artifacts. Among the contemporaries of Wang Li’s era, very few managed to even become Earth Immortals. As for the super geniuses originally listed on the Heaven's Chosen Rankings, it seemed only a scarce few like Haikou, Wang Liu, and Zhang Zai had managed to become True Immortals.

Even senior-generation powerhouses like True Immortal Chuxuan had only reached the Earth Immortal realm.

Jiang Yu's ability to ascend all the way to the Earth Immortal realm was entirely thanks to Wang Li; aside from the portion of benefits that True Immortal Flowing Light had promised to Wang Li which were given to his family, virtually everything else had gone to her.

However, crossing the threshold from the Earth Immortal realm to the True Immortal realm presented a major hurdle: one had to comprehend a sliver of the Law of Time.

As the upper limit of power within the Tianxuan World increased and the Law of Space grew increasingly complete, the Law of Time had drifted to an untouchable height. Aside from peerless figures like Flowing Light—who had mastered the Law of Time before the power ceiling was raised—subsequent True Immortal experts could only rely on the law imprints left behind by older-generation powerhouses to cultivate the Law of Time. Otherwise, Earth Immortals could never hope to enter the True Immortal realm.

Figures like Wang Li, Jiang Yue, and Huaying had bypassed the True Immortal stage entirely, stepping straight into the Celestial realm, which left them without even a rudimentary comprehension of the Law of Time.

Wang Li always felt that lacking an understanding of the Law of Time might prove to be a weakness, but Grandpa Sheng did not see it that way.

In Grandpa Sheng’s words, the Law of Time itself was a pseudo-proposition—it was self-contradictory, lacked longitudinal comparability, and held no practical value.

As for why the River of Time truly existed, Grandpa Sheng offered no explanation, merely telling Wang Li that once he reached the Great Luo realm, he would naturally understand the true essence of time.

Nevertheless, Grandpa Sheng still failed to provide a method for an Earth Immortal to ascend to the True Immortal realm, leaving Wang Li with no choice but to procure a Law of Time imprint for his wife.

After mending all options, he ultimately decided to ask a favor of True Immortal Flowing Light.

For no other reason than the fact that she was the individual among all surviving True Immortals and Celestial-realm powerhouses in the Tianxuan World who possessed the greatest number of Law of Time imprints.

Wang Li produced a catty of Earth-Core Milk he had previously collected in a subterranean cavern, and it easily swayed True Immortal Flowing Light.