64: A century to become a deity?

A thousand-foot-tall "Suppress" character slowly descended from the sky. The imperial palace at the center trembled incessantly at this moment. This was merely the aftershock, yet the Heavenly Demon was in a miserable state.

The entire aura of the "Suppress" character was directed solely at it. Its terrifying face began to deform under this pressure; its originally sunken eyes bulged out, and its features became hideous and horrifying.

Enduring the immense pressure, the Heavenly Demon trembled as it raised its head, gazing at the thousand-foot-tall "Suppress" character in the sky. It was terrified in its heart. What was this thing? Why had its strength decreased?

The General and others in the distance also watched the changes in the sky with shock. Unable to restrain themselves, they collapsed onto the ground. What was the origin of that person? A casual strike was already this powerful!

Amidst the shock of others, the Heavenly Demon's strength was already less than one-tenth of its original state. Ye Ming seized the opportunity, gripped the glowing heaven suppressing seal in the sky, and pressed down into the Void Realm toward the Heavenly Demon.

The "Suppress" character, which had been slowly descending, rapidly plummeted under Ye Ming's action.

"Roar!"

Seeing the giant character descending from the sky, the Heavenly Demon let out a roar of unwillingness!

However, the Heavenly Demon did not last long before it was crushed into a meat patty. After being compressed to the extreme, it began to explode. Yet it was not over; the golden character turned the Heavenly Demon's remains into ash, causing it to disappear from the world completely.

After killing the Heavenly Demon, Ye Ming felt his vision go dark, and he vanished from the imperial palace, leaving the General and others completely bewildered.

...

In the Void Realm, as soon as Ye Ming opened his eyes, he saw a figure suddenly appear before him, startling him so much that he nearly pulled out the heaven suppressing seal to strike.

"Congratulations, Ye Ming. You have cleared the ninth stage and achieved the astonishing miracle of one stick of incense and three minutes. Not only did you counter-kill the Heavenly Demon, but you also wiped out all the demonic seeds!"

"You are specially rewarded with two Advanced fifth-rank Cultivation Techniques, an extra reward of thirty five elements immortal fruits, and another special item, the Five Elements Spirit Bead!"

The voice of the tower spirit echoed in Ye Ming's ears, but the figure before him did not speak, only kept looking at him, making him feel a bit chilly on his back, to the point where he even forgot to take the rewards nearby.

"May I ask who you are?"

Ye Ming couldn't help but ask. Although the figure before him was blurry, judging by her physique, she was a woman, with only a rough outline visible.

Being stared at constantly by a woman, Ye Ming felt somewhat uncomfortable.

"I am the Nine Heavens Profound Maiden, the owner of this pagoda!" A melodious female voice came from the figure.

These two short sentences greatly shocked Ye Ming. The Nine Heavens Profound Maiden, the owner of this Immortal Artifact—wouldn't her cultivation be above the Tribulation Crossing Stage?

For such a powerhouse to seek him out, could it be because he passed the nine stages?

Before Ye Ming could ask anything, the Nine Heavens Profound Maiden continued, "Your talent is excellent. When you Ascend to the Spirit Realm, come to the Nine Profound Immortal Sect, and I will accept you as my Disciple then!"

After saying this, the Nine Heavens Profound Maiden took a golden token and presented it to Ye Ming, finally saying, "Take this, and you may enter my Nine Profound Immortal Sect!"

Then, without waiting for Ye Ming to speak, the figure of the Nine Heavens Profound Maiden vanished.

She came silently and left without a stir; she truly had the demeanor of a powerhouse.

Ye Ming looked at the token before him. After a moment of hesitation, he still took it into his hand. The Nine Profound Immortal Sect sounded very Advanced; it wouldn't hurt to take a look.

As for the Nine Heavens Profound Maiden wanting to accept him as a Disciple, Ye Ming naturally would not refuse. Having a sect for protection in the Spirit Realm was far better than not having one.

After putting away the token, Ye Ming looked at the three light orbs nearby. He first placed the five elements immortal fruits into his space ring, intending to eat them after going out.

Next, Ye Ming looked at the other reward: two Advanced fifth-rank Cultivation Techniques. One was the "Five Elements Heaven Imprisoning Hand," which could utilize the Five Elements Power to form a large cage, making it impossible for a person to escape the palm of one's hand, and they would eventually be obliterated by the Five Elements Power.

The second was named "Five-Colored Heavenly Light Art," which used the Five Elements Power to condense a beam of five-colored heavenly light to attack enemies. Ye Ming's evaluation of it was that it was inferior to the Five Elements Dharma Eye.

After casually tossing the two Cultivation Techniques into his space ring, Ye Ming looked at the final special reward: the Five Elements Spirit Bead.

This was a five-colored bead the size of a baby's fist, containing a large amount of five-colored liquid, with five-colored fluorescence flowing continuously within it.

Ye Ming did not know what it was, until a piece of information flew out from the spirit bead and transmitted into his memory, only then did he know that this was the ultimate reward specially prepared for him by the nine heavens profound pagoda.

The five-colored liquid inside was Five Elements Essence converted from the Five Elements Power. The effect of one drop was about the same as one five elements immortal fruit, but it did not have the special effect of Awakening an immortal body like the five elements immortal fruit.

The information told him that the Five Elements Essence in this bead was enough for him to step into the Peak Spirit Transformation within one hundred years. When the Five Elements Essence was used up, it would be the time for his Ascension.

A century?

Ye Ming curled the corner of his lips. Why would he need a hundred years? Relying on check-ins, he could reach Peak Spirit Transformation within twenty years.

Through two check-ins of century-long cultivation, he had already grasped some patterns, which was that every three years, he could check in for cultivation, and the years of cultivation checked in were getting higher and higher.

However, staying low-profile in the Mortal Realm and checking in for a century would also be nice. When the time came, he would bring a body of super-high cultivation to the Spirit Realm to pretend to be a pig to eat the tiger. Just thinking about that feeling was quite satisfying!

Let's do it this way. He would wait until the hundred-year mark to Ascend. Ascending too early would instead attract the attention of some people; just the right timing would not make others suspicious.

Ye Ming thought to himself, but on the surface, he had no expression. Holding the Five Elements Spirit Bead, he walked out of the nine heavens profound pagoda.

Outside the pagoda, it was a scene of boiling excitement. Everyone was gathered in front of the stone tablet, excitedly looking at the stage-clearing rankings on it, and the ninth stage, which no one had previously cleared, already had someone occupying the ranking!

As soon as Ye Ming walked out, he felt thousands of gazes looking at him in unison. Among them were excitement, envy, jealousy, and, more than anything, eyes filled with awe for a powerhouse!

Ye Ming walked by quietly, and everyone left a path for him. At this moment, they already knew that Ye Ming was incomparable to everyone else and was destined to far surpass them.

No one dared to make any inappropriate actions at this time, and they all watched Ye Ming leave with awe.

After Ye Ming left, everyone gathered together and began to discuss Ye Ming.

"Sigh, it is we who were too late to latch onto a powerful thigh. Now, Immortal Master Ye is no longer someone we can compare to!"

"Indeed..."

Watching everyone around him discussing Ye Ming, Xuan De pressed his palms together, softly recited a Buddhist phrase, and then found a place to go into seclusion. His affinity with Ye Ming had likely come to an end.

But he still sincerely wished for Ye Ming to get better and better and hoped that Ye Ming would have a prosperous journey on the Dao of Immortality!

...

On the other side, after Ye Ming took the Cold Beauty and the others to the previous Immortal Cave, he prepared to stay there for a period of time, as the Spirit of the Secret Realm had mentioned before.

They were given one year to clear the stages, and the Secret Realm would close after one year. Seven months had already passed, and there were five months left before they could leave the Secret Realm.

During this period, he would just slack off in the Immortal Cave for a while.

Just like that, three months later, others had also successively cleared the ninth stage. They were all people from different cultivation worlds, but their clearance times were very long, all of them being over three quarters of an hour, and some even took five hours.