After another year of ascetic cultivation, with no significant difference from the arduous monks, hard work paid off.
Wu Tao finally felt the loosening of his bottleneck. The experience of his cultivation rapidly advancing reappeared, long absent.
Pure spiritual energy, accompanied by the circulation of his cultivation technique, flowed through his entire body, then returned to his dantian.
Finally, Wu Tao succeeded in one fell swoop, breaking through the late stage of Foundation Establishment. At this moment, he could not conceal the joy in his heart.
Stepping into the late stage of Foundation Establishment was not a mere breakthrough for Wu Tao.
He could easily defeat opponents in the late stage of Foundation Establishment when he was in the middle stage. Now, with his advancement to the late stage, his combat strength had undergone earth-shattering changes.
Even if the nine great holy sons, the Seven Night Demon Lord, and other prodigies on the Kyushu Dragon Ranking came to trouble him, he no longer feared them.
Because he was confident that he could retreat unharmed from any strong enemy.
Below the Core Formation stage, I shall roam free!
"Give me some more time, and when I reach the peak of late Foundation Establishment, I will be confident enough to compete with the prodigies on the Kyushu Dragon Ranking for victory and superiority."
Wu Tao thought to himself.
This year, Wu Tao turned thirty-three.
One day, Chang Pingqian, who rarely visited Wu Tao, came to see him. However, upon meeting, he couldn't help but gasp in shock and ask, "You've broken through to the late stage of Foundation Establishment?"
Wu Tao chuckled upon hearing this and replied somewhat proudly, "I just broke through not long ago, my realm is not yet stable."
"I can't help but admire you. You are gradually surpassing us friends. Only that kid Long Ao Potian can barely keep pace with you," Chang Pingqian said, shaking his head inζζ ¨.
Pouring spiritual tea for Chang Pingqian, Wu Tao sat beside him.
Wu Tao replied unhurriedly, "With your potential, if you treated becoming an immortal and seeking the Dao as more important than life itself, and seized every opportunity to cultivate diligently."
"Dare to wager your life to pursue your own opportunities, why wouldn't you be where I am today?"
"Easy to say, hard to do!"
Chang Pingqian shook his head, picked up his tea, and said with a bitter smile, "Which of us would be like you, spending every minute and second of every day either earning spirit stones or cultivating?"
"Sometimes I really wonder, aren't you tired of living like this?"
Hearing this, Wu Tao sat on his chair and remained silent for a long time, sighing softly. In the end, he only said,
"It's definitely tiring, but I'm more afraid that I'll regret it in the future!"
Seeing the conversation becoming increasingly somber, Chang Pingqian's small eyes darted around, and he quickly changed the subject.
After a few casual remarks, seeing the atmosphere improve, Chang Pingqian rubbed his hands and awkwardly stated the purpose of his visit.
"I'm planning something recently and I need Junior Brother's help."
Wu Tao heard this and chuckled, then said, "Don't worry, Senior Brother's matters are my matters. Tell me."
Chang Pingqian was quite touched that Wu Tao agreed without even asking what it was.
It turned out that, perhaps due to immense luck, Chang Pingqian, while wandering aimlessly, stumbled upon a mountain peak named Shouyang Mountain and accidentally obtained a treasure map.
The treasure map recorded the life of an alchemist and the location of his final cave dwelling.
The location was in the northeasternmost part of Qingzhou, within the Endless Beast Forest.
Chang Pingqian was not confident that he could retrieve the treasures from the alchemist's cave dwelling alone from the Endless Beast Forest, so he thought of enlisting Wu Tao.
Fifteen days later, two streaks of escaping light flew back and forth above the boundless forest.
They appeared to be two men, dressed in the attire of inner disciples of the Taiyi Immortal Sect.
Unlike other forests, which gave a sense of spaciousness and freshness,
the Endless Beast Forest gave a feeling of gloom and terror, and one could even faintly hear ferocious wolf howls.
Wu Tao frowned, looked around, and asked Chang Pingqian, "Senior Brother, we should be in the right place, right? We've been searching here for five days."
Chang Pingqian smiled and replied, "It should be correct. I've compared it with the treasure map several times before confirming it was here."
Chang Pingqian then added, "Junior Brother, the cave dwelling might be protected by an array. You might need to help me break it later."
Wu Tao nodded and replied, "No problem, leave it to me."
Chang Pingqian walked, observing the surrounding terrain and comparing it with an old map in his hand.
"This is it. The trees to the south are actually an illusion of an array. Behind the array is the alchemist's cave dwelling," Chang Pingqian stated with certainty.
"Junior Brother, try to destroy these trees first."
Hearing this, Wu Tao drew his broken ancient sword and slashed it through the air!
A golden sword qi, several zhang long, shot out instantly, as if growing with the wind, striking the trees.
Remarkably, although many giant trees were blasted into countless fragments by the sword qi, no sound was heard.
The ground suddenly trembled and then immediately fell silent.
Soon, the trees shattered by Wu Tao's attack were restored to their original state.
"As expected, it's an illusion array. The array is intact, which means no one has entered."
"Later, Junior Brother, watch how I break this array," Chang Pingqian clearly understood this array.
When Wu Tao heard that the cave dwelling was intact, his brow twitched slightly.
Chang Pingqian carefully observed the forest before him, then his face lit up with joy. He raised his hands and threw out more than a dozen array flags, planting them in various positions.
After a while, the illusion array disappeared, revealing the true appearance of the place: a dilapidated cave dwelling standing on the ground.
Chang Pingqian let out a long sigh and said, "Alright, an array without a controller indeed has much less power. After hundreds of years, most of its might has dissipated."
"Now, I have temporarily controlled the array. We just need to blast open the cave dwelling's door, and we can enter."
Just as Wu Tao was about to make a move, a chilling roar suddenly came from the Endless Beast Forest.
"Roar!"
A colossal roar, as if from ancient times, erupted, shaking the entire forest.
A giant beast, nearly a hundred zhang tall, with partial bloodline of the Taotie, roared out.
Within its roar, there seemed to be a terrifying aura that sought to destroy heaven and earth!
A heart-pounding pressure clearly told Chang Pingqian and Wu Tao that this was a late-stage Foundation Establishment demonic beast with a partial divine beast bloodline.
In the cultivation world, wild beasts that gained sentience would absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to become demonic beasts.
And just like human cultivators, there were special existences among demonic beasts that could fight beyond their level. They were called divine beasts.
Divine beasts were demonic beasts with the bloodline of ancient demons and gods.
They possessed innate divine abilities from birth, their talent was extremely powerful, and their strength was far greater than that of ordinary demonic beasts.
A demonic beast with a partial divine beast bloodline was extremely formidable!
This suddenly appearing giant beast had a tiger-like head, but with a pair of extremely sharp horns on its head.
Its entire body was like half-human, half-beast, with four limbs and a tail, its limbs reaching nearly a hundred zhang, making it terrifying.
Its mighty body, as strong as forged steel, was covered in black scales, and its entire being was infused with fear-inducing wood-attribute spiritual energy, utterly terrifying!
"Is this a demonic beast with a divine beast bloodline?"
Even Wu Tao, seeing the scene and the sight before him, couldn't help but feel a sense of shock.
He glanced at the fearful Chang Pingqian beside him.
Wu Tao slightly furrowed his brows and told Chang Pingqian to stay put and not interfere.
The broken ancient sword, connected to his mind, did not hesitate in the slightest. At this moment, it suddenly unsheathed itself.
The flowing sword light was as if solid, flashing with extremely sharp and terrifying sword qi.
In the next second, the broken ancient sword instantly disappeared from Wu Tao's side.
Almost in the very next instant, a magnificent ancient sword suddenly appeared in the sky above the forest.
The ancient sword shone with dazzling brilliance.
A sky-shattering sword image stood across the horizon, carrying a grand and vast sword qi that permeated heaven and earth.
Even the nearly hundred zhang tall Taotie seemed to sense danger and roared, looking up at the sky.
The sky-shattering sword image, in that instant, slashed directly downwards.
"Roar!"
The Taotie roared, then slightly stood up, raising its forelimbs, infused with a surge of wood-attribute spiritual energy, and fiercely struck forward.
"Boom!"
A deafening explosion resounded, and mountains, rocks, and forests within a radius of several li collapsed and shattered.
Even the earth cracked open with countless fissures.
After the strike, the broken ancient sword transformed into a stream of light and instantly shot back, reappearing in Wu Tao's hand.
After several years, Wu Tao had mastered the Heavenly Will Sword Control Technique. Its power, unleashed now, was indeed extraordinary.
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