After returning from the hunt, Caelum roasted an entire wild boar and ate every last bite.
His Vital Essence had beco so powerful that eating a whole cow in one sitting would hardly be a challenge.
Sitting on the steps outside the main hall, he held a half foot tall weed in his hand.
Its slender leaves resembled blades.
On a whim during his trip back, he had uprooted it and brought it ho.
Looking around, he noticed a broken corner in one of the stone slabs near the entrance, exposing the dark soil beneath.
Without much thought, he planted the Bladeleaf there.
Then he activated the Secret of Transcendence.
This ti, he deliberately kept things under control.
The violent surge of World Essence from before did not appear.
Instead, World Essence gathered quietly in his palm.
Compressed by the Secret of Transcendence, it condensed into a single drop of erald liquid.
Primal Essence.
A substance specifically used to nurture pills and Spirit Herbs.
Caelum had not forgotten.
The Secret of Transcendence could not only raise his Realm rapidly, it could also improve the quality of Divine Armants, pills, and nearly any material.
A weed should count too, right?
He wanted to find out.
The drop of Primal Essence landed on the Bladeleaf and was imdiately absorbed.
The plant visibly beca greener.
Its vitality intensified, making it resemble a genuine Spirit Herb.
Unfortunately, Caelum knew almost nothing about Spirit Herbs.
He did not even know how many grades existed.
After watching for a while and seeing nothing unusual happen, he lost interest.
"Back to cultivation."
The Ascendant World was filled with dangers.
Caelum was a cautious man.
Until he pushed the Initiate Realm to its absolute limit, he had no intention of leaving the mountain.
At the very least, life here was peaceful and safe.
He sat cross legged within the hall.
Moonlight spilled across the ground behind him.
Outside, the green Bladeleaf swayed gently in the breeze.
Caelum continued cultivating the Skyreach Scripture alongside the Secret of Transcendence.
Several days passed.
Boom!
One day, rain poured from the heavens.
Thunder roared across the sky.
The Bladeleaf endured the storm without bending.
Its leaves pointed toward the heavens like a drawn sword.
anwhile, Caelum’s Vital Essence grew increasingly powerful.
As his cultivation circulated, sounds resembling dragon roars and tiger cries echoed within his body, mixing with the thunder outside and reverberating through the empty hall.
[Cultivation Increased]
[Realm: Initiate Realm, Layer 67]
[Cultivation Increased]
[Realm: Initiate Realm, Layer 68]
[Cultivation Increased]
[Realm: Initiate Realm, Layer 69]
Only when hunger finally reminded him of the outside world did he stop cultivating.
As he rose to his feet, it felt like a sleeping dragon erging from the abyss.
The flow of Vital Essence within him produced deep thunderous vibrations.
The sound echoed through the hall.
Caelum clenched his fist and felt the terrifying power coursing through his body.
Initiate Realm, Layer 69.
He suspected that one punch might be enough to blast apart the peak of Skyreach Mountain itself.
Ordinary Initiate Realm cultivators were not even worth comparing.
Even a twelfth layer Awakened Realm cultivator would struggle to display such power.
Sitting once more on the threshold, he fed another drop of Primal Essence to the Bladeleaf.
After absorbing it, the plant appeared even more lively than before.
Later, braving the storm, he ventured into the mountains and returned carrying two wolves.
When he stepped back into the hall, he discovered that soone had arrived while he was gone.
A woman dressed in white was standing inside, sheltering from the rain.
She was staring curiously at the Bladeleaf growing beside the entrance.
Seeing Caelum return, she greeted him politely.
"Monk, would it be possible for to stay here for two days? I’ll leave as soon as they’re over."
"That’s fine."
Caelum glanced at her briefly before setting the wolves down.
"This is the main hall. People don’t stay here. Find an empty room nearby and use that."
"Thank you, Monk."
As she spoke, her gaze drifted back toward the Bladeleaf.
"Monk, did you plant this Bladeleaf?"
"Bladeleaf?"
"The leaves resemble blades, so that’s what it’s called."
Caelum nodded.
The na certainly fit.
The woman continued.
"There are plenty of Bladeleaf plants throughout the mountains, but I’ve never seen one with such rich Spiritual Essence. It already rivals a Spirit Herb. Monk, this Bladeleaf..."
"Not for sale."
Caelum rejected the idea imdiately.
The woman smiled faintly.
"My apologies. I overstepped."
She could tell at a glance that Caelum had recently stepped onto the path of cultivation.
No ordinary martial artist possessed such abundant Vital Essence.
There was no need to probe him further.
His bearing alone made it obvious.
anwhile, Caelum quietly beca more vigilant.
The World Essence within her body was deep and powerful.
Her cultivation was impossible to asure.
She was certainly beyond the Initiate Realm.
Most likely an Awakened Realm cultivator.
Possibly even higher.
Still, her arrival amounted to little more than a brief interruption in his peaceful routine.
While she remained on the mountain, Caelum stopped cultivating and spent his days hunting instead.
Two days later, the woman departed.
Before leaving, she left behind so silver as thanks.
Nothing unusual occurred during her stay.
The two had exchanged only a handful of words.
There was no friendship to speak of.
Once she was gone, Caelum fed another drop of Primal Essence to the Bladeleaf.
Then he returned to cultivating within the hall.
Day after day.
Ti passed quickly.
A month later.
The Bladeleaf outside the hall swayed gently in the wind.
A faint trace of Sword Intent radiated from it.
A dry leaf drifting through the air was silently sliced in half before it could touch the ground.
The severed leaf landed outside the entrance.
Boom!
A vast wave of Vital Essence erupted from Caelum’s body.
The resulting shockwave swept through the hall like a violent storm.
When the winds finally settled, every trace of his power vanished.
He looked no different from an ordinary man.
[Cultivation Increased]
[Realm: Initiate Realm, Layer 360]
The further he progressed, the slower advancent beca.
After a full month of cultivation, he had finally pushed the Initiate Realm to its absolute limit.
Even the Secret of Transcendence could no longer raise it further.
Initiate Realm, Layer 360.
At this level, his Vital Essence resembled an endless ocean.
His bones and ridians had beco unimaginably durable.
His body was flawless and complete.
Immune to poison.
Possessing the strength to tear apart dragons and mammoths with his bare hands.
Moving mountains was trivial.
Flattening ten mountains in a row would not be difficult.
His physique had beco so powerful that ordinary Divine Armants and Mystic Arts could no longer harm him.
Even against a Soulbound Realm cultivator, Caelum felt no fear.
An Initiate Realm cultivator capable of fighting Soulbound Realm opponents.
There was likely no second person in heaven and earth who could make such a claim.
Stretching comfortably, he smiled.
"Ti to go see the world."
His Initiate Realm cultivation was complete.
At last, he possessed enough strength to protect himself.
He planned to travel, broaden his horizons, and hopefully acquire a cultivation thod for the Awakened Realm.
Finding a few Martial Arts or Mystic Arts along the way would be even better.
Taking the silver left behind by the woman in white, he uprooted the Bladeleaf, shook the dirt from its roots, and tucked it into the sleeve of his tattered robe.
Then he headed down the mountain.
Halfway there, he ran into the old woodcutter returning from work.
The old man looked surprised.
"Heading down the mountain?"
"Yeah."
Caelum nodded.
"Need to buy a few things."
The old man found it amusing.
After all this ti, it was the first ti he had ever seen the young monk leave the mountain.
The two chatted casually along the way.
Eventually, a fairly large town ca into view at the foot of the mountain.
The old man pointed ahead.
"That’s our town. I’ll leave you here. Take your ti looking around."
"Thank you."
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