Chapter 394 - 392: Ancient Saint

In truth, forging the Nine Stars in this realm was simply a matter of course for Li Qiye. His Dao Foundation was exceptionally solid, and having been refined by Heaven and Earth Essence, it was now impeccable. Most importantly, he had already opened his sixth Life Palace back in the King and Marquis Realm.

For a Prince, possessing six Life Palaces was incredibly significant; it practically paved the way for their future Great Dao.

With six Life Palaces established before even ascending to the True Master Realm, Li Qiye had laid an incomparably solid foundation for challenging his limits and reaching the peak. Furthermore, during the battle at the Tiger Roar Sect, he had personally devoured all the Heaven and Earth Essence Qi from the White Tiger Major Vein. This allowed him to accumulate a vast amount of Essence Qi for forging his Nine Stars, granting him even more favorable conditions.

Therefore, once he reached the True Master Realm, forging the Nine Stars was merely a matter of time and determination for Li Qiye. His Dao Heart was as firm as a boulder. No matter how arduous the Great Dao, he advanced with pride. Even though others considered forging Nine Stars an impossibility, he challenged this limit with the utmost composure.

Thus, in the end, forging the Nine Stars was an inevitable outcome.

Forging the Nine Stars in this particular realm also held great significance for Li Qiye. For a Cultivator, one only had a single chance to "pluck the stars" in their lifetime. In contrast, there were three opportunities to open new Life Palaces, making the star-forging process all the more precious.

In fact, for millions of years, the challenge for a Cultivator to forge an eighth star had been considered even more difficult than opening a sixth Life Palace.

Nine Stars Eternal Seal—this was no empty phrase. Throughout the eons, exceedingly few had ever achieved it. Accomplishing the Nine Stars Eternal Seal meant more than just obtaining the key to the Great World Dao and the Azure Heaven Dao; it meant possessing a starry sky of one’s own!

To possess one’s own starry sky in the future was an earth-shattering, incredible affair, because the Ancient Saint Realm offered a Cultivator the last opportunities in their life to open Life Palaces.

For example, if one stopped at the third Life Palace as a Prince, they would have the chance to open their fourth, fifth, and subsequent palaces in the Ancient Saint Realm...

Four palaces form a territory, eight palaces form a nation, and twelve palaces form a heaven. Throughout the eons, all Cultivators have believed that twelve Life Palaces are the absolute limit one can achieve in a lifetime.

In truth, this belief was not far-fetched. Throughout the eons, those who achieved twelve Life Palaces were few and far between. Even among those who later became Immortal Emperors, many had failed to open all twelve.

In fact, for a Cultivator, achieving eight Life Palaces was already an incredible feat. Four palaces form a territory, and eight palaces form a nation. Once one possessed eight palaces, they wielded the power of a nation and had a great chance of founding a kingdom and achieving Divine Enthronement in the future!

As for nine Life Palaces, that was a hard limit for countless Cultivators. For millions of years, untold numbers of geniuses had been stopped at eight palaces, unable to open the ninth.

It was precisely because of this that a saying was passed down through the ages: "Nine Extremes are venerable, Ten Circles are flawless, eleven is a miracle for all time, and twelve secures the Immortal Emperor’s throne!"

For any Cultivator, achieving twelve Life Palaces was fundamentally impossible. Any genius could give up all hope for twelve palaces. Perhaps there was a sliver of hope for eleven—at least, for those monstrous, once-in-an-eon geniuses.

However, if one could forge the ninth star in the True Master Realm, then in the Ancient Saint Realm—provided the Cultivator was one of those monstrous, once-in-an-eon types—it granted them a sliver of hope for achieving the Twelve Palaces.

The Nine Stars Eternal Seal signified possessing one’s own starry sky, while the Twelve Palaces form a heaven. This meant that the Nine Stars provided the stellar foundation necessary for achieving the Twelve Palaces in the future!

Without a doubt, Li Qiye harbored the ambition to vie for the Twelve Life Palaces. Thus, after forging the Nine Stars, he entered the Ancient Saint Realm and proceeded to solidify his foundation, one step at a time.

With Li Qiye’s qualifications as a Six Palace Prince and a Nine-Star True Master, he had the perfect conditions to advance his Cultivation by leaps and bounds. He could have created a miracle, broken through the Ancient Saint Realm in a short time, and stepped into the Saint Venerable Realm to become a true powerhouse.

However, after entering the Ancient Saint Realm, Li Qiye continued to advance step by step, endlessly reinforcing his incredibly solid foundation. His ambition was not merely to break through the Ancient Saint Realm, become a Saint Venerable, and join the ranks of the truly powerful.

Li Qiye’s ambition lay with the Twelve Palaces—or even the legendary thirteenth palace! If he could realize this ambition, his chances of climbing to the true peak of the Great Dao in the future would be that much greater.

Li Qiye sat cross-legged in his room. His Blood Qi circulated as his Life Wheel refined the surging torrent. The resulting Longevity Blood flowed back into the Life Wheel, causing it to emit a brilliant, treasured glow.

At this moment, six Life Palaces floated above Li Qiye’s head, forming a territory that devoured and expelled Heaven and Earth Essence Qi. This territory was wreathed in primordial chaos and brimmed with life, as if it were already nurturing millions of living beings!

Meanwhile, the Nine Stars unfurled a personal cosmos around him. As Li Qiye sat cross-legged beneath this starry expanse, it was as if he had departed from this world, existing alone in another.

A pillar of celestial light soared into the sky, seemingly connecting heaven and earth, striking at the Heaven and Earth Dao, and communicating with all the gods. This celestial light made Li Qiye appear sacred, like a favored child of the heavens, a son of the earth.

This pillar of celestial light was a product of the Day Heaven Immortal Secret, the Heavenly Destiny Secret Skill Li Qiye cultivated. As it connected heaven and earth, the Great Dao resonated with him, and his entire being seemed to merge into it.

Heavenly Destiny Secret Skills were powerful and mysterious, and their strength was not limited to the battlefield. Compared to other powerful and ancient Secret Techniques, a Heavenly Destiny Secret Skill might not seem to live up to its reputation in the early stages.

However, once the Celestial Mandate of an era began to take shape and eventually reached Great Success, the advantages of its corresponding Heavenly Destiny Secret Skill would become strikingly apparent.

At this moment, a ceaseless rumbling echoed from Li Qiye’s Mud Palace Acupoint, like a great earthquake, as if something was about to burst forth from the earth.

This was Li Qiye, opening his seventh Life Palace. Of course, opening a Life Palace was a long and arduous process, by no means an easy task.

The Ancient Saint Realm had three levels, which, from lowest to highest, were: Palace Opening, Territory Transformation, and City Formation!

For an ordinary Cultivator who had only managed to form three Life Palaces in the King and Marquis Realm, they would need to open their fourth in the Ancient Saint Realm.

"Four palaces form a territory." Thus, after opening the fourth Life Palace in the Ancient Saint Realm, one would transform the four palaces into a territory, and then develop that territory into a domain-city!

As for Li Qiye, however, he already possessed six Life Palaces, and the territory they formed had already become a city nurturing living beings! It had transformed into a domain-city!

It could be said that, having reached this stage, Li Qiye could have directly rushed to the Great Perfection level of the Ancient Saint Realm and leaped straight into the Saint Venerable Realm.

But Li Qiye did not. He remained in the Ancient Saint Realm, reinforcing his Dao Foundation time and time again, devouring Heaven and Earth Essence Qi, continuously strengthening his True Destiny, and opening his seventh Life Palace...

The Ancient Saint Realm has three levels, and Cultivators who reach them are known respectively as: Little Saint, Young Saint, and Great Saint.

Yet Li Qiye did not fall under any of these three titles. In the Ancient Saint Realm, opening one’s fourth Life Palace was merely the starting point.

Opening a fifth Life Palace earned the title Heaven Repairing Saint. This is because having four Life Palaces in the King and Marquis Realm made one a Celestial Marquis, so the fifth palace as an Ancient Saint was simply making up for a deficit from the previous realm.

Those who opened a sixth Life Palace were called Dao Supplement Saints, which carried the same meaning of compensating for a deficit from the King and Marquis Realm.

Upon opening the seventh Life Palace, one was called a Celestial Saint. This meant that the significance of opening the seventh palace as an Ancient Saint was equivalent to opening the fourth palace as a Prince.

Opening the eighth Life Palace earned the title Daoist Saint, and when a Cultivator opened the ninth, they were called a Supreme Saint!

Possessing nine Life Palaces signified reaching the limit of the Ancient Saint Realm, just as six Life Palaces was the limit for the King and Marquis Realm. Therefore, within the Ancient Saint Realm, those with nine Life Palaces were supreme.

In this realm, once you possessed nine Life Palaces, you could directly suppress anyone else at the same level. No matter how profound their Dao Practice, they would be utterly crushed as long as they lacked nine palaces.

This was why Bing Yuxia, with her nine Life Palaces, could afford to be so arrogant. Even figures like Divine Being Ji Kong Wudi and Fairy Mei Suyao were wary of her.

Back then, Bing Yuxia, with her nine Life Palaces, truly had the right to be arrogant. As a Supreme Saint, she was an Ancient Saint Venerable, capable of suppressing all other Ancient Saints. At this level, it didn’t matter what Cultivation Technique one practiced; it was irrelevant before a Supreme Saint. One would be utterly crushed!

Right now, Li Qiye’s Blood Qi flared like a rainbow, and his Mud Palace Acupoint thundered as he opened his seventh Life Palace. Li Qiye was absolutely confident. The Nine Palaces were no challenge for him; even the Twelve Palaces were not his true test. His real challenge was the legendary thirteenth palace!

As Li Qiye’s Mud Palace Acupoint thundered, the physique of the Prison Suppressing Divine Body within his chest faded into the background, and a second physique began to tremble.

As the second physique trembled, it felt as if an immortal being was gently flapping its wings. Spacetime itself seemed to slow by a beat, making Li Qiye feel as if he had leaped beyond the flow of time for that single instant!

The Flying Immortal Body, one of the Twelve Immortal Bodies. This was the physique Li Qiye intended to cultivate for his second Immortal Body.

For anyone else, cultivating a Dual Immortal Body was impossible, but Li Qiye could achieve it. His Prison Suppressing Divine Body had already reached the Minor Achievement stage. To reach Immortal Body Great Success, he still had a long road ahead of him.

Therefore, Li Qiye was now slowing the Cultivation of his Prison Suppressing Divine Body to focus more of his time and energy on cultivating his second Immortal Body.

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