The essence of the world was too dense here. In such a short period of time, the world's energy quickly flew into Li Qiye like a river, into his Master Palace where the essence was absorbed by his True Fate.
Li Qiye kept on going west while cultivating and moving at the same time. Outside of killing Heavenly Beasts and Longevity Spirits, he also used this place's essence to increase his cultivation.
At this moment, Li Qiye finalled created his second Fate Palace. As a Vice Palace, it was even bigger than the Master Palace. The second Fate Palace does not have the True Fate, but when the True Fate was absorbing the world's essence, it could also move the world's essence into the second Fate Palace.
After opening a new Fate Palace, it would need to be supplied with the world's energy. Without energy, it wouldn't be able to have a gushing spring or an igniting fire and a breaking ground…
There were five levels in the Provisional Palace realm. From lowest to highest, they are: One Starting Palace, Two Gushing Springs, Three Igniting Fires, Four Breaking Grounds, and Five Rising Pillars.
The One Starting Palace was the formation of a new Fate Palace in the Ni Gong meridian. Two Gushing Springs was about establishing a route with the Spring of Life. Three Igniting Fires was about increasing the fire of life, allowing one's essence to be as powerful as the flames…
Another difference between the Master and Vice Palace was that the Master Palace naturally had a Spring of Life, a Cauldron of Life, a Tree of Life, and a Pillar of Life. Only after cultivation could the Vice Palaces also have these things.
At this moment, inside the Vice Palace, the fire essence was burning and the Spring of Life was filled with water, along with a brilliant Tree of Life…
“Boom–”
At this time, in the second Fate Palace, there was a loud bang. The Pillar of Life suddenly rose up and the grand dao's runes continuously floated about, filling up the palace with the world's essence.
Li Qiye had successfully broken through to the Five Rising Pillars level. After this step was the Inner Longevity Realm.
In fact, using the amazing property of the Revolving Crescent Sun Merit Law, Li Qiye could have broken through this level much earlier, but because of the sect's matters, his cultivation speed was delayed for quite some time.
After entering the Evil Infested Ridge, the world's energy here was so dense that it greatly helped Li Qiye's cultivation speed.
“Bang– Bang– Bang–”
The world was extremely bright at this moment. In the depths of the Evil Infested Ridge, in the desolate mountain ranges, there seemed to be two giants fighting. The two fought until the earth was cracked and the heaven was frozen, crushing the rivers and shattering the mountains.
Right now, Li Qiye's body was struck flying away through five mountains. His entire body was covered with blood. However, his opponent was not any better; it was damaged by Li Qiye's Hell Suppressing Godly Physique. Its entire rib cage was crushed and its gigantic body continued to retreat backwards, destroying many mountains.
Li Qiye got up from the rubble and spat out some blood. His eyes became bright, and as he channeled the Hell Suppressing Godly Physique, his bones began to shake. All of the broken bones — along with his muscles — connected together once more.
Li Qiye's opponent was a giant ape, towering at one thousand zhang high. It was big enough to destroy a mountain with one punch and traverse a river with one step.
The Sky Shouldering Ape — a Heavenly Beast at two hundred thousand years of age. Even a Royal Noble would not dare to provoke one and would have to take the long way around. However, Li Qiye just had to go and fight it.
At this moment, Li Qiye had met his match. Compared to Longevity Spirits, Li Qiye prefered Heavenly Beasts. Because they relied on direct confrontation, it would be easier to activate the hidden potential of the Hell Suppressing Godly Physique. Only in a life and death crisis would he be able to refine the maximum potential of this physique!
Both sides did not use any techniques nor merit laws, they were only confronting with the pure force of the collisions of their physical bodies. The person with the last laugh would not be the one with the higher cultivation or refined techniques, but the one with the strongest body.
“Come again!”
Li Qiye crazily screamed again. He was like a mad ox, rushing forward. Each of his steps crushed the earth, detonating the ground that became littered with debris.
To a Heavenly Beast like the Sky Shouldering Ape, Li Qiye's attitude was provocative and he was challenging its honor. It was a giant monster that used its body to destroy the enemy. With one foot, it could destroy a mountain. If it became crazy, it could destroy a mountain ten thousand zhang high with one blow.
However, a human — the size of an ant — dared to compete in physiques with it; this was so insulting! So, the Sky Shouldering Ape roared and also rushed forward, emitting loud “boom, boom”, freezing the sky and shattering the earth.
With the last “Bang”, Li Qiye jumped on top of a mountain. He used the Hell Suppressing Godly Physique to destroy this mountain and used the momentum to propel himself forward while channeling his physique to its maximum limit.
“Boom–”
The two sides collided. Like two mountains ramming into each other, they destroyed the nearby peaks!
Blood sprayed like a spring in the air. Both sides flew more than one thousand miles away. Li Qiye crashed through an entire mountain while the Sky Shouldering Ape also shattered a few peaks.
Li Qiye was covered in blood, and there were cracks all over his body! The Hell Suppressing Godly Physique was hard and heavy; to break it was more prohibitive than reaching the heavens. However, at this moment, Li Qiye really had met his match.
The physique competition between the two was still undecided! Li Qiye's body was almost cracked, but the Sky Shouldering Ape was not any better.
“Kill—”
The war was far from over. Li Qiye crazily rushed forward, again, with a loud battle cry.
As for the Sky Shouldering Ape, it was not willing to lose to an ant, so it also started its offense on Li Qiye!
“Boom– Boom– Boom””
In a short amount of time, they exchanged many blows. If spectators were to see this, their eyes would drop to the floor due to this spectacular sight. One man and one ape, fighting each other in this desolate mountain, they collided without breaks. Not using any techniques nor laws nor treasures, only body against body!
If people were to see how heaven defying Li Qiye was with his matchless body, they would quickly lose all colors. He was only at the Inner Longevity realm, yet his physique was equal to Royal Nobles, or even Enlightened Beings. This was such a terrifying physique! If it wasn't a grand completion Saint Physique, then at the very least, it would still be a grand completion King Physique!
One has to be aware that a grand completion King Physique could easily crush Royal Nobles and Enlightened Beings — an extremely frightening physique!
“Bang–”
This battle went on for a whole day. Finally, the two giants fell down to the ground, splitting the rivers and crushing the earth. The blood of the Sky Shouldering Ape painted this ground crimson.
As for Li Qiye, he was also on his deathbed. At this moment, his entire body was torn apart, but he was still brilliantly smiling. This absolute physical competition, he was the last man smiling — A supreme Immortal Physique, it was number one in this world!
Even though Li Qiye had many methods to kill the Sky Shouldering Ape — such as schemes — but that would take away the fun from the challenge. To Li Qiye, only a tough fight like this was the real challenge!
Li Qiye had to fully lay there for one whole month before he finally finished healing his injuries. Within this process, countless amounts of blood energy poured up and down, like a spring, to recover his wounds.
After one month, Li Qiye extracted the beast marrow and dao bones of the Sky Shouldering Ape and continued to head west.
When Li Qiye was honing his own cultivation, the liveliness had just begun in the Evil Infested Ridge.
The truth was that, since the Evil Infested Ridge opened early and was outside of everyone's expectations, many sects and nations missed the chance to enter this time around.
From the beginning, the Heavenly Jewel Kingdom, as the host, had already started removing the small sects and sect-less cultivators that were trying to come in during the chaos. The smart ones would leave; otherwise, they would die to the hands of the Royal Nobles from the Heavenly Jewel Kingdom, and their corpses would remain in this ridge.
Of course, to some of these people, the Evil Infested Ridge was filled with temptations. Even when they knew that they would be completely annihilated by the Heavenly Jewel Kingdom, they still hid in different places inside and hoped to be lucky that their entire force wouldn't be annihilated.
As the host, the Heavenly Jewel Kingdom maintained order. Only the grand sects, powerful nations, or extreme experts were allowed to enter the ridge. They had set out and embarked on a journey to find the treasures within.
Due to the fact that only cultivators under the Ancient Saint realm could enter the ridge, it meant that Enlightened Beings were the most powerful cultivators inside, and that they could dominate one direction.
However, against the dangers of the Evil Infested Ridge, Enlightened Beings were not enough! One had to know that, not mentioning million year Heavenly Beasts and Longevity Spirits, when meeting just three hundred thousand years old Heavenly Beasts and Longevity Spirits, even Enlightened Beings had to retreat. Against these ancient beasts, even Ancient Saints could only be eaten alive!
In fact, after the recent end of the Difficult Dao Era, not many Enlightened Beings came out because very few people broke through to the Enlightened Being level during the Difficult Dao Era.
During the last thirty thousand years, many Enlightened Beings disappeared into the earth for so long and wouldn't easily come out. [1. In this novel, if cultivators want to live for a long time, they bury themselves under the earth for long hibernations – especially at the ancestor level]
Inside the ridge, there were not that many Enlightened Beings, only the grand sects and powerful nations had some.
The main forces were made up of Named Heroes and Royal Nobles; many of the ancient sects and nations were leaving this great opportunity to their younger generation!
This was why many sects formed powerful alliances, it was in order to face the dangers inside the Evil Infested Ridge.
Of course, there were some powerful existences that had capable units and didn't form alliances with others. They only used their own strength to enter the ridge — such as the Heavenly Southern Kingdom, the Jiang Zuo Clan, the Heavenly Jewel Kingdom…