Chapter 1 A Remote Island

Deep into the瀚海 (Hanhai Sea), after flying for about ten thousand miles, Ye Chuxiao finally found a remote island to settle down on. He looked around at the environment and nodded in satisfaction.

"The spiritual energy is dissipating, the vegetation is simple, there is no spiritual spring inside, and no gentle beach outside. Such a poor place, even some cultivators in the outer sea, probably won't visit it. It's just right for me to cultivate in seclusion." Ye Chuxiao reached into his storage bracelet, wanting to set up a formation immediately, but embarrassedly found that the materials that could be used to set up the formation had already been used up in the last wave.

He had no choice but to use local materials, casually using the abundant water vapor to set up a cloud and mist formation, which was considered a perfunctory solution... It's better than nothing!

At the foot of the lonely mountain on the deserted island, he dug through a cave and carved a stone bed in it.

Ye Chuxiao planned to live here for a long time.

Lin Lan's last strike did injure Ye Chuxiao quite badly. Although the异种 (different kind) true energy had been forced out through self-destruction, the aftereffects of overusing the Nine Deaths Demonic Art still caused Ye Chuxiao's realm to fluctuate, requiring time to stabilize it.

It wasn't just about spending time healing.

Tan Gongjia and Lin Lan, who were imprisoned and sealed in the ice lotus, also needed to be monitored at all times.

They were not like those people who had been imprisoned and bound by Ye Chuxiao before.

These two were at a higher realm than Ye Chuxiao. Their imprisonment was only because they had limited each other, and Ye Chuxiao could only play a catalytic role.

This meant that Ye Chuxiao had to constantly control their changes. Once they showed a real trend of getting better, he had to use some means to make their injuries worse again.

At the same time, he had to fight wits with them to ensure that the Tower Ascending Secret Art was their only hope of escaping their predicament.

All of this required Ye Chuxiao's high concentration.

Any distraction or absent-mindedness would create danger.

Because of all these reasons, Ye Chuxiao chose to find such a deserted island to hide.

It was only a matter of three months!

Just endure it, and it will pass!

However, things were not as simple as Ye Chuxiao thought.

Swallowing an elephant with a snake, even if it is swallowed into the stomach, it is definitely not easy to digest.

The tide by the sea rose and fell, fell and rose again.

Time flowed quietly between Ye Chuxiao, Lin Lan, and Tan Gongjia, in a game of wits and minds without verbal communication.

The closer he got to the 'three-month' limit that Ye Chuxiao had set for himself, the more entangled and struggling he became.

After nearly three months of game playing, although there was no verbal communication, Tan Gongjia and Lin Lan had vaguely guessed Ye Chuxiao's purpose.

They didn't know Ye Chuxiao's reliance, but they couldn't possibly not sense the obvious traces.

Even more than them, none of the others who had been imprisoned by Ye Chuxiao before had figured out Ye Chuxiao's plan.

It's just that, as far as these people were concerned, they no longer had a choice.

And Ye Chuxiao didn't care whether they knew the truth or not.

Tan Gongjia and Lin Lan were different. After they figured it out, they both practiced the Tower Ascending Secret Art very 'earnestly'.

So earnestly that Ye Chuxiao was even very reluctant to 'kill the chicken to get the eggs'.

Ye Chuxiao consumed nearly thirty people to push the Tower Ascending Secret Art to the thirtieth level, while Lin Lan and Tan Gongjia, in just three months, respectively pushed the Tower Ascending Secret Art to the forty-fifth and forty-seventh levels, and the momentum was unabated, with signs of rapid improvement.

Such speed inevitably aroused Ye Chuxiao's greed.

Similarly, Ye Chuxiao was walking on a tightrope again.

Because even if he repeatedly created troubles for Tan Gongjia and Lin Lan and strengthened the blockade, causing their injuries to continue, some of the repair and recovery effects inherent in the Tower Ascending Secret Art itself, as well as their essential powerful vitality as Intent Realm cultivators, were gradually improving the state of these two.

Ye Chuxiao didn't dare to guarantee that after they broke through a certain level of the Tower Ascending Secret Art, they would break a certain critical point, and then break free from the shackles and kill their way out of the ice lotus.

This contradictory and entangled feeling made Ye Chuxiao struggle.

Sitting cross-legged on a huge rock by the sea, Ye Chuxiao listened to the sound of the sea hitting the reef, and the entanglement in his heart was difficult to calm down.

At this time, Ye Chuxiao could no longer see his high-spirited posture.

His beard was scruffy, his hair was dry and dry, and his complexion was extremely ugly. Obviously, these three months had been extremely difficult for him.

His spirit had already been damaged, and he had to monitor every change in Tan Gongjia and Lin Lan day and night, calculating their current state. This was by no means an easy task.

The key was that he also needed to constantly fight against his own greed.

In addition to Ye Chuxiao's own greed, the interference of the Heart Pill could not be ignored.

These extra desires, superimposed on Ye Chuxiao's own desires, were definitely not as simple as one plus one.

"Kill!"

"Keep!" Ye Chuxiao once again tossed two pebbles to draw lots.

But when the pebbles symbolizing the two choices fell, Ye Chuxiao still instinctively grabbed 'keep'.

After all, it was too tempting to have two Intent Realm cultivators helping to practice.

In three months, they could both push the Tower to above the forty-fifth level.

If Ye Chuxiao absorbed and digested them, he could push his own level to at least one hundred levels or more.

One hundred levels of Tower Ascending!

According to the ratio, it was at least a comprehensive increase of one time.

It might even be far more than that.

After all, the higher you climb the Tower Ascending Secret Art, the farther you can see.

In three months, there was such a harvest, so what about a year?

What about two years?

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became.

The more difficult it was to control himself.

If he could have a few hundred levels of Tower Ascending before returning to Daheng, then what would Intent Realm cultivators be?

No matter how strong the Intent Realm domain was, he could directly bulldoze through it.

Even if he only had Hui Realm cultivation, Ye Chuxiao dared to fear no Intent Realm.

"No! I can't think like this!"

"What you get is real, what you can't get is fake." Ye Chuxiao's rationality began to constantly oppress him, urging him to make the right decision.

Tan Gongjia and Lin Lan were too dangerous and could not be kept.

He must kill them as soon as possible before he still had the ability to solve them.

Ye Chuxiao fell into contradiction again.

"No, if I continue to be so entangled, I will fall into endless internal friction and eventually miss the opportunity."

"The influence of the Heart Pill is stronger than I imagined."

"Without Ying Shu helping to control it from a distance, I can't withstand this 30% power."

"I have to make a turn." Thinking of this, Ye Chuxiao returned to the Ark of Fortune without hesitation.

Since sitting in seclusion couldn't solve the problem, he would change his thinking, change his direction, or even change the world.

Before, he only traveled through one world at a time because his economic conditions were limited and there were time constraints.

Now it was different, he had enough capital and time to consume.

Even if the Desolate Battle Realm was temporarily used as the main developing world, it did not mean that Ye Chuxiao had to stay in the Desolate Battle Realm all the time.

He could leave.

Returning to the Ark of Fortune, Ye Chuxiao chose the orientation of the Academy World to descend again.

Re-consuming Dao runes and re-selecting his identity, Ye Chuxiao appeared in the Academy World with a new face.

Returning to the Academy World, Ye Chuxiao's 'hobbies' also began to become active.

The fictitious Clown and Xiong Maomao reappeared vividly by Ye Chuxiao's side, talking to him.

Although it hadn't been long since he last left, Ye Chuxiao felt like a long time had passed.

Xiong Maomao pulled Ye Chuxiao, chattering non-stop.

The Clown, however, just sat on a chair aside, smoking a cigarette, staring out the window in a daze.

"Dongjun! What are you thinking about?"

"Are you thinking about Amu?"

"Amu is so true, leaving without saying a word. We have been looking for him for so long, and he doesn't come to see us." Xiong Maomao said to Ye Chuxiao.

Seemingly because of the change in Ye Chuxiao's identity in the Academy World, some things seemed to have been set up twice in Xiong Maomao's mind.

Ye Chuxiao's previous identity had become their mutual missing 'best friend'.

And now, in the Academy World, Ye Chuxiao's identity was still a student of Canaan Academy... Chu Dongjun.

Ye Chuxiao, however, looked in the direction of the Clown.

Returning to the Academy World, the Clown could continue to absorb the 'faith' about him that was wandering in this world.

Although the various academies had been eliminating the influence of the Clown as a 'promotion ambassador', the aftermath still existed.

And even if it was just these aftermaths.

It had already made the Clown's 'essence', that layer of mental armor, become more transparent and solid.

He didn't know if it was an illusion, but for a moment, Ye Chuxiao even felt that the Clown was about to truly manifest in this world.

And not just as his fictitious friend, who could only appear in a special environment through a deep-diving device.

The rapid improvement of the mental armor provided a huge help for Ye Chuxiao to resist the Heart Pill.

Those extra greed began to be drawn from Ye Chuxiao's mind.

The mind that had been blinded also began to take the upper hand in the field of thinking.

"Kill! Not a moment can be kept!" Ye Chuxiao did not hesitate.

He directly used the ice lotus to completely detonate the old injuries in Tan Gongjia's body.

Tan Gongjia's will, in the end, released an angry and unwilling will in the ice lotus, and then could only dissipate.

His soul was locked by the aurora in the ice lotus and sealed into another space.

After killing Tan Gongjia, Ye Chuxiao recovered the Dao rune that he already had, and then attacked Lin Lan.

It was just that Lin Lan obviously had more accumulated power than Tan Gongjia.

Even if Ye Chuxiao had already caused a full-scale outbreak of the injuries in his body, he still broke free from most of the shackles and delivered half a fist out of the ice lotus.

The powerful willpower, through that punch, shook towards Ye Chuxiao, trying to make Ye Chuxiao lose his mind.

Once Ye Chuxiao fell into stiffness, Lin Lan would desperately break out of the ice lotus and escape Ye Chuxiao's control.

At this time, Xiong Maomao moved first.

"You are not allowed to hurt Dongjun!" Xiong Maomao stood in front of Ye Chuxiao.

Bearing the will of that punch for him.

In just an instant, Xiong Maomao's figure faded for the most part.

At this time, the Clown came over.

He did not act as a shield for Ye Chuxiao, but just made a harsh laugh at the fist.

In the laughter, it was the fist that became 'weak'.

The powerful fist intent that originally filled it also disintegrated in the laughter.

Ye Chuxiao recovered, and a cold sweat of fear poured out from his back.

Then, without any further hesitation, the ice lotus turned, and all the attacks were given to Lin Lan, and he was fully interfered with and strangled.

Relying on a large number of advance arrangements and home field advantages.

Lin Lan was finally killed by Ye Chuxiao in unwillingness.

Dao rune flew out and fell into the golden clock.

Ye Chuxiao opened the apartment's small soundproof and defense formation and began to digest and absorb Tan Gongjia's Dao rune.

During the absorption, Ye Chuxiao not only obtained all of Tan Gongjia's Tower Ascending cultivation experience, pushing his own Tower Ascending realm to the sixty-ninth level, but also, with Tan Gongjia's 'eyes', jumped out of the water and saw the mysteries of the Intent Realm cultivator.

"So, what Mr. Nanshan explained, is this what it means."

"When young, one's spirit is heavy, sweeping away the Five Mountains. When grown, one's spirit is deep, the Nine Abyss may be difficult to find. When old, one's spirit is thick, the autumn wind withers the blue tree. This sentence seems to be referring to the mentality of different stages of life, but it is actually implying that at different ages, moods, and identities, one should do things that fit that age, identity, and mood. In short, do not go against your heart." Ye Chuxiao now understood the true meaning, and it could be regarded as entering the Knowledge Barrier.

However, this obstacle did not exist for Ye Chuxiao.

Because he not only knew it, but could also repeatedly observe, watch, and even immerse himself in experiencing it.

This was equivalent to having two Intent Realm cultivators completely opening their minds and letting him experience it arbitrarily.

With such convenience, Ye Chuxiao would be embarrassed if he didn't enter the Intent Realm in the future.

Of course, the four words 'do not go against your heart' were simple to say, but difficult to do.

In one's life, there would be countless times when one would violate their own current and present wishes and do things that were contrary to their wishes.

Unwilling to do the work, in order to get a few taels of silver, one must grit their teeth and do it. Unwilling to ask for favors, in order to overcome difficulties, one must lower their head to ask. For the sake of personal relationships, even people they obviously can't stand, they must say some polite words and even pay benefits to maintain the relationship.

All of these were 'going against one's heart'.

These shackles existed in social rules and even the rules of the operation of the world.

For example, I now want to wear slippers, but it is minus twenty degrees outside, and wearing slippers is just asking for death, so I still have to wear boots.

This was the law of the world, restricting personal thoughts.

And the price of violating it was very tragic.

So, it could also be said that the basis for not going against one's heart and being free was to overturn the rules.

If one could not overturn them, then they would become a self-contained entity, a self-contained domain, and dominate and do whatever they wanted in their own domain.

Chewing through Tan Gongjia's memories and experiences.

Ye Chuxiao followed suit and absorbed Lin Lan's Dao rune.

At this point, the Tower Ascending Secret Art directly reached one hundred and eight levels.

Ye Chuxiao's foundation was not only solid to an unimaginable extent, but also his strength in the regular state was fully increased by two to three times.

Instead of the one-fold that Ye Chuxiao had originally thought.

The extreme burst could even exceed three times.

For now, with Tan Gongjia and Lin Lan as comparisons, even if Ye Chuxiao's frontal strength was not enough to fully compare with Intent Realm cultivators, he could still hold his own when facing Intent Realm cultivators.

At least, once Ye Chuxiao fully erupted, he could tear through the domain of the Intent Realm cultivator and hit their true body with brute force.

This was equivalent to pulling the Intent Realm cultivator back to the same level.

As expected, the more one cultivated the Tower Ascending Secret Art, the more mysterious and extraordinary it became.

Below one hundred levels, it tended to lay the foundation.

Above one hundred levels, the foundation could no longer be piled up, so it turned into a fierce increase in combat power and explosive force.