The white-robed Dongbo Xueying listened to his wife’s account in stunned silence.
Jing Qiu, merely a Four Heavens Realm God due to her unique status, had only managed to glean fragments of information about the war. She knew that the conflict had erupted during his slumber of eighty-two thousand years and had now raged for a full hundred thousand years. A hundred millennia of war, still ongoing… The ‘Bloody Master’ Niro had been exposed and slain, and while the cultivators’ universe currently held a significant advantage, they had yet to completely eradicate the Mother Ancestor Cult.
“To wake and find the war has already lasted a hundred thousand years…” Dongbo Xueying briefly extended his senses. “Indeed, the Bloody Master Niro’s true form and avatars have been annihilated. Fortunately, the other Masters still live.”
“Master.”
Dongbo Xueying sent a karmic transmission.
“Xueying?” Bloodblade Divine Emperor, upon receiving the message, was both shocked and overjoyed. Before the war, he had visited his disciple multiple times, but once the conflict began, though he remained concerned, his focus had shifted entirely to countering the Mother Ancestor Cult.
“You’re unharmed?” Bloodblade Divine Emperor asked.
“Unharmed. The slumber did not harm me—in fact, it proved greatly beneficial,” Dongbo Xueying replied. “What is the current state of the war? I may need a day or two before joining the battle.”
“There are complications, but we hold absolute dominance! Eradicating them entirely is no simple task—the Mother Ancestor Cult’s foundations run deeper than ours. Your participation would naturally be a boon, but after a hundred thousand years, a day or two matters little. Settle your affairs first,” Bloodblade Divine Emperor advised.
“Understood.” Dongbo Xueying felt a weight lift from his heart.
He truly needed time to prepare.
—
**Within the Inner Layer of Ancestral Devil Mountain**
The gates of the floating abode swung open as the black-robed Dongbo Xueying emerged, followed by the puppet woman.
“A dream spanning six hundred and fifty million years,” Dongbo Xueying murmured softly, descending onto the mountain path.
“Dream cultivation? It was immensely helpful, yet for me, it was far too long. How much time have I truly spent cultivating from birth till now?” He sighed, reflecting on the terror of those dream-forged years.
Alone on a floating landmass in the void, he had forgotten his identity, his memories entirely obscured.
That desolate expanse held only him—his dwelling, a library filled with every tome he had ever read. Techniques of the Rule-Oriented Mysteries system, supreme arts like *Taihao* and *Annihilation Profound Body*, even the *Walker’s Secret Treasury*—all recorded there, alongside every volume he had perused in Ancestral Devil Mountain.
Everything he had ever committed to memory manifested in that void.
Stripped of recollection, he faced adversaries descending upon his solitary realm, forced to cultivate and fight for survival.
Cultivate. Fight. Cultivate. Fight. An endless cycle.
Without memory, he was a blank slate, unburdened by past influences. Death loomed, driving him to refine his skills relentlessly. Though bereft of identity, he instinctively gravitated toward the Rule-Oriented Mysteries system, mastering the Paths of the Void, Slaughter, and Ripples—paths that came most naturally to him, while others proved arduous.
He even dabbled in the *Walker’s Secret Treasury*.
Through this journey, though the dream mirrored reality, his insights and combat techniques diverged.
“Six hundred and fifty million years of dream cultivation, and I’ve reached the eleventh layer of the *Walker’s Secret Treasury*, attaining the rank of Master,” Dongbo Xueying marveled.
The *Walker’s Secret Treasury* comprised sixty layers, with every ten marking a grand boundary.
Progressing from the first to the tenth layer was challenging but achievable through gradual accumulation. However, breaking through the bottleneck from the tenth to the eleventh was a monumental leap—akin to ascending from the peak of a Realm God to the Master realm. A single step, yet an insurmountable chasm.
In truth, the difficulty of this breakthrough surpassed that of mastering the first ten layers combined. The latter was mere deepening within a realm; the former, a transcendence.
“A Master. And a Voidwalker Master at that.” Dongbo Xueying exhaled deeply. Though the dream had elevated him, his true body and soul remained unchanged—still as they were before slumber.
“My Rule-Oriented Mysteries system has also advanced. I’ve even completed the third chapter of *Storm of the Dao*.”
“Yet…”
“The Paths of Void, Slaughter, and Ripples differ slightly from my real-world comprehension.” His thoughts stirred, triggering a collision of profound insights. He paled and forcibly halted his contemplation.
In the dream, though these paths had reached their limits, he had glimpsed the threshold of Eternal Perfection.
Now, merging these dream-forged insights with his real-world understanding risked immediate ascension to the Master realm.
“No rush. Home first,” he resolved.
“Ancestral Devil Mountain’s inner layer…” Dongbo Xueying gazed at the distant floating abodes. “I’ve only just arrived, yet I must depart.”
He could not stay.
The moment he cultivated further, the mountain would sense his Master-level strength and expel him. No longer a Realm God, he was ineligible to retain this abode.
To return, he would need to rank among the top thirty-nine Masters to enter the outer layer, the top nine for the inner layer, and claim the title of First Master for the core.
Dongbo Xueying was pragmatic. Advancing the *Walker’s Secret Treasury* to the nineteenth or twentieth layer and perfecting his Rule-Oriented Mysteries system might propel him to the pinnacle. For now, merely qualifying for the outer layer would be fortunate.
Across the Devil Mountain Universe and its conquered realms, over three hundred Masters existed. Ranking within the top thirty-nine—a mere tenth—meant even the weakest among them stood as supreme.
“I’ve achieved my breakthrough,” Dongbo Xueying turned to the puppet woman. “I’ll soon ascend to Masterhood and can no longer remain.”
The puppet woman froze.
Masterhood?
Huntbane Realm God had cultivated here for eons without success. This new master had broken through in his first dream?
“Let another Realm God inherit this abode.” With a faint smile, Dongbo Xueying turned and left.
By day’s end, news spread throughout Ancestral Devil Mountain, soon reaching the highest echelons of the Devil Mountain Universe and neighboring realms.
The legendary ‘Dongbo Xueying’—the strongest Realm God to abruptly rise and enter the inner layer—had, after six hundred million years of cultivation, broken through to Masterhood and departed.
—
**Amidst the Stars**
Dongbo Xueying met with Third Prince Jiao Yunliu.
“I haven’t even entered Ancestral Devil Mountain, and you’re already leaving?” the prince remarked.
“Masterhood beckons,” Dongbo Xueying smiled. “My homeland is at war. I must return. Before I go, I have a request.”
“Speak freely. Between us, no formality is needed,” Jiao Yunliu said.
“Once I ascend, I can no longer traverse the cosmic passage,” Dongbo Xueying explained. “My kin and disciples may come here to cultivate. They’ll be mere Realm Gods—far too weak. Without aid, they’d face countless perils in the Devil Mountain Universe.”
“Worry not. A trivial matter. Have them contact me upon arrival, and I’ll ensure their safety,” Prince Jiao Yunliu assured. As a Master and the scion of a Void God, such arrangements were effortless.
“Will you not return?” the prince asked.
Dongbo Xueying smiled. “We’ll meet again in the Sevenstar Sea Sacred Realm.”
“Then, until the Sacred Realm,” Prince Jiao Yunliu nodded.
—
After bidding farewell, Dongbo Xueying embarked on his return journey. At the cosmic passage’s exit within the Devil Mountain Universe, he concealed the gateway with a Void Illusion Array.
“Let’s go.”
The black-robed and red-robed Dongbo Xueying cast one final glance at the Devil Mountain Universe.
Its aid to him had reached its limit. The allure of Ancestral Devil Mountain’s inner layer waned after the first dream. As for the core layer—reserved for the First Master—it lay beyond his current reach. A day or two of consolidation would suffice to place him among the foremost Masters of his homeland. As a Voidwalker Master, he would far surpass ordinary Masters.
“Before breaking through, I must visit the Primordial Land,” he mused.
With that, the two figures—one clad in black, the other in red—soared side by side into the cosmic passage, returning to the cultivators’ universe.
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