Dominator Emperor

The Heaven and Earth Essence Qi here was simply too abundant. In an instant, it surged through Li Qiye’s body like a raging river, rushing into his Main Palace to be absorbed by his True Destiny.

Li Qiye traveled west, cultivating as he went. Besides provoking and killing Celestial Beasts and Longevity Spirits, he also used the abundant Heaven and Earth Essence Qi here to train relentlessly, striving to advance his Dao Practice.

By now, Li Qiye’s second Life Palace was already formed. As a Secondary Palace, it was indeed a size smaller than the Main Palace. There was no True Destiny within the second Life Palace, but as his True Destiny in the Main Palace devoured the Heaven and Earth Essence Qi, the surplus was redirected here.

After a Cultivator opened a new Life Palace, it had to be nurtured with Heaven and Earth Essence Qi. Without this nourishment, it would be impossible for a spring to gush, a fire to burn, or the earth to break...

The Palace Breaking Realm had five levels, from lowest to highest: Yigong Qi, Er Yong Spring, Three-Burning Fire, Four Earth-Breaking, and Five Pillars.

Of these five levels, the first level, Yigong Qi, was to open and build a new Life Palace within the Mud Palace Acupoint. The second, Er Yong Spring, was to connect to the Spring of Life, making its waters gush. The third, Three-Burning Fire, was to ignite the Life Furnace, making the Fire of Life burn fiercely...

A newly opened Secondary Palace was different from the Main Destiny Palace. The Main Destiny Palace was naturally born with a Spring of Life, a Life Furnace, a Tree of Life, and a Pillar of Life. A Secondary Palace had none of these; it had to form a Spring of Life, ignite the Fire of Life, nurture the Tree of Life, and raise the Pillar of Life through Cultivation!

At this moment, within his second Life Palace, the Life Furnace was fiercely flaring with the Fire of Life, the Spring of Life was gushing endlessly, and the Tree of Life was flourishing...

BOOM—! At that moment, in the northern part of his second Life Palace, a great rumbling sounded as the Pillar of Life finally rose. Dao Runes flowed unceasingly around it, and the Heaven and Earth Essence Qi within the Life Palace grew even more abundant.

Without even realizing it, Li Qiye had already charged into the Five Pillars level of the Palace Breaking Realm. Once he passed this level, he would reach the Vigorous Longevity Realm!

In fact, with the miraculous power of the Moon Vortex Yang Wheel Technique, Li Qiye could have broken through this level long ago. However, his cultivation had been delayed for quite some time because he was focused on teaching his disciples.

After entering Demon’s Back Ridge, the Heaven and Earth Essence Qi was so incredibly rich that Li Qiye’s Cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds.

BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—! The heavens shook and the earth trembled. Deep within Demon’s Back Ridge, in a desolate land of towering mountains, it was as if two giants were at war. They fought until the earth cracked, rivers were trampled, and mountains were shattered.

Just then, Li Qiye was sent flying, smashing through five mountain peaks in one go. He was drenched in blood. His opponent was in no better shape. After being struck hard by Li Qiye’s Prison Suppressing Divine Body, its chest bones shattered. Its massive body stumbled back—THUD, THUD, THUD—crushing one mountain peak after another.

Li Qiye crawled out from the rubble and spat out a mouthful of blood. But his eyes still shone with a divine light. As his Prison Suppressing Divine Body activated, his bones made a series of cracking sounds, as if broken iron bones and copper sinews were being reforged and reconnected.

Li Qiye’s opponent was a giant ape, a thousand zhang tall. A Celestial Beast of this size could shatter a mountain with a single stomp and cross a river in a single stride.

It was a Heaven-Carrying Ape, a Celestial Beast nearly two hundred thousand years old. Faced with a creature of this age, even Princes would take a wide berth and not dare to provoke it. But Li Qiye had gone and deliberately antagonized this very Heaven-Carrying Ape.

At this moment, Li Qiye had truly met his match. Compared to Longevity Spirits, Li Qiye much preferred Celestial Beasts. Their brutal, straightforward charges were the perfect way to stimulate the potential of his Prison Suppressing Divine Body. In a battle for one’s life, the greatest potential of the Prison Suppressing Divine Body could be unearthed!

There were no Techniques and no Cultivation Techniques between them—only a pure contest of strength, a pure collision of flesh. The one left standing wouldn’t be determined by the depth of their Dao Practice or the refinement of their Daoist Technique, but by the sheer toughness of their physical body.

”Again!” Li Qiye roared, gathering his strength. He charged forward like a mad bull, each step shattering the earth and creating a thunderous series of booms.

To a Celestial Beast like the Heaven-Carrying Ape, Li Qiye’s posture was a blatant provocation, an insult to its dignity! As a behemoth, it had always triumphed through its immense size. A single stomp from it could crumble a mountain. If it charged, it could smash through dozens of ten-thousand-zhang-tall peaks in one go!

Yet, a human of the Human Race, no bigger than an ant, dared to compete with it in a physical clash. This was the ultimate insult! The Heaven-Carrying Ape roared in fury and charged as well. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! The cataclysmic collision made the sky fall and the earth split.

BANG! Finally, Li Qiye leaped from a mountaintop. His Prison Suppressing Divine Body, heavy as ten thousand peaks, instantly crushed the summit beneath him. He soared high into the air, pushing the weight of his Prison Suppressing Divine Body to its absolute limit.

BOOM—! The two collided. It was like two giant peaks, each ten thousand miles wide, smashing into one another. A heavyweight explosion erupted with a deafening roar, and the shockwave obliterated the surrounding mountains!

Blood sprayed through the air as both were sent flying a thousand miles. Li Qiye smashed through one mountain peak after another, while the Heaven-Carrying Ape flattened them beneath its weight.

Li Qiye was covered in blood, and cracks had appeared all over his body! The Prison Suppressing Divine Body was incomparably hard and heavy; shattering such a body should be harder than ascending to the heavens. But today, Li Qiye had truly met his match.

In this contest of physical bodies, neither could claim victory! Li Qiye’s body was about to split apart, and the Heaven-Carrying Ape was in no better shape.

”KILL—” But the battle was far from over. With a great roar, Li Qiye charged forth again like a madman, ramming forward with his impossibly heavy body once more.

The Heaven-Carrying Ape, unwilling to be sent flying by a mere ant, also howled and charged toward Li Qiye!

BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—! For a time, their collisions tore the world asunder. If anyone had been there to witness it, the scene would have been breathtakingly spectacular. A man and an ape, in this desolate mountain range, repeatedly smashing into each other without any Techniques, Cultivation Techniques, or Treasure Artifacts—only the absolute collision of their physical bodies!

Anyone who saw Li Qiye’s body—so peerless it seemed to defy the heavens, so incomparably tyrannical—would have paled in shock. He was merely at the Vigorous Longevity realm, yet he possessed a physical body capable of shaking Princes and even True Masters. It was simply a monstrous physique! A body of this level had to be at least an Emperor Body at Great Success, if not a Saint Body at Great Success!

One must understand that an Emperor Body at Great Success could absolutely crush Princes and True Masters with ease! An utterly terrifying physique!

BOOM—! The battle lasted for a full day and night. In the end, like two giants collapsing, they crushed mountains and rivers, and shattered the earth. Finally, the blood of the Heaven-Carrying Ape stained the soil red.

Li Qiye lay there, barely breathing. His body was nearly pulverized, but a brilliant smile remained on his face. In a clash of absolute physiques, he was the one left standing. The Supreme Immortal Body Technique was truly number one throughout the ages!

Of course, Li Qiye had many other methods to kill the Heaven-Carrying Ape. He could have even plotted against it. But for him, there was no joy in a challenge-free victory. Only a head-on clash like this was a true challenge!

Li Qiye lay there for a full month before his injuries were healed. During this process, his Life Wheel spun without end, his Yin Yang Blood Sea churned, and an endless torrent of Blood Qi poured down to mend his wounds.

After a full month, Li Qiye took the Heaven-Carrying Ape’s Beast Marrow and Dao Bone, then continued his journey west.

As Li Qiye embarked on his path of tempering, the excitement in Demon’s Back Ridge was just beginning.

In truth, no one had expected Demon’s Back Ridge to open early. This caused many Great Teaching Territories to arrive late, missing the initial opportunity to enter.

At first, the host, the Treasure Sacred Upper Country, began to clear out the minor sects and Loose Cultivators who had slipped in during the chaos. The sensible Cultivators obediently left Demon’s Back Ridge. As for those who didn’t know what was good for them and stubbornly insisted on staying, they could only end up as corpses under the purge led by the Treasure Sacred Upper Country’s Princes.

Of course, Demon’s Back Ridge was far too tempting for the minor sects and Loose Cultivators. Some of them, despite knowing they would be purged by the Treasure Sacred Upper Country, still hid in various corners of the ridge, clinging to the hope that they might get lucky and evade the cleanup.

Once the Treasure Sacred Upper Country restored order as the host, the various qualified Great Teaching Territories and other great figures who entered Demon’s Back Ridge all set off on the once-in-a-century treasure hunt.

Because only Cultivators below the Ancient Saint realm were allowed to enter Demon’s Back Ridge, this meant that True Master-level Cultivators were the strongest here, able to dominate a region.

However, in the face of the dangers within Demon’s Back Ridge, even Cultivators at the True Master realm were far from enough! One had to understand that upon encountering a Celestial Beast or Longevity Spirit with a Lifespan of 300,000 years, even True Masters would have to retreat, to say nothing of the million-year-old beasts and spirits that existed here. Faced with a million-year-old Celestial Beast or Longevity Spirit, forget True Masters—even an Ancient Saint in person would only end up as food!

In fact, the Tough Dao Era had only just ended, so very few True Masters had emerged. After all, the number of Cultivators who had managed to become True Masters during the Tough Dao Era was exceedingly small.

As for the True Masters who had sealed their blood and halted their lifespans thirty thousand years ago, after being sealed in dust for so long, they were even less likely to emerge casually.

Among those who entered Demon’s Back Ridge, very few True Masters came in person. Any sect that could send a True Master was an extremely powerful Great Teaching Territory or even an Emperor Immortal Gate!

For this trip to Demon’s Back Ridge, the main force consisted of Heroic Heroes and Princes. Many Ancient Sects, Holy Sects, and Great Teaching Territories had given this opportunity to their younger generation!

Because of this, the trip to Demon’s Back Ridge prompted many sects and individuals to band together. They twisted into a single rope, forming powerful alliances to jointly face the dangers of the ridge.

Of course, there were also Great Teaching Territories with sufficiently powerful teams of their own. They didn’t ally with others, relying solely on their own strength to venture into Demon’s Back Ridge. Examples included the Nantian Country, the Jiangzuo Family, the Princes of the Treasure Sacred Upper Country, and so on.

The early bird catches the worm, so good morning, everyone. Xiao Sheng is up bright and early to collect recommendation votes. Are your votes ready? ^_^