Two days later, Zhou Hong returned to Taigu Academy.
Eight years had passed since he last left Taigu Academy and returned now. However, Zhou Hong didn't know what to do upon his return. If he were to travel to the Deep Sky Continent, the people from there would take at least another decade to come down and pick him up. This meant Zhou Hong would have to wait for several more years after returning to Taigu Academy.
"I wonder if I can go up there myself," Zhou Hong thought to himself. If he could find a way up on his own, he wouldn't need to wait for the seniors from above to pick him up.
"Grandpa, are you there?" Zhou Hong shouted in his sub-world.
"I'm here."
"Above our continent, there's a continent floating in the nine heavens called the Deep Sky Continent. I heard that one must have special escorts from the seniors above to get there each time. I want to ask you, if there's no escort, do you have a way for me to go up directly?"
"Deep Sky Continent?"
"Yes."
"Let's try. That Deep Sky Continent overhead is probably at a very, very high altitude, which is why it requires escorts."
"That's likely the case."
"Then let's give it a try. You just keep flying upwards. You have your sub-world as support; when you get tired, you can stop and rest in your sub-world. If it were anyone else without a sub-world as a transit platform, they would fall."
"Understood." Zhou Hong chuckled. If he had known this earlier, he wouldn't have wasted these eight years. He could have gone up directly eight years ago.
Thus, Zhou Hong swiftly flew towards the sky, his body like a launched rocket.
He flew for an unknown duration, perhaps a day, perhaps two, but it was a very, very long time. Zhou Hong looked down at the ground; Tianyang Continent was just a tiny speck.
Without the sub-world as a transit platform, Zhou Hong would surely be afraid. Once he ran out of energy, he would fall directly.
Soon, Zhou Hong ran out of energy, so he quickly entered his sub-world. His sub-world was fixed at the spot where he disappeared, requiring no support.
A day later, after eating and drinking his fill, Zhou Hong emerged from his sub-world, returned to yesterday's altitude, and continued upwards.
In this manner, he repeated the cycle three times. Finally, Zhou Hong saw a colossal continent floating directly above him. This continent seemed to block Zhou Hong's path, and he wanted to go up but didn't know how.
Just then, Zhou Hong discovered a passage. Following the passage, he finally reached the ground of this continent.
"Hoo!" Zhou Hong stood on the Deep Sky Continent and took a deep breath. The spiritual energy here was indeed incomparable to below, and the air even contained some components different from spiritual energy.
"Zhou Hong, this is the Deep Sky Continent. The air even has a hint of immortal energy," Zhou Hong's grandfather couldn't help but exclaim.
"Yes, that's why the humans here are tall and strong. Their height is 100 times mine."
"Zhou Hong, don't absorb the immortal energy here for now," Zhou Hong's grandfather suddenly said.
"Why?" Zhou Hong was about to find a place to cultivate properly.
"The immortal energy here is full of impurities. Although you can cultivate with it, there will be adverse consequences. True immortal energy is without any impurities. The humans on this Deep Sky Continent, whose height is 100 times yours, must have absorbed the impure immortal energy here in their ancestors, which caused their bodies to mutate. Normal immortal energy would not cause mutations."
"Mutate? Hehe, but their height has increased by 100 times, and their strength has also increased by 100 times. Other aspects don't seem to be different?"
"Mutated to this extent, they no longer belong to the human category. If they were to ascend to the immortal realm in the future, normal immortals in the immortal realm wouldn't be this tall. These giants would become anomalies and be treated as demons."
Zhou Hong thought that made sense.
"Then I can't cultivate even if I come up here?"
"Not necessarily. I'll help you remove the impurities from the immortal energy and absorb only the pure immortal energy. Then, your cultivation will advance by leaps and bounds."
"Thank you, Grandpa." Zhou Hong was overjoyed.
"Quickly find a mountain peak. I'll help you set up a grand formation to draw in all the immortal energy within tens of thousands of kilometers."
"Okay."
Zhou Hong immediately found a mountain peak, and then his grandfather helped him establish a grand cultivation formation. Immortal energy from tens of thousands of kilometers around continuously surged towards Zhou Hong's mountain. Of course, this immortal energy was still impure and hadn't been filtered into pure immortal energy yet.
Once Zhou Hong absorbed the pure immortal energy, his cultivation would skyrocket. After all, being able to absorb pure immortal energy in the cultivation world was not something an ordinary person could possess. Even in the immortal realm, only disciples of prominent immortal cultivation families had such opportunities. Su Dan Novel Network.
Time passed slowly. In the blink of an eye, half a year went by.
Zhou Hong's realm, from the early stage of Nascent Soul, directly surged to the early stage of Integration. A full major realm, three stages, all broken through in just half a year.
"Grandpa, should I continue? I've already broken through three realms consecutively," Zhou Hong said excitedly.
"Of course, we must continue. There's still so much immortal energy on this Deep Sky Continent. However, let's change locations and go to another mountain peak tens of thousands of miles away."
"Okay, let's aim to cultivate to the Tribulation Transcendence stage in one go," Zhou Hong nodded and said.
After reaching the Tribulation Transcendence stage, it wouldn't be as fast. This was because Tribulation Transcendence didn't require immortal energy but depended on how many heavenly tribulations one had endured. And the timing of when the heavenly tribulations would descend was unknown.
Some people waited for hundreds, even thousands, of years without their first heavenly tribulation descending, thus remaining forever at that stage.
If Zhou Hong were also this unlucky, waiting for hundreds or thousands of years without his heavenly tribulation descending, then absorbing more immortal energy would be useless.
Zhou Hong quickly relocated, moving to another mountain peak ten thousand kilometers away. He re-established a grand cultivation formation there. After changing to a new location, the immortal energy was once again abundant. After all, the previous mountain peak had been absorbing for half a year, and the energy had begun to gradually thin out.
The immortal energy on the Deep Sky Continent was merely leaking down from the immortal realm, so its quantity was definitely limited, and it was also full of impurities.
Thus, Zhou Hong continued his cultivation on the Deep Sky Continent for another three years.
During these three years, Zhou Hong changed locations every six months, having moved to five or six mountain peaks.
Zhou Hong's efforts were rewarded. His realm, within these three years, advanced again from the early stage of Integration to the waiting period for Tribulation Transcendence.
The so-called waiting period for Tribulation Transcendence meant that as soon as one endured a heavenly tribulation, they would become a cultivator in the early stage of Tribulation Transcendence.
Zhou Hong was now just waiting for the first heavenly tribulation to descend before he could become a cultivator in the early stage of Tribulation Transcendence.