Initially, Ling Han had already reached the Second Secret’s late stage, and now he directly soared to the Second Secret’s peak stage with such nutrition.
He swallowed a Thousand Year Dream Pill, and entered into the Timestream.
Since the Foreign Realm had Regulations of Time, it naturally also had the Timestream. However, it could only be entered either through using the Thousand Year Dream Pill or forcefully barging into the place with the overwhelming might of the Heavenly Venerable Tier.
But even a Heavenly Venerate could not match the power of heaven and earth. Once they left the Timestream, all their memories gained there would be erased.
… The past and present could not be reversed, and the future could not be changed.
Ling Han comprehended Dao in this place where Time ended. There was no concept of time here. It was possible that countless years would pass in an instant, and countless years here could also be a second in the outside world—this was the unit of time that Ling Han had learned from Wally, and he had accepted this concept and adopted it.
Compared to counting time for a single joss stick or a heart beat, minutes and seconds were much more precise[1]. Moreover, it could be further precise by proceeding to millisecond and microsecond.
In this place, Ling Han easily broke through to the Third Secret, but he did not immediately return. Instead, he continued comprehension here until the effects of the Thousand Year Dream Pill were completely used up, and only then did his spirit return to his physical body. The heavenly tribulation immediately came.
He went to endure the heavenly tribulation, and a day later, his figure descended, having easily survived it.
And in truth, his cultivation level had already reached the Third Secret’s middle stage. The essence contained in You Yuan’s wing was truly amazing. Previously, he had not expended all the essence in full at all, and now he had comprehended another Dao where Time ended. It seemed like it was just a while, yet the time that had actually passed was endless.
Thus, once Ling Han had endured the heavenly tribulation, he absorbed and digested fully the remaining essence inside his body, and his cultivation level directly soared to the Third Secret’s middle stage.
He returned to his quarters, yet immediately received a message from the academy that he had once again gained the qualification to participate in the Thousand Academy Tournament.
Hehe, going back and forth like this, was it fun?
Ling Han knew that the academy had seen how he had defeated You Yuan in a battle of equals, and thus determinedly placed bets on him. Even if Ling Han could not win a good placing for the academy this time, there was probably no one that could manage to stop Ling Han in the next tournament.
As a human, they naturally had to set their sights further.
Of course, if he had been in the Celestial Realm, Ling Han would definitely have chosen just to cast this aside.
‘F***, who do you think I am? Just coming at your slightest call, and dismissed with a wave?’
But now this was the Foreign Realm, and Ling Han did not do anything willful.
He was determined to understand the cultivation system of the Foreign Realm. That way, he could deal with it in the future. He also wanted to know just what kind of level this generation of young prodigies of the Foreign Realm had reached. If they could possibly reach the Heavenly Venerable Tier, should he find a chance to kill them off in advance?
Additionally, he discovered that the wings of the Angel Race were all like celestial medicines, and eating more wings could help his cultivation level soar straight upwards, so why shouldn’t he go and get himself some more?
…He was sure that only the Monarch Stars of the Angel Race would let him enjoy these effects, and there were pitifully few of them, so he would only be able to encounter them in the Thousand Academy Tournament.
If the academy knew that he agreed to go because he wanted to eat “chicken wings,” those old geezers would probably be shooting fire from their eyes in their fury.
Not too many days later, the 10 prodigies set out under the leadership of two Ninth Lotus elites of the academy, heading towards the Four Splendor Academy.
The Thousand Academy Tournament this time round was held at the Four Splendor Academy, but there was a boundless distance separating the two locations. If they were just to simply fly on their journey, they would probably need tens of millions of years to reach their destination.
But though they had set out earlier, there was only 100 years’ time left, and there was no way they could just journey there like that.
What now?
They would use the Transfer Formation, then.
There were Transfer Formations everywhere in the Four Splendor Academy, which boundlessly shortened the distance between two locations. However, because the Four Splendor Academy was really too far, they would still need about 30 years’ time even with using the Transfer Formation. That was because they could not simply take the next Transfer Formation after using the first Transfer Formation, but rather had to journey part of the way.
The tournament team of 10 was still You Yuan and nine others that had emerged victorious from the selections. The Ascending Origin Tiers leading the team were Yuan and Qi Shuang. Yuan was a member of the Insect Race, while Qi Shuang was a Holy Beast. The reason why no member of the Angel Race or Demon Race had been appointed as team leader was naturally because of the conflict between Ling Han and You Yuan. This was to avoid any prejudice, which could lead to the whole team falling apart in the end.
They increased their journeying speed, and after over a dozen days, they arrived at a city, and then used the Transfer Formation for the first time. Traversing through space, they soon arrived at another city, but did not immediately continue their journey. Using a long-distance Transfer Formation would actually bring serious side effects to bear on the body. The physical body was under extremely unstable conditions. If one continuously used Transfer Formations, death would be a small matter. More importantly, one could burst in a massive explosion, destroying the Transfer Formation and the transfer passageway, and thus causing disastrous harm to others.
Wally had also come with them. He disguised himself as a small ornament that hung from a corner of Ling Han’s robes.
“One cannot continuously use the Transfer Formation, because traversing through space would affect the stability of the particles, and cause chaos among the nuclear electrons. It could very possibly turn the human body into a super nuclear weapon,” he explained. “You have to understand that, in truth, every single existence is a creation of the heaven and earth, including us. The power of heaven and earth is constantly within us, but ordinary people are completely incapable of accessing it. “According to the theories of the high-level dimension, every gram of quality that we expend could explode with a storm of energy capable of destroying a planet.
“You can just imagine just how terrifying our potential is.”
It was no wonder that the Transfer Formation could not be used continuously. It could make humans into a terrifying weapon.
“Given what you say, if we could use the power of heaven and earth, simply pick up a rock, and we can explode with boundless power?” Ling Han asked.
“That’s right.” Wally nodded. “Those who can use a limited extent of the power of heaven and earth would be those so-called Heavenly Venerates of yours.” Hence, the strength of Heavenly Venerable Tier completely overwhelmed Celestial Kings. Even a Ninth Heaven Celestial King would only die a terrible death in front of a Heavenly Venerate.
The power that both sides used was not on the same level at all.
Ling Han felt strongly just how smart he had been to choose to cooperate with Wally. He had gained all the knowledge of a high-level dimension, and knowledge was the most central wealth of a realm-cultivation techniques were actually a kind of knowledge as well, teaching you how to use Regulations.
After resting for three days, and using the Transfer Formation in the city again, they arrived at another city. This time, they did not rest any longer, but rather continued to exit the city and journey onwards.
That was because the next Transfer Formation was at a very distant location. The time they took to journey there would be enough for them to dispel the side effects brought by using the Transfer Formation.
And this was how they proceeded, stopping and continuing repeatedly on their journey. Occasionally, they would take a few days of rest, traversing the wide space of the Foreign Realm.
Everyone did not waste their time. For those that had reached their cultivation level, they could cultivate just by walking and sleeping. It was only that their efficiency would be slightly lower than usual.
10 years later, they had already walked countless paths, and their speed was also slightly faster than they had expected. Half their journey had been completed. If everything went smoothly, they would be able to reach Four Splendor Academy in another 10 years’ time.
On this day, they came out of a Transfer Formation to find some place to settle down. The next Transfer Formation was within this city itself. There was no need for them to journey elsewhere, and they could take a good rest for a while. However, they discovered that this city was extraordinarily familiar.
[1] — is literally the time that it takes for a joss stick to burn completely. Previously, TL has directly translated that into the modern time unit-30 minutes.