The two of them dove into the forest, as that was the only way to keep themselves alive. However, they suddenly found that the Golden Scale Blue Eye Eagle wasn’t attacking after struggling out of the ground. It was just standing there.

Long Chen walked over to it, and it crouched down, allowing him to walk onto its back.

La Wei and Qi Li couldn’t believe their eyes. Long Chen beckoned. “Let’s switch to a new mount. You can have the Cloud Soaring Falcon return.”

Qi Li and La Wei slowly walked over. Qi Li nervously asked, “Did you subdue it?”

“Come on up. It’ll be a bit faster,” said Long Chen.

Qi Li had to first run over to the Cloud Soaring Falcon because it didn’t dare to get close to the Golden Scale Blue Eye Eagle. She told it to go back.

After that, all three of them stood on the Golden Scale Blue Eye Eagle’s back, and it took off, transforming into a streak of light shooting through the air. It was much faster than the Cloud Soaring Falcon.

This Golden Scale Blue Eye Eagle was powerful, but its Spiritual Strength was not strong. After being knocked unconscious, Long Chen had directly placed a slave seal on it.

Qi Li was amazed by Long Chen’s power, and her praise made La Wei upset. However, he had now witnessed Long Chen’s power, and like a beaten rooster, he was silent.

“Qi Li, you should go to the front and direct it so that it doesn’t fly off in the wrong direction,” said Long Chen.

Qi Li ran over to its head, pointing. Her excitement was like that of a child who had just obtained a new toy to play with.

Now, only Long Chen and La Wei were left on the back of the eagle. Long Chen looked at the dispirited La Wei and shook his head. “You really are a coward. You’re going to surrender just like this?”

“I can’t beat you, and I’m not a white-faced-”

“If you call me that again, I’ll slap you,” raged Long Chen. “You see the woman you love being stolen by someone else, and you’re not going to fight for her? If someone dared to do that to one of my wives, I’d throw my life away to stop them. But you don’t even have the courage to do that. Are you a coward?”

La Wei glared at Long Chen but then deflated. He wished he could fight Long Chen, but he couldn’t even muster the slightest will to do so after seeing him fight. 

“Coward. If I were such a coward, my wives would have slapped me into the wall,” said Long Chen disdainfully.

“You… you get hit by your wives?” asked La Wei, surprised.

“So what? All of my wives have stronger arms than me. Their punches can shatter mountains and their feet can tear the earth asunder. Do you know why?” asked Long Chen.

“No.” La Wei shook his head.

“It’s from beating me all day. When they beat me, I’m even encouraging them. If I dared to misunderstand their intentions like you have with Qi Li… Well, let me tell you that if you were in that position, you would regret being born in this world. You would learn what a life worse than death is,” sighed Long Chen.

“If your wives are so terrifying, why not leave them?” asked La Wei. This fellow’s head clearly wasn’t too agile. He actually believed Long Chen.

“Leave? Then how am I supposed to get stronger? Their beatings can temper my flesh, refine my bones, strengthen my internal organs. Stabbing the soul, burning in oil… well, it sounds frightening, but it’s all beneficial to me,” said Long Chen. His grateful expression scared La Wei.

“Qi Li is a lot gentler than your wives…” La Wei was terrified at the thought of Long Chen’s fiendish devil wives.

“Qi Li really is a nice girl…” Long Chen looked toward Qi Li’s back, causing La Wei’s heart to tense. “However, I don’t have that blessing. So, little fellow, I suppose a fool like you has a fool’s luck to have such a good partner. You should cherish her. Her heart has yet to change, but your suspicions toward her are a blasphemy toward her pure emotions. Go and apologize,” said Long Chen.

While Long Chen had previously had an urge to slap La Wei, he decided not to take the foolish oaf personally.

However, La Wei hesitated. “How am I supposed to apologize so that she forgives me?”

“You could castrate yourself to show your loyalty?” suggested Long Chen solemnly.

“Ah!” La Wei almost jumped off the eagle, causing Long Chen to have to grab him. Long Chen almost laughed. This fellow was really simple.

“If a woman is angry and scolds you, it shows that she’s not really angry. If she was really angry, she wouldn’t even bother scolding you. At that time, if you tried to apologize, she wouldn’t immediately forgive you. But if you don’t apologize, she will never forgive you. You should prepare yourself for a long battle. Time will be your best weapon. In any case, as long as you apologize, her anger will fade over time,” said Long Chen.

It was unknown if La Wei had fully comprehended his words or not, but he slowly walked over to Qi Li. As soon as he arrived beside her, Li Qi’s excited expression from directing the Golden Scale Blue Eye Eagle vanished and was replaced with iciness. She turned back to see Long Chen seated in meditation.

Despite being unfamiliar with the Martial Heaven Continent’s cultivation techniques, she knew that he didn’t want to be disturbed at this moment. She could only sit there and listen to La Wei’s apology.

Long Chen was circulating his life energy. Under the pressure of his death energy, his life energy had been compressed to just ten percent of his life and death energy. He needed to keep it active and vigorous, or it would start to solidify.

If that happened, it would be more difficult to activate his life energy in the future, let alone actually elevate his life energy to the point of being able to balance with his death energy.

The four Grand Elders of the Martial Heaven Continent were unable to use medicinal pills to break out of their current predicament because if they did try to activate their remaining life energy, it might create a chance for their death energy to break through and kill them.

If they had not been stuck in the Death realm for so long, it would have been possible to use medicinal pills to balance their life and death energy, allowing them to reach the fourth step. But due to their life energy having been stagnant for so long, they no longer possessed the ability to circulate it without their death energy potentially taking over.

Not only did this represent that they were weaker than Death realm experts in their peak, but they would never be able to advance again in their lifetimes. This was the most painful thing to a cultivator, which was why Qu Jianying had warned everyone to think it over when she had distributed the Barrier Breaking Pills.

Long Chen’s death energy had reached a powerful state, so Long Chen needed to constantly circulate his life energy to keep it lively. He also slowly absorbed the world’s life energy to invigorate his body.

As he cultivated, Long Chen had a faint smile. Upon absorbing the outside world’s life energy, his astral spaces resonated and their life energy also circulated within his body.

With those two sources of life energy, his life energy was not in danger of being overwhelmed. Long Chen had an extra layer of protection compared to other people.

This forest was abundant in life energy. It was the perfect place for him to cultivate.

For most people, they would need to take some time to adjust and stabilize their life energy and their death energy, but Long Chen had no need to do so. That was because the primal chaos space possessed its own life and death energy. Long Chen had been familiar with that kind of energy from the start, so he didn’t need to get used to it.

Upon reaching the third step, he directly began activating his life energy in preparation for advancing to the fourth step.

The fourth step of Netherpassage was to balance one’s life and death energy once more. This was a slow process. He would need to slowly absorb energy.

Qi Li coldly directed the Golden Scale Blue Eye Eagle, while La Wei was sitting beside her miserably. He was silent, not even daring to let out a fart.

They quickly flew through the forest. There were other fierce beasts, but they all fled upon sensing the Golden Scale Blue Eye Eagle’s aura. Qi Li’s excited expression slowly came back.

Ahead of them, the ancient trees grew even more majestic, and they were thriving with life energy. Long Chen eventually saw one particularly giant tree, which soared into the sky. The stars seemed to hang amongst its branches.

“Long Chen, we’ve arrived. This is our Life Spirit God,” announced Qi Li. She jumped off, kowtowing from the peak of a tree toward the giant tree, muttering some ancient scripture.