Now that Wan Kun’s cultivation have reached Spirit Severing Stage Cultivation, he can now quite confidently say that he can for sure defeat sky realm experts without using the Buddha Palm. “Now let’s see what els I can find in this forest” now confident in his abilities, Wan Kun dashed deeper into the forests searching for magic treasure.

While this was going on, Li Huo was also heading to a similar location in his own exploration. If the two would continue on their paths they would eventually meet at the base Mt Fog. This location also happens to be the home of one of the few Sky Realm Demonic Beasts.

“This upcoming battle could be interesting” FengHuang commented on the most likely battle to come. Ao Shuidi also commented “Maybe he’ll display that divine at of his. I’d certainly like to see it for myself”.

Orochi meanwhile was taking notes on all participants so far, ‘Hm, disciple Jing, Tong and Pai are quite exceptional. That Da Chang fellow have already demonstrated his abilities. Then theres…..’ At this moment Hou Jin interrupted his line of though.

“Hey brother Snake, who do you think will become direct disciples of the elder?” Hou Jin spoke loud enough to break Orochi from his deep though analysis. “Damn it monkey, I’m trying to think” Orochi bit back. Hou Jin just laughed at this, it wasn’t unusual for him to bother his fellow disciple brothers and sisters but it’s universally accepted that he was an annoyance.

Ignoring all this, Hei Hainan and Ezzel chose to focus on some of the more powerful seedlings shown in the cloud mirror. “Find someone interesting?” FengHuang asked them. “No, all of them are pretty standard” said Hei Hainan in slight disappointment.

At this moment Baskirk chimed in, “Give us a break, we can’t all pull in supreme talents”. The luck of FengHuang and Hei Hainan this time was really good this time. To be able to find monsters like Da Chang, Li Huo and Wan Kun already made this years batch much better then the past 5 centuries worth of disciples.

This is because the achievement of these few individuals were outstanding even in the upper realms. Even Wan Kun’s master considers Wan Kun to be an abnormal existence. One had to understand that Wan Kun is already comparable to sky realm experts with a spirit severing cultivation base with his body alone without the use of advanced techniques like the Five Elements Great Buddha Palm. Even achieving sword force like Shi Xuegang did was usually reserved for those already in the Immortal ranks of cultivation.

When the night arrived Li Huo had reached a quiet spot under a tree. “Well I better start cultivating” he murmured to himself before sitting down and checking todays gains. Holding out a few spirit fruits Li Huo consumed them and began his meditation absorbing the dense Qi around him. ‘Not only is recourse abundant here but even the Qi is much denser then back in the Sacred Beast Kingdom’.

Spirit fruits are rare types of herbs found in places of dense Qi. In regular sects and kingdoms, these fruits even the low quality ones can be sold for over 500,000 purple mystic coins. Even powerful families would hesitate at such a sum. This price was because spirit fruits are not only able to vastly increase cultivation speed, but also create a stable foundation while in this ultra fast speed as well as strengthening the soul. For someone with soul fire like Li Huo, a recourse that strengthens the soul was extremely helpful.

The fruits that Li Huo uncovered were also not of poor quality. In fact these fruits are at least top class in quality. What Li Huo didn’t know was that these fruits did reach Immortal Realms in terms of quality but his cultivation was not high enough to determine that. Coupled with Li Huo’s talent, his cultivation was bound to increase by leaps and bounds. He had no idea just how lucky he was.

Due to these factors, Li Huo ended up cultivating for 3 days straight without break. Without him noticing, he had already reached the pinnacle of Heavenly Sage Realm. As the newly acquired Heaven Qi swirled around Li Huo revealing an image of the cosmos.

“What, what is this?” Confused Li Huo gazed at this image. He saw all the stars and planets thriving for thousands of years. He saw cultivators live out even longer periods of time. He saw himself living for a near infinite amount of time, an amount that could drive a human mad. “Is this Immortality? Is this the longevity I would gain?” Li Huo slowly began to realise what was going on.

“But this is an image of Immortality, which means I’m getting a glimpse into Nirvana. Would I be able to achieve it?” With that one question Li Huo was sent into a trance. Be was no longer a human or any other living being, he just was. He sat there in this image gazing at it for what could be billions of years.

“Gazing Nirvana. A process that requires one to be able to resist the extremely time flow of an Immortal’s lifespan. Most cultivators would be driven mad by this.” FengHuang wasn’t surprised by Li Hou’s sudden ascension. His gains were more then enough to bump him into the peak exalted realm. However he had to cross this mini tribulation first. The glimpse into Nirvana was to allow one to temper their mind so that they could live out that insane lifespan without going mad.

“Already multiple individuals are making huge progress” Xue Hui smiled at the sight of so many disciples becoming stronger, “The sect would definitely gain many powerful warriors”. As a grand elder to the Sacred Beast Sect, Xue Hui was fiercely loyal to his sect, any advantage to the sect is a good thing in his eyes.

“This boy Li Huo was previously only at the Nascent Soul realm of a 300 year lifespan, although long it is still manageable. He’s simply not ready to gaze at Nirvana” Baskirk shook his head, he did not believe Li Huo could do it. As Baskirk was once also a mortal, he too knew what it was like to go through gazing at Nirvana. He himself had to prepare and temper himself for centuries before he was ready, Li Huo was only a boy after all, barely sixteen.

“Careful what you say little brother, He might just surprise you” FengHuang spoke out in a confident tone. “Really, perhaps you will help him through it?” Baskirk questioned back. “No, with a soul as strong as his, I’m sure this will e no problem” FengHuang answered. “Still, his age is still too young for him to attempt this mental torture” Baskirk still find it hard to believe despite Li Huo’s large resilient sou.

“Hate to admit it but chicken is right” Ao Shuidi surprisingly agreed with FengHuang who sent a death glare her way for the comment, “A powerful soul boosts the chance of success by a huge margin”.

Back to the basic beast forest, Li Huo had been sitting by himself for three days now. Only three more days are left of the exam and more then half of the remaining had already been eliminated leaving just above twenty left.

Inside his mind, Li Huo still sat going at the cosmos, at the gods and immortals that roamed it. His eyes were filled with determination. “All my life I didn’t know what I want, now I’m curious towards that space. I want to explore it, and to do that I have to be an Immortal”. Li Huo opened his eyes officially crossing the mini tribulation into the Gazing Nirvana realm cultivation.

“Three days have passed, I better move to catch up” Li Huo continued on his original route.