Chapter 41: Breakthrough - 41
As expected, the declarations of submission went well with the beasts by their side. Although some people still wanted to voice their unwillingness, a single roar from the beasts shut them up.
While the demon king and the shadow queen were talking to their races, Zhou Fan, Yipeng, and the remaining beasts were reading the books in their library.
Unlike the dark elf library, the demon races library contained a lot of new information. There was the legend of the beast of calamity and many opinions on how they worked.
Some demons said that there was a way to kill the beast of calamity while others speculated that there were more beasts of calamity besides the one they knew.
Zhou Fan quickly finished the demon races library and headed to the shadow races library. On his way there, he noticed that they had a giant purple crystal hanging from the sky. Unfortunately, besides more detailed information about their race, there was nothing new.
By the time he finished both libraries, 50 hours had passed.
However, since he had faked his death, Zhou Fan didn't need to rush. It was much nicer to live carefreely.
Before leaving the demon race, Zhou Fan investigated why they had so many people despite their low reproduction rate.
After asking the demon king, Zhou Fan discovered that they found a herb that increases the chances of reproduction.
In fact, since the demon races cave was unsuitable for growing anything, it was grown in the shadow races cave.
After learning that, it was time for Zhou Fan to leave. However, before he could leave the cave, the demon king requested to join his group.
"Don't you have to lead your people?" Zhou Fan asked.
"Not really. I haven't done much ruling since I became king. They are basically ruling themselves at this point. Also, the shadow queen will be there to make sure nothing bad happens." He explained.
Since there was no harm, Zhou Fan agreed on the condition that his strength was sufficient. He didn't want to be carrying around useless people with no purpose.
For example, although Yipeng didn't have much physical strength, he was incredibly wise and intelligent. He was also quiet and self-sufficient.
In order to test the demon king's strength, Zhou Fan lowered his strength to the same level as him and fought in a battle of swords.
When the fight started, Zhou Fan was the one being suppressed. After all, although his increased mind made him a genius at everything, the demon king had been practicing the sword since he was a child.
After 3 minutes, Zhou Fan could equally fight the demon king, and after 10 minutes, he was the one sidedly suppressing the demon king.
Although the battle ended in the demon king's defeat, Zhou Fan allowed him to join. Not only was his physical strength far above humans, but he was also much better with the sword than anyone else Zhou Fan had come across.
With Zhou Fan riding on Xiaolong, Yipeng riding on Xuanwu, and Cao Lin riding on Bainu, they set off back to the dragon cave.
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Looking at the new scenery, Zhou Fan nodded his head. After they had gotten back to the dragon cave, Cao Lin, Yipeng, and the beasts started to construct Cao Lin a place to stay.
5 days had passed since then and with the help of Zhou Fan every now and then, the demon king's castle was built.
Although Zhou Fan's little wooden house couldn't compare, Zhou Fan prefered it much more.
After cultivating for a few days, Zhou Fan was extremely close to breaking through to the 8th level. In fact, he wanted to break through even further before he did anything else.
Thinking that far, he sent the beasts, Cao Lin, and Yipeng to scout the other caves and repeat the previous process.
Not long after, they had left the dragon cave and Zhou Fan was finally alone again.
Looking at his house, he truly felt it was insufficient for cultivating inside. Although he liked to live in it, he felt it was better to make a new place for cultivation.
Zhou Fan walked to the side of the cave where nothing but a dirt and stone wall stood. Controlling the Qi around him, he molded the side of the cave into a small, dome-shaped area, and made the entrance just big enough for him to walk through.
Looking around inside, Zhou Fan used fire Qi to melt the stone and dirt on one of the sides and created lava to use as a light source.
He then made a small stone platform in the center, just big enough for him to cultivate on.
Not wasting any more time, Zhou Fan sat on the platform and cultivated.
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After a single day, Zhou Fan broke into the 8th level of core formation. Without stopping, he continued to cultivate.
After 25 days had passed, Zhou Fan broke into the 9th level of core formation. Shaking his head at his progress speed, Zhou Fan didn't stop and continued.
After a month and a half, Zhou Fan broke into the 10th level. By now, the lava pool had cooled down and didn't produce any more light, Zhou Fan once again melted it and the lava appeared once more.
Thinking to himself, Zhou Fan was disappointed with his cultivation speed. Looking at his core now, its size exceeded what he previously thought was possible. If he had to estimate, he felt it would be the size of an entire kingdom. Luckily, it was located in his mind.
As he once again started to cultivate, he noticed that the core was shrinking instead of expanding. That didn't make Zhou Fan stop since it felt less like it was shrinking and more like it was condensing.
After a month and a half, the core had condensed to the same size it was when he first broke into core formation. However, he didn't break through. In fact, he estimated he was only halfway done.
As he continued, he noticed that the core was losing its shape. It stopped resembling a core and started to disperse into his mind.
However, Zhou Fan felt that when it dispersed, it went into a separate space.
After 2 weeks, Zhou Fan suddenly gained another sight. it was as if he had grown another eye. However, instead of seeing in the real world or his mind, it could see into a completely new space.
Zhou Fan could feel that the shape of the space was the same as a human, or rather, the shape of himself! Looking at it, Zhou Fan chose to name it his soul.
It was slowly being filled up by the gray gas that his core turned into. After another 2 weeks had passed, the gaseous gray Qi filled up the entire space. Unexpectedly, it didn't stop there and instead started to turn into a liquid.
Looking into his mind, he could see that the core was only 33% dispersed.
After another 2 weeks, a gray liquid filled his soul space. However, once again it didn't stop and instead started to condense into a solid form.
After 3 months since he started to breakthrough, the entire space was filled with a solid gray matter.
Zhou Fan heard a crack and all of a sudden, his entire soul space and the solid matter within it exploded!
BOOOMMM!
Chapter 42: One - 42
BOOMM!
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After the explosion subsided and Zhou Fan was able to think again, he opened his eyes.
The first thing he noticed was the exploded cave behind him. It seems that when his soul exploded, he unconsciously released his cultivation. Luckily, he had also subconsciously moved it towards the back wall so that the dragon cave wouldn't be majorly affected.
Clenching his fist, the air around him exploded and a huge gust of wind poured out towards all directions, shaking the entire dragon cave.
Seeing the result, Zhou Fan was astonished. Had breaking into the new realm increased his strength by so much? Not to mention, that was only his physical body's strength.
Thinking to himself, Zhou Fan felt that if he used Qi, a casual slap could destroy a mountain. No! A mountain range!
While still feeling astonished, Zhou Fan checked his soul.
When he looked, it no longer was filled with gray solid matter. In fact, the size of the soul had decreased tremendously. If it once was the size of a huge mountain, it now fit the size of his body perfectly.
Just as Zhou Fan was about to see what it could do, the soul started to pull towards him.
Although the soul had been in his soul space the entire time, it looked as if it was a couple feet away.
Now, however, it was coming towards him incredibly fast. Before he could finish another thought, the soul collided with his view and he felt an enormous push.
FSHSH!
When Zhou Fan opened his eyes, he was floating in the air.
Or rather, on second look, he was sitting on the ground in a meditative position. Looking down at his hands, he saw an ethereal gray energy in the shape of his arm.
Moving his arm around, he saw it acted like a stick on fire, leaving a trail behind where it moved.
Coming to a conclusion, Zhou Fan had only one explanation, this was his soul! And that was his body sitting on the ground!
All of a sudden, Zhou Fan felt as if his brain was tearing in two. Two ideas popped into his mind. Each one able to set his future path.
The ideas were, 1. detached soul. He felt the possibility of going back to his body, yet being able to call out his soul and use it as a puppet. He would also be able to send his consciousness into the soul.
The other idea was to fuse his soul with his body. In that case, he wouldn't be able to call out his soul at all, but he would be one, a single and complete entity.
Although he could have sat there and thought for a while, Zhou Fan had long lost the moronic idea of hesitation.
He instantly chose the idea that sounded the best, the one that he instinctually liked.
His view started to shorten as his soul returned to his body and fused.
Clearly, Zhou Fan had chosen the second idea.
Although the possibility of moving through walls and sending the soul out instead of going himself sounded cool, Zhou Fan didn't like the idea of being seperated. The entire idea seemed wrong.
Therefore, he had chosen the idea that sounded better.
When the soul had fully fused, Zhou Fan felt his strength increase once again. Now, it seemed that he had fully broken through.
After feeling his strength, Zhou Fan was convinced he made the right decision. If there was doubt before about being able to destroy a mountain range with a casual attack, there was none now.
Of course, the mountain range couldn't be too big.
For example, the world's biggest mountain range, the endless mountains, were far too big for Zhou Fan to destroy. When he said he could destroy a mountain range, he only meant the smallest ones, with around 20 or so mountains.
With his breakthrough finally over, Zhou Fan walked outside the cave he made. Looking at the ceiling of the cave, he noticed that it was fragmented and many pieces had fallen down.
Flying up to the center, Zhou Fan dragged the pieces from the ground, reconstructed them with fire Qi, then merged them back with the ceiling using the same method.
He then flew back to his house. When he made it back however, he was surprised to see a couple of unexpected guests.
Specifically, the elf queen, the dark elf king, the shadow queen, and 6 more people he hadn't seen before.
Even though he hadn't seen them, he could guess who they were.
The 6 foot walking mass of muscle with tanned skin was likely the barbarian king of the first ranked barbarian race, the blond haired girl with small, furry wings was likely the queen of the 5th ranked angel race, the evil looking, red skinned man with a tail was likely the king of the 6th ranked devil race, which were very different from the demon race, the salamander on legs was probably the king of the 8th ranked lizard race, the blond man with a third eye was likely the king of the 9th rank third eye race, and finally, the big green man with a monocle and a wooden crown was clearly the king of the 10th rank hobgoblin race.
Besides them, Cao Lin and Yipeng sat on Bainu and Xuanwu respectively.
When Zhou Fan flew down from the sky, every member of the 10 races knelt.
"We greet sir cultivator." They said in unison, before standing back up.
Zhou Fan looked at Cao Lin and Yipeng with a slight smile. "It seems you've been busy while I was gone."
"Hahaha, indeed." Said Cao Lin with a proud look on his face.
Zhou Fan then looked the 6 newcomers up and down with slight surprise. When he envisioned meeting them before, he expected a lot less politeness.
It seems that either the beasts or seeing him flying was enough to convince them to behave.
"Why did you all come here?" Zhou Fan asked.
"We simply came to greet sir." Said the barbarian races king while stepping forward.
"Yeah right." Cao Lin interrupted, "You all just refused to believe what we told you about him."
After hearing Cao Lin, the barbarian king just stood there with an awkward smile on his face.
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