"Hahaha! I broke through!"
"I've finally reached a million years!"
Inside the Blue Silver Domain, after continuously absorbing and refining the Spirit Power being fed back from the External Spirit Bone – Demon Willow Fluff Ye Yu had parasitized into its body...
The Skydream Iceworm finally advanced from 990,000 years to a full million-year cultivation.
At the moment of breakthrough, the Iceworm instinctively sensed it.
It was likely the first Spirit Beast in the entire Douluo Continent to achieve a million years of cultivation!
That realization filled it with uncontainable excitement. The Iceworm lifted its long, fat, snow-white body high and let out a triumphant, euphoric roar.
It was beyond thrilled.
But its joy was short-lived.
No sooner had it celebrated becoming the first million-year Spirit Beast than a terrifying sense of doom swept over it.
Even though it had managed to dodge catastrophe time and time again in the Extreme North, boosting its cultivation by continuously refining Ten-Thousand-Year Cold marrow—
From 100,000 years to 200,000…
From 200,000 to 300,000…
From 300,000 to 400,000…
The Skydream Iceworm had somehow avoided experiencing a single tribulation.
But this time…
After breaking through to a million years…
The true million-year divine beast Lightning Tribulation had finally locked on.
There was no escape.
The Iceworm knew that while it could use its powerful spiritual power to suppress its aura and try to fool the heavens...
Doing so would severely damage its body, eventually draining its vitality and leading to a slow death.
So now, three paths lay before the Skydream Iceworm.
Path one: Face the tribulation head-on.
But for the Iceworm, that meant certain death.
Path two: Use spiritual power to forcibly suppress its aura.
But that would lead to wasting away, losing lifespan and power — also death.
Path three: Immediately complete the Intelligent Spirit Ring Method, fuse into a human Spirit Master, and transform into a new life form — preserving its consciousness and continuing to live.
The Iceworm was devastated.
The first two options were nothing but dead ends.
Only the third offered even a sliver of hope.
But the problem was... that damn human had only given it one year to complete the method!
Before, the Iceworm had been scheming.
If I can't figure it out in time, I'll just try to run.
But now?
Escape was no longer an option. That would just trigger the tribulation and guarantee death.
It seemed that only by hiding in this small domain could it evade the Lightning Tribulation.
There was no other path but to go all in.
Do or die.
Damn it!
Why didn't anyone tell me breaking through to a million years would bring a lightning tribulation?!
It had always imagined reaching a million years would be the ultimate blessing…
Who would have thought it would be a curse in disguise?
Devastated but with no way out, the Skydream Iceworm could only bury itself in work, throwing itself with maddened focus into refining and perfecting the Intelligent Spirit Ring Method.
Meanwhile, in the inner area of the Star Dou Great Forest, Ye Yu had just finished hunting over fifty dragon-type Spirit Beasts, all with Spirit Power above 60,000 years.
Then, he returned to Heaven Dou Imperial City.
At this point, Ye Yu no longer needed to hunt Spirit Beasts to speed up his cultivation through the External Spirit Bone Demon Willow Fluf.
Ever since he had given the Blue Silver Spirit Jade Tree Martial Soul a material form and awakened its intelligence/sentience…
The sub-bodies it spawned had become fully physical beings — each with at least an instinct-level consciousness, and constantly growing stronger.
To make "seeding" easier, Ye Yu had used the silver-blue flowers of the Blue Silver Spirit Jade Tree as "seeds," scattering them across the continent.
Although these seeds required time to grow…
The Tree's incredible life force, combined with its extraordinary regenerative power, granted them terrifying growth rates.
In just a few months, many of the seeds had already sprouted and grown into towering Blue Silver Spirit Jade Trees.
Even though these sub-bodies' mental growth wasn't as exaggerated as their physical growth, it didn't matter.
Even with just instinct, they could still absorb Spirit Power.
Each sub-body of the Tree inherited the Martial Soul's core abilities — absorbing the power of the earth, starlight, sunlight, and even parasitizing nearby plants and plant-type Spirit Beasts.
Though their power was diminished since Ye Yu wasn't actively using Spirit Abilities...
They still cultivated Spirit Power much faster than ordinary plant Spirit Beasts.
In fact, one day of growth for a Tree sub-body equaled more than ten days of growth for a normal plant beast.
With millions of Tree sub-bodies growing all across the continent, continuously absorbing power from the land and stars...
And feeding it back through the Blue Silver Domain...
Ye Yu's Spirit Power growth rate was skyrocketing like a rocket launch.
Each day, tens of thousands more Trees matured — all adding to the feedback.
Which meant...
Each day, Ye Yu effectively absorbed the energy of a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast.
And it was still ramping up.
Soon, he'd be absorbing the equivalent of million-year Spirit Beasts on a daily basis.
Because of this, Ye Yu no longer needed to hunt Beasts for cultivation.
His recent dragon-beast hunts were only to repair the shattered True Dragon Nine Crowns.
This time, by hunting powerful dragon-type Spirit Beasts in the Star Dou inner area...
He had repaired the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh fragments of the Spirit Bone.
Now, only the eighth and ninth pieces remained.
By now, Ye Yu had more or less guessed the origin of the True Dragon Nine Crowns:
Most likely, they were Spirit Bones left behind by the Elemental Silver Dragon.
The Elemental Silver Dragon and the Golden Dragon were the two royal bloodlines of the ancient dragon race.
One inherited the Dragon God's power of elemental control, while the other inherited his ormidable physical body.
If the True Dragon Nine Crowns came from an Elemental Silver Dragon...
Then it made sense.
But Ye Yu had yet to absorb ice or water attribue dragon bloodlines — two key pieces still missing to fully restore the Nine Crowns.
Which meant…
He would need to journey to the Extreme North and the Endless Sea to hunt ice- and water- attribute dragon type Spirit Beasts, to complete the final two fragments.
Having reached the current limit of repairs in the Star Dou Forest, Ye Yu stored Xiao Wu back into the Blue Silver Domain, and once again became a streak of lightning, soaring back to Heaven Dou City.
On the way, Ye Yu could already sense the Spirit Power fluctuations coming from the Skydream Iceworm's breakthrough to a million years.
What surprised him most, though…
Was that after breaking through, the Iceworm had gone even crazier, obsessed with completing the Intelligent Spirit Ring Method.
Ye Yu was genuinely impressed.
Looks like this worm actually has some sense.