Three days later, after leaving a letter to inform Xia Teng and the others, Ye Chen headed for the academy's Sacred Land, telling them they could find him there if anything important came up.
Tian Du Academy's cultivation Sacred Land was one of the academy's most important treasured grounds, located in a separate minor world personally opened up by the Supreme Old Academy Head, protected by layer upon layer of defenses.
Ye Chen made his way to the deepest part of the academy, which connected to the million-mile mountain range outside Tian Du City.
He arrived at a secluded valley where a tall and imposing gatehouse stood. On either side of the gatehouse, two white-haired elders sat cross-legged on meditation platforms, looking as if they had passed away in meditation.
Their auras were peaceful, without the slightest trace of overwhelming pressure. Everything about them seemed like ordinary old men, plain and unremarkable.
But Ye Chen narrowed his eyes slightly, looking deeply at the two elders with some admiration. These were actually two peak ninth heaven Martial Gods. Though very aged, they were extremely powerful, capable of launching a supremely fierce attack in an instant.
To have peak Martial Gods assigned as gatekeepers showed just how much Tian Du Academy valued its Sacred Land.
Ye Chen took out his Sacred Land jade token. When the two old monsters saw it was a golden token, a piercing light instantly shone in their dim, aged eyes, and they couldn't help but look at Ye Chen.
The two old monsters naturally knew this was the half-year Sacred Land jade token, incomparably precious. Not even that group of monstrous talents in the Heaven-tier Academy had obtained such a token. Only those who pushed open the seventh level of the Trial Gate were qualified to be gifted one by the academy.
Without a doubt, this youth before them was a peerless prodigy.
The two old monsters no longer treated him casually. They formed hand seals together, sending streams of divine light into the void. The void then twisted, and a spatial portal appeared, leading to another alternate dimension—the location of the Sacred Land.
"Young friend, please!"
Both elders spoke politely. Anyone else seeing this would surely be greatly astonished, because usually these two old monsters guarding the gate didn't even treat the academy's Elders with much regard, rarely showing such polite courtesy to others, let alone a mere junior.
"Thank you, Seniors." Ye Chen cupped his fists toward them and stepped into the spatial portal.
The next moment, the scenery before him changed. In a pitch-black void, a grand and massive hall appeared, flowing with an aura of ancient vicissitudes. Its carved patterns and style were extremely ancient, having existed for who knew how many years. It could even be called a heavy hall left over from prehistoric times.
This made Ye Chen slightly taken aback. He had originally thought the Sacred Land would be a meditation platform or a blessed cave heaven of some sort, never expecting it to be an ancient hall.
Entering the vast hall, he saw only hazy, misty world spiritual energy flowing within, along with streams of multicolored immortal light swirling and surging forth. Heaven and earth intertwined harmoniously, making every pore on one's body feel as if it wanted to open wide, cleansing and transforming oneself.
"Is this the so-called Sacred Land? It's truly extraordinary. Whether it's world spiritual energy or other world energies, they are all exceptionally abundant compared to other places. Cultivating here for one day is worth more than half a month elsewhere." Even Ye Chen couldn't help but marvel at the sheer abundance of energy here, dense to the extreme, truly praiseworthy.
Cultivating here would allow one's cultivation to advance by leaps and bounds. If not a thousand miles a day, it was close enough, absolutely far surpassing other places by many times. This was a treasured ground that ordinary blessed cave heavens couldn't hope to match.
Even being able to cultivate here for a day and a night would be a great blessing.
Moreover, Ye Chen had pushed open the seventh level of the Trial Gate, granting him half a year of cultivation time here. Without a doubt, half a year was more than enough.
The space inside the hall was quite expansive, about ten zhang high and a hundred zhang wide, capable of accommodating many people cultivating simultaneously.
He could see that within the hall, numerous spirit pools had been opened up. Inside them was either liquefied, purest world spiritual energy or otherworldly energies, and even divine pools formed from the power of heaven and earth, multicolored and dazzling.
The various, extremely dense world energies contained within the Sacred Land made it a dream cultivation ground, truly living up to its name.
Ye Chen looked around and saw that at this moment, several of the divine pools within the Sacred Land already had figures cultivating within them. Vast amounts of world energy poured in, entering through their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses, filling every inch of their bodies.
He recognized several of them as freshmen who had pushed open the fourth level of the Trial Gate. He hadn't expected them to come to the Sacred Land for cultivation so quickly.
Ye Chen directly chose the central area and submerged himself into a divine pool. Adjacent to him was another person who, sensing the fluctuation, opened his eyes unhappily. Since there were many divine pools in the ancient hall, cultivating adjacent to others could potentially affect their cultivation, which was impolite.
But when he clearly saw it was Ye Chen, the young great demon king, he was instantly startled and retreated immediately. He dared not provoke anyone, let alone this young great demon king.
Naturally, Ye Chen's choice of the central area for cultivation wasn't without reason. Because here, absorbing world energy was faster, more abundant, and broader. He had no other choice, even if it meant offending others.
Submerged in the liquefied world energy divine pool, Ye Chen directly sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to cultivate, circulating the profound art within his body.
Without hesitation, he directly executed the Great Dao Treasure Vessel Seal. A black, crystalline Great Dao Treasure Vase appeared above his head, its abundant aura spreading out, startling the other cultivators who all woke up, shocked to see the young great demon king.
But Ye Chen wasn't launching an attack. As his hand seals changed, the Great Dao Treasure Vase floated above his head, then transformed into a pattern of Dao marks, further giving birth to a circle of pitch-black, deep black hole, like a terrifying maw of a bottomless abyss opening.
Boom—
The entire Sacred Land trembled! The ancient hall shook. The other trial-takers all looked on in horror at Ye Chen, located in the center of the Sacred Land. At this moment, a massive black hole had actually manifested above his head, voraciously devouring vast amounts of world spiritual energy from the Sacred Land.
The force of this suction was so immense and powerful that it directly shook the entire prehistoric ancient hall.
A powerful divine sense instantly swept over—the true guardian of the Sacred Land, hidden in the void, responsible for guarding it, had also been startled.
Ye Chen paid no heed. His body transformed into a bottomless pit. Boundless devouring power began to erupt, surging and continuously devouring and absorbing the vast amounts of world energy within the Sacred Land.
Every tiny pore on his body fully opened wide, like countless miniature black holes.
Visible to the naked eye, streams of world energy within the Sacred Land, so dense and pure they were almost condensed into substance, directly transformed into pillars of spiritual mist and light, devoured downward.
This wasn't ordinary world spiritual energy, but a sublimated world energy, quite extraordinary. As Ye Chen devoured this energy, his entire body radiated brilliant light, every inch of his flesh glowing with divine splendor.
Half a day later, the divine pool where Ye Chen was located was emptied. All the highly condensed, liquefied world energy within this divine pool had been completely devoured and absorbed into his body, leaving it empty—a truly terrifying sight.
It must be known that although it was just one divine pool, it was about one zhang wide. Moreover, as Tian Du Academy's most important Sacred Land, the ancient hall possessed a special ability to continuously draw world energy from the void, constantly transforming and absorbing it, storing it within this ancient, mysterious hall. Every inch of this place contained a fearsome amount of world energy, let alone the energy within the divine pools, which was even more astonishing.
Just the world energy within a one-zhang square area, nearly condensed into substance, transformed into liquid spiritual liquid, contained a terrifyingly astonishing amount of world energy—enough to allow an ordinary Martial God to rise by one or two heavens, or to literally burst any peak Xiantian expert.
This was no exaggeration. It was accumulated over countless ages as the Sacred Land absorbed world energy from the outside and stored it. Who knew how much terrifying world energy was contained within?
There were even stores of world energy left over from prehistoric times.
Over so many ages, the world spiritual energy stored within the Sacred Land had long reached an unimaginably terrifying level.
But now, Ye Chen had only cultivated for half a day, and the world energy of one divine pool had been completely devoured. Even the guardian of the Sacred Land was stunned. What kind of monstrous talent was this little guy? He had devoured so much world energy and was actually completely fine.
At the same time, his eyebrows kept twitching. This was one divine pool, just gone like that...
Streams of energy condensed into substance continuously passed through thirty-six thousand tiny pores, endlessly entering Ye Chen's body, allowing him to transform and absorb it.
In fact, this rapid devouring speed was only at the beginning. Later on, the devouring speed had already slowed down considerably. But compared to other cultivators, his devouring speed was still quite astonishing. Streams of world energy continuously poured into his body, and his aura quietly grew stronger and more robust.
Everyone thought that after devouring so much world energy, Ye Chen should break through very soon. But in fact, he shattered everyone's expectations. Three days later, when the cultivation periods of those other cultivators ended, Ye Chen was still absorbing. Although his absorption speed had slowed further, he was still absorbing, and there was still no sign of a breakthrough.
He maintained his absorption the entire time, leaving those people both shocked and sighing in admiration. Truly worthy of being the young great demon king. He could absorb so much world energy and still be fine, and was still continuously absorbing, leaving others far behind.
The Sacred Land guardian had been watching Ye Chen motionlessly the whole time. He very much wanted to know what kind of breakthrough Ye Chen was attempting.
Five days later, Ye Chen was still absorbing...
Ten days later...
Half a month later...
Days passed, and in the blink of an eye, two months had gone by. During this period, the cultivators in the Sacred Land changed batch after batch. Even Xia Teng, Xia Yang, and others came to cultivate. They came and went, not disturbing Ye Chen's cultivation, simply cultivating beside him.
Only, Ye Chen had been in deep seclusion the entire time. He seemed to have completely entered a state of dormancy and slumber, not even opening his eyes once.
If not for the Sacred Land guardian seeing that the black hole above Ye Chen's head never dissipated, always autonomously absorbing world spiritual energy, and sensing the vitality within his body, he would have thought something had happened to him.
After his initial shock, he grew numb to it, no longer frequently observing, seemingly guarding the Sacred Land as usual.
Within Tian Du Academy, Ye Chen's appearance seemed like a flash in the pan. After briefly shining with astonishing brilliance, he completely vanished, no longer appearing, everything returning to normal.
But within the Heaven-tier Academy, no one dared to bully Xia Teng, Vivian, and the others anymore, because Ye Chen's lingering prestige remained. Everyone knew Ye Chen was still in deep seclusion within the Sacred Land.
On this day, within the five superpowers—the three great empires, the one great academy, and the Martial God Hall—powerful auras suddenly erupted, startling all the superpowers.
The five Ancient Talents had emerged from seclusion.