The myth begins with the Lotus Lantern

Chapter 199 Nineteen Years

“Seventh brother, you’re just young. With the abilities of us brothers, what can’t we get?” said the Bull Demon King.

The stone monkey smiled.

A joyous feast.

……

Seven days later, three streaks of light rose from the mountain and departed.

After the initial excitement, the Water Curtain Cave returned to its quiet state.

Watching the demons depart, the stone monkey's eyes were slightly hazy with intoxication. Looking at the mess of cups and plates on the ground, he got up, walked through the waterfall, and suddenly felt a sense of loss. He didn't ride the clouds, but just walked around the mountain. From nothing to something, this was his kingdom. So, a smile appeared on his lips, and he leaned against an ancient tree and sat down.

As the sun sets in the west, dappled sunlight falls on the stone monkey's face, while a cool breeze rustles the leaves.

The stone monkey suddenly felt sleepy. Since that was the case, he decided to sleep and closed his eyes.

Suddenly, the world spun around me, and I felt as if I had entered a completely different world. In my daze, I felt something being put around my neck.

The stone monkey didn't open his eyes. He thought the little demons were helping him back to the cave, so he let this force pull him along, and walked forward in a daze.

I don't know how much time had passed when a cacophony of noise rose in my ears.

The stone monkey opened its eyes in frustration, only to find itself in a place it had never been before, with a chain as thick as a bowl around its neck.

A chilling wind swept over us, and the room was filled with ghosts and monsters!
……

No matter how turbulent things are outside, the Peach Garden remains unchanged, like a secluded little world.

The area was divided into sections, with a pavilion set up every five li (approximately 2.5 kilometers) to be guarded by local deities.

Under the established rules, they operate in an orderly manner, just like many parallel lines in a plane. They seem to be very close, but they never intersect and are never chaotic.

Among the lands, Ding Lin is somewhat special. The other lands require the care of fruit trees, and each has some spirit farmers under his command.

Ding Lin only guarded a pool of water, free from those tedious mundane affairs, and naturally had no subordinates. Except for the daily morning when a female immortal would come with a token to fetch water, the surroundings were completely quiet and without a sound.

Within a radius of five miles, a person and a pond constitute a small world.

This is indeed a treasure land for cultivation, and also...

Draw the ground as a prison.

Fortunately, Ding Lin had been through it before, and he was already used to loneliness, even finding it pleasant.

Cultivation is inherently a solitary pursuit. Before achieving the Golden Immortal status, one's lifespan is limited. The so-called attainment of immortality is, before that, a race against time.

Days passed one by one.

Abundant spiritual energy is more captivating than any elixir.

Ding Lin has already cultivated a dragon body, which is the most advanced physical body for demons before reaching the Immortal Realm. However, his cultivation level is only over six thousand years, and he is still far from the bottleneck before reaching the Immortal Realm.

So every day, every hour, every moment, Ding Lin could feel his progress. He was like a sponge that had been thrown into the sea and absorbed and seized everything without restraint.

Half a year later, Ding Lin's cultivation level had increased to seven thousand years.

It's like a dream.

This was a speed that Ding Lin couldn't even imagine when he was in the lower realm.

The cultivation of the Primordial Spirit Realm is a threshold every thousand years.

After seven thousand years of cultivation, the rate of growth has slowed down slightly. Originally, cultivating by the pool for one day would increase one's cultivation by five years, but now it only increases it by two years.

Fortunately, only the rate of increase in cultivation level was slightly slower.

Another year and a half has passed, which, combined with the time before, is about two years.

Ding Lin's cultivation level undoubtedly broke through to eight thousand years.

The pure dragon body was indeed extraordinary. This watershed, which many powerful demons of the primordial spirit level considered an insurmountable barrier, was crossed by him in one fell swoop, without the slightest hesitation. With eight thousand years of cultivation, the chances of becoming an immortal during the tribulation would be greatly increased.

The pace of cultivation has slowed down again.

One day in the mortal realm is equivalent to one year in the lower realm.

Ding Lin was pleasantly surprised, but he also knew that his smooth cultivation was coming to an end. He was not a pure wild demon, and he had some knowledge. Yang Chan had explained many key points to him in detail before he became an immortal.

Before one's cultivation has truly broken through to the Immortal Realm, one's cultivation level is at most 49, and 10,000 years is an insurmountable gap.

In fact, those who can achieve a cultivation level of nine thousand years in the mortal realm are often due to other factors. For example, young dragons and true phoenixes, or stone monkeys, are born extraordinary and have a strong foundation, so their cultivation is naturally smooth. For ordinary beings, a cultivation level of about eight thousand years is the maximum they can reach.

Another year has passed.

Ding Lin's cultivation level only reached 8,200 years. His cultivation speed of increasing by one year per day only lasted for about half a month when his cultivation level just broke through 8,000 years, and then it became slower and slower.

Nowadays, one day of cultivation only yields an increase of three months' worth of spiritual power.

Ding Lin guessed that a bottleneck might be approaching.

In the days that followed, his cultivation became increasingly difficult, and the amount of progress he made with each cultivation session decreased.

From two months to one month.

Ten more days...

Having experienced the feeling of rapid advancement before, the increasingly slow pace of cultivation now creates a sense of inexplicable disappointment.

Ding Lin was no exception, but besides cultivating, he had nothing else to do by the pool, so he could only continue cultivating. Gradually, his mindset was tempered and calmed down again.

……

Sixteen years.

Even now, cultivating in such a spiritually rich place is only equivalent to cultivating for one day.

If one were in the lower realms, their cultivation would likely have stagnated long ago.

Another morning, after the handover of the pool water.

Ding Lin withdrew his smile, slowly walked back to the pavilion, and looked up at the sun.

In the sky, because it was closer, the sun, which fell into my eyes, was as big as a house, and even the shadow of the hibiscus tree was vaguely visible.

The sun blazes across the sky, its power truly awe-inspiring.

When Ding Lin first saw it, he was also shocked, but as time went by and he saw it many times, it just became nothing special. Just like cultivation, after the initial novelty and excitement, it eventually returns to normalcy.

Ding Lin exhaled, closed his eyes, and began another day of cultivation.

From day to night...

Looking inside.

The demonic energy gathered in the meridians, while the dantian was emptied, allowing the spiritual energy to converge. It was almost full, just a little bit more away.

As Ding Lin began to circulate his demonic energy, a gap appeared in his meridians. Under the influence of the powerful spiritual pressure from the outside, a wisp of spiritual energy squeezed in with difficulty, passed through his lungs and internal organs, traversed his meridians, and finally reached his dantian.

The last bit of spiritual energy replenished it.

Within the dantian, the golden core spun rapidly, and the next moment the dantian suddenly became empty, giving birth to a new wisp of demonic energy.

He gained another year of cultivation.

This is an unusual year.

The 8,500th century.

Yang Chan once told Ding Lin that after reaching the primordial spirit stage, one's cultivation level would change every thousand years. However, this statement had a second part: this pattern only applied to the period eight thousand years ago.

(End of this chapter)