The two went deeper into the forest to search for herbs to aid cultivation, but all they found along the way were young, low-level herbs. Jiang Yun used his Law of Time to accelerate their growth, but not by much, as he didn’t have time to wait for them to be thousands of years old. Though they weren't enough for a Mahayana-stage cultivator to use for advancement, they were old enough for a mortal like Ning Nuo to begin cultivating.
By the time Jiang Yun had led the way to the innermost and most dangerous part of the forest, Ning Nuo had embarked on the road to cultivation, reaching the first level of Qi Refining. In this part of the forest, the majority of the herbs still weren't good enough for Jiang Yun, but one herb caught his eye—a rare herb that would allow him to raise his cultivation by a level once it was old enough. Jiang Yun decided to wait here for the herb to grow, using his Law of Time to accelerate growth.
He estimated he would still have to stay here for a year. The Law of Time from a Mahayana cultivator is still limited, and Jiang Yun could only accelerate time by a few thousand times; for the herb to be effective, it would need to be at least a few thousand years old. So, Jiang Yun decided to live here for a while, using the rest of his resources to cultivate in the meantime.
For a Mahayana-level cultivator, it is very difficult to advance, and Jiang Yun had to constantly look for more resources and collect whatever he could find. Since leaving the cultivation cave that gave him the Law of Time, he had nearly run out of resources and currently only had enough for him to go from his current fifth level to the sixth level of Mahayana. With the herb he was now trying to grow, it would be enough for him to reach the seventh level of Mahayana, but after that, Jiang Yun would be completely out of resources that would let him advance further, as low-level herbs had close to no effect on him.
Jiang Yun, though, was not in a rush and predicted he could ascend within half a century, if not faster. Time passed by, and in that period, Jiang Yun decided that since Ning Nuo was with him, it wouldn’t hurt to improve her cultivation. As Ning Nuo was a mortal, Jiang Yun didn’t have the herbs that were weak enough for her to start cultivating, but as a Qi refiner, he had plenty.
Jiang Yun spent his days cultivating, and when he wasn’t, he would guide Ning Nuo and provide the herbs she needed. If nothing else, Jiang Yun was a treasure trove of old herbs due to his Law of Time, though even with these old herbs, it did not help his own cultivation in the slightest. By the time the herb finally finished growing for Jiang Yun to use, he had finally broken through to the sixth level of Mahayana and was quite satisfied.
Ning Nuo, not to be outdone, had also progressed to Foundation Establishment. Now that he had the herb, Jiang Yun decided to leave and look for other opportunities with Ning Nuo following him. Unfortunately, years passed by and Jiang Yun couldn’t find any new opportunities to break through.
Though he did use the herb and broke through to the seventh level of Mahayana, this gain was expected. On the other hand, Ning Nuo through this made significant progress and used these years to break through to Golden Core. Though Jiang Yun was unhappy, Ning Nuo was quite happy to stay by Jiang Yun for longer.
Just as Jiang Yun was wondering where he should search next, a phenomenon appeared, one that even Jiang Yun would be interested in. This was the opportunity he was searching for, so he took Ning Nuo toward where the phenomenon was. Upon arriving, Jiang Yun saw others just like him who saw the phenomenon; though they were quite weak, he spotted two who were at the first stage of Mahayana, which was still not a problem for Jiang Yun to fight off if need be.
The phenomenon that attracted this crowd was a tomb of a powerful cultivator; from the aura, a very strong Mahayana-realm cultivator must have left this tomb. Perhaps this person failed his Immortality Tribulation and wanted to leave an inheritance behind to continue his lineage. Once the phenomenon faded, the tomb was fully open and many rushed in, including Jiang Yun.
The tomb was filled with dangers, as killing arrays were everywhere and even a Mahayana-realm cultivator could be injured if they weren’t careful. As many died around him, Jiang Yun still ventured forward, and after evading the traps, he was the first to arrive at the main hall of the tomb. Here, high-level spirit stones were piled up, and there were even some high-level herbs.
With all the resources present, Jiang Yun could level up to the eighth level of Mahayana once he used time to further age the herbs present. Though they were high-level herbs, they were still inferior to the one Jiang Yun used before. As Jiang Yun went to collect the treasures, three figures then appeared: a young man at the Nascent Soul realm as well as the two Mahayana-realm cultivators he saw before.
Seeing them, Jiang Yun swiftly stored all the treasures in his storage ring. The group of three, seeing Jiang Yun pocket all the treasures, became furious. The young man then said, "Give me all the treasures you just took and cut off an arm, and I’ll let you go."
Jiang Yun, not afraid, said, "Why would I give these to you? I found them first."
After speaking, Jiang Yun tried to leave with Ning Nuo but was stopped by the two Mahayana-realm cultivators. The young man said, "Since you don’t want to hand them over voluntarily, then I’ll take your life."
The two Mahayana-realm cultivators then launched their full-on attack. Jiang Yun, taking this seriously, used his Law of Time to slow them down and unleashed his full-powered strike, killing one of the Mahayana-realm cultivators immediately. The other Mahayana cultivator, seeing this, tried to retreat but was then also killed by Jiang Yun.
Jiang Yun then looked at the young man. The young man, feeling scared, started threateningly saying, "Those were just elders of my sect! My father is the sect leader of the Eternal Heaven Sect, one of the strongest sects in the central region, which has another three Mahayana in the later stages of Mahayana as well as my father who is about to ascend to immortality. If you kill me, my sect won’t let you go and you will die a gruesome death."
Not wanting to hear more, as he had already heard this line several times, Jiang Yun then easily killed the young man. Jiang Yun then left the tomb with Ning Nuo to somewhere secluded and replanted the herbs and used his Law of Time to continue to let them grow. In the meantime, he used the spirit stones to continue his cultivation.
Years passed by once more as Jiang Yun was busy absorbing spirit stones, which is a much slower process than using refined herbs or pills, so his progress was slow. After a very long period of time, the herbs had finally reached an age old enough to be used by a Mahayana-level cultivator, and Jiang Yun used them and finally broke through to the eighth level of Mahayana.
With his eighth level of Mahayana cultivation, his senses became much keener and he suddenly noticed a faint source of energy far beneath the ground. It was a spirit vein, and a high-level one at that. Jiang Yun felt fortunate; this would be enough for him to finally reach the ninth level of Mahayana.
Jiang Yun then burrowed deep into the ground, leaving Ning Nuo behind to continue cultivating as it was a safe place, and Jiang Yun started to absorb the spirit vein. Even more time passed and years flew by, and Ning Nuo had long since entered the world of adults and become a young woman. Finishing her cultivation, she had reached Nascent Soul, becoming a respectable cultivator in the land.
Jiang Yun, also finishing his absorption of the spirit vein, broke through to the ninth level of Mahayana. He then resurfaced to see Ning Nuo, who was much older; though she still had that shy energy, she had become more mature. That aside, Jiang Yun, who had reached the ninth level of Mahayana, had a thought to go destroy the Eternal Heaven Sect and take their resources to ascend to immortality.
Jiang Yun usually didn’t go out of his way to destroy sects unless they offended him first, and that young man back a few years ago had tried to kill him. Not to mention he was the son of the sect leader, so that man must have been having a manhunt on him right now. With ninth level of Mahayana cultivation and master of the Law of Time, Jiang Yun was confident he could take on a half-immortal and another three Mahayana cultivators.
The rest of the sect weren’t even worth mentioning. Though Jiang Yun wasn’t stupid enough to take them all at once, he decided to pick them off one at a time. Jiang Yun then told Ning Nuo to wait here and continue cultivating while he went out to do something.
Ning Nuo understood and stayed obediently, continuing her cultivation. Jiang Yun then traveled to the Eternal Heaven Sect and waited for Mahayana-realm cultivators to come out of the sect. Jiang Yun didn’t wait long, as a Mahayana-level cultivator came out wearing Eternal Heaven Sect robes.
Seeing this man, Jiang Yun followed behind. Soon they were very far away, and they traveled a long distance before Jiang Yun finally saw his opportunity. Jiang Yun used his Law of Time to slow the Mahayana-realm cultivator down and instantly used his full-power attack.
The Mahayana-realm cultivator could barely see the attack before turning into a mist of blood. Jiang Yun was very satisfied, took his storage ring, and decided to repeat the process. Soon Jiang Yun could hear angry sounds in the Eternal Heaven Sect as one of their Mahayana-realm elders had died.
The Eternal Heaven Sect then sent two more Mahayana-realm cultivators out to see who killed the elder. Jiang Yun, happy to see this, followed behind the two Mahayana cultivators. Soon arriving where the previous Mahayana-realm cultivator had died, Jiang Yun repeated the process, launched an attack on one of the Mahayana-realm cultivators, and killed him.
The other Mahayana-realm cultivator was immediately alarmed but could do nothing as Jiang Yun launched his second attack, killing him too. With this, all the Mahayana cultivators except the sect leader had died, and destroying the rest of the sect would be easy. Collecting the rings, Jiang Yun finally decided to enter the Eternal Heaven Sect directly to kill the sect leader.
Entering the Eternal Heaven Sect, the sect leader immediately sensed it and flew out to meet Jiang Yun. Arriving, the sect leader looked at Jiang Yun and asked, "Are you the one who killed my elders?"
Jiang Yun then replied, "That’s right, it was me."
The sect leader of the Eternal Heaven Sect grew furious and spoke, "Why are you targeting my Eternal Heaven Sect? We have no grudge against you!"
Jiang Yun then replied, "Because your trash son has offended me."
The Eternal Heaven sect leader then said furiously, "You killed my son, I’ll kill you!"
As the Eternal Heaven sect leader was still talking, Jiang Yun launched his attack while using the Law of Time. The Eternal Heaven sect leader, not being weak, broke free from the Law of Time and blocked Jiang Yun’s attack, suffering some minor injuries.
Jiang Yun, seeing this, noticed how this was going to be a long fight and continued his attack. After an exhaustive battle, Jiang Yun finally landed a direct hit on the tired Eternal Heaven sect leader and finally killed him. Jiang Yun then took his ring and immediately left, as he was exhausted right now, and even a Tribulation Transformation cultivator would be able to kill him.
Arriving back at the safe place with Ning Nuo, Jiang Yun started to recover his energy and injuries. Several days later, Jiang Yun finally recovered and went back to the Eternal Heaven Sect.
The sect was in disarray, as the main power of the sect had died; the remaining Tribulation Transformation cultivators were discussing what to do now. While they were busy discussing, Jiang Yun used his full power to conjure a hand in the air and slammed it down on the sect, reducing it to a crater.
Even though he couldn’t do this before due to there being so many strong Mahayana cultivators in the sect, now that there weren’t, Jiang Yun could easily kill the rest of the weaklings in the sect with a casual hit. After finishing, Jiang Yun went back to look at the gains from his massacre.
From what he found, there was more than enough treasure for him to ascend to immortality and much more. Jiang Yun marveled at the wealth that a high-level sect had and went back to cultivating. Several more years later, Jiang Yun reached the peak of the ninth level of Mahayana and could break through to Immortality at any time he wished.
Finishing his seclusion, he went to see Ning Nuo, to which Jiang Yun saw she had reached Soul Formation. Thinking this girl was strong enough on her own now and that he was soon going to ascend, Jiang Yun decided to leave her at a high-level sect.
This way she would have a backing and plenty of resources. Telling Ning Nuo the decision, she was not happy but couldn’t refuse, as she knew her time with Jiang Yun was soon to be over. Over the next couple of months, Jiang Yun looked for a good-natured sect and, upon finding one, stayed to see Ning Nuo become a core disciple of the sect.
Seeing that she would do fine, Jiang Yun then left her enough cultivation resources to reach the Soul Solidification realm, said his goodbyes, and left. Seeing Jiang Yun leave, Ning Nuo felt sadness; it had been thirty years since Jiang Yun took her in.
In this time, she has gained strength and was no longer the young girl she used to be. Though she had short shoulder-length hair and looked tomboyish, she was now very mature. She sighed and went back to her new home, deciding to work hard so she could see him again.
Jiang Yun, after leaving, found a secluded spot and started his Immortality Tribulation. With Jiang Yun’s current power, passing the tribulation was not difficult, and he soon ascended to immortality, leaving the mortal plain he had grown up in.
What remained was a vast, scorched patch of land, devastated by the repeated lightning strikes of the tribulation. The area was left barren and silent, showing no signs of life, yet it marked the spot where another great cultivator had surpassed the shackles of mortality.