My gorgeous wife

For most cultivators whose cultivation has reached a certain level, a single year of Time basically doesn’t count as Time at all.

And ever since that duel appointment on the Nine Heavens Continent was set, in the blink of an eye half a year had already passed.

During this half year, Li Chen’s days were remarkably calm and unruffled.

He did not enter Closed-door Cultivation, because in his current condition, whether he secluded himself or not was all the same, and besides, for him, raising his cultivation—especially at his present stage—no longer required Closed-door Cultivation.

Most of the Time, apart from cultivation, Li Chen would quietly come to the peak of the mountain where he lived in seclusion, calmly watching the rising and setting of sun and moon, and the scenery in the distance.

This was a stretch of mountains and rivers of beautiful scenery.

And this stretch of mountains and rivers served as Li Chen’s place of seclusion.

Unlike when he had just started over from the beginning, when he had to advance step by step, footprint by footprint. Once he reached his current Realm, there was no need to deliberately pursue any speed; as long as the Energy he absorbed was sufficient, his cultivation would naturally follow.

Because Li Chen’s Soul Realm fundamentally didn’t need cultivation.

His Divine Soul was already considered exceptionally strong even among Dao Saints. Could a Divine Soul at the Soul Realm Grade possibly be stronger than his current Divine Soul?

During this half year, Li Chen lived like an elderly man in the mortal world.

When not cultivating, he would read some ancient books and miscellaneous texts of the Jianmu Universe, and chat with the Seven Realms Tome. From Time to Time he would sit alone on the mountaintop, staring off into the distance in a daze—sometimes, once he drifted off, it would be for an entire day.

He even found several wild tea trees in the forest and transplanted them to his secluded dwelling.

In his leisure, he would even brew himself a pot of tea.

One should know, in the past Li Chen had almost never drunk tea.

Watching the morning sun slowly rise, Li Chen’s expression seemed a bit wooden, a calm face carrying a certain indescribable quality.

At this moment, the voice of the Seven Realms Tome slowly came.

"You’ve grown old."

Li Chen stared blankly for a moment, then came back to himself: "Why do you say that? Compared to my lifespan, I’m still very young right now, aren’t I?"

"I’m not talking about your body or your Divine Soul. I mean, your heart has grown old." The Seven Realms Tome spoke evenly.

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Old... is it?" Li Chen lowered his head, fell slightly silent: "Perhaps."

Perhaps it wasn’t that Li Chen’s heart had grown old, but that the things he had gone through were simply far too many.

Among them, far too many were things beyond bearing. Though he had gritted his teeth and endured, those experiences had left scar after scar in his heart. Unwittingly, that once hot-blooded heart of his had become weathered, had withered.

"It took you one month to recover to the Sixth Rank, and another month to break through and reach the Ninth Order. Yet at Ninth Order you’ve already stayed for half a year." The Seven Realms Tome spoke again.

Two months, from Domain Realm Second Layer to Soul Realm Third Layer—that is, Heavenly Rank Ninth Stage Peak.

In the eyes of outsiders, this would be almost inconceivable. But for Li Chen, it was as simple as things naturally falling into place.

Yet once he reached the Peak of the Soul Realm, Li Chen’s surging cultivation abruptly stagnated.

This stagnation lasted half a year.

"There are still four months until that duel appointment you set. But in your current condition, let alone four months, I think even if you were given another four years, forty years, or even four hundred, four thousand years, you still wouldn’t be able to return to the Palm Realm!" The voice of the Seven Realms Tome suddenly grew much more severe.

It did not believe Li Chen himself had failed to see the problem, but he simply refused to face it, and so he was dragging things out in this decadent posture.

Dragging it out for a full half year!

"What exactly are you thinking?!" the Seven Realms Tome demanded.

"What I’m thinking..." Li Chen shook his head. "I don’t know either. I just suddenly feel it’s all a bit meaningless, that’s all. During this period, my State of Mind has been in chaos."

"Then... very well." The voice of the Seven Realms Tome paused for a moment, then sighed. "But in the end, you still have to face it."

In the voice of the Seven Realms Tome, there was a fullness of sympathy.

Because only it knew, in those past Eighty Million Years, what sort of Hell Li Chen had gone through.

A person cycling from madness to clarity, back and forth countless times—what kind of willpower was needed for him not to utterly collapse.

And even now, these were nothing more than tiny, insignificant aftereffects of that terrifying ordeal.

To explain it using the most straightforward phrase of mortals, that would be... Li Chen had developed schizophrenia.

At Times paranoid, at Times fervent, at Times decadent, at Times incisive.

These were some of the conditions Li Chen displayed after waking from that long Eighty Million Year sleep.

No one knew how shattered this man, who had always valued his family more than himself, had been when he watched his parents die before his eyes.

Nor did anyone know, during that long Eighty Million Years, when he could only shrink into a ball within his own sea of consciousness, warding off the erosion of Black Qi again and again, just how desperate he had been.

But he endured.

Only the price he paid was far greater than what others could imagine.

"In your current condition, there’s no way you can once again condense the Way of the Palm Realm and return to the Palm Realm." The Seven Realms Tome said.

"I know." Li Chen nodded slightly.

"Without being able to return to the Palm Realm, you can’t bring out the full Power of that Universe of yours. Once a Palm Source Realm expert truly goes all out, you’ll be doomed without a doubt!"

"I know that too." Li Chen calmly took a sip of tea. "It’s just that I don’t know why—somehow I still can’t rouse my fighting spirit. Maybe it really is as you say, I’ve grown old."

"You..." The Seven Realms Tome snorted, somewhat angry at his failure to strive, then fell silent, saying no more.

Li Chen raised his head and looked at the sky gradually growing bright. "Back at the very beginning, when I started cultivating, what was it for, really?"

Just then, as Li Chen sat on the mountaintop, he suddenly saw a thin figure in the forest below, running for his life.

And behind that thin figure was a tiger with fur of many colors all over its body.

There was no doubt this was a very vicious Ferocious Beast.

The thin figure’s breathing was ragged; clearly he was already close to collapse from running. But the Gigantic Colorful Tiger behind him was keeping close, and drawing nearer and nearer.

With the strength of this Gigantic Colorful Tiger, it clearly could catch up to that thin figure in an instant, but the Gigantic Colorful Tiger obviously wanted to toy with its prey.

Though the thin figure’s face was deathly pale, his eyes were filled with a desire to survive. He did not want to die.

"I heard the herb gatherers say that up ahead is the recently appeared ’Ferocious Demon Forbidden Land’. As long as I get inside, no Ferocious Demon will dare step in. If I can just flee into there, I’ll live!"

"Live—I have to live!"

The youth pressed his lips tightly together, not daring to make a sound and waste even a shred of strength, but his expression conveyed everything he wanted to say.

"Live?!" Looking at the youth’s determined expression, Li Chen realized at some point he had already set his teacup down.