Chapter 1427: Submerged Cloud Seal
Sky Cloud Realm was the extension of the Immortal Cloud Field.
It used one's autonomous realm power and had even more variations than the autonomous realm itself.
It was also an important tool in Wu Yu's arsenal.
Wu Yu had only recently mastered Sky Cloud Realm, and still had some time.
"If I meet Gu Huo Immortal Lord or Mo Yuji, I must defeat them expediently to be able to obtain the 10th Grade Mark of an Immortal King. Therefore, I need to increase my other top-level moves, besides just a cultivation realm increase."
That was why he was not satisfied with just a Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth improvement, but continued to refine his Somersault Cloud.
Somersault Cloud was actually a way of using the Dao of the Void, but represented by the image of a cloud.
A breakthrough in this aspect depended greatly on Wu Yu's progress on the Dao of the Void.
If he could make inroads here, he would have an easier time fusing his Dao of the Void into his immortal spirit world nucleus as well.
Yet ultimately, Dao of the Void, Dao of Time Manipulation, and Dao of Devouring were all the hardest daos. Wu Yu was currently a 6-realm immortal lord, but it would be much harder for him to become a 7, 8, or 9-realm immortal lord.
It required new insights into the Dao of the Void.
And the Somersault Cloud was Wu Yu's bridge into it.
Time, and Devouring.
"Void."
Occasionally he would exit the Floating Dreams Pagoda, coming to the space of hell to feel the vastness of the world with his body. He came to experience reality and the void.
"The void seems to sustain reality. Qian Kun space might warp or shatter, but the void is eternal.
The void was indeed more essential than Qian Kun space.
It was as though there was a painting, in which there was a big tree. If the big tree represented all the life in the world - the trees and flowers, the sun, moon, and stars - then the white space on the canvas, unpainted, was Qian Kun space. And the void was the drawing board itself.
This painting could be easily ripped away, and a fresh piece of paper attached. A new world could be created, but the drawing board itself was eternal. It was not changed, and not replaced.
Unless one day, someone had strength enormous enough to smash the drawing board.
Actually, there were many immortals who were proficient in Qian Kun space-related dao and Mystiques.
But the Dao of the Void was even more profound and incomprehensible compared to Dao of Qian Kun space.
One simple example was that if Qian Kun space was rent, then the heaven and earth would eventually restore itself. As for the gap created, that was the void. Indescribably enigmatic.
But if even the void was destroyed, then things might likely never recovery. That rift would remain forever broken.
Therefore, if one wanted to know the void, one had to know the Dao of the Void. Bringing Somersault Cloud to the next level was no easy task.
But once it succeeded, it would be a huge boon for Wu Yu!
This was because the next tier of Somersault Cloud was called Submerged Cloud Seal.
Just from the name alone, this was definitely an offensive usage of the Somersault Cloud.
Among Wu Yu's four great Mystiques, Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth and Unshackled Doppelganger were rather fixed, while Eyes of Fire and Gold and Somersault Cloud continued to change.
Between them, Eyes of Fire and Gold had always favored the offensive, bringing speed and power to the table.
As for Somersault Cloud, it had more support utility. Finally at the sixth tier, some offensive capabilities were being uncovered.
Submerged Cloud Seal utilized the Somersault Cloud in the void, creating a violent shaking of the void. This was not a single earthquake. At least from what Wu Yu understood so far, a voidquake held tremendous power. If used directly on the opponent, it could vaporize them in an instant. It was a fearsome and deadly technique.
It was not just fearsome, but did not require any immortal treasure to use. Wu Yu's physical body strength alone could draw it out. This meant that once Wu Yu had mastered this Mystique, he could have another terrifying sure-kill technique up his sleeve.
Of course, with terrifying power came a terrifyingly difficult cultivation process. There were many ways to cause space to warp, distort, or quake.
But to make the fundamental "void" shake, this was a much more profound process. Without a godly Mystique like the Somersault Cloud, no one else would be able to do it.
Wu Yu had still been keeping an eye on things outside, but totally lost track of things as he started to focus on Submerged Cloud Seal.
He was completely absorbed in his improvement. Even while Astral Hell lost their minds over the 10th Grade Mark of an Immortal King, he did not go out.
He told Full Moon of Nanshan and the others not to notify him unless something truly monumental happened.
Luckily, there were no major changes for a while.
Wu Yu focused on experiencing the void and voidquakes, with no other thoughts in his heart.
He only periodically reminded himself to keep Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord in slumber, and keep Nangong Wei's consciousness growing.
Other times, he was completely engrossed in the Submerged Cloud Seal, and he had even forgotten time's passing.
"Void sustains Qian Kun, and all life."
"It is the core of all things."
"It is the base of all reality."
"With the Somersault Cloud, I can enter the void, and pass through the void. Even so, I cannot stay, but linger only for a brief moment."
Within the Floating Dreams Pagoda, Wu Yu could use Fulgurating Shadows to enter the void and leave it without restriction.
But the void within the Floating Dreams Pagoda was too small, and difficult to execute. But he had no choice. Only here could he have that much time. Otherwise, he would not be able to raise his Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth even one tier on the 100 years of the Great Void Immortal Path.
Each time he entered the void, he did his best to absorb the feeling, even if it were for a brief moment only. He even tried his best to push against the void.
All of his attacks were swallowed up, like a pebble entering the ocean. Soundless.
Let alone create a quake.
However, Wu Yu did not give up. After ascending to immortality, many of the truly profound techniques required endless amounts of time.
For example, Full Moon of Nanshan and Ye Xixi had been in the Floating Dreams Pagoda for more than 8000 years now. And with Wu Yu's Imparting, they had managed to reach this cultivation realm.
It was normal for immortals to spend dozens of milennia in cultivation or seclusion. It was like a year of seclusion for mortals.
He strove for calm, and entered the void again and again, flitting between void and Qian Kun space. Each time, he had a brief glimpse of the void, in which he tried to use the Submerged Cloud Seal. Although he did not succeed, and did not even feel the slightest glimmer of understanding, but he did this thousands and thousands of times each day, until he was too tired to continue.
He would recuperate for a bit, then enter his training with redoubled vigor.
It could be said that cultivating Submerged Cloud Seal would be a dozen times harder than improving the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth.
Wu Yu had never been through such a trial before.
Each day, he would make thousands of attempts. In a year, the total rose until it was too high to count. He spent more than 500 years here, making thousands of attempts every single day.
For such a high-level Mystique, even the revelations of three ghostly kings only helped him a little.
A pity that in these 500 years, his improvement was not big. Finally, he had started to feel an inkling of the "destruction", even if he could produce something resembling the Submerged Cloud Seal.
But the feeling of the void was very shallow. He had not managed to reach the depths of its destructive power. It was as though he was producing light ripples on the surface of a lake, but was still unable to whip it into the fury of a tempest.
He not only needed to continue drilling, but needed to consider why his Submerged Cloud Seal could only create ripples, but not waves.
He had the strength to do it.
"That I can only create ripples and not waves shows that I am too far from the void. It is as if I am too far from the lake, and can only ripple it from afar. If I am closer, things would be different."
He definitely had the raw power to create waves.
"Therefore, I must get closer to the void."
"It does not simply mean that my body is in the void, and so I am near the void." Wu Yu suddenly had an epiphany. It made him recall the rainbow pearl. He had thought he was close, but still it was very far.
It was the exact same feeling now. He thought that he was in the void, but he was actually very far away from the void. The void had depth to it, just like the drawing board had a thickness. True power was not achieved just by knocking on the board's surface, but by penetrating the board through its depth and thickness, in order to create real waves. Once the voidquake boomed out, all things on it would face true destruction.
When one destroyed the drawing board, the drawings would naturally disappear.
This was a revolutionary change to his thinking. His experience with the rainbow pearl had given Wu Yu many new epiphanies. He started to think about how he could plunge the depths of the voice to enter that lake.
The answer might be very simple.
It might be just to grit his teeth and soldier on, as he had the last time.
He continued to enter the void. Each time he did, he thought of ways to stay longer. This required a more sophisticated wielding of the Somersault Cloud.
Once, twice, one thousand times, ten thousand times.
After this, he was still in the void for a moment. But a moment varied greatly in its length. Before, Wu Yu's moment was truly a brief flash, but now his moment could borderline reach one breath's time.
After he passed the marker of one breath's time, Wu Yu had a different sensation in the void now.
In that instant, he lashed out with the Submerged Cloud Seal, and felt the void shake powerfully for the first time!
The sheer magnitude of the quake - it was a synonym for destruction itself!
By the time Wu Yu savored this wild feeling of accomplishment, 600 years had passed.
"If I can just stick both hands deep into the void, and blast out Submerged Cloud Seal, then I would have truly completed Submerged Cloud Seal by shaking both the void and Qian Kun space together."
Wu Yu thought, elated.