[Congratulations! The 300 years of novice protection period has passed!]
[The Omnipotent Immortal Cultivation System will continue to serve you and protect your path to immortality!]
[Warm reminder! Your novice benefits have expired! If you need to extend the time limit, please recharge it and upgrade to an all-rounded cultivation package!]
[Your version of the system is relatively low and has yet to be upgraded. Do you want to upgrade the system?]
[Yes / No]
Along with a series of system notifications, Cui Heng could clearly sense that everything around him was rapidly disappearing.
First, the Beginner’s Hut disappeared. Then, the Beginner’s Farm disappeared.
Following that, he lost his connection with the Yellow-scarved Strongman. His Treasure Robe and Flying Sword also disappeared into thin air.
This was what it meant when the novice protection period expired.
It was naturally impossible to continue staying in the Beginner’s Space.
In the blink of an eye, the naked Cui Heng left the Beginner’s Space and reappeared in a forest full of trees.
The giant trees here towered into the sky, blocking out the sunlight. The temperature was damp, and the air felt somewhat sticky.
“That’s too ridiculous. It didn’t even leave me some clothes?”
Cui Heng complained helplessly. Fortunately, he had already attained the Grand Completion stage of the Golden Core Realm. With a thought, he used his Dharmic powers to condense a new set of clothes for himself.
However, he burst into laughter soon. “This is rather interesting. Letting me descend into this world naked can be considered as the start of a new life.”
After all, he had been cultivating for 300 years, so he quickly calmed down. As he surveyed his surroundings, he was also considering what he should do next.
“This seems to be a primeval forest. There’s no one here. Tsk, why does it look like the same forest as when I just transmigrated here?”
Cui Heng suddenly felt that something was amiss.
His gaze swept across the surrounding trees and then checked the ground beneath his feet. His expression became strange. “This is actually the forest where I was when I transmigrated here!”
The soil and trees in the novice space were “dug up” from these woods. He naturally knew them.
What did this mean?
This meant that after he walked out of the Beginner’s Space, he had actually returned to the same world he was in when he first transmigrated!
It was also the same high-level immortal realm that caused the System to issue an alarm in the first place.
“Ah, this…” Cui Heng suddenly felt a numb feeling on his scalp.
What happened to the Beginner’s Space that was supposed to be shuttling in the void between the myriad worlds?
To think that he had spent so much effort to find out about the outside world, wanting to make preparations for himself after he left.
In the end, he still returned to the starting point?
“System, what’s going on? Am I still in the same world as when I first transmigrated here?” Cui Heng frowned slightly as he asked in his heart.
[The Omnipotent Immortal Cultivation System will continue to serve you and protect your path to immortality!]
[Warm reminder! Your novice benefits have expired! If you need to extend the time limit, please recharge it and upgrade to an all-rounded cultivation package!]
[Your version of the system is relatively low and has yet to be upgraded. Do you want to upgrade the system?]
[Yes / No]
He only received a series of notifications.
“…” The corner of Cui Heng’s mouth twitched. He resisted the urge to curse and ordered the system, “Yes!”
[Congratulations! Respected host, you have passed the novice stage. The System will upgrade to the latest version!]
[Upgrade begin!]
[Progress… 0.1%… 0.3%… 0.31%…]
Then, a day and night passed.
Only 10% was downloaded!
Fortunately, Cui Heng was already an experienced cultivator. When he was cultivating in seclusion, he would sit for more than 10 years or even decades. He could afford to wait for 10 days.
Sure enough, after waiting for 10 days, the System upgrade progress finally reached 99%!
Then, it stopped moving!
Even after 20 days, it was still 99%. There was no sign of growth.
Ridiculous!
“I can’t just wait here forever.”
Cui Heng finally couldn’t sit still anymore and started to consider where he should go.
To him, this was an extremely dangerous world. A place like the forest that had no defensive capabilities was not safe at all.
If some great Immortal cultivators were to fight in the sky, any random spell would raze this forest to the ground. He would also be implicated.
In fact, there was no need for them to be too powerful.
As long as a few Nascent Soul cultivators fought, the shockwaves from the battle could shatter his body.
If his Golden Core could survive, that would be fine. He could slowly revive again. But if the Golden Core was destroyed, he would truly be destroyed in body and soul.
It would be best if he could hide in some mountain cave.
The higher the mountain, the safer it was.
The bunker was big enough.
With a mountain as a buffer, he might not be killed instantly.
However, he soon realized that it would not be difficult for him to destroy a mountain with his current Golden Core cultivation.
With his current strength, he only needed one punch to turn a small mountain under 1,000 foot into dust.
If he really encountered a battle between experts, unless he hid in a 100,000 foot tall mountain, it didn’t seem very safe either.
As he thought of this, he carefully flew into the sky and looked into the distance. He discovered that there were no tall mountain ranges around him.
Moreover, there was a village about 30 li away.
This meant that this place was not really far from human habitation.
If there were people gathered nearby, there was a possibility that there would be powerful beings and almighty beings. There was also a possibility that he would encounter beings that he could not resist.
As for going to the village to inquire about the situation, he didn’t even think about it.
Before having full confidence in self-preservation, contact with any stranger can lead to danger.
Hence, after careful consideration, Cui Heng looked at the ground beneath his feet.
Following that, he secretly circulated his Dharmic powers as his body lit up with a faint golden glow.
At the same time, the ground under Cui Heng’s feet seemed to be pulled by some invisible force, and it automatically parted to the sides. His entire body slowly sank into the ground.
That’s right. After thinking about it, he still felt that it was safer to hide underground.
In any case, his Golden Core had already reached the Grand Completion stage. He did not need to eat, drink, or even breathe. His body was already indestructible and could withstand the immense pressure underground.
Hiding tens of thousands of meters underground was much safer than hiding in a cave.
As for the method of sinking into the soil, it was actually a Divine power that was naturally produced after he refined his Golden Core.
He called it the Five Elements Retreat.
This included the Water-Repelling Technique, Fire-Repelling Technique, Earth-Repelling Technique, etc.
“After the novice period benefits expired, I can’t even continue to use the Beginner’s Immortal Cultivation Technique. Otherwise, I can cultivate underground until I transcend the tribulation and ascend.”
Cui Heng pondered as he sank deeper into the ground. “Right now, I only know the method to break through to the Nascent Soul Stage. The rest of the content can only be seen after recharging. I’m afraid that I’ll still have to leave after the System finishes upgrading.
“However, as long as I open the charging channel, I’ll be able to recharge and extend the use of the Beginner’s Space. If I encounter danger, I’ll be able to hide in the Beginner’s Space, and I’ll be able to protect myself.”
The content of the Immortal technique was too complicated. It was impossible to understand the contents of a higher realm in advance. It was impossible to even memorize it.
Thus, even though he had read through the entire Beginner’s Immortal Cultivation Technique, he did not manage to memorize it.
“Huh?!”
Right at this moment, Cui Heng suddenly let out a soft gasp of surprise. He felt that the underground path that he was taking was blocked.
He had only sunk about a dozen meters so far.
“What happened?”
Cui Heng took a closer look and realized that it was a huge slab of stone. It was blocking in front of him and from the looks of it, it was obviously man-made. There were also many pieces of stone that were laid together.
There was such a thing more than 10 meters underground. It was probably a tomb.
Cui Heng wasn’t interested in tombs.
However, just as he was about to take a detour, he suddenly received a System prompt.
[Congratulations! System upgrade has been completed! Charging channel has been opened!]
[Congratulations! You have discovered an item that can be converted into currency. Do you want to convert it immediately?]