Cultivation Begins from Infancy - Chapter 319

Volume 3 - Chapter 53: The Supreme Haotian - Part 3

When they learned what had happened, everyone was stunned. Even Li Tiangang froze, staring at his wife in shock.

The many criminals, terrified for their lives, shifted all the blame onto Ji Qingqing, claiming she was given the choice to stop them but failed to act.

Facing the crowd’s accusations, Ji Qingqing, overwhelmed by grief, could not defend herself. In that moment, the choice she had made left her with no grounds for argument.

“You… how could you…”

Ji Yunqing and Ji Yun Yue, though present at the scene, only now grasped the full details. They were so furious they nearly fainted.

“That was your son!!”

Ji Yun Yue stomped her foot and shouted, “He had a future ahead of him! How could you bear to destroy it?!”

Ji Qingqing trembled uncontrollably, her tears blurring her vision as she choked out, “I didn’t want to choose. If it were possible, I’d trade my life for his. But there was no such choice... I didn’t know what to do. My husband and I have faced life and death together for over a decade. I couldn’t bring myself to betray him…”

“Then could you bear to betray that child?!”

Ji Yunqing, enraged, roared at her niece, “Do you know what he risked to come to the Ji family for you? That child is of mixed blood—he was risking his very life just to get here!”

“For you, he endured humiliation and fought against prodigies. He never intended to claim the Ji family’s Dao Seed. It was all for you that he gambled his life in battle. How could you be so heartless?!”

“If it weren’t for him, you couldn’t have cleared your crimes, and your husband wouldn’t even be alive to stay in the Ji family!”

Ji Qingqing was stunned. She turned to look at Li Tiangang and asked, “Wasn’t it you who brought him here?”

Li Tiangang, his initial shock now buried, felt his emotional defenses collapse at his wife’s words. He was filled with both grief and self-loathing. If he hadn’t stepped onto that fateful chain, there would have been no such choice to make.

“I came to find him. He left the Li family, and I wanted to bring him back…”

Li Tiangang turned his head in sorrow, unable to meet his wife’s gaze.

“Left the Li family?”

Ji Qingqing froze.

Li Tiangang was unwilling to elaborate further. He only said, “After returning from the Yanbei battlefield, there was some conflict between us. It was my fault—I shouldn’t have been so harsh with him. I came here because I was worried something would happen to him…”

Ji Qingqing murmured, “But you even told him the name we once chose… wasn’t your relationship harmonious?”

“Haor was exceptionally clever as a child—he remembered things even from when he was only a few months old. I never told him, so you must have mentioned it yourself. He must have remembered…” Li Tiangang’s eyes reddened as he spoke.

Ji Qingqing’s face turned ashen as a memory surfaced in her mind. Before the expedition to Yanbei, she had whispered that name to their child while holding him. That was the only time she had ever mentioned it.

That child… remembered.

Then he must have remembered other things too.

Ji Qingqing’s tears poured as she covered her mouth, unable to imagine the heartbreak and despair that child must have felt if he came with such hopes, only to be cast into the abyss.

“It’s my fault, all my fault…”

She broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.

Ji Daoxin and the others glared at them in anger. It was not just rage but also helplessness. No amount of reprimands could undo the damage now.

Ji Daoxin gave the order to execute all the criminals on Prison Sky Island, including the Mad Elder.

The Mad Elder, upon hearing his impending execution, didn’t cry or beg for mercy. Instead, he laughed maniacally, as if he had long since lost his sanity.

One elder furiously proposed executing Li Tiangang as well and imprisoning Ji Qingqing back on Prison Sky Island.

This suggestion received support from many but also faced opposition. Some argued that although the child was dead, he had still perished as the Ji family’s Dao Seed.

As such, his parents still held prestigious identities. Killing or imprisoning them outright would cause unrest within the family.

After a heated debate, Ji Daoxin made the final decision.

The couple was expelled from the Ji family, forbidden ever to return.

Li Tiangang was spared because he was Li Hao’s blood father. Moreover, given the complexity of the situation and the fact that Li Tiangang was not the direct culprit, his life was spared.

However, with Li Hao gone, the Ji family severed all ties with Li Tiangang as an outsider.

Ji Qingqing was also stripped of her Ji family status. Though not the main perpetrator, she was indirectly responsible for Li Hao’s death.

Failing to protect the Dao Seed during a time of crisis was a grave offense.

...

Time flew by.

A month had passed since news of Li Hao’s demise.

What began as shock and heated discussion had now faded into occasional mentions. It wasn’t that people had forgotten; they simply didn’t want to reopen the wound.

Ji Daoxin and Ji Tianchao personally went to the abyss. Standing at the edge, they gazed into the silent Blood Lake below, where chaotic Dao Intent raged above it, and both fell into silence.

No wonder the Third Ancestor didn’t intervene. With such rampant Dao Intent, even they would have suffered grievous injuries if they had descended.

“Has the Ji family’s fortune truly declined…”

Ji Daoxin stood at the abyss, murmuring to himself with a downcast expression.

A prodigious talent like Li Hao, even as a mixed-blood, had been a gift from the heavens. Yet, he had fallen so quickly.

Ji Tianchao remained silent. What he mourned was not just the child’s immense talent but also the brief time they had spent together.

The Third Brother’s trust, his last request, had also gone unfulfilled. If the Third Brother knew, he would undoubtedly be heartbroken.

...

...

...

Beneath the chaotic abyss, in the depths of the tranquil Blood Lake, a small white skull no larger than a baby’s fist was submerged in the blood.

Apart from this skull, the rest of the body had completely disappeared. The skull intermittently emitted faint streaks of crimson-gold light.

The True Demon Art of Spirit Sacrifice was still in operation, continuously refining. Li Hao’s consciousness remained calm, drawing threads of power from the Blood Lake like weaving fine strands, relentlessly attacking the bottleneck before him.

Time held no meaning for him, but he could not afford to stop even for a moment. Any pause would mean eternal darkness awaited him.

Days passed, and the skull, eroded by the blood’s corrosive energy, shrank even further until it was as small as a thumbnail.

Li Hao’s awareness grew increasingly faint, yet he did not waver. The white bone, drifting with the blood currents, was reduced to a fragment the size of a soybean.

Li Hao’s soul, now compressed into this tiny fragment, was nearly obliterated. His heart burned with rage and sorrow as he chose to ignite his very soul, pushing himself to the limit to absorb the Blood Lake’s power at the fastest possible rate.

With his soul burning like a candle, the rate of absorption soared.

Suddenly, with a resounding crash, the bottleneck shattered.

An unimaginable surge of vitality flooded into the fragment of bone. Li Hao felt himself entering a mystical state—one he was intimately familiar with, having experienced it during every other extreme breakthrough.

He immediately understood: the bottleneck he had just overcome was the Three Immortals Realm!

Although only a fragment of bone remained of him, Li Hao had a profound sense that this boundless vitality was so potent that even a single drop of blood could allow him to be reborn!

Beyond the vitality, his soul underwent a transformation, fusing completely with the bone fragment. Now, any remnant of his body carried his spirit, and from even a single thought, he could achieve Blood Regeneration!

Immortal, imperishable, and undying—this was the Three Immortals Realm.

Li Hao renamed this realm the Undying Immortal Realm.

This realm was one of ultimate refinement of the body. In the Undying Realm, divine blood could transmit one’s spirit. In the Unbreakable Realm, one could charge unscathed through armies, their sacred body unbreakable. In the Undying Realm, one could unleash latent physical power to generate endless energy in an instant.

This extreme cultivation path honed the body to its pinnacle: divine blood carried divine thought, and the spirit could regenerate endlessly.

Simply put, unless Li Hao’s body was reduced to ashes, no force could truly destroy him.

Compared to the formidable survival abilities of the other Three Immortals Realms, this was an evolution, a qualitative leap.

Now, as Li Hao’s thoughts stirred, an eruption of vitality burst from the bone fragment, which began to grow. White bone extended rapidly, hair sprouted, and flesh began to coalesce.

In mere moments, a complete head had formed, suspended in the Blood Lake.

But at that point, Li Hao paused.

Having reached this extreme realm, his control over his physical form had become incredibly precise. He could sense two faint traces of energy within his body.

These two traces were none other than the bloodlines of Li Tiangang and Ji Qingqing.

He suddenly felt the urge to laugh.

Through blizzards, that boy had been cast out of his family.

Holding twin flowers high, he had been struck down and plunged into the abyss.

That vine demon, which had wound its tendrils around his little finger for a pinky swear, had silently made a promise to never leave him.

That last whisper, which had surged into his body and helped him push his limits, had now granted him rebirth!

He laughed, retracting his surging power.

His newly regenerated body disintegrated rapidly. White bone dissolved, and the freshly formed head crumbled until only a single drop of blood remained.

Yet, even within this solitary drop of blood, the faintest traces of those two bloodlines lingered.

Li Hao took a deep breath. He knew that what he was about to do was incredibly dangerous. Even in the Undying Immortal Realm, he might perish.

Still, he chose to proceed.

“From now on, I am me. With my heart, I will face the heavens. With the heavens’ heart, I will prove my own!”

Li Hao’s soul surged with power, severing the two bloodline traces from the drop of blood.

A complete separation.

The halved drop of blood disintegrated rapidly.

But this act, at his current threshold of Blood Regeneration, was tantamount to self-inflicted devastation.

He teetered on the edge of death.

Yet Li Hao’s resolve had never been stronger. His once-clouded Dao Heart crystallized in that moment.

To set his heart as the heart of the heavens!

To forge his bones from the mountains and rivers!

To shape his flesh from the sun, moon, and stars!

To let his blood flow with supreme Dao intent!

“I am my true self. I am Haotian, Supreme Lord!”

A cataclysmic force erupted from the single drop of blood. The once-calm Blood Lake quaked violently, churning with waves and undercurrents.

That drop of blood, impervious to the lake’s corrosive power, radiated a blinding brilliance. Blood coalesced with its own vitality, infused with supreme Dao intent, and shot out of the Blood Lake.

From the abyss above, endless light converged. Flesh grew, bones reformed, and blood surged through the body.

Finally, within the chest cavity, a beating heart materialized.

The perfectly proportioned form of a young man slowly lifted its head, radiating an aura that stood in harmony with the heavens and earth.

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