A thought suddenly struck him. "If I could reach the third tier and shrink myself to the maximum, my height would be less than a foot and my width would just be three fingers thick. My speed would also be three times my original speed! If I were to use the Swift Art at the same time, I might not be able to reach five times my initial speed, but two times would be achievable. At that time, would I be able to charge into that mysterious door as long as I can leap six tiers ahead?"
He recalled that the mysterious door had only opened a little before and then slammed shut soon after. An ordinary man would never have made it in. The setting of the Time Control Pagoda was most likely to give one hope.
However, with the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth, Wu Yu had come out with a method that might be successful.
Ming Long chuckled and said, "You could do it theoretically. However, it took over 20 years for me to reach the third tier of the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth in the past. Although I wasn't just delving into this mystique alone, the time I spent on this mystique would at least be close to 10 years. Are you incredible enough to exceed me substantially?"
Ming Long poured a cold bucket of water over him.
Wu Yu chuckled and said, "Nothing is certain. I'm certainly much smarter than you."
"Aiyo~ I gave you the spiritual art and now you are acting so haughtily! Do you believe your old mother could make things unbearable for you?" Ming Long jumped up and grumbled furiously.
"More realistically, let's not think about the third tier. If I reach the second tier and complete the challenge to defeat a puppet seven tiers above me, it is definitely worth a try," said Wu Yu seriously.
Ming Long said, "600 days to reach the second tier. This isn't too realistic. Nonetheless, you can give it a try. Moreover, there are things you can't just force through. You must take your breaks and work on other aspects of cultivation that could aid you. If you only focus on this mystique in the 600 days, you will lose lots of things."
Wu Yu could understand this viewpoint. Cultivation still had to be done with restraints.
Nonetheless, he still devoted all his energy and attention onto this mystique. At the very least, mastering the first tier shouldn't be a huge problem.
This mystique was different from the Eyes of Fire and Gold, where he reforged his eyes. Instead, it was a transformation mystique. It was a little similar to the 72 Transformations and should be incredibly powerful.
Wu Yu had mastered the Fixed Body Art, the Violent Art, and the Swift Art. The Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth was simply an amalgamation of transformations for the physical body, power, and speed all at the same time. With the three transformation as his foundation, he was rather confident in mastering the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth.
The Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth was mysterious and wouldn't hurt as much as when he was practicing the Eyes of Fire and Gold. He had to understand, experience, and master the dao within the mystique. Through this dao, he could slowly sense all the minute details of his physical body.
For Wu Yu, the mysterious dao was slightly harder than forging his eyes for the Eyes of Fire and Gold. This was because dao was illusory. One had to gain enlightenment and sufficient understanding. Having a flash of brilliance at the right time would then allow one to complete a perfect path.
What he wanted to understand was the mystique of an immortal. Even with Ming Long providing tips and guidance from the side, learning the dao of an immortal and mastering this Heaven Dao Mystique were indeed arduous tasks!
He realized that the cultivation of Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth was even harder than the other two mystiques he had come across in the past! The hardest part was that this mystique was too illusory.
Incorporating this dao into one's body and using it to spur the changes to the body, regardless of whether it was enlarging or shrinking, was incredibly difficult to him.
"This type of cultivation cannot be rushed. Take your time and relax. We have lots of time. Disregarding the fact that you still have 600 days, you might just be able to stay in the Time Control Pagoda for an even longer period based on your method. You might also just be able to open that door and see what's really mysterious about the interior."
Ming Long would be rather gentle from time to time. At the same time, she would provide reminders demurely.
"Alright."
The truth was, Wu Yu still had high regard for her. It was especially so in moments like these. In his heart, Ming Long was an elder deserving of his respect. Naturally, they were more like friends for the majority of the time. Moreover, they shared secrets openly among themselves. At the very least, she knew everything about Wu Yu, like he was the back of her hand.
She had once mastered this dao. Moreover, she was the only one who had had it in her control in the human realm. With her guiding Wu Yu along the way, Wu Yu was indeed able to avoid numerous detours.
When it came to cultivation, Wu Yu took a shorter time. However, if it was about gaining enlightenment, the truth was that he wasn't smarter than Ming Long. This was simply because Ming Long had no one to guide her, while he had her.
Time passed by day after day. In the process of mastering this mystique, Wu Yu could see that his body was extremely unstable. Sometimes, he would expand a little, and other times, he would shrink a little.
If others had seen him, they would be scared out of their wits. After all, this situation was simply too creepy.
Although he was seated, he would become huge and tall for a moment and small and scrawny the next moment. Even his eyes, nose, and ears experienced the same changes.
Wu Yu spent a lot of time and gradually starting to grasp this mystique. Through this mystique, he gradually changed his body and adjusted his strength and speed. However, the reason why he expanded and shrank from time to time was because he did not have perfect control. As such, he was in a constantly permuting stage.
Nonetheless, it didn't matter. He had a large amount of time and sufficient patience and resilience. With the resolve to pursue his dao and a great mentor to guide him, his mastery of this mystique was definitely improving as time passed.
100 days had passed.
He realized that he could gradually control some expansion and shrinkage of his body. In fact, he could even do so for a particular part of the body. For example, his palm, nose, mouth, and that thing....
Naturally, his control wasn't complete. He had to have full and accurate control for him to complete the first tier of the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth.
"How can you be so immoral? Do you still want your old mother to teach you?" Ming Long was suddenly infuriated beyond her limits.
"What's the matter?" Wu Yu remarked with discontent.
"What did you enlarge a while ago? Do you think I'm not aware?" Ming Long stared at him with her eyes wide open.
"I'm just testing out my control...." In fact, it was a spur of the moment. He had not expected her to realize and thus was embarrassed now. In this aspect, Wu Yu still saw her as a kid....
"Control your ass! Scram!"
After pissing her off, he was left on his own to ponder.
However, although Ming Long was easily angered, she forgave and forgot really quick too. In less than two days, she couldn't stand the boredom and forgot about the matter as she looked for Wu Yu to chat.
Wu Yu was really patient and was constantly trying, perfecting his mastery and understanding. After approximately 200 days passed, he could finally expand his body to roughly two fold of his initial size and maintain that state steadily. With such a thick and huge body, his strength was also twice his initial! This was an insanely huge force. If he were to execute the Violent Art at this moment, his physical strength could explode even further. Moreover, this wouldn't clash with his Immortal Ape Transformation.
When he shrank to the smallest, he was roughly as tall as Ming Long. When he stood beside her, they were just like a pair of mischievous kids. Seeing how Wu Yu looked at this moment, Ming Long couldn't stop laughing. If she wasn't just a remnant of a spirit, she would probably get cramps from laughing.
"Your damn thing has also shrunk! That's your sword? What gives you the guts to show off to your old mother!" When she spoke, she was getting more and more unrestrained!
Wu Yu was too lazy to argue with her. He finally mastered the first tier and could be considered as having preliminary mastery for the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth. Next, he consolidated his current tier and tested out the changes to his strength and speed when he was in his largest and smallest states. In addition, he experimented with his Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy. The increments weren't in the order of two. This was because Wu Yu's Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy was different and the battle capacity he could release instantaneously was different too.
When he tested out coupling the Violent Art and his Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy in his largest state, the strike was truly frightening. The only shame was that the Violent Art could only be executed once before his arms would become sore and painful. If he used this, his subsequent battles would be affected substantially.
On the other hand, the top speed he could reach in his smallest state coupled with Swift Art was insane. Based on his conjecture, there would be few in Taigu Immortal Path that could possibly catch up with him.
Naturally, he still wasn't satisfied. His goal was to reach the second tier of the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth in the remaining 400 or so days. At that time, the advantage of his strength and speed would be even greater and more terrifying. At that time, he would have a high chance of successfully challenging seven tiers above him. When he did so, he would be able to verify if his previous conjecture was correct.
When he reached the second tier, he would only be slightly over a foot tall, with a width of roughly a palm. If he was right with his conjecture, he had a high chance of charging through.
"You cannot just focus on practicing this mystique for the remaining time. The more you try to rush, the harder it is to make improvements. This is especially so for the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth, which requires enlightenment and control," Ming Long reminded him.
"I understand."
Wu Yu had made plans for the remaining time. He would refine immortal medicines for a day, craft spirit designs for the next day, and delve into understanding mystiques on the third day. He would repeat and alternate them in this order. When he refined immortal medicines and crafted spirit designs, his understanding of things, his control, and the intensity of his focus would bring bring numerous benefits when he delved into understanding mystiques. This was because Wu Yu had adopted a curious mindset into searching for answers from spirit designs. Although the dao in spirit designs was different, great daos were often interconnected. There were several occasions where he found leads to control the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth while refining immortal medicines and crafting spirit designs.
One had to endure loneliness in cultivation.
Luckily, he had Ming Long, the great living treasure who would make a fuss from time to time. This greatly reduced the feeling of loneliness and reclusiveness while Wu Yu was within this sealed space. When he took a break, he could chat with Ming Long, listen to her past stories and talk about their future plans. This was completely different from him being alone in the Time Control Pagoda.
She had helped Wu Yu dispel at least 90% of his feelings of loneliness and reclusiveness. These two feelings were often deadly for cultivators. This was because humans were group creatures who wouldn't be satisfied with loneliness. However, cultivation would often last for an extremely long period and required full concentration. There were often times where others wouldn't be able to help.
For the remaining 400 days, he worked really diligently!
After such a long period of refining immortal medicines and crafting spirit designs, he had also made huge improvements in cultivation level. The only shame was that he did not become a sixth tier Violent Kingdom of the Inner Sea cultivator. However, even if he could have reached that state, Wu Yu wanted to exercise restraint. This was because of the mysterious door.
He had a stronger desire to reach the second tier of the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth compared to anything else.
As time passed, he realized that the last day was approaching quickly. However, he didn't seem to have made sufficient breakthroughs.