This Somersault Cloud was indeed a marvel. It was like Wu Yu's pet.
No matter where he went, the Somersault Cloud was sure to follow. It might be dancing around him or hiding in his clothes, peeking in and out.
Even Ming Long was teased to laughter by it.
However, Wu Yu still had to nurture it, and that was his primary objective. Only then could he truly master the first tier.
Wu Yu had already comprehended the hardest part.
The cultivation of this mystique also required some resources. Actually, Great Dao Primordial Spirit Pills would do, and Wu Yu had taken many from the Little Duke and the others. At this time, he generously used them to cultivate the Somersault Cloud.
Resources were only a small part of it. The main challenge was Wu Yu's own understanding and the honing of this mystique. He still needed a long time to grind, study, and understand it.
This required a very profound degree of dao.
Wu Yu remained in the Floating Dreams Pagoda, training day and night.
Just as he had imagined, Flippy continued to grow as he improved. As the Somersault Cloud grew into a white cloud large enough for Wu Yu to sit on, this showed that he had successfully cultivated the first tier of this fourth mystique.
Because within the Floating Dreams Pagoda, the time spent was halved. And because the revelations came to him readily, he did not spend much time.
In this period of time, nothing was going on within the Dong Sheng Divine Continent.
He was in no hurry to leave either, but continued to grind out the second tier of the Somersault Cloud.
The Somersault Cloud's second tier was an even greater leap - it was very different from the first tier.
According to Ming Long, it would've allowed him to leap through the barrier of the Immortals' Viewing Platform, and all kinds of spirit design bindings and walls in this world would no longer stop Wu Yu.
He understood it as: "In an instant, I can leap into another world and then back into the Jambu Realm. Perhaps I will only spend a brief moment in that other illusory world, but this leap can definitely save my life. This requires me to understand Flippy very well. Only when we can act as one can we reach the level where we can escape those bindings. If it is only at the first tier, it will increase my speed but not allow me to bypass shackles."
Flippy was only the body of the Somersault Cloud. Wu Yu still needed to understand the dao that was contained within the Somersault Cloud, and gain a fundamental understanding.
There were no shortcuts. It required a long time to train.
At this time, Wu Yu prepared to depart. He had to use the Somersault Cloud in order to work with it better.
He had reached the point where he had to leave.
This day should have come long ago.
The Dong Sheng Divine Continent had been quiet, but Wu Yu had heard from Princess You Xue that the affairs of the Yan Huang Imperial City had already spread far and wide.
However, a thorough investigation had not yielded any signs of the Heaven Devouring Evil Lord, and many people still believed that it was impossible for the Heaven Devouring Evil Lord to survive till the present.
"Till we meet again."
He sat on the Somersault Cloud and flew up into the clouds, where it merged with the cloud layer. And then he started moving forward!
In Wu Yu's hands were maps of the entire Jambu Realm. They were also obtained from the Little Duke and the others. There were a few versions, each drawing their own region in detail. After cross-checking them, Wu Yu could roughly orientate himself.
And he also knew that he would pass through many sea region demon territories.
Ordinarily, passing through a position in between two sea region demon territories was considered the safest. Trespassing was a dangerous game to play.
The Somersault Cloud hid above the cloud layer and moved with a minimal profile. As Wu Yu sat on it, he did not need to use his brain or body. The Somersault Cloud headed towards the Dark North Kingdom with a speed that he had never reached before.
Everything was white before him.
It was the first time they were on the road, and Flippy was very excited, working diligently as it huffed through the clouds. Wu Yu's eyes could not tell how it did it. To him, he was always in the Jambu Realm.
But he could actually feel that the Somersault Cloud was weaving its way forward.
But even when it twisted and turned, they still moved forward at the fastest pace. It was uncanny.
Wu Yu closed his eyes and used his body to feel the turns that the Somersault Cloud was taking. Very quickly, he could sense that they were twitching and jumping at every single instant. The speed was extreme, and Wu Yu found it hard to follow.
"You need to capture this feeling of the Somersault Cloud. This dao is very profound. But you need to get the hang of it. One day, when you catch a little of it, the second tier should not be a problem. As for these two tiers, although they have very different effects, the second tier is but an extension of the first tier, albeit a very, very big one."
"Understood."
To understand the dao embedded in this change, and to understand and seek the meaning of such a change!
The path of dao was a tedious one indeed.
Wu Yu put his entire focus into it. The Somersault Cloud was responsible for travel, and Wu Yu was responsible for experiencing the subtlest of shifts. More important was to feel how the Somersault Cloud could pass through that space or world.
"What on earth is that place?"
"It must be a place that responds to the world we are in, for us to be able to go there. Or...."
This was not an answer that could be obtained very quickly. Wu Yu flitted in and out of the place hundreds of thousands of times in a day, but could not sense that for now. All he knew was that the Somersault Cloud seemed to be moving at an extreme speed.
The days passed.
"This tests my ability to perceive and persevere. Neither can be lacking. Perception without perseverance is futile. And blind perseverance by an idiot with no sense will not do either."
Fortunately, Wu Yu had both aspects down in spades.
He was confident that he could make his Somersault Cloud reach the second tier and be on par with Ming Long's.
After all, it was still a very long way away from the Dark North Kingdom.
Wu Yu had already given an order to Princess You Xue. As Wu Yu neared, Princess You Xue would be waiting for him in the main harbor of the Immortal City of Northern Frost, the city of the Dark North Kingdom that was furthest to the north.
Along the path, he planned to dedicate all his time to getting there as quickly as possible. If not for the fact that he was training the second tier of this Somersault Cloud, and needed to understand it better, he could even let the Somersault Cloud take the Floating Dreams Pagoda forward.
It was like Ming Long had said. If you treated the Somersault Cloud as a mystique, it could be hard to understand. But if you treated it as a little creature, and grew familiar with it, you might someday be able to suddenly realize you understood it.
This was Ming Long's experience back then.
She had probably walked her own path full of twists and turns as well, and had perhaps treated the Somersault Cloud as a mystique at the start.
With a trailblazer to guide the way, and his own superb tenacity and perception, Wu Yu looked for some order in the leaps and jumps of the Somersault Cloud after experiencing it tens of billions of times.
He seemed to see a grey world, chaotic and unordered. The Somersault Cloud would bring him in and instantly exit again.
After doing this countless times, the picture of an alternate world was formed. What Wu Yu wanted to do was control the Somersault Cloud to let him linger in the place for a while.
The Somersault Cloud could do it, but Wu Yu could not. Because that was not a place that he could survive in. He need only pause there for a brief instant to feel his life vanishing.
That feeling of death was very terrifying.
But fortunately, Wu Yu could hold on. And the way to hold on was to fuse with the Somersault Cloud. Or rather, the Somersault Cloud would fuse with him, entering his skin to create a layer of cloud membrane that protected him. It could allow him to remain in that world for just a bit longer. And even the slightest bit of time in that world allowed him to convert it into considerable distance.
A thousand li in a single somersault![1]
The more practiced he became, the more Flippy seemed like a little creature. It seemed to treat Wu Yu as its father. And in Wu Yu's mind, the Somersault Cloud seemed to be a strange, fey child. He no longer thought of it as a creature.
The incantation for the second tier continued to grow within his mind. As he progressed, his revelations deepened, and his connection with the Somersault Cloud grew ever more intimate. Flippy was also not beyond fusing with Wu Yu's skin, allowing him to merge with the Somersault Cloud.
One flip could allow him to traverse incredible distances. Although the second tier could not be used liberally due to its drain on one's strength, if one could not dodge an opponent's attacks during battle, wouldn't a single somersault make one vanish?
No wonder Ming Long had said that his chances of survival after mastering the second tier would be tenfold.
He was still not well-versed in the second tier. That was why Wu Yu continued to cultivate within the white clouds.
The white clouds were low, and below them was the vast sea. Sea region demons often roamed the deeper pockets of the sea.
Wu Yu flew according to the maps with great speed. And far above the cloud layer, sea region demons seldom roamed. In order to avoid unnecessary tangles with the sea region demons, he had already taken a very circuitous detour.
But thanks to the Somersault Cloud's great speed, this was not much of a problem.
On this day, Wu Yu was still keeping at the mystique when he suddenly heard a huge commotion from beneath the clouds. He halted and peeled apart the clouds for a look. He saw that the sea was churning into tidal waves, as though the entire sea region had been swept up in a storm. As it exploded, the sea waves curled upwards in a frenzy, almost reaching the clouds.
As he used his Eyes of Fire and Gold to look at the tumultuous sea below, he could clearly see that thousands of creatures were below. The huge beasts were all sea region demons of huge size. They formed a pack, their razor sharp teeth bared as they shot forward like a storm of arrows. They traversed the sea in impressive form. They were probably a pack of shark demons.
This caused Wu Yu to recall the Perennial Shark!
"Where are so many demons rushing off to?"
Seeing this din, Wu Yu could not help but wonder. There were just too many shark demons. Right now, he was in the midst of the action, and if he continued to move as he had, he might attract attention from someone strong.
There might be a strong demon amongst these thousands.
1. 1 li = half a kilometer or 1640 feet