Alchemy Emperor of the Divine Dao

1325 Severing Mundane Tier

The chariot continued forward, and they were drawn into the illusion again and again.

This was the path of Ding Zizhen’s growth. However, the only memory that was recorded was of the intra-clan competition that occurred at the end of each year. This was probably his deepest and most agonizing memory.

Ding Yaolong was still as brilliant as always, quickly advancing to the Sun Moon Tier and placing higher and higher in the intra-clan competition.

Ding Zizhen was still the weakest, and he was still scorned and ridiculed by his fellow clan members. It was as if he would never grow stronger.

Several years passed, and when Ding Yaolong reached the age of 16 years old, he stopped participating in the intra-clan competition. This was because he had already advanced to the Heavenly Body Tier. The Ding Clan had a rule, whereby those who had reached the Heavenly Body Tier couldn’t participate in this kind of competition any longer.

However, he was still a dazzling prodigy who was liked and admired by numerous young women. One of these women was Ding Zizhen’s secret crush.

Ding Yaolong was extremely licentious, and he wouldn’t reject any beauty that came running into his arms. It wasn’t long before he got many women pregnant. However, he didn’t plan to wed any of these women. He was the superstar of the Ding Clan, so he had to marry someone who could match his status. As for the women in his clan, he was merely toying with them.

The young woman who Ding Zizhen liked also became pregnant. However, after being rejected by Di Yaolong, she chose to take her own life.

This infuriated Ding Zizhen, and he stormed off to seek a battle with Ding Yaolong. However, he was beaten black and blue by Ding Yaolong’s followers before he could even meet him. In fact, he was almost beaten to death.

Only after being bedridden for six entire months was he finally able to recover from his severe wounds. Once he recovered, he immediately left the Ding Clan to travel around the world. He knew that if he stayed in the clan, he would never be able to surpass Di Yaolong.

Thousands of years passed, and then tens of thousands of years. However, Ding Zizhen was still a weakling. His cultivation had merely risen from the early stage of the low extreme to the middle stage. Moreover, he was already transitioning from a young adult to a middle-aged man. Yet, the lifespan of cultivators at the low extreme was only 100,000 years.

Right at this moment, however, Ding Zizhen’s luck finally came. While exploring an ancient site with a group of people, the extreme dangers ended up killing everyone but him. However, it was also at this moment that he finally obtained a Divine Pill.

After ingesting this pill, he not only lengthened his lifespan, but even elevated his physique and talent. This was a comprehensive transformation.

Ding Zizhen had been severely wounded in his mother’s womb, and it was because of this that he was only at the Spiritual Ocean Tier at birth. This was unlike other clan members, who were all at the Shattering Void Tier at birth. This congenital deficiency meant that his path of cultivation was as good as severed before it even began. In fact, he had only been able to advance to the Immortal level because a powerful figure of the clan had forcefully elevated his cultivation.

However, after ingesting the Divine Pill, he was able to mend this congenital deficiency, and thus began his journey of growing stronger.

He finally started to receive the benefits of his hard work from before, soaring from the middle stage of the low extreme of the Mountain River Tier to the consummate level of the Sun Moon Tier in just 10 short years.

Ding Zizhen’s rapid advance didn’t stop here, and after another 100 years, he advanced to the Heavenly Body Tier. After 1000 years, he became an Eternal River Tier elite.

After reaching this level, Ding Zizhen could finally be regarded as a prodigy, even when accounting for the tens of thousands of years that had gone to waste. In fact, he could be regarded as a supreme prodigy.

Only 50,000 years had passed, yet he had already become an Eternal River Tier elite!

However, this wasn’t the most astonishing part of his story. After another 10,000 years, he advanced to become a Genesis Tier Saint!

Gasp!

When the Stone Emperor and the others woke from the illusion, they all wore expressions of pure shock.

In the illusion, Ding Zizhen had left his clan very early on. Thus, they had no idea what level the supreme genius Ding Yaolong had reached. However, becoming a Saint in just 60,000 years… This was simply unparalleled!

“My father is transformed from a Heavenly Cloud Stone that obtained awareness and the ability to cultivate. However, he only developed intelligence after being nurtured by heaven and earth for almost 10 billion years. Afterward, he cultivated for almost 200 million years before finally managing to reach the Genesis Tier,” the Stone Emperor said with a serious expression.

“My master… reached the Genesis Tier after cultivating for 300 million years,” the North Emperor said.

With these two figures as comparison, it was starkly clear that Ding Zizhen was an absolute freak!

“Could it be that a Saint appeared in this galaxy in the past? And they were laid to rest here after death?”

“Or perhaps he set up some formation here, thereby giving rise to the Mountain River Forest and Sun Moon Valley?”

It was with these feelings of curiosity and eager anticipation that they continued forward and reentered the illusion.

After becoming a Saint King, Ding Zizhen returned to the Ding Clan to challenge Ding Yaolong again.

This time, he wasn’t someone who could be beaten to the brink of death by Ding Yaolong’s followers. He was finally able to battle against Ding Yaolong. The two of them exchanged ferocious blows, each unleashing their powerful techniques and strikes. However, once Ding Yaolong unleashed his secret technique, Tide of the Ages, Ding Zizhen was instantly forced onto his back foot. Although he also possessed powerful secret techniques, he was still eroded by the Tide of the Ages, losing at least hundreds of millions of years of his lifespan.

Ding Zizhen was indeed powerful, yet Ding Yaolong was the true king tier.

However, even though Ding Zizhen had suffered a resounding defeat, he was finally able to win the attention of the clan. He received priority nurturing from the clan, and was also set up to marry a woman from an extremely powerful clan that was on par with the Ding Clan. Moreover, his fiancee was also a prodigy.

The two clans decided to hold the wedding when Ding Zizhen managed to advance to the next major tier.

‘Advance to the next major tier?’

The prodigies exchanged stunned looks when they woke up from the illusion. They were so shocked that they were unable to speak.

‘Ding Zizhen… is already a Saint King! How can he advance any further?’

However, Ling Han was certain that the Ding Clan was a force in the Celestial Realm. Thus, it was only natural that they would have elites above the Genesis Tier. Anyhow, the realization that they were in the Celestial Realm also made it easier to swallow the fact that they were born at the Shattering Void Tier and could advance one Immortal Realm cultivation level every few years.

After all, Hu Niu’s achievement was even more astonishing. She had become a Saint in just five years.

The prodigies hurriedly advanced along the plain. They wanted to know whether Ding Zizhen had successfully broken through or not. Moreover, they wanted to know what major tier came after the Genesis Tier.

This time, Ding Zizhen struggled to break through, even though he was already a supreme prodigy. Ding Yaolong was even more prodigious than Ding Zizhen, yet he also struggled to advance any further. At this time, these two were already regarded as the “Twin Dragons of the Ding Clan”. They represented the Ding Clan’s future.

After a whopping one billion or so years, Ding Yaolong finally managed to break through first. After another 30,000,000 years, Ding Zizhen also managed to advance to this completely new tier.

Severing Mundane Tier!

They learned this from the delighted cheers of the members of the Ding Clan. In a span of just 30,000,000 years, the Ding Clan had seen the birth of two Severing Mundane Tier ancestors. This elevated the Ding Clan’s power and influence significantly.

The Severing Mundane Tier was broken up into four minor levels: the low extreme, the medium extreme, the high extreme, and the consummate level. This was identical to the previous major tiers. According to hearsay, one would need to sever their mundane carnal feelings a total of four times. After successfully completing this, one would gain the ability to accumulate and wield Celestial Qi. They would also enjoy the lifespan of heaven and earth, aging with the age of the universe.

Ding Zizhen had cultivated in absolute seclusion before finally managing to reach the Severing Mundane Tier. After reaching this tier, he set off to travel the world. This would be the solo adventure before his marriage. Afterward, he would have to guard his clan and shoulder the responsibility of a grand elder.

While adventuring, however, he came across a woman by chance, both of them falling in love at first sight. However, Ding Zizhen’s fiancee was famous for her domineering nature, so Ding Zizhen didn’t dare to take this woman back to the Ding Clan. Instead, they decided to live together.

30,000 years passed, and Ding Zizhen never ended up returning to the Ding Clan. Instead, he chose to hide his identity and retreat to a home in the mountains with the woman that he loved, enjoying a life of peace and tranquility.

Another 40,000 years passed, and he had a daughter with his wife. They named her Ding Ling.

At this moment, however, his fiancee finally found him. She discovered that he had betrayed their engagement and married another woman, even having a daughter with her. She was naturally enraged, and she personally killed Ding Zizhen’s wife and daughter while he was away one day.

Everyone woke from the illusion again, their faces stained with tears. These tears hadn’t been shed because of their emotions, but because of the effect that Ding Zizhen’s illusion had on them. They couldn’t help but feel an agonizing sorrow. It was as if their hearts were about to be torn into shreds.