Volume 1: Crossing the Water Cavern Chapter 28: The Sixth-Rank Li Huo Golden Immortal's Secret

  At dawn, Lei Hao opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was the beautiful face of the little fox sleeping in his arms, a sight that made his heart skip a beat.

  Lei Hao gently lifted his head and took a look, his clothes were a bit disheveled but still intact on his body, and the anxiety in his heart slowly dissipated. If he had done something wrong to Xiao Hu Li while drunk yesterday, he would never forgive himself. Since Xiao Hu Li treated him so well, he wanted to give her a grand and solemn wedding ceremony, making her feel that following Lei Hao was not a regrettable decision for life. Deep down, Lei Hao was still a traditional demon.

  Lei Hao, who had put down his guard, didn't wake up the little fox either. He just held her like that and stared blankly at the little fox's clean face. He couldn't remember how he got back to the stone room last night, let alone what he said after getting drunk.

  The burning fire pit warmed the entire stone room, and the jumping flames illuminated the small fox's clean face, reflecting a red glow that shone in Lei Hao's eyes. The little fox was so good-looking.

  Thinking back on these hundred or so years, fortunately there were brothers, fortunately there was Xiao Hu Li, otherwise he wouldn't have known what would become of him. Sometimes living a long life isn't necessarily a blessing, the prolonged time will also drag out memories and pain bit by bit, it won't be fatal but will give one a feeling of being better off dead.

  Reiho's arms, which were holding the little fox, unconsciously tightened, as if he wanted to hold onto it for all eternity.

  The little fox in her sleep was woken up by Lei Hao's tight arms, she opened her beautiful eyes and stared at Lei Hao, staring at Lei Hao who was clearly looking at her but had no focus. Familiar with Lei Hao, she immediately understood that Lei Hao must have entered a trance again. But she chose not to wake him up, just like Lei Hao, and continued to stare blankly.

  More than a hundred years had carved the round face of Lei Hao into a sharp-angled one, and his once smooth and pale complexion now showed signs of wind and frost. His long black hair also hid specks of silver light. "These past few years have really been unhappy," said the little fox in Lei Hao's heart, feeling another pang of sadness.

  Lei Hao is a powerful demon king, and living for several thousand years is normal. However, he now has white hair in his temples at the age of just over 100, which is absolutely abnormal. "His heart must be very sad!" The little fox thought of Lei Hao's loud wailing like a human child last night, and her eyes slowly became moist. Warm tears gently rolled down the little fox's beautiful face and fell onto Lei Hao's hand.

  The little fox's tears awakened the entranced Lei Hao, who looked at the tear-stained little fox in surprise. His heart aching, he clumsily used his big, fluffy hands to wipe away the little fox's tears. "What's wrong? You were fine just now, why are you crying?" Lei Hao asked puzzledly as he wiped away the little fox's tears.

  The little fox quickly used her magic to evaporate the tears, shook her head and said: "Nothing, just got smoked by the smoke in the cave earlier." She didn't want to say it, Lei Hao's heart was already bitter enough, she didn't want him to worry about her again.

  "Huh? Smoke?" Lethargic Lei Hao turned his head and scanned the stone room's fire pit before opening his mouth to scold loudly: "That lazy soul on guard duty outside, get in here!" Before Lei Hao's voice had even fallen, a flurry of urgent footsteps echoed within the stone room.

  The little fox who heard the footsteps pushed Lei Hao away, her figure flashed and she left Lei Hao's arms to appear on the wooden chair inside the stone room. She had never concealed her feelings for Lei Hao, but it was still a bit embarrassing to let her subordinates see her lying in Lei Hao's arms.

  "Lei Lao Da, you're awake." A cow demon walked in quickly and asked Lei Hao with a flushed face, not afraid of being scolded.

  "Damn it, you bunch of soulless people! I've told you countless times not to burn that kind of wood with smoke in my stone room. Do you want to eat smoked beef?!" Lei Hao scolded loudly at the little demons under his command, who were all misshapen and ugly.

  The cow demon, who had just been scolded by Lei Hao, secretly glanced around the stone room's fire pit and said with a flushed face: "Lei Boss, yesterday when we attacked that Sunzi Cave, it was those monkeys under Mei Houwang's command who added fuel to the fire in the stone room, not us brothers. You're worrying too much."

  "What's with the monkeys under Monkey King's banner, they're all my brothers. Next time I hear you say that again, I'll kick you to death." Lei Hao stopped and furrowed his brow, saying Sun Wukong was his brother, and his monkey disciples and Lei Zijun were also his brothers, they couldn't be treated differently.

  The ox demon who was scolded again was not afraid, they all knew that Lao Da was a sharp-tongued but soft-hearted person. He had been yelling fiercely for so many years, but he had never really heavily punished his old brother. So he responded with a smile and said yes.

  The little fox beside him looked at the cow demon who was unlucky because of her nonsense, and felt a bit embarrassed in his heart. He opened his mouth gently and said: "Head, it's not a big deal, don't scold him, you can go down now." The last sentence was directed at the cow demon.

  "Thank you, sister..." The cow demon looked at the little fox with gratitude and said this title, then quickly exited the stone room.

  When the cow demon called out to Little Fox, her face immediately turned red. She lowered her head and secretly glanced at Lei Hao, only to find that he too was blushing and stealing glances at her. The little fox, feeling a mix of sweetness and amusement in her heart, shot a glance at Lei Hao and said: "Lei the Great Commander, I'm hungry. Please grant me some meat to eat." Her coquettish voice sounded incredibly pleasant.

  Lei Hao's face turned red as he listened to Xiao Hu Li, and he couldn't help but shiver at the mention of "meat". He smiled awkwardly and said: "Whatever you say, Little Fox King..." Xiao Hu Li shook her head in exasperation for who-knows-how-many times, thinking that when it came to being unscrupulous or shameless, she really couldn't compare to Lei Hao.

  ………

  At night, Lei Hao quietly stood on the top of Huaguo Mountain, blowing in the whistling sea breeze and staring blankly at the starry sky.

  "It's said that the Heavenly Court is just above this sky; it's said that these stars are the manifestations of the gods in heaven. Then, isn't my home no longer in this sky?" Lei Hao thought to himself silently.

  In yesterday's battle at Bat Cave, when faced with the threat of death, Lei Hao once again thought of his warm home and his father who had stood in front of him countless times to shield him from wind and rain.

  "I once heard that the flow of time is different between two universes, I don't know if there's still a chance to see you again in this life." A tear had just appeared on Leihao's eyelid when it was evaporated by his magical power. He had long learned to put everything in his heart and accept the irreversible facts, although he had thought countless times that if time could flow backwards, he would not have chosen to watch that x-rated movie on that rainy day.

  "What the hell, why do I have this lingering feeling of melancholy?" Lei Hao laughed loudly and picked his nose with his index finger, bringing his mind back. After a long while, Lei Hao reached into his clothes and pulled out an object, placing it in front of him - it was a secret manual that Lei Da Niu had found in the stone chamber of Zi Bat Wang's murderous grandson.

  Taking a deep breath, Lei Hao opened this ancient-looking pale blue secret book.

  The first page of the secret book was written with the words "Six Products Departing from Fire Golden Immortal Formula". Just these few words made Lei Hao's heart skip a beat. He wasn't like Zi Bat King, who didn't know anything about this kind of thing; this volume of secret books absolutely didn't seem to be a demon tribe's cultivation method - the name was far too different from the demon tribe's style. It should be a Taoist sect's secret book, but he didn't know which great expert's hand it came from. However, looking at Zi Bat King's son breaking through to the Demon King level in such a short period of time, this secret book's grade was probably not low either.

  He thought for a moment, and soon Lei Hao muttered to himself: "What's wrong with the things in the Taoist school? I didn't go to that mountain gate to rob, I found it in the cave of Zi Bat King's grandson, and Zi Bat King's grandson was killed by me because he came to my territory to kidnap people. Hmm, so the origin of this secret book has nothing to do with me." A self-satisfied expression appeared on Lei Hao's face. As soon as he thought of the Taoist school, he thought of words such as Tian Shu and Jie Shu, and couldn't help but be cautious.

  Lei Hao couldn't bear to part with this secret manual that almost cost him and Xiao Hu Li their lives, so he found many reasons to convince himself. In fact, Lei Hao didn't have many other manuals to choose from, so even if he knew that practicing this method would cause problems in the future, he could only grit his teeth and continue to practice.

  "Ji Pan Gu opened the sky and earth, turbid sinking clear rise..." Lei Hao looked at this "Shang Qing Bao Jian" content word by word, his face changing constantly. This look has taken Lei Hao several hours, the eastern sky has already turned into a pale white.

  Lei Hao let out a light breath, his face full of joy, he had picked up a treasure this time. This manual was the Dao Sect's secret to cultivating from Golden Dan realm to Golden Immortal. Lei Hao estimated that his inner dan realm was not far off from the Dao Sect's Golden Dan realm, which meant he could use the method of breaking through to Earthly Immortal with Golden Dan realm to break through to Demon King realm afterwards. As for what exactly Golden Immortal was, Lei Hao wasn't very clear, after all, his strength level hadn't reached that tier yet.

  What's even more wonderful is that this secret book also contains a part of the method for refining equipment. Thinking about it, the Taoist school doesn't cultivate the flesh, and all the magical powers rely on the magic treasure to exert itself. Those powerful magic treasures will not be passed down to the lower realm at all. Therefore, the practitioners in the lower realm can only explore the methods of refining equipment by themselves, and put these methods into their skills with great care, in order to enhance the strength of each practitioner.

  Now, all of these belong to Lei Hao.

  Lei Hao finally understood what the Demon King was all about. Advancing to the Inner Dan realm allowed him to refine his spiritual energy into magical power, but at this point, his magical power was just a form of energy, so even after advancing to the Inner Dan realm, Lei Hao didn't have any great divine abilities and still relied on his physical body and strength to fight. In contrast, advancing to the Demon King realm meant mastering the magical power throughout one's entire body, possessing precise control over it, and being able to transform it into a gust of wind, a cloud, or a powerful energy with strong attacking power - this was what it meant to be a Demon King.

  So the Demon King of the Mortal World can summon a black whirlwind to stir up the Three Thousand Little Demons in the Water Cavern, and so the Bat King can emit such terrifying infrasound waves. Lei Hao now understood that this was the true power of the Demon Kings - they could cultivate dead magic into living things, cultivating it to the extreme, even transforming all matter.

  Although this principle is not complicated, it's difficult to enter the Demon King realm without a subtle method. It's obviously not something that Lei Hao, a cultivator who hasn't grasped the truth of energy, can achieve through self-enlightenment.

  Now Lei Hao finally understood the method of promoting to the Demon King and also grasped the key to promoting to the Demon King. The Demon King was already within his reach.

  Lei Hao put away the "Six-Piece Departure from Fire Golden Immortal's Secret", sat cross-legged, hugged his knees and entered a state of meditation.