A Farmer's Journey To Immortality

Aksai stood silently as the rewards he had selected materialized in front of him.

Without hesitation, he swept them into his storage ring. His eyes scanned the surroundings briefly, but he didn't examine the rewards further.

'Hmm. I'll check them out later,' he thought, steadying his breathing. Suddenly, a crisp announcement echoed within his mind.

"Now…. only the final stage huh?"

Aksai's expression remained calm, though his heart beat slightly faster. The 9th stage was the final hurdle.

Despite the growing anticipation, Aksai chose not to rush. Instead, he sat cross-legged on the cave floor, the dim glow of the surrounding walls flickering like dying embers.

He began cultivating, his hands forming precise Mudras as strands of Spirit essence swirled around him like a gentle storm. His breathing slowed, his focus sharpening.

For a few days, he cycled through techniques, consolidating his strength and ensuring his body and mind were in perfect harmony.

When only two days remained before his time in the cave would end, Aksai finally stood. His eyes shone with renewed vigor. He was ready.

With a flicker of energy, Aksai was transported to a separated dimension. The moment his feet touched the ground, he surveyed the surroundings.

He stood on a lonely green island, its edges blending into a vast sea of trees that stretched endlessly. Above him, countless stars sparkled in the night sky, but the absence of a moon gave the scene a dreamlike quality.

At the center of the island lay a grand array formation. Its complex design radiated faintly with patterns and sigils that seemed to shift under Aksai's gaze.

"This… this doesn't look like a battle formation to me," Aksai muttered, stepping toward the array. Reaching the central Array Eye, he seated himself cross-legged once more, aligning his body with the flow of the formation's energy.

Unlike previous stages, his cultivation base remained unsealed. This wasn't a trial of strength or combat; it was a test of intellect and understanding.

Aksai's battle skills wouldn't help him here.

A few instructions appeared in front of Aksai, explaining the test. "So… this formation tests my comprehension abilities…. alright."

Closing his eyes, Aksai steadied his breathing. A faint ripple of energy passed over him, and suddenly, he felt a shift.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw his spectral form standing outside his physical body. He glanced back and saw his physical self seated calmly in meditation, entirely still.

A black, gaseous maze materialized in front of his spectral body, its towering walls twisting and churning like living smoke. The maze stretched endlessly in all directions, an imposing labyrinth erected out of thin air. Aksai stepped forward, his spectral form entering the maze.

The moment he crossed the threshold, his senses were assaulted. The air seemed to hum, and every step he took sent waves of distortion through his perception. He tried to move forward, but no matter how far he walked, he always seemed to return to the same starting point.

His brow furrowed. "This… doesn't look like a normal puzzle to me."

He paused, scanning the environment with a sharp gaze. The maze wasn't just a physical construct—it was a formation designed to mislead and confuse. He realized he couldn't rely on instinct or brute force to overcome it. This required a deeper understanding of the principles of array formations.

Aksai closed his eyes for a moment. "If this is a maze-type formation, there must be a way to decode it."

Just then, faint fractal diagrams began to appear on the black gaseous walls, glowing with a dull, golden hue. They shifted and reformed every few seconds, presenting complex patterns that pulsed with energy.

Aksai's neural link fabric activated instinctively, overlaying a transparent interface in front of his vision. The diagrams were analyzed in real-time, breaking down into numbers, symbols, and spatial calculations.

Prompts and notifications appeared before him, guiding him on potential solutions.

The neural link fabric worked at a speed far beyond human comprehension, performing thousands of calculations in mere seconds.

One could say that even a once-in-a-thousand-years genius Spirit cultivator in the Foundation Building realm, with all the resources and knowledge of an entire sect at their disposal, wouldn't have been able to pull off what Aksai was doing at this time.

Aksai followed the prompts carefully, using his knowledge of array formations to adjust and adapt where necessary.

Each fractal diagram represented a piece of the maze's layout—a hidden path concealed by layers of complexity.

"Oh…. so these are the parts of the puzzle. Interesting."

His spectral hands moved in precise gestures, mimicking the movements of an array master as he infused his Spirit essence into the maze's pathways. Each step forward revealed a new fractal diagram, which the neural link fabric rapidly decoded.

Despite the neural link fabric's computational power, Aksai had to remain focused. The maze seemed alive, shifting and altering its patterns to throw him off course.

His senses were bombarded with distractions—phantom sounds, flickering lights, and illusions of dead ends. If there was an ordinary Foundation Building realm disciple in Aksai's position, he would have been sent outside the sect where he had come from a long time ago. The test would have ended at that time.

Yet Aksai's Aether cultivation steadied him. His mind, which was enhanced by the effects of the recently rewarded elixir, was not easily swayed.

***

Hours passed as Aksai navigated the labyrinth.

The further he advanced, the more complex the fractal diagrams became. At one point, the neural link fabric struggled to keep up, forcing Aksai to rely on his own comprehension to bridge the gaps.

His mind raced, piecing together fragments of the maze's structure. Sweat dripped from his spectral form—a strange sensation for an incorporeal body.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Aksai reached the center of the maze. The black gaseous walls dissolved into nothingness, revealing a shimmering golden portal.

"This 9th stage… it was easier than the 7th stage and 8th stage, right? Or was it because of my cheat? Anyway…. The cave exploration is finally over."

Aksai let out a breath of relief. He looked back one last time, seeing his physical body still seated in meditation at the Array Eye.

As Aksai stepped through the shimmering golden portal, his surroundings shifted once again. He now stood in a vast, star-lit chamber.

The air was cool and still, and an overwhelming aura of mystery filled the space. Before him, a translucent screen materialized, glowing faintly. A series of rewards appeared on the screen—more than 50 items, each described with exquisite detail.

"Select any five rewards," the familiar voice of the cave intoned in his mind. Its tone was neither kind nor harsh, only absolute.

Aksai's eyes started to scan the list.