Inside his room, Lu Yuan laid out all the divine materials he had gathered earlier, including the Saint weapons taken from the five elders of the Zhou family. After a brief inspection, he found their quality to be truly exceptional.
If the Daluo sword core could absorb them completely, the results would undoubtedly surpass anything achieved before. Without hesitation, Lu Yuan took out the sword core.
Since its last advancement, it had barely absorbed any divine materials. As a consequence, its current power could no longer match his own cultivation.
However, this was only temporary. The greatest attribute of the Daluo sword core was its capacity for endless growth. Much like human evolution, so long as it had sufficient energy, it would grow ever stronger.
It was fair to say that even accounting for his past life, Lu Yuan had never heard of an armament more extraordinary than this.
According to what Jiang Ningxian had said, this item might have originated from the Eternal Star Sector. That clan was exceedingly powerful and overbearing, never allowing outsiders to possess their clan's divine materials. The Daluo sword core was even more exceptional—it was no raw material, but a finished product forged to completion.
If members of the Eternal Clan ever saw it, they would likely take the initiative to demand it, just as Jiang Ningxian had warned. Yet to Lu Yuan, that mattered little.
He would never actively seek trouble, but he was certainly not afraid of it either. Putting further thoughts aside, Lu Yuan picked up the Daluo sword core and began to fuse it with the divine materials.
He then sat cross-legged and continued acclimating to the power of the Saint Realm. The fusion of the sword core would take time. The rarer the divine materials, the longer the process required. By good fortune, he had already planned to use this lull to further stabilize his cultivation, and then coordinate with Elder Ji and the others to refine the structure of the Heavenly Court.
Thus, the days slipped by.
During this time, the high-level authorities began moving against certain factions—the capital syndicates and financial oligarchs who had previously defected to extraterrestrial beings and stirred up trouble from the shadows. Meanwhile, they also began gathering resources from the famous mountains and great rivers to channel into the Heavenly Court.
Thanks to Lu Yuan's ascension to the Saint Realm and his immense prestige, more and more people sought to join the Heavenly Court. Naturally, under Elder Ji's strict screening, every recruit was an elite.
Some were placed under the tutelage of the sect leaders from the Three Immortal Islands. As for core members like Zhu Qingyu, Lu Yuan personally gave them guidance whenever time permitted.
It had to be said that their talent was extraordinary. Each possessed strong willpower and resolve, and coupled with the unique blessings brought by Earth's resurgence, their cultivation and evolutionary progress advanced at an astonishing pace.
Whether it was Zhu Qingyu, Ice Fairy, Young Celestial Master Chunyang, or Gu Sang, every one of them made immense strides—further accelerated by abundant resources and the nourishing environment of heaven and earth.
In other words, Earth now possessed a unique environment where anyone, including extraterrestrial beings, enjoyed amplified evolutionary progression. The rest of deep space lacked such favorable conditions.
This was also the root of Lu Yuan's confidence in resisting foreign invasions. All he needed was time.
Before long, a month had passed.
Zhu Qingyu was the first to break through into the Sovereign King Realm, the fifth stage of evolution. This was an astonishing achievement, and Lu Yuan was quite surprised upon receiving the news.
Yet on second thought, it seemed only natural. She possessed innate brilliance and worked remarkably hard; such progress was entirely within reason.
At the same time, the Beast Kings, led by the Golden-Winged Great Peng and the Peacock King, discovered many impressive heritages across the famous mountains and great rivers. These legacies left behind from ancient Earth could not compare to Guangchengzi's dao arena or Ancient Mount Shu, but they were still remarkably comprehensive, offering breathing methods, visualization methods, armaments, and more.
After being categorized by the sect leaders of the Three Immortal Islands, these heritages were methodically organized and placed into the Heavenly Court or distributed to the various branches of Zhendan Academy.
Zhendan Academy continued to train students. In this regard, the authorities had done an exceptional job, linking all these systems together seamlessly.
Elder Ji and the others had already resolved that the Heavenly Court would guide everything in the future, and they had been making steady preparations, merely waiting for the day when all authority would be formally handed over.
Thanks to these combined efforts, the Heavenly Court's affairs progressed in full swing. Its broad framework, founded upon the Four Divisions, was successfully established.
Lu Yuan stood as the true master of the Heavenly Court. During this period, he had also inscribed the names of the three sect leaders from the Three Immortal Islands onto the Investiture Decree. Bolstered by the gathered providence, all three smoothly broke through into the Sovereign King Realm.
In just one month, the Heavenly Court's strength had transformed tremendously.
As for the extraterrestrial beings, following the incident at Mount Tai, they had fallen completely silent. Even on the rare occasions they appeared, they kept a very low profile, not daring to step foot into the cities. They had realized that as long as Lu Yuan was present, they would remain thoroughly suppressed—unless the power of the Severance of Heaven and Earth completely faded. But who knew how long they would have to wait for that?
Thus, the extraterrestrial beings who had already descended could only wait in eager anticipation for that day to arrive.
Time continued to slip by.
Another three months passed.
Free from external interference, the Heavenly Court's Four Divisions were nearly fully assembled. Each division numbered one thousand members, almost all of whom had reached the Golden Body Realm.
Back at the dawn of the cataclysmic resurgence, every one of them would have been comparable to a Beast King, yet now there were a full four thousand.
Of course, while the number seemed vast, it was the culmination of every elite gathered from across Huaxia. It might not yet be enough for Earth to wage total war against extraterrestrial beings, but it was at least a formidable fighting force.
The Heavenly Court was finally established in preliminary form.
Seeing this, Lu Yuan could not help but feel a sense of gratification. Yet since he intended to rebuild the Heavenly Court of old, all of this was merely the beginning.
On this day, amid the peaks of Mount Tai, Lu Yuan stood suspended above the void. Not the slightest trace of aura leaked from his body.
In his hand rested a sword just over three feet long. The blade was pitch-black from hilt to tip, yet it gleamed with a brilliant radiance. Wisps of sword luminescence continuously cascaded from the blade, producing heavy rumbles that caused the surrounding air to tremble.
After an unknown length of time, Lu Yuan suddenly opened his eyes. He slowly raised the sword in his hand, faced a thousand-meter-tall mountain peak, and slashed downward with a gentle flick.
Buzz—
Wisps of sword luminescence converged into a peerlessly radiant beam of sword light.
The next instant, the sword light struck the mountain.
Boom!
As the sword light swept through, the peak was cleanly sliced in two at the mountainside, leaving a mirror-smooth cut.
Indeed, that was the result of a mere casual stroke.
"This is solely the intrinsic power of the Daluo sword core. If combined with my own strength and the sword intent of One Sword of Heaven and Earth, what heights would it reach?" Lu Yuan retrieved the sword core, a satisfied smile touching his eyes.
The Daluo sword core had completed its transformation, its might rising to a whole new level. The cascading sword luminescence alone was enough to level a mountain peak. If unleashed with full force, the destruction would be unimaginable. The effort he had spent on it had truly paid off.
Putting his thoughts aside, Lu Yuan prepared to further familiarize himself with the sword core.
Right at that moment, his communicator chimed. It was a succinct message from Zhu Qingyu:
"Changes beyond Earth!"
Chapter 227