At the instant the seven-colored crystalline mist vanished, the divine embryo's field domain also dissipated from the room.
The patch of color atop the red cloth became more vivid, richer in texture, giving a sense of overflowing vitality.
Chen Chuan could sense that, over the past days of confrontation, Hongfu's field domain had clearly strengthened.
This was not a simple increase in power. Hongfu was an incomplete spirit separated from the main body.
After all, even a martial artist of the Visage of the Divine still needed a physical shell unless they had broken through to the upper realm.
Completely detached from the flesh, it was generally difficult to survive in the material world, so Hongfu had to find an attachment.
Yet even so, it could only maintain its own existence; at most it could preserve its original appearance. Whether it could move, and for how long, depended entirely on how much energy the one providing the attachment could supply.
But there was one difference. As an active conscious entity, Hongfu's main body had its strength calibrated from the start, leaving no possibility of further breakthrough.
On the contrary, after abandoning its original body, Hongfu seemed to have become weaker, but it was no longer bound by the former shackles. It no longer had to obey the protocol of an active conscious entity, and instead possessed the possibility of advancing further.
Now, after completely absorbing the divine embryo's energy, she possessed a trace of the divine embryo's nature and could grow stronger on her own.
Her field domain's power had been continuously rising as she gradually absorbed the divine embryo, which was proof of this.
Once she had fully digested the divine embryo, the change would be fundamental. It meant that if Hongfu could absorb more energy in the future and form a method of self-refining, she might be able to advance along the path of a spiritual life.
However, all this required one prerequisite: a powerful attachment. Without Chen Chuan's field domain as its foundation, it would be impossible.
Chen Chuan was somewhat looking forward to Hongfu's future performance. No matter how she changed, she still possessed the characteristics of an active conscious entity, and as her power rose she could provide him with ample assistance.
Then, as if at the same time, after Hongfu finished absorbing, the Xuejun Saber seemed to have received some stimulation and fully awakened at that moment, letting out a hum.
Seeing this, Chen Chuan reached out and took the Xuejun Saber from its rack. With a flash of cold light, the blade was already drawn.
He held the blade horizontally before his eyes for a brief inspection. His immediate impression was that the blade could now carry more power in a single burst.
This was good. For a time in the past, the Xuejun Saber's limited capacity had prevented him from unleashing his full power. After several improvements, things finally changed, and its later performance on the battlefield had been unrivaled in sharpness.
However, his power had continued to rise, and quite rapidly. Though the Xuejun Saber had kept up through prolonged contact, it still fell just a little short. Thus, although he could burst forth with all his power for a short time, sustained consecutive bursts were somewhat strained.
Of course, his battles usually did not last long, so overall it had been sufficient. But with this improvement, the saber had finally caught up, and it seemed to have even more capacity to spare.
At least for now, once he faced an enemy, it would be enough to let him unleash his full strength without restraint.
He ran his hand over the crimson bloodline on the blade's spine. He could sense that this time, in slaying Emperor Wenguang, the benefits gained within the saber might go beyond this, perhaps involving some deeper changes.
After all, Emperor Wenguang had been only one step away from breaking through his limit, and at the time he had still been in communication with the upper realm. Chen Chuan suspected that what the Xuejun Saber had finally devoured might be the portion related to the upper realm.
He did not delve deeper. Whatever it had gained, it would gradually manifest through later use.
As for whether there were any adverse effects, although the Xuejun Saber had always been gluttonous, it had never swallowed anything harmful to itself. Moreover, the Ring of Worlds ensured that upper-realm power could not seep in. Thus, even if there were any, they would remain within his ability to handle.
With a clang, the cold light vanished as he sheathed the saber. The red cloth on it fluttered and wrapped around the scabbard. He stood, placed it back on the rack, and moved to a room next door.
There sat a pill furnace—the very one from Emperor Wenguang's pill chamber, which he had already moved here.
Chen Chuan had already examined it. The furnace had no necessary connection to the pill chamber; only the pills refined with it were the key to opening the Immortal Lodge.
In fact, he had already ordered the active conscious entity to analyze it and figure out the materials and exact method used to forge this pill furnace. Once mastered, even the furnace would no longer be needed.
Now, with practiced familiarity, he placed the ritual materials into the pill furnace. Having done this several times over the past few days, in less than ten minutes a pill formed. In front of him, light burst forth in an instant, opening the portal to the Immortal Lodge.
After entering, Chen Chuan sat down in a pavilion. With Tianji Sect's warning, he no longer had any misgivings and could safely dispel the aberrant qi here.
Following the 'treatment method' Qiutong had given him, he filled the place with his own field domain and used his will to force out the aberrant qi.
The Immortal Lodge had originally been transformed in this way as well. It had been very easy to contaminate it with aberrant qi back then—after all, in some sense that counted as a form of unconventional destruction. Now, however, restoring it to its proper origin was much more difficult.
Fortunately, this place was still ownerless land, so with patient effort he could ultimately accomplish it.
After trying it out, he gained a rough estimate. If he spent three to four hours here each day over the next period, then in about twenty days—at the latest before the end of January—he could successfully disperse the aberrant qi and then restore it into an immortal seed.
As for the other two places—the Immortal Lodges of the Visage of the Divine and the Visage of the Aberrant—they were fundamentally different from those of the Human Visage. Since they were incompatible with him, even forcing their restoration would be twice the effort for half the result.
Even if he truly succeeded in the end, the immortal seed would be incompatible with him. Therefore, he planned to report on these two, and once he finished handling this one, he would hand those two over.
After reading Tianji Sect's letter and combining it with what Elder She had told him earlier, he had abandoned the idea of finding an existing site. Instead, he was determined to open one himself, for only that would be most suited to him.
However, to break through to the upper realm, a single immortal seed was certainly not enough. He would have to find a way to collect more.
Now that he had become a formal member of the advisory group, he wondered whether he could secure some resources from the state.
He would only know that after joining the advisory group.
For now, he would not concern himself with these matters. He would first do well what was before him.
Several more days passed in a flash. On January tenth, the successor sent by headquarters finally arrived at the front. Chen Chuan formally handed over his duties to him. From this point, he could shed his identity as front-line commander and return to Zhongjing to report for duty.
In truth, this should not have happened so quickly, but some people in the advisory group were very anxious. Chen Chuan's appointment had been arranged from above, so they had to have it settled before the New Year festivities ended.
Chen Chuan also received a letter from the advisory group, urging him to come as soon as possible for his appointment ceremony.
These people had initially gone to great lengths to keep him excluded, yet now they had no choice but to urge him to join quickly. It was rather ironic.
He paid no attention to their urging. Their anxiety was their business; what did it have to do with him? There was no rule from above setting a specific date for him to join the advisory group.
Thus he proceeded at his own pace. Two days later, after making thorough preparations and attending a farewell ceremony arranged by the gathered officers and generals, he set out on the twelfth.
Since it was no longer wartime, there was no need for him to fly back and forth himself. This time he took an airship, which was expected to return him to Zhongjing in three days.
Having shed all his responsibilities, he could relax. The return journey was a good opportunity to adjust himself.
On the way back, he read the internal newspapers, which contained page after page discussing the significance of destroying the Former Imperial House.
However, he also saw an article claiming that the Former Imperial House could have been destroyed long ago, and it listed detailed statistics saying the Former Imperial House could not compare with Great Shun at all.
This time, in fact, the rear had made full preparations, and only with the complete cooperation of the government and the various regional Center Cities had this victory been achieved.
This article emphasized the contributions of the Center Cities. Although it did not speak ill of the military even slightly, it deliberately or inadvertently belittled and diminished the important role the military had played in this campaign.
But further below, he saw another commentary clearly written in direct opposition. It reminded everyone not to underestimate the Former Imperial House and focused on analyzing why the encirclement and suppression of the Former Imperial House had failed in the past.
It said that with the arrival of the new era, the Former Imperial House had also enjoyed some of the technological dividends. It further argued that in all previous dynasties, the convergence zones had never been as vast as they were under the final dynasty. Because of this, they had been able to maintain twenty or thirty Dongxuan View experts.
This was one of the reasons Great Shun had never been able to make up its mind to annihilate the former dynasty in the past. If so many Dongxuan View experts launched attacks from all directions, even if Great Shun ultimately won, it would suffer tremendous damage.
Crucially, Great Shun also had to contend internationally for leadership of the world, and it could not afford excessive losses.
Moreover, the convergence zones delivered large amounts of resources to Great Shun's various Center Cities every year, some of them strategic resources. Once war broke out, all the chains of interests built up over the years would break. Just considering the possible cost, it was hard to make that decision.
It also listed detailed data showing that during the destruction of the former dynasty—especially in the early and middle stages of the war—some regional Center Cities had responded slowly and done nothing. They only joined in the later stage, by which time the situation had already stabilized.
The article bluntly pointed out that rather than joining the war, it was more accurate to say they had rushed in to seize the spoils.
The Center Cities that truly played an important role were all those that had joined the Skyline. This precisely demonstrated the value of the Skyline.
This counterattack was extremely sharp, but the other side was clearly unwilling to admit it. They emphasized their own contributions, and the two sides engaged in a debate over this.
Chen Chuan knew this meant that, with the war over, people had begun fighting over the fruits of victory. The Conservative faction clearly did not want to end up with nothing.
Thus, although the external battle had ended, the internal struggle was far from over—it could even be said to have just begun. And these people were harder to deal with than external enemies.
It could be imagined that there were quite a few representatives of such people in the advisory group.
His gaze was deep and calm. In his view, it would be best to purge this group before the Great Impact. Even if he could not eliminate all of them, he needed to remove as many as possible.
…
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Chapter 1471