Preparations

Over the course of more than two years, Yaoguang had taught the first batch of formation masters the upgraded techniques for fourth- and fifth-grade spirit-gathering formations. As for the sixth-grade spirit-gathering formations, people like Gao Shenghan and Huang Wei had practically learned all there was to know. After another year or six months of practice to hone their skills, they would be ready to complete their training and independently carry out upgrades on sixth-grade formations. Once they grew even more proficient, they would also be able to teach other sixth-grade formation masters the new layout methods for spirit-gathering formations. Ultimately, within the next ten years, they would overhaul all spirit-gathering formations across the entire Nine Cauldrons Sect, causing the sect's annual spirit stone production to soar from under a hundred million to three hundred million. As the upgrades proceeded methodically, the dividends Yaoguang received each year grew higher and higher. With this year's dividend safely deposited... Yaoguang's gaze focused once more on the [Divine Path] branch. "Finally enough," Yaoguang murmured. All his efforts during this period had not been in vain—taking non-stop orders with the Zixiao Institute, continually splitting his divine mind to instruct Gao Shenghan, Huang Wei, Zi Qiangwei, and the others on laying out spirit-gathering formations, all while analyzing the Chunyu and designing new warships at the Third Sky-Patrol Research Institute. Cultivation made "rest" far less essential. So much so that over this entire stretch, he had worked more than twenty-two hours a day. Such a feeling of solid toil... He hadn't even experienced anything like it back when he worked on Blue Star. Fortunately, he was a cultivator. Had he been an ordinary mortal, toiling like this for more than two whole years, his body would have given out and he would have dropped dead from exhaustion long ago. "After putting in so much hard work for so long, harvest time has finally arrived. Next... things can be a bit easier." With that thought, the newly acquired [Merchant] experience, barely warm in hand, was poured straight into the [Divine Path] branch. The progress, which had previously surged to 86%, began to rise rapidly... The ancient tree's boughs extended swiftly, seemingly plunging into the inscrutable void, twisting the very notions of time and space to constantly harvest information from another dimensional plane. All the gathered information fed back into Yaoguang's Awareness, absorbed swiftly by his consciousness. In this process... What gradually unfolded before Yaoguang's eyes was neither a Dharma Idol nor divine mind, but touched upon an entirely new kind of power. A True Spirit. Yaoguang came to a sudden realization: the realm above the Dharma Idol was the grotto-heaven True Spirit. It was somewhat like an upgraded version of the Virtual Spirit Realm. However... A True Spirit was not purely a realm above the Dharma Idol. In his mind, countless streams of information flowed continuously, yet in broken fragments. Something fundamental seemed to be missing. Along with this, his [Martial Path] branch swayed incessantly, as if seeking to share the nutrients of the [Divine Path] to fuel its own growth. Amidst these shifts, Yaoguang realized the true essence of power behind the True Spirit... Or rather, what lay beyond the Star God, Golden Core, and Dharma Idol. "Above the Golden Core lies the Void Piercing Realm—a realm of wielding the power of the Boundless Primordial Cavity. Looking across the starry sky, such an existence can be called truly formidable; anywhere across any world, they could be hailed as great powerhouses! Yet to truly break through to this realm, essence, qi, and spirit are all indispensable, not one lacking! Among them, the Star God path requires... Huh? How many? One thousand and eighty acupoints!?" Yaoguang was secretly astounded. Due to the profound integration of the three major systems in this new realm, he had actually "seen" the realm beyond the Star God within the [Divine Path]. Opening one thousand and eighty acupoints! Each acupoint holding the power of a main star! Then, compressing those one thousand and eighty acupoints into a peculiar pulsar energy state, using it as a vessel to clash against the primordial cavity power, thereby achieving the ability to bind the primordial cavity and master its power. Of course, having merely a pulsar Star God physique with one thousand and eighty opened acupoints and the power of the Boundless Primordial Cavity derived from a Golden Core was not enough. The True Spirit's warping of spacetime was also paramount. Through warping chaotic spacetime, the True Spirit carved out a grotto-heaven from the void, allowing the pulsar Star God physique and the power of the Boundless Primordial Cavity to serve as the positive and negative polar forces of this grotto-heaven, uniting and aligning both powers in perfect harmony. This was the true Void Piercing Realm! Without a grotto-heaven True Spirit carving out a grotto-heaven from nothingness, both the pulsar body of a Star God and the power of the Boundless Primordial Cavity from a Golden Core would become extremely unstable—just like the Golden Core realm of the current world. Possessing immense destructive power in vain, yet far from mastering precise control, unable to achieve even the most basic milestone of a Void Piercing powerhouse: boundless longevity. Yes! Boundless longevity! The baseline lifespan of the Void Piercing Realm was ten thousand years! Compared to a Golden Core cultivator who could live only three to five hundred years, how much longer was that?! A Void Piercing powerhouse, even if they simply remained quietly within the Cangwu Great World, would probably live long enough to witness the rise and fall of the Ten Great Immortal Sects. "True Spirit," Yaoguang muttered to himself. Or more precisely, the Void Piercing Realm. He looked at the [Divine Path] branch, which had stopped upon growing to 99%, and then glanced at the [Martial Path] branch, which had reached 31%. Comprehension dawned upon him. To truly step into the domain of the Void Piercing Realm... He would likely need both the [Martial Path] and the [Qi Path] elevated past 60% of Star God and Golden Core respectively. Before those two paths reached 60% of Star God and Golden Core, even if he poured experience into the [Divine Path] branch, it would only spur the growth of the [Martial Path] branch. In fact... He had a premonition that once the [Martial Path] branch also reached 60%, when he added more experience to the [Divine Path], even if his cultivation realm had not yet broken through to the Dharma Idol level, a branch belonging to the [Qi Path] would still sprout. "It didn't even give me room to choose before handing me the answer," Yaoguang remarked wryly. However, though his Dharma Idol had not advanced to the tri-unity Void Piercing Realm, the various secret techniques derived once the Dharma Idol progress surpassed 80% were already an eye-opening marvel to Yaoguang. In particular, many of these secret arts were designed to help Dharma Idols survive before a True Spirit. If used against other Dharma Idols... They would confer an overwhelming advantage. "What I need most right now is to advance to Dharma Idol in absolute secrecy. As for secret techniques meant for battling other Dharma Idols..." Their priority had to come second. Otherwise, even if he could defeat the Dharma Idols of the Myriad Beasts Sect, Immortal Alliance, or Wuji Astral Palace, if they disregarded martial virtue and unleashed Golden Cores against him, he would have no viable answer. "A concealment technique... Found it! Heavenly Dao Formless! Huh?! It can even be transformed into an Origin Spirit formation? Heavenly Dao Alone?" He examined it for a moment. Not only could this secret technique effectively mask his presence at the divine mind level, but it could also convert into the Heavenly Dao Alone formation, evenly augmenting his power across everyone who formed the array, while simultaneously channeling the divine minds of other Origin Spirits onto himself. This enhancement differed from God Lord resonance! The God Lord trait merely turned a disorganized crowd into units as responsive as one's own limbs. Heavenly Dao Alone, on the other hand, effectively concentrated the power of others onto a single person. This way, even if his display of Dharma Idol power was detected by Dharma Idol cultivators from the Wuji Astral Palace, Immortal Alliance, or Myriad Beasts Sect, he could attribute it to the Heavenly Dao Alone formation. That would deflect scrutiny away from him, buying him time to advance to Star God and Golden Core. "Truly impressive. Used properly, it could even allow Origin Spirit cultivators to stand against Dharma Idol cultivators. Let's see... This is... a true legacy secret technique of the Heavenly Dao Sect? Probably like the Phaseless and Formless technique I practiced back in my mortal days—not an inheritance native to the Cangwu Great World or its subsidiary worlds. I'll just use it for now." Yaoguang felt at ease. Additionally, from his glimpse into the "True Spirit," he realized the extreme flaws in the cultivation systems of the Cangwu Great World. However, because he was walking the Dharma Idol path, he currently had no way to resolve this extreme deviation. Once his [Qi Path] branch sprouted and gained sufficient progress, this problem would likely be solved with ease. When that time came, he might even find a way to thoroughly resolve the hidden danger of Li Hanqiu's unstable Golden Core. Contemplating this, Yaoguang calmed his thoughts and began digesting and adapting to the variations of Heavenly Dao Formless and Heavenly Dao Alone. ... A month later. Streaks of light broke through the sky, converging upon the Beidou Domain. Though the owners of these light streaks did not soar with sword qi piercing the heavens like sword cultivators, their importance was not in the least inferior to that of great sword cultivators. "Hahaha, Hall Master Yaoguang, I'm here! Is there anything I can help with?" "If Hall Master Yaoguang needs anything, just say the word! What's this talk of compensation?" "My uncle Murong Hui asked whether you need him to lead people down from the Heavenly Palace to assist?" All sorts of voices rang out one after another. Those who appeared before Yaoguang were none other than Origin Spirit cultivators from every corner of the Nine Cauldrons Sect. Without exception, every one of them was a powerful Origin Spirit capable of venturing deep into the Zixiao Divine Lightning layer and enduring its tempering. Xu Kong, Canghai, Murong Tianguang, and others were among them. In addition, Jiang Zhuoyue, Hall Master of the Guard Hall, had arrived in person, leading several non-frontline battle institutes to maintain order when the time came. Meanwhile, in the neighboring Jiuxiao Domain, Lou Yuyu and Shen Qinglian personally led their elite battle units on maritime patrols, elevating security to its absolute maximum. While responding to the greetings of these Origin Spirit cultivators, Yaoguang divided his mind to conduct a secret conversation with two individuals within the Virtual Spirit Realm. These two were none other than Li Qingshan, Sect Master of the Nine Cauldrons Sect, and Li Hanqiu, the sect's pillar of stability. "Are you confident?" Li Hanqiu looked at him with a solemn expression. "Practically certain," Yaoguang replied. "Then break through! I will handle the rest. Even if the Wuji Astral Palace, Myriad Beasts Sect, or Immortal Alliance want to make a move, I will stand between you and them. They currently hold the advantage, but those with nothing to lose fear no one with everything at stake—I refuse to believe they truly have the guts to perish together with me!" Li Hanqiu waved his hand forcefully. "I have a technique. If we use it as cover, it won't be easily detected by others," Yaoguang said, transmitting the Heavenly Dao Alone formation to Li Hanqiu. "I gathered all the Origin Spirit cultivators here to coordinate with me in deploying this method. Furthermore... if the Origin Spirit cultivators master this technique and join forces, they might even hold their own against Dharma Idol cultivators. At the very least, tearing through a sky-patrol warship's information black zone will be effortless." Li Hanqiu sensed it for a moment, and his eyes instantly filled with disbelief. "Such a formation exists?! This... this was developed by you?!" Even as the words left his mouth, he realized the question was somewhat intrusive. Yaoguang undoubtedly had his secrets. However, Li Hanqiu, Li Qingshan, and the others had long reached a tacit understanding not to pry into them. So long as he stood on the side of the Nine Cauldrons Sect, they would grant him absolute trust and support. Therefore, he immediately corrected himself: "Good! Excellent! With this method as cover, your breakthrough is practically guaranteed to succeed without a hitch!" With that, he turned straight to Li Qingshan. "Have the External Publicity Hall announce immediately that our Nine Cauldrons Sect is conducting an Origin Spirit formation test. Mixing truth with falsehood, reality with deception—that is how a secret can be kept for long." "Understood. I'll arrange it at once," Li Qingshan nodded. "Focus on your breakthrough with peace of mind. Leave the rest to us."