Demonstration

"The Dao." Yaoguang digested this entirely new concept of power. It was a level of strength never even mentioned in [Immortal Dao: Void Cavern]. Yet, mastery of one principle unlocked myriad principles. When a certain power reached a specific threshold, it inevitably touched upon knowledge from other power systems. The same applied to artifact refining. The Dao inherent within it... Vaguely pointed Yaoguang toward a realm above [Immortal Dao: Void Cavern]. "A power transcending the transformations of the physical world... reaching the point of touching the very rules of heaven and earth?" Yaoguang mused. At the pinnacle of the Void Cavern realm, one wielded the power of black holes. Such power was likely already the ultimate manifestation of force in the physical world. Going further up... It was still black hole power, differing merely in quantitative buildup. Only when such power reached its absolute extreme would it finally touch upon the core force constructing this world and the entire starry universe. The Dao. "As the ancient sayings go, 'Attain the Dao and ascend to immortality,' and 'Hear the Dao in the morning, die content at dusk'... Is the Dao the final realm before becoming an immortal? Once one attains the Dao, can one ascend to immortality?" Yaoguang pondered. Yet... It was nothing more than speculation. Before pushing [Immortal Dao: Void Cavern] to a certain level, he could not access the complete power system concerning the "Dao." As for how to achieve immortality, one would likely need to advance beyond the Void Cavern realm and cultivate sufficiently far before having any hope of understanding. ... Dao artifacts encompassed far too vast a scope. It took Yaoguang more than ten days just to digest the core information. As for the remaining ninety-nine percent of secondary details, he could only store them away for now, retrieving them from his memory when needed. Even so, that small fraction of essential knowledge still led him to an unexpected discovery. He quickly brought over the Sky-Rending Disc, a top-tier spirit treasure, and examined it thoroughly. After only a short moment, he could not help but sigh with heartfelt lamentation: "Flowing Void Sand, Dao Rhyme Stone, Phantom Void Crystal, Celestial One Star Marrow... What a sheer waste of heavenly gifts! Any one of these materials, if broken down, could serve as the primary component for a top-tier spirit treasure—and a third-generation or higher one at that! Fused together, they could have forged an Astral Boat Dao artifact. Yet... all they made was a single top-tier spirit treasure? Which squandering prodigal wasted such top-grade materials like this? A catastrophic waste!" In the knowledge he had "acquired," any artificer responsible for such a creation would have seen their career ended on the spot. Their very existence was a gross desecration and trampling of the artifact-crafting profession. However, judging by the refinement techniques... It belonged to an ancient era of craftsmanship. The Sky-Rending Disc had likely been crafted at least one or two centuries ago. Those artificers had in all probability already died of old age, leaving no way to hold anyone accountable. With a lingering sense of regret, Yaoguang turned his attention to the other spirit treasures. These spirit treasures... Could all be dismantled. Once dismantled, he could reforge every single one of them. Ordinary spirit treasures could be elevated to high-grade spirit treasures, and high-grade spirit treasures could become top-tier spirit treasures. Moreover... He would not be using first-generation technology, but at least third- or fourth-generation techniques. To Crimson Golden Cores and Radiant Sun Golden Cores, ordinary spirit treasures were like chicken ribs—tasteless to eat, yet a pity to discard. Only "top-tier" spirit treasures cobbled together with Dao artifact materials could truly display formidable might in Golden Core-level combat. In truth, the boost that spirit treasures provided to Golden Cores was immense; it was merely that this world's level of artifact refinement was far too crude, causing otherwise powerful treasures to become mediocre. For instance, the Convergence-Dispersion Ring Yaoguang had crafted could directly suppress a Radiant Sun Golden Core on the verge of cultivation deviation and restore him to normal. "Because my 'higher-dimensional cognition' previously had a specific focus, my information searches were basically directed toward Beihai Star's Golden Core system..." Yaoguang realized this was a limitation of his own awareness. Just as a person could not use a search engine to find things outside their conceptual framework: If you searched using human language, the retrieved information would inevitably pertain to human affairs. And when he used cognition aligned with Beihai Star's new Golden Core system to search for artifact-refining knowledge, what he retrieved naturally corresponded to Beihai Star's techniques. Breaking past such cognitive constraints to witness a broader world was by no means an easy task. "It is difficult for a three-dimensional being to comprehend a four-dimensional existence. Even though I possess this ability, I can still only utilize it through the habits of a three-dimensional being..." After a brief lament, Yaoguang returned his focus to the present: "Judging by the information I've acquired, the equipment used by Radiant Sun Golden Cores on Beihai Star corresponds roughly to third-generation or higher high-grade spirit treasures. With my techniques, reforging the materials of these spirit treasures in my possession into third-generation high-grade spirit treasures would be effortless..." At that point, he suddenly stopped. His skills could indeed accomplish it. The problem was that across the entire Cangwu Great World, he was the only one who possessed such knowledge. Under these circumstances, it would be equivalent to tightening every single screw himself to craft a high-grade spirit treasure from scratch. In the end, even forging just one third-generation high-grade spirit treasure would take three to five years. "Three to five years for a high-grade spirit treasure isn't slow... and yet, I refuse." Tightening screws by hand was completely out of the question. He was no professional assembly artificer. If someone else handled all the preliminary steps and left only the finest assembly work to him, spending ten to fifteen days on a third-generation high-grade spirit treasure would be acceptable. Three to five years... That was madness. With that thought, he swept aside all the spirit treasures he had just been enthusiastically preparing to dismantle. ... As time passed, news of what had transpired at the Cangwu League gradually leaked out. The proposal for the Cultivation Path Community became known to the wider world. Innumerable sects that were gradually learning the truth about the battle in the starry sky sent emissaries to the Nine Cauldrons Sect, eager to learn the Xuan Yuan Creation Technique. It was at this juncture that Li Hanqiu intervened personally, approaching the Golden Core Perfected of the Golden Divine Temple and the Cult Master of the Sacred Flame Cult. Under his mediation, the two greatest powers on the Heiyan Continent achieved an epic reconciliation. They signed an agreement to shelve their disputes, jointly exploit all spiritual energy nodes across the Heiyan Continent, and lead all its people away from war toward peace and prosperity. The most crucial clause of the accord stipulated that the Nine Cauldrons Sect would dispatch teams of formation masters to assist both the Golden Divine Temple and the Sacred Flame Cult in upgrading their spirit-gathering formations, allowing them to yield far more spirit stones. In the present era, some wars were instigated by ill-intentioned factions, while others were born of energy shortages and unequal resource distribution. If the pie could be made vastly larger and stronger—allowing everyone to profit and secure more resources—who would want to fight and kill day in and day out? Consequently, on the Heiyan Continent, which had been plagued by incessant conflict without a single day of calm, an unprecedented stretch of battle-free days miraculously emerged. This development sent shockwaves across the Heiyan Continent and reverberated throughout the world. In recent years, the Wuji Astral Palace had been stirring up constant turmoil on the Heiyan Continent—first destroying the Liusha Sect, then attacking the Black Feather Sect, and heavily backing the Taiyi Sect—all to gradually swallow the continent whole until bringing it entirely under their dominion. Yet now, the two most influential powers on the Heiyan Continent showed signs of uniting, and the continent was shedding its former state of disunity, appearing on the verge of complete solidarity. Under such circumstances, the Wuji Astral Palace naturally found itself in an excruciating bind. If the Heiyan Continent truly united, how could they ever hope to encroach upon it and bring it under their control? All at once, the Wuji Astral Palace was thrown back into frantic activity, forced to redirect a portion of the resources and energy they had just painstakingly extracted from the Black Feather Sect back into the conflict. Shortly after this news spread, the day of the Nine Cauldrons Sect's grand demonstration of power officially arrived. ... When the day of the grand military exercise dawned, tickets to the event venue became nearly impossible to obtain. Anyone fortunate enough to secure a seat in the spectator stands became an object of envy in the eyes of all. Countless attendees eagerly posted pictures of their invitations, drawing waves of admiration and praise. After all, this exercise would feature not only the successive appearances of every battle institute of the Nine Cauldrons Sect, but also the sect's most advanced sky-patrol warships, the Zhongzhou and the Shenzhou, cruising overhead for all to observe at close range. Who would not want to witness such a once-in-a-century spectacle and share in the glory? Unlike ordinary spectators desperately seeking tickets, the Zixiao Institute, as the supplier of flying swords to the various battle institutes, naturally received a large allocation of invitations. Su Yaoyu, Su Yaoxue, Su Yaoqin, Su Yaoshuang, and others traveled together toward Chicheng. Yaoguang, however, did not show himself. His current stature had already surpassed the level of the Cangwu Great World; it was inappropriate for him to make too many public appearances. Moreover, the security of the grand exercise required absolute guarantees. Otherwise, if some Golden Core fired an attack at Chicheng under the pretext of losing control of their power, the Nine Cauldrons Sect's upper echelon, elite disciples, and core combat strength could be wiped out in an instant. Even if the Nine Cauldrons Sect settled the score afterward, the dead could not be brought back to life. Therefore, Yaoguang and Li Hanqiu shouldered the responsibility of guarding the event from high within the nine heavens to ensure everything proceeded without a hitch. Fortunately, having just clashed in the stars with the Wuji Astral Palace and the Immortal Alliance, the Nine Cauldrons Sect possessed ample deterrence. Even if those hostile factions harbored malicious intentions, the mere thought of Yaoguang's virtually unquantifiable combat prowess forced them to suppress those impulses deep within their hearts. Under these conditions, the demonstration proceeded with immense success. Each time a battle institute soared past on flying swords, mountainous roars and cheers erupted from the ground. The twenty-four new-model battle institutes, in particular, showcased the devastating might of the brand-new cultivation system to the fullest. When the colossal sky-patrol warships—measuring over a thousand meters across and several thousand meters in length, drifting like floating islands—glided across the sky, the cheers and shouts swelled to an unprecedented crescendo, their deafening waves nearly tearing the clouds from the firmament. Across the entire Nine Cauldrons Sect, countless people unable to attend in person watched the live broadcast through the Virtual Spirit Realm and illuminated projection screens. Roars of celebration resonated incessantly in every corner. Beholding the impeccably equipped battle institutes and the formidable, state-of-the-art sky-patrol warships that rivaled those of the Wuji Astral Palace, countless elders who had lived through the sect's bitter years wept tears of joy. Meanwhile, the younger generation—especially those who had grown up over the past thirty years amidst the Nine Cauldrons Sect's period of rapid ascension—felt immensely honored, swelling with heartfelt pride at being members of the Nine Cauldrons Sect. If Yaoguang's battle against Zhan Ke and Miller had demonstrated that the Nine Cauldrons Sect possessed the peak martial power of a top immortal sect—intimidating the leadership of rivals—then this military exercise truly displayed the sect's conventional might to the world. It declared to all under heaven that the Nine Cauldrons Sect was undeniably worthy of standing as the Seventh Great Top Immortal Sect!