Realm

"Mo Shan!?" "You..." Seeing Mo Shan of the Taiyi Immortal Sect leave with Jiang Tianzun without the slightest hesitation, Hou Feng and Xi Liu, both Void Piercing experts, were dumbfounded. Immediately after came uncontrollable fury. "Bastards!" Hou Feng, with his Heavenly Dao Sect background, could not hold back a curse. They had fought tooth and nail for Jiang Tianzun, risking the displeasure of people in the Penglai Immortal Sect and thoroughly offending Yaoguang—the Heavenly Dao Sect's immensely promising Void Piercing junior sect master. Yet those two... ...simply dusted themselves off and walked away! Running around doing all the dirty work, gaining nothing, and ending up covered in stench. What kind of damned mess was this? "Mo Shan! Jiang Tianzun!" Hou Feng ground out the two names through clenched teeth, utterly loathing them. If Jiang Tianzun had not been protected by Mo Shan, a fellow Void Piercing expert, and had not left so decisively, Hou Feng would have seized Jiang Tianzun on the spot and bled him dry to make up for his losses. Who cared if he was the personal disciple of a Void Shattering expert!? Could a supreme elder of the Taiyi Immortal Sect reach over and discipline an elder of the Heavenly Dao Sect? "What a useless bunch of fools!" Xi Liu cursed inwardly, his expression gloomy. Still, there was nothing he could do. That the Xi clan had crossed paths with Yaoguang in the first place was entirely Xi Hai bringing disaster upon himself; he could not blame Jiang Tianzun for that. With things having reached this point... ...he could only flee back to the imperial capital of Great Shang as quickly as possible. Surely no matter how arrogant and domineering Yaoguang was, he would never dare run amok in Great Shang's imperial capital and lay a hand on a second-rank high official like him. At the thought, feeling thoroughly unlucky and refusing to spend another moment with these so-called elite sect elders who were utterly worthless, he took to the sky without even offering a parting word and swiftly vanished. When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. Never was the saying truer. Seeing Xi Liu leave silently as well, Hou Feng could not help spitting out another curse: "A bunch of useless trash! Incapable of accomplishing anything!" Tongming had no leisure to curse anyone. With a troubled face, he said, "We'd better figure out how to deal with this junior sect master of ours." At this point, he reviewed everything he had done against Yaoguang recently... Hmm!? Although he had indeed taken part in hunting Yaoguang down, everything he had done seemed completely reasonable and within the rules. Could it even be called singling him out? A true disciple of the Heaven Lineage had died, so as an elder of the Heaven Lineage, he had investigated it thoroughly. He had committed no overstepping during the process. Afterward, he would only need to find the junior sect master, explain himself, and present a generous gift—surely they could beat swords into plowshares. Furthermore... ...this junior sect master had bypassed the ordinary true disciple stage, leaping straight from an inner disciple to junior sect master. He had virtually no faction of his own backing him. If Tongming used an apology as an opportunity to cozy up to him and became the first Void Piercing elder to show sincerity, then once Yaoguang matured, he might become a powerful ally in the Heavenly Dao Sect. Once Yaoguang reached Void Refining in the future and rose to vice sect master, he would be an even sturdier backer. "Sigh, what a mess," Tongming thought, then said to Hou Feng, "Fortunately, things haven't escalated beyond repair. We should return to the sect as soon as possible and find a way to resolve this friction with the junior sect master." With that, he also spurred his escape light and vanished into the horizon. "Associating with people who have zero guts and decisiveness—no wonder nothing gets done," Hou Feng muttered. Before long, the communication jade talisman on his person vibrated once more. He took the talisman and examined the message inside. Only a moment later, his eyes widened with fury. "Yuan Miaoyi, you... you want to use me as a pawn to test Yaoguang!?" Being treated as a pawn was bad enough. The crucial issue was that no matter the outcome of testing Yaoguang, he would meet no good end. If Yaoguang had hidden trump cards, his fate as the probe would be terrible. Even if Yaoguang had no trump cards, his deep ties with the Penglai Immortal Sect meant that if an expert from Penglai intervened, Hou Feng would still suffer a grim fate. "Fine! Fine! Just wonderful!" Hou Feng sneered. "Yuan Miaoyi, what do you think I am!? A pawn for you to manipulate at will!? You're merely a Void Refining cultivator yourself! Do you really think that with a single command, I'd willingly throw my life away!? I went through untold hardships and survived countless brushes with death to reach this stage and achieve Void Piercing! Do you truly think you can order me around!?" As a Void Piercing expert, where could he go and not receive top-tier treatment? If this place wouldn't have him, somewhere else would. At most, he would have to abandon his decades of development in the Heavenly Dao Sect, including the influence built by the Hou clan lineage. Yet... so long as he, a Void Piercing expert, remained alive, it wouldn't take long to build up another faction like the Hou clan. Void Piercing experts were said to possess boundless lifespans of ten thousand years. He had all the time in the world. With a plan in mind, Hou Feng did not show it immediately. Instead, he sent a reply to Yuan Miaoyi expressing his willingness to redeem himself through meritorious service. Light flickered in his eyes. Yaoguang definitely possessed a Dao artifact! And held an enormous secret. Perhaps the inheritance of Dao Lord Penglai!? For those two things, what did it matter if he abandoned the Hou clan and his foundation in the Heavenly Dao Sect!? Never mind one Hou clan—even ten Hou clans combined couldn't compare to a single Dao artifact! "So what if he's the junior sect master? Let's see whose methods prove superior when the time comes." Hou Feng made up his mind. If he could obtain the Dao artifact and inheritance on Yaoguang, he might very well take another step forward and reach Void Refining. When that time came... he would settle the score with Yuan Miaoyi, Zong Wenxian, and the rest at his leisure. *** Penglai Immortal Sect. Not long after, Dao Lord Penglai received word from the Heavenly Dao Sect. "Void Piercing already." She glanced at it and gave a faint smile. "Not bad." As a Dao Lord, she had every right to describe "Void Piercing" as merely "not bad." With that, she returned her attention to sensing the planetary core of Beihai Star. "The Gate of the Immortal Realm," she murmured softly. Yes, the Gate of the Immortal Realm. The greatest allure of Beihai Star—the secret of immortality—lay in the Gate of the Immortal Realm hidden deep within its planetary core. A gate that, once opened, could select three thousand Dao Lords who had attained the three thousand Great Daos to enter and ascend to immortality. Because of the Gate of the Immortal Realm, the structure of Beihai Star had undergone changes, becoming sturdy and vast. Because of the Gate of the Immortal Realm, the dissipating immortal realm qi was refined by mighty cultivators and condensed into Pure Yang Great Pills and Void Dao Pills, fostering top-tier powerhouse after powerhouse. And because of the Gate of the Immortal Realm, countless Dao Lords from all corners of the starry sky arrived on Beihai Star one after another to establish sects, causing the cultivation world of Beihai Star to flourish boundlessly. The purpose of these Dao Lords founding sects was to have people observe the movements of the Gate of the Immortal Realm. Once the Gate of the Immortal Realm manifested and opened, those who traveled abroad seeking every way to bolster their strength would rush back from all across the world to compete for the spots—three thousand in name, but in reality only several dozen. "A cycle of ten thousand years. Counting the time, less than a thousand years remain until the day it opens." A thousand years. To mortals, it was equivalent to dozens of generations coming and going. It was equivalent to the long lifetime of a Golden Core cultivator. Even to a Void Piercing expert, it was a tenth of their lifespan. Yet to a Dao Lord with a lifespan of one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred years, it amounted to practically nothing. A thousand years from now, she would surely head to the Gate of the Immortal Realm deep within the planetary core, defeat all rivals in the "Dao Dispute," step inside, and seize the chance of immortality. She had ample confidence in standing out in the Dao Dispute. After all, few cultivated the Great Dao of Origin. Yet after she left, the Penglai Immortal Sect left behind... would likely find itself in dire straits. "Sanqing Hall's Dao Child Taiqingzi, Demon God Cult's Saintess Tianqin, the True Dragon Dynasty's Sixth Princess Qin Xianhuang, and now, Heavenly Dao Sect's Junior Sect Master Yaoguang can be added as well... In a thousand years, let us see which of you will truly stand out, reach Void Shattering, and protect and inherit the lineage of the Penglai Immortal Sect this lord leaves behind." *** Heavenly Dao Sect, Nine Cauldrons Peak. After activating the twelfth-tier formation, Yaoguang sat directly on the cultivation platform that stretched tens of li across. With the main peak's formation active, unless there was an urgent matter, no one would dare ascend the main peak lightly to disturb his cultivation. And he finally had sufficient leisure to take stock of his gains. Among his many gains, aside from the various changes that came with achieving Void Piercing, what he looked forward to most was the newly sprouted branch. And this branch... "Finally..." Yaoguang let out a long breath. After waiting for so long, he had finally produced the pill refining branch. Although he could now easily purchase pills by selling Dao artifacts, putting aside the difference in cost, it added an extra layer of trouble. Moreover, while Pure Yang Great Pills were easy to buy, purchasing Void Dao Pills was no longer a simple matter. Refining Void Dao Pills required not only sufficient pill-refining attainments, but also a Dao artifact-grade pill cauldron. Under such circumstances, every single Void Dao Pill produced was exceedingly precious. The reason top sects were able to attract Void Piercing experts to join them lay in the Void Dao Pills, which barely circulated in the outside world. "The most important aspect of cultivation from Void Piercing to Void Refining is deepening one's comprehension of void power, forging one's grotto-heaven into an impregnable bastion so that it can easily unleash its full might. And the Void Dao Pill is an exceptional elixir for enhancing void comprehension!" In Yaoguang's mind, various profundities regarding Void Piercing flowed continuously. In just moments, he realized something. The stage from Void Piercing to Void Refining did not have particularly high demands for "energy"; its main requirement was comprehension of "void power." And as for comprehension of void power... "My comprehension has long reached the Void Refining stage, perhaps even the mid-stage of Void Refining... In other words, I don't need to spend time on void power at all. So long as I choose my Dao arts and remodel my grotto-heaven according to my future path of development until it can accommodate a 'Dao seed,' I will naturally step into the Void Refining realm?" Yaoguang understood clearly. And remodeling the grotto-heaven would hardly take much time at all. If he kept his requirements modest, in three years at the fastest, or ten years at the slowest, he would undoubtedly step into the Void Refining realm and begin cultivation at that level. "So, I still prefer this sort of cultivation that leans toward realm comprehension. Just like that, I've saved hundreds of millions, perhaps even billions, of Pure Yang Great Pills."