With the flood dragon remnant soul dealt with and the Five Dragons Gang Gu master and gang members eliminated, his assessment could be considered complete.
Even so, this matter was far from over.
Hundreds of innocent commoners slaughtered for a blood sacrifice—such an appalling, bloody crime had to be reported, and the perpetrators had to be severely punished.
The Gu master was dead, but the Five Dragons Gang still stood.
Only a massive organization like the Five Dragons Gang could carry out a blood sacrifice on such a large scale.
Until the Five Dragons Gang was wiped out, this matter would not be over!
Zhou Wuji made a round through the secret realm. The Five Dragons Gang men had lived and defecated in the space, leaving behind a mess of filth and debris.
Coupled with the piles of severed heads and blasted flesh and blood, this small secret realm had been turned into a living hell.
Zhou Wuji found nothing of great value. The most valuable things on their bodies were their weapons, along with some gold and silver valuables; he left those untouched.
Once he reported the incident, it would inevitably draw attention from all quarters. If investigators arrived and found every scrap of wealth looted, it would look far too unseemly.
More importantly, it was not much money anyway, hardly worth the trouble.
Zhou Wuji soon exited the secret realm. It truly was no place fit for humans.
That the Five Dragons Gang could reside there for so long only proved that the lot of them were beasts, not men.
Zhou Wuji stored the items he had left outside back into his Five Yin Pouch, keeping only the bamboo-laminated iron staff in hand.
He sat down beside the entrance of the secret realm to review the battle he had just fought.
The Seven Stars Demon-Slaying Sword worked very well against humans, but its power fell somewhat short against the flood dragon remnant soul.
Against evil specters like a flood dragon remnant soul, the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder was far more effective.
The flood dragon remnant soul could be converted into five liang of primordial profound spirit, enough to raise the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder by at least two tiers.
After weighing it carefully, Zhou Wuji decided against upgrading the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder.
The thunder art was indeed immensely powerful, but right now, he was not lacking offensive methods.
Raising the thunder art by two tiers would not be of that much help to him.
Another crucial factor was that if he used five liang of primordial profound spirit on it now, lower-tier primordial profound spirit would no longer be able to upgrade the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder in the future.
Five liang of destiny pattern, if used to cultivate the Five Tigers Fist, could bring it to at least the Realm of Transformation, giving him a strong chance of breaking through to the sixth-rank martial artist tier.
Yet Zhou Wuji dared not take that risk. While the Northern Emperor's Heavenly Punishment ensured that an art advanced along the correct path, it could not necessarily guarantee that his body could endure the consequences of that advancement.
Powerful Daoist cultivators often practiced both dharma arts and martial arts.
However, their dual cultivation was based on orthodox sect doctrines, grand Daos blazed by countless predecessors of their own school.
The Five Tigers Fist, on the other hand, was an ultimate technique passed down from the Eight Extremes Sect.
The Eight Extremes Sect was a formidable martial sect with a thousand-year unbroken lineage, renowned for unbeatable fist and palm arts.
The Five Tigers Fist followed a fundamentally different path from the Arctic Sect's Daoist heritage.
Attempting to fuse the two was not something one could do on a whim.
The Five Tigers Fist was rooted in the physical body; if anything went awry and the true qi cultivated from it clashed with his Tianshu true qi, he might very well explode on the spot...
The risk was far too great and completely beyond his control.
A sixth-rank martial artist was indeed powerful, but it was not worth gambling with his life.
Zhou Wuji had another misgiving: the foundation of a martial artist was the physical body.
His physical constitution was only five hundred, roughly on par with Zhang Xinhu, lagging behind in fundamental foundation.
Once his physical body advanced further and his true qi cultivation reached the fifth rank, allowing him to understand the exact state of a martial artist's true qi, it would not be too late to reconsider.
The Heavenly Puppet Technique also held great potential and was worth investing in, but it suffered from the same problem: if he invested destiny pattern of too high a tier now, upgrading it later would become exceedingly difficult.
As for his other assorted spells, none warranted that much investment.
Eliminating those options left only the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture, the Seven Stars Demon-Slaying Sword, and the Xiaoxiang Sword.
The Xiaoxiang Sword was his most vital lethal technique; five liang of primordial profound spirit should be enough to elevate it to the realm of perfection.
At that stage, relying on sword technique alone, could he perhaps go toe-to-toe with a sixth-rank martial artist?
After weighing his choices repeatedly, Zhou Wuji still opted to upgrade the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture.
With his current dharma arts and martial skills, he would not fear a sixth-rank martial artist anyway. Besides, why would he need to clash head-on with one?
To him, the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture was the fundamental orthodox doctrine of his cultivation.
All other spells and martial arts were merely protective arts to defend the Dao.
With the branch abbey backing him, if he truly provoked a formidable enemy, there would naturally be high-level experts to step in for him; there was no need to be stubborn and force a head-on collision.
Thinking to this point, Zhou Wuji hesitated no longer and immediately invested the five liang of destiny pattern into the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture.
Purple light unfurled. The space around Zhou Wuji expanded limitlessly, and he immersed himself wholeheartedly in cultivating the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture.
Decades of unremitting, grueling cultivation allowed him to master every variation of the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture, comprehend the true significance of every shift, and gain complete insight into the scripture's ultimate mysteries.
When the purple light dispersed and Zhou Wuji regained his senses, he did not even need to consult the Northern Emperor's Heavenly Punishment to know that the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture had reached the realm of perfection.
Those decades of arduous cultivation within the world of purple light felt both real and illusory, yet the cultivation he had attained from it was indisputably real.
Reaching the realm of perfection in the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture allowed Zhou Wuji to perceive his true qi through internal vision, clearly observing every subtle variation and in turn taking full command of every minute shift in his qi.
According to the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture, cultivating the Daoist art to an exceptionally profound realm allowed one to condense a heart mirror, reflecting clearly both within and without.
The heart mirror's ability to clearly reflect inner and outer realms was actually limited to the circulation of true qi, far inferior to the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment's profound self-illumination.
Yet Zhou Wuji felt the heart mirror was even handier, as it truly hung suspended like a bright mirror high within his sea of consciousness, allowing him to perceive the operational state of his true qi at any time.
Through the circulation of true qi, he could also clearly discern his physical condition.
The heart mirror could even reflect the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper high in the nine heavens, mirroring the state of his resonance with the constellation as well as its subtle shifts.
While the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment was powerful, it was overly intricate. The heart mirror was simple and convenient, ready for him to summon at a moment's notice.
Another vital function of the heart mirror was that by clearly discerning inner and outer phenomena, it could repel any intrusion by external arts or external forces, shielding his mind and consciousness.
Cultivators in the world belonged to countless traditions, and spells that attacked the mind and consciousness were notoriously difficult to guard against.
Now, so long as the heart mirror remained unbroken, he could maintain clarity and reason, keeping his divine sense steady.
It was equivalent to donning a suit of solid armor over his mind.
Through the heart mirror, Zhou Wuji could even gauge the various fruits of this cultivation session.
Opening the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment to check, the results were indeed identical to what the heart mirror had revealed.
First of all, his true qi had increased by twenty-five percent, bringing his total true qi to two thousand.
His spirit had also grown by ten percent over those decades of cultivation, reaching a total of five hundred and fifty.
His greatest advancement, in truth, was the reinforcement of his foundation.
From the divine aperture between his eyebrows to the seven apertures, and on to the Heavenly Gate acupoint—previously, because his cultivation had not been high enough, these nine apertures had all possessed flaws and imperfections to some degree.
Reaching the realm of perfection in the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture had cleansed and tempered all nine apertures anew, fortifying his foundation to the utmost and bringing the nine apertures to a state of near-perfection.
From then on, the nine apertures were vastly more stable; during the respiration of true qi, they could purify it on their own, circulating true qi with far greater efficiency and unleashing its power with far greater potency.
The power of any given spell was increased by at least another twenty-five percent.
One must not underestimate this twenty-five percent.
Take the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder, for instance: even a fraction of an increase in power was a tremendous leap.
If Wuzheng's thunder art could have gained a twenty-five percent boost in power, there would have been no need for Zhou Wuji to intervene during those earlier battles; Wuzheng could have wiped out the mutineers entirely and blasted the two seventh-rank mutineers to death on his own.
Zhou Wuji was thoroughly pleased with this upgrade. Improving his foundational art benefited not only his spells, but also his sword techniques and martial skills.
Most importantly, it laid an exceptionally solid foundation for his cultivation.
Cultivation at the sixth rank was complex, and progress was slow.
The Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture at the realm of perfection, however, could increase his cultivation speed considerably.
Zhou Wuji did not know the progress of other sixth-rank cultivators, but judging by Daoist Yizhen, he had advanced to the sixth rank twenty years ago and still had not managed to break through to the fifth rank.
At his current rate of cultivation, even without using primordial profound qi, pills, or spiritual cultivation items, he was certain to advance steadily to the fifth rank within three years.
A seventh-rank at twenty-two could only be considered a talent in the Arctic Sect.
A sixth-rank at twenty-two was roughly on par with Yizhen in his youth—an elite of the Arctic Sect, already a standout figure within the branch abbey.
If one became a fifth-rank Scripture Master at twenty-five, they would be a notable hero even across the entire Arctic Sect.
To be hailed as a true genius, however, one had to achieve the third rank before the age of twenty-five.
Zhou Wuji knew little of the upper abbey or the main sect; it was only through written records that he knew how the sect classified geniuses.
Thus, his current cultivation was nothing compared to real geniuses. They could not even be mentioned in the same breath.
Zhou Wuji acknowledged the existence of geniuses; in every field, there were extraordinary individuals far surpassing ordinary people, possessing incredible talents in particular domains.
In Daoist cultivation, he truly had no innate gift and could only be counted an ordinary person.
Fortunately, with the Northern Emperor's Heavenly Punishment, innate talent was irrelevant; what mattered were intellect, willpower, and perseverance.
Envisioning the future, Zhou Wuji felt that no genius was qualified to measure themselves against him.
What he needed to do now was keep a low profile and build his strength. The only trouble was that the nature of the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment compelled him to keep fighting, making it impossible to stay too low-profile.
There was another very important issue: although the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture had reached the realm of perfection, that applied only to the sixth-rank tier.
As far as the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture was concerned, from the ninth rank to the sixth rank was merely the foundation-building phase.
Although Zhou Wuji was now at the sixth-rank tier, advancing to the fifth rank required him to first undergo the sixth-rank ordination and obtain the higher-level Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture.
He felt a pang of regret now; had he known earlier, he would have performed better at the ordination ceremony so that his swift advancement to the sixth rank would arouse no suspicion.
With a sixth-rank cultivation, characters like Wu'ai would not dare compete with him either.
"Wu'ai's cultivation may be lacking, but his Big Dipper Seven Stars Sword is truly exquisite..."
Thinking of the Big Dipper Seven Stars Sword, Zhou Wuji really coveted it.
Fine as the Xiaoxiang Sword was, its tier was ultimately too low. That was the primary reason he had chosen not to upgrade it.
Unfortunately, factional strife within the sect was fierce, and he did not know whether there was any way to learn the Big Dipper Seven Stars Sword...
His spirit was surging with vigor, and his mind could not help but wander.
When dawn arrived, Zhou Wuji followed the trail beaten out by footprints down to the island's southern shore, where he spotted a makeshift dock.
Numerous footprints remained on the riverbank; evidently, this was where the Five Dragons Gang had ferried people ashore.
He had agreed with Li Xin and the others that they would come to pick him up after ten days. By that calculation, it would be tomorrow.
Zhou Wuji decided to wait for a day first, mainly out of concern that people from the Five Dragons Gang might come over.
If he was not here, the Five Dragons Gang would surely destroy the bodies and erase all traces...
Chapter 97