“You should know that after advancing to Martial Emperor, one forms the Golden Emperor Body. At that time, physical damage will no longer be able to kill a cultivator. As long as the Heart of an Emperor still exists, it will be very difficult to kill them. Do you understand why this step is so difficult now?”
Xiao Chen possessed a shockingly high comprehension ability. Naturally, he immediately saw the crux of the problem: condensing a soul for the Heavenly Seal meant coming in touch with the core of a Martial Emperor, which was directly connected with the Heart of an Emperor.
Elder Qin said slowly, “The path to Martial Emperor is not simple. Just this hurdle blocks ninety percent of quasi-Emperors. After that, the Great Tribulation of wind and fire stops ninety percent of the quasi-Emperors who make it past that hurdle. I believe it would not be exaggerated to say there are tens of billions of cultivators in the Kunlun Realm. The thing we do not lack is geniuses. However, the number of people who can successfully break through to Martial Emperor every five hundred years can be counted on two hands.
“Every Martial Emperor, no matter how strong or weak, is someone with extraordinary Luck in the Kunlun Realm. Since ancient times, many people have died while climbing to Martial Emperor. However, people continue to throw themselves on the Martial Path without end.”
Of tens of billions of cultivators, less than ten advanced to Martial Emperor every five hundred years. Xiao Chen sighed. The success of one meant the deaths of many others. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the odds of success was one in one hundred billion.
Furthermore, Xiao Chen had no more than four years left.
Xiao Chen chatted with Elder Qin at the summit for a long time. They even exchanged some moves.
After the exchanges, Elder Qin sighed. This age of geniuses was filled with many demonic geniuses. As for Xiao Chen, he was a demonic genius among demonic geniuses.
The number of people advancing to Martial Emperor in these hundred years would probably be more than the total number of people who had done so in the past few thousand years. Elder Qin could not help revealing an expression of pity when he thought of Xiao Chen’s situation.
“Xiao Chen, I am not considered to have lived very long, but I have already lived for several hundred years and seen countless geniuses. I have seen many young outstanding talents die prematurely due to various reasons, perhaps standing out too much, rejoicing in grandiose deeds, showing off in ruthless battles, or sinking into their desires. Only you are different. This is too unfortunate,” Elder Qin could not help saying.
Xiao Chen smiled calmly. “If I did not temper my physical body without care for the consequences and refine my Quintessence twice at every cultivation grade of Martial Monarch, I might not have run into my current physiological lifespan problem.
“However, in that case, I would have nothing. I simply would not be able to compete with the outstanding talents of the Kunlun Continent or be able to sweep through all who opposed me at my King conferral ceremony and obtain overwhelming Luck. Everything in the world is subject to cause and effect. Nothing is predictable. There is no need to overthink this. It is best to just continue looking forward.”
Elder Qin was awed at Xiao Chen’s att.i.tude. Smiling, he said, “Unexpectedly, you are able to understand this so well. Actually, as Prime Martial Emperors, the Thunder Sovereign and Supreme Sky Emperor can use a secret technique to make you advance to Martial Emperor if they pay a certain price.”
Xiao Chen nodded and said, “I know that. However, advancing to Martial Emperor through such a method would drain my potential dry. From there on, I would not be able to advance further. Even if I could flaunt my might before quasi-Emperors, I would be worth nothing before true Martial Emperors. I will not choose such a route.”
Elder Qin was not surprised at Xiao Chen’s answer. He laughed softly and said, “This is all the experience I have on cultivating as a Great Perfection quasi-Emperor. I will not hold you up from your cultivation, then. If you have anything else, you can come and look for me at any time.”
Xiao Chen performed a cupped-fist salute as he sent off Elder Qin. Then, he sank into deep thought as he stood on the summit.
Ultimately, cultivating as a Great Perfection quasi-Emperor was still reliant on resources. Only after reaching peak Great Perfection quasi-Emperor would one start condensing a soul for the Heavenly Seal, merging one’s soul with the Heavenly Seal. That was the true divider between Consummation quasi-Emperor and Great Perfection quasi-Emperor.
However, Xiao Chen just advanced to Great Perfection quasi-Emperor and was still a distance from the peak. He still needed an enormous amount of resources to cultivate.
To break through his bottleneck, Xiao Chen had used only about one percent of the King Spirit Vein in the treasure trove. A large portion remained untapped.
Logically speaking, with this King Spirit Vein, Xiao Chen did not lack resources. However, he felt that cultivating with this King Spirit Vein was simply too wasteful and was not worth doing so.
Those Holy Lands that lasted for tens of thousands of years, even those Immortal Holy Lands, did not have many King Spirit Veins. Even including the ones they kept as backups, there would be no more than five.
Using this King Spirit Vein for Xiao Chen’s cultivation as a quasi-Emperor would be extravagant.
Now that he had already broken through the bottleneck of Small Perfection quasi-Emperor, Holy Spirit Veins were more than enough.
Xiao Chen wished to leave this King Spirit Vein to the future Dragon’s Gate, qualifying it to be a Holy Land. If he wanted to find another King Spirit Vein, he would need to be as strong as a Sovereign Martial Emperor first.
He still remembered the scene of the Northern Sea Alliance trying to subdue a suspected King Spirit Vein.
If a King Spirit Vein had really appeared then, the hidden Sovereign Martial Emperors of the Northern Sea Alliance would definitely have made an appearance to stop other factions from s.n.a.t.c.hing it.
“I have to find new Holy Spirit Veins. I’ve gotten nearly all of the ones recorded on the vellum sea chart already. Now, I will have to rely on my own Dragon Seeking Art.”
A light flashed in Xiao Chen’s eyes. Now, thoughts of going to the Black Sea to find Ba Tu bubbled up. He wanted to see if he could learn any more of the Yuwen Clan’s secrets from that corpse.
Perhaps his Dragon Seeking Art might be able to improve further. At that time, he would be more confident when searching for Holy Spirit Veins.
Xiao Chen collected his thoughts, not wanting to dwell on that problem for now. Then, he sat cross-legged on the summit and started cultivating quietly, solidifying his cultivation as a Great Perfection quasi-Emperor.
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Time flew by. In a flash, half a month pa.s.sed.
Xiao Chen’s cultivation completely stabilized. Now, his Heavenly Seal was at his disposal, like it was a part of his body.
With a thought, he could bring out all ten thousand Heavenly Laws from his dragon-shaped Heavenly Seal, instantly driving all the power of the world that he could.
With the formation of this Heavenly Seal, his comprehension of the world naturally deepened.
To Xiao Chen now, the world was no longer how it had appeared before. Instead, he could distinctly feel the entire world in motion. It was as if he could see the core laws of this universe—the lines of s.p.a.ce and time, the chessboard of fate.
However, he could see only a vague image of them. As of now, he still could not make any changes to these two laws, especially time. Time was even more mysterious and ever-changing when compared to s.p.a.ce, extremely unfathomable.
In the meantime, Mo Chen came by once; she already finished a rough draft of Heavenly Dragon City.
In Mo Chen’s plan, she needed one million people to construct the various buildings of the city. With her leaders.h.i.+p and expertise, she estimated a completion date within two years.
This was already very fast. If it were another person, they would need to coordinate with refiners, formation masters, geomancers, and many other professions. They would end up taking a lot of time, unable to complete this project within ten years.
The refugees of Heavenly Star City had been relocated to the other smaller cities and towns of Heavenly Star Island and the other satellite islands. There was no doubt about Lan Shaobai’s and Mo Chen’s capabilities in this aspect.
Mo Chen and Lan Shaobai also took back the satellite islands occupied by the other factions and managed them in an organized manner.
The development of Heavenly Star Island was now set on a new trajectory, taking off rapidly. Everything proceeded in an orderly fas.h.i.+on.
When Xiao Chen found some free time, he started refining Medicinal Pills, working on the Heavenly Source Pill that he promised the Lunar Palace’s Holy Daughter, Yue Bingyun.
Since returning to Heavenly Star Island, he had been very busy, unable to free up time. Now that things had settled down, it was time to start on the refining. After all, he had made a promise, and he did not intend to break it.
The process of refining the Medicinal Pill did not go smoothly. However, Xiao Chen was in no rush. After all, Yue Bingyun had prepared a hundred sets of ingredients. He was not afraid of failure; he was bound to succeed once.
After failing for seventy-eight times straight, Xiao Chen finally succeeded in refining the Heavenly Source Pill.
A youth nimbly climbed up the mountain and said to Xiao Chen respectfully with an expression of reverence. “Lord Azure Dragon King, the City Lord said there are honored guests here, and is inviting you to make a trip to the main hall.”
This youth was one of the young disciples that Xiao Yu taught. Xiao Chen managed to figure this out from the youth’s attire.
These youths came from ordinary families in the city—seedlings with decent talents who had been found and might be given heavy responsibilities in the future.
Xiao Chen put away the Medicinal Pill in his hand. Then, he rewarded the youth with some things, and the youth left joyfully.
Lan Shaobai would not disturb Xiao Chen if the guests were ordinary people. These guests were probably people of some status.
Who could it be? Xiao Chen felt curious as he pushed off the ground and flew towards the main hall at the waist of the mountain.
After a few breaths of time, he arrived outside the hall. When the disciples standing guard there saw him, they immediately bowed in greeting.
Xiao Chen sorted out his emotions and calmly walked in. He discovered many people in the hall, all in different attires.
However, these people were all peak Great Perfection quasi-Emperors. Furthermore, they were the kind that was aware that they had no way to merge their souls with their Heavenly Seals, so they focused on tempering their Law Energy, raising their combat prowess.
These people had all been at peak Great Perfection quasi-Emperor for at least a hundred years. Their Law Energy was incredibly vast, and the purity was higher than normal. Their strength was all unfathomable.
The instant Xiao Chen stepped into the hall, he immediately felt several people focus on him, trying to figure out his limits. When they saw that Xiao Chen was a newly advanced Great Perfection quasi-Emperor, doubt flashed in their eyes.
When Xiao Chen came over, Lan Shaobai, who was entertaining this group of people, immediately said in a voice projection, Xiao Chen, these are the Vice Sect Masters of the nearby Rank 9 sects. On the surface, they are here on a courtesy call to make contacts. In reality, they are not here with friendly intentions but to gauge our bottom line.
There was a saying “Those who have come are not friendly, those who are friendly have not come.”
Xiao Chen could more or less guess the purpose of these people in coming here. After he heard Lan Shaobai’s voice projection, he performed a cupped-fist salute and said with a smile, “Sorry for being late, my apologies.”
“The Azure Dragon King is being too polite.”
Since these people were here on Heavenly Star Island under the guise of a visit, they still needed to show basic respect. Hence, the Vice Sect Masters of the various Rank 9 sects all stood up and reciprocated with a bow.
Many Rank 9 sects existed in the Heavenly Starry Ocean. As long as there was a Martial Emperor, a Holy Spirit Vein, and more than two thousand disciples, a sect was considered a Rank 9 sect.
However, these nearby Rank 9 sects did not have much acc.u.mulations and were probably less than one thousand years old. There was a huge disparity between them and a peak Rank 9 sect like the Supreme Sky Sect.
Seeing that all the Vice Sect Masters here were merely peak Great Perfection quasi-Emperors, Xiao Chen could guess that the Sect Masters were mostly Minor Heavenly Martial Emperors. Furthermore, it was likely that there was only one Martial Emperor in each of these sects.
As far as Xiao Chen was aware, the Vice Sect Master of the Supreme Sky Sect had already reached Consummation quasi-Emperor many years ago. The previous Sect Master retired after advancing to Greater Heavenly Martial Emperor, and there were also many strong Supreme Elders. The Supreme Sky Sect possessed deep acc.u.mulations built up over ten thousand years.