Jing Qian caught the two crimson Immortal Qi crystals in his palm without saying a word.
The afterglow of battle still burned through his veins; he hadn't yet come down from the high.
This duel had been perfect.
He'd pummeled a pampered celestial heir, tested the full extent of his own combat power, and even unleashed the terrifying might of the Ren Chong Sword Qi within illusion; every moment had been glorious.
And to top it off, his first-ranking sugar daddy had paid to be beaten senseless.
Could there be anything more satisfying?
He exhaled lightly and said with a grin:
"You're a straightforward one, Heavenly Dragon Child.
I, Chixiao, count you as a friend.
If you ever need a sparring partner again, just call. I'll be there."
Becoming a paid sparring partner for the richest man on the mountain?
What better career could there be?
But the Heavenly Dragon Child shook his head, smiling ruefully.
"Unless you can climb the Mountain of Immortal Qi yourself, I won't be able to summon you again.
Without the Dragon Emperor's investiture as a conduit, I lack the means to bring you into the Heavenly Dragon Palace."
"The ritual time is at its limit; we must part ways for now.
I'll train hard. When next we meet, may we fight again as equals."
He bowed deeply in farewell.
Jing Qian returned the gesture with equal gravity, then felt a strange divine pull seize his consciousness, drawing his spiritual avatar back toward the material realm.
This journey, brief yet extraordinary, had left him with much to ponder. He intended to digest every insight it offered.
Once Jing Qian's form faded, the innocent, childlike smile vanished from Ao Bao's face.
The boy's features hardened; in an instant, he looked like a composed, mature adult.
From the shadows behind him stepped a coldly beautiful woman in ornate palace robes. Her voice was calm but firm.
"Little brother, did you succeed?"
Ao Bao shook his head silently.
Her brows furrowed.
"That Pure Yang lineage has fallen far from its former glory.
The Pure Yang Son looks young, and his cultivation is even lower than yours, and still you failed?"
Ao Bao's tone carried reluctant frustration.
"That Pure Yang Son carries a strand of sword qi from a Grand Cultivator.
My Spirit Construct couldn't withstand it. He cleaved right through me with one strike."
The dragon maiden's expression grew grave.
"Encountering such an opponent was unexpected.
You weren't fully prepared; understandably, you missed the chance.
But the Xiaoyao Son is already on his way.
Be cautious, and ensure you win this next battle.
If you still can't obtain a high-grade reflection, we'll have to settle for a lesser substitute."
Ao Bao straightened, eyes sharpening with resolve.
"Yes, Elder Sister."
So it turned out that Ao Bao, the Heavenly Dragon Child, was not merely any dragon; he was a Mirror Dragon, one of the rarest of his kind, born with a unique Heavenly Fate.
In battle, he could perfectly replicate his opponent's reflection, a mirror incarnation nearly indistinguishable in strength and power from the original body.
Against most foes, this ability made him terrifying.
If he had chosen to mirror Jing Qian during their duel, the fight would have turned into a bitter struggle; victory for Jing Qian would have been far from certain.
But combat was not where a Mirror Dragon's true gift lay.
Each time Ao Bao advanced in cultivation, he could create a Root Reflection within his spiritual sea, a mirror image that drew upon the essence of those he'd bonded with or defeated.
Every Root Reflection granted immense blessings to his cultivation, functioning like a personal divine artifact, a cheat woven into his very soul.
The power of these reflections depended on the original being's aptitude and Dao foundation.
In his early stages, Ao Bao had already acquired the reflections of the Heavenly Ancestral Dragon, the Everlasting Dragon Mother, and his elder sister, the Dragon of Mind, reaching the pinnacle of quality.
But upon reaching the Sub-Spirit Realm, without direct blood kin to rely on, he could only strengthen himself by capturing the reflections of worthy foes.
That, however, was no easy feat.
For a Heavenly Dragon Child, every Root Reflection was vital.
To secure one of high enough quality, he needed an opponent of equal rank, a Dao Child, and not just to defeat them, but to make them yield in heart and spirit.
Such opponents were unimaginably rare.
When Ao Bao met Jing Qian, he had thought fortune was finally smiling upon him, that this was his destined chance at advancement.
He never imagined that he himself would be the one turned into someone else's opportunity.
...
In the Ying Futuo Realm, within the Hanhai Dragon Palace, four mighty cultivators had just returned from their journey to the Mountain of Immortal Qi, and each of them had gained greatly from the experience.
Among them, Ao Run reaped the richest rewards. She had completed the entire investiture ceremony of the Dragon Emperor and received the title of Dragon Emperor of the Hanhai Sea, a distinction absolutely vital to her path of cultivation.
Now, upon returning to the mortal realm and gazing once more upon the vast Hanhai, she felt as if she were beholding her own private garden.
Under normal circumstances, she could reign as Dragon Emperor for at least ten thousand years, until she advanced to the Second Rank.
In that time, she would command the wealth of the four seas; every treasure, every resource of the Hanhai would serve as nourishment for her cultivation.
Her investment in Pure Yang Son, a Second-Rank Shadow Sword and a precious pocket realm in exchange for his aid, had proven a masterstroke.
Yet, for all her future riches, Ao Run's returns would take time to mature.
The one who profited most immediately was none other than the Pure Yang Son himself.
When Jing Qian's spirit returned to the world, carrying with it the two strands of Dragon Mother's Immortal Qi, he was immediately engulfed by a violent eruption of energy.
Without the suppressive order of the Mountain of Immortal Qi, the two Immortal currents broke free like dragons loosed from their chains, roaring skyward as if to tear open the heavens, wild, alive, and determined to devour their new master.
Jing Qian wasn't afraid of the Immortal Qi rebelling. What enraged him was that these priceless essences were trying to escape his control.
To lose even a single wisp of such treasure was like gouging out a piece of his own heart.
Without hesitation, he unleashed his full strength.
The Saint Manifestation behind him expanded to its limit, a towering divine image that reached into the heavens.
Channeling the Saint's power, he seized the rampaging energy with one colossal hand, capturing the twin dragons of Immortal Qi, and in the next instant, vanished into the Void Realm.
But barely a second later, the Ying Futuo Realm shook.
The surge of Immortal Qi drew the attention of immense powers. Four colossal presences streaked toward the Hanhai like comets.
One figure descended first: a tall man in black robes and a golden crown, the Ghost Emperor of Impermanence.
Another followed, an old fisherman in a straw cloak with a bamboo basket on his back.
The third was a plump, white whale, the Kunpeng's avatar.
And the fourth was a six-eared golden-furred monkey, eyes blazing with primal ferocity.
These four were long-established Second-Rank Lords, ancient beings who had rooted themselves deep within the Ying Futuo Realm's immovable mountains of power.
They were also the ones who craved the Dragon Mother's Immortal Qi most desperately.
Jing Qian's Immortal Qi had appeared in the mortal world for no more than a few heartbeats, and yet, like wolves scenting blood, all four rushed to the Dragon Palace's gates.
Fortunately, Jing Qian had already vanished into his private realm.
Had he tarried even a moment longer, not even the status of a Dao Patriarch's heir could have saved him from their greed.
After all, these four mighty beings still cultivated only Golden Immortal Qi, their progress long stagnated below the thousandth layer of the Origin Qi Sea.
For beings at their level, true advancement had become nearly impossible.
To obtain even a single strand of Immortal Qi could bring an immense leap forward, perhaps even a rebirth.
But arriving too late, the four could only stare at each other in silence, their eyes burning with frustrated hunger.
Meanwhile, within the Void Realm, a storm of unimaginable power raged.
The twin Immortal currents clashed like warring armies, waves of dense, tangible energy crashed together, suffused with killing intent so sharp it seemed to rend the air itself.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Amid the maelstrom, Jing Qian stood within his manifested Saint Manifestation, madly devouring the boundless Immortal essence.
In his hands, the black jade longsword fell again and again upon the Saint's body, each strike resounding like muffled thunder.
He was forging the Saint Manifestation with the Immortal Sword Embryo, grinding the purest Immortal Qi into submission, extracting every ounce of divine essence, and converting it into his own cultivation.
His Blue-Blood Life Essence surged madly, their number skyrocketing far beyond anything he'd ever achieved.
He dared not pause. The two Tuoyuan Bone-Nurturing Miriwave Immortal Qis were rampaging like wild beasts, completely out of control.
What's worse, though born of the same Dragon Mother, the two streams of Immortal Qi seemed to hate each other to the death, colliding and devouring one another in furious combat.
Each impact shredded fragments of primordial energy, scattering them through the Void Realm like shards of shattered crystal.
Jing Qian's heart ached at this rate; both Immortal streams would soon destroy themselves.
He had no choice but to work even faster, absorbing and refining as much as possible before it was too late.
His Three-Lives Eye flared between his brows, burning with insight as it absorbed the Dragon Mother's comprehension of the Origin Qi Sea.
He could feel it clearly the next time he entered the Origin Qi Sea; he would break through on an astonishing scale.
The Dragon Mother had comprehended over 2,500 layers of the Origin Qi Sea.
That meant a single strand of her Immortal Qi contained a power a hundredfold greater than that of ordinary Immortal Spirit Qi.
At this moment, Jing Qian's Blue-Blood Life Essence had already surpassed thirty-two thousand drops, and it was still climbing without restraint.
For reference: the weakest Lesser Immortal Spirit Qi, formed at the tenth layer of the Origin Qi Sea, could hold the power of ten Fiendflames, or the equivalent of one hundred Golden Roots Life Essence, one thousand Violet-Pupil Life Essence, or ten thousand Blue-Blood Life Essence.
Jing Qian's foundation, more than a thousand times stronger than that of a normal Seventh-Rank cultivator, gave him a mana reservoir rivaling that of Star-Seizer Demons like the Muduo Dragon.
To possess such might at the Seventh Rank comparable to late-stage great demons was a testament to just how terrifyingly deep his roots ran.
And beyond the Star-Seizer Realm, the only way to strengthen one's Immortal Spirit Qi was to deepen one's mastery of the Origin Qi Sea.
If the first ten layers formed the basis of the Lesser Immortal Spirit, then with every ten additional layers, the cultivator's total capacity of spiritual power would double again.
In other words, when a cultivator first breaks through one hundred layers of the Origin Qi Sea and condenses Golden Immortal Qi, their mana capacity reaches tenfold the base measure.
Upon breaking through one thousand layers, forming true Immortal Qi, that capacity rises to a hundredfold.
And for the Tuoyuan Bone-Nurturing Miriwave Immortal Qi condensed by the Dragon Mother, one who surpassed two thousand five hundred layers, her total mana capacity stood at a staggering two hundred and fiftyfold.
If a single strand of the Dragon Mother's Immortal Qi were converted into Jing Qian's Blue-Blood Life Essence, it would equal an astronomical 2.5 million of them.
To put it in perspective, every Immortal Qi crystal that the Heavenly Dragon Child treated as daily nourishment contained nearly a hundred times Jing Qian's entire cultivation base.
And that was only a numerical comparison.
It didn't even begin to express the sheer sublimity of the Immortal Qi's rank; its quality was so elevated that no amount of ordinary resources could hope to produce it.
Without the hand of the Everlasting Dragon Mother, even double that number of Life Essence could never condense into a single thread of Immortal Qi.
That exalted rank revealed itself in Jing Qian's refinement process in the conversion efficiency.
Normally, absorbing seven or eight Blue-Blood Life Flames might not even yield one usable Life Essence; progress came only by slowly pouring in mountains of resources.
But with the Dragon Mother's Immortal Qi, the conversion rate soared to nearly one-to-two, an absurd, heaven-defying efficiency.
Thus, these two strands of Immortal Qi before him were, without exaggeration, the greatest opportunity of his entire cultivation path thus far.
The combined power of the twin Immortal Qis was hundreds of times greater than his own mana, which was enough to push his cultivation to the absolute peak of what his realm could contain.
Jing Qian had long kept himself deliberately within the Longevity Realm, restraining his realm advancement to maximize his mana accumulation rates, squeezing every drop of value from his precious resources.
But now, he realized that all his previous efforts sweeping the Hanhai, slaying dragons and demons, looting treasure troves, extracting Life Flames, all of it combined, couldn't compare to even a fraction of one Immortal Qi.
And now, before him, stood a chance to save decades of effort in a single stroke.
If he could withstand the pressure and fully absorb this divine power, he would not have to worry about mana cultivation for many years to come.
Yet compressing decades of refinement into a single moment was no simple feat.
Without both the Immortal Sword Embryo and the Saint Manifestation, such a miracle would have been utterly impossible.
Sword flashing without pause, Jing Qian hammered strike after strike into the Saint Manifestation the Immortal Sword Embryo, roaring like a forge hammer, each impact resounding through the void like rolling thunder.
He was like an untiring blacksmith, tempering an immortal weapon in a storm of divine flame, refining the Saint Manifestation while grinding the Immortal Qi into pure power.
In the process, the mystic essence of the Immortal Qi was gradually extracted, and his mind drifted into a trance of enlightenment.
His consciousness dimmed to a single purpose, cut, refine, temper, while within his sea of consciousness, a storm of insights raged ceaselessly.
Meanwhile, on a lonely island in the mortal world, Chef Luo Tian was completely dumbfounded.
His turtle soup had long since finished simmering.
The "Nine Ways of Shrimp" and the "Eight Methods of Crab", seventeen exquisite dishes in total, were all perfectly plated and ready to serve.
But where was his guest?
The Dao Child had clearly said he'd return within three days.
It had now been over a month, and still no sign of him!
The Kitchen God Pavilion, as a top-tier culinary sect, naturally had secret techniques for keeping food eternally fresh.
Gritting his teeth, Luo Tian poured out his remaining mana, forming a massive preservation barrier around the feast, every dish frozen in its moment of perfection.
The cost, however, was steep.
His spiritual energy was draining faster than a leaking cauldron, forcing him to constantly strain his reserves to keep the banquet pristine.
...
By the time Jing Qian finally awoke from his trance, an entire month had passed.
His Blue-Blood Life Essence had broken through the monumental threshold of one hundred thousand drops.
The growth was beyond anything he had ever imagined.
The past month was a blur, as though his mind had been submerged in an endless current of power.
Yet he knew clearly: his comprehension of mana and primordial energy had reached an entirely new level.
Throughout that month, his Immortal Sword Embryo had struck over a million times.
Through the constant friction between the Sword Embryo and the Saint Manifestation, both had been refined immensely.
In particular, the Immortal Sword Embryo had undergone a qualitative transformation under the tempering of the Immortal Qi; its Life Measure increased by one and two-tenths taels.
Now, at one taels and six qian, it possessed enough weight to suppress a full Heavenly Fate.
Without hesitation, Jing Qian drew upon the Formless Sword Fate he had long prepared and channeled it into the blade.
The two instantly fused, becoming the same.
At that moment, the Immortal Sword Embryo officially became his life-bound Spirit Construct, marking a pivotal milestone in its evolution.
He raised his hand and tossed the sword forward, and to his delight, the black jade blade transformed into a streak of divine light, slashing from afar to strike the Saint Manifestation itself.
He had finally broken past his old limitation of close combat.
Now, his sword light could extend ten zhang beyond his reach, a tremendous leap forward.
For Jing Qian, being able to command the Immortal Sword within a ten-zhang radius was already a momentous achievement.
And yet this was only the beginning of refining the Immortal Qi.
Despite all this progress, the density of energy within the Void Realm had scarcely diminished.
With his ten thousand Life Essence still far from saturation, Jing Qian pressed on, sword flashing endlessly as he plunged into the next phase of cultivation.
He wasn't the only one benefiting from the Dragon Mother's divine energy.
Not far away, beneath the Sumeru Furnace, a small black cat lay sprawled, eyes glazed, drooling in bliss, completely fried by the overwhelming tide of energy, its mind long since reduced to mush.
In contrast, the Supreme Great Guardian of the Yanfuda Path, the Good Corn, handled it with far greater composure.
Among all present, the little corn spirit's nature was closest to that of the Dragon Mother's Immortal Qi, and thus it reaped the greatest enlightenment.
Originally, the Good Corn had only a single base unit of Lesser Immortal Spirit Qi, pitifully weak.
But under the resonance of the Dragon Mother's law, its Immortal Spirit Qi began climbing layer after layer through the Origin Qi Sea.
By now, it had reached the thirty-fifth layer, holding three base units of Immortal Spirit Qi, tripling its overall mana capacity.
It was in such moments that the distinction of closeness and affinity became clear.
Among all Jing Qian's companions, only two of his outer-path Spirit Constructs, the most intimate of his creations, were permitted to share in the blessings of the Dragon Mother's Immortal Qi.
...
After another half a month, Jing Qian's Lifeforce cultivation had risen to 150,000 Blue-Blood Life Essence, equivalent to fifteen base units of Lesser Immortal Spirit Qi.
At the same time, his Immortal Sword Embryo's Life Measure increased by another three qian, reaching one taels and nine qian in total.
And yet, by this point, only a tenth of the Immortal Qi had been consumed.
His mana capacity was approaching its limit.
Possessing a single Heavenly Fate granted him an additional 10,000 Blue-Blood Life Essence worth of capacity, and now, for the first time in his long years of cultivation, Jing Qian had reached the true ceiling of his power.
Another cultivator might have sighed, satisfied to touch such a threshold content with their accomplishment.
But Jing Qian was not "another cultivator."
For him, as long as his lifespan endured and his Life Measure had room to grow, Heavenly Fates were something he could grasp at will.
He had already planned.
If his mana was nearing its limit while external resources remained abundant, then why not shatter the limit and begin anew?
His consciousness sank into his Sea of Awareness, descending before the towering Sumeru Dao Stele.
There, he placed the Sword Cage Lifepattern upon the stele and invoked once more the long-silent Wisdom of Heavenly Fate.
In that instant, a new sword-path Heavenly Fate was born
Lifepattern: Sword Celestial Court
Rank: Heavenly Fate
"The Celestial Palace opens above,
Golden gates and jade halls abound.
A hundred gods stand in guard,
Ten thousand spirits bow in reverence.
Within the arcane, the profound is revealed
The Dao gazes into the boundless void."
And along with its awakening, his mana capacity expanded by another 10,000 Life Essence.
He could continue devouring Immortal Qi, pushing his cultivation higher still.
But that was still not his limit.
With twelve taels and four qian of Life Measure, and ten major Spirit Constructs, Jing Qian, after fusing twenty Heavenly Fates, had only filled eight taels and six qian.
He still had three taels and eight qian of capacity left to expand!
Once again, he drew out the String-Slaying Lifepattern, placed it upon the Sumeru Stele, and sacrificed sixty years of lifespan to awaken the Wisdom of Heaven.
A second sword-path, Heavenly Fate, quietly emerged
Lifepattern: Void Severance
Rank: Heavenly Fate
"When Heaven and Earth first parted,
Sun, moon, and stars shone across creation."
With the birth of this twenty-first Heavenly Fate, Jing Qian's mana limit was effortlessly pushed beyond 210,000 Life Essence.
This was the true power of a Dao Child; even the flood of Immortal Qi couldn't keep up with how quickly his capacity expanded.
What a breathtaking convergence of fortune and strength!
The emergence of Void Severance reduced the remaining gap in his Life Measure by another three qian, leaving three taels and five qian still open.
At this point, apart from his Flesh Nurturing and Tidal Surge Lifepatterns, every one of Jing Qian's lifepatterns had reached the Heavenly Fate rank.
But the critical moment had not yet arrived, and Jing Qian had no intention of upgrading those two just yet.
Instead, this marked a new stage; it was time to forge a new Lifepattern.
This, too, he had already prepared for.
Within the Pure Yang Scripture of the Immortal Sword Dao, there was a record of an extremely rare and powerful sword-path Lifepattern known as the Sword Tomb.
Not only did it enhance one's killing power, but it was also one of the very few Refining Lifepatterns, a tool for tempering and evolving swords themselves.
A swordsman who possessed this Lifepattern could, through proper refinement, raise the grade and spirituality of his Spirit Construct weapons, a near-essential for any true sword cultivator.
However, the conditions for forging the Sword Tomb were severe.
According to the secret Pure Yang method, one must first recast a high-grade Spirit Construct, essentially destroy and reforge it, allowing it to gestate within the Tomb.
Only after the Spirit Construct was reborn from within the tomb could it be subdued and elevated to a higher level.
In short, one must first slay a sword to forge its grave.
At this pivotal moment of advancement, Jing Qian didn't hesitate.
He took the Yin Sword, which he had only recently obtained and not yet fully reforged, and utterly destroyed it using the secret technique described in the scripture.
A surge of fierce sword intent erupted from the shattered weapon, wrapping the fragments within itself, forming the shape of a tomb.
Guided by his will, Jing Qian drew the tomb into his Sea of Consciousness, where a new Violet-Pupil–rank Lifepattern was born.
Without even pausing to study it, he thrust it directly toward the Sumeru Dao Stele for refinement.
Destroying a Second-Rank Spirit Construct provided more than enough energy to reforge the Sword Tomb ten times over.
He pushed the Lifepattern to its peak, preparing to once again summon the Wisdom of Heavenly Fate…
But just as he was about to do so, his Sea of Consciousness erupted.
Within the surging tide of Blue-Blood Lifeforce, a single Violet-Pupil Life Essence was suddenly born, shining like a new star.
His foundation was far too profound.
The suppression of his current realm could no longer hold him down
The breakthrough to the Sub-Spirit Realm had begun!
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