Jing Qian's refinement of the Sword Tomb Lifepattern was abruptly interrupted, yet he felt not the slightest trace of regret.
A breakthrough had begun.
And no matter how one looked at it, that could only be a good thing.
Within his Sea of Consciousness, his Life Essence surged and rolled like a vast tide.
An ocean of Blue-Blood Life Essence began to violently compress and transform into Violet-Pupil Life Essence.
Ten Blue-Blood Life Essence condensed into one Violet-Pupil Life Essence.
His total count dropped tenfold, but the quality of his mana increased dramatically.
For an ordinary Longevity Realm cultivator, even one from a great lineage, reaching a thousand Blue-Blood Life Essence would already be considered profound.
But at this moment, Jing Qian possessed 188,888 Blue-Blood Life Essence, more than a hundred times that of a typical elite disciple.
As a result, his process of refinement and ascension was a hundred times more intense than that of others.
He sat cross-legged within the Void Realm, silently circulating his energy, patiently tempering his mana.
Meanwhile, his divine sense avatar had once again descended into the Origin Qi Sea, landing upon the Boat of Reincarnation.
For most cultivators, the first major reward of advancing to the Sub-Spirit (Fuling) Realm was sensing and making contact with the Origin Qi Sea.
The very starting point and foundation of all middle-grade cultivation.
Nine out of ten cultivators would, at this crucial moment, truly comprehend the first layer of Origin Qi.
But for Jing Qian, the Origin Qi Sea was already an old acquaintance.
With a light push of his foot against the small boat, he sailed past the layer of Flame Qi, delving ever deeper.
The first layer, Yellow Springs Qi, came to him effortlessly, a gift of ascension.
He easily mastered it and, by now, had fully comprehended eight layers of the Origin Qi Sea.
Now, what fueled him further was the insight he had gained from the Dragon Mother's Immortal Qi.
He pressed onward, crossing mountains and seas within this boundless ocean of primordial energy, embarking on a journey few at his level could ever dream of achieving.
His profound foundation propelled him forward like an unstoppable current in no time; he broke through ten more layers in succession.
Yellow Springs Qi, Purple Mist Qi, Profound Yin Qi, Vast Radiant Qi, Moonlight Qi, Solar Brilliance Qi...
One yin, one yang alternating in perfect harmony, each layer deepening his mastery of the Dao.
With these ten layers alone, he could now condense one full base unit of Lesser Immortal Spirit Qi.
But his breakthrough was far from over.
He continued relentlessly, breaking through barrier after barrier within the Origin Qi Sea.
Each breakthrough increased his mana by a hundred Violet-Pupil Life Essence, but more importantly, each step laid the foundation for one day condensing true Immortal Spirit Qi.
Meanwhile…
In the heart of the North E'huang Wuji Heaven, there lay the vast Flower Spirit Sea, not far from the imperial domain of the Wuji Celestial Dynasty.
It was a realm abundant in spiritual essence, a paradise of flourishing cultivation.
At one corner of this sea stood a massive island, blessed with perfect natural conditions: spiritual roots everywhere, rare herbs growing wild, and sacred beasts roaming freely, a holy ground for any cultivator.
Originally, this island was home to the Fragrant Heaven Sect, a branch of the Fragrance Dao Lineage.
But years ago, an unknown intruder appeared as a fearsome visitor who drove the entire sect out and seized their ancestral mountain that had stood for ten thousand years.
Since that day, the island's spiritual energy had steadily declined, its former brilliance fading into desolation.
Worse still, the decline spread outward within a radius of one hundred thousand li; the very density of spiritual energy was dropping.
Even the overall vitality of the entire Flower Spirit Sea was slowly being drained away.
All of it was being devoured by a strange power at the island's core.
And this was no ordinary realm; this sea possessed a foundation ten times richer than that of the Ying Futuo Realm itself.
Deep within the island's heart, in a secret underground chamber, a lotus flower was in full bloom.
Beside it sat Immortal Lord Shangxi, calm and unmoving, quietly waiting for the lotus to open completely.
Within that lotus lay the object of his obsession, his long-sought True Wondrous Origin Spirit.
He had crossed the void itself to reach this world, drawn here by its dense spiritual essence.
The Flower Spirit Sea's unique energy nature made it the perfect nourishment for cultivating his Sword Lotus.
Shangxi knew full well that by seizing the sea's spiritual core so brazenly, he would provoke severe backlash, but he no longer cared.
Just then, a pair of beautiful twin sisters entered the chamber, bowing respectfully.
Lingling spoke first:
"My lord, the four spiritual races of this realm, the flowers, the trees, the insects, and the beasts have all united against us."
"Ten Second-Rank powerhouses are suppressing this realm, and they've joined forces to surround us. How does my lord wish to proceed?"
Shang Xi, however, was utterly calm.
He slowly opened his eyes from meditation, divine light glimmering within them.
With a pulse of his mana, two Second-Rank spirit swords rose from his back, scattering endless rays of sword light.
The fluctuation of his aura now was far beyond what it had been when he had first advanced to the Star-Seizing Realm.
This period had been the fastest growth in all of Shang Xi's millennia of cultivation.
Three thousand years of tempering in Netherfire had finally erupted into full brilliance, his progress advancing at lightning speed.
He had also mastered the Pure Yang Heaven's secret art of Immortal-Spirit Qi Multiplication.
Through it, his eight foundational strands of Golden Immortal Qi had been magnified by a staggering factor of one hundred twenty-eight,
granting him a total of 1,024 strands of usable Golden Immortal Qi.
With such reserves, Shang Xi could fully wield five Second-Rank Spirit Constructs without the slightest worry of draining his mana.
He turned to the twin corpse-fairies, Ling-Ling and Huo-Huo, and said calmly:
"You two guard the Sword Lotus. Leave the enemies outside to me."
"The Pure Yang lineage has not walked the Northern Heavens for too long.
It seems the world has forgotten the respect it owes us."
Having broken through the final Heavenly Gate, Shang Xi's weary, death-haunted aura was gone.
In its place blazed the vigor of a man reborn.
Even facing ten Second-Rank powerhouses, he showed not a hint of fear, only eagerness.
With a flash of sword light, his figure vanished from the chamber and soared toward the sky.
A battle of one against ten was about to begin.
Meanwhile, within the Void Realm, the two strands of Dragon Mother's Immortal Qi had fully unraveled, becoming surging torrents of tangible primordial energy.
Jing Qian had absorbed nearly all of their essence, and now he, too, stood at his moment of transformation.
Every trace of his Blue-Blood Life Essence had been refined into Violet-Pupil Life Essence, filling his consciousness with the radiance of 23,800 Life Essence, a feeling of perfect completeness.
His mana had reached its absolute limit.
Within the Origin Qi Sea, his cultivation had also pushed to its boundary: ninety-nine layers comprehended, standing at the very threshold of condensing Golden Immortal Qi.
This was the Dragon Mother's blessing made manifest from Longevity to Sub-Spirit, from the Lower to the Middle Three Grades, a monumental leap in power.
For any cultivator, it marked a profound metamorphosis.
For Jing Qian, whose fortune bordered on the absurd, it meant his raw mana had increased eightyfold.
His total energy now exceeded that of a Fourth-Rank Mud-Back Dragon ten times over.
The boost to his combat strength was beyond measure.
And the process of advancing through the Sub-Spirit Realm would bring yet another qualitative change.
He summoned his Sumeru Saint Sword-Wielding Six-Paths Reincarnation Manifestation.
After being forged and tempered more than a million times by the Immortal Sword Embryo, the Saint Manifestation now gleamed like black steel fused with translucent jade, solid, smooth, and radiant.
Jing Qian stepped forward and merged into it, man and manifestation becoming one.
Instantly, he felt a layer of shimmering light armor envelop his flesh.
The moment his skin touched that radiant shell, it was as if he had plunged into a pool of molten silver mercury.
Countless glass-like ripples spread from his spine to his limbs,
every pore exhaling motes of starlight.
To his astonishment, upon advancing to the Sub-Spirit Realm, his Saint Manifestation had begun to mimic the rhythms of living flesh as though it were alive.
Its shoulders rose and fell with his breathing.
its wrists throbbed in time with his pulse;
even the greaves at his ankles flexed and contracted like muscle and tendon.
Most wondrous of all was the inner layer of the armor:
Those flowing dark-gold lines were the tangible form of the Six Paths of Reincarnation and the Sumeru Dimension themselves.
When Jing Qian circulated his Life Essence from his brow's spirit platform,
The energy flowed seamlessly through the pathways of the Saint Manifestation, his body and the Manifestation's Dao-patterns functioning as one continuous circuit.
There was no longer a difference between body and manifestation.
The armor had become like a second layer of living skin.
"So this… is what it means for body and dharmic form to become one."
He took half a step forward; lotus blossoms of six colors bloomed beneath his toes within the Void Realm.
The luminous armor did not hinder the flow of energy; instead, it refined the surrounding ambient Qi into pure power,
automatically replenishing his Life Essence.
When he raised his hand, the armor flared, bending the very curvature of space-time around him to create
the perfect conditions for sword techniques to unfold.
At his chest, the core patterned after the Six Paths Wheel pulsed like a beating heart, pumping streams of crystalline energy along his spine straight to the crown of his head.
For an instant, Jing Qian glimpsed himself as a colossal titan, sword in hand, cleaving open primordial chaos worlds forming and perishing within the seams of his armor.
This was no mere shell of light; it was as if he had clad himself in the Six Paths of Reincarnation and the Sumeru Dimension themselves.
And this, this was the true essence of the Sub-Spirit Realm's core art:
The culmination of all cultivated power into one unity, the Law-Manifestation Armament.
Jing Qian closed his eyes, feeling the resonance.
With this Armament donned, he felt as if Ultraman Taro had possessed him,
a Super Saiyan unleashed, an Eva Unit-01 awakened, a Sage Mode achieved, his power soaring to unfathomable heights.
This was the true qualitative leap of stepping into the Middle Three Grades.
Once the Law-Manifestation Armament formed, all his previously separate systems of cultivation fused into a single integrated whole.
His old defensive core, the Sumeru Ghostskin, disassembled its blessings from the Sumeru World's origin and the Ghost-Driving lineage
all merged into the Armament.
Around him, his many Heavenly Fates glittered like stars, their light woven into the armor's surface.
Of his ten mighty Spirit Constructs, the Qingping Sword Casket, Yanfu Heaven, and Qi-Li Divine Seal
had fused completely into the Armament, forming its framework and bones.
The remaining seven were bound to it in deep resonance, each reinforcing and magnifying the other.
The power of the Spirit Constructs soared.
The might of the Law-Manifestation Armament soared with them.
Jing Qian could feel that every ounce of his cultivation, every fragment of progress, had been brought to perfection within this awakening.
At last, with the aid of the Dragon Mother's twin Immortal Qis, he had achieved a flawless advancement, completing his ascension to the Middle Three Grades, the Sub-Spirit Realm, in its fullest form.
He stared at the rapidly changing data on his Fate Stele, momentarily lost in thought.
[Host]: Jing Qian
[Lifespan]: 831 years
[Life Measure]: 9 taels, 1 qian / 12 taels, 9 qian
[Life Essence]: 23,812 × 2 × 1.12 (Violet-Pupil Tier)
[Dharmic Manifestation]: Sumeru Saint Sword-Wielding Six Paths of Reincarnation
[Spirit Constructs]: Sumeru Sword Embryo, Pure Yang Sword Embryo, Good Corn, Three-Life Reincarnation Eye, Reincarnation Disk, Yin Sword, Yanfu Heaven, Qingping Sword Casket, Qi-Li Divine Seal, Formation Nails
[Life Patterns]: 23 Heavenly Fates, 2 Imperfect Heavenly Fates, 1 Golden Root Fate, 2 Violet-Pupil Fates
[Lifespan (Gold)]: 2 months, 7 days per cycle
Upon advancing to the Sub-Spirit Realm, Jing Qian's lifespan extended by five hundred years, and his innate Life Measure increased by five qian.
The refined Violet-Pupil Life Essence now roiled within him; its might was comparable to three hundred times the total mana once possessed by Lingming, the spirit who had subdued the Li Dragon back in Hunzhou.
Because the Ghost-Driving lineage had declined in quality, its power enhancement had dropped to roughly twelve percent.
However, the Saint Manifestation had activated his Law-Manifestation Armament, doubling his overall Life Essence output through an independent multiplier.
That alone convinced him never to dismiss the armament lightly.
His total Life Measure now stood at 12 taels, 9 qian, supported by ten Spirit Constructs, each sharing part of the load of his many Life Patterns.
Currently, the only Life Measures still directly borne by his body were those belonging to
[Three Thousand Sword Calamities], [Celestial Court of the Sword], [Void Severance], [Sword Tomb], and [Tidal Surge],
as well as the combined 2 taels, 1 qian from the Origin Qi: Yang, Origin Qi: Vajra, and Origin Qi: Violet Thunder, partially shared by the Three-Life Eye.
He had now become a terrifying being with twenty-three Heavenly Fates.
This achievement surpassed his master Shang Xi by sixteen entire Heavenly Fates,
and even exceeded Zhenmiao, the most gifted of the strange-born prodigies, by three!
Within the history of the Pure Yang Heaven, Jing Qian now stood as the undisputed number one disciple of the Pure Yang Child with the deepest foundation in all recorded eras.
Even if judged under the Yanfu Dao system, while not the absolute first, he would easily rank among the top three.
The two Dao lineages, Pure Yang and Yanfu, cultivated different paths.
Even if Pure Yang cultivators possessed fewer Heavenly Fates, all of theirs were focused on combat might.
At equal realms, Shang Xi, with only seven Heavenly Fates, was no weaker than Youbing, who had fourteen, and he could even beat him senseless.
Youbing's only edge came from his overwhelming cultivation speed, which kept him on par with Shang Xi in combat.
But Jing Qian had merged both paths through Sumeru's power,
uniting their strengths into his own ever-ascending stairway to the heavens.
And twenty-three Heavenly Fates were not his limit!
There was still room in his Life Measure,
his Spirit Constructs had yet to reach full potential,
and he could still forge more Heavenly Fates!
His 23,800 Violet-Pupil Life Essence was far from his true upper limit.
He was certain that, in time, he would become the unparalleled number one in both Pure Yang and Yanfu histories.
He believed this with absolute confidence.
Settling himself into meditation, Jing Qian began his first closed-door cultivation session in the Sub-Spirit Realm, a critical step toward fully mastering the intricacies of his new stage.
Unknowingly, that single session lasted an entire year.
As his realm rose higher, the passage of time itself had begun to lose all meaning.
During the first month, Jing Qian completed the restoration of his Sword Tomb Life Pattern,
returning it to perfection once again.
Using the Life-Forging Mechanism, he reforged the Sword Tomb to its peak,
now ascending it to the level of a Golden Root Fate.
The Yin Sword's power had fully merged into the Tomb. Once he poured more energy and resources into it, the sword could be re-forged anew within the tomb's depths.
When that time came, he would complete the perfect refinement of the Yin Sword, and this Second-Rank divine blade would ascend in grade once again, perhaps even brushing against the threshold of First Rank.
But rather than waste resources on slow refinement,
Jing Qian chose a bolder route:
He would raise the Sword Tomb itself to the Heavenly Fate tier, then reforge the divine sword from that higher foundation.
Without hesitation, he placed the Sword Tomb pattern onto the Sumeru Dao Stele and began his first Heavenly Fate ascension in the Sub-Spirit Realm.
Sixty years of lifespan for a single glimpse of Heavenly Fate Insight, the Sword Tomb shattered, its essence reforming under the stele's supreme power.
But to his surprise, the ascension failed.
When he examined closely, he discovered the reason:
The Sword Tomb, carrying the Yin Sword, had split the divine essence of the Heavenly Fate Insight between them.
The power was too evenly distributed; neither could ascend.
Moreover, since the Golden Root Fate required more profound enlightenment to evolve,
its consumption of lifespan was drastically higher.
Realizing this, Jing Qian did not hesitate.
He began pouring lifespan into the stele without restraint.
He could sense it; his opportunity had come again!
The first Heavenly Fate Insight failure. The Sword Tomb and Yin Sword remained unmoved.
The second still had no result; the tomb flickered faintly but refused to ascend.
The third now, even the Yin Sword trembled, yet the breakthrough eluded him.
Undeterred, Jing Qian invoked the power of seven full Heavenly Fate Insights,
drawing out enough divine resonance from the Sumeru Dao Stele
to equal the birth of seven new Fates until at last, the unique Life Pattern transformed completely:
[Life Pattern]: Spirit Sword Mountain
[Rank]: Heavenly Fate
"Once upon a time, there stood a Spirit Sword Mountain."
With the emergence of Spirit Sword Mountain,
a new Spirit Sword Construct was naturally born within it.
This flying sword, refined from the Yin Sword embryo retrieved by Ren Chong from the Hidden Sword Mountain,
and empowered by the Spirit Sword Mountain Heavenly Fate,
had devoured vast amounts of divine energy from the Sumeru Dao Stele.
Its result was nothing short of extraordinary:
[Spirit Construct]: Yin-Extreme Immortal Sword Embryo
[Category]: Root of Self-Seeking
[Rank]: Sub–First Rank
[Control Requirement]: Master of Spirit Sword Mountain
[Lifespan Cost]: 2 months per day of use
This terrifying top-tier Spirit Construct, another Immortal Sword Embryo, was unlike any other, for it had been forged by Jing Qian himself, through a method truly one of a kind.
Compared with the Pure Yang Immortal Sword Embryo and the Sumeru Immortal Sword Embryo, this blade was incomparably attuned to Jing Qian.
The instant it appeared, it directly shouldered the Life Measure of the Spirit Sword Mountain Heavenly Fate and seamlessly fused into Jing Qian's Sumeru Saint Sword-Wielding Six Paths Manifestation.
Originally, the saintly avatar within his Saint Manifestation held two swords, each corresponding to one of the two Immortal Sword Embryos.
But now, the position once occupied by the Pure Yang Immortal Sword Embryo was taken over by the Yin-Extreme Immortal Sword Embryo.
On the armament, the Pure Yang Immortal Sword Embryo transformed back into a unique thread of sword-silk, twining together with the Yin-Extreme Immortal Sword Embryo as one.
At this moment, Jing Qian finally possessed a fourth Spirit Construct perfectly integrated with his Law-Manifestation Armament, and this Yin-Extreme Immortal Sword Embryo was precisely the peerless flying sword that could draw out his full combat power.
In short, the advent of the Spirit Sword Mountain Heavenly Fate pushed Jing Qian, newly advanced to Sub-Spirit, to a height he shouldn't have reached yet!
Back in the Heavenly Dragon Palace atop the Mountain of Immortal Qi, the Heavenly Dragon Son Ao Bao, armed with the First-Rank Dragon Spine spear, still outclassed Jing Qian in gear by a tier.
But with the Saint Manifestation and a perfectly fused sub–First–Rank Spirit Construct, Jing Qian now had the confidence to defeat him even without borrowing Ren Chong's sword-qi.
More importantly, the Spirit Sword Mountain Heavenly Fate itself was tremendously potent.
In his sea of consciousness, this Heavenly Fate manifested as a small jade mountain.
Jing Qian could cast his Spirit Constructs into Spirit Sword Mountain, and by pouring in Lifeforce and compatible resources, he could enhance their divinity and upgrade the Constructs.
Flying-sword–type Constructs refined fastest, but any Spirit Construct, though less compatible, would still benefit from the mountain's blessing.
For someone like Jing Qian, with a whole arsenal of powerful Spirit Constructs, this was crucial.
He immediately dropped the Qingping Sword Casket onto Spirit Sword Mountain to begin refinement.
That casket was the core of his system; with benefits on the table, it had to eat first.
His cultivation framework was becoming ever more complete!
The first month of closed-door cultivation yielded the greatest gains.
But the birth of the Yin-Extreme Immortal Sword Embryo wasn't without a downside: its lifespan cost of two months per day left Jing Qian's once-ample lifespan tight again.
A Lifespan Life Pattern at the Golden Root tier could no longer keep up.
Fortunately, his mana had increased a hundredfold; re-forging Lifespan now was a hundred times more efficient, hardly a problem.
And the Virtual Realm still swelled with vast qi from the collapse of Immortal Qi, enough to offset consumption.
From the second month onward, he practiced, tempered mana, and reforged Lifespan in parallel, schedule packed to the brim.
By the fifth month, he had rebuilt Lifespan to an extravagant four months per day, stabilizing his longevity again.
Re-forging Lifespan would be a lifelong assignment.
By the ninth month, his Sub-Spirit breakthrough had fully stabilized.
He still did not emerge; instead, he sank his mind into the Sumeru Dao Stele to face his many "old friends" in the space within.
Beyond the Blood-River trio, quite a few dragon scions and sea fiends had joined them, at least in the Star-Seizer realm and above.
But these foes hadn't been Jing Qian's match even back in Longevity; now, with Law-Manifestation Armament and an immortal sword at his side, they were cut down like melons and vegetables.
In barely a month, Jing Qian fought over three hundred battles with major cultivators, thoroughly enjoying himself.
Those great cultivators' spirit avatars couldn't withstand his relentless day-and-night assaults, dispersed one after another, and became his cultivation gains.
The mana cap expanded by Spirit Sword Mountain was already close to being filled again.
In the penultimate month, he stopped brawling and settled his qi.
He did, however, grind all the battle aura and slaughter he'd amassed in the Endless Sea into the Pure Yang Calamity Lord via the Sword Anvil, giving his mid-grade epithet a solid boost.
Thanks to the Sumeru Dao Stele, improvements to Pure Yang Calamity Lord would synchronize with Lord of Myriad Phenomena, Sumeru.
When he achieved Pure Yang God-Slaying, Immortal-Exterminating Lord, the corresponding Sumeru title would also upgrade to upper grade one stone, two birds; one house, two sales pure profit.
In the final month, Jing Qian gathered his mind and focused on post–Sub-Spirit cultivation.
This year had mainly distilled his years of lower-tier practice into a vital task.
But it was the middle three tiers ahead that were his true path.
After a month of probing, his next Sub-Spirit plan was clear:
Stockpile resources, deploy secret arts, refine Spirit Constructs, and perfectly fuse the remaining seven Constructs into the Saint Manifestation to achieve Sub-Spirit Perfection.
Upend the entire Yingfutu Realm, turning all its friends and foes into grindstones to temper the Pure Yang Calamity Lord.
Pre-stock Earth-Fiend balefires and front-load his Disha cultivation.
These three would be the main line, while fishing the void, nurturing the Sumeru dimension, upgrading Heavenly Fates, and subduing evil spirits, all boosters to his foundation and combat power would not be neglected.
A perfectly executed year of cultivation!
When Jing Qian stepped out of the Virtual Realm and returned to the present world, he was already a different being.
A middle-tier Dao Child with a Saint Manifestation would bring a new shock to this world.
His Three-Life Eye opened, and his figure vanished at the horizon.
When he reappeared, he stood before that secret domain deep in the Endless Sea, the one his gaze had never pierced.
Then the Yin-Extreme Immortal Sword Embryo, empowered by Void Severance, carved out a surging arc of sword-light.
The spatial wards of that secret realm were neatly parted by a single stroke.
Bans, arrays, and divine defenses are useless!
A world-shaking whale-cry rang out as a small white whale burst forth in fury.
The last time anyone had dared to show such insolence to Kunpeng Sea was ten thousand years ago.
But this time, Jing Qian came with the might of Sub-Spirit and the intent to overturn the entire Yingfutu Realm.
For his opening act, he chose to thoroughly explode the Second-Rank Kunpeng that had once threatened him.
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