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Chapter 316: Chapter 313: Mysterious Heavenly Monarch
"The True Spirit Realm."
Gu Jinlai, with the aid of Qingguang, continuously observed the spiritual exchange between the "Sky Mirage Pearl" and the True Spirit Realm.
At the same time, he consciously guided and sculpted the "Sky Mirage Pearl" treasure, using it as a medium to leverage specific spiritual fluctuations, conducting special spiritual weavings, and gradually forming a Qiankun Ring—a standard for cultivators.
Of course, the entire process was extremely difficult, nothing like the ease granted at the Qi Refinement Realm described in the memoirs of novels.
To craft this Qiankun Ring, he had Xin Tianqi strike repeatedly, sweeping through dozens of small islands, capturing one Refining God after another, and even Divinity Transformation Giant Bandits for trial and execution.
The purpose...
Was to gather enough Qingguang.
Even so, it still took him a month to complete the Qiankun Ring, consuming forty-two strands of Qingguang in the process.
"Finally, it is made."
Gu Jinlai looked tired.
Without becoming a creator, he couldn’t harness the power of the True Spirit Realm directly and could only interact with the True Spirit Realm indirectly through the "Sky Mirage Pearl." The difficulty of this...
Was probably akin to an adult remotely instructing a child on how to cook via phone.
It was much more challenging than doing it himself.
No wonder only creators, and a very few Heavenly Monarchs, could carve and utilize the "Sky Mirage Pearl."
With Qingguang, he had just barely been able to carve out a spherical space with a diameter of ten meters from the Sky Mirage Pearl.
"The True Spirit Realm is truly incredible. Perhaps those creators understand and utilize only one ten-thousandth of the True Spirit Realm..."
Gu Jinlai pondered.
He had a premonition that though those creators could manipulate and utilize the power of the True Spirit Realm, they were like drivers who had just learned to operate a car, at best able to start the vehicle and drive it cautiously.
How to build a car, and what was involved in the related industries, energy, and industrial foundations behind building a car, they had no idea.
Even how to repair a car, even just to change a spare tire, was beyond their capabilities.
"A thousand years ago, the reason why Holy Lands, Netherworld, Gods Mountain, and Sea God Temple were formed by several, or a dozen creators who opened up Heavenly Master territories collectively, was because they wanted to gather together, exchange ideas, discuss, and explore the domain above creators. It is said that the Star Lords of the Holy Land were even keen on nurturing Heavenly Monarchs and welcoming them as creators to amalgamate more wisdom and spark higher levels of inspiration,"
Gu Jinlai recalled some records from books, feeling somewhat sentimental.
Each new realm’s emergence in the Heavenly Master System was equivalent to an industrial revolution on Blue Star.
Spiritual Sense, True Spirit, Spirit Realm!
One wonders what kind of vista lies beyond the creators.
"No hurry, the Aries Star Palace will arrive in the coming years. It holds the complete inheritance of the Aries Star Lord. Once I receive this inheritance, I will naturally be able to uncover the mysterious veil of the creators and truly step into this domain,"
Gu Jinlai said as he gradually left the True Spirit Realm.
Just as he was about to completely exit the True Spirit Realm, a strand of spiritual energy suddenly spread toward him from the True Spirit Realm.
This change slightly startled Gu Jinlai.
Immediately after, this strand of spiritual energy seemed to collide with Gu Jinlai’s spiritual energy.
Faintly, he seemed to see a white-haired, old man full of the air of ages, looking excitedly toward him.
It seemed hard to believe that in the True Spirit Realm he could still encounter a "fellowtype."
However, the spiritual energy emanating from the old man was very weak.
So weak that even forming a perception seemed extremely difficult.
Seeing that their "contact" was about to break, the old man’s spiritual energy began to rapidly grow stronger and ascended, continuously absorbing nearby spiritual energy as if trying to communicate something.
Moved by a thought, Gu Jinlai used a Qingguang.
The previously somewhat blurry True Spirit Realm became incredibly clear.
His spiritual energy also shone brightly, actively illuminating the old man’s spiritual energy.
"This is..."
The old man, feeling the brilliance of Gu Jinlai’s spiritual energy in his True Spirit, was full of surprise.
This emotion lasted only a moment before he realized something.
"Young friend, have you explored the True Spirit Realm to such an extent!?"
The old man exclaimed, but even as he wished to maintain this state, his spiritual energy still tended to dim, and he promptly got straight to the point, "Young friend, are you a man of Qiantian?"
"I am. May I ask how you should be addressed?"
"A man of Qiantian! Good! Good! That is wonderful!"
The old man’s surprise turned into excitement, "Time is pressing, I will pass on a Projection Technique to you. Please capture my dissipating spiritual energy and come find me... I have important matters to discuss."
The next moment, this spiritual energy burst forth like embers burning brightly, containing a magic skill within its brilliant light.
Upon contact with Gu Jinlai’s spiritual energy, he immediately understood its mysteriousness.
It was a Tracking and Manifestation Technique, similar yet far more sophisticated than the True Spirit Projection Technique.
However...
"Capture dissipating spiritual energy and find you?"
Gu Jinlai was somewhat taken aback.
It seemed the old man had somewhat overestimated his capability.
His understanding of the True Spirit Realm still belonged to the entry-level stage, and even with the aid of Qingguang, he couldn’t guarantee that he could access the True Spirit Realm at the desired time.
As for this method of locating him based on the scattered spiritual fluctuations...
He had absolutely no clue.
The True Spirit Projection Technique he provided did indeed include a method to project through the True Spirit Realm using spiritual fluctuations, but without his own "spiritual" coordinates, this Projection Technique was also meaningless. 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝔲𝔟.𝖈𝖔𝔪
In the end, Gu Jinlai could only watch silently as the elder completely vanished.
However...
After a brief contemplation, Gu Jinlai quickly exited the True Spirit Realm.
After recovering his state slightly, he left the room and instructed Gu Qingmei, who was waiting outside, to ask Zhang Lihuo and Xiang Fengyun to come over.
Soon, the two men arrived.
Gu Jinlai did not waste time and directly asked, "Both of you are figures akin to the Mount Tai of the Heavenly Master World, do you know how many Heavenly Monarchs there are in Qiantian, and among those Heavenly Monarchs, how many have touched the True Spirit Realm?"
"How many have touched the True Spirit Realm?"
Zhang Lihuo and Xiang Fengyun exchanged looks, their expressions somewhat strange.
After a while, Zhang Lihuo finally spoke, "Venerable Daoist, are you perhaps misunderstanding the difficulty of the Third Step of the Heavenly Monarch? As far as I know, the current overt Heavenly Monarchs in the Qiantian World, apart from us two, there are only three others — Wan Wusheng, Zhang Daoyan who serve the Imperial Family, and Zhou Jiuzhuan from the Human Immortal Hall. These three, without exception, are only Heavenly Monarchs at the stage of condensing True Spirits, and up until now I have heard of none who have entered the Crystalization stage."
"Only these three Heavenly Monarchs?"
Gu Jinlai had met Wan Wusheng and Zhang Daoyan before, and knew the elder was neither of the two.
After a moment, he asked again, "Then, how many Heavenly Monarchs are hidden in the dark?"
"The Heavenly Master Lineage has suffered severe impacts over the past hundred years, with countless inheritances vanishing into smoke. The surviving Heavenly Masters, forced to hide and seek protection from top powers, do not dare to venture out recklessly, fearing that the demons will learn of them and try every means to exterminate them... Thus, we do not know exactly how many Heavenly Monarchs are hidden within the Qiantian World."
Zhang Lihuo shook his head, "However... the Third Step of reaching the True Spirit Realm... How difficult it is! Even a hundred years ago, before the demons rampaged, our Qiantian World only had one person at that level, let alone now, in this hostile environment, where every Heavenly Master’s life hangs by a thread."
Then, Xiang Fengyun pondered for a moment and said, "In Qiantian World, if there’s a possibility of a Heavenly Monarch that has contacted the True Spirit Realm... it would either be in the Royal Family or, perhaps, the Sanqing Hall."
The Daqian Royal Family ruled Qiantian.
The Sanqing Holy Temple was the strongest force in Qiantian.
If not for the demons lying in wait outside, and the fact that the Saints Wu Nian and Wu Zhong had still been unable to claim the World Sword and the Star Heart, the Sanqing Temple might have already tried to replace the Daqian Royal Family like the Heavenly Immortal Palace did before.
Their power was such that even if they openly declared the presence of a Heavenly Monarch within their ranks, the demons could do nothing about it.
In fact, the most prominent demons that were openly active were merely Demon Kings at best.
Not even one comparable to a Saint existed among them.
"The Royal Family and the Sanqing Temple..."
Gu Jinlai let out a slight breath.
In the end, he did not pursue the matter further and let the two continue with their busy schedules.
After they left, Gu Qingmei came inside, "Patriarch, Lizhou has cleared another nine islands, bringing a batch of individuals who are slated for death penalty..."
"Oh."
Gu Jinlai was somewhat surprised, "The Eastern Sea Islands have not been completely swept yet?"
"Continuing east from the Eastern Sea, one enters the Tianyuan Continent, which originally belonged to Tianyuan Dao. However, now Tianyuan Dao has lost control over the overseas forces, making it more chaotic. The fleet from Lizhou is powerful enough to sweep through all the demons and ghosts," explained Gu Qingmei.
"They are sweeping into the maritime region of Tianyuan Dao..."
Gu Jinlai was somewhat speechless.
Some higher-ups always have some special habits.
In the eyes of the world, Gu Jinlai’s habit was killing.
However, to Gu Qingmei and the others, he was able to control his emotions and only acted against those replete with evil.
Naturally, these juniors and subordinates had to find ways to satisfy this.
"Tianyuan Dao has become a Demon Paradise. Although there are many uncertain risks due to the geographical separation by thousands of miles of sea, which make the threat to Qiantian World relatively minor, still, have the fleet return and just secure the Eastern Sea," ordered Gu Jinlai.
"Yes," responded Gu Qingmei promptly.
As for the newly arrived batch of people...
Gu Jinlai naturally did not let them go either.
Out of more than two hundred individuals, he had personally executed one hundred and twenty.
Among these one hundred and twenty, most had Light Red names, with only nineteen having Red names.
There was no helping it; none of these nine islands were large, and there were only two Divinity Transformation Great Cultivators.
Having obtained these nineteen strands of Qingguang, Gu Jinlai contemplated for a moment and then brought out the True Spirit Projection Technique from the Great Sun Heavenly Sect along with the mysterious elder’s similar Nameless Secret Technique.
"A Heavenly Monarch who has contacted the True Spirit Realm... I wonder if there is a complete Creator’s Inheritance available..."
Though he would receive the inheritance from the Aries Star Lord after the arrival of the Aries Star Palace, that was still several years away.
Besides, the more high-level inheritances he had, the easier it would be for him to create superior Heavenly Master Skills later on.
"Max out the Projection Technique, and I refuse to believe I cannot find this Heavenly Monarch."
