NOVPUB
Chapter 345: 342
"Merging with the Spirit Realm, amassing a body of Holy Spirit, to achieve the Creator?"
Hong Ye felt a jolt at her mentor Zhou Yi’s uncharacteristically astounded exclamation, "Is there really such a powerful Heavenly Monarch in the Qiantian Earth?"
"In fact, when I crossed the Endless Mountain and stepped into the Qiantian Earth, I sensed it—the True Spirit Realm around Qiantian was too peaceful, as if some formidable beings were daily tidying up the Spirit Realm, repairing it, using the True Spirit Realm as a barrier, preventing the ever-widening and opening cracks of the Demon Realm, slowly degenerating into a Demon Kingdom..."
Zhou Yi’s expression was complicated, "If I am not mistaken, it should be him..."
"Tidying up the Spirit Realm? This..."
Hong Ye was not a Heavenly Master; she couldn’t comprehend this concept.
But from her mentor’s expression, it wasn’t hard to tell...
"Is this very difficult?"
"Very difficult, extremely so."
Zhou Yi sighed, "Heavenly Monarchs take three steps: the ordinary Heavenly Monarch, the Middle Position Heavenly Monarch who has undergone True Spirit Crystallization, and the Upper Heavenly Monarch who has touched the True Spirit Realm. Besides these three levels of Heavenly Monarchs, there exists a pinnacle being that reaches the critical point of becoming a creator. These beings have reached the limits of what a Heavenly Monarch can achieve in terms of True Spirit strength, accumulation of Spiritual Sense, and mastery of secret techniques. We honor them as Great Sky Lords."
"Great Sky Lords?"
This was the first time Hong Ye had heard this term.
"Every Great Sky Lord often focuses all their mind and energy on the breakthrough to become a Creator, and rarely moves about in the outside world. Not to mention that you’re not from a Heavenly Master community, even actual Heavenly Masters might not be able to encounter such beings—they represent the true pinnacle achievable by Heavenly Monarchs."
Zhou Yi’s gaze seemed to pierce the void, landing upon the True Spirit Realm, "That should be a Great Sky Lord."
"Mentor, you..."
Yun Ling asked tentatively.
"I am as far from that step as you, a Primordial Spirit True Monarch, are from Devas."
Zhou Yi shook his head, then with a hint of admiration in his eyes, continued, "However, even for a Great Sky Lord, the effort required to tidy up the Spirit Realm is unimaginable. If no one assists him, he would have to invest all his time in life into the True Spirit Realm. In other words, he must constantly monitor the True Spirit Realm, and as soon as any spiritual surge occurs, he must immediately step forward to comb and smooth it out because a surge in spirituality often means that our world is overlapping with the Demon Realm. If ignored, it would eventually evolve into a rift to the Demon Realm..."
As he spoke, he paused slightly, "If these surges appear at the locations of the Demon Realm rifts, it will further enlarge the rifts, creating massive cracks that can accommodate the crossing of Catastrophic-level Demon Spirits, and even Abyss Level cracks that allow Venerable Demon Spirits to cross."
Hong Ye listened, her mind drifting.
She suddenly thought of the territories entirely overrun, their characteristics.
Demon Realm rifts.
So many of them that it was frightening.
Dozens, hundreds, even hundreds of them.
Numerous small rifts combined into medium ones, medium rifts into large ones...
Basically, when the Demon Realm rifts combined into a massive size, the territory faced imminent collapse.
Theoretically, Venerable Demon Spirits cannot cross through a massive rift, but a few with talents towards traits such as recovery and immortality, with stubborn life force, could transmit parts of their bodies through the massive cracks piece by piece.
Once a Spirit Venerable descends, it can quickly grow into a being comparable to Saints, and potentially even become a Demon Emperor akin to an Earthly True Immortal in the future.
Apart from those territories protected by sacred lands and Grotto Heavens, once a Venerable Demon Spirit arrives, it essentially signals that the area is on a countdown to downfall.
As for the Qiantian Earth...
It’s been over a hundred years since the appearance of demons.
Over a century...
The number of cracks seems to have always been countable on one’s fingers?
And some of the cracks appeared a hundred years ago and have persisted to this day.
Over this century, these cracks haven’t widened at all.
Could it be...
"Everyone has a tendency to be lazy, no one can keep up such diligence for years on end, let alone abandon everything in the real world to always stay in the Spirit Realm, especially when there’s no one to take shifts. It’s like asking you alone to guard the borders of our sect; driven by belief in your heart, you may stand guard for a month or two, hold out for half a year or a year, but you won’t persist for three, five, or eight, ten years..."
Zhou Yi let out a long breath, "I’ve been here with you for a while now, and the current Qiantian Earth can indeed be called a pure land. Demons can hardly pose a real threat to humans. However, as the Great Sky Lord who has been wandering the Spirit Realm breaks through and leaves for the Creator’s level, the numbers of Demon Realm rifts in the Qiantian Earth will soon increase... and gradually descend into chaos."
Having said this, he cast a glance at Hong Ye, "We can’t stay here much longer; we should stick to the original plan, rest up for a bit, then continue searching for a sacred land that belongs entirely to us humans."
"But..."
Hong Ye hesitated for a moment, then said, "Isn’t that Great Sky Lord attempting the breakthrough to become a Creator? What if, by some chance, he succeeds?"
"Succeed? Is it that easy to break through to the Creator’s Realm?"
Zhou Yi shook his head, "And besides, our Heavenly Mechanism Sect received the complete inheritance of the Pisces Star Lord. Through what is written between the lines, we already know that the entire True Spirit Realm was shattered in the war a thousand years ago, like breaking a continent into isolated islands. Under such circumstances, becoming a Creator is like trying to breed a true dragon in a small pond; the difficulty has increased not just by a little bit compared to a thousand years ago!"
This is also why for nearly a thousand years, there has not been any new Creator born.
"I know you’re not willing to just watch your homeland be destroyed, but along the way as we’ve fled, you’ve seen countless destroyed nations and sects," Qingguang said. "Qiantian has that Earthly True Immortal wielding a Divine Weapon who can hold up for a while. After all, a Divine Weapon that has recognized its master and unleashed its full power can harm anything spiritual. But this is not a long-term solution."
Zhou Yi looked somewhat pessimistic, "As the Demon Realm rifts spread across Qiantian, it won’t be long before large rifts become extra-large rifts, and extra-large rifts become Abyss Level rifts. Once Abyss Level rifts form, legions of Venerate Demon Spirits led by hundreds of Catastrophic-level Demon Spirits will surge forth... And no force will be able to withstand them."
A fully activated Divine Weapon can harm Demon Spirits, but even wielded by an Earthly True Immortal, its lethality is still incomparable to the Soul Secret Techniques released by the creator.
"Let’s return to the Purgatory Sect first," Qingguang continued.
Hong Ye bit her lip, "At least, there won’t be any danger in the Qiantian World for a short while."
...
"What exactly has happened?" Gu Jinlai frowned.
His understanding of the True Spirit Realm was ultimately too limited.
Zhang Lihuo might have been from the Great Sun Heavenly Sect, a top-tier legacy in the Qiantian World, but the fact that their inheritance only allowed cultivators to reach the Heavenly Monarch Realm even after achieving perfection in the Grand Sun Nine Refinement Visualization Method showed that their legacy wasn’t truly outstanding.
Especially since Zhang Lihuo and the others had been chased by demons hither and thither in recent years, resulting in the loss of many of the sect’s scriptures.
In such circumstances, although Gu Jinlai was at the Third Step of Heavenly Monarch in terms of cultivation, his understanding of the True Spirit Realm probably was not even as good as that of a common Heavenly Monarch of the forces with the Creator’s Inheritance.
He knew something had changed in the True Spirit Realm, but he had no idea what these changes were.
It took him a while before he withdrew his gaze.
"First, take the Primordial Spirit Pill and recover your Spiritual Sense as soon as possible. Also, make a slight detour to check some cities along the way; one to inspect the local situation and see if the order of the Lingxiao Palace has been successfully implemented, and secondly, to look for any fish that slipped through the net." Gu Jinlai pondered.
It had taken him sixty-four rays of Qingguang to raise his Void Projection Technique to Mahayana.
Following this trend, to elevate this Projection Technique to Perfection, he would need approximately three hundred and fifty rays of Qingguang.
Perhaps he could lower this consumption by learning similar secret techniques and projection methods during this period, but the three-digit figure still demanded a long time for accumulation. 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝖚𝖇.𝔠𝔬𝖒
Especially since he often had to use Qingguang to recover his Spiritual Sense.
The massive troop continued its journey toward Blue State.
Since the situation to the south of Tianhe had mostly stabilized, the defense requirements for Lizhou State, Jiangzhou State, Yellow State, and Star State could be reduced. Thus, to ensure the demons in Mu State could be thoroughly eradicated, Gu Jinlai brought ten thousand Official Demon God Guards and twenty thousand Reserve Guards.
Moreover, he brought eight hundred Sword Heavy Cannons.
Apart from these forces, which constituted his core strength, there were five thousand cultivators and a hundred thousand elite soldiers formed by the Major Sects.
Such a colossal army marching on the Great Road was a awe-inspiring sight.
Beyond the army led by Gu Jinlai, an even larger force was converging toward Blue State.
When the real assault on Mu State began, there would be over two hundred thousand elite soldiers and tens of thousands of cultivators in the army.
As for Divinity Transformation Cultivators and Divinity Transformation Realm masters, there were hundreds!
Indeed!
Since all the factions had joined the Lingxiao Palace, the originally several top sects south of Tianhe, including many medium and small sized sects, no longer needed to partake in infighting, and thus the manpower they could mobilize had greatly increased.
To ensure the successful liberation of Mu State, almost all available hands were called in.
From each of the several halls, there were thirty to forty Refining God masters and nearly ten Divinity Transformation masters dispatched.
Additionally, with local forces eager to earn merit by joining the battle, the number of Refining God True Men reached two hundred and forty.
The Divinity Transformation Cultivators were more than forty.
Together with a total of twelve Primordial Spirit True Monarchs...
This was a force that was not inferior to the Human Immortal Hall.
If one also considered the combat strength of the elite soldiers, not only the Human Immortal Hall, but even the Earth Immortal Palace paled in comparison.
After all, a Battle Formation composed of thousands of elite could potentially surround and kill a Refining God True Man, let alone now with two hundred thousand of them?
As the great army marched, even with all elites, crossing thousands of miles to reach Blue State still took half a month.
By that time, even with the Sanqing Hall’s best efforts to seal the news, the fall of Master Wushi still spread out.
An Earthly True Immortal had fallen.
The curtain fell on the number one person under the heavens.
The name Venerable Xuan Tian echoed in every corner of the Qiantian Earth.
