When man and beast both revived again, silence fell between them.
The outcome of the battle was something the Qiongqi could not accept.
Moments later, it exploded into a furious tirade, cursing without end, its pride completely shattered.
Jing Qian, however, was immersed in reviewing and savoring the two battles just fought.
With its awakened intelligence, the Qiongqi had displayed the true combat strength of a Star-Seizer, a vast leap above its previous "corpse-like" state.
No longer could Jing Qian cut it down at will.
Anyone who reached the Star-Seizing realm had a complete and unique battle system. The Qiongqi's soundwave path, built on its tiger's roar, was sinister and brutal, and it had broadened Jing Qian's horizons.
Having familiarized himself with the Qiongqi's true power, Jing Qian shifted his gaze toward the Thunderbird, who had been watching from the side.
This fifth-rank great demon bore the title Son of Thunder, carrying a Heavenly Mandate over lightning. It could command thunder and lightning itself, its combat power surpassing even the Qiongqi.
Jing Qian raised his sword-light and said politely:
"Fellow Daoist, please grant me your instruction!"
Without hesitation, he summoned his power, slipped into dimensional space, and, as before, cut through a rift in the void with a strike of Bone-Carving.
His sword-light was as swift as lightning, traversing at the speed of light itself. On this battlefield, it should have been inescapable, landing the moment it was unleashed.
Since comprehending Sword Qi into Light, not once had his sword-light missed.
But before the Son of Thunder, it failed for the first time.
The Thunderbird showed no panic. It allowed the sword-light to come right up to its brow before casually twisting aside and evading.
Its form dissolved into lightning, moving even faster than light itself. It had actually outpaced his sword-light!
The Thunderbird race was famed for its speed, and with the Son of Thunder's title boosting it further, its flight was unmatched.
To it, Jing Qian's sword strikes were nothing more than slow, clumsy flashes.
No matter how fierce the Bone-Carving sword-light, if it could not land, it was useless.
Worse still, the Thunderbird's casual arcs of lightning neutralized his sword strikes, erasing them.
Within his dimension, Jing Qian stayed silent, his Worldly Insight churning desperately, seeking even the slightest opening. Yet none could be found.
Even if he detonated everything to unleash his deathblow, it would still fail to strike the nimble flash of lightning before him.
With its power fully restored, the Son of Thunder utterly crushed him.
The only reason he had slain it before was by relying on a corn kernel borrowing the overwhelming authority of Good Corn's Void Mother Tree.
Now, with no suppression from the Fate Stele's space, facing two great demons, Jing Qian's record was one draw and one loss. He had been forced back to his true standing.
But in this illusory realm, winning or losing carried no risk of death. Every exchange was pure combat experience.
His heart remained steady, even uplifted, because at last, he had opponents worthy of unleashing his full strength.
Such chances to battle high-ranking great demons without fear were rarer than phoenix feathers and qilin horns!
The first transformation brought by the advancement of the Sumeru Dao Stele could not have pleased him more.
Jing Qian withdrew from the dimensional space, cupped his hands toward the Thunderbird, and admitted defeat.
"The cultivation and combat power of you two Daoist friends far surpass my own. Allow me to raise my strength further before sparring with you again.
But… which areas should I focus on improving next for the best results? For the highest return? I ask the two of you for guidance."
He had already noticed that ever since the Sumeru Dao Stele had advanced, its influence over the soul-projections of these great demons was immense.
Even though these two were mortal enemies, they could not resist his will.
So when he voiced a formal request, the two avatars, bound by the stele, truly set aside old grudges and began offering him advice.
The Qiongqi and the Thunderbird had been cultivated for countless years more than Jing Qian; their experience in cultivation was far deeper.
As the two circled him, drawing from their own paths and experiences to help refine his tactics and optimize his cultivation route, Jing Qian felt he was reaping tremendous benefits.
Though Jing Qian had the Dao Book's inheritance, he had never joined a true lineage, never received structured and complete training.
His entire progress came from fumbling forward with only the Dao Book as a guide.
That was precisely why he valued the upcoming Academy Sacrificial Banquet so much.
The four pillars of cultivation, Wealth, Companions, Method, and Place, each mattered. Among them, "companions" included mentors, peers, and even enemies. None could be dispensed with.
And the lower one's realm, the greater the role of teachers.
Jing Qian had spent more than a hundred years cultivating within Zhuoling Cave-Heaven, stuck before the stage of condensing his Dharma Form. Though only a few years had passed in the real world, he was already a seasoned veteran Dragon-Elephant.
His caution in tempering his foundation and his unwillingness to attempt forming a Dharma Form stemmed from the insecurity of a self-taught scholar. He longed for advanced instruction at a true academy.
The image of Shang Xi's single sword strike in the Pure Yang Ruins, obliterating the entire She Dizang Isle, was seared into his soul.
In terms of raw power, Jing Qian's own self-detonating death-sword was already comparable.
But he lacked Shang Xi's effortless elegance, the precise balance of that transcendent strike.
Thus, he had long since fixed his sights on the Pure Yang Ruins Academy for his "college entrance exam." He had even prepared early, refining the Sword Casket Spiritual Construct, which was a required cultivation tool there.
Now, receiving direct pointers from the Qiongqi and the Thunderbird was like a last-minute cram school before the great exam.
For Jing Qian's cultivation, the two demons each had their own views:
The Qiongqi declared that without the protection of his cave-heaven, Jing Qian was nothing more than a heap of scattered sand before it. Even his sharp sword-light could never draw close.
In its eyes, Jing Qian's ability to swagger in front of it while still in the Dragon-Elephant realm was entirely because of his cave-heaven.
After all, to most Star-Seizers, a cave-heaven was utterly unattainable, an emblem of upper third-rank power.
In the Qiongqi's lifetime, it had seen countless prodigies, but none had wielded cave-heaven power while still at the Dragon-Elephant stage.
That, it insisted, was Jing Qian's truest strength.
Its advice: focus on deepening the cave-heaven's might, and continue to expand his mastery of its power.
Jing Qian resonated deeply with this. The Sumeru Mandate was his foundation, and he had indeed not dug deep enough into it.
But the Thunderbird, though acknowledging the Qiongqi's point, held a different view.
As the Son of Thunder, with a Heaven-bestowed title, his vision was broader.
What the Qiongqi proposed, it said, was the safe route, a way to maintain strength steadily. But at best, such a path would only reach third-rank Heaven-Mender, after which progress would stall. That was no way to scale the true heights.
To glimpse the second rank and beyond, to stride across the void and fish alone through eternity like a true powerhouse, Jing Qian's foundation must rest on one word: struggle.
Even a cage of birds, even a nest of rats within them, they fight for every grain.
How much more so, then, on the path to the heavens?
Jing Qian, still in the lower third-ranks, already possessed such a deep accumulation. He could suppress his peers, even overturn those from past generations.
Therefore, he should fight for the absolute summit, seizing every advantage, stripping every opportunity bare, leaving not a crumb for rivals.
Only that way could he charge ever forward toward the highest realm.
Yes, Jing Qian had forged the Longevity Life Pattern, gaining an endless lifespan and thus no longer constrained by years. Yes, he had a cave-heaven to shelter him.
If he simply hid away within it, grinding upward little by little, he might reach the third-rank Heaven-Mender realm.
But such a path, devoid of strife, free from hardship, would wither his Dao-heart's competitive edge. He would become no more than a fat fish.
With luck, he might survive a few great calamities. Without it, he would end as nothing more than prey, plucked up by some greater power with a casual hook.
Thus, in the Thunderbird's eyes, deepening his cave-heaven was indeed foundational and worth long-term pursuit.
But at Jing Qian's current stage, the cost-benefit ratio was far too low. Studying such lofty mysteries now was like choking oneself with too much food, an error of priorities.
At present, the power of his cave-heaven was already more than sufficient. Even the Qiongqi and Thunderbird could not pierce it. For a long while yet, it could serve all his needs in battle.
Better, then, to wait until his cultivation rose higher, his mana stronger, before returning to refine that power.
For now, his Pure Yang Sword Dao and his Yanfu Ghost-Driving were his true killing edges, the tools of victory in struggle.
Jing Qian should devote himself entirely to honing his killing techniques, so that in the struggles to come, he could strive for nothing less than absolute victory.
Ideally, he would eradicate his peers, then turn to cutting down higher-realm prodigies and Dao heirs, striking upward.
The Thunderbird advised him that since Jing Qian, still in the Dragon-Elephant Realm, had already, by sheer fortune, seized its Son of Thunder title and risen to become the Son of Sumeru, he ought to go further.
He should scour the world for every titled genius above his level, hunt them down one by one, and take their titles for himself.
That way, his own titles could advance to ever higher tiers at the earliest possible stage.
This, the Thunderbird said, was a unique cultivation opportunity, his personal destiny, and absolutely not to be missed.
The two great demons' guidance each had its own focus. They then turned to critique his life-pattern combinations, pointing out flaws, strengths, and how he should choose future Life Patterns.
Finally, they even brought out the Dao Book of the Nether Cycle of Yanfu, and beginning from the Dragon-Elephant realm, they took turns dissecting the path upward: from Longevity, to Spirit-Suppressing, to Earth-Fiend, all the way up to Star-Seizing.
It was an exhaustive, profound crash course in cultivation, exactly what Jing Qian needed most at this stage.
He drank in their knowledge hungrily. Even though humans and demons differed, even though their traditions were not the same, the insights of beings at such lofty realms carried undeniable weight. Their perspectives, towering above, offered him rare and invaluable guidance.
This "exam prep cram session" lasted a full month.
The learning, the clash of viewpoints, tempered Jing Qian's once-restless heart, leaving it clearer and calmer, and giving him a deeper comprehension of the road ahead.
During this time, he hardly left the stele-space at all.
Only once did he step out briefly to put to use the Ghost-Suppressing Talismans refined by Mo Piner and absorb into his Hell Scroll the seventeen sixth-rank great ghosts he had sealed in the Void Furnace. Then he summoned them all into himself.
Even just those seventeen ghosts gave his strength a dramatic surge, neatly confirming the Thunderbird's words.
Of course, he would not swallow their advice whole. Jing Qian would sift and judge for himself, taking the essence and discarding the dross.
And besides, the two demons had no idea what his true foundation really was.
When Jing Qian once more stood before the Sumeru Dao Stele, sensing the divine transformations after its advancement, a surge of confidence welled up within him.
At the very crown of the stele, there now appeared an ornate border of intricate patterns, divided into three segments.
The central band shimmered with the true meaning of space's birth and death, the seat of his title, Son of Sumeru.
The left band pulsed with the essence of thunder and lightning, the mark of his title, Son of Thunder.
The right band lay blank, still awaiting a third title.
The Sumeru Dao Stele had miraculously revealed space for three Heaven-Bestowed Titles.
Each title was a condensation of Dao-truth, a tremendous boon to both cultivation and combat.
In this, Jing Qian was already three steps ahead of his rivals.
Placing his right hand lightly upon the stele, he felt its power, and at last the two titles fully blessed his body.
Son of Sumeru: greatly reduced the mana cost of using spatial powers and boosted all such abilities' potency.
Son of Thunder: greatly reduced the cost of thunder techniques, and sped both his movement and sword-light.
Moreover, the two active titles seemed to grant him a higher level of authority in touching the Dao itself.
His comprehension of both space and thunder suddenly grew far easier.
Two powerful buffs are now stacked atop his system.
Even the Thunder title, not wholly aligned with his nature, gave him enormous strength.
And he could clearly sense: this was not the limit.
As his understanding of these Daos deepened, the titles' blessings would continue to grow.
Eyes closed, he felt their power more closely.
Under the Son of Sumeru, his cave-heaven markers doubled from twelve to twenty-four.
More than that, as his insight into the Sumeru Mandate increased, a qualitative shift came.
At long last, he grasped the standard hallmark of spatial mastery: void-shifting, the art of flash-step.
Wherever his divine sense could reach, he could move in an instant, no longer forced to enter and exit his Sumeru dimension. His flexibility soared.
This was the realm he had dreamed of since awakening the Sumeru Mandate, fulfilled only now, with the help of the title.
With Flash in hand, his odds at the Academy Banquet had risen sharply.
Under the Son of Thunder, both his sword-light and his flight-light grew faster and stronger by a full tenth.
He still could not match the Thunderbird's own radiance, but at least he now saw a glimmer of hope to chase it.
Yes, the Sumeru Dao Stele was his true foundation.
From the instant of its ascension, Jing Qian's strength had begun a new surge.
The titles were only the beginning.
Once he had adjusted to the changes, he immediately began elevating his Mandates of Heaven.
With abundant lifespan to fuel it, he raised both his Ghost Qi and Phantom Wall purple-pupil life patterns onto the stele, awakening them into full Mandates.
Two whole cycles of sixty years burned away in the process, completing this crucial advance.
Each time he burned lifespan to elevate a Mandate, it was an unparalleled cultivation experience, intoxicating and impossible to stop.
With two new Mandates bolstering him, his power stepped higher still:
Late-Pattern: Primal Qi of Ghosts
Rank: Mandate of Heaven
The Source of Ghost Qi, axis of the Primal Sea of Qi.
...
Life-Pattern: Bridge of No Return
Rank: Mandate of Heaven
"Above the azure heavens and down to the Yellow Springs upon the Bridge of No Return, blood falls like frost!"
With the completion of these two new Mandates of Heaven, Jing Qian's cultivation system instantly began to undergo a fundamental transformation.
The effect of the Primal Qi of Ghosts was similar to the Primal Qi of Yin: it gave his Life Essence a massive boost, and within his Void Realm, a second qi core was born.
This new core did not fall to Xili but instead landed in Mo Piner's hands.
So much for his promise of "ten days at most," it had ended up dragging out more than a month. Truly, a man's mouth never speaks truth.
Mo Piner drew upon her Immortal Talisman Qi life pattern to absorb the surging ghost qi, then used that energy to fuel her Immortal Talisman Water life pattern, refining it into talisman-water and beginning the process of creating Immortal Talismans.
The richness of the ghost qi nearly overwhelmed her, flushing her cheeks crimson, making her look almost alive.
And guided by the Hell Scroll, she worked like an ox yoked to a plough, playing her role as talisman-water press and talisman-crafting tool with perfect diligence.
The Flesh-Worm spiritual construct beside her was stunned. Why was its usually lazy, pampered mistress suddenly working herself half to death?
A few talismans weren't more important than food and sleep!
But while it didn't understand, it chose to respect it, curling up on her lap, soaking in the refined ghost qi, and promptly falling fast asleep.
...
Meanwhile, the appearance of the Bridge of No Return shook Jing Qian's Yanfu Dao cultivation yet again.
From the Mandate of the Bridge, another phantom dharma-form emerged:
A Hell-Aspect of the Six Paths of Reincarnation!
Even within the Yanfu Dao's legacy, this was considered an extremely powerful law-vision sufficient to be a foundational core, an upper-grade dharma-form.
Its rank was high enough to support cultivation into the Upper Three Realms. For even a Yanfu Son to condense the Hell-Aspect of the Six Paths would be praised as "deep foundations, flawless roots."
But Jing Qian still wasn't satisfied. As always, he cut it apart with a single sword, halting the condensation process.
He had already waited this long; he would not form a law-vision until he met Shangxi, seized the Pure Yang Ruins inheritance, and then sought his breakthrough.
That moment was already close at hand!
He carefully attuned himself to the Mandate of the Bridge of No Return, sensing its unique power.
The Ghost-Wall life pattern he had chosen from the Yanfu legacy was one of the very few with spatial attributes, making it the most compatible with his Sumeru Mandate.
Together, the two had fused into the Sumeru Ghost-Skin, his all-in-one defense, disguise, concealment, toxin-shield, and anti-divination barrier.
Now, by raising the Ghost-Wall into the Mandate of the Bridge, his expectations were even higher.
And they were not disappointed.
The Bridge, symbolizing the abyssal hell that divides the realms of life and death, embodying the separation of yin and yang, became his second crucial spatial Mandate.
The moment it was born, it entwined with the Sumeru Mandate, weaving a golden thread around it.
A unique power stirred in his heart.
With the Bridge's strength, Jing Qian gained an extreme form of spatial interdiction.
He could manifest a barrier of space at will, severing all exchange between its two sides as though splitting one world into two.
It even granted him the ability to partition his own cave-heaven!
Drawing on both Sumeru and the Bridge, he carved out a cubic meter of the Void Realm and sealed it within a spatial barrier.
This newborn pocket was like a fresh cave-heaven of its own.
It seemed he had gained the ability to mass-produce cave-heavens.
The realization left him incredulous. There was vast room for experimentation, something he would ponder carefully in the days to come.
But beyond its novelty, the true significance lay in combat.
With the new Mandate, his Sumeru Ghost-Skin was reborn. A fresh spatial membrane replaced the old skin, combining the force of both Mandates.
Its defensive strength was now overwhelming.
Unless one had the sheer force to shatter an entire Sumeru dimension, breaking through this new membrane was impossible.
Not even the Qiongqi possessed such destructive might.
The only drawback was the higher mana cost, but aside from that, it was flawless.
Jing Qian's defense had risen to a terrifying new height.
At last, the direct gains from the stele's ascension had run their course.
He studied the stele's record of his details once more, sinking into thought:
Host: Jing Qian
Lifespan: 68 years
Life Measure: 6 taels 8 qian / 11 taels 3 qian
Life Essence: 232×10 (Azure-Wing tier)
Spiritual Constructs: Yanfu Heaven (Revolving Heavenly Son Seal upgraded), Qingping Sword Casket, Xili God-Seal, Fate-Locking Needle
Mandates: Sumeru, Qingping's End, Bian Yuan Weiyang, Hell Scroll (43 ghosts), Yanfu Seal, Primal Qi of Yin, Entwining Karma, Primal Qi of Ghosts, Bridge of No Return
Missing Mandates: Worldly Insight, Tushita Furnace
Life-Patterns: Flesh-Bud (Purple), Tidal Surge (Purple), Nether Qi (Purple), Lifespan (Half-Gold, 8 days 6 hours/day)
If even this couldn't smash through the Academy Banquet, if he couldn't block all the means of the three lower sects, then he'd write his surname Jing upside down!
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