The Empress's private palace was absolutely not something one could casually peer into.
Even though the Empress was gentle and approachable, she built her imperial residence in a capital surrounded by ordinary mortals.
To gaze freely upon the Empress's bedchambers was courting disaster.
If one accidentally glimpsed something forbidden and incurred karmic backlash, the consequences might be worse than directly looking at the Yanfu Incarnation.
Jing Qian had thoroughly memorized the "Grand Codex of Goddess E-Huang" and understood the Celestial Dynasty well.
Within the Silver Ring Palace lived the person currently receiving the Empress's greatest affection.
Though the Goddess Sovereign Egao Shangdi was a woman, she had taken the path of Qi-Fortified Apotheosis to the absolute limit.
In terms of majesty and sovereign aura, she was unquestionably the most formidable being of the current era.
As for matters between men and women, the Empress had her own unique tastes.
At her level of cultivation, beauty and physical desire were long irrelevant, mere dust beneath her notice.
What she sought was the sharpest essence of the Great Dao, a merger of divine intent with peerlessly gifted Dao-favored geniuses.
Through dual cultivation, both parties would mutually empower each other, jointly exploring the pinnacle of the Dao.
Only the most flawless, purest, and rarest inheritors of true Daoic destiny could enter her sight.
And only such heaven-chosen talents, once paired with the Empress in dual cultivation, could gain immense advancement.
Because of this, becoming the Empress's "guest behind the curtain," a dual-cultivation partner, was a coveted fortune sought by countless geniuses.
Even the former Heir of the Ying Clan, though he had been "captured" by the Empress, had soared in cultivation because of it.
It was no loss at all.
For Jing Qian, however, this made retrieving the Tushita Furnace, which lay hidden within the Empress's private palace, exceedingly troublesome.
If he wished to extract it, he would need careful planning.
Originally, he had no particular interest in infiltrating or "strategizing against" the Wuji Celestial Dynasty, but now circumstances had changed.
Perhaps cultivating a presence there really was necessary.
After calming his thoughts, Jing Qian finally withdrew his gaze from the Celestial Dynasty.
Yet he did not stop using his Three-Life Eye.
After scanning through many irrelevant sights, he ultimately fixed his vision upon what mattered most in the short term.
At present, the greatest threat to his survival and cultivation hung above him like two sharp blades:
Blood River and Three Poisons.
Both were Second-Rank beings, bold enough to leave the Daoyuan God-Shuttle Universe to travel the outer heavens.
Their strength and foundation were far superior to reclusive beings like Kunpeng, who never left his home realm.
These two great powers belonged respectively to the Flesh Banquet Lineage and the Injected Death Lineage, similar in nature to the Wuchang Ghost Emperor.
During the destruction of the Yanfu Sect's mountain gate, they had each seized valuable opportunities.
These stolen benefits allowed both to carve deeper strokes upon their Life Monuments, pushing their cultivation to new heights.
But for the same reason, it also forged significant karmic entanglements between them and the Yanfu Dao Lineage.
They had wandered in the outer heavens for many years, rarely returning to the realm, largely because they wished to avoid old Yanfu disciples such as No-Eye.
Yet unexpectedly, they had avoided provoking the old Yanfu disciples only to be targeted by the new Yanfu disciple.
Since Jing Qian was the one who personally annihilated their lineages,
the karmic entanglement between him and these two Second-Rank beings had already reached a point where they must deal with him personally.
For Jing Qian, his combat system was already complete; his prestige as a Dao-child was firmly established, and within the realm, he had cultivated connections well.
He was, in every sense, advancing unhindered, flattening obstacles in his path.
With Shangxi's sudden departure from the realm, only enemies returning from beyond the world posed a true threat to his safety.
Now, relying on his newly ascended First-Grade "Three-Life Eye," Jing Qian easily peeled off two black-red karmic threads from himself and followed them into the depths of the void.
With the upgraded eye, tracking down life-and-death enemies had become effortless.
But what he saw made his expression abruptly darken.
Within the vision of the Three-Life Eye, less than ten million li from the Ying Futuo Realm, a bizarre meteor hovered in the void.
Upon it sat a three-headed demon Buddha, legs crossed, six eyes shut, silently cultivating.
Directly opposite him, a blood-robed child toyed idly with a chunk of blood-red jade.
Blood River and Three Poisons had already returned to the outskirts of the realm!
And between them stood a warrior whose fists were as solid as mountains gearing up for battle, eagerness radiating from him.
Though this warrior was merely Third Rank (Butian), he stood as the leader of the three.
And Jing Qian knew this warrior well.
He was the visitor from the Western Heavens:
A top-tier monster genius who, with only Third-Rank cultivation, had single-handedly shattered an entire Sea Realm, seized it, and renamed it Demon Ancient Lin Sea, the great demon Gulin.
This was a being whose aptitude could contend with Dao-children.
A peerless young sovereign of the monster race, one tier above Blood Bead Child, on the same level as Tianlongzi.
Three thousand years ago, this demon had commanded six Second-Rank demon lords to invade the Ying Futuo Realm, resulting in Miaozhen's death and Youbing's forced flight.
And now, Gulin had personally descended; the pressure was far greater than in the two previous invasions of the Demon Ancient Lin Sea.
Jing Qian fixed his gaze on Gulin, feeling the surging demonic power radiating from him; his expression grew solemn.
He hadn't even noticed that the three great enemies had gathered together!
It was obvious:
If they entered the realm, Pure Yang Heaven would undoubtedly be their first target.
Either Three Poisons or Blood River alone was already difficult for Jing Qian to guarantee victory against.
Add Gulin on top of that, and the three could easily punch a hole straight through the entire Ying Futuo Realm.
Last time, when the monster invasion struck, it took the entire realm fighting for their lives, and Shangxi's breakthrough at the final moment to secure victory.
But now Gulin was here in person, and Shangxi was absent.
Within the entire realm, not a single person could stop him.
A life-and-death calamity was descending silently upon Jing Qian.
Had he not just advanced his Three-Life Eye, he would have remained clueless until the enemy landed right on his doorstep.
With the enemy already present, Jing Qian did not dare waste even a breath.
His divine sense roared into motion as he rapidly deduced plans of response.
He had long anticipated the return of Blood River and Three Poisons; he already had countermeasures prepared.
But Gulin's arrival completely shattered the balance.
Jing Qian had to find a path to break the situation immediately.
Suddenly, his divine eye shut tight.
Having grasped something, he acted at once.
He summoned a minor ghost, condensed the image of the three great enemies in the heavens into a magical message, and pointed a finger.
The little ghost was instantly sent into the Sea of Wronged Souls, appearing beside Ying Hao.
Ying Hao, currently refining his cultivation in preparation for forming his second Dharma Manifestation, was shaken upon receiving the message.
He immediately summoned Yan Mo Luo, mounted the great ghost, and rushed toward Yingdu.
He had to report the enemy incursion to the Human Emperor at once.
Meanwhile, Jing Qian kicked Luo Tian hard, snapping him out of his mushroom-madness trance.
He then slapped a spell onto Luo Tian and sent him across space directly back to the Kitchen God's Inn.
News of the impending invasion would be handled on that end.
Having notified the two greatest powers within the realm, Jing Qian wasted no more effort elsewhere.
He walked directly to the old white ox.
The old ox had already recovered. Without Jing Qian saying a word, he shook off the saddle on his back and erected the Sword-Whetting Cliff.
Jing Qian nodded slightly, then sat down cross-legged and began gathering his mana.
He summoned the Qingping Sword Casket he had been nurturing within Spirit Sword Mountain, and gently opened it.
A tidal surge of sword-qi he had accumulated for years erupted outward.
In terms of the depth of Jing Qian's mana throughout the hundreds of thousands of years of Pure Yang Heaven's history,
no one of the same realm could compare.
A single surge of sword-qi condensed into the form of a Qingping Immortal Sword, hovering before Jing Qian.
He now possessed full mastery over this fundamental sword-essence.
He raised his hand and tossed the Pure Yang Sumeru Immortal Sword Embryo into the sword-qi.
Instantly, the Qingping sword-essence swelled in power, nearly turning solid.
Then he summoned his strongest sword embryo, the Yin Pole Immortal Sword Embryo, and likewise threw it into the sword-qi.
Merged, the primordial sword-qi infused with three Immortal Sword Embryos reached a level of power beyond imagination.
Next, he activated the Grand Zhou Heavenly Sumeru Sword Array, encircling the entire Sword-Whetting Cliff.
The formation altered the surrounding terrain itself, turning everything within into the most perfect substrate for nurturing sword-qi.
Only after making every preparation did Jing Qian finally unleash that primordial sword-qi.
In a flash of lightning, the Qingping sword-essence seemed to pierce through time itself, cleaving the past and the future.
It struck Sword-Whetting Cliff, and the razor-sharp sword-qi erupted with such force that it nearly drilled straight through the ancient monolith.
Then came the backlash; boundless sword-essence rebounded from within the cliff, surging back with its original force doubled.
Even Jing Qian's Qingping Sword Casket was nearly shattered under the impact.
Barely stabilizing it, he immediately tossed the sword casket back into Spirit Sword Mountain, where it was taken up by the Great Sun True Flame for further tempering.
Sensing the newly strengthened primordial sword-qi, he compared it with the sword unleashed by Shangxi against Ren Chong.
To his astonishment, with the support of three Immortal Sword Embryos, this single doubling of sword-qi had already granted him seventy percent of Shangxi's three thousand years of accumulated sword power.
With that alone, his offensive strength advanced to yet another peak.
Then, without hesitation, Jing Qian dove into the Pure Yang Grotto-Heaven.
He made his way to the Sword-Lotus Pool, whose lotus blossoms encircled the sect's fundamental life-furnace.
The last time the pool was ignited by Shangxi's own sword, the entire lotus pool was exhausted by the miraculous rebirth, leaving it extinguished once more.
Thus, Pure Yang Heaven under Jing Qian's rule remained an isolated island, cut off from all elders and predecessors.
But after another breakthrough and a dramatic leap in power, he finally had enough confidence to split open the Sword Lotus by his own hand.
With Gulin descending personally, his cultivation time was too short to face the monster on equal footing.
But since they insisted on bullying the small with the great, Jing Qian felt perfectly justified in calling in reinforcements.
His Saintly Dharma Aspect drove the Yin Pole Immortal Sword Embryo, empowered by doubled sword-essence, and he struck the life-furnace in the Sword-Lotus Pool.
The furnace, extinguished for so long, shuddered violently like an old car struggling to start, then finally ignited with a faint flame.
Jing Qian exhaled in relief.
As long as it was of a lit size, it didn't matter.
The tiny flame then began burning through the pure yuan-qi accumulated in the pool, growing brighter and brighter until it illuminated the entire lotus pond.
Within the Sword-Lotus Pool, twelve lotus blossoms swayed in radiance.
Other than Jing Qian and the old ox, the remaining ten belonged to great cultivators scattered across distant realms.
Among them, Jing Qian recognized only Zhu Yun and Shangxi.
With the pool ignited, his Three-Life Eye allowed him to see a strange flame, half lotus, half sword ascending from the pool like a rising star.
As his divine eye followed its path upward, he saw that in a dimension beyond all perception, the flame quietly pierced through the sky of the North E'ying Imperial Infinite Heaven.
There, it flickered faintly upon the vast canvas of the Dao-Origin Divine Shuttle Cosmos.
But even such a speck of light was enough for Pure Yang Heaven to establish a beacon shining across the void.
Every disciple within the cosmos could sense it, even elders wandering beyond the heavens could, when glancing back toward home, locate its exact position through that beacon.
Jing Qian had successfully lit the Sword-Lotus Pool.
He finally had the qualifications to summon reinforcements.
He flicked a stripe of mana; the first lotus he touched was his own master's.
A unique wave pulsed through the lotus.
Across billions upon billions of li, in the Flower Spirit Sea, Shangxi sensed it instantly.
Before Jing Qian's eyes, the lotus bud opened, revealing an eye.
He recognized it at once as his master's Eye of True-Sight and Rebirth.
The Three-Life Eye met the Rebirth Eye, and across the vast expanse of space, a real-time conversation began.
"Chixiao, your progress is astonishing. You've managed to open the Sword-Lotus Pool this early?"
"You're far stronger than I was."
The message from Shangxi was filled with praise and genuine approval for his disciple.
Jing Qian responded at once:
"Master, where are you now?
Has True-Miao Ancestor successfully reincarnated?
If you are anywhere nearby, could you possibly return to the realm for a while?"
But Shangxi replied:
"Your Martial-Aunt's reincarnation is anything but simple.
She's draining so much of the Flower Spirit Sea's origin that the whole realm is about to be degraded into a Mountain Realm."
"The entire domain is full of people desperate to kill me.
I'm exhausted from all the fighting."
"I was just preparing to move to a different realm.
If I really cripple the Flower Spirit Sea, the Empress is going to demand an explanation."
"What do you need me back for?"
"I'm a bit too far; my reach can't extend that far."
Jing Qian immediately transmitted the images of Gu Lin, Blood River, and Three Poisons, saying:
"Master, that Gu Lin is a third-rank Demon Saint Child with terrifying depth.
I fear I may not be able to defeat him."
"They've come to my doorstep.
I hoped you might help me think of a solution."
Shangxi sent back another image from the Flower Spirit Sea and replied:
"My disciple, I truly can't leave."
"But the information you sent is crucial!"
"I'll head to the Ancient Gu Lin Sea and raid their homeland.
Your task is to keep Gu Lin occupied, don't let him return too quickly."
"I'll give you a Sword-Lotus petal, containing one of my sword-qi slashes."
"It won't kill Gu Lin, but it will be useful against Blood River and Three Poisons."
"No more talking, I need to kill a few enemies first.
Take care of yourself, Chixiao. If things get too dire, flee the realm for now."
With that, Shangxi ended the transmission and returned to his slaughter.
In the scene he had sent, two second-rank sword-spirit flying blades hovered around him, suppressing five second-rank powerhouses at once.
When Shangxi said he "couldn't leave," he meant it literally.
The fact that he could still respond to Jing Qian while embroiled in such a battle only showed how overwhelmingly powerful he was.
His master was far stronger than he was.
Where Jing Qian felt the sky collapsing under the threat of three powerful enemies, Shangxi alone was casually fighting an entire Sea Realm, still chatting with ease.
As Jing Qian watched, a petal dropped from Shangxi's Sword-Lotus and drifted into his own hand.
This Sword-Lotus petal was an extremely powerful Offering Sigil.
Once activated, it would unleash a slash imbued with Shangxi's sword-qi, almost identical to the cycle of sword-energy rotating inside the Sword Ring comprised of Ren Chong's slash.
But although Shangxi provided this protective gift, distant aid could not solve the immediate danger.
Jing Qian needed more.
He moved away from Shangxi's lotus and approached the next person with whom he held good relations within the sect, Zhu Yun.
Jing Qian tapped Zhu Yun's Sword-Lotus, sending the message.
This time, the response was noticeably slower.
The Great Black Heaven existed outside the Dao-Origin Divine Shuttle Cosmos.
As the divine shuttle traveled endlessly, the distance between them and the Great Black Heaven had grown unimaginably vast.
Even with the Sword-Lotus' divine ability, communication lag was inevitable.
With such poor real-time contact, Jing Qian opted to be direct.
He transmitted the images of Gu Lin and the two other enemies, saying:
"Ancestor Zhu Yun, this junior's cultivation is shallow, and my realm is insufficient.
I am being besieged within my world."
"I beg Ancestor for aid, or at least guidance."
He waited a long while before a vertical, azure-colored eye finally opened within the lotus.
It glanced at Jing Qian's location, then transmitted an image in return.
Upon receiving it, Jing Qian nearly jumped in shock, marveling at his ancestor's sheer audacity.
Within the Great Black Heaven, Zhu Yun was dragging a half-remaining Luo Tian, fleeing like a pair of beaten dogs.
Behind them, a terrifying first-rank shadow demon was pursuing them at full force.
Zhu Yun and Luo Tian dared to leave the sunlit side of the realm and enter the shadowed hemisphere of the Great Black Heaven only because
During the last torch-passing event, Jing Qian had intervened with full force, rescuing Luo Tian from disaster.
But now it seemed that wasn't such a "good" deed after all.
Luo Tian, previously intact, had now, thanks to Zhu Yun, ended up missing half his body.
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