Two years passed in silence.
Within a secluded meditation room somewhere, Lin Sheng slowly opened his eyes.
The room was completely quiet, only the faint hum of the formations outside disturbing the stillness, and after remaining seated for several breaths, Lin Sheng finally exhaled and rose from the meditation cushion.
His body moved naturally, without the slightest trace of sluggishness.
He stretched his fingers, then gently clenched them.
The surrounding air trembled.
It was an extremely subtle movement, so subtle that an ordinary cultivator would not have noticed anything unusual, but Lin Sheng could clearly feel the change in his control over his own strength.
His eyes lowered towards his palm.
Two faintly different Dao rhythms flowed beneath his skin.
One carried the profound characteristics of the Five Elements, containing the mutually generating and overcoming principles of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, while the other possessed a strange harmony between opposing forces, the Yin and Yang Dao rhymes circulating around one another without ever truly merging.
Two divine ability seeds.
He had finally completed the formation of both.
The first was the Five Elements Profound Light, born from the Five Elements Body Forging Art, its seed already deeply connected to his physique and Qi-Blood, while the second was the Yin-Yang Treasure Robe, formed through his comprehension of the Water-Fire Immortal Cloth inheritance he had purchased from the Myriad Dao Pavilion.
Lin Sheng had spent the past two years continuously refining the two seeds, allowing their Dao rhymes to settle into his body instead of rushing towards the next stage.
Now, both were completely formed.
"Two."
Lin Sheng looked at his palm for a moment.
Then he shook his head.
"Still not enough."
The Golden Body Realm had five minor divine ability seeds in total.
Two seeds represented the foundation of the next stage, but to advance towards the mid stage, he needed three.
The problem wasn't cultivation.
It was finding a suitable divine ability.
Lin Sheng had already searched the Myriad Dao Pavilion's third floor several times, and although the Pavilion possessed an astonishing collection of Rank 4 inheritances, finding something genuinely suitable for his path was another matter entirely.
Divine abilities weren't ordinary martial techniques.
A Golden Body cultivator couldn't simply pick any divine ability and expect it to integrate perfectly with their body.
Some focused on offensive power, others on defensive abilities, movement, suppression, soul attacks, elemental manipulation or strange transformations, and even among divine abilities belonging to the same category, the compatibility between different cultivators could vary enormously.
The Five Elements Profound Light had been born naturally from his Five Elements Body Forging Art, while the Yin-Yang Treasure Robe complemented his existing foundation and gave him another defensive method.
Finding a third ability that could integrate with what he already possessed was considerably more difficult.
Lin Sheng remembered the conversation he had previously had with the manager of the Myriad Dao Pavilion.
The man had not seemed surprised when Lin Sheng failed to find another suitable inheritance.
Instead, he had calmly told him that this was normal.
Even the Myriad Dao Pavilion couldn't guarantee that every Golden Body cultivator would find a suitable divine ability whenever they entered the Pavilion.
Such inheritances were simply too rare.
The manager had therefore suggested that Lin Sheng attend the upcoming Centennial Auction.
That auction would be held in three years.
Lin Sheng's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Three years."
That was enough time.
His greatest problem wasn't cultivation resources anymore.
It was spirit stones.
A suitable divine ability could easily cost thousands of high-grade Spirit Stones, and if the inheritance was particularly valuable, the final price could climb considerably higher.
Fortunately, Lin Sheng had already prepared another source of income.
Before returning to Dragon Yuan Mountain, he had deliberately travelled through the Southern Archipelagos.
The region was vast, consisting of countless islands and cultivation markets scattered across the sea, and unlike the inland territories of the Immortal Continent, many of its cultivators possessed Water-attribute spiritual roots due to the environment in which they lived.
That had given Lin Sheng an idea.
He had established a small shop there.
The shop itself wasn't particularly impressive.
It didn't need to be.
What mattered was what was being sold.
Lin Sheng had already optimised several of his alchemy formulas specifically for cultivators with Water-attribute spiritual roots, improving their medicinal effects while reducing unnecessary medicinal impurities.
The pills covered the first three ranks.
Rank 1, Rank 2 and Rank 3.
For Lin Sheng, refining those pills was not particularly difficult.
For ordinary cultivators in the Southern Archipelagos, however, they were considerably more valuable.
The shop therefore had a steady stream of customers.
Lin Sheng didn't personally manage it.
A Rank 3 puppet handled the daily operations, receiving spirit stones, selling pills, recording transactions and restocking the shop according to the supply Lin Sheng periodically sent.
This arrangement allowed him to remain far away while still maintaining a relatively stable source of income.
The puppet had no need to cultivate, no need to rest and, most importantly, no need to understand the complexities of human relationships beyond the instructions Lin Sheng had given it.
As long as the formations protecting the shop remained intact and the pills continued arriving, the business could operate by itself.
Lin Sheng had deliberately kept the scale modest.
There was no reason to attract unnecessary attention.
The Southern Archipelagos contained plenty of powerful cultivators, and a small shop selling useful Rank 1 to Rank 3 pills wouldn't be particularly remarkable.
A shop that suddenly began producing large quantities of Rank 4 resources would be another matter entirely.
Lin Sheng wasn't interested in attracting the attention of Golden Core experts before he needed to.
His current plan was simple.
Earn spirit stones quietly.
Accumulate resources.
Wait for the Centennial Auction.
Then find the divine ability he needed.
There was another pill he had begun preparing for as well.
The Hundred Yuan Pill.
Lin Sheng walked towards the side of the meditation room where several jade slips and alchemy materials had been placed.
He picked up one of the jade slips.
The Hundred Yuan Pill was a Rank 4 medicinal pill specifically designed for Golden Core cultivators.
Its most important effect was simple.
Rapid recovery.
Under normal circumstances, a Golden Core cultivator who had exhausted a large portion of their magical power would require considerable time to recover, especially after a fierce battle where their spiritual energy had been repeatedly converted into powerful spells or used to activate treasures.
The Hundred Yuan Pill could restore a tremendous portion of that lost magical power almost instantly.
At its most effective, a single pill could restore roughly seventy percent of a Golden Core cultivator's magical power.
That made its value in combat obvious.
A cultivator who appeared to be approaching exhaustion could suddenly recover most of their magical power and continue fighting at full strength.
It could also be useful during breakthroughs, particularly when a cultivator needed a large quantity of spiritual energy in a short period and couldn't afford to wait for natural recovery.
Lin Sheng's eyes moved across the formula.
The pill was considerably more complicated than the lower-rank pills he had been producing for the Southern Archipelagos.
The ingredients needed to maintain a delicate balance.
Too much medicinal power and the pill would become excessively violent.
Too little and the recovery effect would be insufficient.
The refining process itself also required extremely precise control over the medicinal essence.
Lin Sheng had already begun studying it.
Once he could refine it consistently, he would produce a sufficient quantity.
But he had no intention of selling the Hundred Yuan Pills through the small shop in the Southern Archipelagos.
That would be wasteful.
The Centennial Auction was a much better place.
A Rank 4 pill capable of rapidly restoring a Golden Core cultivator's magical power would naturally attract the attention of powerful cultivators, and the auction format would allow its value to be determined by the competition between them.
Lin Sheng put the jade slip down.
Everything was gradually falling into place.
His sources of income had been established.
The formation protecting Dragon Yuan Mountain had already reached a considerable level of completion.
His two divine ability seeds were fully formed.
The third remained the only missing piece.
Lin Sheng walked out of the meditation room.
The moment he stepped into the courtyard, his expression became slightly more serious.
There was another matter that had changed during these two years.
His cultivation.
Lin Sheng had already reached the mid stage of Astral Gang.
He had broken through roughly a year ago.
The breakthrough itself had been smooth.
His Astral Qi had become denser, his control over it had improved substantially, and the amount of internal Qi he could circulate through his body had increased.
But after carefully testing his strength, Lin Sheng had reached an interesting conclusion.
His actual combat power had barely changed.
He stood beneath the courtyard tree and raised his hand.
Astral Qi gathered around his fingers.
The surrounding space seemed to tighten.
Lin Sheng flicked his finger.
A thin strand of Astral Qi shot forward.
SHING!
It struck a stone several dozen metres away.
The stone didn't explode.
Instead, a thin line appeared across its surface.
A moment later, the stone separated into two perfectly smooth halves.
Lin Sheng stared at it.
His control was indeed better.
He could use less power to achieve the same result, and his Astral Qi responded more naturally to his thoughts.
But his physical foundation hadn't undergone any dramatic transformation.
His Golden Body remained the same.
His Qi-Blood Furnace remained the same.
His Martial Will had already reached an extraordinary level.
His Blood Exchange Realm and his various techniques had long since pushed his combat ability beyond what his current cultivation realm alone could explain.
"At this level, increasing cultivation isn't enough to create another qualitative change."
Lin Sheng withdrew his hand.
He wasn't disappointed.
It was simply the natural consequence of his foundation.
His current combat strength was already pushing against the boundary of Extreme Rank 4.
Even if he eventually reached the mid stage of Golden Body, his raw strength probably wouldn't increase by an enormous amount.
What would increase was his flexibility.
More divine abilities meant more methods.
More methods meant more ways to deal with different opponents.
If he encountered an enemy who specialised in physical defence, Five Elements Profound Light might provide an advantage.
If he faced overwhelming spiritual attacks or powerful spells, the Yin-Yang Treasure Robe could provide another layer of protection.
A third divine ability would give him another option.
The value wasn't necessarily that every new ability would make his fist dramatically stronger.
It was that he would have more answers.
Lin Sheng's thoughts shifted.
He looked towards the distant mountains.
There was one area where he had made considerable progress.
His Martial Concept.
The moment his mind moved, an invisible rhythm spread outward.
The world around him seemed to become slightly different.
Heaven, Earth.
Qian, Kun.
Two immense conceptual forces existed within his perception, one vast and elevated, the other heavy and stable, and between them was a faint connection that hadn't existed before.
Lin Sheng closed his eyes.
His Martial Will stirred.
The invisible pressure around him suddenly changed.
It wasn't merely Martial Will anymore.
There was a faint boundary.
A domain that had not completely become a domain.
Lin Sheng slowly opened his eyes.
"Pseudo Domain."
He had already formed the foundation of a Qiankun Pseudo Domain.
The road from Martial Will to Domain was not a simple step from one realm to another.
There were transitional stages.
Martial artists first needed to understand their chosen concept deeply enough that their Martial Will stopped being merely an expression of comprehension and began touching the fundamental essence represented by that concept.
Only then could they attempt to transform that understanding into a Domain.
The Pseudo Domain represented one of those stages.
Lin Sheng's Qiankun Pseudo Domain was already extremely close to a true Martial Domain in essence.
If the comprehension required for a complete Domain was imagined as reaching ten percent of the necessary transformation, then his current Pseudo Domain had already crossed the first threshold, perhaps one percent.
The difference between one percent and ten percent sounded small.
In reality, it was enormous.
It was the difference between touching the door and actually opening it.
Lin Sheng had experienced that personally.
His Qian Heaven and Kun Earth Martial Concepts had already reached an extremely profound level.
He had comprehended the fundamental essence contained within them, allowing the two conceptual branches to begin interacting naturally.
But transforming that understanding into a true Martial Domain required another level of comprehension.
It wasn't simply accumulating more Martial Will.
It required understanding how the entire conceptual framework could exist as a unified reality under his control.
That was why true Domains were so rare.
For thousands of years, almost no Astral Gang expert in the Great Qian Dynasty had successfully comprehended a true Domain before reaching the Five Qi Grandmaster Realm. Even if there were, they would be almost impossible to find.
The most common path was considerably simpler.
An Astral Gang expert would continue refining their Martial Concept until their Martial Will reached its peak.
Then, once their cultivation foundation and Five Qi accumulation were sufficient, they would attempt the breakthrough into Grandmaster.
Lin Sheng had encountered many such martial artists.
Peak Martial Will was already extremely powerful.
It allowed an Astral Gang expert to exert terrifying control over their strength, and once that Martial Will became the centre of their Grandmaster breakthrough, it could greatly increase their combat ability.
But there was another category.
Those who reached a Pseudo Domain before becoming Grandmasters.
These martial artists were considerably rarer.
Most came from major sects, ancient clans and powerful forces where they could receive extraordinary inheritances and spend decades or even centuries studying a single profound Martial Concept.
A Pseudo Domain didn't guarantee a Grandmaster breakthrough.
But it provided a major advantage.
During the first fusion of Qi, the Martial Concept could serve as an extremely powerful anchor, allowing the martial artist to better control the fusion of their Five Qis and avoid the instability that could otherwise arise.
More importantly, the Pseudo Domain could help them endure the Three-Nine Lightning Tribulation.