Chapter 975: Aurous Core Disciples Everywhere!
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Perhaps the visit by the Great Void Sect to the Ancient Longevity World aroused the suspicion of the Emperor of the Dead, or perhaps it was because of some other reasons. Either way, the Emperor of the Dead continued to hide and did not reveal any traces of him.
When the Great Void Sect entered the Purple Mist Sea and investigated till the entrance of the Black Sea, they left soon after they obtained news that the Origins Celestial Dragon had completed his Second Tribulation. Afterwards, there was no news from them. It appeared that they did not wish to further probe into the Black Sea or continue occupying the Purple Mist Sea.
After the Great Void Sect retreated, the Purple Sea Dragon King and the dragons under his command returned to the Black Sea. The other demons did not want to snatch their territories from them.
The situation in the Divine Lands and the Barren Expanses appeared to have calmed down. However, there were still many undercurrents that could turn into conflict.
In the Barren Expanses, while the dragons continued to hide in the Black Sea and showed no desire to leave, the news of the Origins Celestial Dragon’s success in crossing the Second Tribulations increased the pressure on other demons. All of them sought to further improve their capabilities and power too.
Faced with the pressure from both the humans and the dragons, the other demons were much more reserved. While they did not have any major action, they started to privately form alliances and interacted with each other.
On the side of the Divine Lands, the situation was polarized along the Celestial Sect of Wonders and the Great Void Sect lines. The situation too became much more restrained.
The Mount Shu Sword Sect hid in their mountain and refused to come out.
The main disputes within the Divine Lands now were between the Great Qin Empire and the Great Zhou Empire.
Earlier, the Great Qin Empire was affected by the presence of powerful sects such as the Mount Shu Sword Sect as well their internal conflicts. Hence, there were a lot of things that they could not do. However, the Great Zhou Empire ascended rapidly and soon, it was almost more powerful than the Great Qin Empire.
However, after the scramble for the Ying Sea and the Anti-Celestial Sect War, the winds of fortune changed. The upwards trajectory of the Great Zhou stopped suddenly, and it appeared to be in decline. On the other hand, the Great Qin Empire appeared to be injected with new life. The situation between the two empires reversed.
Since the Anti-Celestial Sect War, the Great Zhou Empire had no choice but to bide their time.
On the other hand, the Great Qin Empire started to rollback the influence of the Great Zhou Empire.
While the two sides were still rational and acted with restraint, conflicts continued to burst forth, but they did not expand. The Great Qin Empire benefitted while the Great Zhou Empire was still able to remain stable.
The Celestial Sect of Wonders, however, continued to grow rapidly. Xiao Yan, Zhu Yi and the rest continued to teach on Mount Yujing and traverse the lands. The foundation of the Celestial Sect of Wonders was firmly established.
Lin Feng himself remained on Mount Yujing and focused on his cultivation as well as separating the gate to the Starry Sea from the body of the White Tiger Grand Sage. Since he promised not to kill the White Tiger Grand Sage, the process was long and arduous, even with the cooperation of the White Tiger Grand Sage.
However, Lin Feng was extremely patient. He wanted very badly to obtain a stable pathway into the Starry Sea, otherwise known as the Ancient Desolate Galaxy. The benefits of it were immense.
Without mentioning the other benefits to it, one of its biggest plus points was that he could harvest Starry Purplish Grass Pill, which was vital to the cultivation of the Trāyastriṃśa Elixir of Creation. It was the only item that the Celestial Sect of Wonders was in urgent need of.
After a long time, Lin Feng was finally able to extract the gate to the Starry Sea from the White Tiger Grand Sage.
While he was very interested in the Ancient Desolate Galaxy and he had a lot of free time, Lin Feng decided not to open the gate into the Starry Sea but instead, study for a while longer.
Through the gate to the Starry Sea, Lin Feng was able to deepen his understanding of the Ancient Desolate Galaxy. At the same time, he was able to bathe in the starlight and observe the sea of stars. This allowed Lin Feng to better understand his own mantras and spells. At the same time, the framework for a new set of spells was underway in his mind.
However, it was just a framework. For it to be complete, he still needed time to do research.
He needed a lot of time to obtain the gate to the Starry Sea from the White Tiger Grand Sage as well as to find out about the Ancient Desolate Galaxy. In that time, five years had passed in the Greater World.
In that 5 years, there were many developments in the Divine Lands and the Barren Expanses. While there was no major conflict, one could sense a storm coming.
However, the Emperor of the Undead had yet to reveal himself. Other than the more junior disciples of the Great Void Sect who were active out of Mount Baiyun, the more cultivators all appeared to have sealed themselves off.
The Ancient Longevity World regained its peace. In the five years, the incident of the tear into the Netherworld Sea and the resultant chaos became a distant memory.
Xiao Zhener, who obtained the Trāyastriṃśa Elixir of Creation, quickly reached the Immortal Soul stage. However, she soon started her closed-door training. Till now, she had to yet to stop. When Xiao Zhener achieved the Immortal Soul stage, Xiao Yan made a formal visit to the Ancient Longevity World. On one hand, he represented Lin Feng and the Celestial Sect of Wonders. On the other hand, he celebrated Xiao Zhener’s achievement. Afterwards, he returned to the Divine Lands.
On the brighter side, Xiao Zhener’s relatives liked Xiao Yan. Lin Feng had decided that after Xiao Zhener completed her training, he would make a personal visit down to the Ancient Longevity World and propose a marriage between Xiao Yan and Xiao Zhener.
As the Ancients might not want to be seen as taking sides too soon, they might not agree to it just yet. However, Lin Feng hoped that Xiao Yan could at least get engaged.
After he told his disciples about it, everyone poked fun at Xiao Yan, who was radiant with joy. Afterwards, he continued to cultivate and better himself.
From the perspective of the Celestial Sect of Wonders, its second rapid development phase was here. Regardless whether it was the overall influence of the sect, or the cultivation of its disciples, after a long period of biding its time, the sect began to improve rapidly.
Five years ago, after Luo Qingwu formed her nascent soul, Han Yang was given his Daoist name after his master had finished her closed-door training.
The name Luo Qingwu prepared for him was Tian Shu, which originated from the first of the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper, the Tian Shu Star (Translator’s Note: It’s Alpha Ursae Majoris in English).
The Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper were Tian Shu, Tian Xuan, Tian Ji, Tian Quan, Yu Heng, Kai Yang and Yao Guang.
Luo Qingwu’s plan was to go for quality above quantity. Like her master, she only wanted to take eight disciples.
The first four to form their aurous cores would be known as Tian Shu, Tian Xuan, Tian Ji and Tian Quan. The next four to form their aurous cores would be named after the first four stars of the Southern Dipper, which were Tian Fu, Tian Liang, Tian Ji (Different ‘Ji’ from above) and Tian Tong.
After Han Yang formed his aurous core, many other second-generation disciples formed their aurous cores too.
The First Disciple of the Heavenly Temple, Yang Tie, formed his Aurous Core and was given the name Tian Tai. Like Xu Yunsheng’s Tian Xu and Ying Luozha’s Tian Bi, it derived from Zhu Yi’s understanding of the Way of Changes.
The Tai Hexagram signifies the exchange of heaven and earth and the vast knowledge of all creations. It represented one-ness in terms of aims and objectives. He hoped that Yang Tie could be both resilient and flexible.
Zhao Huan of the Blizzard Valley too formed his aurous core. Yue Hongyan named him Tian Jing.
The little medicine boy who barely survived was now an important member of the sect. When he formed his aurous core, it was a purple pill, signifying that he had a bright future ahead.
Many years ago, he was cultivated into a Mortal Spiritual Elixir and other cultivators took his false core, which was only a yellow core then. That terrible experience almost ended his life and his cultivation path. Fortunately, with the careful guidance of Yue Hongyan and the Celestial Sect of Wonders, he had a chance at a new life.
During the Spiritual Conference of the Kunlun Mountains, he only possessed an Intermediate Foundation Establishment stage mastery. However, that was because he sought to strengthen his foundation and make his future cultivation path easier. Hence, like Zhou Yuncong, he kept his own mastery level at the Foundation Establishment stage. If not, he would have been in the Advanced Foundation Establishment stage then.
However, looking at it now, his efforts had not been wasted. Zhao Huan took slow but steady steps and finally, he was able to get rid of his former shackles and form his aurous core.
Tan Yunqing of the River Abode too did intense closed-door training after his return from the Barren Expanses and formed his aurous core. Li Yuanfang named him Tian Fang.
Zhuge Wanqiu too was able to successfully form her aurous core, making her father, Zhuge Zhan, extremely happy. After discussing with Shi Tianhao, they named her Tian Hong.
In the days to come, many more second-generation disciples formed their aurous cores. Soon, third-generation disciples started to develop too.
In these five years, many new disciples joined the sect and those who passed the entrance exam became Foundational Disciples. After they passed the next round of assessment, they became successive disciples.
The criteria to enter the Celestial Sect of Wonders was never low to begin with. To become a successive disciple, very few people were able to do so.
While the exceptional disciples continued to achieve stellar results, the other disciples too trained hard and built up their foundation. After a while, the Celestial Sect of Wonders experienced another massive increase in Aurous Core stage disciples.
After five years in the Greater World, there were more than 70 Aurous Core stage successive disciples in the Celestial Sect of Wonders.
Today, the Celestial Sect of Wonders continued to operate as per normal. The junior disciples started to take on more and more responsibility and more and more of them started to traverse through the land. While they did not stir up much commotion, the influence of the Celestial Sect of Wonders grew day-by-day.
Because of the high standards for disciples, there were fewer than 1000 disciples in the Celestial Sect of Wonders. There were about 100 cultivators above the Aurous Core stage, a rare percentage in the Divine Lands.
Lin Feng looked interestedly at his sect and his heart brimmed with joy. He was no longer worried about the system main quest, which required at least 10% of his disciples to be above the Aurous Core stage and 50% of his disciples to be above the Foundation Establishment stage.
He was more concerned whether he could ensure that that 1% of his sect would be above the Nascent Soul stage.
In these five years, Dao Yuting and Lin Tong formed their nascent souls.
The time the two of them spent training, including the time they spent in the accelerated-time space, was within 50 years, fulfilling the criteria.
Furthermore, what was even more exciting was the fact that Zhou Yuncong, Tang Jun, Ying Luozha, Han Yang, Huang Zhenting and Yang Tie were all in the Advanced Aurous Core stage. All of them appeared to be on the brink of soul formation.
Under these circumstances, Lin Feng was naturally not worried. Instead, he started to ponder about the new quest of the system as thoughts swirled through his mind.