When Tianyi opened his eyes, it was already noon. Tianyi cracked his neck and did some stretches, an action he hadn't done for years. He thought he would keep his habits as a mortal, but as he cultivated, he gradually forgot about them as they were no longer necessary. He hadn't felt so refreshed in years.
"Mom, I'll keep looking for you." Tianyi lightly said. Without him realizing it, he had lived longer in the Huang Realm than he had on Earth.
Closing his eyes, he recalled how beautiful the starry sky was. It made him recall the Heavenly River Stellar Avatar he had inside his body. Inside his cosmos martial body, the myriad stars dimmed under Tianyi's control, basking the universe into near darkness aside from the light of his spiritual cores.
Simultaneously, Tianyi felt the energy supporting his nascent souls slow down. When the stars lit up once more, his nascent soul's advancement returned to normal.
If his cosmos was yang, then the stars inside his cosmos were yin, the spiritual aspect of the cosmos. Thinking back, Tianyi felt incredibly lucky that he had formed the Heavenly River Stellar Avatar back in the ruin of the Immortal Court. Without it, his martial method would need far more effort from him.
Tianyi sat back down onto the roof and hugged his knees. It was a far more comfortable position compared to sitting in a lotus position. Why must he sit in a lotus position to cultivate?
Closing his eyes, he began to further integrate his Heavenly River Stellar Avatar into his martial method. He would use the myriad stars as a connection to his soul and formed the Soul Nourishing segment of his martial cultivation. Soon the myriad stars in his cosmos began to undergo numerous changes. Tianyi originally arranged them according to the acupoints of his martial body, but he realized acupoints were for fleshly bodies. His martial body was a cosmos. What use were acupoints?
Wait, can he even be called an Acupoint Opening Master anymore?
Tianyi quickly erased his thoughts. Just because he no longer needed acupoints anymore didn't mean he could just arrange the myriad stars willy nilly. There still needed to be an order to all this. Soon the position of the stars shifted. Some grew brighter while others grew dimmer. If there had been any lifeforms that existed in Tianyi's cosmos, they would have no doubt been shocked by the abrupt changes. Some might even say it was a sign of the apocalypse.
Using inspiration from the constellation from Earth, Tianyi began to arrange the stars in such a manner. To his shock, he discovered that the effects were actually quite good. After such a cultivating for a while, Tianyi reached another roadblock. There were just too many stars for him to arrange. At first, it was okay, but as he arranged more and more, they began to clash against one another. It was akin to arranging thousands upon thousands of formations together, one wrong move could cause it to become worthless.
Tianyi stopped his cultivation after arranging the stars inside his body so that they didn't conflict too much. But even so, Tianyi felt that the speed of his nascent soul's advance rise to another level. Unfortunately, he still hadn't created the next section of his martial method. At this rate, he would have to split his soul again.
Searching his memories, Tianyi tried to find a method to aid him. He recalled the numerous cultivation methods and then recalled the Stellar Heavenly Scripture of the ten heavenly scriptures. Using the myriad stars as an energy source, the cultivator would produce stellar true qi and refine his acupoints into stars.
The Buzhou Immortal Sect didn't have the Stellar Heavenly Scripture. But it did have the Thirty-Six Heavenly Constellation Art. According to legend, Subhuti mastered the Stellar Heavenly Scripture and created two derivations: the Thirty-Six Heavenly Constellation Art and the Seventy-Two Earthly Asterism Art.
That's right. The Seventy-Two Earthly Asterism Art was the origin of the Seventy-Two Transformation Art that the Heaven Equalling Great Sage had learned.
It is said if you master both, you would instantly master the Stellar Heavenly Scripture. But Tianyi didn't care about that. What he cared more about was that it was related to the Heaven Equalling Great Sage, Sun Wukong! Tianyi dearly wished for the Seventy-Two Earthly Asterism Art because of that reason, but unfortunately, the Buzhou Immortal Sect didn't have it. The Heaven Equalling Great Sage was able to flee and conceal himself with it. It was only thanks to Erlang Shen's Truth-Seeking Eye that the Heaven Equalling Great Sage could be discovered.
Tianyi laughed as he imagined himself equipped with the Seventy-Two Earthly Asterism Art and the Truth-Seeking Eye. Wasn't this a perfect merge of Erlang Shen and Sun Wukong? Of course, he didn't really think it was a perfect merger, but the thought was nice.
On a more serious note, Tianyi recalled that the Thirty-Six Heavenly Constellation Art could be considered a portion of the Stellar Heavenly Scripture. The last time he cultivated something related to the ten heavenly scripture, he directly solved his dilemma. Now, would his current situation be the same?
Would he instantly figure out how to step into the Unity Realm?
Standing up, Tianyi jumped down from the roof of Jade Peak Palace. His destination was the Revenue Hall. As for why he didn't directly go to the Immortal Scripture Repository. As a nascent soul grandmaster and Grand Elder's son, he was freely able to enter and exit the fourth floor, but the Thirty Six Heavenly Constellation Art would have to be at least on the seventh floor or higher.
The Revenue Hall was responsible for distributing rewards and keeping track of finances. This included the sect members' contribution points. Those that offered treasures, information up to the sect, or accomplished sect missions would attain these points. And with them, they would able to exchange spirit stones or other rewards, such as being able to choose a technique from the seventh floor of the Immortal Scripture Repository.
Tianyi could probably have his mother help him gain enough contribution points or offer up the treasures he had been given. But he didn't want to bother his mother any more than necessary, and using the treasures given to him by his mother to exchange for contribution points felt wrong. But he had a lot of information!
His head contained numerous pieces of information regarding the inheritance and graves of immortals. Although pure information wouldn't be worth as much as the actual inheritance and treasures from the graves, Tianyi was too lazy to search for them all himself. Plus, the treasures and inheritances didn't meet his standards at all. The Buzhou Immortal Sect would probably use them as rewards for disciples too.
Entering the Revenue Hall's headquarters, Tianyi directly stated his intention. After seeing how many contribution points it would cost to enter the seventh floor of the Immortal Scripture Repository, Tianyi directly stated over ten true immortal's inheritances and graves.
"Immortal Lord Gravekeeper's inheritance at Thousand Skeleton Mountain in the Eastern Region."
"True Lord Flamesurge's grave at Permaheat Abyss in the Central Region."
"Soul Immortal Frosteye's inheritance in Feather Sky Mountain Range of Central Region."
"Immortal Lord Swaysong's inheritance at Soundless Mist Domain of Central Region."
"Immortal Lord Qiflow's inheritance at Surging Qi Canyon in the upper Southern Region."
"Imperial Immortal Embroideredsilk's grave at Silvermist Moth Forest in the Central Region."
"Grand Duke Xuanfei's grave in the Central Region in Sky Pillar Mountain floating above the Central Region."
"Supremacy Grandyin's inheritance at Nocturne Yang Flow River in the Eastern Region."
"Immortal Lord Microchaos's inheritance at Grand Plain Vast Meadow in the Southern Region."
"Sword Immortal Halfmoon's inheritance at Moonshadow Peak of Thousand Weapon Mountain Range of Central Region."
The receptionist felt his hands tremble as he recorded all the information Tianyi listed.
Heavens!
The receptionist looked at Tianyi in a new light. Such loyalty to the sect. Instead of hoarding it all to the sect, Tianyi offered up all these True Immortal's inheritances and graves to the sect. And thus, unknown to Tianyi, a new misunderstanding was born.
Naturally, Tianyi's information had to be verified before he could be rewarded the contribution points. Earning enough points wasn't easy. If Tianyi hadn't fought off Longwei, or rather the Dragon Emperor, at Ironword's inheritance grotto, then he would have at least have to list several more.
Tianyi gained an appreciation for how direct Sect Master Xia was when he agreed to Tianyi's request. Or perhaps for Sect Master Xia, giving techniques out from the seventh level was nothing. If he had known this, Tianyi would have been greedier. But that time, he didn't want to push his luck too far. He was still the sect master, so Tianyi didn't want to go overboard even if he was a grand elder's son.
He returned to Jade Peak. There was nothing he could do except wait now.
There was actually another method for Tianyi to gather points, the Demon Slaying Expedition. But that was going to happen in a year or two, and there was no way Tianyi would patiently wait that long.
He had already signed up. He heard that there might even be demonic beasts of dragonic lineage present in the Demon Cage Realm! He recalled Elder Shan's Crimsoned Winged Eagle. Although he could easily slap it to death with his current power, it still looked very cool riding on a steed!
Tianyi blinked when he felt something rub his palm. He looked down to see the immortal pill rubbing against it. Without another word, Tianyi used his fingers and gouged a hole in his hands, making it leak vast amounts of true qi of chaos. The immortal pill greedily devoured the true qi leaking from Tianyi's wound.
Ever since the battle with the Dragon Emperor, Tianyi didn't spurn the immortal pill's needs anymore. It helped that compared to the pain he experienced, tearing a hole in his palm was nothing.
After the immortal pill became all black again, Tianyi walked back into the Temporal Void Domain. Just because he was stumped didn't mean that he couldn't cultivate. In fact, strengthening his foundations was equally as important since he would be incorporating another derivative of the Heavenly Scriptures into his cultivation method.
Upon stepping on the second floor, Tianyi paused. Since he didn't have any good ideas on how to advance his martial cultivation, why not focus on learning the Dao of Time? Right now, his understanding of the Dao of Space towered over his Dao of Time, although the distance had been shortened recently thanks to the Temporal Void Domain.
Space and time were intricately linked, two sides of the same coin. However, the people of the Huang Realm treated them as two separate concepts that only supreme geniuses could merge. Thanks to Tianyi's knowledge from Earth, he was able to merge at such an early realm. And spacetime was the foundation of his martial body, so it would count as strengthening his foundation.
Steeling himself, Tianyi stepped onto the third floor. The dizziness from the information overload didn't immediately assault him, so Tianyi felt that he could stay on the third floor longer than the first time he arrived. When Tianyi looked around, he saw Daoyi also on the third floor. Thinking that he hadn't actually talked to her in a while, he sat down in front of her. Daoyi immediately noticed Tianyi's appearance, and so she opened her eyes and smiled.
"Is there something you need, Senior Brother?"
"Why can't I look for you for no reason? I just felt that I haven't talked to you in a while," Tianyi said.
"Yeah, now that I think about it, I've been diligently cultivating for quite a while," Daoyi said. "Sometimes, I just lose track of time. The first time I cultivated for a month straight, I became slack-jawed in astonishment!"
Tianyi nodded. He could totally understand that feeling. Even now, he would be shocked whenever he cultivated nonstop for days on end. It felt like his sense of time was getting distorted. The two soon fell into an awkward silence. Tianyi kept his expression neutral while he inwardly panicked at the increasingly heavy atmosphere.
"S-so, did you find out who exterminated your clan?" Tianyi instantly regretted his words.
You idiot? Who starts a conversation asking about if they found their clan's exterminator!? This is clearly provocation!
Instead of getting mad like Tianyi thought she would, Daoyi laughed. "Senior Brother, sometimes I worry about your future interaction with the rest of the sect."
Tianyi had no words of refutation.
"But, you don't need to worry about my feelings towards the matter. In truth, I have no attachment to the Xu Clan. The only reason I even bothered to retrieve the treasure and seek revenge is because of my mother's last wish. I never met them. How could I seek revenge for people I don't know?'
Tianyi thought about it and realized she was right. Daoyi never met the Xu Clan, so she wouldn't be devastated by their loss. "But if your clan hadn't fallen, your mother and you wouldn't have been in such a situation."
"Who knows. The Xu Clan held a divine shard, something they couldn't protect with their power in the Huang Realm. Sooner or later, people would have figured it out. And if my mother was never captured by the duke, then she might not have been my mother." Daoyi said.
Tianyi nodded in understanding. Who knows, if the Buzhou Immortal Sect discovered it, they might have exterminated the Xu Clan for the treasure. And wouldn't that be a twist?
"As for forces that exterminated my clan," Daoyi paused as she recalled the information. "They aren't anything worth mentioning to the Buzhou Immortal Sect. The strongest expert they have is a Unity Realm Expert. They used to have a lot more, but they were fatally injured when they exterminated the Xu Clan. Their life and death are currently unknown. I hypothesize that they were injured by the Xu Clan's Spectral Rising Jewel."
Tianyi agreed. From what he heard, the Xu Clan's top experts were nascent soul grandmasters, so their chances of victories were low against a group of Unity Venerables. Of course, he couldn't discount the Xu Clan's nascent soul grandmasters. They had an abnormally high percentage of soul cultivators, and Tianyi had already experienced the terror of soul methods.
That was an opening, and soon the conversation livened up. Suddenly, Daoyi paused as she recalled something. "Brother Ri was looking for you. He said it was something about the formation cards."
"Really?" Tianyi said. He couldn't think of anything going wrong with the formation cards. At this point, Tianyi was only in charge of creating new formation cards, and Daoyi was like a stockholder with no responsibility. At this point, it was pretty much Xi Ri's one-man show.
Wait, he wouldn't be resent that we pushed all the work on him while we raked in the benefits, right?
Not long after, Tianyi and Daoyi met Xi Ri outside of the Temporal Void Domain.
"Senior Brother Xi, please find a way to produce the formation cards more efficiently!"
"Huh?" Tianyi said. "Business has grown or something?"
"Yeah, maybe it's catching on. Or because of the Demon Slaying Expedition, but demand is at an all-time high!"
"Why would the Demon Slaying Expedition raise the demand?" Tianyi asked.
"Who knows, maybe because formation cards multi-use items. If they bought talismans, they are one-time consumables. In terms of usage, wouldn't the formation card be more useful? The Demon Slaying Expedition doesn't disallow the use of talisman and treasures, after all."
"I can see your point. But can't you find more people if demand is too much?" Tianyi asked.
"I can't. Even if I wanted to, if I expanded the operation too much, the secret of the process might get leaked. I already discover traces of people snooping around. If it weren't for the fact that business hasn't reached the point that it would be coveted by unity venerables and higher, accidents might have already occurred. Your name can only deter them for so long. It's not like Grand Elder Xi personally backed it."
Tianyi nodded. Seeing the point. "Why don't you move it to Jade Peak then?"
"I can? Wouldn't it bother Grand Elder Xi and the other elders on Jade Peak? It's just a small operation. Basing it in Jade Peak is a bit..." Xi Ri started saying but trailed off at the end.
"It's fine. As one of the people responsible for the business, I can't just watch it be in trouble. As for bothering the elders, let's just use my land. The people on Jade Peak each have their own territory. I'm no different." Tianyi said.
"But I don't have one," Daoyi interjected.
Tianyi didn't know what to say. "M-maybe when you enter the Nascent Soul or Unity Realm..."
Daoyi laughed. "I'm just messing with you, Senior Brother."
Tianyi coughed into his fist and continued. "A-anyways, my land is actually quite close to the top of Jade Peak, so it might not be suitable. I can ask mother for a piece of land near the base of the mountain. Can you take me to your base of operations? I want to see how you've been creating them."
Xi Ri agreed. He brought Tianyi and Daoyi to an isolated outer area of the Buzhou Immortal Sect. The land wasn't filled with dense spiritual qi and was obviously a dead zone even though it wasn't exactly barren. Although compared to the sects on the edge of the Heaven Continent, even this barren land would have been a sacred land for cultivation for them. But what caught Tianyi's eyes was the giant metal box-like structure standing out. It was incredibly familiar to Tianyi in shape and function, all it was missing was a smokestack.
"I know it's a little surprising, but the building itself is easy to make and makes the layout convenient. Come in." Xi Ri said as he brought Tianyi and Daoyi inside.
Inside, there were god honest conveyor belts with people lined and working. Above, there were inner disciples overseeing the outer and servant disciples in their work.
"Xi Ri, what is this?" Tianyi said, not bothering to address Xi Ri as older cousin anymore. He glanced to the side and saw Daoyi staring intently at Xi Ri as well.
"Oh, I guess you must have never seen this before. The structure and the people together are called a factory." Xi Ri pointed at a particular group. "They cut the raw materials into the specified shape and size before giving it to the next group. Each group is assigned a single task and specializes in it. This makes the whole process much more efficient overall."
"And the overseers are inner disciples that I know are trustworthy. The workers are outer disciples and servant disciples who couldn't find work. Maybe they were injured during their immortal path and couldn't advance any further, or maybe some other reason. But they are the lowest status members, so they work extremely wholeheartedly. Of course, I made sure they are loyal and trustworthy."
Tianyi placed his palm over his face. "Can you be any more obvious?"
"Obvious? What do you mean? I'm pretty sure no one else makes things like this." Xi Ri said, confused.
Tianyi didn't say anything and pulled Daoyi and Xi Ri by their wrist. He took them outside the factory and toward a location near the edge of the Buzhuo Immortal Sect. He constructed a large formation that encased the trio in his true qi of chaos, hiding them from any possible prying eyes as much as possible. Tianyi even went as far as using an immortal artifact for it.
Once he was done with that, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then his eyes snapped open, and he glared at Xi Ri.
"Do you know how much I was angsting over this!? And then you just you up and reveal the most damning evidence! Return all the time I spent moping!!!" Tianyi screamed at Xi Ri.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Xi Ri asked, an expression of loss on his face at Tianyi's suddenly agitated state.
"What do I mean?" Tianyi laughed, his eyes bloodshot and anger in his voice. "Can you not be any more obvious that you're a reincarnator!?"