TL: Etude
"Ye Tian, let's leave together!" Holy Maiden Xiyue approached with a smile on her face, clearly having reaped good rewards in the temple space.
"Sure," Ye Tian agreed without hesitation, and they left together.
After arriving at Zhonghai Super Base, they parted ways. Ye Tian returned home and immediately contacted Wang Yan. Upon receiving Ye Tian's message, Wang Yan hurried to his residence.
"Ye Tian, I'm so glad you returned safely!" Wang Yan looked at Ye Tian with a hint of longing in her eyes.
Ye Tian understood what her gaze meant and didn't hesitate to hand her a God Forging Pill, which he had fortunately acquired and stored in a new bottle.
"Sister Wang, this is a God Forging Pill, a lucky find of mine. It can refine spiritual power. Unfortunately, I only managed to get one."
"One is enough!" Wang Yan excitedly accepted the pill. "Such a pill should only be consumed once. Taking more wouldn't make a difference. If one God Forging Pill can't help me advance to the Saint level, then it's probably my fate not to reach that level."
"Sister Wang's accumulation is sufficient; you'll surely succeed!" Ye Tian wished her well.
"Thank you for your blessing," Wang Yan smiled. Then, she looked at Ye Tian curiously. "Ye Tian, your aura seems… have you advanced to the Saint level?"
"Yes, I encountered some trouble in the temple space and had to forcefully break through to the Saint level," Ye Tian explained.
"I'm sorry you missed an opportunity because of me," Wang Yan said guiltily, believing that Ye Tian had wasted a chance to enhance his Mystery-level talent for her. She was unaware of Ye Tian's actual gains; missing an opportunity to reach the Mystery level was not something easily compensated by ordinary gains.
Ye Tian didn't explain further. He couldn't reveal his acquisition of the Mystery-level defense talent, as it was related to his trump card. He preferred to keep hidden. Wang Yan didn't stay long at Ye Tian's place and soon left, seemingly eager to start her breakthrough to the Saint level.
Ye Tian then began to organize his gains from the venture. First were the weapons; the best sword he acquired surpassed the top-level yuan force sabers and would serve as his primary weapon. Next were the yuan force cultivation secret techniques. He had been practicing the Azure Energy Secret Art, a second-grade top-tier technique. However, this time he acquired more than ten second-grade top-tier techniques. The best of which was the Golden Body Yuan Force Secret Technique.
He also obtained two even better first-grade top-tier yuan force secret techniques, but they required cultivation using the aura of corpses combined with the natural yuan Qi, which he didn't dare to attempt. He wasn't sure of the potential side effects of these techniques, even though they could use beast corpses as a substitute.
In terms of sword techniques, the owner of the palace he raided seemed to be a sword talent, having collected numerous techniques. Apart from the gold-level Desolate Sword Domain, there were also several silver-level sword techniques, totaling twenty, and no fewer than fifty bronze-level techniques.
The pills he found were mostly for refining the body, meridians, and opening acupoints, with a few assisting in opening the brain domain. Additionally, he found several books on arrays, including top-tier grand arrays and a Morning Star-level array. Though he couldn't learn the Morning Star-level array due to his lack of relevant talents and his primary focus not being on arrays, there was one top-tier Qi Gathering Array he was particularly interested in.
Ye Tian's current cultivation room was only of a high level, but the top-tier Qi Gathering Array could allow him to build a top-tier cultivation room, significantly increasing his cultivation speed. However, the materials required to construct a top-tier cultivation room were more precious, some of which he had found in the palace. The rest he hoped to acquire through the Loose Cultivators Alliance.
Ye Tian meticulously categorized his other gains. Among the many treasures, several were of no use to him and were better off traded. Thus, he prepared to head to the headquarters of the Loose Cultivators Alliance to make exchanges.
At the headquarters of the Loose Cultivators Alliance, Ye Tian spent considerable effort trading various treasures for items he needed, such as Qi stones. Both high-level and top-level cultivation rooms demand a high quantity of Qi stones, and without sufficient stones, maintaining a top-level cultivation room would be impossible. Additionally, Ye Tian sought pills and medicines for rapidly restoring yuan force and physical strength, crucial for when he needed to activate his time-acceleration ability, which consumed a lot of power.
After trading numerous treasures, Ye Tian acquired 80,000 Qi stones and various types of pills, medicines, and Saint-level beast blood. However, he hadn't started trading the top-tier items yet. He planned to trade the gold-level Desolate Sword Domain technique for a gold-level single-target sword technique, as he couldn't always use Desolate Sword Domain without affecting others in the vicinity. Without using it, his maximum attack power would significantly decrease, which was not beneficial for unleashing his full strength. Hence, he urgently needed a gold-level single-target sword technique.
Soon, he found information for trading gold-level sword techniques.
[For Sale: Gold-level Sword Technique: Instant Slash.
Trading Requirement: Gold-level Group Attack Sword Technique.
Publisher: Frenzied Sword Saint!]
"Is it really published by the Frenzied Sword Saint?!" Ye Tian was surprised.
The Frenzied Sword Saint was not just any Saint-level cultivator but a Great Saint-level powerhouse. Zhonghai Super Base had strict classifications for Saint-level cultivators, not based on cultivation level but on combat power, divided into Ordinary Saints, Minor Saints, Great Saints, and Saint Kings. A Saint without special talents, upon reaching the pinnacle of Saint-level, could achieve a physical strength of 10 Dragon Power and an attack strength of 20 Dragon Power, barely qualifying as a minor Saint.
Minor Saints ranged from 20 to 100 Dragon Power, Great Saints from 100 to 1,000 Dragon Power, and those with over 1,000 Dragon Power were considered Saint Kings.
Reaching the Saint King level was extremely difficult, not due to a lack of talent but because of the speed of cultivation. For instance if the top King-level cultivators on the King's List cultivated to the pinnacle of Saint-level, could easily reach Saint King level and even effortlessly kill average Saint Kings.
However, opening the brain domain was incredibly challenging. Many combat geniuses on the King's List had only Morning Star-level talents and could take hundreds or even a thousand years to open 100% of their deep brain domain. Since the great change on Earth over a hundred years ago, humans had only been cultivating for just over a century, and even the ancient humans weren't much stronger than modern humans.
Thus, many geniuses who advanced to the Saint level had only opened a small percentage of their brain domain, making those who reached the Great Saint level exceptionally powerful, while Saint Kings were few and far between. According to the Saint's List, there were only a few Saint Kings.
As for Emperors, each one had tremendous fate and fortune, likely having acquired opportunities like temple relics multiple times, spending countless resources and possessing Moonlight-level talents to eventually reach the Emperor level.
The Frenzied Sword Saint, ranked 37th on the Saint's List, was a formidable force, not weaker than Ye Tian's current strength. Ye Tian accepted the trade information and contacted the Frenzied Sword Saint. Soon, the Frenzied Sword Saint arrived!