At the break of dawn the next day, the gates of Xiuyang Upper Palace opened, and Shi Yang led the others away.
Qian Qian, reluctant to part from Ji Xia, came to bid him farewell. Ji Xia consoled her with gentle words, and only then did she leave reluctantly.
After everyone departed, Ji Xia gazed around the now-empty Smoke Township Manor. A sense of loneliness arose in his heart, but he quickly dismissed it. He returned to his room and resumed cultivating the Golden Crow Primordial Saint Sutra, refining and tempering the newly gathered spiritual energy.
The Golden Crow Primordial Saint Sutra was leagues ahead of the Starry Secret Scroll in both spirit-gathering and refining. However, it included an additional stage called Golden Crow Spirit Tempering.
This stage involved using the Golden Crow Flame to temper spiritual energy, making it increasingly dense and pure. Over time, this energy transformed into the unique golden spiritual energy of the sutra, which he then infused into his Snow Mountain.
Since cultivating the Golden Crow Primordial Saint Sutra, the quality of Ji Xia's spiritual energy had drastically improved. His Snow Mountain, now filled to the brim with dense spiritual energy, had developed microscopic gaps due to the heightened density.
Through daily spirit tempering, Ji Xia finally filled these gaps with golden spiritual energy after more than ten days of effort.
His Snow Mountain was once again full, unable to contain any more spiritual energy.
"My Snow Mountain, tempered by the Golden Crow Flame, has now reached its capacity. My cultivation has reached the peak of the Ninth Heaven realm," Ji Xia thought to himself.
Recently, he had been studying the Heavenly Barrier and had gained significant insight. Once his Snow Mountain was full, he planned to attempt breaking through the Heavenly Barrier and attaining the Divine Abilities Realm.
However, such breakthroughs required serendipity and enlightenment. They couldn't be forced.
Take Bo Xian as an example: despite being stuck at the Heavenly Barrier for ages, he suddenly broke through after hearing a single sentence from Ji Xia, triggering auspicious clouds to celebrate the event.
The Divine Abilities Realm was extraordinary, granting freedom from illness and, under natural aging conditions, a lifespan of up to 150 years.
Of course, in the boundless wilderness, few lived to old age. Many were killed by stronger races, bloodlines, or civilizations, and some even faced total extermination.
After filling his Snow Mountain, Ji Xia stopped tempering spiritual energy for storage in his furnace. Instead, he retrieved several cultivation manuals collected by Pang Shixie from his mysterious bag and began to study them carefully.
"To become a master of martial arts, one cannot work in isolation!"
As he flipped through the manuals, Ji Xia mused to himself: "Now that I have the profound Golden Crow Primordial Saint Sutra, my perspective has improved. I can immediately spot flaws in many cultivation methods."
"Additionally, the enhancement of my talents from the Ancient Vein Mystic Fruit's Jupiter Bloodline allows me to instantly recognize the issues within ordinary cultivation manuals."
"Still, these manuals don't only have flaws; they also possess many strengths worth learning and incorporating."
One manual in his hands was the Skyhound Blade Manual, which emphasized a bold, aggressive approach. Its weakness was its lack of defense, but ironically, that was also its strength.
"If there really was a cultivation manual that hurt the enemy while costing the user, in this harsh wilderness, countless people would still want to learn it."
After a long time, he set the blade manual aside and picked up another: the Golden Lion True Art. It produced Golden Lion Spiritual Energy, which, while lacking sustained power, offered immense explosive strength.
One by one, Ji Xia examined the manuals, analyzing their flaws and seeking solutions while summarizing their strengths and considering how to amplify them.
He studied and researched while patiently waiting for the right opportunity.
After seven or eight days, he finished reading all the hundred or so manuals collected by Pang Shixie.
Although many of the manuals fell short of the Starry Secret Scroll in quality, Ji Xia found them immensely beneficial.
"My martial arts foundation has grown significantly thanks to these manuals, but compared to truly well-grounded experts, I'm still lacking!"
For days, Ji Xia had immersed himself in these texts without leaving the Smoke Township Manor. Now, sitting cross-legged on his jade bed, he closed his eyes in contemplation.
"I need to gather and study more manuals to continuously expand my horizons."
In his mind, he revealed his ambitions:
"Many cultivation techniques are designed by various races to suit their innate talent for gathering spiritual energy. They are not necessarily suitable for weaker races like humanity."
"If my foundation is strong enough, I'll develop a cultivation method suitable for all humans, even those of weaker talents."
Among races, innate talent was a significant divide.
For example, compared to the Da Fu Clan, humanity produced far fewer cultivators—approximately a ten-to-one ratio. Most humans could only connect to weak spiritual energy and often hit a wall at the First or Second Heaven.
In contrast, nearly every member of the Da Fu Clan's population of a million could cultivate.
Even if most only reached the Third Heaven, they still held a tremendous advantage over humans.
"If I had enough spirit seeds and could endlessly exchange for Meridian Building Crystals, allowing all Tai Cang citizens to drink Tai Lai Spirit Water, perhaps in the future, every Tai Cang citizen could cultivate!"
This thought had lingered in Ji Xia's mind, though spirit seeds were still too rare to come by.
Most spirit seeds were contributed by the citizens of Tai Cang. Currently, almost all of them had reached the Reverencelevel of sentiment, but Ji Xia wondered if there might be a higher level of emotion.
"In this vast wilderness, population remains the primary source of productivity."
Ji Xia sighed.
"If Tai Cang had six million people, earning two spirit seeds per hundred citizens through Recognition and Reverence, I could amass 120,000 spirit seeds!"
"120,000 spirit seeds! I could exchange them for ten Divine Fruits and summon ten Divine Beings to overwhelm countless enemies!"
Thinking about this, Ji Xia made up his mind:
"I've heard of vast kingdoms in the boundless wilderness with populations in the tens or hundreds of billions. Tai Cang's population of just over six hundred thousand doesn't even amount to a fraction of their numbers, let alone allow for rising to prominence."
"With only six hundred thousand people, how can we grow stronger? Once Tai Cang is stable, I should relocate all the humans within a ten-thousand-mile radius to Tai Cang."
After pondering Tai Cang's future development, Ji Xia stood and stretched before stepping outside.
It was late at night, with a single moon hanging in the sky, its gentle light illuminating the courtyard.
Ji Xia sighed inwardly, thinking, "If no opportunity arises in two days, I'll have no choice but to leave."
As this thought passed through his mind, the gates of the Smoke Township Manor suddenly swung open.
A headless figure, its body shrouded in darkness, entered.
The figure hurled a drop of inky black liquid at Ji Xia before its form disintegrated into ashes, vanishing into the air.
Ji Xia, already familiar with the strange methods of the Dark Ritualists, was unfazed.
He examined the black droplet, which rapidly expanded and reformed into a large, black-lipped mouth.
The mouth opened and closed as the Dark Ritualist's voice emanated from it:
"Hold this droplet of corpse water, and you may freely enter the Shrine of Divinity. Arrive within a tea's time to meet me."
The black lips then shrank, transforming into a black gem shaped like a water droplet, which floated into Ji Xia's hand.
Playing with the gem, Ji Xia thought to himself:
"So, the Divine Assembly is upon us."
He sighed.
Originally, he had hoped for an opportunity to meet Shi Yu alone. With so many powerful figures present, assassinating Shi Yu would now be even more challenging.