While Lu Feng and the others were organizing their ploy to expose Zhang Xuan’s true identity, Zhang Xuan and Luo Ruoxin were seated by the window in the room on the back of the Great Violetwing Beast, watching as the clouds flew by them.
“The Saint Ascension Platform is the place where Kong shi ascended to Sainthood. Upon his ascension, he inscribed his insights personally on a cliff face at the peak of the mountain… On top of that, it’s said that he also left a sliver of his will there to gift to a fated man. Since you are a Celestial Master Teacher as well, you might just be able to obtain it!” Luo Ruoxin said with a smile.
“A sliver of Kong shi’s will?” Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up.
As the founder of the Master Teacher Pavilion, even a sliver of Kong shi’s will could send countless master teachers fighting frenziedly over it.
“That’s right. The will isn’t too strong as it was left right after Kong shi reached Saint realm, but nevertheless, considering that it belonged to Kong shi, it is not something to be underestimated… If you were to obtain and assimilate it, it won’t be long before you reach Saint realm too!” Luo Ruoxin replied with a nod.
“Saint realm?” A bitter smile emerged on Zhang Xuan’s face. “I am only at Perfect Harmonization realm at the moment, still a long distance away from reaching Saint realm.”
Beyond Perfect Harmonization realm was Ethereal Treading realm, Chrysalis realm, Half-Saint, and finally, Nascent Saint!
There were four realms standing between him and Saint realm. Even if he were to gather sufficient cultivation technique manuals to compile the respective Heaven’s Path Divine Arts for those realms, the Earth Vein Spirit Essence was still unlikely to be sufficient for him to cultivate that far.
The Heaven’s Path Divine Art’s demand for spiritual energy increased at an exponential rate. Perhaps, Zhang Xuan might have to expend up to a thousand times more spirit stones or spirit essence just to reach Saint realm.
Furthermore, the thresholds between Chrysalis realm to Half-Saint and Half-Saint to Nascent Saint were known to be extremely difficult to overcome. Many preceding cultivators had their journeys terminated prematurely at those two bottlenecks. Even if Zhang Xuan cultivated the Heaven’s Path Divine Art, he wasn’t certain that he could overcome them for sure.
“When I first met you at the Verdant Mountain, you were only at Clarifying Turbidity realm pinnacle. However, in less than two months, you have already reached Perfect Harmonization realm pinnacle. That’s a growth of three realms in less than two months! Even I hardly see such swift growth around. Saint realm might still be a distance away, but it shouldn’t be a problem for you!” Luo Ruoxin consoled.
When she had first met Zhang Xuan, he had only been at Clarifying Turbidity realm pinnacle. In their second meeting, he had already reached Cosmos Bridge realm pinnacle. She had thought that his current rate of growth was already incredible, but when she met him once more the day before, he was already a Perfect Harmonization realm expert.
Such a rate of growth was truly astounding.
“I was just lucky…” Zhang Xuan smiled awkwardly.
Not wanting to dwell further on this topic, Zhang Xuan suddenly thought of something and asked, “Right, do you have any Ethereal Treading realm cultivation technique manuals with you? The quality doesn’t matter, I just need as many of them as possible!”
The Master Teacher Academy did have a Cultivation Depository to store cultivation technique manuals, but its security was far tighter than the other libraries in the academy. Putting aside the fact that the advanced formation made it hard for even a soul to slip in, the ones guarding the premises were mainly the Saint realm teachers as well. After the prior experience in the Terpsichorean Compendium Pavilion, he dared not enter it recklessly.
One Wei Ranxue had already nearly him killed. If he were to encounter multiple Saint realm experts specializing in soul attacks, he might just very well lose his life.
As a result, despite visiting the libraries of the various schools, he hadn’t paid the Cultivation Depository a visit yet.
It was not that he couldn’t find it, but he dared not enter it.
Since it happened that there was nothing to do at the moment, if he could obtain some Ethereal Treading realm cultivation technique manuals from the other party, he could study them and raise his cultivation.
“Ethereal Treading realm cultivation technique manuals? I only have one of those, and it’s a cultivation technique passed down within my clan, so I am unable to share it with you…” Luo Ruoxin shook her head.
“Pardon me, I was being impetuous!” Zhang Xuan apologized.
Based on what he knew, the young lady before him was likely from a Sage Clan, the Luo Clan. Clans like that guarded their heritage tightly, and asking for the other party’s cultivation technique abruptly could be considered a disrespectful action.
Take Mu shi for example, he was expelled from his clan due to revealing the secrets of his clan’s cultivation technique to an outsider.
“Don’t worry about it. However, if you wish to make a breakthrough to the Ethereal Treading realm, I can offer you some pointers instead…” Luo Ruoxin smiled.
“Ethereal Treading, the eighth dan of Transcendent Mortal. By aligning one’s body with nature, one can achieve the feat of stepping upon thin air…”
Listening carefully to Luo Ruoxin’s words, Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up.
As expected of an expert from a Sage Clan, her understanding of Ethereal Treading realm was extremely detailed, and there were nearly no mistakes to be found!
If Zhang Xuan were to cultivate by the method she had imparted, even without a compiled Heaven’s Path Divine Art, he would still be able to achieve a breakthrough.
However, he decided not to rush into it.
Even for a cultivator of the Heaven’s Path Divine Art, it was still essential for him to build a strong foundation for his cultivation. Otherwise, even if he could advance his cultivation swiftly, it would be like the moon in the water, dissipating with a light touch.
It had only been two days since he had reached Perfect Harmonization realm, so it was imperative for him to allow his cultivation to settle down first before making another advancement.
Nevertheless, the conversation with Luo Ruoxin benefited him greatly, giving him a deeper insight into the intricacies of cultivation.
It was a three-day journey to the Saint Ascension Platform. Zhang Xuan had been too busy with various miscellaneous matters previously to cultivate, so this was a good opportunity for him to reinforce his cultivation.
Absorbing the Earth Vein Spirit Essence, Zhang Xuan further tempered his Heaven’s Path zhenqi, making it even purer and more condensed.
…
Time passed in a flash.
The three days of hard work had allowed Zhang Xuan to fully reinforce his Perfect Harmonization realm pinnacle cultivation, resulting in his aura becoming sharper than before.
Even though his strength was still capped at 14,000,000 ding, he had become able to utilize his zhenqi more nimbly, thus furthering his battle prowess.
However, the most conspicuous change was with the spiritual sea in his dantian, having expanded by more than twofold. Pure zhenqi filled the area to the brim, and as if a full dam, one could draw immense power from it in an instant.
At the same time, his understanding of the Perfect Harmonization realm had also deepened. If he wished to, he could achieve a breakthrough to the Ethereal Treading realm whenever he wanted to.
…
I should take a look at the golden book first! Zhang Xuan thought.
After accepting School Head Jiang as his student, a golden book had appeared in his Library of Heaven’s Path. Due to the various matters he had needed to address back then, he hadn’t had chance to take a good look at it. Since they were still a distance away from the Saint Ascension Platform, this was a good opportunity to examine it.
This book resembled the golden Book of Heaven’s Path before the Library of Heaven’s Path’s upgrade, but its cover was replaced with a deeper tone instead. However, that only seemed to grant it a profound and grand aura.
It seems like with the upgrade of the Library of Heaven’s Path, even the Book of Heaven’s Path has upgraded too… Zhang Xuan noted.
So far, the golden pages in the Book of Heaven’s Path had four main known uses—assimilating the knowledge of the books contained in the Library of Heaven’s Path into his mind, serving as a brick to crush one to death—this was effective on even experts of Vicious’ caliber as well—raising one’s Soul Depth, and sealing an entity within the page.
After the upgrade… would the pages formed within the slightly darker Book of Heaven’s Path possess some different abilities?
Just as Zhang Xuan was about to delve deeper into the matter, a gentle voice suddenly interrupted him. “We have arrived at the Saint Ascension Platform!”
Hearing those words, Zhang Xuan immediately withdrew his consciousness from the Library of Heaven’s Path, and as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Luo Ruoxin standing by the window. Her eyes were gazing at the sight outside, forming a peaceful and picturesque scene.
Zhang Xuan walked up to her, and beyond the window, he saw a tall mountain towering in the midst of an empty plain, resembling a majestic dragon rising to the clouds.
However, what was particularly striking was that the mountain had a flat peak, and from afar, it resembled a massive altar. There was a mountainous path coiling around the mountain that led straight to the top.
“So, this is the Saint Ascension Platform?” Zhang Xuan widened his eyes in astonishment.
By the bizarre work of nature, the mountain seemed to resemble an altar connecting the heavens and the earth together. It would be hard to imagine that there could be such a unique naturally-occurring landscape had Zhang Xuan not seen it with his own eyes.
“It’s said that Kong shi sat at the top of the mountain for three days, and at the moment of his breakthrough, the voices of the angels descended from the heavens, and myriad gongs chimed simultaneously in celebration of his accomplishment!”
Seemingly knowing quite a bit regarding the details of Kong shi’s ascension to Sainthood, Luo Ruoxin explained with a smile, “No one knew what the mountain was like before, but it assumed its current form after Kong shi ascended to Sainthood. It resembles an altar allowing those born on earth to come in touch with the heavens, doesn’t it? Cultivating at the peak of the mountain helps to open up one’s mind, which may aid one in achieving a breakthrough. This is also the reason many cultivators choose to make a pilgrimage here in pursuit of overcoming their bottleneck.”
Zhang Xuan nodded.
Through his Eye of Insight, he could see many silhouettes walking along the coiling mountainous path in the distance.
Just as Luo Ruoxin had said, there were many who visited these grounds in hope of seeking enlightenment. However, whether one succeeded or not would be dependent on their luck.
“As this is the place where Kong shi ascended to Sainthood, the Master Teacher Pavilion has deemed this area as one of its sacred grounds. If one wishes to visit the top, one will have to walk up the mountain a step at a time. All forms of flight are banned, and not even Saint realm experts are excluded from the rule… Let’s land at the foot of the mountain,” Luo Ruoxin said.
Out of respect to Kong shi, pilgrims were disallowed from flying straight to the peak. If one wanted to reach the top, there was only one way, and that was to scale the mountain via the coiling mountainous path!
Thus, Zhang Xuan had the Great Violetwing Beast land at the foot of the mountain.
However, before they could even reach the ground, they could already see countless people donned in master teacher robes slowly walking up the mountainous path.
Most of them were Chrysalis realm experts, but there were also a handful of Half-Saints and Nascent Saints too. Some of them were master teachers, but there were also ordinary cultivators amid the crowd as well. It seemed like they had come here in hope of a miracle too.
“Are these experts all from Hongyuan Empire?” Zhang Xuan asked doubtfully.
With just a sweeping gaze, he could easily spot over ten thousand cultivators on the mountainous path, and they were all Chrysalis realm, Half-Saint, and Nascent Saint experts… But when had there been so many experts in Hongyuan Empire?
“Of course not! The Saint Ascension Platform is located near the borders of Hongyuan Empire, at the intersection of over a dozen Tier-1 Empires. Sometimes, even cultivators from the Conferred Empires pay a visit here too. Most likely, of the crowd you see ahead of you, less than one percent is from Hongyuan Empire,” Luo Ruoxin replied.
Zhang Xuan nodded. “I see.”
After all the reading he had done over the past few days, he had obtained a rough overview of the distribution of power in the region.
Hongyuan Empire was a Tier-1 Empire beneath Qingyuan Conferred Empire.
In total, there were several dozen Tier-1 Empires like Hongyuan under Qingyuan Conferred Empire. All in all, Qingyuan extended over several ten million kilometers, and its population exceeded a trillion.
Even though Hongyuan Empire was well-reputed in Qingyuan Conferred Empire due to the existence of the Master Teacher Academy, it was still far from being the largest and strongest among the Tier-1 Empires. At most, it could only be considered as slightly above average.
This was also precisely the reason there weren’t many experts in Hongyuan Empire.
The strongest expert in Hongyuan City was only at Saint realm 1-dan pinnacle, but in some of the more powerful Tier-1 Empires, there might be Saint 2-dan or even Saint 3-dan experts.
Even among Tier-1 Empires, there could be a significant difference in the fighting prowess of each empire.
“Are there Master Teacher Academies in the other Tier-1 Empires too, or is it only found in Hongyuan Empire?” Zhang Xuan asked.
“Establishing a Master Teacher Academy is an extremely expensive project requiring a huge amount of resources. As such, even though Hongyuan Empire isn’t the only place with a Master Teacher Academy, there are very few Tier-1 Empires that have them. Of the dozens of Tier-1 Empire under Qingyuan Conferred Empire, there are only four Master Teacher Academies in total,” said Luo Ruoxin.
“However, these four academies are located rather far from one another, so not a lot of people are aware of their existence!”
“There are four academies?” Zhang Xuan was astonished.
All along, he had thought that Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy was the only one among the Tier-1 Empires. Who would have thought that there were three others as well?
Considering that Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy had a hundred thousand master teachers, it should be around the same for the other academies as well.
It seemed the Master Teacher Continent was truly huge, at least several dozen thousand times larger than the planet he had lived on previously!
Scary!
