Chapter 421: Chapter 420: Fulfilling the Promise, The Western Continent
The efficiency of the Research Institute in scanning archived books in the Heavenly Palace was lower than Li Jing had imagined. It took a full three days to finish.
Li Jing didn’t find this surprising.
On one hand, the number of books in the Heavenly Palace was indeed enormous, and on the other, to ensure no documents were missed or scanned incorrectly, a level of scrutiny was naturally required.
The task of scanning and archiving was arduous, it was understandable.
He himself was not in a rush.
The Secret Realm Passage of the Heavenly Saint Land could still be maintained for more than a month, so what was there to rush about?
The tender embrace of Liu Sisi, wasn’t it alluring?
These three days, Li Jing lived quite comfortably.
Liu Sisi, however, was quite troubled.
Li Jing, using the excuse of setting a small goal for her to break through to the Six Realm before leaving the Secret Realm, didn’t let her out of bed for three whole days...
Being intimate with her husband was something Liu Sisi was not resistant to.
After all, she was now an "old hand" with rich experience and knew to enjoy herself when the time was right. Who wouldn’t want to enhance their cultivation level in the midst of passion?
But her husband’s energy was simply too abundant. It was more than she could bear.
People often say.
A cow might die of exhaustion, but you could never overwork a field.
But this saying didn’t apply to Li Jing.
In other families, they would boil goji berries in tea or even make fried rice just for marital bliss.
But their family was different...
Li Jing’s vigor, he was simply tireless!
After three days of hard work from Li Jing, Liu Sisi, who had just broken through to the Fifth Boundary, was cultivated to the late stages of the Fifth Boundary, reaching peak cultivation and even overflowing just like when she was at the Four Realm.
The small goal of breaking through to the Six Realm was just one small step away - sensing a breakthrough at the bottleneck.
There was no way.
The gap in cultivation between her and Li Jing was too large, and the benefits of tiring cultivation without sleep were staggeringly high.
It’s worth mentioning that although Liu Sisi’s cultivation level had gradually increased, because her Cold Heart Physique had become increasingly powerful, the benefits Li Jing received from Dual Cultivation with her also increased.
After three consecutive days of diligent work, not only did the purity of Li Jing’s spiritual power had risen a notch, the spiritual power already containing Thunder Tribulation Power now also held a touch of chill, granting a degree of freezing ability.
This was invigorating for Li Jing.
Even though the ability to freeze, which was influenced by his Dual Cultivation with Liu Sisi, was still weak, perseverance would eventually make it strong.
Liu Sisi was his wife, she won’t run away.
Moreover, her cultivation level was rapidly increasing under his diligent efforts.
The future was promising!
Of course.
One shouldn’t overdo anything and exercise moderation.
Despite appearing mild-mannered after marrying him, if Liu Sisi truly reached her boiling point, Li Jing couldn’t handle it.
Once the books in the Heavenly Palace had been completely scanned and archived, Li Jing reluctantly "let go" of Liu Sisi, letting her go to the Qingyuan County Fairy Palace to comprehend the Heritage Stele in hopes of breaking through to the Six Realm. He himself also began to work on important matters.
He sent back the Research Institute staff who had come into the Little Universe to Heavenly Saint Land and had Jiang Yini bring a backup of the data for storage after they left the Secret Realm, so he could access it in the future.
With the backup data in his hands, Li Jing quietly went to Da Xia Imperial City.
Using his powerful Primordial Spirit, he easily confirmed that Shi Miaoxue had moved into the palace with Xia Qianqian.
The palace was in a state of disrepair.
Only a few buildings were still barely intact.
But the palace was the palace after all, the symbol of power.
It is worth mentioning that.
After a settling period of three days, the Da Xia Imperial City, which had already initially stabilized, restored its order from the past.
Using the Silent Shadow to arrive deep in the palace, Li Jing found a spacious open area and sent a message to Shi Miaoxue through his mind.
"I’ve come to fulfill our agreement, come meet me."
Basing on cultivation levels, Shi Miaoxue and Li Jing were on the same level.
Once Li Jing locked onto her with his mind, she too could lock onto him.
Not long after, she arrived alone.
With close to a week of rest, Shi Miaoxue was initially recovered, though her face was still somewhat pale, indicating the severe injuries she had suffered.
Initially, Li Jing had only speculated that Shi Miaoying was killed by Shi Miaoxue.
Seeing her now, barely recovered from severe injuries reassured his speculations.
The two met, and without uttering unnecessary words, Li Jing pulled out all the books from the Heavenly Palace, shelves and all.
In an instant, the open space was filled with bookshelves stacked with colorful books.
Seeing that he had kept his promise, Shi Miaoxue did not hesitate to take all the bookshelves into her storage space, and then looked at him.
"Qianqian has been talking about you these past two days, do you want to see her?"
Hearing this, Li Jing just laughed, bowed, and said.
"We will meet again in the future."
Having said that, he disappeared like a streak of lightning.
Watching him leave so decisively, Shi Miaoxue’s mouth twitched. She then took to the sky and quickly returned to a well-preserved separate house deep within the palace, she pushed the door and entered.
Inside the room.
Xia Qianqian, dressed in a dragon robe, sat elegantly, studying a document in her hands.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, she looked up lazily.
Seeing that it was Shi Miaoxue who had returned, she asked softly.
"Did he leave?"
"Mmm."
Shi Miaoxue replied, sat down and said.
"You should let go of some unwarranted thoughts. He won’t come back."
"I never had such thoughts."
Xia Qianqian gave a calm smile and put down the report in her hand.
"Though I didn’t get much time with Master, I know it’s a mistake to put too much thought on him. If I know it’s wrong, why would I get that deeply emotional over him?"
Hearing such confident words, Shi Miaoxue rolled her eyes and abruptly changed the topic.
"He kept his promise and returned all the ’Fire Seeds’ that my Master had collected. When are we going to move on to the next step?"
"No rush, let’s discuss it one month later when I formally ascend the throne."
Xia Qianqian casually mentioned it.
"Before that, I need the National Diviner to go to some distant towns from the imperial city to secretly find some ordinary people with potential, and lead them on the path of immortality for future use."
Listening to this instruction, Shi Miaoxue frowned.
"If I’m not by your side, you..."
Before she could finish her words, Xia Qianqian shook her head.
"No matter, I can take care of myself. If I can’t even protect myself, how can I talk about succeeding the throne and changing Da Xia? Compared with that, to make a better future for Da Xia, we need enough fresh blood."
Saying this, Xia Qianqian continued.
"You, the National Diviner, have far-reaching cultivation, but you are the only remaining person in our Sect. It’s also an opportunity for you to restore the Sect to its glory. After we get through this difficult period, why don’t we establish a Sect and spread this teaching widely?"
At these words, Shi Miaoxue paused.
Beginning a new Sect, she had never thought of it.
But she didn’t repel the idea of reviving the Sect’s glory.
Just as she was getting fascinated, Xia Qianqian spoke.
"We both have a special connection with my Master, so let’s call this Sect Chen Tang City."
"..."
It was Shi Miaoxue.
Obviously, they weren’t on the same page.
She was thinking about reviving the Sect’s glory, but Xia Qianqian was thinking about establishing a Sect in memory of Li Jing.
This girl was definitely poisoned by Li Jing, why was she dragging Shi Miaoxue into this?
What special connection does she have with Li Jing?
This isn’t a special connection, it’s a disaster!
Feeling speechless, Xia Qianqian spoke again.
"I know you and master share the same temper, like a cloud wandering in the sky. I promise you, once Da Xia is back on the right track and thriving again, I’ll give up the throne and join you in the mountains to develop Sect affairs. Before that, while people from the Big World haven’t left yet, I’ll try my best to acquire the secret techniques of the Big World through trading."
"..."
Shi Miaoxue was speechless.
Since Xia Qianqian had already said everything, what else could she say?
Moreover, Xia Qianqian’s words indeed touched her heart.
Through brief interactions, she found that, though Xia Qianqian was just a beginner in the cultivation world, she was quite capable. Even Xia Qianqian’s talent was certainly not inferior.
In time, Xia Qianqian would surely grow rapidly.
On the other hand, as for Shi Miaoxue.
Although she possessed the strength of half a step into the Ninth Realm, it was already a struggle to take care of herself.
Reviving the Sect?
She couldn’t do it on her own, she had to rope in Xia Qianqian.
Chen Tang City it is - nobody said that changing the name would mean discontinuing her Sect.
On the other hand:
She was profoundly interested in the texts about the skills of the Big World.
The key point was that she didn’t quite understand Li Jing’s strength.
Though the realm they were in was the same, she felt like an infant in front of Li Jing.
After a moment of silence, Shi Miaoxue nodded.
"I hope you keep your promise today."
...
Li Jing, of course, wouldn’t know about the private conversation between Shi Miaoxue and Xia Qianqian.
If he knew, he might sweep them out to cleanse the Sect.
Having exchanged the books in the Heavenly Pavilion with Shi Miaoxue, Li Jing returned to the camp of the Heavenly King Group, summoned Jiang Yini from the small universe who had come out with the Research Institute and handed her the Netherstone he had obtained in the Northern Polar Region. He asked her to hand it to Ji Youyu in the name of the Jianghai Management Bureau for trade with Xia Qianqian.
Li Jing didn’t get much Netherstone.
The fallen Beast Tide, which he had wiped out for the most part, had sunk into the deep sea under the polar region, inaccessible for collection.
Nonetheless, he had tens of thousands pieces of good quality Netherstone in hand.
These would only be useful to cultivators of the Sky Demon Great Method and would just be rubbish for him. So, it would be better to make full use of them.
After all, Xia Qianqian could hardly avoid "feeding her pets", couldn’t she?
He also took out some of the jelly-like spiritual objects stored in his storage space and gave them as samples to Jiang Yini for her to hand them over to the Research Institute for testing. He saw what these things were with his Eye of True Vision.
But how to use them properly had to be tested in the Research Institute.
He had hundreds of thousands of tons of these things, and trading them for Merits later would be a lucrative business.
After arranging everything, Li Jing asked Jiang Yini to return to the small universe and continue her studies at the Heritage Stele in Qingyuan Fairy Palace. He then set off for the Western Continent alone.
The journey to the Western Continent was much further than he had imagined.
On this journey, Li Jing flew with his sword.
Using his Flying Sword Blue Edge that had transformed into a Level Eight Immortal Artifact, he left the earth boundary of the Eastern Continent within three hours.
However, even after traveling for two full days over the ocean, he hadn’t seen any major landmass. He did pass quite a few islands on the way though.
Truth be told,
The map given to them by the nearly cold-blooded Xia Zhengyang was somewhat misleading...
It had shown that the Eastern Continent, the Western Continent, the Northern Polar Region, and the Southern wilderness were not too far apart—just a few inches away on the map. But the actual journey was simply ridiculously long.
Previously, it took Li Jing only a day to travel to the Northern Polar Region across the sea.
At that time, he didn’t even have the ability to control a sword, let alone stepping into the Eighth Realm.
Now he had entered the Eighth Realm and his Flying Sword Blue Edge had also reached the eighth level of Immortal Items, yet after flying for two whole days he still hadn’t reached his destination. The size of this piece of land was just freaking enormous, providing absolutely no point of reference.
If he wasn’t sure that he was heading in the right direction, Li Jing would suspect that he had somehow got lost.
Another half day passed.
Finally, Li Jing could see a vast, boundless mainland in the distance.
Full speed by sword control, two and half days.
The West Continent was truly distant.
Even he had to travel this long, how long would it take for the cultivators from the eastern and western continents to cross the ocean? Ten days? Half a month, and that’s only if they have a high cultivation level?
Given this, it was no wonder that Da Xia and the West Continent didn’t seem to interact much.
But this raised a question for Li Jing.
Could the information he had obtained from Da Xia about the West Continent be reliable?
After thinking about it for a while, Li Jing chose to stop pondering the matter.
Regardless of the reliability of the information, he was already here, so he could just go ashore and have a look himself.
If all else failed, he could get some information from the exploration teams of the Present World Forces, who had set out to explore different areas of the Heavenly Saint Land over half a month ago.
Powerful forces, including Longyu, didn’t put all their eggs in one basket.
More than half of their exploration teams had scattered to carry out their investigations.
Those heading for the West Continent made up the highest number by far.
The Supreme Church and other western forces associated with the church would not miss out on the Supreme Court.
From what Li Jing knew,
Longyu also dispatched five teams of ten thousand explorers to the West Continent, attempting to understand the civilization there.
Based on the elapsed time, even the slower exploration teams should have only landed a few days ago, so it wouldn’t take much effort to run into them after landing.
With this in mind, Li Jing put away the Flying Sword Blue Edge to avoid attracting unnecessary attention and activated the Silent Shadow, transforming into a fierce lightning bolt heading towards the West Continent.
In a short while, he successfully landed.
Interestingly,
The place where he landed was an extremely bustling port.
Compared to the ancient Da Xia, the overall appearance here was like the medieval period in the western world.
The architecture was mostly Gothic.
There was a strong religious presence.
Even before Li Jing landed, from quite a distance away he could see an eye-catching grand church standing like a landmark in the center of the seaport.
Looking at the way people dressed.
The men were all wearing tight pants, tall boots, and capes, while the women, whether fat or thin, were all wearing low-cut corset dresses that showed off their deep and deadly cleavage and their curvaceous figures.
If you ignore the men at the port, the women walking down the street were simply a series of beautiful sceneries.
Just this one point alone made this place much more appealing than Da Xia, where women were covered up from head to toe.
It’s worth mentioning that.
In addition to the men and women dressed in normal medieval attire at the port, there were also many knights dressed in full body armor and holding large swords patrolling the area.
From their unique badges of faith, it was not hard to determine that they belonged to the Supreme Court, which originated from the Supreme Church.
The badges were the same, clearly indicating that the two were "related".
The knights were everywhere in the port, appearing to be the ones maintaining order there.
From this, it was easy to infer that this place was entirely under the control of the Supreme Court.
Even a bustling port was run in this manner, and although there might be a central authority that united the West Continent like the Da Xia Dynasty, it seemed that in essence everything was controlled by the Supreme Court.
What surprised Li Jing a bit was.
Occasionally, he could see some people on the port wearing clothing similar to that of Da Xia.
They were not ordinary people, they all practiced cultivation.
But they didn’t have a Health Bar above their heads.
Obviously, what they practiced was not the Sky Demon Great Method but the Orthodox Immortality Path.
It seemed that the inheritance of the Orthodox Immortality Path of Da Xia had not been completely eradicated as it appeared on the surface, but rather had retained a certain spark on the distant West Continent and had been perpetuated for a long time.
According to what Li Jing learned in Da Xia.
The eastern and western continents had been at odds for thousands of years, and even had no trade with each other.
Having personally experienced the long distance between the two continents, Li Jing was also certain that the people from East Continent here might not even know what the East Continent looked like now...
With people from the East Continent present, Li Jing didn’t have much to worry about.
As a foreigner arriving in a populated city, it was basics to follow local customs.
But there’s no way he could pull off the medieval style of tight pants and tall boots.
In a secluded corner where no one paid attention, Li Jing undid the Silent Shadow, and used his mind to connect with Jiang Yini and Liu Sisi, who were in the Little Universe.
"Yini, Sisi, I’ve reached the West Continent. It looks kind of interesting here. Do you want to come out and take a look?"
"No time, not going."
Jiang Yini immediately spoke up, expressing her refusal.
Li Jing had spent most of his time lately in Dual Cultivation with Liu Sisi, with Yini being kept busy the whole time and hardly having time to study the Heritage Stele.
In contrast, Liu Sisi had been out of sight for three days, and her cultivation level had skyrocketed to the late Fifth Boundary as if she had been cheating.
Such advancement was obviously due to some preferential treatment.
Jiang Yini didn’t think about the Dual Cultivation aspect, because even with Dual Cultivation, they shouldn’t have been able to advance so quickly.
In her view.
Li Jing must have hidden something good for Liu Sisi.
This was, without a doubt, undeniable.
She wouldn’t accuse Li Jing of favoritism, or stoop to rely on external forces to advance.
It was just that Liu Sisi was almost catching up with her in cultivation level, which greatly stoked her competitive spirit.
For the sake of her position as the director of Jianghai Management Bureau, she needed to work hard, harder, and even harder.
I’m not in a hurry to look at the West Continent, I’ll first study the Heritage Stele closely!
Upon receiving Li Jing’s telepathic message, Liu Sisi also chose to decline.
She was quite curious about the West Continent.
But since Jiang Yini wasn’t accompanying them, she found it very "unsafe" to be all alone with Li Jing.
Having been kept on her toes for three days without even having the chance to step off the bed, she could no longer endure the notion of receiving more "affection".
During those three days, she’d even succumbed to the idea of wanting Jiang Yini to share some of the "danger".
She decided to stay hidden, and join her when Jiang Yini wanted to go out again.
Now that her Cultivation Level was at the late Fifth Boundary, she needed to find an opportunity to breakthrough, otherwise constantly being stuck at the bottleneck was rather uncomfortable.
Li Jing was met with refusals from both women. He couldn’t possibly compel the two of them to come out, so he resigned himself into walking towards the port.
After looking all around, he noticed there were no members of the exploratory teams from the Present World Forces at the port, so he approached a vendor from the East Continent selling low-level Spirit Fruits.
"Brother, how much are these Spirit Fruits?"
The East Continent vendor looked up at the question, saw the familiar Eastern wear and Eastern face and gave a warm smile.
"These Spirit Fruits were picked from a solitary island overseas. Prime goods, one gold coin per unit. If you’ve got Spiritual Stones, then the price is more favorable; two Spiritual Stones apiece."
Upon hearing this, Li Jing was slightly taken aback.
Gold coins should be the common currency of the West Continent.
But the value of gold coins is higher than Spiritual Stones, isn’t this a bit odd?
Can worldly money be compared with Spiritual Stones?
The practice of Orthodox Immortality Path in the East Continent is significantly different from the traditional practice in Longyu. All the practices in East Continent, including the Sky Demon Great Method, have a high dependency on Spiritual Stones.
The cultivation methods in the current world of Longyu could also absorb the Spiritual Qi within the Spirit Crystals to assist cultivation, but the effect was relatively limited.
Absorbing the Spiritual Qi from Spirit Crystals would be less effective than forming a Gathering Spirit Formation for cultivation.
The Orthodox Immortality Path of cultivation in the East Continent was different, they absorb Spiritual Qi from Spiritual Stones and Spirit Crystals more efficiently.
Can this hard currency of cultivation have a lesser value than a piece of gold?
However, thinking about it again, Li Jing understood.
After all, there are fewer East Continent people on the West Continent.
At least in this port city, there might not even be one in two hundred people from the East Continent.
In contrast, Spiritual Stones aren’t produced only in the East Continent.
West Continent certainly has naturally produced Spiritual Stone ore veins.
The Orthodox Immortality Path of cultivation from the East Continent exists in the West Continent. However, it is feared that only East Continent people follow this path.
These Spiritual Stones are clearly in excess, thus it is reasonable that they are devalued.
Without giving it much thought, Li Jing glanced at the low-level Spirit Fruits on the vendor’s stand, which were supposedly premium quality but could only really pass as snacks, took out a bag of Spiritual Stones and placed it on the stand, he smiled.
"I’ll take all of these, and also, I want to ask you for information."
Li Jing had previously looted a large number of Spiritual Stones from Xia Qianqian and others in the Da Xia Dynasty, so it was time to put them into use.
Li Jing’s generous approach made the vendor from the East Continent briefly stunned, but when he opened the bag and saw enough Spirit Stones to buy all his Spirit Fruits and still have some left over, he grinned happily and nodded.
"Brother, what do you want to know?"
"This isn’t the place for a talk, let’s go somewhere else."
With a smile on his lips, Li Jing gathered the Spirit Fruits from the stand into the Little Universe to offer as snacks.
Upon hearing Li Jing wanted to change location, the East Continent vendor promptly got up and said.
"Fine, we can go to the tavern at the port."
"Appreciate you for leading the way as I’m not quite familiar with this place."
Li Jing replied.
Just as they were leaving, there was a sudden commotion at the port. Two groups of heavily armed knights rushed over, hollering for the bystanders to disperse.
Catching sight of the arrival, Li Jing slightly furrowed his eyebrows.
The East Continent vendor at his side, as if recalling something, hurriedly pulled Li Jing away.
"Brother, let’s get moving. Don’t stick around here. I forgot when I came out to set up the stand that some big shot’s fleet is returning to port today. Seems it’s some "Cardinal Archbishop" or something."
Cardinal Archbishop?
Li Jing blinked, curiously asking.
"This person has returned from the sea?"
"Yes."
The Eastern Continent vendor replied and explained,
"Brother, you clearly aren’t a local. I’m guessing you’re from another island? Recently, many people from the Big World have crossed the ocean from the East Continent to the West Continent. One of them claimed to represent the Supreme Church, and came here to ’find their kin’ with the Supreme Court. They also mentioned finding a Saintess overseas, and the Supreme Court took this very seriously. They dispatched a navy fleet to the sea, and today is the day they are due to return."
Upon hearing this narrative, Li Jing had a strange look on his face.
He wasn’t interested in some Saintess.
He had previously confirmed through the emblem that the Supreme Church and Supreme Court were "brothers". Therefore, their ’kin-seeking’ adventure was not unusual.
What he was curious about was,
What is the relationship between the Supreme Court and the Western Sect that destroyed Qingyuan Fairy Palace ten thousand years ago?
Does that sect...
still exist?
Li Jing came to the West Continent initially because he heard the Supreme Court might have a Messenger of the God’s Descent.
Through Longxu, he came to understand that the Western Sect that caused the downfall of Qingyuan Fairy Palace was connected to the Upper Three Realms. Some powerful entities could directly descend to this world in some way.
Looking out to sea, Li Jing noticed a fleet slowly approaching the port. Prominently, there were several modern ships from the current world.
Without a doubt, these ships belonged to the Supreme Church.
They were involved in this, probably there were some transactions between Supreme Court and the Church after recognizing each other as ’kin’.
He had to admit,
His timing was not bad at all.
Just happening upon this, he might find an opportunity to make contact with the returning fleet later.
...
