Chapter 167: "They're from the Mock Heaven Sect?!" (Part 1)

Chapter 167: "They're from the Mock Heaven Sect?!" (Part 1)



After a long while, Li Shi'er, standing on the deck of the Dao Sword Sect's flying boat, heaved a long sigh. He now had two pieces of news.

The good news: The eccentric talents of Zhongzhou had secluded themselves, and Chen Qiu had already advanced to the Nascent Soul Stage, which meant that Chen Qiu couldn't go to the Celestial Talent Road either, significantly reducing Li Shi'er's competitive pressure.

The bad news: He had also secluded himself.

There were only half a year left for the Celestial Talent Road, and he had intentionally suppressed his cultivation to the peak of the Golden Core Perfection for so long to achieve a good ranking on the Celestial Talent Road.

As a result, all his efforts during this time had been in vain.

Above the Nine Heavens, within the Celestial Palace.

Chen Qiu stood alone in the Celestial Palace, with a red carpet of unknown material dividing the central courtyard, splitting the palace in half.

Twelve circular pedestals were arranged neatly on both sides of the carpet.

At this moment, two of the pedestals already had statues over ten zhang tall erected on them.

And on the extra pedestal!

It was none other than the scene of him standing in a green robe on the sea's surface just now.

Standing alone with hands behind his back, his body as straight as a pine tree, holding a jade paper fan, his eyes filled with compassion for the world, and a reluctance to see slaughter.

The entire statue exuded a sense of benevolent concern for the world.

It stood in stark contrast to the statue across from it, which was filled with killing intent.

"Hmm."

Leaning on the Heavenly Clue Umbrella, Chen Qiu looked up at the towering statue with a satisfied smile. This time, the Heavenly Dao had captured a good image, and it even seemed to have some beautification.

The statue's aura seemed particularly striking.

Below this statue, on the circular pedestal, were several lines of small characters.

"One of the Twelve Milestone Tasks"

"Possessing both the Twelfth Stage Golden Core and the Twelfth Rank Inner Soul."

"Accomplished by: Chen Qiu."

For now, he couldn't discern any special effects from this statue; it seemed to have only commemorative significance without any practical use. However, the Celestial Palace was intriguing; if he encountered danger, he could instantly teleport to the palace, gaining an additional means of survival.

It was slightly faster than returning to the Pocket World.

To go back to the Pocket World, he needed to establish a connection with the Sect Leader Token in his Spirit Artifact and Divine Sense, although the Divine Sense was fast, but it still required an extra step to enter the Pocket World.

But to go to the Celestial Palace, he didn't need to establish a connection with his Divine Sense or anything else, skipping a step, and with a single thought, he could directly teleport to the Celestial Palace.

Chen Qiu sat in place, examining his two statues with satisfaction, and smiled again.

Just as he was about to leave—

Suddenly, he heard footsteps approaching from a distance behind him.

"Hmm?"

He paused, holding the Heavenly Clue Umbrella, and turned smoothly, his eyes fixed on the main entrance of the Celestial Palace. The footsteps were coming from outside the main gate, and there was someone else here?

His Divine Sense couldn't penetrate the main gate of the Celestial Palace.

He couldn't perceive anything within the palace or identify the visitor. The last time he had peeked through the crack, he had only seen emptiness, and nothing else.

Chen Qiu narrowed his eyes, and his body tensed up. Instead of leaving the palace immediately, he wanted to see who was outside the gate.

Just then—

"Squeak!"

The long-neglected gate of the Celestial Palace slowly opened, and as the grating sound echoed, dust fell from the frame.

He only had time to see a figure step in through the blinding light, making it impossible to discern the person's appearance or even their gender, as their clothing was also indistinguishable.

Then!

A powerful surge of Heavenly Power instantly rushed towards him, forcibly teleporting him out of the Celestial Palace.

Just before leaving, he faintly saw that the figure seemed to freeze at the entrance, and then, seemingly more terrified than him, turned and fled outside.

". . ."

Chen Qiu, once again high above the sea, looked down at the terrifying waves below, resting his chin on his hand, and remained silent for a long time.

There was someone outside the Celestial Palace?

This implied many things.

He had thought that the Celestial Palace was just a hidden map, and the outside was an empty void, similar to a Mystic Realm, with nothing beyond its boundaries.

It was a bit like bubbles in water, each existing independently, unconnected to the others.

And between the bubbles was nothingness.

But someone had entered through the gate, which meant that the Celestial Palace wasn't a standalone map but rather a palace within a larger map. Moreover, the twelve milestone tasks of the Celestial Palace were missions that no one in the Xuantian Continent had completed for so many years.

In other words,

The Celestial Palace was a map of relatively high status in the Xuantian Continent, and yet it was merely one palace within a larger map.

". . ."

Chen Qiu shook his head, not wanting to think about it anymore. Instead, he looked at the Heavenly Dao Artifact tea set in his arms. It was a set of Divine Artifacts, comprising multiple treasures.

There was a tea tray, a teapot, six tea cups, and a fairness cup.

It even included the Six Gentlemen of Tea Way!

A tea measure, tea needle, tea tongs, tea scraper, tea filter, and tea canister.

Each had its purpose, such as holding tea leaves, clearing the teapot spout, picking up tea cups, and cleaning tea residue.

Moreover!

Even more astonishing was the presence of a tea pet, a completely useless object meant purely for decoration.

All these items made up the tea set, a set of Heavenly Dao Divine Artifacts.

Every single item was a Heavenly Dao Artifact, but individually, none of them qualified as such. Only when they were assembled as a set did they truly become a Heavenly Dao Artifact.

In fact, none of the items here were particularly useful.

For example, the tea tongs for picking up tea leaves and the tea needle for clearing the spout of the teapot—isn't Spirit Qi more effective than these? Why bother using your hands? With a mere thought, the teapot would naturally be cleansed by Spirit Qi, leaving it spotless.

However, the purpose of this Heavenly Dao Artifact tea set was to make you refrain from using Spirit Qi when you could use your hands instead.

Each small object was imbued with Heavenly Power, and one could sense its extraordinariness just by looking at it with the naked eye.

And the effect of this Heavenly Dao Artifact set was singular.

"Tea brewed with this tea set will contain Heavenly Power."

But the Heavenly Power imbued in the tea had no use at all. It couldn't enhance cultivation, help one attain enlightenment, improve cultivation techniques, or even extend lifespan. Its sole effect was that after taking a sip of the tea, one would exclaim, "Wow, this tea contains Heavenly Power!"

That was the only effect.

".

Chen Qiu looked at the Heavenly Dao Artifact in his hand without expression. He knew that among the various types of Spirit Treasures, there was an extremely rare kind called a set Spirit Treasure, which often tested the fundamental skills of Artifact Cultivators.

The Heavenly Dao Artifact in his hand consisted of over a dozen small pieces, each crafted with intricate and tedious techniques.

But—

Despite its complexity, it was still a Heavenly Dao Artifact, and its prestige was so high!

Yet, the crafted item had no effect whatsoever.

This was akin to using the finest Heaven-Endowed Materials from the Xuantian Continent, expending a great deal of effort, only to make a tea set for himself.

It was quite fitting.

Only such a set was worthy of his "Eternal Ice" and "Eternal Cold Tea."

Although it had no effect, it was his fifth Heavenly Dao Artifact, granting him a second set effect.

His first set effect was:

"The power of the Lightning Summoning Technique will be enhanced."

This effect was quite specific to the Lightning Summoning Technique.

Chen Qiu calmed his mind and looked at the second set effect floating above his Dantian.

"The power of the Lightning Summoning Technique will be enhanced once again."

".

This time, Chen Qiu remained silent for a longer period. He couldn't understand why both set effects of the Heavenly Dao Artifact had to target the Lightning Summoning Technique, and why they insisted on enhancing its power. Although it was good, couldn't there be something else?

Upon collecting eight Heavenly Dao Artifacts, one could obtain one more, which would also be the last set effect.

He could already guess what this last set effect would be.

If nothing unexpected happened, it should be: "The power of your Lightning Summoning Technique will be enhanced once again."

He looked at the relatively plain bracelet on his left wrist. This bracelet was something he had picked up from a street vendor in Dayuan City. After keeping it inside his Dantian for ten days, it finally shed its dust, revealing its true appearance, and its Spirit Treasure effect also manifested.

A high-grade, Earth-level, Golden Core Heavenly Dao Artifact.

Heavenly Dao Artifacts were growth-type Spirit Treasures that would improve alongside the cultivator's cultivation.

The Heavenly Clue Umbrella was his Lifebound Artifact.

Currently, the Heavenly Clue Umbrella was a top-tier, Heaven-grade, Golden Core Spirit Treasure. When he first obtained it, it was only a low-grade, Heaven-grade, Golden Core Spirit Treasure, but as his cultivation improved, its grade had also reached the high-grade Golden Core level.

However, it hadn't reached the Nascent Soul stage yet. To advance to the Nascent Soul stage, some materials were needed to prepare the Spirit Treasure for the breakthrough.

"Materials required: 100 medium-grade Spirit Stones, 20 Malevolent Wood, and one Eight Directions Fruit."

"Hmm."

Chen Qiu raised his eyebrows. He had all the required materials. Later, when he returned to his Pocket World, he could also raise the grade of the Heavenly Clue Umbrella to the lower-grade Nascent Soul level. The Heavenly Clue Umbrella was his Lifebound Spirit Treasure, and it had already formed a set with his other Heavenly Dao Artifacts.

With the breakthrough in the grade of his Lifebound Spirit Treasure, the grades of the other Heavenly Dao Artifacts he possessed would also increase.

This wasn't a difficult task.

After roughly sorting through his harvest, he finally heaved a sigh of relief.

Especially with his restored left arm, he felt as if he had journeyed through a thousand mountains and ten thousand rivers and returned as a youth. He hadn't chosen the Twelfth Stage Golden Core term yet, but he wasn't in a rush.

After all, this was his first time drawing a term at the Nascent Soul stage of cultivation.

He planned to wait until he had finished dealing with everything, then return to the Mock Heaven Sect and find an absolutely safe place to draw the term.

Then, Chen Qiu turned to the fat dragon beside him, "Fat Dragon, later I'll have a few Nascent Soul stage Mock Heaven Sect disciples follow you. Go out and gather some intelligence."

"The main task is to find out which evil and demonic cultivation sects in Quzhou are always causing trouble."

"Not the kind with Divine Transformation stage cultivators."

"Then we'll pay them a visit one by one, eliminate evil for the people, act on behalf of Heaven, slay demons, and exterminate monsters."

"Understood!"

Fat Dragon nodded solemnly, his expression serious.

Just then—

Chen Qiu looked at Fat Dragon, a smile flashing in his eyes. "Hey, you've broken through to the Golden Core stage? Your cultivation has greatly increased?"

"I got lucky."

Seeing that Brother Qiu had taken the initiative to ask about him, Fat Dragon also felt proud and puffed out his chest. Just as he was about to talk about how he had randomly obtained his third term, he was suddenly interrupted by a voice.

"Brother Qiu!"

The scholar suddenly shot out from the sea, gasping slightly, "I encountered a dragon in the sea. It was a real dragon. I was almost able to catch up, but that dragon's tail swipe sent me flying."

"However, the opponent clearly held back. They only repelled me and didn't cause any harm."

"In other words, there might really be a Dragon Clan!"

"I've heard legends of the Dragon Clan in Daxia, but I've never seen one before. Now that I think about it, that legend probably originated from the Xuantian Continent and spread to Daxia Country. The dragon in that legend looked like this, was extremely powerful, and... its meat was said to be very delicious."

"The Dragon Clan?"

Chen Qiu narrowed his eyes, gazing into the distance at the horizon. After a moment, he chuckled lightly, "No harm done. If they merely repelled you, it seems they have good intentions. We can reach out to them when the opportunity arises."

He could guess why the Dragon Clan had come.

The Demon State's coastal region, with its numerous archipelagos, had suddenly sunk into the sea overnight. If there were Dragon Clans in the depths of the ocean, they would surely come to investigate the strange occurrence.

Chen Qiu then turned to the scholar, "Select a few disciples and go with Fat Dragon to gather some intelligence."

"Yes."

After making these arrangements, Chen Qiu flashed into the small world of the Mock Heaven Sect, bringing back the brown bears. He left all the Nascent Soul disciples to the scholar, and the Mock Heaven Sect now had a total of eight Nascent Soul disciples.

All of them were at the Second Stage.

The remaining disciples weren't planning to break through; they were waiting for the Sect Master to bestow Nascent Soul bodies upon them so they could form Second Stage Nascent Souls.

With Second Stage Nascent Souls, their strength and potential would increase significantly.

Although they couldn't compare to Twelfth Stage Nascent Souls, having them was better than nothing. They weren't picky.

As for the other disciples, Chen Qiu brought them all back to the Mock Heaven Sect. Previously, he had drawn twenty Nascent Soul bodies from the Heavenly Dao Turning Wheel, allowing twenty more disciples to reach the Nascent Soul stage.

Not counting himself.

Once Fat Dragon returned with the gathered information, Chen Qiu would lead these twenty-eight Nascent Souls to eliminate the evil in Quzhou. He was determined to see which Demon Sect in Quzhou could stand in his way!

Sect Foundation?

The accumulated foundation of the lineage over the years was meant to be claimed by the destined one.

He, Chen Qiu, was that destined person!

In Daxia Country, he had recruited a total of 57 disciples, 38 of whom were at the peak of the Golden Core stage. These disciples only needed Nascent Soul bodies to break through to the Nascent Soul stage. The rest were at the middle and late stages of the Golden Core.

It would be difficult for these disciples to advance to the Nascent Soul stage in a short time.

After all, the Mock Heaven Sect's Golden Core Celestial Cultivation Pills weren't so abundant that anyone could take them. He could only draw ten pills a day, and half of them were given to the scholar.

However, these disciples each had their specialties, and their cultivation level wasn't the most important factor. They could excel and contribute in other areas.

To put it bluntly, the Mock Heaven Sect now had too much combat power, but not enough people to handle various tasks. For instance, the sect didn't have any maidservants, which was often inconvenient. Chen Qiu had never considered this issue before, but a few days ago, when he was severely injured, the old man from Starlight had removed his clothes to clean his wounds.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end