Advancing as a Dou Sheng was simply far too difficult. Even though Xiao Heng cultivated without rest, the progress he could feel within the Dou Sheng realm remained negligible.
Under normal cultivation, even here at Starfall Pavilion, where the heaven and earth energy was considered abundant across the continent, Xiao Heng estimated that it might take ten years, perhaps even decades, to advance a single star.
That was only because both his cultivation method and physique were exceptional. For an ordinary person, breaking through one star in the Dou Sheng realm within a hundred years would already be impressive. But with this divine ability, Xiao Heng calculated that if he had sufficient energy to devour, his rate of advancement would become terrifyingly fast.
Xiao Heng had once worried that he would advance too slowly and be left behind by Xiao Yan. After all, that freak could rapidly improve simply by devouring Heavenly Flames, while Xiao Heng had no such ability.
But now, with this divine ability, even if Xiao Yan had cheats, Xiao Heng was confident he could catch up to him, or even surpass him.
After all, if anything could be used, then there were simply too many things in this world that contained abundant energy—Magical Beast corpses, the bodies of powerful experts, and all kinds of other things. There would always be something that could allow Xiao Heng to improve quickly.
While Xiao Heng cultivated quietly in the mountains, the outside world grew increasingly chaotic as time passed.
Two years passed in the blink of an eye. Then, on this very day, a declaration of war was suddenly delivered to Starfall Pavilion.
"Half a month from now, the experts of the Nether River Alliance will gather at Starfall Pavilion. By then, the victor shall be king, and the