It took Jiang Yun more than three hundred years to initially refine the Kongtong Seal. To refine all its restrictions, he would probably have to wait until he entered the Great Luo Realm.
The Kongtong Seal's functions were rather limited at present. It could be used to suppress Fortune, but since it was a supreme treasure of the Way of Man, and the Fortune of the Way of Man was currently scattered, its role as a spirit treasure closely tied to the Way of Man was naturally not very powerful. Furthermore, it was not an offensive spirit treasure. The dragon race also had the Ancestor Dragon Pearl, which could gather and suppress Racial Fortune, leaving the Kongtong Seal with no opportunity to display its power. It had remained stored in the secret treasury all this time.
Before humanity had emerged, this spirit treasure would have had no chance to show its power in Jiang Yun's hands either, so he refined it slightly before storing it inside his body.
Over the next thousand-plus years, he spent four hundred years first refining the Wood Spirit Pearl. Using the Wood-attribute origin spiritual energy within it, he infused his liver with it and refined it through his organs, cultivating the Wood Qi among the Five Qi in the Chest to perfection. Thus, four of the Five Qi in the Chest of the Grand Unity Golden Immortal Realm had reached perfection. The only one remaining was the Fire Qi.
This cultivation session pushed his cultivation further. The Grand Unity Realm perfection stage was now within reach. His Five Qi had also advanced further. Not only had his primordial spirit and magical power been strengthened, but his physical body had benefited considerably as well. He had originally cultivated the Star Body, and his body was constantly tempered by Star Power. His physical body had long since reached the pinnacle of the Grand Unity Realm. With the support of the Five Qi this time, it finally broke through to the Grand Luo Golden Immortal Realm in one fell swoop.
From now on, he could contend with Grand Luo experts through his physical body alone. He could also be considered a mighty figure now, at least no weaker than a bottom-tier figure like Ran Deng among those who had listened to the Dao at Purple Cloud Palace.
After his cultivation broke through, Jiang Yun struck while the iron was hot. He took the upper-grade spiritual root Kunlun Wood from the Inner World and prepared to devour its origin to complete his Root Foundation.
As an upper-grade spiritual root, Kunlun Wood had inherited the Chaos Spiritual Root Jianmu's function of stabilizing worlds. Its existence was like a pillar supporting space. For fragile spaces, the power of Kunlun Wood could repair and reinforce their spatial structures while suppressing the space to prevent spatial rifts from appearing. In addition, Kunlun Wood itself contained immense vitality that could nourish living beings and nurture precious medicines. The Spiritual Fruits it bore were even superior medicines for healing injuries.
As before, after extracting half of Kunlun Wood's origin, he planted it in Xirang, then watered it with a sufficient amount of Three Lights Divine Water to help it recover its origin.
Over the next seven hundred years, Jiang Yun devoted himself entirely to devouring the extracted origin of Kunlun Wood.
This time, the inherited information within Kunlun Wood's origin was many times greater than that of the Gengjin Grape. His cultivation method, the Jianmu Tongtian True Scripture, also received considerable additions and improvements. In particular, it contained some cultivation knowledge related to the Hunyuan Realm, which made Jiang Yun very happy.
Aside from these things, the inherited information also contained fragments of the spiritual root's memories. He would leave those for later and examine them slowly.
After absorbing Kunlun Wood's origin, Jiang Yun's Root Foundation was supplemented and further evolved to the innate upper grade.
After undergoing two rounds of evolution, the former Innate Spiritual Root Cloud Bamboo had changed considerably. As its grade rose and its Root Foundation grew more complete, its true form also began developing in the direction of Jianmu.
Its originally slender trunk gradually became as thick and sturdy as a tree, while the hollow bamboo joints also solidified layer by layer from the outside inward.
The space inside his body, originally opened up from the bamboo joints, had first formed a miniature world with the assistance of the Earth Spirit Pearl's origin spiritual energy. Later, he had obtained other spirit pearls, as well as some Innate Spiritual Roots and Xirang, and had all of them invested in the Inner World. The miniature world's space had expanded and been reinforced, and its spiritual energy had grown increasingly abundant. After his own spiritual root's grade rose this time, the Inner World suddenly evolved into a Lesser Thousand World.
The improvement of his Root Foundation gave Jiang Yun a sturdier foundation for cultivation, but the resources required to raise his cultivation in the future would also be greater.
After spending another hundred years consolidating his cultivation, Jiang Yun put away the formation and emerged from seclusion.
This seclusion had lasted nearly fifteen hundred years. He had stayed in the Dragon Palace long enough, and it was time to set out on his return journey.
After emerging from seclusion, Jiang Yun found Ao Shun and expressed his intention to return home.
Ao Shun arranged an escort, then sent people to gather the eight who were heading out to become disciples. He entrusted them to Jiang Yun, asking him to look after them along the way. Finally, he took out the apprenticeship gifts given by the dragon race and handed them over to Jiang Yun as well, asking him to convey the dragon race's wish to establish friendly relations with the Western Teachings.
After completing these arrangements, Jiang Yun led everyone in bidding farewell to the Dragon Palace and set out for Mount Sumeru.
With a powerful Grand Luo expert like Jiang Yun protecting them along the way, their journey proceeded very smoothly.
Following the route he had taken when he came, they first arrived at the Spirit Bamboo Mountain Dao Field.
Having grown accustomed to the barren lands of the Western World and Northern World, the Spirit Bamboo Mountain spiritual land that suddenly appeared before them made the others' eyes light up.
When the candidates for discipleship had been selected earlier, everyone had come for the reputation of the Lord of the West and the top mighty figures of the primordial world. However, after seeing the desolation of the West along the way, they had begun to feel anxious about the environment in which they would cultivate in the future.
Yet after arriving at the Spirit Bamboo Mountain spiritual land, their anxiety slowly dissipated amid the dense Innate Spiritual Qi and Star Power. Nothing could explain the situation more clearly than the scene before their eyes.
After more than two thousand years of development, the Spirit Bamboo Mountain spiritual land had grown increasingly prosperous.
The number of living beings gathered around the Spirit Mountain had multiplied more than tenfold compared with before. The Spirit Veins at the eight outposts on the outskirts had also connected with the Spirit Vein of Spirit Bamboo Mountain, forming a layout in which eight mountains guarded the center.
With the assistance of Fortune, the cultivation speed of those who had stayed behind had increased. By now, every one of them had advanced by one or two minor stages.
After bringing the group to rest at the Spirit Bamboo Mountain Dao Field for a while, Jiang Yun also listened to the work reports from the Hall Masters of the various halls under his command.
The Spirit Bamboo Mountain spiritual land had already expanded to a radius of a million li. The earth veins within its territory had all been repaired. At present, the greatest problem was still that development had begun too recently. The Spirit Veins and living beings were both recovering slowly. The goal for the next stage was to consolidate the fruits of this development and ensure the stability of the current spiritual land. Only after the number of living beings within the territory grew would they have the energy to continue expanding outward.
During this period of rest, the people from the Dragon Palace and the Black Tortoise also toured the area around the Spirit Bamboo Mountain spiritual land. Everything here differed greatly from the North Sea.
The Black Tortoise knew the benefits of merit. He greatly liked Spirit Bamboo Mountain's method of obtaining Heavenly Dao merit by repairing earth veins and restoring vitality to the land once he learned about it.
The other dragon-race disciples felt the same way. After understanding the measures clearly, they thought that since they had nothing else to do, they might as well form groups and take missions from the Mission Hall to earn merit. With merit, they could cleanse the karma on their bodies sooner and achieve greater accomplishments in the future.
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