Beast Tide

In the days after Fang Xiao broke through and consolidated his cultivation, the number of disciples in the Outer Court began to increase as well, and Fatty Han brought back definite news.

A Beast Tide had erupted where the Eastern Domain bordered the Southern Wilderness. That region lay within the sphere of influence of the Five Elements Sect. The sect's five veins were not gathered in one place, but each guarded one of the five directions. The Gold Vein, which guarded the west, naturally bore the brunt of it.

This Beast Tide differed from those of the past. The number of demon beasts was staggering, and there were quite a few Shapeshifted Demon Race members among them. Some even suspected that Deity Transformation Stage Demon Race members were present.

The Gold Vein of Five Elements Sect had already been surrounded by the Beast Tide before the Auction, and the teleportation array within had been sabotaged in advance by Human Traitors. On the second day of the Auction, the Gold Vein's Mountain Protection Array was breached by the Beast Tide. Every disciple below the Nascent Soul stage was wiped out. Several Nascent Soul early- and middle-stage cultivators were directly besieged to death by more than ten Shapeshifted Demon Race members. Jin Chen, the Gold Vein's patriarch and a Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivator, was cleaved in two by a streak of White Light. Even his Nascent Soul failed to escape, and he perished on the spot.

The one who killed the Gold Vein patriarch could not possibly have used the means of a Shapeshifted Demon Race member. Thus, some suspected that a Deity Transformation Stage Demon Race member had been present.

The other four veins of the Five Elements Sect swiftly contracted their forces and sent messages to the other three Sacred Lands requesting aid. The reason was simple: the Five Elements Sect had no Deity Transformation Stage cultivator.

In the Cultivation World, every sect that could become a Sacred Land had a Deity Transformation Stage cultivator overseeing it. In this era, among the Four Sacred Lands of the Eastern Domain, the Tianlan Sect had two Deity Transformation cultivators, while the Nanhua Sect and Xuanyuan Sect each had one. Only the Five Elements Sect had none.

However, the Five Elements Sect possessed a Secret Art. When jointly cast by the five Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivators of the five veins, it was enough to contend against a Deity Transformation Stage cultivator. Since their previous Deity Transformation cultivator had only recently passed away in meditation, the three Sacred Lands had temporarily continued to acknowledge its status as a Sacred Land.

Unfortunately, the patriarchs of the five veins could not remain together at all times. This time, the Gold Vein had been exterminated before it could even react. The Five Elements Sect would certainly be unable to retain its status as a Sacred Land. Still, the other four veins remained, and they could yet be a top-tier Nascent Soul Sect. They were not someone just anyone could bully.

But if another Nascent Soul Sect produced a Deity Transformation cultivator while the Five Elements Sect still occupied this territory, it would inevitably be destroyed by that newly advanced Deity Transformation cultivator. The Eastern Domain was only so large, and Deity Transformation Stage cultivators needed resources to sustain them. It could not accommodate the emergence of a fifth Sacred Land.

Fang Xiao digested this news. He had originally intended to make a trip to the Five Elements Sect. That place was likely in utter chaos now. Moreover, he possessed Gold, Earth Spiritual Roots. If there were any Secret Arts capable of improving spiritual roots, they were very likely to be found in the Gold Vein. Now that the entire Gold Vein had been destroyed, he could hardly go ask the Demon Race for the Gold Vein's manuals. That hope had essentially been extinguished.

The Outer Court had already begun recalling disciples who were carrying out missions outside. Missions related to the Beast Tide might be issued.

Over these days, he had already refined that piece of Copper Essence into the Great White Sword Pellet. The Sword Pellet had changed from its former dark silver color to a pale violet, and its sharpness felt even greater than before. However, if he wanted to strengthen the Copper Essence and Iron Essence, he would need to collect large quantities of copper and iron spirit ores in the future, allowing them to absorb the ores and grow their gold energy.

Thinking of this, he remembered that he had previously asked Fatty Han to investigate whether there were any Outer Court disciples skilled in artifact refinement. The damaged Banner Pole he had bought in the Black Market was still sitting untreated in his Storage Bag, yet there had been no news.

He then took out the Calming Earth and Soul-Shocking Wood. If he still had not found a suitable Artifact Refiner after refining these two materials, he would have Fatty Han make a trip to the Market and ask Master Xu to handle it. Though it was badly damaged, it had once belonged to a magic treasure-grade Myriad Souls Banner. Ordinary Artifact Refiners would likely be unequal to the task.

He had carefully studied both Calming Earth and Soul-Shocking Wood. Both were related to the soul, yet the characteristics of the two spirit materials were precisely opposite.

As its name suggested, Calming Earth was mostly spirit soil born on the sunward sides of Spirit Peaks. Yet the reason for its formation was full of randomness, and no one had managed to determine it to this day. Its effect was to soothe the soul, especially stabilizing it when the soul suffered severe injury. Soul-Shocking Wood, meanwhile, was yin wood that grew in yin-baleful lands where Yin Souls gathered. When Yin Souls were disturbed for long periods, Soul-Shocking Wood might be born. It was mostly used to craft artifacts that attacked the soul, but once incorporated into a sword case, it could stimulate and temper the soul.

One soothed while the other stimulated; they complemented each other perfectly.

Though the two spirit materials were low-grade due to their insufficient age, they were enough to enhance the Soul Nurturing Gourd's functions, making them perfectly suited to his current needs.

According to the Upper Elixir Condensing Spirit Refining Method, Fang Xiao first activated the Soul Nurturing Gourd with the method. He then drew out two streams of spiritual power from his Dantian to sweep up the Calming Earth and grind it without pause, relying on the properties of gold-attribute spiritual power to wear away the impurities within the Calming Earth.

This process lasted for more than an hour. Once it could be ground no further, the Calming Earth had become a small pinch of brown powder.

At this point, he controlled his Spiritual Sense to wrap the powder into his sea of consciousness. Using his Spiritual Sense as a brush and the Calming Earth as ink, he inscribed the previous inscriptions upon the gourd, using this method to merge it into the Soul Nurturing Gourd.

After the fusion was complete, he did not immediately deal with the Soul-Shocking Wood. Instead, he continued circulating the Upper Elixir Condensing Spirit Refining Method until he finally stopped the next day.

Feeling the Soul Nurturing Gourd's nourishing, soul-calming effect, Fang Xiao felt that using the Sword Nurturing Gourd to cultivate the Upper Elixir Condensing Spirit Refining Method had indeed been the best choice.

Once the Soul Nurturing Gourd had stabilized, he used the same method to merge the Soul-Shocking Wood into it, adding a soul-shocking effect to the gourd.

After finishing, Fang Xiao decided to test the special effect on his soul. Within the Soul Nurturing Gourd, the soul-shocking effect fell upon his soul, and he immediately felt a surge of terror as his soul began to tremble.

Seeing that there were no further negative effects, he began increasing the effect. After it continued for some time, his soul suddenly became unstable, showing signs of dispersing.

Not daring to delay, Fang Xiao immediately ceased stimulating his soul and activated the soul-calming effect. His soul seemed to be wrapped in a ball of warmth, steadily stabilizing. It was like a weary person sinking into a hot spring, so comfortable that it felt as though he had been pushed into the clouds.

After a while, Fang Xiao stopped the soul-calming effect and controlled the Soul Nurturing Gourd to cease operating. He then carefully examined his soul, afraid that some problem might have appeared. Yet he found nothing wrong. On the contrary, he even felt that his soul had grown slightly stronger.

He felt that he could gradually strengthen his soul through this method in the future. However, as his soul grew stronger, the effect would gradually weaken on him as well. He would have to seek out similar higher-grade spirit materials.

Only then did Fang Xiao finally set his mind at ease. He marveled at the wisdom of those who came before, who had actually created such a mysterious Secret Art. At the same time, he could not help breaking out in a cold sweat for them. Who knew how many people had died to create this set of Secret Arts?

Over the next few days, Fatty Han still brought no news of an Artifact Refiner. It seemed he would have to make a trip to the Market.

Fang Xiao handed the matter over to Fatty Han while shifting his own focus back to cultivation.

After reaching Qi Refining Eighth Layer, his spiritual power had become even more condensed. The daily condensing process of the Nine Refinements Soaring Sword Record had practically become instinctive. Now, even without using spiritual power to condense Soaring Sword Energy, his spiritual power itself possessed tremendous offensiveness. The improvement to his overall combat power was considerable. Perhaps once he reached Qi Refining Ninth Layer, his comprehensive combat strength would rival that of a Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivator.

As for the Sword Dao, he discovered that cultivation was what restricted his progress. His sword techniques and Sword Principle were clearly improving steadily, yet he had only felt the Sword Dao Realm advance when he broke through to Qi Refining Eighth Layer. He thus had reason to suspect that his Sword Dao Realm had always been at the limit of his current cultivation realm. The only thing he needed to do was increase his cultivation.

Speaking of increasing his cultivation, after breaking through to Qi Refining Eighth Layer, both the amount of spiritual energy he could refine and the circulation speed of his cultivation method had improved markedly. He had once worried that his meridians would fail to keep up with his cultivation, but he had underestimated the formidable effects of the Meridian Washing Pill. After being strengthened by ten Meridian Washing Pills, even when he pushed his cultivation method to its limit and beyond, his meridians suffered not the slightest damage. If he had the chance later, he could prepare more Meridian Washing Pills.

During these days of Fang Xiao's daily cultivation, Fatty Han finally brought back the Primordial Soul Stone, which Fang Xiao merged into the Soul Nurturing Gourd. As expected, the Primordial Soul Stone provided a defensive effect. Fatty Han said that if he had not wheedled and pestered Master Xu, Master Xu would never have agreed to do something as basic as submitting materials, the work of a novice Artifact Refiner. Fang Xiao naturally understood Master Xu's temperament, so he gave Fatty Han some Spirit Stones as compensation for his trouble.

It was also on this day that news came from the sect: the Sect Grand Competitions of the various Outer Courts had been canceled, or rather, replaced with another format—Demon Extermination.

The sect would organize Outer Court disciples to travel to the border of the Southern Wilderness for Demon Extermination, issuing Monster Slaying Tokens to record their achievements. Over a period of two years, the five hundred disciples ranked highest in contribution points for slaying demon beasts would all gain the qualification to exchange for a Foundation Establishment Pill.