The East Sea Dragon King, the North Sea Empress, Zhan Kong, and more than a dozen other experts willing to make one last gamble returned to the Azure Divine Palace just over ten days later, each bringing several experts with them.
Some of their sects or lineages had disbanded outright, while others began keeping a low profile.
In short, everyone had prepared to fight to the death, and they had also prepared to fall.
Su Mo cultivated every day. Even without sufficient resources, his Devouring Martial Soul allowed him to absorb spiritual Qi dozens of times faster than other martial artists.
Time flew by. Month after month passed, and half a year vanished in the blink of an eye. Su Mo's cultivation had reached the peak of the Eighth Layer Martial Emperor Realm, with no further progress possible.
Without an enormous amount of resources, he simply could not break through the advancement bottleneck of the Ninth Layer Martial Emperor Realm.
During this time, Su Mo used the Devouring Martial Soul several times to help Si Kongyan, Qing Ya, and the others raise all their cultivations to the Ninth Layer Martial Emperor Realm, surpassing even his own cultivation.
Although the Azure Divine Palace did not possess many resources, Si Kongyan and the others consumed very little in cultivation. The palace still had more than enough for them.
Su Mo was fairly satisfied with the strength of Si Kongyan and the others. The nine of them possessed formidable combat power, and any one of them could instantly kill an ordinary Quasi-Emperor expert.
This was because the Nine Palaces Inheritance they had obtained were all Great Emperor Inheritances, incomparably powerful. Their combat strength was far beyond what Quasi-Emperor experts such as the North Sea Empress and Zhan Kong could compare with.
Si Kongyan