Exterminate my entire clan?
In the distance, Zhou Cheng heard Prince of Southern Ming's venomous words and gave a cold laugh. Then he began searching through the medicine cabinets in the Demonic Cult Treasury. There were hundreds of types of spirit herbs inside, and he actually found the dozen or so ingredients he still needed to refine the Nine-Orifice Golden Pill.
After finding them, Zhou Cheng began combining the pills with the Earth Cauldron. In the end, he made twenty Nine-Orifice Golden Pills.
Twenty Nine-Orifice Golden Pills weren't many, but they should be enough to help him break through to the Xiantian Realm.
He had already opened all eight meridians. It would take him less than twenty days to break through to Xiantian.
After making the twenty Nine-Orifice Golden Pills, Zhou Cheng began looking through the martial arts manuals in the Demonic Cult Treasury.
His Roaming Dragon White Tiger Fist had now reached sixty-four percent proficiency. He was thirty-six fist techniques short of reaching one hundred percent, so the first manuals Zhou Cheng looked through were those on fist techniques.
After finishing one book, Zhou Cheng moved on to the second.
The night gradually faded.
By the time the sky had begun to brighten, Zhou Cheng's Roaming Dragon White Tiger Fist had reached seventy-four percent.
As Zhou Cheng continued practicing the Roaming Dragon White Tiger Fist, the system's voice suddenly rang out.
"Your Primordial Boundless Scripture has reached one hundred percent proficiency. You have broken through to the Spirit Wandering Realm."
Some cultivators spent years meditating and cultivating their minds and still might not reach the Spirit Wandering Realm. Yet Zhou Cheng had done it in just one day.
Of course, this was also because the Primordial Boundless Scripture was one of the three great scriptures of the Taoist Sect, and because Zhou Cheng had previously taken the Marrow-Cleansing Pill and the Nine-Orifice Golden Pill, which had strengthened his soul.
Moreover, cultivation of the soul was also connected to the body. The body was both its vessel and its mother; the stronger the body, the faster the soul could be tempered.
"Congratulations, host, on breaking through to the Spirit Wandering Realm. You have received a Realm-Breakthrough Gift Pack."
"Would you like to open it now?"
Hearing the voice, Zhou Cheng was surprised, but he opened it at once with a thought.
"You have received two Spirit-Condensing Pills."
"You have received a Spirit-Condensing Pill recipe."
The Spirit-Condensing Pill was a medicine that nourished the soul.
A Spirit-Condensing Pill? He wondered how effective it would be.
Zhou Cheng swallowed one.
At once, he felt his soul grow both larger and more solid. He discovered that his Primordial Boundless Scripture had already reached five percent in the Spirit Wandering Realm.
One Spirit-Condensing Pill seemed to increase his progress in the Spirit Wandering Realm by five percent. That might seem like little, but with the Primordial Boundless Scripture cultivating automatically as well, it wouldn't take him twenty days to break through to the Object Manipulation Realm.
People like Yan Chengkun of the Soul-Nourishing Path had to meditate and nourish their souls for decades before they could step into the Object Manipulation Realm.
Zhou Cheng sat in meditation, and his soul flew out of his Life Palace.
After breaking through to the Spirit Wandering Realm, his soul was very different from the day before. When he had been in the Out-of-Body Realm yesterday, his soul had felt as if the wind could scatter it at any moment. Now it was sturdy, and that feeling was entirely gone.
Yesterday, after his soul left his body, it had soon grown cold, as if it had fallen into an ice cellar. But now, even when a cold wind blew past, Zhou Cheng didn't feel cold.
Yesterday, after his soul left his body, it had been like a newborn baby, unable to walk at all. But now, after breaking through to the Spirit Wandering Realm, Zhou Cheng tried to move his soul.
One step!
Two steps!
Three steps!
But a soul separated from its body was like a root without duckweed, a fish without water. After only a few steps, it was utterly exhausted and struggled to breathe.
After walking a few meters, Zhou Cheng sent his soul back to his Life Palace.
The Spirit Wandering Realm was divided into night wandering and day wandering.
As the soul continued to grow stronger and more solid, it could travel at night. This was called night wandering.
Once the soul grew even stronger and more solid, it could travel beneath the blazing sun just like an ordinary person. This was called day wandering.
After day wandering came the Object Manipulation Realm, in which the soul could control flying swords, throwing knives, and other objects to attack.
"Young master, Prince of Southern Ming and the others have reopened the secret passage and are planning to escape," Qin Meng reported.
After the secret passage had been blocked, Prince of Southern Ming and the Demonic Cult's people had joined forces to clear it. It had taken them an entire night, but at last they had reopened it.
At that moment, Prince of Southern Ming was leading the Demonic Cult's people into the passage.
"So they're finally trying to escape." Zhou Cheng rose, loosened his limbs, and followed.
From then on, wherever Prince of Southern Ming and the others fled, people from the three great sects and the Da Feng imperial family would catch up with them.
Although the Demonic Cult had the help of experts from the Mongol Kingdom, the Southern Border Kingdom, and the Peach God Sect, their strength was still far inferior to that of the three great sects and the Da Feng imperial family. Each time, they were beaten into a hasty retreat.
As they fled in panic, Demonic Cult disciples were killed or captured.
Of the thirty or forty thousand disciples they had started with, fewer than twenty thousand remained.
Even the Twelve Demon Generals, Evil Blade, and Prince of Southern Ming were gradually worsening their injuries.
Four days later.
After continuously taking Nine-Orifice Golden Pills, Zhou Cheng opened his ninth meridian, the Earth Meridian, and smoothly broke through to Qi Refining Level Nine.
"Only one meridian left."
After opening the Earth Meridian, Zhou Cheng's inner force had grown more than twice as powerful.
With his current strength, he could easily kill a Xiantian Second Level Grandmaster.
Following behind the Demonic Cult's forces, Zhou Cheng fixed his gaze on the several Xiantian Second Level experts among them.
On the sixth day after Prince of Southern Ming escaped the Blackwater Mountain Range, the Demonic Cult's remnants fled into the Southern Frontier. Only then did the three great sects and the Da Feng imperial family return.
Zhou Cheng also went back to the Ten Thousand Stars Sect.
Since Zhou Cheng had been acting in secret the whole time, he hadn't traveled with the others from the Ten Thousand Stars Sect. They had returned to the sect ahead of him.
As Zhou Cheng made his way back to the Ten Thousand Stars Sect, Su Huang stood in the sect's main hall and looked at the gathered disciples with a smile. "Everyone fought bravely and shed blood in this campaign to wipe out the Demonic Cult. You've all worked hard."
Then he continued, "Now, let me tell you how many enemies everyone killed."
"The one who killed the most enemies this time was Gao Yi."
His gaze settled on Gao Yi, and he said approvingly, "In six days, Gao Yi killed three Demonic Cult disciples at Qi Refining Level Ten, four at Qi Refining Level Nine, and four at Qi Refining Level Eight."
His voice rose. "Gao Yi alone killed thirty-three Demonic Cult disciples in the Qi Refining Realm!"
"Moreover, Gao Yi also killed a Demonic Cult grandmaster at the Xiantian First Level!"
Su Huang's words sent a ripple of shock through the hall.
Xiantian grandmasters were incredibly difficult to kill. Gao Yi had actually killed one while at Qi Refining Level Ten!
Su Huang went on to name several other disciples and elders who had killed many enemies, then said, "However, Zhou Cheng didn't manage to kill a single Demonic Cult disciple this time."
"Moreover, no one even saw him."
Then he asked an elder beside him, "Has Zhou Cheng returned?"
"Reporting to the sect master, not yet," the elder hurriedly replied.
Gao Yi laughed. "He's probably still out there enjoying the scenery."
Shi Fei, Wu Shuo, and the other grand elders shook their heads.
"The Patriarch actually wants someone like that to take charge of the Ten Thousand Stars Sect one day. I really don't know what he was thinking," Shi Fei said.
Before you continue