On the Six Paths Throne, a boy in azure robes who had stood as still as a statue for countless years opened his eyes.
"A hundred years..."
Jiang Ding sighed.
A trace of age-old weariness flashed through his eyes. A moment later, they regained the clarity and curiosity of a boy.
Those hundred years had been the isolation period he had set for himself after encountering the term "Fallen Immortal Realm." Unless he sensed a crisis that threatened to destroy the Tushan Central Court, he would not return to the Northern Plains.
Jiang Ding swept his divine sense in every direction and began receiving reports from the Tushan Central Court.
More than eighty years ago, the Artifact Sect had successfully forged the Ten-Thousand-Mile Beacon Tower, a treasure approaching the Primordial Spirit level. The Tushan Central Court had finally advanced to paperless administration, greatly increasing the speed at which information spread. Its artifact-refining capabilities had risen as well, and its refining tradition had climbed another step after reaching the top of a hundred-foot pole.
Now, compared with a century ago, every cultivator from Qi Refining to the Nascent Soul stage was considerably better supplied. Each had several magical artifacts and treasures, along with all kinds of talismans. The gap between their strength and that of Demon Race cultivators at the same stage had widened once more.
Over the past century, the Northern Plains had gained thirty-one Nascent Soul Cultivators. They came from peak Golden Core cultivators who had found opportunities in the last great war, as well as the personal disciples and blood relatives of Nascent Soul Cultivators. The two groups accounted for roughly half each.
Eleven of them were Great Sun Sword Sect cultivators who had broken through from peak Golden Core.
Great Sun Sword Sect cultivators probably made up