Four years had passed.
For Jiang Ming, that had merely meant advancing his Great Freedom Dao Scripture by one minor realm, reaching the fifth revolution.
As for the Shrouding Method, he had reached the Saint King Eighth Heavenly Layer.
His progress had remained fairly steady.
The biggest event this year was Gu Qingyao's attempt to break through to the Quasi-Emperor Realm.
Gu Qingyao had witnessed the Martial Emperor's breakthrough to Quasi-Emperor, which had given her something to learn from. Gai Jiuyou had also advised her on several things she needed to watch out for during the breakthrough.
Now that the Eighth-Stage Evolution Liquid had been successfully refined, everything was ready-all they lacked was the east wind.
"Don't worry. I'm ready."
Gu Qingyao looked at Jiang Ming, knowing his worries. Remembering the ways this scoundrel had been tormenting her lately, she rolled her eyes at him as she spoke.
She felt that Jiang Ming's concern had simply thrown him into disarray. In her own estimation, her accumulated foundation made success a certainty. After all, she had cultivated an Ancient Immortal Method inheritance. On top of that, she had cultivated secret techniques from several Emperor Scriptures and thoroughly integrated them.
Her own Dao Fruit had long since matured.
Gu Qingyao's Dao Fruit was also one of the truly formidable kinds.
The ice-fire twin lotus Dao Fruit.
What she had originally mastered was the ice-sealing Dao Fruit.
Later, after she cultivated the Heaven-Mending Technique, the ancient method required a seed. Since it happened to complement the Shrouding Method, Jiang Ming had planted a fire seed in her to help perfect her Shrouding Method Dao Fruit.
It was a seed split off from one of the four fire seeds within Jiang Ming: the Golden Lotus Sacred Flame.
Originally, the Golden Lotus Sacred Flame's fire