There was even more.
Three of the powerful corpses guarding the nine Life Springs in the Supreme's Sea of Bitterness had vanished outright.
Jiang Ming had not taken them all away. After refining them into Divine-Demon Dao Soldiers, he had released them again, letting them grow on their own in the Sea of Bitterness while also guarding him on his path.
That was because he intended to enter seclusion for a while.
This turned out to be Jiang Ming's longest period of seclusion yet. In one uninterrupted stretch, he spent forty-one years cultivating.
He woke a few times during that period, but only to undergo tribulations.
Once each tribulation ended, he returned to seclusion.
By the end of this retreat, Jiang Ming's Shrouding Method cultivation had reached great saint eighth heaven, and he could already sense another tribulation approaching.
As for his Great Freedom Dao Scripture, he had reached the seventh turn, the time-space turn.
Every time his cultivation reached the final three turns, the going became much harder.
The time-space turn, the fate turn, and the cause-and-effect turn.
These were all supreme Dao laws of heaven and earth. Mastering even one could make someone a supreme Great Emperor. There was the time mastered by Emperor Wushi, the space mastered by Void Great Emperor, the destruction mastered by Spirit Treasure Heavenly Venerate, and the chaos mastered by his father-in-law, Azure Emperor.
That old man Azure Emperor had felt his life was as lonely as snow, so he had run into the Desolate Pagoda left behind by Baby Hao, hoping to evolve an Immortal Domain. One had to admit, he seemed to think he was an Immortal King. A mere Great Emperor, yet his ambitions were so vast that other Great Emperors dared not even imagine them.
It could be said