Time slipped by, and thirty years passed in the blink of an eye after Heavenly Will merged with the Dao.
Over those thirty years, wars broke out one after another: the Puppet Dao attacked Whirlpool City and seized its outlet to the sea, while the Outer Dao retaliated with incursions into the Eastern Sea, the Changing Sea, and even the mainland of the Eastern Victory Continent.
Yet the Vast Sea remained peaceful throughout. Several Puppet Dao factions even rose to prominence, and Grand Artisans emerged from the underworld.
The mortal kingdoms of the Chess Mountain Domain and the Guangyun Ruins under Li Chen also developed tremendously, taking the forms of a technological civilization and the Wasteland Paradise, respectively.
But Li Chen had already entered seclusion and paid them little attention.
Ever since Heavenly Will merged with the Dao, he had felt his Soul Deconstruction technique approaching perfection. His understanding of the Primordial Spirit Way and the essence of the true spirit reached unprecedented heights, and he began keeping to himself, cultivating in seclusion.
He had already gathered enough cultivation provisions and knowledge. What he needed now was to quiet his mind, consolidate his foundations, and thoroughly digest and absorb everything he possessed.
During this period, the Puppet Dao Revolution ushered in new ways. Purchasing materials and exchanging ideas through the Puppet World Heavenly Net became easy, greatly shortening the research process without anyone noticing. Thus, he gradually mastered methods such as Primordial Spirit Reconstruction and artificial primordial spirits, brought Soul Deconstruction to great completion, and truly became proficient in the talents he had unearthed while preparing for his Grand Artisan assessment.
He even settled down to explore more fields he could study and cultivate, greatly improving his cultivation realm, foundations, and strength alike.
Those thirty years could be called the