Second-Layer World, Scripture Repository:
Wang Quan left the tent.
Inside the tent, Ying Jiaren sat upright on a cloud bed, carefully sensing the changes in her body.
Just now, she had learned her twenty-thousandth scroll of Daoist Scriptures and obtained the [Second-Rank Dao Seal].
Then she looked back and discovered that the Qi Refining Realm Fundamental Method she had considered perfect had undergone further changes:
The already perfect Fundamental Method had become even more perfect.
She examined the [Wondrous Fragrance True Self] Fundamental Method and the method for refining [Incense Drowning Water], then realization dawned on her. "Doing it this way really can shorten the refining time."
"This is only the [Second-Rank Dao Seal]. What about the Third-Rank Dao Seal?"
"With the blessing of the [Third-Rank Dao Seal], would the method for refining [Drowning Water] become even more profound? Would it take even less time?"
"How many scrolls of Daoist Scriptures has Senior Brother Wang Quan mastered now?"
"Is he working toward the [Third-Rank Dao Seal]?"
"I was young and ignorant, after all. I wasted so many years."
"Now I'm always a step behind him."
"But that's all right. At least I'm much luckier than those cultivators who haven't mastered a [Dao Seal]."
Whew!
She took a deep breath, suppressed her many distracting thoughts, and began carefully sorting through the changes brought by the [Second-Rank Dao Seal].
Outside the Scripture Repository, Wang Quan stood atop the Seventy-Two Paths of Smoke and Dust, hovering high in the sky as he looked down at the land.
Some time had passed, and the Lower Court was a vast expanse of white. Apart from its walls and gate, all the evil buildings in the Lower Court had crumbled into ash and smoke.
Now, reflections of the Real World's buildings shone with white light, forming