Five years passed in the flick of a finger.
Divine Wind Island no longer looked as barren as it once had. From afar, the entire island lay beneath a pale blue curtain of light-the Seven-Star Sea-Covering Array, reinforced several times over. Its shifting radiance exuded a steady, weighty presence. The buildings on the island had multiplied severalfold compared with five years earlier. Beyond the central stone hall, there were Spirit Fields, Medicine Gardens, an Artifact Refining Workshop, an Alchemy Room, and a Martial Practice Field. It had become a sea stronghold beginning to take shape.
Over those five years, Divine Wind Island had experienced three small-scale clashes. One had been with a passing band of rogue cultivator pirates, who saw the island as weak and isolated and tried to plunder it, only to be beaten into utter disarray by Zhao Tie Zhu and his brothers from the Fire Division. The other two had involved disputes over resources with cultivators from neighboring islands, both resolved peacefully through Wan Yao'er's mediation. Apart from those incidents, things had been peaceful.
The greater changes, however, had taken place among Divine Wind Island's leadership.
Early one morning, in the underground secluded chamber beneath Divine Wind Island's central stone hall, Chen Ming slowly opened his eyes.
A sharp gleam flashed in the depths of his eyes, then faded into calm. He examined himself inwardly. The five elements golden core in his lower dantian had grown a full size larger than it had been five years earlier, gleaming gold and steady as a rock. The poison golden core in his middle dantian had taken on a deep, dark purple hue, with faint streams of light circulating across its surface and an aura that made the heart tremble.
Both golden cores had reached late Core Formation.
Advancing from