After seeing Lü Dongbin, the Heavenly Emperor, and the immortals off, Zhou Qing returned to his cave abode.
Now that he had broken through to the Pure Yang True Immortal level, he could refine the World Prison.
With that in mind, Zhou Qing took a Black Stone Stele that gave off a faint oppressive pressure from his golden core space. It was the World Prison he had obtained from Shaoyan Chou.
He then began slowly sending his Pure Yang magic power into the stele.
His Pure Yang magic power first seeped into the tiny, tadpole-shaped characters on the back of the stele.
As his magic power continued to pour in, Zhou Qing soon mastered all seven great arts one by one: the Eighteen Fiendgods of Taowu, Nine Dissolutions of Insect Beasts, Sinful Divine Weapon, Lang Talisman, Heaven-Earth Reversal Oneheart Formation, Ghost-God Scroll, and Indestructible Body.
The Eighteen Fiendgods of Taowu was a clone art. After mastering the first level, one could divide the original body into sub-bodies with only a tenth of the original's strength. At the second level, all eighteen sub-bodies could possess the same strength as the original. At the third level, the eighteen sub-bodies could fuse at any time, greatly increasing the original's strength.
Shaoyan Chou's eighteen clones had been created through this art, but he had only cultivated it to the first level, so they had been weak as chickens.
The Nine Dissolutions of Insect Beasts was an art for raising insect beasts, capable of producing insect beasts that could rival Ancestor Gods at its highest level.
Shaoyan Chou's insect beasts, which had been comparable to top-tier Celestial Immortals, had been raised through this art.
The Sinful Divine Weapon, like the Fiendgod Blood Refinement Art of the Three Realms, could use the resentment and hatred of dying enemies to nurture divine weapons, up to the level of Chaos divine weapons.
The Lang Talisman was a profound art of talismans.
The Heaven-Earth Reversal Oneheart Formation was a formation used together with the Eighteen Fiendgods of Taowu, excelling at trapping enemies and defense.
The Ghost-God Scroll was an art for raising ghosts, capable of producing ghosts that could rival True Gods or even Ancestor Gods at its highest level.
The Indestructible Body was a protective divine ability with six levels. After mastering the first three, one's body would be comparable to a top-grade Pure Yang magic treasure; after mastering the last three, it could even rival a Xiantian Supreme Treasure.
After looking through the seven great arts, Zhou Qing's expression remained unchanged.
Though the seven arts were extraordinary, Ancestor God Fantian had once held him in high regard, and he had encountered many texts that matched or even surpassed them.
First among them was the Heart Sutra, which Ancestor God Fantian had taught him. It was the Maha Sect's supreme art, containing a variety of Heartforce methods, including Heartforce soul-bewitchment, Heartforce illusions, and Heartforce Enslavement.
In Zhou Qing's view, it was far more precious than the seven arts above.
Another example was the protective divine ability Immortal Golden Body. It had three levels, and once mastered, it was comparable to the Indestructible Body at full mastery.
Moreover, the last three levels of the Indestructible Body required numerous treasures that were exceedingly rare in the Three Realms, while most of the treasures needed for the Immortal Golden Body were common.
There was also Great Extinction Divine Power, a divine-power eruption ability similar to the Star-Plucking Hand, which could be used all the way to the Ancestor God level.
After cultivating this divine ability, even an ordinary Ancestor God could briefly unleash battle prowess comparable to that of a top-tier Ancestor God.
Unfortunately, the treasures needed to cultivate it were rather precious and would likely be difficult to find in the Three Realms.
Zhou Qing had mastered quite a few precious supreme arts like the ones he had listed.
Thus, in his view, only the Eighteen Fiendgods of Taowu was of any real value.
With eighteen clones, his ability to preserve his life would undergo a qualitative change.
As for the drawback of his strength falling to less than a tenth of the original's, Zhou Qing could resolve that with the Chaos Spirit Liquid he would soon obtain.
At that point, having finished refining the tiny tadpole-shaped characters, Zhou Qing stopped refining the divine runes along the edge of the stele.
He could not enter the World Prison now.
Entering the World Prison caused such a great commotion that, if anyone noticed, his possession of it would no longer be a secret.
After his Second Primaltwin became a Pure Yang True Immortal, Zhou Qing began preparing for his Wu Xian clone's original body to undergo the Empyrean God tribulation.
In truth, with his second level of Space Power and fourth level of Heartforce, he had almost no chance of failing even if he underwent the Empyrean God tribulation directly.
But because the original body of his Wu Xian clone had not previously obtained any profound inheritances, it had not even cultivated a protective divine ability.
Before undergoing the tribulation, Zhou Qing still wanted to make up for that shortcoming.
He did not immediately cultivate the Immortal Golden Body, however. Instead, he first made a trip to the Daoist Sect's Scripture Pavilion.
Much like the rules of Mount Innerheart, disciples of the Daoist Sect who wished to cultivate its various profound immortal and fiend secret arts and divine abilities had to pass trials established by the Daoist Sect's Dao Ancestors.
Of course, for an expert like Zhou Qing, who had already attained Pure Yang, these rules held little sway.
After greeting the unnamed Pure Yang True Immortal guarding the entrance, Zhou Qing entered the Scripture Pavilion to select some texts.
The Pure Yang True Immortal saw this but said nothing more.
After all, who did not know True Immortal Taixu, the Daoist Sect's newly ascended major power?
Zhou Qing's secondary purpose in visiting the Daoist Sect's Scripture Pavilion was to select some arts involving Space Power and the Power of Illusion.
His main purpose, however, was to provide a legitimate cover for the Heartforce texts, protective divine abilities, divine-power eruption abilities, and other supreme arts of the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom that he possessed and could not openly reveal.
The divine abilities he possessed were far too heaven-defying. More importantly, his life's course was clear for all to see, and he could not brush questions aside by claiming he had obtained them through a fortuitous encounter.
Moreover, even if the major powers of the Three Realms believed his divine abilities had come from a fortuitous encounter, some of them would covet those abilities.
After all, leaving aside the Seamless Gate Faction, even some of the True Gods and Dao Ancestors of the Nuwa Faction had moral standards that Zhou Qing found less than reassuring.
So, if he did not want to stir up a storm throughout the city, all his supreme arts needed plausible origins.
Thus, after looking through the selection, Zhou Qing took eight great arts: Void Evasion, Dark World, Void Great Destruction, Sacred Dao of Perdition, Bewitching Heart Secret Canon, Seeking the Dao, Eight-Nine Arcane Art, and Mighty Fiendgod Force.
Void Evasion, Dark World, and Void Great Destruction went without saying; he had chosen them to gain insight into Space Power.
As for the Sacred Dao of Perdition and the Bewitching Heart Secret Canon, he had chosen those to gain insight into the Dao of Illusion.
Though these arts were not as profound as those of the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom, they were the wisdom of another Chaos world and had their own merits.
Back in the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom, he had mainly followed the path of Heartforce illusions, and the Grand Dao of Illusion was the path he was most adept at.
Zhou Qing had even mastered a trace of the Power of Illusion before achieving full mastery of the Grand Dao of Illusion.
But after he was imprisoned in the World Prison, he had been unable to gain insight into the Dao of the Chaos world, so his Grand Dao of Illusion had never reached full mastery.
Instead, his Power of Illusion had reached the third level through several Chaos cycles of grueling perseverance.
Seeking the Dao was a Heartforce art created by Daoist Sanqing, leading directly to the fourth level of Heartforce.
Naturally, he had chosen it to cover for his fourth level of Heartforce.
His reason for choosing the Eight-Nine Arcane Art went even further without saying: it was to provide a plausible origin for his protective divine ability.
Mighty Fiendgod Force was a divine-power eruption ability that ranked among the top hundred divine abilities in the Three Realms.
He had chosen it to cover for his divine-power eruption ability, Great Extinction Divine Power.
Although the treasures consumed in cultivating this divine ability were hard to find, there was still hope of mastering it at the Empyrean God and True God levels.