Taking Their Seats

The first rays of dawn tinged the sky, and a light mist enveloped the scene.

Xiushui City witnessed its first sunrise since its inception.

The Lingxian Sect also welcomed its first batch of guests.

Of course, these guests could not go directly through the Heart-Questioning Road to enter the Lingxian Sect. Instead, they took a newly opened road in the valley behind Azure Cloud Peak in the North Mountain.

This road leads directly to the Lingxian Sect Sect's sect square. It was specially built by Lin Xiao for his sect's various external meetings and events in the future.

In this way, visitors can participate in the Lingxian Sect's external conference without having to go through the Heart-Questioning Road.

Whenever this path is opened, the Lingxian Sect's Mountain-Protecting Grand Formation will temporarily shut it down, dividing the sect square area into a top-level protective zone, but still retaining a relatively basic defensive capability.

At this time, only sect disciples with sect identity tokens could enter and exit the passage from the sect square to the interior of the Lingxian Sect. Outsiders could not go to other places in the Lingxian Sect from the sect square.

There were quite a few guests today.

Besides the sects designated by the Lingxian Sect, there were also many upright royal families and sects from other countries invited with the help of the royal family of the Pusi Kingdom.

In any case, they used up all the dozens of invitations that Lingxian Sect had given out.

Moreover, all of these people who came filled all five slots on each invitation.

Except for the Heavenly Heart Sect of the Tuiyi Kingdom.

The Heavenly Heart Sect is powerful and well-known among cultivators throughout the Mortal Realm. The Li Imperial Clan naturally could not ignore the fact that they were making enemies of the Lingxian Sect, so they also sent them an invitation.

Who would have thought that the Heavenly Heart Sect wouldn't even send anyone over to make a show of it?

Li Zhanying, who had entered the Lingxian Sect's plaza early and was sitting in the guest section, had been keeping an eye on the situation at the entrance. Other sects or royal families, regardless of their status, had already sent their subordinates to present congratulatory gifts and inform their leaders of their upcoming arrival time. However, the Heavenly Heart Sect was nowhere to be seen.

Li Zhanying sighed inwardly; it seemed the Heavenly Heart Sect was unlikely to come.

He silently shook his head.

Since Venerable Zhiyu, the leader of the Heavenly Heart Sect, took the lead in reaching the Nascent Soul Great Perfection Heavenly Heart Sect has been developing well all along, it has long shown a tendency to surpass all other sects in the Mortal Realm and become the number one sect.

Later, Venerable Xunfang of the Crimson Firmament Sect of the Juhui Kingdom also broke through to the Nascent Soul Great Perfection stage, which enabled them to rival the sect and prevent the Heavenly Heart Sect from becoming the only dominant force.

However, unlike the ambitious Heavenly Heart Sect, the Crimson Firmament Sect was not enthusiastic about the development and expansion of the sect. Therefore, in the eyes of outsiders, it was not as powerful as the Heavenly Heart Sect.

But now...

Li Zhanying calmly took a sip of the hot tea in front of him.

My heart was heavy.

From the moment he sat down, he sensed a faint but palpable pressure emanating from him!

The pressure wasn't strong; in fact, he might not even notice it if he wasn't paying close attention. But once he looked closely, he discovered that this subtle pressure made him unable to muster the slightest thought of resistance!

This was the first time he had experienced something like this in his hundreds of years of cultivation.

This was something that had never happened even when dealing with Venerable Zhiyu of the Heavenly Heart Sect or Venerable Xunfang of the Crimson Firmament Sect before!

However, both of them had already reached the Nascent Soul Great Perfection stage. If someone were to surpass them...

Although he had never actually seen a powerful cultivator at the Spirit Transformation Realm, a momentary intuition from his Nascent Soul made him almost certain that this was the pressure of Spirit Transformation cultivator!

But after gaining certainty, wave after wave of uncertainty washed over me.

Since he became aware of the Mortal Realm, there has never been a cultivator at the Spirit Transformation Realm.

Even going back thousands of years, this has never happened in the highly credible history of the Mortal Realm.

If the Lingxian Sect truly has Spirit Transformation Realm cultivator, Heavenly Heart Sect's ambitions will likely have to be curbed from now on. I wonder what Venerable Zhiyu will think when he finds out about this...

Thinking of this, Li Zhanying couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

He then stared at his teacup, somewhat lost in thought.

For over seven hundred years, I have been constantly cultivating. It seems that since I can remember, the requirements of cultivating, protecting the peace of the Pusi Kingdom, and maintaining the stability of the Mortal Realm have been inseparable from me.

Whenever he heard that someone from his cohort of cultivators had broken through to a higher level, he had to keep trying to catch up.

Because the Li Clan needs a cultivator who can support Li Clan.

When his mother was still alive, Li Zhanying wasn't under much pressure, but since her passing, he hasn't been able to relax at all.

The Li Imperial Clan cannot afford to have too long a gap between the previous Nascent Soul Cultivator Nascent Soul Cultivator and the next.

Otherwise, the Li Clan would completely lose its voice.

At that time, he would no longer have such a comfortable cultivation environment as before, although compared to the cultivation environment he had obtained through transactions with the Lingxian Sect in the past two years, it might not be considered very comfortable.

Therefore, he never dared to slack off in his cultivation.

Until he reached the Nascent Soul stage.

When I started cultivating again, I wasn't in such a hurry as before.

In his understanding, the Nascent Soul was the limit. There had never been Nascent Soul above the Nascent Soul stage in the Mortal Realm. Even geniuses as brilliant as his mother perished when trying to break through to the Spirit Transformation Realm.

In Li Zhanying's mind, the Spirit Transformation Realm and the Nascent Soul Great Perfection Realm are the ceiling of the Mortal Realm. This ceiling stands at the very top of the Mortal Realm, and no one can break through it.

From now on, my cultivation will simply be a means to prolong my lifespan.

Living an extra year means being able to protect the Li Clan for an extra year and to nurture future generations.

That's what he originally thought.

But now, he's not sure.

Suddenly, a sense of confusion welled up in Li Zhanying's heart.

But at the same time, there seemed to be a hint of understanding and curiosity.

So, it's possible for the Mortal Realm to become Spirit Transformation?

What exactly is Spirit Transformation?

"Senior, this way please. Our sect's grand assembly will begin in a quarter of an hour. Please have some spiritual tea and fruit first, and wait a moment." A young man's voice came from the side.

He looked up at the Lingxian Sect disciples at the next table who were entertaining guests.

The Li Imperial Clan had already investigated the backgrounds of each of these newly initiated disciples. They knew a great deal about each of them before they entered the family, though not exactly.

For example, this Qi Refining Stage disciple who is entertaining guests was just a little beggar before joining the Lingxian Sect.

Yet this little beggar, after only a few months of training, has already reached... the Ninth Layer of Qi Refinement!

He had been sitting down on the mountain for less than half an hour, but he was already completely stunned and numb.

If it were just one or two such cases, it would be understandable, as they were exceptionally talented disciples. With the sect's resources being allocated to them and favorable timing, location, and circumstances, this pace could be barely accepted.

But in this half hour, he really didn't see a single disciple below the Qi Refining Fifth Layer!

You should know that Niu Xiaoxue, the disciple he took in a few years ago with a Mutated Lightning Spirit Root Single Spirit Root, is only at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer...