Wu Yu was always resolute and decisive when he did things. He did not want to elaborate further after saying his piece. While he was certainly facing some difficulties right now, the most important thing for him to do at the moment was to stay calm and peacefully cultivate his dao.

"Big Brother, I will not disappoint you either." Nangong Wei's determined gaze was burning like a bright fire as well. It was as though a magnificent phoenix was dancing in the midst of fire behind those eyes.

With these short words, these youthful promises and burning emotions were carved deeply into their hearts.

Wu Yu was satisfied. He gently stroked Nangong Wei's head and smiled. The two of them walked hand in hand back to the training room. They sat facing each other and began their cultivation. They were not that different from an actual pair of dao companions. Within the tranquil cave abode, there was no one who could interrupt them. They progressed together as they communicated with one another by perceiving each other's dao. Whenever they opened their eyes, they would see the other person working hard with them. The presence of a companion sure felt good. At least for Wu Yu, every time he saw Nangong Wei working hard towards the same desire of becoming an immortal, he felt even more fervor and enthusiasm towards his goal.

He let his imagination run wild. If there was a day where they could enter the immortal palace hand in hand, how splendid would that be?

This time, Wu Yu wanted to go even crazier. On him were a couple of Inner Sea Essence Pills. Even though there were not many left, each Inner Sea Essence Pill was highly effective. To date, he had made considerable improvements when it came to dao, and day by day the resolve he felt within became clearer and clearer. He had a better understanding now, so after giving himself a short amount of time to settle his thoughts, he decided that now was the best chance for him to advance into the Jindan Dao Realm's seventh tier.

He still had 5,000 merits on him that he had yet to trade away. He kept them untouched for now.

To be honest, Nangong Wei had access to as many resources as Wu Yu needed. However, Wu Yu was unwilling to ask for her help. He did not want to owe Nangong Wei anything, and he also did not want others to gossip more about him.

Nangong Wei stayed for longer than usual this time. As Wu Yu progressed, she improved as well. She was apparently trying to enter the second tier of the Violet Kingdom of the Inner Sea, and was cultivating a second Great Dao Mystique as well. Once she had managed to enter the Violet Kingdom of the Inner Sea, it seemed like she was already able to cultivate a second Great Dao Mystique.

Her rate of improvement was exceptionally fast, so she was busy as well.

Their days passed by quietly. The two of them would occasionally sense each other's spirit and open their eyes at the same time. They would then look at each other and smile at each other. After experiencing the other party's affection and yearning, they would then continue on their journey. Nangong Wei had indeed become much more serious than before. Back then, she would fool around at the side while Wu Yu was cultivating. She was certainly a changed person.

This time, it took Wu Yu half a year to advance to the seventh tier of Jindan Dao! He was one step closer to the Violet Kingdom of the Inner Sea Realm!

The limits of Nangong Wei and Beishan Mo's usual battle prowess was at around the third tier of the Violet Kingdom of the Inner Sea. Wu Yu felt like he was closing in on her.

However, just as he was about to catch a breather, Nangong Wei managed to change things before two days had even passed. A vast amount of spiritual qi bubbled around her. Her body was engulfed in that nine-colored blaze, and for just a moment, she had truly become a fiery phoenix. Within the colorful blaze, she let out an ear-piercing bird call that caused the entire Heaven's Equal Cave Abode to shake.

At the end of it all, she told Wu Yu that she had already reached the second tier of the Violet Kingdom of the Inner Sea.

It was indeed difficult to catch up to her!

However, there was still a long way to go. As long as Nangong Wei herself was unwilling, nobody could force her to become dao companions with anyone else.

Beishan Mo had probably reached a similar level of progress, so Wu Yu's improvements this time did not seem to close the gap between him and them.

He was not anxious, and simply continued to refine himself. However, he shifted his focus to the Unshackled Doppelganger Great Dao Mystique this time. If he could increase the skill and the number of his doppelgangers, it would indeed greatly benefit him. This was particularly true for battles that were more chaotic.

In order to upgrade and cultivate his Unshackled Doppelganger, he mainly had to rely on each doppelganger's personal cultivation. While Wu Yu was refining this Great Dao Mystique, he summoned these doppelgangers and lined them up behind him. They wore the same clothes and had the same physical appearance as him. Even their expressions mirrored his exactly.

This was Nangong Wei's first time seeing these doppelgangers. She was rather taken aback and remarked, "I heard that this mystique of yours could only create five doppelgangers. I never expected it to be as many as 10."

Wu Yu faintly smiled, "10 is only the beginning. Once I've cultivated it to the later stages, even 100 or more will not be a problem."

"That many?" Nangong Wei had seen many terrifying mystiques, yet this was her first time hearing about something this. She was slightly curious and asked, "I'm guessing that this is the mystique given to you by the Transformative Daoist during that mysterious encounter. This Transformative Daoist sure is an enigmatic ancestor. Big Brother, I can't say for sure, but you may even have hope of becoming an immortal in the future."

"Mm." Wu Yu replied. Actually, he found that Nangong Wei did not really have high expectations for him, or at least she felt that her future achievements would be higher than his. This was, of course, an understandable sentiment. After all, she had an endless amount of resources backing her, and she even had the training of the Radiant Phoenix Sword Emperor now. This together with the intense training of the Shushan Immortal Sect made it obvious to even an ordinary disciple that Nangong Wei was undoubtedly at the level of the Seven Immortals of Shushan. On the other hand, Wu Yu's potential was still uncertain.

As such, Wu Yu did not blame her for this. After all, he had never told her that he had obtained an immortal's legacy as well.

Once they were closer in the future, Wu Yu would no longer hide this from her.

Now that he had leveled up, the limits of Unshackled Doppelganger had risen as well. At this point, every single doppelganger required a large amount of immortal medicine in order to continue to improve quickly. Wu Yu exchanged all the merits he had left on him for Golden Essence Pills and used them up on the Unshackled Doppelganger. Only after he went entirely bankrupt did he manage to upgrade Unshackled Doppelganger to its current limits.

However, Wu Yu still wanted to push this Great Dao Mystique to the second tier. If he was able to do so, the abilities of these 10 doppelgangers would have room for further improvement. The synergy between them would then become even more frighteningly effective in battle.

This required him to calm down and understand the Unshackled Doppelganger on a deeper level.

"The biggest change from the first to the second tier is the level of compatibility with my doppelgangers. In order to improve my understanding of these doppelgangers, I first have to strive for a more perfect control of them. This will in turn increase their prowess as well."

As a matter of fact, so long as Wu Yu mulled over things enough, the cultivation level he was at made it easy for him to attain the second tier of his Great Dao Mystique. With his level of enlightenment, this was something that was easy for him to attain.

"These doppelgangers were originally hairs on my body, so they are just like my other body parts. The only difference is that they have more uses.

"Ultimately, it's still me. They are part of me after all. They're just like my arms. However, these doppelgangers are probably more useful than my arms. I need to reach a level where I can direct them better than I can direct my own arms." Wu Yu had to have a clear understanding of his doppelgangers' relation to himself before he could proceed on to the next step.

On his Jindan was the insignia of this Great Dao Mystique. With painstaking focus, Wu Yu worked together with his doppelgangers, repeating various moves over and over again. After they trained together, another layer finally appeared on the foundation of his insignia. This Great Dao Mystique insignia of his became more complicated than before.

At this point in time, Wu Yu's Unshackled Doppelganger had already reached the second tier.

At this stage, each doppelganger's own Jindan essence seemed to have the potential to reach the level of Wu Yu's own. Wu Yu's own Jindan was at the seventh tier, but the nature of his Jindan meant that this was equivalent to about the ninth tier for average Jindan Dao cultivators. This was probably the limit that these doppelgangers could grow to as well.

If he was successful, the combined strength of these 10 doppelgangers would be comparable to Wu Yu’s. In particular, these doppelgangers were just like Wu Yu; they were able to use the Xuan Immortal Spirit Petrifying Sword Technique.

However, there was a huge conundrum facing Wu Yu now. In order to let these 10 doppelgangers reach their utmost limit, Wu Yu would have to refine his Jindan for a long time. If he wanted to attain his goals quickly instead, he would definitely need a large amount of Golden Essence Pills or Inner Sea Essence Pills.

It just so happened that Wu Yu had used up all the merits he had worked hard to earn. He was in a state of poverty now.

Therefore, he decided to return to the Unrivaled Sea of Swords in order to earn some more merits. He could conveniently train his doppelgangers at the same time.

As he finished up his cultivation and told Nangong Wei that he needed a large amount of Golden Essence Pills, Nangong Wei naturally offered to give him what he needed. After all, she had a vast and limitless amount of resources, and this would indeed save Wu Yu a lot of time.

After giving it some thought, however, Wu Yu still decided to rely on himself.

"Why are you so stubborn? Big Brother, don't my belongings also belong to you?" Nangong Wei advised him.

While this made sense in theory, taking too much may eventually lead to the formation of a bad habit. Wu Yu was unable to break past the barrier in his heart. His pursuit of dao was one that was lonely and prideful.

Wu Yu chose to visit the Unrivaled Sea of Swords once again.

Nangong Wei coincidentally wanted to test out her second Great Dao Mystique too. As the two of them traveled together, there were too many people on Shushan who paid close attention to their every move. Once they left the Heaven's Equal Cave Abode, news spread quickly.

Ever since Beishan Mo had been chased away by Nangong Wei, he had not returned to harass them. However, word had spread that he had recently been completing missions outside of Shushan. He had slaughtered countless demons and even defeated renowned talents from other sects. His reputation had spread far and wide.

Of course, the fact that Wu Yu had a beauty in his embrace made others envious as well.

They managed to avoid the attention of many others and quietly slipped into the Unrivaled Sea of Swords. The two of them did not split up, yet the Sword Puppets would seek them out individually and thus they basically fought separately. As Wu Yu fought against a Sword Puppet, Nangong Wei would watch from the side. The fact that Wu Yu was already so strong even though he was only a seventh tier Jindan Dao cultivator shocked Nangong Wei. In this respect, Wu Yu had achieved something that even she could not do.

Their attributes were both of the fire variety. Due to this, Wu Yu was able to gain many new insights just by watching many of Nangong Wei's battles with the Sword Puppets.

Nevertheless, Wu Yu's focus this time was on earning merits. He had to trade these for Golden Essence Pills to feed his doppelgangers. The method he used this time, however, was not to fight and exchange for Golden Essence Pills directly. He decided to trade for materials used in the refining of Golden Essence Pills instead. After that, he personally refined these Golden Essence Pills. With this strategy, it would be possible for him to create over 20,000 merits worth of Golden Essence Pills by just using 10,000 merits.

Furthermore, the refining of immortal medicines was something that increased Wu Yu's level of enlightenment as well. It was not considered a waste of time.

Nangong Wei found that when it came to refining medicines and drafting spirit designs, Wu Yu's level of mastery exceeded her own.