On the way back to the Numinous Realm, Meng Tingfeng stayed aboard the deck, staring off into the distance. There was nothing in his sights except the twinkling light of the stars in the Vast Void. However, in the distance, unseen by the naked eye, was the Primordial Realm. It was also the direction Shangri-La flew toward after the end of the Jade and Numinous Conference.

“A spirit stone for your thoughts?”

Meng Tingfeng looked toward his right to see Elder Shu sliding next to him on the rails. “Just recollecting the battle between Grand Elder Bao and Xi Mengfei’s son.”

Elder Shu smiled with understanding. “Yeah, it was an amazing battle. I don’t think any of us were expecting such a climactic battle between the two immortal emperors. I know it was a few days ago, but I still can’t help but tremble recalling the Nine Heaven Emperor’s second attack. It was like a miniature sun exploding. Against any monarchs like us, it would be a fatal blow.”

Meng Tingfeng stayed silent. He didn’t want to admit it, but Xi Tianyi’s power far outstripped his own. Even his late master, the Seven Star Sword Emperor, should not have reached such a level of power, right? Worse was how young Xi Tianyi was. It took the Seven Star Sword Emperor over a hundred thousand years to reach his height of power, yet Xi Tianyi exceeded it in a few millennia.

It was also the first time Meng Tingfeng had doubted his own perseverance. With his talent and efforts, could he really catch up to monsters like Xi Tianyi?

“I thought Grand Elder Bao would have a hard time, but it only proved I was a frog at the bottom of the well,” Elder Shu said. “He needed no extravagant technique, only simple sword strikes to deflect the Nine Heaven Emperor’s attacks. We had already seen his power when he defeated Kang Qiang, but now, we know that he only showed the tip of an iceberg.”

“When I tried to analyze those seemingly simple sword slashes, I discovered that they contained many things I can’t understand.” Elder Shu sighed. “I thought I achieved what the ancients called transforming simplicity to complexity and returning complexity to simplicity. Only now did I discover that I partially accomplished the former and failed the latter.”

Meng Tingfeng nodded his head in agreement. Bao Ling’s power also made him despair. He had more confidence in catching up to Sovereign Yanxu than the young immortal emperor, but perhaps that was because he hadn’t seen the immortal sovereign take action yet. “Neither of the two are people we can touch right now.”

“You’re right,” Elder Shu said. “Although Grand Elder Bao is heads and shoulders stronger than the Nine Heavens Emperor, it does not change the fact that the disparity between us and them is enough to make us despair. I don’t think anyone can refute that the two are future sovereigns.”

Was Bao Ling stronger than Xi Tianyi? Meng Tingfeng could not deny that. However, Meng Tingfeng is of the opinion that Xi Tianyi was the greater threat. His unfathomable qi reserves and the devastating range of his technique made him similar to a strategic deterrent. Were the Numinous Sword Sect and the Buzhou Immortal Court go to war, Xi Tianyi would deal countless casualties to the Numinous Sword Sect. At least on a level greater than Bao Ling.

Of course, Meng Tingfeng could tell that Bao Ling did not reveal everything. Even so, he didn’t think Bao Ling could exceed Xi Tianyi in terms of pure destruction.

“Future sovereigns,” Meng Tingfeng tested the words on his tongue.

Elder Shu nodded. “Yes, Junior Sovereign Bao and Junior Sovereign Nine Heavens. Compared to calling them immortal emperors, I feel this title is more apt.”

Although both immortal emperors and immortal sovereigns were exalted figures in the Numinous and Primordial Realms, it was obvious immortal sovereigns held a higher status. Calling them junior sovereigns was not demeaning the two, but raising their status.

Meng Tingfeng stayed silent. Can he really reach the same height as the two? Can he become an immortal sovereign? His eyes hardened. No, he will. He didn’t plan on stopping at the Origin Immortal Realm; he wanted to exceed.

“One day, people will also address me as a junior sovereign,” Meng Tingfeng said. “No, they won’t stop there. They will address me as a junior divinity!”

Elder Shu stared at Meng Tingfeng, gobsmacked. Then, she covered the lower half of her face with her sleeve and let out a charming giggle. “Your words are very boastful, but I don’t dislike them. I don’t have the same aspiration or confidence as you, but allow me to make my proclamation. People will address me as junior emperor in the future.”

She was a third-step immortal monarch, but the amount of power she could unleash could not compare to Meng Tingfeng. Her words were clearly in jest, but it still didn’t stop Elder Shu’s mindset to change. Since she spoke those words, she must be prepared to fulfill them. Unknowingly, her willpower had increased.

Meng Tingfeng and Elder Shu shared a smile. Not long later, both of them returned to their cabins and focused on cultivating.

While the Numinous Sword Sect was still making its way back to the Numinous Realm, the Immortal Court had already returned to the Primordial Realm. In fact, Shangri-La could have immediately returned to the Primordial Realm through teleportation if the Immortal Court hadn’t wanted to hide this ability from the Numinous Sword Sect.

In the Vast Void, teleportation became infinitely harder, even for a monarch that mastered the Law of Space. Even immortal emperors could only teleport themselves a short distance. And the only reason Tianyi could teleport such long distances was because of his inner universe providing coordinates and a vast amount of energy.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Still, Tianyi did not think it was an amazing ability. Especially after his disastrous defeat at Bao Ling’s hands.

On the frost-covered mountain top outside of Jade Peak Palace, Tianyi’s figure stood there on his lonesome. His hand clutched the Immortal Confining Sword, and he went through the motions of several arts. The initial movement of each sword swing was the same, but there were ten thousand different types of follow-up movements.

Ever since he returned, Tianyi had stayed atop the mountaintop to practice his sword skills. Although he gained a lot of insights into sword arts during his battle with Bao Ling, he hadn’t digested all of it. And now, his sword skills were continuously improving at a rapid rate.

Tianyi had no illusion that his sword skills would surpass his hand techniques. True, he was more talented in hand techniques, but this only made it more obvious how profound Bao Ling’s sword skills were.

During this time, Tianyi tried to comprehend the prototype Law of the Sword displayed by Bao Ling, but he had no luck.

He sighed and stopped after the ten thousandth swing. “As expected, I can’t get any insights. The only way to comprehend it would be to fight Bao Ling or wait until he completes the Law of the Sword and have it merge with the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System.”

The Immortal Confining Sword in Tianyi’s hand vanished, returning to its scabbard on Ninth Heaven in his inner universe. Although Tianyi was raising his sword skills, he had no illusions about what his greatest advantage was. It was not his talent in his hand techniques or his talent in comprehending the myriad laws that most immortals took eons to, but the Nine Heavens Universe.

If he were to train normally, it would take thousands if not tens of thousands of years to become an immortal sovereign, even with unique status as a reincarnator allowing him to bypass the need to merge his other selves in different timelines. To this day, Tianyi still couldn’t figure out how Mengfei reached the Origin Immortal Realm so quickly.

If other immortals knew of Tianyi’s lament, they might not resist the urge to charge forward and beat him up. Need ten thousand years at most to become an immortal sovereign? That was already a supreme genius, okay? A cultivator that could become an immortal sovereign was extremely rare, even in the primordial era.

Nevertheless, instead of going the normal path, Tianyi decided to stick to his unique path. As long as he mastered more laws, the more powerful his control of the Nine Heavens Universe would become, and correlating, he would become just as powerful. He had a gut feeling that it wouldn’t be impossible to become a peak-level divinity just relying on the Nine Heavens Universe.

He couldn’t help it. He had a feeling that Bao Ling’s power would outstrip him if he took the orthodox path.

Tianyi’s figure vanished from the mountaintop. It was nothing more than a conduit he had quickly made to practice his sword skill. He planned to practice his sword skills until he digested all his gains from his battle with Bao Ling.

Within Tianyi’s chamber in Jade Peak Palace, his primary conduit sat in a lotus position with his eyes closed. Although he hadn’t fully restored the power of his conduit—that would take decades, if not a century—it didn’t stop him from comprehending the worldly laws.

Right now, Tianyi planned on fully comprehending three laws: the Law of Life, the Law of Yin, and the Law of Yang. While comprehending the Law of Yin and the Law of Yang during the Primordial Realm’s ascension, he had mastered the Law of Light and the Law of Darkness, aiding him in comprehending the former two laws.

Tianyi knew the Law of Yin and the Law of Yang were on the same level as the Law of Time and the Law of Space. Unfortunately, his talents in the Law of Yin and the Law of Yang were not as high as his talents in the Law of Spacetime. He hadn’t even reached the final bottleneck before fully comprehending either of the two laws yet, and he estimated he needed another hundred years or so.

After that, he just needed inspiration to fully comprehend either the Law of Yin or the Law of Yang. However, Tianyi didn’t know how long it would take him to gain that inspiration. He hoped it wouldn’t take more than a thousand years. If it did, he might as well cultivate the orthodox way.

Again, if other immortals were to know his thoughts, they would not be able to resist the urge to charge at him and vent their frustrations. If Tianyi thought he was slow, then how would he categorize those immortal’s efforts that took tens if not hundreds of thousands of years?

Thankfully, for both himself and the innocent immortals, Tianyi did not say his true feelings to anyone.

Tianyi suddenly opened his eyes. “It’s too slow.”

He stood up and paced around his chambers. He knew that haste made waste, but he couldn’t help but think that there should be something he could to do speed up his cultivation. Suddenly, he looked up. It wasn’t because he thought of a method, but his disciple, Jinshu, had contacted him through the Xiyinet.

Jinshu requested to enter Cultivation Online and experience the complete Law of Fire.

Tianyi directly gave him permission. Normally, you had to have enough points or contribution points, but Jinshu was his disciple, so it didn’t matter. Jinshu was stuck at the last step of mastering the Law of Fire, so it was about time for him to master it and step into the Seamless Immortal Realm.

Five years later, Tianyi felt the fluctuation of Jinshu mastering the complete Law of Fire. Just as Tianyi smiled, his eyes lit up as he felt Jinshu’s insight into the Law of Yang appear in his mind. That’s right, he had an experience sharing method known as Cultivation Online.

As long as he made an event and deduced the requirements for experiencing the Concepts related to the Law of Yang or the Law of Yin, his speed would increase. Of course, Tianyi didn’t implement it immediately. Sad as it may be, he had to discuss it with Xia Meng first.

Tianyi already thought of a proposal. In order to prepare for the war against the Demon Clan, he will host a special event in Cultivation Online. He wouldn’t discount all the prices in the Concept Enlightenment Hall, just certain ones. For example, Tianyi planned on hosting a special event relating to the Law of Fire, reducing the prices for all turns in the Concept Enlightenment Hall for a period of time, followed by the Law of Water, and so on.

Tianyi wanted to directly do laws related to Yin, Yang, and Life, but unfortunately, most cultivators did not have much insight into them, so he could only use laws related to them.

As Tianyi expected, it didn’t take much convincing on Xia Meng’s part for him to agree.

While the Immortal Court entered a time of festivity due to the limited time events in Cultivation Online, one which even true immortals participated in, the negotiations with the Numinous Sword Sect ended, and a date to invade the Divine Beast Pseudo-System was finalized.