Chapter 969: All Is Ready, Lingyin’s Advancement

Chapter 969: Chapter 969: All Is Ready, Lingyin’s Advancement

Time flowed on; a hundred years passed.

Tu Lin and Fan Rongrong of Xinmao City, one after another condensed their Golden Cores, becoming prominent figures with both name and face in the city.

From their vantage point, everything that had happened in the Dragon Claw Realm over these years could be called vast as stormy seas, incomparably shocking to the heart!

As the Spirit Land Sensing Spell spread—one teaching ten, ten teaching a hundred—countless cultivators poured into the Nanke Spirit Land by way of Dream-entering techniques, causing the entire spiritual land to expand several times over in just a century; at the same time, in reality, the immortal cities under the spiritual land’s jurisdiction, such as Xinmao City, also grew to more than ten times their original size.

The grand, sweeping expansion of the Nanke Spirit Land infringed upon the interests of countless immortal sects of the righteous path and Demonic Sects of the crooked ways, shaking the very foundation of their existence!

Yet cultivators of the righteous path could enter the spiritual land without restriction, and gain boundless benefits from this world-shaking transformation; thus their resistance was not fierce. Those who remained obstinately opposed were either leveled by the spiritual land, or declined at a startling pace.

By contrast, Evil Demons and heterodox paths were forbidden from entering the spiritual land, unable to gain even the tiniest sliver of advantage. Therefore, even with Wuji Palace’s annihilation as a warning, large and small Demonic Sects in the cultivation world still joined hands, seeking to resist the spiritual land’s expansion.

Only, in the face of the spiritual land, all of the Demonic Path’s struggles appeared futile. Many times, there was not even any need for the Immortal Realm powerhouses within the spiritual land to act personally; the local cultivators who had cultivated the Spirit Land Sensing Spell, once twisted into a single rope by the spiritual land, were enough to wipe out powerful Demonic Sects with ancient inheritances and deep foundations.

Over these years, Tu Lin and Fan Rongrong had successively experienced several great wars between immortals and demons, and almost all ended with the Demonic Path’s resistance crushed like rotten wood.

When they occasionally encountered a tougher bone, a powerhouse of the spiritual land would personally take the field and raze it to the ground!

Almost all Demonic Sects of any standing had their mountain gates broken; some lesser Demonic Sects and evil rogue cultivators did their utmost to hide away, but lacking Cultivation Blessed Lands, spiritual item resources, fresh blood and so on, they could only skulk about like homeless dogs, trembling in fear from day to day, no longer able to stir up any great waves!

Thus, the entire Dragon Claw cultivation world showed a trend of the Dao waxing and demons waning.

Beyond what ordinary cultivators could see, in many older, more hidden corners, the influence of the spiritual land was also slowly probing inward.

For instance, in ancient Dungeons where cultivation clans that had passed down their heritage for unknown ages had never once emerged, they were forced to re-enter the world; for instance, in the depths of the sea, terrifying beasts that had long lain dormant and sought to stir up storms were beheaded by the spiritual land; for instance, at ten-thousand-zhang depths beneath the earth, vast demonic nests composed of countless demons and monsters were directly nailed underground by Formations...

Because of this communication channel that was the Nanke Spirit Land, even though the two of them, Tu Lin and Fan Rongrong, could not personally go to the Dragon Horn, Dragon Eye, Dragon Kiss and other realms, they could still broadly learn the trends of the other eight realms. There was no difference from the Dragon Claw Realm—those realms had likewise undergone earth-shattering changes!

And all of this was but a part of the heaven-shaking transformation.

The Nanke Spirit Land, swollen into a colossal behemoth, had gradually grasped the terrifying manpower and resources of the Nine Realms under the Constellations of Horned Flood Dragon, and was slowly yet steadfastly carrying out its original plan.

One towering mountain after another was forcibly moved; one river after another had its course altered; stretches of desolate wilderness were leveled;

More than that, innumerable sky-lifting pillars refined from spiritual materials were either erected high upon the peaks of famed cultivation mountains, driven into various earth-acupoints and Spirit Veins, or sunk into the boundless oceans!

Many famous mountains and great rivers, as well as Spirit Vein nodes, had been occupied by the mountain gates of major sects.

For this, the spiritual land used utterly resolute means, forcing many great immortal sects to abandon ancestral grounds they had passed down for generations, and seek new locations to rebuild their mountain gates; in this process, many ancient, stubborn immortal sects of the righteous path met with the same fate as Demonic Sects!

Whether in the Dragon Claw Realm or in the other eight realms, there was no shortage of cultivators with overflowing curiosity.

Once, a powerful high-class cultivator flew with escaping light to an extreme height and looked down, only to be shocked to discover... that these vast yet seemingly baffling measures of the spiritual land had, invisibly, woven together threads of complex and precise Formation spiritual marks, spreading outward with the cities under its jurisdiction as cores, and nearly blanketing the entire realm!

...

Dragon Heart Realm, subsidiary courtyard of the Crimson Flame Sect Mountain Gate.

Zhao Lingyin sat in lotus posture; nature’s spiritual energy continuously gathered toward her Dao Body, transforming into pure Greenwood True Yuan that dripped into her Dantian, yet her cultivation did not increase in the slightest.

Before long, she opened her mouth and spat; within a sheath of spirit light, the Enlightenment Pill, which had completely turned Purple, was expelled and fell into the jade plate before her.

"My lord..."

Just as Zhao Lingyin opened her eyes, she saw Shen Mo standing quietly before her, and could not help but smile sweetly, pulling Shen Mo down to sit at her side.

"I just used my responsive body to inspect the big array spread across the Nine Realms. When I returned to the residence and saw you still cultivating, I did not disturb you."

"These years have been hard on you!"

"You and I are Dao companions of one heart and one body; what hardship is there to speak of?" Shen Mo pulled Zhao Lingyin into his arms, smiling as he said, "After two hundred years of painstaking management, everything is now ready. Lingyin, you must no longer swallow Enlightenment Pills; properly adjust your state, and you can attempt to stir your own tribulation and ascend to the Divine Bridge!"

Ever since learning that behind her enlightenment tribulation there followed directly a tier of death tribulation, Zhao Lingyin had continually relied on Enlightenment Pills to suppress her cultivation, remaining at the peak of the Golden Core Realm despite two hundred years passing;

She had accumulated several dozen Enlightenment Pills nourished with her own primal Essence and Qi!

Now that Shen Mo had finished all necessary preparations and held sufficient confidence in his heart, it was time for her to cross tribulation and ascend.

Hearing this, a trace of joy appeared on Zhao Lingyin’s face, tinged with a little nervous unease: "If I fail to pass this death tribulation, you and I may be forever parted between heaven and man. Before I cross tribulation, keep me company properly."

"Rest easy. I have already asked fellow daoist Guan Ling: if you cannot cross this tribulation, she will act to seize your soul, and will by no means let that old demon hag torment you! Once you reincarnate, I will seek you out again and guide you back onto the immortal path." Shen Mo smiled in comfort.

"Mm!"

Zhao Lingyin nodded heavily, then leaned forward, pressing Shen Mo down upon the jade couch: "There is still a bit of heat lacking before I can break through and ascend. I need my lord to assist my cultivation."

"..."

Moments later, the room was suffused with boundless immortal radiance and extraordinary phenomena!

With no Enlightenment Pills siphoning away her True Yuan, Zhao Lingyin’s cultivation began to rise without cease, stronger with each passing day.

After more than half a month, the tribulation Qi upon her body had reached its utmost, and then, under Shen Mo’s protection, she began her ascension, attempting to erect the Divine Bridge.

At the same time, cultivators of the spiritual land across the Dragon Horn, Dragon Heart, Dragon Claw and the other realms of the Nine Realms—numbering in the billions—received a mission bearing no rank and no cultivation requirement; the mission’s content was simple: to bring their real bodies to the nearest spiritual land city and provide Mana for the big array soon to begin operation, while the reward offered by the spiritual land was astonishingly generous!