Library of Heaven’s Path

Two hours later, Zhang Xuan walked out of the Drifting Specter Royal City Master Teacher Pavilion’s library.

As expected of a Master Teacher Pavilion located at a prime location. Even though it looked humble at first, paling far in comparison to the magnificent buildings on the Master Teacher Continent, its collection of books was really nothing to scoff at.

There were cultivation technique manuals and battle technique manuals ranging from low-tier God all the way to high-tier Celestial God. Browsing through all of them, it did not take him too long to compile the corresponding Heaven’s Path Divine Art and battle techniques.

It was just a pity that there were no God King realm manuals.

But thinking again, there were very few God Kings in the Firmament, and most of them belonged to a major power. Naturally, their heritage would only be passed down within their own lineage.

It was nigh impossible for an outsider to lay their hands on their cultivation techniques and battle techniques.

“It’s still too early for me to make a breakthrough to God King. I’ll probably need a few more days first. For the time being, I should focus on reinforcing my cultivation and find a way to raise my cultivation to high-tier Celestial God.”

Knowing that he had to take a step at a time in order to lay a firm foundation, Zhang Xuan had no intention of rushing.

Even though he was progressing very slowly at the moment, that did not hinder him from working diligently toward his goal. He believed that as long as he persevered, he would eventually be able to reach great heights!

“For starters, I should try to acquire some middle-tier or even high-tier God Essence Pills.”

He had depleted all his middle-tier God Essence Pills for his breakthrough, so he had not been able to reinforce his cultivation properly. If he just cultivated by absorbing the spiritual energy in the air, who knew how long it would take before he was done?

That was simply too slow for him.

At the same time, middle-tier God Essence Pills were not as effective on him anymore. He could sense that the pills’ efficiency had decreased greatly after his breakthrough. Most likely, he would not be able to use them very soon.

From this, he knew that he should prioritize the procurement of high-tier God Essence Pills. The only issue was that he had no idea where he could source any.

“There are middle-tier God Essence Pills on sale at the Mingyuan market not too far away,” Fan Zhe told him. “As for high-tier God Essence Pills, those are restricted products in Royal City. It won’t be easy for you to get your hands on them.”

As the capital of one of the Nine Skies, Drifting Specter Royal City could be considered one of the major cities in the Firmament. Naturally, the tier of goods that were sold here was much higher than that of Dusklight City.

The middle-tier God Essence Pills that were hard to procure in Dusklight City could easily be bought here in large quantities.

Middle-tier God Essence Pills were a cultivation resource that Celestial Gods needed, and there was no lack of Celestial Gods in Royal City. It would cause a huge uproar if the authorities restricted the sale of middle-tier God Essence Pills.

On the other hand, the high-tier God Essence Pills were mainly used by God Kings, so the difficulty of procuring them was on a whole new level.

Anyway, for the time being, he would raise his cultivation with middle-tier God Essence Pills first and see how far he could go.

He turned down Fan Zhe’s offer for dinner before heading toward the Mingyuan Market together with Sun Qiang. With 40,000 Divine Coins on him, he should be able to get quite a few middle-tier God Essence Pills.

Soon enough, Sun Qiang walked over to him with a victorious smile on his lips and passed over a storage ring filled with four hundred middle-tier God Essence pills.

Under normal circumstances, a middle-tier God Essence Pills was worth one hundred Divine Coins. However, as middle-tier God Essence Pills were not as common as low-tier God Essence Pills, it was not easy to procure them in large quantities. In fact, most sellers would attempt to hike up the price when dealing with mass purchases.

“Young Master, do you need me to rent a silent chamber for you so that you can focus on your cultivation?” Sun Qiang asked.

“Silent chamber?” Zhang Xuan shook his head. “There’s no need for that. We don’t have much money left, so let’s save it for emergencies.”

“Are we returning to our residence then?” Sun Qiang asked.

Given how seriously the young master took his cultivation, Sun Qiang thought that the young man would want to cultivate as soon as he obtained the middle-tier God Essence Pills, but surprisingly, he was deferring it till they returned.

“Of course not. Wait a moment,” Zhang Xuan replied with a smile.

He took out all the jade bottles from the storage ring and poured bottle after bottle of middle-tier God Essence Pills in his mouth.

In a matter of seconds, he had already swallowed over a hundred middle-tier God Essence Pills.

Just as Sun Qiang was wondering what Zhang Xuan was up to, the latter’s cultivation began surging at a visible pace. Low-tier Celestial God primary stage…

Low-tier Celestial God intermediate stage…

In else than two breaths, he had already reached low-tier Celestial God pinnacle!

Zhang Xuan swallowed another bottle of pills, but his cultivation no longer rose. Shaking his head helplessly, he said, “It seems like my bottleneck came earlier than I thought…”

He had thought that he would be able to raise his cultivation to middle-tier Celestial God with the God Essence Pills that he had bought, but it seemed like he was too optimistic.

His cultivation was no longer rising after he reached low-tier Celestial God pinnacle.

It was no wonder this was the case. Even when he was cultivating the Heaven’s Path Divine Art, he needed exceptionally concentrated spiritual energy in order to raise his cultivation, such that he often faced the problem of procuring the cultivation resources he needed.

Given that he was cultivating the even stronger Pathos of Heaven now, the concentration of spiritual energy that he needed would inevitably be higher than before.

“Well, I wouldn’t be able to make a breakthrough now anyway. In order to remain in a balanced state, I must make sure that my physical body and soul cultivation remain on par with my cultivation.”

Harnessing the powers of nature meant that the cultivator would have to endure the pressure coming from nature. For this reason, it was important for a cultivator to maintain the balance among their zhenqi, soul, and physical body.

Otherwise, he would only be dragged down by his weakest link.

Zhang Xuan understood the logic behind this, but the problem was that even though the library of the Master Teacher Pavilion had plenty of books on cultivation techniques and battle techniques, there was nothing concerning soul cultivation and physical body enhancement.

Once again, he would have to look for other ways to raise his soul cultivation and enhance his physical body.

All in all, the time Zhang Xuan took to cultivate and ponder over these matters was no more than three seconds. When he looked up again, he saw Sun Qiang staring at him with googly eyes, as if he could hardly believe what he was seeing.

“Young Master, you are already done cultivating?”

Sun Qiang had always envied Zhang Xuan’s swift cultivation speed, and he had felt like there was nothing about the latter that could surprise him anymore. However, he just could not wrap his mind around how the time that the latter took for a breakthrough had reduced after arriving in the Firmament.

In the past, Zhang Xuan would still take at least two to four hours before he was done, but he did not need any of that anymore. It felt like the speed of the young man’s breakthrough was only limited by how quickly he could stuff God Essence Pills into his mouth!

Or perhaps… could gorging on pills actually be the secret to his fast pace of cultivation?

After all, there were cases where cultivators underwent a transformative change from amassing a massive amount of spiritual energy within their bodies.

Stroking his chin, a bold idea surfaced in Sun Qiang’s mind.

Oblivious to his butler’s thoughts, Zhang Xuan turned around and asked, “Did you manage to find out more about ways to enhance the physical body while I was cultivating?”

Sun Qiang’s eyebrows twitched in response to those words.

In this moment, he actually felt an urge to plunge a knife into the young man’s head to see what was inside.

You took only three breaths for your cultivation. What did you expect me to find out within this teeny-weeny bit of time? Do you think that information somehow pops into my head as and when I will it to?

“I’ll have it done right now.”

Sun Qiang had to take a deep breath before he could calm himself enough to say those words. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly recalled something and said, “Oh right, Young Master. Zhuo Feng has been following us for some time now, saying that he wishes to repay you for your help. Given that he’s a general in Drifting Specter Royal City, as well as a middle-tier Celestial God, I think that he should know a fair bit about such stuff.”

Zhuo Feng was that Silver Armored General.

Given Zhuo Feng’s standing, it was likely that he knew some information that would be difficult for them to source otherwise.

Having become a Celestial God, the ways in which Zhang Xuan could temper his physical body and soul cultivation were bound to have reduced significantly.

Furthermore, cultivation resources that were effective on Celestial Gods were bound to be invaluable, so there was no way one could acquire such information easily.

“Let’s invite him to our residence,” Zhang Xuan said.

It did not take long before they were settled within the main hall of Zhang Xuan’s residence.

“Zhang shi!” Zhuo Feng greeted.

The young man before him had saved his son and bestowed him with hope for a brighter future. This was a great favor, and he could not fathom just how he could possibly repay the debt. Nevertheless, he was determined to repay his son’s benefactor.

“There’s one thing that I would like to ask you,” Zhang Xuan said.

“Zhang shi, ask anything of me.”

“I would like to temper my body and refine my soul. Do you know any ways I can go about doing that? If you could point a feasible direction out to me, I think we can consider our scores settled. We will no longer owe each other anything.”

“This…” Zhuo Feng did not expect Zhang Xuan to ask him for such a simple request. He pondered for a moment before replying, “I know quite a few physical body tempering methods from the military, but most of them are intended for the God realm. For someone of your caliber… I know something that would have been suitable for a Celestial God like you, but it might not be very feasible now.”

“Oh?”

“It’s rumored that the best place for a Celestial God to temper their physical body is the Deathless Lava Reservoir. The Deathless Lava is filled with spiritual energy that can allow one to swiftly recover from all wounds, making it an ideal location to train one’s body. However, the heat in the Deathless Lava Reservoir suddenly extinguished forty years ago, causing the entire reservoir to solidify. The Deathless Monarch hasn’t repaired it since then, so it has been left in its derelict state,” Zhuo Feng said.

“The Deathless Monarch?” Zhang Xuan’s heart skipped a beat. “One of the Nine God Monarchs?”

That name struck a chord in Zhang Xuan’s head.

He recalled seeing the tombstone of the Deathless Monarch back in the Azure’s City of Collapsed Space.

Back then, he did not know about the various realms in the Firmament, and he had assumed that the Deathless Monarch was nothing more than a simple god. As such, he did not really take it to heart.

But when he heard the name from Zhuo Feng’s mouth once more, everything suddenly clicked together in his mind.

The Nine God Monarchs were known as the strongest individuals in the Firmament, and they had been around since time immemorial. How could one of them simply die like that?

Was the tombstone really the grave of the Deathless God Monarch, or did it represent something else?

“That’s right.” Zhuo Feng nodded. “The Deathless God Monarch is quite a low-profile individual. He hasn’t appeared in public for a few decades now.”

“A few decades?” Zhang Xuan frowned upon hearing those words. “Didn’t he have a fight with the Heaven Subjugation Monarch within the past forty years?”

At this point, Zhuo Feng lowered his voice and spoke telepathically. “That’s what has been said officially, but there are no details about where the battle has occurred, the outcome of the battle, or even if the battle happened at all. I heard a rumor that the Heaven Subjugation Monarch headed over there to challenge him, but the Deathless Monarch simply admitted defeat without bothering to meet him. But again, this matter concerns the privacy of the God Monarchs, so it’s better not to talk too much about it.”

If Zhang Xuan had not been the benefactor of his child, Zhuo Feng would never have said so much to him.

The information that he had spoken of was hardly known among the common populace, but as a middle-tier Celestial God, he had still heard some rumors about it.

“I see…” Zhang Xuan muttered with a confounded look on his face.

If that was the case, the tombstone of the Deathless Monarch that he had seen in the City of Collapsed Space might very well turn out to be real.

Was it possible for God Monarchs to die?

Not to mention, the person who had died was ironically known as the Deathless Monarch!

If it was forty years ago, that coincided with the period that the spiritual energy started receding. Just what in the world happened back then?

“May I know which of the Nine Skies the Deathless Monarch governs?” Zhang Xuan asked.

He had read much about the Nine Skies so far, but weirdly enough, there was not much information regarding the God Monarchs even though he thought that they should be common knowledge. It was almost as if it was forbidden to talk about them.

“The Deathless Monarch governs the Sky of Spirit Origin,” Zhuo Feng said. “Informally, the Sky of Spirit Origin is also called as the Sky of Deathlessness. Located at the south of the Firmament, it’s right next to our Sky of Drifting Specter. It’s known for its Five Rivers and Three Marshes, which span over large swathes of land. I had the privilege to visit the Spirit Origin Royal City once, but I was only able to tour its outskirts. I heard that the inner city is extremely prosperous, even more so than our Drifting Specter Royal City. However, it seems like the Deathless Monarch took the city away with him several decades ago…”

Zhang Xuan nodded quietly.

He had read about the Sky of Spirit Origin, but he did not think that it would be related to the Deathless Monarch. If he had known that it was called the Sky of Deathlessness, he would have long made the link between the two.