The Modern Martial Immortal

Yaoguang activated the Nine Heavenly Transformations and, in an instant, appeared dozens of kilometers away, avoiding the impact of the blazing flames and intense light.

His expression did not change much, but in his heart, his actions weighed on him, prompting a moment of self-reflection.

But in the environment of North Sea Star, it was better for him to suppress any thought of mercy.

By the time he returned to the Cloud Sword Sect, nearly all Eternal Light Realm and Heavenly Fire Realm cultivators had already been slaughtered by Li Hanqiu.

The Fang family’s elites, under Fang Yueming’s command, were pursuing the remaining Core Formation cultivators.

As for those at the Foundation Building Realm and Unity Realm, Li Hanqiu did not bother to hunt them down.

”How was it?” Seeing Yaoguang return, Li Hanqiu asked.

”Not bad.” Yaoguang replied, ”About what I expected...”

After a pause, he added, ”I thought that this Crimson Golden Core cultivator would be somewhat capable, but his strength was a bit below my expectations. However, these North Sea Star cultivators are completely fearless when it comes to life-or-death combat. They don’t hesitate to use forbidden techniques and fight with reckless ferocity. Because of that, their overall performance still matches my estimates.”

Li Hanqiu nodded.

Reckless ferocity! When it was time to risk their lives, they did so without hesitation! This was something cultivators from the Great Cangwu World lacked.

The Golden Core cultivators back in the Great Cangwu World were overly cautious, far less decisive and resolute than those of the North Sea Star.

After a moment, Li Hanqiu seemed to recall something. ”Catch.”

He tossed over a device resembling a single-sided mirror.

Yaoguang caught it and quickly realized what it was. ”This is...”

”A Combat Power Detector. It’s been refined over generations, so its accuracy is quite high.” Li Hanqiu paused briefly. ”Of course, the one we have isn’t top-tier. Once a cultivator stops fighting, the data may no longer be accurate. And if the target uses concealment techniques, the readings become practically meaningless.”

”What’s my combat power?” Curious, Yaoguang activated the device and scanned Li Hanqiu.

With a few beeps, the detector quickly displayed a number. 1,130,000.

”You’re currently at 15,500. But when you killed that Crimson Golden Core, your reading reached 81,000.” Li Hanqiu took the technological device and looked at Yaoguang. ”And that was without using your outer core. I estimate your true combat power could reach 150,000.”

”150,000...” Yaoguang adjusted the device and quickly formed a reference range.

The Radiant Sun Golden Core Realm would have readings between 100,000 and 200,000. The Blazing White Golden Core Realm between 200,000 and 500,000.

The Azure Golden Core Realm: theoretically between 500,000 and 1,000,000. But as potential candidates to reach the Void-Piercing Realm, their astras and divine abilities were superior, so their actual combat power could reach 1,500,000, even 2,000,000.

”The gap is huge.” Yaoguang looked at Li Hanqiu. ”Perfected Lord Li, your combat power should be over ten million, right?”

”For Void-Piercing Realm cultivators, the range is roughly ten to twenty million. But I’m a Void-Piercing Realm battle immortal. Depending on the stability of the Primordial Void, my effective combat power fluctuates between one and ten million. And even that doesn’t mean much. There are too many techniques that exploit the instability of the Primordial Void and can deal fatal blows to battle immortals. In theory, our actual combat strength should be divided by two or even three.”

He smiled self-deprecatingly. ”There’s a saying that if a Void-Piercing Realm battle immortal cannot instantly kill an opponent, then that opponent has a chance of killing them.”

”You’re different,” Yaoguang said. ”With the World-Stabilizing Ring, you should rank among the top battle immortals.”

”My understanding of the Void-Piercing Realm can’t compare to the true elites,” Li Hanqiu replied calmly. ”By this detector’s standards, I’m probably around five million. And considering my lack of real combat experience compared to seasoned battle immortals, four million is more realistic.”

”That’s still incredible,” Yaoguang said sincerely.

Before breaking through, Li Hanqiu had likely only been around 100,000 combat power. Even that had depended on spirit treasures to boost him slightly. Otherwise, he might have only been around 80,000.

From 80,000 to 4 million was a fiftyfold increase. This battle immortal path was truly tempting.

***

While Yaoguang and Li Hanqiu oversaw the situation, Li Qingshan, Huang Tianhao, Lou Yuyu, Jiang Zhouyue, Murong Hui, Tang Fenghua, Shen Qinglian, Xu Nianhua, and the others worked together with the Fang family to rapidly take control of the Cloud Sword Sect.

Fang Yueming showed no surprise at the relatively weak strength of Yaoguang and Li Hanqiu’s subordinates.

In fact, such a situation was not uncommon on North Sea Star.

A single top-tier expert controlled everything, a carefully cultivated true disciple was prepared to inherit, and the rest were simply laborers.

As long as the laborers could survive, that was enough.

Fang Yueming even felt secretly pleased. If the middle-to-low tiers of this Nine Cauldrons Sect were truly this weak, then wouldn’t the Fang family have a chance to rise?

Even serving as mere laborers didn’t matter. This was a force backed by a Void-Piercing Realm expert!

Even families with Eternal Light Realm or Crimson Golden Core cultivators would beg for the chance to attach themselves to such power, let alone his Fang family, whose strongest member was only at the Heavenly Fire Realm.

***

As night fell, the Cloud Sword Sect’s array was reactivated.

With the array running, the near-solid atmosphere of North Sea Star was pushed away, and the influence of the stellar core over this region was greatly reduced. One after another, nearly a million members of the Nine Cauldrons Sect disembarked from the Void Disk.

After nearly five months confined within that cramped space, finally setting foot on solid ground again left everyone visibly excited.

As for the detailed arrangements of personnel, the various hall masters naturally took charge.

Yaoguang and Li Hanqiu, meanwhile, began reviewing the reports submitted by Li Qingshan, Huang Tianhao, Tang Fenghua, and the others.

After going through the general summary, Li Hanqiu looked somewhat surprised. ”The assets of the Cloud Sword Sect are actually worth three billion?”

He glanced at Li Qingshan. ”Even if it had a Blazing White Golden Core cultivator overseeing it, it only controlled the eastern region of the Yunchuan Mountains. How could it have accumulated such wealth?”

”The reason it’s valued so highly is that, on the North Sea Star, spirit stones aren’t as useful as we imagined.” As Li Qingshan spoke, he glanced at the protective sect array already operating outside. ”Take this defensive array covering the Cloud Sword Sect. Just maintaining it in an active state with the most basic functions would theoretically consume over a hundred thousand spirit stones per day. But because the air on the North Sea Star already contains an immense amount of spiritual qi, the array can operate normally without any spirit stone input. Similarly, many things that originally required spirit stones can now be sustained purely by the ambient spiritual qi in the void.”

He paused briefly. ”So, the value of spirit stones here is far lower than we expected.”

”The inherent spiritual qi of North Sea Star...” Li Hanqiu quickly understood.

”Of course, you could also say that North Sea Star’s overall production capacity is much higher than that of the Great Cangwu World. If we were to sell spirit artifacts or treasured artifacts, we could still earn plenty of spirit stones. It’s just that they’re no longer indispensable,” Li Qingshan said.

”In other words, spirit stones aren’t the primary currency here?” Yaoguang asked, realizing something else.

”Exactly!” Li Qingshan nodded. ”The true currency on the North Sea Star is a cultivator’s cultivation level and combat power. As for spirit stones, high-level cultivators don’t really need them...”

At this point, his expression turned slightly strange. ”They trade using pills and spirit treasures, especially pills. It’s almost like a return to bartering, as if history has reversed.”

”Perhaps it’s not a regression.” Li Hanqiu thought for a moment. ”Perhaps it’s simply because cultivators no longer trust one another. The only thing people believe in is themselves. So aside from strength, no true currency can emerge and circulate across the North Sea Star.”

A collapse of trust... Li Qingshan nodded in agreement.

Yaoguang, however, showed a trace of interest. ”How advanced are alchemy and artifact refinement here? What are these pills like as a medium of exchange? How is their value determined?”

”The information we’ve gathered mostly comes from those Golden Core cultivators of the Taiyi Immortal Sect and the Fang family. The Fang family’s level is limited, so they only know that pills are divided into four types: spirit pills, treasured pills, grand pills, and Dao Pills. The price difference between each tier is a thousandfold. For Golden Core cultivators, the most important ones are the Primordial Treasured Pill and the Pure Yang Grand Pill. The Pure Yang Grand Pill can help cultivators from the Heavenly Fire Realm all the way to the Azure Golden Core Realm.”

As he spoke, he took out a bottle of pills. ”We only found this one bottle, and there are just two pills left.”

Li Hanqiu immediately turned his gaze toward Yaoguang.

Yaoguang did not hesitate. He took one pill, examined it briefly with his psychic thoughts to confirm there was no issue, and then swallowed it.

Though called a pill, the Pure Yang Grand Pill was more like spiritual qi refined to the extreme, possessing an exceptionally high level of compatibility.

It could replenish the energy of his star god body, enhance his cultivation, and even nourish his psychic mind.

In other words, a single pill simultaneously strengthened essence, qi, and psyche.

”This is a pill specifically for cultivation. And I can tell that it has almost no pill toxins, nor anything that would cause resistance to its effects down the line. It’s nearly identical to the spiritual qi that cultivators absorb and refine in daily practice. The one who created this pill is a genius.” After a moment, Yaoguang reached his conclusion and couldn’t help but praise the alchemist who had created it.

”The North Sea Star truly has remarkable talents.” Huang Tianhao could not help but remark.

”This is indeed a pill designed purely for cultivation,” Li Qingshan said. ”Under the simultaneous cultivation of essence, qi, and psyche, forming a Crimson Golden Core within sixty years and reaching the Radiant Sun Golden Core within a hundred years should be impossible. Aside from Yaoguang, none of us here would dare claim we could achieve that. Yet this level of talent is merely the standard for outer and inner disciples of the Taiyi Immortal Sect. That doesn’t make sense.”

He looked at the Pure Yang Grand Pill. ”This bottle gives us the answer. With enough of these pills, as long as one’s realm keeps up, a cultivator can skip the entire process of energy accumulation, saving decades or even centuries of refining true origin.”

”Skipping energy accumulation...” Li Hanqiu gazed at the bottle. ”I’ve heard that in the Heavenly Fiend Empire, which is even stronger than the Lunar Fiend Empire, there’s a technology where power is divided into ranks such as nation lord, domain lord, star lord, and world master, each with nine tiers. Normally, advancing from the first to the ninth tier requires years of accumulation. But their imperial lineage can use something called ‘energy slot’ technology to directly infuse energy, jumping from first tier to ninth tier instantly.”

A hint of anticipation appeared in his eyes. ”If the North Sea Star can contend with the Heavenly Fiend Race, it’s not strange for it to have similar methods.”

”Our foundation in realms isn’t necessarily weaker than cultivators here. If we can obtain enough pills...” Li Qingshan’s eyes gleamed. ”I believe many of us will have explosive growth.”

Li Hanqiu glanced at him, noticing the expectation and excitement in his expression. At that moment, he seemed to understand why the North Sea Star was so chaotic.

In a world where order had collapsed, countless people might become stepping stones for others. But for those with true capabilities, it was far too easy to rise rapidly.

Once people knew such treasured pills existed, who would still be willing to patiently refine their true origin through hard cultivation?

And among those who had stepped onto the path of immortality and achieved some success, who did not believe in their own talent?

Thus, even as blood flowed like rivers around them, they remained indifferent, striving upward with all their might, seeking only to reach mastery and make their names known across the world.