Volume 1, Chapter 416 – The Dao of Runes

On Yunyan Star, among the family powers that remained, Tianyan Sect no longer had any opponents aside from the four great royal clans. In truth, Shi Lan had already begun setting her sights on those families.

The cultivation system on Yunyan Star differed somewhat from that of Lingyang Realm, but the difference was not all that great. It was somewhat similar to the martial path.

At the beginning of cultivation, after passing through the four realms of skin-tempering, bone-forging, blood exchange, and inner strengthening, one tempered astral fiend energy within the body.

Using heavenly materials and earthly treasures to refine that astral fiend energy and increase one’s cultivation, one would step into the Spirit Palace Realm and strengthen the spiritual soul. After that, one would condense a nascent spirit within the body, and finally advance into the King Realm.

The King Realm was roughly equivalent to the great Heaven-Man experts of the Vast Land of Shenzhou, but instead of opening a small world, they condensed a source crystal within the body, which contained many mysteries of the laws.

On Yunyan Star, those in the King Realm only faced a single thunder tribulation when breaking through, and there were only three minor realms within it. It was not like Lingyang Realm, where there were the nine tribulations of the Heaven Realm.

Among the four great royal clans, the Qin, Zhao, Hou, and Li clans all had King Realm experts.

Of them, the Qin clan was the strongest. It had one perfected King Realm patriarch, and under him were seven King Realm experts, revered as the Seven Sages of the Qin clan.

Apart from the Qin clan, the other three had no perfected King Realm experts, and the number of their King Realm experts was somewhat lower as well.

However, because the seven great powerful clans had fallen, a vast amount of cultivation resources had been freed up on Yunyan Star. During this period, the strength of all the various families had grown quite a bit.

Shi Lan had not yet fought a King Realm expert, so for the moment she had no way to judge their actual combat strength.

If she could fully reorganize the families on Yunyan Star and turn them into forces in her own hands, then her current main quest should be completed, and her later development would proceed far more smoothly.

But rumors had already begun to spread outside. Without absolute strength to suppress them, even if she began the reorganization, those families would likely do no more than obey in public while defying in private.

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In the end, the key was still to first cultivate her Nascent Soul golden body to completion.

Cultivation resources were the greatest shackle limiting the progress of her cultivation. Tianyan Sect now possessed one hundred thousand spirit mountains and several hundred mineral veins, so its resources were incomparably abundant.

But once the sect’s daily operating costs were deducted, the surplus in the sect treasury would not be all that much, and in the end some things still had to be kept in reserve.

In the Vast Land of Shenzhou, the overwhelming majority of cultivation resources were likewise controlled by the major powers and were even harder to obtain.

Although Chu Hanzhou had promised to give her a portion of cultivation resources, she had only recently asked him for so many spiritual medicines and immortal roots. She did not have the nerve to go asking again so soon.

Shi Lan suddenly felt somewhat troubled. She was still too poor…

Clearly, the resources she possessed were a thousand times, ten thousand times greater than before, yet they still were not enough.

“You can try going to some higher-level worlds. Those worlds will certainly have the resources you need,” Samsara suddenly said.

It was now far too weak. Most of the time it was accumulating energy, and Shi Lan had not heard from it for quite a while.

“A higher world? Similar to Lingyang Realm?”

“A little weaker, but Supremes were also born there. Lingyang Realm ranks very highly among worlds. In my database, it stands near the top.”

At that point, Samsara let out a sigh, sounding somewhat helpless.

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“My current power is too weak. I cannot open a passage through the barriers of those higher worlds. And I have no idea how much time has passed since I last went to that world. There may have been changes. There is a certain amount of risk.”

A vague coordinate entered Shi Lan’s mind, and the Empress-raising System instantly reacted.

[World coordinate detected. Searching…]

[Search complete. Obtained Great Thousand World Coordinate x1.]

[Constructing a passage requires 0.9 units of Nine Stars Energy. Construct?]

The energy required to build the passage was far less than Shi Lan had expected.

“What kind of world is it?”

Shi Lan pondered for a moment, wanting to know more before making her decision.

“Its cultivation system differs from Lingyang Realm. It mainly cultivates the path of spiritual runes, but it is likewise a world where power belongs to the individual. It contains a cultivation resource called rune stone. After refining it into the body, it can increase spiritual power, that is, the power of the soul. It should be of great benefit to your Nascent Soul. Most importantly, the Heavenly Dao’s oversight there is very lax.”

Samsara spoke only briefly, then changed the subject.

“But that information is from a very long time ago. I can hardly guarantee what the situation is like now.”

Shi Lan fell into thought. If she opened a passage to this world, then she would not have much Nine Stars Energy left in her hands.

But so long as she could raise her cultivation quickly, that energy would one day be made back.

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After a while, Shi Lan stood up and walked out of the hall.

“I’ll give it a try.”

…

In Xiongming King World, within Cangyan Province, in a barren mountain range, a line of nearly a thousand people was on the move, men and women, young and old alike.

Because of harassment from the ape demon clan, the Qinggui Rakshasa clan had been forced to migrate with the entire clan.

In the Xiongming King World, where hundreds of races stood side by side, such a thing was far too common.

At the very front of the group, a young girl, guarded by several sturdy Rakshasa, led the people slowly onward.

Several days later, the entire group stopped in a level valley surrounded by mountains on three sides.

“This is the place.”

A voice transmission sounded by the girl’s ear. She instinctively gripped the pendant on her chest and raised a hand, signaling the people behind her to come to a gradual stop.

Shi Lan extended her divine sense from within the pendant, swept it across the entire valley, and transmitted her voice again:

“There is a hidden dragon vein here. Set up the formation according to what I taught you before, and you will be able to gather and lock the heaven-and-earth essence. Using this place as your base will be enough for your clansmen to survive.”

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Although she now had only a wisp of remnant soul and no Heaven’s Eye, she still understood ordinary geomantic configurations. Finding a hidden vein was not particularly difficult.

Time flowed several times faster in the Xiongming King World than in Lingyang Realm. Shi Lan had established contact with Bian Qin more than a year ago.

In this world, contact with her true body was extremely inconvenient, and the only help she could provide was in the form of cultivation methods and scriptures.

So Shi Lan selected several cultivation methods and martial arts suited to the Qinggui Rakshasa clan from among the scriptures and manuals she had previously drawn and passed them on to Bian Qin.

Ever since then, Bian Qin had always addressed her as Master, but Shi Lan had never regarded her as a disciple. She simply wanted to watch how far this young high priestess could go in this world.

It was an alternative road of growth, one that might perhaps bring her some inspiration.

…

In another corner of the universe, a continent hung silently in the starry sky, shrouded by an invisible barrier.

A beam of light shot in from the depths of the universe, instantly piercing the barrier and plunging into the continent.

Shi Lan stepped out from a stretch of woodland, took a deep breath of the essence of heaven and earth, and could not help frowning slightly.

The laws here made her feel somewhat uncomfortable…

“The rejection reaction of higher worlds is relatively strong, so very few people enter such worlds in their true bodies. Most instead find a body in that world to inhabit.”