Pei Xuanjing and the others had been discussing things within the grand hall for three days and three nights. However, aside from the four of them, no one knew what they had discussed, whether they had made any new plans.
Following this, Bai Xiaosheng voluntarily took over many of Pei Xuanjing's responsibilities, while Qingxu Taoist and the old Celestial Master began transitioning command of their alliance to Bai Xiaosheng, allowing him to coordinate the upcoming plan.
People like Zhao Baiyang were curious about the information Pei Xuanjing and others had obtained from Xue Hanyi and Xue Hanye, so even after the conclusion of the grand assembly, they did not leave.
While Pei Xuanjing did not divulge everything, he selectively disclosed some information to them, giving them an understanding of the Sky Wasteland and attempting to discourage them from the thought of siding with the other party.
Despite their shock at the news, they claimed that they would adhere to their plan and agreement without any compromise. Nonetheless, they were uncertain about the future and wouldn't dare to guarantee anything until the day arrived.
"A powerful adversary might awaken one's fighting spirit, but a vast disparity might also crush the last straw, leading some to thoroughly give up resistance," Pei Xuanjing muttered to himself.
He braced for the worst scenarios in the upcoming situation, refusing to be overly optimistic about everything.
When faced with a formidable enemy, even foreign tribes might choose to surrender.
Moreover, these old powers were originally part of this world. Some people view their return not as an invasion, and thus, capitulation wouldn't be an outrageous choice.
"What I can do now is to quickly enhance my power to maintain stability in the upcoming situation," Pei Xuanjing understood this clearly.
The discussion between the four of them that day further strengthened their cooperation.
Initially, each party was a significant force in the world, holding equal status and cooperating harmoniously. But now, facing the imminent return of ancient forces, their alliance underwent changes. In the Sky Wasteland, both Dragon Tiger Mountain and Bai Xiaosheng's faction originated from the same origin.
Dragon Tiger Mountain, being a top-tier power with a Ninth Realm Spirit cultivator, hadn't been maintaining contact for thousands of years. Regardless, it was of the same origin, providing Dragon Tiger Mountain with a safety net.
Therefore, Pei Xuanjing and his associates necessarily required a promise from the old Celestial Master to prevent internal conflict within their alliance.
However, this promise was not initiated by Pei Xuanjing and his team but proposed by Bai Xiaosheng, who shared the same circumstances as the old Celestial Master.
As Bai Xiaosheng previously stated: "In fact, what I'm doing now has completely deviated from the original rules of my lineage. Unless I give up everything I have now, there will inevitably be a split between us when they return, and a substantial battle would break out."
"Therefore, I promise all of you that no matter what the future holds, I will stand with you, with no hint of betrayal."
Pei Xuanjing could only guess at Bai Xiaosheng's scheme without being certain of the root cause. Qingxu Taoist, on the other hand, seemed to understand the reason clearly, so he voluntarily vouched for Bai Xiaosheng: "I, as a part of the True Martial Sect, guarantee this with the sect's centuries-old reputation."
Since Qingxu Taoist was willing to vouch, Pei Xuanjing naturally couldn't insist further. After all, their alliance would crumble on its own if they didn't reach a consensus before the ancients' return.
However, Bai Xiaosheng's actions put the old Celestial Master in an awkward position where he and Bai Xiaosheng shared similar circumstances.
If Bai Xiaosheng hadn't raised this point, the old Celestial Master could smoothly follow suit. But now that Bai Xiaosheng actively made the split, Dragon Tiger Mountain had to address this issue and make a similar promise.
However, in the end, Pei Xuanjing and the others didn't press too much. They only asked the old Celestial Master to maintain communication among their parties. If there were people from Dragon Tiger Mountain who wished to return, there should not be any concealment. Even if he chose to withdraw, he couldn't leak or withhold their plan.
"But any promise, without corresponding strength to withstand it, I'm afraid it wouldn't be fulfilled," Pei Xuanjing sneered, " Bai Xiaosheng's situation can still be handled. But if a powerful cultivator lands on Dragon Tiger Mountain, even if the old Celestial Master wants to uphold his promise, would he be able to control the situation at Dragon Tiger Mountain then?"
Pei Xuanjing had learned more about the Sky Wasteland from Xue Hanyi. In the Sky Wasteland, although Bai Xiaosheng's faction, with an Spirit Realm Eightfold cultivator, is considered a top-tier force, they conduct only intelligence transactions, not participating in any internal conflicts of the human race. Their actions clearly deviated from the original purpose of their lineage.
On the other hand, Dragon Tiger Mountain was different. Being a pinnacle power of the human race, they were at the forefront of the fight against the Demon Race. Even within the human race, Dragon Tiger Mountain has always been domineering. When their cultivators return, could the old Celestial Master really persuade them?
Pei Xuanjing didn't hold an optimistic attitude towards this.
"Time, what I need now is time. With enough time, I can enhance my strength using the simulator, and handle everything accordingly," Pei Xuanjing's gaze was dark.
He gently flipped his hand, and a book appeared in his grasp.
[Ten Thousand Spirit Body Forging Skill – Refining it provides 1.5 million Taoyun.]
Hearing the prompt in his mind, the simulation system, a satisfied smile appeared on Pei Xuanjing's face.
He had never expected that his greatest gain from encountering Xue Hanyi and Xue Hanye this time was not the information from the Sky Wasteland, but this cultivation skill in his hand.
After understanding what he needed, Pei Xuanjing naturally wanted to extract some cultivation skills from the Spirit Realm from them.
Xue Hanyi initially outright refused his demand because her origin granted her access to numerous techniques, but these were royal family secrets and she couldn't easily disclose them.
However, after being threatened by Pei Xuanjing and learning that he only needed a skill for reference, Xue Hanye had mentioned a skill, the Ten Thousand Spirit Body Forging Skill in Pei Xuanjing's hands.
Ten Thousand Spirit Body Forging Skill!
This skill does not belong to the Great Xue Ancient Nation, or rather, it does not belong to any power. It is widely spread throughout the Sky Wasteland.
It could be said that the Ten Thousand Spirit Body Forging Skill is almost as common as muck in the Sky Wasteland. Not every person has it, but nearly every strong person who can step into the Spirit Realm can obtain it.
Of course, the reason why the Ten Thousand Spirit Body Forging Skill is so widely spread is not because it is mediocre. Even among the skills in the Sky Wasteland, its level is considered top-notch. This skill can directly reach the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm.
But, why would no one want to cultivate such a top-notch skill?
That's because this skill is also known by another name: Ten Thousand Beast Body Forging Demon Skill!
This is a demon technique. The person who created this skill was a giant in Nine Realms of Spirit of the Demonic Way. After countless battles with demonic beasts, he combined the Dao of Body Refining practice to create this skill.
However, even the creator of this skill, that demon giant, never cultivated it himself and only gave it to his disciples to practice.
As a result, all those who practiced this skill ended up dead, with none surviving.
This is not a simple demon technique. Unlike the slow practice of ordinary body refining skills, it allows practitioners to speed up their cultivation by utilizing the essence and blood of demonic beasts, making it generally comparable to the speed of practicing the Dao of Qi Refining.
However, there is a downside to every advantage. The power rapidly gained from the essence and blood of these beasts subjects cultivators to its influence. The disorderly conflict of Inner Qi in the body eventually leads to the death by explosive outbreak.
For thousands of years, countless individuals have believed they can solve this problem, yet all met the same fate in the end.
Therefore, though this skill spreads all over the world, no one dares to continue practicing it.
Now, when Xue Hanyi presents this skill, it's for two reasons: one is to deal with Pei Xuanjing; the other is more sinister.
During their encounters, he noted that Pei Xuanjing also practices Refining Qi and Body together, so if he genuinely cultivates this skill, it would be interesting to watch.
Even if Xuanjing was able to step into the Fourth Level of the Spiritual Realm within a few short years after the revival of Heaven and Earth, demonstrating extraordinary talent, Hanyi doesn't believe he can solve this problem that has persisted for thousands of years.
"There must be a serious downside to a skill like this, which is widely spread but practiced by none," Pei Xuanjing thought.
Though he is unaware of the specific history, he guesses that if there weren't any downsides, many people would be practicing it.
"But what does that matter?" Pei Xuanjing was confident and smiled: "What I need is the Dao contained within it. Even if I were to cultivate it, it would only be practiced within the simulation of my life, and won't affect me in reality."
In the following days, Pei Xuanjing secluded himself on Shenxiao Mountain, only communicating with others occasionally through messenger eagles and ignoring other matters.
As for Xue Hanyi and Xue Hanyue, Pei Xuanjing put his Sword Intent on both of them and sealed their sources of Qi. As long as they didn't leave Shenxiao Mountain, they would have their freedom.
Autumn went, Winter came, Winter passed, and Spring arrived.
After waiting for spring plowing, the Great Ming imperial court amassed a million-strong army. Emperor Jiajing himself presided over the military ceremony, appointing Wang Boan as the commander to combat the remnants of the Former Yuan.
Various forces also committed their money, supplies, and each sent their own masters to join the expeditionary army in accordance with the agreement.
Meanwhile, several more Spirit Realm powerhouses emerged, including Daoist Xuanming of Baiyun Temple, the Headmaster of the Chunyang Sect, and the Sword Emperor of the Divine Sword Villa.
Of course, this was just the official news. According to the information reported by Bai Xiaosheng, with the support of Zhao Baiyang, the master of the Diamond Gate had entered the Spirit Realm. This powerful individual, who had chosen the path of physical cultivation, already had a profound base to start with. Coupled with the unparalleled strength that this path provided him, it can thus be said that the Alliance of Outsiders' power had increased significantly.
In addition to this, the Demonic Cult, Family Alliance, and Buddhism School each had one master breaking through to the Spirit Realm.
On the East Sea, there seemed to have been the trail of two masters of the Spirit Realm dueling each other, but no clues have been discovered.
Thus far, nine years since the revival of heaven and earth, there were almost more than twenty Spirit Realm cultivators in the world. However, all these powerful individuals were from major forces and have significant backing from these groups.
For those individuals who had luckily obtained the inheritance of the Blessed Land in the Forbidden Place, the most powerful among them had only reached the First-grade Realm. They were still some time away from breaking through to the Spirit Realm.
The Great Ming had sent out a million soldiers for a war, and the imperial court did not attempt to hide this news, nor would they have been able to do so. Unless the remnants of the Former Yuan were fools, they would have got wind of the news when Wang Qiong, the Minister of the Ministry of War, first started training the soldiers.
After all, around Great Ming, only those remnants were deemed worthy enough for the Imperial Court to warrant training its soldiers for combat.
As such, when the army of Great Ming set off, those remnants had also made ample preparations. The Tartar tribes, which were originally divided, began to reunite in face of this life or death crisis. Although some people were purged during this process, it did not weaken their power. Instead, it made them more cohesive and increased their overall strength.
As the commander, Wang Boan, with his previous war merits as a foundation and support from the emperor and others, nobody would challenge his decisions.
In such a war for annihilation, he was not eager for a quick victory. He chose to consolidate and advance slowly. The army gathered together. Although its progress was slow, it was unstoppable; nobody could stand in its way.
Former Yuan's forces were united and their strength significantly increased, but they had no means to counter a sweeping advance of a million-man army.
Of course, while the Spirit Realm cultivators of the Great Ming had broken through after the revival of Heaven and Earth, there were also Spirit Realm cultivators among them. Under these Spirit Realm cultivators' leadership, while they could not confront the army directly, they could choose to assassinate some generals, effectively delaying the army's sweeping progress.
Despite this, in just a short span of two years, the territory under their rule had shrunk to just one third of its original size.
This was because Great Ming had annexed too much territory and needed to dispatch soldiers to quell the rebels, which consumed a lot of energy.
Under such circumstances, almost everyone knew that Great Ming's sweep of Outer Borders was only a matter of time. If there were no accidents, everything was already set in stone.
However, sometimes, accidents happen unexpectedly, and there's nothing we can do about it.
The advancing army of Great Ming, which had a million soldiers, suffered its first setback. Or rather, its advance was damaged.
A wolf pack, hundreds of thousands of wolves gathered together as if summoned. They charged fearlessly at the Great Ming army.
You must know that even though these animals had become more ferocious after the revival of Heaven and Earth, and there seemed to be some signs of mutation, in the face of a million-strong army's majesty, these wolves should have avoided conflict at all costs.
The obstacle of hundreds of thousands of wolves this time almost suggested they were being manipulated.
This was the first major obstruction that the army of Great Ming encountered after leaving the border; even though they eventually repelled the wolf pack, they suffered substantial losses.
Before this matter could be fully understood, Wang Boan chose a cease-fire. This was the most prudent approach.
As for all this, Pei Xuanjing, who was on Shenxiao Mountain, knew nothing about it right now. Even though the messenger eagle had arrived with the news, Pang Hong was unable to deliver the message to him.
Because at that moment, Pei Xuanjing had once again gone into seclusion.
As Pei Xuanjing's strength increased, naturally the speed at which he refined the Taoyun quickened.
However, even with that, it still took him two years to fully refine the Taoyun of the Ten Thousand Spirit Body Forging Skill.
At this moment, even though Pei Xuanjing hadn't cultivated this skill, he had a clear understanding of it.
This skill was indeed a demonic way, it was extremely domineering. It was about refining the essences of myriad spirit demonic beasts for self-use, and then using these essences to nourish oneself, forging the body.
This skill reminded Pei Xuanjing of the Beiming Divine Skill and the Big Dipper Method he had heard in his previous life. This skill shared some similarities with those two.
However, there was also a significant downside. Just as the Big Dipper Method would cause Qi inside the cultivator to be mixed and conflicting if too much Qi was absorbed, so was it with the Ten Thousand Spirit Body Forging Skill. It could refine the essence and blood of demonic beasts to quickly boost strength, but these power accumulated in the body would cause internal conflicts. If this couldn't be resolved, the cultivator would surely explode and die!
"However, this skill still has its advantages. If I can take its essence and discard the dregs, and incorporate it into my Shenxiao Mysterious Skill, my Mysterious Skill will surely improve further." Pei Xuanjing couldn't help smirking.
Most trash is just resources placed in the wrong position. Let alone a skill developed by a Nine Realms of Spirit demonic way expert which could reach the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm, how could it have only disadvantages and no strengths.
As for Pei Xuanjing, his Way of Essence Refinement was the Shenxiao Mysterious Skill he had developed himself, based on the Dragon Elephant Art. Therefore, even if he obtained other body refining skills, he would only try to incorporate them into it, without changing it again.
After all, there are no invincible methods, only invincible people. Any skill is strongest only when it suits oneself.
"It's time for another life simulation now."
[Taoyun: 1659321 points.]
[Do you want to use the Life Simulator? One use will consume 1000000 Taoyun points.]
"Yes!"
[Life simulation begins:]
Age 1: You were born in a common military family, your father is a regular Centurion who fights against the frontier demonic beasts.
Age 16: Your father died in a battle against the demonic beasts. You choose to join the Border Army, becoming a soldier.
Age 17: You fought against the demonic beasts for the first time. Despite being seriously wounded, you managed to kill three demonic beasts, earning merit.
Age 20: You were promoted to Centurion and, during a mission, you managed to kill several middle-ranked demonic beasts of the same rank. But you attracted the pursuit of a Great Demon.
You fought desperately, but it was to no avail. You died tragically under the hands of the Great Demon.
[End of this life.]
"Is that it!" Incredulity appeared in Pei Xuanjing's previously calm eyes.
He spent a whole million Taoyun points to initiate a simulation, and it just ended like that…
Even with Pei Xuanjing's current state of mind, seeing this life simulation end so easily, he felt a bit aggrieved.
He originally thought that even if this life simulation didn't need to have as huge a harvest as the last one did, getting some other returns would suffice.
But it wasn't to be.
[Simulation ended: You can choose the following options.]
[Option one: Obtain all the insights and knowledge you had when you died in this simulation.]
[Option two: Project and possess, experience this life again.]
"After the upgrade of this simulator, it appears to be not as good as before." Pei Xuanjing thought.
In the original life simulation, he could influence the outcome. However, in this random life simulation, he could hardly make any significant impact.
If he wanted to not waste his Taoyun points, then his only option was to choose the second one — to project and possess and experience life with his own main consciousness.
"It seems like the simulator is intentionally making me experience different lives?" Pei Xuanjing had some suspicions.
However, even with these doubts, Pei Xuanjing didn't have many choices right now.
Unless, he was willing to give up this choice, throwing away those one million Taoyun points.
But that was completely impossible.
The one million Taoyun points was something that Pei Xuanjing had to spend an unknown amount of time and effort to accumulate. He couldn't simply give it up.
"Choose the second option!"
Since he couldn't refuse, he could only choose to face the difficulty.
Pei Xuanjing decisively made the choice.
[Life simulation — Projection and Possession mode activated.]
[The Great Tao is fifty, the Forty-Nine Heavenly Paths avoid one! Therefore, everything in the world has one thread of vitality!]
In an instant, the surroundings of Pei Xuanjing fell into silence, as if even time had stopped.
At this moment, his sea of consciousness seemed like Chaos, and then there was a loud noise, Heaven and Earth partitioned.
At the border, in the Great Ming military camp, in the commander's tent.
Sitting at the command post, Wang Bo'an, the commander of this expedition from Great Ming, and the elite of other forces were seated on either side.
Those who appeared in this commander's tent would either be high-ranking officers in the army, or be in charge of the big forces. Their gazes were all fixed on Yu Zhenzi who was standing in the middle of the tent.
In this tent, Wang Bo'an was the commander. Even though they were extremely eager, they couldn't take the initiative to ask questions.
"What about it, has Tiandu sent back any information?" Wang Bo'an asked.
This time, when the hundreds of thousands of wolves blocked their path, the imperial court of Great Ming had not been able to investigate the cause, so they wanted to see if they could obtain any information from the Jianghu side.
And Zhang Jie, representing the Shenxiao Sect in this army, was one of those responsible for handling the information from various Jianghu forces.
"So far, not much has been found," Zhang Jie replied, "I have transmitted the message back to Shenxiao Mountain, to ask if the head of the sect can figure out any anomalies. However, according to the young head, the head of the sect has already closed off for cultivation."
"What should we do now!"
"Yes, we originally thought that the National Teacher would understand the mystery, but we didn't expect the National Teacher to have closed off for cultivation."
Hearing this kind of reply, the others couldn't hold back any longer and started voicing out their concerns.
Even though Pei Xuanjing wasn't here, as the undeniably best person in the world right now, they believed that if he could be invited over, it would solve their problems.
"Silence!" Wang Bo'an saw these people talking noisily and shouted.
When they heard the anger of the commander, the tent immediately fell silent.
As the commander of this expedition, Wang Bo'an's authority had been deeply ingrained in everyone's hearts over the past two years. They respected the commander a lot and never dared to neglect him.
Wang Bo'an turned to Zhang Jie and said: "If there's anything else, you can say it now."