Chapter 213 The Pinnacle of Cultivation

　　Cui Heng’s residence in Linjiang County was the Heart Nourishing Courtyard.

　　This was the best place in Linjiang County. It was a courtyard that Pei Qingshu had specially built for cultivation.

　　Hui Shi, Zhang Shuming, Hong Kang, and Hong Shen also followed him in.

　　Actually, Pei Qingshu had originally planned to live here and serve Cui Heng.

　　However, Cui Heng chased him back to the Pei family mansion.

　　Previously, Pei Yue had misjudged the situation and caused a lot of trouble at home. He needed Pei Qingshu to deal with it.

　　In a lakeside pavilion in the Heart Nourishing Courtyard.

　　Cui Heng was brewing tea.

　　In the 300 years in the Beginner’s Space, he had cultivated an extremely good tea brewing technique. Drinking the tea he brewed was also a form of enjoyment.

　　Hui Shi, Zhang Shuming, and Hong Kang sat at the side.

　　The three of them were in different states.

　　Hong Kang was flattered and very uneasy.

　　Zhang Shuming was overjoyed.

　　In his opinion, being able to drink the tea brewed by Exalted Immortal was simply an Immortal encounter.

　　Hui Shi’s expression was much calmer. He had been by Cui Heng’s side for the longest time.

　　He had been by Cui Heng’s side since Juhe County. He had seen Cui Heng use too many Immortal techniques and had been given many opportunities by Cui Heng. He was not shocked just because he drank tea.

　　“Come, try the tea I personally brewed.” Cui Heng smiled and poured a cup of tea for the three of them.

　　“Thank you, Immortal Venerable!”

　　“Thank you, Exalted Immortal!”

　　“Thank you, Immortal Venerable!”

　　The three of them thanked him and drank their tea.

　　Immediately after, their bodies underwent a tremendous change.

　　Hong Kang felt his Inner World cultivation become complete in an instant. Strange powers kept awakening in his body, and these powers quickly sublimated, and he became a Human Immortal in the blink of an eye.

　　Zhang Shuming had the same feeling.

　　However, his breakthrough was even greater. He directly broke through from the Deity Realm to the Deva Realm.

　　Hui Shi naturally received the greatest improvement. He directly jumped from the realm of condensing Deva blood to the Perfected Dharma Idol stage and reached the Heaven Monarch realm.

　　All of this improvement was done silently.

　　There was no phenomenon in the world.

　　Therefore, all the power needed to break through was provided by the Dharmic powers contained in the tea.

　　“Thank you, Immortal Venerable!”

　　The three of them knelt and thanked him in unison.

　　“Alright, get up.” Cui Heng waved his hand and smiled. “I helped you increase your cultivation this time because there’s something I need you to do. Hui Shi…”

　　“Yes!” Hui Shi immediately stood up and waited at the side.

　　“I want you to establish a martial arts sect.

　　nartial techniques that you will teach will be targeted at the Heaven Monarch realm. This can be directly announced to the public.” Cui Heng took a sip of tea and said, “If anyone attacks, let Huo Er come out.”

　　“Yes, Immortal Venerable!” Hui Shi immediately agreed. He had always followed Cui Heng’s orders and never asked why.

　　Back in Juhe County, he had already recognized his position-to be a sharp knife!

　　“Hong Kang.” Cui Heng looked at the slightly uneasy old man and smiled. “Your ancestor was my first disciple, and also the disciple I valued the most. He once had a great ambition.”

　　“…” Hong Kang opened his mouth, but he didn’t know what to say. He really didn’t know much about his ancestors.

　　“This ambition is to save the world. He wants every ordinary person to be able to eat to their fill, wear warm clothes, and sleep peacefully.” Cui Heng’s expression became serious.

　　Hong Kang was stunned when he heard this.

　　Then, there was confusion, followed by extreme shock and admiration.

　　He suddenly knelt in front of Cui Heng and said in a low voice, “Immortal Venerable, please give me the method to save the world!”

　　“…” Cui Heng was stunned when he saw this. He was silent for a moment, then closed his eyes and sighed softly. “Alright, alright. What I want you to do is to build a new country. Can you do that?”

　　There were many countries in the Heavenly Void World. Other than the Great Zhou, there were also many countries of various sizes.

　　At this moment, the Immortal sects were sweeping around in the name of searching for people, and many countries were destroyed.

　　Under such circumstances, it was not impossible to establish a new country.

　　“I still need Perfected Zhang’s help.” Cui Heng looked at Zhang Shuming.

　　“Exalted Immortal, don’t worry. I will definitely help him.” Zhang Shuming immediately agreed.

　　At the same time, he was a little excited. He knew that Hong Kang was the descendant of Heavenly King Hongwu back then and was extremely close to Cui Heng. If he could do this well, he would definitely be able to get closer to Cui Heng.

　　“Thank you, Immortal Venerable!” Hong Kang kowtowed.

　　“Get up.” Cui Heng waved his hand and smiled.

　　The two things he had asked Hui Shi and Hong Kang to do were not baseless.

　　Instead, he was preparing for the future after destroying the Nine Immortal Sects.

　　After all, the Nine Immortal Sects occupied the top ruling power.

　　If this ruling force suddenly disappeared, it would definitely cause countless people to fight for the spot.

　　The world would be in chaos and people would suffer.

　　Instead of making amends when the time came, it was better to make preparations early.

　　He had to prepare for both the sect and the country.

　　In addition, after Hui Shi established the sect, he could also recruit disciples and explore some unknown cultivation paths.

　　This was also beneficial to his cultivation.

　　It was the same for establishing a country.

　　In terms of implementing matters, nothing was more efficient than a country.

　　Then, Cui Heng looked at Zhang Shuming and said, “Perfected Zhang, I’ll be staying here for a while. After I see someone, I’ll go to Daoyi Palace.”

　　The person he wanted to see was naturally Li Mingqiong. Yu Wei had already returned and would report the situation in Linjiang County to her.

　　At that time, she would know about what happened here.

　　….

　　In the depths of the mountain more than a thousand miles away from the Heavenly Unity Sacred Sect.

　　Huo Si shuttled through the dense forest.

　　At this moment, it restrained the flames on its body and its Dharmic powers, turning into a slender and agile little snake, like an ordinary animal.

　　Sometimes, it climbed up a tree, and sometimes, it occupied the roots.

　　It was no different from an ordinary little snake.

　　But in reality, Huo Si’s attention had been focused on the hidden cave.

　　It had been like this since half a month ago.

　　This was where Cui Heng had traced the roots of the Nine Elders to.

　　The power that caused the collapse of the inner palace of the Heavenly Unity Sacred Sect and buried the books in the sea of fire came from here.

　　After Huo Si arrived, it felt an aura equivalent to the Golden Core realm.

　　It had also entered the cave, but it could only walk on endlessly. It could not find the real cave abode inside at all and could only wait outside.

　　After all, although the Nine Fire Flame Dragon was powerful, it had never learned about array formations and restrictions. There was indeed nothing it could do in such a situation.

　　Indeed, it could also directly destroy the array formation with its strength, but that would definitely alert the enemy. The people who once lived here might never appear again.

　　Hence, Huo Si had been staring outside until now.

　　It twisted its slender snake body and crawled in front of the cave. Its eyes flickered with a ferocious light as it thought to itself, “When the fellow inside comes out, I’ll definitely burn him to ashes.”

　　“No, I want him to die without even ashes left! Aiya, that’s not right. Immortal Venerable said that we have to capture him alive… Hmph, I’ll spare your life on account of Immortal Venerable!”

　　At the same time, in the cave abode deep in the cave, a golden light suddenly descended from the sky, emitting an undying aura.

　　This golden light landed in front of the palace in the middle of the cave abode.

　　Then, a demented old man slowly walked out.

　　It was the Patriarch of the Heavenly Unity Sacred Sect, who had already become a Mystic Deity 3,000 years ago.

　　ome

　　As soon as he walked out of the golden light, a walnut-sized pustule appeared on his face. It was filled with purple-black pus. However, in the next moment, a ball of golden light appeared on his body and purified the pustule, returning his face to its normal withered state.

　　“Damn, how troublesome!” The dried-up old man couldn’t help but curse. He muttered, “I really don’t know when I can truly refine an undying body and become a Golden Immortal!”

　　3,000 years had passed, but he was still only a Taiyi Mystic Deity. He had clearly seen the threshold to the Fifth Realm Golden Immortal level, but he could not step in no matter what.

　　And just this step was worlds apart.

　　The power, status, and authority that a Golden Immortal possessed was something that not even thousands of Taiyi Mystic Deities could compare to.

　　It was a big shot who truly possessed Immortal True Essence.

　　Compared to his current Taiyi Mystic Deity realm which only had the Immortal Golden nature, it was like the difference between gold and mud. They were completely different.

　　“That fellow above is a half-step Golden Immortal. Can I…” A thought suddenly appeared in the old man’s heart.

　　This time, he and the other eight Elders reported about the demons of the Lower World destroying the Heavenly Unity Sacred Sect and discussed a suitable way to deal with it. However, they realized that the Golden Immortal mighty figure who had previously presided over the meeting had not appeared.

　　In his place was a half-step Golden Immortal.

　　What was a half-step Golden Immortal?

　　It was a Taiyi Mystic Deity who had swallowed Immortal True Essence and had the clear characteristics of a Golden Immortal. However, he had not completely digested the Immortal True Essence. He could only be considered to have half a foot into the Golden Immortal realm.

　　The reason why it was called this was because after swallowing Immortal True Essence, one still had to slowly wait to digest it.

　　This process was not short. It would take at least a hundred years, or even more than 500 years.

　　In a state that lasted for such a long time and had characteristics that were clearly higher than that of a Taiyi Mystic Deity, it was naturally divided into a separate level.

　　It was called “Half-step Golden Immortal”.

　　In theory, the Immortal True Essence in a half-step Golden Immortal’s body had not been completely digested and could still be refined by others.

　　“However, that’s a Half-step Golden Immortal after all. It’s not like the one from 3,000 years ago… I can’t act rashly.”

　　The old man’s dark eyes flickered with light. “The most important thing now is to go out and meet up with the other seven Elders and destroy that demon from the Lower World together. Otherwise, there will be endless trouble.”

　　The reason why there were only seven Elders was because the Heavenly Cycle Star Pavilion refused to participate in this siege. Moreover, they repeatedly emphasized at the meeting that the demon from the Lower World was definitely not just a powerful Taiyi Mystic Deity.

　　“That old thing from the Heavenly Cycle Star Pavilion has really lived too long and become muddle-headed.” The old man shook his head and walked out. He chuckled and said, “Although there are Nine Realms in the Immortal World ranks, there hasn’t been anyone who has reached the end of the Fifth Realm since ancient times.

　　“Golden Immortals are the pinnacle of cultivation. This is already a well-known consensus. In the entire universe, how many Golden Immortals are there? There are even very few half-step Golden Immortals.

　　Could it be that a small Lower World, a mere 10,000-year-old civilization, can produce a second Half-step Golden Immortal in succession? They’re really thinking too much.”