“Splash!”

Five tentacles stirred up violent currents and dense bubbles, reaching out to entangle “Huang’s” main body.

“Huang” moved like an agile and graceful fish, swimming diagonally, rolling sideways, and twisting its massive body, easily avoiding the tentacles’ attempts to wrap around and strike it.

Throughout this process, it remained asleep, as if the currents themselves were manipulating this enormous creature, executing various complex evasive maneuvers.

Boom… The seabed shook violently. The entity in the abyss seemed to grow angry, as more grotesque and terrifying tentacles shot out from the pitch-black depths like blooming tendrils, stirring up clouds of soft mud.

With ferocious movements, they seemed ready to sweep away any creature passing through the abyss.

These tentacles were covered in incomplete patterns, like a complete painting that had been carelessly partially erased. The giant suckers were covered in flesh spikes that writhed slightly.

“It appears to be an existence no weaker than you. Unfortunately, its spiritual essence is almost destroyed,” the Supervisor said, judging the creature’s rank from the incomplete patterns on its tentacles.

“As expected of a Fate Master.” Great Huang said indifferently as it executed a beautiful drift, avoiding three tentacles striking from the front.

The tentacles slammed into the seabed, creating an earthquake-like effect. Clouds of mud rose like mist, turning the once-clear seawater into turbulent murky currents.

“Any force in the world has its unique arrangement and combination. Different substances have different patterns, and the mystery of Formation Masters lies in interpreting these patterns. Left side, left side, careful to avoid…

“When one fully understands the Five Elements and Yin-Yang, one can control all forces in the world… Here it comes again, dodge right, then back.” The Supervisor instructed while explaining.

…Great Huang emphasized with slight anger: “I’m not your disciple!”

After expressing his emotion, he continued: “That’s why I’ve always believed that Spirit Masters are the most unique among all systems. A Fourth Rank Formation Master can control most forces in the world, and beings like you can peek into heaven’s mechanisms and observe fate.

“However, even beings like the Insect God and Shaman God, with their Heaven Insect techniques and divination arts respectively, can only occasionally glimpse a corner of fate. Yet you, merely a Fate Master, have accomplished what even Supreme Rank beings cannot.

“But if the Spirit Master system exists to give birth to Gatekeepers, then everything can be reasonably explained.”

Snap!

Finally, with the assistance of its “companions” in surrounding and blocking, one tentacle successfully struck the sheep-bodied, human-faced monster’s abdomen. The flesh immediately split open, releasing streams of blood that dyed the seawater a tragic red.

The Supervisor clicked his tongue twice in admiration: “Impressive. The power of that strike was at least equivalent to a high-level First Rank warrior.”

“Huang,” said solemnly: “Monstrous strength is one of its innate divine abilities. At its peak, its tentacles could easily tear apart my physical body, though the physical realm was never my specialty.

“In ancient times, it fought a death battle with ‘Dragon’ in the deep sea, raising tsunamis that nearly submerged half of the Nine Provinces continent. It was this battle that broke the balance between gods and demons, marking the beginning of their end.

“After this battle, only one overlord remained in the deep sea. Unfortunately for it, that overlord was Dragon.”

The Supervisor responded with an “Oh”: “No wonder I can’t sense its spiritual fluctuations.”

Great Huang sneered: “The tentacles remain undead, condensed with its will, having stayed on this battlefield for endless years.”

“What terrible obsession!” the Supervisor commented.

As they spoke, the great beast was about to pass through this area.

The tentacles’ attacks grew increasingly frenzied, cracking the seabed. Fortunately, there were no underwater volcanoes in this area, or they would have erupted long ago.

“Dragon killed it, but its spiritual essence was damaged, and its combat power never returned to its peak. Therefore, later it had its tendons extracted and its head severed by the Three-Eyed Giant. It’s a pity its spiritual essence is incomplete—I can’t absorb it, and I wonder who will benefit from this power in the future.”

Huang probed: “How about this: help me absorb its spiritual essence, and I’ll do one thing for you.”

If it could absorb the spiritual essence remaining in the tentacles, its physical body would touch the transcendent realm.

As a Gatekeeper who mastered formations and alchemy, the Supervisor might be able to extract the spiritual essence from the tentacles.

The Supervisor ignored it.

Huang could only move forward with regret. After taking three strikes, it completely left this “battlefield” and disappeared into the endless deep sea.

…

In the Southern Borderlands.

In a brick house of the Force Insect Tribe, Li Na lay sprawled on the bed in thin undergarments and shorts that exposed her thighs, sound asleep.

Suddenly, she was awakened by intense pain. Opening her eyes and turning her head, she saw the chubby little tot biting her arm.

Hiss… Li Na sucked in a cold breath of pain and slapped her disciple awake.

The little tot opened her eyes drowsily, rubbing them while swallowing and saying: “Master, I dreamed of something delicious, but no matter how hard I bit, I couldn’t bite through it.”

As she spoke, she wrinkled her little brows, looking very troubled.

Li Na expressionlessly pointed at her arm.

“Ah, Master got bitten!” Xu Lingyin saw the teeth marks and cried out in exaggerated surprise.

“You bit me,” Li Na said loudly.

“It wasn’t me.”

Xu Lingyin quickly denied it. She didn’t remember doing such a thing—Master must be trying to take away her meat for tomorrow.

“You bit me.”

“It wasn’t me.”

Master and disciple started arguing, using sound wave attacks on each other until Xu Lingyin’s stomach growled.

Li Na said irritably: “You’re eating almost as much meat as me now. I’m not hungry, how can you be?”

In the Force Insect Tribe, appetite represented both talent and, to some extent, cultivation level. Of course, Xu Lingyin’s appetite would naturally be larger given how she ran wild all over the mountains all day and, encouraged by several elders, chased and beat up the tribe’s children.

But to Li Na, it still seemed somewhat unusual.

“I’m just hungry,” Xu Lingyin said pitifully.

“Did you secretly give your meat to someone else?”

Li Na guessed, but immediately rejected this thought—how could her stupid disciple possibly share food with others?

“Did you hide the meat somewhere?”

Li Na had a sudden thought. Xu Lingyin was someone who hoarded food. She liked to hide chicken legs in unworn shoes, then after finding them spoiled, she wouldn’t want to eat them but couldn’t bear to throw them away, so she would try to feed them to family members.

“I didn’t.”

Xu Lingyin was startled, looking very alert. Master had discovered her secret operation—Master was getting smarter.

“Why are you hiding things?” Li Na said irritably, “Don’t worry, I won’t eat it.”

The Southern Borderlands climate was hot; meat couldn’t be preserved and had probably already spoiled.

Xu Lingyin immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Although Master often competed with her for food, Master kept her word.

So she solemnly announced: “I’m saving it for Big Brother.”

You’re quite thoughtful of Xu Ning Yan… Li Na asked: “How much did you hide?”

“Lots and lots!” Xu Lingyin spread her arms wide to demonstrate, then added: “But I won’t tell you.

“The masters said there’s no food left where my family is, people are starving to death every day. If Big Brother can’t feed everyone, they’ll fight him together with the bad people. If I give them food, they won’t fight my Big Brother.”

In the darkness, Li Na froze. She looked at the seven-year-old child before her for a long time without speaking.

“Are you homesick?” she finally asked softly.

“Mm!”

Xu Lingyin nodded vigorously.

“Then in a while, let’s go to the Central Plains,” Li Na said.

“No!”

Xu Lingyin’s answer surprised her.

“Why not?” Li Na asked, puzzled.

“Because I still want to play with the big bug. It said it would teach me how to fight.” Xu Lingyin rolled over on the bed and said in an exaggerated tone: “It’s very powerful, I can’t even beat it.”

“What nonsense are you talking about? What big bug?” Li Na was bewildered.

“There is one, there is!” Xu Lingyin sat up after rolling around, her little face serious: “It said it’s called the Insect God.”

Li Na’s scalp instantly went numb, her hair standing on end.

…

After dinner, Xu Qi’an sat cross-legged in his room, practicing breathing exercises and circulating his qi.

Half an hour later, he opened his eyes, ending the practice.

“I can drain all the spiritual energy nearby in one breath, but besides nourishing my physical body, spiritual energy has little use for me, and even its nourishing effect is extremely limited. Breathing exercises are no longer very useful to me.”

After entering the First Rank realm, he had finally reached a bottleneck.

Not mentioning other systems, in the warrior system alone, the real bottlenecks came when breaking through ranks. For example, when advancing from Ninth Rank to Eighth Rank, one needed someone’s help to open the Heaven Gate and guide spiritual energy into the body to generate qi.

From Eighth to Seventh Rank required staying awake for several days straight.

The higher the rank, the more difficult it was to cross ranks, with Kou Yangzhou being the best example.

But once successfully advancing, from the early stage to grand perfection, there were actually no bottlenecks. Those with good talent would progress faster, those with poor talent would just be slower.

Theoretically, once successfully reaching First Rank, progressing from the early stage to half-step Martial God should have been a natural process.

But now, he had encountered a bottleneck, his cultivation reaching a stagnant state.

“So this is why, although First Rank warriors are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns if you extend the period to thousands of years, there are still several of them. But throughout ancient and modern times, I only know of Shen Shu as a half-step Martial God.

“No wonder after entering First Rank, I vaguely felt I had reached the limit, reached the peak—this was a feeling I didn’t have after entering transcendence.”

From now on, every stage of First Rank would be a bottleneck.

“Since Shen Shu could advance to half-step Martial God, there must be a corresponding method. Before the grand wedding, I’ll make time to visit the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.”

Besides this, Xu Qi’an had two other thoughts:

First: Insert the flower!

The Flower Goddess was the reincarnation of the Undying Tree, possessing divine demonic spiritual essence. If absorbing spiritual energy was useless, what about absorbing the Flower Goddess’s spiritual essence? Moreover, even if the Flower Goddess had no spiritual essence, the effect of the ancient Daoist dual cultivation technique itself would be stronger than self-cultivation.

It aligned with the great dao of yin-yang convergence.

Second: Quench the karmic fire!

Although Luo Yuhen successfully transcended her tribulation and advanced to Earthly Immortal, it didn’t mean she had no karmic fire. The burning of karmic fire was an inherent flaw of the Human Sect cultivation method, difficult to eliminate. It was just that after entering First Rank, Luo Yuhen could already suppress the karmic fire with her cultivation.

The burning of karmic fire was no longer a threat to her.

As a Daoist Earthly Immortal, Luo Yuhen should be the world’s most perfect dual cultivation partner.

Xu Qi’an slowly exhaled, shifting his attention to the current situation.

“The time for the Shaman God to break free from the seal is not far off. The crack in the Confucian Saint statue’s brow has spread to the lips, covering the entire face—more severe than the Confucian Saint statue in the Southern Borderlands’ Extreme Abyss.

“Hmm, that was over a month ago. When I make time to see Shen Shu, I should also visit the Extreme Abyss to check the extent of the seal’s loosening.”

Collecting interest in Jing Mountain City was only one of his purposes; checking the Shaman God’s status was also an urgent matter.

After seeing it, he gave up on the idea of following Wei Yuan’s example of summoning the Confucian Saint’s heroic spirit to repair the seal.

The reasons were:

First, the power of the Confucian Saint’s knife and the Sub-sage’s crown was too depleted to bear the power of the Confucian Saint’s heroic spirit in a short time.

The Supervisor had almost exhausted the power of both artifacts in Qing Province back then. After recovering partially, Zhao Shou took them to the Northern Border and fought for thirteen days.

Second, the price of summoning the Confucian Saint’s heroic spirit was too high.

When Wei Yuan summoned the Confucian Saint as a Second Rank cultivator, his physical body collapsed, paying with his life.

He was now a First Rank warrior, incomparable to Wei Yuan, but would still have to pay an extremely painful price. Moreover, the Shaman God Religion still had one Great Shaman, one Rain Master, and two Spirit Wisdom Masters.

Following Wei Yuan’s example would likely result in dying in Jing Mountain City just like Wei Yuan did.

When two tigers fight, one dies and one is injured—the Western Regions would be delighted.

“So right now, advancing cultivation to the half-step Martial God level as soon as possible is the top priority. For the sake of the Central Plains common people, Aunt Mu, please forgive your nephew for being worse than a beast.”

Xu Qi’an snuffed out the candle with a flick of his finger and left the room.

The night was deep, with red lanterns lit under the eaves, swaying in the cold spring breeze.

The inner courtyard and corridors were silent, without a soul in sight.

Xu Qi’an stealthily approached Mu Nanzhi’s room and gently knocked twice on the door.

The room was quiet, with no response.

Pretending to be asleep… Xu Qi’an knocked again.

Mu Nanzhi’s vigilant voice came through: “What do you want?”

Good question, you really understand me… Xu Qi’an used his qi to open the door latch and entered. The room temperature was just right, neither cold nor hot, with a familiar, alluring fragrance lingering in the air.

This was the unique aroma of the Flower Goddess after awakening her spiritual essence.

The room was pitch black, but this didn’t affect Xu Qi’an’s vision.

The bed curtains hung low, with a graceful figure reclining on the brocade couch.

Mu Nanzhi frowned: “Entering an elder’s room in the dead of night—what kind of behavior is this? Get out quickly.”

Xu Qi’an gave a cold laugh: “Aunt Mu, your nephew fears you might be lonely in the deep night, and has come specially to attend your bedchamber.”