Lin Tianyuan was worried that his body would continuously deteriorate with each passing day.

Although Lin Jiufeng had said that he could live for 40 years with the help of treasures and supplements.

But what if something unfortunate happened to him?

He had to think about his descendants and the Empress.

Hence, he told the Empress everything about Lin Jiufeng's identity. Of course, she told her that she was the only one who could possibly know about all of these.

Seeing how Lin Tianyuan emphasized secrecy regarding this matter, the Empress agreed.

…

After leaving the palace, Lin Jiufeng didn't immediately return to the Cold Palace.

He sensed that his sword energy wasn't actually that far from the Imperial Capital.

"It's actually so close to the Imperial Capital. No wonder Lin Tianyuan caught so many mountain ghosts in the past few days. It turns out that their base camp is located nearby," Lin Jiufeng muttered.

He hurried over with his sword energy serving as his guide.

After breaking through to the Human God Realm, his speed became incredibly fast.

The ancestor of the Mountain Ghost Race had created a base on a mountain just outside the Imperial Capital.

There were a lot of shrubs and vines on the mountain, making it difficult for ordinary people to traverse the vicinity.

But Lin Jiufeng directly flew over and landed in front of a tall mountain.

Looking up at the skies, it was already dawn.

The next morning had arrived.

Lin Jiufeng looked at the mountain.

What greeted his eyes was the sight of rugged mountains stacked side to side.

"This seems to be an array formation!" Lin Jiufeng mumbled.

He finally understood why even though most of the mountain ghosts were so close to the Imperial Capital, no one hadn't discovered their base camp yet.

It turned out that they had used an array formation to ward against the prying eyes of outsiders.

Looking at the array formation, Lin Jiufeng couldn't help but frown.

He didn't know much about array formations.

Lin Jiufeng only knew one thing.

If one was strong enough, everything else wasn't a problem!

Could this array formation withstand a strike from him?

So, what if it could?

What about two strikes?

Three strikes?

…

Lin Jiufeng's understanding of array formations was so superficial that it would make people laugh if he told others about it.

But he had no other choice.

"That ancestor of the Mountain Ghost Race is hiding here."

"There's definitely something wrong with him. He was struck by my sword and he can't even get rid of the sword energy. He's abnormally weak," Lin Jiufeng muttered.

[Do you want to Sign-In at the Mountain Ghost Race's base camp?]

Just as Lin Jiufeng was about to use his power to destroy the array formation, a line of words appeared before his eyes.

Lin Jiufeng was surprised. "It's already the morning of the next day, so I can Sign-in again…"

"Of course, I'll sign in."

[Sign-In successful. Received Encyclopedia of Array Formations!]

As expected, signing-in in front of an array formation meant that he would probably receive something related to array formations.

Rumble!

An entire book on array formations appeared.

It was thick and it obviously contained a lot of corresponding knowledge.

All of it was injected into Lin Jiufeng's mind, causing him to close his eyes for a while.

This vast knowledge allowed Lin Jiufeng to understand the secrets of array formations.

In Lin Jiufeng's eyes, the array formation set up by the Mountain Ghost Race wasn't that difficult to traverse through.

He followed the correct path and walked deep into the mountain without letting the array formation notice his intrusion.

There were many tombs here.

Each tomb had a mountain ghost living in it.

Some of the graves were empty, which meant that the mountain ghosts inside had gone out.

But some were covered up tightly, which meant that something was inside.

Counting carefully, there were thousands of graves.

These were all members of the Mountain Ghost Race.

Among them, more than a thousand mountain ghosts were caught by Lin Tianyuan.

It was no wonder that Lord Mountain Ghost and his old ancestor had become so anxious to deal with him.

"The population of the Mountain Ghost Race isn't that huge…"

"It's already considered decent to have someone as powerful as the Lord Mountain Ghost and an even an old ancestor among their ranks. It's just a pity that they are too ambitious." Lin Jiufeng watched silently.

Lord Mountain Ghost was the leader of this generation of mountain ghosts.

He was a Martial Sage.

But a man who could never be satisfied was akin to a snake trying to swallow an elephant. He underestimated the Yuhua God Dynasty too much and also overestimated the capabilities of his old ancestor.

Lin Jiufeng quickly discovered that ancestor's coffin.

It wasn't inside the largest tomb. It was just a coffin suspended on a cliff.

Lin Jiufeng could sense that his sword energy was inside.

With a flick of his finger, a streak of sword energy burst forth and the coffin directly exploded.

Boom!

There was nothing inside of it.

But a faint black smoke slowly dissipated into the air.

"Really? You died just from this sword energy?" Lin Jiufeng raised his brows.

The faint dissipating black smoke was the ancestor of the Mountain Ghost Race.

A Human God Realm ancestor from 1,500 years ago.

Looking at his surroundings, Lin Jiufeng was rather bored. "You've persevered for 1,500 years, but you didn't think about nurturing more talents in your race in preparation for the new era, yet you were actually so brazen to think of controlling a God Dynasty…"

"Indeed… It makes sense that your race was almost wiped out back then."

Lin Jiufeng couldn't help but complain.

With Lord Mountain Ghost as the leader along with an old ancestor with no foresight, how could the Mountain Ghost Race remain in existence?

Lin Jiufeng personally witnessed the Divine Soul of the ancestor of the Mountain Ghost Race dissipate into the air.

From the beginning till the end, no words were exchanged.

The shield that the old ancestor had condensed back then truly wasn't that strong after all.

Considering how this old ancestor was already akin to that of an arrow at the end of its flight, it was understandable.

But Lord Mountain Ghost had no idea about this. He thought that since they were both in the Human God Realm, his ancestor would definitely be able to suppress Lin Jiufeng due to their difference in battle experience.

Lin Jiufeng was rather bored.

His biggest gain from this trip was the Sign-In for the Encyclopedia of Array Formations.

He directly left this place and returned to the Cold Palace to properly study this Encyclopedia of Array Formations.

The disturbance caused by the Mountain Ghost Race came to an end.

The clans from the old era caused a huge commotion in the Yuhua God Dynasty and didn't even try to adapt to the new era. They acted according to their old ideals and as a result, they were annihilated.

…

After Lin Jiufeng made his move this time, he didn't have to go out anymore.

The Cold Palace was as quiet as ever. No one came to disturb him and the white cat.

Whenever Lin Tianyuan encountered a problem, his first thought was to solve it by himself.

He preferred to not disturb Lin Jiufeng's peace if the problem was something he could handle.

Another year passed.

This year, Lin Jiufeng was 50 years old.

The 50-year-old Lin Jiufeng had the appearance of a 20-year-old, calmness of a 50-year-old, intelligence of an 800-year-old ancestor, and the aura of a 3000-year-old sage.

He was currently digging up the treasures of the human body, which was the goal of the Immortal Treasury stage of the Human God Realm.

Other than this, Lin Jiufeng had also revised the entire Encyclopedia of Array Formations in the year that had passed.

He finally knew all the basic array formations in the world like they were the back of his hand.

The Encyclopedia of Array Formations also had another name—the Encyclopedia of Basic Array Formations!

He lived a serene life throughout the previous year.

The Yuhua God Dynasty also remained relatively calm.

Every cultivator in the world was quietly accumulating their strength—all of them wanted to reach the Human God Realm.

But someone among them remained unhappy.

Great Yan Dynasty, Temple of the Holy Maiden.

Throughout the previous year, the Holy Maiden had been preoccupied with her own matters.

Her features looked as picturesque as ever…

Her black hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall as she stood tall.

'Throughout the previous year, I sealed a few regions with my Human God Realm cultivation base. I finally have some free time to myself since I'm already done with all of these…'

The Holy Maiden let out a long breath.

She still had a problem that she had to deal with.

It was her incomplete Divine Soul.

"The reason why my Divine Soul isn't complete is that when I was captured by the Yuhua God Dynasty, the Crown Prince secretly helped and released me."

"He's the Crown Prince of an opposing dynasty, but he still released me, the Holy Maiden of their enemy…"

"He must have encountered a lot of difficulties in the aftermath of what he had done.'

"This is why my Divine Soul is incomplete!"

"I harmed a Crown Prince which is equivalent to me owing him my life!"

"I can only hope that you're still alive…"

"I can repay you this gratitude. I can give you whatever you want. But if you're already dead, it will be impossible for my Divine Soul to become complete in this lifetime…"

The Holy Maiden was helpless.