After signing in, Lin Jiufeng wanted to continue his exploration of the Land of Extreme Negative Energy.

But a line of words appeared before his eyes.

[Sign-In can be repeated here. Different tombs yield different rewards.]

Lin Jiufeng immediately dispelled his desire to continue his exploration.

He turned around and left.

'I shall slowly reap the rewards here first. This place is similar to that demon's den. It's enough for me to sign in for a long time, there's no need to explore everything here at once.'

Lin Jiufeng told himself in his heart.

Venturing here and discovering a different reward each day from different tombs was also a very interesting endeavor for Lin Jiufeng.

In any case, he had nothing to do at the moment, and he had no intention of going out in the meantime anyway…

Thus, he decided to stay his hand for now and be patient.

After coming out of the Land of Extreme Negative Energy, Lin Jiufeng returned to the courtyard.

He saw the white cat lying on the frost jade bed. He reached out and picked her up. Then, he infused his True Qi into her body to help her through her bottleneck in her breakthrough.

Meow!

The white cat meowed and buried her little head in Lin Jiufeng's arms.

She seemed to enjoy Lin Jiufeng's massages with his hands infused with his True Qi.

"You're not going to explore that place anymore?"

The white cat opened her eyes and asked curiously.

"I don't have to do it so fast. I'm planning on exploring it day by day. After all, I have a lot of time in my hands," Lin Jiufeng replied.

The white cat thought about it and agreed.

Lin Jiufeng indeed had a lot of time.

She enjoyed being alone with Lin Jiufeng.

She found it indescribably comfortable to be with him.

Furthermore, no one came here to disturb them.

"I must definitely make a breakthrough into the Grotto-Heaven Realm."

The white cat made up her mind. Her eyes that were filled with stars shone resplendently as ever as she raised her small claws in firm determination.

Lin Jiufeng smiled gently. "Sure, I'll help you make a breakthrough into the Grotto-Heaven Realm…"

Meow~

The white cat called out warmly.

She couldn't bear to leave Lin Jiufeng anymore. Especially after he said those words.

In the white cat's entire life, there were only two people whom she regarded as 'important'.

The first was the Demon Lord.

He was the one who picked her up and raised her up from a newborn cat into a grown one.

After the Demon Lord died, the white cat whom he raised protected the underground palace for hundreds of years before she met Lin Jiufeng.

After that, she spent decades with Lin Jiufeng.

In the beginning, she disliked the latter and refused to let him hug or touch her.

But now, whenever she saw Lin Jiufeng, she had this urge to throw herself into his arms.

She couldn't bear to leave Lin Jiufeng's side anymore.

She had grown to completely accept Lin Jiufeng's existence in her life.

This was how the white cat felt.

Lin Jiufeng also felt the same way.

The person that Lin Jiufeng cared about the most had already passed away.

He had nothing to care about, but the white cat.

Hence, he wanted to help the white cat make a breakthrough into the Grotto-Heaven Realm.

This way, she could live for a very long time.

Then, she would be able to be with Lin Jiufeng for a long time.

She would be able to accompany Lin Jiufeng on his journey to the true summit of cultivation.

He wanted to bring the white cat with him as he crossed over this great mountain of the cultivation path.

The summit of this mountain would definitely be cold.

Without the white cat, Lin Jiufeng was bound to be lonely on his journey.

…

Lin Jiufeng decided to help the white cat in its breakthrough into the Grotto-Heaven Realm.

But the process lasted for five whole years.

Five years had passed since the demons left the Imperial Capital, the world had greatly changed since then as countless people from the previous era also slowly came to being after breaking their seals.

In the past five years, Lin Jiufeng had never left the Cold Palace even once.

He spent his seventieth birthday in the Cold Palace two years ago.

It has been more than 50 years since Lin Jiufeng entered the Cold Palace.

As usual, he continued his daily routine of quietly signing in.

Over the past five years, Lin Jiufeng had already explored and signed in to at least half of the tombs in the Land of Extreme Negative Energy.

He received various things from signing in at different tombs.

80 to 90% of what he received were cultivation techniques—most of them were the arts and techniques that the owner of the tomb cultivated throughout his entire life.

Each one of them was extremely rare, they could not be found even if one dedicated their entire life to it, but in here—they all became a part of Lin Jiufeng's arsenal.

He accepted and learned everything. Not only did he learn sword skills, but he also learned all sorts of peerless techniques. As long as he obtained them from signing in, Lin Jiufeng would study and cultivate them diligently.

He always became well-versed in them, and they seamlessly became a part of his strength.

After five years, Lin Jiufeng had become exponentially stronger.

But no one knew about it for he remained in the Cold Palace throughout the entire five years.

As for the white cat—despite making a bold declaration five years ago that she would make a breakthrough into the Grotto-Heaven Realm—she was still in the Human God Realm five years after her declaration.

The white cat was depressed.

She could now feel and understand how great the gap was between herself and Lin Jiufeng.

A few decades ago, Lin Jiufeng was a mere Martial Sage Realm expert. Although she was still not a match for Lin Jiufeng back then, at least, both of them were Martial Sages.

However, Lin Jiufeng had advanced at breakneck speeds since then.

His strength constantly improved and skyrocketed, yet she couldn't even enter the Grotto-Heaven Realm.

The white cat was sad.

Fortunately, she had never given up after all these years. All the effort that she expended so far was now about to bear fruit. If not for this, then the white cat would've long lost her determination to continue.

"Your talent is very poor compared to mine, but I'm an exception."

"Just compare yourself to Princess Yulin. Five years ago, she also said that she wanted to make a breakthrough into the Grotto-Heaven Realm. She practiced with the sword diligently and she only managed to do what she said five years ago, last year."

"If you compare yourself to her and make a breakthrough this year, the gap between you two won't be that big." Lin Jiufeng consoled.

After drinking Lin Jiufeng's chicken soup, the white cat mustered her confidence and continued her study on how to break her bottleneck and make a breakthrough into the next realm.

Lin Jiufeng hugged her and treated her as a hand warmer.

He stood in the courtyard and looked at the pure white snow outside.

It was winter once more.

The cherry blossom tree had become bald long ago.

Snow covered its branches, and even the world itself was covered in snow.

The wind and snow today were exceptionally heavy. Countless snowstorms swept over, bringing with them cold and fierce winds that seemed to resemble mournful howls.

Lin Jiufeng took a deep breath and a large amount of spiritual energy was sucked into his mouth.

'The world's spiritual energy at this moment is at least three to five times better in quality and quantity than it was five years ago…'

Lin Jiufeng relaxed his body and absorbed as much as he could.

The spiritual energy from five years ago could only contain support cultivators at the peak of the Grotto-Heaven Realm.

Lin Jiufeng was very dissatisfied with its slow recovery rate.

Thus, he released the demons from the Cold Palace's demon's den to bolster the recovery of the world's spiritual energy.

And five years later, his theory seemed to be correct…

"Compared to five years ago, the recovery rate is three to five times as fast. With the passing of time, it's bound to become even faster and turbulent. In another five years, the rate would be 10 to 20 times faster than today's…'

Lin Jiufeng estimated.

At that time, it would really be a world where Supremacies could be easily found and cultivators at the Grotto-Heaven Realm would become as common as cabbages in a wet market.

The golden age of this era would probably begin in the next five to ten years.

Lin Jiufeng was satisfied.

Because he was the one that caused all of these.

If the world continued its rate of recovery five years ago, then the golden age of the brand-new era would've been delayed for 50 to 100 years.

Lin Jiufeng's actions back then had shortened the time by at least ten times.

A golden age was coming.

'I won't be affected that much with these changes, but the Yuhua God Dynasty and Emperor De are bound to be affected.' Lin Jiufeng recalled that Emperor De, who had come to beg for his help back then, had now transformed into a man similar to Emperor Yuan.

Lin Jiufeng couldn't help but smile.

After five years, Emperor De had become another Emperor Yuan.

He was cautious and careful as he maintained the stability of the Yuhua God Dynasty.

He also spared no expense in recruiting and nurturing talents.

It was also worth mentioning that he managed to recruit quite a number of experts, including a few demons to his side. But the unfortunate thing was, the demons didn't want to enter the Imperial Capital. As a result, Emperor De had to order them to protect the Imperial Capital in the four cardinal directions.

But it was not only Emperor De that had achieved great things in the past five years, Princess Yulin had also stepped into the Grotto-Heaven Realm. In addition, her incredible swordsmanship placed a lot of pressure on the various aristocratic families and sects.

Just like that, the Yuhua God Dynasty remained as stable as an old mountain.

During this period of time, Lin Jiufeng found that he didn't have to do anything nor lend any help.

Emperor De was diligent.

He formed great trade routes for exchanging resources with the various small countries, he recruited talents everywhere and amassed a great fortune for the dynasty's rainy day fund.

Moreover, his own reforms also helped to further bolster the growth of the Yuhua God Dynasty.

He didn't use Lin Jiufeng's reputation nor beg Lin Jiufeng for help.

Instead, he relied on his own efforts to maintain the Yuhua God Dynasty.

The entire world might be in turmoil, overall…

But the Yuhua God Dynasty remained relatively stable.

Emperor De could be considered to be the greatest contributor to this stability.