And thus, life continued on as usual. Heifeng Jiansui and Ninebless continued to refine Quasi-Earth formation pillars together. Qinglan Weiwei and the other maids battled demonic beasts and rigorously cultivated themselves.

In a blink of an eye, four years passed.

The entire island had its phoenix qi surge in quantity, and it truly seemed as if the energy would coalesce into a mine of spirit stones. “It’s been a week since we set up this formation and I feel so empty while not forging anything…” Ninebless’s spiritual form had become even more condensed due to the effects of assisting in forging.

“I received some forging missions, so let’s begin with it.” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui grabbed the spirit and began pulling her away for more work.

“I was just joking! Can’t we enjoy some free time? There is only half a year for… for my rebirth, so…” Ninebless’ face turned serious.

“That’s right, we have six months left for your rebirth. The year of the Phoenix, the month of fire, the week of resurgence, the day of stars, the side of night, the hour of flames, the minute of rejuvenation and the moment of fate… That day, the dimensional restrictions will be lower and we can use the Phoenix Dominion formation to break the skies and freely gather the power of Solar-fire and Lunar-ice for your rebirth.” Heifeng Jiansui once again went through his divination and Ninebless nodded in determination.

“To say the truth, even if I completely skip the preparations and enter the phoenix egg for my rebirth, I’ll be certain to succeed. You must have given away half of your blood to me and the egg. You will be facing your life-and-death battle later this year, aren’t you worried?” At her question, Heifeng Jiansui simply scoffed.

After cultivating the Phoenixblood Marrowforge to Large Success, his body was formed by pure Phoenix blood, all traces of other bloodlines exterminated. In truth, he had given over 40% of his blood over the years to the spirit and the egg, and spent days battling beasts in the sea surrounding the island to refine them for medicines to stabilize himself.

“That’s simply my investment on my Magical Beast. Ordinary fire phoenixes aren’t good enough for me, so if I can induce a mutation and turn you into a true Black Phoenix then it would be the best.” On hearing her master’s reasoning, she couldn’t help but sigh. Even though he concealed his care for her with these words, his actions showed the extent of his affection!

+++

““Young master, we have successfully completed yet another expedition!”” Loud yet respectful and quiet but obedient, two voices greeted him. The Feilong twins, Yanyang and Shanxue were still like fire and ice.

“As usual, bring the beast remains you have obtained and I will refine them for you. Now that all of you are strong enough to not need to group up, your battle efficiency has risen.” In these four years, all the girls had strengthened the nine layers of their bodies, comprehended their Daohearts and broken through to true cultivators at the peak Blood-drop Refinement, completing the Physique layer and a single step away from breaking through to the Dantian layer!

“Young master, after we broke through, you have been sending us on these expeditions to slaughter beasts… Is there any special reason behind it?” The quiet girl Feilong Shanxue spoke up to ask him.

“I think I told this to you girls before? I have been practicing divination, so I decided that I might as well divine good fortune for you all, my maids.” In truth, the reason was that he was trying to influence the beasts with the Phoenix Dominion, so he sent out the girls to thin out the herds.

“Ah, I must be getting forgetful. I thank the young master for refreshing my memory.” Saying this, the girl bowed twice to him.

After the girls handed over their spatial rings to him and left to meditate on their battles, Heifeng Jiansui went to his room and began refining. This had already become a routine.

Due to his mortal state, he didn’t require many pills, so the girls never tried to offer their spoils to him. Qinglan Weiwei did capture a Goldfur Bear and cooked it alive to create a special delicacy for him, but that was a one-off incident…

Over the four years, many things had changed. Other than returning to the Palace for a few ceremonies, Heifeng Jiansui and his maids were holed up in the island.

While he was locked in refining Quasi-Earth items, he swiftly gained skill and rose to refining S+, S++ and S+++ items. Consequently, he became a True Disciple and after that, a Chosen Disciple of the Ten Thousand Sword Sect. Due to this, he gained access until the 7th of the 9 floors of the Sect’s Scripture Hall. As for the 8th and 9th floor, he was allowed access on the condition of spending double the merit points!

As expected, Heifeng Jiansui went on a refining frenzy, crazily applying for S+++ missions and completing them one after the other. S rank missions never ran out, as a Sect would never refuse more Quasi-Earth items. Thus, it came time for the merit point thirsting prince to squeeze them dry…

This rate of mission completion was enough to astonish the sect and alarm even the elders. But after enough merit points were built up, the 8th and 9th floor’s scriptures were completely devoured by Heifeng Jiansui. After this, the crazy amount of Quasi-Earth weapons ended.

However, the fact that the genius blacksmith Chosen Disciple loved technique manuals and scriptures became well-known and occasionally, a abridged manual or a jade slip would arrive at the island, along with the request of a Quasi-Earth item in exchange for the full version…

+++

Of course, now that the formations had been laid down, aside from the occasional refining, Heifeng Jiansui spent time analyzing manuals within the library of books in his soul. The space had grown grander, with the Royal Palace’s Scripture Palace, the entire 9 Floored Scripture Hall and even the manuals and scriptures Heifeng Jiansui obtained in his previous life reproduced within.

“This Void Splitting Staff technique is pretty good… Even though I possess only the first stage, it still has a good foundation in the Dao of the Void.” From Wuji Comes Taiji… The world was formed from chaos, and the chaos was formed from the void. If he wanted to create a cultivation technique that would form a world, he needed a good foundation in comprehending the Void.

“What a pity… While this technique puts emphasis on the Void, it is simply the foundation. Later on, it placed more emphasis on space and time. Training the movements of this technique automatically builds up and circulates energy throughout the body, refining all nine layers of the physique. There is no breathing technique, and the energy built up is pitifully low, but this can be used as a foundation cultivation technique for mortals.” Thinking of this, Heifeng Jiansui couldn’t help but laugh. “A foundational cultivation art requiring comprehension of Void, Space and Time!? I must be the only one capable of cultivating it, then.”

Other than occasionally forging some artifacts, the majority of time was spent comprehending the countless scriptures and manuals he had gathered from the Scripture Hall. Since time passed slower in his spiritual world, he could spend years reading manuals while only months would have passed in reality.

Currently, Heifeng Jiansui was concentrating on Void and Chaos arts. They were the foundation needed to create a world, and thus he sought manuals on them to create the foundation layers of his cultivation technique.

However, the manuals of the current era dealing with Void and Chaos were pitifully low. Only the Void Splitting Staff that was sent to him by a disciple in exchange for a Quasi-Earth item had some understanding of Void techniques. As for Chaos techniques, the Royal Palace’s library had some books dealing with them. Heifeng Jiansui was forced to refer to the knowledge of his previous life for the most part.

“No matter, I am still a disciple. Techniques dealing with Void or Chaos must require the clearance level of an Elder or even higher. I will have to rise up on the sect’s ladder to get that knowledge…” Thinking this, Heifeng Jiansui contentedly began reading the manuals he had obtained.

After six months, the day of Ninebless’s rebirth as a Phoenix would arrive. Before that, he had to carefully analyze the manuals he had obtained and create the foundations of his heaven-defying technique that would even create a world within himself!