Zhi slept for a whole three days. That just goes to show you how exhausted he was after that bloody battle. While Zhi was sleeping, major changes happened in Dragon Cross and it’s standing amongst various powers. Dragon Cross became the undisputed Number One under the Ascended Plane. Even many Powers from the Ascended Plane did not dare to disregard Dragon Cross any more. They were always aloof and thought of it to be beneath them to contest against a power from a lower plane but now they did no dare.

Dragon Cross itself had over a dozen of Primadorial God Realm expert, if you also counted all of the External Subordinate Clans, there were a few amongst Ascended Powers that would say they could take them on. Currently, in the most awkward position was the Sheng Clan. Every single Ascended Power, that observed the bloody battle, recognized Sheng Jack. However, the Sheng Clan was actually not making any moves.

They acted as though none of this had ever happened. This made many people speculate, did it have something to do with Zhi or something else. If it became known that the reason the Sheng Clan did not make any moves was because their Founder got a visit from Wrath and Sloth coupled with the representatives of the Three Guardian Beast Clans, pressuring him not to make any moves if he didn’t want to be annihilated, no one would dare to give Zhi even an angry glance. Dragon Cross was also getting a very big reformation from the core.

They currently did not take in more people but rather gave benefits to the ones that had stayed by their side and fought to the death. About three quarters of the people missing had been the ones that left. They had all felt that they would all die, so they decided to take their Clans or families and leave. Now, when the storm was over, they all came back and tried to go at it like nothing had happened. Feng had lost an arm in this war and Zhishi had lost an eye, not to mention thousands others that had either died or gotten crippling injuries like them.

So, the first thing on their agenda had been to deal with these opportunity seekers. If you can’t rely on them during a war, what use are they. The Dragon Cross tattoo that Zhi had invented was a very mysterious thing. Not only did it allow the disciple to recognize one another, it also held their contribution points and let them freely move in and out of the Formations. It also recorded all of the persons achievements, positive and negative ones.

If they finished a mission, the Tattoo would record it and give them the contribution points accordingly, however, if they broke the rules, it would alert the Discipline Hall. Also, when the tattoo was erased, aka they were thrown out of Dragon Cross, all of the Arts they learned through Dragon Cross were erased from their memories. Even the most formidable Formation Experts could not explain on what logic it used so, they all were quite confused about the principles behind this Formation Tattoo. They had no clue on the laws or principles this Tattoo worked on but it was a very effective thing.

After the deserters were purged, a lot of room came to the Island. All of the survivors, those that fought and bled for Dragon Cross, were give a million contribution points each and they were all given a lot of different Artefacts and Pills to either heal themselves or to advance their cultivation. Also, to differentiate them from the new disciples, they were given a new rank, Honour Guard. Honour guard was a rank that was like an Elders’ but their benefits were better.

They had priority for Pills and other limited resources that usually had a queue. They had all decided to trust Zhi and either live or die by his decision, there actually wasn’t any reward they could give them for it. They had been willing to lay down their lives for Dragon Cross, while a lot of people had just left.

These benefits they got were just actually superficial things since all of the people left had survived the same calamity, there was a certain kind of unity between them. Everyone regarded each other like family and they would not block each other in their paths but would help each other out.

Another major thing that Feng and Zhishi had done was the monument for the fallen. After getting the complete list of people that fell in defence of Dragon Cross, they had a giant monument erected for them.

It was a giant version of Xiaomei’s gravestone, made completely from Black Obsidian Jade, the strongest jade in the Lower Planes. The monument was enormous, over 500 meters high. On it were engraved all of the names of the fallen. After every single one of the names had been engraved, about half of the monument was still empty. They discussed this and then decided that people who died in the service of Dragon Cross in the future will be able to get their names engraved on the monument for all to see.

However, they could not put every single name on it, so they made a criteria on which they would be able to get their names engraved there. Also, the two Island Lords had to manage the surrender of the hundred plus Clans, so they felt as though they truly needed to master an Arts that let them duplicate themselves, however, for now, they just grit their teeth and kept working wholeheartedly. In such a busy manner, three days passed and Zhi woke up.

When he opened his yes, in front of him was a pouting little lady in black and white. The moment Zhi saw this little lady, he knew that she was connected to the Black and White Emperor. Zhi cautiously looked at her and asked, “And you are?” The little lady opened her eyes and looked at Zhi with a hint of anger, “This little lady is Leaf Sandra, the holder of the Wrath Fruit of Yin-Yang. Pride, why does this little lady not feel any familiar fluctuations from you?”

As she asked with a frown, the crossed her hands over her chest. Seeing this, Zhi felt that this would be the worst wake up call. It already seemed as though she would be very difficult to handle, so Zhi just said nonchalantly, “Because I am no longer the one who holds the Pride Fruit of Yin-Yang.”

Hearing this, Sandra looked at Zhi with a confused gaze and titled her head. Zhi just let out a breath and said, “My body and the Fruit rejected each other before I reached the Empyrean Immortal stage. As a result, I lost my cultivation was lost and the Fruit was destroyed.”

Hearing this, Sandra furrowed her brows even more as she said, “But your compatibility should have been good enough.” Hearing this Zhi just sighed as he said, “Those Fruits were originally meant for Humans like you but I am not a Human. I am a Dragon, the Fruit could not overwrite my Bloodline, so it got destroyed in the failed attempt.”

Hearing this far, Sandra just stayed quiet, however, cold sweat was falling down Zhi’s back. A moment before, he had tried to probe her cultivation level but he couldn’t, all he felt was a murderous oppressive aura blocking it. This made Zhi realize that this little girl in front of him is not as gentle and weak as she looks. Zhi also had an oppressive aura but it was not even a tenth of Sandras, this made Zhi very alarmed, “If we fought, I would die before anyone would even know.”

This was the conclusion that he came to after probing her cultivation level. Sandra didn’t even seem to notice it and seemed to be in deep thoughts. Suddenly, she grabbed her head with two arms and said, “Ahh, damn it, shit. I can’t fucking understand it!” Zhi was alarmed by the vocabulary. Sandra seemed like a little girl, who did not know that these kind of words even existed but now she was swearing like she was born in a barn.

She pointed towards Zhi and said, “I’ll go ask Sloth about this. I’ll be back.” Before Zhi could say anything, she was engulfed in black flames and had disappeared. Zhi just starred blankly at the spot she had been in and finally let out a sigh. This was not the wake up call he had expected in the least and he started feeling fear towards that little girl. It was clear that she was the type that was slow with difficult words and the most used words in her vocabulary were crush and smash.

Zhi just smiled bitterly to that because these kinds of people were the hardest to deal with. Zhi kept thinking on how to deal with her when she came back when suddenly Fanghong peeked in from the crack of a door. Zhi raised an eyebrow when he saw this but did not say anything yet.

He then went and pushed the door open and saw that there were the Core members. Everyone seemed to be terrified of something. Zhi then just asked with a furrowed brow, “What the hell happened to you guys?” Only after Fanghong had scanned the room and didn’t see something, did he let out a breath of relief as he said, “The Demon is gone.” As if by a chain reaction everyone let out a breath of relief. Now, Zhi was truly confused as he asked, “Anyone mind telling me what happened?”

The Long Ancestor just scratched the back of his head as he said, “The little girl was a true tyrant. She suddenly showed up proclaiming that she will protect you while you sleep. Of course we wanted to get her out of there but when we tried, she beat the crap out of every single one of us.” Hearing this, Zhi’s face flickered but Fanghong continued where the Long Ancestor left off, “Then the youth in white showed up and told us not to make any wrong moves. She was supposed to be someone from the Ascended Plane and the slaughter that happened here is nothing compared to the carnage that she had carried out.”

Fanghong let out a sigh as he said, “So, we did not dare to provoke that psycho and just kept watch over her, so that if she showed any signs of wanting to harm you, we would intervene to the best we can.” Zhi could understand their fright. Even he himself felt fear after trying to probe he cultivation, he wasn’t in a position to say anything to them.

He quickly dismissed the nightmare that had left already and brought himself up to speed with the things that had happened in the last few days. After being brought up to date, the first place Zhi visited was the memorial monument. Most of the Island was gathered there to remember all of their lost ones. When they saw Zhi coming, their gazes were filled with ardent adoration. However, what Zhi did next, was something that they would remember for the rest of their lives.

Usually, leaders like Zhi would only hold a little speech and just pray for the Souls and then just go back to doing his own thing. Zhi however, sat down in front of the statue and produced two sake cups along with a bottle of sake. He filled the two of them and then placed one of them in front of the monument before picking the other up. He then raised it near his mouth and said, “Shing Xing, may you have safe travels to reincarnation.”

After saying so, he downed the cup. He then refilled the cup and called another name and repeated the same wishes. At first, people were confused about it but after the 21st name, they understood that Zhi was planning on “sharing a cup” with every single name on the gigantic monument. There was no person on the Island that was not moved by this gesture.

It didn’t matter whether they were from Dragon Cross or not, every single person on the Island was filled with respect towards Zhi. A leader was not just a person who leads his people but at the same time, he needs to care about his people. After this long war, he showed his people that he did not forget anyone of them. He might not have been here in the beginning but he still cares about them.

For the next seven days that it took for Zhi to share a cup with every single name on the monument, no one left. Zhi was truly thankful to the people, who had died to protect Dragon Cross. If they hadn’t defended Dragon Cross with their lives, Zhi would not have a home to return to. Zhi had begun to see Dragon Cross as his home and the people of Dragon Cross as his family.

The only reason he didn’t obliterate the hundred plus Clans and Sects was because that would be the easy way out for them. Now that all of the Clans and Sects were Zhi’s External Subordinates, they would forever serve Dragon Cross and repent for their mistakes. Also, Dragon Cross would have been far too weak without them. They can’t always rely on the Formation to protect them and inevitably there will be a time when someone, someone who can break it will show up. Also, he can’t take over this Realm hiding behind his little turtle shell. After seeing the influence his existence, he made a decision.

Originally, he had been thinking of using Nirvana Rebirth when he reached the Origin Realm and was qualified to travel through the Primadorial Mist. He would leave the clone behind and then use his clone to put his real body in an another Realm where he would be able to grow up without the bloodshed from here. However, now that did not seem a very feasible plan and he decided to use it when he reached the maximum potential in his body.

He had no idea how long it might take but he just couldn’t turn his back to people that bled for him like this. When Zhi had finished paying his respects to the people that had fallen in defence of Dragon Cross, he was greeted by a peculiar situation. He had nothing left to do, Feng and Zhishi took care of all the matters of the Island and he currently did not have anything that needed his attention.

Since Feng and Zhishi had a system, he did not want to go around messing with it by doing some decisions on his own. He knew that he may be a good leader over all but he sucked terribly at governing and this was the thing these two Island Lords excelled at. With nothing to do, he decided to head towards the Tempering Formation.

He had progressed far too fast recently and the side effects are already showing. His body was far more frail than it should be and his Qi had a lot of impurities. With impure Qi, it would consume more and it would be a lot harder to use over all. To temper the Body and Qi to his satisfactory level, he would need to spent a lot of years on only tempering his Body and Qi.

In Zhi’s opinion, cultivators of this Realm all underestimated the true worth of Body Tempering. In addition to defences, it upgrades your power and increases your speed and flexibility. In close combat, every single one of these things is very valuable.

Even as a Spell Cultivator, that focused more on using long distance Arts, these things are all essential. One can even change his body type by tempering to increase elemental affinity, so in Zhi’s opinion, Body Tempering was the basis of all. The stronger your body was, the more power you can exhibit, no matter what path you take.

This was also why he made it mandatory for everyone to temper their bodies. In the beginning people were suspicious of this but after a while, especially during this war, they saw the merit of having a tempered body. Their tempered bodies allowed them to take on people that were above their level and also, since their Qi was purer by a lot, they did not use that much in fights and were better at sustained fights.

This was the official birth of the “Perfectionist Sect”. It didn’t matter if a person was a Close Combat Cultivator or a Spell Cultivator, every single person tempered their bodies to the best they could. As Zhi was walking towards the Tempering Formation, he suddenly saw a familiar old man standing in his way.

The old man wore a long blue robe and when Zhi looked at him more closely, he realized, it was the Azure Dragon. “We need to have a chat.” As he said so, the old man’s eyes were very serious. Zhi could understand that this was something important so he nodded and turned around to lead him to his courtyard.

The whole way there, the Azure Dragon was silent while keeping his serious expression. When they finally reached the courtyard, the Azure Dragon put up an Isolating Formation and asked, “Who exactly are you?”