In the following years, Ye Qingxuan stopped paying attention to the external war between the two realms and began to focus wholeheartedly on secluded cultivation.
Every year, Ye Qingxuan would condense a Divine Ability Seed for a new divine ability and improve his mastery of one of the Four Arts of Cultivation.
Once all six minor divine ability seeds—including the minor abilities Shape-Shifting and Doppelgänger—were successfully condensed, Ye Qingxuan’s capabilities in concealment, escape, and combat all went up a notch.
With the Divine Ability Seeds for the minor abilities Deceive Heaven and Shape-Shifting,
Ye Qingxuan’s External Doppelgänger could, at the very least, completely hide its freely changeable appearance, cultivation level, and aura in front of a Void-Cave Realm expert, without revealing any flaws.
Apart from divine abilities,
Ye Qingxuan’s auxiliary cultivation paths—the Four Arts of alchemy, artifact refining, formations, and talismans—had all reached the fifth tier.
After achieving his secluded cultivation goals, Ye Qingxuan didn’t immediately leave seclusion. Instead, he began upgrading the grand formation of the Qingxuan Cave Paradise.
The vast resources he had obtained from tricking the eight Nascent Soul forces were still piled up like a mountain inside the Qingxuan Cave Paradise.
Now, he could use those resources directly, without having to bother his two brothers, Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu, or Zhu Dafu, to make extra purchases.
With the help of the Qingxuan Cave Paradise’s power, Ye Qingxuan spent three months
upgrading the original fourth-tier Refining Formation, fourth-tier Energy Conversion Formation, and fourth-tier Earth Vein Formation inside the cave paradise to the fifth tier.
After these three formations were upgraded to the fifth tier, the speed at which the Qingxuan Cave Paradise accumulated all kinds of foundational resources increased significantly again.
Coupled with the newly added second- and third-tier spirit veins, the speed at which the Qingxuan Cave Paradise absorbed chaotic and void energies, as well as its rate of converting primordial energy, had far surpassed the second-tier level, reaching the standard of a third-tier cave paradise.
In Ye Qingxuan’s perception, the Qingxuan Cave Paradise would need about another ten years to reach the peak of the second tier, and then successfully advance to the third tier.
After finishing all the formation upgrades inside the Qingxuan Cave Paradise, Ye Qingxuan spent another two months refining one tower, one sword, and one shield—three lower-grade spirit artifacts—as well as a fifth-tier lower-grade flying boat.
The flying boat used a combination of artifact refining and formation techniques, so it wasn’t graded by the法宝 (magic treasure) system. Instead, it was directly classified from first to tenth tier, corresponding to the stages of cultivation.
A fifth-tier lower-grade flying boat can maintain a normal speed comparable to a cultivator in the early Nascent Soul stage.
Because it’s engraved with various formations, the flying boat can continuously absorb spiritual energy on its own to replenish power, maintaining its normal long-range travel speed.
And in times of crisis, the flying boat can burn a large number of spirit stones to achieve speeds beyond the norm.
After pushing past its normal limits, the maximum speed of a fifth-tier lower-grade flying boat can be raised all the way to the standard flight speed of a cultivator at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage.
These three lower-grade spirit artifacts and the one fifth-tier lower-grade flying boat were all prepared by Ye Qingxuan for his External Doppelgänger.
Next came the fifth-tier nuclear explosion pills.
Given the current situation of the demon beast race in the Earthly Mysteries Realm, high-tier demon cores circulating outside have become very rare.
If it weren’t for the captive breeding and protection by various overlord-level forces, many high-tier demon beasts might not even grow beyond the fifth tier.
The existing high-tier demon beasts are specially kept by these overlord-level forces.
When needed, they take some blood, bones, organs, or whatever from these high-tier beasts—since as long as they don’t kill the beast outright, these are all renewable resources.
But a demon core? Once you take it out, the demon beast dies immediately.
So high-tier demon cores above the fifth tier are now increasingly scarce.
Currently, through the Tianfu Shop, Ye Qingxuan has only managed to collect thirty-seven sixth-tier demon cores.
Fortunately, fifth-tier nuclear explosion pills require fifth-tier demon cores.
Out in the wider world, fifth-tier demon cores might be rare, but within an overlord-level force like the Xuantian Sect, fifth-tier demon cores aren’t in short supply just yet.
Because of the vast territory and superior environment inside the Xuantian Mountain Range, the number of captive demon beasts is terrifying, and their rate of reaching the fifth tier is fairly quick.
Right now, the Nascent Soul disciples of the Xuantian Sect mostly use these fifth-tier demon beasts as their main training targets, and the number of fifth-tier beasts killed each year is considerable.
Some disciples with a taste for good food even regularly use these fifth-tier demon beasts for snacks.
So within the Xuantian Mountain Range, the Tianfu Shop’s collection speed for fifth-tier demon cores isn’t slow. Currently, the shop’s inventory holds over ten thousand fifth-tier demon cores.
Taking out a sound transmission talisman, Ye Qingxuan contacted Ye Zhaoheng:
“Zhaoheng, go to the Tianfu Shop and bring back all the demon core inventory they’ve collected.”
In the past few years, the brothers Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu had successfully broken through to the Golden Core stage.
Ye Qingxuan had also refined elixirs for them to increase their cultivation at the Golden Core stage, allowing them to maintain their previous rate of advancement.
“Yes, young master.”
Shortly after the transmission, Ye Zhaoheng replied.
When it comes to Ye Qingxuan’s orders, the brothers never delay and never ask about things they shouldn’t.
As attendants, in Ye Qingxuan’s view, they are very dedicated and diligent in their duties. That’s precisely why Ye Qingxuan is willing to spend time and resources on nurturing them.
While Ye Zhaoheng was fetching the demon cores, Ye Qingxuan didn’t stay idle. He used the free time to refine a fifth-tier nuclear explosion production line.
Once Ye Zhaoheng returned with the demon cores, Ye Qingxuan started manufacturing fifth-tier nuclear explosion pills inside the cave paradise.
What about talismans?
Although fifth-tier talismans pale a bit compared to fifth-tier nuclear explosion pills, Ye Qingxuan still found the time to refine many fifth-tier talismans.
A fifth-tier talisman can unleash an attack at the Nascent Soul level. For Ye Qingxuan’s External Doppelgänger, still in the early Golden Core stage, that’s a huge help.
Beyond that, Ye Qingxuan also had Ye Zhaoheng acquire as many sixth-tier talismans as possible.
After all, since his External Doppelgänger would be venturing out for the first time, Ye Qingxuan was honestly quite uneasy. That’s why he wanted to be cautious—cautious, and then even more cautious.
He wasn’t planning to go around pillaging or killing with this alternate identity. But for the sake of his own safety, bringing a little defensive resources along was only reasonable, don’t you think?
Ye Qingxuan has always been kind to others since childhood and never stirs up trouble. This alter ego’s journey is simply to open up new business markets and collect the various spirit ores needed for the cave paradise’s advancement.
So, as long as others don’t actively provoke him, Ye Qingxuan doesn’t plan on causing trouble for anyone.
Time passed. By the time Ye Qingxuan had prepared all the trump cards for his External Doppelgänger, it was already the end of the fifth year.
Bringing all the prepared talismans, nuclear explosion pills, spirit artifacts, and flying boat into the Qingxuan Cave Paradise, Ye Qingxuan used the portal formed jointly by the Qingxuan Cave Paradise to teleport everything to his External Doppelgänger, which was hiding in the outside mountain range.
As for the initial resources for the doppelgänger’s business operations, Ye Qingxuan planned to send them over after his doppelgänger had settled down and set everything up.
After doing all this and seeing the plan gradually return to normal, Ye Qingxuan let out a small sigh of relief and said:
“Finally, the last step is to choose the starting location for this alternate identity.”
