After finishing the spell imprinting on the four third-grade spirit trees, Qi Ping shifted his main focus to the study of formation arrays. Additionally, he never stopped using his plant-growth ability to nurture those four third-grade spirit trees.
With the help of his plant-growth ability and the power of the sun, moon, and stars, their advancement to higher grades could reduce their dependence on spirit veins. This was the key to Qi Ping being able to use the essence of these four third-grade spirit trees to elevate the grade of his own spirit vein.
“From now on, aside from cultivating the spirit trees, I’ll put most of my energy into studying formations!”
As for formation manuals, when Qi Ping went to find Meng Yan five years ago, he had Meng Yan help him buy a complete set of second-grade formation fundamentals.
Because he didn’t have enough spirit stones at the time, Qi Ping only asked for the second-grade basic formations, along with a few metal-attribute killing formations and defensive formations.
Now that Qi Ping possessed the Gold-Stone Body—a physique with an extremely high affinity for the metal element—he expected to grasp the true meaning of the Metal Law within a year or two at most.
With the true meanings of Metal and Fire as his foundation, Qi Ping was confident he could set up multiple second-grade killing and defensive formations of very high power.
With these formations protecting his territory, even if ten Foundation Building cultivators besieged him, Qi Ping was confident he could kill them all!
Only then would his territory have a decent level of defense.
“Besides studying formations, my next priority is to fully comprehend and cultivate the Foundation Building technique Golden Flame Art and the Foundation Building spell Sword Control Art to perfection.”
Sword Control Art was the only Foundation Building spell Qi Ping currently had, which he found in a Foundation Building cultivator’s storage pouch.
Although this spell was about controlling swords, some of its object-manipulation techniques were universal.
Using it as a foundation, combined with Qi-refining-level object-manipulation techniques, Qi Ping wanted to create a spell suited for his [Darkstone Scale Armor], to be called the [Darkstone Armor Control Art].
Then, when combined with a Foundation Building-level metal killing formation, his combat ability and tactical options would skyrocket to another level.
Cultivation makes one lose track of time; before he knew it, five years had passed.
Apart from occasionally meeting Old Man Zhou for a drink, Qi Ping spent most of his time on his own territory, quietly cultivating and studying spells and formations.
He truly enjoyed this kind of life—farming and cultivating in peace.
No constant disturbances to interrupt his quiet practice.
Farming, beekeeping, cultivating, plus studying spells and the vast, mysterious principles of the laws.
When he felt bored, he could take his animal companions for walks around the Cloud Mist Mountain Range, and occasionally he could drink and chat freely with Old Man Zhou.
At times like that, Qi Ping was often influenced by Old Man Zhou’s broad-minded outlook on life and his mellow, rounded state of mind.
He wasn’t troubled by external things, yet he still knew joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.
A jug of wine, a book—what a carefree life. Sometimes Qi Ping even wondered if Old Man Zhou was about to attain the Dao.
But in the next moment, he knew this was just an ordinary old man, nothing more.
Yet over these five years, Qi Ping had watched Old Man Zhou age day by day—the aura of decay around him growing ever stronger.
Qi Ping wanted to find a way to extend Old Man Zhou’s life, but the old man refused and told Qi Ping never to bring it up again.
Qi Ping could only respect Old Man Zhou’s choice. Living out his remaining years in peace was the old man’s final and only wish. Qi Ping had already grown into a powerful cultivator, and Old Man Zhou no longer needed to worry about his future cultivation or career.
During this time, Qi Ping’s territory underwent earth-shaking changes.
For example, the little flower demon successfully advanced to second grade and had grown a lot—now reaching about Qi Ping’s waist.
For example, the spirit vein successfully advanced to second grade.
But the biggest changes were in the outside world. The war between the Qingyuan Sect and the other sects had finally ended!
Only the final result was more tragic than anyone had expected.
Meng Yan told Qi Ping all these things through messaging talismans.
Year one: “Brother Qi, this war seems to be coming to an end. I have a feeling it’ll be over soon. Finally. If it drags on any longer, who knows how many fellow disciples will die—maybe even I won’t make it.”
Year two: “For some reason, the intensity of the war suddenly increased by several levels. Many senior and junior disciples died, and a lot of innocent people were caught in it. I was badly wounded too, but luckily I managed to escape. So many people died… Only the sect’s core disciples didn’t suffer many casualties. Many families were completely uprooted.”
Year three: “A strange bloody mist spread across the entire Qingtian Domain and didn’t dissipate for several days. At first, I thought something big was going to happen, but months passed and everything was fine.”
Year four: “A secret realm had a terrifying explosion. A terrifying Yuan Ying stage demon insect escaped and is now nowhere to be found. Rumor has it that it’s the legendary forbidden-level creature—the Demon Insect King.”
“After the secret realm exploded, my master returned severely wounded. I heard from him that quite a few Golden Core cultivators died, and a Yuan Ying stage cultivator from the Tianhuo Pavilion also died. My master was furious and went into seclusion to heal—it feels like he was tricked.”
Year five: “The war is completely over now. Everyone from the other sects has fully withdrawn from the Qingtian Domain.”
“The Tianhuo Pavilion ceded two large-scale spirit veins to our sect. There are few cultivators left in the Qingtian Domain now, and everything is waiting to be rebuilt. The sect plans to introduce policies to attract cultivators from other regions to come and develop here. Brother Qi, you should consider seizing this opportunity. With me mediating, there will be many ways to earn spirit stones.”
When Qi Ping learned of everything that had happened outside over those five years, he couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
Too many people had died!
And a Yuan Ying stage Demon Insect King—referred to as a forbidden existence—had apparently escaped!
Even more terrifying was that even Meng Yan didn’t know the root cause of the war. He only knew that several hostile sects had pressured the Qingyuan Sect, forcing them to fight back according to the rules.
After this war, even the Qingyuan Sect lost over half of its disciples. Three Golden Core elders fell, to say nothing of ordinary cultivators and families—countless clans were wiped out.
In the world of immortal cultivation, during peacetime you can still scrape by, but during wartime, life is as cheap as an ant’s.
Yet a large-scale war like this hadn’t happened in over a thousand years. Who could have known it would be so brutal?
Thankfully, the war was completely over. The Qingyuan Sect had restored strict order, and various rental and preferential policies were being announced one after another.
In the past, Qi Ping might have seized the opportunity to expand his farming operations.
For example, Sister Nan had taken advantage of the situation and leased a plot of decent mid-grade spirit fields at a low price. With her current late-stage Qi-refining cultivation, she could certainly do well there.
But now, Qi Ping’s own territory was already extremely well-developed—even surpassing the best spirit lands in the Cloud Mist Mountain Range!
In terms of spirit land quality and spirit energy density, his territory was currently the uncrowned king of the Cloud Mist Mountain Range—truly second to none!
