"You realized it too late!"
The young man at the peak of the Golden Core stage smiled. Although he felt confident that he could eliminate his target with his own strength, the sect no longer wanted any more unexpected incidents.
Thus, his task was to keep watch outside. As soon as he spotted the target, he would imdiately inform the Nascent Soul demon lord lying in wait farther away, who would then strike with lightning speed to eliminate the target and leave without delay.
For this purpose, he had prepared nurous life-saving and escape thods. After all, the mont the target died, Xuan Tianhen would certainly sense it. At that ti, even a Nascent Soul demon lord would avoid facing a frenzied Nascent Soul sword sovereign—let alone himself, a re Golden Core peak cultivator.
"It's not too late."
Suddenly, Gu Mo smiled faintly.
The next instant, a terrifying fire dragon appeared in the distance, accompanied by a low, furious roar. Almost imdiately, the rapidly approaching Nascent Soul demon lord retreated at even greater speed.
"This… how is this possible?!"
The young Golden Core peak cultivator's smile instantly froze. He had been lying in wait here for so many days and yet had not realized there was a Nascent Soul True Lord hidden nearby. That terrifying fire dragon just now could only have been unleashed by such an expert.
And to force a Nascent Soul demon lord to retreat—that was no ordinary Nascent Soul True Lord.
As shock shook his heart, a sword light that could cleave through heaven and earth blazed into being. Feeling the power within it, the young man was jolted into awareness.
"You're insane! You're actually using Immortal Power!" he roared.
One after another, he unleashed his prepared escape and defensive asures. In truth, his preparations were thorough enough to let him escape from the hands of a Nascent Soul True Lord.
But then, a second sword light that could split the heavens flashed forth. This one was less sharp, yet carried a vitality that seed endless.
"I curse you!"
Faced with two strikes of Nascent Soul-level power, the Golden Core peak youth knew he could not escape. All he could do was unleash a vicious curse.
Yet before the curse could touch Gu Mo, it was incinerated by a blazing sun. Since mastering the Great Sun Sword Intent, Gu Mo had beco essentially immune to such curse techniques.
Only a cultivator of a much higher realm could unleash a curse that might affect him—and even then, the effect would be greatly diminished.
"Truly, arriving early isn't as good as arriving by chance." As the Golden Core peak youth fell, Gu Mo's true body arrived beside his incarnation.
It had been his true body that drove away the Nascent Soul demon lord just now—coming to rendezvous with his incarnation. This ti, the incarnation had obtained nurous treasures from the Cave Heaven ruins, far too many for Xiao Hua to carry.
Gu Mo's true body had to co in person to retrieve them. Unexpectedly, he ran into a demon lord ambush on the way, so Gu Mo simply tossed out a fourth-grade Fireburst Pepper, forcing the Nascent Soul demon lord to retreat.
Unfortunately, Gu Mo was not himself a Nascent Soul True Lord. Otherwise, with the Fireburst Pepper, he could have kept the demon lord there.
"For the ti being, this incarnation of mine will have to keep a low profile," Gu Mo's incarnation said, passing the void crystal core, the Xirang soil, fifth-grade spiritual materials, fourth-grade spiritual bones, nurous fourth-grade spiritual plants, and the farming puppets over to his true body.
For a sword cultivator incarnation, these items were useless.
After transferring the treasures, Gu Mo's true body left quickly. The commotion just now would surely have drawn attention, so it was best to keep distance between body and incarnation.
"Disciple, what happened just now?"
Only a few breaths after Gu Mo's true body departed, Xuan Tianhen appeared. Seeing Gu Mo's incarnation, he imdiately asked.
He had just sensed a Nascent Soul-level battle fluctuation in this area.
"Just so small fry from the demonic sect," Gu Mo replied, summarizing the events. The detail about his true body repelling the demon lord was altered—he said that a passing Nascent Soul True Lord had happened to cross paths with the demon lord, forcing it to retreat.
As for the Golden Core peak demonic sect spy, Gu Mo directly admitted to killing him. After all, he had previously displayed to Xuan Tianhen an attack reaching Nascent Soul sword sovereign level, so killing a Golden Core peak enemy was hardly surprising.
"These demonic sect spies are truly like lingering ghosts," Xuan Tianhen said coldly upon hearing of the ambush.
Ever since discovering that there were demonic sect spies watching the Grand Yan Sword Sect from the outside, Xuan Tianhen had ordered a search of the surrounding area. At first, a few spies had indeed been caught.
But afterwards, there had been no further success. As a sword cultivator, Xuan Tianhen's combat power was formidable, but he was lacking in other skills—many demonic sect thods were beyond his ability to detect.
Thus, the demonic sect still found opportunities. If it were another Nascent Soul True Lord in his place, the demonic sect would not dare be so brazen.
"Disciple, for the ti being, you should refrain from going out," Xuan Tianhen said after so thought. The demonic sect had already sent Nascent Soul-level forces after Gu Mo, and that worried him. If it were anything below the Nascent Soul realm, Gu Mo could handle it. But against a true Nascent Soul, his offensive power alone was not enough to win in a direct fight.
"I was planning to go into seclusion for a while anyway," Gu Mo nodded. He needed to focus most of his attention on his true body, especially on cultivating the Shennong Compendium of a Hundred Herbs. This was a cultivation thod that could reach the Great Ascension stage—comprehending even its entry-level principles would not be easy.
Now that he had the void crystal core and the Xirang soil, the basic frawork for his Cave Heaven was ready. But all the other arrangents would have to be completed by him.
Constructing a Cave Heaven treasure would be a huge drain on his resources.
---
Shennong Valley, Leaf Cottage.
"As expected of the void crystal core—it truly is wondrous." Gu Mo carefully examined the crystal sphere in his hand. Like a storage treasure, the void crystal core contained space within it, but its space was vast. Most importantly, unlike ordinary storage treasures, the void crystal core's internal space held spiritual energy, making it habitable for living beings.
With a thought, Gu Mo's figure vanished, leaving only the crystal sphere floating in midair.
"What a peculiar sensation."
He looked around at the surrounding void, then instantly appeared far away—the legendary teleportation divine ability, which he could now use effortlessly within this space.
This was because, upon refining the void crystal core, he beca the master of this space. Here, many things impossible in the outside world were easily done.
If he could truly gain mastery of teleportation, perhaps he could use this Cave Heaven as a shortcut to learn it quickly.
After a few experints, Gu Mo reached for a small bottle within the space—the bottle of Xirang soil he had stored earlier. In his hand, it now felt exceptionally light, because he was channeling the entire Cave Heaven's power.
"Let's begin, then."
Opening the bottle, Gu Mo poured out the contents. Though Xirang was an extrely rare earth-elent treasure, to him its sole purpose was to serve as the foundation of his Cave Heaven. He would never use it for anything else.
Whoosh—
As the yellow specks of light fell, they instantly expanded into a surging sea of earth.
In just monts, a vast stretch of land appeared in the once-empty Cave Heaven space—its size comparable to the Cave Heaven ruins he had seen earlier. This was likely the maximum size allowed by this void crystal core.
A void crystal core's space was finite. It was said that the highest-grade ones contained an entire world within.
"Co to think of it… could this cultivation world itself be the Cave Heaven treasure of so immortal god?" Gu Mo suddenly wondered.
He shook his head—too far-fetched. The cultivation world was vast beyond asure; the Heaven origin Realm was just one part of it. Beyond it were the overseas Qinghe cultivation world and the distant Desolate Wilds.
"As expected of Xirang—the spiritual energy is incredibly rich."
Standing at the center of the new land, Gu Mo imdiately felt the dense earth qi—it far surpassed anything dug up from the outside world.
However, this newly ford land's spiritual energy was still sowhat chaotic. It would need to be guided into proper spiritual veins.
By his estimate, he could lay out quite a number of fourth-grade spiritual fields. Reducing the number of lower-grade fields could further increase the number of fourth-grade ones.
As for gathering all the spiritual energy into a single point to create a fifth-grade spiritual field—that was possible, but it would destroy the Cave Heaven's long-term potential. Ordinary cultivators might choose that for their own cultivation, but Gu Mo's plan was farming, so he could not centralize all the energy.
Once the land was ford, Gu Mo released over a dozen farming puppets to till the soil. When the Cave Heaven's qi stabilized, planting could begin.
The following days, Gu Mo devoted most of his ti to constructing the Cave Heaven and studying the Shennong Compendium of a Hundred Herbs.
---
anwhile, in the outside world, conflict between righteous and demonic paths grew more intense. Demonic sect spies assassinated righteous geniuses and destroyed resource points; righteous spies did the sa in demonic territory.
Though the great war had not officially begun, both sides were already suffering heavy losses—forcing them to calm down. Dao disputes ant that battle was inevitable, but neither side was ready. The current clashes had begun over matters of face.
Now that tempers cooled, both sides saw that an all-out war at this mont would be risky. Both had been plotting for centuries to deal the enemy a decisive blow; such plans were only halfway complete. A sudden war now would be premature.
But the situation had already gotten out of control, and neither side wanted to back down.
At last, soone proposed a solution: hold a Righteous–Demonic Heaven's Chosen Tournant, inviting everyone to watch, to prove whose young elites were stronger.
It was also an excellent chance to eliminate troubleso enemies. Many key targets were usually impossible to approach, but if they entered this tournant, there would be ways to kill them. The demonic path had no shortage of sinister tricks—there was always one that would work.
The righteous path thought the sa. Their own Heaven's Chosen were hard to assassinate, and so were the demonic ones.
With both sides willing, the plan moved forward. The exact format—arena duels, challenge matches, or secret-realm contests—would still be discussed, with each side pushing for rules most favorable to their own champions.
Soon, news of the tournant spread, cooling the fever of war. Many cultivators sighed in relief—open war would kill countless people, perhaps themselves included. Of course, the tournant ant fewer chances to earn military rit.
But for the Heaven's Chosen themselves, it was a blessing. Such a contest would better display their strength, and the rewards for winning would be rich—jointly provided by both sides. Losing would an handing treasures to the enemy—tantamount to aiding them.
---
"Master-Grandfather… what's going on?"
In the midst of building his Cave Heaven and studying the Shennong Compendium of a Hundred Herbs, Gu Mo stared in puzzlent at the Heaven's Chosen Tournant invitation letter handed to him by his master-grandfather Hou Chunyu.
"It's the invitation to the Righteous–Demonic Heaven's Chosen Tournant," Hou Chunyu explained.
"And it's sent by the demonic sect?"
When Gu Mo learned the invitation had not co from his own side, but from the demonic sect, he was taken aback.
"That's right. This ti, the participant lists are decided by the opposing side. If you want to eliminate one of their Heaven's Chosen, you send them an invitation. So all the righteous Heaven's Chosen on the rankings have received invitations, and we've sent ours to the demonic Heaven's Chosen," Hou Chunyu said.
"Which big-brained genius ca up with this stupid idea?!" Gu Mo said speechlessly. "Can we refuse?"
"You can, but if you refuse, your slot will be left empty—then the enemy will have more participants than us, which would be a big disadvantage. Frankly, I'd also like to 'thank' the genius who ca up with this," Hou Chunyu said. "It's basically forcing everyone to participate. If anyone skips it, and we lose, the bla will fall on them."
Shennong Valley was not battle-oriented; joining the tournant would be a losing prospect for them—especially for Gu Mo, who had always stayed in the sect, devoted to alchemy and farming, with little actual combat experience.
If he entered and sothing happened, the consequences would be dire.
"Master-Grandfather… so if soone's hidden and not on the Heaven's Chosen rankings, they won't get an invitation?" Gu Mo suddenly asked.
"Of course. Neither side will send their true Dao-seed-level geniuses into such a slaughter. The ranked Heaven's Chosen are more than enough—and everyone's gathered intelligence on them, making them easier to deal with. No unexpected black horses," Hou Chunyu nodded.
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