The cultivators of today, who speak of forging a Golden Core, nurturing a Nascent Soul, or manifesting the Divine Spirit—all of these are detours. How could they compare to the Taiyin True Scripture, which points directly to the root, shatters all barriers, and leads straight to the Great Dao?

"Heh. One can hardly blame them!" Gu Xichen chuckled, shaking his head. "Truly, we cannot fault them. For cultivators born after the Innate Era, where would they find the Primordial Qi to aid their practice? And those lofty Immortals, why would they deign to exert themselves for mere mortals? Heh, they are left with nothing but these expedient shortcuts like the Golden Core and Nascent Soul. It’s not their fault! This Path... it is simply too arduous!"

The Great Dao was hard to find, yet the Taiyin True Scripture had already unfurled a true, golden avenue before Gu Xichen.

As Gu Xichen reveled in his joy, he suddenly heard heavy, ragged gasps.

A wave of heat washed over him as Peng Hua, completely stripped bare by the intense energy, slowly emerged from the Spirit Gathering Array. His formerly thin and pale body now possessed the sturdy, bull-like physique of Ducate, his skin gleaming with a brilliant golden light, truly resembling a divine statue carved from pure gold.

Peng Hua struck a theatrical pose like The Thinker, straining his right arm to show off biceps that had thickened by three full rings. He asked in an impressively deep voice, "Junior Brother, what do you think? Am I not overwhelmingly masculine? I was just thinking the other day that I needed to bulk up, and today, my dream has come true!"

Gu Xichen was speechless. After a long pause, he could only manage a wry smile, "Senior Brother, where are your clothes?"

Peng Hua straightened up with a sigh, spreading his hands in a bitter laugh. "Those clothes couldn't handle it. After ingesting the Innate Sacred Blood, my Corpse Scripture broke through to the first layer. When I unleashed the Corpse Fire, a trace of Solar True Fire mixed in, and it vaporized the robe."

Gu Xichen was rendered speechless. Coincidentally, he had just refined a Taiyin Magic Robe, so he tossed his original Xiaoyao Garment to Peng Hua.

Peng Hua gleefully donned the new robe and strutted a few laps around the hangar with great self-satisfaction. Suddenly, he thrust both hands forward and leaned slightly. A flash of white light erupted from the Xiaoyao Garment on his back, revealing two flesh wings, each two feet long, sprouting out, accompanied by faint, ghostly screeches.

"Hahahaha!" Gu Xichen stared, dumbfounded, as Peng Hua roared triumphantly. "The strength of a Golden Corpse, the constitution of a Flying Nightfiend! Heh heh, in the Nine Nether Dao, no one can match my cultivation speed! Hahahaha! Golden Corpse... the realm of the Golden Corpse!"

With a mighty roar toward the heavens, Peng Hua pulled a Fangtian Ji (Halberd) refined by the Great Clumsy Hermit from his storage pouch. He brandished it with magnificent poise, unleashing a set of killing intent-saturated halberd techniques. The forms were strictly ordered, the killing aura overwhelming; as the long halberd stabbed forward, the suffocating atmosphere of a battlefield where countless engagements had taken place rushed toward them, the sharp killing intent pricking Gu Xichen’s skin until it ached. He quickly activated the defenses of the Taiyin Magic Robe to shield himself from the assault.

The astonished Gu Xichen immediately swept his divine sense over Peng Hua’s body. Upon this scan, Gu Xichen gasped in shock: "Well done, Senior Brother! You've actually reached the Spirit Transformation Realm!"

Peng Hua smugly sheathed his halberd and adopted a pose of supreme dominance over heaven and earth. He threw his head back and laughed loudly: "To cultivate to the Spirit Transformation Realm at a mere twenty-nine or thirty years old—my talent, Peng Hua's talent, while I dare not claim I have no successor, I must surely be without precedent!"

Gu Xichen shot a sidelong glance at Peng Hua, deliberately leaking just a tiny sliver of his own peak Spirit Transformation aura before charging directly at Peng Hua.

With a dull clang, Peng Hua was jolted backward several steps. The previously boastful expression on his face crumpled into a grimace. He glared at Gu Xichen through gritted teeth, then suddenly burst into loud laughter again: "Hahahaha! To achieve the Spirit Transformation cultivation at under thirty years old! Old Peng Hua’s discernment is truly supreme! Hahahaha! Under the vast heavens, who has the keen eye for selecting a junior brother like mine? Three Pure Ones, Four Sovereigns, the Guides and the Receptors, all the Divine Saints of the Great Thousand World—which of your junior brothers reached the Spirit Transformation stage before turning thirty?"

Pointing his right finger to the sky and his left hand to the earth, Peng Hua strutted seven steps toward the southeast, northwest, and laughed with unparalleled arrogance: "This eye for talent! This discernment! Hahahaha! Even Master cannot compare to my Peng Hua! Ptooey! What did those old fossils from the Asian Dao Alliance eat growing up? They had a cultivation genius right in front of them, yet insisted he was trash! Hahahaha! When I return to Earth, I will slap their faces right in front of them!"

Gu Xichen’s face darkened. Facing such shamelessness from Peng Hua, he truly had no words left.

While they were causing such a ruckus, a thick aroma of spiritual wood suddenly wafted over. Lily, whose stature seemed to have increased noticeably, excitedly leaped out of the Spirit Gathering Array. She nodded very kindly to Gu Xichen: "Brother Gu-Gu-Gu, the Wood Origin Scripture Lily cultivated was very helpful."

Gu Xichen looked at Lily. The little girl’s glowing green skin had faded considerably. If she had previously been as green as a can of paint, now she possessed only the radiant Yang green found in the highest quality jadeite, an elegant green with a hint of bright sunshine. She was beautiful and pleasant to look at.

Seeing the constrained Lily, Gu Xichen hurried over, pulled out the Small Qiankun Pouch, and stuffed nearly a hundred wood-attributed magic artifacts refined by the Great Clumsy Hermit haphazardly inside, handing them to her.

Boom! The entire Spirit Gathering Array shuddered, as if a colossal prehistoric beast had violently turned over inside. Accompanied by heavy footsteps, Ducate emerged slowly, his skin possessing a strange, bright silver sheen, his entire body wreathed in blazing fire. For some unknown reason, his weight had become alarming; the military base trembled with every step he took.

"These magic artifacts are too precious, Lily," Ducate’s first words startled Gu Xichen. Was that even a human voice? It sounded more like the collision of two heavy tanks at full throttle.

Ducate strode over to Lily and gently patted her head. He looked at Gu Xichen and said, "Storage artifacts, various treasures—far too valuable."

Gu Xichen also reached out and patted Lily’s head, messing up her long green hair. He smiled at Ducate and said, "These are just small gifts from us older brothers to our little sister. Speaking of treasures... that lessens the sentiment."

Ducate looked at Gu Xichen.

After a moment, Ducate abruptly snatched the pouch and stuffed it into Lily's hand, then extended his own hand toward Gu Xichen: "Dao Alliance magic artifacts. I've longed for them for ages. What about my share?"

Peng Hua immediately jumped over and shoved a storage bag filled with a large quantity of fire-attributed artifacts into Ducate's hands: "See for yourself if there’s anything you like!"

Gu Xichen watched Peng Hua with a slight smile, then gently swept his divine sense over Ducate. He was instantly shocked.

Ducate’s physical body was now powerful beyond human measure. Gu Xichen could not determine how much sheer force was contained within his frame, which seemed forged from alloy. As for his cultivation, it was on par with Lily’s: both had successfully broken through the Golden Core stage and reached the Nascent Soul realm.

Ducate glanced at the artifacts in the storage bag and shook his head helplessly: "Hmm, too light. I prefer close-quarters combat. Do you have any specialized weapons?"

Heavier weapons? And preferably fire-attributed ones!

After calculating for a moment, Gu Xichen clapped Ducate heavily on the shoulder: "Don't worry, you'll have them. How heavy a weapon do you want? When we return to Earth, I will refine a fire-attributed natal artifact on Paradise Star that will be heavy enough! I estimate that with your current physique, a hundred tons might not even be enough for you to swing effectively, right?"

"A hundred tons?" Peng Hua burst out laughing. "What joke is that? Being able to lift a hundred tons and effectively wielding a hundred-ton weapon are two completely different things, Little Belly. Let me tell you, for a man, nothing else matters as much as stamina. Otherwise, you can't even satisfy a woman—what kind of man are you then?"

While muttering, Peng Hua used his divine sense to probe Ducate's physical strength. The scan nearly caused Peng Hua to choke on his own saliva. He stared blankly at Ducate, who stood before him like an unmoving wall, then suddenly began dancing around excitedly: "Oh, Little Belly, your physique is too useful! I’ve always wanted to open a high-class brothel, but my management skills are lacking, and I was afraid of losing money! With you here, I have no worries. As soon as I return to the Earth Federation, I’m opening the largest brothel in the entire Federation in the Paris Undercity!"

Gu Xichen rolled his eyes, quickly moved away, and pulled Lily aside with him.

Ducate was quite displeased with Peng Hua calling him "Little Belly," but he knew Peng Hua couldn't be reasoned with by normal standards, so he could only ask helplessly, "What does that have to do with me?"

Peng Hua eagerly grabbed Ducate’s hand. "With your immensely powerful body, if you went looking for women at any brothel, that establishment would surely go bankrupt! Hey, if you squeeze too hard, one dies... if you poke casually, another dies. Once you've worn out all the courtesans under my competitors, I can monopolize the entire sex industry in Paris!"

Gu Xichen sat to the side, laughing so hard he couldn't catch his breath, while Ducate's face flushed green. He reacted decisively, slamming a punch into Peng Hua's chest that sent him flying several dozen meters away.

"Owww!" Peng Hua shrieked, excitedly flapping the wings on his back as he dove back toward Ducate. He roared, "Thrilling! That punch felt good! Come on, let me test how much brute force you really have! Hahahaha! The youngest Flying Nightfiend in history, Old Master Peng Hua, has arrived!"

Rumble, rumble, rumble... Three minutes later, the mountain peak where the military base used for the seclusion and cultivation of Gu Xichen and the others was located collapsed entirely. Gu Xichen, covered in grime, used a palm thunderclap to blast open a passage and emerged, dragging the bruised and battered Ducate and Peng Hua out. Lily was carefully dabbing at the bruises on Ducate's face, her large eyes glaring fiercely at the neck-twisted Peng Hua.

It was a draw. Ducate, nearly at the Nascent Soul stage in power, and Peng Hua, possessing early-stage Spirit Transformation strength, ended up mutually crippled. Both had absorbed the Innate Sacred Blood. Peng Hua had the clear advantage in cultivation realm, but Ducate's innate physical endowment was terrifyingly immense. If Peng Hua hadn't gained wings and the ability to fly, this fight would have been a one-sided beating delivered to Peng Hua.

"Ptooey!" Peng Hua spat heavily onto the ground, then reached into his belt and pulled out two cigars from who knows where. He offered one very amicably to Ducate. Peng Hua smiled, "Good brother, here. Peng Hua respects a brother whose fists are big and hard. Have a puff, absolutely genuine Havana hand-rolled!"

Ducate instinctively took the cigar and stuffed it into his mouth, but he quickly remembered where Peng Hua kept his cigars. He immediately spat the cigar out, launching it with a burst of true energy that sent it flying over ten miles.

Gu Xichen paid no mind to the antics of these two. Peng Hua was undoubtedly a rogue, and Ducate harbored a deeply hidden darker side to his personality, so letting them be was the best course of action.

With Ducate summoning a rapid shuttle craft, the group quickly left the military base where they had secluded themselves for over half a month and returned to the City of Radiance.

The City of Radiance was now a massive construction site, teeming with busy workers and officials from Yafike. The construction of the Doko Trade Port had begun. Facing this enormous Free Trade Port, every nation in the Spiral Starfield showed intense interest, all rushing to establish their respective legations and chamber of commerce headquarters there.

The former Presidential Palace of the Doko Federation was now the headquarters of the Doko Free Port Management Committee, where Gu Xichen met Fuya Ming.

However, Fuya Ming's expression was quite sour. She stood on the steps of the headquarters building, engaged in an aimless, rambling conversation with a handsome youth beside her, who wore a crisp black uniform and possessed brilliant golden hair. Huo Jie and Ling Hu, along with several of Hadwar Company’s strongest veteran mercenaries, followed closely behind Fuya Ming, glaring confrontationally at the youth’s retinue.

As Gu Xichen approached Fuya Ming, he happened to catch the golden-haired youth speaking casually: "Regarding your fiancé, you needn't concern yourself at all. A country bumpkin, a lucky recipient from a backward civilization. I can crush him as easily as crushing an insect. As long as you agree to marry me, I promise I will not interfere in Yafike’s internal affairs in the future. You and my first child will inherit Yafike. And our second child will inherit the Xis Empire!"

Gu Xichen smiled. He opened his arms toward Fuya Ming: "Fuya, my Queen, who is this insect?"

Fuya Ming rushed toward Gu Xichen with overwhelming joy, throwing herself unreservedly into his embrace.

Gu Xichen smoothly wrapped his arms around Fuya Ming’s slender, powerful waist, then smiled meaningfully at the golden-haired man whose face was contorted in dismay: "Crush me like an insect? You? The Xis Empire? What in the blazes is that?"

The golden-haired youth glanced coldly at Gu Xichen, his gaze lingering pointedly on the hands Gu Xichen had placed on Fuya Ming’s waist.

With a cold sneer, the youth waved a hand toward the men behind him: "Kill... leave the green-haired woman!"

The men behind the golden youth responded in unison and strode toward Gu Xichen’s group.

Swish! A three-foot alloy short sword, radiating biting cold, lunged toward Gu Xichen’s flank.

Swish! A cleaver wreathed in flames stabbed toward Peng Hua’s heart.

Swish! Ducate was the largest, so his combat power was judged the highest; three distinctly poisoned alloy daggers lunged toward his throat, heart, and spine.

A middle-aged man with a lewd appearance and an even more loathsome aura smiled engagingly as he approached Lily, reaching out to grasp her slender neck.

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