[Xuanwang Island is the primary focus of your current simulation.]
[Sending True Person Blood Sea to Xuanwang Island to oversee the merchant guild also served to gather intelligence on the island's true foundation.]
[True Person Blood Sea has not disappointed you. In less than ten years, he acquired the exact intelligence you sought.]
["It turns out a Tier 4 Beast King slumbers in the depths of Xuanwang Lake."]
["Thousands of years ago, this Tier 4 Beast King struck a deal with the first master of Xuanwang Island. The Beast King would protect the island..."]
["This is Xuanwang Island's greatest trump card. The reason other Nascent Soul True Monarchs do not dare trespass on the island is the fear of waking that Tier 4 Beast King..."]
[Realization dawned on you, and you could not help but marvel inwardly, "Thousands of years... demonic beasts really do live much longer than human cultivators."]
[The absolute lifespan limit for a Nascent Soul True Monarch is a thousand years. Even if they consumed various life-extending treasures, such as fourth-tier longevity fruits, they would live for thirteen or fourteen hundred years at most.]
[In truth, most Nascent Soul True Monarchs live between one thousand and eleven hundred years. Top-tier life-extending treasures like a fourth-tier longevity fruit are not things just any True Monarch can obtain.]
["Still... a beast king capable of living for thousands of years is rare. It must belong to a long-lived species of demonic beast. A turtle, perhaps, or one of those other few categories..."]
[You speculated inwardly.]
[This intelligence helped you make a decision. You planned to increase your investments on Xuanwang Island while waiting for the subsequent regional war.]
[With a Tier 4 Beast King's protection, Xuanwang Island's safety was beyond doubt.]
[You wrote another letter to True Person Blood Sea, instructing him to continue gathering intelligence on Xuanwang Island.]
[Xuanwang Island served as a gathering place for cultivators from many neighboring domains; people of all backgrounds could be found there.]
[As long as one abided by the island's rules, everything was fine.]
[Although True Person Blood Sea was a rare ghost cultivator, ghost and soul cultivators still had a small presence on Xuanwang Island.]
Outside the simulation, Zhou Qing sighed with emotion.
"A Tier 4 Beast King..."
Zhou Qing's thoughts churned, curious about what a Tier 4 Beast King actually looked like.
In his third simulation, he had seen a True Monarch in action.
The deadly clash between True Monarch Zixu and True Monarch Qi Sha could practically be described as a localized apocalypse.
And a Tier 4 Beast King?
Demonic beasts inherently excelled in physical prowess. Just what kind of terrifying power would a Tier 4 Beast King possess!
[Year 32: You are 48 years old.]
[Purple Bamboo Forest Cave Abode, underground secret chamber.]
[A pitch-black puppet radiating an icy aura gradually took shape before you.]
[After inserting several mid-grade spirit stones and a specially refined puppet crystal, you cast incantations to control it.]
[The black puppet's eyes faintly lit up as an aura comparable to the Foundation Establishment Late Stage surged forth. Its figure suddenly vanished, only to reappear seven or eight meters away. A massive hand slammed into the mana barrier in front of it, emitting a sharp sizzle.]
["Not bad."]
["Both its speed and power have reached the Foundation Establishment Late Stage."]
[You observed from the side and gave a slight nod.]
[Successfully crafting a Foundation Establishment Late Stage puppet meant that your proficiency in puppetry had reached the Tier Two High-Grade.]
[Although the path of puppetry could not compare to highly sought-after secondary professions like alchemy and talisman crafting, it was still pursued by many cultivators.]
[High-quality puppets, in particular, had myriad uses. Whether for personal protection or killing enemies, they could play a crucial role.]
["If I can craft a third-tier puppet, it will serve as a rather useful measure for me as well."]
[You thought to yourself.]
[At the same time, you glanced at the newly crafted Tier Two High-Grade puppet and casually put it away.]
[A Tier Two High-Grade puppet was not of much use to a Golden Core Master like you.]
[However, you could list it on the merchant guild's exchange registry, allowing your subordinate cultivators to redeem it using guild merits.]
[This would incentivize the guild's cultivators to continue working hard for you, securing more profits that could then be converted into your cultivation resources.]
[This formed a virtuous cycle, helping you improve your puppetry skills while bolstering the merchant guild's foundation.]
[Year 33: You are 49 years old.]
[Li Yan successfully broke through to the Foundation Establishment Late Stage.]
[Eighteen years had passed since you last extracted Li Yan's yin-essence qi.]
[In other words, as of now, Li Yan had been nurturing her yin-essence qi for eighteen years.]
[You could hardly contain your desire.]
[That night on the bed in your cave abode, Li Yan lay half-reclined, her cheeks flushed with shyness. Her fragrant skirts, silk socks, and bellyband were scattered haphazardly around her.]
[Your strong hands gripped Li Yan's smooth and delicate ankles.]
[A moment later.]
[Amidst Li Yan's continuous pleas for mercy, you brought this cultivation session to an end.]
[You closed your eyes and focused your senses.]
[The wisp of yin-essence qi you had just extracted transformed into a cool current that flowed through your dantian, continuously converting into pure cultivation.]
[Ultimately, it yielded an improvement equivalent to about two months of your bitter cultivation.]
[You were not surprised that eighteen years of nurturing only amounted to two months of bitter cultivation.]
[After all, Li Yan was currently only at the Foundation Establishment Realm.]
[Using a Foundation Establishment Realm body to nourish a Golden Core Master? The fact that it had any effect at all was already exceedingly rare.]
[What you were truly looking forward to was the yin-essence qi she would nurture with the body of a Master after breaking through to the Golden Core stage.]
[By then, ten years of nurtured yin-essence qi would roughly equate to two or three years of your own bitter cultivation.]
[As for the Core Formation Spiritual Items and opportunities Li Yan would need to break through to Core Formation...]
[Now that you were a Golden Core Master, your channels for acquiring Core Formation Spiritual Items far exceeded what you had during the Foundation Establishment Realm.]
[Furthermore, you had a large merchant guild working for you.]
[Preparing a Core Formation opportunity for Li Yan would not be difficult.]
[With a different level of strength and a different status, matters that once required taking immense risks could now be settled with a single word.]
["Master, is Yan'er especially useless..."]
[Li Yan pressed closely against your chest, her bodily proportions practically perfect. At the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, her yin-essence physique was already beginning to exhibit the demeanor of a peerless beauty.]
[Having only lasted a short while before begging for mercy and failing to fully satisfy you, Li Yan felt intensely guilty.]
["How could that be?"]
[You shook your head slightly and consoled her. "Yan'er is only at the Foundation Establishment Realm, after all. It is completely normal for your physical body to be a bit frail."]
["Yan'er will definitely work hard on cultivating..." Li Yan said, her cheeks instantly flushing red.]
[Other cultivators practiced to attain formidable strength and extend their lifespans. Li Yan's motivation for cultivating, however, was not quite as conventional.]
[But this was exactly what you wanted.]
[As long as you could maintain her drive to cultivate, that was enough.]
[You estimated inwardly that since Li Yan was already at the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, given the aptitude of her yin-essence physique, she would reach Foundation Establishment Perfection in roughly twenty to thirty years.]
[At that point, she could attempt to break through to the Core Formation Realm.]
[Year 34: You are 50 years old.]
[Your cultivation also progressed steadily, constantly inching closer to the Golden Core Middle Stage.]
[For other Golden Core cultivators, those with an Upper-Grade Golden Core had it somewhat easier; they generally would not encounter any bottlenecks before reaching the peak of the Golden Core Early Stage.]
[Masters with a middle-grade or Lower-Grade Golden Core would typically run into five or six bottlenecks during their early-stage cultivation.]
[This was especially true for Lower-Grade Golden Core Masters, a small fraction of whom could be trapped in the Golden Core Early Stage for two to three hundred years.]
[You, on the other hand, were a Flawless Golden Core cultivator. Before attempting to break through to Nascent Soul, you would not face any bottlenecks or shackles. Once you cultivated to the peak of the Golden Core Early Stage, a brief period of secluded cultivation would be enough to step into the Golden Core Middle Stage.]
[The reason a Flawless Golden Core was called a Nascent Soul seed was not just because it provided assistance when shattering the core to form the soul, but also due to its terrifying ability to practically ignore the bottlenecks and shackles of the Golden Core stage.]
[Year 35: You are 51 years old.]
[Inside the Purple Bamboo Forest Cave Abode, you sat cross-legged, comprehending the art of divination.]
[As your mind continuously delved into comprehension, it began to slowly elevate, gradually brushing against the omnipresent web of heavenly secrets.]
[In a trance, you faintly sensed a gaze hidden in the shadows, peering at you with extreme stealth.]
["Someone is spying on me?"]
[You abruptly snapped awake, your expression turning ugly. You simultaneously swept out your spiritual sense, bringing a radius of over ten miles into perfect clarity, like looking at the lines on the palm of your hand.]
["Are they spying on me from further away?"]
[You instantly arrived at a conclusion.]
[You were able to detect this vague sensation of being watched by relying on the power of divination, as well as a sudden premonition while comprehending the hexagrams.]
[If a cultivator were truly spying on you from within ten miles, you would not need a sudden premonition at all; you would have sensed them directly.]
[A Golden Core cultivator's range of spiritual sense was also known as their perception range, and it was extremely sharp.]
["Who exactly is it?"]
[Your face grew somewhat grim.]
[This prying gaze carried malice and hostility; otherwise, it would have been impossible for you to detect it.]
[The path of divination foresaw fortune and disaster. If it were merely a casual glance, it would not have triggered a warning.]
["Let's cast a hexagram and see."]
[You began casting a hexagram.]
[With your divination skills at the Tier Two High-Grade, the fortunes and destinies of those in the Foundation Establishment Realm basically could not escape your hexagrams.]
[Not long after.]
[You concluded the divination, your expression tranquil.]
[You did not obtain a useful reading.]
[This meant that the person spying on you had either surpassed the Foundation Establishment Realm or possessed some method to obscure the heavenly secrets and obstruct your divination.]
[You considered the latter possibility to be unlikely.]
[To blur your divination and conceal their own information, their divination skills would need to be at least at the Tier Two High-Grade.]
[The number of Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators with that level of divination prowess was even fewer than core formation masters. Moreover, since you were divining from the level of a Golden Core Master, even if there really was a Foundation Establishment cultivator with equivalent divination skills, you should have still caught some trace of them.]
["Is there a core formation master spying on me from afar?"]
[Your thoughts churned, your expression serious.]
[You took any matter involving a core formation master seriously.]
[You looked around. Your Purple Bamboo Forest Cave Abode had long since been fortified by a third-tier array, which was personally governed by you.]
[Unless a late Golden Core Grandmaster took action personally, it was impossible to breach the Purple Bamboo Forest Cave Abode.]
[Across the entire Taiyuan Region, there were only so many late Golden Core Grandmasters. Even in Taiyuan Palace, Grandmasters were part of their foundational strength, representing the highest combat power beneath True Monarchs.]
[You wanted to know exactly who was spying on you with such malice.]
["Forget it. I'll sacrifice some lifespan and cast a divination."]
[You made your decision.]
[In the path of divination, it was possible to sacrifice lifespan to conduct a profound reading.]
[During a profound divination, not only would your divination skills rapidly elevate, but you could also obtain readings that exceeded your current divination realm.]
[In your third simulation, you sacrificed ten years of lifespan to vaguely divine Dachun, who was already a third-tier body cultivator, using a divination skill that had only just entered Tier Two.]
[You began preparing to conduct a profound divination.]
[Whoosh—]
[Your mind rapidly elevated, merging into the vast web of heavenly secrets as countless pieces of information flowed through your heart.]
[Dozens of breaths later.]
[You opened your eyes.]
[For this profound divination, you sacrificed two years of lifespan.]
[Through this profound divination, your divination skills edged closer to the peak of the Tier Two High-Grade.]
[Furthermore, you obtained an accurate reading.]
["The source of the prying is True Person Biyue?"]
["But the one spying on me isn't True Person Biyue; it's a Golden Core Early Stage Master? No, they haven't reached the Golden Core Early Stage, but they exceed the Foundation Establishment Realm... It's a False Core Master..."]
["This False Core Master is following True Person Biyue's orders to monitor and spy on me from afar?"]
[You organized your thoughts.]
[The majority of your two years of sacrificed lifespan was spent divining True Person Biyue.]
[Otherwise, divining a False Core Master deeply—even if your divination skills had not reached the third tier—would have only cost one or two months of lifespan at most.]
["True Person Biyue..."]
[Your eyes narrowed slightly.]
[Ever since the Core Formation Ceremony, you had not accepted the invitation to visit Biyue Immortal City.]
[True Person Biyue had not contacted you again since then.]
[From the looks of it now, the other party had not completely dropped the matter regarding you.]
[What should you do now...? You fell into deep thought.]
[Now that you had figured out the source of the prying, how should you respond?]
[Pretend you had not noticed and let them continue monitoring and spying on you?]
[You were unwilling to do that; it was far too passive.]
[Take action personally? That did not fit your style either.]
[When it came to True Person Biyue, a demonic path Master with complicated ties to the Jiuyou Domain, you were naturally exceptionally cautious.]
[What if this was a trap dug by True Person Biyue, just waiting for you to strike personally?]
[In the path of divination, the readings obtained were not impossible to obscure or even alter.]
[What if a third-tier diviner was setting a trap for you right now, blurring the readings you received...?]
[This possibility was not high—it could even be considered very low—but you had to guard against it.]
["Forget it. I'll have Fellow Daoist Blood Sea return for a trip."]
[Your thoughts churned, and you made a decision.]
[Naturally, you could not risk your own life, but you could send True Person Blood Sea.]
[Although True Person Blood Sea had transitioned into a ghost cultivator, he still possessed the strength of a Golden Core Master.]
[Furthermore, the ghost cultivator lineage lacked a physical body and excelled at self-preservation. Aside from being countered by means such as vital blood energy, they had virtually no weaknesses.]
[With True Person Blood Sea taking action to deal with a spy who only had false core strength, nothing could be safer.]
[Even if there truly was an unexpected ambush, with Fellow Daoist Blood Sea's life-saving methods, he should be able to handle it.]
[You immediately began writing a letter to True Person Blood Sea, telling him to return as quickly as possible.]
[Now that the situation on Xuanwang Island had stabilized, it would not have much impact even if True Person Blood Sea left for half a year or a year.]
[During this period, you planned to stay inside the Purple Bamboo Forest's third-tier array, refusing to go anywhere as you waited for True Person Blood Sea's return.]
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