My Cultivation Has a Progress Bar

In that instant, Zi Hong felt an aura lock onto him. A powerful pressure, like the Earth Vein's Mountain Suppressing Technique, descended in a radius of several yards around his body, making it feel as though a great mountain was crushing his shoulders.

His rapid pace slowed involuntarily. The immense pressure caused small cracks to appear on the surface of his powerful puppet body. Eventually, he had no choice but to stop and turn to face the sky.

The dozen or so daggers intertwined, forming an Earth Vein Sealing Spell. The Array it deployed wove a pocket of space interconnected with the earth, trapping Zi Hong inside.

Bathed in the faint moonlight, a middle-aged man hovered behind the Sealing Array. He wore a brocade robe adorned with a python pattern, indicating he was likely a Prince of the Xia Imperial Family. He was, without a doubt, a Second Realm Cultivator—not an Earth Vein Cultivator, but one who had merged with a Demon Soldier.

Sensing mortal danger, a cyan Array at the back of Zi Hong's head activated. This triggered a command Wang Ping had hidden deep within his memories. In the next instant, the slight hatred in Zi Hong's eyes faded, and they turned cloudy. The aura around his body stabilized as his hands formed a Spell.

Following this, the spirituality of the various Arrays within Zi Hong's body manifested as a clearly visible Wood Spirit Poison. The poison corroded his Qi Sea and the core in his chest before finally destroying the Nerve Array in his mind.

The dozen or so daggers hanging in the air descended, circling Zi Hong as the sealed space rapidly contracted. Soon, Zi Hong was completely motionless.

A few breaths later, a figure landed beside Zi Hong's lifeless body. After a moment of hesitation, they performed the Soul Searching Technique.

"What did you find?" the middle-aged man in the python robe asked, hovering beside the Sealing Array.

"Nothing's left," the person standing beside Zi Hong replied regretfully. "But based on the residual memories from another puppet, we're certain this was a spy planted in Shangjing City by Qianmu Temple's internal affairs."

"Just as the rumors say. That Changqing Zhenren is truly cautious. We still haven't obtained a single useful clue."

"That's fine. This cleanup operation was never about gathering intelligence!"

"That's true."

While they spoke, the two collected Zi Hong's now-spiritless body and headed back toward the city walls.

Near a vacant farm about a li away, a Puppet Bird flapped its wings under the cover of night. It landed on the eaves of a warehouse, tilting its head to look south.

Just then, a wave of Primordial Spirit Consciousness swept over the area. The Blessing Talisman on the Puppet Bird allowed it to blend seamlessly with its surroundings. Even after the consciousness receded, the Puppet Bird didn't take flight. It turned its head back toward Shangjing City, seeming to wait for something.

Shangjing City was bustling. Entering Cultivators streaked across the sky from time to time, and the sound of various military bugles echoed without end. The city only began to quiet down around 1:30 AM. Afterward, more cavalry rode out from the city gates, and over a dozen small warships sailed out to patrol the Nong River.

Time flew, and before long, it was 7:00 AM. Cavalry squads rode out from each of Shangjing City's gates, carrying orders to recall the dispatched patrols. The warships on patrol also began to head back.

The Puppet Bird, having waited quietly for many hours, finally moved. Once the land fell silent again and flocks of birds, active in the early spring, filled the sky, it flapped its wings. It soared high into the air and joined a flock heading south.

An unknown amount of time passed. The thick cloud cover gradually thinned until the sky was clear for thousands of miles. The early spring sun shone down, illuminating endless, uncultivated fields. No crops grew there, only a blanket of green grass. Occasionally, wild beasts could be seen emerging from the nearby forests.

On the crisscrossing network of official and military roads, Reconnaissance Squads from both the Shangjing Court and the Chu Kingdom Camp frequently galloped past. Their clashes always left a body or two behind. Corpses that weren't dealt with in time were dragged away by wild dogs. The areas the scouts contested were covered in bloodstains, but no wild animal dared to draw near. The stench of rotting flesh spread for dozens of li.

As dusk approached, the Puppet Bird, detouring with its flock, spotted a military camp on the high ground by a river. The camp stretched for dozens of li. Some soldiers were dredging the river and building dikes, while others constructed pontoon bridges. Along a stretch of river tens of li long, twenty pontoon bridges had already been erected, each end guarded by a watchtower and a small camp.

The clever flock deliberately detoured around the military camp, knowing that flying over it would invite arrows from veteran soldiers.

On the official road behind the camp, an endless supply column stretched into the distance. On the main thoroughfares, cavalry squads and carriages hurried back and forth. The smaller paths were filled with civilians pushing all manner of handcarts. These were people migrating from the Liangjiang Region, led by officials in green robes.

Further south, the land was a mess of wreckage and ruins. At the edge of the devastation, Earth Vein Cultivators and Wood Spirit Cultivators were slowly repairing the disturbed spirituality and the scars on the ground. Below the clouds, the occasional figure of an Entering Cultivator would streak past, causing the flock to squawk in alarm, though none were foolish enough to charge into the birds.

When night fell, the flock landed at the edge of a dense forest, searching for food and water within. The Puppet Bird, however, perched on a branch, quietly observing its surroundings and using the Array in its body to secretly absorb the world's Spiritual Qi.

When dawn broke the next day, the Puppet Bird continued south with the flock. That afternoon, it sighted the mountain range west of Pingzhou Road. Bin Pass, on the eastern side of the mountains, had already been rebuilt.

Bin Pass was bustling inside and out, mainly with personnel being transferred between the north and south who needed to register there. The ravaged landscape of the adjacent Huangde Prefecture had been repaired at some unknown point. A temporary settlement built of rubble and giant logs sat on a favorable patch of high ground upstream, yet it was located far from Bin Pass.

More than half of the supplies transported from the Liangjiang Region were concentrated in this temporary settlement. The flock bypassed it, as well as the exceptionally busy Bin Pass, entering a forest near a wetland on Yunjiang Road as night fell.

This time, however, the Puppet Bird did not land in the forest with the flock. It tilted its head, observing the surrounding terrain. A cyan glow emanated from the Arrays in its eyes. Staring at the western horizon, it spread its wings and soared high, following the river near Dongjiang Road toward True Yang Mountain.

By the next morning, just as the first light of dawn touched the horizon, the Puppet Bird flew against the wind and arrived at the northern face of True Yang Mountain. It hovered beneath the clouds for over ten breaths, its eyes fixed on Wang Ping, who was meditating alone beside the Golden Body Divine Statue below. Sensing Wang Ping's aura, it gave two flaps of its wings and glided swiftly downward.

Wang Ping wasn't performing his daily cultivation; he had already finished. In fact, he had just spent an hour strolling through the nearby morning market with Yu Lian. He was currently savoring the contentment that came from indulging his mortal side, all while balancing his Primordial Spirit Consciousness and checking his progress in fusing with the Heaven-Reaching Talisman.

His fusion with the Heaven-Reaching Talisman had reached (76/100), a feat he'd accomplished in just over a decade. If he continued to cultivate here, he figured it would take less than ten more years to complete the fusion.

'But he knew that was impossible.'

Sensing the Puppet Bird's aura, Wang Ping looked up, slightly surprised to see it was Zi Hong's Puppet Bird.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!