The Modern Martial Immortal

The moment Yaoguang looked at the Dao Artifact flying vessel, his mood brightened considerably.

"Now that it has transformed into a Dao Artifact, it can no longer keep its old name." He carefully examined every capability of the flying vessel.

It could travel through the void at astonishing speed, and its performance was not inferior to that of the Void Disk. Within, it contained a vast internal space stretching hundreds of kilometers, evenly divided and furnished with all kinds of array arts suited for daily living.

Its only drawback was that it consumed more energy than the Void Disk.

"It can practically be treated as a mobile sect headquarters. In that case, I’ll name it after Longxiang City, where I once lived in the Nine Cauldrons Sect."

Longxiang Flying Vessel. Yaoguang spent some time familiarizing himself with the vessel.

"Once I break through to the Void-Piercing Realm, I can fuse the Void Disk with the Longxiang Flying Vessel, redesigning and reforging both Dao Artifacts. That should allow it to evolve into a high-grade Dao Artifact, though only a void-type high-grade Dao Artifact."

Given the materials of these two Dao Artifacts, combined with his artifact refinement skill, achieving that goal would not be difficult. The only issue was that his cultivation was still far too low.

After a while, Yaoguang began refining the vessel.

Though he had not refined it entirely by himself, he had enlightened it and guided it into Dao Entry, so the refining process came naturally to him.

In less than half a month, he had already mastered all of the Dao Artifact’s fundamental transformations.

"Fortunately, Void’s Child lets my perception of void transformations rival that of a Void-Piercing cultivator. Otherwise, whether it was the Heaven-Sealing Stele or the Longxiang Flying Vessel, I wouldn’t be able to truly wield them."

Of course, his own comprehension of the Void-Refining Realm was equally crucial. Neither could be lacking.

Had any other cultivator below the Void-Piercing Realm obtained a Dao Artifact, they could only have used it as a somewhat sturdier top-tier spirit treasure.

My realm... Yaoguang pondered as his gaze fell upon the ancient tree within his mental world.

Looking at the motionless Merchant branch, he frowned. This situation is troubling.

Previously, neither conquering the Cloud Sword Sect nor selling a supreme divine ability had increased the Merchant branch’s progress by even the slightest amount.

At the time, he had not thought much of it.

Taking down the Cloud Sword Sect had mainly relied on Li Hanqiu’s strength, while selling divine abilities...

Using information gathered through high-dimensional cognition as merchandise was clearly an extremely unprofitable trade from the perspective of the Merchant branch.

It was like an ordinary person using a supercomputer to solve a ten-dollar online bounty.

The process looked simple, but in reality, merely powering up that supercomputer would have cost far more than ten dollars.

Not to mention the intrinsic value represented by the machine itself.

I should have gotten some merchant experience when I wiped out the Black Dragon Pirates. But during that battle, I used the Divine Crimson Refinement Fire Lightning. In the end, the net gain was just a few tens of thousands of Pure Yang Grand Pills. I can accept gaining no experience from that, but...

What he could not understand was why obtaining that flying vessel had not granted any experience either.

Given that vessel’s value, which surpassed even the Void-Splitting Disk...

At minimum, it should have advanced his Void-Refining Realm progress by twenty to thirty percent.

Manpower cost?

During this period, Yaoguang had gradually begun to see the pattern.

He had spent an entire month searching for the Black Dragon Pirates’ headquarters.

Of course, a Blazing White Golden Core cultivator should not have incurred such an exaggerated manpower cost on his own.

His gaze shifted to the Refiner branch. Level 15 refiner.

Once his cultivation was sufficient, he would be capable of forging top-tier Dao Artifacts.

Even if some Void-Refining cultivators could possess a Dao Artifact, top-tier Dao Artifacts were treasures that belonged to Dao Lords.

Their owners’ status might not match true Dao Lords, but compared to Void-Shattering cultivators, they likely would not be far behind.

It was just like back in the day, when artifact-refinement grandmasters such as Dong Liushui had peak Foundation Building cultivators serving as their guards.

Though strength reigned supreme on the North Sea Star, and cultivators valued personal power more than professions like artifact refinement, alchemy, or array arts, a level 15 refiner like him would still be valuable enough to warrant personal protection from a Void-Refining expert.

"If I set aside my status as a Blazing White Golden Core cultivator, and instead viewed this as a Void-Refining cultivator spending a month searching for a top-tier spirit treasure that wasn’t even a quasi-Dao Artifact..." He let out a quiet sigh.

That explained everything.

Still, back then, the reason he had desperately pushed the Refiner branch to such heights was that the situation had been far too dire.

They had been fleeing the Great Cangwu World in exile toward the North Sea Star, and at the time, Li Hanqiu, their Void-Piercing battle immortal as well as the sect's pillar, had only three to five years left to live.

Desperate, Yaoguang had thrown himself into raising his Refiner branch level as quickly as possible, hoping to find a way to solve the problem of Li Hanqiu’s lifespan.

Under those circumstances, forcefully pushing the Refiner branch all the way to level 15 had been unavoidable.

For a very long time to come, the Merchant branch will probably be useless. Most likely, only after I reach the Void-Piercing Realm, or even the Void-Refining Realm, and acquire hundreds of millions of Pure Yang Grand Pills, will my Merchant experience begin growing again. Yaoguang understood this clearly.

Looking at the several Dao Artifacts in his possession, he could only say that every gain came with a loss.

Fortunately, his realm had already reached the Void-Refining Realm. From here on, he only needed to advance steadily, step by step.

***

After becoming proficient in controlling the Longxiang Flying Vessel, Yaoguang used the same method he had once employed to disguise the Void Disk, cloaking the Longxiang Flying Vessel beneath another layer of concealment to hide its Dao Artifact nature.

Then he piloted this "top-tier spirit treasure" flying vessel across the Chaotic Sea, growing familiar with its controls while deliberately showing off.

Even to Void-Piercing cultivators, a top-tier spirit treasure held considerable value, let alone Azure Golden Core and Blazing White Golden Core cultivators.

In theory, openly flying through the Chaotic Sea in such a "top-tier spirit treasure", while intentionally revealing cultivation of only a Blazing White Golden Core cultivator, should have made him an easy target long ago. Yet...

Everything remained calm and peaceful?!

Wherever the Longxiang Flying Vessel passed, cultivators scattered.

The moment they sensed the treasure light radiating from this "top-tier spirit treasure," they fled far away, even those who had a Blazing White Golden Core.

At one point, he even happened to pass a group of vicious bandits surrounding an island, preparing to exterminate the sect occupying it, a sect guarded by a Radiant Sun Golden Core cultivator.

But before his flying vessel even arrived, those ruthless men abandoned their massacre plans entirely.

One by one, they released evasion lights and fled in panic. Some even left their warships behind.

In the end, not only did that island escape annihilation, but it even made a small fortune from the abandoned spoils.

And just like that, Yaoguang swaggered across half of the Chaotic Sea.

"What is going on?" He frowned slightly.

I have deliberately used a "top-tier spirit treasure" as bait to fish, yet not a single big fish has taken the hook. Even small fry had been scared away. I'm not even a true disciple of a great sect...

"Wait. A great sect's true disciple!" At that moment, realization struck him.

Though he had only revealed Blazing White Golden Core cultivation, a Blazing White Golden Core cultivator possessing a top-tier spirit treasure, especially one bold enough to flaunt it so openly, was practically broadcasting to the world, "My status is extraordinary. My background is formidable. I stand far above you all."

As for his Blazing White Golden Core cultivation, disciples of great sects who aspired to become true disciples usually possessed Azure Golden Core Realm combat strength. Blazing White Golden Core cultivators were no exception.

After all, the gap between a Crimson Golden Core, Radiant Sun Golden Core, Blazing White Golden Core, and Azure Golden Core cultivator was nowhere near as absolute as the gulf between an Azure Golden Core cultivator and a Void-Piercing Realm cultivator.

Azure Golden Core Realm combat power! A top-tier spirit treasure flying vessel! And who could guess what other hidden methods he possessed?

In the Chaotic Sea, where the strongest beings were merely Void-Piercing battle immortals or Azure Golden Core cultivators, someone like that already stood at the absolute top.

He had thought he was fishing. Instead, he had nearly blown up the entire pond.

"Well, damn. To native cultivators of the Chaotic Sea, my display probably looked exactly like the arrogant, overbearing manner of a great sect’s true disciple." Yaoguang mocked himself.

He immediately put away the Longxiang Flying Vessel and traveled by sword instead.

He released a trace of Blazing White Golden Core Realm's aura and deliberately used a concealment secret art that looked decent—but was actually far from exquisite—to hide his presence.

After he did that, things returned to normal.

Along the remaining half of the journey, the psychic thought of six cultivators swept across him.

Four hesitated and ultimately gave up intercepting him.

Clearly, their forces were limited, and they lacked confidence. But the remaining two psychic thoughts quickly gave chase.

One belonged to a peak Blazing White Golden Core expert with combat power reaching 440,000. With strength like that, even newly advanced Azure Golden Core cultivators would find it easy to retreat safely against him.

The other was also a Blazing White Golden Core cultivator, but he also summoned two battle immortals who had also cultivated to the Blazing White Golden Core Realm.

It had to be known that battle immortals faced ever greater difficulty the further they advanced.

Many could not even maintain a Radiant Sun Golden Core Realm cultivation, let alone reach the Blazing White Golden Core Realm.

Without exaggeration, the number of Void-Piercing Realm cultivators was likely equal to the number of Blazing White Golden Core battle immortals.

Those two Blazing White Golden Core battle immortals were clearly in their final struggle, having only ten years or so left to live. They planned to gather a last batch of resources and gamble everything on that slim chance of breaking through to the Void-Piercing Realm.

Unfortunately, they ran into Yaoguang and ended up contributing 20,000 Pure Yang Grand Pills to his income.

Of course, compared to them, the one with 440,000 combat power was far wealthier. That one man alone brought him 50,000 Pure Yang Grand Pills.

Yaoguang was quite satisfied with the result.

"Though I wasted a few extra months, earning 70,000 Pure Yang Grand Pills isn’t bad at all." As the shoreline gradually drew near, his mood improved greatly.

The Chaotic Sea truly was a treasure trove. It almost made him reluctant to break through to the Azure Golden Core Realm.

The Radiant Sun Golden Core and Blazing White Golden Core cultivators were the most popular hunting targets in the Chaotic Sea.

They were worth a great deal. And they were not so powerful as to be impossible to defeat.

But once he reached the Azure Golden Core Realm, unless there were special circumstances, no force would dare target a prospective Void-Piercing cultivator.

After coming ashore, Yaoguang did not immediately claim the bounty on the Black Dragon Pirates. Instead, he spent some time refining all the Pure Yang Grand Pills he had obtained from the Black Dragon Pirates, Xuan Mo, and his journey.

A year later, Yaoguang examined the state of his Golden Core.

"My Blazing White Golden Core accumulation is nearly complete," he said.

Feeling how close he was, he even considered making another trip into the Chaotic Sea.

If he could gather another hundred or two hundred thousand Pure Yang Grand Pills, he would definitely be able to form an Azure Golden Core.

But considering how extensive the intelligence networks of the Chaotic Sea’s major forces were, as a Blazing White Golden Core cultivator, it was unlikely for him to be able to continue using the Chaotic Sea as a cash machine...

Doing so might even delay him, leaving him unable to attend the true disciple assessment scheduled for three years from now. So even if claiming the Great Shang's bounty carried risk, it was a risk he had to take.

With that thought, he made some preparations and headed straight for the state capital of the Great Shang.

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