Daojun, start from Penglai foundation building

The inner core of the Great Ascension Demon Lord could actually allow a Fifth Tribulation True Monarch to revert to the Great Ascension realm and gain 30% more combat power when he failed to ascend to the Pure Yang realm?!

Jiang Sheng listened silently; the news that Jade Immortal Lord had spoken was undeniably important.

At least Jiang Sheng was unaware of this information.

Jade Immortal looked at Jiang Sheng and laughed, "Why are you remembering this?"

"Your future is bright. All the patriarchs of Penglai, and even Qingyan Tianzun, will protect you. Why would you be afraid that you cannot ascend to Chunyang?"

Jiang Sheng shook his head: "Ascending to Chunyang is my path. I am confident that even without anyone protecting me, I will still reach that point."

"However, I have many fellow Daoists who may not reach that level in the future. Knowing this secret will allow me to help them more even if they eventually enter the Mahayana path."

Upon hearing this, Immortal Lord Yuzhen laughed and said, "You look aloof, but you're actually warm-hearted despite your cold exterior."

"Back then, I was full of confidence and wanted to ascend to Chunyang and become the second Yaochi Yuanjun."

"Unfortunately, ascending to the Pure Yang realm was not as simple as I had imagined. Even though I successfully merged with the Earth Soul and attracted the Heaven Soul, I still failed at the last hurdle."

"Finally, the Golden Mother Primordial Sovereign obtained an inner elixir for me to help me repair my injuries, replenish my vital energy, and finally advance to the Mahayana stage."

"Only then did I realize that even within the Mahayana realm, there are differences in strength and level."

Jiang Sheng nodded, but then he thought of Xuanjing Immortal Lord of Tianhe and Junxiao Immortal Lord of Qinghua. They both had senior brothers of the same generation protecting them. Even though they had never ascended to Chunyang, with the help of their sects and senior brothers, their cultivation and supernatural powers were still first-class in the Mahayana realm.

And this is the benefit of having a sect and fellow disciples.

As for Huaguang Immortal Lord
That's a bit of a pity.

He was a prodigy, and if he had been born in the Great Thousand World and entered a Pure Yang Holy Land, he would definitely have had the chance to reach the Pure Yang realm. However, he was born in the Middle Thousand World, where his upper limit was the Great Ascension stage. Moreover, he had no sect or fellow disciples to support him, so he probably didn't know anything about the Great Ascension inner alchemy.

However, Jiang Sheng thought again, so what if Immortal Lord Huaguang knew?

What could Huaguang Immortal Lord, who has not yet advanced to the Mahayana stage, offer in exchange for the inner core of a Mahayana Demon Lord?

After much thought, Jiang Sheng couldn't help but sigh at Huaguang Immortal Lord's bad luck.

This was evident in the great battle between the Eastern Heaven Daoist School and the six schools of Qiankun, Yuanyang, Tianyuan, Wanshoulin, Jiaolonghai, and Bibotan. Immortal Lord Chiyun single-handedly stopped Immortal Lord Wanxian and Immortal Lord Dongri. Similarly, when facing two Mahayana cultivators, Immortal Lord Huaguang was also facing two Demon Lords, but he struggled to hold on and had to use his Dharma Body right from the start.

This is the difference in foundation.

After some thought, Jiang Sheng said, "True Lord Xiaoyuan, take the Dragon Pearl of the Azure Wave Dragon King."

Jade Immortal Lord nodded: "That dragon pearl is for my Jade Pool."

"In fact, this was also a deal between Yaochi and Chixiao."

"The Azure Dragon King is eyeing my Jade Pool covetously, and that Black-Winged Crimson Demon is arrogant and stupid."

"Unfortunately, neither of these two has a Pure Yang level expert backing them up."

As she spoke, Jade Virtue Immortal Lord said with considerable disdain, "Without Pure Yang as their backing, they still dare to be so arrogant. If they don't die, who will?"

"Therefore, I will assist Yuan Yi of Penglai in slaying the Black-Winged Crimson Demon. His physical body will belong to Penglai, while his inner core will belong to the Crimson Cloud Dao Sect."

"At the same time, I first used magic to reduce the Azure Wave Dragon King's combat power by 50%, and then Xiao Yuan personally killed the Azure Wave Dragon King."

"After this calamity, Xiao Yuan will definitely try to ascend to Chunyang, and that girl Que Di will also give it a try."

"The inner core of the Black-winged Crimson Demon is more in line with Xiao Yuan's, while the Dragon Pearl of the Azure Wave Dragon King is more in line with the Daoist practices of my Yaochi."

"If the Magpie Flute fails, then the Dragon Ball will be her key to advancing to the Mahayana stage."

As Jiang Sheng listened, he couldn't help but wonder: If True Lord Yuanyi were to ascend to Chunyang, what would be his chances of success?
Did True Lord Yuanyi also prepare an inner elixir in case of an accident?

Thinking about it this way, Jiang Sheng calculated the demon lords in the Nine Provinces Realm: the Long-Armed Golden Ape of the Ten Thousand Beasts Forest and the Overturning Sea Dragon King of the Flood Dragon Sea. Apart from these two, it seems that there are only the two Feather Clan Heavenly Demons brought by the two Great Saints of the Feather Clan in the Great Wilderness Realm.

Based on this calculation, the four demon lords and four demon cores mean that Penglai, Qinghua, and Tianhe all have points, and some even have one left over.
After thinking it over, Jiang Sheng couldn't help but feel a little restless.

Looking at Jiang Sheng's calm expression, Yu Zhen Xianjun was unaware that Jiang Sheng had already focused his attention on those demon lords, and assumed that Jiang Sheng was pondering his own affairs.

After casually collecting the inner core of the Crimson Winged Demon, Immortal Lord Yuzhen said, "Lingyuan, did you come here looking for something to do?"

Jiang Sheng nodded: "Immortal Lord, I have just completed the initial stage of weapon refining, so I have nothing to do while I am stationed in the rear. If there is any need, Immortal Lord, please do not hesitate to send me."

Jade Immortal Lord looked at Jiang Sheng with some surprise: "Has the weapon forging been completed?"

"You've successfully refined the golden tortoise shell?!"

"show me!"

Jiang Sheng took out the tortoise shell from his sleeve. After carefully sensing it, Yu Zhen Xianjun looked at Jiang Sheng with an increasingly strange expression, as if he were looking at some monster: "Ling Yuan, Ling Yuan, everyone says you are the number one Xuanmen of our time."

"I thought that killing a five-tribulation demon lord with the cultivation of a first-tribulation cultivator was already monstrous enough, but I never expected that you could even refine the shell of the Golden Turtle in such a short time."

"Although it's only the initial refining, this tortoise shell was nurtured by the Golden Turtle for tens of thousands of years, and you refined it in just over ten days. This is simply unbelievable."

“If I didn’t know that you were picked up by the river from your Penglai people, I would really suspect that you are a reincarnation of Chunyang.”

Jiang Sheng would not lie about the fact that Patriarch Qingyan had secretly intervened, so he could only make up the story by saying that he had taken a shortcut and somehow refined the tortoise shell after he merged with the Dao.

Jade Immortal Lord had no doubts about this. After looking at the tortoise shell, she casually repaired a few more nodes on it for Jiang Sheng, and then returned it to Jiang Sheng: "I've repaired this for you again, giving it a bit more vitality from the cold jade."

"If this tortoise shell is damaged in the future, with this trace of life force in the cold jade, there is a possibility of it being completely repaired." Jiang Sheng thanked him repeatedly.

But Jade Immortal Lord laughed and said, "I'm not helping you for nothing."

"There's nothing left in Cangzhou that's worth your time now."

"I suppose you wouldn't stoop to competing with your peers for those few Void Refinement Realm achievements."

"How about I give you a new place to go?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Sheng became interested: "Immortal Lord, where is this place?"

Jade Immortal Lord smiled and said, "Dragon Old Man Island."

Dragon Island?!

Seeing that Jiang Sheng was interested, Immortal Lord Yuzhen raised his hand and waved it, and specks of cold jade light condensed into a map of the Nine Provinces.

On the map of the Nine Provinces, Jun Province, Cang Province, Bian Province, Xuan Province, Ming Province, Hao Province, Zhu Province, Yan Province, and Yang Province occupy the core of the Nine Provinces, appearing vast and boundless.

But beyond this land of nine provinces, there are still specks of light scattered across the four seas and the sky.

Jiang Sheng already knew the location of one of them: Guanlan Island, where he had once killed Prince Tuolong and Mo Wenxin, the former traitor and abandoned disciple.

Jade Immortal Lord pointed to the glowing dots on the map of the Nine Provinces and said, "In addition to the Nine Provinces landmass, there are also ten islands beyond the heavens in this vast world of the Nine Provinces."

"Some of these islands are the chosen ones who failed in the Nine Provinces, the people destined for disaster, some are the defeated immortal sects that fled here, and some are the native creatures of these islands."

“On Dragon Island, there is such a Dragon Elder, who is a Mahayana practitioner and lives in seclusion.”

"His cultivation was extraordinary, and since he did not concern himself with the affairs of the Nine Provinces, the Qiankun, Huayun, and Kongdong all regarded him as non-existent."

"According to the intelligence we obtained from the Qiankun Dao Palace in the central region of Cangzhou, over the years, that Dragon Elder has indeed gathered quite a few refugees on Dragon Elder Island, including remnants of Qiankun, Huayun, and Kongdong."

As she spoke, Jade Immortal looked at Jiang Sheng and said, "With this tortoise shell, even a cultivator at the Fifth Tribulation level can't do anything to you, and even a cultivator at the Mahayana level can hold you off for a while."

"Therefore, among all the people, you, Lingyuan, are the most suitable candidate."

“Go to Longweng Island and ask the old man there. If he is willing to live in seclusion, then don’t do anything unnecessary.”

"If he wants to get involved in this great calamity of the Xuanmen, then I will help him face the calamity later."

"Perfect timing! What we need most right now is the Mahayana Inner Core!"

Longweng Island, located 129,750,000 li southeast of Cangzhou, is where one can see the Heavenly Waterfall plunging into the sea and the water vapor soaring into the sky.

Entering the sea from the Heavenly Waterfall, diving into the abyss, one can see the underwater caves, and passing through them reveals a hidden paradise.

The so-called Dragon Elder Island is actually a Mahayana grotto-heaven created by the Dragon Elder who reached the Mahayana realm.

Although all three realms can open up a cave heaven, opening up a cave heaven is indeed a time-consuming and laborious task.

To be precise, it is easy to create but difficult to maintain. In all the myriad realms, most of the cave heavens are created by independent cultivators for their own practice sites, in order to avoid the immortal mountains, spiritual islands, and blessed lands of the world, and to avoid the pure yang holy lands.

Just like this Dragon Elder Island, it was a small grotto-heaven that the Dragon Elder specially created overseas to escape Qiankun, Huayun and Kongdong, and attached to the Nine Provinces Realm.

Anyone with a Pure Yang sect as their backer will naturally be allocated sacred mountains and spiritual islands, as well as blessed lands and grottoes. Who would bother to go through the trouble of creating a new one?
Take Jiang Sheng for example. Xiao Penglai is a famous blessed land in the South China Sea. Its spiritual charm and blessings are no different from those of the celestial palaces in heaven. This was not created by Jiang Sheng himself, but bestowed by his ancestor.

This is the advantage of having a powerful sect backing you up and a strong foundation.

As for the old dragon, he had neither the foundation of a sect nor the backing of the demon race, so he could only open up a dojo on the edge of the sea and sky to live out his old age in peace.

Jiang Sheng was curious about where the old man Long got the audacity to take in the remnants of the three sects when he knew that Qiankun, Huayun and Kongdong were suffering defeats and were about to lose their lineage.
Traveling all the way into the sea, Jiang Sheng plunged into the deep abyss and found that dark cave.

The cave was very dry. The underwater current stopped at the entrance of the cave, and the inside was dry with no trace of water or human presence.

After Jiang Sheng leaped into the dark cave and dispersed his water-avoidance spell, he was able to sense the faint traces of magical power flowing deep within the cave.

Meanwhile, on Longweng Island, a middle-aged Taoist priest dressed in coarse linen clothes was cultivating a piece of wasteland.

Longweng Island stretches nearly ten thousand li from east to west and eight thousand li from north to south, making it a small continent. Its interior is characterized by rolling mountains and crisscrossing rivers. Although it lacks spiritual energy, it is sparsely populated and far from the Nine Provinces, making it a secluded place.

The Taoist priest did not use any magical powers; he simply used a hoe to cultivate the land in front of him. Behind him was a simple thatched hut, surrounded by a fence made of tree branches.

The Taoist's name was Yongkang. He was originally a Golden Core cultivator from the Qiankun Taoist Sect and was also the head of the outer courtyard when he was in the Qiankun Taoist Sect.

However, with the great calamity of the Xuanmen sect, the Qiankun Dao Sect was on the verge of collapse. Yongkang was unwilling to let his two children perish with the Qiankun Dao Sect, so he took his Daoist partner and children and fled overseas, settling down on Longweng Island.

However, Daoist Yongkang seemed rather uneasy today, as if something big was about to happen.

Just as Yongkang Daoist was wondering what was going on, he suddenly heard his children calling out, "Father, Father."

"Look, someone's here!"

Yongkang Daoist was startled. He looked up and saw a handsome Daoist in the distance with a blue crown and black robe, standing with his hands behind his back. His expression gradually turned to astonishment, then to horror, and finally he collapsed to the ground, powerless.

"Pong"

"Penglai Spirit Abyss?!" (End of Chapter)