Terran Guardian - Chapter 3562

Chapter 3540 Familiarity

. Seven Profound Divine Tower.

Inside the first level of space.

Shen Changqing sat cross-legged in the void, his divine sense constantly tempering the Soul-Destroying Sword, gradually deepening his connection with this supreme treasure.

Five million years in the outside world.

Inside the first level of space, that’s a full five hundred million years.

Under such a long period of time, Shen Changqing poured all his strength into refining the Soul-Destroying Sword.

Although he was still a hundred thousand miles away from truly mastering the Soul-Destroying Sword, compared to before his seclusion, the power he possessed had increased significantly.

When the tempering ended once more,

Shen Changqing opened his eyes.

“I’ve reached my limit!”

He exhaled a breath of turbid air, looking inward at the Soul-Destroying Sword in the Heavenly Universe. With a thought, he saw the blood-red immortal sword tremble slightly, and the next moment it appeared in the void.

The immortal sword appeared.

Sword intent permeated.

Even though Shen Changqing didn’t activate even a fraction of the Soul-Destroying Sword’s power, the mere overflowing immortal sword aura was enough to suppress the void and the universe, causing even the Great Dao rules to fall silent.

Looking at the crimson immortal sword before him, Shen Changqing could feel the boundless power contained within.

The grade of such a treasure was beyond his current comprehension.

Like the Seven Profound Divine Tower,

this was the only treasure Shen Changqing had truly been unable to fathom.

However—

in Shen Changqing’s view,

the Seven Profound Divine Tower was likely stronger than the Soul-Destroying Sword.

Each of the seven layers of the tower possessed its own unique mysteries.

However, Shen Changqing hadn’t yet truly entered the seventh layer, and thus remained unaware of its secrets.

But aside from the seventh layer, all the others were extraordinary.

Of course,

Shen Changqing used the first layer most frequently.

A hundred times the time—

enough to defy fate.

Without the Seven Profound Divine Tower’s hundred times the time, after millions of years, Shen Changqing wouldn’t even be able to reach the level of a half-saint, let alone attain the Immortal Emperor realm.

This demonstrates

the immense power of the Seven Profound Divine Tower.

Such a treasure could not be measured by ordinary offensive treasures.

The Soul-Destroying Sword possessed unparalleled divine power, but if he had to choose between the two, Shen Changqing naturally valued the Seven Profound Divine Tower more.

Regardless

, he cherished both treasures greatly.

Hundreds of millions of years of refining had made Shen Changqing realize that his control over the Soul-Destroying Sword had reached its limit.

To be precise,

it was the limit of his current realm.

To go further, he would need to break through to the Half-Saint realm before he could refine it further.

Understanding this, Shen Changqing naturally didn’t continue his seclusion.

With a thought, he returned the Soul-Destroying Sword to his sea of consciousness, and then he stepped out of the Seven Profound Divine Tower.

The first thing Shen Changqing did after emerging from seclusion

was to summon the peak masters of each peak to understand the current situation of the Xuan Tian Dao Sect.

Inside the sect’s Immortal Hall,

everyone gathered.

When Shen Changqing appeared, everyone stood up to pay their respects.

“Greetings, Sect Master!”

“No need for formalities.”

Shen Changqing nodded, then his gaze fell upon the crowd below.

Five million years have passed. Now, in the sect’s main hall, some familiar faces are fewer, and some unfamiliar ones have appeared.

This is simply unavoidable.

Ancient immortals have limited lifespans.

A billion years is not a long time.

In five million years, it’s not surprising that some people exhaust their lifespan and pass away, or that they unexpectedly perish for some reason.

However—

among the crowd, Shen Changqing saw a familiar face.

“Shangqiong Divine Venerable!”

His expression shifted slightly.

Shen Changqing wasn’t unfamiliar with this person.

He just hadn’t expected that the other party had not only ascended to the Upper Realm but had also joined the Xuantian Dao Sect.

Noticing Shen Changqing’s gaze, Ji Yang said, “Reporting to Master, this Fellow Daoist Huangji Shangqiong ascended from the Lower Realm and is an elder of our Dan Peak!”

“Many years have passed, but Fellow Daoist Shangqiong remains as radiant as ever!”

Shen Changqing smiled calmly, and Shangqiong Divine Venerable bowed in greeting.

“Greetings, Sect Master!”

Upon joining the Xuan Tian Dao Sect, the Supreme Celestial already knew that Shen Changqing’s strength was unfathomable, far surpassing his abilities back in the Heavens.

But now, truly seeing Shen Changqing in person, the Supreme Celestial could clearly feel the vast difference between them.

Shen Changqing merely sitting there made him feel as if he were facing an abyss, unable to discern even the slightest depth.

His strength was unfathomable.

This was enough to demonstrate that the other’s strength was immense, so powerful that even he couldn’t fathom it.

Shen Changqing ignored the Supreme Celestial’s inner shock and instead looked at the other peaks. Over

millions of years, the Heavenly Sect had produced another batch of ancient immortals, but not every ancient immortal could become a member of the sect; becoming an elder of a peak, however, was not a problem.

Afterwards,

Shen Changqing inquired about the changes in the Xuan Tian Dao Sect from the various peaks.

Finally,

he mentioned another matter.

“A hundred years from now, I will be giving a lecture at Miscellaneous Peaks. All cultivators from various sects are welcome to attend.”

“We obey!”

Everyone was startled upon hearing this.

This lecture was a momentous event.

After all, for a powerful figure of this caliber to expound on the Great Dao would be a tremendous opportunity for other cultivators.

Shen Changqing gave a brief explanation and then left the sect’s Immortal Hall.

The reason for the lecture

was that Shen Changqing wanted to use this opportunity to examine the changes that had taken place in the Xuan Tian Dao Sect over the past few million years.

And then…

This is essentially a way to indirectly boost the sect’s strength.

The next Heavenly Dao Battlefield will begin in a few years.

Before that,

Shen Changqing naturally needs to improve the strength of the Xuantian Dao Sect.

Only in this way can the Xuantian Dao Sect help the Divine Heaven Domain advance to a sufficiently high level in the subsequent Heavenly Dao Battlefield.

Back at Yangxin Residence

, Shen Changqing summoned Minghe and the others to instruct them in cultivation.

Over millions of years, with ample resources, their cultivation had all made significant progress.

Among them, Minghe, as the eldest brother, had now broken through to the Ancient Immortal Later Stage.

Normally,

with Minghe’s aptitude, it would be impossible for him to advance from the Ancient Immortal Initial Stage to the Ancient Immortal Later Stage in just a few million years.

However, Shen Changqing bestowed numerous resources, and although Minghe’s aptitude couldn’t compare to those with acquired bloodlines or even innate immortal bodies, it wasn’t too bad.

Thus,

over millions of years, Minghe’s cultivation naturally progressed by leaps and bounds.

Then came

Yu Ren and the others.

Over millions of years, these individuals, using the Nine Luminaries World-Suppressing Scripture as their foundation, saw their cultivation advance rapidly, successively breaking through to the mid-stage of the Ancient Immortal realm.

Among all the disciples, Gu Qingyang, Ji Yang, and Ye Yun experienced the fastest progress.

All three had reached the peak of the Ancient Immortal realm, just one step away from directly challenging the Immortal Emperor realm.

Shen Changqing was naturally satisfied with their cultivation progress.

Afterwards,

he gave a lecture to everyone, addressing their many questions about cultivation.

However,

Ye Yun had the Xuanxu Venerable secretly guiding him, and Ji Yang, having been a Dao Venerable in his previous life, possessed insights into cultivation that were beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Therefore,

Shen Changqing didn’t need to offer much guidance to the two of them regarding cultivation.

Gu Qingyang received an ancient inheritance, cultivating the Sword Embryo Immortal Scripture and the Nine Heavens Myriad Tribulations Sword Manual, both of which were wielded by successive generations of Innate Sword Embryo Immortals.

Although Shen Changqing had some understanding of these two inheritances, it wasn’t particularly in-depth.

Therefore…

He adopted a hands-off approach with these three, letting them grow on their own.

The ones who truly needed guidance were Minghe and the others.

They had no ancient masters to guide them, hadn’t awakened their past life’s wisdom, and possessed no heaven-defying inheritances.

They all cultivated the Nine Luminaries Suppressing the World Scripture.

Therefore,

Shen Changqing’s guidance was naturally easy.

After a lecture,

their understanding of the Nine Luminaries Suppressing the World Scripture deepened.

After answering the last question, Shen Changqing looked at the group and said,

“I have told you everything that needed to be said. Now, just focus on your cultivation.

If you have any further questions, you can come and ask.”

“Thank you, Master. We will take our leave now!”

The group bowed and turned to leave.

Not long after,

only Shen Changqing remained in the Nourishing Heart Residence.

Half a month later,

Shen Changqing entered the True Fire Hall and continued refining pills.

For millions of years, he had been refining the Soul-Destroying Sword, leaving little time to comprehend the Dao of Alchemy.

Now, with no need to waste time on the Soul-Destroying Sword, Shen Changqing naturally wanted to pick up the Dao of Alchemy again, hoping to one day reach the level of an eighth-tier Grandmaster of Alchemy.

Unfortunately,

his first attempt at alchemy ended in failure.

Looking at the immortal ash within the Eight Trigrams Purple Sun Furnace, Shen Changqing shook his head.

“Having not refined pills for so many years, I’ve become somewhat rusty!”

With a thought,

all the remnants of immortal herbs were swept up by an invisible force and casually tossed into the earth fire, serving as nourishment.

After all, each of these materials used to refine seventh-tier immortal pills was an immortal herb at the Immortal Emperor level; even the remnants left after a failed refinement contained considerable immortal energy.

These things

were useless to Shen Changqing,

but they were excellent fuel for the earth fire.

After slightly adjusting his state, Shen Changqing continued refining pills.

However…

Five consecutive attempts at alchemy ended in failure.

Having not practiced alchemy for hundreds of millions of years had left Shen Changqing extremely rusty in the art.

There was no way around it.

This five million years of seclusion within the Seven Profound Divine Tower amounted to hundreds of millions of years, several times longer than all of Shen Changqing’s previous lives combined.

Before his seclusion,

Shen Changqing was only slightly over one hundred million years old.

But now,

by normal standards, he was already six hundred million years old.

Such a long period of seclusion inevitably led to a loss of familiarity with many things.

Let alone alchemy, even in the art of weapon crafting, Shen Changqing, an eighth-rank Grandmaster, dared not claim he could successfully craft an Emperor-level Immortal weapon.

There was no way around it.

The time gap was too long.

Regaining his skills all at once was naturally not easy.