The ordinary citizens suffered unspeakable misery during the great drought. By opening up the granaries, Gu Hai performed an act of great kindness, resulting in many suffering citizens thanking him sincerely. The feelings of gratitude gathered into a river and flowed towards Gu Hai.
Soaring Pagoda, Gu Residence:
While Gu Hai entered closed-door cultivation, no one could enter the pagoda. All matters got shelved as Gu Qin, Shangguan Hen, and Chen Tianshan waited outside, protecting Gu Hai.
Rumble…
A sound like metal grinding against stone came from the Soaring Pagoda.
“This sounds like bones grinding against each other. What kind of cultivation Milord is doing?” Chen Tianshan said in confusion.
Shangguan Hen frowned slightly as he shook his head. Clearly, he did not know, either.
Gu Hai sat cross-legged in the pagoda as his bones gave off grinding sounds.
Back at the Dragon Pinning Sect, the Life Ender Saber had absorbed boundless energy from the dragon vein in the Twenty-Nine Line-Pair World. The energy from the Life Ender Saber had strengthened Gu Hai’s bones. However, he had eventually reached a bottleneck, unable to accumulate more and unable to make a qualitative change.
Now, Gu Hai used the providence formed from the surging beneficence to break through this bottleneck. His bones now underwent a metamorphosis.
Rumble…!
Loud grinding continuously came from Gu Hai’s body for six hours.
Boom!
After a loud report, Gu Hai’s bones stopped grinding against each other. Instead, they started giving off crackling. This continued for two hours before slowly coming to a stop.
Gu Hai opened his eyes, sweat covering his forehead. Then, he extended his right palm.
Schick!
At his will, a bone slowly emerged from his palm. After his metamorphosis, the bone was still silvery-white but now with a metallic sheen to it. It looked as dense as silver but was much harder. This was a silvery-white metallic bone.
With a flip of his hand, Gu Hai took out a sword.
Stab!
The silvery-white bone easily pierced through the sword; it was incredibly sharp.
“Is this considered a further breakthrough in physical cultivation?” Gu Hai felt amazed.
Whoosh!
Under Gu Hai’s motivation, the bone slowly retracted, returning to his body. Then, the torn skin recovered in the blink of an eye.
Without hesitation, Gu Hai closed his eyes again to sense his dantian. Aside from his breakthrough in physical cultivation, his dantian seemed to have hit a limit and showed signs of breaking through as well.
The feeling of comfort still lingered and filled Gu Hai’s body. As providence entered him, it slowly formed a golden halo around his body.
Gu Hai closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into his dantian.
Boundless Veritable Energy already filled his dantian. The spinning tornado of dragon-shaped Veritable Energy continuously condensed Veritable Essence. Now, the nine fist-sized clumps of Veritable Essence formed a ring, apparently rejecting each other and unable to advance further.
“Roar!”
The dragon-shaped Veritable Energy roared. The True Dragon Innate Cultivation Technique was already pushed to the limit, but the might of the tornado could only reach this much.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, strands of golden energy flowed into Gu Hai’s dantian. This golden energy was none other than the providence that the surrounding beneficence formed. It slowly flowed into the nine fist-sized clumps of Veritable Essence.
Buzz!
The nine clumps of Veritable Essence merged slowly as providence enveloped them.
Boom!
The nine clumps of Veritable Essence produced a loud sound when they fused. Then, a strong force surged out from his dantian to his skin.
Boom!
A loud sound came from his body as a shock wave spread out.
Now, a watermelon-sized clump of purple liquid Veritable Essence slowly spun in his dantian. A tornado spun around the Veritable Essence, appearing to be trying to compress all the Veritable Energy into this Veritable Essence ball. However, it seemed to have already reached a limit; the Veritable Essence could not increase further.
The Veritable Energy flowing through his meridians was half-gas-half-condensate, appearing like it reached saturation.
Buzz!
Gu Hai opened his eyes and looked at his clenched fists. Then, he took a deep breath and said, “The Innate Realm’s tenth layer. I reached the consummation of the Innate Realm and can make a breakthrough to the Golden Core Realm already?”
Gu Hai’s providence continued to increase endlessly. He felt very satisfied with his current state.
“Providence? Had I established a nation to gain providence to help me when I was in the Acquired Realm, perhaps I could have advanced to the Innate Realm and would not have had to go through so much hardship?” Gu Hai said pensively.
After that, he smiled bitterly. “Even though that might be true, the various nations had major sects backing them. There would have been no way to establish a nation with my strength back then.”
Gu Hai took a deep breath as he stood up slowly, feeling an indescribable comfort throughout his body. Then, he strolled to a window in the Soaring Pagoda.
“Adoptive Father, you broke through?” Gu Qin said joyfully.
Gu Hai nodded with a faint smile.
After obtaining providence, Gu Hai verified one of his thoughts. Starting a nation was the right decision.
Another ten days passed. During this time, providence gathered endlessly. Gu Hai’s body seemed to be clad in a faint golden light, making him appear like a deity.
This was initially something to be happy about. However, Gu Hai started frowning at this moment.
Although this providence felt very comfortable, it dwindled as time passed. The providence that he could not use would slowly fade away, resulting in great wastage.
“I have to figure out how to store and accumulate providence. Otherwise, a large amount of providence will go to waste. Then, when I need it, I might not have enough!” Gu Hai said after some thought.
Gu Hai was sitting in his study, pondering this, when Shangguan Hen sought an audience.
“Milord, we found the Divine Strategy Battalion disciples. However…” Shangguan Hen smiled bitterly as he looked at Gu Hai.
“Oh?” Gu Hai said, feeling some misgivings.
“They seemed to have gone through a huge battle. The ground was covered in blood, and we even found the corpse of a Divine Strategy Battalion disciple.” Shangguan Hen smiled bitterly.
As Shangguan Hen spoke, two evil men carried over a stretcher with the corpse of an armored Divine Strategy Battalion disciple on it.
Gu Hai examined the corpse before saying, “He died from one strike, pierced through the heart?”
Shangguan Hen nodded. “Yes! He was likely knocked into the air and fell among some bushes, which was why his corpse got left behind. I suspect some of the other Divine Strategy Battalion disciples died as well. However, their corpses disappeared. Furthermore, there were no footprints leaving the place.”
“Oh?” Gu Hai frowned slightly.
“Adoptive Father! Adoptive Father!” Gu Qin ran in, flustered.
“Huh?” Gu Hai looked over.
“Adoptive Father, there’s someone outside carrying one thousand heads. He said he killed the one thousand Divine Strategy Battalion disciples that Gao Liusheng led as a present for Adoptive Father!” Gu Qin frowned.
This matter was too strange, after all. Giving heads as a present?
Gu Hai and Shangguan Hen exchanged looks.
“First Young Master, who is it?” Shangguan Hen asked in shock.
“I’m not sure. It is a balding, white-haired old man. However, he is quite polite to us. He packed the one thousand heads into ten large boxes, but I have no idea how he transported them,” Gu Qin replied.
“Let’s go and take a look!” Gu Hai said with a frown.
Shangguan Hen and Gu Qin followed close behind.
Soon, Gu Hai arrived outside of the Gu Residence’s ritual array.
“Master!”
“Milord!”
The surrounding people from the Gu Residence respectfully greeted Gu Hai. All of them had surrounded a certain area of a plaza.
Ten large wooden boxes stood in the plaza with their lids opened. A hundred bloody heads filled every box. Suddenly, Gu Hai noticed a familiar face. That face belonged to someone who had been beside Li Haoran.
Is this Gao Liusheng?
An old man in loose robes stood before the ten large wooden boxes. This balding old man with a bulging belly had two locks of white hair running down the sides of his ruddy face.
“This old man is Yao Zhengtian. Greetings, Mister Gu!” the white-haired old man said with a faint smile.
“Oh? Greetings, Mister Yao. Might I ask what you mean by these ten boxes of heads?” Gu Hai asked in confusion.
“These one thousand men were Divine Strategy Battalion disciples. They went about recruiting experts to come and assassinate Mister Gu. Unfortunately, they ran into this old man. Therefore, this old man dealt with all of them to give to Mister Gu as a greeting gift!” Yao Zhengtian said with a faint smile.
“Oh?” Gu Hai narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Mister Gu, there’s no need to feel suspicious. While they wanted to deal with Mister Gu, this old man also had a grudge against them. This was just killing two birds with one stone!” Yao Zhengtian smiled.
Gu Hai felt slightly surprised. This person seemed sincere. He did not present this as an intentional gift but something he did in passing.
“Mister Yao, this humble one has never met Mister Yao before. I wonder if Mister Yao is…” Gu Hai trailed off in bewilderment.
“Mister Gu should know me!” Yao Zhengtian smiled.
“Oh?”
“Back then, this humble one led three thousand subordinates to the Great Feng Mafia Family. Many people should have heard of me. Later, I met and fought the Divine Strategy Battalion Commander, Li Haoran. Back then, I had to retreat to the sea. Unfortunately, the Divine Strategy Battalion killed my three thousand subordinates. That’s where my grudge with the Divine Strategy Battalion started!” Yao Zhengtian smiled.
“Huh?” Gu Hai’s pupils suddenly constricted. “You are the baxia sea beast?”
Back when Gu Hai was imprisoned in the Great Feng Mafia Family, the baxia sea beast led three thousand oceanic animal spirits ashore and caused a huge commotion to snatch the dragon vein.
“That is this old man!” Yao Zhengtian smiled faintly.
“The Divine Strategy Battalion disciples ate my three thousand subordinates. Naturally, I ate these one thousand Divine Strategy Battalion disciples, leaving only their heads for Mister Gu. Pardon me, but I came to ask a favor. I hope I did not interrupt Mister Gu!” Yao Zhengtian smiled.
Gu Hai’s expression changed as he nodded and said, “Mister Yao has traveled from afar. Please come in.”
“Many thanks, Mister Gu!” Yao Zhengtian nodded.
Yao Zhengtian followed Gu Hai into the ritual array, entering the Gu Residence, leaving Gu Hai’s subordinates shocked.
“The baxia sea beast? I did not hear wrong, right? It is him?!” an evil man exclaimed.
“Milord is becoming increasingly incredible. To think that the baxia sea beast sought him out for a favor.”
“Yao Zhengtian? I was wondering why the same sounded so familiar. So, it is the baxia.”
The group of evil men felt amazed and proud. Their boss’s prestige was their prestige. To think that the baxia sea beast, which held great prestige in the Thousand Islands Sea, would be so courteous to their boss.
Gu Hai led Yao Zhengtian to a large hall. Gu Qin, Shangguan Hen, and Chen Tianshan accompanied them.
“Mister Yao, please!” Gu Hai gestured for Yao Zhengtian to take a seat.
“Many thanks!” Yao Zhengtian said courteously.
Gu Qin stepped forward and poured tea for the two.
“Mister Yao, you aren’t here for the dragon vein, right?” Gu Hai asked.
Yao Zhengtian shook his head and replied, “This old man already figured out the situation. I can’t gain anything from it. This is Old Mister Guan Qi’s setup. If I get involved, I will die. Hence, Mister Gu, don’t worry. I’m not here for that. I do indeed have a favor to ask of Mister Gu!”
