The Fusion Realm cultivator of the Emperor's Extreme Split Sky Dao, Wang Xiyuan, walked slowly to the front of the Jinshen Hall, holding his breath.

Slow steps... must be slow... steps must not be large...

Although he had walked like this for two thousand years in this forbidden Phoenix Tomb, and although he was a Unification Stage cultivator with his magic body and physical body beginning to unite, controlling his body to perfection, every step like a ruler measuring with standard precision, not a fraction off. However, here, he still moved like a novice, cautiously, not daring the slightest disrespect, afraid to break the "propriety."

"Propriety" is a kind of Human Dao order. For Holy Emperor Venerable, a cultivator who cultivates both the Divine Tao, "ritual" is a source of strength. In the forbidden Phoenix Tomb, no one can overstep the rules.

Step by step, he moved to the Jinshen Hall where Holy Emperor Venerable resided, then he stopped, not speaking first but bowing in salute: "Disciple Lin Yanguan pays respects to the Emperor. May the Emperor's Immortal Dao be eternal, transcending heaven and earth."

"Hmm, rise." The calm voice of the Holy Emperor Venerable came from within the Jinshen Hall.

After Wang Xiyuan stood up, he could finally see the current Jinshen Hall clearly.

He couldn't help but shiver.

The Jinshen Hall, three months ago in that earth-shattering and soul-shaking combat, was crushed by the "momentum" of the Holy Emperor Venerable, then transformed into a flying sword and directly cut out. According to the Holy Emperor Venerable's original calculation, that sword should have followed the line of causality to strike its true target. Even if it hit a witch priest, with a divine spirit behind the scenes, it would just mean an extra calculation and more fodder for him.

Yet somehow, this sword ultimately fell on a Nascent Soul of the Blood Refining Sect named Hu Xuanjia, and the clues ended there.

Even stranger was that Hu Xuanjia, in the end, presented a look of heroic sacrifice, shouting, "Heaven and earth have righteous energy, mixed and flowing forms," turning his whole body's essence blood and soul into Vast True Gang, heroically laying down his life.

"Could it be the Stealing Heaven Technique for transferring cause and effect?"

This matter troubled the Holy Emperor Venerable for quite a while.

The new Jinshen Hall was constructed with black bricks, carved lattice windows, and dragon patterns on the walls. The entire Jinshen Hall was stern and severe, surrounded by intense spirit light.

Scene follows the heart; Holy Emperor Venerable was angry, really intending to battle that mysterious enemy again.

Wang Xiyuan stood there, thoughts racing, though outwardly calm. He felt that a second in front of this Jinshen Hall was as long as a year.

Finally, Holy Emperor Venerable spoke: "Recently, are there any abnormalities in various places? How are those cultivators outside? Is there anything peculiar about their bodies?"

This was one of the Holy Emperor Venerable's strange orders. Half a month after the earth-shattering battle in the Divine Country, Holy Emperor Venerable suddenly ordered the Emperor's Extreme Split Sky Dao to collect intelligence, to ascertain if those cultivators recently felt anything strange about their bodies.

This order was very peculiar. The Ancient Method Sect and the Modern Immortal Path have entirely different atmospheres; cultivation techniques are fundamental to one's being and must not be disclosed to outsiders. Probing into others' bodily peculiarities would seem to have the suspicion of probing others' cultivation techniques and gleaning weaknesses.

However, imperial commands cannot be disobeyed, no matter how strange, and the Emperor's Extreme Split Sky Dao must execute Holy Emperor Venerable's will.

Moreover, because Holy Emperor Venerable had just demonstrated his power, other sects dared not openly defy his order and all accepted the scrutiny.

Wang Xiyuan was the overall person in charge of this matter. According to Holy Emperor Venerable's arrangement, he reported the progress of this investigation to Holy Emperor Venerable once every three days.

"There haven't been any." Wang Xiyuan replied.

Holy Emperor Venerable furrowed his brow. His Divine Country's foundation lies in Human Dao. And the foundation of Human Dao is those cultivators. He had battled with that mysterious enemy in the Divine Country for so long, and since the other side had descended with such bizarre will, perhaps it affected the cultivators below. Holy Emperor Venerable hoped to infer the opponent's identity and strength from these effects.

Nothing found?

"Really nothing?"

The Holy Emperor Venerable's voice carried hidden authority. Wang Xiyuan's heart trembled, searching for words. He then bowed and said: "Reporting to the Emperor, if one must insist, it's not completely absent."

"Oh? I most dislike vagueness. Say it clearly. It either exists, or it does not."

Even just an "oh," Wang Xiyuan, this Unification Stage cultivator, felt his soul leap violently. He cautiously said: "It's just... recently, in more than twenty sects including Luochen Sword Palace, Heavenly Book Tower, Sword Suspension Tower, Blood Refining Sect, Heavenly Star Path, Red One Sect, some small-scale low-level disciples responded that they recently broke through some Tianying Acupoints. They... the highest being Golden Core Perfection."

"Tianying Acupoints?" Holy Emperor Venerable frowned. Would the aftermath of his clash with the mysterious enemy cause the Tianying Acupoints to open?

The Tianying Acupoint, also called Ahshi Acupoint, also known as the indeterminate acupoint, is not within the catalog of human acupoints and varies with individuals and their cultivation techniques. A person's Tianying Acupoint is not necessarily permanent. After birth, some may generate new Tianying Acupoints. And some Tianying Acupoints found may also vanish.

Whether they exist, all depends on the heavens, on creation.

And Refining Tianying Acupoints is also a crucial step in physical body cultivation. Solidifying a Tianying Acupoint means having an additional acupoint outside of regular ones to absorb mana, with numerous benefits. Solidifying and Refining Tianying Acupoints have thus become essential abilities in body cultivation techniques.

In the end, Holy Emperor Venerable did not believe these Tianying Acupoints were related to his confrontation with the mysterious enemy. At most, his final strike's primordial energy surge activated those cultivators' Tianying Acupoints.

"Continue seeking."

Holy Emperor Venerable sighed in disappointment and then dismissed Wang Xiyuan with a wave.

Then, he sensed his damaged Divine Country, a trace of doubt flashing in his eyes.

—Could it be that such an intense combat had actually not involved anyone?

This doesn't align with the Heavenly Dao!

————————————————————————————————————————————————

In Luochen Sword Palace, "Xia Li" leaned against a red lacquered stone pillar, watching the crowd coming and going on the Sword Palace plaza, practicing their swordsmanship.

This action made quite a few people feel uneasy, prompting them to leave altogether.

In the distant past, when the Righteous Law Immortal Path dominated the Shenzhou Continent, every Immortal Sect had occupied vast territories. Even a Qi Cultivation Stage disciple had large spaces dedicated to their practice. But on Spirit Phoenix Island, space was scarce, and only Nascent Soul Stage cultivators generally had their own practice rooms.

As a result, everyone now had to risk having their swordsmanship peeped on and were compelled to crowd together to practice. Truly, the world has declined, propriety and music have crumbled, a disgrace to culture.

However, even with that being the case, Xia Li's blatant spying behavior exceeded the limits of others' tolerance.

—Can't you peek more covertly or look in a discreet manner!

But among those crowded in the Sword Palace plaza, the highest was only at the Golden Core Stage, and still the type with poor talent and no backing, so none dared to provoke Xia Li.

Now, "Xia Li" was already acknowledged as the top in the Golden Core Stage at Luochen Sword Palace, capable of transcending his level. Among the Golden Core Stage, only a few elder disciples could compete with him.

Not only was no one daring to challenge him, but now some Golden Core Early Stage, Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators even thought this "Senior Brother Xia" was in a good mood and specifically went to practice swords in front of "Xia Li."

Occasionally, "Xia Li" would offer some guidance.

Wang Qi was genuinely in a great mood now.

He now felt the signals of spiritual power flying through the space, making him almost teary-eyed with excitement.

"The feeling of having a net is wonderful!"

This was the setup that Wang Qi had discretely arranged.

If the Holy Emperor Venerable were to capture every cultivator who reacted to find "refining Tianying Acupoint particularly easy," and carefully observe their Tianying Acupoints, he'd find that all these newly opened Tianying Acupoints were concentrated on the back, left shoulder, left face, and forehead.

These Tianying Acupoints were completely harmless, capable of absorbing spiritual energy and assisting in cultivation just like normally refined Tianying Acupoints.

Furthermore, these Tianying Acupoints could greatly expand those cultivators' perception, making their Spiritual Sense and Body Recognition even more sensitive.

Of course, Wang Qi wasn't kind enough to create something with all positive effects, at least not now. These Tianying Acupoints have an insignificant side effect. Should the person refining these Tianying Acupoints emit a mana aura, these Tianying Acupoints would cause slight fluctuations in the mana aura.

To those who don't understand, these fluctuations at most indicate that the person opening the acupoint has unstable mana and insufficient foundational stability. However, to those who do understand, those fluctuations clearly signify—Signals!

The sensitive Spiritual Sense and Body Recognition brought by these Tianying Acupoints were not for nothing. This acuity was specifically targeted at the same "special spiritual power signals." These Tianying Acupoints faintly formed an array, capable of recording information from the "special spiritual power signals" transmitted by others.

Simply put, he was equipping these individuals with output and input devices, transforming them into parallel units.

This was the reason for Wang Qi's dominance recently.

Due to the confrontation in the Imagined Space between "Senior Brother Mi" and Senior Sister Mi back during the instance, Wang Qi was now most adept at the Divine Plague Curse Technique—plundering others' power and manipulating it for his use.

The latest Divine Plague Curse developed by Wang Qi was to manipulate part of the cursed person's mana to specific locations to open the Tianying Acupoints. Due to the interference in judgment ability by the Divine Plague Curse, the process was unbeknownst to those cultivators.

"Tianying Acupoint Science" is also a branch of medicine at Innate Peak, and its theory is established within the Modern Immortal Path. One of Wang Qi's foundational cultivation techniques, the "Yao Ding Calculating Scripture," entails forming Yin Yang Yao within the acupoints. Regular acupoints, even if filled, can't achieve a computational efficiency matching a typical calculator. Thus, the Yao Ding Calculating Scripture contains dedicated instructions on opening Tianying Acupoints.

Wang Qi simply applied this skill here.

The fighting Wang Qi did in the first half-month was practical testing for this Divine Plague Curse.

By the latter half of the first month, he gradually stabilized this Divine Plague Curse.

By the second month's latter half, Wang Qi only then gradually deduced a controllable and replicable version of this Divine Plague Curse, the "contagious version," that is.

Then, for the past half month, Wang Qi has been continually fighting with the dispatched cultivators.

He did so to spread this fearsome spell.

During these three months, he laid the groundwork for a network prototype—a completely "human flesh network" based on the Divine Plague Curse Technique!