You carefully finished reading the letter and learned that the Earth Source at Sea Snake Island wouldn't emerge for another five months, so you could take your time getting there.

Given your current strength, you weren't going there to compete for the Earth Source—you'd be casually enjoying hotpot while chatting, then effortlessly claiming the Earth Source along the way.

After giving Sang Yi a few more instructions, you raised your right fist to the sky and left fist to your shoulder, then whooshed away into flight.

Sang Yi's young disciple watched your disappearing figure as if still dreaming, murmuring: "Master, the Sect Leader truly is an Ultimate Grandmaster!"

Sang Yi nodded: "Don't be fooled by our Palace of Ten Thousand Dreams having only the Sect Leader and four of us—our average strength isn't inferior to major sects!"

The young disciple exclaimed excitedly: "Yes, us five are truly amazing!"

You flew unimpeded along your journey, no longer encountering aerial restrictions like in the Great Qian imperial city.

You incidentally completed your fifth true qi condensation during the trip.

You already dominated the entire Great Qian, yet your strength continued to grow.

If other Ultimate Grandmasters learned about your condition, they might suffer immediate dao heart shattering.

More importantly, your top-tier martial talent had improved yet again.

And after completing the nine condensations of Dragon Transformation, there were still nine more at the Grandmaster level to condense.

You didn't know how terrifyingly high your talent would ultimately reach.

With clear self-awareness, you murmured quietly: "Wonder if I can compare with Lin Mo's initial talent..."

You flew for one month.

By the time you returned to your manor in Youtong County, the seventh year had arrived.

Steward Wang hurried out to welcome you.

This time, Old Wang had genuinely been worried about you for quite a while.

Nearly half a year had passed since you last exclaimed about becoming number one under heaven, then left laughing heartily toward the sky.

Old Wang had been anxious for six months, and when he saw you finally return intact, he ran so frantically that he lost one shoe.

"Young Master!!" Old Wang stumbled to you, excitedly circling you twice with an examining gaze, his face full of concern.

"Stop spinning, Old Wang, I'm perfectly fine!"

"Young Master, you're back! That's what matters! You're back!"

You looked at Old Wang, noticing his eyes were slightly reddened—clearly overjoyed at your safe return.

After a moment's contemplation, feeling somewhat moved: "Old Wang, enough sentimentality—I'm back, aren't I!"

Old Wang nodded vigorously, saying sincerely: "Young Master, honestly whether you return or not is secondary—next time please leave enough money! The manor can't even keep the pot boiling!"

"Here, Old Wang, put your head closer—I want to show you a treasure!"

"Young Master, what treas—OWW!!"

You went to the cultivation room in high spirits.

Old Wang, clutching the large bump on his head, found a servant and instructed: "Tell Daoist Xuanqing he doesn't need to come—Young Master has no problems!"

You entered the cultivation room and settled steadily.

With the Sea Snake Island Earth Source not emerging for five months, you planned to cultivate for three months before going—arriving one month early would be sufficient.

Cultivation knows no passage of time—before you knew it, a full day had passed.

You rose from the cultivation room and walked out slowly.

With determined gaze, you headed to the outhouse, used the toilet, then returned to cultivate again.

This time, truly cultivation knows no time—a month passed.

The bottleneck between mid and late Dragon Transformation phase was now within reach.

Maintaining steady composure, you silently continued cultivating.

During your month of cultivation, your reputation as Sect Leader of the Palace of Ten Thousand Dreams had spread throughout Great Qian.

Your legendary feat of single-handedly challenging over twenty Ultimate Grandmasters in the Great Qian imperial palace with just one blade, and slaughtering half of them, had spread throughout the martial world.

Your final act of forcefully suppressing the peerless Ultimate Grandmaster Li Anlong left all Ultimate Grandmasters utterly astonished.

At first they absolutely refused to believe it—to these Ultimate Grandmasters, this sounded like a horror story.

But eventually they had no choice but to believe.

Because the dozen-plus surviving Ultimate Grandmasters of the Li imperial clan all personally confirmed the magnificent scene.

This news dropped like a nuclear bomb in the martial world, exploding in everyone's minds with deafening impact.

Afterwards, the Great Qian royal family announced Li Anlong's passing, with imperial grandson Li Jiang succeeding to the throne.

On Li Jiang's coronation day, he issued an imperial decree appointing Palace of Ten Thousand Dreams Sect Leader Shangguan Gousheng as Great Qian's State Preceptor.

Li Jiang even held an elaborate investiture ceremony with great seriousness, determined to use your tiger-skin reputation as his banner.

On ceremony day, all the nobility and high officials attended—only you, the person in question, didn't take it seriously and never showed up.

Li Jiang wasn't annoyed at all. With quick thinking, he invited Sang Yi to the ceremony and had Sang Yi receive three bows on your behalf.

Li Jiang's maneuver both connected him to you and showed everyone how shameless he could be, instantly earning their respect.

Li Jiang had also previously recruited many Ultimate Grandmasters from the Li imperial clan. Now Li Jiang possessed both nominal legitimacy and martial intimidation.

Thus Li Jiang quickly stabilized his reign.

As for Li Jiang personally killing Li Anlong—everyone tacitly agreed to pretend it never happened. Some things must be forgotten, since life must go on.

And so Great Qian relatively smoothly changed emperors.

Your title as number one under heaven spread quickly, gradually becoming consensus in the martial world.

While your exposed strength affected others minimally, it impacted two Ultimate Grandmasters most severely.

One was Yan Zhixue, who had previously wanted to spar with you. After learning of your terrifying strength, she remained shocked for quite some time.

Simultaneously, Yan Zhixue felt profoundly grateful she never actually fought you, and even more grateful that through your He Yu identity, she had established good relations with you.

The other most affected Ultimate Grandmaster was Mingjue the monk.

The bald donkey was now so terrified he didn't dare leave Vajra Temple, holed up all day playing moaning games with his pretty young concubine.

However, these were all things you, buried in cultivation, didn't know about.

Even if you knew, you wouldn't react much—after all, you were indifferent to fame and hated pretentious behavior most.

Being first or not didn't matter to you in the slightest.

One day, while you were cultivating, Old Wang reported that the Danxia Sect triumvirate requested an audience.

You had Old Wang escort them to the main hall.

You also rose and went to the main hall.

You originally thought it would be Deng Rusong, his sister, and Xie Huide arriving.

But when you entered the main hall, you found it was Deng Wanshu, Xie Huide, and Hu Zhongxuan—the trio themselves—who had come.

Your steps immediately quickened—here was delivered gossip to enjoy!

Your eyes lit up—with Hu Zhongxuan back, the triangle could finally stabilize!

You stepped into the main hall: "You three, long time no see!"

All three stood up immediately.

They had recently heard about Shangguan Gousheng's terrifying exploits.

Moreover, Deng Rusong had returned and shared his suspicions—now they all believed Shangguan Gousheng was your biological elder, silently marveling inwardly.

But they remembered Deng Rusong's instruction that Shangguan Gousheng forbade revealing his relationship with you, so Xie Huide's trio decided not to mention it.

Xie Huide said with a beaming smile: "Brother He, it truly has been too long!"

Deng Wanshu said in a lively tone: "Brother He, we've tried finding you several times but you were never here! Finally caught you today!"

You laughed: "Indeed been busy blindly for over a year, though didn't earn much money."

You looked at Hu Zhongxuan and smiled: "Old Hu, not guarding Yajiangkou anymore? Finally came to your senses, eh? I told you you should join these two—that's how things get interesting!"

Hu Zhongxuan said politely: "Young Master He, I've resigned from my military position and returned to Danxia Sect."

"Not bad, Old Hu! So you're back to completely tear face with Old Xie!"

Xie Huide coughed dryly twice: "Well, Brother He, Zhongxuan's return this time is indeed to join Wanshu and me."

"Respect, you three!" you said with unusual excitement, "When's the wedding banquet? I'll gift you a custom-made three-person bed—guaranteed unbreakable even with vigorous motion!"