You felt the spiritual energy at Lin Mo’s fingertip and silently turned your head to the other side.

You glanced at the azure sky, holding back tears of emotion, feeling that today’s breeze was unusually boisterous.

You pushed away Lin Mo’s little chubby hand that reached out in front of you. “Put it away quickly. You’re so flashy;

you’ll only attract the jealousy of villains.”

“Sect Leader, is this spiritual energy?” Lin Mo asked sincerely.

You casually replied, “Pretty much.”

Lin Mo’s little face lit up with joy. “Sect Leader, does this mean I passed the test?”

You cleared your throat twice. “Well, you passed the preliminary test, but when you go back today, write me a reflection of no less than eight hundred words. I’ll check it tomorrow.”

Lin Mo looked troubled. “Sect Leader, I’m afraid I can’t. I only know fewer than eight hundred characters in total.”

“Then how did you just practice the Jade Pure Purple Qi Art?”

“I picked the characters I knew and practiced it by intuition.”

“That’ll do!” You sealed Lin Mo’s mouth with your Source Power three times. “If you keep talking, it won’t be polite.”

Lin Mo looked at you with innocence, not understanding what you meant.

“That’s enough for today. For the eight hundred-word essay, just dictate it to your dad and have him write it for you. Hand it in tomorrow.”

Lin Mo looked at you with pure eyes, then nodded repeatedly like a little chick pecking rice.

You gathered your Source Power and flew toward the Palace of Ten Thousand Dreams with Lin Mo.

After returning to the Palace of Ten Thousand Dreams, Lin Mo’s short little legs hurried straight off, shaking his small hips as he went to find Lin Kaifeng to write the reflection.

You entered the pavilion where the Mysterious Night Sword was kept.

After more than two years of interaction, you and Ye Youyun had become quite familiar.

After cultivating your Mind Evolution Art, Ye Youyun’s soul gradually strengthened, and some of his memories recovered.

You sat down at the table against the wall, where spirit-soothing incense burned, helping to strengthen the soul somewhat.

The Mysterious Night Sword was placed on the nearby weapon rack.

You forged a sword sheath for the Mysterious Night Sword so Ye Youyun no longer had to be bare-handed and look strange.

You withdrew the soul barrier around Ye Youyun and asked, “Brother Ye, have you gained any new memories recently?”

Ye Youyun’s consciousness awakened, and he was somewhat excited. “Brother Shangguan, I actually have some new memories—they’re about Earth Source!”

“Oh? Tell me.”

“Earth Source can grow!”

Your interest piqued immediately. “How does it grow?”

“Under the nourishment of spiritual energy, it can evolve into Earth Spirit!”

“Earth Spirit?”

“You know that after fusing nine Earth Sources, fusing the tenth Earth Source allows one to reach a higher level, but actually, the tenth fusion should be Earth Spirit, not Earth Source!”

You put down your teacup. “What’s the difference between fusing Earth Source and Earth Spirit the tenth time?”

“If you fuse Earth Source, your level will be forever limited, unable to advance further. But fusing Earth Spirit allows you to continue to reach higher realms!”

You thought for a moment, then suddenly asked, “When you said fusing Earth Source has no future, you meant that you must fuse Earth Spirit, right?”

Ye Youyun hesitated for a long while and replied uncertainly, “It seems so, but also not really...”

You frowned. “I feed you well and treat you nicely, and you just mess with me all day?”

“Brother Shangguan, I really can’t recall for now!”

You stopped pressing him and continued to ask, “In your world, do cultivators fuse Earth Spirit instead of Earth Source?”

Ye Youyun was silent for a long time before sheepishly admitting, “My original world... had neither Earth Source nor Earth Spirit!”

You burst into laughter. Your divine sense suddenly pressed down on the Mysterious Night Sword. “Hey? Your world has no Earth Source, and here you are lecturing me?”

Ye Youyun looked as if you had grabbed him by the neck;

the Mysterious Night Sword trembled and struggled.

“Brother Shangguan, I don’t know where these memories came from! But what I said is true!!”

Fear and urgency radiated from Ye Youyun’s soul;

you sensed he wasn’t lying.

After calming yourself, you asked again, “So according to you, Earth Source and Earth Spirit have nothing to do with cultivation?”

“They are related. Cultivators who fuse Earth Spirit can break through realms!”

“But your world doesn’t have Earth Spirit?”

Ye Youyun blurted out, “So we all relied on ourselves to break through!”

“You tricked me once, fine. But to do it twice? Today I’m going to make you pay!”

Your divine sense condensed, ready to pierce into Ye Youyun.

Ye Youyun hurriedly shouted, “Brother Shangguan, don’t! I wasn’t mocking you!!”

Seeing Ye Youyun’s earnest plea, you hesitated for a moment and finally withdrew your divine sense.

You felt Ye Youyun wasn’t lying;

otherwise, he wouldn’t have admitted that his world lacked Earth Source, which would only arouse your suspicion.

But you couldn’t understand why his memories contained such detailed knowledge about Earth Source and Earth Spirit.

You asked several more questions about Earth Source, but Ye Youyun truly couldn’t remember.

You had no choice but to block Ye Youyun’s soul and left the pavilion.

You returned to the mountain villa’s cultivation chamber.

You sat cross-legged and began contemplating the Sword-Questioning Heaven Earth Earth Source.

Even if Ye Youyun’s words were true and the tenth fusion of Earth Source would limit your advancement, you had only fused four Earth Sources so far, which was still very early.

Moreover, if you wanted, there was no reason you couldn’t fuse ten Earth Sources just to test the waters. After all, your simulator big brother could help you roll back your physical state, so there was no pressure at all.

As for this Earth Spirit that Ye Youyun mentioned, you guessed it probably didn’t exist yet. Right now, the spiritual energy was too sparse to nourish Earth Spirit.

Besides, whenever Earth Source appeared, these Ultimate Grandmasters acted like dogs seeing feces—they rushed to collect the Earth Source immediately.

There was no Earth Source left to be slowly nurtured by spiritual energy to grow into Earth Spirit.

You calculated the time;

next year marked the eleventh year, the time when Earth Source would be massively produced at Yajiangkou.

The last simulation had thirteen Earth Sources appear in total, but one Falling Immortal Sword was obtained and fused by you. You didn’t know if this time there would be twelve or thirteen Earth Sources.

Regardless of how many Earth Sources appeared, you were determined to claim them all.

You knew many Ultimate Grandmasters had surely received the news and were already stirring restlessly.

So you put out a warning early: this time, all Earth Sources at Yajiangkou belonged entirely to Shangguan Gousheng. Anyone looking for trouble could test how fast your genuine Soul Awakening Blade was.

Li Jiang got immediately fired up when he heard this.

He hastily gathered thirty Ultimate Grandmasters and surrounded Yajiangkou in advance, declaring that without your order, no one was allowed near Yajiangkou.

It was entirely your word as State Preceptor, and Li Jiang, the emperor, ran himself ragged.

Seeing that Li Jiang was indeed effective, you announced his promotion from outer disciple to formal disciple of the Palace of Ten Thousand Dreams.

Li Jiang was so happy that he threw a grand banquet for the ministers and even brought out his grandfather’s and father’s ancestral tablets to celebrate together.

You focused on your cultivation.

...