Several months quietly slipped by.
Inside the Divine Temple, Diana Toba and Lila Li both emerged from seclusion one after another.
Diana Toba successfully broke through to the Fusion realm, while Lila Li's cultivation only advanced slightly, still holding steady at late Fusion.
As for Ian Song’s two disciples, Stone Hao and Stone Ling, both had already reached the Soul-Split (Out-of-Body) realm. But their cultivation had progressed too quickly, which might not be a good thing for them. So, Ian sent the siblings out to travel the world. For their safety, he quietly assigned two late Fusion experts to guard them from the shadows, with strict orders not to intervene unless it was a true life-and-death crisis.
As for Ian himself, in these few months he hadn’t made much progress. His foundation was simply too deep; to break through to mid Fusion would require an unimaginable amount of immortal essence—if you measured it by immortal stones, at least two thousand would be needed.
If he went to cultivate in the Lesser Immortal Realm, it would take at least several decades of nonstop absorption of immortal essence to reach that level.
Meanwhile, during this month, the Empress finally pushed forward her plan for the Imperial Cultivation Academies, establishing them in three Upper Cities. The person in charge of the project was none other than Ian Song’s acquaintance—Princess Claire.
Although the Empress hadn’t rolled out the academies empire-wide, the sects across the land were even more sensitive than she’d expected.
With the empire’s resources, building three academies wasn’t hard—the real challenge was attracting students.
According to the Silver Fox Princess, all three academies were having a terrible time with enrollment.
According to the budget, each Imperial Cultivation Academy was supposed to enroll about three thousand students in the first intake, but right now, none of the three academies has recruited even two hundred. And most of those are just the children of local officials, sent there for appearances.
If you take out those officials’ kids, the actual number of voluntary enrollments is probably only a few dozen.
When the news got back, the Empress didn’t blow up, but her face was definitely not looking good.
Princess Claire, who’s in charge of the whole project, personally visited the sects near the three Upper Cities. Except for two second-rate sects that sent elders to meet her, all the top-tier powers and first-rate sects just slammed the doors in her face.
Honestly, those sects only dared to treat the imperial court this way because they’ve got Phoenix Heaven Church backing them up.
Phoenix Heaven Church keeps things low-key, but that doesn’t mean they want to see the imperial power keep growing. If Imperial Academies really start popping up everywhere, it won’t take a thousand years for the empire’s strength to balloon to something terrifying.
That’s exactly what the rulers of Phoenix Heaven Church don’t want to see happen.
As for the threat from Ten-Yao Continent, Phoenix Heaven Church sees it too, but they’re not all that worried. After all, Phoenix Heaven has over a hundred Immortals, while Ten-Yao’s demon cultivators have, at most, fifty.
So, Ten-Yao isn’t really a serious threat to Phoenix Heaven Church.
And as for the Grand Zhou Empire—if it gets wiped out, Phoenix Heaven Church can just prop up another human dynasty whenever they want.