Breakthrough and Reactions of All Sides

Fourth Prince Residence, main manor, inside the training hall.

Ian Song was pondering his next move. Killing Byron Bi to establish his authority had let him firmly plant his feet in the Fourth Prince Residence.

Next, he needed to help the Fourth Prince build up his strength, defeat the Sixth Prince, and strip him of any real chance at claiming the throne.

But the Sixth Prince was guarded by a Fusion-realm powerhouse, so brute force was out of the question. The only way—strategy.

Yet right now, he knew far too little about the Sixth Prince. Only with a full understanding could he set up targeted schemes to ruin him.

But for the moment, he needed to raise his own cultivation. Before entering the Royal Capital, mid Out-of-Body was enough to be considered a top expert. But inside the capital, even early Divine Transformation cultivators could only serve as guards, so his mid Out-of-Body realm was starting to look mediocre.

He had to go into seclusion!

With a thought, Ian entered the Divine Temple.

Conrad Wolf, Song One through Song Nine, and Wendy Lin were all cultivating inside, so the temple’s space was kept at a hundredfold time acceleration.

But that still wasn’t enough!

With another thought, he raised the Divine Temple’s time flow again, pushing it up to two hundredfold.

“That’s enough!”

In a flash, Ian appeared in the training room. He first took out two pills and swallowed them, then produced two top-grade spirit crystals, gripped them in both hands, and began cultivating.

These two pills had been refined from Spirit Medicines he’d bought from Heaven’s Dao Alliance, and for Out-of-Body cultivators, taking them could greatly boost cultivation.

As soon as the pills entered his stomach, their potent medicinal power erupted within him.

With a thought, Ian began circulating the Heavenbreaker Sword Canon’s internal method to absorb the energy.

The Heavenbreaker Sword Canon has both internal methods and sword moves. The internal method has nine tiers, and the sword moves total nine forms. At present, he’d only cultivated the internal method to mid-second tier; once he broke through to late-second tier, his realm would advance to late Out-of-Body.

As for sword moves, he’d barely mastered four forms.

First form—Skyless.

Second form—Godpiercer.

Third form—Immortalsbane.

Fourth form—Blood-Soaked.

It was Blood-Soaked that he used to kill Byron Bi today. This move was insanely powerful; he’d had to burn almost all his true essence just to barely unleash it.

As the Heavenbreaker Sword Canon circulated, his Nascent Soul kept growing rapidly, surging toward late Out-of-Body.

One day.

Two days.

Three days.

By now, he’d absorbed all the medicinal power from both pills, and more than half the energy in the two top-grade spirit crystals had been drained.

His cultivation had reached a critical point—just one step away from breaking through to late Out-of-Body.

There’s a saying in the cultivation world: if your ‘realm’ isn’t enough, never force a breakthrough.

To put it simply, ‘realm’ is just the strength of the soul.

Ian’s soul power had always far surpassed his cultivation. The reason he hadn’t broken through before was that he worried he couldn’t control the sudden surge of power.

Now, after several life-and-death battles, he had fully mastered all his strength.

Boom!

After several internal charges at the bottleneck, his breakthrough finally came like water flowing naturally.

Ian couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction: late Out-of-Body, achieved!

Though it was just a minor realm, Ian found his true essence had grown at least fivefold in both thickness and purity.

In other words, if he used Blood-Soaked again, it would only drain about one-fifth of his true essence.

He spent ten days consolidating his foundation and tempering his true essence, then appeared in the Divine Temple’s starry training space.

With a thought, he summoned Conrad Wolf right to his side.

“Greetings, Master!” Conrad Wolf bowed respectfully.

“No need for formalities—spar with me!”

Ian drew his longsword and pointed it at Conrad.

“As you command!”

In a flash, Conrad charged right up and threw a punch.

Ian met him head-on with his sword.

Boom!

Soon, the two were locked in fierce combat.

At first, Conrad worried about hurting Ian and only used fifty percent of his power. But to his surprise, even at half strength, he couldn’t suppress his master. So he started slowly ramping up.

Sixty percent!

Seventy percent!

Eighty percent!

Ninety percent!

Full power!

Only when Conrad ramped up to full power did he barely gain the upper hand, but inside, he was utterly shocked. His master was clearly only at late Out-of-Body, but the quantity and purity of his true essence were already on par with Conrad’s own.

After all, Conrad had been in early Nascent Divinity for nearly eight hundred years and was considered a top expert at that stage.

In other words, just in terms of true essence, his master’s strength already matched early Nascent Divinity—and Ian still had his mysterious, terrifying sword techniques.

For this spar, Conrad didn’t use any treasures or spells, relying solely on raw true essence.

Ian also didn’t use the Heavenbreaker Sword Canon, only ordinary swordsmanship against Conrad.

In a blink, seven days and nights passed.

After a fierce battle, the two finally separated.

But their expressions were completely different—Ian was satisfied, while Conrad was relieved.

During the seven-day fight, Conrad had the upper hand only on the first day; for the next six, his advantage gradually slipped away, and by the seventh day, Ian was dominating him.

Ian gained a lot from this battle. As he fought, he gradually consolidated his breakthrough, and now he could fully control ninety percent of his power. Once he mastered the last ten percent, he could attempt to break into Nascent Divinity.

But to master that final ten percent, he’d probably need a life-and-death battle.

Although more than ten days had passed inside the Divine Temple, hardly any time had gone by in the outside world.

With a thought, Ian summoned Song Yi and the others to his side.

“Greetings, Master!” All nine knelt in unison.

“How’s your training with the Ninefold Return Sword Array?” Ian asked.

Song Yi replied, “Master, we’ve pretty much got the sword array down—all that’s left is live combat!”

“Good. You all stay here and keep cultivating. When the chance comes, I’ll let you try it in live combat!”

“Yes, Master!” everyone responded in unison.

Ian adjusted the Divine Temple’s time flow back to one hundred times normal before leaving. Two hundred times was just too costly in spirit crystals—even Ian, rich as he was, felt the pinch.

The next day, news of Ian slaying a late Nascent Divinity expert with his sword spread through the royal city like wildfire.

At first, people doubted it; then they were shocked; finally, they were stunned.

A mere mid Out-of-Body cultivator killed someone at late Nascent Divinity?

Was that even possible?

But some had the inside scoop, including the Second Prince, Li Sitian.

He sighed repeatedly, full of regret for trusting his advisors—now the Fourth Prince had gained a powerful ally. He couldn’t help but fantasize: was there still a chance to poach Ian from his brother?

Floating Immortal Pavilion.

Miss Shishi, now returned, no longer performed for guests, but helped the Pavilion Lord train new musicians.

When she heard the news of Ian slaying a late Nascent Divinity expert, for some reason, she suddenly found herself missing him.