An ordinary early-stage Profound Immortal only has a single Law Sigil in their body, but he has fifteen. Just this alone puts him far above any typical Profound Immortal—even a mid-stage Profound Immortal couldn’t possibly condense so many Law Sigils.
With a thought, Ian Song activated the Primordial Chaos Body. Instantly, all fifteen Law Sigils in his body began to draw in power, and eleven different cosmic Laws surged toward him in a frenzy.
He was already prepared—a vortex formed from Chaos Aura instantly pulled all that Law power in and refined it into more Chaos Aura.
One day!
Two days!
Three days!
A month passed in a flash. After a month of nonstop refinement, the total amount of Chaos Aura in Ian Song’s body had reached tens of thousands of threads.
Then he went straight into the Divine Temple’s training room, cranked the time acceleration up to a thousandfold, and used the Chaos Aura to strengthen his body and nourish his soul.
After burning through over ten thousand threads of Chaos Aura, his physical strength reached a new peak, and his soul was on the verge of another transformation.
"Immortal stones—come!"
With a thought, piles of immortal stones appeared in the training room and shattered all at once, releasing torrents of immortal essence that he absorbed and rapidly converted into immortal yuan force.
Previously, he had only broken through to the Profound Immortal level in terms of Law, but his immortal yuan force was still lacking. So, he couldn’t be considered a true Profound Immortal yet.
He kept absorbing for three days and nights, burning through over a billion immortal stones. His immortal yuan force finally hit the critical point, and when he activated his cultivation method, it rapidly transformed into true Profound-Immortal-grade yuan force.
Every Profound Immortal’s Law Sigils can only store a limited amount of Law power.
So, they can’t use Law power without limit. In ordinary battles, they still rely on immortal yuan force—Law power only comes into play when facing opponents of the same realm.
And after every use, they need time to cultivate and refill the Law power stored in their Law Sigils.
That’s why Law power is extremely precious to Profound Immortals—they won’t use it lightly.
With a thought, Ian Song deactivated the thousandfold time acceleration in the training room and stepped out onto one of the Divine Temple’s internal planets.
To make things comfortable for his women, Ian had ordered the monster-race craftsmen to build a series of elegant residences on this planet.
By his count, this round of seclusion had taken nearly half a year.
He wondered how things were going at Earth-Prime Hall.
After a brief gathering with his women inside the Divine Temple, Ian Song prepared to return to Greenrock Town.
His estate was still there, perfectly intact.
After a short pause, he arrived at Earth-Prime Hall's secret base.
Earth-Prime Hall, once bustling with activity, now felt a bit deserted. The main reason was that Ian Song had been gone for half a year, so no one was supplying them with pills, and their income dried up. Most of the immortal stones they had earned were sent to the branch hall, leaving Earth-Prime Hall in dire straits.
Quite a few Golden Immortals they had recruited had already left.
After all, without profit, who would stay here and risk their lives for you? Everyone knows the native Immortal clans are cracking down hard on the Saint Alliance. When there were plenty of immortal stones to earn, they were willing to take risks; now that the money has dried up, they can only leave!
"Ian, you finally showed up!"
When they heard Ian Song had arrived, Nangong Mingyue hurried out with Queenie Green and Piper Willow to greet him. As for Ethan Zhou, he had waited here for months in vain; when Ian never showed up, he returned to the branch hall to continue as an elder. In fact, he believed Ian had most likely been killed by experts sent by the Ling Family.
A while later, in Earth-Prime Hall's reception room, both sides took their seats according to rank.
"Hall Master Nangong, how is Earth-Prime Hall doing these days?" Ian asked.
"Sigh!"
Nangong Mingyue sighed heavily: "It's not good at all. Most of the Golden Immortal experts have left, ninety percent of the Earth Immortals are gone, and only the Human Immortals remain. As for the pill shops in those seventy-plus cities, they ran out of stock in the second month after you left. Fortunately, when we stopped deliveries, they raised prices themselves and made quite a bit, so although they're resentful, they've kept urging us for more pills!"
At this point, Nangong Mingyue looked at Ian with hopeful eyes, clearly wishing he would restart the pill business. Otherwise, Earth-Prime Hall might collapse on its own before long.
"Can you still contact the people who left?"
Ian asked.
"We can!" Queenie Green nodded. "They all left their contact information before leaving!"
Ian was a bit surprised at Queenie Green's calmness; given her personality, shouldn't she be cursing those who left? Why was she so composed?
Perhaps understanding the meaning in Ian's eyes, Queenie Green said bitterly: "You were right. Everyone in the world hustles for profit. Without interests binding them, why would anyone risk their lives for you? I was too extreme before."
This time, the branch hall's actions really disappointed her. When there was profit to be made, they immediately sent people to 'pluck the peaches.' When there was no profit, they stopped caring about Earth-Prime Hall altogether.
In the end, it all came down to the Saint Alliance being too poor, which made her realize how important immortal stones really are.
Ian smiled and looked at the three of them. "If I resume supplying you with pills, what do you plan to do?"
"First, stabilize our current markets, then aggressively expand new ones!"
Nangong Mingyue replied.
"What if the branch hall sends people to pluck the peaches again?" Ian asked meaningfully.
"Hmph! They can forget it!"
Queenie Green snorted coldly. "No matter who comes, we won't submit!"
Ian was satisfied and smiled. "To Gale Division, you're still too weak. Unless I cooperate with you, you can't possibly stand up to them. But that would be troublesome—I can help you once, but I can't help every time. Otherwise, Gale Division will hold a grudge against me!"
Hearing this, all three looked helpless and disappointed.
Ian smiled mysteriously. "Let me teach you a trick. You're still weak now, so you can't resist the branch hall, but you can totally recruit some outside allies!"
"I'll sell you top-grade Immortal Yuan Pills for ninety immortal stones each. You can take half the pills and resell them to other halls at a markup of ten or twenty stones each."
Then have those halls help you open up new markets. This way, you'll reduce your staffing costs and gain a few allies. If the branch hall tries to pluck the peaches again, do you think those other halls who've tasted the profits will agree?
Hearing Ian's suggestion, Nangong Mingyue almost couldn't help but applaud. Brilliant—simply brilliant.
Next, Ian added a few details, handed over twenty million top-grade Immortal Yuan Pills to Nangong Mingyue, and then left.
With the pills in hand, Nangong Mingyue was energized. First, she summoned her Golden Immortal subordinates, divided up ten million pills, and sent them out to deliver pills to the cities.
After giving instructions, she split the remaining ten million pills into three shares, gave one each to Queenie Green and Piper Willow, and sent them to Earth-Fiend Hall and Earth-Brave Hall to propose cooperation.
She herself headed to Earth-Elite Hall to negotiate an alliance.