"Brother Di..." As soon as Dean Carter stepped out, he realized this was no longer Crimson Sanctuary City.
Joe Di said, "We've already left the realm where the Dao Domain resides. It's very likely that this is a realm equivalent to the Dao Domain..."
"Is this the realm where the Void Market is located?" Dean Carter exclaimed excitedly.
Joe Di nodded. "According to that merchant from the Void, this is the realm where the Void Market is found, but I'm not completely certain yet. I need to enter seclusion for a while. You and Bolt should control the ship. As for the direction, I don't have one for now."
For Joe Di, his current late Dao Integration strength was definitely a bit low. Since he had arrived in the region where the Void Market was, he would eventually see the Void Market sooner or later. So there was no need to rush; the most important thing was to focus on improving his own strength.
...
After handing the ship over to Bolt and Dean Carter, Joe Di immediately entered seclusion aboard the vessel. He knew Jaden Dai hadn't arrived yet, so he didn't have to worry about being hunted down by him. Right now, the most important thing was to raise his cultivation.
Just as Joe Di had thought, since he was going into seclusion, Dean Carter wanted to do the same. The spiritual energy aboard this ship was astonishingly dense. At the late Dao Nurturing stage, if he wanted to reach Dao Nurturing completion quickly, he had to make full use of all his time.
With Dean Carter in seclusion, only Bolt was left to control the ship. Fortunately, Bolt was now a second-grade divine beast, and in terms of cultivation, could be compared to the Dao Nurturing stage. Besides, Bolt enjoyed piloting the ship, speeding through the void.
The first thing Joe Di did in seclusion was refine the Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram, Jaden Dai's treasured artifact. Now that he had the time, he certainly wouldn't leave it forgotten in his ring.
When Joe Di first began refining the Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram, he realized just how ruthless Jaden Dai was. Not only had Jaden Dai already refined the diagram, but every layer of restriction contained a multitude of open and hidden spirit marks left by him.
Jaden Dai's restriction and marking techniques were clearly impressive. Joe Di was certain that, if an ordinary Prime Realm cultivator tried to refine the Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram, it would take at least several hundred years. For a typical Dao Integration cultivator, it might take tens of thousands of years to fully refine it. Even then, they might not discover and remove all of Jaden Dai's marks.
But encountering Joe Di was Jaden Dai's misfortune. In terms of arraycraft, Joe Di's mastery already surpassed Jaden Dai. As for Dao resonance, his cultivation was rooted in the Path of Laws. Under the Path of Laws, any mark was but a fleeting cloud. Unless a mark was devoid of laws, which is impossible—everything in the universe is governed by laws.
Jaden Dai left so many marks on the Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram, which showed just how important the artifact was to him.
It took Joe Di a year to break through the first restriction on the Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram, only a month for the second, and then just three days for the third...
This was also an innate treasure with one hundred and eight layers of restriction, and Joe Di completely refined it in just one year and five months.
Only when Joe Di fully refined and mastered the Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram did he finally understand what it truly represented.
The Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram was not only the highest-grade defensive artifact, but also a top-tier offensive treasure. It possessed its own space, ignored the Five Elements and Yin-Yang, and could nurture all things...
Joe Di stretched out his hand, and the Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram floated above his head. Suddenly, he wondered—if he used the diagram for defense, could he withstand an ordinary Unity Realm expert?
But Joe Di quickly abandoned such unrealistic thoughts. When the gap in cultivation reached a certain level, no artifact could bridge it. Otherwise, he wouldn't need the Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram—he could just use the Reincarnation Bridge instead.
Up to now, he had never taken out the Reincarnation Bridge in any battle—not because the bridge wasn't powerful, but because he wasn't strong enough. If he exposed such a treasure while still at late Dao Integration, he would never know peace.
Moreover, Joe Di always vaguely sensed that, although he had seemingly refined the Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram completely, in reality, it wasn't truly mastered. It was just that his current strength was limited, so he couldn't perceive the rest of the diagram's restrictions.
After putting away the Taiji Diagram, Joe Di resumed artifact refinement. After destroying Surging Alchemy Hall, he had obtained the rings of Ang Yuan and a Prime Realm cultivator.
The Prime Realm cultivator's ring was nothing special, but Ang Yuan's ring was packed with treasures—various spiritual herbs and a pile of artifact refining materials.
Joe Di's Dao of Alchemy was now at the level of Prime Dao Pillmaster, and in artifact refinement, he was a Transformation Pill Saint. He wasn't particularly interested in those spiritual herbs. Even if he refined all of them into pills, it wouldn't improve his alchemy. At this moment, he was focused on artifact refinement—he could only craft intermediate artifacts for now, and was still a step away from superior artifacts.
Now, with so many artifact refining materials and no need for seclusion in the short term, he naturally wouldn't miss the opportunity.
...
Joe Di secluded himself for artifact refinement, Dean Carter secluded himself to advance his cultivation, and Bolt piloted the ship, darting through the void like a fly. Fortunately, Bolt's instincts were reliable—even without knowing the direction, he managed to avoid steering the ship into a void vortex or fissure.
Time in the void passed quickly. By the time Joe Di finished refining his first superior artifact, Bolt had been piloting the ship through the void for ten years.
In ten years, Dean Carter's cultivation at late Dao Nurturing became increasingly solid. Unfortunately, since Joe Di wasn't cultivating, Dean Carter's progress, though steady, was nowhere near the speed he achieved in Crimson Sanctuary.
Joe Di finally stopped refining artifacts—he had used up all his materials. The abundance of resources from Ang Yuan's True Spirit World, combined with his own Five Elements materials, had allowed him to become a true Grandmaster Artificer in just ten years.
Joe Di swept his divine sense across the ship and saw Dean Carter in seclusion, while Bolt was piloting the ship at high speed through the void.
After more than ten years, Dean Carter hadn't made much progress—but Bolt had changed considerably over the decade.
The surveillance array showed that, in ten years of Bolt piloting the ship, they hadn't encountered a single other ship or cultivator. The only things they came across were void beasts and chaotic voidstream.
[Irrelevant system message skipped.]
The universe is vast, and the cosmic void is even more boundless.
Joe Di shook his head and didn't bother upgrading the intermediate-grade ship to a superior-grade one. With no destination, it didn't matter.
There was no direction in the void, and since he had finished everything he needed to do, there was nothing left but cultivation. He let Bolt fly wherever it pleased.
Joe Di set up some arrays, drew out the Supreme Dao Vein from the Ninth World, and began cultivating as well.
Before Joe Di started cultivating, Dean Carter had spent more than ten years in seclusion with only minor progress. But as soon as Joe Di began, Dean Carter instantly felt the laws of heaven and earth become clear, and his understanding of Dao intent sharpened. His stagnant cultivation surged upward.
Ding Chi was wild with joy; he knew for certain that Di Jiu had begun cultivating again. Now was his chance—he had to seize this opportunity to break through and reach Dao Completion.
Flying through the void, Di Jiu seemed unconcerned. As the rules of the cosmos surged around him, a new vortex of divine spirit energy formed in his surroundings. Not only that, but outside his flying vessel, a massive swirl of divine spirit energy also began to take shape.
Last time, he had left early because Xavier White arrived; this time, with no one to interrupt, Di Jiu would not stop advancing his cultivation.
Normally, pills were rarely used, but at this moment, Di Jiu swallowed them one by one. Using pills to cultivate was fast, but it came with many drawbacks. Dao pills were better, but with divine pills, the pill poison became even more pronounced.
The divine pills refined by Di Jiu were almost always seven-pattern or higher, but even so, excessive use was not particularly beneficial.
To raise his cultivation strength to the Dao Yuan Realm as quickly as possible, Di Jiu ignored the potential risks.
...
On this day, Lightning, as usual, controlled the flying vessel as it drifted chaotically through the void. Suddenly, a pitch-black ship appeared within Lightning’s divine sense. Originally, the black vessel was moving in the opposite direction, but as Lightning’s ship crossed its path, the black vessel abruptly turned and gave chase.
Lightning had traveled with Di Jiu for a long time and immediately understood why the other vessel was pursuing them. The spirit energy controlled by Lightning was so dense that it formed a layer, enveloping their ship in a thick aura.