“Confidence is good! Here’s a suggestion, become a core disciple as soon as possible. That way, everything you do will be much easier. Otherwise, as an outer disciple, even leaving the sect is inconvenient.”
Yue Nü said.
“Fine, I was planning to return to my hometown, Tianfeng City, soon anyway. With the status of a core disciple of Yuehua Sect, things will indeed be much more convenient.”
Ling Xiao had previously refused to advance to an inner disciple, fearing he would be targeted. Back then, he didn’t have the strength he has now.
Now, the situation has completely changed. He can skip the inner disciple stage and become a core disciple directly, gaining even more privileges.
While Ling Xiao was chatting with Yue Nü, his reputation had already spread throughout the entire Yuehua Sect, truly making him a sect-wide sensation.
He wasn’t a core disciple!
Not even an inner disciple!
Just an outer disciple! Yet, with the status of an outer disciple, he became the first in the Tower Climbing Ceremony!
And in front of many people, he killed Shen Tianlin, who had provoked him!
Then, because of him, Sect Leader Chang Yueying was demoted to the head of the Law Enforcement Hall, and Elder Jin was reduced to an ordinary inner elder.
The Supreme Sect Leader was also demoted to an ordinary inner elder.
The worst off was Demon Flame Heavenly Venerable, who was no longer even an elder and had become an inner deacon, completely losing his former prestige.
Now, within the sect, it was widely rumoured that Ling Xiao had taken Yue Nü as his master and was likely to become the top-ranked among the ten core disciples.
However, just one day later, after Ling Xiao left Yue Nü’s palace, shocking news spread.
Yue Nü had taken Ling Xiao as her adopted younger brother, not as a disciple.
This decision left everyone baffled, unable to fathom what Yue Nü meant by this move.
But one thing was certain: besides Wu Xiang, the new sect leader, Ling Xiao now had Yue Nü as a powerful backer, making his position in the sect even more secure.
On the surface, many people treated Ling Xiao with utmost respect, not even daring to speak loudly in his presence.
But behind his back, they looked down on him, always feeling that Ling Xiao relied on others rather than his own strength.
Ling Xiao couldn’t care less about such gossip.
The core disciple challenge and the Four Sects Martial Arts Competition were coming up soon, and he would use his own strength to silence these people.
After leaving Yue Nü’s palace, Ling Xiao went straight to find his master, Yuan Zun.
His purpose was, of course, to create the secret scroll for “Purple Lightning Shocks the World.”
This time, however, the “Purple Lightning Shocks the World” scroll he intended to make was an enhanced version!
The scroll he used before was meant to temporarily elevate the Purple Lightning Sword to an immortal-grade treasure.
Now, he planned to directly enhance the Purple Lightning Sword into an immortal-grade treasure. In the future, the effect of “Purple Lightning Shocks the World” would be to temporarily elevate the Purple Lightning Sword to a divine-grade treasure.
Ling Xiao currently possessed twelve immortal-grade treasures.
He handed over two to the sect, leaving ten. Besides upgrading the quality of five swords, the rest were to be kept for emergencies.
For example, improving the quality of flying swords, among other things.
With Wu Xiang as the sect leader, Ling Xiao naturally wanted to show some support.
In addition to handing over two immortal-grade treasures, Ling Xiao also submitted all his rare-grade treasures, top-tier gold-grade martial arts, and superior gold-grade martial arts.
The items he turned in alone surpassed what everyone else combined had submitted.
Yet, this was only a fraction of what he had obtained.
Of course, he didn’t hand them over for nothing. He also earned a massive amount of sect contribution points from Yuehua Sect, adding to his previous points, now totalling 200,000.
These points could be used to exchange for various materials for alchemy and array formation.
After all, gathering large amounts of materials would otherwise be time-consuming.
When Yuan Zun saw Ling Xiao, he couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.
He had never expected Ling Xiao to come out on top in this Tower Climbing Ceremony!
Yet now, Ling Xiao had not only taken first place but also broken a 100,000-year record, which was truly astonishing.
“Master, I’ve come to learn how to enhance the ‘Purple Lightning Shocks the World’ scroll to work with the soon-to-be-upgraded immortal-grade Purple Lightning Sword!” Ling Xiao said with a smile.
“That’s not difficult, but to upgrade the Purple Lightning Sword to an immortal-grade treasure, you’ll need quite a few materials. Simply having an immortal-grade treasure as a base isn’t enough,” Yuan Zun cautioned.
“I know. To upgrade a rare-grade treasure to an immortal-grade treasure, besides needing an immortal-grade treasure as the base material, you also need at least one demon core from a beast at the half-step Heavenly Venerable level with at least 10% of its power. I’ve already gathered those!”
Ling Xiao had taken down plenty of dragon clan experts in the Land of Dragons, so demon cores were no issue for him.
For now, upgrading five swords was no problem, but to upgrade all his flying swords to immortal-grade treasures, he would still need some time to gather materials.
“In that case, it’s manageable. But there’s one more thing I need to remind you about. The higher the quality of a treasure, the more true essence it requires. If your true essence isn’t sufficient, I suggest you hold off on upgrading for now. After all, an immortal-grade treasure is good enough even for Heaven-Human Realm experts. For you, using a rare-grade treasure is sufficient for now,” Yuan Zun advised.
Ling Xiao was aware of this issue.
Generally speaking, a rare-grade treasure could boost a Mortal Realm martial artist’s strength by nearly 50%, as it was well-suited.
However, immortal-grade treasures couldn’t be used before the seventh stage of the Mortal Realm. From the seventh to ninth stages of the Mortal Realm, they would only increase overall strength by about 30%.
Only at the half-step Heavenly Venerable level would the boost from an immortal-grade treasure match that of a rare-grade treasure.
In other words, for Mortal Realm martial artists, using an immortal-grade treasure was less practical than a rare-grade one.
So, the most suitable is always the best!
Ling Xiao, of course, had his own plans. Although he was only at the peak of the eighth stage of the Mortal Realm, he wasn’t afraid even when facing a half-step Heavenly Venerable with 10-20% of their power.
In that case, an immortal-grade treasure was more suitable for him.
Though it would consume more true essence, the power of the special techniques it enabled would increase significantly.
“Disciple, you seem quite interested in artifact refining as well. Why not find a master refiner to study under?” Yuan Zun said with a smile.
“I’d like to, but the best refiner in our Yuehua Sect is probably Golden Light Heavenly Venerable, right? And he can only refine immortal-grade treasures,” Ling Xiao said, shaking his head.
“You’re not wrong. Not just in Yuehua Sect, but across the entire Tianlong Continent, refiners are too weak. If you’re really interested, you might consider leaving Tianlong Continent for the Divine Phoenix Continent in the future. They have the best flames in the Mysterious Realm, and thus, the best refiners!” Yuan Zun said with a smile.
“The Divine Phoenix Continent?”
“Yes, it’s the continent closest to Tianlong Continent. But I must warn you, do not go there until you’ve reached the Heaven-Human Realm,” Yuan Zun said, his expression turning serious.
