The Six Realms of Spiritual Practitioners

Senior Sister Liu, is this true?

Mu Qingyi asked in a low voice.

Senior Sister Liu sighed and nodded slowly.

Mu Qingyi's expression grew even colder.

The Heavenly Palace, having withdrawn from the world for over twenty years, would choose the Asura Gate as its first target upon re-emergence.

This was simply intolerable!

The Demonic Heaven Sect, the Eagle Claw Sect... those were all heinous evil cultivators!

Within the immortal sects, An Yi was called a demon, but that was only by those sects who feared the terrifying power of the Asura Gate.

More ordinary people still held gratitude for An Yi in their hearts.

Because the number of people who died at the hands of those five sects every year was countless; common folk wished they could tear them apart.

In their eyes, An Yi wiping out those five major sects was an act of ridding the world of evil.

Even in folk legends, he had already been portrayed as a savior.

Who would have thought that the Heavenly Palace could be so unreasonable!

These incompetent people holding positions, they are truly blind! Mu Qingyi gritted her teeth in anger.

Senior Sister Liu's eyes dimmed slightly.

She knew clearly that the people of the Heavenly Palace were utterly unworthy of being called righteous; they were merely a bunch of hypocrites.

Twenty years ago, she had personally experienced that incident.

Damn it!

An angry curse rang out.

Senior Sister Liu looked up, glancing at Mu Qingyi in surprise.

Where did that voice come from?

Mu Qingyi put her hands on her hips, quickly putting on an angry expression: "The people of the Heavenly Palace are indeed despicable!"

Senior Sister Liu: "..."

After waiting for Senior Sister Liu to leave.

Mu Qingyi stood up and quietly closed the door.

On the bed, An Yi had already removed his demon mask, his face dark.

"You heard everything?"

Mu Qingyi said slowly, a trace of worry between her brows.

An Yi said slowly, "What exactly is the deal with the Heavenly Palace?"

"The Heavenly Palace is the nominal ruler of the immortal sects," Mu Qingyi explained slowly. "But they went into seclusion when I was very young, withdrawing from worldly affairs. So, my understanding of them isn't deep either. I never thought they would suddenly set their sights on us now."

"There's no love without reason, and no hate without cause. There must be some connection here!"

An Yi said slowly.

However, he still didn't understand why their Asura Gate had been targeted.

Was it because he destroyed the Demonic Heaven Sect and the other five major sects?

That seemed unlikely.

It didn't make sense, logically or emotionally.

Moreover, the Asura Gate wasn't some soft persimmon to be squeezed.

Or perhaps, was it because of Shen Muxuan's Heavenly Yin Spirit Vein, and that baseless prophecy about it being a calamity for the immortal sects?

An Yi always felt the truth wasn't that simple.

Thinking this, An Yi frowned deeply, his hand reaching for Mu Qingyi's soft waist...

"What are you trying to do again!?"

Mu Qingyi shot him an annoyed glance, saying with a mix of shyness and anger.

An Yi cleared his throat. "The key to the day lies in noon..."

Then, An Yi was kicked out.

Mu Qingyi was the master of a pavilion; she had no time to dawdle with An Yi now.

With the Heavenly Palace setting its sights on them, it was a critical moment, and she had many matters to handle.

Tsk tsk, the Heavenly Palace... this is troublesome.

Walking out of the pavilion, An Yi raised his hand. A speck of ice bloomed appeared in his palm, and he fell into thought.

After repaying his debt to the system, he had been classified as a creditworthy user by the system and had regained his Water Spirit Vein.

The nine major elemental systems.

He originally possessed the Dark element. Then, there was the Fire element obtained in the Vast Heaven Secret Realm, the Thunder element from Bai Xiu's story arc "The Discarded Heir's Return," and the Wind element from Lin Chen's story arc "The Wolf King's Revenge."

Now, because of absorbing Shen Muxuan's ice spiritual power, he had unexpectedly gained the Water element.

Without realizing it, he could actually control five different types of spiritual power.

This would be absolutely unbelievable in the Ancient Continent.

A pity, his cultivation level is just too low.

An Yi sighed slightly and shook his head, dispersing the ice spiritual power.

Then, An Yi's expression changed, showing shock, his eyes widening.

Just now... he seemed to have broken through?!

An Yi circulated his spiritual power slightly and confirmed it—he had indeed broken through.

Of course, it wasn't his inner force that broke through!

The peak of the Void Realm was the ceiling for inner force cultivation; it was impossible to advance further.

He had broken through in his spiritual power level!

Spiritual power levels were divided into six major realms: Body Forging, Qi Refining, Spirit Gathering, Heavenly Guardian, Nirvana, and Spirit Transformation.

Spiritual cultivators, or 'Spirit Users,' generally far surpassed martial artists in overall strength.

A martial artist at the peak Void Realm, in terms of strength classification, was at best comparable to a Spirit User at the Spirit Gathering stage.

An Yi's spiritual power level had seen almost no progress in the spiritual energy-scarce secular world.

Even after being in the immortal sects for so long, he had only reached the mid-stage of Body Forging.

But after last night, he had directly skipped two sub-stages—late-stage Body Forging and peak Body Forging—and entered the early stage of Qi Refining!

The early stage of Qi Refining was roughly equivalent to the strength of a Dark Force expert.

This was already a qualitative change from the Body Forging stage.

Before, when those people ambushed the small stone pool, An Yi had used spiritual arts with his peak Void Realm strength, but it was still difficult to kill a Transformation Realm martial artist.

But now, with his spiritual power level at the Qi Refining stage, combined with his peak Void Realm strength, it was already quite considerable.

Inner force plus spiritual power—their combination wasn't a simple addition of strength.

Back then, the reason his fight with Michael was so fierce was precisely because his peak Void Realm strength, combined with a Spirit Gathering stage spiritual power level, gave him the confidence to proclaim himself a god and look down upon the world.

Then, An Yi showed a thoughtful expression again.

It doesn't make sense. I was still a step short before.

Could it be that sleeping with Mu Qingyi for one night boosted my strength?

This was a leap across two minor stages! It shouldn't be that easy!

An Yi was puzzled.

Little did he know, his guess was close to the answer.

Not far away, Protector Yang looked at the devastated herb garden, her eyes red.

Many women of the Azure Luan Pavilion came forward to comfort her.

"Senior Sister Yang, what's done is done. Please don't be angry."

"You say that easily. These are flowers Senior Sister Yang nurtured for a year, all picked clean."

"Who would do something so cheap? Speaking of which, the day before yesterday, I saw petals floating down from the pavilion roof in sheets!"

"Alas, there were still a few left, but who knew when we looked today, even these last few were gone."

A group of women chattered away in discussion.

An Yi walked past them, hands clasped behind his back, sighing slightly with a trace of melancholy.

"Someone actually stole flowers!"

"This behavior is utterly despicable!"

"It seems the character of this flower thief is truly questionable!"

Dense forests, towering ancient trees.

Faint rays of light filtered through the layers of canopy, casting dappled spots on the ground.

Lin Chen slowly opened his eyes, looking at this unfamiliar world.

"Where... where is this?"

Lin Chen's eyes turned sharp, scanning his surroundings. His hand reached for the Cloud-Splitting Twin Tonfas at his waist, becoming alert.

Tempered by years of battlefield experience, upon entering a new environment, he could always immediately enter a state of high alert, nerves taut and ready for battle at any moment.

He was alone here.

Su Xue'er, Shangguan Qianqian, Mo Jiu, and the other members of the Asura Gate were nowhere to be seen.

Roar!

A demonic beast, black in color, with a spiked back and a tiger-like appearance, suddenly charged at Lin Chen.

Thud!

Lin Chen's Cloud-Splitting Tonfa accurately blocked the beast's ferocious fangs.

Immediately, his other tonfa swung towards its skull!

A resounding crash echoed.

Lin Chen's hands were numb, but the tiger-like demon beast seemed largely unharmed, its eerie pupils radiating a terrifying killing intent.

However, before it could fully unleash its ferocious aura!

A sudden, overwhelming force of gravity descended!

It was as if a weight of millions of pounds had abruptly settled upon its body.

The demon beast's limbs buckled, and it crashed to the ground with a thud, cracking the rocky surface beneath.

Lin Chen stepped forward, his eyes coldly fixed on the beast.

Sensing the danger, the demon beast struggled desperately, yet it couldn't break free from the invisible restraint.

A narrow, azure blade of wind shot forth, striking its neck and slicing open its throat. Blood gushed out.

Having dealt with the black tiger demon beast, Lin Chen took a slightly ragged breath and looked up. His gaze pierced through the towering ancient trees towards the sky.

This place was the heart of the Tianluo Forest!

Renowned as the most perilous location within the Immortal Sect's domain.