Although they had become famous after a single battle, Liu Bai and Jiu You's group remained very low profile during the following days. They still stayed within the manor cultivating while also waiting for Mandala and the others to arrive.
Mu Chen was similarly very quiet during this period. Under Ling Xi's guidance, the two of them continuously studied the Nine Dragons Slayer Immortal Array together.
Combined with the Sea Breaking Pearl he had obtained from Jiu You earlier, Mu Chen's combat strength could no longer be underestimated.
As for Liu Bai, he was currently rewarding his three beast servants according to their contributions.
"Zong Qingfeng performed well this time, and the two of you also contributed. I will further elevate your bloodlines once more as your reward. Hopefully after this enhancement, you will gain something within the Ancient Heavenly Palace."
Zong Qingfeng and the other two already possessed top tier Divine Beast bloodlines. Beyond that lay Super Divine Beasts, which could not be awakened easily. Therefore, Liu Bai could only help them accumulate little by little over time until they eventually broke through in one stroke.
Each of them received ten thousand Beast Soul Points. Instantly, their bodies became enveloped by different spiritual lights.
This bloodline enhancement process was very short. It lasted only around fifteen minutes before completion. When the light faded, Zong Qingfeng was the first to appear.
At this moment, he appeared no different outwardly. However, his cultivation had advanced by a small level, rising from middle phase Eighth Grade Sovereign to late phase Eighth Grade Sovereign, and naturally his combat power had improved even more.
As for Chi Hongwu and Bai Bin, the two had finally advanced to peak Seventh Grade Sovereign and were on the verge of breakthrough at any moment. Presumably, as long as they entered the Heavenly River during this Ancient Heavenly Palace expedition, breaking through to Eighth Grade Sovereign would not be a problem.
The three of them were very satisfied with such improvement speed. Although they had lost their freedom, what they gained was strength!
Of course, it was not that Liu Bai was stingy and unwilling to strengthen his beast servants. The truth was that he did not have many Beast Soul Points left. What remained was reserved for upgrading his Innate Five Spirit Plate.
Fortunately, the harvest from the Divine Beast Plains had been substantial. Otherwise, he would not even have enough for this reward.
At present, the five spirits within Liu Bai's Innate Five Spirit Plate were:
Four Winged Flying Flood Dragon, High-Level Upper Grade Spiritual Beast
Ancient Golden Ni, Super Heavenly Beast
Scarlet Feather Golden Crow, Super Heavenly Beast
Nether Sea Black Serpent, Super Heavenly Beast
Qingluan, Super Heavenly Beast
A Super Heavenly Beast required ten thousand Beast Soul Points to evolve into a Divine Beast. Naturally, this referred only to lower tier Divine Beasts, not top tier Divine Beasts like Zong Qingfeng and the others, so the required Beast Soul Points were not excessive.
Even so, the five Innate Beast Spirits still required fifty thousand Beast Soul Points in total. As for the fact that the Four Winged Flying Flood Dragon was merely an upper grade Spiritual Beast, that was not a major issue. It only required an additional thousand Beast Soul Points.
Of course, that extra thousand Beast Soul Points was already the doubled amount after upgrading from Heavenly Rank Upper Grade to Super Heavenly Beast, making it quite expensive. However, since no corresponding Super Heavenly Beast bloodline existed above the Four Winged Flying Flood Dragon, the expenditure was unavoidable.
Aside from cursing the black hearted system inwardly, Liu Bai had no other choice.
Fifty one thousand Beast Soul Points directly emptied all of Liu Bai's savings.
However, the returns were correspondingly astonishing.
The original Heavenly Rank Upper Grade Spiritual Beast Four Winged Flying Flood Dragon successfully shed its mortal spirit and transformed into divinity, evolving into the Ancient Flying Dragon. It belonged to the Yinglong lineage of dragons. Although it was merely a lower tier Divine Beast like ordinary dragons, it had undergone a true qualitative transformation.
As for the remaining four beast spirits, the Ancient Golden Ni evolved into the Golden Winged White Tiger, further strengthening its Metal attribute White Tiger Divine Beast bloodline while weakening the Dragon lineage Suanni traits.
The Scarlet Feather Golden Crow evolved into the Scarlet Sun Golden Crow, identical to the true form of the Fire God Sect's Supreme Elder. However, compared to the Vast Sun Golden Crow, the difference was enormous.
Fortunately, Liu Bai's Innate Five Spirit Plate contained the Vast Heaven Divine Flame, making his Scarlet Sun Golden Crow far stronger than ordinary Scarlet Sun Golden Crows. It could be considered an enhanced version comparable to middle tier Divine Beasts.
As for the Nether Sea Black Serpent, it evolved into the Northern Abyss Nether Serpent, a terrifying giant serpent rumored to be born within the Northern Abyss Sea. It could control all waters beneath heaven and also condense water into ice. Some even claimed this serpent originated from the tail of the Black Tortoise.
Even back on the Divine Beast Continent, this Divine Beast had been extremely rare. In the current Great Thousand World, no one had seen one appear for thousands of years, so many believed it had already gone extinct.
The remaining Qingluan evolved more simply. Above Qingluan were the Qing Phoenix and Colorful Luan. Since this Qingluan occupied the Wood Spirit position among the Innate Five Spirits, it evolved into a Qing Phoenix.
As for the future, Liu Bai possessed the inherited essence blood of the Myriad Spirit Bird. Thus, he planned to let the evolved Qing Phoenix slowly absorb and fuse with the Myriad Spirit Bird bloodline.
The fully evolved Innate Five Spirit Plate possessed power approaching that of a Saint Artifact. However, its condition was rather unique because the Innate Five Spirits themselves possessed traces of true spirit, meaning they had their own consciousness. In this aspect, it was comparable to those special Saint Artifacts.
As time passed, the westernmost region of the Skylaw Continent became increasingly lively.
Within every city along the outer regions, forces from all directions gathered together. Sometimes, even Earth Sovereign level super experts who were normally impossible to encounter could occasionally be seen, attracting countless gazes filled with admiration and yearning.
Liu Bai also instructed his subordinates to pay special attention to these Earth Sovereigns, but discovered none of the familiar minor characters from his memories. As for Lu Huan, the Holy Demon Palace Master whom he had specifically watched for, there was likewise no trace of him.
However, many of the younger generation experts from the Skylaw Continent's Strongest Rankings had appeared, especially those ranked within the top ten. Wherever they appeared, they inevitably caused a huge commotion.
As a result, the limelight previously held by Jiu You and Ling Xi was completely overshadowed. Even the matter of them killing numerous Ninth Grade Sovereigns from the Great Xia Dynasty was no longer discussed.
As for Liu Bai killing the Great Xia Dynasty's Earth Sovereigns, that matter circulated only among Earth Sovereign experts. Unless one belonged to the forces involved, others were completely unqualified to learn about it.
If the loss of several Ninth Grade Sovereigns and Xia Hong being beaten half to death could still be considered manageable losses for the Great Xia Dynasty, then Liu Bai killing the Great Xia Dynasty's three Earth Sovereign guest elders had already crossed the dynasty's bottom line.
Therefore, although things appeared calm during this period, there were clear signs of an approaching storm.
Mandala naturally received news of the matter from the rear. Thus, the Northern Realm Alliance accelerated its movements significantly and finally arrived at West City today after hurrying nonstop.
"You brat, I should never have agreed to let you come ahead first."
After seeing Liu Bai, Mandala immediately rolled her eyes at him unhappily.
Beside her, Myriad Saint Ancestor, Demon Emperor, and Liu Tiandao all observed Liu Bai with different expressions. They seemed extremely shocked that Liu Bai could actually kill three Lesser Earth Sovereigns.
Thinking back to the past, this brat had only managed to kill a Lesser Earth Sovereign with Mandala's assistance and through surprise arrays.
But now, not only had he unbelievably broken through to Earth Sovereign himself, he could even slaughter experts of the same major realm as easily as chickens. This was simply outrageous.
Liu Bai, however, paid no attention to Mandala's words and laughed.
"If not for me this time, our Nine Nether Palace would have suffered heavy losses."
"It is merely the Great Xia Dynasty. They can only dominate in a place like the Eastern Region. Let them enter the monster filled Northern Region and I doubt they could even leave the Northern Realm alive!"
Those words were absolutely true.
Among the five great regions of the Skylaw Continent, East, South, West, North, and Central, the Central Region was naturally the strongest. There was no dispute about that.
And second only to the Central Region was the Northern Region. The Northern Region's three great overlords were enough to crush every force on the Skylaw Continent outside the Central Region!
As for the Eastern Region, Southern Region, and Western Region, their overall strength was actually fairly similar.
The Great Xia Dynasty, Saint Demonic Palace, and Primordial Desolation Sect were respectively the overlords of those three regions. All of them were top tier forces with an Greater Earth Sovereign level expert overseeing them.
Of course, special regions such as the Million Mountains and Netherworld Ravine were excluded from this comparison. Those places also possessed Greater Earth Sovereign level experts.
From this, it could be seen that aside from those backed by super forces, the mainstream peak experts of the Skylaw Continent were Greater Earth Sovereigns. Therefore, the current Great Havenlaw Domain would already be capable of dominating a region if placed within any of the other three domains.
Meanwhile, within a barren mountain range in the westernmost lands, a figure stood silently.
A closer look revealed that the figure was missing an arm, and the aura around his body fluctuated unstably, clearly showing signs of severe injuries that had yet to heal.
Upon closer inspection, this person was none other than the Fourth Prince of the Great Xia Dynasty, Xia Hong, who had barely escaped from Jiu You previously!
Although Xia Hong currently looked miserable and pale, his eyes were filled with bloody light as he stared fixedly at the sky before him.
The next moment, a spatial passage over three meters long directly formed in front of him, and then a majestic figure stepped out from within.
The instant that figure emerged from the spatial passage, boundless and vast Spiritual Energy swept outward like a storm.
The surrounding mountains appeared to have been struck by invisible attacks, and were instantly shattered into powder by the erupting Spiritual Energy.
However, the newcomer paid no attention to any of this and instead immediately fixed his gaze upon Xia Hong.
Seeing Xia Hong in such a miserable state, the newcomer's expression instantly turned gloomy. A cold snort exploded beside Xia Hong's ears, frightening him so badly that his body trembled.
"Tell me the full details. If you dare hide anything, I will personally cripple you!"
"Yes, yes, Father Emperor!" Xia Hong knelt down in fear.
Although this was his father, he was also the Emperor of the Great Xia Dynasty. Therefore, Xia Hong understood very clearly that their faint father son relationship would not be enough to protect him.
Very quickly, Xia Hong recounted everything in detail, from how he had formed enmity with Jiu You and the others, to how the other side had wiped out the Great Xia Dynasty's experts.
The only thing omitted was Liu Bai's battle against the three guest elders, because Xia Hong himself had not witnessed that fight. He had merely inferred from the fact that the three guest elders never reappeared that they were likely doomed.
"That group contained Divine Beasts, human Spiritual Array Masters, and Ninth Grade Sovereigns. Originally, your son suspected they were a team specially dispatched by those Divine Beast races to explore the Ancient Heavenly Palace, but later discovered it did not seem so…"
"However, I heard that the expert who fought the three guest elders included Dragon clan and Phoenix clan Earth Sovereigns. In the end, there also seemed to be a human expert capable of controlling Spiritual Arrays while wielding Undying Bird flames. I suspect the three guest elders likely perished under their combined assault…"
Indeed, it was true that hearing rumors could never compare to witnessing things personally. Even though the battle had only just happened, the story had already become wildly distorted through retellings.
Still, Xia Hong's words were not entirely wrong. After the True Dragon Spirit and True Phoenix Spirit gained the ability to separate from Liu Bai's body, Liu Bai alone was effectively equivalent to three experts of the same level. In that regard, it bore similarities to the Heavenly Emperor's One Qi Into Three Purities.
After listening to Xia Hong, Xia Emperor's expression had already darkened completely.
Having suffered such a massive loss, he naturally could not pretend nothing had happened. Since he intended to act, he might as well make a grand move and completely eliminate these clowns who dared challenge the Great Xia Dynasty. Otherwise, the dynasty's reputation would truly be beyond saving!
At this moment, the Great Xia Dynasty's experts also streamed out from the spatial passage one after another.
This time, Xia Emperor could be said to have mobilized nearly the entire dynasty. Aside from the necessary experts remaining behind to guard the imperial capital, nearly every Earth Sovereign of the Great Xia Dynasty had been brought here, totaling six Earth Sovereigns!
This was after already losing three people. Otherwise, they would have possessed nine Earth Sovereigns in total, undoubtedly making them the strongest top tier force currently gathered here.
"You are certain they are all still in West City?" Xia Emperor glanced at Xia Hong and asked.
"Certain! Those people are extremely arrogant and completely disregard our Great Xia Dynasty. Even after killing our people, they never left."
Xia Emperor nodded. Then, a monstrous aura spread out from his body, covering West City over a thousand kilometers away.
In an instant, experts within West City and several nearby cities at the edge of the westernmost lands all sensed this terrifying aura. Everyone immediately understood that another grand spectacle was about to begin.
Inside the manor, Liu Bai and Mandala were the first to raise their heads, looking toward the white clouds in the sky being torn apart by invisible power as they slightly raised their brows.
"What a powerful aura. It is an Greater Earth Sovereign!" Myriad Saint Ancestor raised his star like eyes toward the heavens.
Within his perception, a gigantic imperial phantom was currently overlooking them from the starry sky above, and its tyrannical and noble aura made even an Earth Sovereign like him feel an urge to submit.
"This person must undoubtedly be Xia Emperor!"
Beside him, Demon Emperor and Liu Tiandao both wore solemn expressions. Naturally, they had heard of the Great Xia Dynasty. This was truly a formidable enemy!
Liu Bai turned his head toward Mandala.
With the tacit understanding between them, Mandala naturally understood Liu Bai's intentions at a glance. Clearly, this fellow wanted to stir up trouble again.
"I can hold off Xia Emperor for you, but the time I can buy you will not be long…"