"Over a hundred thousand cultivators who had refined psychic consciousness died?!" Yaoguang was shocked.

The number was utterly staggering. One had to understand that those who had refined psychic consciousness and those who had not belonged to two entirely different categories. Those who had yet to refine psychic consciousness were engaged only in basic tasks, ensuring the normal operation of a sect at the grassroots.

Those cultivators were the most basic foundation of the sect, and were continuously filtered to select those capable of refining psychic consciousness and truly contribute to the sect’s growth.

That tier then produced spirit stones and filled key departments that required spirit stones to function, allowing the sect to operate smoothly. From there, it nurtured the management tiers, the backbone tiers, and the ruling tiers, until the complete structure of the sect took shape.

It was no exaggeration to say that refining psychic consciousness changed one’s fate. It meant breaking free from the bottom rung. No matter which department one joined, they would receive decent treatment, and even if they sought to join another sect, rejection was unlikely. Now, more than a hundred thousand elite cultivators of that tier had been lost in one stroke.

"The Infinite Star Palace, aiming to display its influence to the world, mobilized more than a dozen Sky Patrol Warships from all directions to blockade our Nine Cauldrons Sect. East, south, west, north, even the sky above us was filled with their Sky Patrol Warships and Heavenly Palace cultivators," Qin Yi said.

"This naturally had a serious impact on our Nine Cauldrons Sect. You must have felt how unstable the Void Psychic World has become recently. However, deploying all those forces to surround us inevitably weakened their defenses elsewhere. Survivors of the Quicksand Sect, who had been plotting for a long time, took the chance to infiltrate Sun-Moon Peak, shut down its defensive array arts one after another, and then, with a single strike from a great spell cultivator, almost destroyed that enormous mountain," Qin Yi said.

"How will the Infinite Star Palace respond?" Yaoguang asked.

"This act was a grave provocation to the Infinite Star Palace’s authority. Whether to explain things internally or to bare their fangs to the outside world, they have no choice but to act. I don’t know what specific action they will take, but for a while, they likely won’t have the spare capacity to deal with us," Qin Yi said. "Of course, there will be a lot of economic pressure, as well as blockades and attempts to reduce our sect's influence through the Cangwu Alliance, but at the very least, they won’t dare to mobilize more than a dozen Sky Patrol Warships again and seal off all the Nine Cauldrons Sect. After all, who knows how many Quicksand Sect survivors are still lurking within the Infinite Star Palace's territory, or how many other forces resent their tyranny and are waiting for an opportunity to strike?"

Yaoguang nodded. The Infinite Star Palace’s attention had shifted. It was the perfect moment for the Nine Cauldrons Sect to grow stronger and upgrade its equipment.

He immediately sought out Zi Qiangwei and took out a jade talisman. "This is my upgraded treasured artifact design for the Purple Firmament Type 12 flying sword. Take a look."

"Treasured artifact?!" Zi Qiangwei froze for a moment, then joy surged into her eyes. "Y-You can refine treasured artifacts now?"

"Only for this model of flying sword," Yaoguang replied. "Going from a spirit artifact to a treasured artifact is a major generational leap. Let’s call it the Purple Firmament Type 13 flying sword."

In the future, the middle-grade treasured artifact would be the Purple Firmament Type 14, and the high-grade treasured artifact would be the Purple Firmament Type 15.

Of course, middle-grade treasured artifacts were often merely substitutes for high-grade ones. Yaoguang had no intention of investing too much effort there. Once funding was sufficient and the array art level had been raised, he would begin designing the Purple Firmament Type 15, aiming for a version with performance that reached fourth- or even fifth-generation standards.

If every elite great sword cultivator could truly be equipped with fifth-generation flying swords, they'd be able to suppress the Infinite Star Palace’s sword cultivators; even when clashing with the Great Sun Sword Sect, it would no longer be a forty-to-seven beatdown in the enemy’s favor, but it would be them crushing the Great Sun Sword Sect with that same ratio.

"I’ll immediately ask Grandmaster Dong Liushui to verify it," As Zi Qiangwei said, glancing at Yaoguang. "Shall we go to Crimson City together?"

"Let’s verify it first," Yaoguang said.

Once the array art level was raised and he was capable of refining the Purple Firmament Type 15, it would not be too late to head to Crimson City. He had more important tasks to do right now.

***

"Crossing the tribulation?" Bai Lu, the Primordial Psyche Realm great cultivator assigned to protect Yaoguang, looked at him with surprise in her expression.

But recalling how Yaoguang had recently controlled the Nine Heavens Lightning Tribulation Sword Formation and displayed such profound foundations, realization dawned on her.

"So that’s it. You delayed your breakthrough for so long, staying at the ninth realm of psyche refinement, to solidify your foundation and build up power. With your current primordial psyche foundation, enduring the tempering of Blazing Solar Lightning should not be difficult." Bai Lu nodded.

"I wanted to ask Hall Master Bai Lu for guidance on the specifics of lightning tempering," Yaoguang said.

"The specifics..." Bai Lu organized her thoughts and said slowly, "The primordial psyche is condensed from psychic thought. It is formless and intangible, and belongs to the yin attribute. Lightning, on the other hand, is the embodiment of supreme strength and yang. The process of crossing the tribulation is essentially the process of yin and yang clashing as the primordial psyche is tempered. This tempering is extremely efficient, but the process is also extremely dangerous. That is why, before advancing, cultivators at the Primordial Psyche Realm must do everything possible to enrich their foundations and strengthen their realm."

Yaoguang nodded. Once a primordial psyche cultivator manifested their primordial psyche within the lightning layers, the yin nature of the primordial psyche would draw down the supremely strong and yang heavenly lightning.

"Lightning tribulation tempering is usually divided into three stages. The first stage involves drawing in the first bolt of heavenly lightning and undergoing nine rounds of tempering. This stage is known as the One-Nine-Lightning Tribulation. After that comes the Three-Nine-Lightning Tribulation, involving twenty-seven rounds of heavenly lightning. Finally comes the last stage, the Nine-Nine-Lightning Tribulation, consisting of eighty-one rounds of tempering. After enduring all eighty-one rounds, the strength of the primordial psyche will reach its peak, and one can then attempt to enter the Purple Firmament Divine Lightning layer," Bai Lu explained.

Bai Lu then glanced at Yaoguang. "Your foundation is extremely profound. You could probably complete the One-Nine-Lightning Tribulation in a single go. Still, I would not advise it. No matter how solid your foundation is, cultivation is best approached step by step. Acting recklessly makes it easy to put yourself in grave danger."

"I’ll judge the situation as it comes," Yaoguang replied, then asked curiously, "I’ve heard that during Purple Firmament Divine Lightning tempering, it’s easy to comprehend the profundities of chaotic space-time and directly condense a Dharma Form. Is that rumor true?"

"In theory, yes, but the true strength of a Dharma Form does not lie in comprehending those profundities. It lies in being able to condense one’s own Void Psychic World! To condense a personal Void Psychic World, one must possess a sufficiently powerful psychic thought, and to achieve that, the primordial psyche must be tempered again and again." Bai Lu explained.

"The Void Psychic World," Yaoguang murmured the term.

The Void Psychic World could be understood as a network, or an information world. Yet it was a broad form of such a world, even leaning toward a quantum realm. The profundities of chaotic space-time it contained meant that communication within the Void Psychic World had no distance limits, and was basically instantaneous.

The Void Psychic World currently used by the world had been left behind by fallen Dharma Forms from the Lunar Fiend Empire during its wartime era, and it functioned as a shared Void Psychic World. Any sect or force could connect to it, enter it, and send or transmit information through it.

However, due to its freedom and openness, information conveyed through the Void Psychic World was easily interfered with, blocked, distorted, or even tampered with. That was why critical information between sects was still transmitted through Heavenly Palace cultivators.

However, aside from the Thousand-Beast Sect, the Immortal Alliance, and the Infinite Star Palace, no force in the world had established a fully comprehensive Heavenly Palace cultivator system. For sects like the Nine Cauldrons Sect, even if coverage extended across the entire sect and its surrounding regions, gaps in information transmission would still appear. As for areas far from the sect, those gaps were even more pronounced.

A personal Void Psychic World could perfectly solve this problem. By leaving a portion of one’s psychic thought and psychic consciousness within the Void Psychic World, a cultivator could achieve effortless communication regardless of distance.

Moreover, unless one’s own Void Psychic World was breached, such information could not be interfered with, blocked, distorted, or altered. More importantly, once a Void Psychic World was used offensively and descended upon a specific location, it could directly form an information-restricted zone over that area.

In other words, it could destroy a sect’s communications and information flow, including psychic thought transmission and tactical guidance. In the present era, once one side’s information layer was entirely severed and communication regressed to shouting back and forth, that battle was essentially already over.

Bai Lu suddenly said, "In fact, the reason the higher-ups haven't yet decided whether to place you in charge of a sword cultivator institute under the Warfare Hall, have you focus entirely on artifact refinement, or simply avoid disturbing your cultivation, is because they do not know how best to position you."

She looked at Yaoguang. "Your ability to command large numbers of primordial psyche and Foundation Building cultivators is currently promoted within the sect as a new type of array art. To the outside world, however, it is strictly confidential. Even so, those of us few primordial psyche cultivators can still sense it. This anomaly feels somewhat similar to a Void Psychic World."

Void Psychic World. That secret technique, the Psyche King, does indeed resemble a Void Psychic World to some extent. Yaoguang thought about it briefly.

"At present, within a very small circle in the Nine Heavens Domain, there is a bold... even unrealistic conjecture." Bai Lu looked at Yaoguang with eyes full of anticipation, even tinged with longing. "Perhaps one day in the future, you will break through the shackles of the primordial psyche path and advance to the Dharma Form Realm, allowing our Nine Cauldrons Sect to become the fourth sect in the Great Cangwu World to possess a Dharma Form!"

"I’ll do my best," Yaoguang replied.

After that, Bai Lu continued explaining the precautions for tempering the primordial psyche with the power of heavenly lightning. Although the information Yaoguang had obtained from the Psyche Dao was even more comprehensive than what Bai Lu described, he still listened patiently.

Three days later, Yaoguang stopped wasting time. His primordial psyche left his body, transforming into a streak of flowing light that shot straight toward the nine heavens.

Bai Lu, Zhang Jianlin, and the few primordial psyche cultivators and high-level figures of the Nine Heavens Domain who knew of his plan to cross the tribulation all raised their heads. Zhao He even led two teams of sword cultivators upward with him to provide protection and prevent interference.

Of course, the process of heavenly lightning tempering could only be borne by Yaoguang himself. For primordial psyche cultivators, this was itself a form of cultivation.

***

Once he entered the heights above the nine heavens, the yin-attributed primordial psyche quickly clashed with the external yang-attributed forces. Instantly, the atmosphere surged, and winds and clouds roiled across the sky. The violently shifting atmospheric environment caused the yin and yang forces within it to collide fiercely. In less than a minute...

A bolt of Blazing Solar Lightning tore through the void with a loud rumble! Drawn by the yin nature of the primordial psyche, the heavenly lightning struck straight down toward Yaoguang’s position.