Zhang Deming stretched in his courtyard before walking to the edge of the lake. With a wave of his hand, he constructed a small Concealing Array, then promptly jumped into the lake for a good swim.

When he had swum his fill, Zhang Deming once again wove a raft of vines beneath him and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Zhang Deming was truly exhausted from his ten-plus days of seclusion.

After sleeping for half the day, Zhang Deming felt that lying on the raft wasn’t suitable for a long rest; it was getting uncomfortable. He flew up and returned to his room to sleep properly.

...

He slept so soundly he lost all track of time. When he woke up again, it was already noon the next day.

Zhang Deming felt refreshed and clear-headed, completely revitalized.

After being in seclusion for several days, he hadn’t visited the Secret Realm in a while. Zhang Deming went there first to nurture it for a bit.

Then, he went to give Xu Weihai a lesson, gradually improving his foundation in the Array Dao. It was clear that Xu Weihai was slowly starting to absorb the knowledge Zhang Deming was teaching him.

He was also attempting to merge the two systems.

Although his aptitude was mediocre and his Talent was even worse, he was hardworking. With the ample resources Zhang Deming provided, he was shaping up to be a decent tool.

After that, Zhang Deming began frequenting the Information Room again, considering various aspects of his order.

One day, Zhang Deming paused, startled. His Heart Spirit quickly entered the Spirit Nurturing Space.

A long-awaited scene was now slowly materializing within the Spirit Nurturing Space.

The scene showed Celestial Spirit City, and from the looks of it, a small courtyard in an ordinary residential area.

Tong Hou was holding a Tier Two Yin Yang Chess Dao Spirit Nurturing Pearl. He took a deep breath, and with a surge of Spiritual Power, fully activated it.

The Spirit Nurturing Bead dissolved into countless Spiritual Power Light Points, forming a hollow sphere that enveloped him.

As the Runes sank into the space between his eyebrows, a Yin Yang Fish pattern unexpectedly rose up from his body after a long moment.

Seeing this, Zhang Deming was slightly stunned. ’What the hell is this?’

’A manifestation of the Yin-Yang Dao?’

’Isn’t this something that could only happen—and remember, only *possibly* happen—when someone comprehends a Tier Seven Scripture or higher...?’

’Gaining enlightenment from a Tier Two Technique is causing an external manifestation of Dao Intent?’

’Some master who can comprehend a Tier Two Technique with the flair of someone grasping a Tier Seven Scripture needs a Spirit Nurturing Bead to reach Entry Level?’

’Are you f*cking kidding me!!!’

At that moment, even Zhang Deming was shocked!

As the Yin Yang Fish emerged, Zhang Deming slowly noticed something strange. The entire Yin Yang Fish pattern was densely bound by enormous chains.

And as Tong Hou’s comprehension deepened, the Yin Yang Fish pattern began to vibrate gently and slowly started to rotate.

As it rotated, the chains on the Yin Yang Fish started to shake, eventually snapping link by link.

They shattered into a sky full of Spiritual Light. The moment the chains broke, the slowly rotating Yin Yang Fish pattern behind him also miraculously vanished.

At that moment, Tong Hou’s whole body shuddered. Although his appearance hadn’t changed in the slightest, in Zhang Deming’s eyes, he had become different. Very different.

He looked exactly the same, yet to Zhang Deming, it was as if he were looking at two completely different people before and after. This was true both in feeling and in sight.

Hmm...

It was similar to the strange feeling he’d had when he first met Li Shifan, but this feeling was much stronger and purer.

As the Yin Yang Fish disappeared, Tong Hou slowly opened his eyes and let out a long breath. His entire being seemed to have cast off some great burden, giving off an incredibly relaxed feeling.

At this point, the scene finally ended, turning into a single point of light.

At this time, Energy surged in his inventory once more. The 0.02 Enlightenment Merit was normal, but he had received a full 1.0 of Enlightenment Fortune. Compared to the fixed 0.2 everyone else gave him, this was a full five times more.

’This guy... looks like he has quite a story!’

Zhang Deming stared at the point of light before him and fell into deep thought, contemplating whether he should pull this person into Duzun Tower.

’Forget it. I’ll wait for now. I’ll see what the results are after I’m done reaping this harvest from Xu Weihai’s side.’

’Besides, I can’t just go around pulling people in every time they have an enlightenment. If that happens too often, it’ll be easy for someone to notice, right?’

Having made up his mind, Zhang Deming waved his hand, tossing the point of light into the Chaos Sky before exiting the Spirit Nurturing Space.

In the blink of an eye, nearly half a year had passed since his last breakthrough. With the combined effects of Spirit Stones and his Cave Mansion’s passive cultivation, Zhang Deming’s Cultivation was already close to advancing again.

Cultivation Technique: Water Wood Divine Control Method (Tier Six)

Cultivation: Tai Chi Lv2 (543,000 / 600,000)

Rune Core: Spirit Nurturing Summoning Skill Lv3 (5/50)

Branch Rune: Enhancement Skill Lv3 (50/500)

Skills: Jade Demon Blood-Sucking Vine Lv3 (0/50), Oratory Word Spirit Lv3 (0/50), Hidden Breath Technique Lv3 (0/50), Flying Technique Fragment Lv3 (0/50), Spiritual Shield Lv3 (0/50), Yin Yang Chess Dao: Position Lv3 (0/50), Reconnaissance·Spiritual Eye Lv2 (0/10)

Spiritual Power Recovery: 200 Spiritual Power / 3 minutes

Experience Growth: 20 EXP / 3 minutes

Originally, he had planned to choose the Vine for his Tai Chi Second Life Rune, leaving the Three Lives Rune to be decided later.

However, the evolution of his Oratory skill, despite having no obvious connection to Summoning or Spirit Nurturing, had surprisingly shown a universal plasticity, just like his Enhancement Skill. It, too, could serve as a Rune.

Moreover, Zhang Deming sensed that the Oratory skill was a remarkably good fit for his Spirit Nurturing Summoning Technique—a perfect candidate for a Branch Rune.

Therefore, Zhang Deming decided to choose Oratory for his Two Lives Rune after all. He could use the Vine Technique for his Three Lives Rune instead; after all, in his mind, the Vine Technique was just his "Basic Attack."

Besides, as his Cultivation approached Tai Chi Three Lives, the Duality Stage wasn’t far off. He needed to start paying attention to the matter of his advancement.

More importantly, the resources for this Tai Chi advancement were a bit of a headache.

As a powerful expert who was "recovering his strength"—a fact known to all the upper echelons now—he couldn’t exactly use "advancement" as a banner to request resources.

Well... it wasn’t that he *couldn’t*. After all, his official identity was only at the Tai Chi level.

But resources for advancing to the Duality Stage were very precious to the Four-Nine Upper Sect—or rather, extremely precious.

Duality Cultivators were the mainstays of every Upper Sect, the primary force in daily affairs. For other powers within the Sect’s territory, a Duality Cultivator was their absolute peak of power.

That was why the higher-ups sent out on missions were almost all at this level.

Furthermore, Zhang Deming’s core was Spirit Nurturing Summoning, and without a corresponding formula, he would need top-tier, universal advancement resources for Summoning.

Of course, if all else failed, he could do as he’d done before: first take a look at Demon Spirit Summoning and see if he could use that to advance.

Even so, he would still need advancement resources. The main issue was the primary material.

Primary materials for the Duality Stage were extremely difficult to buy on the open market within the Celestial Spirit Sect’s territory. In this era of resource scarcity, high-end materials were mostly controlled by the Sects and Noble Families.

For all these reasons, if he really were to make a big show of pretending to advance, he felt the Sect would probably allocate the resources to him on the surface, only for a few of the top experts to secretly take them back.

’Sounds unbecoming of a major Upper Sect, doesn’t it?’

But the possibility was actually very high!

One had to understand that a top-tier Duality Cultivator had a lifespan of a full eight hundred years, yet the Sect had fewer than two hundred Duality Cultivators in total.

And this was with the Sect having a foundation of three Tier Three Spirit Nurturers.

From this, it was clear just how important a set of primary advancement materials for the Duality Stage was to the Sect—especially top-tier ones. Taking them back in private was a very real possibility.

Therefore, he needed to think long and hard about how to get his hands on the advancement materials for the Duality Stage.

Even if he targeted the Sect’s material warehouse, he couldn’t give them a chance to ask for the materials back in private after he obtained them.

...