36 Training Pagoda

~~~~~~Heavenly Sword Villa~~~~~~

Xuanyuan Jue, the Ninth Elder of Mighty Heavenly Sword Region, accompanied by several  Overlord enforcers arrived at Heavenly Sword Villa. 

Their unannounced arrival instantly made the whole place scramble. 

Though the first one to meet them was shocked and excited Xuanyuan Yufeng who is the daughter of the Ninth Elder Xuanyuan Jue. 

"F-Father?"

The old man simply nodded. He utterly ignored her husband, Ling Yuefeng. 

"Come with me, Yufeng, we have things to talk about." He motioned her to follow him.

"You can stay here. It doesn't concern you. It's Mighty Heavenly Sword Region's business."

The Villa Master stiffened, but eventually nodded. This made Xuanyuan Yufeng sigh in disappointment at how easily her husband caved in front of her father. Show some spine!

As the elder entered the Villa, his daughter followed him.

"I hope you have heard the news about the Supreme Ocean Palace?"

Xuanyuan Yufeng slowly nodded.

"Yes, Father." 

"Xiao Long's existence is threatening the balance of power in the Profound Sky Continent. I was instructed by the Sword Master to learn anything we can from him before killing him.

"And you will assist me. If you are successful, you will be welcomed back to Mighty Heavenly Sword Region, and your children as well." 

The woman's eyes widened when she heard that. She could go back!?

But then she picked up something.

"...You didn't tell me what I have to do."

"There is a high possibility that Xiao Long will be coming to the upcoming Blue Wind Rating Tournament. When he is here you will seduce him, make him talk. Depending on the information you will be rewarded. 

"The very best-case scenario is that he joins us. If not, I will have to kill him inside the Sacred Realm."

Xuanyuan Yufeng's brain stopped for a second. She has to seduce him!?

She was shocked by this development. But then she recalled how her husband is still spacing out, even months after the news about Frozen Cloud. Then she recalled that Xiao Long has those Fairies. 

At that moment a feeling started to rise in her gut. Yes, she will do it. She will do it just so that she could make Chu Yuechan and other fairies get jealous as she could make Xiao Long interested in her!

"...I will do it, Father."

"Good. You are finally coming to your senses."  The Monarch nodded sagely. He stroked his beard. Maybe his daughter is not lost cause? 

It has to be this useless Ling Yuefeng who seduced her somehow. But maybe this charm is wearing off now? 

Well, this is for the best. Maybe once the deed is done with Young Master Xiao, she will get pregnant and produce an exceptionally talented child. 

Xuanyuan Jue nodded to himself. For now, he will have to see what his current grandchildren can do.

"..."

"I will be staying here until the tournament is finished. I wish to see how my grandchildren are doing."

"O-Of course, Father! Please follow me!"

~~~~~~Floating Cloud City~~~~~~

As Xiao Clan took over the whole city, changes started to spread quickly. 

All the minor clans and sects have been either destroyed, or added to the overall might of the Xiao Clan. 

This means that the city has shrunk considerably as the areas where the clans and sects used to be have been destroyed.

One could say that the city has lost around 40% of its size.

While this was happening, the floating island already left its original location and started to move towards Blue Wind Imperial Capital.

It will take a couple of months, but they are going to be there. They have a lot of time, about 8 months until the tournament.

So, there is no rush. 

Even if Cang Yue wants to go there as quickly as possible because of her father, she can't rush Young Master Xiao.

In the meantime, one of the first issues happening to the Floating Cloud City are the limited water supplies. 

Everyone, let alone a [Sky Profound], even [Emperor Profound] still needs to consume food and water. Much less than [Earth Profound].

But, it's still necessary to eat and drink.

So this is where Xiao Long started to work on a Circulation Array System.

Over a few short days, ponds of fresh water appeared around the floating island. They are connected to the wells around the city and the clan.

As the Young Master was working on this, he realised that to keep this working automatically, he should start thinking of ways to build an internal ecosystem.

With such a thing in place, he should be able to have the means to leave the star itself eventually.

After some quick work with water, Xiao Long proceeded to return to his other two projects.

The fire-based garden, which in turn is connected to a hot spring.

Followed by a Ten Thousand Beast Array, which he wants to build on the training grounds.

With experience on making a water circulation system, Xiao Long swiftly went to build the hot spring. It's not hard. It's like a miniature water ecosystem. 

A small tap-like waterfall drops in the spring, while the pond itself has a small hole which sucks in the water. This water then returns into a circulation where it can be heated up once again.

While he was working on this, Xiao Long came up with ideas on how to make it even better. Adding purification arrays. Excess Profound Energy.

This means even if you are resting, you can leisurely add more profound energy into your body.

Leisure Cultivation at its finest!

It didn't take long for his maids to notice what was going on. The thing is, females love taking baths. Even his Frozen Cloud Fairies love to take leisure baths. 

High Cultivation or not.

"...Young Master… what is this?" One of the maids asked him as she looked with a curious gaze at the nice pond with steam radiating from it.

It wasn't normal steam as the water wasn't simple. It has a mix of Fire Profound Energy and Purifying Energy on top of it!

And she can feel that!

"A Hot Spring."

"Hot Spring?"

"Yes. It's a fancy bath with benefits."

"Oh… Young Master knows how to make things interesting!" She said with a praising tone before a glint appeared in her eyes.

"Will we be able to use Hot Spring?"

"Of course. I don't think I will be able to use it constantly."

"...I see!"

Her reaction and tone just got brighter by several levels.

"...Young Master… We can join you when you are going to use it…right?"

He snorted with amusement. What's with these silly questions?

"Of course. That's the whole point of this." He said with an eye roll.

At this moment the maid just giggled before rushing away. It appears it's going to get fun soon.

While the basis of the Hot Spring was done. Some aesthetic work needed to be done.

Like the wooden walls, several boulders, and changing room areas. 

It was relaxing work for Xiao Long who enjoyed it more than working in making ponds of water.

After finishing the Hot Springs it was time to make The Fire Profound energy garden.

He has several fruits, herbs, and other things. 

So he went with bubble style. It was experimental as it was going to be like a ward or a barrier, like those glass houses where people grow up exotic plants in colder climates. 

Similar stuff, only this time around it's not climate but Profound Energy…

~~~~~~Xiao Long~~~~~~

Preparing the garden was not hard. With such pure Fire Profound energy, this garden most likely will produce superior herbs than the ones they originally came from.

When I was done with the garden, I returned to working on the Ten Thousand Beast Array. 

The easiest part is just to build the pagoda. A seventh-floor pagoda made from solidified barrier walls. 

With pure steel rods acting as anchors for the pagoda, it won't simply fade. What is most difficult is the array itself, which is underneath the pagoda. In other words, it's underground.

It has two primary 'tanks' as I call them. One tank holds beast blood, and the other holds Profound Cores. 

Think of it like an engine which uses these two materials to make beasts.

Now the hardest part was to make an array which read the core and one which read the blood.

The Profound Core gives the array the level of cultivation while the beast blood decides which beasts to project in the pagoda.

With this, one can mix and match cultivation with beasts.

To make this work, I needed to figure out an array which sorts the powers of the cores.

Not hard, as it just needs a power reader.

But what is harder is projecting from the blood!

This was where I started to think… With Profound Energy, many things make no sense… 

The most obvious is being the world I am right now…

It's a massive planet with 97% of it being Water. The forces of the winds and the waves of such a world should produce enough force to sink the remaining land long ago.

But it didn't, Profound energy is keeping this place in check.

This means other things, much weaker things should be possible. 

Like using blood to figure out the ancestors of the beast… maybe even digging so deep one could figure out if it had a Divine Ancestor?

Nothing is certain and anything is possible!

This is why I started to play with arrays and how to project the best from its drop of blood. 

It was not easy, as a simple array doesn't work. So I simply went to more complex layers of arrays.

The 'Identify' array would identify whose blood this is.

The 'Pin point' Array would find the specific target in the blood itself.

The 'Isolation' Array would isolate the specific thing one is looking at inside the drop of blood.

Then the 'analysis' array would analyse the blood in detail.

Once the analysis is done…

"Hmmm…" 

I looked at the glowing text in front of me.

What I see is a simple [Nascent Profound] wolf. Its parents were another bunch of [Nascent Profound] and another and another…

The blood is not potent and it doesn't have any sort of magical potential. In other words, it's mediocre. If I would want something I would need to invest resources to make mediocre into something more.

"Well, at least I have ways to look into the blood and legacy it holds."

With some idea of how this worked, I went back several arrays and wrote the 'realisation of form', and 'manifestation' array.

And just like that, a ghostly image of a wolf was standing in front of me.

To improve on this ghost-like existence, a Profound core comes to play, as a few energy-glowing arrays later I had a solid-looking wolf in front of me.

"Wonderful…"

I smirked to myself as one part was complete. Next is adding behaviour patterns.

'Well, this is going to be interesting…'

After solving manifestation and energy glow from Profound cores, I proceeded to work on digging up behaviour patterns from the blood of the beasts.

The arrays will give basic behaviour patterns depending on the beasts, and the difficulty of the floor the person is on.

So after a few days, I was done. The Pagoda's Alpha stage is done.

Yes, I am using game terms as this is far from being the end. I will improve on this later on!

~~~

The news about the finished pagoda spread through the clan quickly.

People wanted to see what it was about. 

Though they quickly became self-conscious, as the prices of entering the Pagoda were quite absurd. 

However, some of the richer members decided to test them out.

They quickly found out how convenient this was!

Facing Profound beasts in one's backyard like this was quite the privilege.

The elders themselves have tested it out.

"...While impressive, Long'er… they are just too weak." Xiao Li said with a sigh. It's amazing, the whole thing with how the beasts can just constantly spawn, again and again. 

Like there is no end. Same with the number of types there are.

"Of course, Grandfather. The beasts are weak as we gathered them from Scarlet Dragon Mountain Range.

"There is barely anything interesting there."

"This means that we need stronger Profound cores and blood?"

"Indeed. And thankfully, we will be flying over a danger zone soon."

"Oh?"

"Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Range. If rumours are true, that Mountain Range has three [Sky Profound] beasts and a bunch of [Earth Profound] Beasts."

"I see… I assume you are thinking of cleaning up that Mountain Range?"

Xiao Long simply smiled and nodded. Though he has some other ideas about that place.

With the Phoenix Spirit residing there, he might be able to turn it into a mine of some sort. 

No matter how fancy the Phoenix Blood is…what he dislikes is the limited amount of it.

If he can turn into a mine where one can mine its blood AND go on trials of some sort…

Now that would be just amazing as his clan's quality would increase!

Thinking more about this…

Since he finished with some of the things he wanted, he can now return to training and practising.

Phoenix spirit awaits him. So he needs to work on that. 

"With this, my main project is completed, Grandfather.

"If you want to add more quality and strength to the Pagoda's array, you need to add Profound Cores and blood stored underground in the Master Array."

"Understood, Long'er. You can return to your rest. The clan will remember what you created for a very long time."

"Un."

With a nod, Young Master Xiao leisurely floated away towards his home.

Once there, he was flocked by his maids who are ready to pamper him in any way he wants. 

The thing was, they are very excited about the whole Hot Springs thing.

This made them think if he could make some sort of rooms where one could practise Fire Profound Energy, while the other Fairies are thinking of some sort of Sub Zero rooms. 

Only his recent addition of Xiao Maids couldn't catch up, they are not there yet. They are still catching up to what their exalted Young Master can do.

Regardless, after spending some time talking and eating, the Young Master retired to his room where Chu Yuechan was waiting for him.

The beauty has taken the role of his bed warmer quite effortlessly.

Or more that not many females have the nerves of steel to be like the Fairy of Frozen Beauty.

"It appears you have been waiting for me?"

"Hmm, there are ways for me to get your attention myself." The black-haired beauty said with a small but very cheeky smile.

"Impressive. Well, since you are here, we should get some practice done."

As he said that he mentally checked the art…

[Yin & Yang Dual Cultivation] (9/10) {12.32%}

'Quite close. Well, I guess I will be capping this one out today.'

With a new goal in mind, Xiao Long smiled which made the Fairy slightly nervous.

~~~~~~A Month Later~~~~~~

Xia Qingyue's eyes trembled as she opened her eyes for the first time in months!

A cold breath escaped from her mouth as she felt Ice energy wash her body over.

She has done it! 

Achieving Ice Phoenix God Investiture Canon! An Art which one would need Divine Beasts blood to practise.

The beauty was proud of herself.

Not only did she master Frozen Cloud Arts, but she learned an incredibly difficult art!

Though, at the same time she got extremely humbled by this. It only took a few days if not less for her husband to pick this up.

Honestly, it has terrified her how effortlessly he learns things.

It took her ages to learn this!

'How much time has passed?'

She thought with a frown as Xia Qingyue realised that she was sealed in a barrier!

The beauty swiftly recalled that she started to practise inside their living room!

This made her panic! Did she destroy the room!?

Though a few moments later the barrier disappeared which made her quickly make all the ice and cold air disappear.

Before she could leave the room she sensed that the house was simply empty which made her start to panic.

No one was in the house! Which should be impossible! Her husband had maids and Fairies inside his house!

So she swiftly was about to leave but then the doors opened and her husband was standing in front of her.

Instead of saying anything he wrapped his hand around her and pulled her closer to himself. 

"Yue'er I got tired of waiting." He said that with a matter-of-fact voice which made her anxious as well. She wrapped her hands around him as well.

She could feel how strong he was now. Which made her annoyed…

Though at this moment the whole cultivation thing can wait.

"...Your Qingyue apologises for making you wait this long." She said that to him with a soft voice. It had some traces of coldness which came from her new type of Profound Energy.

"Hmm… I know… you won't be leaving my side for a whole week. There is no negotiation on this. It's your punishment."

This made a small smile appear on her lips. This was more like a reward instead of a punishment!

"Un. Qingyue accepts this punishment."

"Good wife. Now let's go. I need to show what happened over the last 5 and half months."

'F-F-Five months!?'

Her eyes bulged out! When she heard that! 

This was a lot! She has wasted this much time!?

Internally she has freaked out! The beauty is behind in her game! Heaven knows how much ground she has lost! 

She needs to get as much as she can this week!

"Lead the way then, Husband!" Xia Qingyue said as she wrapped her arm around his hand. She won't be letting him go!

~~~

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