The great battle had ended, but someone was still solving problems at the entrance of the merits hall. In fact, she was already at the ninth question.

The woman most likely wouldn’t be able to solve the last three questions and give up. Thus, Ji Liuli asked Zhang Sheng to join her and tried to flank her. Unfortunately, they were still ten zhang away when the woman sensed them. Faster than the Devil Suppressing Nine Level Pagoda could leave Ji Liuli’s hand, the woman had torn open a fissure and slipped inside, vanishing.

The display of mystic ability caught Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli completely by surprise. They could only watch helplessly as she escaped. It was clear that this ability was why the woman was able to enter and exit the realm without a trace.

By now, the Shaman forces had completely withdrawn from the realm, leaving tens of thousands of corpses strewn across the battlefield. They would all serve as nourishment for Qingming. However, Wei Yuan knew that the Shamans’ retreat was only temporary. After all, their main force had remained largely unscathed. They could strike back at any moment.

Understanding both oneself and the enemy was the top priority at the moment. Wei Yuan’s thoughts turned to his previous eerie encounter with Dream Eater and found himself unable to sit still.

According to Dream Eater, Wei Yuan had broken through her Ghost Bride scenario with surprising speed. The key was that every time he awoke, he managed to retain a portion of his memories. No one else could achieve this no matter how powerful their primordial spirit was, which was why they could only be gradually worn down through endless cycles and become nourishment for Dream Eater.

The reason why Dream Eater couldn’t consume Wei Yuan was now clear. It was because the primordial spirit and the Dao Foundation were one and the same. Wei Yuan’s primordial spirit was terrifyingly powerful because of the Great Realm. Consuming his primordial spirit was like consuming the Great Realm; an ordinary person consuming a block of gold the size of a table. That was why her Dream Puppets had cracked apart and died one after another.

What Wei Yuan sought to understand now was why he was able to retain his memories within the scenario. So, he sought out Ji Liuli and requested a blessing of good luck. After that, he calmed his mind and concentrated on uncovering the reason for his preserved memories.

As he pondered, the thought of the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree branch suddenly struck him. He realized then that the immortal object had to be the reason.

The Bay Laurel Immortal Tree branch had already developed its own spirit, though communication was not yet possible. However, Wei Yuan’s Dao energy had now been imbued with a trace of the immortal tree’s aura, which significantly improved his ability to suppress and erode the Shaman realm’s green qi. Additionally, his Dao energy could now inflict lunar fire; the white-gold flame which had consumed the Shamans earlier. Its destructive power rivaled that of The Sun’s true fire despite possessing no heat.

Since it was the effect of an immortal object, there was no need to investigate further. For obvious reasons, the mysteries of immortal objects were beyond his current abilities to unravel.

What truly unsettled Wei Yuan was the Shadow Warlock named Shu Li. His ability to whisk away his primordial spirit from a distance was utterly indefensible. However, general information regarding the high-ranking members of the Shamans were saved within the merits hall and could be obtained by exchanging merits. So, Wei Yuan went to the merits hall to look it up, and sure enough, there were relevant records.

The information required Heaven Merits to exchange, but Wei Yuan did not hesitate for even a moment. He spent his few remaining Heaven Merits to exchange for all the relevant information.

The Shamans were a rather unique race. For starters, their adult form did not have a fixed shape—a unique trait among all the known races. Their cultivation and advancement methods were quite distinctive as well.

At the Warlock and Great Warlock stages, there were generally four major paths to transcendence: Strength Warlock, Mystic Warlock, Blood Warlock, and Dao Warlock. Wei Yuan had already fought against Strength Warlocks and Blood Warlocks. One could say he was quite familiar with them, even. Mystic Warlocks were relatively fewer in number, and Dao Warlocks were extremely rare. It was said that Dao Warlocks had begun communicating with heaven and earth as early as the Warlock stage, which was why their advancement to the Sky Warlock stage was the least difficult. However, no other path demanded as much innate talent as the path of Dao Warlock. Out of a hundred Warlocks, one could not find even one Warlock who possessed the innate talent to become a Dao Warlock.

When a Great Warlock had reached the peak of their cultivation, they must seek out a place similar to the Realm of Coldbelow and establish their own kingdom. Only by drawing power from their established kingdom could they continue their cultivation.

All Blood Warlocks chose to ascend and become Nether Warlocks in the Coldbelow. Strength Warlocks and Mystic Warlocks had their own chosen realms to establish their own kingdoms. A Strength Warlock would ascend to become Wild Warlock, while a Mystic Warlock would ascend to become a Spirit Warlock.

Only Dao Warlocks were unique in the sense that they established their kingdoms directly within their primordial spirits, embodying the principle of “I am Heaven and Earth, and Heaven and Earth are me” to become Holy Warlocks.

Ultimately, all paths converged at the Sky Warlock stage. Whatever their paths were, they were all collectively known as Sky Warlocks.

There was one thing Wei Yuan had missed before acquiring this new information: As it turned out, Strength Warlocks were not the warrior nobles of the Shamans. Shaman warriors followed a cultivation path similar to that of humans. High innate talent wasn’t necessary, but lots of resources were required to further their cultivation. This made them perfect for the role of upper-class nobles within the Shamans. Their only limitation was that warriors could not ascend to immortality and were permanently stuck at the Shaman equivalent of the World Ruler stage.

After reviewing all the materials, Wei Yuan fell deep in thought. It seemed that the Shamans had fully mastered the method of drawing power from bizarre worlds such as the Realm of Coldbelow.

Wei Yuan had not originally planned to travel to the Coldbelow so soon, but the Shadow Warlock Shu Li had arrived outside the realm of Qingming and even attacked him from afar. He had no choice but to retaliate by bringing his plans to journey to the Coldbelow forward.

By this point, the battlefield had been cleared, and all casualties and spoils had been tallied.

The Shamans had deployed an invasion force of 55,000 troops. 38,000 were killed in action, with over 600 Dao Foundation stage Warlocks and warriors among them.

On Qingming’s side, there had been over 20,000 defenders in the northwestern city. After the battle, only 5,000 remained. Over 8,000 enemies were eliminated within the city.

There were 4,500 survivors from the main force, including those with minor injuries that could be treated. Among these survivors, 900 elites and 150 Dao foundation stage cultivators remained. This constituted the entirety of the realm’s strength at the moment.

As for spoils of war, Wei Yuan’s greatest gain was in fortune. At the moment, he had over one thousand blue qi, twenty advanced blue qi, and two drops of great fortune in his sea of consciousness. It was such a hoard that he didn’t even know how to spend them.

Should I continue to let Xu Wenwu ride the horses?

The mere thought of horses caused a sudden pang of pain in Wei Yuan’s heart. He pushed these emotions aside and continued to ponder. It was true that the fortune processed by Xu Wenwu would trigger changes—the blood demon horse, blue steed, and Star Dragon Trees were all examples of this—but the problem was that he had too many fortunes right now. Xu Wenwu alone could not consume that much.

Another thing he gained was the Shamans’ corpses. Tens of thousands of elites had rested their bones on this land, and they would provide Qingming with ten years’ worth of sustenance.

Additionally, the Shamans had left behind vast quantities of military provisions and equipment. They provided the realm with much-needed supplies.

However, the situation remained grim. The realm had lost more than half of its elite forces, yet the enemy had not retreated far. The Shaman army had halted just a hundred li away, as if awaiting further orders.

What Qingming needed most right now was time. Unfortunately, his enemies simply wouldn’t give him the time to develop at a slow and steady pace.

Wei Yuan was feeling a headache coming on when suddenly, he sensed a distinct fluctuation of spirit qi within the realm. At first, it was only happening in one spot. But a few seconds later, the fluctuations multiplied until there were over a hundred of them!

The turbulence of spirit qi felt somewhat familiar as well. Specifically, it felt like the fluctuations of a cultivator absorbing worldly origin qi and ascending to the Dao Foundation stage.

Wei Yuan pushed open the door and stepped out of his room, intending to investigate. Just then, he saw Cui Yu flying toward him at full speed and shouting, “People are advancing to the Dao Foundation stage!”

Just as I suspected, Wei Yuan thought to himself. Seeing his lack of reaction, Cui Yu added, “I said people are advancing to the Dao Foundation stage! Over fifty of them are ascending in my unit alone!”

“That many? And all at the same time?” Wei Yuan exclaimed in shock. After the battle, Cui Yu’s elite unit had been reduced to just six hundred men, including thirty-odd cultivators in the Dao Foundation stage. But now, over fifty of them were advancing simultaneously?

Wei Yuan had personally inspected every one of these elite soldiers before. He didn’t recall there being so many talented individuals among them.

Wei Yuan and Cui Yu immediately rushed to the military encampment, where they found that many areas had already been cleared and cordoned off to prevent outsiders from disturbing the ascension process. Inside each of the isolated tents, many cultivators were continuously absorbing worldly origin qi.

After taking a quick look, Wei Yuan realized the situation: these individuals had already reached the pinnacle of the Body-tempering stage and were on the verge of advancement in the first place. Having survived the great battle, their minds happened to enter the right state, and a breakthrough opportunity suddenly presented itself to them. However, it was still far too much of a coincidence for over a hundred people to break through to the Dao Foundation stage simultaneously.

While increasing the supply of spirit qi in this area and infusing it with more Jia Wood Nurtures Life energy, Wei Yuan summoned the records of the ascending candidates and reviewed them one by one.

Upon investigation, Wei Yuan discovered that the majority of these individuals had been rated as having mediocre talent, with a very low probability of achieving the Dao Foundation stage. If they had taken the Palace of Absolute Beginning’s aptitude test, their talents would measure around two chi or so only. Forget the Palace, they would barely qualify to join the Scarlet Tide Sect.

They had arrived in the realm not long ago; many had been here for less than a month. The realm provided training but no cultivation methods, meaning that everyone was still cultivating using their own cultivation methods. Thus, their ascension probably had nothing to do with the realm’s teachings.

All things considered, for so many people to simultaneously break through the wall that was their talent and advance to the Dao Foundation stage, there could only be one reason:

Life is a Flash.