The vast resources available in the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect allowed Bai Xiaochun’s cultivation to advance smoothly and quickly. By the time he had been in secluded meditation for the better part of a year, the River-Defying Sect had united the Middle Reaches cultivation world.

𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Of course, the River-Defying Sect knew how to maintain propriety. They didn’t exterminate the Starry, Polarity, and Dao River Courts. They kept them around, but in check. In fact, in addition to the yearly tribute given to the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect, those three sects also gave tribute to the River-Defying Sect.

Although Chen Hetian, Li Xiandao and Bai Zhentian weren’t happy about that, they had enough experience in life to know when to keep their heads down. They were fairly certain that they would have their chance at a comeback eventually, and besides, considering how young Bai Xiaochun was, it wasn’t likely that he would stay in the sect for very long.

Bai Zhentian had remained in secluded meditation the entire time, whereas Li Xiandao had smoothed out his relationship with Bai Xiaochun, and therefore didn’t feel the need to remain in seclusion. As for Chen Hetian, he had no choice but to leave the sect indefinitely.

From all of that, it was possible to see how much of a name Bai Xiaochun had made for himself in the battle for the River-Defying Sect.

He had almost unlimited resources at his disposal, and because of that, was initially excited to be able to work on his cultivation.

However, after some time passed, he started to get bored. Eventually, he began to go for walks in the sect, and yet, because of his high standing, people would only treat him with formal respect.

Although he enjoyed that type of thing, eventually, it started to get annoying.

“This is so boring! There’s nothing fun to do in the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect at all.... The whole sect is so prissy and old-fashioned.... It was way better back in the Wildlands!” Sighing, he thought back to everything that had happened since he got back to the Heavenspan River region. Things had been interesting in the River-Defying Sect, but after returning to the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect, he realized that it really was a very humdrum place.

He thought about going to hassle Chen Hetian, but two things held him back. First of all, he lacked a good excuse. Second of all, and of even greater significance, was the fact that Chen Hetian had left the sect.

Bai Zhentian was next on his list, but apparently Bai Lin knew Bai Xiaochun too well. Sensing what was about to come, he hurried over to reminisce about old times, until eventually, their conversation ended with Bai Lin gazing at him with helpless anxiety.

By that point, Bai Xiaochun realized that he couldn’t go cause problems for Bai Zhentian.

That left only Li Xiandao. Unfortunately, Li Xiandao had been behaving himself perfectly.... He had compensated him for the matter with Big Fatty Zhang and Xu Baocai, and that meant it would be very awkward to go bully him.

By this point, Bai Xiaochun was so depressed and bored that he felt like he was starting to grow mold.... At one point, he went out looking for some attractive female disciples, but the problem was that his status was too high, and he enjoyed carrying himself like someone from the senior generation. And for someone like that to try to seduce pretty female disciples didn’t seem very appropriate.

“Ai,” he sighed. “How come none of them will make the first move? Well, I can’t just sit around practicing cultivation all the time. I’ll end up cultivating myself into a moron.” All of a sudden, he realized that, while he had missed the Heavenspan River region during his time in the Wildlands, now that he was back, he actually missed Arch-Emperor City.

Eventually, he came to the conclusion that he had nothing else to do other than work on cultivation. Unfortunately, he really was not happy using medicinal pills concocted by random disciples. And yet, he was still torn about whether or not to do his own medicine concocting.

“Don’t tell me that a grand and mighty deva like myself will end up having to slink outside of the sect to concoct some pills....” He sighed again. “No. I have to concoct some pills of my own. If worst comes to worst, I’ll just have to be extra careful....

“In the past, people would always come to cause problems for me when I concocted medicine. But now I’m a prime elder! Chen Hetian ran away, Bai Zhentian is in secluded meditation, and Li Xiandao doesn’t dare to cause problems for me.... My bro in the Hall of Steel Veins is on my side....

“In the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect, the only person who can tell me what to do is the demigod patriarch.” The more he thought about it, the more antsy he got, until he finally made a decision.

“As long as I’m careful, everything should be fine.” Encouraging himself in this way, he sent a list of required materials to the Internal Affairs Pavilion.

The list included medicinal ingredients and a large number of pill furnaces. Considering his standing in the sect, he had a sizable stipend that could get him things like this without having to provide compensation.

The staff at the Internal Affairs Pavilion immediately set to work filling the orders, sending large quantities of medicinal plants and pills to Bai Xiaochun. He was delighted to see the huge accumulation of resources, and quickly went into seclusion to start working.

East Wind Life Force Pill!

Intoxication Life Force Pill!

Spirit Flower Life Force Pill!

Nine Transformations Life Force Pill!

He immediately began to think back to all of the medicine formulas he knew that related to life force. He tried out each formula, but the resulting pills all had the same problem. They simply didn’t provide the level of life force that he needed. However, he was very pleased to discover that no accidents were happening. As a result, his confidence grew, and he began working, not just with one pill furnace, but ten. Then thirty. Then fifty....

All the successes got him feeling very excited, and also lucky.

“I guess that all the trials I went through in the Wildlands ended up pushing my Dao of medicine to a much higher level. Yeah, that must be the explanation!” Feeling prouder of himself than ever, he continued adding pill furnaces until he was working with eighty at the same time. Slowly but surely, he was immersing himself in his concocting efforts.

Perhaps his skill in the Dao of medicine really had improved. Or perhaps it was because he was worried about the demigod patriarch, and was thus being very careful. Either way, his concocting went very smoothly, and not a single accident occurred.

The worst things that happened were the occasional explosion, which would release some black smoke. There was also an occasional bout of lightning. However, considering the level of Bai Xiaochun’s cultivation base, he was able to negate these effects easily.

Few disciples even noticed what was happening, and of those who did, none dared to say anything....

A few months later, he was in the middle of a concocting session when a message came down from the demigod patriarch. It was actually a group message sent to all of the prime elders.

The patriarch explained that he had received a summons from the Celestial, and had to take a trip to Heavenspan Island. While he was gone, he was entrusting the safety of the sect to the devas.

It was something the other devas were used to. It was not a rare occurrence for the demigod patriarch to take a trip outside of the sect and leave them in charge.

However, this was Bai Xiaochun’s first time experiencing such a thing. Although it was par for the course for the other devas, it was different for him. As soon as he heard the news, he gasped, and his heart started to race. He was so excited he almost jumped up into the air. He suddenly felt as if anything in the world was possible for him.

“The demigod patriarch... left?” For the first time... there was no one in the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect who could tell him what to do!

“The demigod patriarch is gone....” He threw his head back and laughed uproariously. He had always been extremely careful when he went about concocting medicine. After all, there had been too many occasions when people chased him down angrily as a result of his work. The mere thought of what it was like trying to explain himself to an angry mob caused him to sigh incessantly.

But now... all obstacles had been cleared from his path. Furthermore, he had the strong feeling that things were going so well that no accidents could possibly happen.

“Concoct medicine. Concoct medicine! I’m going to concoct medicine to my heart’s content!!

“I can finally perfect my Lightning Detox Grand Magic!

“I can refine my Aphrodisiac Pill. I can improve on my Fantasy Pill! And I can come up with some more mystery pills too!” Filled with excitement and anticipation, he jumped directly from eighty pill furnaces to three hundred!

Worried that it wasn’t enough, he added several hundred more. Only when he had eight hundred pill furnaces going at the same time was he happy.

“I’m using my deva cultivation base to operate eight hundred furnaces at the same time! If word got out, people would admire me to no end!” He looked around proudly at all the pill furnaces, beneath which burned supreme-grade flamestones, causing ripples of heat to fill the air.

It was a sight that would surely strike fear into the hearts of anyone who saw it. After all, if eight hundred pill furnaces exploded simultaneously... then it would probably destroy most of the blue rainbow....