The suspended runes piqued a great deal of Jiang Chen’s interest and passion.

Old Pill Glyph had recorded many methods of bringing them into being. Also included were several specialized approaches which were especially deserving of further research.

Each kind of suspended rune had a corresponding manner of drawing. The art was somewhat different from both etching formations and using hand seals.

It was a combination of the two instead. The method of creating the runes was similar to etching formations, which meant the runes possessed quasi-formational strength. Perhaps they were weaker than formations drawn on a grander scale, but they had unique advantages.

They could be completed in a very short amount of time and used to strike an unexpected blow. Moreover, they were extremely flexible and tailorable to the current situation. Sometimes, they could be combined with the terrain to create completely unexpected and unique results.

Jiang Chen was very enthusiastic about this new craft. He enjoyed starting out from the basics.

Right now, it was very hard to even start setting up the Great Formation of Heavenly Soul Confinement. There was nothing wrong for him to spend the time on cultivation instead. The more effort he expended now, the more he would have to rely on in a future fight.

Though he did have to start from the beginning, learning how to create suspended runes wasn’t too hard. Somewhat more esoteric compared to etching formations, but not the end of the world. Of course, it was precisely because of its rarity that the technique hadn’t achieved widespread usage.

Jiang Chen stayed behind closed doors for a very long time.

He reluctantly emerged only after a full year. In that time, he had reaped notable rewards.

“Now that I am sixth level empyrean and have studied the Sword of Genesis, I can easily crush seventh or eighth level experts. Ninth level ones... I think I’ve got what it takes to take them on too.”

The young man said this thanks to his increase in strength, and not blind confidence. Everyone was overjoyed to see him emerge in such an awe-inspiring fashion. The outside world had remained mostly calm during his time away. However, news from the every corner seemed to show small changes taking place.

Since taking his place as the young lord of Veluriyam Capital, Jiang Chen had ordered annual propaganda of the dangers of demonkind everywhere in the human domain.

It wasn’t that he wanted to terrorize everyone. He wanted to use the opportunity to raise the people’s guards and make them wary of a possible invasion. He didn’t want a rude awakening to take place when they actually came. It would probably be too late then.

Because of his repeated emphasis about demons, almost everybody in Veluriyam Capital was preparing for the resistance effort. The city was being built into both an offensive and defensive stronghold.

The good news its young lord had brought back after each of his excursions had improved the city’s own strength considerably.

Today, Veluriyam Capital had far more empyrean experts than Mo Wushuang, Wellspring, and the Jiao brothers. Many of the other great emperors had gradually broken through one by one on their own time. By proxy, the Taiyi Skymender Pill acquired a famous reputation.

The human domain was very different from Myriad Abyss. If the pill could make waves in the latter, it would obviously garner even more of a reaction in the former.

Countless great emperors here had ended their lives without any opportunities for them to climb any higher. The appearance of the Taiyi Skymender Pill instantly changed this former reality. A new era was upon them; the great emperors finally had a new goal to aspire to.

Correspondingly, the overall strength of the human domain rose again.

Jiang Chen was pleased with what was happening. Unfortunately, there weren’t that many Taiyi Skymender Pills in the end. He had a number of Taiyi Dragonscale Fruits still available, but he didn’t choose to refine them into more pills.

Veluriyam Capital only had so many great emperors. He had planned distribution to them accordingly. The rest of the Taiyi Dragonscale Fruits were held in reserve.

There were countless other great emperors in the human domain, but most of them were outsiders. As such, Jiang Chen had already decided to only give one or two pills to the factions previously friendly to them to convey his attitude. As for the more lukewarm factions, he wasn’t just going to give the pills away for free.

The Moon God Sect, for example, would be given a gift because of Xu Qingxuan.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The Celestial Cicada Court and the Great Yu Skysword Sect deserved compensation for their long-time support as well.

Any pills that remained would be auctioned off.

Jiang Chen had almost every answer required to reactivate the Great Formation of Heavenly Soul Confinement. He lacked for only one thing: spirit stones.

The activation of a formation of this scale would expend innumerable resources. If any one of the ten great ancient sects had shouldered the burden alone, it would have bankrupted itself.

In the human domain of today, everyone had to pay out all that they had. To dream that the resources would be collected any other way was absurd.

Thankfully, Jiang Chen had plenty of pills to sell.

Ten should be enough to elicit a ton of interest. He expected them to fetch exorbitant prices. Only then could he grab more spirit stones for himself.

The news of his intentions spread through the human domain very quickly. Every faction that caught wind of it mobilized: the first-rate factions were especially desperate, willing to give all they had for just a single pill.

The fact that a good number of great emperors here in Veluriyam Capital had broken through to empyrean stimulated their peers in the other factions.

Before this, great emperors had held nearly absolute authority. New information that the human domain could have its own empyrean experts – and moreover, that they could be manufactured! – completely shook things up.

The human domain at large was astounded and driven into a mad frenzy.

The cultivators stuck at peak great emperor for so long felt their spirits rekindled. They dearly anticipated the acquisition of a Taiyi Skymender Pill, that they might shake off their mortal shackles and ascend!