Chapter 1740 The Immortal Gourd Realm: A Mixed Bag of Joy and Sorrow

Fortunately, the improvement of the top combat power in the Immortal Gourd Realm over the past eight hundred years has been particularly significant.

The first to be targeted was the cunning old fox Zhang Jianqiu.

In the past, he opened up a new path in the Integration Realm with his earth-shattering deeds, monopolized all the fruits, became the first Integration Realm, and his combat power could span two realms, and he could withstand the early stage of True Immortal.

After the war, he received a large amount of spoils related to swordsmanship and the divine soul, especially a large number of Myriad Soul Crystals and some of the White Bone Demon Lord's Immortal Slaying Sword Intent Remains.

Instead of choosing the conventional path of secluded cultivation, he asked Zhang Xuan for access to the Time Realm.

In that place where time flowed abnormally, he threw himself into the furnace like stubborn iron.

Using the Candlelight Eye as fire, the Heart Sword Fruit as hammer, the Myriad Souls Crystallized as tempering, and the Remnant Will of the Immortal Slayer as a whetstone, he repeatedly forged his own swordsmanship and divine soul.

Eight hundred years have passed in the outside world, but within this secret realm, time has flowed on for who knows how long.

When he emerged from seclusion again, he no longer possessed the sharp edge he had displayed at the peak of his combined power. Instead, he resembled an ancient sword sheathed in the most ordinary wooden sheath, simple and unadorned.

Only when his gaze occasionally swept across the void would a faint sword mark be left behind.

He successfully entered the Mahayana stage.

It is not a straight leap to the peak, but rather an advancement to the early stage of Mahayana Buddhism in an incredibly natural and profound way.

With its unique path and the characteristic of unifying all fruits, this seasoned veteran who has just entered the Mahayana stage possesses a formidable combat strength that would likely make many True Immortals shudder.

He became the second most powerful fighter in the Immortal Gourd Realm, second only to Zhang Xuan.

Secondly, there is Zhang Yuhuai.

This old patriarch, who entered the Great Dao through the path of ghosts, has refined a seven-layered divine coffin with his outstanding character and talent.

Zhang Xuan also crafted a seven-layered divine coffin.

However, his own Dao is all-encompassing and he does not specialize in the Ghost Dao, so the seven-layered divine coffin is of little use to him.

Zhang Xuan then generously gave the seven-layered divine coffin to the old clan chief.

Zhang Yuhuai, having obtained the assistance of the seventh-level divine official, secluded himself for a hundred years. Using his own ghostly origin as a guide and the two divine coffins as a foundation, he used a secret technique to successfully fuse and refine the two!

The process was extremely dangerous, and he was almost eroded by the backlash of the ghostly and divine power several times, but in the end, he survived thanks to the precious soul-protecting treasures provided by his family.

On the day they left the pass, a chilling wind howled, and ten thousand ghosts paid homage.

An even more ancient and imposing eight-tiered coffin floated above Zhang Yuhuai's head.

As the coffin lid opened and closed, the power of the eightfold ghost realm of reincarnation flowed.

With this coffin, Zhang Yuhuai became another Mahayana-level combatant in the Immortal Gourd Realm.

Furthermore, there is Fairy Miaoyin, who migrated from the Xuanhuang Great Realm.

She was originally from a top power in the Xuanhuang Great Realm and was a master of all arts with a mid-stage Mahayana cultivation.

She moved to the Immortal Gourd Realm for two reasons. First, to be with her Daoist partner Zhang Xuan day and night, so that they could jointly study the Great Dao and cultivate Yin and Yang. Second, the abundant spiritual energy, superior time-space secret realm, and Zhang Xuan's unreserved resource support in the Immortal Gourd Realm provided her with the best environment for cultivation.

The dual cultivation between Zhang Xuan and her was not simply a fusion of magical power, but more about the complementarity and resonance of their understanding of the Great Dao.

In addition, Fairy Miaoyin possessed extraordinary comprehension and made use of some of the divine soul treasures among the spoils of war that were beneficial to her. After more than five hundred years, she finally broke through the bottleneck and stepped from the mid-stage of Mahayana to the late-stage of Mahayana!

Thus, in the Immortal Gourd Realm, besides the Realm Master Zhang Xuan, an extreme being who cannot be judged by ordinary standards, there are now three other Mahayana cultivators on the surface.

If Mahayana cultivators are the towering pillars supporting the sky of the Immortal Gourd Realm, then the rapidly emerging Nascent Soul cultivators are the vast forests that form the solid ground of the Immortal Gourd Realm.

Eight hundred years of assimilation, especially the massive amount of resources suitable for Nascent Soul cultivators left behind by the vanguard of the Primordial Demon Abyss, under Zhang Xuan's planned allocation, gave rise to batch after batch of Nascent Soul powerhouses.

The veteran Nascent Soul cultivator has made further progress in his cultivation:

Ancestor Rongxiao steadily advanced and entered the late stage of the Integration Realm.

The Buddha King of the Western Paradise shone with Buddha's light, his merits were perfected, and he reached the peak of the union. The Buddha wheel appeared behind his head, and he seemed to be only a hair's breadth away from the Mahayana Buddhahood.

Ye Xingchen forged a new path in the Starlight Sword Dao, and combined his insights from some of the Starlight Magic Treasures he had captured, thus advancing to the mid-stage of the Fusion Realm.

With ample resources, Jueyuan's cultivation steadily improved to the mid-stage of the Integration Realm, but his killing techniques became more restrained and deadly.

Even more remarkable is that a large number of talented individuals and core members of the Immortal Gourd Realm who were originally stuck at the peak of the Void Refinement stage have broken through their shackles with the help of Zhang Xuan's unlimited resources and the secret realm of time and space.

With the help of Zhang Xuan's abundant resources, talented individuals such as Fairy Yuxiang, Wei Ruyan, Zhang Ergeng, Dan Daozi, Tian Yezi, Zhang Dawu, and Mo Yuan broke through their cultivation realms and advanced to the next level of the Body Integration Realm.

The core members, including Qing Shenlu, Hong Yaoyue, Bu Yueling, Xue Ji, Zhang Meng, Mo Ke, Xing Yihang, Chunyang Daoren, Long Gong Daoren, Ping Tianhou, and Hongyi, all broke through their realms and advanced to the Fusion stage.

What surprised and puzzled Zhang Xuan himself the most was his son, Hei Zi.

Hei Zi usually keeps a low profile, and his talent is not the most outstanding among Zhang Xuan's many children.

However, a hundred years ago, he quietly and successfully overcame his tribulation and entered the Integration Stage!

Although Zhang Xuan had doubts, seeing that their foundation was solid and there were no signs of demonic influence or external evil, he simply assumed that their different paths to immortality led them to immortality and did not investigate further.

Currently, in the entire Immortal Gourd Realm, there are four Mahayana cultivators, over fifty Nascent Soul cultivators, tens of thousands of Void Refinement cultivators, and countless Nascent Soul and Divine Transformation cultivators.

After eight hundred years of rapid development, the overall strength of the Immortal Gourd Realm has reached an unprecedented peak.

Walking within the realm, one often sees shimmering light, spiritual energy turning into rain, and mythical beasts leaping about—a scene of a prosperous immortal world.

However, beneath the peak of prosperity, hidden worries have already arisen.

The most direct problem is the scarcity of resources, especially top-tier cultivation resources.

The Immortal Gourd Realm was originally just a growing world, its core being a mid-grade seventh-order spiritual vein.

This spiritual vein is of excellent quality, more than enough to support one Mahayana cultivator and dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators.

However, as the number of powerful beings requiring support increased exponentially, this spiritual vein became far from sufficient.

The four Mahayana cultivators are like four bottomless pits. Even if they try to restrain themselves, the amount of spiritual energy they generate through their natural absorption and resonance with the Great Dao is enough to deplete ordinary spiritual veins.

Although the Immortal Gourd Realm possesses the Immortal Refining Array, a heaven-defying array that is half a step into the ninth rank, it can draw upon and transform the power of the stars in the endless starry sky to replenish the energy consumed within the realm.

The power of stars is boundless, but its conversion efficiency has its limits.

Furthermore, the power of stars is more focused on tempering the physical body, soul, and certain special laws. However, it cannot completely replace the pure spiritual energy of heaven and earth generated by high-level spiritual veins for the most fundamental accumulation of spiritual energy and certain insights into the Great Dao.

Within the Immortal Gourd Realm, the once abundant blessed lands, spiritual mountains, and beautiful waters have now been almost entirely divided up.

Later, cultivators who advanced to the Integration Realm could only reside in areas with slightly lower spiritual energy concentrations.