Chapter 3773 - At Full Steam

Duan Ling Tian did not expect to be acquainted with Xue Hai Chuan. He did not think his casual act of kindness in the Heavenly Stairs to Xue Hai Shan would help him gain Xue Hai Chuan's favor. Moreover, Xue Hai Chuan had felt indebted to him, and as a result, Xue Hai Chuan even gave him the Sun Quenching Divine Pill that he desperately needed.

'If I were a bloodthirsty person, I wouldn't have spared Xue Hai Shan's life when I defeated him even if he didn't have any intention to kill me. At that time, I wouldn't be able to meet Xue Hai Chuan today nor would I be able to obtain the Sun Quenching Divine Pill,' Duan Ling Tian, who had left the restaurant and arrived at the Linghu clan's estate, thought to himself with a sigh as he looked at the pill bottle in his hand. His past self had unknowingly helped him.

'With this Sun Quenching Divine Pill, I'll surely be able to break through and become an intermediate King of Gods in a short time.'

Duan Ling Tian could hardly suppress his restlessness when he returned to his courtyard. He did not waste time and began to cultivate immediately after consuming the Sun Quenching Divine Pill.

The Sun Quenching Divine Pill was used by Kings of Gods to help them break through bottlenecks they faced in their cultivation. Although it was not as valuable as the Lord Breakthrough Divine Pill, the Sun Quenching Pill was still an excellent Divine Pill. As long as one was talented, one had an almost 100% chance to successfully break through. However, the pill was more useful for rudimentary Kings of Gods. Its efficacy would not be as potent if intermediate Kings of Gods consumed it.

The difficulty of refining the Sun Quenching Divine Pill was similar to that of the Lord Breakthrough Divine Pill. However, the ingredients for the former were more easily found compared to the latter. It was not surprising since the Lord Breakthrough Divine Pill was a top lord-grade Divine Pill. It was only natural that the ingredients needed to refine it were rare. It was already difficult for the Linghu clan to gather ingredients for the Sun Quenching Divine Pill, let alone the ingredients for the Lord Breakthrough Divine Pill.

This was also the reason why Duan Ling Tian had been surprised when he learned that the Flying Dragon Sect was giving away so many Lord Breakthrough Divine Pills as rewards for the Latent Dragon Grand Contest. Moreover, they had done so during the previous Latent Dragon Grand Contest as well.

Duan Ling Tian was unaware that the Flying Dragon Sect was only able to obtain so many ingredients to refine the Lord Breakthrough Divine Pills in the past few hundred years due to luck. Apart from that, the former Sect Leader of the Flying Dragon Sect had also obtained some of the ingredients as a reward for helping others to refine the pills. The Sun Quenching Divine Pill's efficacy was truly potent. When it entered Duan Ling Tian's body, it merged with his Divine Energy before it crashed against the bottleneck. With that, the bottleneck that Duan Ling Tian failed to break before began to tremble. Every time it was hit, the tremors would grow more violent.

Duan Ling Tian had to circulate his Divine Energy, which had merged with the pill's efficacy, before it could smash against the bottleneck. For this reason, there was a long interval between each hit.

In just a blink of an eye, half a month had passed. At this time, Duan Ling Tian had been hitting the bottleneck hundreds of times.

"I'll finish this once and for all," Duan Ling Tian said to himself, looking determined. He circulated his Divine Energy again and hit the bottleneck one more time. With this, he finally broke through the bottleneck and became an intermediate King of Gods.

"So this is the Divine Energy of an intermediate King of Gods!"

Duan Ling Tian could clearly sense the change in his Divine Energy after his breakthrough. Although the change was not as exaggerated as when he broke through from an advanced god to a rudimentary King of Gods, the change was still quite significant.

"If I were an intermediate King of Gods when I killed Shangguan Xiong Feng and Long Xia, I could've killed them with a mediocre divine artifact and the same technique I used at that time. I wouldn't have needed to borrow a prominent divine artifact from the clan leader."

When Duan Ling Tian opened his eyes, he could vaguely see his Divine Energy flowing around his body. He waved his hand casually, trying to test his strength.

A gust of wind stirred in the room, causing the closed door and windows to tremble.

Due to the commotion, Wang Fu hurried over and asked, "Young Master Duan, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Duan Ling Tian replied.

Since no one disturbed Duan Ling Tian in the Linghu clan, there was no Formation that protected his room.

"With my current cultivation base, I might be able to fight for the first place in the Latent Dragon Grand Contest in ten years."

Given an opportunity, Duan Ling Tian naturally would naturally strive for the first place. As the saying went, 'He who has no interest in becoming a general isn't a good soldier'.

In addition to the Lord Breakthrough Divine Pill, there were many rewards for ranking first in the Latent Dragon Grand Contest, and their value was not inferior to that of the Lord Breakthrough Divine Pill. After all, even the person who ranked tenth would be given a Lord Breakthrough Divine Pill; one could imagine how lucrative the reward for the first place would be.

"I'll continue to cultivate to raise my strength even if it's impossible for me to break through and become an advanced King of Gods in a short time. I can only try to get as close as possible to breaking the bottleneck…" Duan Ling Tian muttered to himself. He was rather realistic and did not expect to become an advanced King of Gods so soon after becoming an intermediate King of Gods. Moreover, he already consumed most of the Divine Pills that would help with his cultivation, and it was unrealistic to rely completely on Divine Pills to raise his cultivation base. Currently, he only had enough Divine Pills to last him for another three years.

"Over the next ten years, I should continue studying alchemy and try to refine lord-grade Limit Divine Pills before going to the Flying Dragon Sect."

In a vast city in the Eastern Ridge Mansion.

A beautiful girl sat and rested her hands on a stone table in a spacious front yard. She rested her face in her hands as she stared blankly into the air.

Two female attendants stood quietly behind the beautiful girl.

At this moment….

"Young Miss."

Following that, a slender figure appeared in the front yard.

If Duan Ling Tian were here, he would have recognized the beautiful young girl as Duan Qiao Yu, and the slender figure that had just appeared as Yu Qiu Xuan, both of whom he had met at the Zhou clan's auction house in Skywind City

Upon hearing Yu Qiu Xuan's voice, Duan Qiao Yu frowned and said, "What's the matter, Aunt Xuan? Didn't I already say that I don't want to know about anything unless it concerns my brother?"

Yu Qiu Xuan laughed before she said, "Young Miss, I came this time because of your brother." Upon hearing these words, Duan Qiao Yu's eyes lit up. She hurriedly rose to her feet and ran toward Yu Qiu Xuan before she asked excitedly, "Aunt Xuan, did you receive news about Brother Ling Tian?"

"Yes." Yu Qiu Xuan nodded with a smile.

Duan Qiao Yu said impatiently, "What is it? Hurry up and tell me, Aunt Xuan!"

Upon seeing how anxious Duan Qiao Yu was, Yu Qiu Xuan no longer kept her waiting. She said, "I received news that Young Master Duan had left the Hidden Fog Academy and joined the Linghu clan. He's now a Revered Elder in the Linghu clan. The Linghu clan treats him very well."

"Linghu clan?" Duan Qiao Yu frowned slightly. She asked in confusion, "Isn't that the lord-grade clan that's on par with the Hidden Fog Sect? What's he doing there? Since he was in the Hidden Fog Academy, shouldn't he have joined the Hidden Fog

Sect?"

"Young Master Duan did join the Hidden Fog Sect after leaving the Skywind City's Hidden Fog Academy. However, some things happened, so he left the Hidden Fog Sect for the Linghu clan…" Yu Qiu Xuan said before she told Duan Qiao Yu about what had happened in detail.

Yu Qiu Xuan began with Duan Ling Tian's outstanding performance in the Hidden Fog Academy, and how as a result, he was recommended to join the Hidden Fog Sect ahead of time by the dean of the Skywind City's Hidden Fog Academy. Then, she spoke about how he made a name for himself after joining the Hidden Fog Sect. She told Duan Qiao Yu about how two core disciples of the Hidden Fog Sect had tried to kill Duan Ling Tian and how Duan Ling Tian killed the two core disciples after he returned to the Hidden Fog Sect after a period of absence. For this reason, he had joined the Linghu clan to avoid the consequences. Her tone turned grim when she spoke about Supreme Elder Feng detonating his Little World in Linghu City in an attempt to kill Duan Ling Tian. Fortunately, Duan Ling Tian was unharmed. Naturally, she did not forget to tell Duan Qian Yu about Duan Ling Tian's current strength as well.

"So he's now an intermediate King of Gods?!" Duan Qiao Yu's eyes lit up immediately. "I didn't expect him to be able to raise his cultivation base so quickly! At this rate, it won't be long before I get to meet him again!"

Upon seeing the excitement on Duan Qiao Yu's face, Yu Qiu Xuan held back the urge to tease Duan Qiao Yu. Instead, she only sighed inwardly when she thought about how Duan Ling Tian's cultivation would only become more difficult now that he had become a King of Gods.

"Aunt Xuan, when my brother goes to the Flying Dragon Sect, let's sneak out to see him, okay?" Duan Qiao Yu looked at Yu Qiu Xuan eagerly as she said, "I promise I won't let him see me! I'll just hide and watch him like when he was in the Hidden Fog Academy!"

"Alright. You have to remember your promise," Yu Qiu Xuan said as she looked at Duan Qiao Yu with a doting gaze, "However, before I bring you to the Flying Dragon Sect, you have to break through first."

"Okay! I'm going into closed-door cultivation now so I can break through as soon as possible!" Duan Qiao Yu said excitedly before she ran into her room.

The Latent Dragon Grand Contest was held once every 100 years.

Usually, the Flying Dragon Sect would recruit members before the Latent Dragon Grand Contest. Those who passed the examinations would be able to join the Flying Dragon Sect. This was also the way that most people chose to join the Flying Dragon Sect. Only those with outstanding talent and comprehension skilsl would get a chance to enter the Flying Dragon Sect through the once-in-100-years Latent Dragon Grand Contest.

Since the Flying Dragon Sect's entrance examinations were fast approaching, many disciples of king-rank forces and lord-rank forces near the Flying Dragon Sect had already begun to make preparations. All of them were cultivating at full steam.

Many of the Divine Pills that could assist with one's cultivation were sold out. Even ingredients to refine such Divine Pills had sold out. The shortage was so bad that there were some sectless cultivators who would hold prodigies from king-rank forces hostage so they could demand Divine Pills or ingredients to refine them. It did not matter how many divine rocks they were offered, they would only accept Divine Pills and medicinal herbs to refine them.