Chapter 586: Strengthening Spirit Dragon, Map

"No need for formalities—you're my servant, and I'm going to train you up to work for me!"

"By the way, that 【Mystic Heart-Soothing True Scripture】 I gave you—how far have you progressed?"

"How is your spiritual sense now?"

He Ping looked at Hao Cang.

He had bestowed this scripture upon Hao Cang nearly four years ago.

Hao Cang bowed and said, "My lord, this servant has cultivated this method daily for years—it is now fully perfected at the Nascent Soul stage, and I'm preparing to begin the Soul Transformation stage!"

Cultivating spiritual sense is inherently easier than advancing one's cultivation base.

Moreover, Hao Cang was descending from a higher realm.

A Qi Refining disciple might take years to perfect the Qi Refining section.

But Hao Cang, a full Soul Transformation cultivator, could complete the Qi Refining section in mere days.

That's the principle.

The Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul sections, though increasingly difficult, still yielded him double the results.

"Good!" He Ping said. "Keep cultivating—perfect the Soul Transformation section as soon as possible!"

"By the way… here's the spiritual sense technique 【Formless Northern Dipper Nail】—cultivate this too!"

Hao Cang took the item and returned to continue his cultivation.

Just thinking about it made him excited.

He Ping currently couldn't defeat a Void Refinement cultivator.

But if Hao Cang perfected his spiritual sense technique, a single Formless Northern Dipper Nail—even against an early-stage Void Refinement cultivator—might be enough to strike him down, wouldn't it?

Hehehe…

For now, let this old bastard keep cultivating—might come in handy someday!

After seeing Hao Cang off, He Ping continued strengthening.

He waved his hand and pulled out an item: the Spirit Vein Soul.

Quality: Mid-grade!

I wonder if this can be strengthened?

Let's try!

He Ping tossed the Spirit Vein Soul and the porcelain bottle together into the Treasure Basin.

One day later!

The result arrived.

With eager anticipation, He Ping opened the Treasure Basin and withdrew one of the porcelain bottles.

After a night of strengthening, the original porcelain bottle had become a jade bottle.

The bottle had grown considerably larger.

He Ping's spiritual sense surged into the bottle—sure enough, the Spirit Dragon had grown much larger.

"This…?" He Ping muttered in shock: "Top-grade?"

Correct!

The Spirit Vein Soul had been strengthened to top-grade—and there were two of them!

This could sustain the cultivation of a vast race.

Like the Divine Crane Royal Clan.

He Ping put away both bottles.

Though strengthened, the Spirit Vein Soul was useless to He Ping for now.

Because he still had no territory of his own!

"I wonder if this can be strengthened too?" He Ping pulled out a jade slip and dropped it clinking into the Treasure Basin.

It was the map he had purchased in the Heavenly Peng Imperial City.

The Complete Map of Tianhuo.

It contained the outlines of over ninety imperial domains across the entire Tianhuo Continent.

But it only showed contours—no other annotations whatsoever.

Merely an ultra-simplified map.

I hope it can be strengthened.

The next day, he opened it—sure enough, it had been strengthened.

And there were two!

He opened the first one and saw: 【Tianhuo Continent Power Distribution Map】.

This time, the map was entirely different—it now marked not only the outlines of the ninety imperial domains, but also various divine nations and races.

It even indicated each race's strength and the powerful cultivators stationed within them.

"This…" He Ping burst into delight.

This map was now useful to him.

His gaze swept across the vast map until he found the Heavenly Peng Imperial Domain.

Then he located the 【Tianhuo Divine Nation】 within it.

Within the Tianhuo Divine Nation lay the Divine Crane Royal Clan and the territory of the 【Heavenly Human Immortal Sect】.

Above the Heavenly Human Immortal Sect, the map marked the location of 【Mount Mount Doumi】, and the seven major families residing there: the Li, Zhu, Hu, Tian, Wu, Xuan, and Kong families…

Even more, upon closer inspection, he spotted the tiny, ordinary peak of 【Yanzhi Mountain】 marked on the map.

Truly…

Too detailed.

The map's size was invisible within the jade slip, but He Ping estimated that if unfurled on the ground—even at the smallest scale—it would stretch ten thousand zhang wide.

That's how terrifying it was.

"Will the second one be identical to the first?"

He Ping put away the first map and opened the second.

The second map's outline matched the first exactly, but its annotations differed.

Name: 【Tianhuo Continent Resource Distribution Map】.

Damn…

Seeing the name, He Ping's heart warmed: Fuck, now I can just find whatever I need without asking around!

No more wandering and inquiring everywhere.

Let's take a look!

He randomly tapped an imperial domain, then selected a region.

Each location listed its resource distribution.

But the details were overwhelming—he couldn't memorize it all at once.

Then he opened the map of the 【Zhu Que Imperial Domain】.

On the Zhu Que Imperial Domain, he found a marker: the Underworld Emperor's Palace.

The imperial palace was a single dot, with a line of text: 【Underworld Emperor's Palace, ancient relic of a human emperor's cultivation, a miniature world】.

Within the Underworld Emperor's Palace lay numerous Dao methods, treasures, and more.

Details unspecified!

Details unspecified?

He Ping frowned: No way.

How could the contents of the Underworld Emperor's Palace be unspecified?

He Ping opened the remaining imperial domains and examined similar hidden realms—all bore the same four characters: Details unspecified.

So this map could only mark mineral deposits and resources on the continent, not those within hidden realms.

Forget it.

No need to force it.

He Ping personally went to Hao Cang's chamber and handed him the 【Tianhuo Continent Resource Distribution Map】.

"Hao Cang… there's a lot here—memorize what you can when you have time!"

"When we go searching for resources later, we won't need to ask around!"

After giving it to Hao Cang, He Ping didn't need to remember it himself.

Though massive, to a Soul Transformation cultivator with strong spiritual sense, it was nothing.

A few years of seclusion would suffice to memorize it.

Next, continue strengthening.

One six-grade talisman: 【Immortal Ghost Talisman】.

Strengthening failed!

Twelve six-grade dross elixirs: 【Sacred Yuan Elixir】.

Strengthening failed.

These two failures were expected by He Ping.

After all, the Treasure Basin can only strengthen items one rank above his own cultivation level.

Next, strengthen spirit stones.

Low-grade spirit stones can produce two high-grade ones per day.

After about a month, the immortal vessel arrived at its destination.

But they had not reached Zhu Que Imperial Domain.

They must wait longer.

After waiting over ten days, they boarded a second immortal vessel and flew for another month.

They traveled this way, pausing and waiting.

After about half a year, He He Pingsheng finally arrived at Zhu Que Imperial City.

After a long journey, they had finally arrived!