As for Ye Chen, he was being a little deliberate, but not entirely. Luo Bingling had gotten too full of herself. She refused to become his dao companion, refused to crit, and now refused to give benefits.

In that case, no need to pay her any attention. As for running around outside and now secluding himself, it wasn't purely to torment her. After breaking through, he had been in high spirits and simply wanted to share the joy with his women.

Once that was done, naturally he had to cultivate diligently. The four thousand top-tier spiritual plants that had come from Luo Bingling's earlier non-crit gifts had all been planted in his cave-heaven, along with everything else he had accumulated. The divine peaks from his former small world were still there. The immortal roots too.

Truth be told, the spiritual charm from a single immortal root far surpassed ten thousand top-tier plants. The spiritual charm from all these plants in his cave-heaven not only increased its qi absorption capacity, it also boosted Ye Chen's own cultivation speed by another noticeable degree.

Spiritual plants were exorbitantly expensive; the rare ones were worth entire cities. Let alone ordinary Third Heaven cultivators—even those backed by great powers could only slowly accumulate cave-heaven foundation over time.

But Ye Chen was different. With the multipliers of the women around him now, even the rarest spiritual root could be turned from one into thousands, even tens of thousands. Not to mention those that had already gone extinct in the world.

The system's gift feedback could bring them back. His spiritual charm accumulation speed was beyond imagination. And it wasn't just plants. Spiritual beasts could accumulate charm too. So for the next two years, Ye Chen's main gifting focus would be rare spiritual plants and beasts. If he ever critted a divine beast, he would probably take off like a rocket.

Of course, gifting to Third or Fourth Heaven cultivators yielded the best results and feedback. Among his women, only one was Third Heaven. Luo Bingling. But she never critted. If she became his dao companion, eight thousand times plus a one-day cooldown would actually be decent for gifting rare plants. Too bad she refused. So she was honestly a bit useless now.

Thus, Ye Chen turned his gaze toward the Central Continent. Lan Nuo, the attention-seeker, had long broken through to Third Heaven. And Yao Yuezhi—after receiving the Stasis Secret fragment—should be Fourth Heaven by now. Both could crit, far more useful than Luo Bingling. With their help, he might fill his already colossal cave-heaven to bursting with spiritual charm.

In short, Ye Chen was diligently raising his strength and foundation. While doing so, he pondered when to make a trip to the Central Continent. And stay a year or two.

As for danger? Now that his small world had become a cave-heaven, it was far more convenient. He could enter it at any moment; speed was faster than before, and far harder to block. This was one of the signature abilities of Third Heaven cultivators.

Most never used it in battle—because opening your cave-heaven let enemies in too. If it was damaged, your foundation was crippled. So unless they had set up a peerless killing array inside, no Third Heaven cultivator would hide in battle.

But Ye Chen was different. He didn't need a killing array. A single Quasi-Immortal-grade Fusang Divine Tree was enough to guarantee: Whoever came in, died.

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…

In short, swallowing and refining the original small world, downgrading it into a cave-heaven, Ye Chen was extremely satisfied with the result. When he reached the Seventh Heaven in the future, he could still restore it to a true small world.

It looked like he had gone full circle and returned to the starting point, as if all that effort had been for nothing. But that wasn't the case at all. The former small world had been an external object, no different from a weapon. The future one would be a genuine part of himself. The difference was night and day.

Moreover, this conversion allowed it to become vastly larger. With a trump card like this, he had nothing to fear no matter where he went. Even Quasi-Immortals couldn't touch him. Too bad his strength wasn't enough yet. Even with the Armament Secret, he still couldn't wield immortal artifacts. Otherwise, if he could use immortal weapons inside his cave-heaven, even Quasi-Immortals who entered would have to leave their origin essence behind.

With such confidence, going to Central Continent held no fear. Whether he stayed at the Lan family or the Heavenly Demon Clan, Ye Chen could face anything calmly. He was all about boldness. Spending a few years in Central Continent would also be the perfect way to cool off Luo Bingling and make her understand who was in charge. Now, when to set off?

Ye Chen thought for a moment and decided to first flex his wallet, stockpile a batch of spiritual beasts and plants, then head out. The Central Continent was vast and rich, and the Immortal Path constantly produced treasures. He could buy another huge batch there and completely fill his already billion-kilometer cave-heaven.

Still, thinking of his cave-heaven's size, Ye Chen wasn't fully satisfied. Men always liked bigger ones. He was already huge, but he wanted even bigger. Too bad Little Demoness was only First Heaven right now. Otherwise, she might have given him a chance to gift a cave-heaven, triggering feedback for an even larger one.

…

While Ye Chen was preparing to head to Central Continent, in the Fourth Realm of the Immortal Path, a secret realm that already belonged to the Heavenly Demon Clan was under ferocious assault.

Two Heavenly Demon Semi-Saints and one Peacock Clan Semi-Saint had already fallen in the defense. The rest—First or Second Heaven cultivators, or those below Mahayana who had only come to assist—were wiped out completely.

The attackers were too terrifying. Divine flames covered the world, incinerating everything. Most crucially, no matter how grievous their injuries, they recovered instantly without a trace of lingering damage. Each of the three enemies was a top-tier Semi-Saint—combat power boundless, regeneration monstrous, wielding all manner of supreme divine abilities.

"It's the Undying Celestial Phoenix Clan!"

"The young miss is still inside the ruin—she only just broke through to the Fourth Heaven!"

"Our clan has only one Semi-Saint left. Anyone stronger cannot enter the Fourth Realm!"

"Go beg the Little Peacock King and every allied race for aid. We must save the princess!"

When the news reached them, the entire Heavenly Demon Clan erupted into chaos. As one of the great myriad races, they naturally had experts. But the Immortal Path divided cultivators by realm. If you were a genius capable of leaping realms, you could enter higher realms early and fight for opportunities. But if you were weak and only wanted to bully the lower realms? No way. You couldn't go down.

The Heavenly Demon Clan had only a handful of Semi-Saints. Two had just died. The remaining ones weren't much stronger. Going would be suicide. So the clan could only beg for outside help, praying to rescue Yao Yuezhi. Yet the myriad races they had once been on good terms with all refused.

Many even avoided them outright. Because the Undying Celestial Phoenix Clan's foundation was simply too terrifying. The outside world had long suspected they possessed Quasi-Immortal existences. Whether that was true or not, everyone knew of the Celestial Prince who had once contended with the Heavenly Emperor, only falling short by one move. It was said that before sealing himself in the divine source, he had cultivated a technique beyond even immortal scriptures.

Once he emerged, he would be invincible across the entire cultivation world. A clan with such horrifying heritage—one that might already have this generation's immortal slot locked—everyone wanted to curry favor, not offend. Once offended, future retaliation was certain. An entire race might be exterminated.

…