He also knew that destroying a Foundation Establishment Clan was no easy task.

"The Celestial Cloud Sect is supporting the Shen Family. It’s not too much to ask for some people from the Celestial Demon Sect, is it?"

"You can try," the former Sect Leader of the Stone Demon Sect said with a smile, not saying anything more.

Before moving against the Shen Family, he had already visited the Celestial Demon Sect several times. From what he now understood, the Celestial Demon Sect’s actions were mostly dictated by their own will. If they wanted to passively receive the Celestial Demon Sect’s support, they would probably have to wait until the Shen Family attacked the Celestial Demon Sect’s territory.

For thousands of years, no power within the Celestial Cloud Sect’s territory had ever dared to do so, not even the Celestial Cloud Sect itself.

"Wipe that smile off your face. Get ready to move."

"What do you mean?" The former Sect Leader of the Stone Demon Sect didn’t quite understand. That wasn’t what Shi Tianpo had just said.

"Since we’re already here, are you planning to just go back like this? Of course we’re going to cause some destruction!"

As he spoke, Shi Tianpo erupted with powerful Demon Power and began to prowl the edges of the Shen Family’s ancestral land.

As long as they belonged to an enemy force, he enjoyed killing them, no matter who they were.

...

"Junior Brother Fang, speaking of that experience, it was truly a hair-raising ordeal..."

In House 22 of the Celestial Cloud Sect’s Inner Sect A Zone.

Yang Yingjie, who had been on a three-month support mission, was back. The first thing he did upon returning was look for Fang Yun.

Besides asking Fang Yun to refine an explosive version of the Yellow Iron Sword for him, he also recounted some details of his battles against the demons at the Shen Family’s estate.

Fang Yun had already learned a bit about the situation with the Shen Family last month.

A battle at the Foundation Establishment Stage level had broken out, and one of the Shen Family’s Foundation Establishment cultivators was injured.

His opponent, a Foundation Establishment Demon from the Stone Demon Sect, hadn’t fared much better. Taking advantage of the terrain, the demon also escaped with injuries.

But this was a defensive battle. Their side had a significant advantage, including the support of arrays, and reinforcements from various locations were quick to arrive.

To still end up in such a state under these circumstances...

Fang Yun was beginning to understand more and more why they almost always fought defensively. If defense was already this difficult, offense would be even harder.

"Junior Brother, the magical artifact you refined truly saved my life."

"As long as it’s useful. I still need to adjust the shortcomings of this type of magical artifact. While it’s effective against Demon Power, it also needs to maintain the standard of an Upper Grade magical artifact against other types of power."

"Junior Brother, you can already refine it now?" Yang Yingjie immediately asked upon hearing this. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The magical artifacts Fang Yun refined were indeed effective, but they were only suitable for someone like him. If they were to be usable by more disciples, certain shortcomings had to be optimized.

"Not yet. I just have some ideas."

"Having ideas is a good thing. Maybe it won’t be long before you successfully refine it, Junior Brother."

"I’ll take that as a good omen, Senior Brother."

Fang Yun glanced at the status of the Life interface on the light screen.

’Normally, it would take another three months. If my luck is bad, it might even take four.’

Fang Yun continued to ask Yang Yingjie about the situation at the Shen Family’s estate.

According to Yang Yingjie, at Shentong Mountain where he was stationed, the demons that occasionally appeared in the half-month following the Foundation Establishment Demon’s attack were mostly just for harassment.

Having learned his lesson from last time, he didn’t take the initiative to attack on Shentong Mountain again.

He had only managed to escape last time thanks to the magical artifact Fang Yun refined for him, as well as a bit of luck. If the same situation happened again, he probably wouldn’t be able to get away.

Besides, he was injured and still needed more time to recuperate.

「Time flew by.」

It was now the beginning of October.

Four full years had passed since Fang Yun became a disciple of the Celestial Cloud Sect.

When he entered the Celestial Cloud Sect, he had only just reached the third layer of Qi Refining. Now, he wasn’t far from the peak of the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining.

Looking at his rapid cultivation progress, Fang Yun could only conclude that cultivating by chugging pills was the path for him.

’A cultivator with Five Spirit Roots should just rely on pills to cultivate. In this world, it’s possible the descendants of major sect higher-ups—who also have Five Spirit Roots—are even more hardcore about it than I am.’

’And my ability to chug all these pills is entirely supported by hard work and talent, after all.’

At the start of the month, his Talent Points were settled.

This month, he had ninety-one chances to draw a Life Talent, and naturally, he used them all in one go.

As the drawings concluded, two intensely wondrous sensations washed over him, signifying that his talents had leveled up.

This time, the change to the talent interface was even greater.

Alchemy Talent ★★★★★ (7/5040)

Artifact Refining Talent ★★★★★ (0/5040)

Planting Talent ★★★★ (711/720)

Both his Alchemy Talent and Artifact Refining Talent had leveled up.

Fang Yun felt his luck with the drawings had been very good this time. If he had drawn just one less fragment for his Artifact Refining Talent, its upgrade would have had to wait until next month.

After a talent upgrades to five stars, it requires over five thousand fragments to level up again.

At his current rate of accumulating Talent Points, it would take about twenty years for him to upgrade all his five-star Life Talents to six stars.

Twenty years was acceptable. Once his cultivation broke through to the Foundation Establishment Stage, the time it took to break through a realm would surely slow down. But upgrading from six stars to seven... Fang Yun thought for a moment. At his current rate of accumulating Talent Points, that would take over a hundred years, and it wasn’t just his Life Talents that needed upgrading.

Therefore, the efficiency of accumulating Talent Points had to be increased.

He already had a plan for this. After reaching Foundation Establishment and taking his strength to the next level, there would be many more things he could do. At that point, he could accumulate more Talent Points through combat.

For now, Bai Qinying had not yet returned from the Shen Family’s estate.

This was enough to show that the struggle between the Shen Family and the Stone Demon Sect was not likely to end anytime soon.

Because of the influence of these two Foundation Establishment Influences, the conflict between his sect and the Celestial Demon Sect might subsequently be accelerated.