[Seeing that you had only looked at it once and had already started picking up food to eat, as if you didn't need it anymore.]

[The Valley Master couldn't help but remind you.]

["Brother Chen, if you wish to attempt refining the Five Regions Sacred Pill, perhaps you should take this pill formula back with you to study it carefully, lest you waste the five supreme spiritual material treasures."]

[You said lightly.]

["No need, I've already memorized it all. The pill formula is precious, the Danxiang Valley should keep it safe."]

[Without meaning to, you had shown off once again, causing a massive shock to the hearts of these little old men.]

[Memorizing a pill formula isn't like reciting an ancient poem, something you can just rattle off.]

[The contents of a pill formula twist and turn with no discernible pattern. It's perfectly normal to not remember it even after looking at it for ten years, let alone one glance.]

[Otherwise, why would the sages of old record pill formulas on precious jade slips? Because even they couldn't remember every single step, having figured it out one step at a time!]

[After leaving Danxiang Valley, you and Li Lingyue went to search for the flower from the Southern Borderlands.]

["Judging from the pill formula, the flower from the Southern Borderlands should be the same kind you ate back then, called the Stainless Flower."]

["Correct, my master said the same."]

["The growth cycle of supreme spiritual material treasures is very long. With you having eaten one, it's unknown if there's a second one left in the Southern Borderlands."]

[Li Lingyue gave a faint smile.]

["There is."]

["You've seen a second one?"]

["Fresh ones are gone. Would you take a 'sun-dried' one?"]

[The "sun-dried" Li Lingyue spoke of wasn't literally exposing the spiritual material to the sun to remove moisture.]

[For alchemists, "sun-drying" a spiritual material is a special processing technique that ensures the material's spiritual nature is mostly preserved, allowing for longer storage.]

[The pill formula recorded that the five main materials don't require large quantities or extreme freshness; they just need to meet the minimum required amount and potency.]

[A "sun-dried" one would naturally be fine.]

[Li Lingyue told you that her benefactor master was a reclusive expert.]

[The terrain of the Southern Borderlands is complex, with bizarre, treacherous, and perilous places emerging one after another.]

[Where others couldn't gather spiritual materials, she could.] 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

[Every time the Stainless Flower bloomed, she would pick it.]

[This was also the reason she had appeared in the Soul-Severing Valley back then.]

["Then let's go find your master now. Where is she?"]

["After I ascended the throne, my benefactor master left my side, no longer shielding me from wind and rain. Where she is now, I truly don't know. However…"]

[As she spoke, Li Lingyue took out a somewhat shriveled Stainless Flower covered in a layer of white frost from her storage ring.]

["I still have one here, given to me by my master to aid my second Sacred Physique awakening."]

[A look of joy appeared on your face, and you were about to reach for it, but suddenly felt a bit embarrassed.]

["If I take it to refine the Five Regions Sacred Pill, how will you achieve your second Sacred Physique awakening?"]

["Who knows when that second awakening will be. Furthermore, back then I was a mortal; without external aid, I could never have awakened my Sacred Physique. Now I am completely different…

Even without this flower, I can still achieve a second awakening!"]

[Li Lingyue's confidence carried an unquestionable grandeur.]

[As if every word she spoke was an imperial decree… wait, it actually was an imperial decree.]

[Year 57, age 75.]

[With the large amount of spiritual materials Li Lingyue provided you, you consumed even more cultivation-boosting pills daily.]

[The "Bad News Spreads in Martial Circles" trait continued to exert its effect.]

[Your cultivation broke through to the 11th level of the Spirit Sea realm!]

[Seeing that you were getting closer and closer to the peak of the Spirit Sea, you had only obtained one of the Five Regions Sacred Pill materials so far. Without a moment's delay, you and Li Lingyue rushed to the Central Plains to search for the "earth of the Central Plains."]

[Great Qian had already agreed to the peace talks with the Southern Borderlands, consenting to temporarily halt the war, with territorial divisions to be discussed later.]

[It wasn't that Great Qian was being agreeable.]

[It was because your elder brother up north was too fierce. It was best if they could avoid fighting in the south.]

[The Northern Frontier cavalry swept southward, crushing everything in their path, routing Great Qian's regular armies and leaving them in disarray.]

[To be fair, the Central Plains soldiers weren't weak. It was just too much to ask infantry to fight cavalry on the open plains.]

[If North Tong Pass hadn't been breached, Great Qian wouldn't be fighting so desperately.]

[As for why North Tong Pass was breached, the Treacherous Chancellor Qin Rong deserved much of the "credit."]

[First, he withheld military pay, forcing soldiers to exchange military merits for their wages, driving a wedge between the soldiers and the imperial court.]

[Second, he skimped on military supplies. Many soldiers' weapons broke soon after reaching the battlefield, before they were even warmed up—all defective products.]

[Of course, you deduced it was Qin Rong's doing because you knew the inside story.]

[But in reality, the one the imperial court ultimately executed was just a scapegoat quartermaster.]

[Qin Rong even personally supervised the execution.]

[Li Lingyue decided to accompany you to the Central Plains to visit the Longzhi Emperor and demand the Imperial Mausoleum Nethersoil.]

[The "Imperial Mausoleum Nethersoil" recorded in the pill formula was what the Sword Lord called the "earth of the Central Plains."]

["With me there, it will be easier for you to ask them for the Imperial Mausoleum Nethersoil."]

[Li Lingyue's decision was opposed by her ministers.]

["Your Majesty's person is worth ten thousand pieces of gold. How can you venture into the Central Plains and court danger?"]

["What danger is there?"]

["Great Qian views Your Majesty as a traitorous official, wishing nothing more than to eliminate you. Although Your Majesty is a Martial Saint, the Li Imperial Clan has even more Martial Saints. If they join forces against Your Majesty, you would be…"]

["Minister, you worry too much. Who among them isn't also surnamed Li?"]

[With that one sentence, Li Lingyue shut all her ministers' mouths.]

[They were all one family. Wouldn't it be good for the Li family to have one more Martial Saint? Eliminate what? Have they lost their minds?]

[Li Lingyue flew with you towards the Central Plains at an extremely fast speed.]

[Her current cultivation had reached the Martial Saint realm. Her full-speed flight was even faster than at the Martial King realm.]

[You were quite curious about these three later-stage martial realms—Martial King, Martial Saint, and Martial God—and chatted with Li Lingyue about many related cultivation basics along the way.]

[Including, who the Martial Saint-level powerhouses in the current Five Regions were.]

[Among martial sects, only the Eight Pillars of the Five Domains had Martial Saints, with one or two per sect. The eight sects combined had twelve.]

[For example, those you had met: the Sword Lord of the Limitless Sword Sect, Pavilion Master Zhuge Zhujin of the Divine Arms Pavilion, and Sect Master Wan Sanqian of the Myriad Methods Sect were all Martial Saints.]

[The Valley Master of Danxiang Valley was not; he was at the Martial King realm, as his obsession with alchemy had delayed his cultivation.]

[However, among Danxiang Valley's Grand Elders, there was one Martial Saint guarding the sect.]

[Apart from the Eight Pillars, among the top martial families of the Five Regions, one or two Martial Saints might be hidden.]

The Central Plains Li Imperial Clan had deep foundations. They had quite a number of Martial Saints; just the ones Li Lingyue knew of numbered at least five.

The Central Plains Li Imperial Clan had a deep foundation. They had quite a number of Martial Saints; just the ones Li Lingyue knew of numbered at least five.

[The Northern Frontier had two and a half Martial Saints.]

[That half was your elder brother, Chen Jing.]

[Calling him half was because his actual realm was still the Martial King realm. However, his Gluttonous Tyrant Body could temporarily boost his realm to the Martial Saint level through voracious eating during combat.]

[The Southern Borderlands had two Martial Saints.]

[One was Li Lingyue. The other was the Grand Marshal of her three armies, a three-hundred-year-old veteran general.]

[The lifespan of a Martial King was two hundred years.]

[The Martial Saint realm doubled that again, reaching four hundred years. So, a three-hundred-year-old Martial Saint realm Grand Marshal could still be described as being "in the prime of life."]

["Isn't your master a Martial Saint?"]