Qi Ping estimated that because his mental power, physical body, and comprehension of laws were already built on such a solid foundation, reaching the ninth level of Qi Refinement was a matter of course.
The so-called 'every layer is harder than the last' in the late stages of Qi Refinement only applied to those with weak foundations or insufficient talent.
Qi Ping had slowly accumulated his physical strength, spirit, law comprehension, and talents into a massive, heavy layer. The late stage of Qi Refinement, which once seemed unreachable, was now something he could step over as if it were level ground.
Thus, he began to doubt the common rhetoric that one must fight and find breakthroughs in life-or-death crises.
As long as he built a solid foundation, he could always find the right moment. Even the most elusive Dao-heart could be tempered through the experiences of the mortal world without actively seeking death.
If possible, Qi Ping didn't want to experience a single life-or-death crisis.
After breaking through to the ninth level, Qi Ping clearly felt his vitality increase once more, more than any previous breakthrough.
He felt his body gradually reaching a state of perfection. Once it was complete, that would likely be the moment he attempted to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage.
Through his efforts during this period, he was certain that Foundation Establishment would no longer be a bottleneck. As long as he fully understood the Intent of the Dao-heart, the threshold would not hold him back.
The only slight issue was his current speed. Even with the support of honey, he estimated it would take another six months to a year to reach the peak of Qi Refinement.
The further one progressed, the more cultivation depended on comprehension and accumulation. It wasn't something that could be achieved by simply eating a couple of high-level spirit herbs—otherwise, the descendants of Nascent Soul cultivators would all reach Foundation Establishment in a matter of months.
...
During this time, the only thing that caught Qi Ping's attention was a terrifying war that broke out between the Three Great Families.
Among the Liu, Zhu, and Murong families, the Murong family had actually contacted the rival sects of the Qingyuan Sect to launch a surprise attack on the other two families.
Beyond that, a group of black-robed cultivators controlling demon insects had also joined the Murong family's side.
A bloody battle erupted in an instant.
In Meng Yan's description, the battle could be summarized in two phrases: mountains of corpses and rivers of blood.
Several Foundation Establishment cultivators had died, to say nothing of those in the Qi Refinement stage.
However, the Qingyuan Sect had prepared a counter-strategy. Once the Murong faction launched their attack, the sect immediately activated their contingency plans.
The final outcome was the total annihilation of the Murong family. Every living thing in the family was hunted down; even the earthworms in their yard were dug up and sliced in half. It was the definition of leaving neither chicken nor dog alive.
But the victorious Zhu and Liu families had only achieved a pyrrhic victory. Sixty to seventy percent of their clansmen were dead. The only ones whose strength remained relatively intact were those stationed within the Cloud-Mist Mountain Range.
On the surface, the Qingyuan Sect had won, but the Three Great Families they relied on to control Qingshi County were now in a pathetic state, their control significantly diminished.
This might have been the true goal of the rival sects all along.
After this battle, the situation in Qingshi County became even more blurred and confusing.
...
Listening to Meng Yan's account, Qi Ping couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
The Three Great Families—once high and mighty, insurmountable giants in his eyes—had reached an end where one was extinct and two were crippled.
He could only lament the fickleness of fate.
He felt more than ever that the more closely one was connected to the cultivation world, the more likely they were to become a pawn. One careless step and they would become cannon fodder, falling into ruin.
Sect disciples were cannon fodder...
The three cultivation families were cannon fodder...
And rogue cultivators weren't even worthy of being called cannon fodder.
This made Qi Ping recognize the danger of the cultivation world even more. In the eyes of the high-level mighty cultivators, all things were merely chess pieces.
Once caught in the middle, it was nearly impossible to escape the fate of being a pawn.
Those mighty cultivators could make the economy prosper for the sake of spirit stone taxes, yet they could also play with life and death as they pleased for their own goals.
Just Qingshi County alone had seen so many deaths—what about the massive Qingtian Domain?
To describe the casualties as 'millions of corpses' might even be an underestimation.
This only strengthened Qi Ping's resolve to build a secret, private home of his own!
To live and cultivate in peace, he had to stay away from the whirlpool and keep himself hidden.
Once inside the whirlpool, no matter how careful one was, they could still fall victim to the schemes of those mighty cultivators.
Even though Qi Ping had lived two lives, he didn't think his intelligence or strategy could outmatch those monsters who had lived for a thousand years or more.
The previous prosperity of Qingshi County and the Qingtian Domain proved this. The economic management and administrative levels were better than what Qi Ping had experienced in his past life!
A single county could be this prosperous—the entire domain was unimaginable.
Just based on this, those old monsters could be described as having 'demonic' levels of strategy.
The only way Qi Ping could think of to escape their schemes was to hide his very existence!
Because no one schemes against something they don't know exists.
Ultimately, he shouldn't even harbor any enmity or hostile thoughts, because the cultivation world possessed arts of divination and fate.
Once hostile toward these people, there was a chance of being sensed through karma and then hunted down. While the probability was low, it had to be guarded against.
Qi Ping found that the more he knew about the cultivation world, the more he sensed the great terror it contained!
This danger was limited for ordinary people and manageable for average geniuses, but for someone carrying a massive secret, they would absolutely be watched by countless eyes—especially a non-standard existence like Qi Ping.
Regarding the war between the Three Great Families, Qi Ping had specifically gone to the Zhu family to check on his old brother Wang Shan, hoping to see if there was any chance to help.
To Qi Ping's surprise, Wang Shan was not only alive and well, but when no one was around, a look of joy would occasionally cross his face.
Clearly, Wang Shan had not only survived the battle but had likely gained a great deal, stockpiling plenty of capital for his children's future cultivation.
Qi Ping felt relieved for his old brother, but he also realized that Wang Shan really knew what he was doing.
So many people from the three families had died, yet Wang Shan had lived and even profited. That survival skill was truly impressive.
Returning to his peak, Qi Ping ignored the chaos of the outside world and continued to pour all his effort into studying arrays.
After researching the First-Rank Low-Grade Sky-Fire Array, Qi Ping went on to study the Sea of Fire Array, the Nine Flames Array, and other fire-attribute formations, his skill level advancing by leaps and bounds.
His ultimate goal was to build a private territory far from all trouble and chaos.
Initially, having First-Rank Mid-Grade illusion and concealment arrays would be enough. Unless someone looked very closely, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator passing overhead would notice nothing.
That was basically sufficient. What Foundation Establishment cultivator would waste their time using their divine sense to search a desolate, godforsaken place? Unless Qi Ping actively provoked a powerhouse and led them to search the mountains.
He planned to slowly perfect the arrays on his territory as his skill level rose. His ideal state was to have multiple layers of illusion arrays, concealment arrays, killing arrays, defensive arrays, and disruption arrays... turning his home into an impregnable fortress.
After another forty days or so, Qi Ping's formation skills improved again, and he successfully set up a set of First-Rank Mid-Grade arrays.
By standard definitions, Qi Ping could now be considered a First-Rank Mid-Grade formation master, though for now, he could only set up fire-based ones.
However, that wasn't what made him happiest. What truly excited Qi Ping was that after more than six months of hard work, his Druid level had finally reached level five!
"After grinding for half a year, the level finally increased!"
"I can choose my Druid advancement!"
Druid Level: Lv4 (289/800) → Druid Level: Lv5 (1/1600).