It rained for three days straight in the imperial capital. On the fourth day, the rain turned to snow. Winter came, just like that. As the snow fell, everything started to get cold. Just about overnight, a layer of shimmering silver came to cover the city. Ice caked the eaves of the buildings.

As Xu Qing looked at the snowflakes falling from the sky, and felt the cold wind, he thought back to Sea-Sealing County and South Phoenix. He thought back to his early life.

He had reached a point in his cultivation where he didn’t really feel the sensation of cold. He was essentially inoculated to mortal feelings like that. Yet right now, he did feel a touch of coldness. It came from his memories. The experiences of his childhood had become part of his soul, and would be with him for his whole life.

As he walked toward the Imperial University, he tugged his garments a bit tighter around him to protect against the wind. Eventually, he made it through the university entrance.

The investigation into the missing Dawning Sun had been dropped. The Dawning Sun’s actual whereabouts were unknown. You would think something like that would weigh on the hearts of the various organizations in the capital, but… nobody seemed to care much.

Xu Qing could imagine why.

It’s because of the emperor.

To the human species, the emperor was a person who ‘propped up heaven.’ He could calm people down.

Xu Qing still wasn’t really sure what to make of the emperor. Upon first arriving at the capital, the emperor had been little more than a concept for him. A symbol. A blank slate with no information on it. But after some time, and after learning a bit more about the emperor, that slate was starting to get some color on it. Unfortunately… there were actually too many colors, resulting in a blurry image.

Xu Qing shook his head. He did what he usually did when he didn’t understand something. He put it in the back of his mind to analyze over time. Hopefully, as time went by, more clues and evidence would become available to make the picture clearer. Once he had enough clues, the truth would reveal itself in his heart. All Xu Qing knew for the moment was that the most important thing for him to focus on was cultivation base.

I’m going to pay another visit to the Xeno-Immortal School!

The moment he entered the Imperial University, the cold and wind were cut off. It was winter on the outside of the university, but on the inside it was the same as before. There were still bustling crowds and the sound of talking and discussion.

Considering how many times he had visited the university in the past month, Xu Qing was used to the surroundings. He hurried through the crowd, attracting as little attention as a water drop in the ocean. Soon he was in front of the white tower in the east of the university that was the Xeno-Immortal School.

Back at Princess Anhai’s banquet, that fellow Mu Nan from the Church of Departure showed an image of Chen Daoze from the Xeno-Immortal School. That image looked very similar to me when I’m in one of my god states. Is the soul-weaving of the Xeno-Immortal School a different method with the same final result?

Xu Qing was excited to learn more. His god states were the result of his own luck and destined opportunities, and he had never seen anyone else with anything like them. Not even Grandpa Ninth had been familiar with the specifics of them. Ever since then he had been hoping to find out more about how to further his cultivation in terms of his god states.

If using the second-level god state required wasting some of Crimson Mother’s flesh every single time… that would be untenable in the long term. And that wasn’t even taking his third-level god state into consideration.

My first state can unleash power comparable to the great circle of Spirit Trove or possibly the first stage of Void Returning. You could consider that a very big power up. The second state is more like second-stage Void Returning…. Maybe not exactly at that level, but close enough. The third state….

Xu Qing thought back to the demonstration for Grandpa Ninth, and then compared that to the powerful experts he had encountered. That gave him a general idea of the level of power involved.

Battle prowess comparable to third-stage Void Returning! In other words, the focus of my cultivation should be to get control of the third-level god state. That, and finish my fifth secret trove.

Xu Qing thought about all that as he strolled through the white towers. Eventually, about an hour later, he reached the Xeno-Immortal School. It was busy on the street outside, but was very quiet inside. Virtually deserted. No one was inside asking questions. It was as if this place had been eliminated from favor by the sands of time.

There weren’t three students in the tower this time, there was only one. He sat there, yawning as the schoolmaster berated him.

“Look outside! See how many people there are out there? Why not go drag some in here? If things keep going the way they are, we won’t have enough people to staff this place. See how many ancient records there are? Don’t you know how much time I spend every day organizing things?

“I know our Xeno-Immortal School isn’t in a good spot now, but we can restore our glory! All you people do is sniff around for gossip to put in that silly tabloid of yours! What the hell good is that going to do?”

Looking annoyed, the berated student waved his hand. “Enough! If you keep yelling at me I won’t come back tomorrow. The whole reason we put out the tabloid is to make money. It’s not like you’re helping us out financially. Besides, all we do is report the latest gossip. What’s that got to do with you? Maybe you should try to earn some money for some things. For instance, you could charge a fee to those idiots who come to study our ancient records.”

“You!!” the schoolmaster snapped angrily, and nearly went into another tirade, except in the end, he really was worried about the student not returning. His chest heaved as he tried to decide what to say next. That was when Xu Qing arrived. Snorting coldly, the schoolmaster turned to Xu Qing.

The berated student also looked up at him. “Welcome to the Xeno-Immortal School. We charge 100 spirit stones per jade slip that you want to study.”

Given that everyone wore the same outfits, this student clearly didn’t realize that Xu Qing had been here before. The reality was that unless you interacted with someone multiple times in the Imperial University, you generally wouldn’t be able to recognize them.

Xu Qing looked around and was about to say something when the schoolmaster looked him up and down with surprise in his eyes.

“What are you doing back here?”

When the student heard that, he started and then looked more closely at Xu Qing.

Xu Qing was also a bit surprised. Clasping hands to the schoolmaster, he said, “Teacher, I want to know more about the Xeno-Immortal School.”

“Sure thing!” The schoolmaster’s eyes glittered, and he couldn’t hold back from excitedly rubbing his hands together. Grabbing Xu Qing by the arm, he dragged him into the tower, as if he were afraid he might run off.

Xu Qing felt a bit out of sorts. As for the other student, he simply sighed and looked away.

“You’re an intelligent person,” the schoolmaster said. He sighed. “I sensed that the first time you showed up. If you choose the Xeno-Immortal School, it’ll be like the call of destiny. The inevitable furtherance of fate. You know, if my speculations are correct, you’re probably new to the Imperial University. Am I right?”

As the schoolmaster thought, he made some calculations with the fingers on his left hand. Then a gleam of shock appeared on his face. He looked at Xu Qing a bit more closely.

Xu Qing looked back at him. These were the kinds of tricks the Captain tried to pull, and Xu Qing had long since grown used to them.

After seeing that Xu Qing wasn’t going to rise to the bait, the schoolmaster cleared his throat.

“Anyway, back in the heyday of the Xeno-Immortal School, our founder looked out into the world and saw a vision of the future. Afterward, he uttered a prophecy. According to that prophecy, a student will come to us one day to join the Xeno-Immortal School, and that student will lead us to prominence.

“Last time when I laid eyes on you, I felt a strong sensation in my heart, though I wasn’t sure exactly what it was. On this second occasion of seeing you, I’ve suddenly found myself thinking about that prophecy. Now I realize that it’s highly likely you are the person the Xeno-Immortal School has been waiting thousands of years for!”

The other student pursed his lips beneath his mask. He had heard this kind of speech before. In fact, it was the same speech the schoolmaster had given him when he first showed up. And it was the same with the other two students who had been here last time Xu Qing came.

Couldn’t he at least change up his wording?

That said, the student also realized that if they could sucker someone else into joining them, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Therefore, he made sure to look at Xu Qing with very wide eyes as he let loose a hoarse exclamation of astonishment.

“Oh my god!” he said loudly.

When Xu Qing witnessed this exaggerated behavior, he started to wonder if the Xeno-Immortal School was actually a good fit for him….

The schoolmaster was very pleased to see his student cooperating. Whipping out a jade slip, he put it in Xu Qing’s hand.

“Child, pour your divine will into that jade slip. It’ll make you a conclave student of the Xeno-Immortal School. After that, everything will be opened up to you, and the future of the Xeno-Immortal School will be in your hands!

“Our techniques are very unique, and were authorized by the emperor back in the day. That said, the emperor also allowed us to decide how the techniques are passed on. Therefore, our founder made the rule that only conclave disciples can learn them. Come, join us! Open a new door in your life!”

The schoolmaster only seemed to be getting more worked up.

Xu Qing looked at the jade slip. The reality was that he had already made his decision before coming here, therefore, he unhesitatingly put his mark on the slip.

The jade slip glittered, and Xu Qing officially became a conclave student of the Xeno-Immortal School.

“Hahaha! Welcome to the Xeno-Immortal School!” The schoolmaster was clearly very excited. The other student was as well. In fact, the two of them exchanged a glance, and they could both see how thrilled they were to have snagged another student into their fold.

The former thought of it as a way of strengthening his school of thought. The other was just glad to have someone to share the workload with.

Xu Qing didn’t really care about any of that. Clasping hands, he asked, “Schoolmaster, can I take a look at the Xeno-Immortal School’s techniques?”

“No problem.” Chuckling heartily, the schoolmaster grabbed about a dozen jade slips from the piles around him and pressed them into Xu Qing’s hands. “All of our techniques are in there. Take your time looking through them. There’s no hurry.”

Xu Qing nodded and started looking through the jade slips. Beneath his mask, his eyes glittered thoughtfully. The jade slips were full of a wealth of information. All of the Xeno-Immortal School’s cultivation methods were explained in great detail.

Generally speaking, all of this school of thought’s techniques had cultivation requirements. For one thing, the cultivator needed to have impressive soul power. Only someone like that could generate the amount of soul threads needed to, theoretically speaking, be able to weave a complete godly entity. Without enough soul power, it was possible that the weaving process could result in one’s spiritual and physical souls all dispersing. What was more, it required one to visualize the totem of a godly entity and use the soul threads to make it complete. The process went differently for different people, but in most cases, it went slowly.

As Xu Qing studied the new information, the schoolmaster continued introducing the school.

“The main point of our school is to visualize a godly entity. All the possibilities are in there. Over the years, members of our school have picked from countless godly entities and found the ones most suitable to the Xeno-Immortal School. You’ll find details in there about how many soul threads are required, and the associated technique. That’s really the quintessence of our school.

“That said, make sure not to bite off more than you can chew. If you’re not able to make enough soul threads, don’t try to force the visualization.”

As the schoolmaster gave his warnings, Xu Qing studied the jade slip with the godly entities and found that there were indeed thousands of them. The depictions were very lifelike.

The soul thread requirement was listed plainly for all of them. The largest number of threads he saw was 100,000. The lowest was around 50,000.

He decided to test out the cultivation method. Immediately, his mind went hazy, and his eyes fogged with confusion.

When the schoolmaster saw that, he shook his head. Then, given that this was a brand new member, he decided to give some advice.

“Cultivating the techniques of the Xeno-Immortal School requires deep focus. You need to be in a spell formation that cuts off the outside world and leaves you in complete peace and quiet. It’s no surprise to see you fail right here and now.

“Normally speaking, it takes about a month to squeeze out one soul thread. If you have good talent, you might get three. Even the most amazing chosen might get ten or more. That’s more on the patriarch level!”

Xu Qing hesitated, as he saw that in his sea of consciousness… there were about 10,000 soul threads slowly spreading out.