Jiang He and Wang Hou chatted for around an hour when Dao aura swirled around Wang Hou’s body, and he quickly said, “Let’s talk next time, Jiang He. I’ll constantly keep an eye out on outer space through the Star Map.”

“Alright. See you, Minister Wang.”

There was a weird look on Jiang He’s face. He studied Wang Hou from head to toe a few times before walking out with him.

Whoosh!

Wang Hou took to the skies at once.

Damn it!

Jiang He only cursed and complained after Wang Hou was gone. “Why do I have the feeling that Wang Hou is trying to annoy me on purpose? He knew I can’t enjoy the pleasures of cultivation… is that why he is deliberately acting like that in my face?”

From the looks of it, Wang Hou was going through yet another instant enlightenment, and he was in a hurry to leave because there was no holding it back.

Going back inside his house, Jiang He poured himself some Elder Tea of Enlightenment, savoring it. By the time he finished a cup, he finally gained instant enlightenment as well.

Dao aura surged and thunderbolts sparked around him, and he even caused a phenomenon up in the skies: It was clear and bright, and yet thunderbolts were flickering for over two hours. It was quite the unusual sight for the citizens of Lingzhou City, but they were not actually shocked.

After all, they had seen it happen one too many times.

With Jiang He causing various phenomena and thunderclouds at his house every other day, they had gotten tired of even looking.

Meanwhile, after two hours, Jiang He slowly opened his eyes with a look of delight in his face. “My enlightenment toward Thunder Dao is almost complete. I have also accomplished my Thunder Dao Form and attained a full-fledged divine mind…”

At that very moment, Jiang He gained an epiphany—

As he is now, he could become immortal at any moment.

Taking out a Thunder Dao Fruit with a flip of his palm, Jiang He was about to eat it to condense his Heavenly Immortal Dao and complete his final metamorphosis, but Hu Mei came to him right after he took a bite, asking, “Master, is your enlightenment complete?”

“What is it?”

Crunch.

Jiang He took a bite of the Thunder Dao Fruit. Inside his mouth, the pure fruit of energy turned into thunderbolts that erupted and surged into his belly, before extending to his limbs and bones.

Having completed his Thunder Dao Form, the energy of the thunderbolts would not cause discomfort to him, and instead felt fresh and sweet.

“Jin Sidao is asking for you.” Hu Mei said then.

“Oh? He’s here?’

“He had been here for a while, but I had him wait outside since you were gaining instant enlightenment.”

“Alright. Let him in.”

Soon, Jin Sidao entered the mansion, and found Jiang He sitting on his sofa, eating a Thunder Dao Fruit.

“Lord Jiang He.”

“Sit.”

Gesturing for Jin Sidao to be seated, Jiang He took another bite of the Thunder Dao Fruit and smiled. “I just spoke with Minister Wang, but wouldn’t the Ten Thousand Swords Sect be affected, with both the Taixu Sect and Jiuhua Sect starting to spread their teachings in the country as well?”

“It wouldn’t.”

Jin Sidao smiled. “It’s actually a good thing, since the Ten Thousand Swords Sect doesn’t have that many people, while the Hua Nation has a great population, which is why our sect alone could hardly provide too many resources. Moreover, Minister Wang has already make an exception in order for our sect to recruit 300 disciples, so the old thugs from the Taixu Sect and the Jiuhua Sect were green-eyed from envy.”

The two then made some small talk, while Jiang He was almost finishing the Thunder Dao Fruit he was holding.

Jiang He suddenly came to realization when he saw that Jin Sidao was simply stuttering but never making his point. Taking out a demi-immortal flying sword, he said, “Brother Jin, thanks for helping me collected the compensation for mental distress from the eight sects before… eh?”

But before Jiang He could finish, his entire body shuddered and Dao auras extended around him. Hence, he quietly said, “We’ll talk later… I’m ascending.”

Whoosh!

In a flash, he had rushed towards the horizon.

Jin Sidao’s eyes narrowed. He could guess what Jiang He meant by ‘ascending’ but hesitated to believe it, and muttered, “Ascending? What’s ascending? Could Jiang He have cultivated some ultimate move again?”

Hu Mei shook her head and replied, “It is neither my master’s Dao nor his godly techniques. His cultivation is ascending.”

Cultivation?

So, that would mean…

Jiang He was becoming immortal?

Jin Sidao shivered all over and left the mansion. He stood outside to look up at the skies to find Jiang He’s body surrounded with violent thunderbolts—in fact, his entire body had become pure thunder energy, even as Spirit Qi raged and surged towards him.

At first, Jiang He only absorbed the Spirit Qi within several dozen miles, but his area of soon expanded to hundreds, even thousands of miles, with every Spirit Qi hence pouring towards Jiang He.

At that very moment, all living beings within the area were startled.

Wang Hou, who had just flown back to Jingdu City and did not even have the time for his instant enlightenment, jumped from the surprise. That irrepressible sense of awakening gone entirely, he observed Earth through the Star Map to find that there was a hurricane of Spirit Qi near Lingzhou City, and the eye of the storm was Jiang He’s house.

“What is that brat doing?”

Wang Hou scowled.

What was with the commotion?

Was he becoming immortal?

What the hell…

Just one hour ago you were insisting that you were a newbie in immortal arts, having less than four months of experience… and here you are, becoming immortal in the blink of an eye. How would other people live with themselves now?

“Still, it’s great that Jiang He is becoming immortal, since we would have a certain extent of authority when the immortals returned… but why did that brat cause such a major ruckus with his ascension? It’s fortunate that it was becoming concentrated across the world, or every drop of Spirit Qi on Earth would have been drained dry.”

Wang Hou turned, and flew back towards Lingzhou City once more.

***

Meanwhile, immortal radiance shone within Jiang He’s body.

The first Immortal Dao was slowly taking shape.

In that instant, his body, which had become pure thunder energy, appeared ready to be converted to Immortal Yuan Strength. Likewise, his mystic energy and divine mind were all rapidly morphing.

Heavenly Immortals were undying bodies in the first place.

Even if their body was destroyed, they could revive from a single drop of blood…

Of course, the condition for that was for their psyche and soul to remain.

For example, when the 100 Heavenly Thunderbolt Hand Grenades dropped on Mars, the entire plane was wiped out. Moreover, there was nothing left of the Heavenly Immortals or the True Immortal after the thunderbolts erupted so violently, and they naturally had no way of reviving.

Right now, Jiang He had fallen to state that was profoundly mystical.

There was no telling how long had passed—it could have been an instant, or several days and nights….

Oom!

The first Immortal Dao had in his body had formed. His divine mind had hence successfully converted to immortal will, and his abundant mystic energy into Immortal Yuan Strength. At the same time, Jiang He was charging the eighth cultivation technique of the Three Thousand Calamities, and his Immortal Yuan Strength was hence altered to the Immortal Swordsman Yuan Strength, which was unique to immortal swordsmen.

His psyche dived within his body then. There, he found thick, massive thunderbolts flashing around the Heavenly Immortal Dao inside his Qi Ocean and Cinnabar Fields, and another Heavenly Immortal Dao soon took shape as well.

“I’ll have to keep eating the Thunder Dao Fruit, and try to reach Heavenly Immortal-intermediate or even Heavenly Immortal-advanced in a single stroke!”

With that thought, Jiang He took out all the Thunder Dao Fruit he still had with a wave of his hand and began using them.

At the same time, superior-grade spirit stones began materializing out of thin air. There were several hundred thousand of them and they shattered at the same time, turning into pure Spirit Qi that surge inside his body.

The elites from the various sects, who had been drawn to the commotion Jiang He caused when he become immortal… were all dumbstruck!

At the same time, fifteen hundred kilometers away from Lingzhou City, a grotto-heaven that spanned several thousand kilometers appeared and disappeared, with a horrific immortal will stretching out from within…