Chapter 408: 356

Translator:549690339

After the emperor left, the Taoist temple regained its tranquility.

At night, Pei Xuanjing stood alone in the courtyard of the Taoist temple, looking up at the vast and boundless starry river.

“It seems like you have gained a lot from your recent retreat!” Bai Xiaosheng silently appeared in the courtyard, looking at Pei Xuanjing who had not a trace of aura, like an ordinary person, and couldn’t help but exclaim.

Pei Xuanjing turned around, smiled, and responded, “I suppose no one expected you to have entered the Spirit Realm already. Perhaps, you are the first to enter the Heavenly Rank Spirit Realm after the revival of Heaven and Earth!”

Following the resurrection of Heaven and Earth, Pei Xuanjing had guessed who might be the first to break through. He guessed it could be Taoist Qingxu from the True Martial Sect, the old Heavenly Master from Dragon Tiger Mountain, or even Xue Wuheng from the Demonic Cult.

Never did he expect that the first person he would encounter who had broken through into the Spirit Realm would be Bai Xiaosheng.

It seemed that this person had deeper potential than he had estimated. Bai Xiaosheng had never truly shown his capabilities before, always appearing to manage everything with ease.

At this moment, having seen Bai Xiaosheng revealing his cultivation within the Spirit Realm, Pei Xuanjing was somewhat surprised, but upon deeper thought, he found it reasonable.

“Wasn’t it Brother Pei who was the first to step into the Spirit Realm?” Bai Xiaosheng shook his head with his folding fan in hand and said, “Besides, Brother Pei, you have only just come out of retreat. How do you know that I’m the only one who has entered the Spirit Realm in this world?”

“Hmm?” Pei Xuanjing’s eyebrows raised, hearing Bai Xiaosheng’s words implied that there are others who have also broken into the Spirit Realm?

In Pei Xuanjing’s multiple life simulations, it seemed no one had broken through into the Spirit Realm within several years following the revival of Heaven and Earth. The only elder from the Blood Demon Sect who had broken through hadn’t been entirely successful yet.

Could it be that his early breaking of the seal caused Heaven and Earth to revive early, leading to a change in the world’s trajectory?

If that was the case, it wouldn’t be surprising. After all, discrepancies between Pei Xuanjing’s life simulation experiences and actual events had happened before. He was used to it.

“Besides Brother Bai, has anyone else broken through?” Pei Xuanjing asked straightforwardly.

After he came out of retreat and learned that Bai Xiaosheng was in seclusion, most of his information came from Pang Hong. However, Pang Hong’s strength was too weak to access certain core information, inevitably resulting in some scattered pieces.

Now that Bai Xiaosheng had appeared, Pei Xuanjing naturally asked directly. Given Bai Xiaosheng’s control over various information networks, he was likely to know many things.

Bai Xiaosheng closed his fan and became serious: “That is why I’m here tonight. To my knowledge, there are already over ten people in the martial world who have broken through to the Spirit Realm.”

“Over ten!” A hint of surprise flashed in Pei Xuanjing’s eyes.

Since coming out of retreat, besides Bai Xiaosheng, the only other expert he had interacted with was Daoist Xuanming. Although Xuanming was more powerful than before, he was still one step away from breaking through the Spirit Realm. He only understood after receiving Pei Xuanjing’s guidance, which was the reason for his hasty retreat.

Xuanming’s talent and strength had always been at the top of the martial arts world. Seeing that even Xuanming hadn’t broken through yet, plus the hints from his life simulations, Pei Xuanjing thought that nobody had really managed to reach the Spirit Realm.

Seeing Bai Xiaosheng show up with Spirit Realm strength changed Pei Xuanjing’s mindset. Even though there may be others who had also broken through, there shouldn’t be many, likely no more than he could count on one hand.

However, Bai Xiaosheng’s answer completely overturned his assumption.

“Yes, according to the intelligence I’ve gathered, there are already over ten people in the martial world who have broken through to the Spirit Realm, not less but more.” Bai Xiaosheng replied gravely.

Pei Xuanjing asked curiously, “Do you know who they are?”

Given his speedy rise, he actually hadn’t faced many strong adversaries. Even though he had challenged many experts, he had not yet encountered all of them, so he was curious about their identities.

“The two old monks from the North and South Zen Sects have broken through. As for hidden potentials, that’s unknown, so we’ll estimate two for now,” Bai Xiaosheng began.

The depth of Buddhism is too profound, and some high-level monks with deep understanding of Buddhism have isolated themselves from the world. He didn’t even know if they were dead or alive. However, if they are still alive and managed to break through, it wouldn’t be surprising.

“Besides the new leader Xue Wuheng, there’s also an old fellow from the Blood Demon Sect who has broken through.”

“There’s another expert from the Blood Demon Sect?” Surprise flashed in Pei Xuanjing’s eyes. “It’s indeed worthy of being hailed as a branch that can hold its own against the Sky Demon Sect within the Demonic Cult. Despite the death of Blood Demon Yang Tinghe and another elder, they still have powerful individuals. This truly surprises me.”

“Correct, the Blood Demon Sect is extremely profound. However…” Bai Xiaosheng showed a gleeful expression, continuing, “This one holds a big grudge against Xue Wuheng, likely causing him to have a major headache.”

He was well aware of how Xue Wuheng had killed a Blood Demon Sect elder who wanted to seek revenge on Pei Xuanjing. Besides diverting the disaster, Xue Wuheng also wanted to cut out the influence of the Blood Demon Sect.

After weakening the Blood Demon Sect like this, Xue Wuheng could take advantage of the situation to incorporate the Blood Demon Sect’s power completely under his command.

Unexpectedly, Xue Wuheng’s plan to weaken the Blood Demon Sect backfired as an expert from the Spirit Realm emerged from their ranks. This made the situation within the Demonic Cult quite awkward. Had it not been for the support of several other major branches, those two would have started fighting on the spot.

“Haha.” Pei Xuanjing couldn’t help laughing at this scene.

Bai Xiaosheng continued, “Besides this, an elder each from the Wang family of Taiyuan, the Cui Clan of Qinghe, and the Li Family of Longxi in the alliance of nobles have also broken through.”

While saying this, he couldn’t help but glance at Pei Xuanjing. If he hadn’t known about Pei Xuanjing’s background and experiences, he would have thought Pei Xuanjing came from one of the two noble Cui families.

After all, in his interactions with Pei Xuanjing, the perspectives and words Pei Xuanjing shared didn’t seem like they came from someone from a small border town. The knowledge he demonstrated was more similar to what nobles would instill in their descendants.

Pei Xuanjing was aware of Bai Xiaosheng’s odd gaze and guessed his thoughts, but chose not to elaborate.

His identity in this world was just a little Taoist boy adopted by the Master of Everlasting Observance, nothing more.

Counting in his mind the number of those in the Spirit Realm, there were two each from Buddhism and the Demonic Cult, and one each from the three families in the nobles’ alliance, totaling up to seven.

“I assume the rest are Taoist Priest Qingxu and the old Heavenly Master from Taoism?”