My Cultivation Has a Progress Bar

By the tranquil riverbank, the group of six suddenly stopped in their tracks.

They stopped because they sensed the battle in the sky come to an abrupt halt. The scorching heat receded like the tide, reflecting a breathtakingly beautiful scene on the river’s surface, yet the sight filled Wang Ping and his companions with dread.

Once everything fell quiet, Wang Ping hurried to Guangxuan’s side. He reached out with his right hand to support Guangxuan, who was on the verge of collapsing. With his left hand, he formed a seal, circulating the Wood Spirit True Essence within his Qi Sea. He then cast the Cyan Wood Technique to stabilize the wound in Guangxuan’s abdomen.

"Let’s go back first..."

Guangxuan said, grabbing Wang Ping’s sleeve through the pain.

Wang Ping nodded silently and cast the Water Covering Technique, which allowed him to walk across the water as if it were solid ground. He did this because Guangxuan’s current condition made him unfit for jumping or flying.

Upon reaching the north bank, healers from Sanhe Temple, who had been waiting for some time, immediately swarmed around Guangxuan to administer medicine.

Only then did Wang Ping see the full extent of the injury: a third of Guangxuan’s abdomen had been completely shredded. Combined with their frantic escape, an ordinary person would have died a hundred times over from such a wound.

Looking back, he saw the battlefield had now fallen quiet...

He then turned his head to look at the western cliff of the gorge. Yuanqing Taoist, who had returned at some point, was sitting cross-legged in quiet meditation, just as he always was. It was as if everything that had just happened was an illusion.

DONG DONG DONG

The clear, resonant beat of war drums from the Central Army Camp suddenly thundered over the stockade.

Just then, Wang Ping saw an attendant from Yuanqing Taoist’s side run over to him. The attendant stopped several yards away, performed a fist-and-palm salute, and said, "Fellow Daoist Changqing, my Grandmaster requests your presence."

His tone remained as courteous as ever.

...

On the cliff’s edge, a strong sea breeze blew, sending a slight chill through Wang Ping. He looked up at the sky. The sun was no longer as scorching as before. ’The powerful figure from the Yuqing Sect must have stopped casting their spell,’ he thought.

Wang Ping now stood behind Yuanqing Taoist. They were the only two people there. In the distance, the other six Seats and their disciples had already assembled, awaiting the order to cross the river.

"Is Guangxuan doing any better?"

Yuanqing Taoist’s question took Wang Ping by surprise. He quickly composed his thoughts and replied, "Fortunately, there’s no trace of the enemy’s True Essence left in his body. As long as he’s treated with the Cyan Wood Technique daily, he should recover within five or six days."

"Mm..." Yuanqing Taoist nodded. He then stood up, turned to face Wang Ping, and asked, "What did you see in Yuma County Town?"

"We saw Taiyin Evil Cultivators. We clashed with them briefly..." Not daring to hide anything, Wang Ping recounted everything that had happened after they entered Yuma County Town.

After listening, Yuanqing Taoist looked momentarily stunned. He muttered two words under his breath: "Power Pill..." His tone was a mix of question and marvel. He then looked at Wang Ping. "The Power Pill, that’s what Qianmu Temple sells, isn’t it? I heard the refinement method was discovered in some ruins?"

"That’s right!" Wang Ping nodded.

Yuanqing Taoist fell silent for a few moments, not pursuing the topic. Instead, he got to the matter at hand. "They are using that Demon Soldier you just acquired to absorb Netherworld Spiritual Qi through the spiritual nature of the Corpse Soldiers. They’re using it to maintain an enormous array that spans hundreds of miles..."

He seemed to be building a case for taking back the Demon Soldier Wang Ping had recovered. As he spoke, he pointedly glanced at the storage pouch on Wang Ping’s belt. "As we all know... practitioners of the Taiyin Sect’s Secret Technique inevitably fall into a deep slumber upon reaching the Third Realm. They must remain asleep for the entire duration of that realm. When they awaken, they either ascend to the Fourth Realm... or perish in the attempt."

"Centuries ago, during the previous dynasty, a Taiyin Evil Cultivator was searching for a suitable place to enter his slumber. He triggered a massive tsunami that buried hundreds of thousands of people, all to create enough Corpse Soldiers to channel Netherworld Spiritual Qi..."

"What’s happening at Yongming Port now is a result of that. The puppets he left behind sensed their master was about to awaken. They roused the buried Corpse Soldiers and are using them, along with the nine Demon Soldiers that emerged from their ranks, to construct a massive array. Its purpose is to increase the chances of the Evil Cultivator successfully awakening!"

"Neither the Daoist Scripture Hall nor the True Yang Sect wants the Taiyin Sect to gain another Fourth Realm Great Cultivator. As soon as they learned of this, they dispatched two Third Realm Cultivators to thwart the plan. However, the netherworldly energy near Yongming Port was so dense that even they had to be cautious. In the end... they could only retreat for the time being."

At this point, Yuanqing Taoist turned to look down at the assembled army. "Mortals are weak, but sometimes, perhaps they are the true protagonists of this world. To weaken the netherworldly energy in Yongming Port, we must use the Court’s army. Of course, a sufficient number of Third Realm Cultivators could also do the job, but that’s impossible."

He even cracked a joke at the end before turning back to meet Wang Ping’s gaze.

’Besides the Court’s army, there are probably a large number of Qi Refiners as well, aren’t there?’

Wang Ping added silently. Taking the hint, he retrieved the wooden box containing the rusted blade from his storage pouch. "This is the Demon Soldier I found," he said. "Since it’s so important, it should be in the keeping of the Daoist Scripture Hall."

A smile spread across Yuanqing Taoist’s face. He took the wooden box and said, "Rest assured, the Daoist Scripture Hall won’t take your things for nothing. After this is over, you can go to any Daoist Scripture Hall liaison point to claim your reward..."

He placed the wooden box in his storage pouch and added with a smiling reminder, "The Lord has already promised to grant your Qianmu Temple a natural Water Spirit Vein. As long as you nurture it in a riverbed, it can give birth to Water Spirits capable of absorption and assimilation!"

Lord was the title used by the Mystic Sect for Fourth Realm Cultivators. In the Southwest Zhongzhou Region, "the Lord" almost always referred to the Xiao Shan Lord. ’I can’t believe something like this would actually get the Lord’s attention,’ Wang Ping thought. But then again, given the circumstances, Yuanqing Taoist was most likely just using the Lord’s name for leverage.

’Even Entering Cultivators can’t escape the worldly games of influence and obligation!’

As for the promised reward, it was an incredible treasure. With proper nurturing, it could produce three distinct Water Spirits within two hundred years. That was the equivalent of three new Entering Cultivators. ’It sounds time-consuming,’ Wang Ping thought, ’but an opportunity like this is incredibly rare. If Yuanqing Taoist had mentioned this reward from the beginning, I would have agreed on the spot.’

After finishing his conversation with Yuanqing Taoist, Wang Ping returned to the Qianmu Temple’s designated area in the camp. Shortly after, the order for the main army to mobilize was passed down.

However, this order was primarily for the Government Soldiers. After handing daily affairs over to Zhao Qing, Wang Ping took Liu Shuang and went to see Guangxuan, who was still recuperating. He then relayed what Yuanqing Taoist had said.

"If this Water Spirit Vein is successfully nurtured, your Sanhe Temple will get one of the slots for an Entering Cultivator," Wang Ping promised. He and Guangxuan had found the rusted blade together, and Guangxuan had nearly died in the process.

Furthermore, this would deepen the alliance between Qianmu Temple and Sanhe Temple, which would be advantageous in their future competition against the White Water Sect.

In this world, every step of cultivation was fraught with competition. For instance, if Wang Ping wanted to obtain the cultivation method for the Third Realm of the *Taiyan Talisman* in the future, he would need to gain significant prestige and status within the Daoist Scripture Hall.

Only then would he be in a position to perform services for the powerful figures who controlled access to the Third Realm of the *Taiyan Talisman*.

’Otherwise, they wouldn’t even give you the time of day!’