Although he hadn’t managed to awaken that True God who was so concerned for the nation and its people, the weighty Profound Yellow Earth Essence in his hand and his astonishing rank on the Merit Seal were already the best rewards he could have asked for.
"Our business here is done. We should be going."
Chu Bai glanced at the Land God, who was still staring blankly below the altar, and turned away nonchalantly.
With his back to the now-stabilized Underground Palace, he strode toward the exit.
Behind him, the resonance of the vast mountain range gradually subsided. The once-violent Evil Qi now carried a hint of the fragrant scent of earth after a rain.
The cause and effect had been resolved.
「Dayuan Prefecture, Inner Hall of the Examination Department.」
The aura of the void reflected in the Ancient Bronze Mirror grew increasingly chaotic—the aftershock of tens of thousands of Cultivators making waves in the seven Secret Realms.
Hee Wenyan had already set down her Spirit Tea. With her eyes slightly closed, her Divine Thought followed the massive Array Compass, roaming between the coordinates of the five Secret Realms that Dayuan Prefecture was responsible for monitoring.
As the Director of the Celestial Observatory, she was concerned not only with the life and death of the examinees, but more so with the final ownership of these Secret Realm fragments.
"Another mark!"
Hee Wenyan’s eyes snapped open, her tone a mixture of joy and slight regret. "It seems the refining of the Red Fire Secret Realm is a sure thing this year."
"At this rate, in less than ten days, Qingzhou will have another Fire-Attribute Spirit Realm."
This was the most brilliant aspect of the Great Zhou Court’s decision to hold the Celestial Examination within Secret Realms: as the examinees lit their Divine Fires and accumulated Merit, they were essentially hammering Great Zhou’s "nails" into the chaotic laws of the Secret Realms.
When enough Divine Fire Marks were in place and spread out widely enough, the Celestial Observatory could use them as coordinates. By combining the power of an entire state to cast a powerful skill, they could completely drag the fragment floating in the void over and integrate it into the territory of Great Zhou.
If the environment was gentle, it would become a Blessed Land, suitable for habitation and yielding abundant resources.
For example, Dayuan Prefecture’s famous cultivation ground, Chongyuan Lake, was refined from a Water Secret Realm a hundred years ago.
If the environment was harsh but rich in Spiritual Mechanism, it would be refined into a "Spirit Realm," serving as a precious land for producing special cultivation resources and tempering the younger generation.
’The Fire Attribute Spiritual Qi within is extremely active. The Earth Veins must have accumulated a considerable amount of Celestial and Earthly Treasures.’
Hee Wenyan swiped her fingertip lightly, and a cluster of crimson light dots appeared in the void. "If our achievements are sufficient, once the Secret Realm is completely refined, I might try to petition the Lord Governor to see if we can keep it within the borders of our Dayuan Prefecture."
The foundation of a prefecture was often determined by the number of such Spirit Realms it possessed.
The examinees fighting for their lives today were, in reality, conquering territory for the future generations of their own prefectures.
Unfortunately, after sensing for a moment, Hee Wenyan’s brows furrowed slightly.
"What a pity. Of the nine Divine Fire Nodes already lit in this Red Fire Secret Realm, not a single one was lit by a Cultivator from our Dayuan Prefecture. It must be those prefectures famous for their Fire Element Techniques; they must have sent their hidden prodigies."
According to the rules, the ownership of the refined Spirit Realm would be skewed in favor of the prefecture whose Cultivators lit more nodes and contributed the most effort.
Although the progress in the Red Fire Secret Realm was good, it had little to do with Dayuan Prefecture’s record of achievements.
Hee Wenyan sighed, withdrew her gaze, and looked toward the three large-scale Secret Realms that were the grandest in scale and had the most profound auras.
"Lord Hee, I’m afraid the ownership of these large-scale Secret Realms is not something we can contend for."
Seeing this, Shen Xuance, who was standing to the side, spoke up calmly to remind her, "In the Thirty-Six Prefectures of Qingzhou, there is no shortage of talent."
"The top-ranking prefectures among them have unfathomably deep foundations. Our Dayuan Prefecture is merely middle-of-the-pack among the Thirty-Six Prefectures. We shouldn’t even think about these large-scale Secret Realms. The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment."
Shen Xuance was speaking the truth.
The Laws in large-scale Secret Realms were robust, making the difficulty of lighting a node within them more than ten times greater than in a medium-sized one. Contending for them was incredibly difficult.
However, Hee Wenyan didn’t respond. Instead, a mysterious smile played on her lips.
She raised her right hand and swiped lightly at the void. A fragmented image, originally obscured by dense Evil Qi, penetrated through numerous barriers and manifested before Shen Xuance.
"Hm?"
The moment he got a clear look at the image, Shen Xuance’s previously calm and composed expression vanished. His pupils contracted sharply, and he shot to his feet instinctively.
"This is..."
"A Mountain God Spirit Temple?!"
In the image, a grand altar floated amidst a cyan-gold light. Although it was somewhat blurry due to interference from an array, there was no mistaking the Divine Dao aura, as heavy as a mountain and as majestic as a great peak.
"It may be a bit dilapidated, but as a Divine Dao Node, its rank is extremely high! It’s leagues beyond those Land Altars!"
Shen Xuance’s breathing grew ragged. "In a ruin on the level of the Cyan Nether Realm, someone actually managed to light a True God Level node? Who could... This is practically a miracle!"
Lighting a Land God Temple could only be described as opening a window into the Secret Realm.
But lighting a Mountain God’s altar was equivalent to taking direct control of one of the Secret Realm’s main arteries!
"Lord Hee, now that the coordinates have appeared, why aren’t you moving to refine it immediately?"
Shen Xuance turned to Hee Wenyan, his voice anxious. "If the Celestial Observatory from another prefecture beats us to it, such a massive achievement will be lost!"
But Hee Wenyan simply took a leisurely sip of her Spirit Tea. Her previous anxiety had vanished, replaced by a certainty that could only be described as ’victory in hand’.
"There’s no rush, Lord Shen. Truly, no rush at all."
She pointed to a faint cyan figure that flashed at the edge of the altar in the image, a peculiar glint in her eyes.
"The foundation of this Divine Fire is too deep. For an outside force to refine it, the one who lit the fire must first completely stabilize their aura. Besides... sense it carefully. The Merit Mark of the person who lit the flame—whose aura does it carry?"

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