On Meteor Island, upon receiving the notice from the Nascent Soul ancestor of the Great Qin Dynasty, a letter of willing submission to the Great Qin Dynasty was written and sent.
Meteor Island had not committed any egregious acts. Regardless of the turmoil in the Great Qin Dynasty, they had been diligently earning money.
When others attacked, they defended themselves appropriately, but never initiated aggression.
Even as various feudal lords raised banners of rebellion, proclaiming themselves kings and asserting dominance, Meteor Island remained focused on earning money.
Therefore, Meteor Island only needed to express its stance and appropriately choose a side, and the Great Qin Dynasty would not trouble them.
Xiao Fei had been in seclusion, cultivating in his cave dwelling.
This time, when the Dragon Blood Lychees matured, he gave two to Huang Feifei and consumed the rest himself.
Besides their exquisite taste that evoked primal desires, Dragon Blood Lychees were also treasures that greatly aided body refinement.
The last time he ate just one, it helped him complete the spleen cultivation of the "Golden Arhat Technique," increasing his strength severalfold.
His cultivation of this technique had one remaining organ, the lungs, which had yet to be successfully refined. Once completed, it would reach its perfect state.
He had never abandoned his cultivation over the years, but this final step seemed exceptionally difficult. He had cultivated for many years but had been unable to achieve the state of great perfection.
With the lung aspect of the technique unrefined, his body refinement had flaws, such as insufficient defensive capabilities of his skin.
In the secret chamber of his cave dwelling, Xiao Fei peeled a Dragon Blood Lychee. Gazing at the crystal-clear flesh and inhaling the alluring fragrance, he was nearly drowned in his own saliva.
"Time to eat!"
He favored cultivation methods that allowed him to grow stronger while enjoying delicious food.
Soon, one Dragon Blood Lychee was consumed. A surge of powerful spiritual energy entered his body, nourishing his muscles.
Two days later, after refining all the spiritual energy from one Dragon Blood Lychee, he still hadn't broken through. He immediately took out another one and peeled it...
More than ten days later, Xiao Fei sat cross-legged in his cave dwelling, with discarded Dragon Blood Lychee peels scattered before him.
At this moment, his entire skin emitted a golden radiance, as if he were a gilded statue.
His "Golden Arhat Technique" had finally completed the cultivation of the lungs, one of the five internal organs.
The lungs open to the nose, their splendor manifests in the hair, and in the body, they are the skin. They govern diffusion and descent, regulate water, and connect to all meridians. They are also known as the "Canopy of Heaven" and are associated with sorrow.
The moment he successfully cultivated this aspect, he felt an overwhelming sense of clarity. Every meridian and every pore of his body felt incredibly transparent.
He experienced a sensation of ethereal lightness, as if he were about to float off the ground and ascend to the heavens, even while sitting or standing still.
This feeling was utterly exhilarating!
He even wondered where the Danxin Sect had obtained such a remarkable body refinement technique.
His nose, one of the five senses, also experienced a significant enhancement in function. With his current olfactory abilities, even a canine spirit would have to admit inferiority.
Xiao Fei twitched his nose, catching the lingering scent of Dragon Blood Lychee in the secret chamber, and then looked at the pile of peels on the ground. Suddenly, an irrepressible sadness welled up within him.
These lychees had taken thousands of years to mature. Before they could experience the beauty of the mortal world, they were consumed by him in just over ten days, leaving behind only a heap of scattered peels.
If nothing unexpected happened, these peels would soon rot into mud, leaving nothing behind.
Alas! Whose children were these? And whose...
Xiao Fei sat in his cave dwelling, hugging his knees, and wept for a day and a night, his eyes becoming swollen and red.
A group of cockroaches that had been sheltering in the secret chamber could no longer bear it and moved out.
After crying, Xiao Fei still felt unsatisfied. He gathered all the Dragon Blood Lychee peels from the ground, took them into his spatial artifact, and buried them beneath the Dragon Blood Lychee tree, allowing them to reunite with their kin.
After finishing this, Xiao Fei's emotions gradually stabilized. He realized his own abnormality, realizing he had been influenced by the technique's emotional side effects!
Fortunately, no one had witnessed this! If this matter were to spread, how could he face anyone in the future?
He suddenly thought of the group of cockroaches that had moved out, wondering if he should silence them.
"Hahaha... Hahaha..."
He was the master of the Law of Laughter. How could mere emotional side effects from a technique possibly contend with it?
After a few hearty laughs, all negative emotions vanished.
"Hahaha... Hahaha..."
Xiao Fei walked out of the cave dwelling, laughing heartily. His emotions appeared more excited than usual, an attempt to mask the fact that he had just cried for a day and a night.
Several cultivators who had come to report to Huang Feifei could only cast curious glances at him and then quickly departed.
"Congratulations, Young Master, on your divine art's completion!"
Huang Feifei could already guess what had happened from the lingering golden light beneath Xiao Fei's skin.
"This is all the result of diligent cultivation. You must also work hard and not remain stuck at the early Nascent Soul stage."
Xiao Fei, with a thick skin, attributed all credit to diligent cultivation and simultaneously urged Huang Feifei to cultivate diligently.
"Yes, I will definitely redouble my efforts."
Huang Feifei nodded obediently.
"By the way, those disciples who just left seemed to be in a hurry. Has anything else happened recently?" Xiao Fei asked with some confusion.
"Senior Brother is correct. Some time ago, a Nascent Soul cultivator from the Great Qin Dynasty attempted to kill the rebellious Great General to establish authority, but was ambushed by demons and nearly perished..."
Huang Feifei recounted the events that had transpired during Xiao Fei's seclusion, from beginning to end.
It turned out that many people had witnessed Ying Dang's crushing defeat and hasty retreat. After the event, the news spread like wildfire, becoming known to everyone.
Furthermore, rumors tend to transform as they spread, often exaggerating the strength of the victors and denigrating the weaker side to the point of worthlessness.
Currently, rumors among cultivators suggested that the Great Qin Dynasty's Nascent Soul experts were outwardly strong but inwardly weak, like figures made of paper.
Coupled with the demons fanning the flames and deliberately instigating discord, the Great Qin Dynasty's unification plan had been thwarted.
Many feudal lords who had recently surrendered to the Great Qin Dynasty began to raise banners of rebellion once more, re-establishing themselves as kings.
If these feudal lords could be accused of breaking their promises and lacking moral integrity, then some other feudal lords were even more outrageous; they had directly defected to the demons.
These cultivators who betrayed humanity and allied with the demons were even more despicable. Moreover, when they attacked their own countrymen, they were more ruthless and brutal than the enemy.
In any case, the Eastern Continent was now more chaotic than ever before.
Meteor Island continued to earn money diligently, using the profits to cultivate the strength of its disciples.
"The world is about to experience great turmoil. How is the blueprint for the flying sky battleship I gave you last time progressing?"
"I am currently organizing the artifact refiners to research the methods of crafting it. This set of artifact refining diagrams is extremely profound and will require some time to yield results."
Furthermore, to prevent leaks, Huang Feifei had entrusted the crafting of different parts of the flying battleship to different individuals for study.
Once all components were refined, they would be assembled by specialized personnel.