Simply conquering the Southern Barbarians couldn’t enable the Fortune Dynasty to ascend; it had to be during the Spiritual Energy Era.
And in a non-Spiritual Energy era, the difficulty of conquering the Southern Barbarians Divine Mountain was akin to hell-level.
Just the "Cutting Off Heaven and Earth Communication" of the ten Heavenly Witches was enough to make people despair.
In the past life’s experience, Emperor Wu accomplished the heaven-defying feat of conquering the barbarians, drinking water from the Southern Desolate Divine Mountain.
However, he still failed to lead Great Zhou to ascend, only extending his life by a hundred years beyond the millennium Emperor’s lifespan.
In the late years of Emperor Wu, the legend of ascension became widely known among players.
There was once a super-large player guild that initiated an operation called "Sky Fall." They had developed deep feelings for the Great Zhou dynasty and Emperor Wu and tried to save it, helping Emperor Wu achieve ascension.
However, it still ended in failure. Long after, someone summarized this large-scale player action and came to two conclusions:
The first conclusion was, in a non-Spiritual Energy era, the difficulty of conquering the Four Seas and Eight Desolates was hell-level, and only Emperor Wu did it.
The second conclusion was, in the Primordial Qi Era, the Fortune Dynasty could not ascend.
In the end, the first dynasty to ascend was established by players, leaving the Xuanhuang Realm and heading to the broader universe, starting the Cosmic Version.
The last dynasty to ascend was the "Da Xia Divine Dynasty."
Usually mentioned "Divine Court," "Divine Dynasty," refers to the last ascended dynasty "Xia."
However, records about the Da Xia Divine Dynasty were very scarce because it was too long ago.
It exceeded a Great Epoch (a Great Epoch is 1.2 million years, a minor epoch is 120 years).
"There are no players in this life; I don’t know what the future will be like. Will the Primordial Qi Tide, vassal hegemony, sect inversions, and Divine Court ruins still appear?" Zhao Xing shook his head and withdrew his thoughts.
Everything now was too distant for him.
"This Spring Token, although it’s a replica made by Da Li, has a very high rank, reaching the level of an Eighth Rank Top Quality."
Mastering the Great Xia Golden Characters, after Zhao Xing chanted the two words for "Start of Spring," the secret inscriptions on the token lit up.
It then took one drop of Zhao Xing’s blood and a wisp of primordial energy, absorbing them.
"Buzz~" Following this, the physical Seasonal Order appeared in Zhao Xing’s dantian.
It merged with the illusion of the "Start of Spring Token" that was originally in his dantian, becoming incredibly solid.
Zhao Xing closed his eyes, began to visualize the Twenty-four Solar Terms Diagram in his mind.
Soon, he became well aware of the effects of this Seasonal Token.
"I can only exert one percent of its power."
"But just this one percent of power, if I hold the replica of the Divine Court Festival Order, the effect of the Start of Spring, can reach the power of the Perfect State of Ding Realm."
Zhao Xing’s twenty-four Seasonal Orders were all in the second realm among the Knowing, Ding, and Reforming major realms, that is, at the degree of "Ding Realm Third Transition."
However, with this Spring Token, his "Start of Spring" seasonal effect could reach the Perfect State of Ding Realm.
"If it fully exerted its power, it should be comparable to the third realm’s power."
"Currently, there’s only one token; the seasonal magic treasures are all in sets: spring set, summer set, autumn set, and winter set. As long as there are four pieces, it can form a set, and the power can be further enhanced."
"If I could gather all twenty-four, I should be able to fully enter the high order of the third realm." Zhao Xing thought to himself. "However, it’s still weaker than the set made by Great Zhou."
Da Li’s level was still inferior to Great Zhou, which could be seen from the craftsmanship of the Seasonal Tokens.
Because Great Zhou also had the replicated Divine Court Festival Order, which was exclusive to the Grand Minister of Agriculture, each Seasonal Token was Ninth Rank Supreme.
Once gathered, the Grand Minister of Agriculture could exert the power of Superior Rank.
Why could the Heavenly Time Sect often produce Grand Ministers of Agriculture? It was because this set of Seasonal Magic Treasures was too powerful.
Of course, this set of Seasonal Magic Treasures was primarily used to stabilize the nineteen states’ heavenly time.
It couldn’t be easily taken out of the country; it was like a "nuclear weapon."
Just like the Southern Barbarians’ "Cutting Off Heaven and Earth Communication" was used for annihilation wars, the heavenly time treasure of Great Zhou wouldn’t be used lightly.
"However, when Prince Liang rebels, it’s likely both Pinghai State and Lvliang State will have a chance to see it," Zhao Xing thought darkly, "Prince Liang’s rebellion is bound to cause heavenly time turbulence."
"He would first destroy the stability of Pinghai State’s heavenly time, then quickly lead the army into Lvliang State, uniting with his vassals and army in his territory."
"Then continue the destructive path from Dao Yuan Continent to Yuanpin State to Guangling State, pretending to attack Fengjing in Tianyong State." Zhao Xing recalled Prince Liang’s rebellion route.
"In reality, Ji Mingxian had no confidence to fight in front of his brother; he just wanted to occupy the two large states, Pinghai and Lvliang, and, relying on support from the Southern Desolate and Eastern Sea Water Clan, establish an independent state."
"The current Grand Minister of Agriculture, Li Boqian, would stabilize the heavenly time as soon as Prince Liang rebelled."
"Ji Mingxian probably didn’t know that a year before his rebellion, Li Boqian left Tianyong State and stayed at Xuantian Academy’s branch in Pinghai State."
Though the future was variable, if Prince Liang truly rebelled, then Li Boqian would definitely appear.
Because in terms of destructiveness, nothing was stronger than the Military Minister of Agriculture from the Heavenly Time Sect.
A fifth-rank martial artist’s sword could split a kilometer-long crack, while the spells of an eighth-rank Military Minister of Agriculture, Cloud Skill, Wind Skill, and Earth Vein Skill, already covered that range.
Why did the Xuantian Sect plunder outstanding Minister of Agriculture Officers in Nanyang County at the time?
It was because the Xuantian Sect was skilled at cultivating Ministers of Agriculture! Only, in the ancient times, the Xuantian Divine Sect had a different terminology.
Xuantian Academy was also the holy land of the Heavenly Time Sect.
Additionally, Ministers of Agriculture were extremely handy in causing destruction!
Like Zhao Xing, a fifth-grade Military Minister of Agriculture, could easily massacre a city if the city’s defenses were breached first.
The Swallowing Cloud Domain alone could cover half the county! If he cast an acid rain spell, it could directly take half the civilians’ lives.
And Pinghai State had many rivers; once chaos erupted, he could raise monstrous waves to flood cities, cause earthquakes, and trigger volcanic eruptions...
Ministers of Agriculture could mitigate natural disasters; naturally, they could also exploit them!
Not to mention killing many experts, only in terms of destruction, wiping out ordinary people, the Military Minister of Agriculture was undoubtedly the fastest!
"Now it’s the Start of Winter in the twenty-ninth year of the Jingxin Calendar. According to the previous life’s trajectory, Prince Liang rebelled in the early summer of the thirty-fifth year of the Jingxin Calendar, and it was suppressed by the end of autumn in the thirty-seventh year, roughly taking two and a half years."
"However, the current middle-grade war started three years earlier and shows no signs of ending. Instead, it has become more stagnant, as if planning to go on indefinitely."
"Next year, after the East Sea’s Ten Thousand Beasts Grand Tournament, the Dragon Court Ancient Land will open in the third year of Da Zhi. I don’t know whether Prince Liang’s rebellion or the opening of the Dragon Court Ancient Land will come first."
The future variables were too many, so Zhao Xing could only make ample preparations beforehand.
After staying at home for another half month, Zhao Xing still couldn’t figure out what the third treasure was.
Whether he infused it with primordial energy, cut it with a knife, or burned it with fire, he couldn’t do anything to this black fist-sized sphere.
"It seems that the foolish bird really didn’t know. Even I don’t know what this is, so it surely didn’t know."
However, his half-month effort wasn’t in vain.
He also came up with two rather clear guesses about the black sphere.
"This is most likely a seed, but it’s in a dormant state."
"I bought a piece of seventh-grade soil and some primordial elemental liquid from the Military Realm, which cost me ten million, still couldn’t catalyze it, but its surface did peel off, shedding the original black bumps and transforming from an irregular sphere into a perfectly regular one."
"Since I couldn’t wake it from dormancy, it is most likely a Void Seed."
As for what type of Void Seed it was, Zhao Xing couldn’t determine.
And Void Seeds were at least [World Rarities]!
They were also the hardest to cultivate among all plant life. Different Void Seeds required vastly different breeding conditions. If Zhao Xing were to try combinations of nurturing resources one by one, Liu Tianning wouldn’t give him five hundred million, and even fifty billion wouldn’t be enough.
"Void Seeds were rare even in the Primordial Qi Era. Unexpectedly, Da Li managed to preserve one."
"I wonder if it can be cultivated in the limited spiritual energy environment of the Dragon Court Ancient Land." Zhao Xing thought to himself.
Although Zhao Xing was a fifth-rank realm, his vision could be said to be the foremost in the world.
If even he couldn’t recognize it, then no one in the world could and would know how to cultivate it.
"I can only place my hope in the Dragon Court Ancient Land and try my luck." Zhao Xing put away the black sphere and left his home in Dongyang County.