Tiāndào Lǎorén's act of stopping Lin Yichen and the others also stemmed from the mysterious formation within Zhang Ergou's room.
Even their divine senses, as Nascent Soul stage great cultivators, couldn't probe into it.
They had no idea what the current situation was in Zhang Ergou's room.
They didn't want Lin Yichen and the others to impulsively rush in and expose Zhang Ergou's identity as a formation grandmaster.
That's right, after private discussions, several Nascent Soul stage elders of the Misty Sect all concluded that Zhang Ergou was a formation grandmaster.
A formation that could block the divine senses of Nascent Soul stage cultivators had to be at least a sixth-grade formation.
This was not something an ordinary formation master could set up.
Moreover, Zhang Ergou had only been in the room for a short time, yet he had managed to erect such a formation capable of blocking Nascent Soul stage divine senses in such a brief period.
This was undoubtedly the skill of a sixth-grade formation master. At this moment, Tiāndào Lǎorén and the other Nascent Soul stage magnates already regarded Zhang Ergou as an equal.
The rarity of formation masters was comparable to that of alchemists.
If the Misty Sect gained another sixth-grade formation master, it would be incredibly good news for them.
Of course, the fewer people who knew about such matters, the better.
Therefore, this matter was confined to the knowledge of the few Nascent Soul stage elders. Tiāndào Lǎorén hadn't even informed elders like Chìyù, who were in the late Golden Core stage.
Tiāndào Lǎorén naturally wouldn't let Lin Yichen and the others rashly charge towards Zhang Ergou's room.
If these young lads caused a disturbance and failed to get in, wouldn't Zhang Ergou's identity be exposed?
There were many eyes and ears here, and no one could guarantee that some disciple or elder wouldn't let slip.
It was also possible that some of these disciples and elders were spies from other sects.
...
Inside the mysterious space of the black iron sphere, after Zhang Ergou heard Xueshan Lǎorén say that this world had recognized him as its master, his shock was brief.
He then completely unleashed himself.
He tried to control the entire iron sphere space with his divine sense, and indeed, as Xueshan Lǎorén had said.
With a mere thought, he exited the mysterious space and returned to his physical room.
Then, with another thought, Zhang Ergou re-entered the mysterious space of the black iron sphere.
"Haha, I've hit the jackpot!" Zhang Ergou burst into laughter, his excitement unconcealed.
If he encountered an unbeatable enemy in the future, he could just vanish into this black iron sphere with a thought, leaving the enemy outside fuming.
"Haha!" Thinking of this, Zhang Ergou laughed heartily again.
"You're crazy!" Xueshan Lǎorén rolled his eyes at Zhang Ergou and flickered back into Zhang Ergou's sea of consciousness. As a spiritual body, he shouldn't be exposed to the air for too long.
Zhang Ergou was left to revel in his joy alone.
"Kid, I've sensed that the flow of time here is vastly different from the outside, and the spiritual energy concentration is far greater than outside. Why not take advantage of this time to cultivate intensely?"
Before returning, Xueshan Lǎorén transmitted his voice to Zhang Ergou.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Ergou realized the truth. How could he forget about cultivation just because he had obtained a treasure?
A sin!
Treasures were good, but his own strength was the most reliable. Only by breaking through his cultivation level would it truly matter.
No sooner thought than done. After entering and exiting a few times, Zhang Ergou discovered that the passage of time within was much faster than outside.
He had been inside for more than half a day, yet the stick of incense he had placed on the table earlier had only burned halfway.
This time, to verify his guess, he deliberately stayed in the iron sphere space for an hour before coming out.
He found that, just as he had previously discovered, the stick of incense, which had been half-burnt, was now still only half-burnt.
Zhang Ergou was overjoyed. This meant that if he cultivated for half a month in the iron sphere space, only a day would have passed in the outside world.
This was an incredible gain, and the concentration of spiritual energy within this space was more than ten times that of the outside.
Cultivating within this space would undoubtedly lead to rapid progress.
With this thought, Zhang Ergou quickly sat cross-legged and began to circulate the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art, which he had learned from Chunyang Sǎnrén.
Having cultivated for a while, Zhang Ergou's mastery of the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art had become even more proficient.
Closing his eyes, as Zhang Ergou began to circulate the art, the spiritual energy from the surrounding heaven and earth began to converge towards him.
Unbeknownst to Zhang Ergou, because the black iron sphere had recognized him as its master,
this world was now dominated by him. When he began to circulate his cultivation technique, the entire small world revolved around him.
The spiritual energy within the small world all converged towards him.
As the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art circulated, vast amounts of spiritual energy surged and eagerly entered Zhang Ergou's body.
The spiritual fire within his body was also not idle; it tempered the incoming spiritual energy, refining it into an even purer form.
This refined spiritual energy was then channeled into every meridian in Zhang Ergou's body.
Through the repeated cleansing by the spiritual energy, the strength of Zhang Ergou's meridians further increased, and their capacity to hold spiritual energy more than doubled.
Zhang Ergou was fully aware of the changes within his body, but he did not pause. Instead, he accelerated the speed at which he circulated his cultivation technique.
After completing thirty-six cycles, Zhang Ergou opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of stale air.
Upon completing the full thirty-six cycles, three full days had passed in the small world.
Stretching his limbs, a series of cracking sounds echoed, and he felt his body undergo further changes.
It seemed he had grown taller.
During this period, Zhang Ergou went out of his room to check again. As expected, less than two and a half hours had passed in the outside world.
Zhang Ergou was ecstatic.
He returned to the iron sphere space once more, and this time he continued to cultivate the Sky Phoenix Body Refining technique.
During his more than half a year in the inner sect of the Misty Sect, Chìyù had consistently made him practice basic body refinement skills.
However, Zhang Ergou knew he couldn't abandon this abnormal body refinement technique that allowed him to become stronger.
Crack! Crack!
A sound of bones breaking echoed. Despite having undergone countless cultivations, this inhuman pain was not something an ordinary person could endure.
Zhang Ergou forced himself not to make a sound, but the contorted expression on his face showed that he was not feeling well.
After enduring countless body refinements, he had become somewhat immune to this pain, no longer suffering as unbearably as he had in the beginning.
Another series of cracking sounds ensued as his bones broke and then reformed.
Zhang Ergou's entire body was covered in blood and grime. Each session of cultivating the Sky Phoenix Body Refining was akin to undergoing a slow slicing.
The Sky Phoenix Body Refining technique had three levels, and Zhang Ergou was currently cultivating the first level, Marrow Cleansing.
Each time he practiced the Sky Phoenix Body Refining, he had to not only reconstruct the meridians and bones of his body but also undergo tempering by spiritual fire.
This was simply not a cultivation technique that ordinary cultivators could endure.
It was only someone like Zhang Ergou, a madman, who could withstand it.
However, the results were also very apparent...