Ye Jing was about to approach the mountain peak of the Holy Citadel City and her feelings were mixed. She had bade farewell to her Celestial Teacher the Lofty Lady of the Nine Flutes after cultivating with her for 5 years to take up the Holy Consort position of the Holy Citadel City. Her father, the previous Holy Sovereign of the Holy Citadel City had passed away 3 years earlier in a failed attempt to overcome the Golden Celestial boundaries which would make him an enviable Golden Celestial.

She was grieved and mourned for her father for 3 years. She was his only daughter and she loved her father so much. He was a loving father but she knew that he was constantly anxious about the survival of the Holy Citadel City and so she rarely got to see him.

Like many of the celestial clans, the Holy Citadel City was situated on a mountain peak that was rich in spiritual veins and this rich source of spiritual veins was suitable for the cultivators to cultivate their inner cores.

The Holy Citadel City was not a real city. It was a celestial clan and many of the celestial clans had chosen to name their clans differently and even had their own titles. It had only a population of twenty thousands and around ten thousands were cultivators.

Further away from the mountain peak of the Holy Citadel City, were five cities that surrounded it. These cities were directly under the influences of the Holy Citadel City and every year potential cultivators from these five cities would come to the Holy Citadel City to take the trial to be a real cultivator.

The Holy Citadel City was one of the nine patriarch celestial clans in the Nine Celestial Fraternity and stronger than most of the second tier celestial clans. But it was also the weakest among the nine patriarch celestial clans. The number one patriarch celestial clans, the Ancient Ascension Sect had more than thirty thousand cultivators and numerous cultivator talents.

The Ancient Ascension Sect was the leader of the nine patriarch celestial clans, the beacon of light against the other powerful influences of the celestial fraternity like the dark celestial clans. Currently the number one dark celestial clan was the Scarlet Heretic Sect, one of the three heretic major sects.

Beside powerful influences like the Scarlet Heretic Sect, there were also the three celestial consecrated places in the outer celestial fraternity that were not to be underestimated. They were the Goddess Palace, the Devil Isle and the Melancholy Valley. For thousands of years, thousands of righteous cultivators and dark cultivators had attempted to demystify these three celestial consecrated places but the few survivors could only bring back stories of horrors.

There were even major expeditions by the previous strong leaders of the celestial fraternity, be it the righteous celestial clans or the heretic celestial clans but the results were always a total failure.

Since the cultivators of these three consecrated celestial clans did not appear to intervene in the affairs of the celestial fraternity and were all situated in the extreme polarities of the outer celestial fraternity, the celestial fraternity at large did not view them as an immediate threat compared to their more immediate rivals.

Ye Jing made landfall on the platform of the inner court and she was immediately greeted by an elegant lady and several maids.

That was her mother, the Lady Consort Ye.

Her mother smiles gently, “My daughter is all grown up now. Isn’t that Yu’Er? She seems to be bigger now and more beautiful now.”

Yu’Er shrieked happily with the praises. As a divine beast, she could understand the human emotions and she knew that she was being praised upon.

Ye Jing immediately greeted, “Mother, your daughter pays my respect to you. How are things going on your side?”

Her mother smiled gently and whispered as she ushered her into the palace, “I have missed you so much, my child. It is nigh time that you take the appointment of the Holy Consort and this matter shouldn’t be delayed.”

Ye Jing nodded quietly.

Her mother had already told her via a secret transmission slip that the elders of the clan had wanted to appoint her Uncle Ye Baitian as the Holy Sovereign instead of her. Her uncle was a Golden Celestial and some of the elders felt that the Holy Citadel City had a better future with him as their leader. After all, she was a lowly Enlighten Celestial plus she was really too young. That was why she had forced herself to attain as an Immortal Celestial at a terrible price to her future attainment.

Her mother said, “In three days’ time, we will hold the ceremony for your appointment. Usually for such an important occasion, we ought to invite the other major celestial clans but we have no more time. Your uncle is too ambitious for me to handle and he had…”

She hesitated for a while before whispering, “He had tried to make several overturns to me. I am afraid that…”

Ye Jing held her mother’s hand gently, “I understand…please don’t worry.”

Her mother nodded with bleary eyes and said, “Child, your room and your practice room are already prepared. You may want to have a little rest first?”

Ye Jing said gently, “I’m not tired. I will like to go to the practice room first. I have some meditations to ponder upon.”

Her mother nodded, “I will go and announce your homecoming to the elders and the immediate allies first.”

Ye Jing said, “Thank you mother…”

After watching her mother disappeared from view, she muttered. “It must be hard on mother all these years.”

With a sad sigh, she proceeded to the practice room and seated herself on the meditating bed.

She took out the Revelation Divine Sword. It was an extreme negative divine sword and her attribute was also the extreme negative. It was difficult to obtain a sword of the extreme negative attribute moreover this was also a divine sword. Not just a divine sword but also a superior grade divine sword. Normally the grade of an item would have a half-step, earth-step and a heaven-step denoted to it. A superior grade would mean a heaven-step. High grade would mean earth-step while a half-step would mean a low grade quality.

Negative precious swords were actually quite common. Her first sword was of the negative type. However to further refine a negative type to pure negative type was very difficult, having a 1 in 100 success rate. To further refine a pure negative type to extreme negative type was another 1 in 100 success rate. So one could imagine how unobtainable an extreme negative sword was. To craft one extreme negative sword, 10 000 precious swords must be sacrificed.

A superior grade, heaven step extreme negative precious sword would require 10 000 superior grade heaven step negative precious sword to begin with. Even a rich clan like the Holy Citadel City could not afford a single extreme negative precious sword for her. It was worth 10 Yu’Er!

She cursed herself for having such an unreasonable attribute.

But now she had an extreme negative heaven-step divine sword in her hands. Her fingers were trembling as she took out the Revelation Divine Sword.

Without a corresponding same attribute treasure, the flow of cultivating would be reduced drastically. For example, if she were to use a negative sword to cultivate her extreme negative inner core, she would only absorb spiritual force at a ¼ rate. If she had a pure negative sword then it will be a ½ rate. If she had a corresponding attribute, then the absorb rate will be unobstructed.

Currently she was using a pure negative attribute earth-step precious sword and the spiritual force absorb rate is 1/2.

Furthermore each time a cultivator overcomes a celestial stage, it gets increasing difficult to absorb spiritual force, increasing at a rate of factor of 1 and the spiritual boundaries would double. Every celestial level had 3 celestial stages, initial, intermediate and upper tier.

When she had just overcome the Enlighten Celestial to the Immortal Celestial level, she had already gambled with everything that she had got to increase the strength of her inner core and to expand her spiritual boundaries.

No matter what price she had to pay, she had to overcome the limitations of the Enlighten Celestial to become an Immortal Celestial as soon as possible. She did not care if she would be struck forever. This caused her spiritual force absorption rate to slow down tremendously to a point that she could barely cultivate.

But she did not care. She had managed to attain the Immortal Celestial level, a crucial level that could allow her to raise her status and to protect her mother.

By a miraculous encounter with the Celestial Yuehua, her inner core impurities were removed and now she was able to cultivate again. Moreover she was now in the intermediate Immortal Celestial level after absorbing the spiritual force of Celestial Yuehua’s ascension. She was probably one of the youngest cultivators to be able to attain to this level and until now she was still finding it impossible to believe.

But when she thought of Dugu Fang, she began to sob uncontrollably.