Waiting!!

Xu Xian's plan was nearing its conclusion. He had cultivated demon qi, condensed nether fire, fused the Shadow Soul Stones, and forged the mecha.

The final step was practical application.

He needed to figure out how to make this mecha, constructed entirely of Shadow Soul Stones, sink into the nether water and how to control it freely once submerged.

Sinking into the Ruoshui was not difficult. He only needed to manifest the Yellow Spring Burial or the Heaven-Burning Sparrow and hold it in his hand. By leveraging the power of a divine sword, he could continue to descend. As long as the sword did not return to the tower, the mecha would not float.

The difficulty lay in control.

Divine sense was isolated within the Ruoshui, and demon power and spirit qi could hardly function. Conventional methods would not work. There was only one path: cultivating the Telekinesis Immortal Art to its absolute peak.

That was the Spirit Control realm.

Only by reaching that state could he operate a mecha forged from Shadow Soul Stones underwater in the enclosed conditions of the nether water.

Xu Xian had practiced the Telekinesis Art back at the Wendao Sect and had achieved some success, mastering the ability to control qi and objects with ease.

At that time, his progress into the Person Control realm had been delayed due to his limited cultivation stage.

Now that he had broken through to the sixth stage and possessed the support of the Pupil of Insight, Xu Xian's divine sense was far beyond what it once was. According to the analysis of the little book spirit, Xu Xian theoretically met the requirements to practice the Person Control realm.

The problem remained the same: he needed time to comprehend and familiarize himself with it.

What a hassle!

Since entering the Demon Abyss, more than four months had passed in the blink of an eye. Although Xu Xian had never delayed and had continued to stockpile Shadow Soul Stones while executing his plan, he was still short.

Excluding the giant table and the materials wasted during the forging of the mecha, he still had over three million stones in his warehouse.

That amounted to just over thirty thousand tons. Even including the table, it was less than three hundred thousand tons.

This was a far cry from the million tons he had planned for. He knew very well that if he honestly tried to accumulate a million tons of Shadow Soul Stones, he would have to hollow out the foundations of the Ten Great Demon God Palaces.

Relying solely on the earnings from the heavenly demon race and earthly demon race would take forever. Even if Huang Xiao sold all the items he brought at high prices, it still wouldn't be enough.

Therefore...

The third stage of the Telekinesis Art was difficult to cultivate, but it was still easier and more feasible than earning money the slow way.

Xu Xian knew clearly that there were few paths available to him, and the time remaining was growing short.

While the demon gods were still testing the feasibility of the primordial demon art and had not yet fully comprehended it, he had to seize the moment to cultivate the immortal telekinesis art to the great ascension stage.

Bitter cultivation!

Bitter cultivation!

It proved the old saying: as long as you aren't afraid of suffering, you will have an endless supply of it.

However, he no longer practiced in isolation as before. Now, Xu Xian openly meditated on the Telekinesis Art in front of others every day.

Telekinesis was a mandatory skill for demon cultivators, human cultivators, and even the demon race.

Lifting the light as heavy and lifting the heavy as light, being able to change the weight of an object at will—that was telekinesis.

Using spirit qi to control any object from a distance—that was spirit control.

These abilities could be achieved by anyone at the common fifth stage.

As for the final Person Control, the principle was essentially the same. It used divine sense as the connection between the user and the object, using one's cultivation to control all things, even acting upon living beings.

Powerhouses at the great ascension stage or tribulation transcendence stage could do it with a single thought.

It wasn't inherently difficult.

The challenge Xu Xian faced was simply that his cultivation was too low, and his divine sense was insufficient to support such absolute control.

Therefore, he had to take a shortcut, using the Pupil of Insight to precisely allocate his divine sense and cultivation, using the minimum force to move the largest lever.

The Pupil of Insight was that fulcrum.

What he needed to do was find the right distance and continuously practice until he could maintain control for an extended period.

He didn't care if outsiders saw these methods.

Xu Xian's uncharacteristic behavior of practicing in public did indeed give the demon gods a certain impression. They began to think that Bai Mang had finally accepted his current situation.

He had moved on.

He no longer had other schemes.

Those demon gods who had been hesitating whether to wait a bit longer before practicing the primordial demon art made up their minds after seeing his reaction and began their attempts.

Even the Small Priest cast her sister's warnings to the back of her mind and began studying it in private.

In response, the High Priest saw everything but chose to permit it, even though she still felt that things were not as simple as they appeared on the surface.

At the same time, she was secretly accelerating her plans to test Bai Mang.

She had a strong intuition that Bai Mang might already be able to condense nether fire.

Otherwise, why would he waste his days studying a telekinesis technique that didn't seem to have much practical use?

However, no matter how meticulous her plan was, she still needed someone to execute it.

A seventh stage cultivator could not pose a threat to Bai Mang, and a common eighth stage would find it difficult to force out Bai Mang's trump cards in a short amount of time.

She had to use a powerhouse at the late-stage eighth-rank greater demon king level.

Only then could she ensure the plan was foolproof.

In the Demon Abyss, powerhouses at the late-stage eighth rank were few and far between. Those who were willing to serve her, shared her values, and were loyal to her were even fewer.

Qingmu barely counted as one.

But clearly, he was not suitable. After all, Qingmu had been in contact with Bai Mang for a long time, and Bai Mang would certainly see through the ruse.

If he guessed her purpose, he would never reveal his trump cards.

Should she disguise herself again? That didn't seem right either.

Finally, she could only turn to her younger sister, the Small Priest, and have her strike in secret to force Bai Mang to use the Nether Fire Secret Art.

Although the Small Priest secretly engaged in small schemes against her sister, at the end of the day, they were siblings. More importantly, Jin Yu had been raised by Jin Qing.

To her, Jin Qing was a sister, a master, and a mother.

Inherently, she was biased toward her sister.

She accepted the task readily, willing to help without asking for a reason, even though she knew that if Bai Mang truly could condense nether fire, it would trigger a turbulent undercurrent for her and her sister.

The Demon Abyss, which had been peaceful for several months, would once again face a violent storm.

But so be it.

Some things simply had to be done.

The plan proceeded quietly as time ticked away. The rain in the Demon Abyss had fallen for three consecutive months. When the time was half over, Xu Xian's Telekinesis Art had made significant progress.

He was also waiting for the right moment to escape this residence and leap into the Nether Pool.

He didn't just want to leave; he wanted to leave in a logical way. He couldn't just disappear, as that would alert the demon gods.

He needed to be forced into the Nether Pool, preferably creating the illusion of his death.

Furthermore, it was best if everyone believed he had been killed by someone from within the Demon Abyss.

First, this would eliminate future troubles. He wouldn't have to worry about them searching for him everywhere or locking down the Blazing Fortress and the three Nether Creeks.

Second, he wanted to make life difficult for the Demon Abyss. It would be best if a group of demon gods started infighting and exhausting themselves.

Also, by making them firmly believe in the cultivation of the primordial demon art, he hoped they would eventually develop heart demons. It would be best if a few died from it, or at least ended up crippled.

He wanted to land a heavy blow on this already declining Demon Abyss, making it stay down just like the East Desolation.

In this way, he could be considered to have resolved a threat on behalf of the Wendao Sect.

There was no helping it; since he was the Little Grand-Uncle, the greater the power, the greater the responsibility.

Xu Xian knew very well that Jin Qing didn't just care about the primordial demon art, but the Nether Fire Secret Art. Therefore, she would certainly find someone to test whether he had mastered the nether fire.

How would she test him?

Aside from throwing him into the Nether Pool and pushing him to the brink, he couldn't imagine what else she would do.

Therefore, Xu Xian planned to beat her at her own game and wait for Jin Qing to act.

Privately, he would occasionally test Qingmu, but he found that the other party showed no reaction at all. Under the surveillance of the little book spirit, Qingmu displayed no abnormalities.

This couldn't help but make Xu Xian feel a bit anxious and impatient.

"Could I be overthinking things?"

"That shouldn't be the case..."

"Or is it someone else?"