Xiang Shaoyun did not use any flux goldthorn energy to help the taurus with his breakthrough. The taurus was different from the turtle and the toad. The two had lived in the golden lake for countless years, and their bodies had gained some flux goldthorn energy without them realizing it. 

As for the taurus, he had never gotten in contact with such power before. If they forced him to absorb the flux goldthorn energy, it would be the same as torturing him to death. Xiang Shaoyun first had the turtle and the toad take care of the taurus. It wouldn't be too late for the taurus to first train under them before breaking through into the Demon Saint realm.

Next, Xiang Shaoyun went to see the angels. They had been at the sect for several days. Although they were living comfortably, they had still decided that it was time for them to return to their race.

Xiang Shaoyun reminded Pudi to invite the high priest to the sect. He wanted to see if he could form a connection between the sect and the angels, creating a situation where the two parties could assist each other. Pudi agreed and promised to deliver the message to the high priest.

Xiang Shaoyun wanted to send someone to see them off, but he found that he had no one he could send. Thus, he had no choice but to have First Gold of the Four Guardians see them off. Although the six angels were strong, they lacked experience. Xiang Shaoyun was worried that they would encounter some mishaps. With First Gold escorting them, he would feel much more comfortable letting them travel.

After the angels left, Xiang Shaoyun returned to the abyss. He started disguising the abyss and used numerous formations to completely isolate the place from the outside world, turning the abyss into his personal cultivation zone.

When he was done with all his preparations, he started cultivating. Seated in the abyss, he adjusted his condition before sending the greenleaf juice to the little tree of life in his astral cosmos sea. The moment the greenleaf juice appeared, the little tree of life seemed to come alive, and it unleashed a powerful suction force toward the greenleaf juice.

The greenleaf juice was a natural spiritual dew formed of the essence of saint-grade trees, and it contained endless vitality. The little tree of life devoured the entire pot of greenleaf juice, not leaving a single drop for Xiang Shaoyun.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

After devouring the greenleaf juice, the little tree of life grew rapidly, its branches and leaves growing at a speed visible to the naked eye. The tree started emanating a vigorous life force.

Xiang Shaoyun could clearly feel the extraordinary life force. It was as though the most primordial life force was coming into existence and influencing everything in his astral cosmos sea. Just as the life force was about to fuse with the primal inception energy, Xiang Shaoyun had a flash of inspiration and hurriedly circulated the life force into his wood star. 

When the energy entered the wood star, it was as though the star had devoured the most precious natural treasure. It filled up at an incredible speed surpassing all of Xiang Shaoyun's expectations. He had only channeled a portion of the little tree of life's life essence into the wood star. It was rather surprising that it actually contained so much power.

It was a pity that he only had a limited amount of greenleaf juice. Even after the little tree of life devoured the entire pot of greenleaf juice, it had only grown a little. Nothing else happened.

This was a tree that Xiang Shaoyun had discovered when he was searching for gleamstar water. He guessed that it was the tree of life depicted in the legends, and it had indeed displayed qualities greatly resembling the legendary tree of life.

However, Xiang Shaoyun had a feeling that nurturing the tree would be extremely hard regardless of whether it was actually the tree of life. For the tree to grow, it needed the irrigation of more spiritual spring water.

The pot of greenleaf juice was purchased after spending two million high-grade spirit crystals, and it was gone instantly. It was understandable why Xiang Shaoyun's heart was aching.

Fortunately, the life essence energy released by the tree was able to fully fill his wood star and greatly increase his own life force. In a way, he had been compensated for what he spent on the greenleaf juice.

Xiang Shaoyun's gaze landed on the gold tree sapling. It was growing healthily and was much taller than before. This was all thanks to the unique environment in his astral cosmos sea. If the tree was growing in the outside world, it wouldn't have grown so fast.

After the gold tree sapling matures, I will plant it outside the sect to make it a sect guardian, thought Xiang Shaoyun inwardly. As for the little tree of life, before he had absolute strength, he wouldn't reveal it. His gaze then landed on the goldblood stones. The stones had been with him for a while. The time had come for him to use them.

As something capable of increasing a gold cultivator's combat strength, each goldblood stone was high in value. After refining a piece of goldblood stone, Xiang Shaoyun found that he hadn't even grown much at all. He was disappointed.

"Since I already have the flux goldthorn energy, this goldblood stone is no longer useful for me," muttered Xiang Shaoyun with deep disappointment.

His next option was to accumulate more wind, light, and flame energies. As the yin wind stone was one of the materials used to forge his soul foundation, it wasn't difficult for him to increase his absorption speed of wind energy. As for flame energy, Yun Flame would help increase his energy absorption speed. Of the three, only the light energy was slightly slow for him to accumulate. Since he did not have any unique variant light energies on him, he could only rely on the profundity of light to increase his light cultivation.

Although Xiang Shaoyun absorbed energy 10 times faster than a regular cultivator, he still needed some time to push all nine of his stars to peak first-stage Sovereign Realm level.

In the blink of an eye, three months passed. 

After cultivating tirelessly, Xiang Shaoyun pushed all nine of his stars to the peak, stepping through the first stage and entering the second-stage Sovereign Realm. His breakthrough had been extremely smooth. After all, he had long gathered sufficient accumulation. Several of his stars were already overflowing with energy, forcing him to break through.

After reaching the second-stage Sovereign Realm, his soul foundation gained its second layer. Numerous new and complicated soul marks appeared on his soul foundation. His soul was seated cross-legged within the foundation, allowing all the soul marks to be carved onto it. This was a long process that would result in the creation of a saint soul once completed. At that time, everything would change for him.

Xiang Shaoyun's soul had already touched upon the powers of cultivation only available to those in the Saint Realm. His soul was so strong it left even him in disbelief. However, he also knew very well that his soul was still not a true saint soul yet. Perhaps it was now only a pseudo-saint soul, half a step away from becoming a true saint soul. He had the urge to swallow the saint soul pill to directly forge a saint soul, but he suppressed the urge.

Sure, the pill could allow him to quickly possess a saint soul, but he always believed it would be better for him to take that step after his body caught up with his soul in strength. Otherwise, an imbalance might occur between his body and soul. If that happened, things would get troublesome.

At this time, Xiang Shaoyun took out the Extreme Chill Curved Sword and started studying it again. He kept having a feeling that this Extreme Chill Curved Sword had an extraordinary origin. It was now time to unveil the secret behind this sword.