# Chapter 161: The Strongest Opponent
The storm had passed and quietly melted away. The clash of family power behind it was visible only to those with eyes to see. And Xu Xiangqian himself, in all likelihood, had not the faintest inkling of any of it. To encounter Jiang Wang before entering the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm, he was quite delighted about it.
The two of them had, after all, shared a brief fellowship in times of danger. Though, judging by the background Xu Xiangqian now displayed, perhaps in that earlier affair the only one in real peril had been Jiang Wang himself...
"Brother Xu." Jiang Wang wore a faint, wry smile. "Why do you not call me uncle anymore?"
Xu Xiangqian waved a hand: "Back then my eyes were dim. Dim indeed."
With that said, he very enthusiastically pulled forward the spirited youth beside him, whose brow was bound with a jade circlet, and first introduced Jiang Wang: "This is a friend I met in the Kingdom of You. He looks as if he were older, but really it is merely a boy's grey hair—he is young! And of excellent character!"
Then he introduced the spirited youth: "This is Li Longchuan. He is quite good with a bow!"
Jiang Wang exchanged a glance with Li Longchuan, and together they gave a helpless smile.
They exchanged greetings, and having chatted barely a few words, Jiang Wang noticed Chongxuan Sheng poking at him. Of course Chongxuan Sheng knew Li Longchuan, but he did not take the initiative to speak with him. Instead he secretly jabbed Jiang Wang with a fat finger, his voice threading furtively into Jiang Wang's ear: "Watch yourself. This here is our rival!"
Li Longchuan, apparently noticing Chongxuan Sheng's little gesture, said with a smile: "Brother Chongxuan, I trust you are well?"
"Thanks to your good grace." Chongxuan Sheng snorted through his nostrils: "This young master is doing quite well for himself."
Li Longchuan smiled and said no more.
Chongxuan Sheng, in turn, shot him a sidelong glance: "How is it that even the great Li Longchuan needs to hire outside help?"
"I, of course, need none." Li Longchuan smiled faintly, exuding an unshakable confidence: "Brother Xu is not my hired help. For this entry into the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm, he needs not seize opportunities on my behalf. Whatever one wins is one's own—in that sense, he counts as my rival too. And he will not hold back in the least."
"Exactly so!" Xu Xiangqian chimed in with a righteous face: "In the contest of gentlemen, one must surely give one's all!"
Chongxuan Sheng felt he had pressed forward only to receive a slap across the face, and found the affair most unamusing. He tugged at Jiang Wang and said: "Then we shall see each other inside the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm. We have tactics to discuss, so we'll be off."
Having said this, he forcibly dragged Jiang Wang toward a corner. Fourteen naturally followed at his heels, a step behind. Jiang Wang could only offer Li Longchuan and Xu Xiangqian an apologetic smile, then follow.
In truth, what tactics were there to discuss? Whatever needed discussing had long since been settled. As for the rest, everyone was equally in the dark about what lay within the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm, and there was nothing to hash out. Chongxuan Sheng simply wanted to put some distance between himself and Li Longchuan. This Jiang Wang knew, and Li Longchuan knew as well. Perhaps Xu Xiangqian alone was the exception...
He waved with great enthusiasm: "Brother Jiang! See you inside the realm! A contest of gentlemen!"
Having said this, he clenched his fist with a great show of force.
On this side, Chongxuan Sheng pulled Jiang Wang into the corner and admonished him: "Though that lad Li Longchuan is nothing much to look at, his strength is formidable indeed. We must by no means let down our guard. And do not stay long beside him—linger with him and his arrows will find your weaknesses on their own."
Jiang Wang was taken aback: "Is he that fearsome?"
In doing so, he overlooked Chongxuan Sheng's inexplicable confidence in his own looks. Or rather—he had, without realizing it, grown accustomed to it...
"Whatever did you think?" Chongxuan Sheng's small eyes made a valiant effort to roll. Then of a sudden he grew a little embarrassed: "By rights, we are friends, and I should not have you hunting opportunities on my behalf. But locking down a divine-power Inner Prefecture in advance is of the greatest importance to me. Once I have secured my spoil, I will straightway help you seize yours!"
"What of it?" Jiang Wang laughed at that. "In business, even brothers keep clear accounts. You did not trick me into this; I agreed of my own will. And besides—even if I were willing to help strangers hunt for opportunities, would any of them grant me a slot?"
Chongxuan Sheng was plainly a little moved, and patted Jiang Wang on the shoulder: "That you can think this way... is more than I could have hoped."
In truth, it was not easy for people to tell good from ill, and the question of proportion was the hardest to grasp. The proverb of "a peck of rice for reward, a bushel for enmity" describes precisely what happens when both parties fail to master the proper measure. To hold everything in the heart and weigh every trifle only plants a seed of distance between people, and that gap only widens as time goes on. To lay matters plainly on the table, as Chongxuan Sheng did, was instead the surer way to keep friendship from harm.
Amid each one's qualms, hopes, and talk, time slowly wore by.
Of a sudden, someone noticed that, at some point, a full moon's reflection had appeared in the center of the Full Moon Pool. Yet the moon in the sky had plainly not yet risen.
Just then, night fell.
The buildings surrounding the Full Moon Pool formed a ring of long corridors that enclosed the pool itself. The flying eaves of the corridor never crossed the boundary; the entire Full Moon Pool lay bare beneath the open night sky.
According to past experience, when the moon in the sky overlapped with the moon in the water at a certain time, the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm would open.
Jiang Wang studied the sky. There was still some distance before the moon climbed to its peak overhead.
Just then.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
A steady, crystal-clear footfall struck into every ear present.
Chongxuan Sheng's face changed. He said to Jiang Wang: "The greatest opponent has come."
Emerging from the corridor and walking to the edge of the Full Moon Pool was a man in martial dress with a very long face. His face was extremely long, yet he did not seem ill-favored; on the contrary, those sharp eyes and that high, straight nose lent him a charm all his own.
Even with the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm about to open, the crowd could not help whispering among themselves.
"How has he come?" "Wang Yiwu... why would he come here?" "What need has he?"
This was a stir that even Li Longchuan's arrival had not provoked. One could see the weight of the man's presence.
"Who is he?" To avoid bringing trouble upon himself, Jiang Wang asked through sound-transmission.
In his ear came Chongxuan Sheng's voice, laced with hidden anger: "The final disciple-in-name of the Great Qi War God, Jiang Mengxiong. The youngest, the weakest in cultivation—yet Jiang Mengxiong holds him in his sights as the next war god of Qi! He has no need at all to come to the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm. He is still only in the Heaven-Access Realm, but from the moment he opened his meridians he perceived his own divine-power seed.
"His torso sea has long since been wholly purified; the Heaven-Earth Gate is as brittle as thin paper to him. He need only push open the Heaven-Earth Gate, and the Inner Prefecture will at once be within his reach, the divine power his for the taking. He need not refine himself within the Dragon-Rising Realm at all. He yet lingers before the Heaven-Earth Gate for no other reason than that he is too strong. The gate cannot consume enough of his strength; in the instant his Dao vein takes its Dragon-Rising leap, unable to gather in his power, he might well damage his torso sea and wound the very foundation of his great path. Jiang Mengxiong has been racking his brains for ways to strengthen his Heaven-Earth Gate."
The Heaven-Earth Gate was a mighty pass on the road of cultivation, barring countless cultivators. Some spent their whole lives unable to push it open; some, having opened it, were drained of body and mind, too feeble to preside over the Dragon-Rising of their Dao vein, leaving them deficient at the very outset of the Dragon-Rising Realm. And a genius such as Wang Yiwu must instead slow his steps because the gate was too fragile!
From Chongxuan Sheng's words, Jiang Wang also caught a point of importance. Wang Yiwu had no need whatsoever to come to the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm—yet he had come all the same.
"So..." Jiang Wang asked. "He has come for you?"
With strength such as Chongxuan Sheng's, if he fought at full capacity, he could easily fight his way into the top hundred of the Heaven-Access Realm within the Taixu Illusory Realm. At last Jiang Wang understood why someone as strong as Chongxuan Sheng, exploring a Secret Realm in which all rivals were restricted to below the Dragon-Rising Realm, should still need to seek helpers.
Chongxuan Sheng's face was grim beyond measure: "I had thought he would not go that far."
Tap! Tap! Tap!
The sound of boots striking the ground seemed to strike upon the heart of every competitor.
Wang Yiwu walked past the crowd and straight to Chongxuan Sheng in the corner.
"It is not too late to turn back now," he said.
At this, Chongxuan Sheng's expression grew instead eerily calm. He narrowed those already-small eyes: "You and Chongxuan Zun are loyal friends indeed."
He made no threat, for threats were useless. He offered no provocation, for provocation would only bring humiliation upon himself. But he would not turn back. He would only strike back.
Those who knew Chongxuan Sheng but slightly would think him a complicated man—childish at times, deep at others. And his ruthless tenacity was known to very few.
To Chongxuan Sheng's reaction, Wang Yiwu neither grew angry nor smiled. He spoke no more. He merely turned sideways and stood there, beside Chongxuan Sheng, Jiang Wang, and Fourteen. He did not say another word.
But then, there was nothing more that needed saying.
...
...
ps: Wishing everyone a happy New Year! May you all find your own direction. Next year, we shall keep striving together!