"When will the Grand Illusionary Realm open?" Jiang Chen asked.
Zhen Wudi curled his lip. "Not long ago you'd have sworn the Grand Illusionary Realm wouldn't see the light of day for at least a hundred years. Who can set a fixed date?"
Jiang Chen nodded thoughtfully.
Perhaps the Grand Illusionary Realm was no secret at all to those standing at certain heights. The ignorance of mankind so often came down to nothing more than how low one stood.
Just as the ordinary folk who had never transcended could scarcely hope to learn the secrets of the dire beasts in their whole lives.
And what he had to do was to grow stronger, and quickly, so as to greet that infinitely broad future that held countless opportunities — and no fewer challenges!
"Brother Dugu, we're friends now, aren't we?"
The fat man Zhen made to sling a companionable arm over his shoulder, but Jiang Chen sidestepped it.
"If Brother Zhen has something to say, you may say it plainly."
"Heh heh heh." Zhen Wudi gave a lecherous grin and said, "That secret art of the Chong Xuan clan I used when I duelled you — don't go spreading it around when you meet others."
So he was of a clan surnamed Chong Xuan, and that clan seemed quite renowned. Jiang Chen thought to himself.
In fact, when he replayed the battles in his mind, he had long since seen through the trick. That heavy water shield had never been real. Zhen Wudi's secret art did not condense heavy water at all — it layered a weight of gravity onto his Dao arts!
Take the water shield of their first battle, or the fireball with which he had slain in the second. Both were such.
That such a secret art could be so devastating made it hardly surprising that a clan had built its fame upon it.
"If Brother Zhen does not wish it, this one naturally will not prattle," said Jiang Chen. "But you must fight a few more bouts with me."
Joy crossed Zhen Wudi's face, then quickly turned to misery, and he could not help trying to talk his way out. "What glory is there in rule over the Spirit Wander realm? What matters most at this stage is to perfect the Three Talents and lay a solid foundation for the road ahead. Dao arts are but the means to guard the path; the path itself is the core."
"You speak very truly," said Jiang Chen, "but I am not listening."
"..." Zhen Wudi's plump face twitched. "Even if you beat me, you'll hardly rule the Spirit Wander realm. I didn't even crack the top hundred."
"Beating you is enough."
"Brother Dugu's thirst for revenge is truly strong..."
"Brother Zhen." Jiang Chen said, all seriousness. "Since you have already exposed yourself before me, you can use your secret art without the least restraint. It's not like fighting others, where you have to be forever covering it up and unable to let yourself go. What harm is there in gaining me as a sparring partner?"
...
And so the long-running series of duels between Dugu Wudi and Zhen Wudi unfolded within the Grand Illusionary Realm. But in the real world, the waters were far from calm either.
Closer to home, Li Jianqiu was making his name in the Commandery Dao Academy, almost the most dazzling figure among all the new disciples. His battle system was laid open for all to dissect, and it turned out he cultivated the path of the Dao Sword. The Maple Forest City Dao Academy had never passed on such an art — no one knew where he had learned it.
And "Wang the Blower" was not to be outdone, the fame of the Maple Forest City Dao Academy rising still higher on his back.
For the common folk of Maple Forest City, oddly enough, it was Wang Hao they held in greater affection. Li Jianqiu had always been low-key, and since entering the commandery academy he had only devoted himself more single-mindedly to bitter cultivation. He had no ties left in Maple Forest City, and scarcely ever returned.
Wang Hao, by contrast, came back to see his clan every few days and was warmly welcomed by the townsfolk.
Farther afield, the great villain of the left way Ouyang Lie had reappeared in the world, cradling a Ghost Gate Gate Shadow to crush Cloud City in might, besting several deliberative elders in a row, his murderous prestige surging to the heavens as he proclaimed he would seize control of the entire city — all who refused were to die.
It was then that Ye Ling, lord of the Lingxiao Pavilion, broke out of his secluded cultivation, crushed him with overwhelming force, and sent him fleeing gravely wounded.
Now the whole State of Yun was on high alert, hunting Ouyang Lie and all his disciples and followers to the four winds.
Ouyang Lie had another identity besides — Grand Elder of the Bone Lotus Path.
This heretic sect, which had once nearly toppled the State of Zhuang and committed countless atrocities throughout history, now threatened to rise from its ashes. It sent every man's heart into trembling alarm.
And then someone exposed the fact that the massacre of Xiaolin Town in the Qinghe Commandery district of Maple Forest City had been orchestrated by the demons of the Bone Lotus Path all along, and that the Ghost Gate Gate Shadow Ouyang Lie flaunted across the State of Yun had been condensed in that very sacrifice. Wei Quji, meanwhile, had concealed the situation to cover his own failure, giving the Bone Lotus Path room to expand its gains.
When this news broke, the whole nation erupted. Following the name Zhu Weiwuo had made for himself across the land, the Maple Forest City district again became the focus of every eye — only this time, the reputation attached to it was entirely changed.
Afterward, Wei Quji went so far as to personally petition the throne to accept blame, in his capacity as city lord.
Of course, Dean Dong's name was written on that self-accusation petition as well.
...
Jiang Chen had been so absorbed in the battles of the Grand Illusionary Realm that he only learned of these matters two days later.
The rest he could let pass, but of all things, the news of the Bone Lotus Path made his heart jump.
So at last he understood what the Bone Lotus Path was — only, he had not expected to learn it in this fashion.
Late one night he held up a mirror and examined himself, feeling dread at the white bone lotus upon his back.
He would never accept the left-way heresies, and refused to admit he had any part in them.
But that bone lotus that had appeared so abruptly refused to let him ignore the possibility.
There was also that mysterious black candle within the Celestial Palace, and the Flesh-Restoring Soul-Return Art it had transmitted...
All of it made Jiang Chen uneasy.
It seemed the only one he could ask was Bai Lian.
But Bai Lian had not shown herself for a long time, and he did not know where to look for her.
Bai Lian... Bai Lian...
The name this woman had spouted offhandedly now set his imagination running without end. He still owed Bai Lian a favor, and he wished fervently that matter would be settled soon and over — yet at the same time, dreaded its coming.
From Bifeng Peak to the bank of the Clear River, he found himself once more entangled in the role he was playing. Confusion and struggle gnawed at him.
At least... there was battle.
Fighting with every ounce of his strength within the Grand Illusionary Realm was his remedy.
Unmindful of life and death, releasing everything.
Rising battle power was his courage.
Only by growing and strengthening without cease did he feel he could stand against all those things that unsettled him.
In his sparring with Zhen Wudi, he could at last win an occasional bout now. Out of every ten duels, one or two would go to him.
It could not be helped. A Zhen Wudi who had unleashed his true self truly deserved the name Invincible.
His clan's secret arts, whether the Pseudo-Instant Cast state or the manipulation of gravity upon Dao arts, were monstrous in the extreme. Fighting other people, Zhen Wudi had to disguise certain flourishes lest the roots of his art be perceived. Against Jiang Chen, no such care was needed.
The moment that fatty slipped into his Pseudo-Instant Cast state and hurled a gravity-boosted Dao art, if Jiang Chen were not careful, he would be crushed to death on the spot.
Jiang Chen calculated that to gain a genuine edge in open battle, he would need to bring the Four Spirits Body-Tempering Art to completion and have imprinted an instant-cast Dao art within the Celestial Palace. But by then, he would no longer be in the Spirit Wander realm.
That was no failing of his own — it was simply the gulf in the two men's innate foundations.
Merit drained away like flowing water, while the plump Zhen Wudi pocketed his gains with a grin he could not keep shut.
But the raising of battle power was a pursuit without end.
When his merit had fallen to a mere three thousand points, Jiang Chen ran into a bottleneck.
The Purple Qi Eastward Sword Art could rise no further, short of a transcendental breakthrough in his understanding of the sword. The Four Spirits Body-Tempering Art was a matter of grinding persistence, not to be rushed. He naturally turned his gaze to the Dao art Dean Dong had passed down to him — the Flame Flower.
But this art was truly difficult. As a superior third-grade Dao art, it belonged to a level meant for cultivators of the Zhou Heavenly realm.
For a cultivator of Jiang Chen's Spirit Wander stage it was something of a stretch. Yet he had chosen to cultivate the Vermilion Bird chapter before others after the Azure Dragon chapter of the Four Spirits Body-Tempering Art precisely to heighten his affinity and control over fire-element primal energy, and thereby master the Flame Flower early.
It was the most powerful Dao art he could command at this stage.
Yet even with the help of Swift Seal Casting, he could complete the Flame Flower's preparatory stages — only to stall every time at the step of "the bloom."
Jiang Chen leafed through Dean Dong's notes in search of the cause, and his gaze suddenly came to rest on a single sentence. He had read it many times before, but had always overlooked it, because it read like a casual exclamation.
That sentence was: Every flower possesses a beauty all its own.
Jiang Chen tried to understand the meaning of these words.
Then why should every flower possess a beauty all its own?
Because they came into being naturally — and precisely because of that, they were free from monotonous sameness.
Jiang Chen closed the notebook.
He had found the source of the problem.