Deep in some remote mountain forest.
In a clearing carved by human hands.
Zhao Yan sat on the ground, head hanging low.
Any old acquaintance from Maple Forest City would have found it hard to recognize Zhao Yan as he appeared now.
His long hair hung in disarray, his robes were dirty and torn, and he was simply sitting on the ground!
For Zhao Yan, who had always been fastidious about everything — clothes, food, shelter, travel — this was simply inconceivable.
Yet here he sat, disheveled and unkempt, looking no different from any common vagrant.
Uncle Deng stood before him, his voice still gentle but tinged with doubt. "Are you truly certain?"
"No need to think further." Zhao Yan raised his head and spoke quietly.
His unkempt appearance couldn't hide his striking beauty.
But his face was no longer marked by its usual playful ease. Instead, it was serious to the point of severity.
"Actually, in the past, when you were content to waste your talent and idle away your time, I tacitly allowed it. Not only because I didn't wish to interfere with your choices, but also because..."
Uncle Deng sighed. "In this frightening world, the stronger you become, the more dangerous what you face will be. With your talent, one day you will encounter dangers even I cannot resolve. Just like..."
"Just like Maple Forest City this time." Zhao Yan finished his sentence. His tone was calm.
Yet it was this deliberate suppression of emotion that truly revealed his pain.
"So." He spoke simply. "All I need to do is become stronger. As long as I'm always stronger than the danger, that's enough."
Uncle Deng fell silent.
Zhao Yan continued. "In the past, I always thought — what's the point of effort? No matter how hard I try, it doesn't matter. Better to muddle through, take each day as it comes. The world is vast, life is short. Walk a little, and there's no need to walk further. Why bother with such hardship?"
"Every time I saw Ling Chuan and Jiang Chen training as if their lives depended on it, I wanted to laugh. But I always ended up laughing until my eyes grew wet."
"At first I didn't understand why I was crying. Later I realized — I wasn't laughing at them. I envied them. I envied that they didn't know what the future held. I envied that they could press forward with conviction. I envied them."
"They had hope, direction, a future. So effort was a happy thing. No matter how hard it was, it was sweet."
"From the day I was born, I had no hope, no direction, no future. The higher I stood, the darker what I saw became. So I envied them. I became their friend. They treated me with sincerity, and I returned it. I mocked them, yet I looked forward to them. Through them, I glimpsed different lives."
"But now." Zhao Yan paused. "All their hope, direction, and future — it's all been severed. And I... I had the chance to prevent it all. If I hadn't wasted my youth. If I hadn't idled away my time."
"Perhaps I could never save myself. But in those few moments, I might have been able to save the people I truly care about. Now — I want to strive for those moments."
As he spoke, Zhao Yan shifted from sitting to kneeling, properly positioning himself on his knees before Uncle Deng.
Uncle Deng watched in silence, making no move to stop him.
Zhao Yan knelt upright and said earnestly: "I know you are very strong. I never cared about such things before. But now — please let me see how strong you truly are."
"Please use every method you can imagine to forge me."
"Please let me see the Deng Yue who once split a river with a single finger."
"Please look forward to my efforts."
He lowered his head, placed both hands flat at his sides, and pressed his forehead to the ground.
Uncle Deng was silent for a very long time before he finally said: "Good."
...
At Chong Xuan Sheng's private residence in Celestial Capital.
Given Chong Xuan Sheng's status, he naturally owned considerable private property.
But in the past, it would have been impossible for him to own a private residence in the impossibly expensive Celestial Capital.
The Celestial Residence had persisted for so long that every scrap of property here had long been claimed.
That was why, when he first met Jiang Chen, he had to host the banquet at his family's restaurant — which led to that incident where Chong Xuan Xin barged in unannounced.
Now, if Chong Xuan Xin dared to intrude on this private residence without permission, Chong Xuan Sheng would kill him on the spot.
This residence had been transferred to Chong Xuan Sheng's name the moment he emerged from the Secret Realm.
It was but a trivial fraction of the enormous benefits he had gained.
The Chong Xuan clan was a colossal family estate, its territory comparable to an entire prefecture. Most of its members were retainers, servants, and guards. Those truly of the direct Chong Xuan bloodline were few.
And the future heir to such a clan was undoubtedly one of the thickest legs to cling to in all of Qi.
No one was a fool. Those looking for early investment opportunities would not be few.
But Chong Xuan Zun, as the undisputed first-in-line heir, had his circle packed tight long ago. There wasn't a single opening left.
The cost of investing in him had already risen to knee-weakening heights.
Chong Xuan Sheng, emerging from nowhere, fulfilled every fantasy of betting on the long shot.
As the only Chong Xuan heir currently competing with Chong Xuan Zun for succession, he should have received even more resource allocation.
But Chong Xuan Zun was simply too dazzling. People saw no possibility of success in Chong Xuan Sheng.
Betting on the long shot required at least the possibility of a comeback — not throwing resources into the water.
Before Chong Xuan Sheng, the Chong Xuan clan had certainly seen other competitors. These people had possessed extraordinary talent and brilliance, but they all paled before Chong Xuan Zun and were effortlessly swept aside.
In truth, if the Chong Xuan elders hadn't needed to discipline Chong Xuan Zun for some unspoken reason, Chong Xuan Sheng would never have had his chance to stand out.
That was why Chong Xuan Sheng had gambled everything, trading existing resources to secure the dominance to explore the Celestial Residence.
He had even used the Ethereal Realm to invite Jiang Chen from ten thousand miles away. Because among his own people, apart from the faithful Fourteen, he truly dared not trust anyone. If Jiang Chen hadn't appeared, he would rather have left the spot empty.
Take that Chong Xuan Xin — always "Brother Sheng" this, "family" that. The moment Chong Xuan Sheng brought him into the Secret Realm, the first person to stab him in the back would be Chong Xuan Xin.
Heart-Demon Curses and similar measures would be utterly useless. Because any such technique Chong Xuan Sheng could employ, Chong Xuan Zun would naturally know about — and could neutralize.
The reason Chong Xuan Sheng had taken this so seriously — and why Chong Xuan Zun had even sent Wang Yiwu — was because the Secret Realm represented Chong Xuan Sheng's all-or-nothing gamble.
This was his last hope.
If he died in the Secret Realm, nothing needed to be said.
Even if he survived but was eliminated, it was all over.
The Chong Xuan clan would belong to Chong Xuan Zun forever, and he would never have another chance.
But he had lived. He had become a victor of the Celestial Residence, securing a future divine skill for his Inner Palace.
His gamble had succeeded.
No matter how dismissive Wang Yiwu acted toward divine skills in the Inner Palace —
He could not deny that from the moment Chong Xuan Sheng emerged from the Celestial Residence, he had truly earned the right to compete with Chong Xuan Zun!
And in the time to come, Chong Xuan Sheng would enter a period of explosive growth.
All the resources that had been waiting, watching, that should have gone to Chong Xuan Zun's competitors — they would all come flooding in.
The only thing Chong Xuan Sheng needed to consider was how to digest them all.
A snake swallowing an elephant — if it couldn't swallow, it would choke to death.
But swallow it, and he would become a python!