Time passed quickly, and over a month flew by in the blink of an eye. It was already the end of May.
The hottest time of the year was approaching.
Jiang Chen glanced at the setting sun sinking in the west, slowly withdrew from his cultivation, and concealed the Gate of Heaven and Earth, which was becoming increasingly clearer.
This month and a half had been the most peaceful period since Jiang Chen left Zhuang Kingdom.
He had devoted himself entirely to cultivation.
Of course, he hadn't neglected "farming."
The Tianqingshi ore vein was getting closer to complete exhaustion, but the miners in the Hu family's mine were all in high spirits.
Under Chongxuan Sheng's arrangement, Jiang Chen began to take over and integrate all of the Chongxuan family's businesses in the Yang Kingdom.
Most of the obstructions from within the Chongxuan family had already been severed by Chongxuan Sheng directly in the Qi Kingdom.
Jiang Chen was managing Green Mountain Town as his base camp, though for the Jiacheng authorities, it inevitably seemed like a cuckoo taking over the magpie's nest.
But in the previous ore vein exhaustion incident, their responsibility couldn't be washed clean, so they had to swallow their pride and accept it. After all, they had originally tacitly agreed to the Chongxuan family's thirty-year operating rights in this area.
The current pavilion chief of Green Mountain Town was the former mine manager Hu Laogen, who naturally followed Jiang Chen's orders to the letter.
As long as Jiang Chen was still willing to use people from Green Mountain Town as pavilion chief and at least showed outward respect for the Xi family's governing authority, the Xi family wouldn't say much. They would just pretend that Hu You and Hu Shaomeng, father and son, were still alive, still competing with them openly and covertly.
Making common folk live good lives wasn't actually difficult.
The rulers themselves simply needed to respect the reasonable laws already enacted and not embezzle or pervert justice.
The methods for letting common folk live and work in peace had long been written into laws and recorded as rules by the sages of old. One simply needed not to misinterpret or act against them.
When the ore vein was exhausted, one would go find new mines. When the mines were gone, there were other resource yields.
The earth was generous, providing countless resources to the creatures upon it. As long as one wasn't excessively greedy and understood restraint, life could flourish endlessly.
For cultivators, it was even simpler—as long as one didn't exploit excessively.
Taking the offerings one was entitled to, and making one's extraordinary contributions before natural disasters.
For Jiang Chen, this wasn't difficult.
At his core, Jiang Chen hadn't done anything special in Green Mountain Town, but in just a little over a month, the people's spirits had been completely revitalized.
As for Jiang Chen's own cultivation progress.
First was the Ethereal Realm. He had fought his way into the top ten, and in the Heaven-Piercing realm matching battles, he was now ranked ninth.
After contributing one thousand and fifty Merit from the Leyi blessed land, Jiang Chen dropped to Longhu Mountain, ranked thirty-second, after which he only received nine hundred fifty points of Merit each month.
He had long recognized that his blessed land ranking would drop, so there was no sense of loss. After all, the opponents he encountered in the blessed land challenges were far above his realm.
He wasn't sure at what position he would finally stop. But at the very least, he hoped that before being completely "expelled" from the blessed land, he could hold his ranking and advance further—this goal now seemed too distant.
Including the Merit "earned" through the Sword Dueling Platform, he had accumulated a total of five thousand four hundred ten points.
The accumulation of "Fa" had progressed slowly, only increasing by seven points to four hundred thirty-five points.
All manner of Dao arts went without saying—Jiang Chen practiced them diligently at all times.
In terms of cultivation realm, the Gate of Heaven and Earth in his own "vision" now seemed tangible.
It was a tall stone portal, about three zhang in height and one zhang eight chi in width. This wasn't its physical height—the unknown void where the Gate of Heaven and Earth resided might not even use such measurements. It was purely Jiang Chen's "visual estimation."
Faint inscriptions were carved on the gate, unclear and constantly changing.
Everyone had their own unique Gate of Heaven and Earth, each different. The Gate of Heaven and Earth was each person's most secret place, naturally not something to study with others.
But in the vast cultivation world, predecessors had left behind some records and analyses. Chongxuan Sheng naturally had no shortage of these, and had given Jiang Chen a whole pile of them.
Some were completely different and unhelpful, while some were relatively similar and could be used for analogical learning.
Based on predecessors' notes, Jiang Chen surmised that these inscriptions might be a manifestation of his cultivation, his Dao.
Only when he truly comprehended his own "Dao" might these inscriptions stabilize.
The most prominent feature on the stone gate was three horizontal lines.
Positioned at top, middle, and bottom, they completely divided the Gate of Heaven and Earth.
These three horizontal lines respectively represented Heaven, Earth, and Humanity—the image condensed from Jiang Chen's Small Heavenly Cycle, and also the manifestation of his three strongest unique swords.
They seemed light and ethereal, but were actually the heaviest.
If not for these three horizontal lines, Jiang Chen would have already pushed open the Gate of Heaven and Earth.
The foundation that had once supported him to reach his current state now obstructed his advancement.
He had to bear everything he had constructed, and within this bearing, personally push open the Gate of Heaven and Earth.
Only then could he break the barrier between Heaven and Humanity, and let the Dao meridian's dragon soar.
Only now did Jiang Chen truly understand.
Why it was said that the stronger the Heaven-Piercing realm cultivator, the more solid and harder to push open this gate was.
And someone like Wang Yiwu had reached another level entirely.
His strength had already reached the limit of the Heaven-Piercing realm, and also exceeded the limit that the Gate of Heaven and Earth could achieve.
His Gate of Heaven and Earth could not be stronger, could not be more solid.
And he was still trying every method to break through the limit, to make the Gate of Heaven and Earth even stronger, so he could go further—this was something almost impossible to achieve.
A limit was a limit because it had been proven by countless geniuses of the past.
Countless geniuses reached this point and could advance no further, thus declaring it the limit.
The reason Jiang Mengxiong dared say Wang Yiwu was the strongest Heaven-Piercing realm cultivator of the current age was because the man stood at the absolute limit of the Heaven-Piercing realm. Even if one took the peerless geniuses of the past to compare, at this realm it was simply the same.
For Jiang Chen, he certainly had thoughts about Wang Yiwu's level. If the opportunity arose, he would walk that path, but he wouldn't be obsessively demanding about it.
For the road ahead, everyone had different choices.
Like Yin Guan, who under pressure from the You Kingdom's upper echelons, had cashed in his potential early, stepping into the Outer Tower realm at the fastest possible speed.
Like Wang Yiwu, who with Jiang Mengxiong's protection, continuously consolidated his foundation, broadening the limits of the Heaven-Piercing realm, advancing with the name of "the strongest."
Jiang Chen, like Chongxuan Sheng, advanced as quickly as possible while stabilizing his foundation.
Before reaching the end, it was hard to say whose path was superior.
Wang Yiwu's title as the strongest Heaven-Piercing realm cultivator of the current age was certainly impressive, but in the end, it was only the Heaven-Piercing realm. The current Yin Guan could easily slaughter him.
But if Yin Guan was blocked before the Divine Descent realm, and Wang Yiwu caught up, the balance of power would reverse.
On this long road of cultivation, everyone had to struggle forward with all their might.
For Jiang Chen now, what concerned him most wasn't actually the Gate of Heaven and Earth.
It was the Nether Candle dwelling in his Celestial Palace.
His feelings toward the Nether Candle were complicated.
On one hand, he was clearly aware of this thing's connection to the White Bone Dao. On the other hand, this thing had indeed saved his life.
The first time the Nether Candle reacted was probably when it fused with Miao Qing's White Bone Seed. Jiang Chen hadn't known this—it was Miao Qing who told him.
The second time was when it touched Miao Qing's wound, perhaps contacting her Dao essence, and the Nether Candle transmitted the Flesh-Soul Return technique that could only affect White Bone Dao followers.
The third time was because of the memory-sealing secret technique used by White Lotus, which triggered the Nether Candle's reaction, protecting Jiang Chen from having his memory sealed, and transmitted the White Bone Escape technique that consumed lifespan to traverse between Yin and Yang.
The fourth time was the warning of the disaster at Maple Forest City.
After Maple Forest City, the Nether Candle had shown no further disturbances. (Jiang Chen didn't remember the time in the Celestial Residence Secret Realm when it absorbed death energy poison.)
But last night, the Nether Candle had shifted slightly within the Celestial Palace.
Jiang Chen absolutely trusted his judgment. Although his deliberate studies of the Nether Candle had yielded nothing, he had never relaxed his observation of it.
The Nether Candle had indeed "quietly" moved within the Celestial Palace.
He didn't know whether this was good or bad.
It put him on alert.
Under his conscious or unconscious control, the true spirit of his Dao meridian no longer coiled around the Nether Candle.
Instead, it shuttled back and forth among the nine great Dao vortexes, constantly tempering itself, hoping to achieve sublimation.
...
Rizhao Commandery had seven cities, all roughly similar in scale.
Jiacheng was located in the central-eastern part of Rizhao Commandery, while to the southwest of Jiacheng, there was a city called Yue City.
In the northern part of Yue City, there lived a family surnamed Li. The head of the household was always away doing business, rarely coming home, and nobody knew exactly what he did.
He had suddenly returned a while back, sorted through some things, and left again. It was said he had gone abroad for a big business deal.
Nobody knew if he went to the Qi Kingdom or somewhere else—his half-deaf, ugly wife couldn't explain clearly either.
In these times, ordinary folk rarely crossed cities or borders. Many people lived their entire lives in mountain villages without ever visiting even a town. So nobody could verify whether it was true.
And nobody had the idle time to bother.
But not long after, old man Li returned again. This time he stayed home for a long while. The ugly wife he had been paired with years ago through matchmaking was also beaming with joy every day.
The Li family seldom interacted with their neighbors, so nobody liked to ask how their business was doing. But from the family's daily eating, clothing, and general lifestyle, it was probably not bad.
For many people, days simply passed as usual.
On this particular day, the Li family's half-deaf, ugly wife hurried out the door, spending a large sum to summon the best physician from the western part of the city. It was unclear what illness old man Li had contracted.
It was only through this incident that the neighbors learned the Li family was quite wealthy.
Otherwise, who could afford that medical clinic from the west? Not to mention that they had even summoned Qin Laoxiansheng, the clinic's resident distinguished physician.
That was the clinic's former director, who had long since stopped making house calls. Without a hundred or two in gold, how could one move him?
The clever ones were already calculating, once old man Li's condition improved a bit, what gifts to bring to visit and build rapport. Perhaps he could bring them along, see if they could get involved in that profitable business of his.
Even the wealthy had distant relatives when living deep in the mountains, let alone when living this close as neighbors!
Don't be fooled by old man Li's age—he must have had plenty of connections, or how else could he have so much money?
When ordinary families fell ill, they gritted their teeth and endured. Who could be so precious as to see a physician, let alone such an expensive one?
Even the city lord's mansion, when someone fell ill, they saw this very doctor!
As for whether the illness could be cured—now that Qin Laoxiansheng himself had taken charge, wouldn't the medicine work like magic?
...
The next day, the clever neighbor rose bright and early, carrying a gift box ready to visit.
But the moment he stepped out the door, he froze.
The Li family's gate next door was tightly shut.
A white banner hung before the entrance.