Chapter 59: The Limits of Human Endeavor
In an extraordinarily ornate courtyard somewhere.
The silk-robed youth sat in somber silence, his expression heavy.
"Guangshu." A beautiful middle-aged woman entered, worry in her voice. "You sent all the servants away. What happened?"
The silk-robed youth tugged at the corner of his mouth, seemingly reluctant to speak, but forced himself to answer: "I lost a match and lost my composure. I didn't want anyone to see."
He didn't say where it happened or whom he had lost to, but the beautiful middle-aged woman seemed to know about the Void Illusion as well.
Hearing this, she only offered comfort: "Don't take a single loss too seriously. Everyone loses sometimes."
The silk-robed youth grew agitated instead, raising his voice: "Because others have lost too — so my loss is only natural, is that it?"
"That's not what I meant." The beautiful middle-aged woman explained. "You've only had your Meridian Opening for a year and already possess such combat strength. You've worked incredibly hard. Besides, this is your first loss."
"Is that so?" the silk-robed youth said coldly. "I built such a solid foundation before Meridian Opening, and yet now I can't even claim first place among those of the same rank!"
The beautiful middle-aged woman spoke gently: "The world is vast, and talent emerges in endless waves. Who could dare claim to be first forever? You didn't use the Grand Origin Pill for your Meridian Opening — it's inevitable that you'd have someinnate deficiency..."
"Stop making excuses for me!" The silk-robed youth swept his sleeves and left.
But before he departed the courtyard, he tossed back one final sentence: "Weak is weak. I can face it — but I will not stay this weak forever!"
The beautiful middle-aged woman stood frozen in place.
After a long while, she sighed at the empty courtyard: "Foolish child. There are limits to what human endeavor can achieve, even so... why must you push yourself so hard?"
...
...
After a string of victories and earning the Glory Title of Void Harmony cultivator, Jiang Chen had accumulated ten thousand and ten merit points.
Facing that silk-robed youth, he had no confidence he could win again.
That meant he needed to make use of the benefits brought by the Void Harmony Glory Title as soon as possible.
The effect of adding one more layer to the Dao Stage allowed him to directly employ three layers of the Dao Platform to deduce techniques.
Compared to two layers, three layers of the Dao Platform could clearly offer superior options.
But there were certain limitations.
Because every technique or art had its own ceiling. Some might already have had their limits fully explored at the second layer of the Dao Stage — in which case, even if the Dao Platform was upgraded to three layers, there would be no room for improvement.
Jiang Chen surveyed his technique system. The techniques that currently had both need for and room to improve were primarily four.
The control-type technique: Five Qi Tiger Bind.
The area-type technique: Sea of Flame Flowers.
The enhancement-type technique: Crown of Thorns.
The tracking-type technique: Remembrance.
The order of need diminished from first to last.
The other techniques either had no value for improvement — such as Vineserpent Wall Bind — or had room to improve but far too little merit to invest. Like how Flame Flowers could certainly evolve into Flame Flower City Burn through deduction, but the merit required would be far beyond his reach. Or there were those that, once improved, would exceed what Jiang Chen could currently control, rendering it meaningless — like the Eight-Tone Flame Sparrow.
As for need, control-type techniques could never be too many, and life-preserving techniques were never excessive either. Even after the Four Spirits Body Refinement, new body refinement techniques were also in demand.
But unfortunately, the Dao Platform could not create something from nothing.
As for the way of the sword, he wished to develop it from within himself alone and was unwilling to rely on the Dao Platform.
A gentleman is adept at making use of others, but must not become entirely dependent on "things" — one must strive ceaselessly for self-improvement.
Among these four techniques, Five Qi Tiger Bind had been deduced from the Grade B Upper technique Tiger Bind. From two layers of the Dao Stage to three, there might be room to fill in the gaps.
Sea of Flame Flowers was a technique Jiang Chen had fused and elevated on his own. It was now struggling to keep up with high-level combat and urgently needed three layers of the Dao Platform for refinement and elevation.
Crown of Thorns was merely Grade B Upper — its enhancement of Grade A techniques was feeble at best.
As for Remembrance, it had evolved from the Grade C Middle Remembrance Herb and possessed a very shallow foundation. Now at Grade B Lower, it was almost unusable in battles between peers, and might not even manage to locate anyone's trail.
But its priority for investment was the lowest. Only after the other three techniques had been strengthened, and with remaining merit, would he invest in it.
After a round of deduction, what surprised Jiang Chen was that among all the techniques, Five Qi Tiger Bind actually consumed the least merit — only five hundred points. The final technique modifications, upon Jiang Chen's inspection, turned out to merely strengthen control over the Five Qi, hardly better than nothing. It had likely already reached its limit.
After deducing both Sea of Flame Flowers and Crown of Thorns to Grade A Lower level, the ten thousand-plus merit points were completely exhausted.
Remembrance would have to wait for next time.
The elevated Sea of Flame Flowers strengthened the cycle of flame birth and death, reinforcing the technique's own resilience. Presumably, it would no longer be so easily "torn open" by opponents — before this, despite being a technique meant to establish battlefield dominance, it had rarely actually created any such dominance for Jiang Chen.
After Crown of Thorns was elevated, it finally had an effect on Grade A techniques as well. In terms of visible manifestation, the thorns had merely become somewhat sharper — no other notable changes.
Neither technique even required a name change.
Once he had fully familiarized himself with the elevated techniques, the boost to his combat power went without saying.
It was the acquisition of the Void Harmony Glory Title that led Jiang Chen to speculate about Blessed Lands as well.
Could it be that the secret of the Blessed Land was revealed only upon truly winning a Blessed Land challenge?
Before this, because his Blessed Land had been directly "inherited" and had only continued to decline in rank ever since, he had missed that crucial step of obtaining information...
The more he learned about the Void Illusion, the more awe he held for all of it.
What kind of person or organization could have constructed such a magnificent "Illusion"?
...
After emerging from the Void Illusion, Jiang Chen did not immediately dive into battle review and cultivation as usual. Instead, he tidied his appearance slightly and stepped out the door.
Today was a special day. Xu Fang's remains would be buried today.
Truthfully, ever since Xu Fang had sliced open his own chest and taken his life at Blue Stone Palace, his corpse had lain abandoned outside the palace walls, with no one attending to it.
No matter how desolate Blue Stone Palace was, no matter that it was a cold palace of exile, it still belonged to the Qi King's Palace complex.
In such a place, a corpse left unclaimed was an unsettling sight indeed.
The Qi Emperor's silence from beginning to end left everyone unable to read the situation. Even the so-called matter of choosing sides had no ground to stand on.
The handling of Xu Fang's remains had become, as if naturally, imbued with the weight of political posturing. Few dared to take a hasty stance.
Many people wondered whether the corpse should simply wait for Jiang Wuliang to handle it — though he was imprisoned, having a corpse lying outside his palace was hardly acceptable no matter how you looked at it.
Jiang Wuliang had ample reason to do something about it, after all. Xu Fang's blade had plunged deep into him as well.
But Jiang Wuliang too maintained his silence, as if wholly ignorant of the outside world — or perhaps simply indifferent.
People believed that burial brought peace.
But Chong Xuan Sheng could not possibly step forward to collect the body, and for the same reason, neither could Jiang Chen.
As for the Four Seas Trade Alliance... for the same reasons that implicated Chong Xuan Sheng, the Treasure Gathering Chamber's current predicament made the Alliance an even more suspicious party.
No evidence was needed — only motive.
There was no need to even bring this up with Qing Xi. He would certainly refuse. It would only create an ugly scene to no purpose.
For all these reasons, despite always having this matter weighing on his mind, Jiang Chen could only watch in silence.
The one who finally stepped forward to resolve the matter was Xu Xiangqian.
His reasoning was simple enough — a great soul should not be left without someone to tend their remains.
And so he paid out of his own pocket to have Xu Fang's remains properly entombed.