When Le Feng next opened his eyes, he found himself lying on a soft bed. Beside him stood a familiar individual.
“Sect Master?” Le Feng hurriedly attempted to sit up.
Su Chen didn’t even turn around. “Just lie there for now and don’t move.”
“Sect Master......” Le Feng cried out weakly. All the sorrow that had built up in his heart came pouring out at once, and he couldn’t stop the tears from flowing out. When the enemies had been doing their worst to him, his eyes had remained dry. But now, he was weeping like a little child.
Su Chen knew why Le Feng was crying and made no attempt to console him. Instead, he busied himself with his own affairs.
A cauldron gently revolved above his hands, which were carefully controlling a small fire that was gently heating the suspended cauldron.
From time to time, a fragrant medicinal scent would waft out of the cauldron.
“Success,” Su Chen said to no one in particular.
He withdrew his hands and opened the cauldron lid. There were three green pills rolling around at the bottom.
Su Chen used his microscopic eye to carefully inspect the pills. After a long time, he sighed and said, “This is still not enough. Well, I’ll just keep working at it then.”
As he spoke, he brought the medicinal pills over to Le Feng. Then, he calmly said, “Are you done crying now?”
Le Feng’s tears finally stopped. “Sect Master......”
Su Chen sat down beside Le Feng. “You didn’t give in when they were physically maiming you, so why’re you behaving like a little child now? Well, you are older than me, so I won’t lecture you or anything like that. Here, eat this.”
Su Chen fed one of the pills to Le Feng.
“What is this?” Le Feng asked curiously.
“A new medicine that I’ve been researching. I hope that it will help repair your Sea of Qi,” Su Chen answered.
Le Feng shook his head despondently. “That won’t work. My Sea of Qi has been completely destroyed, and I can no longer control the Origin Energy in my body. I’ve been thoroughly crippled.”
He had never heard of anyone who had ever recovered from having their cultivation base crippled.
Su Chen, however, calmly said, “There were many people who once believed that developing the Flying Immortal Cultivation Techniques was impossible. Do you think your crippled state will be harder to cure than a problem that had plagued the human race for thousands or even tens of thousands of years?”
Le Feng froze for a moment before smiling bitterly. “But won’t that consume quite a bit of Sect Master’s time and energy?”
Su Chen replied, “Maybe not. Some seemingly complicated problems might actually turn out to be quite simple.”
“Simple?” Le Feng was taken aback.
Actually, the inability to recover from a crippled cultivation base was also a problem that had existed for tens of thousands of years. It just wasn’t quite as high-profile as that of the bloodline-less cultivation techniques.
Even Su Chen wouldn’t be able to resolve this problem that easily, right?
Su Chen, however, calmly said, “Your body has sustained many wounds, and your Sea of Qi has been utterly destroyed. This makes cultivating the Flying Immortal Techniques virtually impossible.”
Why are you telling me all this? Didn’t you just say that you might have a way to heal me?
Le Feng didn’t understand what Su Chen was trying to say.
But Su Chen ignored his confused look and continued talking. “But just because it is impossible to rebuild your Sea of Qi doesn’t mean that you will never be able to control Origin Energy ever again, or that you won’t be able to embark on the path of cultivation anymore. Since your body is already in this condition, and since it just so happens that I have recently gained some new insights into cultivation, I think that we should try a new route altogether.”
“A new route?” Le Feng was stunned.
“Yes, a new route. We can restart the entire cultivation process,” Su Chen stated.
So this was Su Chen’s plan!
After inspecting Le Feng’s body, Su Chen had realized that a full recovery was virtually impossible. Those rogue Harpies had been truly vicious. Not only had they destroyed his Sea of Qi, but they had also severed every meridian in his body. This would not kill him, but it did force him to endure unspeakable pain.
Even so, Su Chen had still managed to find a sliver of hope even in this dire situation.
This hope was founded upon the foundation laid by the Flying Immortal Cultivation Techniques and immortal energy.
Su Chen’s Flying Immortal Cultivation Techniques branched away from conventional cultivation methods quite early on.
And immortal energy was an even broader path forwards.
When these two possibilities were both taken into consideration, Su Chen couldn’t help but feel like the system of human cultivation was actually far more profound than what he had thought it to be in the past.
However, since he had already reached the Ultimate Emperor Realm, he would not destroy his own cultivation base to start over.
But Le Feng’s misfortune also came with its own unique opportunity.
Using Le Feng as an experiment to attempt to blaze a new path of cultivation from the very beginning might very well result in a new pillar of human cultivation being born.
At that point in time, the Yang Opening Realm might merely be the foundation, the Light Shaking Realm would establish that foundation, and the formation of a Golden Pill would become the peak. In fact, it was even possible that there were even greater possibilities beyond that would be discovered with time.
How could Su Chen not be excited by this unlimited prospect?
He then explained his thoughts to Le Feng. “The path of the Golden Pill was first discovered by Fenghan. My research of it hasn’t delved too deeply into its intricacies yet, so I have no idea where to begin and where it might end. In fact, I have only personally experienced the section in the middle, so there is actually a lot that I don’t know about this new cultivation path. I want to build up the roots of this system so that this cultivation system can sprout and eventually grow into a tree that will shelter the entire human race. I won’t be able to start over, but you can. If you start from the beginning, then you might even become the pioneer of this new cultivation system. Are you willing?”
When Le Feng heard this, he became so excited that he began to tremble violently. “Your disciple is willing!”
His new path forward would likely be extremely difficult, but Le Feng had finally seen a ray of hope.
How could he not be excited?
Su Chen laughed when he heard Le Feng’s response. “If that’s the case, then you don’t have any time to slack off. Here, tell me what this feels like......”
Su Chen then tapped his finger on Le Feng’s forehead.
“AHH!” Le Feng cried out in pain.
The torturous cultivation process had begun......
While Le Feng and the other observers were working hard at their new cultivation path, the outside world was in a flurry of activity.
Sky City had changed ownership!
The war between the humans and the Harpies had eventually reached its inevitable conclusion. The Harpies’ ten-thousand-year reign over Sky City had finally come to an end.
;
Following Eternal Night’s official surrender, the Harpy race officially followed in the footsteps of the Astrals by being the second Intelligent Race to be unceremoniously kicked out of the Five Great Races.
The Harpies and the Dark Astrals were both now servants of the human race.
When victory was secured, the human soldiers all began chanting Su Chen’s name in celebration, cheering for the immortal legacy of him, the Boundless Sect, and the human race. Their morale was at an all-time high.
Only the higher-ups knew that the human race was far from invincible.
Even the Desolate Beasts were capable of giving them a run for their money, let alone the inevitable battle with the gods.
The Beasts had been able to exert their dominance over the continent not only because of Demonic Emperors, but also because of Desolate Beasts. And even if the human race controlled Sky City and no longer feared Desolate Beasts, Origin Beasts were still a thing.
How powerful had the Arcana Kingdom been? And yet, the Shining Dragon had managed to wipe it out virtually single-handedly.
The power of an Origin Beast was not something they could take on just yet.
It was still a little too early to claim that they were invincible.
While their subordinates were celebrating like it was the end of the world, the higher-ups were already thinking about how they would retreat back to human territory.
“We cannot stay here for much longer. If we do, then Desolate Beasts will definitely appear,” Jiang Jusheng said.
“The Desolate Beasts have already shown themselves.” Lin Shaoxuan was young and full of confidence in Su Chen and the Boundless Sect.
Du Qingxi shook his head. “It’s not the same. The Desolate Beast that we faced was one that Eternal Night purposefully drew over. The rest of them will not show themselves until it is absolutely necessary, but if we remain here for any longer, then the story will be different.”
Both Desolate Beasts and Origin Beasts would appear for one reason and one reason only: if the Beasts were in a crisis.
The five Intelligent Races had defeated the Demonic Beasts plenty of times throughout history, forcing them into dire straits. Every time, however, Desolate Beasts would inevitably appear and steamroll through the Intelligent Races’ forces, allowing the Demonic Beasts to easily reclaim the territory that they had lost.
While no Origin Beasts had appeared in the past ten thousand years or so, Desolate Beasts had appeared quite a few times, which was why many of the higher ups were familiar with how they operated.
They followed a general set of rules that were affected by a variety of factors, such as the distance that the invaders had covered, how long they were there for, and how many Demonic Beasts they had slaughtered. Finally, the number of Demonic Beasts that had been sacrificed also played a role — put simply, the Beasts were using their lives to ask their Ancestors to reawaken and aid them.
Now that the major battle with the Harpies had concluded, every day that they spent in Beast territory would only increase the likelihood of provoking an attack from the Desolate Beasts.
If the Desolate Beasts awakened, then the human armies would not be fighting just one or two, but rather multiple at once.
Once the Demonic Beasts were cornered against the wall, they would let their opponents know just how deep their foundation truly went.
No one knew just how many ancient Beasts were lying dormant underground. The Intelligent Races obviously hoped that they would all die in their sleep and never awaken.
But before then, it was better to not provoke them if at all possible.
The leaders of the Seven Kingdoms all basically had the same mindset, as did the Gu Clan. This was partly due to the habit that they had built up throughout the years.
The Boundless Sect, however, thought differently.
This group of soldiers had formed relatively recently and were still filled with a youthful exuberance. Even though their roots were still somewhat shallow, their vast numbers of high-level cultivators gave them the confidence to face any enemy. And most importantly of all, they believed in themselves.
This all stemmed from their faith in their leader. Wherever he told them to go, they would go without hesitation.
As such, none of them particularly cared for what the leaders of the Seven Kingdoms had to say.
Even Li Chongshan said, “The Sect Master says that we came all this way not only to defeat the Harpies, but also to defeat the Beasts. Until the Sect Master calls for us to retreat, we will not retreat. Of course, if you all get cold feet, then we will not force you to stay either.”
Jiang Jusheng angrily replied, “It is already a tremendous feat for the human race to reach this point. However, my desire to retreat is not born out of selfishness or cowardliness. I just hope that we can instead use this time to think our plan through a little. The Desolate Beasts may not be within our power to fight against just yet. Even if we have Sky City, what happens if seven or eight of them come for us at once? And even if we do defeat them, what will we do if an Origin Beast comes hunting for us? This is exactly what happened to the Arcana Kingdom!”
Even though Jiang Jusheng was selfish by nature, everything that he had said in this moment was absolutely correct.
Even Li Chongshan had to admit that his words had merit.
At that moment, however, a voice spoke up. “Even if an Origin Beast comes, we must fight.”
What?
Everyone turned around in shock to see Su Chen walking out of the room.
His steps were unhurried as he spoke in a calm voice. “We don’t have much time left. The gods are returning, and the Primordial Continent will soon be thrown under their yoke. If that happens, then we will undoubtedly become their slaves. So if we don’t want to be their slaves, then we must fight. These untamed wilds have not been touched for tens of thousands of years and contain invaluable resources not found anywhere else. We must thoroughly plunder this place and leave no stone unturned. And we must further temper ourselves against more powerful and fearsome foes. After all, when the gods were still present in this world, their main opponents were Origin Beasts. If we can fight against Origin Beasts, then we will be able to fight against the gods as well.”
“As such, these Origin Beasts and Desolate Beasts are the best sparring partners that we could ask for. We must train and strengthen ourselves while they are still only able to emerge one by one. Even their flesh will become an important resource for us! We don’t care about Demonic Emperors anymore; what we want to battle are precisely the Desolate and Origin Beasts!”
At this point, Su Chen laughed confidently. “Ten years! We still have ten years’ time. And in these ten years, we will not go anywhere. We will hunt down these Beasts and continue to drive them back. They will either become our nourishment, or we will become their fertilizer. I will not force you to stay. But I will leave you with this warning: if you leave, then you may have distanced yourself from danger, but you will also have distanced yourself from the best opportunity to grow. If the Boundless Sect is not destroyed in the upcoming conflict, then you will never again have an opportunity to catch up in the new era which will be under our command.”
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