In a tranquil palace, Long Chen suddenly regained consciousness and shot up from the ground, surveying his surroundings with vigilance.
“No need to be nervous. This is my Battle God Palace,” the palace master’s voice echoed.
When Long Chen was brought back to the High Firmament Academy, he was directly entrusted to the palace master, who personally stood guard over him.
“Many thanks, palace master.” Long Chen cupped his fists toward the palace master.
“How do you feel?” asked the palace master.
Long Chen examined himself. As his consciousness flowed through his body, he found that his essence, qi, and spirit had merged into a single entity. In other words, his Spirit Blood, Spirit Root, and Spirit Bone had become one cohesive body. He was like a furnace that had fused all of his power into one.
Long Chen could still use a single kind of power, and he could also combine them all into one. However, Long Chen didn’t dare to imagine just what kind of destructive power he could unleash.
“I feel great!” Long Chen was excited.
“Little fellow, you’re very greedy. Your future path might be particularly difficult,” warned the palace master sternly.
“What?” Long Chen was startled.
“You control too many powers. You’ve roused the jealousy of the heavens, and you’ve even brought on the hand of the heavens. I am sure that your next tribulation will be even more terrifying. Furthermore, controlling so many different powers will severely slow down your cultivation speed. You’ll need to exhaust even more energy for every advancement,” said the palace master.
“That? It’ll be fine. I am an alchemist. I can feed myself,” said Long Chen with a smile.
However, the palace master shook his head. “To live beneath the Heavenly Daos is to be like a whale living in the ocean. Tell me, have you seen a whale bigger than the ocean?”
“I…” Long Chen was dumbfounded.
“You might not feel that limit now. However, once you reach the Eternal realm, this world will no longer be able to raise you. If you want to keep cultivating like this, you should start planning now. It’s too late to dig a well when you’re already thirsty,” said the palace master.
“Junior understands!”
Long Chen knew that the palace master was warning him with good intentions. This path of his might very well be a broken one. Even if the heavenly tribulation was unable to kill him, sooner or later, this world would not be able to contain him, and he would have to think of something.
When Long Chen left the palace master’s residence, he immediately saw Bai Shishi and Yu Qingxuan waiting for him. The two had been right outside the gates the entire time, and their eyes reddened when they saw him.
Long Chen hastily comforted them. Thinking of how worried they must have been all this time, his heart ached. He then brought them to a secluded place and asked them about the current situation.
“The human race is in chaos as many humans align themselves with other races. The Great Desolate World and the humanless world have a surge in human inhabitants, as some forces have moved their entire sects there,” said Bai Shishi angrily. These people were irredeemably foolish.
Long Chen held Bai Shishi’s hand and smiled. “Anger won’t resolve anything. This is simply human nature.”
If they were somewhere else, Bai Shishi would be very embarrassed to have Long Chen hold her hands. However, with only the three of them here, she only blushed slightly, and her anger started to fade.
“Did those other races promise them certain benefits? Like letting them excavate ores, refine metals, set up formations, and such?” asked Long Chen.
“You knew?” Bai Shishi was surprised.
Long Chen shrugged. “This is just the standard playbook for people like them. It won’t change, no matter how much time passes. In the humanless world and the Great Desolate World, countless resources are just waiting to be tapped into. These resources are trash to other races, but by working with the human race, that trash becomes a treasure. Just like that, they can use the human race’s skill to equip themselves, while also manipulating a faction of the human race, sowing discord within our ranks.
“Another portion join them not solely for profit but because they think they are smart. Yet, they are actually so shortsighted that they fail to see beyond their own hands. They aim to use the power of other races to strengthen themselves, thinking they can eventually break free from their control. However, they don’t know that other races are using them to throw the human race into chaos. After all, to reap the benefits, they must prove their loyalty through actions. When that time comes, whether driven by greed or misguided intellect, there’s no turning back for them. They will have betrayed the human race and become the vanguard against us. Throughout all of this, they fail to realize that regardless of whether the human race or the other races win, only death awaits them.”
Long Chen sighed helplessly. In this world, some things just couldn’t be changed no matter how much power you had.
“Oh, speaking of which, when you were in seclusion, the humanless world’s Eight Great Kings and the Great Desolate World’s Six Great Lords have become increasingly arrogant. They incessantly challenge you to face them in battle,” said Yu Qingxuan.
“Eight Great Kings? Six Great Lords?” asked Long Chen.
Hearing her explanation, Long Chen couldn’t help but laugh. The Eight Great Kings were the humanless world’s nine peak heavenly geniuses—now reduced to eight after Long Chen had slain the two-headed black python.
As for the Six Great Lords, they were the Great Desolate World’s strongest new World Kings, and every single one of them could be called an unrivaled genius.
When the gates opened, connecting all their worlds, these geniuses got to know Long Chen’s name and started to shout for him to come and fight them.
However, Long Chen went into seclusion for a full month upon returning to the academy, needing that time to digest the energy of the heavenly tribulation. Likewise, the Dragonblood Legion was in seclusion as well, not in the mood to bother with anything. As a result, some of these geniuses really thought that Long Chen was afraid, causing them to get even more arrogant.
Some Eternal experts from the human race had even run over to the academy to leave a challenge letter, but they were so arrogant that the palace master couldn’t help but kill them with a slap.
As a result, some human traitors started to shout criticisms at the High Firmament Academy. Those turncoats were wantonly slandering and verbally attacking the academy.
Currently, the outside world had descended into extreme chaos. Despite the looming threat of a large-scale war, some traitorous human sects felt emboldened because of their new backing and started to provoke their old enemies.
Tension filled the Nirvana Overflow Heaven, creating a sense that war could erupt at any moment. Although the palace master had intimidated everyone before this, he now showed no response against the probing and provocations, causing people to start to worry.
There was also no news from Long Chen, and with some traitors spreading rumors, people’s confidence started to waver.
“Long Chen, what do you plan to do?” asked Bai Shishi.
“Let’s go!” Long Chen stood up.
“To do what?” asked the two of them as they stood up with him.
“To see who the Eight Great Kings and Six Great Lords think they are. Hmph, if there’s no tiger on the mountain, even the monkeys dare to call themselves king? Gather the Dragonblood Legion. It’s time to reintroduce us to this world.”
After Long Chen stretched lazily, he went straight to the Dragonblood Legion’s seclusion area with the two of them.
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