Chapter 78: Verdancy, Vitality, Longevity

Three days later, Chen Hongxu set off toward the stronghold of a medium-sized clan he had obtained from the Shangguan Clan. To spare himself unnecessary trouble, he changed into animal skins; he truly lacked the courage to wear leaves.

Initially, Chen Hongxu had considered staying to help the Shangguan Clan through to the end, especially after Qi Hui mentioned that a celestial master from the Qi Clan might still be lurking and waiting for the outcome. While Chen Hongxu had no fear of such a person, it spelled utter catastrophe for the Shangguan Clan. However, his subsequent conversation with Qi Hui dispelled any thoughts of lingering.

"In all likelihood, the celestial master who favored me on the celestial mountain placed a restriction on my body. They should be able to track my location."

When Chen Hongxu had checked Qi Hui earlier, he indeed detected a hidden ripple of energy within her body. To avoid alerting the enemy, he had refrained from stripping it away. Yet, as an extra precaution before leaving, he advised the members of the Shangguan Clan to relocate further away. After all, nobody could predict a celestial master's temperament; if that master decided to unleash their wrath upon the Shangguan Clan first before hunting down Chen Hongxu, that would constitute real trouble. Though such a possibility was slim—since in the eyes of a celestial master, both the Qi and Shangguan clans were nothing more than insignificant ants—it was better safe than sorry.

Meanwhile, the man who bore a striking, seventy to eighty percent resemblance to Qi Hui's father had planned meticulously and won a higher hand. Although another ten members of their remaining group had perished, reducing the Qi Clan's overall strength to the point where self-preservation was difficult—especially since most survivors were wounded—Qi Sanqing did not care in the least. The Qi Clan was finally under his absolute control. Moreover, the evolution of such clans was merely a game of big fish eating small fish, and small fish eating shrimp. As long as one endured with sufficient patience, the day of restored glory would inevitably arrive.

Leading the remaining members back to the clan stronghold, Qi Sanqing tearfully recounted their harrowing experiences at the Shangguan Clan. He heavily emphasized how desperately Chen Hongxu had fallen in love with Qi Hui, refusing to let her go no matter what, while glossing over the true identity of the fake celestial master in a single sentence. Qi Sanqing naturally harbored his own hidden agenda. The formidable strength of the Shangguan Clan's pseudo-celestial master was evident to all, and he dared not conceal that entirely. Yet, if he made the enemy sound overwhelmingly invincible, who could say whether the actual celestial descending from the mountain might lose heart and back down?

The young man sitting cross-legged narrowed his eyes, unable to mask the gleam of excitement within them. "A pseudo-celestial master? I left the celestial mountain only about half a month ago, and back then, the mountain sensed no descent of immortals from the upper realm. Viewed in that light, it is highly likely someone who ascended from the lower realm. But given such formidable strength, an even greater possibility is that they are figures from the legendary outer realms..."

"What kind of benefits will this ultimately bring me?" The young man narrowed his eyes further, sensing the restriction he had left inside the girl's body, and sneered, "Not far. Heh, fortune truly favors me..."

Amidst the reverent bows of Qi Sanqing and the survivors, the young man stood up and vanished on the spot. Just as Chen Hongxu had predicted, what did the life or death of the Qi and Shangguan clans matter to him?

***

In the blink of an eye, nearly five days had passed since Chen Hongxu left the Shangguan Clan. By the edge of a vibrant, emerald-green lake, Qi Hui squatted beside a green boulder, scooping up the lake water to wash her face.

As for Jiajia, that little fellow was swimming back and forth excitedly in the water. Calling it an insect would be a stretch; at this moment, it looked much more like a fish.

As for Chen Hongxu, though he had found the jade-green water repulsive when he first arrived in this world, spending a few days with the Shangguan Clan had taught him that this was simply the aesthetic of this realm—color was entirely unrelated to quality.

Right now, however, he had no leisure to play in the water. His eyes were tightly closed, and ring after ring of green energy continuously orbited his body, seemingly intent on wrapping him up entirely.

Chen Hongxu could not quite articulate why he felt compelled to seek enlightenment right here; it was entirely an instance of sudden spiritual awakening. The moment he reached this lake, he had been overcome by a profound, all-encompassing sense of vitality wrapping around his entire being. It was a marvelous comfort, unrelated to any growth in raw power, yet instilling a perception that allowed his soul to elevate.

Though Chen Hongxu had not spent a long time in the Qi Pin realm, his accumulation of experience was by no means shallow. Erupting with explosive progress after a long period of accumulation posed no problem for him at all.

Billows of green vitality cycled through his body before drifting out into the open air, as natural as breathing. Qi Hui, having finished washing her face by the shore, naturally noticed Chen Hongxu's anomalous state. Shocked beyond measure, she blurted out, "He isn't a celestial master after all?"

In this fourth-tier world, the celestial master realm corresponded to the Changsheng realm. Variations in cultivation level merely denoted the boundaries of life and death, while greater mastery simply boiled down to the depth of one's comprehension. In Qi Hui's mind, since Chen Hongxu had been able to slaughter her father with a single poke, he ought to possess the strength exclusive to a grand celestial master. Otherwise, how could her father, with his tier-three cultivation, have been completely powerless to fight back?

Jiajia curled its lip, swam back to the shore, and crouched beside Chen Hongxu to stand guard. With utter disdain, it muttered, "How could my master ever fall short?"

Chen Hongxu could perceive every single rustle of wind and grass in the surroundings with absolute clarity—far clearer than ever before. As wave after wave of green energy surged in and out, he suddenly felt a harrowing sensation, as though his soul were being violently torn apart.

"This is something you can only comprehend on your own." Jiajia watched Chen Hongxu anxiously. Because their minds were linked, although Jiajia could not literally share the exact pain, it understood his current state all too well.

*If the weapon spirit were here...*

The moment this thought surfaced in his mind, Chen Hongxu ruthlessly crushed it. When all was said and done, the weapon spirit was merely a rather formidable woman; how could he, a man, constantly rely on her? Besides, the weapon spirit had not followed him inside.

Gritting his teeth, Chen Hongxu's expression twisted into a ferocious grimace. Yet, possessing an inherently resolute will, he completely adapted after enduring a few rounds of soul-tearing agony. Even the dense beads of sweat clustering on his forehead simply stayed put from the moment they first appeared, refusing to evaporate.

"Oh?"

Feeling the sudden, abrupt cessation of pain, replaced instead by a flood of vibrant green vitality within his body, he sensed his own soul seemingly transitioning from a white state into a green existence.

Is this the Changsheng realm? Chen Hongxu felt somewhat bewildered. Back on Earth, so many people found breaking through to Changsheng to be as difficult as ascending to heaven; how was it that when it came to him, he merely had to endure a bit of pain to cross the threshold?

How could Chen Hongxu know that breaking through to the Changsheng realm was a binary outcome of life or death? Few people possessed a freakish physique remade by a weapon embryo like his. More importantly, practitioners seeking breakthrough on Earth inherently lacked a sort of vital aura or qi mechanism. In contrast, the fourth tier of the Pagoda of Subduing Demons was a world whose primary motif was precisely vitality. For someone like Chen Hongxu, who had amassed sufficient accumulation and possessed a formidable body, breaking through was truly as simple as drinking water.

Nonetheless, while everything flowed as naturally as water carving a channel, not a single bit of the necessary process could be skipped. Moreover, due to the sheer potency of Chen Hongxu's underlying strength, the agony of this breakthrough was likely even more intense than what ordinary people experienced. Furthermore, the reshaping of one's soul was not a task that could be completed in a single day. Chen Hongxu made up his mind not to move an inch until he broke through, keeping his closed eyes firmly shut.

"Since Master is breaking through here, we'll just stay right here for a few days," Jiajia casually remarked to Qi Hui.

Qi Hui stood dumbfounded, muttering, "This monster can actually speak."

Neither Chen Hongxu nor Jiajia knew that in this fourth-tier world, demonic beasts capable of human speech were revered as divine beasts.

Yet, the two humans and one beast quietly lingering by the lake remained entirely unaware that a pair of eyes had been observing them with eager excitement for quite some time...