Chapter 354 - 351: The Situation in Nanyue

Chapter 354: Chapter 351: The Situation in Nanyue

"You are Tang Yuncheng?"

"Since you’re also a disciple of the Dragon Cloud Sect, I’ll call you Junior Tang."

"Why did you wish to see me?"

Inside the grand hall,

Shen Changchuan sat on the main seat,

watching with some amusement the respectful young figure below, whose face was alight with excitement.

"I have no requests!"

"Senior Brother Shen, your legendary rise from the Border Desolate Land broke all conventions and has been a tremendous inspiration to powerless, low-level Loose Cultivators like myself."

"The only reason I’ve been able to come this far is because of you, Senior Brother!"

"Just being able to meet you, Senior Brother Shen, is more than I could have asked for!"

Tang Yuncheng’s face was filled with excitement.

"Oh, is that so?"

"So, now that you’ve met me, what do you think?"

"Having met you today, I now know that the rumors outside don’t do you one-ten-thousandth of justice. They’re like a firefly compared to the bright moon! The ancients’ saying, ’It is better to meet someone in person than to just hear about them,’ truly does not deceive!"

Tang Yuncheng said with a serious expression.

His eyes shone with the fervor of a fan meeting their idol.

"Haha, you’re an interesting one, Junior Brother..."

...

「Half an hour later,」

Tang Yuncheng left the grand hall with a satisfied smile and a spring in his step.

Back in the hall,

Shen Changchuan remained on the main seat.

The smile on his face slowly faded as he leaned back into his chair.

’To think that one day, I’d become a major figure in so many people’s eyes!’

Shen Changchuan couldn’t help but shake his head, a wave of nostalgia washing over him.

Having advanced to the Soul Emergence Realm,

he was indeed a towering figure in the eyes of many Cultivators at the Qi Introduction Realm.

During their half-hour conversation,

Shen Changchuan could sense that Tang Yuncheng might have harbored some small hope of currying favor with him.

But he also genuinely seemed to hold him in high esteem.

’I have to admit, being admired and flattered feels pretty damn good.’

’No wonder emperors and kings like to surround themselves with yes-men.’

That sense of satisfaction derived from others,

was something that loyal officials who spoke harsh truths could never provide.

Of course,

having spent nearly ten years in this world, relying on his progress bar panel to get where he was today,

Shen Changchuan’s mind had long since been honed and matured through his arduous step-by-step cultivation.

He certainly wouldn’t be like his past-life self in his twenties or thirties, fresh out in the world, easily swayed and confused by a few words of flattery.

He wouldn’t indulge in the low-level pleasure of basking in others’ adulation.

During that half hour of idle chat,

Shen Changchuan hadn’t let himself get lost in the other man’s praise.

On the contrary,

for most of the time,

his focus was on Tang Yuncheng’s experience during the mission to the Nanyue Kingdom.

He used the man’s firsthand account to understand the developing situation on the front lines and gather intelligence on the Nanyue Territory.

And in fact,

he had learned a lot of important information from Tang Yuncheng.

’The weather in the Nanyue Territory is cold, damp, and humid, with frequent, persistent rain. You see the sun for less than half the year... The wilderness is full of dangerous swamps, Poisonous Insects, and fierce beasts. On top of that, their Immortal Cultivation Realm is dominated by the Demon Cultivation Dao, so Gu Techniques have flourished there...’

He summarized the information he’d gathered from his conversation with Tang Yuncheng in his mind.

Shen Changchuan couldn’t help but rub his chin, lost in thought.

’The climate and environment of the Nanyue Kingdom are quite different from the Tian Nan Domain’s. That place is like a lawless Demon Cave, and their approach is very different from the mainstream Path of Immortal Cultivation in the Tian Nan Domain.’

’Facing an enemy like that... it won’t be easy.’

A thread of worry tightened in Shen Changchuan’s heart.

The difference in geographical environment

would affect them as outsiders.

What’s more, their opponents primarily followed the vicious Demon Dao, which possessed extraordinary destructive power.

Especially when it came to Gu Techniques,

although he had only dabbled in the basics of Gu Techniques,

Shen Changchuan knew a fair bit about the Dao of Gu.

A Cultivator who specialized in Gu Techniques might not be strong in a direct confrontation—in fact, you could even call them weak.

But the strength of Gu Techniques lay in their stealth and insidiousness.

As long as they weren’t foolish enough to jump out and fight head-on, instead hiding in the shadows, a single moment of carelessness could get even a high-Realm Cultivator killed by their insidious methods!

That’s what had happened on Tang Yuncheng’s mission.

Several people died under mysterious circumstances on the way to attack that small family clan.

’This war... I’m afraid it’s going to be incredibly dangerous!’

’It seems what Senior Brother Hong told me—that Master is being targeted by the higher-ups in the Yuqing Immortal Sect—is most likely true.’

Shen Changchuan couldn’t help but sigh.

’So what if I’ve figured some of it out?’

’I’m just a Little Cultivator at the Soul Emergence Realm. I might be able to put on airs in front of bottom-tier Cultivators at the Qi Introduction Realm, but before the Yuqing Immortal Sect, I’m nothing but a worthless ant.’

’Even Master Wandering Dragon can’t change anything, so what hope do I have?’

’I can only face reality.’

’Fortunately, it’s not a completely hopeless situation.’

’Though he’s being targeted from above, Master’s response was brilliant. He used it as a pretext to bind all the other major powers in the Tian Nan Domain that have a Divine Travel Realm expert, forcing everyone to contribute to the attack on the Nanyue Kingdom.’

Thinking of this, Shen Changchuan felt some of the worry in his heart begin to subside.

He had heard about this from Senior Brother Hong Yang.

Perhaps because they had forged a life-and-death bond in the Demon Beast Forest, Senior Brother Hong was quite close to him and had revealed some of the inside story.

The order to attack the Nanyue Kingdom had been delivered by Wu Zhen.

And the Dragon Cloud Sect was the only one to receive this order.

Without a doubt,

if the Dragon Cloud Sect, with its meager strength, had actually followed that order, it would have been no different from throwing an egg against a rock.

After all, the entire Dragon Cloud Sect had only about a thousand disciples in total.

It was a clear attempt to kill them with a borrowed knife!

But Master Wandering Dragon didn’t get to where he was today

by being a fool.

While he couldn’t change the "grand scheme" of attacking the Nanyue Territory, he immediately leveraged his connections within the Immortal Sect to extend the order to all of the Yuqing Immortal Sect’s subordinate powers throughout the Tian Nan Domain!

He dragged all the other powers into the same boat.

It was a truly brilliant move.

Because even though the Demon Dao ran rampant in the Nanyue Territory and its Demonic Cultivators held an advantage in killing techniques,

the selfish nature of these Demonic Cultivators, who wantonly slaughtered and plundered resources, meant that...

...although the Nanyue Kingdom was no smaller than the Tian Nan Domain in area, the total number of Cultivators in its Immortal Cultivation Realm—from the lowest to the highest echelons—was far from comparable to the Tian Nan Domain’s!

By pulling in all the powers of the Tian Nan Domain,

a battle against the Immortal Cultivation Realm of the Nanyue Kingdom was not necessarily impossible.

’I probably don’t need to worry about Master. I should focus on myself for now.’

Having thought of this,

Shen Changchuan shook his head slightly, pulling his wandering thoughts back to the present.

’Looks like I need to study Gu Techniques more seriously.’

’If the situation changes and I have to go fight deep within the Nanyue Kingdom, knowledge of Gu Techniques will be another layer of protection...’