Chapter 85 - 84: Chen Feng’s confirmation.

Chapter 85: Chapter 84: Chen Feng’s confirmation.

In the next moment, faint ripples appeared in the air beside Chen Yuan as he sensed two familiar presences entering the cave through the layers of spiritual energy he had used to conceal the place.

Chen Yuan immediately retracted his right hand, allowing its unusual properties to settle beneath its ordinary appearance.

At the same time, he sent the book back again into his divine conciousness.

A moment later, Chen Yueran and Chen Feng emerged from the distortion, appearing beside him in midair.

The two briefly examined Chen Yuan before turning their attention toward the surroundings.

The cave appeared largely unchanged, although the faint traces of energy lingering in the air was still evident.

To that, Chen Yueran tilted her head curiously.

"So you’ve been hiding here all night, Father? What have you been doing?"

She let her words hung over the air a bit longer, her eyes scruntinizing Chen Yuan’s figure over the air.

Carefully, she then sounded out her concern, "Just now, I felt a very strange fluctuation coming from this place."

"Were you doing something?"

She looked him up and down, clearly hoping to discover something from his appearance, but Chen Yuan’s expression gave little away.

Chen Feng, meanwhile, slowly stroked his beard as he studied Chen Yuan’s unchanging face.

"Were you experimenting with something?"

Chen Yuan glanced at the two of them before considering how he should respond.

He could, of course, tell them about the Book of the Nameless and the path he had just begun to explore.

However, the method was still new, and even he had nearly lost consciousness during the process of severing his hand’s soul imprint.

There was no reason to expose them to such a dangerous path before he understood its limitations.

In the end, he decided to tell them something else.

"Indeed I have... "

"Owhhh?," Chen Yueran twirled over the air, her body turning upside down as her eyes narrowed itself, "That’s very odd, I dont think I recall the closest instance since the last time you had done this before."

"Is it a new technique that you wished to develop? The fluctuation just now was rather violent I must say, but then it would be explainable If it was a new technique."

Chen Feng also had the same thoughts as her, but he didn’t voice his words out yet.

Rather, he waited, and narrowed his gaze on Chen Yuan’s body.

Chen Yuan noticed the curiousty coming from the two, and slowly, he walked over the air with his hands behind his back, "Do not be alarmed to what I’m about to say next. But just now, I had experiment with a rather peciluar idea of mine that might point a path toward the next realm."

The moment those words left his mouth, both Chen Feng and Chen Yueran became noticeably more attentive.

"A peculiar path?" Chen Feng asked, his hand pausing briefly over his beard. "Have you discovered something?"

Chen Yueran moved closer, her curiosity growing.

"Father, what kind of experiment was it? Is it different from the methods we’re currently using?"

Chen Yuan smiled faintly at their reactions, and he doesn’t even care for the title that Chen Yueran was adressing him with.

"I’ve found a possibility, but it’s still in the testing phase. There are too many things I haven’t confirmed yet, so I won’t make any promises for now."

He paused before continuing.

"Once I’ve completed the necessary experiments and confirmed that the method is reliable, I’ll naturally teach it to both of you if the two of you want to learn."

Chen Feng nodded slowly, though his eyes remained thoughtful.

Still, the fact that Chen Yuan had made such a claim meant that he must have discovered something worth investigating.

Chen Yuan did not elaborate further.

As far as he was concerned, the path was still far from complete, and he had no intention of allowing others to attempt it.

There were two reasons for his decision.

The first was simple: he wanted to preserve the exclusivity of the path.

If it proved successful, it would become another foundation upon which the Chen Family could build its strength, and there was little reason to spread it indiscriminately.

The second reason was far more important.

The path was dangerous.

Even with his powerful divine consciousness, Chen Yuan had nearly lost consciousness several times while severing the soul imprint of his hand.

He could not be certain that an ordinary cultivator would survive the process with their soul intact.

Not everyone possessed a soul as strong as his, nor could everyone endure such torment without losing control of their consciousness.

Chen Yuan looked at the two people before him and smiled.

"There’s no need to rush. When the time comes, you’ll understand."

However, before Chen Feng and Chen Yueran could continue asking, Chen Yuan suddenly remembered something that had been bothering him.

He turned his gaze toward Chen Feng’s face, and asked in a slightly lighter tone, "Chen Feng, have you ever come across any records about what lies beyond the Foundation Establishment Realm?"

"I’m not talking about the usual legends or stories passed down through generations. I mean something that might explain why there were no Golden Core cultivator in the Kingdom?"

Chen Feng paused, his hand resting against his beard.

Beside him, Chen Yueran tilted her head, looking between the two with a puzzled expression.

"Why the sudden questions? Have you found something else too?"

Chen Yuan glanced at her but did not answer immediately.

Instead, he waited for Chen Feng, whose expression had grown thoughtful as he searched through his memories.

"I can’t say I’ve found anything that explains it directly," Chen Feng eventually replied. "But there was something I came across a long time ago that might be related."

Chen Yuan’s attention was piqued.

"It was during one of my travels. I found an ancient ruin in a remote region, though most of it had already collapsed by the time I arrived."

"There wasn’t much left to explore, but I came across a chamber deep inside that was covered in murals."

He paused, trying to recall the details.

"The earlier murals showed a world much like our own. There were mountains, rivers, and cultivators everywhere."

"Some were meditating, others were fighting, and a few were depicted ascending toward the heavens, as though they were trying to reach something beyond the sky."

Chen Feng’s brows drew together slightly as he remembered what had followed.

"But the images became stranger as I went further in. The sky began to crack, and something resembling blood flowed from those fractures."

"The mountains were shattered, the rivers had dried up, and the cultivators who had once stood beneath the heavens were kneeling or lying among the ruins."

Chen Yueran’s expression changed.

"Was it a war? Or a catastrophe?"

"I don’t know." Chen Feng shook his head. "The final mural was badly damaged. I could only make out a broken sky and countless figures reaching toward something above them."

"I couldn’t tell what had happened or what they were trying to reach. At the time, I thought it was probably depicting some ancient catastrophe, so I didn’t pay much attention to it afterward."

He turned toward Chen Yuan, noticing that the latter had grown unusually quiet.

"Why do you ask? Have you found something that connects to those murals?"

Chen Yuan remained silent for a moment.

So there really were traces of it in this world.

"I might have," Chen Yuan replied. "And if what I’ve discovered is correct, those murals may not have been depicting an ordinary catastrophe."

Chen Yueran turned toward him, her curiosity growing.

"What do you mean?"

Chen Yuan took a moment to gather his thoughts before explaining.

"The cultivation path we follow today may be incomplete. Foundation Establishment might not be the highest realm that can exist, but it could be the highest realm that cultivators in this world can currently reach."

Chen Feng’s expression gradually became serious.

"You’re saying there’s something preventing us from advancing?"

"Something like that. It might not be a matter of talent or resources at all."

Chen Yuan looked at the two of them before continuing.

"Think about how we cultivate. We refine our spiritual energy, strengthen our bodies and souls, comprehend the laws of the world, and gradually deepen our connection with the heavens and the Dao. The higher we advance, the more we depend on that connection to support our cultivation."

He paused briefly.

"But what if the foundation supporting that path has already been destroyed? What if the road beyond Foundation Establishment was severed long ago?"

Neither of them answered.

Chen Yuan continued, his voice growing more solemn as he recalled the information he had obtained.

"The heavens have been broken. The Dao has bled, and the path beyond has been cut off. Whatever once allowed us cultivators to advance toward higher realms no longer exists in its original form."

"We can still cultivate using what remains, but that doesn’t mean the road ahead is still there."

He let the words settle before adding, "If that’s the case, then the limitations we face today might not be our own. We may have inherited a cultivation system that can no longer take us any further."

Chen Yueran stared at him, momentarily unable to respond.

She had always understood cultivation as a long journey with clearly defined stages.

But if the path itself had been severed, then none of those things would necessarily matter.

Even someone with extraordinary talent could reach the limit of what the world allowed and find nowhere else to go.

"Then..." She hesitated, struggling to put her thoughts into words. "Even if someone reaches the peak of Foundation Establishment, they might never be able to break through?"

"That’s what I’m beginning to suspect," Chen Yuan replied. "I haven’t verified everything, so I won’t claim to understand the full history behind it."

"But the information I obtained was clear about one thing: the path beyond the heavens has been severed."

Chen Feng slowly lowered his hand from his beard.

"That would explain why I couldn’t make sense of those murals." He paused, then shook his head faintly. "I always thought they were exaggerating some ancient disaster. I never considered that the broken sky might have been exactly what it showed."

He looked toward Chen Yuan again, his expression carrying a mixture of disbelief and concern.

"If this is true, then how long has the path been broken? And how much of what we know about cultivation has already been lost?"

"Those are the questions I want to answer as well," Chen Yuan said. "That’s why I asked whether you’d come across anything related to it."

Chen Feng nodded slowly, though his expression remained grave.

He could not confirm Chen Yuan’s discovery, but neither could he dismiss it. The information Chen Yuan possessed often came from the mysterious system.

Beside him, Chen Yueran had fallen quiet.

She looked as though she wanted to ask more questions, yet she could not find an easy way to begin.

Their entire understanding of cultivation had rested on the belief that the road ahead remained open.

Now, they had to consider the possibility that the road had ended long before they were born.

It meant that the world they knew might have been living within the remnants of a broken cultivation age without even realizing it.

After a long silence, Chen Feng finally let out a slow breath.

"If that’s really the case, then finding another way forward is no longer just a matter of making the family stronger."

Chen Yuan looked at him.

"No. It concerns everyone."