Chapter 270 - 139: Dynastic Changes (Part 2)

Chapter 270: Chapter 139: Dynastic Changes (Part 2)

"Sect Master, was I wrong?"

His Dao Heart unsteady, Jiang Baiyi looked in confusion at the man beside him—the Profound Celestial Sect Master, a cultivator at True Core Perfection who had held dominion over the Eastern Domain for more than a century.

"Alas!"

The Profound Celestial Sect Master said nothing.

The conditions to be named one of the Ten Great Masters were harsh. Only a True Core Cultivator under one hundred years of age, possessing boundless potential and outstanding combat prowess, could compete for a place on the list.

Jiang Baiyi had formed a top-level True Core at only thirty-four. In the last thousand years, he would have ranked among the top three Celestial Prides, a world-shaking figure.

Unfortunately.

An unprecedented Nine-Life Celestial Pride had appeared—the number one cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Realm and a future Top-level Golden Core—eclipsing all of Jiang Baiyi’s brilliance.

Why create the one, only to have him be outshone by the other?

"You have done no wrong. It is simply your misfortune to share an era with him."

The Profound Celestial Sect Master sighed.

「Fifth Year of Tianqi」

The Top Ten Masters List was updated. The Profound Celestial Sect had lost three Masters, so three new names were added.

The Nine-Life Celestial Pride, ranked eighth!

Jiang Baiyi, ranked ninth.

The final new addition was a secret disciple of a reclusive magnate from the Sun and Moon Daoist Sect. Also young, he had achieved the top-level True Core Realm via Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment and was ranked tenth.

After that, everything fell quiet. The Five Great Sects were recuperating, but they were also dispatching messengers to secretly support the Three Great Dynasties in their offensive against the Daqi Celestial Dynasty!

"The war has started again."

"When will all this fighting finally end?"

A young boy riding a Cyan Ox came to deliver wine to Su Chen, sighing over and over.

His father had been conscripted and sent to the front lines to transport military supplies, and business at their wine shop had plummeted as a result.

Ever since Emperor Tianqi had burst onto the scene and opened a path for a Dynasty to consolidate its fortune—allowing even mortals without Spiritual Roots to practice cultivation—the thousand-plus nations of the world had been reduced to just the Daqi Celestial Dynasty and the Three Great Dynasties: Great Qin, Great Ming, and Great Yuan.

The Three Great Dynasties were merely using an Ancient Technique to consolidate their fortune. Only the Daqi Celestial Dynasty followed the orthodox path, the true successor to the Celestial Dynasties of old.

The Five Great Sects wanted nothing more than to destroy the Daqi Celestial Dynasty!

Under siege by the Three Great Dynasties, the entire Daqi was in a precarious position, even with the support of Core Formation Giants. In just one short month, ten cities had already fallen.

"Things will get better."

"When Emperor Tianqi re-establishes his reign, the Five Great Sects will crumble like dust."

Su Chen fell silent for a long moment. For the first time, he didn’t buy the wine on credit. He rummaged around in his medicinal field for a bit, dug up a fruit that looked like white jade, and tossed it to the boy.

"Consider this payment for the wine," Su Chen said.

"Oh, you!"

"You really don’t seem like a man of any real talent."

"You spend all day sleeping in your thatched hut, yet you insist you’re growing Spirit Medicines."

"If you really had such skills, you would’ve been invited to the Court long ago, granted an official post, and been enjoying the tribute that comes with the Dynasty’s fortune..."

The boy laughed in spite of himself. Though he didn’t believe Su Chen’s tall tales, he didn’t refuse the offer, casually tucking the Spirit Medicine into his robes.

The Cyan Ox took the boy down the mountain and then returned, seeming not to understand why Su Chen would give such a precious Spirit Medicine to a mortal boy.

That single Spirit Medicine was enough to create an expert of the Innate Realm!

If the boy had a Spiritual Root, he might even have had a chance to reach the peak of Qi Cultivation.

The Spirit Medicine was so precious, it was comparable to a Foundation Establishment Pill! Even one of unremarkable age would have the Five Great Sects scrambling madly to obtain it.

’The world is about to descend into chaos.’

’Void, you self-proclaimed expert on being an Emperor, aren’t you going to offer your son some pointers on his Dragon Slaying Skill?’

It had been a full year since the Tianqi Emperor had last been seen, ever since the palace coup that had forced him to abdicate the throne.

Rumors flew in the Imperial City that he was already dead—that without the protection of his Golden Core, he had been assassinated by an alliance of Core Formation Giants.

Others said that, realizing he was no match for the Five Great Sects and the Three Great Dynasties, he had faked his own death and fled the Imperial Palace long ago.

Only Su Chen knew the truth.

Snow had been there all along.

He was standing there, right inside his Book Collection Martial Pavilion.

Perhaps he was in the midst of arduous cultivation. Or perhaps, he was waiting for someone.

Su Chen didn’t know what Snow was doing either.

’In the future,’

’I’m afraid I won’t be able to drink his fine wine anymore.’

’What was that boy’s name again?’

Su Chen drank the Cyan Wine, a vintage unique to the boy’s family. Unlike the sweetness of White Confucian Wine, this vintage had an indescribable, fresh aroma. It wasn’t intoxicating, and yet, one couldn’t help but feel drunk on it.

Many more days passed.

The ice and snow melted.

One night, the boy returned. He didn’t have the Cyan Ox bring him this time. He came alone, carrying jar after jar of aged wine on his back, making trip after trip until his boots had rubbed his feet raw and bloody.

After a long while, one hundred and thirty-seven jars of aged wine were piled before Su Chen’s thatched hut. The boy then performed the grand ritual of three kneelings and nine head-bows.

His eyes burned with the fire of hatred.

The front lines had collapsed!

Ten more major cities were lost! The battlefront had collapsed thirty li inland, and the flames of war now burned within Daqi’s borders. With every city they conquered, the allied armies of the Three Great Dynasties slaughtered every Daqi citizen inside.

His father was dead.

"Mr. Black Lotus, so you really are a man of great skill. And what you grow truly are Spirit Medicines. To think I just thought you were a drunk who liked to skip out on his bill."

"Thank you for the medicine you gave me, but I can’t deliver any more wine to you..."

"My name is Qing Cang. This is all the wine I have."

"Take care of yourself!"

The boy left, heading for the distant border forts to embark on his path of revenge. Perhaps he would become a general who trod upon thousands of skeletons, or perhaps he would become just one of the thousands of skeletons trod upon by a general.

Grudges and vendettas, endless cycles of killing—for thousands of years in the World in the Palm, for hundreds of thousands of years in the Mountain Sea Realm, it has always been this way, a cycle that never ceases.

CREAK.

The door to the thatched hut opened.

When Su Chen didn’t wish to be drunk, he wasn’t. He stood and watched the boy’s departing figure, and in that moment, he recalled the boy’s father—that good-natured but shrewd middle-aged shopkeeper.