Chapter 434 432: Harvest
Different situations call for different approaches.
Before today, the Third Elder had held Shen Changchuan in high regard. He believed that based on his performance, Shen Changchuan might ascend to the Divine Travel Realm and become the Shen Family's next ancestor at that level.
But that was only a possibility.
It wasn't a certainty.
'Who knows what could happen to him in the next few decades?'
'What if one day his meteoric rise comes to a halt, and he gets stuck at some bottleneck for the rest of his life?'
After all, the heaven-defying difficulty of crossing from the Soul Emergence to the Divine Travel Realm wasn't so easily overcome.
In the Tian Nan Domain alone, there were likely billions who had successfully undergone Qi Introduction and embarked on the path of a Cultivator.
But in the end, fewer than ten had actually reached the Divine Travel Realm!
Over the centuries,
countless brilliant, peerless prodigies and heaven-defying geniuses, whom everyone expected to reach the Divine Travel Realm, had ultimately stalled at the Soul Emergence Ninth Layer Peak, trapped before the bottleneck and unable to advance a single step.
The world is teeming with talent, like schools of fish crossing a river.
But those who could leap the dragon gate were as rare as a phoenix's feather or a qilin's horn!
Moreover,
the Third Elder had originally speculated that even if Shen Changchuan could truly cross that chasm and enter the Divine Travel Realm, it would take him several decades at the very least.
Several decades is a long time in anyone's life.
A lot could happen in that time—a lot of unforeseen events.
'Who knows, maybe one day the First Mistress will see Shen Changchuan as a threat and hire an expert from the Zhou Family to assassinate him, cutting short his rise.'
Too many potential incidents,
all added to the uncertainty.
Therefore,
even after personally witnessing Shen Changchuan—who had just entered the Soul Emergence Fourth Layer—effortlessly slay the Soul Emergence Sixth Layer's Shadow three years ago,
the Shen Clan's Third Elder had remained worried these past few years but hadn't hastily jumped ship and turned against the First Mistress.
Instead, he had been observing and deliberating.
It wasn't until recently,
that he decided to befriend Shen Changchuan's fellow disciples, making a preemptive show of goodwill to prepare for developments decades down the line.
This was the Third Elder's original view and plan.
But today,
after seeing with his own eyes that Shen Changchuan had advanced to the Soul Emergence Seventh Layer Realm in just three short years,
and had even, at the Soul Emergence Seventh Layer, unleashed a sword strike powerful enough to severely injure or even kill a Soul Emergence Ninth Layer Cultivator,
his estimation of Shen Changchuan
had undergone an earth-shattering transformation!
'That strike... it must be one of the legendary Divine Techniques. Its power is truly astounding!'
'Once he advances to Soul Emergence Ninth Layer, the power of that strike will likely reach the Divine Travel Realm Level!'
'At that point, he'll be able to wield the power of the Divine Travel Realm with that technique!'
'Even if he isn't a match for a true Divine Travel Realm expert, he'll be a Quasi-Divine Travel Realm expert with one foot in the door, placing him above all other Soul Emergence Realm Cultivators!'
The more he considered it,
the more shocked the Shen Clan's Third Elder became,
and the urge to do everything in his power to mend the rift as quickly as possible grew ever stronger!
But as his resolve hardened, he also grew more troubled.
'I must mend our relationship, even if it costs me dearly. But the question is, what should I give him?'
'It seems after he improved the Gu-controlling Secret Technique and turned the tide on the front lines, he received a massive reward from the allied forces. He can't be lacking Cultivation Resources...'
...
Shen Changchuan was unaware of what the others were thinking.
In fact,
after killing Qiu Kunsheng, he had also sensed two people enter the Secret Realm Ruins' entrance not far away.
One was Senior Brother Wu Tianhao,
and the other seemed to be the Third Elder of the Shen Clan.
But Shen Changchuan didn't rush over to greet them.
Unleashing the Divine Technique he had nurtured for so long to slay Qiu Kunsheng had been satisfying,
but the successive battles,
had consumed a great deal of his Magical Power.
He felt a sense of weakness spreading through him.
He landed on the ground,
took out an Elixir to restore Magical Power, tossed it into his mouth, took a few deep breaths, and circulated the remaining energy in his body for a full cycle to absorb the Elixir's Medicinal Power.
A moment later,
he had recovered twenty to thirty percent of his Magical Power.
Although still far from his peak,
the debilitating weakness from having completely depleted his reserves vanished.
'It's a good thing I condensed a Spirit Body when I advanced to Soul Emergence and laid a solid foundation early on. Both the recovery speed and the sheer quality and quantity of my Magical Power far exceed those of other Cultivators at my realm.'
'Otherwise, in a head-on clash like this with an expert at the Soul Emergence Eighth Layer Late Stage, my Magical Power would have been drained after just one or two hundred moves, let alone fighting someone above my rank!'
These thoughts flashed through Shen Changchuan's mind.
From the battle with Qiu Kunsheng,
he had progressed and gained a great deal.
However, it had also exposed some of his shortcomings.
'Perhaps,'
'for the time being, I shouldn't focus on breaking through to the next realm too quickly.'
'I should instead be patient and properly polish my current Cultivation Realm.'
'It would be best to use the Qi Absorption and Essence Returning Secret Skill a few more times,'
'to compress and refine the Magical Power in my body.'
'This will take a considerable amount of time.'
'But with the Golden Wind Jade Dew Gu doubling my cultivation speed to compensate,'
'it won't be much of a delay.'
Shen Changchuan was lost in thought.
'In cultivation,'
'the more solid one's foundation, the greater the potential and room for future growth.'
'It's the same principle as building a house.'
'It's true that one can make up for a weak foundation later on by paying a huge price after reaching a higher realm.'
'But isn't the cost immense?'
As the thoughts flashed through his mind,
Shen Changchuan floated a few steps to Qiu Kunsheng's corpse, which had been cut in two. He swept it with his Divine Soul Perception and found the Storage Bag hanging on it.
With a beckon of his hand,
the Storage Bag flew into his grasp.
Wiping away the spiritual imprint Qiu Kunsheng had left on it, Shen Changchuan casually swept his Divine Sense inside for a look.
A glint appeared in his eyes.
'As expected of a sect leader.'
'This is a considerable fortune!'
Shen Changchuan marveled inwardly.
He didn't linger, but put it away.
He hadn't forgotten that,
the people of the Corpse Refining Sect,
weren't all dead yet!
Furthermore,
inside the cavern within the dead volcano, there were still plenty of things left behind by the Corpse Refining Sect disciples...
And so,
his figure flickered,
and vanished from the spot.
「A quarter of an hour later.」
Inside the cavern of the volcano's crater, the blood-stained Magical Power Longsword in his hand dissipated.
Beside him,
the Corpse Refining Sect Elder at the Soul Emergence Seventh Layer—who had been grievously wounded but had survived the array's self-detonation—collapsed weakly to the ground, his eyes wide in death.
'Not bad. Saved me some trouble.'
At that moment,
he noticed a string of twenty or thirty Storage Bags hanging from the Corpse Refining Sect Elder's waist.
It seemed that while he and Qiu Kunsheng were fighting,
this Elder, having recovered slightly, had helped clean up the battlefield by collecting the Storage Bags left by his fallen sect members.
'What a good guy!'
'He even saved me the trouble.'