"When are you planning to go to Shu Mountain?"

Jiang He asked.

Chen Yuan had mentioned going to Shu Mountain during their earlier conversation, and Jiang He had kept it in mind, guessing that Chen Yuan would be leaving soon.

After all, the Sword Offering Ceremony of Shu Mountain was also approaching.

Although it was just a small gathering, it still attracted countless Jianghu swordsmen to pilgrimage, wanting to witness the splendor of the sacred land of Shu Mountain.

'And incidentally' see if they could find a suitable spiritual sword in the Sword Tomb.

The swords in the Sword Tomb were all extraordinary, at least spiritual swords. Perhaps there were treasured swords left by Shu Mountain disciples before their deaths, which, after being nurtured in the Sword Tomb for many years, could develop a trace of spirituality.

Each spiritual weapon was basically priceless, a treasure that most Ninggang cultivators could not afford.

Jiang He had once participated in the last Sword Offering Ceremony when he was young, causing quite a stir. It was because of this that he gained the attention of Shu Mountain and was able to comprehend swordsmanship before the Sword Comprehension Stone.

For Jianghu martial artists, this was definitely an honor.

Later, Jiang He indeed lived up to the expectations of the Jianghu swordsmen, reaching the Sword God position with a Dan realm cultivation, almost creating a precedent and being regarded as a goal by countless swordsmen.

"Two days before the Sword Offering Ceremony, I suppose."

The Shu Mountain Sword Offering Ceremony was held on the 31st of September. He planned to arrive on the 29th of September. As for these few days, he still had quite a few things to take care of.

He didn't need to worry about the things below, but it was best to stay here to prevent anyone from coming to make trouble and disrupt the Shuxi Alliance that he had painstakingly formed.

"Do you need my help then?"

If he needed his help, he would not return to Qingzhou to avoid running back and forth. If not, he would turn around and return directly to Qingzhou City.

Chen Yuan pondered for a moment, tapping his finger lightly on the table, and nodded:

"If you have nothing to do, then come with me."

He had a premonition that Shu Mountain would not be peaceful this time. It wasn't that he would do anything, but that the appearance of opportunities usually caused strife.

He could only be considered in the top thirty of the Supreme Heaven Ranking. Even using the Divine Power of Void Stasis was just a trump card. He usually couldn't use it at all.

Not to mention others, he couldn't even deal with the experts from Shu Mountain. Although Shu Mountain currently only had one Lingxu True Lord ranked in the top ten of the Supreme Ranking, there wasn't just one True Lord within Shu Mountain.

Even stronger Immortals might still exist. He had to be cautious.

If Chu Changfeng hadn't just entered seclusion and hadn't broken through yet, he would have invited him to come along. As for the Refining Spirit Realm True People, they couldn't change the battle situation at all and it was more appropriate to leave them behind to guard Shuxi for him.

"It's been many years since I went to Shu Mountain. I'll take a look around this time," Jiang He smiled. He knew that Chen Yuan was determined to go to Shu Mountain, and he must have some plans.

But he didn't like to ask too much, as long as he was a hired hand.

Yang Huatian didn't interrupt. He also knew that even if he went, he couldn't help and would even become a burden to the two of them.

After chatting for a while, Chen Yuan asked Yang Huatian about the specific details of their previous battle at the Three Absolutes Gate, and the two didn't hide anything, recounting it once.

After that, Chen Yuan, Jiang He, and Yang Huatian began a round of discussing the Dao, whether it was about artistic conception, Yuanqi, or cultivation... all three gained a lot.

Jiang He was a genuine Yang God True Lord, and his strength was even more extraordinary. Although Yang Huatian was not in the Yang God realm, he had deep accumulation. He seemed gloomy, but in fact, he spoke Taoist theories.

And Chen Yuan was even more extraordinary. With a Refining Spirit cultivation, he could fight against Yang God True Lords. He was definitely a peerless genius not seen for a thousand years, even stronger than Jiang He back then.

Back then, he had tried his best to only injure Puxian. Although this was also very extraordinary, his physical body was a major weakness, unable to fight for a long time.

In addition, he had two lives, which benefited both Jiang He and Yang Huatian greatly.

Chen Yuan mainly talked about the physical body, saying that the physical body was a real treasure. Once the true power of the physical body was unleashed, it wouldn't be too difficult to fight across realms.

He was an example!

He was only in the early stage of the Divine Power realm, but he could fight against True Lords. Although a large part of the reason was that he transformed into a Qilin Demon and consumed the power of the Qilin blood, it was still not to be underestimated.

Yes, Chen Yuan devoured the entire Fire Qilin, but he was still only in the early stage of the Divine Power realm. Only by relying on burning the power of the Qilin blood could he unleash extremely strong power.

The reason for this, in addition to the Fire Qilin's own strength being less than 10%, was that his physical body was also a major strength. Chu Changfeng was at the peak of the Refining Spirit realm and also in the early stage of the Divine Power realm, so why couldn't he fight against True Lords?

It wasn't that he was weak, but that Chen Yuan's upper limit was too high!

From the beginning of his martial arts journey, he had practiced the Vajra Glazed Body, laying a solid foundation. Later, his Qi refining and body refining were almost at the same realm.

In addition, with the simultaneous cultivation of the Dao, Buddhist, and Demon paths, as well as the blessing of many heaven and earth spiritual objects and the Xiang family's divine blood, his foundation was too deep. If he had to use an analogy, then he was a large vat, while Chu Changfeng was just a basin.

This was the difference between them.

As for the Liangshan leader Blood Axe Fan Ying that he had seen before, he was also in the Divine Power realm, but his Qi refining cultivation was not high, and his lower limit was too low, even inferior to Chu Changfeng, so his strength couldn't be considered strong.

Compared to when he had just broken through to the Divine Power realm, he had actually improved a lot because he had the foundation of the Xiang family's divine blood and the Fire Qilin's residual blood.

This was why he had such a powerful combat strength.

Chen Yuan had consulted Chu Changfeng and Moro on the cultivation of the physical body because there were too few people who cultivated the physical body, and the realm divided by the Human Race Martial Emperor had not been completely passed down.

Therefore, the division of the Divine Power realm was not like the Transformation Yang realm, which was divided into Yuan God, Refining Spirit, and Yang God. It only formed a consensus and was divided into the early stage of the Divine Power realm, the minor success stage of the Divine Power realm, and the great success stage of the Divine Power realm!

These three realms corresponded to the three realms of Transformation Yang.

And above these three realms, there was actually another realm, which was the perfection of Divine Power and the perfection of Yang God!

The perfection of Yang God was difficult, and the perfection of Divine Power was even more difficult!

According to Moro's previous evaluation, there were definitely no more than a handful of people in the world who could truly achieve the perfection of Yang God. Ye Xiangnan, the second in the world, was one, and the Manjusri Bodhisattva of Mount Meru was one.

They might have already begun to transition towards the sixth realm, so a clone could have the combat power of a True Lord. That was the power of the rules.

And the recorded achievers of the perfection of Divine Power since ancient times were only a few people. Even Moro, who was once in the sixth realm, his physical body that was suppressed in Mount Meru was only at the great success stage of Divine Power and far from reaching perfection.

However, Chen Yuan guessed that one person might have cultivated this realm.

That was his cheap old man, Xiang Qianqiu, who defied the heavens and attacked Immortals in Liangshan!

Defying the heavens and attacking Immortals was definitely a shocking event. It was impossible to do it with just the perfection of Yang God. Perhaps with the perfection of Divine Power, it could truly be done.

The perfection of Yang God plus the perfection of Divine Power had almost exceeded the limits of the two major realms of 'Divine Power Transformation Yang' and could even be called 'Half Immortal'.

And his explanation also made Jiang He and Yang Huatian thoughtful, but that was all. They didn't mainly cultivate the physical body, especially Jiang He. Although his physical body had been washed by the heaven and earth Yuanqi, it definitely couldn't reach the level of 'Indestructible Vajra'.

Yang Huatian was better, and his physical body had reached the realm of Indestructible Vajra.

But if they were to cultivate the physical body again, it would be a bit not worth the loss. Therefore, what Chen Yuan said was just an inspiration. They were still taking the orthodox path of Qi refining.

Yang Huatian had a deep foundation and was taking a side path, enhancing combat power by refining the soul. It was actually not very useful to Chen Yuan and Jiang He.

But listening to it was always not harmful.

What really benefited Chen Yuan and Yang Huatian the most was actually Jiang He's explanation. Yang Huatian cultivated the Yuan God, while Chen Yuan cultivated both the Yuan God and the physical body. Qi refining was not weaker than body refining, and was even a bit stronger.

Jiang He was taking the path of Sword Immortal. His physical body was extremely weak, but his talent and comprehension were very terrifying. In just a few decades, he had almost reached the perfection of artistic conception.

His strong combat power also came from this.

The cultivation of the Yuan God was different from the Dan realm and the lower three realms. Strengthening the Yuan God was the right path, and the fundamental reason for the Yuan God's strength was enlightenment. Jiang He had realized a nearly perfect artistic conception at the early stage of the Yang God realm, which could be called extremely terrifying!

Those who had perfected their artistic conception were almost all at the peak level of the Yang God, which was the realm reached by those in the top ten of the Supreme Ranking. Jiang He was able to stand shoulder to shoulder with them, and was worthy of Moro's attention.

If he could break the shackles at the early stage of the Yang God realm, break free from the constraints of artistic conception, and comprehend a trace of the rules, his strength would instantly soar to the top few of the Supreme Ranking.

In fact, Chen Yuan also wanted to do this, but... although his talent and comprehension were not bad, his foundation was too shallow. He had only realized artistic conception not long ago.

And if he wanted to truly bring artistic conception to perfection, the primary condition was to break through to the Yang God realm!

It wasn't that only Yang God True Lords could perfect their artistic conception, but if the Yuan God didn't receive the heaven and earth's supreme Yang Qi into the spirit, it was impossible to comprehend a perfect artistic conception. There had never been such a record since ancient times.

Even Jiang He had only faintly touched the perfection of artistic conception after breaking through to Yang God.

Therefore, Chen Yuan's most important thing at the moment was to improve his hardware conditions. Using his powerful cultivation to feed back his artistic conception would allow him to advance by leaps and bounds.

This was his idea, and it was also the method that Moro had pointed out to him before he fell asleep.

The perfection of artistic conception was an important condition for comprehending the rules, but Chen Yuan couldn't do it now. What he sought was to have strong power in a short time to protect himself.

Of course, Chen Yuan's state of mind had reached perfection after being tempered in the mortal world, and there were no loopholes. This was the strongest foundation. As long as Chen Yuan broke through to Yang God, it would be much easier to comprehend a deeper level of artistic conception.

If he could be assisted by opportunities and treasures, he might be able to ascend to the sky in one step.

Jiang He didn't even have this level of foundation accumulation.

This discussion of the Dao didn't end in one or two hours. It lasted for a full day and night before the three finished talking about their views. Yang Huatian got up and left.

Preparing to digest everything properly and further enhance his foundation in preparation for a future breakthrough!

The Daoshen Palace today was no longer the Daoshen Palace of the past. Before, when Senior Moro was suppressed in the capital, among the five Palace Masters of the Daoshen Palace, he, the Underworld Prison Palace Master Chu Changfeng, and the Evergreen Palace Master Li Suqing were the strongest three. Chu Changfeng was a bit stronger than him, and he was a bit stronger than Li Suqing.

And Su Ziyue and Jiang He were the weakest two, only in the Dan realm.

But now it was different. The Daoshen Palace had become competitive!

Jiang He had been nurturing his sword for more than ten years, and one day he transformed into a dragon, rushing from the Dan realm all the way to the peak of the Refining Spirit realm, and even injured the National Preceptor Puxian Bodhisattva, who was in the top twenty of the Supreme Heaven Ranking.

Su Ziyue had the divine blood of the Nine-Tailed Sky Fox clan, one of the four great demon clans, and was assisted by the Six Desires Immortal Scripture. Now she had also entered the Refining Spirit realm.

The most unbelievable thing was Chen Yuan. He had only joined the Daoshen Palace for about two or three years, and he had reached the Transformation Yang realm from the first realm of martial arts foundation building.

Moreover, he cultivated both the Transformation Yang and Divine Power, and he could also transform into a Qilin Demon. His strength was approaching that of a Yang God True Lord!

And Chu Changfeng had also begun to seclude himself, preparing to step into the Yang God True Lord realm. Once he broke through, he, Li Suqing, and Su Ziyue would become the weakest, which was really a bit uncomfortable.

Therefore, he was also planning to break through.

Discussing the Dao was a way to enhance the foundation.

After sending Yang Huatian away, Chen Yuan also let out a long breath and stood up to say to Jiang He:

"Let's go to the secret chamber with me..."

"Okay."

Jiang He nodded slightly.

...

Walking out of the secret chamber, Chen Yuan stretched his body as he looked at the sun hanging high in the void, feeling refreshed all over. Jiang He was in the secret chamber, reading the books and foundations of the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain.

And he also needed to seclude himself to digest today's accumulation.

He believed that even if his strength didn't improve, with Jiang He's explanation, he would definitely be able to improve in terms of artistic conception and enhance his foundation!

...

...

The noise of the Jianghu continued, but the seven prefectures of Shuxi slowly calmed down. Under the double suppression of the Jianghu and the government, the situation was almost unsolvable.

Those Jianghu forces only had two choices: either join the Shuxi Alliance and hand over half of their foundation, or surrender to the government and become the government's henchmen, bearing a bad name from now on.

No, there was a third choice, which was to die.

Even those reclusive cultivators who had been in seclusion for many years were forced to take sides. To reiterate, this matter was not about right or wrong, but only about positions.

However, those people who were extremely entangled in their choices didn't know that whether it was the government or the Jianghu, they were actually incorporated into the system under Chen Yuan's command.

In short, Chen Yuan was like... Qin Shi Huang touching a wire, winning big. (秦始皇摸电线，赢麻了 is a popular internet slang in China, meaning someone profits greatly.)

Outside of Shuxi, there was more noise in the Jianghu, as if since the Liangshan battle, the whole world had no longer been peaceful and had completely entered a process of undercurrents surging.

Probably... equivalent to the scene before the fall of the former Chu.

There was fighting in Shuzhong. With Chen Yuan as their backer, the Shangguan clan and the Liu clan were enthusiastically carrying out the great cause of forming the Shuzhong Alliance, and there were constant disputes every day.

It could be said that Chen Yuan could cause half of Shuzhou to fall into chaos with a single command.

Shudong was also not peaceful. As one-third of the entire Shuzhou territory, Shudong's territory was very vast, equivalent to the sum of the entire Shuxi plus a small part of the Shuzhong prefectures.

In addition to Shu Mountain, there were actually many small forces. However, these forces basically had inextricable connections with Shu Mountain. Not to say that they all came from the same source, but since the establishment of Shu Mountain, all the forces here had also followed Shu Mountain's lead.

The reason for its chaos or rather liveliness was that the once-in-a-decade Shu Mountain Sword Offering Ceremony was about to begin. As the sacred land of sword cultivators in the world, most people wanted to see this once-in-a-decade event. Even if they were not qualified to enter the Shu Mountain Sword Tomb, they would not be absent.

Now that the world was in turmoil, it was a rare lively scene.

The Sword Offering Ceremony, although not as eye-catching as the Martial Emperor City Ascension Battle, was also a place for young martial artists to communicate. Some people would travel thousands of miles to come.

Outside of Shuzhou, there was more conflict in the world.

Demons were appearing in the Nanzhou more and more frequently. Every appearance would cause a major chaos. The King of Zhennan, Nangong Lie, issued a demon extermination order. Whether it was the government or the Jianghu, as long as they truly killed demons, they could go to Nanzhou City to receive a reward.

There were natural treasures, cultivation manuals, divine weapons, and treasured swords, everything was available.

Because of the previous Liangshan battle, there was no major chaos on the surface in Xuezhou, but there were many small disputes inside. Liangshan was also undergoing vigorous restoration.

The conflict with the Seven Kill Hall had come to an end, and the two were now 'at peace'.

The Tianmo Palace, which was further away, was also like this, and did not take the opportunity to interfere and provoke conflict.

Although the Jianghu in Qingzhou was not as chaotic as the three southern states, there were also considerable signs. Under the negligent indulgence of the Inspecting Heavens Division, the various forces of the Qingzhou Jianghu were also fighting each other.

Because Yangzhou, Bingzhou, and Yunzhou were close to Zhongzhou, the imperial court had stronger control. Although there were undercurrents surging in secret, the situation was still maintained on the surface.

In the east, Martial Emperor City was like a large mountain, standing in front of all overseas martial artists. To enter the Central Plains, you must first cross the East Sea. This was a rumor and also an iron law.

There were rumors that the conflict overseas had ended with the victory of the Dongying Wokou, and they were also secretly trying to enter the Central Plains, preparing to take a share in this chaotic world. (Dongying Wokou = Japanese pirates)

In the north, the plague on the Youliang border continued. Although there were rumors that the Ancient Jin Royal Court had received help from the other two royal courts and was preparing to make a comeback.

But the credibility was not very high. Not many people believed that the Northern Barbarians, who had lost most of their strength, could start two wars within a year.

In the west, the conflict between the thirty-six countries of the Western Regions and the Central Plains was also deepening, and the Mount Meru, as the sacred land of the Western Regions, had not issued a decree, as if they were also brewing something.

In the Central Plains hinterland, the imperial court was withdrawing its strength...

Ambitionists were sharpening their knives, and those who had the world in mind were worried.

How similar was this scene to the situation before the fall of the former Chu two hundred years ago?

...

...

In the ninth year of Dajin Jingtai, on September 29th, Chen Yuan, who had been in seclusion to digest the discussions of the previous days, finally walked out of the secret chamber and prepared to go to Shu Mountain with Jiang He.

This time, he must obtain the opportunity and improve his strength again. As long as his Qi refining cultivation reached the peak of the Refining Spirit realm and his body refining cultivation reached the minor success stage of the Divine Power realm, he would have the strength to match the top twenty, or even the top fifteen, of the Supreme Heaven Ranking.

----

Don't wait for the first update at dawn. Recent checks are tough, so everyone should wait until tomorrow morning to read. I won't post delayed updates to avoid affecting your reading experience!