Chapter 855: Chapter 26: Soul-Nurturing Space
Outside the boundless star domain, there are countless vast planets.
If a cultivator could stand at the height of the star domain to observe these countless planets, they would find that the trajectories of these planets are purely structured as Tai Chu rune language.
Their manner of operation, rhythm of change, and so on, all follow the path of rune derivation and transformation, a true Supreme Dao.
This scene, however, will not be discovered by any cultivator, because no cultivator’s soul can transcend to such a degree to see this kind of Supreme Dao transformation.
But in this world, there are always exceptions.
When Zhou Yan traveled with Jiang Tianxin, he vaguely sensed this scene.
He sensed the edge of the star domain beyond the deep sky, and sensed planets like runes, runes like fragments of life planets.
This is like a reincarnation.
In it, there are extremely profound Tao rules that can be comprehended.
Yet Zhou Yan did not try to understand them.
He merely calmly swept through the scene, his gaze indifferent, as if seeing nothing remarkable.
But beside Zhou Yan, Jiang Tianxin was not so composed; he harbored a sense of reverence. When he noticed the Tao rules embodied by the ancient stars, he had an instinctive fear and reverence, just as he feared and revered the Evil Venerate, as a natural-born emotion.
"Your growth over the years has been somewhat disappointing."
Zhou Yan suddenly spoke.
In simple Tai Chu rune language, yet carrying a tone of disregard for all beings, within the tone also lay the unique, unrestrained aura belonging to the Evil Venerate.
These words made Jiang Tianxin’s heart skip a beat, unable to grasp the thoughts of the person beside him, hence feeling somewhat uneasy.
Jiang Tianxin didn’t realize that any talented cultivator is often dissatisfied with their own progress, believing that they could actually have done better.
In reality, Zhou Yan was merely expressing a casual opinion stemming from such a mindset.
But Jiang Tianxin could not be casual, for he was like other genius cultivators, highly valuing his own progress, thus being even more dissatisfied.
One sentence from Zhou Yan inevitably touched him deeply.
"Evil Venerate, I’m sorry. I absorbed the purest perfect soul of Lee Sha’s first life, yet my talent nowadays is still inferior to Gles’s... Even though I’ve tried extremely hard, I’ve reached another bottleneck in my realm, unable to break through, hence going out also to monitor Zhou Yan’s situation..."
Jiang Tianxin laughed bitterly, explaining quite helplessly.
"You needn’t explain. Only cowards and useless individuals make excuses for goals they haven’t achieved. Not achieving is simply not achieving."
"Yes, Venerable."
Jiang Tianxin trembled all over and promptly performed a respectful salute.
"You, take care of yourself. Some things, you understand, I understand. When the time comes, you’re of no use, you needn’t be told what fate awaits you."
Zhou Yan said coldly.
Jiang Tianxin humbly listened, not daring to show any negligence.
The more indifferent, unrestrained, and even arrogant the attitude Zhou Yan displayed, the more Jiang Tianxin became careful, humble, almost like a servant.
Belonging to the top-tier talents of various planes, Jiang Tianxin seized the perfect soul and divine potential of Lee Sha’s first life, yet could only grovel humbly before the Evil Venerate, demonstrating that the presence of the Evil Venerate far surpassed even what Zhou Yan imagined.
...
Passing through the endless star river, descending from the ancient array mountains of the Jiang family, Zhou Yan at last realized how enormous the Jiang family was.
One side of an ancient array mountain is also a small star domain.
The extending domain of the star, everywhere was filled with various ancient arrays, strange and unique, with diverse varieties, complex and ancient.
Yet Zhou Yan knew witnessing these meant they were merely the tip of an iceberg.
A family possessing a star domain as a transportation array mountain, their other resources being tremendously abundant is self-evident.
Zhou Yan suddenly thought, considering how enormous the Jiang family was, what exactly his brother Lee Ran had to negotiate for Lee Yi’s perfect soul to live out a perfect next life in the Jiang family?
Reflecting on these matters now, they seemed rather ridiculous.
Ridiculous but the truth, indicating they really happened.
In this world, many ridiculous things truly exist, although outsiders might find them incomprehensible.
Zhou Yan’s gaze swept over this endless array mountain, soon retracting his gaze, seeing, as if not seeing.
His expression was cold yet carried a hint of that uncanny charisma and unbridled smile, impossible to define but clearly the aura Zhou Yan saw when deriving Gongcheng Diewu’s pregnancy situation—the aura of the Evil Venerate.
This aura, once Zhou Yan transformed and utilized it, made it impossible for others to deduce his true attitude and mindset.
This aura also instinctively stabilized Zhou Yan’s emotions and added weight to his character; such a complex change and deepening of aura seemed to contain unique rules or Tao, perhaps just something Zhou Yan couldn’t currently comprehend.
Yet once the spirit was emulated, its effect manifested, even Jiang Tianxin was compelled to pause in astonishment. Clearly, this aura gave Jiang Tianxin an inexplicable pressure, making him more cautious and vigilant.
"Evil Venerate, this way, please."
Jiang Tianxin emerged from the Array Mountain and opened up a void Heavenly Road, a road of densely packed star cloud trajectories, clearly a Rune Ancient Array path.
This surely leads directly to the cultivation space where Jiang Tianxin resides, or to the core region of the Jiang family.
Zhou Yan nodded slightly and followed behind Jiang Tianxin.
The void shifted with the transformation of star clouds, and in an instant, like rivers and mountains reversing, the sun and moon lost their color.
Then, as if changing heaven and earth, the space suddenly became much more temperate, with abundant divine origin power flowing through the space, making each breath feel like an uncontrolled breakthrough.
It’s akin to suddenly stepping from obscure darkness into an extraordinary and pristine Immortal Realm, the feeling of a moment truly being worlds apart.
This, needless to say, is naturally an important region of the Jiang family.
Zhou Yan sensed the energy intensity and void stability here far surpassed that of the Yuan Ci Secret Realm.
Despite the Yuan Ci Secret Realm’s excellence, compared to this heaven and earth, it’s like the difference between ordinary weapons and Immortal Weapons, a gap too immense to articulate.
Here, Zhou Yan judged, even a beast without any intelligence can breakthrough without constraint to the Sword Saint, even the Sword God Realm.
Though beasts cannot achieve Enlightenment, the divine origin power inherent in this heaven and earth naturally leads to sudden enlightenment during absorption, awakening individuals to the mysteries of cultivation.
This is a miraculous place.
Such a place is almost impeccable.
Even Zhou Yan, existing as the Lei Yan King, had never seen a place like this.
Yet Zhou Yan remained indifferent, for such a mysterious location in the Jiang family appeared very bizarre—the purity of this energy is exceedingly high.
Perhaps, only constitutions akin to the Soul-devouring Sword Body could refine such pure divine origin power.
"Venerate, this is our Jiang family’s latest trial space, the ’Soul Breeding Ground.’ All energy here originates from the harvesting of talented souls from other breeding grounds; the soul power refined by the imitation Mechanical Clan’s ’Soul Devourer’ Magic Treasure ’Heavenly Boat,’ derived from soul power, divine power, and the blood essence energy of souls from lower plane breeding grounds’ ’Breaking God’ geniuses."
Jiang Tianxin explained.
"These are, after all, minor methods."
Zhou Yan nodded slightly, affirming the Jiang family’s approach, yet seemed not entirely to endorse such achievements.
"Minor methods indeed, yet indispensable. Nowadays, the Nine Origin Reincarnation has transformed due to changes in plane rules, making it exceedingly difficult to obtain a slice of heavenly mechanism origin. The worlds of breeding grounds simulate rule worlds, where the Tao perceived by top meathead pigs and cultivated cultivation techniques all represent the favor of rules; hence, upon collecting sufficient data, the Mechanical Clan’s Supreme Treasure can derive a data-driven Supreme Dao, uncovering the way to break immortality. This is the real path."
Jiang Tianxin said solemnly.
After a moment’s hesitation, he continued, "At first, when you, Venerate, suggested this, we thought it not feasible, but now the results have exceeded expectations. However, since you, Venerate, have suffered damage from various sides but first explored the path to immortality, these seem minor indeed."
Zhou Yan was thoughtful, nodded, but remained silent.
"Venerate, since parting those years ago, the esteemed ancestor has been preoccupied with what you, Venerate, mentioned. Now that you have arrived at the Jiang family, might you see the esteemed ancestor? The ancestor’s condition is not ideal, unsure whether he can await the opening of the Nine Origin Immortality path."
Jiang Tianxin paid close attention to Zhou Yan’s expression changes, yet saw that Zhou Yan showed no emotional fluctuation from start to finish, neither joy nor anger, and thus felt somewhat uncertain.
Naturally, Jiang Tianxin dared not make any arrangements for Zhou Yan; everything must receive Zhou Yan’s consent, explicating each detail, then explaining the precedents, seemingly intentionally detailing the specific changes in many matters to Zhou Yan.
All this naturally did not escape Zhou Yan’s sensing.
Zhou Yan also knew, Jiang Tianxin behaving this way was precisely because the Evil Venerate truly had not appeared for a long time; otherwise, some things Jiang Tianxin need not have mentioned.
And because of this point, Zhou Yan could naturally seize some advantageous items for cultivation here.
Yet upon hearing Jiang Tianxin mention the matters regarding Jiang He, Zhou Yan revealed a hint of contemplation.
Not meeting Jiang He would certainly be unreasonable; after all, if the Evil Venerate came to the Jiang family, he would surely meet Jiang He.
Zhou Yan had anticipated this prior, already developing a method to confront it, albeit with only a fifty percent success probability.
It implies that meeting with Jiang He carries a fifty percent chance of being identified!
Moreover, whether he can garner substantial benefits in the Jiang family also depends on how this meeting and negotiation with Jiang He unfold specifically.
This is by no means an easy task.