Chapter 170: Repeatedly Dancing on the Edge of Destruction

After learning the gap between the Nine Provinces World and his own, Abu couldn’t help but question it.
Was asking the Human Sovereign for help overkill?

“Abu, do you still remember how to cultivate?” the academy teacher asked.
He’d discovered that Abu’s meridians were a complete mess. If he hadn’t used his Nascent Soul Stage cultivation to help realign them in time, Abu’s body would’ve been ruined—only curable with a pill worth twenty low-grade spirit stones.
Abu had been caught in the shockwave from the battle between his father and the Twelve Heavenly Kings. He was so badly injured, it was impossible to tell if he was a martial artist or a cultivator, so the teacher hadn’t gotten suspicious.

Here it comes. Abu’s heart tightened. In his world, learning martial arts required passing tons of tests, swearing blood oaths, and even doing three years of labor.
And this world’s techniques were clearly more powerful, so the trials would be even stricter.
Not to mention this was someone at the Nascent Soul Stage—the equivalent of a Landbound Immortal in his own world. What kind of trial would he impose…

Seeing Abu dazed, the teacher pulled out a manual: “Poor child, you’ve even forgotten how to cultivate. Here, take this Diagram of Spiritual Energy. If there’s anything you don’t understand, just ask me.”
Abu held the Diagram of Spiritual Energy, obtained so easily, and didn’t speak for a long time. Then he suddenly dropped to his knees.
“Master, please accept your disciple’s bow. From this day forth, I shall treat you as my father, serve you for life, and never betray you…”
In Abu’s world, learning this kind of martial arts manual absolutely required becoming a disciple, never betraying your master for life, and serving them until death. Disobedience meant climbing a ladder made of blades, barefoot on red-hot iron plates.
His father was a Human Pinnacle and didn’t need to follow those rules—but Abu understood the customs.

“No, no, no.” The teacher was startled by Abu’s reaction and said “no” three times in a row. “This Diagram of Spiritual Energy is only worth one low-grade spirit stone. Is this really necessary?”
He quickly helped Abu up.
He was an academy teacher, not a sect elder. No need for all this.

After the teacher explained, Abu looked totally confused.
This was a manual that could lead directly to becoming an Innate Martial Artist, and it was worth so little in this world?

Torn inside, Abu eventually decided to spill everything.
“Teacher, actually, I come from another world…”

…

Jiang Li was studying a new task issued by the system.
He hadn’t done anything when suddenly a new task appeared: a chance to obtain a Fragment of the Stairway to Immortality.
Last time, the fragment had caused time to reverse, and the system had detected the response—only then did it issue a task.
But this time…

Jiang Li thought, maybe this was the real “Find the Stairway to Immortality Fragment” task.
The Luo Ying incident had been pure accident. If not for his ability to travel between worlds freely, he wouldn’t have triggered that special task at all.

The system had previously issued a regular task—said he was a Golden Core Stage cultivator, sent him to attend a poetry gathering, and asked him to shine with brilliance and shock the crowd.
Since the reward was nothing special—just spirit stones or spirit beast eggs—and it wasn’t a mandatory mission, Jiang Li skipped it.
Clearly, the dumb system still thought he was at the Golden Core Stage.
Also, it mentioned a one-time free teleportation—which was obviously something meant for Golden Core cultivators.
This current task must’ve been issued five hundred years ago.

In other words, those Twelve Heavenly Kings mentioned in the task were probably just Nascent Soul-level at most, maybe Soul Formation Stage tops.

Jiang Li flew into space and found Bai Hongtu and the others having a snowball fight with meteors.
They were tossing around meteors several kilometers long—it looked terrifying.

Restoring the planet had been no big deal for the four of them; they’d finished ages ago.
When they were about to return to their sects and dynasties, Bai Hongtu suggested, “Let’s have a snowball fight.”
Everyone said, “We’re not kids anymore, let’s not.”
Bai Hongtu didn’t listen. He smiled and chucked a meteor at Sword Sovereign…

And that’s what led to the scene Jiang Li witnessed.
Fortunately, they were really just playing this time—no actual fighting. Otherwise, the Nine Provinces would’ve witnessed another spectacular Tribulation Stage Exhibition Match.

Seeing Jiang Li arrive, everyone quickly stopped and claimed the meteors were flying on their own—it had nothing to do with them.
“There’s a chance to go to another world. Anyone interested?”
“Which one? Mingzhong or Zombie World?” Bai Hongtu asked with great interest. Yu Yin was listening on the side—clearly interested too.
“Neither. It’s an unknown world. I haven’t been there before, so I don’t know what it’s like. Interested?”
Before, Jiang Li hadn’t brought others along because they couldn’t cross the void. But now with the Brahma Tower, taking people across worlds was easy.

“Of course! When do we leave?” Bai Hongtu couldn’t wait.
“I’m going too,” Yu Yin replied in her cool, quiet voice.
“We’ll pass,” Sword Sovereign and Li Er declined.
They weren’t interested in other worlds. Sword Sovereign was entirely focused on the Sword Dao. If another world didn’t have Sword Dao, why waste time?
Li Er pursued strength to integrate into his Dharma Body. If another world didn’t have stronger beings than him, he had no reason to go.
Unless that world was the Celestial Realm.

Bai Hongtu and Yu Yin were 500-year-old youngsters, deeply curious about anything new.
“No rush. I’m just giving you a heads-up. Let me scout it out first, then I’ll take you.”
Jiang Li knew those two would want to come.
“Teleport to the Huan Yu World.”
【Confirming host’s use of teleportation opportunity—teleporting to Huan Yu World】

Under the gaze of four Tribulation Stage cultivators, Jiang Li vanished.

“This isn’t the first time, but I still gotta say—Jiang Li’s Dao of Space has improved like crazy,” Bai Hongtu said.
Yu Yin nodded repeatedly.
Back during the Human Sovereign contest, Jiang Li’s grasp of the Dao of Space had been worse than hers. Looks like his understanding grew with his cultivation level.

…

“So this is the Huan Yu World?”
Jiang Li arrived in the new world, a bit surprised. He’d thought he’d landed in a marketplace somewhere in the Nine Provinces.
The people here looked a bit different, but they still wore ancient robes. The streets were crowded, vendors were shouting, and he even spotted his favorite—candied hawthorn.

The Mingzhong World and Zombie World both had tech levels way beyond the Nine Provinces. It had almost convinced Jiang Li that all the worlds he’d travel to would be tech-heavy.
Turns out, there were places just like the Nine Provinces too.

“This seems to be a martial arts-based world,” Jiang Li observed. The overall power level here was a bit weaker than the Nine Provinces.
“Where are the Twelve Heavenly Kings?” Jiang Li was puzzled.

According to the system, the Twelve Heavenly Kings had pushed this world to the edge of destruction. He thought the world would either already be ruined or in constant war, teetering on the brink.
After all, the mission was issued five hundred years ago.
Five centuries should’ve been plenty of time for those so-called Twelve Heavenly Kings to cause some real damage.

But when he looked around, everything was perfectly normal.
Could this world really have been bouncing on the brink of destruction for five hundred years?

An image popped into Jiang Li’s mind involuntarily:
A guy with “Huan Yu World” written on his face, jumping from one side of a danger line to the other.
“Eh, I’m gonna get destroyed.”
“Eh, I’m fine now.”
“Eh, I’m getting destroyed again.”

Honestly… kind of deserved a beating.

“Excuse me, do you know the Twelve Heavenly Kings?” Jiang Li asked after using divine sense to learn the local language.
The man looked at Jiang Li strangely.
“Of course. Aren’t the Twelve Heavenly Kings our rulers and saviors?”