Chapter 162: An Old Friend Visits, Wu Li I’m Leaving
Chapter 162 – An Old Friend Visits, Wu Li I’m Leaving
Twenty years passed in the blink of an eye within the stagnant confines of the Nether Forest.
As the waiting period ended, Chen Changsheng had no choice but to initiate his next slumber.
This marked the first time he had chosen to hibernate twice in the exact same location.
Sealing the heavy coffin lid and allowing the Golden Silk Cocoon to burrow back into his spiritual heart, Chen Changsheng commanded the system to maximize the duration of his sleep.
A deep sleep lasting one thousand two hundred and eighty years officially began.
As he sank into the abyss of hibernation, his very thoughts and cognition ground to a halt.
However, while the Eternal Undertaker paused, the turning of the world’s gears did not.
Two thousand one hundred and fifty years had passed since Chen Changsheng left the Purple Mansion Holy Land, and it was precisely in this epochal year that destiny shifted.
Wu Li, the Holy Master of Purple Mansion, claimed the Heaven’s Mandate.
From his initial rise in the Middle Heavens to seizing the Heaven’s Mandate and achieving unparalleled invincibility, the entire process had taken him a mere three millennia.
Such a breathtakingly brilliant sovereign had not been seen in hundreds of thousands of years.
Immediately upon shouldering the Heaven’s Mandate, Wu Li’s first act was to visit the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land.
Faced with a peerless bearer of the Heaven’s Mandate, even the primordial terrors of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land were forced to yield him a measure of respect.
Yet this journey was far from harmonious; it seemed Wu Li had engaged in a fierce dispute with the entities within.
When he finally emerged, observers witnessed him aiming a reprimanding finger toward the forbidden abyss, as if delivering a final warning.
The mortal realm and the myriad sects were left utterly baffled by this display.
According to faint traces of karmic history, Wu Li’s ascension to the Heaven’s Mandate had supposedly been backed by the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land itself.
If they were his benefactors, why would he suddenly sever ties with them so violently?
As the years flowed on, however, the world began to realize that his true hostility lay elsewhere.
Wu Li personally led a crusade against the Sacred Ruins; the sheer magnitude of that war violently uprooted the forbidden zone and banished it from the Middle Heavens entirely.
Following this subjugation, Wu Li smelted the stars to personally forge a heavenly spear.
He hurled this spear from the heart of the Middle Heavens, sending it tearing across tens of millions of miles to impale the very dragon vein of the Northern Desert Buddhist Kingdom.
“As long as this spear stands in the Northern Desert for a single day, no living being of the Northern Desert shall step half a pace beyond its borders!”
Wu Li’s decree rolled like thunder across the heavens, branding itself into the soul of every living creature.
A single spear to suppress an entire domain—this was the tyrannical majesty of the Heaven’s Mandate.
Having accomplished these three miraculous feats, Wu Li standardized the world’s cultivation realms and decreed that the essence of heaven and earth would no longer be called spiritual power, but divine power.
From that epoch onward, the Great Dao stabilized, and a golden age of cultivation vigorously blossomed.
……
Meanwhile, deep within the Nether Forest.
Exactly one thousand years into Chen Changsheng’s slumber, the primordial woods remained as deadly and silent as ever.
Suddenly, the ancient earth began to tremble.
Deep within the Dead Man’s Pond, a boundless Zombie Horde simultaneously opened their rotting eyes.
“Hiss…”
The very fabric of the sky was violently torn asunder, and a solitary figure casually strolled through the rift.
Despite Chen Changsheng having exhausted every trick in his arsenal, he could never defy the laws to fly here; yet, the restrictive Dao of the Nether Forest seemed utterly incapable of touching this newcomer.
Sweeping his sovereign gaze over the clearing, the man slowly descended, his boots touching down before the weathered stone coffin.
Swish!
Countless thick roots instantly erupted to barricade the coffin, while a transparent spatial gate wrenched open, revealing the ravenous, endless Zombie Horde waiting to strike.
Seeing this violent display of defense, the figure merely smiled.
“Be at ease. I am not here to harm him.”
“Every soul under the heavens might wish for his death, but I alone would never draw a blade against him.”
Hearing the absolute truth in those words, the aggressive roots slowly uncoiled, allowing the man to gently push back the heavy stone lid.
Gazing down at Chen Changsheng’s peaceful, death-like visage, the man’s smile deepened.
“Teacher, you truly adapt to anywhere. To sleep so soundly like a fish in water within the terrifying Nether Forest… your methods surpass mine by leaps and bounds.”
Indeed, the sovereign standing before the grave was none other than Wu Li, the master of the Heaven’s Mandate.
Chen Changsheng had vanished from the Purple Mansion Holy Land for millennia without a trace. As his former disciple, Wu Li naturally moved heaven and earth to investigate his whereabouts.
After exhausting immense karmic effort, he had finally grasped a fractured clue, culminating in this very reunion.
However, just as Wu Li reached out to physically touch his slumbering master, a fierce golden flash repelled his hand.
“Master commanded no touching! Otherwise, he will spank your bottom!”
Receiving the spiritual rebuke from the Golden Silk Cocoon, Wu Li froze in shock before tossing his head back in roaring, unbridled laughter.
“Teacher! Oh, Teacher!”
“You remain as meticulously scheming as ever. To even calculate that I would find my way to the Nether Forest… is there a single thread of karma you cannot unravel?”
“It is just a profound pity that I must leave this realm now. Our final farewell may have to wait for a very, very long time.”
“But perhaps this is how it should be. I cannot always be the one chasing your shadow.”
“This time, you will have to forge the path to find us.”
“I have left a few gifts for you outside the veil. Knowing you, they should be exactly to your tastes.”
With a final, lingering look, Wu Li slid the heavy lid back into place, turned his back, and strode toward the torn sky.
Halfway through the spatial rift, Wu Li paused and cast a chilling gaze back over the Nether Forest.
“I do not care whose ancient backyard you belong to. Should a single hair on my teacher’s head be harmed, I will slaughter you and the ancient gods hiding behind you.”
With that final decree of absolute violence, Wu Li vanished into the void.
The torn space mended itself flawlessly, the Nether Forest slowly lowered its hackles, and the suffocating silence reclaimed the earth.
……
Two hundred and eighty years later.
“Huh?”
“Why did my robes just turn to dust?”
Staring down at his stark-naked body, a myriad of bewildered question marks practically floated above Chen Changsheng’s head.
The mortal fabrics he wore naturally lacked the spiritual resilience to survive the ravages of a millennium.
However, based on his centuries of hibernating experience, his garments usually maintained their brittle shape until he physically moved and shattered them.
Yet today, the moment his eyelids fluttered open, he was already bare to the world. It was glaringly obvious that his body had been physically disturbed during his deep sleep.
Just as his brow furrowed in annoyance, the Golden Silk Cocoon enthusiastically beamed a sequence of spiritual memories into his mind.
Curiously, the projection of Wu Li within those memories was a blurred, indistinct smear of light.
More precisely, a highly specific segment of the Golden Silk Cocoon’s memory had been forcefully scrubbed clean by an overwhelming Dao.
That erased segment was the exact moment Wu Li spoke of his departure and final farewell.
Having reviewed the fragmented playback, Chen Changsheng let out a quiet scoff, a sardonic grin pulling at his lips.
“Little brat. Actually daring to keep your own master in suspense.”
“Fine. If you want to play hide-and-seek across the heavens, I will play along eventually. We will see how I discipline you when I finally catch up.”
Muttering his empty threats into the damp air, Chen Changsheng mentally summoned his System Panel.
[Host: Chen Changsheng]
[Strength: 2120 (Moving Blood Realm)]
[Speed: 2280 (Moving Blood Realm)]
[Defense: 3880 (Moving Blood Realm)]
[Spiritual Power: 2060 (Moving Blood Realm)]
[Lifespan: 2560]
Inspecting his numerical foundation, Chen Changsheng idly scratched his head.
“System, I’ve been meaning to ask. What exactly is the metric for these numbers? The true measurement of a cultivator’s combat strength is notoriously abstract.”
“Answering the Host: The quantification of attributes strictly gauges the Host’s intrinsic physical and spiritual foundation. It strictly excludes external augmentations such as Dharma Treasures or Formations.”
“However, symbiotic entities like the Golden Silk Cocoon are factored into the baseline.”
“This is because the Golden Silk Cocoon has fundamentally fused with the Host’s anatomy.”
“I see. Then tell me, why doesn’t my overall destructive capability jump a whole tier when I forcibly push a single attribute into the next realm?”
“Elevating a singular attribute does not equate to the comprehensive metamorphosis required to advance a cultivation realm.”
Hearing the mechanical reasoning, Chen Changsheng pinched his chin thoughtfully. “I think I follow.”
“If I break my Defense into the next realm right now, my Spiritual Power, Speed, and Strength will remain bottled at their current bottlenecks.”
“To bridge the gap, I either have to sit cross-legged and grind the Dao for centuries, or dump more Attribute Points into them.”
“So, what happens if I funnel my points strictly into the Spiritual Power attribute?”
“The Host’s core cultivation base would advance. While your physical attributes would momentarily remain stagnant, the overwhelming support of a higher realm’s Qi would cause those lagging physical traits to passively and rapidly mature.”
“Therefore, investing in Spiritual Power is the mathematically optimal path for holistic growth. Alternatively, the Host may elect to distribute Attribute Points evenly to maintain immediate equilibrium.”
“Makes perfect sense!” Chen Changsheng declared, nodding deeply.
“Dump every single Attribute Point I have into Defense.”
System: “…”
I feel like I just wasted my nonexistent breath.
……