Chapter 159: A Rapid Rise, A Textbook For Independent Cultivators

Inside the cave.

Jiang Yunli had laid layer upon layer of seals inside the cave to obstruct the Quasi-Emperor’s divine sense from probing.

Outside the cave, immense waves of sound rolled through the sky and earth. Each time they roared, the land trembled.

Obviously, that Quasi-Emperor was still searching within this realm and had not departed.

Jiang Yunli stood proudly at the cave mouth, glancing outward, then letting her gaze settle on Gu Changqing.

With a trace of puzzlement.

Gu Changqing sat cross-legged by the stream. Boundless murderous qi swirled around him while endless divine runes encircled him, repairing his wounds.

Blood continued to seep from his flesh, and the white robe he wore had already become stained into a blood robe.

Questions filled Jiang Yunli’s eyes, yet she did not speak to disturb Gu Changqing. She simply stood there like an iceberg, keeping her distance from the man.

She could sense that this man already bore exceedingly grievous wounds.

And in that recent battle he had been driven to the brink of death.

Whether he would survive remained another matter.

She neither disturbed Gu Changqing nor intended to help heal him. She merely stood with her hands behind her back, expressionless like a still well.

Time drifted on, and she did not know how many years had passed.

Perhaps one year, perhaps three.

On one of those days Gu Changqing finally ceased his cultivation. He slowly awoke, his eyes looking even more world-weary.

Stubble thickened on his cheeks.

“After sustaining such grievous wounds you still managed to live. Your cultivation system is indeed unusual.”

Jiang Yunli said calmly, still maintaining that iceberg demeanor.

Throughout that long time she had watched Gu Changqing. The path of cultivation he followed astonished her.

And the man’s tenacious will to survive surprised her even more.

After suffering such terrible wounds, enduring great pain and hardship. Another person would have died long ago, yet this man had held on.

All of this told her that the man was by no means ordinary.

Faced with Jiang Yunli’s words, Gu Changqing did not respond. He remained silent.

Jiang Yunli continued, “You possess Supreme cultivation and also have an imperial weapon protecting you. How could you possibly be willing to serve the Jiang family as an ordinary guest official?”

Gu Changqing’s status as a guest official of the Jiang family was of the most ordinary kind.

But what kind of existence was a Supreme? Even in the outside world they were lofty figures. How could one of them lower themselves to serve the Jiang family as its least notable guest official?!

Not to mention, the man even had an imperial weapon protecting him!

An imperial weapon! How exceedingly rare!

Coupled with the man’s Dragon Clan technique and invincible will, all of it was enough to prove he was absolutely not simple.

And in this recent encounter.

The man had fought the Quasi-Emperor with his life.

He was not of the Jiang family. Why would he go so far?

If another guest official encountered a life-and-death foe they would surely choose flight. Yet this man, who clearly could have fled, did not. He risked his life and fought until he was nearly dead.

All of this sufficed to prove that the man’s intentions toward the Jiang family were not simple.

Listening to Jiang Yunli’s questioning, a warning from the Heavenly Emperor surfaced in Gu Changqing’s mind.

In the end he did not reveal the truth.

Instead he said calmly, “You were born into a lineage with a family inheritance. You lack no techniques, nor cultivation resources. How could you understand the suffering of independent cultivators?”

“The Jiang family is a transcendent clan. Independent cultivators like me can only rely on the Jiang family to have a chance to rise. Otherwise, by myself, this life would hold no hope of reaching Quasi-Emperor.”

Jiang Yunli’s eyes flickered, brilliant and resplendent.

She pondered for a long while, but ultimately did not ask further.

Indeed she truly suspected the man’s motives were far from so simple, yet this explanation was really quite sufficient.

For independent cultivators, if you did not fight with your life and gamble with your blood, how else could you hope to rise above others?

“You did great service this time. Speak, what do you want?” Jiang Yunli asked after a brief pause.

“The Jiang family patriarch.” Gu Changqing replied.

…

Outside the mirror.

The gathered cultivators’ eyes glittered.

“I didn’t expect the Heavenly Emperor to become a top figure in the Jiang family so quickly.”

“Yes, I thought that for a great clan like the Jiang family, even if the Heavenly Emperor were extraordinary, it would still take a long time to become central to them.”

“Entering the Xuanyuan Ancestral Land within a century to take the Xuanyuan Sword sounded absolutely impossible! Yet unexpectedly, it happened so fast.”

“No matter what, the Heavenly Emperor truly lives up to his title.”

All the cultivators felt a kind of enlightenment in their hearts.

It seemed they thought: if such a person cannot be the Heavenly Emperor, then who could?

Gu Changqing’s sudden ascent this time was, for many independent cultivators, practically a textbook on how to rise.

Ninety-nine percent of cultivators on the Beixuan Continent were in fact independent cultivators.

They had no powerful backers and no peerless inheritance. Rising up was exceedingly difficult.

If it were them, never mind taking the Xuanyuan Sword… Just becoming a high-ranking member of the Jiang family within a century and gaining a chance to retrieve the sword was, in their eyes, simply impossible!

Yet the Heavenly Emperor still did it!

That speed of rise was terrifying.

At this moment the gathered cultivators had only one feeling: they’d learned something, they’d learned.

At this, someone sighed, “When the Heavenly Emperor was chosen by Jiang Yunli before, I thought he had just gotten absurd luck, but looking at it now…”

“It seems that even if he hadn’t been chosen, he would still have found a way to rise quickly to the top ranks of the Jiang family.”

Those words gained the assent of many cultivators.

There was always a peculiar charisma about the Heavenly Emperor, as if even should he lose all his cultivation he would surely be able to rise again swiftly and could never become ordinary.

At the same time another cultivator sighed, “That said…”

“Indeed the Heavenly Emperor went to fetch the Xuanyuan Sword for the sake of the masses, which benefitted all living beings.”

“But toward the Jiang family, toward Jiang Yunli, it’s somewhat unfair. At the very least, I think he shouldn’t have hidden things from the Jiang family.”

Those words indeed made sense.

Admittedly the Heavenly Emperor acted with great righteousness, but toward the Jiang family it was a deception used to win their trust.

Even Jiang Yunli’s death might be closely related to that reason.

From the perspective of the masses, the Heavenly Emperor did nothing wrong, but from the Jiang family’s perspective, from Jiang Minghuang’s viewpoint, the Heavenly Emperor was perhaps a bit too hypocritical.

But as soon as those words were spoken, many cultivators rushed to refute them.

“Loyalty and righteousness have always been hard to reconcile!”

“On one side are the masses, on the other the Jiang family. If it were you, how would you choose!”

“Exactly, exactly! It’s easy for you to say now. What right have you to judge him? If not for his past protection, could you even be standing here to speak?!”

The gathered cultivators were indignant.

That cultivator said, “I just think the Heavenly Emperor’s actions were inappropriate. At the very least he should have explained the truth to the Jiang family.”

“Pah!”

The crowd spat toward that cultivator. “If you were the Jiang family, would you hand down an ancestral immortal artifact to an outsider?!”

“The Heavenly Emperor’s mission concerns the masses, and he was given only a hundred years. If he had revealed his intentions, what would he do if the Jiang family said no?”

The cultivator had no reply.

The crowd continued to jeer, “You really think you’re being a saint?”

“Indeed, you should have been born earlier. Don’t send the Heavenly Emperor to fetch the sword, go fetch it yourself!”