To be abandoned by the humans, to lack all protection, to be nibbled away by alien races and become their food!
Although it was only a hypothesis, it still made Iron Can shudder in fear. He could hear his fatherâs worry from his tone.
âFather, surely our sixteen kingdoms canât be in that bad of a situation?â Iron Can managed to squeeze out an ugly smile.
âWeâre worse off than you can think! Not a single one of our practitioners have broken through from the spirit realm in all these years. Those whoâve gone on to the origin realm are all old monsters who did so hundreds of years ago. Of the sixteen kingdoms, only the four great sects can each boast of one origin realm practitioner!â
A venerated origin realm practitioner!
This was the existence of legends to Iron Can.
He had once heard that the Precious Tree Sect had an origin realm ancestor as well, but as to what this ancestor looked like and where he was, Iron Can had never cared about that.
Heâd felt that this was too far away from him and he had no need to pay attention to matters like these.
âFather, a venerated origin realm practitioner is the stuff of legends. Do the other factions in the Myriad Domain have more origin realm practitioners than us?â
Iron Long laughed ruefully, âMore? How does more even begin to sum it up? Iron Can, you have an unlimited future ahead of you in the Precious Tree Sect because you have me as your father. However, my level of training would only net me an ordinary mid to senior executive position within the powerful empires and dynasties of the Myriad Domain. I wouldnât even make it into the core power. These powerful forces and great sects have dozens of origin realm practitioners, possibly even more!â
âWhat?â
Iron Can was thoroughly shocked to hear these words.
The entire Precious Tree Sect had less than ten practitioners in the sky spirit realm, much less the origin realm. They only had one in the origin realm, and he was just a figure in a far away fairy tale.
âStop losing your composure over this. My estimate is also likely quite conservative. These origin realm practitioners are also divided into the minor, earth, and sky origin realm, much like the spirit realm. The origin practitioners of our four sects are only of the first and second levels, making them of the minor levels as well. To these great sects and powerful parties, a minor origin realm is nothing at all. Those within the heart of their core power are all of the sky origin realm!â
Iron Can was thoroughly flabbergasted. His sense of superiority seemed to have been stripped away from him instantly; he was completely shell shocked.
A frog at the bottom of the well?
A complete frog at the bottom of the well!
......
Yang Zhaoâs death and the news of the Dragonteeth Guard cleaning house quickly made the rounds in the capital.
Firstly, with respect to the conflict between Yang Zhao and the Crown Prince, as well as the various grudges between Lu Wuji and Jiang Chen, it had all quickly become public knowledge within the capital beforehand.
The nobles, courtiers, and officials within the capital had all held the mentality of watching a good show as they had kept an eye on the struggle between the Crown Prince and vice director of the Dragonteeth Guard.
People hadnât held high hopes for the Crown Prince originally. After all, Yang Zhao had a sect elder behind him that even Shangguan Yi would give him some respect for! Ye Rong was a Crown Prince whoâd just received his title. His foundations were shaky, his background not substantial enough, what would he bring out to contend against Yang Zhao?
It was said that Jiang Chen was the Crown Princeâs right hand man and had killed Lu Wuji.
However, those of the capital still veered on not looking too favorably on the Crown Prince.
Jiang Chen?
Although the courtiers and officials recognized that Jiang Chen had some ability to him, but to think that a foreign child would use his power alone to fight against Yang Zhao and the sect elder behind him was simply too ludicrous!
However --
Everyone found it hard to believe the developments that had come to pass.
Jiang Chen had singlehandedly rushed into the Dragonteeth Guard headquarters and used his strength alone to kill Xin Wudao and Qi Fengxian, two of Yang Zhaoâs confidantes, right in front of Shangguan Yi and Elder Iron!
Heâd been completely without fear even when Elder Iron himself oppressed him after that.
Even more astonishing was that the honored tutor, someone who usually disdained from involving himself with the matters of the world, had protected Jiang Chen at the cost of offending Elder Iron!
The most confounding of them all was that the vice director had died randomly within a secret chamber!
These astounding scenes happened one after another; it was truly a series of unfortunate events.
The entire matter had proceeded in a direction that no one couldâve anticipated at all.
Yang Zhao, someone who held tremendous power within the Dragonteeth Guard, had bizarrely died just like that!
His confederates, whoâd always liked lording it and running roughshod over others, had either been killed or demoted and thoroughly swept out of the guard.
Even the overweeningly arrogant Elder Iron hadnât wrung any concessions out of Jiang Chen and returned to the sect with a face full of dust.
It was only then that everyone realized how laughably theyâd underestimated Jiang Chen before.
But of course, people couldnât be faulted for looking down on Jiang Chen.
After all, heâd kept a low profile since arriving in the Skylaurel Kingdom and hadnât raised a great fanfare.
Heâd kept his first clash with Lu Wuji confined within a small space, so news of that hadnât spread.
Although he had shone in the spotlight during the honored tutorâs birthday banquet, but many had felt that he had just been lucky and knew some tricks to amuse the honored tutor.
Even though there had been many points of doubt during the trials within the maze realm, but there was no direct evidence that proved how awesome Jiang Chen was.
It wasnât that they didnât suspect Jiang Chen, but as nobles of the Skylaurel Kingdom, everyone was consciously avoiding this topic.
After all, how could it be an easy thing for a foreign kid to receive the true acceptance of the Skylaurel Kingdom?
However --
With how things had developed, everyone within the Skylaurel Kingdom had to admit that they were witnessing Jiang Chenâs rise and that they had underestimated him before!
If people had had any doubts regarding Jiang Chenâs strength before, then the three arrows that had killed Xin Wudao and Qi Fengxian had thoroughly helped everyone understand -- Jiang Chenâs martial dao potential was higher than that of any of his peers!
The entire Jiang manor was celebrating riotously.
When they listened to Tian Shao describe what had happened, Jiang Chenâs personal guards were all filled with fervent ardor and pride beyond belief.
Venturing into the dragonâs cave alone, he had exterminated their enemies in the heart of the Dragonteeth Guardâs headquarters!
The Precious Tree Sect elder had arrived with imposing momentum, but had gotten nothing but a face full of dust for his troubles!
Yet, through all this, Jiang Chen was rather indifferent.
Whether it was Xin Wudao or Qi Fengxian, they were just a few small pawns. So heâd killed them. Jiang Chen didnât think it was much of anything.
As for Yang Zhao, that was naturally the work of the Goldbiter Rat king.
Within the secret chamber, the Goldbiter Rat King was on his back and belching loudly.
âOle King, enjoyed yourself this time, didnât you? You look like youâve taken in a lot of nutrition after swallowing two earth spirit realm practitioners!â
The Rat King chuckled. Heâd had his first taste of sweetness since leaving the maze realm.
His Goldbiter Rat tribe had to scurry to and fro for hiding places within the maze realm, to say nothing of trying to actually hunt other spirit creatures.
Heâd discovered that there were actually quite a few spirit realm practitioners to devour in the outside world!
These spirit realm practitioners were enormously nutritious, and there were so many of them!
The assassin Xue San from the Hidden Hand and Yang Zhao had been particularly rich supplements.
Jiang Chen knew that the Rat King must have been feeling damn good when he saw the Rat King chuckle deviously.
âHowever, keep in mind that although there are opportunities to devour spirit realm practitioners, they arenât that numerous either. Theyâre also of limited effect when it comes to evolving bloodlines.ân/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
These words mentioned the crux of the problem.
âYoung master Chen, your words are quite right. Although devouring spirit realm practitioners have great benefits for training, it has no particular use for evolving bloodlines.â
Although the Rat King was quite satisfied with his recent meals, the true reason why heâd ventured into the outside world with Jiang Chen occupied every moment of his thoughts.
To evolve bloodlines, improve the bloodlines of his tribe, and trace their source up to that of the Ancient Goldbiter Kingrats!
That was the ultimate goal and why heâd left his homeland with his tribe!
âOle King, there are many ways to evolve bloodlines.â
âTell me about it.â
âThe first is to naturally awaken your heritage of memories and use the secret arts contained within to complete the evolution of your bloodlines. This method is the most useful, but certain opportunities are needed to provoke the awakening of memories. I know a few ways to provoke this awakening, but I canât train in those methods for now due to the level of my training. Thereâs no way to practice the secret arts of the soul without entering the origin realm.â
The Rat King nodded his head. Although he didnât know of any secret arts, Jiang Chenâs words made sense. Awakening the heritage of memories was indeed the most ideal way to evolve bloodlines.
âThe second secret art is to make use of heaven defying spirit medicines to forcefully remake your bodies and encourage the evolution of bloodlines. Fortuitous encounters are also needed to use these methods, and the type of heaven defying spirit medicine needed are all heavenly treasures that can be found only once in a hundred years.â
âAs for the third method, itâs similar to the second method. There are many wondrous locations filled with spirit qi in this world. If you enter any one of them, you can use the spirit qi inside to remake your bodies and complete the evolution of bloodlines. These spirit qi places are incredibly rare.â
âThere are also a few other ways, but theyâre even rarer. However, the evolution of bloodlines only needs to succeed in one of your children. As long as one succeeds, then all its descendents will see their bloodlines change as well. Although theirs wonât be as pure as the original, but the overall quality of your bloodlines will greatly increase.â
The Rat King widened his eyes as he looked at Jiang Chen, his eyes filled with admiration.
âYoung master Chen, you... you understand this much? It looks like you really havenât lied to me.â The Rat King was completely hero worshipping Jiang Chen at this point.
âNo shit. When did I ever lie to you?â Jiang Chen was a bit depressed.
âHeh heh, as long as young master Chen hasnât lied to me, I, ole King, will be your assistant in the future. Iâll destroy whoever you tell me to destroy!â
Jiang Chen laughed, âDonât think I donât know your schemes. You also eat well when youâre my assistant!â
The Rat King chuckled wickedly, âOf course I should benefit from being your assistant. Oh right, young master Chen, I feel that your martial dao training defies the heavens as well, and itâs only a matter of time before you enter the origin realm. You must practice those secret arts of the soul then and help us awaken our heritage.â
âThatâs the promise between us, of course I wonât forget.â
âAlright!â The Rat King was quite satisfied and also spoke a reminder, âYoung master Chen, youâve absorbed the essence of the Bewitching Lotus of Fire and Ice. You should hurry and develop it. I can sense that once you make the essence your own, it will absolutely become one of your trump cards!â