Chapter 387: The Plan to a.s.sail the Sky Quadrant
The four forefathers obviously had no interest in explaining anything. When one reached their level, they could completely disregard the thoughts and feelings of those beneath them.
What they had to do was to act in a way that was best for the greater picture.
What those beneath them could do was to provide absolute, absolute obedience.
Jiang Chen listened to them for a bit and he understood that there was nothing that could be done. He didn’t tarry as he silently retreated from the crowd and sped towards his own residence.
He felt that time was of the essence, and he no longer had any time left to waste.
Jiang Chen leisurely looked in the direction of the earth quadrant when he reached his door and sighed lightly. “Liu Wencai and Fatty Lu, if you’ve acquitted yourselves well, this cycle is your last chance. If you’re still unable to make it into the sky quadrant in this cycle, then you’ll have no chances to do that in the future.”
It was now the end of the third cycle, with only twenty to thirty days left.
If the earth quadrant candidates couldn’t make it into the top ten, they wouldn’t make it into the sky quadrant for the fourth cycle.
Since the three year selection had been compressed into a year, the fourth cycle would be the last cycle in the selection.
Jiang Chen refocused his mind when he returned to his residence and he began laying out his plans.
“The final matches are coming up in three to four months. I trust that the sky quadrant candidates will be furiously cultivating starting from today.”
The unexpected news from today put tremendous pressure on Jiang Chen.
“It looks like I need to adjust my plans again. I need to take some risks apart from building that slow and steady foundation.” He quickly shuffled through some plans in his mind.
What he needed most now was to raise his cultivation level, and the quickest shortcut to that was continuously absorbing boundless spirit power, forging and strengthening his spirit ocean.
What Jiang Chen lacked the most now was a source of spirit power, and that was why he’d set his sights on entering the Precious Tree Sect.
Out of the four great sects, the Precious Tree Sect had the most resources — precisely what he needed.
“Compared to the premier geniuses, I simply don’t have enough resources. Although the cultivation environment of this quadrant is extremely superior, I’m still unable to close the gap without good resources in my hands. It looks like I need to make use of those two items… ”
Jiang Chen searched around his storage ring and took out two crystal cores with abundant spirit energy within them.
Both of them were red throughout and they sparkled with a radiant light, like they were the most splendid jewels.
One of them was bigger and it obviously had more spirit power within it. It was the core of the Redscaled Firelizard.
The other was a bit smaller and a bit dimmer, it was the core of the Fire Raven King.
“These cores embody the essence of the heaven and earth. The so-called spirit stones in the world of martial dao are mostly the cores and bones from spirit creatures of ancient times, having transformed into spirit stones with the pa.s.sage of time. These cores have yet to lose their spirit power and their essence still remains. Their spirit qi is more plentiful than those of those age old spirit stones.”
Jiang Chen thought for a moment and he still decided to make use of the Fire Raven King core.
“The Raven King was the peak of the spirit realm and it’s core is comparatively easier to refine. With my current cultivation level, it would be nearly impossible refine the Firelizard’s core in three to four months!”
Jiang Chen weighed things up and he decided not to be greedy, starting with the Raven King’s core first.
Although the Firelizard was a saint rank creature and its core was far greater than that of the Raven King’s, because the the spirit power within it was too strong, Jiang Chen couldn’t master it currently.
Putting the Firelizard core away, Jiang Chen tossed the Raven King’s core up with his hand a few times.
“This is the one!”
A light sparkled in Jiang Chen’s eyes. He knew that even when it was the Raven King’s core, it wouldn’t be that simple to refine it.
However, he was still more confident about the Raven King’s core than he was about the Firelizard’s.
He wasn’t an ordinary cultivator after all. If an ordinary cultivator had brashly tried to refine a core that was at the peak of the spirit realm, it was highly likely that the immense spirit power would invade their bodies and consume them instead.
However, Jiang Chen had many ways of controlling the backlash — part of the many opportunities from his memories of his past life.
He had too many methods to choose from in this regard.
“The Raven King’s core has sufficient spirit power, so if I fully refine it, it’s a guarantee that I can make it into the sixth level spirit realm. Let’s see if I can make it into the sky spirit realm in three to four months.”
Jiang Chen’s ambitions and goals were enormous.
His goals was to reach the seventh level spirit realm.
He was well aware that if he entered the sixth level, his chances of victory when fighting Lei Gangyang were fifty-fifty. If he fought Long Juxue, who’d broken through to the sky spirit realm, his chances of winning were about forty percent.
But if he could make it to the sky spirit realm, things were greatly different.
He could absolutely crush someone in the same level!
Even if Long Juxue was a favored daughter of heaven and had combined the fortunes of the entire Purple Sun Sect, Jiang Chen was confident that he would be able to destroy her with no doubt whatsoever.
After all, once their cultivation level’s were the same, Long Juxue’s so-called advantages were all lackl.u.s.ter, and the advantages of Jiang Chen’s immense martial dao knowledge, with techniques far in excess of anything in the sixteen kingdoms, would be completely demonstrated.
“Three to four months… seventh level spirit realm… ” A resolute look shot out of Jiang Chen’s eyes. “I’ll put it all on the line for that goal!”
Indeed, just as he’d thought, when the selection timeframe had been compressed to a year, the atmosphere in the sky quadrant changed immediately.
The geniuses who’d thought about how to farm points all returned to their residences and began to concentrate on cultivation.
There was no more point in grinding out points. The key thing here was to increase their strength.
Becoming stronger was the true way!
The final selection wasn’t based off on points, but rather, it was based on martial strength and cultivators fought for it with each punch and kick.
Therefore, the amount of people in the mission area greatly decreased almost overnight. Apart from those with lower rankings and needing points to advance, almost no one else paid the mission areas a visit.
Jiang Chen’s score was now solidly in the top ten, so he naturally didn’t need to mind his rank.
However, although he was focusing on his cultivation, he would occasionally make some time to farm some points to ensure that his ranking didn’t fall too behind.
The last twenty to thirty days of the third cycle pa.s.sed by just like that.
The last ten of the sky quadrant were brutally eliminated after the fourth cycle, and the top ten of the earth quadrant had successfully made it into the sky quadrant.
What surprised Jiang Chen was that Liu Wencai had indeed made it into the sky quadrant, and he’d even ascended the ident.i.ty as the champion of the earth quadrant with fierce momentum!
“Brother Boulder, we finally met again!”
Liu Wencai’s eyes were red when he saw Jiang Chen, and he found it hard to conceal his emotional state.
Jiang Chen sized up Liu Wencai and he discovered that in these three short months, the changes that had occurred in the latter could only be described as transformative.
“Good going, it looks like you haven’t been lazy in the past three months, well done!”
Liu Wencai felt extreme grat.i.tude towards Jiang Chen. He felt that he only achieved his current accomplishments because of Brother Boulder. If it wasn’t for the small vial of beast blood from Brother Boulder and his pointers, he never would’ve improved so rapidly.
It could be said that Liu Wencai had grown into a miracle in the earth quadrant over the past three months.
He’d risen with the irresistible force of a thunderbolt in the earth quadrant and he had swept past all his opponents, charging fiercely into the sky quadrant.
The miracle of Liu Wencai was second only to the legend of Jiang Chen in the earth quadrant.
“Brother Boulder, I owe you the grat.i.tude of being reborn again. I have my accomplishments of today not because I joined the Myriad Spirit Sect, but because I know you. I don’t know how to voice impressive words, but if Brother Boulder wishes me to charge into mountains of blades and oceans of fire in the future, I won’t even furrow my brow.”
“Wencai, all I’ve done is to enable you to take fewer winding paths. The key point still lay with your immense potential that was locked within you, and it is even rare amongst the geniuses of the sixteen kingdom. I’ve been in the sky quadrant for three months and I have yet to see anyone with potential to rival yours. It’s a pity that there are only three months left untill the selection, or you would rise up like the wind and rain in the sky quadrant and raze those geniuses so badly that they would discard their armor.”
Jiang Chen clapped Liu Wencai’s shoulder and encouraged him.
He wasn’t voicing pleasantries, but he was truly surprised at Liu Wencai’s potential.
“Wencai, the road is beneath your feet. You must believe that even now, the potential within your body has yet to be fully tapped. I don’t know how much potential you have either, but what i’m certain is that the power within your body hasn’t been fully uncovered yet.”
Liu Wencai was deep in thought after hearing these words and nodded.
“Brother Boulder… ”
Jiang Chen spread out his hands and suddenly looked outside. “A friend is coming, you guys can get to know each other today as well!”
Tang Hong’s bra.s.s voice sounded as soon as Jiang Chen had finished speaking. “Boss, we’re moving to new places today based on our rankings. Your residence likely needs to be vacated.”
Tang Hong walked in with large strides and he slightly halted when he saw that someone was already present in Jiang Chen’s yard. He scratched at his head full of messy red hair.
“Boss, who’s he?”
“The new champion of the earth quadrant, he just made it here earlier today. His name is Liu Wencai, one of my brothers in the earth quadrant.”
Tang Hong’s eyes rolled around as he sized up Liu Wencai and chuckled oddly, suddenly stepping forward to reach out a hand and made a grasping motion towards Liu Wencai.
Liu Wencai was surprised, but he reacted quickly. He probed with his right hand and made a flicking motion, dispersing the force behind Tang Hong’s grab.
When the two forces b.u.mped together, they both took a step backwards.
“Eh?” Candidates in the lower quadrants have this kind of power to them? Tang Hong c.o.c.ked his head, the light of disbelief s.h.i.+ning through his eyes.
Tang Hong was a straightforward person and he thought the most highly of people with true ability to them, particularly when Liu Wencai was Jiang Chen’s brother!
He hadn’t had any malicious intent behind his move, he just wanted to probe the other. After testing, he discovered that the other did indeed deserve his reputation and he was quite overjoyed.
“Haha, boss’ brother alright! Come, let me introduce myself. I’m Tang Hong, boss’ new follower in the sky quadrant.” Tang Hong put his fan-like hand out and smiled a bit bashfully.
Jiang Chen smiled and said to Liu Wencai, “He’s Tang Hong, a straightforward guy and my brother.”
Liu Wencai’s angry expression turned happy when he heard this and he also put his hand out. “Nice going, nice moves!”
Tang Hong grinned, “You’re quite strong as well and you have the right to be my brother.”
Liu Wencai wasn’t a small guy to begin with, but he only reached Tang Hong’s shoulder. When he looked at this bashful and honest big guy, Liu Wencai’s first impression of him was rather good.
The three of them had become good friends after the initial clash and smiled as they entered the house, chatting happily.