"I thought I'd have to wait a few more days. They say even a wise official finds it hard to settle family disputes, but I didn't expect you to be so decisive, Junior Brother."
Wen Si smiled faintly, lowering his bamboo hat and stepping aside a bit to let Chen Kuang and the others board the boat.
Though he had been out of sight recently, he clearly knew all that had happened on shore.
"How could I make Senior Brother wait long? Besides, I never intended to stay at the Chen family for long."
Chen Kuang spoke while helping Chu Wenruo up, allowing her and the little princess to board first.
Qing Cuo and Shen Meinan followed with graceful, agile leaps onto the boat's edge.
Chen Kuang was the last to step aboard. Wen Si gave a push to the shore with his bamboo pole, and the boat drifted into the mist.
The water had been clear, but fog now arose out of nowhere, enveloping the boat completely.
As they drifted forward, the shores vanished into a swirling haze. Everything around them shifted and warped, yet those aboard felt no change in speed, it was as if they were walking on solid ground.
Chu Wenruo's eyes widened with wonder.
She already had a vague sense that Chen Kuang's senior brother was no ordinary man. Just this one technique was already extraordinary.
She turned to Wen Si, bowed with her daughter, and said:
"Thank you, Senior, for your help."
Su Huaiying imitated the motion clumsily with her stubby arms and legs, looking adorably awkward.
Wen Si raised a hand in a mock gesture of support:
"Madam of the Liang Kingdom, there's no need for such formality. A senior brother helping a junior brother, this is only right."
Chu Wenruo turned to Chen Kuang and asked cautiously:
"May I ask... who is your Master?"
She had never heard Chen Kuang mention a master, let alone a powerful senior brother. But now that she knew, it actually made a lot more sense.
After all, how could Chen Kuang have become so formidable without a teacher?
If he were truly self-taught... that would be almost terrifying.
Even Shen Xingzhu, for instance, had studied under Qingpingzi, the True Lord of the Earth Spirit from the Mysterious Divine Path Sect, and only then reached her current level.
Hearing this, Shen Meinan also turned a curious gaze toward them.
Chen Kuang replied with a smirk that didn't quite reach his eyes:
"A scoundrel."
Wen Si added leisurely:
"An old bastard."
The two exchanged a glance, and burst out laughing.
Chu Wenruo and Shen Meinan were thoroughly confused.
Su Huaiying narrowed her eyes slightly, pondering.
Scoundrel... Old bastard...
In one cycle of the illusion realm, she had encountered a strange, nameless musician.
He appeared to be in his thirties, but anyone who saw him would instinctively perceive him as "an old man."
That musician was lazy and roguish, definitely matching the description of a "scoundrel."
It was this very musician who had warned her about the abnormality in Chen Kuang's shadow.
When she later told Chen Kuang about it, his reaction had been odd, as if he had expected it.
That meant... he knew the nameless musician.
And now another "musician"-this mysterious master was very likely that same person.
But then why did Chen Kuang seem reluctant to acknowledge the musician's appearance?
Su Huaiying was quietly puzzled.
Even this senior brother of Chen Kuang seemed reluctant to talk about their master.
That said... this master clearly had issues.
Shen Meinan sat sullenly on the boat's edge, cupping her chin with puffed-out cheeks, visibly upset.
She was already used to not getting answers from Chen Kuang.
That wasn't what annoyed her now.
She glanced around, mentally counting, one, two... one, two. Hmph!
She snorted internally, shifted position, hugged her knees, and pouted even harder.
Unexpectedly, Chen Kuang came to sit beside her.
Shen Meinan froze in surprise, she hadn't even had time to feel happy before he spoke:
"We'll stop at Jiangning Prefecture first. The Shen family will be there to receive you."
Her expression stiffened as she stared at him in a daze.
Chen Kuang smiled:
"What's wrong? Can't bear to leave?"
She pouted:
"You said you'd protect me."
"I did."
He shrugged.
"The further we go, the more dangerous it gets. You've seen the kind of enemies I face. Now that your family's arrived, I've fulfilled my promise."
He looked at her:
"We've had our fun. It's time to go home."
Shen Meinan fell silent. Her brows drooped as she bit her lip and finally whispered:
"...Got it."
Suddenly, Shen Xingzhu spoke for the first time in a while:
"I've been trying to persuade her for days. I brought up Father and Mother, it was useless. But the moment he says something, she listens?"
Shen Meinan instantly bristled, jingling her Longevity Lock:
"I like listening to him! So what?!"
Rebellious teen behavior..
If this were a modern setting, she'd probably be a middle school dropout who ran away with a delinquent boyfriend, got pregnant in three months, then got abandoned and forced to work part-time while becoming a cautionary tale on the evening news...
Chen Kuang couldn't help but mock himself.
Yeah... the delinquent boyfriend here is me.
With her airheaded personality, she'd probably even help him count money after he scammed her seventy or eighty times.
Even Shen Xingzhu seemed briefly speechless by her sister's response. She sighed lightly and said:
"Do as you wish. But no matter how hard you shake it, you're still just shaking your Longevity Lock. Don't waste the effort."
"If you're upset with me, say so when you're back home."
Shen Meinan froze before she muttered:
"I-I wasn't shaking anything. What are you talking about..."
Shen Xingzhu said nothing.
Chen Kuang chuckled and added:
"Don't worry. I'm sure we'll meet again."
Shen Meinan looked up seriously:
"You better keep your word."
"When have I ever broken a promise to you?"
She finally smiled at that:
"Then you have to come find me."
"I will."
...
Night as calm as water, water reflecting the sky.
The little boat had already sailed through two prefectures, crossing from thr Eastern Court Lake into the Yulang River, the Jade Wave River.
Jiangning Prefecture sat along this river and was now near.
The fog gradually lifted.
It was quiet aboard the boat at night.
Wen Si rowed with his bamboo pole at the bow. Qing Cuo kept night watch as usual, wiping down her sword. After all the recent chaos, Chu Wenruo and her daughter slept together in the cabin.
Shen Meinan sat by the rail, swinging her legs over the water, admiring the starry sky up above.
Chen Kuang meditated at the stern.
After a long while, he opened his eyes, bright with clarity, his aura now fully stabilized.
After digesting his sudden surge in cultivation, he could now truly be considered a Tower Ascension Realm, Second Layer cultivator.
Thanks to the Martial Prodigy passive, he had no trouble comprehending his new realm, his mental state matched perfectly with his cultivation.
He estimated that he could now use the Moon-Clad Kasaya freely, though Vajra Bodhi was still very risky, it might just drain all his Spiritual Energy in one go.
It would only be usable against enemies vastly stronger than himself.
His first form, Descent from Tusita Heaven, had nearly reached the seventh-layer threshold. With one more real battle, he might fully grasp the seventh-layer force.
Most importantly, the sword hanging high within his consciousness could now be used at will, ever since he gained the Sword Heart passive.
This was his first true divine sense technique.
With "Sword in Mind" paired with the song Anonymous, he could emulate a low-grade version of the famed Song of Weed-Cutting.
Most cultivators didn't form a sea of consciousness until the Sea-Cleaving Realm, and only then could they learn soul-attacking arts.
But Chen Kuang, at just the Tower Ascension Realm, had already developed such a technique.
This was a huge advantage.
Of course, it helped that his divine sense was abnormally strong. For others, forming a "Sword in Mind" would likely lead to spiritual backlash or even soul-death.
Even before acquiring the Sword Heart, Chen Kuang had felt the Sword in his mind exuding Vicious Qi and killing intent within his consciousness.
Overusing it might subtly affect one's temperament but now, with the Sword Heart passive, he was in full control.
This sword would only be the enemy's nightmare. Especially for lower-rank cultivators with unformed seas of consciousness', it would be like slicing through melons with a peerless knife.
Only pity... there were no enemies around at the moment.
Chen Kuang sighed in disappointment.
But then, he remembered something.
Didn't he have a training field readily available?
He raised a brow, and within the Wujian Between, his second consciousness opened its eyes.
Within the boundless dark void, only he existed.
This was the origin of the Great Void Illusion Realm.
Now, it was a silent space belonging only to him.
To generate illusions, "Wujian Between" needed Wishforce, which it usually gathered through the illusion dreams of others connected to a chosen host.
But right now, Chen Kuang didn't even need to influence others.
He could use his own Wishforce to construct a personal illusion, including... training dummies.
He imagined and the world shifted.
Smooth tile, soft sofas, spiral staircases, ornate decor...
And modern decorations long unseen.
This... was the mansion from just before his death.
Where the people he had killed had once lived.
To him, this was real, something he could replicate.
But to this world, it was fiction, and thus safe to manifest.
He landed on the floor and stomped twice.
Then smiled.
Before him appeared a middle-aged man and two youths.
They were all familiar faces.
This time, though, he gave them something they hadn't had in life: Tower Ascension Realm cultivation.
"Let's start with second layer."
He snapped his fingers.
The puppets blinked to life, chests heaving and eyes twitching.
The middle-aged man was the first to speak, shouting in foreign tongue:
"Who are you?! Breaking into private property, I have the right to kill you!"
Then he conjured green flames.
Chen Kuang almost laughed.
Modern setting, ancient magic, it felt like some absurd "Dragon King Returns" urban short drama.
But the cultivation was real.
And since they matched him in realm, his passives were inactive, he felt actual pressure.
That pressure... It excited him!
These familiar figures, people he had slain countless times in dreams...
Now they were back.
And the sword within his mind trembled with a hungry eagerness.
"Looks like it really had to be you all..."
He stood still as they charged.
He held only a single thought: slash.
The first man froze, eyes wide, then collapsed dead.
Chen Kuang turned to the others:
"Your turn."
...
He ignored whatever carnage unfolded in the Wujian Between.
His status bar had updated:
[Before parting, you were gifted a poem. You have acquired the passive: "Poetic Madness." When you recite poetry at the right time, the poem's meaning becomes your power.]
His eyes widened in excitement.
Bless you, little sister!
That wasn't a gift of a poem, it was a game-breaking buff!
Just then, Wen Si stopped rowing.
"Junior Brother, go into the cabin for now."
He looked up.
On the river, countless torches lit up, fierce killing intent surging.
"The Firebrand Sect is here."