Chapter 41
Huan Zheng let out a breath—a kind of breath that sounded like someone who knew this question would come sooner or later, and had prepared the answer long ago, merely waiting for the right moment to speak it.
"Yes and no," he finally replied, his voice still lazy, yet beneath that laziness lay a tone more serious, more cautious, like a teacher delivering an important lesson to his most troublesome yet most talented student.
"It can be said to be the same because you still have to perfect the roots and foundation of Longitude to advance. But it is also different, because the method is no longer limited to gathering Star fragments through killing, healing, or trading. In the realm of Heavenly Longitude, one can refine—meaning elevate their cultivation realm to the next level—simply by excelling in 3 Outer Star and 1 Core Star."
Ling Xu frowned, trying to comprehend Huan Zheng's words, which sounded like a riddle deliberately made complicated by someone too lazy to explain things simply.
"You mean," he said slowly, "that in this realm, what matters isn't how many Longitude you collect, but… how well you master your existing foundation? Lower Star, Common Star, Singular Star, and Supernatural Star? Those determine how fast you can advance?"
Huan Zheng nodded—once, firmly, without hesitation—and for the first time on this journey, he looked at Ling Xu with eyes that were no longer lazy, no longer half-closed, but wide open, clear, like the surface of a lake in the morning undisturbed by wind, humans, or beasts.
"Exactly, Liu Xin."
Huuuh!!
"So," Huan Zheng continued, his voice now slightly faster, slightly more spirited—though to others it might still sound lazy, to Ling Xu, who was used to him, this was the highest level of enthusiasm he had ever seen from the lazy man, "just by being superior in 3 Outer Star and 1 Core Star—which reflects how well cultivators have developed within the Latitude Foundation realm, from Lower Latitude to Supernatural Star—a Heavenly Longitude cultivator can gradually raise their cultivation level without needing to accumulate massive amounts of Longitude as you imagined."
He raised his hand, and at the tips of his fingers, his 100 Longitudes pulsed faintly, invisible to the naked eye but perceptible to Ling Xu sitting only an arm's length away, like a heartbeat resonating with his own, like two sides of the same coin that would never truly separate, even if they sometimes appeared different.
"And this rule," Huan Zheng continued, "only applies among Heavenly Longitude cultivators. Not to those still in the Latitude Foundation, nor to those who have surpassed Heavenly Longitude—because above that, there are other rules that even some elders in the Heavenly Longitude realm do not fully understand."
Ling Xu fell silent, reflecting on Huan Zheng's words that drifted beside him lazily, yet somehow brought him a sense of calm—making him feel that this journey would never end in confusion, that as long as he had this lazy man beside him, he would always have someone to ask about things he didn't understand, about a world too complex to grasp alone, about a cultivation system that seemed as though it had been designed by a group of drunken people throwing dice to decide the boundaries between realms.
"So," Ling Xu finally spoke, his voice soft yet clear amidst the increasingly strong wind as they entered higher cloud territory, "the key to advancing in Heavenly Longitude doesn't lie in the Longitude itself, but in the foundation you've already built? In how strong your Lower Star, Common Star, Singular Star, and Supernatural Star are?"
Huan Zheng smiled—a strangely proud smile, one that said "you finally understand" without needing words—then nodded lazily.
"You're getting smarter, Liu Xin. Maybe you've been hanging around me too much."
Hooooh!!
The sky above Wuji City split apart like rough cloth torn by hungry hands—one half still glowing with the light of eternal lanterns swaying gently in the aftermath winds of battle, the other pitch-black like the mouth of a cave never touched by sunlight—and between those two worlds, Ling Xu stepped forward first, his fingers ready to release the Cancer Threads at any moment.
"Watch out, Zhao Wei," he whispered, and in the next breath, his body had already shot into the air.
Not an ordinary leap, but a graceful and deadly somersault, his white-streaked hair unraveling like mist falling to the earth, his body inverted with his head below and feet above, suspended in time that felt as though it had stopped for centuries.
Huan Zheng, without thinking, without pause, without even blinking, moved his left arm forward.
Not a punch, not a shield, but a slash faster than lightning, smoother than silk, quieter than death; and in the air, something invisible to the naked eye—a beam of scorching laser that had just shot from the darkness—was split into seven parts the instant it struck his arm, fragments of light scattering like petals falling before their time, leaving behind thin trails of smoke in the cold air.
"Someone set us up," Huan Zheng said, his voice still lazy, but his eyes—once half-closed—now wide open, scanning the surroundings with the vigilance of one who had survived a thousand deaths.
From afar, from the gaps of collapsed buildings, from behind cracked marble pillars, from half-destroyed rooftops, dozens of shadows began to move.
Not running, not flying, but stepping in terrifying synchronization, like one body with a thousand legs, like one mind with a thousand voices.
One by one, two by two, ten by ten, they emerged from hiding until forming a perfect circle around Ling Xu and Huan Zheng—without gaps, without weaknesses, without any escape visible to the naked eye.
"A complete encirclement," Ling Xu whispered as his feet touched the ground again.
"I count twenty-seven," he continued, his eyes darting quickly from one figure to another, noting every detail—plain black robes without emblems, white masks covering their entire faces except for eye slits, and most terrifying of all, the aura emanating from them, unlike anything he had ever felt before.
"Not twenty-seven," Huan Zheng corrected from behind, his voice flat but carrying a tremor Ling Xu had never heard before.
Not fear, because Huan Zheng did not know fear, but a cold admiration, like a collector discovering a rare item he had only heard of in legends.
"They are all Old Bright Sky cultivators. Each has perfected around 150 to 190 Heavenly Longitude. And what's even more terrifying—"
He paused, swallowed, then finished in a voice almost a whisper.
"… Their power is a thousand times greater than the combined strength of cultivators within the same realm. This is no ordinary trap, Liu Xin. This is an execution."
To be continued…