Qingfeng Temple's True Dragon Takes Flight
In the late spring afternoon, the alchemy room was warm and quiet.
The wisps of medicinal fragrance wafted out from the cracks of the alchemy furnace, mingling with the warm glow of the fire, filling the entire small room.
Xuanwei squatted in front of the furnace, her sleeves rolled up, carefully adjusting the heat at the bottom of the furnace.
Years of alchemy have honed his skills to a fine and gentle touch, his expression serene and peaceful, a tranquility as ever as that of Qingfeng Temple.
Two soft knocks landed on the wooden door frame, clear and gentle, breaking the tranquility of the alchemy room.
It was Chen Du's voice that softly rang out. "Master."
Xuanwei looked up at the sound and saw the young man slowly walk into the alchemy room. He was upright and graceful, dressed in an elegant Daoist robe. His gentle and calm demeanor was no different from usual.
He subconsciously wanted to probe the depth of his disciple's current cultivation level. As soon as he gently released his Divine Thought, an immeasurable and elusive sense of vastness rushed towards him.
It wasn't a sharp, imposing aura, nor a booming sound, nor a Xuanwei felt a sudden emptiness in his heart, as if he were merely a tiny speck of dust suspended in the vast void, his soul thin and fragile, as if a gust of wind could blow him away.
He couldn't grasp even a trace of Chen Du's aura, couldn't discern its depth, couldn't see the foundation of his Dao, and couldn't find any trace of the flow of laws. It was as if the person standing in front of him wasn't a cultivator, but the Heavenly Dao itself, which encompasses all things and has no beginning or end.
Xuanwei quietly withdrew his Divine Thought, a strange sense of powerlessness rising in his heart. He remained outwardly calm, casually joking, his tone relaxed and carefree:
"Has another new prescription been derived today?"
Chen Du quietly sat down on the bluestone bench opposite him.
The fire crackled softly in the stove, and the aroma of medicine wafted through the air. He paused briefly, his usual nonchalance vanishing, and spoke slowly, his tone steady yet each word carrying immense weight:
"Master, I have broken through to the Thirteenth Realm."
The moment the words left his mouth, the alchemy room seemed to freeze instantly.
The fire tongs that Xuanwei was holding suddenly froze in mid-air, motionless.
He was completely stunned, his neck slowly turning as his gaze fell blankly on his own disciple.
His pupils dilated slightly, his lips moved a few times, his throat was dry and tight, and he couldn't make a sound for a long time.
The sense of vastness that I had felt earlier, which I couldn't fathom, now finally had an answer.
It turned out that it wasn't his Divine Thought that was malfunctioning, but rather that the person before him had already reached a level that he couldn't even touch.
Although all he could hear was the faint crackling of the flames in the alchemy furnace, he felt a deafening roar in his ears and his mind went completely blank. For a moment, he couldn't grasp the weight of those words.
After a long while, he finally recovered from his extreme daze, gently put down the fire tongs, sat up straight, and stared intently at Chen Du with a deep and complex gaze, filled with disbelief and shock.
Her voice was slightly hoarse, trembling with barely suppressed emotion. "What... what did you say?"
Chen Du remained calm, repeating the words clearly and confidently:
"I have just completely broken through to the Thirteenth Realm, the Cosmic Life Realm."
This time, there's no chance of mishearing.
The alchemy room fell into a long, deathly silence.
The fire in the stove still flickered and swayed, and the aroma of medicine wafted slowly, but the air inside the room seemed to have completely solidified.
Xuanwei sat motionless, his aura subdued, his expression shifting in layers.
From the initial shock of hearing the news, to the bewilderment of not being able to accept it for a while, and then to the complex emotions of gradually digesting the facts.
He opened his mouth, a thousand emotions welling up in his throat, but he suppressed them all and let them turn into a silent sigh.
His gaze lowered, falling back to the orange-red flames leaping and dancing in the furnace, as if using the warm light to slowly digest this earth-shattering news that overturned his understanding.
He cultivated Daoism for thousands of years, traversed mountains and fields, read all the secrets of the court and the countryside, and heard countless legends of geniuses.
At the Late Stage the Twelfth Realm, one is already a top-tier cultivator rarely seen in the world, enough to hold sway over an ancient sect.
The Thirteenth Realm, the Cosmic Life Realm, is the highest realm that exists only in ancient classics and myths, the ultimate path that cultivators of all heavens cannot reach even after exhausting countless eternities.
Countless ancient and powerful beings were on edge, secretly gathering their forces and remaining on guard. The entire Ancestral God Realm was turbulent, and everyone was terrified of this unknown supreme being who had appeared out of nowhere.
No one could have imagined that the being that stirred up the eternal peace of the Ancestral God Realm was just a young man in the Bamboo Courtyard of Qingfeng Temple who had just been whispering with his master.
Our gaze returned to the small alchemy room.
After a long while, Xuanwei slowly raised his head, the tremor in his eyes still lingering, his voice still carrying a barely perceptible tremor:
"The Thirteenth Realm..."
"I have cultivated for thousands of years, traversing the mountains and rivers of the Ling Dynasty. There are very few powerful beings at the Late Stage of the Twelfth Realm, and I have never heard of the Thirteenth Realm being born in my entire life."
He gently shook his head, a faint smile playing on his lips, a smile that carried a sigh for the passing years, a sense of relief, and a touch of heartfelt, unconscious reverence.
"How old are you? You've only been in my Qingfeng Temple for a few decades."
"I found you outside the mountain gate back then. You were tiny, swaddled, and completely ignorant. Even your cries were weak and feeble. I carried you back to the mountain and cared for you day and night, teaching you every night."
"Decades have passed in the blink of an eye. That frail infant has now ascended to a legendary realm that the world cannot even look up to."
"Now, the true dragon of my Qingfeng Temple has finally taken flight."
After calming down, Xuanwei slowly got up and paced around the small alchemy room.
His mind was in turmoil. After a moment, he suddenly stopped, turned around and looked directly at Chen Du, his expression instantly becoming extremely solemn.
"Besides you and me, is there anyone else who knows about this?"
Chen Du nodded slightly, his tone resolute. "Only Master, I came to inform you immediately. This matter has not yet been leaked, so please keep it a secret and do not spread it."
"It is right, it is necessary."
Xuanwei nodded emphatically, his expression solemn, instantly shifting from sentimental warmth to deep contemplation and seriousness.
"Under no circumstances should we reveal even the slightest detail."
"Based on our previous experience, the Xuanwu Divine Hall is shrouded in darkness, insidious and unpredictable, with immense power and resources. In the past, they only regarded you as a junior who could be easily eliminated, and only sent ordinary assassins and Stellar cultivators to attack and kill you."
"But once they learn that you have already reached the Thirteenth Realm and achieved cosmic life, there will be no more testing, no more wishful thinking."
"They will no longer send pawns to their deaths; instead, they will unleash the full power of their secret forces and utilize the ancient monsters at the very top of the Divine Hall, sparing no expense to nip you, the future behemoth of the heavens, in the bud."
He looked at Chen Du, his eyes filled with unwavering protectiveness:
"From this day forward, you shall live peacefully in the bamboo grove, cultivating in Lie Dormant, keeping your talents hidden, and refraining from worldly affairs or revealing your abilities."
"I will handle all the turmoil at the foot of the mountain, the undercurrents in the imperial court, the grudges of the martial world, and the schemes in the shadows. As long as I am here, no one can disturb your peaceful cultivation."
Chen Du felt a warmth in his heart, bowed slightly, and said respectfully, "Thank you, Master."
After saying this, he turned to leave the alchemy room.
Just as he stepped onto the threshold, a Xuanwei, almost murmured voice suddenly came from behind him.
"Li Xuan..."
Chen Du paused, standing still in front of the door.
A gentle breeze rustled through the air, and the fire crackled softly in the fireplace.
Xuanwei gazed at the flickering fire in the furnace, his eyes distant, as if piercing through the mountains and rivers of time, looking towards the unreachable past of the deep palace.
"If your father knew that you have now cultivated to such an unparalleled level, I wonder what his expression would be."
These words floated lightly in the air, carrying with them decades of buried past, unsolved mysteries of their origins, and a misplaced royal destiny.
Chen Du stood silently for a moment, a slight ripple of emotion in his eyes, but ultimately neither turned around nor spoke.
A moment later, he gently pushed open the door and slowly walked into the courtyard into the gentle breeze.
Inside the alchemy room, only Xuanwei remained, sitting alone before the furnace, gazing at the leaping flames, speechless for a long time.
He tried once again to sense Chen Du's presence, but it was still all emptiness; that feeling of his own insignificance and fragility lingered.
He knew that from this day forward, his disciple had already transcended the mortal realm and the chessboard of the heavens.
No matter how vast the mountains and seas, or how expansive the rivers and lakes, they could not confine him even slightly.
In the distant Ancestral God Realm, countless ancient powerful figures are still anxiously and frantically searching for this nameless, newly emerged Thirteenth Realm cultivator.