"Why have you returned so early?"
In the quiet cave residence, an elderly woman spoke.
Canglong stood there, graceful and composed. She answered respectfully, "I set out with a purpose for my travels. Now that I've accomplished it, continuing to wander would only waste time."
"Oh?"
The former Sect Master of Ice Fortress raised a brow and asked about her journey.
Canglong told her everything in detail, from leaving the Jade Cauldron Domain and traveling through the Six Regions to roaming across the Eastern Wasteland.
"That unclaimed region was renamed Heaven's Peak Chan Domain half a year after I left. Master Hui Ping came from the Western Desert, swept away the corruption, founded the Heavenly Zenith Chan Sect, and erected the Demon Suppression Tower to imprison countless demons throughout the land."
"Even Ning Yuzhuo of the Northern Sea, whose killing intent I saw for myself and whose origins were anything but ordinary, was imprisoned within the Heavenly Zenith Chan Sect."
"Only then did I understand that the Golden Core Stage was merely the starting point of the Great Dao."
The old Sect Master nodded, deeply sympathetic. "I was afraid that reaching the Golden Core Realm so young would make you arrogant. This tempering has done you good. Yes, a Golden Core Cultivator might rule over a tiny patch of land, but commanding wind and rain across the Cultivation World is out of the question. The slightest pressure from a Nascent Soul powerhouse would leave them as fragile as grains of sand."
After a moment's reflection, she asked, "What do you think of Han Zhan?"
Canglong spoke frankly. "Fellow Daoist Han truly is a rare cultivation genius. More than that, his pursuit of the Great Dao is relentless. Throughout our travels together, I never saw him slack off in his daily