Lin Chen walked along the streets of Cold Water City. The bluestone-paved road was fairly level, and most shops on either side had already opened. Hawkers' cries, haggling voices, and the rumbling of passing carts and horses intertwined, forming the bustle and vitality unique to a border city at dawn.
Unlike when he had arrived in haste, burdened by worries, his steps were now unhurried and his aura restrained. Pedestrians passed him by, yet no one could tell that this handsome young man in an ordinary blue robe had stirred up a storm in the City Lord's Mansion not long ago—or even, in a sense, saved this city's hopes for the future.
He did not turn back to look toward the City Lord's Mansion, nor did he deliberately sense the covert gazes that might still linger upon him. His purpose in Cold Water City had already been fulfilled, and his gains had even exceeded expectations—whether it was the Purple Cloud Mushroom, the goodwill he had forged with Su Yanting, or that weighty Guest Elder Token.
More importantly, after this battle—particularly through his recovery and consolidation following such extreme exhaustion—he had gained new insights into the Myriad Dao Fusion Art and a deeper control over his own strength. His Ninth Layer of Qi Condensation had been thoroughly stabilized, and he could even faintly touch the invisible barrier leading to the Sea Transformation Realm.
But he knew that the road ahead remained long.
The Qi Condensation Realm was, in the end, merely the beginning of the path of cultivation. To truly possess the strength to protect himself, to explore the deeper secrets of the Myriad Dao Fusion Art, and even to find traces of its origins, the Sea Transformation Realm was a threshold he had to cross.
As for clues concerning the