Worldly Understanding

Jing Qian did not know whether he should be happy or worried!

The destiny opportunities others could only dream of obtaining had come to him three times in a row!

Yet an unexpected turn of events had pushed him to the brink between life and death once again!

The flame of the second Purple Destiny Furnace was even more powerful than the first!

But he had just undergone a complete destiny determination. Both his physical body and Magic Power had already been drained to their limits.

His body, burned until it was in ruins, had only just begun to recover.

Then the third destiny determination came, squeezing nearly every last bit of strength from his body!

Jing Qian felt as if he were a glass doll glowing red-hot inside a furnace.

It looked crystalline and rosy, yet was almost on the verge of melting!

Helplessly, the determination of his destiny continued. His spiritual sense returned to that Devouring Space, and a sudden cry rang out beside Jing Qian's ear:

"Ah!"

The source of that soft, plaintive whisper had finally broken down completely!

He had just been thrashed eighty-one times and robbed of a precious destiny, and they still would not even let him catch his breath?

But the laws of the Great Dao were simply like this!

The space could only transport three more light clusters and toss them in front of Jing Qian.

Yet with the space having broken down, this brought Jing Qian nothing but benefits.

The space did not know that Jing Qian had already reached the end of his strength.

Thus, this time, all three destiny tokens were golden in quality!

It had brought out its greatest sincerity right from the start!

It seemed that the strange White Fang Destiny token really had been the limit.

And the black jade destiny stele remained motionless for the first time, letting Jing Qian act as he pleased.

Jing Qian did not dare delay in the slightest. He randomly chose one of the three destiny tokens, pulled it back into his sea of consciousness, and swiftly completed the third destiny determination.

This was his most efficient, yet most dangerous and thrilling, destiny determination!

After his spiritual sense returned to his body, a vast flood of vital energy surged out from the guest room and swept toward him.

This guest room was extraordinary as well, naturally infused with highly concentrated vital energy.

Jing Qian immediately entered a profound retreat.

This time, the cultivation increase he had obtained was unprecedented!

Outside the guest room, Tao Yong clapped his hands in delight, astonished by the miraculous effects of the Reincarnation Heaven-Born Destiny Law and full of admiration for his own practiced and marvelous coordination.

Unfortunately, it was the Education Directorate's duty, and he was forbidden to share any cultivator's experiences or gains within the Education Directorate with outsiders.

Otherwise, he would have called over his friends and boasted at length about Jing Qian's destiny determination.

In a tea room at the Gongye Main Store in the Hun Zhou Sea Market, a monk and a Daoist were engaged in a heated argument.

The Dragon Elephant Realm bald monk said:

"Brother Gongye, those three ships of ninth-grade White Copper took the temple two full years of painstaking accumulation and refinement. We can't just lose them without explanation!"

"How am I supposed to answer to the temple when I return?"

The Daoist sitting opposite him was Gongye Liang, manager of the Gongye Main Store, which monopolized Hun Zhou's metal-smelting trade, and the pillar of the Gongye family.

He replied:

"Master Miao Jue, no one could have imagined that someone would strike the Dragon Drinking Plate at that exact moment. It was a natural and man-made disaster, impossible to avoid."

"My Gongye family has cooperated with Shedi Zang Temple for many years. Don't let an accident like this damage our friendship."

"How about this? I'll raise the purchase price for this batch of Sea Fang Iron by ten percent. That should at least make up for some of your losses."

Gongye Liang's words did not comfort Master Miao Jue.

The great monk continued:

"My three ships of cargo are inside the Li Dragon's belly. Could I ask the prefectural government to send people to retrieve them?"

"If the prefectural government can't be bothered with the trouble, I'm willing to go into the Li Dragon's belly myself."

Gongye Liang shook his head and said:

"Master, that is absolutely impossible. The inside of the Li Dragon's body is a forbidden zone beyond all question. Even on HunZhou Island, few people can enter it."

Master Miao Jue said again:

"Isn't there a compensation measure from the prefectural government for losses caused by the Dragon Drinking Plate?"

"My three ships of cargo, along with the sailors aboard them, were fed to the Li Dragon. Surely the prefectural government must offer some explanation."

Gongye Liang shook his head again and said:

"Master, the ships met with disaster on the Muddy River before clearing customs and reaching the island. They cannot be counted as property of HunZhou Island, so they do not fall within the prefectural government's scope of compensation."

"Forget about that compensation!"

"How about this? Once I find out who struck the Dragon Drinking Plate, you can go and discuss it with the person responsible. See whether you can use Shedi Zang Temple's reputation to demand some compensation."

Master Miao Jue's face turned livid. His heart seethed with rage, yet for the moment, he could think of no solution.

No one knew how much time had passed before Jing Qian finally awoke leisurely from his retreat.

After the successive destiny determinations had stacked together, it was equivalent to him advancing two times into the ninth-grade rank, and the enhancement he had received was immense.

At that moment, he felt his entire body filled with unprecedented strength and fullness.

His soul was as clear and powerful as if it had been moistened by Sweet Dew.

His thoughts were swifter and his mind more agile, rising by an inconceivable amount!

It was as if he had received an entirely new brain, allowing him to see through the essence of all things in the world.

His Destiny Essence and Magic Power had risen sharply as well, coming at his beck and call, summoned when wanted and dismissed when done.

The changes to his physical body were even more astonishing. His originally ruined body had now been completely remolded. His muscles were taut, his bones jade-like—the signs of vitality flourishing to its utmost extreme.

At that moment, Jing Qian's soul, Magic Power, and physical body had all reached new peaks.

He had experienced the joy of cultivation to the fullest.

Jing Qian slowly opened his eyes, only to find what met his gaze seemed to be an entirely new world!

His original visual surroundings had been completely overturned. Everything had lost its original shape, transforming instead into a wondrous state of data and vital energy.

He casually pulled the ninth-grade copper hammer out of the Void Realm and lifted it into his hand to toy with.

The dimensions of the copper hammer along every axis appeared before his eyes, precise down to the micrometer.

Its material composition, even the methods used to hammer and refine it, all entered his mind directly.

Jing Qian suddenly grew confident, as if, provided he had the materials, he could casually knead out an identical copper hammer!

But even this was not the limit!

He raised a hand, and eight strands of Sewing Souls and Weaving Spirits thread extended outward, rapidly winding between his two hands.

In no more than fifteen minutes, a talisman with over six thousand four hundred branch structures had been woven.

Then the Seal Talisman Art activated. The talisman shot directly into Jing Qian's sea of consciousness, condensed into a White Fang Destiny Essence, and replenished his body.

Recalling the long seven-hour process of painstakingly outlining the Essence Extraction Art when he had first cultivated it, his current efficiency had increased by far more than several dozen times!

And this terrifying rise in spiritual perception and intellect had come entirely from a brand-new destiny:

Destiny: Worldly Understanding

Rank: Golden Root

The world's affairs are drifting clouds—why ask about them? With no attachment to staying or leaving, better to lie high and dine well.