Lightning Strike Wood "Did Not Die in Vain," Things Had Changed, People Were Gone

After taking a few breaths to recover from his shock, Qingfeng spoke.

"The Five Elements Array Lineage you mentioned—I think I've heard Master talk about it."

"Two hundred years ago, it was the Signature Skill of a certain sect, but it was later phased out."

"If that's the case, then what the Scripture Pavilion contains should only be the basics and some introductions to Five Elements Arrays."

"And you could break Master's Grand Formation with just that?"

"Of course not." Chen Changsheng shook his head. "I just said that Master inherited the teachings of the Supreme Clarity Temple, and he isn't skilled in arrays."

"Under such circumstances, it was highly unlikely that Master could create an array of his own."

"So all of Master's array skills came from the Scripture Pavilion of the Supreme Clarity Temple."

"In my second year after joining the sect, Master showed me that piece of Lightning Strike Wood."

"To crack the Core Array Master left behind, I spent a year reading every array book in the Scripture Pavilion."

"After comparing them, I discovered that the array Master had set up—"

"—was a fusion of the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Formation and the Big Dipper Formation, with some of Master's own modifications added in."

"At the time, I tried many times, but I could never break the array and enter."

"And so, Master's array blocked me for a full five years."

"Later, I found ancient texts on Five Elements Arrays in the Book Grave, along with Master's own insights into arrays."

"With that, I finally understood how Master had fused the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Formation and the Big Dipper Formation together."

"He had borrowed the principles of the Five Elements Array."

"Once I understood how the array had been arranged, I began trying again and spent a year and a half breaking through it."

"Then, ten days ago, I finished making the coffin."

After hearing Chen Changsheng's account, everyone fell speechless.

Qingfeng looked at Nascent Soul Immortal with a pitying gaze, as if he were saying—

"Master, your Lightning Strike Wood did not die in vain."

Nascent Soul Immortal truly did not know whether to laugh or cry at Chen Changsheng's actions.

This fellow had spent a full eight years turning his Lightning Strike Wood into a coffin.

He really did not know whether to praise him for his perseverance or scold him for being foolish.

Even for cultivators, eight years was no short stretch of time.

A mortal's lifespan was limited to a little over a hundred years. A Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator could live up to two hundred years.

Golden Core cultivators could live five hundred years, while Nascent Soul Realm cultivators generally lived around eight hundred years. Only Spirit Transformation ancestors could break through the thousand-year threshold.

Yet his disciple had actually spent eight years on such a trivial matter.

Didn't he care about his lifespan at all?!

Boundless Secret Realm.

As they slowly descended from the sky, the entrance to the Boundless Secret Realm was already crowded with sects large and small.

"Oh my!"

"Isn't this Nascent Soul Immortal?"

"We haven't met in fifty years, and you've actually broken through to the Nascent Soul Middle Stage. Congratulations!"

The moment Chen Changsheng and the others landed, Linglong Sect Leader Zhao Dezhu came over with a beaming smile to greet them.

But faced with Zhao Dezhu's enthusiasm, Nascent Soul Immortal gave him no pleasant expression.

"Say what you have to say and fart if you have to fart. I have no desire to waste words on a crude man like you."

Hearing that, Zhao Dezhu put on a pained expression. "Daoist Priest Nascent Soul, you are at least a man of the Dao. How can your temper be so explosive?"

"Though my cultivation is just a tiny bit higher than yours, and my disciple is just a tiny bit better than yours—"

"—you can't stay angry all day over such a little matter!"

"I know you're jealous that I took in such a good disciple."

"She hasn't even reached two hundred, yet she's already at the Nascent Soul Late Stage. Such talent has never appeared in the entire Great Qian Dynasty."

"If they weren't so hard to find, given our friendship, I'd definitely help you find one too."

"Pah!"

"Who cares about your lousy disciple?!"

"I've got an even better one. Isn't your disciple at the Nascent Soul Late Stage before turning two hundred?"

"My disciple will reach the Nascent Soul Late Stage before he turns a hundred. Just wait!"

With that, Nascent Soul Immortal stormed off with Chen Changsheng and the others.

Seeing this, Zhao Dezhu grinned, then clasped his hands behind his back and hummed a tune as he walked toward the seal of the Boundless Secret Realm.

"No, the more I think about it, the angrier I get!"

"Qingfeng, take your junior brothers inside later. I'm going to reason things out with that bastard Zhao Dezhu again."

Not long after they parted ways, Nascent Soul Immortal grew more and more furious the longer he thought about it, then ran off to find Zhao Dezhu again.

Watching his master's behavior, Qingfeng merely smiled and paid it no mind.

Zhao Dezhu and his master had a friendship forged in life and death. He had watched them bicker for a hundred and fifty years.

At that moment, Chen Changsheng, who had been looking around, suddenly spoke.

"Senior Brother, didn't you say the Linglong Sect has a genius called the Longevity Fairy?"

"Why don't I see her?"

"The Longevity Fairy went to the border of the Great Qian Kingdom. Not only did she go, even Master Yixiu of the Heavenly Buddha Temple went as well."

"Yixiu... Master?"

Upon hearing that name, Chen Changsheng could not help but voice a question that rose from the depths of his soul.

Qingfeng, however, thought Chen Changsheng had never heard of that title and immediately explained.

"Master Yixiu is the heir of the Heavenly Buddha Temple, and the greatest genius in the Great Qian Dynasty after the Longevity Fairy."

"Just past a hundred years old, he had already reached the Golden Core Late Stage."

"They say he is the person most likely to surpass the Longevity Fairy."

Upon learning that the timid, kind-hearted little monk from the past had also become someone capable of standing alone, Chen Changsheng could not help but feel emotional.

Back then, little monk Yixiu would come find him every few days to debate the Dharma, but he always lost more than he won.

Time truly was the most powerful "cultivation technique" in the world. He had merely taken a nap, and the little monk of old had become the master he was now.

After his moment of reflection, Chen Changsheng spoke again.

"Senior Brother, what did they go to the border for?"

"What else could it be? To wage war against the Night Moon Kingdom, of course."

"As a kingdom of the Demon Race, the Night Moon Kingdom fought the Great Qian Dynasty once every two hundred years. Though the Great Qian Dynasty had won many times, it had never been able to wipe them out."

"No one knows what happened recently, but the Night Moon Kingdom actually launched a national war ahead of schedule."

"It has only been one hundred and seventy years since the last great war—thirty years early. It truly is puzzling."

At those words, the smile on Chen Changsheng's face gradually vanished.

He had seen records of the war between the Great Qian Kingdom and the Night Moon Kingdom in the Book Grave.

It was a war where cultivators and mortals were mixed together, and its brutality was beyond words—words could not describe even one part in ten of it.

Even mighty Nascent Soul cultivators risked falling.

Moreover, the Night Moon Kingdom's early declaration of war gave Chen Changsheng a vague sense of unease.