Rise Within Reach

Zhuang Tairu and Li Ku turned into two wisps of green smoke, flickering through the mist-shrouded Changliu Mountain Range like mountain demons and ghosts, crossing several mountain tops in an instant.

Before long, they left the Changliu Mountain Range and revealed themselves in midair.

Li Ku turned back with a grave expression to look at the Changliu Mountain Range stretching for thousands of miles. Clouds and mist blanketed its mountain tops like piled snow. He sighed. "I never expected that boy to truly condense a Nascent Soul!?"

Zhuang Tairu said, "Could you manage the technique he used to break the concealment ripples covering my chessboard?"

Li Ku's face darkened further. "I can break the concealment ripples covering the chessboard. But making the chess pieces still land steadily on their designated points—that would be difficult."

"Yes." Zhuang Tairu said with feeling, "I laid down those concealment ripples for him to break, but I never intended for him to set the chess pieces down properly afterward."

Li Ku said, "Yet he did it, and he had only recently condensed his Nascent Soul."

Zhuang Tairu said, "A Nascent Soul Realm cultivator barely past thirty—judging by that move of his that pierced the concealment ripples, he can already be called peerless in his splendor. It seems the world of these Nine Provinces is about to change."

Li Ku's eyes shifted. "Old Zhuang, come with me to the Azure Sun Gate once more?"

"The Azure Sun Gate?!" Zhuang Tairu looked at Li Ku in astonishment.

"That's right!" Li Ku said. "Duan Rong has condensed a Nascent Soul. From now on, the Taiyi Sect has two Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. Our two sects border Qing Province, and we have always had certain conflicts of interest. The Divine Intent Gate and the Heavenly Evolution Sect will naturally