"What did you say?"
"Sheathe your edge. The stronger you become, the more you must hide. The brighter you shine, the lower you must bow, the more..."
"Enough."
Chen Xu cut him off, his tone already cold.
"I don't know who you are or why you've come here, but I don't need that kind of reminder."
He rose and looked the man straight in the eye. "On the path of cultivation, failing to advance means falling behind. Sheathe my edge? How is that any different from severing my own Dao Path?"
"I, Chen Xu, have cultivated for ten thousand years. I didn't get this far by 'sheathing my edge'!"
The man wasn't angry. He merely sighed.
"You'll understand."
Then he vanished.
As though he had never appeared.
Just then, Senior Brother Yuan Pu's boisterous voice rang out from outside the hall. "Junior Brother! Come out! Try this fine wine I brought back from Purple Firmament Heaven-"
Chen Xu withdrew his gaze and pushed open the door.
"Coming."
He didn't take the man's words to heart.
He was an Immortal Lord, the foremost cultivator of the Grand Void Immortal Domain, and the patriarch of the Heavenly Mystic Immortal Sect.
Nothing in this Immortal Realm could make him bow his head anymore.
Only later did he learn that he had been wrong.
Utterly wrong.
The days that followed were the most glorious years of Chen Xu's life.
He was powerful.
His cultivation had also reached mid-stage Immortal Lord.
Across the entire Immortal Realm, the people capable of exchanging blows with him could be counted on one hand.
His cultivation advanced at an astonishing pace. Every seclusion brought progress, and every emergence saw him reach greater heights.
He even drew the attention of an Immortal Emperor.
Once, while traveling through the Void,