Over the next nine years, Qing Chen enjoyed a rare stretch of leisure.
Leisure, of course, was only relative to his past years of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, of fighting for survival in desperate straits.
Undercurrents still surged through the Divine Capital, and Jade Capital Mountain still hung high among the clouds. Imperial princes and princely households, noble houses and sects, the Demonic Path and the Buddhist Sect, the Iron Household and the Directorate of Ceremonial-the hidden threads of every faction still crisscrossed the Seven Capital Region Provinces like a spiderweb.
But at least during these nine years, no one dared openly make trouble for him.
Tie Hengjiang's declaration, "If anyone bullies him with superior seniority, I will come knocking in person," carried ample deterrent force.
Besides, Qing Chen himself ranked among the top hundred of the Heavenly Gang Ranking, with the Origin-Initial Devil Sect's Primordial Magnetism Branch behind him. Even those who disliked him were unwilling to be the bird that stuck its head out at this juncture.
Thus, Qing Chen reined in his edge for once. That year, he turned exactly three hundred.
By day, he either cultivated his techniques in seclusion on Cangming Peak or accompanied Tie Qingyao on walks beside the Luo River. Occasionally, he entered Jade Capital Mountain to study those Yinghuo Grand Void Dream Seals and write a few fragmentary chapters of the "Carefree Treatise on Truth and Falsehood," which he handed to the Directorate of Ceremonial for delivery to Profound-Nurturing Hall.
At night, he mostly stayed in Listening to the Waves Pavilion, sharing tender intimacy and dual cultivation with Tie Qingyao, using the "Yin-Yang True Union and Agreement of the Three" to harmonize their qi.
Tie Qingyao was not quite accustomed to this dual cultivation method at first. After