This was impossible!
Chen Zhengxing came back to his senses, and his first reaction was that it was absurd.
Reaching the Aperture Opening Realm in a single day?
It was not merely that he had never heard of such a thing.
No such thing had ever been recorded in any ancient text or surviving fragment!
Even the myths and legends of those primordial emperors and ancient supreme beings contained nothing so outrageous!
He said nothing. Starlight filled his eyes as he stared intently at Chen Qingyu before him.
Yet no matter how he looked...
Inside Chen Qingyu, the eighty-one crisscrossing Heavenly Martial Meridians and three Earthly Acupoints still shone brilliantly, without the slightest trace of falsehood.
His eyes were not playing tricks on him, nor was he hallucinating:
His son really had stepped into the Aperture Opening Realm in one leap after just a single day of cultivation.
"This..."
Chen Zhengxing checked several more times before he barely managed to accept this fact. His voice came out strained:
"You... you opened eighty-one martial meridians in just one day? And awakened three Earthly Acupoints?"
"H-how did you do it?"
This was what he found hardest to understand.
Even if nine-star talent was the strongest in the world, quite a few such invincible heavenly prodigies had appeared throughout the Chen Clan's history of over a hundred thousand years.
However fast someone with nine-star talent cultivated, there was still a limit.
It absolutely could not let someone enter the Aperture Opening Realm in a single day.
This was far too exaggerated!
"It was simple."
Chen Qingyu shrugged and said casually:
"I ate, read some books, and my cultivation rose on its own."
"What?!"
Chen Zhengxing's eyes widened, filled with bewilderment.
That worked too?
Eating and reading could make his cultivation rise on its own? How was that possible?
"That simply isn't-"
He instinctively began to refute him, but stopped abruptly halfway through, a trace of shock appearing on his face.
Under his gaze:
Another brilliant star actually lit up inside Chen Qingyu.
This meant that in this brief span of time, in just the few breaths they had spent talking, Chen Qingyu's cultivation had risen again.
Chen Zhengxing went pale, unable to utter a word.
What had happened to Chen Qingyu had begun to shatter both the cultivation principles he had held all his life and the common knowledge of cultivation he had learned.
He suddenly stood and said in a low voice:
"Stay right here. Don't go anywhere. Wait until I return."
"Huh?"
Chen Qingyu looked up and asked in surprise:
"Wait until you return? Dad, where are you going?"
Chen Zhengxing drew a deep breath:
"The Floating Heavenly Palace!"
At these words, Chen Qingyu's eyes immediately lit up, and he hurriedly said:
"All right, I'll wait right here for you."
Chen Zhengxing nodded, then turned and hurried out of the dining hall.
Inside the Floating Heavenly Palace.
Chen Yaoguang and the many Lineage elders were holding a meeting in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, discussing Lineage affairs.
The Chen Clan of Changluo occupied the lands of the Ancient Kingdom of Chenliu, with territory stretching hundreds of millions of li and a population as countless as the sands of the Ganges. Managing it was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
Just then:
A silver river streaked across the sky. Dazzling starlight tore through nine layers of golden astral winds and landed before the Floating Heavenly Palace.
Chen Yaoguang and the many elders sensed this, and their expressions shifted slightly.
"Chen Zhengxing?"
Chen Yaoguang frowned slightly. "What has that brat come here for?"
"Patriarch!"
Chen Zhengxing's steady voice came from outside the golden hall:
"Zhengxing requests an audience on an important matter."
Chen Yaoguang said, "Come in. Come to the Hall of Supreme Harmony."
Chen Zhengxing acknowledged him and immediately hurried toward the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
Chen Yaoguang and the many elders also paused their meeting and chatted casually, speculating about what had brought Chen Zhengxing here.
A short while later:
Chen Zhengxing entered the hall and bowed to everyone, saying:
"Greetings, Patriarch. Greetings, elders."
"No need for formalities."
Chen Guangyao nodded in acknowledgment and asked, "What important matter, exactly, have you come to report to me?"
Chen Zhengxing drew a deep breath and said gravely, "It concerns my son, Chen Qingyu."
"Qingyu?"
Chen Yaoguang froze for a moment, then grew a little more solemn and pressed:
"What happened to him?"
Chen Qingyu was the Chen Clan's first direct-line descendant with nine-star talent in nearly three thousand years, after all, and he attached considerable importance to him.
"He... nothing happened to him. It's just..."
Chen Zhengxing considered his wording, then said quietly:
"He has already broken through to the Aperture Opening Realm."
The moment those words fell:
The Hall of Supreme Harmony suddenly became utterly silent.
Chen Guangyao and the many elders exchanged glances, wondering whether they had misheard.
A moment later, Chen Yaoguang came back to his senses, an odd expression on his face:
"You're saying Qingyu has broken through to the Aperture Opening Realm?"
"Are you serious?"
Chen Zhengxing's expression was solemn as he said gravely:
"I know you and the elders surely won't believe it, Patriarch. You think it's far too absurd."
"In fact, I didn't believe it at first either."
"But the proof stands firm as a mountain. Qingyu's cultivation cannot be faked. You and the elders will know with a single look."
Hearing this, Chen Guangyao could not help hesitating.
From what he knew of Chen Zhengxing, the man would not lie about something so easily exposed.
But reaching the Aperture Opening Realm in one day?
Such a thing was truly far too outrageous for him to accept or believe.
Finally, he gave Chen Zhengxing a long, searching look:
"Then I'll see for myself."
With that, at a stir of his mind, his vast, mighty divine sense immediately swept out like a tempest.
His divine sense extended beyond the Floating Heavenly Palace and swept across the entire divine capital of Changluo, swiftly locating Chen Qingyu and examining his cultivation.
The next instant:
Chen Yaoguang shuddered, his eyes suddenly widening as a trace of stupefaction appeared on his face.
"What?!"
"He actually... actually..."
Towering waves surged through his heart. Disbelief showed in his eyes as he murmured:
"It's actually true. This..."
The other elders had long since lost their patience and sent out their divine senses one after another, only to freeze in place like wooden puppets.
"Grand Elder."
One elder turned his stiff neck and said in a strained voice:
"According to the Lineage's records, the fastest to reach the Aperture Opening Realm should have been Ancestor Tianqi, fifty thousand years ago, correct?"
"Yes."
The Grand Elder drew a deep breath, his voice even trembling slightly:
"Ancestor Tianqi possessed nine-star talent as well as the Star Sacred Body, which was incomparably compatible with our Chen Clan's cultivation methods-a match made in heaven."
"Ancestor Tianqi broke through to the Aperture Opening Realm in half a month and reached the Blood Sea in eighty days. Throughout our Chen Clan's legacy of over a hundred thousand years, not a single person could compare."
"But now, Qingyu... he actually took only one day..."
Chen Guangyao abruptly rose to his feet, fixing his eyes on Chen Zhengxing, his voice solemn:
"Who else knows about this?"
Chen Zhengxing shook his head and said gravely:
"No one else knows besides me."
"Good!"
Chen Yaoguang drew a deep breath and declared with iron resolve:
"Go back immediately and bring Qingyu to the Floating Heavenly Palace. Not a word of this must leak out!"
"This matter is far too important. We can no longer decide it ourselves!"
"Reaching the Aperture Opening Realm in a single day may well be unprecedented throughout the ages! We must immediately ask the Ninth Ancestor to leave seclusion and come decide this matter!"