Chapter 2318: World's Attention

“But hopefully it doesn't get even worse,” Sun Yin said.

Equality Country had been observing Jiang Wang for a long time.

“That night several years ago, outside Xingyue Ping, just as he was leaving Qi, I stopped him. He told me that until he truly understood some principles, truly saw this world clearly, truly thought things through, and found his answer, he wouldn't act rashly or use his foolishness to harm this world,” Zhao Zi said. “He was only twenty-two at the time, and I was very surprised to get such an answer.”

“He publicly released the Xing Dao method, promoted the Tai Xu Xuan Zhang, and within his capabilities, allowed more people to have more equitable cultivation opportunities… We certainly have no hostility towards him.” Sun Yin leaned his back against the doorpost, the back of his head against the door frame. “But sometimes, your lack of hostility towards him doesn't mean he lacks hostility towards you. And for someone at Jiang Wang's level, 'hostility' itself isn't the reason for being an enemy.”

Qian Chou said, “At that time, you still thought you could persuade him. You probably don't think so now.”

Sun Yin also asked, “Will he think Equality Country's actions are using his own foolishness to harm this world?”

“Our organization… should have had no hostility towards him from beginning to end, right?” Qian Chou squatted there. “I remember you all always just wanted to recruit him.”

“When he was younger, he already had the bearing of a strong person. A strong person, no matter who they face or what situation they are in, is always a strong person. As long as they don't die, possessing power is only a matter of time.” Qian Chou said, “Let's not talk about his matters for now and wait and see how far he will go, and also see what his attitude towards us is. Right, who can tell me how things are on Qi Xiao's side?”

“Zhao Wang has always been personally responsible for that matter; you can ask him later,” Sun Yin said, pausing here. “To me, Zhao Wang is truly too busy.”

At this moment, a young, extremely enthusiastic voice rang out at the door: “I hear these words… it sounds like a complaint against me.”

Shen Ying had arrived!

Sun Yin laughed. “Shengsheng has hosted the meetings these past few times; it's finally your turn.”

“Hey!” Pushing open the door and entering was a tall figure. As one of Equality Country's leaders, Shen Ying didn't have a lofty demeanor; instead, he joked, “Each person can leverage different resources, is responsible for different areas, and has vastly different styles of action— I haven't been idle either.”

“Then what… have you been busy with recently?” Zhao Zi asked faintly, sitting there with her legs crossed.

Zhao Wang had hosted affairs in the Eastern Domain and personally led the persuasion of Qi Xiao, participated in the establishment of Tiandu Cheng, assisted in the rise of Qiantang Jun… Even the action on Jiaowu Shan that time was led by Zhao Wang's team. He could be called the busiest person in Equality Country.

Although Shengsheng didn't act much, he also often hosted meetings.

Only this Shen Ying was truly a dragon seeing its head but not its tail; many organization members had only heard his name and not seen his face. As one of the organization's leaders, no one knew what he was doing every day.

Shen Ying walked into the room, looked up at the dome where the skylight came from, and after a long while, seemed to come back to his senses. He said seriously, “I've been busy with Jiang Wang's summit path recently.”

Everyone was speechless.

He countered, “How? You all haven't?”

Speaking of which, Jiang Wang challenging the four great martial arts masters to temper their dao and prove the ultimate truth for himself was just a matter between him and the four great martial arts masters.

But reaching Jiang Wang's current level, as the human race's number one heavenly pride, a member of the Tai Xu Ge, how could he have his own matters?

Everything that happened within the martial arts world still only flowed among the human race's high echelons.

His boat, sailing straight into Tiandu Cheng, had already attracted the world's gaze—people were either joyful, worried, or simply enjoyed watching a show, all waiting to see what would happen!

Waiting for the Wuji Shi Bi to open for him, waiting for Ji Jinglu to successfully summit, the matters he had to do, the path he was now walking, were already known to the whole world.

Almost everyone qualified to participate in the world's major affairs knew what Jiang Zhenren was doing. They all understood that an unprecedented, soon-to-be self-transcending, history-making Zhenren was undergoing metamorphosis, being born!

This would be an eternal legend, shining through the long river of years for a very long time. Some were expectant, some uneasy, some wished well, some cursed.

But it was all irrelevant; no one could stop all of this from happening. Because the current Jiang Wang had no enemy in the present world.

“Why?”

“This person's dao foundation isn't deep. I don't see him well.” “You're quite diligent too.”

“This isn't a rush to the path, just idling.”

The sound of the waves, rustling and gentle, gave people a feeling of peace. Chu Jiangwang thought for a moment: “Curse him not to die young?”

Yin Guan turned his head, his green eyes dim.

“Ah~ Qiu!!”

On the Wen Jian Xian Zhou, Chu Yao let out a huge sneeze.

“What, did an insect get into your nostril? Is it a greedy insect or a lazy insect?” Bai掌柜 asked with ill intent.

“I always feel like someone is scolding me,” Chu Yao said, rubbing his nose, his voice muffled. “But I also feel like they aren't specifically scolding me.”

“Hey. Your feelings are quite complex, like a model, like a sample,” Bai掌柜 ridiculed. “Is it that someone cursed your master, couldn't curse him, and it was taken down by you?”

Lian Yu Chan was deep in thought beside him. “This kind of complex feeling isn't without a target. Xiao Yao might awaken a divine ability in the aspect of spirit sense.”

Bai Yuxia also suddenly became serious. Exploring the secrets of the Five Mansions and choosing a divine ability seed was a crucial and important matter; to some extent, it could even be said to determine a cultivator's life.

Chu Yao's cultivation foundation was very solid, from Man Mai to Cang Long, every realm was perfect and without flaws, and he was almost ready to take this step. They, as elders, naturally had to help protect him and let him have the best outcome.

“Don't think randomly now; control your stray thoughts,” Bai掌柜 earnestly taught. “If the divine ability in the aspect of spirit sense is related to positive awareness, it would be wonderful. During this period, you should think more about the orthodox dao school, read more Confucian law classics. I will teach you a set of 《Small Thousand Phases Chop Thought Knife》. Use it diligently to chop stray thoughts and consolidate your foundation.”

“Okay,” Chu Yao listened honestly.

“Come, eat this pill,” Ye Qingyu also took out a jade bottle, poured out a single pellet, and handed it to Chu Yao. “This is a pill to nourish thoughts and consolidate the foundation. Take it to help you guard your dao.”

Chu Yao immediately took it, his voice like a bell, his qi strong like mountains and rivers. “Thank you, Master's wife!”

“What are you calling me? Looking for a beating!” Ye Qingyu made a gesture to hit him, seeing Chu Yao shrink his head, and then put the entire jade bottle into his bosom. “Take one pellet every three days, enough for you to eat for a month. It should be about right.”

This pill was valuable, and this bottle was very expensive.

Chu Yao's eyes were tearful, and he thought to himself, Master! From now on, I may only recognize this one Master's wife!

Before, he didn't know who Ye Qingyu was. When he was following Jiang Wang, he would see which pretty sisters or aunts he thought would be a good match for his master.

Master lived a heroic life, of course deserving of all good things. How could he embody heroism without marrying ten or eight? When he was a child in Wa Kiln Town, the town head, who now seemed like such a small official, also had nine wives and concubines.

But after following his master for a long time, he also knew that his master's greatest persistence was in cultivation, and he wasn't as intimate with anyone as he was with Longxiang Si… Mother told him to listen, to be understanding, to have discernment, to be diligent, and also to be a little sweet-mouthed.

But every time he sweetly called a pretty sister his master's wife, he would encounter setbacks and learn a lesson. Even if it wasn't convenient to hit him at the time, his master would punish him by adding to his cultivation.

Only once, when he asked what relationship his master had with Young Pavilion Master Ye of Ling Xiao Ge, this "Master's wife" wasn't met with a beating, only a rebuke to cultivate properly.

He thus knew that Young Pavilion Master Ye was not ordinary. Also, An An, the little master aunt, often followed her!

The more contact he had over the years, the more he felt that Aunt Qingyu was good. Of course, it wasn't because she was rich!

Nor was it because she was willing, she was generous…

Aunt Qingyu looked cold and detached, as if not eating the food of the human world, but her heart was very warm, often caring for him—not to say that Master wasn't caring enough, Master was too busy, always busy. Sometimes he would think of a change in a dao technique and would immediately want to run outside of heaven to seek a suitable small world to practice. And many trivial matters, Master wouldn't mind.

Because Master was someone who had suffered a lot, he often didn't see things as suffering and didn't intentionally ignore them. This was also something Aunt Qingyu told him.

Chu Yao thought he hadn't suffered much; although his childhood home wasn't wealthy, his mother loved him very much. His mother taught him to observe words and expressions, and he was also very good at reading people's eyes. Who was sincere and who was false, he didn't say much on the surface, but he was clear in his heart.

Aunt Qingyu was truly very good. She was like a fairy, with a clear purity that was untainted, yet without a hint of arrogance.

When he returned to Linzi, he still spoke to his mother. Mother said, this was a girl who grew up with love, so she also knew how to love others, and she was a good match for Master.

“Cough.” Jiang Wang lightly coughed.

Chu Yao immediately restrained his thoughts, his expression serious, his sitting posture correct, and began to adjust his breath according to the incantation taught by Bai掌柜.

“Ah, with Wu Xuan Qi, Yin Yang intent door, I have the Chop Thought Knife, cut… cut…” Dong!

His forehead received a hit, and Chu Yao's spirit light immediately surged— “Cut hair to see longevity!”

“I think,” Qian Chou said, “most of the time he is gentle, but whether he is calculating or not depends on whether that matter touches his bottom line. He already has his own correctness and is guarding that correctness.”

“His correctness is not consistent with the correctness of those in power in this world, which is also why I feel we are not enemies,” Zhao Zi inexplicably laughed. “Right, shaving him bald, does that count as touching his bottom line?”

Qian Chou glanced at her. “Wu Si was there at the time. He said Jiang Wang's performance was very calm. He thought this matter didn't amount to anything.”

Initially, their plan with Equality Country to absorb other members was no different—tragic life, deep hatred, determination to change the status quo.

But as he walked, this person was just too different. Outstanding, vastly different. Proving glory, whether ancient or modern, indeed cannot be defined.

Equality Country watched him, observed him, and indeed had more familiarity with him than with other heavenly prides. To the extent that when chatting with him, there was a sense of familiarity, like “half our own person.”

“I'm thinking, after experiencing so much, why would he be this kind of person now?” Zhao Zi's slender fingers blossomed like branches, elegantly holding the jade smoke pipe. “He still believes in this world. He is also very cautious about the future. He still has expectations for human hearts, but at any time, he only asks himself how to face things. He was once very twisted, now he is considered much more open-minded.”

Sun Yin said, “Looking at past experience, Jiang Wang is a person who is sometimes very not calculating, and sometimes very calculating.”

When many people still didn't know the name Jiang Wang, he had already entered Equality Country's vision.

Zhao Zi said, “Years have passed, and I know that someone like him cannot be shaken by anyone. I think his understanding of Equality Country should also be changing.”

Sun Yin said, “This matter itself might not amount to anything; what needs to be weighed is the person who did this matter… what Jiang Wang thinks of you, Zhao Zi.”

Zhao Zi leaned back in a chair, that face with a sense of world-weariness, vaguely in the smoke mist. “At that time, I just felt that when he faced me, he had the posture of a strong person.”

Hostility can dissolve, resentment can fade, even hate has the possibility of dissolving. Only the path one walks, when two paths intersect, forever only one side can continue to walk forward… no one who has reached this step can betray their own path.

“People will all change. At least his existence, currently speaking, is not a bad thing for this world,” Qian Chou said indifferently. “The many things we did in the Central Domain before cannot compare to his one battle in Tiandu Cheng. Killing six true immortals in Tiandu Cheng had a far greater impact on Jing Country than we estimated.”

Zhao Zi said faintly, “Looking at Jiang Wang's life experience, he is too much like the person we are looking for, too much like he should be our fellow traveler. Many of our members have a feeling of sympathy for him, and we have repeatedly sent him invitations—but in reality, he has walked a completely different path from us.”

Sun Yin sighed. “Different paths are the most fundamental reason.”

Sun Yin said, “Some people in Jing Country hate him to the bone, but Jing Country will not be his enemy—as long as he does not continue to challenge Jing Country's order. His attendance in the Tai Xu Ge, in some sense, is also maintaining the existing order.”

Qian Chou said, “I tend to believe that he is worried that after breaking the existing order, things will not get better but will instead fall into worse. He has been harmed by change, and he is very vigilant about change.”

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