Chapter 2322: Calm Amidst the Tumult

Just moments before, he had successively defeated the four greatest martial artists in the world, standing at the center of global attention, preparing step by step to ascend to an unprecedented peak in history.

After a single sword strike, he entered the realm of Heavenly Human once more, nearly drowning in the deep sea of the Heavenly Way.

This sudden and deceptive journey to challenge the heavens was truly a swift rise and fall.

Life's misfortunes and fortunes shift in the blink of an eye.

Ye Lingxiao was incredibly intelligent, of course, and clearly heard the regret in that incredibly light sigh.

But he merely squinted his eyes and said, "Like a dream... what do you mean? Can he still take a beating or not?"

"Qingyu! Anan!" Jiang Wang suddenly rolled and crawled up, heading straight for the training ground outside. A brilliant smile already spread across his face. "Wu Zongshi is truly formidable! Divine Spirit Martial Intent, sinking into a dreamlike Heavenly Human state. I wasn't careful and got hit!"

Ye Qingyu looked at him, speechless for a moment.

How many days had they spent on edge while getting along with someone like Jiang Wang?

In the Demon Realm, in the Maze Realm, at too many moments...

The time she had called out for her father's help, she had been truly scared out of her wits. Even now, she felt a certain lightness in her body, as if she had reached the point where her Primordial Spirit was leaving her physical form.

Jiang Anan then circled Jiang Wang, holding a medical plate in her hand with meridians engraved on the front and star charts on the back. It shook and shone everywhere as she pinched here and there. "Is there anywhere uncomfortable?"

Jiang Wang casually took the medical plate down from her hand. "You've even learned medicine! What don't you have on you? Later, I'll send you to Longmen Academy to study under Zhao Shijie. Even a miscellaneous scholar doesn't learn as many random things as you do, day after day."

After speaking a stream of words without pausing for breath, he sent Jiang Anan away and smiled at Ye Qingyu. "I'm really fine!"

Jiang Anan muttered, "This is so our family can treat injuries ourselves later on."

Ye Qingyu pursed her lips, finally revealing a smile. "Weren't you going to witness your ascent to the top, Jiang Zhenren? Are you continuing now?"

Jiang Wang shook his head. "That previous path is no longer viable."

He laughed lightly. "But I already have new ideas."

"Then where to next?" Ye Qingyu said, "Let's go."

"Hey! Hey!" Ye Lingxiao shouted as he walked over, his large sleeves fluttering. He possessed the appearance of an immortal but walked with the gait of a rogue. "I say, you two shouldn't be too excessive. How many days have you been wandering outside? The Lantern Festival isn't even over, and the year hasn't ended yet. Is it appropriate to always leave me, a lonely old man, in the mountains?"

With one hand each, he dragged Ye Qingyu and Jiang Anan. "Stop messing around! Come back with me!"

He didn't care about their struggles and left using Qi.

Jiang Wang smiled at the backwards-flying Ye Qingyu, making a gesture of writing a letter. He then clenched his fist, indicating confidence to Jiang Anan. The three figures in the clouds of Lingxiao Pavilion had already disappeared without a trace.

The sea of clouds on that day was being wiped away, clump by clump.

Bai Yuxia looked over with some worry.

Jiang Wang put down the fist that had been paused for a moment and waved his hand. "Go back! The restaurant can't be without people. Go help me look after the accounts."

Lian Yuchan opened her mouth to speak, but Jiang Wang spoke first. "I'll give you a month's holiday. It was hard to get the Divine Spirit out, so go back and see your family. Return home in glory, show off your achievements or whatever."

Chu Yao jumped out and loudly said, "Master, no problem, you still have me! I'm here to witness your path to ascent! You are the strongest!"

Bai Yuxia grabbed him by the back of the neck and dragged him along. "You should properly witness your Lightness Skill, stop wasting your master's time!"

Chu Yao was carried away, gulping down mouthfuls of wind, but still twisted his head back and shouted, "Master! You are the world's number one! I await your good news!"

Lian Yuchan looked at her boss, finally wrapped herself in two Qi, and rose with the wind.

The entire boat full of people, in an instant, was once again left with only Jiang Wang himself.

No matter how many people accompany a person in life, no matter how many noisy moments they experience, for most of their life, they are always getting along with themselves.

Loneliness is the norm of life.

"Is there anything I can help with?" The Emperor of Wei stood in the center of the training ground, looked over, and asked.

His face, reflected in the sky light, held a kind of vague majesty.

Jiang Wang only said, "See you again later, Emperor Majesty."

And then he leaped up, disappearing into the cloudy sky.

At this moment in time, there was nothing in Wei that could help Jiang Wang.

Instead, Jiang Wang could help Wei with one thing—leave quickly, so that if something happened, no blood would be spilled here, leaving Wei unable to wash itself clean.

"Do you think he really has a path to walk?" Wei Xuanche stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the sky with only flowing clouds remaining.

"I can no longer judge him," Wu Xun said.

"Looking at his posture, it really doesn't seem like he just fell down from a process of surpassing ancient and modern to ascend," Wei Xuanche sighed. "Great ambitions and great undertakings turn empty, but being composed is a true hero."

"Composed people generally don't accept failure, but believe they can certainly stand up," Wu Xun said in a deep voice. "I hope he succeeds."

This sentence made Wei Xuanche think of their many past events.

In those turbulent times, how could they have not walked forward calmly and freely, straight to today?

The road to the absolute peak, with infinite scenery. The torment is only known to oneself.

He turned and said, "I will return to An Yi first and sit in Long Shu. The next matters will be handed over to the Great General."

Wu Xun clasped his fist to his chest, just about to half-kneel in salute, but was grabbed by Wei Xuanche's hand. He only lowered his head slightly as a sign of respect. "Minister, receive the order!"

Wei Xuanche patted his arm. "I have the General, and thus I have the heavy mountains and rivers. If there is no General, even ten thousand borders cannot be secured. Be careful in all matters."

He rolled up his robe sleeves that seemed to contain the sun and moon, and then his figure disappeared.

And Wu Xun, standing in the center of the training ground, slowly raised his head.

He raised his head, just like the process of a mountain peak rising. Long-time accumulation, all piled up in this clear moment.

The vast training ground, at this time, had only this one figure wearing a helmet and armor, his right hand propping up a bronze long spear, his left hand pressing the hilt of the Da Ye sword. The tiger tally, hanging high in the sky side by side with the rising sun, slowly descended in front of him, releasing a mountain-like majesty, awaiting his military order.

"Beat the drum, gather the soldiers," he said.

This voice was not high-pitched, but in the next moment, it received a mountain call and sea roar-like response—"Wu!"

Warriors beat the drum, and the sound transmitted for ten thousand Li.

The entire Wan Sang military camp, all the camp gates, opened wide. Armor plates clanged against armor plates, making stacked rustling sounds like a tide. Footsteps upon footsteps, emitting heavy echoes. All the martial soldiers in the camp rapidly gathered towards the training ground.

And within the entire range of Wei, military camps continuously raised war flags, pushed open their gates, and teams of martial soldiers assembled, condensing their military evil, leaping like startled dragons, and directly rushing to this place.

If someone were to view the land of Wei as a sand table, looking down from high above, they would see dust and smoke rolling, blood Qi like a blazing fire.

From all directions, groups of dragons gathered. The martial soldiers of the world, all heading to Wan Sang!

Ten thousand armies gather, exactly the stage for a military strategist.

Wu Xun stood alone in the center of the training ground, at this time only raising his head, quietly looking at the sky.

He is the representative figure of contemporary "Soldier Form Potential", he is the current top martial artist. He silently counted the passing of time, felt the accumulation of Soldier Potential, and then at a certain moment, lifted his military boot.

The sky suddenly darkened, and the sun and moon were dim.

With one lift of his foot, he covered the clouds and obscured the sun. With one step down, he was already at the end of the sky.

Ascending to the absolute peak of the Martial Dao, this step was unexpectedly so easy.

As the center of all heavens and myriad realms, the present world's extreme was remotely untouchable, yet he had already walked to the limitlessly high place.

Rumble rumble!

Ten thousand Li of rolling thunder high in the sky of Wei.

Dong dong dong dong dong dong!

Burly and round-waisted military strongmen, with bare upper bodies, holding hammers and beating drums, the drum sounds became more urgent.

Where could you distinguish between the sounds of thunder and the sounds of drums?

Perhaps they were originally one sound.

The long river also roared, the sea of clouds at the edge of the sky surged.

And where could you distinguish whether it was the present world trembling for the newly formed absolute peak, or Wu Xun's military order that had awakened the mountains and rivers?

The Great Wei martial soldiers only knew that their Great General was beating the drums to gather soldiers.

At the moment Wu Xun ascended to the super extraordinary absolute peak, he lifted his left hand, flipped his palm, and pressed down—

Thus, the drum sounds stopped, and the thunder sounds ceased.

The vast training ground was already full, long spears like a forest.

The entire Wan Sang military camp, with training grounds for thirty or fifty thousand people, was all filled with martial soldiers armed to the teeth. On the empty ground outside the military camp, there were still large batches of martial soldiers lined up.

The drum sounds for gathering soldiers, ten thousand armies rushing to the General's flag. The drum sounds for gathering soldiers stopped, they immediately built a camp and formed an array with their potential.

In Wei, the army named "Wu," the legendary "Wei Wu Soldiers," how many people were there exactly? For a long time, their real number was Wei's highest military secret.

People only knew that the Wei court made massive investments every year, all into this army, for thirty years like one day, to the point of having the resentful nickname "the national treasury is the private treasury of the Wu Soldiers."

Today's Wan Sang military camp was probably a demonstration.

Raising the strength of Wei, thirty years of operation, through layer after layer of selection, time after time of elimination, those who were able to remain, enjoy the highest national military pay treatment, have their whole families receive honor, and be named "Wu Soldiers"—numbered two hundred thousand people!

Two hundred thousand Wu Soldiers, gathered in Wan Sang today.

Blood Qi converged into a sea in the high sky.

The two highest watchtowers in the Wan Sang military camp, facing each other in the east and west, raised two large flags. One read "Wei," the other read "Great General Wu."

Strong wind blew, and the large flags unfurled.

Wu Xun stood in the air, his posture straight. Where he stood was the central command platform.

"This place is called 'Wan Sang.' The sun rises from the east corner, the sun sets at Sang Yu. When the afterglow of the setting sun sprinkles between Sang Yu, the women in the rooms rise and cook smoke, boys with hanging hair and bare buttocks return home to eat, and the men who have been busy all day, carrying hoes, stepping on field ridges, walk here from afar—the name Wan Sang came about in this way."

Two hundred thousand Wei Wu Soldiers were all silent. Above the military camp, there was only one voice, the voice of Great General Wu Xun. Unexpectedly, it was very peaceful.

But in the next moment, this peace was torn apart.

He said, "In Dao Calendar 3921, that is eight years ago, in Wan Sang Town, on the land we are standing on under our feet. There was an evil cult leader named Zhang Linchuan, who committed a blood massacre here. He killed all thirty-six thousand three hundred seventy-seven people in Wan Sang Town—my Great Wei common people. The sun sets at Sang Yu, and no more cooking smoke rises."

The voice of Wei's Great General was always not high. He was just like someone very ordinarily telling you a segment of history, very ordinarily sentimental, very ordinarily sad, and in this way, he said, "Zhang Linchuan has already been executed, and the Wusheng Cult has also been destroyed. The bones of the thirty-six thousand three hundred seventy-seven people in Wan Sang Town were buried long ago. Wan Sang Town was also leveled and built into this military camp we have now. But—"

Wu Xun's gaze swept over the densely packed, silent Wu Soldiers below. "But their souls were taken as sacrifices by Zhang Linchuan and offered to the evil god. The cause of their death was their souls being forcibly pulled out. Regardless of men, women, old, or young, every single one died very painfully."

"Eight years have passed. Many people have already forgotten this matter. But the people of Wei remember the people of Wei."

His voice finally rose a little. "My Great Wei Wu Soldiers, warriors of Wei! I, Wu Xun, want to lead you all to kill into the netherworld, to find back the wandering souls of Wan Sang Town, to welcome those more than thirty thousand wild ghosts of Wei back home—"

At this moment, his voice was filled with anger, stirring up thunder. "How?!"

"War!"

"War!"

"War!!!"

The entire Wan Sang military camp, two hundred thousand Wu Soldiers, not a single miscellaneous voice.

War intent was majestic, killing up to the clouds.

Wu Xun thus held his bronze long spear high, thrusting it forward. In the void, a bronze gate with an ancient ghost head carvings burst open with a *hong* sound—

The legendary hell was opened.

This is a place in many myth stories that is depicted with thick ink and heavy colors as extremely nether. It is said that only the unforgivably wicked fall into this realm forever.

But seeing the majestic army's momentum like a flood surge, rushing into it in an instant. Among the original ghost cries and god howls, yin winds arrayed, in a flash, all became dead silent.

As if the fierce sun shone over a long night, it was Qi and blood burning the dead ashes.

On this day as well.

Wu Xun proved the Dao, raised two hundred thousand Wei Wu Soldiers, and attacked into the netherworld!

Ghosts block, kill ghosts! Gods block, kill gods!

Jiang Wang left the Wan Sang military camp in Wei and ran south. The majestic drums sounding behind him also seemed to be sending him off. This journey would be long and arduous, full of a thousand difficulties and ten thousand hardships.

But running halfway, the front suddenly swayed, and first he saw the fluttering and drooping robes of a Great Chu official, then he saw the face of Huai Guogong.

As soon as the power of Great Wei was slightly released, the results of the battle on the Wan Sang military camp side had already spread throughout the world.

Just like Jiang Wang's previous three challenges.

And Zuo Xiao had personally set up the Heavenly Human seal for Jiang Wang, and was in the southern domain, paying close attention to this battle. Naturally, he knew that Jiang Wang's condition was not quite right—

This young man should have originally ascended to the absolute peak and become the top super extraordinary one after this battle. And with the posture of the first Cave True in ancient and modern times, he should have strongly proved and derived the Dao.

Thereafter, in any place, he could level view any person. Thereafter, there would be no more ranking order, because he himself was supreme, the "monarch" of cultivation.

But Jiang Wang did not take that step, yet he was coming towards Chu again.

Of course, Zuo Xiao had just learned that something had happened. Therefore, he came out to welcome him for the first time.

At a moment of great ups and downs in life, seeing close people, even a tough character like Jiang Wang, inevitably softened his heart. He stopped his figure and smiled. "I've troubled Grandpa Zuo again."

Zuo Xiao looked at him with one eye. "You can even laugh."

After one look, he wrinkled his brow. "What is this with you?"

Jiang Wang stirred his hands and smiled. "I wasn't careful and proved the Heavenly Human state again."

Zuo Xiao shot out a wisp of Dao power, which wandered into Jiang Wang's body. He also felt it was quite tricky. "How many people seek it but cannot obtain it, with no door to enter. You have proved it again and again. This truly has a great destiny with the Heavenly Way."

Jiang Wang laughed very happily. "In my life, nearly twenty-nine years, this is the first time I feel my luck is very good, being favored by the Heavenly Way!"

Zuo Xiao looked at him again. With a flick of his sleeve, space suddenly turned, and the two people had already appeared in the study room of Great Chu's Huai Guogong mansion.

It was still the same desk where they first met.

Zuo Xiao sat behind the desk, Jiang Wang in front of the desk.

Huai Guogong sat steadily in the chair, without a single word of nonsense. He said directly, "My seal technique attainment is no longer sufficient to solve this matter. Yu Guogong has some insights in this area. I have already sent him a message. Sit here and wait a bit."

Jiang Wang stood for a while and smiled. "Perhaps it's best not to let Guang Shu and the Long Princess Hall know."

Zuo Xiao didn't know where he had pulled out a thick book from. Looking at the cover, it seemed to be. Holding it in one hand, he propped it open against the edge of the desk and slowly looked at it, without lifting his head. "This old man doesn't need you to teach him either."

Jiang Wang then sat down properly with a smile. In his palm, he again gathered the ball of light from Yanfu Sword Prison, and began to deduce sword techniques there.

Zuo Xiao raised his head from the complex curse seals and glanced at him with one eye. "Aren't you worried?"

Of course, the old duke didn't hope that Jiang was too worried. He hoped that young people could have a calm mindset and face life's obstacles. But he was too at ease, which inevitably made the old man indignant—how could he make such a mess, let himself fall into such a dilemma, and still be so calm and carefree?

He simply didn't know his mistake!

"I just know worrying is useless," Jiang Wang's smile was very candid. "I do what I can do. For example, asking you for help, for example, waiting for Yu Guogong to come to aid... for example, cultivating."