Chapter 168: Who in the World Can Rival Me?

Kongque Wang's expression was quite tense, and his face still bore the dust of travel.

It was clear that after breaking through his seclusion, he had heard the relevant news and rushed over immediately.

However, after Zhang Xuan heard Kongque Wang's words, his expression became a bit strange.

"I truly cannot imagine that in this Post-Desolate Ancient Era, there could actually appear a figure capable of rivaling an Ancient Great Emperor in their youth. He resided within Shencheng, his reputation previously obscure, but some time ago he suddenly rushed out of Shencheng to undergo his Heavenly Tribulation, only then revealing himself before many figures..."

"His physical body is perfectly rounded and flawless, incredibly powerful to the point of absurdity. He easily withstood the accumulation of power that would have caused Saint Masters and such figures to meet an untimely death, without the slightest issue, and his physical body did not even suffer any damage. I heard he later returned to Shencheng..."

Kongque Wang was about to continue, but Zhang Xuan waved his hand proactively and smiled: "When that figure was undergoing the Heavenly Tribulation, did he end up swallowing the sky-filling lightning into his belly in one gulp?"

"Senior, have you heard of this too? I wonder if you know the origins of this figure; he is truly terrifying and awe-inspiring."

A look of wonder also appeared on Kongque Wang's face. This round of seclusion had allowed him to advance further on his original foundation, reaching the level of the Immortal Platform Second Layer, Ninth Heaven.

In the current realm, he could be considered at the very peak, only one step away from Zhandao.

But his own tribulation had been quite difficult. If not for Zhang Xuan giving him the remnant of a Nine-Turn Immortal Pill, which extended his lifespan by another thousand years and kept his blood and energy vigorous and free of hidden injuries, he likely would have struggled to endure this round.

And from comparing his situation to the many others undergoing tribulations, he could easily tell that the tribulation lightning that figure faced was far more terrifying than his own, yet that person was only at the seventh small step of the Immortal Platform Second Layer.

The disparity in such a comparison was truly too great; the other party faced a lightning tribulation far more terrifying than his own and suffered not a single injury, while he had barely survived his own. The gap in strength between the two was simply too vast.

"Did that figure walk with a golden road filling the sky beneath his feet?"

Kongque Wang nodded: "It seems Senior truly knows..."

Before he could finish, he saw Zhang Xuan take a step, and a golden road spread out beneath his feet, which made Kongque Wang's eyes widen instantly.

"That person... that person is you?"

Kongque Wang was first astonished, then felt a sense of horror, and even a touch of inferiority.

Zhang Xuan's cultivation breakthroughs were like eating and drinking; he had already understood this point previously.

But Zhang Xuan's previous breakthroughs were all below the Immortal Platform Realm. Before he left, Zhang Xuan had only just stepped into the Immortal Platform Realm not long ago, and now he had climbed up the steps once again, which was simply unbelievable.

After all, before the Immortal Platform Realm, the focus was on accumulation, which was easy to achieve, but cultivation after the Immortal Platform requires profound comprehension of the Heaven and Earth Dao, which is very difficult.

Even if one were reincarnated and cultivating again, wanting to reach an extremely high realm requires a stable foundation and cannot be rushed recklessly.

The human body's cultivation secret realms are nominally five: Wheel Sea, Dao Palace, Four Extremes, Dragon Transformation, and Immortal Platform.

But the most important one is undoubtedly the Immortal Platform Realm.

The Immortal Platform Realm has Nine Heavens, and the cultivation of the nine steps of one layer is already comparable to a major secret realm in the early stages; therefore, breakthroughs in the Immortal Platform Realm are exceptionally difficult. Kongque Wang understood this deeply; he had lived for thousands of years and was now only at the peak of the Immortal Second Realm, not even having reached the Immortal Three Realm.

Now that Zhang Xuan was right before his eyes, having reached such a level in just a few days, it truly filled his heart with a great sense of frustration.

What was even more terrifying was that, judging by the performance during the previous tribulation, Zhang Xuan's strength and realm were extremely stable, comparable to an Ancient Great Emperor in their youth. Such a level truly shocked Kongque Wang for three thousand years.

He had lived for three thousand years and never seen such a figure; it was simply outrageous.

Now he deeply understood what Zhang Xuan had told him before: that in a few hundred years, the Immortal Path would open, and he would go to challenge it and give it a try.

"Senior, with your speed of cultivation, in a few hundred years when the Immortal Path opens, perhaps you really could become an Ancient Saint, and by then, there might truly be a chance to become an Immortal..."

Kongque Wang spoke with heartfelt admiration, expressing the deepest praise he could imagine, but Zhang Xuan found it somewhat amusing.

To Kongque Wang, becoming a Saint in the current era was an unimaginably grand achievement; being able to achieve it within a few hundred years would make one a world-shaking, peerless figure.

After all, in the Eastern Wasteland, or even the entire Beidou, one had basically never heard of anyone becoming an Ancient Saint in thousands of years; there were only a few suspected figures, and even those could not be confirmed.

His saying that Zhang Xuan could become an Ancient Saint within a few hundred years was already a significant compliment to him, but Zhang Xuan only smiled without speaking.

Who could imagine that in the future, within half a year, the world would undergo a massive change, and the originally terrifying suppression would disappear.

The Heaven and Earth Essence would boil once again, and breakthroughs would no longer be as difficult as before; instead, they would be very rapid. Within a few hundred years, the truly top-tier geniuses would be able to charge into the realm of the Great Saint.

The most peerless figures in the world would be able to ascend to that platform, which is vastly different from the current environment where even an Immortal Three Zhandao King is hard to come by.

However, Zhang Xuan would not argue about these things with Kongque Wang now; it was meaningless.

It was difficult for Zhang Xuan to break the perspective Kongque Wang had formed over three thousand years in a short time, so he just said lightly:

"An Ancient Saint is not a very distant goal for me."

Kongque Wang pondered for a moment, then realized he could not imagine it.

His greatest wish and goal now was to break through the threshold of Zhandao. Even if he broke through this threshold, the Zhandao realm, or the Immortal Three realm, still had nine small steps waiting for him to climb; only after climbing them could he touch that barrier between man and Saint.

An Ancient Saint was a bit far off for him.

Zhang Xuan did not dwell too much on this topic and lightly changed the subject.

"You are standing at the peak of the Immortal Second Realm; are you now considering Zhandao?"

Kongque Wang nodded earnestly, a light of unprecedented hope shining in his eyes.

Previously, he hadn't thought much about realm breakthroughs; most of the time he was roaming freely between heaven and earth, or targeting the Saint Master of the Yaochi Sacred Land, wanting to kill that Saint Master.

His main thoughts and energy were not on cultivation; the more he cultivated, the more he could feel that he had reached that bottleneck limit. This had been the case in the Eastern Wasteland for thousands of years, and even for a longer time.

He had simply followed the crowd and put his mind in other directions, but now that he found there was a chance to go further, he was naturally prepared to give it a try.

Zhang Xuan did not say much, just smilingly said: "That's perfect. I recently reviewed the Demon Emperor Scripture again and have new insights into the Zhandao realm. You can listen along with me here and we can explore it together."

Kongque Wang earnestly took out a meditation cushion from the storage bag he carried with him. Although it was simply woven from sweetgrass, it naturally exuded an aura of tranquility and nature.

Zhang Xuan glanced at it and found that this cushion had the effect of calming the mind and spirit; it was a rather good item for meditation.

He also took out several leaves of the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree, which had patterns related to the Eight Trigrams and Taiji engraved on them, and brewed them with spring water, placing them on the stone table of this Heaven-grade inn.

After such preparations, Kongque Wang sat cross-legged on the cushion, and incidentally took out another cushion for Zhang Xuan. The overall ritual and actions were quite thorough.

Zhang Xuan waved his hand with a smile. Originally, his talent and comprehension could only be considered medium, or even medium-low; he would have valued such a cushion and the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree leaves—which could allow one to enter a state of enlightenment—quite highly.

He had even once considered trying to get the Bodhi seed in Ye Fan's hands, but now things were very different.

With a strand of Divine Sense inhabiting the Nine-Orifice Stone Man, millions of years of time were compressed into twenty years of growth. In these twenty years, no one in heaven or on earth could rival the Nine-Orifice Stone Man's comprehension and innate talent.

Unless a Great Emperor in their peak state truly appeared, and one who was as transcendently talented as Qingdi or the Ruthless Great Emperor, otherwise, in terms of comprehension alone, Zhang Xuan believed he was not inferior to anyone.

Compared to when he had only roughly explained his insights from the Demon Emperor Scripture to Kongque Wang and Yan Ruyu, Zhang Xuan's teaching now was completely different.

Before, Zhang Xuan was just copying mechanically; copying a textbook is, of course, no problem.

After all, the scripture was written by Qingdi, and the insights were also spoken by Qingdi, so they were quite reasonable on the whole.

However, the realm of Qingdi is far too profound and mysterious, and in many cases, it is measured by his own natural talent, comprehension, and corresponding endowments.

Previously, when Zhang Xuan spoke directly, Kongque Wang only felt it was mysterious and unfathomable, faintly sensing something, but at times he still could not grasp the underlying thread.

Now, Zhang Xuan himself has climbed to that realm, and he has had the perspective of an ordinary person, and now he also has the perspective of a Nine-Orifice Stone Man.

Measuring Kongque Wang's current cultivation realm and threshold, the Great Dao he speaks of is not that exquisite; it has a certain gap from the true Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, and a large gap from the standard textbook, making it unsuitable for everyone. Others hearing it again might even cause misunderstandings, but it is more suitable for Kongque Wang.

Just from the opening, Kongque Wang was shaken to his core, feeling completely different from before.

To prevent himself from forgetting or failing to keep up with the rhythm, he even hurriedly took a sip of Enlightenment Ancient Tea to keep up with Zhang Xuan's pace.

Every word Zhang Xuan said, he firmly remembered in his heart.

He dared not let his thoughts wander for even a moment; he only felt that Zhang Xuan was completely focused on his threshold, explaining the realm and threshold he had cultivated for many years very clearly.

Whenever he had doubts and asked, Zhang Xuan could provide him with answers in a few words, leaving him feeling deeply shocked.

He asked repeatedly, truly like someone famished or parched, while Zhang Xuan answered fluently without any problems or omissions.

Even while answering Kongque Wang's questions, Zhang Xuan sighed softly in his heart.

"The top powerhouses of the Post-Desolate Ancient Era are truly too few. The inheritance has been broken for hundreds or thousands of years. Most people are walking in the Darkness, with no direction forward at all. The questions they ask are not very complex..."

Saying they were not very complex was Zhang Xuan praising Kongque Wang; in reality, regarding the questions and thresholds related to Slashing the Dao, the questions Kongque Wang asked were relatively elementary and childish, not very profound.

But Zhang Xuan thought about it and felt it was reasonable. Apart from those Desolate Ancient Families and ancient Holy Lands that possess Great Emperor scriptures, other figures have basically seen the emergence of top powerhouses cut off over these years.

The level of the entire Cultivation World is regressing significantly.

If even Saints cannot appear, then the insights and experiences of many predecessors are basically meaningless to read.

The threshold of Slashing the Dao has truly become as difficult as ascending to heaven.

The subsequent rapid improvement in Beidou's strength and realm potential was because the Ancient Myriad Tribes emerged and the Dark Turmoil was about to arrive, so the true foundations within the ancient Desolate Ancient Holy Lands and families appeared one after another, which drove the overall level forward significantly.

The threshold that was once thought to be as difficult as ascending to heaven ended up becoming commonplace; after all, every Ancestor King among the Ancient Myriad Tribes is a Saint or Saint King.

Once one's horizons are broadened, cultivation will not be as difficult as it was before.

"Now that the overall level is very low, it is a rare good thing for me."

Zhang Xuan nodded secretly; for him, the current environment is not bad, and can even be considered quite good.

If later times were as competitive as the era Ye Fan is in, where descendants of Ancient Emperors and offspring of Great Emperors are everywhere, then Zhang Xuan would fall into difficulties in such a struggle among many of the strongest, but now, well.

Many figures have not yet emerged, and Zhang Xuan is the top figure who stands alone at the peak.

"By using the Great Emperor scriptures I have mastered and my insights into the cultivation thresholds of the Great Emperor's many realms to guide many members of the Human Race, allowing their strength and realm to go a step further, wouldn't that harvest a large amount of favor?"

But after thinking about it, Zhang Xuan felt this idea was not easy to realize.

Throughout Covering the Sky, there are not many depictions of figures at these levels, and Zhang Xuan wouldn't know where to look even if he wanted to.

And the true top powerhouses, such as the Desolate Ancient Jiang Family and the Desolate Ancient Ji Family, already have sufficiently mysterious inheritances within their families, with cultivation insights for every stage, so they do not need an existence like Zhang Xuan.

"Forget it, I can't find anyone with true talent."

The people with the most top-tier cultivation talent are all in the families and Holy Lands; the only wild one is Ye Fan.

But Ye Fan himself has the attention of the Great Accomplishment Saint Body and the Ruthless Great Emperor. Although many cultivation thresholds have to be crossed by Ye Fan himself, the unique protection of the Great Accomplishment Saint Body and the Ruthless Great Emperor for Ye Fan has always existed.

At the very least, among the Qi Da Jin Di, because Ye Fan can easily go to the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land and not die, the entire Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land had no majesty at all in the early stages.

And the subsequent other Forbidden Lands were truly earth-shattering, displaying their full power, which made people feel unbelievable.

"At present, I can basically beat up all the peerless Saint Masters of the public Desolate Ancient Holy Lands and families, and can be considered invincible in the world, but wanting to find true top figures to point them out and let them break through their barriers is still a bit difficult."

(End of this chapter)