“Grandpa Qi, are you alright? What happened to that fierce sect master from earlier?”
“Everything is fine now.”
Qi Tianchen reached out and patted A-Tong on the head.
The eight martial artists in tight attire stepped forward in unison.
The Staff Grandmaster walked at the front. His eyes rested on Qi Tianchen for a brief moment before widening abruptly.
“Elder Qi, you...”
He felt it.
Not just him—the other seven felt it almost at the exact same moment.
The aura around Qi Tianchen had completely changed.
It was not a shift in the strength of his internal energy, but a fundamental difference in essence.
Though he stood firmly on the bluestone slabs, one could not help but feel that his entire being had merged into one with Mount Jingshui behind him, the bright moon above, and the vast earth beneath his feet.
When the mountain wind swept past him, the fluttering of his robes carried an undefinable rhythm.
The Staff Grandmaster froze for quite a while before his knees suddenly buckled as he prepared to kneel, his voice trembling with excitement.
“Congratulations, Elder Qi, on stepping into the Earthly Immortal Realm!”
Only then did the other martial artists react in unison.
With a rustle, they dropped to their knees, shouting together,
“Congratulations, Elder Qi, on stepping into the Earthly Immortal Realm!”
Every face was filled with incredulous ecstasy.
An Earthly Immortal!
This was an Earthly Immortal!
Since the founding of Furnace-Listening Pavilion, there had been no shortage of Wind-Riding Realm and Boundless Realm experts among its past sect masters and consecrated retainers.
Yet, they had never produced someone who truly stood at the Peak of the Martial Dao.
Now that Qi Tianchen had stepped into the Earthly Immortal Realm, it meant Furnace-Listening Pavilion was no longer merely the world's premier weapon-forging ground, but genuinely possessed top-tier combat strength standing at the martial ceiling!
“Stand up, all of you.”
Qi Tianchen raised a hand in a lifting gesture, and a gentle surge of qi buoyed all eight of them up simultaneously.
“No need for all this kneeling. This old man doesn't care for such formalities.”
“Elder Qi, don't be modest!”
The Staff Grandmaster scrambled up from the ground, his voice cracked with excitement, his hands constantly rubbing the shaft of his wrought bronze staff.
“An Earthly Immortal!
Our Furnace-Listening Pavilion has finally produced an Earthly Immortal!
Once this news reaches back to the sect, everyone will go mad with joy!
From now on in the martial world, who would dare claim that our Furnace-Listening Pavilion only knows how to forge iron and not cultivate martial arts?”
Qi Tianchen waved his hand, his gaze passing over the crowd to land on the young man by the baggage cart who was wiping his spearhead.
Chen Zui leaned against the cart railing, one leg propped on the edge of the cart bed, unhurriedly wiping down the spearhead with an old cloth.
His movements were focused. The spearhead gleamed with a faint, cold glint in the moonlight as he cleaned off every trace of dried blood.
Qi Tianchen walked up to him and came to a stop.
“Young Hero Chen.”
Chen Zui looked up without halting his hands.
“Senior Qi, you can just call me Chen Zui. No need for 'Young Hero' this, 'Young Hero' that.”
Qi Tianchen did not take the banter.
“Earlier before the mountain gate, this old man had already resolved to undergo martial release and Dao dissolution.
If not for you stepping in to stop me, there would no longer be a Qi Tianchen in this world.”
“All of you, remember this.”
Qi Tianchen suddenly turned around, his gaze sweeping over the people of Furnace-Listening Pavilion.
Though his voice was not loud, it carried the unique majesty of an Earthly Immortal.
“Today, that this old man was able to break through into the Earthly Immortal Realm is due primarily to Young Hero Chen.
This kindness is something everyone in Furnace-Listening Pavilion, high and low, must etch into their hearts.”
“We shall remember it well!”
Everyone cupped their fists in response.
Chen Zui merely waved his hand and rested the wiped spear on the cart bed.
“Senior Qi speaks too heavily.
That you were able to break through and attain the Earthly Immortal Realm is your own ability.
It has little to do with me.”
Seeing his nonchalant demeanor, Qi Tianchen suddenly let out a soft laugh.
“You are right, and yet not right.”
He walked over to Chen Zui's side, his withered fingers slowly stroking the saber scabbard.
“This old man was trapped in the Boundless Realm for decades, not due to a lack of talent, nor a lack of accumulation.
It was a hurdle in my heart that I could never cross.
After Qingyi passed away, this old man took all the blame upon myself, reproaching myself day and night for thirty full years.
This self-blame became a shackle, locking away this old man's saber intent and locking away my state of mind.”
He paused, looking up toward the solitary grave hidden deep within the bamboo grove, his gaze distant and profound.
“Earlier at the mountain gate, this old man looked at the scabbard Qingyi left for me.
That scabbard was covered in crooked hammer marks and chaotic quenching.
Placed before this old man's forging furnace, it would not even qualify as the practice piece of an entry-level apprentice.
Yet when I held that scabbard, I suddenly understood something.”
He turned his head to look at Chen Zui, his eyes clear as water.
“Qingyi never blamed me.
Even until death, she was thinking of me, afraid I would blame myself, afraid I would be sad, afraid I would trap myself because of her death.
By blaming myself for thirty years, I actually failed her final wishes.”
Chen Zui listened quietly, the corners of his lips curving upward.
“So as I said, that you were able to let go was because you figured it out yourself. It had nothing to do with that spear strike of mine that stopped you.”
“Yet if not for that spear strike of yours,”
Qi Tianchen's voice deepened suddenly,
“this old man would not even have had the chance to figure it out.
If all of this old man's cultivation had dissipated, so be it.
Yet in this lifetime, I would never have seen the scabbard Qingyi left for me,
nor would I have learned her final wishes.
You say you did nothing, but in this old man's eyes, the spear strike you used to stop me saved my life, and saved my Martial Dao.”
He paused, his gaze suddenly falling upon the long spear beside Chen Zui.
The spear was pitch-black throughout, its shaft covered in fine scratches and dents, and the red tassel had faded to a dark brown from being soaked in too much blood and water.
Though Chen Zui had polished the spearhead to a shine, a closer look revealed several tiny nicks on the edge.
It was a good spear.
However, it was merely an ordinary hundred-refined steel spear.
In the hands of an ordinary martial artist, it was a handy weapon.
Yet in the hands of a young expert like Chen Zui, who could clash head-on with a Wind-Riding Realm Grandmaster, it seemed somewhat unworthy of him.
“Young Hero Chen,”
Qi Tianchen spoke slowly, his tone even more solemn than before.
“how long has this spear been with you?”
Chen Zui looked down at the spear beside him.
“About five or six years, I suppose. I bought it at a blacksmith shop for eight liang of silver.”
“Eight liang of silver.”
Qi Tianchen repeated the number, a faint smile surfacing at the corners of his lips.
“Do you know how much Cao Zhengchun's Crimson Lotus Whip is worth?”
“No idea.”
“Three thousand liang of gold.
It is a divine weapon ranked in the top three within the Directorate of Ceremonial's Hall of Consecrated Retainers, forged from Western Regions cold iron blended with South Sea red gold.
That whip sat in the Directorate of Ceremonial's Hall of Consecrated Retainers for decades, and not a single Seal-holding Eunuch could bear to use it.
Cao Zhengchun only brought it out because he entered the Wind-Riding Realm.”
He paused for a beat, unreserved admiration coloring his tone.
“Yet with an ordinary iron spear worth eight liang of silver, you not only blocked that Crimson Lotus Whip worth three thousand liang of gold,
you even pierced right through Cao Zhengchun's right shoulder with a single thrust.
A young prodigy like you deserves a far better weapon.”
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