Chapter 276: Final Preparations Before the Great Selection

Like Buddhist chants or ringing sounds coming from the ninth heaven breaking through the shackles inside his heart, Jiang Chen’s words shattered the bindings on his martial dao and sent a beam of enlightenment into his mind.

“Raising the spirit ocean, training the arts of the heart. Only when an origin infant has a consciousness can it be called an origin infant. Without consciousness, the infant can only be called a false infant… arts of the heart, arts of the heart… consciousness combining with form, forming the origin infant…”

These expressions were like marvelous symbols continuously crashing around inside his mind, chipping away at the barrier to his understanding, shedding incessant light in his mind.

“Dan Fei, see little friend Jiang Chen out for me, I’m going into closed door cultivation.”

Shrewdness gleamed out of Ye Chonglou’s eyes as he gave those instructions to Dan Fei before he turned to Jiang Chen, “Little friend Jiang Chen, if I can successfully assail the origin realm this time, it will be all because of you.”

Jiang Chen chuckled. With his discerning eye, he too could see that the lordmaster’s level of training had long since reached the level where he could break through to the origin realm.

He’d been unable to not because he hadn’t comprehended the essence of the origin realm, but because he hadn’t grown conscious of the need to train in the mental arts but had placed his focus on elevating his spirit essence alone.

Before the power of the heart met the requisite conditions, any origin infant formed at that time would still be a false infant and one wouldn’t count as having fully set foot into the origin realm.

An origin infant would only be formed when the consciousness was combined with form!

Jiang Chen had mused upon each of these words in his heart. All of them cut straight to the point. To the old tutor, they were precious teachings struck his mind.

“This junior will be leaving now, I hope the lordmaster breaks through and ascends to new heights sooner rather than later, haha.” Jiang Chen laughed heartily and walked outside.

Dan Fei had been waiting on the side all this time without interjecting any comments.

That evening, beneath the moonlit night, after Dan Fei had spoken those words to Jiang Chen she had remained beneath the laurel tree for half a night. However, not only had she not straightened out her mental affairs, but she seemed to have sunk even further, finding it even more difficult to extract herself.

She’d even sulked a bit today and hadn’t said a word on purpose, nor had she even chatted with Jiang Chen. She’d even purposefully avoided his gaze.

However, she hadn’t thought that the devious brat would cause the old tutor to completely lose his composure and call him “little friend Jiang Chen”, displaying faint undertones that Jiang Chen was the old tutor’s peer.

This made her emotions even more complicated.

She’d wanted to one-up Jiang Chen and ignore him, but when she saw his light footsteps almost at the door, her steps still anxiously moved forward as she ran up to him.

“Sister Dan Fei, the honored tutor is about to go into closed door cultivation. Please stay your footsteps and take good care of him.”

Dan Fei bit her lips lightly as her charming eyes focused on Jiang Chen. A glimmer flashed through them as she looked somewhat lost while she looked at Jiang Chen.

“Jiang Chen you little devil, how many secrets do you have?” She seemed to murmuring, as if in her sleep.

Jiang Chen smiled wryly, “Sister Dan Fei, I…”

Dan Fei suddenly spread out her hands, sighing, “Don’t bother explaining. Any of your explanations are surely just empty air. Jiang Chen, I’d rather you not tell me then always treat me as an outsider and use some casual words to stopper me with.”

“Eh… so I have this kind of image in sister Dan Fei’s heart?” Jiang Chen self-deprecated. “Alright, the honored tutor’s closed door cultivation cannot be delayed for a single second. Here is good, sister Dan Fei.”

Jiang Chen waved his hands as he spoke and pushed off his feet to land atop a Goldwing Swordbird, turning into a golden blur and disappearing from the front of the tutor’s manor.

Dan Fei fell into a deep reverie as she stared in the direction Jiang Chen had disappeared in, remaining silent for a long time.

…...

When he returned to the Jiang manor, Jiang Chen swept away all the random thoughts from his mind. The day of the great selection wasn’t that far off.

He decided to use some of the spirit medicines he’d just obtained.

The task at hand was to raise the quality of his Swordbird army and have them all advance into the spirit rank.

If the Swordbirds all entered the spirit rank, then the inside of the Jiang manor would be an impregnable fortress. Even when enemies came knocking, the Jiang manor would be able to hold them off for a bit.

Once a thousand spirit rank Swordbirds formed the Eight Trigrams Assimilation Formation, even a spirit king protector wouldn’t be able to break through, and might even find themselves in danger.

However, it wasn’t a small scale project to have thousands of Swordbirds break through.

It was fortunate that he’d gotten quite a haul this time, he’d done so precisely for this purpose.

The spirit medicines that he’d gotten from the Iron family would fill this need, and even have some left over.

As for the four saint rank medicines, Jiang Chen had wanted them to be of the ice and fire attributes precisely for the Bewitching Lotus of Ice and Fire.

Of course, he didn’t plan on using those just yet.

He was only in the small spirit realm at the moment, using a spirit rank medicine would be quite a waste. It wouldn’t be too late to use them after he’d entered the earth spirit realm.

Usually only spirit king level practitioners had the right to use saint rank medicines.

However, Jiang Chen was different from others in that his spirit ocean had been refined hundreds and thousands of times. His small spirit realm was the equivalent of other’s earth spirit realm, so he’d be able to just barely use the saint rank medicines.

It was something he’d taken from others anyways. It’d be a waste to not use ill gotten gains.

In the next couple days, Jiang Chen spent most of his time on the Swordbirds.

He also wanted to refine another batch of the Five Dragons Opening Heavens Pill.

This was because of his eight personal guards, apart from Xue Tong, the Qiao brothers, Guo Jin, and Wen Ziqi had all made it into the true qi master realm.

They would be sure to assail the spirit realm when the time came.

Of these eight personal guards, Jiang Chen had been raising them from the Eastern Kingdom and so he had to make some preparations for their future.

The two Silvermoon Monsterapes were also in the focus of Jiang Chen’s attention.

Rather, it was the Goldbiter Rats that Jiang Chen had yet to locate the right way for them to proceed with their bloodline evolution.

After all, evolving bloodlines and raising strength were different. The process of evolving the Goldbiter Rat bloodlines was destined to be a long and arduous one.

This needed fortune’s hand.

It was a good thing that the Rat King had devoured many experts lately and was satisfied with its current life. He knew just as well that evolving bloodlines was up a bit to destiny, and so he didn’t pressure Jiang Chen too much.

Half a month passed as Jiang Chen’s plan neared completion.

The day of the great selection was also drawing closer.

On this day, Jiang Chen summoned his guards, planning a candid conversation.

“The eight of you have been with me for around two years now. You’ve been by my side from the Eastern Kingdom to the Skylaurel Kingdom. I’ve seen your loyalty. This time, the sixteen kingdom alliance is about to undergo a tremendous change. A chance lies in front of me, and so it also lies in front of you.”

Jiang Chen smiled. “I’m not a selfish person and will naturally not strip this chance from you. I just ask, who amongst you will be participating in the selection this time? Tell me if you want to participate. I’ll give leave to any who wish. If you emerge from the masses from the great selection, I will absolutely give you my best of wishes and won’t hinder your future.”

“Don’t be in a hurry to make your decisions, carefully think about it first. After all, this is a chance. A sect is an unattainable existence for an ordinary practitioner. This time’s great selection is a chance for the ordinary to become sect disciples. This can change not only your destiny, but that of your clan, your descendents, and everyone associated with you. Therefore, you must choose wisely.”

The temptation of a sect was boundless.

Particularly for ordinary disciples, it was impossible for youths to be completely unaffected by the attraction of the lofty sects opening their doors to mundane practitioners.

A sect! That was the sacred place for every young practitioner.

Xue Tong however, didn’t hesitate in the slightest. His brief pause was actually out of consideration for his peers’ face. After a short silence, he took the lead, “Young master, I won’t consider it. I wouldn’t be where I was without the young master. Unless the young master orders me out one day, I’ll die as a Jiang family ghost!”

Guo Jin hesitated a moment and said, “Ah forget it. I’m the only one left of my Guo family. I have no worries and will still follow the young master. With my personality, I’d likely be repressed after I enter the sect anyway.”

The Qiao brothers chuckled in a silly manner. They were martial dao fiends and were still full of yearning towards a sect.

“Qian Shan and Qiao Chuan, what are your thoughts?” Jiang Chen’s tone was calm.

“I… I’m still going to follow the young master.” Qiao Shan finally said.

“Us brothers have one heart. Mine brother’s decision is mine decision.” Qiao Chuan added.

Wen Ziqi’s voice was like a mosquito’s as she said lowly. “I just want to feed the Silvermoon Monsterapes. Those sects… I don’t like them and wouldn’t be used to them.”

Wen Ziqi had been a sect disciple to begin with, but she’d been part of those small sects in the Eastern Kingdom counties.

However, she patently didn’t have much of an infatuation for the sect life. Otherwise, she wouldn’t make the trek to answer Jiang Chen’s call for personal guard recruitment.

The last three were obviously the most tempted.

Jiang Chen smiled when he saw that they seemed to want to say something. “Don’t be so indecisive, you three. Go if you want to participate. With your training, it won’t be hard for you to achieve glory and honor should you fail and return to the Eastern Kingdom or remain within the Skylaurel Kingdom.”

It wasn’t that they were unloyal, but that their training had slightly fallen behind Xue Tong and the others these past few years. The deficiencies in potential were beginning to grow apparent.

This made them feel self-conscious. It was normal that they sought some change.

“Young master, we... “ Shen Yifan opened his mouth and tried to explain.

“Speak no further, you know what kind of person I am as well. Although our relationship of master and follower no longer exists, our friendship does. If you fail in the selection and run into some difficulties, come find me. I’ll help you in whatever way I can.”

Jiang Chen had wanted to give them each a Five Dragons Opening Heavens Pill before they left, but when he thought of the fact that they weren’t even true qi masters yet, it would be damning them to disaster if he gave them such a gift. Trouble may even come looking for him.

Jiang Chen decided to gift it to them later.

An innocent man getting into trouble because of his wealth was all too often seen in the world of martial dao.