Chapter 504: Taking Up Residence
The unexpected discovery of Mu Gaoqi sent the Regal Pill Palace into an immediate uproar. The Herbal Hall was even more excited. Being focused on pills, they knew more than anybody else what an innate wood constitution of high order meant.
To put it bluntly, such a constitution was rare even in the Upper Eight Realms, much less a Lower Realm like the Myriad Domain. Therefore, Mu Gaoqi’s shocking emergence marked a raucous celebration in the Regal Pill Palace.
At the same time, those whose thoughts ran a bit further silently contemplated, “If Mu Gaoqi with an innate wood constitution of high order was only number two, then what potential does Jiang Chen have, with his full marks? Why didn’t Elder Yun Nie take Jiang Chen as a disciple, instead accepting Mu Gaoqi? Could it be that Jiang Chen is so much more talented than Mu Gaoqi that even Elder Yun Nie doesn’t dare accept him as a disciple?”
All sorts of speculations and questions spread through the crowd as everyone gave their curiosity about the two who had won in the competition of pill dao free rein.
Since the competition was over with, Elder Yun Nie also took advantage of the situation to announce, “Jiang Chen and Mu Gaoqi will take two of the slots reserved for the younger generation in the Pill Battles. The other two spots will be chosen from a selection of the pill dao geniuses.”
The other geniuses had no objections to this order, but the martial dao geniuses who occupied the eight original residences in the Sovereign Area became restless. These eight people represented the pinnacle of strength among the younger generation of the sect, the face of the young Regal Pill Palace. They were martial dao geniuses, but their pill dao potential wasn’t that bad either. They had long since entered the Sovereign Area, so they still hadn’t fully registered Jiang Chen and Mu Gaoqi as one of their own. Frankly, they weren’t necessarily willing to accept this command even if Mu Gaoqi was proven to be an innate wood constitution of high order. In their minds, such a constitution only represented future potential, but the Pill Battles were going to happen in the next couple of months. Therefore, the top geniuses had been eying the slots for the Pill Battles for a very long time, carefully maneuvering themselves for a spot.
The Pill Battles meant a chance to enter the mountain and harvest precious spirit herbs. Mt. Rippling Mirage was the most miraculous area of pills and medicine in the Myriad Domain. The ten thousand miles of the mountain contained many fortuitous encounters, treasures, and boundless marvelous changes. Perhaps, a single encounter or opportunity would be enough to change their fates, helping them break free of their cocoon and cast off their current shackles! Therefore, these geniuses had convinced themselves that they absolutely had to obtain spots for the Pill Battles.
However, since Elder Yun Nie had spoken, he naturally couldn’t take it back. In addition, Elder Yun Nie was in charge of the spots for the Pill Battles. He knew who should and shouldn’t go. Since he’d personally chosen Jiang Chen and Mu Gaoqi, he naturally felt that their pill dao potential and level was beyond the geniuses in the Sovereign Area.
The pill dao competition had ended first, and the two residences for the martial dao geniuses were finally decided upon after three days. The eventual champions were two from the Sky Pillar Area. One was at half step sky origin realm, the other solidly in the sky origin realm.
“A Sovereign Area residence?” Gouyu and the others were overjoyed when they heard Jiang Chen describe where they would be moving to. A private property with a radius of a hundred miles, that was absolutely a superior residence! Although their current residence in the Soaring Clouds area was an independent residence that occupied almost a hundred hectares, it was still comparing an ant to an elephant when compared to a residence in the Sovereign Area.
Huang’er naturally had no reason to object. Although she’d planted many flowers and grasses, she could absolutely move them since they were only moving within the Rosy Valley.
“Brother Jiang Chen, congratulations on the move! Is there anything I can help with?”
“Brother Jiang Chen, I’ve come by to see if you need help moving to your Sovereign Area residence!”
“Brother Jiang Chen, feel free to throw any manual labor at me! I’ve got thick skin and flesh, and I’m most suited for this kind of work, hahaha!”
Roughly a dozen Soaring Cloud disciples crowded Jiang Chen’s residence in the blink of an eye, all extremely enthusiastic, as if they’d been friends with Jiang Chen for several decades. They’d completely forgotten how they’d personally participated during Yan Hongtu’s suppression of Jiang Chen.
Although Jiang Chen could deny them face with a slap, he wasn’t interested in this kind of empty pleasantry either. He smile faintly, “I’ve only just arrived in the Regal Pill Palace and don’t have much to pack up. My followers are more than enough. I won’t need to trouble you all.”
The Soaring Cloud core disciples all knew that Jiang Chen was moving to the Sovereign Area, becoming the most superior existence in the Rosy Valley. Therefore, all of them wanted to curry favor with Jiang Chen and try to latch onto his thigh.
“Senior brother Jiang Chen, you moving into the Sovereign Area with such an awe-inspiring momentum is our pride and example for us Soaring Cloud disciples. We’d like to host a banquet for you, senior brother, and send you off well. We should let the others know not to look down on our area when you enter the Sovereign Area.”
“I don’t like to make a fuss of things, so we can forgo the banquet and associated events.” Jiang Chen declined them decisively. These people were fickle and capricious. They fawned over him when he had power, but would absolutely be the first to jump out to step on him if he lost power.
Jiang Chen didn’t want to associate with such fair-weather pettiness.
Mu Gaoqi was also met with the same sweet dilemma on his side. One had to say, he felt a bit like he was floating on a cloud. He’d been elevated from the bottom to a Sovereign Area senior brother that everyone buttered up to in an instant. He really was a bit caught on this high and almost agreed after all sorts of coaxing and compliments.
It was a good thing that one of Elder Yun Nie’s followers called him away at this point to meet Elder Yun Nie. “Gaoqi, you’ve an innate wood constitution of a high order, a first in Regal Pill Palace history. However, your mentality necessitates further tempering.” Elder Yun Nie’s tone was stern. “There is a saying that dragons do not comport themselves with snakes. You’re now different from those people. If you stay with them, they’ll only mold you into a vulgar and mediocre man. I was quite admiring of your relationship with Jiang Chen before, but you seem to have lost a bit of yourself now.”
Mu Gaoqi’s heart spasmed. It was as if a pail of cold water had been poured onto his head, making him shiver all over.
Indeed, what had happened to him? A small man intoxicated by success? If he had to find a term to describe himself now, that really did seem a bit fitting. Those people had dismissed him out of hand before, but had his ego been so stroked just because they were suddenly fawning over him? Was this all he amounted to? If this was the case, how would he face Brother Chen’s mentorship, his honored master’s heritage, and his own innate wood constitution?
An audible thunk sounded as Mu Gaoqi fell to his knees when his thoughts reached this point. “Honored master, your disciple was wrong.” Mu Gaoqi spoke woodenly, great beads of sweat breaking out over his forehead.
“Hmph! You should imitate Jiang Chen. Think nothing about praise or condemnation from the outside world. If you have your head in the clouds just from the praise of a group of Soaring Cloud disciples, then you’ll revert to your previous timid and cowering personality when you’re suppressed by the geniuses in the Sovereign Area. There isn’t the slightest bit of good in this for your development. Remember, you must remain unmoved by either gain or loss. Dwell on this more, there is great meaning in those words. If you had displayed a better performance in the strength of heart category this time, you wouldn’t have tied with Ouyang Chao. Training in strength of heart is your biggest weakness.” Elder Yun Nie’s words were a clap to his head, completely ripping apart his bit of vainglorious puffery.
“Honored master, your disciple promises to learn from senior brother Jiang Chen in the future such that I will remain unmoved by neither gain or loss.”
Elder Yun Nie sighed lightly. “Gaoqi, I placed you and Jiang Chen on the list for the Pill Battles because I wished to test the two of you. I wanted to have you face the questioning of the premier geniuses in the Sovereign Area to see how the two of you perform under pressure. If you move to the Sovereign Area in your current state, there is no question that you will be ripped to pieces. At least to the extent where not a shred of skin will be left on your body. At worst, it’s possible that you would never recover from it.”
Mu Gaoqi abruptly came to his senses, finally understanding his honored master’s intentions. “Your disciple has been a fool. From today forth, your disciple will temper his strength of heart and reflect daily.”
“Mm, you must make it past the challenge of strength of heart yourself. No one will be able to help you. Go. Move to the Sovereign Area today and don’t hang around the Soaring Clouds Area any longer.” It wasn’t that Elder Yun Nie looked down on the core disciples in the Soaring Clouds, but that he had extremely high hopes for Mu Gaoqi. It wasn’t empty bluster to say that an innate wood constitution of high order could bring about several hundred years of good fortune to the Regal Pill Palace. Therefore, he didn’t wish for Mu Gaoqi to lose himself in empty, useless flattery.
Not only did Mu Gaoqi not resent his master after such a lecture, but he was full of gratitude instead. He knew that his honored master had lectured him for his own good. If he really did lose his direction by all that flattery, then all of his potential would be as good as dust in the end.
“Hurry to the Sovereign Area. There are only a few months till the Pill Battles. You need to make your preparations, particularly in strength of heart.”
“Understood! Your disciple has received his orders.” Mu Gaoqi responded seriously.
“Go, you can come to my residence anytime if you run into any difficult questions.” Elder Yun Nie looked at Mu Gaoqi with encouraging eyes.
A residence in the Sovereign Area was indeed superior and uncommon, a fact that Jiang Chen immediately felt after setting foot onto his own territory. The spirit power in this area wasn’t the least bit below the residence in Hundred Elders Peak. Although the range of this area was less than the Peak’s, its superior spirit power still made Jiang Chen feel that this endeavor had been worth it.
Compared to the Soaring Clouds Area, the concentration of spirit power was at least three to five times greater. In addition, each residence acted as its own world and had restrictions unique to the sect defending it. One wouldn’t be able to even enter without a unique token. This meant that Jiang Chen truly owned this hundred miles radius territory.
Gouyu and the rest of his followers had their own houses and gardens. Huang’er also chose a small yard in a peaceful area, transferring her flora over. The environment there was expansive, calm, and independent—markedly better than the Soaring Clouds area.
Many people entered and left the Soaring Clouds Area, and it wasn’t as quiet as this place. Huang’er in particular liked it much better.
After settling everyone in, Jiang Chen took a spin around the territory. He wanted to find a dangerously steep area to install the wood spirit spring.