Chapter 262: Rumors of the Upper Eighth Realm
That a young man with such potential and enlightenment had come from a third rate kingdom like the Eastern Kingdom made the old tutor sigh with amazement. Life certainly worked in wondrous ways, and sometimes there really was no logic to it.
He also privately felt that it was a shame such a young talent hadn’t been recognized in the Eastern Kingdom, and that this young genius had drifted outside instead. No wonder this Eastern Kingdom was a third rate kingdom.
“Jiang Chen, you absolutely cannot speak of this wondrous encounter of your youth to anyone else. To do would bring disaster to you.”
The old tutor truly cherished talent. He was discovering more and more interesting facets of this young man.
These aspects destined this young man to soar to prominence with a single leap, eventually rising to the heavens.
The great power held within this youth and his enormous luck wasn’t something that the so-called geniuses of the sixteen kingdoms could measure up to.
The old tutor’s heart suddenly warmed when he thought of this. Perhaps some new hope and possibility could be found in Jiang Chen?
“Jiang Chen, I’ve heard from Dan Fei that your recent demand for spirit ingredients is quite high. Logically speaking, you shouldn’t need that much with your current level of training.”
Jiang Chen smiled and didn’t hold anything back, “Honored tutor, I’ll be frank and admit that recent circumstances have woken me up to the principle that before I reach great heights with my training, I must endeavor to raise the strength of those around me. In this way, I can ensure their personal safety when situations arise.”
The old tutor quite understood this sentiment.
“I can help you a bit with spirit medicine ingredients, but the level of resources I command in a mundane kingdom is naturally of a completely different league than the Precious Tree Sect. Therefore, if you want spirit medicines, you must enter the sect. To put it in a nice way, you’ll be entering the sect to obtain resources, and to put it bluntly, you’ll be entering to fight other geniuses for resources. On the path of training, the majority of people are cannon fodder and green leaves. Their true purpose are to offset those few red flowers.”
The old tutor offered an interesting and quite fresh perspective.
“I’m not being an alarmist. Although sect disciples look lofty from the surface, the great majority of them are slaves and sacrifices of the sects. However, they bear the banner of the sect and can also swindle many gains for their efforts. The true winners are the few who hold the resources of the sect in their hands. That would be those senior executives and those particularly special geniuses.”
The old tutor looked at Jiang Chen when he was finished. He was worried that his perspective would appear absurd and ridiculous in Jiang Chen’s eyes.
He did think that Jiang Chen would smile and have an expression of deep agreement on his face.
Dan Fei could help but raise her eyebrows, “Jiang Chen, do you understand the honored tutor’s meaning?”
Jiang Chen smiled, “The weak are food for the strong. Such are the rules of nature. If everyone is treated equally, how would that be a sect then? It’s just like how ordinary people make up the vast majority of this world.”
The old tutor was speechless once more. And to think that he’d been worried that a young man like Jiang Chen wouldn’t accept his viewpoint!
After all, young men worshipped sects like they were sacred ground. In the hearts of most youngsters, a sect was a holy ground that could not be polluted at all.
The old tutor had truly been anxious that Jiang Chen wouldn’t accept the true side of a sect after he’d voiced it.
But now he discovered that he’d been thinking too deeply.
With “the weak are food for the strong”, Jiang Chen had summarized the true nature of the sects.
The old tutor couldn’t help but ask, “Even so, are you still willing to join a sect?”
Jiang Chen didn’t even blink. “I must join the Precious Tree Sect.”
Even if you’ll be held to the rules of the sect once you do? The grudge between you and the Iron family will make your path even narrower. As an outsider, I wouldn’t be able to speak up on your behalf…”
Jiang Chen smiled. “Just like the honored tutor said, I’m joining a sect to seize resources. Rules are dead whereas people are alive. Besides, I’ve heard that the Iron family doesn’t rule the Precious Tree Sect. As for the honored tutor, this junior here does have a few questions.”
“What are they?” The old tutor smiled.
“With the lordmaster’s strength and position, why are you not a heavyweight of the Precious Tree Sect?”
This question had circulated in Jiang Chen’s heart many times, but he’d never been able to find a definite answer. Jiang Chen rather wanted to get to the bottom of this since they were already discussing the matter.
The old tutor sighed, “This is a long story. I think it was two hundred years ago? I made a bet with a sect elder once that whoever loses will leave the sect, never to return. I was the one who lost.”
The old tutor’s tone was bleak. He’d never spoken of this to the outside world, and it was even Dan Fei’s first time of hearing such a secret.
Her beautiful eyes swept Jiang Chen, faulting him for mentioning the old tutor’s painful past.
The old tutor chuckled, “Don’t be angry at Jiang Chen, Dan Fei. It’s not that I don’t wish to talk about them, but that I’ve never felt a need to. However, Jiang Chen is worth making an exception for.”
“In the end, I actually didn’t lose on the basis of strength. I learned after the fact that my opponent had cheated. And actually, quite a few of the senior executives knew that he had cheated, but no one had stood out to say anything. This also made me dispirited.”
Jiang Chen sighed lightly. He didn’t know how to comfort the old tutor.
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As an outsider, it really wasn’t his place to say anything about these events in the distant past.
It was the old tutor who smiled forthrightly, “It’s nothing much really. Several hundred years have gone by and I’ve long since thought through it. Besides, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The person who bet with me died in a sect mission thirty years later. You tell me, was it a good or bad thing that he won his bet with me?”
Jiang Chen smiled ruefully, “Fortune and disaster go hand in hand. It’s difficult to say if one or the other is good or bad. It’s just that it’s a bit of a pity that a personage such as the honored tutor isn’t part of a sect.”
“It’s was a pity and regretful as well. After losing that bet, this old man left in anger, leaving the sixteen kingdom alliance and traveling throughout the world. It was only after leaving the sixteen kingdoms that I found out how much I was a frog at the bottom of a well. But after running to resistance everywhere I turned, I returned to the Skylaurel Kingdom, training diligently behind closed doors before finally obtaining my title of spirit king today.”
The old tutor also laughed self deprecatingly. “The title of spirit king seems like an insurmountable place within the sixteen kingdoms, but I’m just an ordinary practitioner in the greater world. Putting aside the greater world for a moment, even the Myriad Domain that our sixteen kingdom alliance resides in has multiple factions like our four great sects. Our sects are just a small, third rate faction.”
“The Myriad Domain?” Jiang Chen was slightly surprised.
If one were to say that the four great sects were just a third rate faction, Jiang Chen would believe that and think that there was nothing untoward about that.
But, the name of Myriad Domain made Jiang Chen recall the “Upper Eighth Realm” in his father’s letter. Was there a connection between the two?
“You’ve heard of the Myriad Domain?” The honored tutor started. “The great senior expert told you about the Myriad Domain?”
Jiang Chen shook his head. “The expert didn’t tell me anything about the outside world. He said he didn’t want his perspective to affect my perception of the world.”
Ye Chonglou smiled wryly, “The senior expert does indeed act differently from ordinary folk.”
“Senior, I did rather hear him mention something about an ‘Upper Eighth Realm’. Can it be that the Myriad Domain is part of the Upper Eighth Realm?” Jiang Chen probed.
“The Upper Eighth Realm?” The old tutor’s body trembled as a sharp light shot out of his eyes. “Jiang Chen, that senior really mentioned the Upper Eighth Realm?”
Jiang Chen’s thoughts raced when he saw the honored tutor’s strong reaction. He understood that perhaps he’d been a bit brash and shouldn’t have mentioned the name.
However, he’d already said it and couldn’t back down now.
He nodded, “Yes, he mentioned it but wouldn’t say anything else.”
The honored tutor stared fixedly at Jiang Chen and only slowly relaxed after seeing his nod. Ye Chonglou murmured, “Can it be that the rumors are true?”
An agitated light shone in the old tutor’s eyes. “Does the Upper Eighth Realm really exist in this world?”
“What rumors?” Jiang Chen really wanted to know more about the Upper Eighth Realm.
When he saw that someone like the old tutor was overreacting like this to the name, Jiang Chen worried that this Upper Eighth Realm was really something quite different.
This made him worry even more for his father.
“I’ve actually only heard of some rumors. Something about a universe of a thousand universes, 32 lower realms, 16 middle realms, and 8 upper realms. There was some more that I absolutely can’t remember. It was the upper, middle, and lower realms as well as some other places that form the structure of our entire world.”
The old tutor could only speak vaguely of these matters. He truly knew too little.
The old tutor was at the most supreme level of existence within the Skylaurel Kingdom.
However, he was nothing in the greater picture of the world.
It was obviously the first time that Dan Fei was hearing these rumors, so she asked out of curiosity, “Teacher, then is our sixteen kingdom alliance part of the Myriad Domain? What level realm is the Myriad Domain part of?”
“What level? The 32 lower realms. And our sixteen kingdom alliance is the most marginalized, lowest level of existence in the Myriad Domain. If we were to be generous, we can claim to be part of the Myriad Domain, but frankly, we’re a completely useless member. There’s no difference if we’re present or not. In fact, we may even be discarded one day.”
“Discarded?” Dan Fei’s long eyelashes fluttered. “What talk of discarding can there be? We can still live without each other. Not to mention that many within the alliance don’t even know about the Myriad Domain? We’ve still lived on just fine?”
The old tutor laughed wryly when he heard these words. “Little Dan, you’re young after all. Don’t voice these words outside, you’ll bring trouble down on yourself. Who says we can live without each other? Our sixteen kingdom alliance will be surely dead if we left the Myriad Domain.”
“Why?” Dan Fei couldn’t quite understand. “Can it be that they’ve given us some support all along?”
“Support is out of the question. On the contrary, our alliance has to offer up great amounts of tribute and beg for them to help us.”
The old tutor sighed. “Some things should not have been spoken of, but now that we’ve reached this point, there’s no point in keeping quiet. Why are the four sects holding an open selection this time? Why is it that the usually antagonistic four sects have the same attitude this time? What has caused them to set their differences aside? There’s a reason for all this!”
“What reason?” Even Jiang Chen was curious.
Since he’d come to this world, he naturally needed to know more about it. He didn’t want to blunder around in ignorance. And judging from the old tutor’s tone, Jiang Chen could clearly feel that this time’s public selection was quite different!
When he connected this to Luo Huang and Zhou Yi’s conversation, Jiang Chen felt that there was certain to be a significant amount of activity going on behind the scenes in this year’s selection.