Chapter 44: Apology

Su Chen returned to the Origin Energy Tower, ignoring Zhang Sheng’an’s provocation.

When Su Chen returned to the tower, he discovered that the Origin Energy Tower’s defense mechanisms were all turned off.

There was only one explanation for this: Shi Kaihuang had returned.

A while ago, Shi Kaihuang had embarked on a long journey to search for some ingredients. He had said that it would take him three months to get back, but he had returned early.

Upon opening the door to the main hall, Su Chen discovered Shi Kaihuang sitting in the middle of the room, staring in a daze at the starlight above his head.

“Instructor,” Su Chen gently called out.

Shi Kaihuang didn’t hear him. He continued to gaze at the starry sky above him.

The remnant starlight of the Origin Talisman Energy Formation had not been wiped away by Su Chen.

They quietly remained in the sky, slowly returning to their original place.

The sight was incomparably beautiful to anyone who studied Origin Energy.

Shi Kaihuang stared at them as if he had suddenly developed dementia.

After a long time, he turned around. “You did this?”

Su Chen gently nodded.

“Using Origin Energy Pattern theories?” Shi Kaihuang asked again.

Su Chen nodded his head again.

Shi Kaihuang fell backwards while continuing to stare dumbly at the sky.

Although Su Chen had done his best to avoid Shi Kaihuang when researching and practicing his alchemy and Ancient Arcana Techniques, Shi Kaihuang still knew that Su Chen had yet to give up on these two areas.

However, as someone with a broad heart, he purposefully overlooked Su Chen’s “disobedience” even though he didn’t support Su Chen’s method. He pretended to have one eye opened and one eye closed, as if he were supervising a small child.

In his heart, he hoped that failure would bring Su Chen back onto the right path.

However, he didn’t expect that after three years Su Chen had not only not given up on those two areas of study, but he had also unexpectedly succeeded!

He had actually succeeded!

He had used the theory of Origin Energy Patterns to complete the final step of Kaihuang’s Heaven, creating a perfectly complete technique for charging into Blood Boiling without a bloodline!

Not only that, but Shi Kaihuang could also sense that this was the best method for breaking into the Blood Boiling Realm that had ever been created.

By using this method to charge into the Blood Boiling Realm, the success rate had been upped to 40%. More importantly, there were no adverse effects to failing.

In other words, even if a person failed to break through, they could just try again even without the aid of a bloodline.

All the previous methods of breaking into the Blood Boiling Realm that Shi Kaihuang had mentioned before this were inferior both in terms of success rates and number of attempts possible without a bloodline.

It could be said that this was the first time a method to break into the Blood Boiling Realm without any adverse consequences had ever been developed.

Even Shi Kaihuang was completely stunned by this outcome.

He raised his head to look at the sky, gazing at the intertwined streaks of starlight. He had spent fifty years of blood and sweat to achieve it, but it was not just his blood and sweat!

“The final step...... a beautiful step......” Shi Kaihuang muttered to himself, tears appearing in his eyes.

“I haven’t actually tried it out yet, so I haven’t succeeded yet,” Su Chen lightly laughed.

“It’s close enough,” Shi Kaihuang replied.

He turned to Su Chen and then suddenly bowed.

This movement caught Su Chen off-guard. He hurriedly lifted Shi Kaihuang up and said, “Instructor, what are you doing?”

Shi Kaihuang sighed. “I was wrong. Ancient Arcana Techniques do have their own unique advantages. You understood how to combine the benefits from the past and present while also making them useful today, persevering to the very end...... very good, very good!

Su Chen smiled gently. “This is only the beginning, Instructor.”

Shi Kaihuang also began to smile. “Yes, it’s just the beginning.”

The path of cultivation was slow and long, and the burden was heavy.

After all, to those who dreamed of shattering the existing bloodline hierarchy and allowing the human race to rise to preeminence, completing the Blood Boiling Realm truly was just the beginning.

The two of them sat and talked for quite some time before Su Chen said, “Right, Instructor, shouldn’t we disseminate Kaihuang’s Heaven to others now?”

Shi Kaihuang gazed at Su Chen. He saw the clarity and sincerity in Su Chen’s eyes and knew that Su Chen was not faking it in the slightest. He said with satisfaction, “Very good, your heart has not changed. As for whether to disseminate it...... You completed it, so you should make the decision.”

Shi Kaihuang was basically saying that everything was now up to Su Chen.

That night, Shi Kaihuang brought out a precious wine that he had hidden for a long time. The two of them drank to their heart’s content. Neither of them had a high capacity for alcohol. As the alcohol suffused throughout their body, they entered a drunken stupor.

Su Chen was completely muddleheaded, eventually falling unconscious. Shi Kaihuang seemed to grow livelier and full of energy the more he drank. It was like he had become a small child. He hugged Su Chen and constantly blabbered on. Eventually, he began to bawl.

These tears were shed for all of his years of hard work, as well as for this moment of success.

When Cloud Leopard returned, he found that the master and disciple were both lying on the ground. One was in a deep sleep, and the other was hugging the sleeping person as he talked and cried incessantly.

Cloud Leopard paused for a moment and then decided to back away.

——————————————

Three days later.

The agreed-upon date for their expedition to the Thousand Ashes Gorge had arrived.

That morning, Su Chen woke up bright and early. Before leaving, he went to the Hundred Refinements Pavilion one last time.

In the past three years, Su Chen had been to the Hundred Refinements Pavilion three times. However, because he hadn’t placed all of his focus on it, Su Chen had only cleared up to the tenth room.

In any case, the amount of contribution points he required was not high.

In comparison, the five people who were at the peak had advanced rapidly. The most powerful one had already cleared the nineteenth room, almost finishing all of the trials.

Geniuses were geniuses because their rate of advancement was faster than most people’s. If the Hidden Dragon Institute’s standard was to clear two rooms every year, the strength of real geniuses would increase to the point that they could clear four or five rooms in a year or even more.

The two geniuses who had cleared the nineteenth and eighteenth rooms concealed their names.

The person who had cleared the seventeenth room was Jiang Xishui.

Ji Hanyan had cleared the sixteenth room, and Yue Longsha had cleared the fifteenth room.

As time had gone on, the differences in strength between the five, who were originally at the peak, became more and more evident. Unfortunately, people other than Su Chen knew how to remain low-key. The first- and second-placed individuals were all unwilling to reveal their names.

However, today, Su Chen wanted to thoroughly test himself.

Before going to the Thousand Ashes Gorge, he wanted to fully test out his current strength even if he failed.

At the very least, he would know what he could deal with and what he couldn’t deal with.

Because he had gotten there early, not many people were in the Hundred Refinements Pavilion. Even the skinny student was not there.

Su Chen was already quite familiar with the place and didn’t need a guide. He used his identity tablet to open the eleventh room and began to clear the rooms.

A while later, Su Chen left the Hundred Refinements Pavilion with a satisfied expression on his face.