Chapter 218: Jiang Feng’s Martial Dao Goals

“Chen’er, I heard Xue Tong say that you got into a conflict with an elder of the Precious Tree Sect when you left?”

“Father, don’t worry about this. It’s just a small matter.” Jiang Chen knew that his father was worried about his future. But in Jiang Chen’s eyes, a mere elder of the Precious Tree Sect was really not someone worth worrying about.

Jiang Feng sighed, “Chen’er, your father still thinks it a bit incredible when I ruminate over all that has happened to you. My abilities are paltry so I can’t smooth the way for you any longer. It will be up to you to pave your own road step by step in the future.”

“Oh right, father, you’ve lingered at the peak of true qi for long enough. It’s about time to start assailing the spirit realm. I have a Five Dragons Opening Heavens Pill here. It’s a wondrous medicine for making any attempt to reach the spirit realm. It will give you a ninety percent chance of success.”

Jiang Feng was greatly astonished, “What did you say? Ninety percent?”

In fact, Jiang Chen had given a conservative estimate as he taken out an upper rank pill this time. An upper rank actually gave the user a 99% chance of success.

It was only because his father’s age was slightly older than the optimal timing to transmute his qi into spirit, that Jiang Chen was giving a ninety percent estimation.

The last time he’d refined the Five Dragons Opening Heavens Pill, there’d been five acceptable ones. Two of them were of lower rank, one was of middle rank, and two were of upper rank.

He’d given the middle rank one to Gouyu.

He’d taken one of the upper ranked pills himself, and the remaining one was naturally for his most beloved father.

“Father, word of this matter cannot travel. Take this pill in closed door cultivation. You should have no problem in making it to the spirit realm.”

Jiang Chen was using the calmest tone he could say those words in but they still sounded like a ringing bell in Jiang Feng’s ears, sending tremors through him to the extent that he couldn’t react at all.

Ever since he’d set down the mantle of the Duke of the Jiang Han, he’d striven his hardest in the area of martial dao. He had always wanted to break through to the spirit realm.

But time and time again, he’d been able to find no inspiration and couldn’t identify an opportunity to breakthrough.

He knew that at his age, he’d already missed the prime opportunity to transmute to spirit.

The best timing was before thirty years old.

And he, Jiang Feng, was already almost forty. Although this age wasn’t that awkward, it was definitely no longer within the golden period to transmute to spirit.

Therefore, he’d been contemplating lately whether or not he still possessed a way forward in the area of martial dao.

His conclusion was tragic but he wasn’t willing to accept that even though his son had grown up into a towering tree that was enough to protect this family.

In the depths of his heart, Jiang Feng had a matter resting heavily, a matter that he would have to take care of personally.

It was a matter that even his son could not take care of for him.

Therefore, his heart of martial dao had never died. He’d even advanced to the point of resting neither day nor night in his training in the past year.

But the results had brought him disappointment and dejection.

Just as he had become completely lost, his son Jiang Chen actually told him that this pill would give him a ninety percent chance to break through to the spirit realm!

Jiang Feng was speechless for a long while before finally recovering. He grabbed Jiang Chen’s hand with agitation as tears of emotion flowed out of the corners of his eyes. His lips trembled lightly, “Chen’er, are you lying to me?”

“I don’t have the courage to lie to my old man.” Jiang Chen smiled. “Father, don’t be so shocked. Not only can this pill help you break through to the spirit realm, it can also shape your body and your spirit ocean, making your spirit foundation much stronger than ordinary people. When you cast off the mundane and enter the spirit realm, you’ll have much more potential than ordinary spirit realm practitioners. Such is the true effect of the Five Dragons Opening Heavens Pill.”

“Chen’er, why do I feel like all of this is a dream?”

“Father, I promise you that this is only the beginning. The spirit realm is merely a stepping stone in the path of martial dao.”

Jiang Feng surged to his feet with great emotion and grabbed the pill, “Chen’er, I’m going into closed door cultivation!”

Jiang Chen sighed lightly in his heart as he watched his father. “Father’s potential for martial dao is actually quite high. Unfortunately, he was caught in the mundane shackles of dukeship and missed the best training period. The Jiang family’s hereditary martial dao method is also much too inferior, further constraining his development. This pill will enable him to enter the spirit realm and reset everything. I hope that father will walk farther down the path of martial dao.”

Jiang Chen actually had a great haul from this time’s Autumn Hunt.

Firstly, he had half of the four Silvermoon Monsterapes brought out of the maze realm. That made for two that were his.

In addition, although he hadn’t tamed many fierce monsters or spirit creatures along the way, he’d foraged many spirit ingredients, grass, and fruits. These items supplemented much of his deficiencies in the area of spirit ingredients.

Of course, his greatest gain was the Goldbiter Rat tribe that numbered in the hundreds of millions.

He had now formed a very cooperative partnership with the Rat King -- basically the rat tribe’s fates were tied to his. They had become his trump card to be deployed when necessary. It was a great power that was enough to shake a kingdom.

One thing on par with the Goldbiter Rats was naturally the refinement of the Flaming Heart of Ice.

By this time, the Heart had now become a seed within his spirit ocean and would grow into a frightful divine art one day if used properly!

Jiang Chen knew that the quality of the Heart was actually very high. It was only because it had been at the bottom of the chasm that it couldn’t absorb much spirit power, and thus had a slow rate of evolution.

Now that Jiang Chen had refined it into his spirit ocean and was using his spirit power to feed the Heart, he’d be able to develop the divine art of the Bewitching Lotus of Fire and Ice one day, to be used as he wished. Not only would such power be unexpected when facing off against his enemies, but it’d be frightening and shocking as well.

He would need some time to develop this ability.

Although Jiang Chen had absorbed the Heart, he would still need time to manipulate how to integrate it into his spirit ocean and make it into one of his trump cards.

On the whole, he’d walked away with impressive gains from the Autumn Hunt.

Although there’d been some unpleasantness with Elder Iron of the Precious Tree Sect when he left, Jiang Chen didn’t think much of it at all.

“I have to admit that Dan Fei’s words that day pointed me in a new direction of thinking. The raising of spirit beasts, the evolution of their bloodlines -- these are all good schools of thoughts. With so many Goldwing Swordbirds and my a partnership with the Goldbiter Rats, if I follow this train of thought through, I can absolutely raise some Goldwing Swordbirds to the spirit realm. Once the Goldwing Swordbirds enter the spirit realm, their strength will be incredibly frightening.”

However, although this was the case, with the Goldwing Swordbirds’ potential alone, it’d be difficult for them to enter the spirit realm.

Jiang Chen also knew that this plan would need long term planning and couldn’t be accomplished in one night.

The raising of spirit creatures needed treasures from heaven and earth. The amount of resources that such an act would take was enormous. If one hadn’t achieved a certain status, one would be completely unable to bear the burden of those pricey materials.

Although Jiang Chen was not lacking in money, that was only on a mundane, ordinary level. It wasn’t much to look at once he reached the spirit realm.

If a spirit realm practitioner truly wanted to develop fully, the amount of resources needed wasn’t something that an ordinary family or mundane power could afford.

The gold, wealth and power of a common family amounted to nothing at all in the spirit realm.

Of course, this was all relative as well.

In the spirit realm or an even higher realm, there was business to be done and transactions to be conducted. There were always venues to earn money.

Except, the higher one’s level was, the more advanced the ways of conducting business and the subjects of said business were.

“Sigh, I still need to earn money. How will I back up these plans if I don’t have money?” Jiang Chen sighed with emotion.

“Young master, Miss Dan Fei seeks an audience.” His men came to report this just as he was thinking about it.

“She’s probably here with the baby Silvermoon Monsterapes.” Jiang Chen walked outside.

Dan Fei stood up from her chair when she saw Jiang Chen walk over.

“Jiang Chen, are you alright?” Dan Fei asked.

“Haha, you’re not just here to comfort me, are you? It’s alright. Whether it’s an Elder Iron or Elder Copper who wants to threaten me, they’re all barking up the wrong tree.”

Dan Fei understood that this fellow really hadn’t taken any of it to heart when she heard Jiang Chen’s words. But even so, she still felt a bit guilty, “Actually, you were also innocently drawn into today’s matter.”

“Forget it, let’s not talk about those things. These two baby Monsterapes are for me, right?” Jiang Chen saw that two baby Monsterapes were placed in the bamboo basket next to the chair.

“Yes.” Dan Fei nodded.

“See, talking back at Elder Iron is not that bad. If I’d been scared by him, those two Monsterapes would’ve turned into just one.” Jiang Chen self-deprecated.

Dan Fei now truly believed that he wasn’t disturbed by the matter of Elder Iron. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have the capacity to joke about this.

She mused silently for a bit as she played with the tea cup with one graceful finger. Her delicate eyebrow suddenly arched as she asked, “Jiang Chen, what plans do you have for the future?”

Jiang Chen started, “Why are you suddenly asking me this?”

“I...” Dan Fei stammered. “I want to ask, do you really want to enter the Precious Tree Sect?”

“Elder Iron would be rather proud of himself if I don’t join.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Well, if you follow the lordmaster, he’d absolutely be willing to pass on all his teachings to you. You wouldn’t be confined by the rules and behavior of the sects.” Dan Fei hesitated and once again offered Jiang Chen an invitation.

Jiang Chen laughed leisurely. Dan Fei still didn’t understand his world after all.

He wished to enter the sect neither to take someone as a master nor to learn techniques.

He was entering the sect for its resources, and to interact with more sect geniuses.

One would only emerge from the masses and challenge the true peak after continuously accepting and overcoming challenges on the path of martial dao.

All this were not things he’d be able to obtain by following the lordmaster!

Dan Fei was speaking of the details of only one small pond -- a single city, but what Jiang Chen was considering was a grand ambition that spanned the heavens.

Dan Fei’s expression darkened slightly when she saw that Jiang Chen didn’t respond before she immediately recovered her original indifference after this moment of dejection.

“Jiang Chen, if there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving now.”

“Yes. Sister Dan Fei, please go back and tell the lordmaster that I know he was only testing me with regards to Elder Iron. I won’t bear a grudge.”

Jiang Chen spoke only after Dan Fei had set foot outside the door.

Dan Fei halted briefly before walking out, her beautiful form slowly vanishing around the corner.