Chapter 2617: Jie Venerable
The blazing sun hung like fire, and the cicadas in the forest chirped without end.
Beneath the green shade, Zhang Ruochen held two leaves in his hands, teaching two children a trick. Then, he caught a summer cicada, tied a thin string to its front legs, and walked it like a pet, drawing endless laughter from them.
These two children, surnamed Liu, were descendants of the Ninth Commandery Prince Zhang Yuxi, already of the great-great-grandson generation.
They had been playing like this all morning.
...
Far away.
Kong Xuan asked, "Your Highness is already a top figure in the mortal world, with countless important matters awaiting his attention. Why does he waste time on two children? Could a Great Saint truly find joy in playing with cicadas alongside two toddlers?"
Kong Lanyou, holding a bamboo flute, stood beneath a tree, her white hair swaying in the gentle breeze. "Perhaps he has always possessed a childlike heart, but for various reasons, that heart has been buried too deep."
"Or maybe he is comprehending the Dao, seeking his true self. You see him smiling, which means he is genuinely smiling. Facing two children, there is no need to hide his true emotions, nor any need to put on a show for anyone."
"I think, at this moment, he is at his happiest. No need for killing, no need for disguise and concealment, no need to force himself."
When the two children left, Zhang Ruochen used his First-Rank Sacred Intent to mobilize the power of heaven and earth, personally washing their marrow and refining their bodies.
His Sacred Intent stood on equal footing with the Heavenly Dao. After the marrow washing and body refinement, their bodies would become highly attuned to heaven and earth, making their future cultivation path smoother.
"Go back now, it's time for lunch. Don't keep your family waiting."
Zhang Ruochen waved them goodbye.
Watching the two children walk away with the cicada on a string, Zhang Ruochen smiled knowingly. Suddenly, he understood a bit of the true meaning of life and the essence of time. Some time had indeed passed, and some people were indeed gone, but the inheritance of life could continue forever.
Whether mortal or cultivator, the only thing one could do was cherish the present.
Like the cicada's chirping at this moment, like the gentle breeze at this moment.
...
In the following days, Zhang Ruochen stayed in the Bright Sect, setting up three Time Arrays to help the sect's disciples cultivate. He also chose an auspicious day to bury his mother beside the tomb of the Yunwu Commandery King.
Afterward, Zhang Ruochen went alone deep into King Mountain.
After the complete revival of the Kunlun Realm, the folded spaces within King Mountain had fully unfolded, revealing sacred mountains one after another, with divine veins flowing underground and ancient divine patterns from the Middle Ages and Antiquity awakening. Breaking in was no easy task.
This mountain range was comparable to divine soil.
The Bright Sect's ability to develop to its current scale in just a thousand years was primarily due to the vast cultivation resources within King Mountain.
Before reaching the ancestral land, Zhang Ruochen heard a hoarse voice behind him: "Kid, you're finally back, hehe!"
Zhang Ruochen was startled. With his current level of spiritual power, someone could still approach him silently, evading his perception, and appear behind him.
What did this mean?
Zhang Ruochen turned around and saw a withered, skinny old man standing by a mountain stream, grinning at him.
The other party had seen through his true form.
Beside the old man was a fat rabbit even larger than him, its belly round like a ball, exuding demonic aura. Its blood-amber eyes stared straight at Zhang Ruochen, and it said uncertainly, "Master Chen?"
"Guoguo."
"Master Chen, you're finally back! Where's Blackie? He left a thousand years ago and never returned."
The Devouring Elephant Rabbit rushed toward Zhang Ruochen, nearly knocking him into the sacred stream.
A moment later.
Zhang Ruochen approached the old man, suspecting he might be a deity, so he bowed and said, "Greetings, Senior."
"Senior? Call me ancestor."
The old man rolled up his sleeves and circled Zhang Ruochen, his deep-set eyes scanning him up and down, nodding occasionally.
This old man had crawled out from the ground of the ancestral land and was likely some ancient ancestor of the Zhang Clan. But his demeanor lacked any of the dignity expected of an ancestor. Zhang Ruochen simply couldn't bring himself to call him "ancestor."
The old man scratched his head and said, "Interesting! The bloodline of the Undying Blood Clan has actually merged with our Zhang Clan's bloodline, and your physical body has reached a state of innate chaos, almost in harmony with the Heavenly Dao. Kid, what incredible fortune did you find in the Hell Realm?"
"Some fortune... What are you doing?" Zhang Ruochen said.
The old man grabbed Zhang Ruochen's right arm with one hand and pulled out a dagger with the other. Before Zhang Ruochen could react, the dagger had already cut a bloody gash on his wrist.
The old man leaned in and sniffed it carefully.
Zhang Ruochen pulled back his arm and stepped back, saying, "Are you insane? What are you doing?"
The old man's eyes lit up. "Your blood is excellent, perfect for alchemy. How about letting your ancestor take a few liters? I won't take it for nothing; I'll repay you with pills."
"Don't even think about it," Zhang Ruochen said.
The old man scratched his head, his eyes darting around.
Zhang Ruochen, sensing he might try something underhanded or even use force, quickly said, "We Zhang Clan descendants are the progeny of the Great Venerable. His life was one of brilliance, and as his descendants, we should be upright and honorable."
The old man's expression shifted, then he looked up at the sky with an air of extraordinary bearing. "Indeed, just as I have acted throughout my life—open and aboveboard. Kid, I am the most reasonable person and will never force you. Name your price. How much for your blood?"
Zhang Ruochen said, "Are you sure you don't force others? Over the past thousand years, the Zhang Clan disciples have suffered quite a bit at your hands."
"What? Who have I harmed?"
The old man grew agitated. "A thousand years ago, how far had the Zhang Clan fallen? Look now, under my efforts over this millennium, the Zhang Clan's descendants have multiplied. Though it's not even one ten-thousandth of our peak, we are at least moving in a positive direction."
"Unfortunately, the few responsible for procreation and expanding the clan had too weak bloodlines. The descendants they produced had few good seedlings."
"Your return alive is a relief to me."
"If you won't let me take your blood, fine, but at least sire a thousand—no, ten thousand offspring."
Zhang Ruochen shook his head and walked deeper into King Mountain.
"Still so stubborn. I can't let you off easy this time."
The old man muttered under his breath, then caught up, saying, "The clan's decline is everyone's responsibility. To revive it, we must first multiply. Sometimes, drastic measures are necessary. I don't want to reach my deathbed without having nurtured a single deity capable of supporting the clan. How unfortunate would that be?"
The old man's voice cracked with emotion. "My lifespan is running out; I probably won't make it past this year. Ruochen, you're the only Zhang descendant I've seen with the potential to reach the Divine Realm. Can't you take pity on this old wreck and let me see more geniuses with god-making potential born into the Zhang Clan before I'm buried in the ground? Can you?"
Won't make it past this year?
Zhang Ruochen didn't believe a word of it.
Seeing that Zhang Ruochen was completely unmoved, the old man, frustrated at his failure to turn iron into steel, stomped his foot and pointed at his back. "Zhang Ruochen, you're wasting your talent! You don't understand at all—your greatest power isn't your cultivation, but the children you haven't yet fathered."
"Let's do the math. If you sire ten thousand children, and I raise them from childhood, at least one-tenth—a thousand—would have the potential to become gods. Of that thousand, maybe one-tenth—a hundred—could truly reach the Divine Realm."
"Your ten thousand children would produce more descendants, and many of them would also have god-making potential."
"If you work hard enough, I guarantee that within ten thousand years, the Zhang Clan will produce a hundred deities. Within one eon, we'll sweep through the Kunlun Realm. Within three eons, we'll suppress the Heavenly Court's myriad realms. Within five eons, we'll crush the Ten Clans of Hell with the strength of a single clan."
"By then, you'll be the king of gods and father of gods, ruling over the Heavenly Court and Hell."
Zhang Ruochen stopped and turned to look at him.
The old man's face lit up, thinking he had convinced Zhang Ruochen. "What do you think? Isn't my plan good? You and I work together—you provide the offspring, I provide the effort. In five eons, the Heavenly Court and Hell will be under the Zhang Clan's control."
Zhang Ruochen said, "If your method worked, why didn't the Great Venerable use it back then? If he had put in a little effort, with his powerful bloodline, how many deities would his descendants have produced?"
"I've read the history of the Kunlun Realm. After the Great Venerable died, the Zhang Clan declined rapidly, which means he didn't leave many offspring."
"During the Middle Ages, the Zhang Clan did produce a deity known as Jie Venerable. He wanted to revive the clan, so he married many wives and fathered many children. But did any of those children reach the Divine Realm? What does that tell you?"
"Becoming a god isn't that easy. A strong bloodline doesn't guarantee godhood. Piling up resources doesn't guarantee reaching the Divine Realm."
"For a clan to grow and endure forever, it's not about blindly multiplying. It's about every individual striving to improve themselves."
"If the Zhang Clan thought it could punch the Heavenly Court and stomp on Hell just by breeding, we'd bring about our own extinction before we even got started."
Seeing the old man's spirits sink, Zhang Ruochen asked, "Are you Jie Venerable?"
The old man nodded, then stubbornly said, "No... of course not!"
In truth, beings with powerful bloodlines and exceptional talents did tend to produce descendants more likely to be geniuses with god-making potential.
More than one-tenth of Blood Absolute War God's offspring had god-making potential.
If Bai Qinger hadn't had Desolate Heaven's bloodline, she might not have become an Eon-level genius.
Arriving again outside the ancestral land, Zhang Ruochen gazed at the vast, boundless forest of Great Saint tombs shrouded in nine-colored divine light. He could still feel the immense energy surging from within.
Zhang Ruochen muttered to himself, "Is the Great Venerable really dead?"
On the River of Time, Zhang Ruochen had witnessed the unparalleled majesty of the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable. It was hard to believe such a figure could lie beneath the yellow earth, reduced to a skeleton.
Could the earth truly contain him?
The last time he was here, Zhang Ruochen had been drawn by a mysterious force into a chaotic and enigmatic world, where he saw a great tomb.
Above the tomb, he had seen twenty-seven layers of heavenly realms.
And above those heavenly realms sat a humanoid figure.
At the time, Zhang Ruochen's cultivation was too low to see the figure's face clearly, nor did he know if what he saw was an illusion or reality.
This time, he intended to find out.
...
(Author's Note: Readers might misunderstand the speed of Great Saint cultivation. In truth, every realm of a Great Saint is extremely difficult to advance. When Zhang Ruochen first broke through to the Immortal Realm, he used the Sundial and cultivated in seclusion for a hundred years without advancing from the Initial Stage to the Middle Stage. And at that time, he was using the Divine Dragon Enlightenment Chamber, which doubled his cultivation speed.
In other words, most Great Saints spend centuries in the Immortal Realm.
Zhang Ruochen's later accelerated cultivation was due to various rare resources and fortuitous encounters.
In reality, in the Immortal Realm and the Hundred Shackles Realm, only Yan Wushen could match Zhang Ruochen's cultivation speed. Bore, Blood Demon, Luo Sha, and others were all stuck in the Immortal Realm. Yan Wushen only reached a level to rival Zhang Ruochen after cultivating for many years inside the Dark Star.
So, after a thousand years, even if those former Saint Kings had Time Arrays and had cultivated for thousands of years, the vast majority would still be stuck in the Immortal Realm or the Hundred Shackles Realm.
Those who could reach the Thousand Questions Realm, the Ten Thousand Deaths Realm, or the Immortal Realm were a rare few with unparalleled resources and talent, and they often needed fortuitous encounters as well.)