Watching the Mountain

After hearing True Monarch Zi Yun’s explanation, Xu Ran had a sudden realization. ’So that’s how it is.’

True Monarch Zi Yun then waved his hand at the Sect Leader and Qing Xuan True Monarch and said, "Alright, let’s get down to business."

He then turned to Xu Ran and said, "We called you here today to discuss your student, Wuchen True Monarch."

"Wuchen? What happened to him?" Xu Ran looked at True Monarch Zi Yun in astonishment, his face filled with confusion.

’Could it be that Shen Wuchen’s previous battles embarrassed the Sect? Or is it something else?’

After a moment of contemplation, True Monarch Zi Yun said, "Do you believe your student can reach the Divinity Transformation Stage?"

Xu Ran was slightly taken aback by the question, but he didn’t hesitate, nodding decisively. "I’m sure he can."

True Monarch Zi Yun nodded slightly and asked again, "And how long do you think it will take him to reach the Divinity Transformation Stage?"

"This..." He faltered at the question. The Divinity Transformation Realm was too far beyond him; he truly had no way to answer.

As he was still hesitating, True Monarch Zi Yun, who was sitting opposite him, slowly spoke. "Five hundred years."

"What?" Xu Ran was stunned. "Are you saying you believe he can break through to the Divinity Transformation Stage within five hundred years?"

He wasn’t shocked because the timeframe was too long, but because it was far too short.

A Divinity Transformation Daoist Monarch was an existence that stood at the very pinnacle of the Cultivation Realm.

Those Above Divinity Transformation typically remained in seclusion and were rarely active in the Cultivation Realm. Thus, the Divinity Transformation Stage essentially represented the strongest active combat power.

Prodigies like Zhao Wuyang and Liu Yunge, the most brilliant talents of their generation, were still struggling with how to break through to the Nascent Soul Stage. They weren’t even confident they could succeed, let alone reach the Divinity Transformation Stage.

To put it in quantitative terms, if the difficulty of breaking through to the Nascent Soul Stage was a one, then the difficulty of reaching the Divinity Transformation Stage was at least a thousand. The two weren’t even in the same league.

Although he believed Shen Wuchen had a high chance of breaking through to the Divinity Transformation Stage, his own expectation was a thousand years, or perhaps just before his lifespan as a Nascent Soul cultivator ran out.

And that was considering Shen Wuchen had an A+ Root Bone and was treading the path of the Flying Immortal Stream. Otherwise, following a normal cultivation path, even with A+ ratings in both Root Bone and Comprehension, Xu Ran wouldn’t be confident he could make the breakthrough at all.

After all, reaching the Divinity Transformation Realm wasn’t merely a matter of Root Bone and Comprehension. Those attributes only improved one’s chances.

True Monarch Zi Yun observed Xu Ran’s reaction and said with a serious expression,

"This is the conclusion the Sect Leader reached after careful observation. He believes that if your student continues on his current trajectory, he will very likely break through to the Divinity Transformation Stage within five hundred years. Even if he’s a bit slower, he will almost certainly break through within a thousand."

"This...?" Xu Ran was taken aback and turned to look at the Sect Leader.

Seeing his gaze, the Sect Leader nodded and said grimly, "The Flying Immortal Stream you created is extraordinary. Your student, moreover, seems as if he were born for this path—he is a perfect fit for it. I wouldn’t dare say this about anyone else, but your student can absolutely use this path to step into the Divinity Transformation Realm."

The Flying Immortal Stream had been circulating for a long time, but so far, the highest anyone had reached was the Nascent Soul Stage. There had been no news of anyone using this path to break through to the Divinity Transformation Stage, which was an indirect testament to the difficulty of reaching Divinity Transformation.

As Xu Ran was thinking, he suddenly noticed that the expressions on the faces of True Monarch Zi Yun and the Sect Leader seemed off. They looked somewhat grave.

He paused for a moment, then asked, "If he can break through, shouldn’t that be a good thing? Why do you and the Sect Leader look so worried?"

At his words, True Monarch Zi Yun fell silent for a moment. He then tilted his head back, let out a soft sigh, and said with a complex expression,

"If your student can break through to the Divinity Transformation Stage, it is, of course, a joyous occasion. We would congratulate him from the bottom of our hearts, but..."

"Then our Sect would become a Divinity Transformation Influence, and as for your student’s combat prowess..."

He trailed off, shaking his head without finishing his sentence.

Upon hearing this, understanding dawned on Xu Ran.

In the Immortal Ancient Cultivation Realm, there was an unwritten rule that was tacitly accepted by nearly all major powers.

As a general rule, a power of a certain tier would only engage in conflict with those of a corresponding tier. Unless provoked first, cross-tier disputes were rare. Even if a conflict arose, they would not dispatch forces of a higher tier than their opponent.

For example, when the Profound Pure Sect and the Four Major Sects jointly explored the Secret Realm, both sides initially dispatched Golden Core Stage cultivators as their strongest representatives. Later, the Four Major Sects broke this rule, using a Golden Core Stage expert to suppress Ye Shan, who had not yet fully broken through to the Golden Core Stage.

In retaliation, the Profound Pure Sect dispatched a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, who slaughtered nearly half of the Four Major Sects’ members inside the Secret Realm.

Afterward, even when the Four Major Sects retaliated, they only did so through proxies, having the sects surrounding Changqing County besiege the Profound Pure Sect. They didn’t dispatch their own Divinity Transformation power to obliterate the Profound Pure Sect directly.

They even voluntarily ceased their attacks after the Profound Pure Sect lost three of its main peaks, refraining from dealing a fatal blow, all because of this rule.

Even when retaliating through proxies, they had to respect certain boundaries. Making the Profound Pure Sect pay a price was acceptable and within the limits of tolerance, but directly annihilating the sect would cross the line.

If even the Four Major Sects, who were ranked among the Ten Major Sects, had to abide by these rules—and were retaliated against by the Profound Pure Sect after breaking them to attack Ye Shan, yet were still unable to strike back directly—one could imagine how binding these rules were for other sects.