Jiang Wenchao had a rather scholarly face with a composure that exceeded his years. The spiritual light in his eyes was concentrated and unwavering.

In the end, he still didn’t make a move. After looking at Yushan Xing for a long time, he suddenly smiled and spoke.

The cold intent and killing aura suddenly subsided.

His maple-red robes carried a kind of fervor, like autumn reaching its end and finally bursting forth in brilliant splendor.

He pulled his long legs down from the tree branch and jumped down.

Yushan Xing was startled and nearly jumped off the little turtle – no, the little mound.

Jiang Wenchao bore no malice, only saying: “Those are all matters from years past. As fellow daoist said, just a waste, not worth dwelling on. This time, I also want to go to Kunwu to see the excitement. Seeing you two are quite interesting, I’d like to travel together. If you don’t have useful artifacts for traveling, I can help you out.”

Thirty years – the favorites to win the Zuo Three Thousand Minor Assembly had changed one after another, but there was no longer any place for him.

Thinking about it, it seemed like something worth sighing over sadly.

But so what?

Jiang Wenchao casually threw out a white flying boat that soared into mid-air. The vague shadow of a giant bird flickered briefly before vanishing.

“This boat is called the Twin Wings Boat, inscribed with wind-supporting formations and extremely fast. You two, please.”

Jiang Wenchao made a gesture of invitation.

This seemed like he was insisting on having them board.

Yushan Xing swallowed hard and instinctively looked at Jian Chou. Should they go or not?

Jian Chou found it amusing – you’re the one who knows the way, so why are you looking at me?

She only gave Yushan Xing a “you decide” look.

Regarding good and evil, she was quite perceptive. Since this Jiang Wenchao was a former championship favorite, he should know where Kunwu was, so he wouldn’t be lost as he claimed, unless he wasn’t familiar with this area either and couldn’t find a teleportation array.

Now it just depended on what Yushan Xing thought.

Poor Yushan Xing finally fell into inner conflict, still looking at Jian Chou: How about we board?

After all, that small boat looked quite impressive.

If they had a cultivator who should be at the Golden Core stage to take them, wouldn’t that be simple?

Jian Chou had no objections and nodded.

Alright, that settled it.

Yushan Xing quickly bowed to Jiang Wenchao: “Fellow Daoist Jiang truly has a warm heart, most admirable. Please rest assured, I’m familiar with this area.”

Jiang Wenchao showed no particular expression, only nodding. After Jian Chou and Yushan Xing both boarded the flying boat, he followed.

On the ground, the mountain that Yushan Xing had previously summoned sank back into the earth and disappeared after he left.

Jian Chou glanced at it, thinking this technique was indeed somewhat miraculous.

Then she looked ahead. The flying boat wasn’t large – three zhang long and one zhang wide in total. The three of them standing on it had more than enough space.

“Fellow Daoist Jiang, we should head southwest from here. This place is too remote to find a teleportation array, but there’s one not far ahead at Wuwang Zhai. We can teleport to the banks of the main stream of Nine-Headed River. However, once we get there, there won’t be any teleportation arrays. After crossing Nine-Headed River, we’ll have to travel by artifact all the way.”

Seeing the flying boat had already risen, Yushan Xing quickly gave Jiang Wenchao directions.

Jiang Wenchao smiled: “Kunwu hasn’t changed in all these years.”

This statement was odd – Jian Chou didn’t quite understand.

Yushan Xing knew she couldn’t understand. Someone who could get lost in the wilderness wouldn’t be expected to comprehend this.

So Yushan Xing directly explained to Jian Chou: “Kunwu has eleven mountains with an extremely vast territory. Nine-Headed River draws a perfect half-circle around these eleven mountains, and everything inside the circle is Kunwu’s domain. However, you can’t find a single teleportation array in there – it’s always been this way. So many people attending the Zuo Three Thousand Minor Assembly curse Kunwu as a freak. Because once you cross the river into Kunwu territory, there are no teleportation arrays to use, and you have to slowly fly to Kunwu’s main peak.”

Kunwu was famous far and wide. Its territorial control was similar to Yashan’s, but its management was much stricter than Yashan’s.

After all, Yashan focused on quality over quantity. In the past sixty years, they had never had more than four hundred disciples. Though their territory was large, they didn’t need it all themselves, so they generously granted it to many small sects and rogue cultivators who had nowhere else to go. These cultivators didn’t belong to Yashan but benefited from Yashan’s protection, allowing them to live peaceful lives – quite carefree indeed.

Some jokingly called these sects “Yashan guests,” and they were happy to accept this title, saying they “wished to be Yashan’s guests.”

Kunwu was different. All territories under its jurisdiction were strictly controlled by Kunwu cultivators.

Within the Nine-Headed River basin, it was impregnable.

Beyond the main peak, ten auxiliary peaks surrounded and protected Kunwu, creating an imposing sight.

If Yashan was the hermit and madman among the Central Domain’s two pillars, then Kunwu was a meticulous, comprehensive politician who brooked no contempt.

One transcended the world, the other engaged with it.

The two were completely different yet both held equally transcendent positions above the entire Central Domain.

As for why Kunwu had no teleportation arrays internally, people had always been curious but never received an answer.

Some said Kunwu wanted to maintain its authority and didn’t allow cultivators to use teleportation arrays within its territory. Others said Kunwu’s area was a feng shui treasure land where any teleportation arrays would disrupt spatial rules and destroy such feng shui…

Nobody knew which was true.

It was all just rumors anyway.

However, the teleportation array issue would only affect their later journey. For now, they would fly directly to the vicinity of Wuwang Zhai, then teleport to the banks of Nine-Headed River’s main stream.

Jiang Wenchao piloted the flying boat with familiarity.

He continued forward.

Behind him, Yushan Xing couldn’t help but transmit to Jian Chou: “There’ll be excitement to watch this year!”

“Excitement?”

Jian Chou was somewhat puzzled.

Yushan Xing’s face barely maintained calm, but looking at Jiang Wenchao’s back, his gaze held unconcealed fervor.

“Jiang Wenchao was the championship favorite back then! His cultivation speed was only surpassed by those two from Yashan and Kunwu today. In Zhilin Sou’s ‘Solitary Platform Notes’ that year, he directly rated this person as ‘none could compete with him.’ As long as he participated and reached the Solitary Platform, it was practically guaranteed.”

Zhilin Sou?

Hearing this name again, Jian Chou understood what the ‘Solitary Platform Notes’ was about.

She couldn’t help but continue transmitting: “What happened later?”

“Later, something went wrong naturally. Nobody knows what happened with his cultivation. Even with the entire sect’s resources, they couldn’t stop his cultivation from declining. Just five days before the Zuo Three Thousand Minor Assembly, his cultivation had fallen from Golden Core back to Qi Refining. I heard the entire Tongling Pavilion was stunned… Sigh, a fallen genius who hasn’t made a sound for thirty years – who knows what his situation has been like in Tongling Pavilion.”

Most sects tended to favor geniuses more.

But what about former geniuses like Jiang Wenchao?

How much criticism and strange looks would he face?

Jian Chou looked at that figure again, suddenly feeling something different.

At this moment, Jiang Wenchao’s back only appeared somewhat broad, showing nothing remarkable.

Apart from the killing intent he had revealed when he first appeared, his entire demeanor seemed extraordinarily peaceful – like composure, or perhaps the edges worn smooth by these thirty years.

After pondering for a while, Jian Chou understood what Yushan Xing’s earlier statement meant.

“Now that he’s suddenly appeared and wants to go to the Zuo Three Thousand Minor Assembly, and we can see his cultivation is higher than ours, he must undoubtedly be at Golden Core stage, which means…”

“Hehe.”

Yushan Xing excitedly rubbed his hands together and nodded.

That was exactly what he meant.

Tongling Pavilion was by the Western Sea, while this place was on the Central Domain’s mainland. Jiang Wenchao wouldn’t appear here for no reason – perhaps he had some fortuitous encounter? In any case, there was another reason.

The two of them intermittently transmitted back and forth, chatting quite a bit.

Now, mountain ranges continuously rose and fell beneath their feet before slowly disappearing.

The flying boat had traveled very far when Jiang Wenchao looked ahead and suddenly asked: “I’ve been withdrawn from worldly affairs for a long time. Have there been any major events in the Central Domain these past few years?”

With this question, Jian Chou immediately understood.

So he had been in secluded cultivation too long and was now completely in the dark, which was why he was bringing along companions to ask about the situation?

She looked at Yushan Xing.

Yushan Xing wasn’t timid at all – he became even more excited, directly pouring out everything he knew.

Jian Chou was simply dumbfounded, remembering the thatched cottage in that wilderness…

Where on earth did he get all this information?

However, from Yushan Xing’s mouth, Jian Chou also learned much useful information.

For instance, thirty years ago, it was a Kunwu cultivator who took first place.

For instance, over all these years of minor assemblies, one-third of the cultivators who reached the Solitary Platform came from Yashan and Kunwu, while the remaining two-thirds came from the star-studded Central Domain’s Left Three Thousand.

The reason was simply that these two sects accepted few disciples. Compared to the entire Central Domain, they were like taking a single ladle from three thousand li of weak water. That they could account for this proportion was already quite terrifying. Additionally, since early cultivation was relatively simple, the problem of small sects’ weak foundations couldn’t yet be reflected in their disciples’ cultivation progress.

The further along, the more major sects with deep foundations could display their accumulated abilities from thousands upon thousands of years.

For instance, only two types of people could participate in the Zuo Three Thousand Minor Assembly.

The first type was new disciples accepted by major sects within the past ten years. The second type was cultivators who had never participated in a minor assembly and whose strength was still below Nascent Soul stage.

Of course, wild cultivators without sects could also participate.

However, in all these years, no wild cultivator had ever reached the Solitary Platform.

For another instance, the rules of the Zuo Three Thousand Minor Assembly changed every session, but they had been relatively conventional for the past three hundred years.

The reason…

Was actually because Fudao Shanren had irresponsibly gone out to play for three hundred years. With only True Person Hengxu hosting the Zuo Three Thousand Minor Assembly alone, without him causing trouble with wild ideas, there weren’t so many novel tricks to torture people half to death.

This year, well…

Yushan Xing stroked his chin as he spoke, then laughed: “It’s probably going to be another year of chaos!”

Listening to this, Jian Chou suddenly felt a chill.

Someone as unreliable as Fudao Shanren was actually one of the rule-makers for the Zuo Three Thousand Minor Assembly?

My god…

Was it too late to withdraw now?