Divine Medicine Valley.
Without the obstruction of the elder faction, the negotiations between Yang Cheng and Yu Qiuyue went smoothly.
Afterward, Yang Cheng and Tang Xingyu both entered closed-door cultivation.
Within the Starfall Secret Realm lay two great fortunes: one was the Thunder Pool, the other the Pill Wall.
In the Pill God Hall, there had once been a thunder-element god who chased after Gu Chen. Gu Chen pulled him into the Wasteland Realm with a mutual-destruction method.
Gu Chen turned into the Pill Wall, while that thunder-element god became the Thunder Pool.
After Cheng Junyi and Tang Xingyu had gained from the Thunder Pool, they could have left the secret realm.
The reason they stayed was to hold Zuo Qiuming back, waiting for Yang Cheng to arrive.
Now Tang Xingyu was digesting and absorbing the harvest from the Thunder Pool.
Besides that, Yang Cheng passed the Dragon-Tiger Breathing Technique to Tang Xingyu.
This gave Tang Xingyu yet another top-tier breathing art.
Yang Cheng himself needed to fill his dantian.
A Ten-Star Golden Dantian was far too terrifying.
His dantian had already turned into a vast sea of pills.
A One-Star Golden Dantian had a diameter of 100 zhang, and each level increased tenfold.
By the time it reached Ten-Star, the space of the dantian was unimaginably vast.
At present, Yang Cheng had stockpiled a massive amount of spirit stones.
Mo Qingxuan, Valley Master Tan, and the others had plenty of treasures.
With Yang Cheng's strength, he could have easily killed them himself and seized their belongings.
But since he left them all for Yu Qiuyue to kill, Yu Qiuyue naturally had to compensate him.
For example, for a single Black Tiger Furnace, Yu Qiuyue paid 30,000 supreme-grade spirit stones.
For the other treasures of Divine Medicine Valley's high ranks, she paid a total of 70,000 supreme-grade spirit stones.
That made it 100,000 supreme-grade spirit stones.
But that was still not enough.
Because without Yang Cheng, Yu Qiuyue could never have defeated the elder faction.
So Yu Qiuyue gave Yang Cheng an additional 300,000 supreme-grade spirit stones!
This alone showed how wealthy Divine Medicine Valley was.
And before this, when Yang Cheng killed Chu Chen, destroyed the Southern Guardian Prince's estate, and annihilated the Chu clan, he had already stockpiled over 1,000,000 supreme-grade spirit stones.
Now he was using these spirit stones to fill his dantian.
Outside—
"Zuo Qiuming is dead?"
Jiang Bingjun stood dumbfounded.
Beside him, Shen Mulan's mouth also dropped open.
Not long ago, Jiang Bingjun had boasted endlessly about Zuo Qiuming, saying there was none like him under heaven, not even Yang Cheng could compare.
But in the blink of an eye, news had come from within Divine Medicine Valley.
Zuo Qiuming had stirred up rebellion, joining forces with Valley Master Tan and others to plot treason, clashing with Mo Qingxuan and others until both sides suffered.
At the critical moment, Yang Cheng assisted Yu Qiuyue in quelling the chaos.
Jiang Bingjun cared little for the lives of the others.
What he could not accept was that the news said Zuo Qiuming had been killed by Yang Cheng.
"How could this be? How could he die!"
Jiang Bingjun couldn't accept it.
Zuo Qiuming was the reincarnation of Zuo Mingqiu, with the soul of a god. In the future, he was destined to shine brilliantly across all realms of heaven and earth.
Someone like that shouldn't have been someone a child of fate from a tiny, mayfly world could surpass.
But the fact was, Zuo Qiuming had been slain by Yang Cheng!
What Jiang Bingjun didn't know was that, at this moment, the image he held in Shen Mulan's heart had completely collapsed.
Before, Shen Mulan always looked at Jiang Bingjun through a filter.
She believed that since he came from a great world, his knowledge must be vast, and she admired him greatly.
But time and again, events proved that Jiang Bingjun's judgment wasn't so impressive after all.
From the very start, Jiang Bingjun had looked down on Yang Cheng. He even tried to lecture him, claiming Yang Cheng wasn't as good as Chu Chen, and wanted his daughter to curry favor with Chu Chen.
But Yang Cheng easily crushed Chu Chen.
As for Jiang Bingjun himself, because of his disrespect toward Yang Cheng, just a single sentence from Yang Cheng had scared him into kneeling.
Even then, though Shen Mulan's heart wavered, she still chose to trust Jiang Bingjun.
After all, everyone makes mistakes.
Later, Jiang Bingjun again claimed Yang Cheng was not as good as Zuo Qiuming, exaggerating Zuo Qiuming while belittling Yang Cheng.
This mindset came from the fact that Jiang Bingjun came from a great world. He always thought himself superior, carrying a deep prejudice against people from the Wasteland Realm.
In his eyes, the Wasteland Realm was a mayfly world, and its people were inherently inferior to those of the Azure Jade Realm.
So he simply couldn't accept that someone from the Wasteland Realm could surpass those from the Azure Jade Realm.
Chu Chen was from the Azure Jade Realm.
As for Zuo Mingqiu, though he was born in the Wasteland Realm, rumors said he had grown up in the Azure Jade Realm.
Yet reality was cruel.
Chu Chen, and Zuo Mingqiu's reincarnation Zuo Qiuming, were all slain by Yang Cheng.
It was as if Yang Cheng had slapped Jiang Bingjun's face again and again.
"Husband, why don't we let Hengwu go seek out Crown Prince Yang? From now on, we shouldn't interfere lightly."
Shen Mulan said, "I think Hengwu feels something special toward Crown Prince Yang."
Yang Cheng was the Crown Prince. In the future, he was bound to have three palaces and six courts.
But she didn't mind.
Her own status wasn't high to begin with.
If Jiang Hengwu could marry Yang Cheng and become one of his consorts, she would already be very satisfied.
Jiang Bingjun's face twisted again and again, but in the end he slumped and said, "At this point, we have no other choice."
Chanzhou.
By the shores of Spring Lake.
"Senior, what were you saying?"
Several juniors asked in surprise.
The drunkard didn't answer. Instead, he put away his fishing rod. "You brats, hurry home."
He left in haste, his steps hurried.
Inside, waves of unease surged within him.
"Su Lingchen… after seventeen years, he has returned."
"Why would he come back?"
All of a sudden, the drunkard thought of someone.
The Crown Prince of Great Zhou, Yang Cheng!
Not long ago, Yang Cheng had killed Chu Chen.
And Su Lingchen was Chu Chen's little martial uncle.
Moreover, it was said Chu Chen's master had died long ago, so Su Lingchen was essentially Chu Chen's true master.
That meant Su Lingchen had likely come for Yang Cheng.
"This is truly a troubled time."
"With Su Lingchen's return, the Wasteland Realm will once again fall into turmoil."
Just recalling the events of seventeen years ago made the drunkard's scalp tingle and his heart pound.
Back then, Su Lingchen and several other young geniuses from the Azure Jade Realm had descended upon the Wasteland Realm without warning.
From then on, that entire generation of Wasteland Realm geniuses had been wiped out.
His senior brother, Feng Heling, once the number one genius of Chanzhou and one of Great Zhou's greatest talents, had been killed by Su Lingchen at that time.
The drunkard's face grew grim. "Seventeen years ago, Su Lingchen was already a peak Martial Saint at just twenty years old. How strong must he be now?"
In truth, when it came to martial talent, he believed Yang Cheng was even stronger than Su Lingchen.
Even the talent of Great Zhou's Marquis Champion was likely no weaker than Su Lingchen's.
"That Marquis Champion of Great Zhou is now twenty-four years old. I hear he has already become a Martial Sovereign."
"If he were the same age as Su Lingchen, perhaps he really could fight him."
"Unfortunately, he is thirteen years younger than Su Lingchen. The gap in years is simply too great. There's no way to fight on equal terms."
"As for Yang Cheng, the age difference is even greater."
The drunkard was full of worry.
The actions of the Azure Jade Realm seventeen years ago had been venomous.
At that time, all the most outstanding talents of the Wasteland Realm had been crushed by them.
This left the Wasteland Realm in a state of decline.
The old Martial Sovereigns were already too aged, their strength waning, while the younger geniuses were still too young.
Who could possibly stand against Su Lingchen?
In the crowd, Su Lingchen walked at the front.
His aura was too unique.
Wherever he passed, people couldn't help but turn their heads.
Yet Su Lingchen didn't care in the least, not at all disturbed by the stares around him.
It was the man following behind him under a bamboo hat, Zhuang Lin, who felt uneasy and awkward.