History's Number 1 Founder
chapter-406

Normal cultivators, as they ascend to the Immortal Soul stage, would have had merged his nascent soul with the Cosmic Form. The nascent soul as the essence and the Cosmic Form as the complement and, together with the power of the Great Taoist Mantra and ultimately realize the avatar of the immortal soul.

Most cultivators who had obtained the avatar of the immortal soul would leave behind his or her old physical body. The immortal soul avatar, along with the mental state and the soul, would be vastly different from before. The merger of the soul and the essence, even if the old physical shell was no more was unimportant. In the end, the ascended individual transcended all boundaries and could roam free in the world.

However, Prince Xian of the Left and Zhu Hongwu in front of him attained the immortal soul stage by means of pure physical prowess. Their physical body had gone through great tribulation and training and the strength of the former is unimaginably immense. During the advanced level of the nascent soul stage, they would not be awakened even with the completion of the Cosmic Form.

Individuals with pure physical strength, at the advanced levels of the nascent soul stage they would have begun imbuing their own body with the power of the Cosmic Form and, with the immense power of the latter, continue to increase the essence of their physical form.

Zhu Hongwu was also a prodigy with extraordinary talent. When he was still in the first grade of the immortal soul stage, his battle power could be said to match that of a second-grade immortal soul stage cultivator. Now that he had ascended to the second grade, he was like the descent of Satan upon the wretched Earth.

Zhu Yi, Shi Tianwu, Tun Tun and the others could feel the intense pressure coming from Zhu Hongwu.

In reality, even though Lin Feng was in his Steel Tree Avatar form, he could still feel the uneasiness around Zhu Hongwu.

However, he felt more happiness rather than distress as he watched the Marquis of Xuanji. Lin Feng nodded in approval and said, "It’s better this way. If not, you’d be pinched by the Great Void Sect way too easily. It’s hard to Liang Pan to survive all by himself and the Great Zhou Empire would have a hard time afterwards."

Lin Feng was completely unafraid of the Great Zhou Empire’s power expansion. The reason was simple – the Great Void Sect was still pressuring from up top, and the main sacred mission of the Great Void Sect was to protect the weak against the strong.

In other words, regardless of whether it was the Great Zhou Empire, the Mount Shu Sword Sect, the Great Qin Empire, the Celestial Sect of Wonders, the Heavenly Master Sword Sect, the Great Void Sect had the habit of intervening and hammering down the biggest nail.

The Great Void Sect viewed the world like a game of chess. For the same reason, they were also a very useful piece of chess in the eyes of everybody else; especially so when they were the disadvantaged ones and the opponents they were facing were getting stronger and stronger. The Great Void Sect would make a fantastic ally.

The mutual usefulness and manipulation was complicated and delicate. In the end, whoever was the one that manipulated the other would change in the blink of an eye and the one that survived to the end would have the last laugh.

Of course, there was a preamble to all this. That would be the great compass that guided the actions of the Great Void Sect, the head of the Conservative Party. If it were the Radical Party in charge, then the scenario would be vastly different.

However, if the Great Void Sect was taken over by the Radical Party, then they had a high chance to become the public enemy and the scourge of the community.

The Great Void Sect’s inner circle was also incessantly fighting it out with one another and playing intense politics.

Zhu Yi had mixed feelings Looking at Zhu Hongwu burning the painting and eventually breaking the bottleneck to the second grade of the immortal soul stage.

What was happening in front of him was self-explanatory. Zhu Hongwu and Meng Bingyun were not completely left in the dark. Over the years, he had been teetering on the edge of advancing beyond the first grade of the immortal soul stage and was only a hair’s breadth away from it.

After that tiny step was an immediate ascension to the second grade of the immortal soul stage.

The last hole in his mental state that he needed to plug was the drama between him and Meng Bingyun. If not for this last string holding him back, he would probably have already reached the second grade immortal soul stage.

In Zhu Hongwu’s heart, there was always a corner for Meng Bingyun to reside in. No matter what happened between them or if they went their separate ways, even to the end where Zhu Hongwu’s actions directly resulted in the death of Meng Bingyun, there was always an emotional connection between the two.

Knowing the aforementioned fact, Zhu Yi should be happy for them but now he could only feel his body going cold.

From this moment on, in front of the Meng Bingyun’s tombstone and in front of Zhu Yi, Zhu Hongwu cut off the emotional connection once and for all.

From this moment on, Meng Bingyun would have vanished from Zhu Hongwu’s heart for good. She would become a normal passing individual in his life and his memory and was no different from everybody else.

Zhu Hongwu’s breakthrough was a sudden and abrupt item. Very quickly, he let of his majestic and grand disposition completely and his whole being returned to calmness and peace. He stood there like any typical middle-aged person would.

However, Lin Feng knew that the Zhu Hongwu of current could leap in front of him in an instant and at a speed faster than any spell. It was possible that his speed could be faster than that of thought. His opponent would not even have enough time to think about a response let alone make one.

Zhu Hongwu’s pupils seemed to flicker with the reflections of a thousand stars, which subsequently disintegrated into stardust and shooting stars.

He stared at Lin Feng with glowing eyes and shook his head after a long while. "Now is not the time. Lin Feng, you need to thank the Great Void Sect. Otherwise, you would never be able to step out of the Mount Qingyang today. This includes not only your avatar but your original body."

"The Great Zhou Empire becoming the pillar of the world is our divine destiny. Anybody trying to stop that from happening is wasting his or her time. The Great Void Sect is as such, and anybody else who doesn’t recognize true power is as such."

Zhu Hongwu’s voice was calm and composed as if he was simply recounting a fact of life that everybody knew. The tranquility in his voice displayed an unwavering belief and immense self-confidence.

Lin Feng glanced at Zhu Hongwu and suddenly laughed. "You don’t have to beat about the bush. I know who are the people that the Great Zhou Empire rely on. Your ascension to the second grade of the immortal soul stage may have boosted your ego and your self-confidence, but everybody is acutely aware that the advancement of your mastery has no impact whatsoever on the bigger picture."

"If Liang Pan could advance to the next grade, then the Great Zhou Empire would have a much more reliable backing."

Zhu Hongwu’s face remained unchanged and replied quietly, "Seems like Yan Mingyue has told you a lot."

Lin Feng smiled in return and said, "Yet the things you know are getting lesser and lesser."

"Pay more attention to the Great Qin Empire. There is a prodigious individual over there – though still a work in progress – and he’s almost done with his training."

"Oh?" Since the beginning of the conversation, it was the first time Zhu Hongwu’s face changed. The aura around him seemed to tremble along with his emotions, and the temperate of the entire Mount Qingyang seemed to plummet. The air around him began to solidify and even the dust particles were frozen in the air.

Only the space behind Lin Feng and the camp of Celestial Sect of Wonders disciples were unaffected. Zhu Yi witnessed the drastic change in Zhu Hongwu’s expression and reacted with a smile.

Since the start, Lin Feng was mostly uninvolved in the matter. He left the autonomy of speech to Zhu Yi and let father and son resolve their knots and whatsoever by themselves.

Even though Zhu Yi was much stronger than before, compared to Zhu Hongwu he still had quite a considerable gap to bridge. Therefore, it was always Zhu Hongwu who maintained the dominance and guided the direction of the conversation. Afterwards, the moment he broke the bottleneck and advanced to the next grade of the immortal soul stage, he raised his aura of dominance and influence to a maximum.

But now, one sentence from Lin Feng repelled the Zhu Hongwu’s dominance.

Zhu Hongwu remained the Marquis of Xuanji of the Great Zhou Empire and was most powerful individual after the emperor himself and was still a second-grade immortal soul stage superpower. Even so, he could not revert back to the original aura of divinity that he attained during his breakthrough.

"The Great Qin Empire, huh?" Zhu Hongwu’s losing his cool was only a momentary thing and he quickly recovered. He was still expressionless as he continued, "They want to reveal their old ancestral weapon, eh? The last time there was a great battle between the human race and the demon race, they were pretty much ruined and a couple of thousands years later what’s lost is yet to be fixed. They couldn’t have been doing this by themselves – somebody must be helping them."

Lin Feng wore a casual look on his face and calmly replied, "Liang Pan has the idea of becoming the divine emperor of the human and unite the mainland. He wants to rule the world and be the king of today and tomorrow. Then again, who doesn’t have such thoughts?"

Zhu Hongwu said in response, "One cannot stop what’s coming."

And with that he was gone. Zhu Hongwu opened his stride and was about to leave when Zhu Yi opened his mouth and said quietly, "I will bring back mother’s coffin to Mount Yujing."

Zhu Hongwu did not turn his head and neither did he stop walking. "That’s up to you. She can’t enter the family tomb anyway. If she’s going to be buried outside it doesn’t matter where."

Zhu Yi was still calm as he heard Zhu Hongwu’s reply. In fact, he smiled and replied, "In the future, I will take my mother’s coffin into the Zhu Ancestral Tomb myself."

"Oh?" Zhu Hongwu abruptly stopped in his tracks but did not turn around. He asked coldly, "What did you say?"

Zhu Yi laughed at Zhu Hongwu’s reaction and said, "Do not misunderstand me. It’s not because I think entering the Zhu Ancestral Tomb is extremely glorious and neither am I trying to make up for past wrongs. I’m saying this only because I know if I do it your expression will be priceless."

"If my mother’s soul – may she rest in peace – saw this scene she may think that I’m being childish and throwing a tantrum. Still, she would be laughing?"

Zhu Hongwu was still rooted to the ground. On the other hand, Zhu Yi smiled but it was one devoid of warmth and friendliness as he stared at Zhu Hongwu’s back.

Lin Feng watched on with mild amusement and thought to himself, "Tsk tsk. Zhu Yi, your grudges have really been placed well. Even though I squeezed him just now but in the end, he’s still a skilled cultivator and he would rather break than bend. His temper is also shorter than most other cultivators and may even start fighting now."

As per Lin Feng’s predictions, Zhu Hongwu did look like he wanted to make a move and pinch Zhu Yi and send him to hell. However, his brows shifted and he turned around with an intensely condescending look before turning back and striding into the horizon. It was not long before he completely disappeared.

Lin Feng shrugged as he watched Zhu Hongwu disappear over the horizon. He kept the Sky-Shielding Umbrella that he had pinched in his hand just in case.

The smile on Zhu Yi’s face immediately disappeared as he peered in the direction that Zhu Hongwu went with a rather plain expression. He did not say a word for a long time.

After paying his respects to Meng Bingyun, Zhu Yi garnered a wave of mana and dug up the coffin – a hundred feet around the coffin to be exact. He did not want to tarnish the remains of his mother in any way, and with the help of Lin Feng, he brought his mother back to Mount Yujing. Eventually, he settled her down and buried her behind the Heavenly Temple.

Lin Feng was observing Zhu Yi quietly and discovered that his mental state of mind, as stable and resilient as it is, was more vibrant and sharper than before. Breaking the bind that Zhu Hongwu had on Zhu Yi seemed to improve his mastery of emotions.

After greeting Lin Feng and arranging the rest of the disciples of the Celestial Sect of Wonders, Zhu Yi entered the Heavenly Cosmic Ray World and shut himself in and began combing through the harvest from their visit to the city.

"Oh?" After Lin Feng sent Zhu Yi through the Heavenly Cosmic Ray World, he was preparing to analyze the Kun Peng blood vessels of Kun Yue Grandmaster when a thought triggered in his mind. He extended his consciousness and swept his surroundings and discovered a shady Tun Tun wondering around. Instead of returning to the Wasteland Valley, Tun Tun was up on Mount Yujing and sneaking around towards Hu Yanyan’s residence.

Lin Feng’s mouth curled as he muttered under his breath. "What are you up to now, troublemaker?"