Watching the Mountain

Chapter 430: Chapter 222: The Plan

”Your first battle after reaching Divinity Transformation was a crisis of this magnitude. You must have been very uneasy.”

After Shen Wuchen took his seat, Xu Ran quietly studied him before remarking with a sigh of concern.

Everyone in the Sect was now cheering for Shen Wuchen. And while Xu Ran was proud of him, as his master, his overwhelming feeling was one of concern.

Perhaps aside from Ye Qingyue, he was the person in the world who understood Shen Wuchen best.

This student of his, while not like himself—who had always stayed within the Sect, never experiencing any crises—hadn’t faced many life-or-death battles in his life.

As the first person in the world to embark on the Flying Immortal Stream and a genius on that path, the Sect had designated him a key prospect for nurturing, on par with other chosen ones like Zhang Zhentian and Chen Chang’an. He was granted almost absolute freedom, and the Sect never forced him to undertake any missions.

As a result, the greatest life-or-death crisis Shen Wuchen had ever experienced was on the New Domain Battlefield—and he had gone there voluntarily to temper himself.

Ever since Ye Qingyue shielded him from a fatal blow, he had withdrawn from the battlefield. After that, his only true combat experiences were a few joint efforts with Zhang Zhentian and the expedition to the Overseas Archipelago. They were few and far between, and all were undertaken with Zhang Zhentian’s support.

As for those so-called losing streaks, those were all arena matches, not life-or-death struggles.

It was because he understood all this, and Shen Wuchen’s true abilities, that Xu Ran knew just how perilous the recent battle had been—and just how much courage it had taken for Shen Wuchen to step forward.

’When Shen Wuchen had declared, ”I alone am enough,” most people thought him overconfident. But Xu Ran understood. It was a signal for everyone else to prepare to flee while he held back the enemy alone.’

Unfortunately, very few people understood his true meaning. Xu Ran relayed Shen Wuchen’s intent to Li Daoyi and Chen Chang’an, but both immediately refused, saying they would fight alongside him.

Xu Ran said nothing more on the matter. Even he, upon seeing his student face such a powerful enemy alone, couldn’t entertain the thought of escape. Instead, he had decided to hold out until the very last moment, when there was no other choice, and then flee with Shen Wuchen.

Hearing Master Xu’s words, Shen Wuchen’s expression froze for an instant. His gaze flickered as he looked at his master, his mind in turmoil.

’As I thought. Nothing escapes Master Xu’s eye.’

He fell silent for a moment before nodding and admitting frankly, ”I was very nervous.”

This was the first time he had ever felt the fate of the entire Sect resting on his shoulders.

Before this, because he followed the path of the Flying Immortal Stream, his combat strength had always been much weaker than that of his peers in the same Realm.

Thus, his goals had always been quite simple: get stronger, defeat Zhang Zhentian, become Master Xu’s disciple, and continue to advance further and further along the path of the Flying Immortal Stream until it could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the traditional cultivation paths.

He had never imagined that one day he would carry the fate of the entire Sect on his back. The Sect, it seemed, had never held such expectations for him. Even after he reached the Nascent Soul Stage, they had never burdened him with too much, simply letting him focus on his cultivation and on getting stronger.

That is, until a moment ago. When the Vast Sea Daoist Monarch appeared and there was no one in the entire Sect who could fight him, he had stepped forward in everyone’s moment of despair.

When he heard the Sect disciples cheer at his appearance, shouting that they had a Divinity Transformation Daoist Monarch, it finally dawned on him... that he was now the person in the Sect with the highest Cultivation Realm and the greatest strength.

He had a sudden epiphany. It wasn’t that the Sect had no expectations for him. On the contrary, it was because their expectations were so incredibly high that they had continued to let him cultivate as he pleased, even after he reached the Nascent Soul Stage.

And all of it... was for this very moment.

A sense of responsibility and mission welled up in his heart. He now understood that when his Cultivation Realm and strength made him the highest in the Sect, the responsibilities the Sect had previously shielded him from would naturally fall upon his shoulders.

Just as the Sect’s seniors had always protected him and his many peers while they grew, it was now his turn to protect the Sect.

No inheritance ritual or formal ceremony was needed. The moment his cultivation broke through, the succession was complete, all as a matter of course.

It was precisely because of this realization that when he heard the Sect’s disciples heedlessly shouting that they would help him fight, he had immediately intervened to stop them, declaring that he alone was enough.

As the single most powerful person in the Sect, how could he possibly stand by and watch as the junior disciples, so much weaker than him, rushed forward to die for him?

The battle was his responsibility. Theirs was simply to find a way to escape and survive.

Recalling the perilous scene he had just endured, Shen Wuchen fell silent for a moment, his gaze locked on Xu Ran. He parted his lips and spoke softly:

”Master Xu, I know that given my abilities, losing to others is a normal thing. I’ve always taken your past advice to heart—not to dwell on failure. But...”

”Now... I don’t think I can afford to fail anymore.”

He was now the strongest person in the Sect. If he fell, then... the Sect would fall with him.