CHAPTER 563: CHAPTER 444 HIS NAME ’ZHOU YAN’_2

Fallen leaves are like swords.

Swordsmanship leaves no traces.

"The Ten Directions Water and Fire Sword Technique."

Shi Ze watched the warrior performing swordsmanship. After a moment, he turned to Fengchang and said, "Meng Qing Senior Brother’s inscription on the Immortals Rock Wall contains a profound sword technique. Only those with exceptional insight and deep connection to fate can comprehend it. This boy has already grasped three aspects of it. His insight is truly rare."

Fengchang pulled up the warrior’s file. Upon glancing at it, he sighed with emotion, "This boy lost his mother at a young age, his father four years ago, and inherited his father’s work, becoming a warrior. Yet, he remains wholeheartedly devoted to the Dao. For the past four years, he’d been laboring as a tree weeding warrior in the Jade Peach Forest. After every shift, without fail, he would come here under the Immortals Rock Wall to study the inscriptions. This kind of persistence and piety are unmatched by ordinary people."

Cultivation values aptitude.

But what defines aptitude?

Innate talent.

Insight.

This warrior had decent insight, a strong character, and, combined with the right fate, Shi Ze grew increasingly fond of him.

"Such an unpolished gem — it’s truly a waste for him to remain a warrior. Why not cleanse the impurities within him and guide him onto the proper path of the immortal Dao? Perhaps let him start as an official disciple in the Daoist School. What do you think?"

Fengchang could see Shi Ze’s admiration for this warrior.

But he also knew Shi Ze was about to embark on a journey across the world to prepare for breaking into the True Inheritor rank. It wouldn’t be practical for him to take along such a burden. Incorporating the boy into Dongqi Daoist School and steering him toward the immortal path seemed like a suitable compromise.

"Thank you, Dean."

"If he can become an official disciple of the Daoist School and further gain enlightenment from Senior Brother’s Ten Directions Water and Fire Sword Technique, achieving Divine Transformation and entering the Dao Sect before turning two hundred, then upon my return, I will ensure he becomes a disciple under Meng Qing Senior Brother."

Shi Ze made no effort to conceal his favoritism toward this warrior.

But it was limited to just that.

If this person cannot even enter the Dao Sect or fails to reach Divine Transformation by the age of two hundred, then everything becomes immaterial.

Entering the Dao Sect.

This was the prerequisite for Shi Ze to further extend his favor, fulfilling the potential outcome of their shared destiny.

As for now.

Helping him shed his identity as a mere warrior and become an official disciple of Dongqi Daoist School, with a little care from the Dean — that effort was already sufficient.

"What’s this warrior’s name?"

Shi Ze asked.

"His name is Zhou Yan."

...

Shi Ze did not personally show himself to meet the warrior Zhou Yan.

After staying at Dongqi Daoist School for a few days, he departed, sword in hand, to embark on his travel and training.

Nor did Dean Fengchang make an appearance.

The Dean.

The Upper Immortal.

Fengchang held a position of exceptional status within Dongqi Daoist School. A mere warrior, even one who had become an official disciple, was far from qualified for an audience.

The Dean merely ordered someone to cleanse Zhou Yan’s physical impurities and move his name from the warrior registry to the disciples’ roster.

From then on.

This Mighty Lifter Warrior and Tree Weeding Warrior transformed into an official disciple of Dongqi Daoist School.

During this process, he did not have the opportunity to meet Shi Ze nor Dean Fengchang.

...

"Done!"

After completing all procedures to become an official disciple, Chen Jichuan returned to his cultivation cave and exhaled in relief.

In just four short years.

He had transformed from a bleakly fated Mighty Lifter Warrior into a bright-future Daoist School disciple. Beneath his name now stood three Sea-tidal Warriors, twelve River Flipping Warriors, and thirty-six Mighty Lifter Warriors, all at his beck and call, managing affairs inside and outside the cave.

A carp leaping over the dragon gate.

Nothing less.

"Unfortunately, my cultivation level is too low for Shi Ze to take notice. Otherwise, being brought directly into the Dao Sect would have been far more convenient."

Chen Jichuan sat alone in his cave, contemplating silently.

In the eyes of the warriors and disciples at Dongqi Daoist School, Chen Jichuan’s enlightenment at the Immortals Rock Wall was nothing short of sheer luck.

A leap from fish to dragon.

But what they did not know was that Chen Jichuan had already been waiting for this day for four years.

For four years.

He diligently worked in the Jade Peach Forest, deliberately and unfailingly visiting the Immortals Rock Wall after every shift.

He spent four years carefully crafting his "persona."

But even that wasn’t enough.

There still needed to be an opportunity.

Thus, during those four years in Jade Peach Forest, Chen Jichuan frequently gazed at the skies, waiting for an opportunity to present itself.

One day.

Shi Ze visited the Daoist School, flying across the skies. Chen Jichuan noticed his escape light and discerned his essence at once. He realized this person possessed an Upper Immortal cultivation at barely over two thousand years old and had progressed deeply in the Ten Directions Water and Fire Sword Technique.

Fortune had arrived.

Chen Jichuan had studied every inheritance on the Immortals Rock Wall thoroughly, knowing well there was a legacy of this precise Absolute Skill among them.

So, as he did daily after his shift, he went to the Immortals Rock Wall and deliberately selected Meng Qing Upper Immortal’s inscription to seek enlightenment.

What Shi Ze and Fengchang perceived as "fate" was derived precisely in this way.

Insight.

Enlightenment.

Two innate talents that allowed Chen Jichuan to execute his strategy seamlessly, transforming his identity in a matter of days, unnoticed by others.

Through their attention, he circumvented many inconveniences and disadvantages associated with being a mere warrior. The Daoist School was by no means a charitable haven — its factions were numerous, its people complex. Many official disciples and elite disciples hadn’t been able to glean any enlightenment from the Immortals Rock Wall, yet a lowly warrior had managed it. Those harboring resentment and petty grievances might resort to underhanded tactics in secret.

Such incidents were not unheard of in Dongqi Daoist School.

A warrior’s life was insignificant, their existence easily discarded.

Chen Jichuan had no intention of inviting trouble needlessly, so he waited patiently for four years before finally succeeding in a single decisive effort.

Now that he’d secured his identity as a disciple of the Daoist School.

"Next step."

"Cultivate well, ascend to Divine Transformation by the age of one hundred twenty, then enter the One Origin Dao Sect."

In Dongqi Daoist School’s history, the quickest Divine Transformation advancement happened at the age of one hundred twenty-four — a prodigious talent whose progression from the start of cultivation was nothing short of blazing.

But, alas, they fell midway, dying only at the level of Divine Transformation Realm.