"Ku Zhu, have a seat." Jiang Chen smiled faintly. "These years, it seems you've gained some understanding of 'The Supreme Heavenly Dao.' Looking at your condition, you're only half a step away from the upper tier of the Heavenly Position. Do you know why you've been unable to break through to the Seventh Heaven Rank for so long?"
Elder Ku Zhu heaved a sigh. "I don't know. Perhaps I was simply born with a thin destiny."
"Not so." Jiang Chen shook his head with a smile. "The martial path has always spoken of defying heaven to change one's fate. Destinies may be thick or thin—that is natural law. But every martial artist who has truly reached the pinnacle possessed the courage to defy heaven and reshape their destiny. And you, Ku Zhu, are not a man of thin destiny. Otherwise, back in that battle, I would never have spared you. Killing you outright and eliminating the threat for good—wouldn't that have been simpler?"
"You didn't kill me... wasn't it because you wanted to enslave me?" Elder Ku Zhu was taken aback.
Jiang Chen let out a cold laugh. "Enslave you?"
As he spoke, he shook his own head and offered no explanation. With a casual wave of his hand, a row of treasures suddenly appeared on the table before him, each radiating an eerie luster.
"Those... are those Heavenly Position Decrees?" Elder Ku Zhu was shocked. "So many Heavenly Position Decrees—you..."
"This is only a portion of my spoils. I have plenty more Heavenly Position Decrees like these. Now, do you still believe I kept you around simply to enslave you?"
Elder Ku Zhu stood tongue-tied, unable to utter another word.
His mind buzzed with noise. All along, he had assumed Jiang Chen spared his life only to enslave him.
Now it seemed the truth was rather different.
"Jiang Chen... Young Master, this old man has been a frog at the bottom of a well. It seems the journey to Myriad Abyss Island was far more brutal than I imagined?" Elder Ku Zhu asked haltingly.
"Brutal, certainly. In my hands, I've killed quite a few Heavenly Position cultivators. Some of them even had cultivation above yours. Do you know why I killed those people without hesitation, yet chose not to kill you back then?"
"I don't know." Elder Ku Zhu wore a bitter expression. He truly didn't know anymore. He could sense that the young man before him was unfathomably deep—nothing he could fully comprehend.
"The reason isn't actually complicated," Jiang Chen said with a faint smile. "On Myriad Abyss Island, I encountered over a hundred cultivators stronger than you. Across the entire island, those who surpass you are too numerous to count. But in that grand environment, many cultivators with superior cultivation lack a certain inner quality that you possess. Their existence is merely propped up by the advantages of Myriad Abyss Island—in plain terms, they were born lucky, cultivating in a far superior environment than ours. If you placed them among the Ku Barbarian tribes or the human domain, their realms would likely be far below yours. Most importantly, their purpose in life is to cling to their sects, to lean on other powerful figures. They lack the bearing to stand on their own. But you, Ku Zhu, possess that very quality. Killing you would be tantamount to extinguishing thousands of years of fortune from the Ku Barbarian tribes. I couldn't bear to do it."
"Couldn't bear to?" Elder Ku Zhu was utterly stunned. "My Ku Barbarian tribes have always been a great threat to your human race. By all logic, shouldn't you be eager to wipe us out completely?"
Jiang Chen smiled serenely. His perspective was naturally far beyond what other human leaders could match.
Perhaps in the eyes of other human powerhouses, the Ku Barbarian tribes absolutely deserved to be beaten like drowning dogs—wiped out entirely, their roots torn away.
But Jiang Chen did not see it that way. His position was not wholly shaped by the human race's standpoint alone.
He viewed things from a higher, more distant vantage point.