"Kuzhu, have a seat." Jiang Chen smiled faintly. "It seems your comprehension of the 'Supreme Path of Observing Heaven' has borne some fruit over the years. From the looks of it, you're only half a step away from the high-level Heavenly Position. Do you know why you've been unable to break through to the seventh level of the Heavenly Position?"
Ancestor Kuzhu let out a heavy sigh. "I don't know. Perhaps I'm simply fated to have shallow fortune."
"Not at all!" Jiang Chen shook his head with a smile. "In the world of martial cultivation, there has always been the notion of defying heaven to reshape one's fate. It's true that some are blessed with more fortune than others, but which warrior who truly reached the peak didn't have the audacity to defy heaven and alter their destiny? And you, Kuzhu, are not a man of shallow fortune. Otherwise, in that battle long ago, I wouldn't have spared you. Killing you outright to eliminate any future trouble — wouldn't that have been the simpler path?"
"You didn't kill me — weren't you just keeping me alive so you could enslave me?" Ancestor Kuzhu was taken aback.
Jiang Chen laughed coldly. "Enslave you?"
As he spoke, Jiang Chen simply shook his head without offering any explanation. With a casual wave of his hand, a row of treasures radiating an unusual luster suddenly appeared on the table before him.
"This… these are Heavenly Position decrees?" Ancestor Kuzhu was utterly astonished. "So many Heavenly Position decrees — you…"
"These are just a portion of my spoils. I have plenty more where these came from. Now, do you still think I kept you around just to enslave you?"
Ancestor Kuzhu was struck speechless, his jaw hanging open.
His mind buzzed relentlessly. All this time, he had been convinced that Jiang Chen spared his life only to enslave him.
Now it seemed that wasn't the case at all.
"Jiang Chen… Young Master, this old man has been rather like a frog at the bottom of a well. I take it the journey to Myriad Abyss Island was far more brutal than I imagined?" Ancestor Kuzhu asked haltingly.
"Brutal, certainly. Quite a few Heavenly Position cultivators have fallen at my hands. Some of them were even stronger than you in cultivation. Do you know why I killed those people without a second thought, yet chose to spare you back then?"
"I don't know." Ancestor Kuzhu wore a bitter expression. He truly had no answer. He could sense that the young man before him was unfathomably deep — someone far beyond his ability to comprehend.
"The reason isn't actually complicated," Jiang Chen said with a calm smile. "On Myriad Abyss Island, I encountered over a hundred cultivators stronger than you. Across the entire island, those who surpass you number beyond counting. But in that environment, many of those with greater cultivation lacked your inner bearing. Their existence was merely propped up by the advantages of Myriad Abyss Island — in plain terms, they were simply fortunate enough to cultivate in a far superior environment than ours. Place them among the Kuman tribes, or in the Human Domain, and their cultivation would likely fall far short of yours, Kuzhu. Most importantly, they lived only to rely on their sects and attach themselves to other powerful figures. They never possessed the quality of standing on their own. But you, Kuzhu — you have that quality. Killing you would mean extinguishing the fortune of the Kuman tribes built up over thousands of years. I couldn't bring myself to do it."
"Couldn't bring yourself to do it?" Ancestor Kuzhu was completely stunned. "The Kuman tribes have always been a great threat to your human race. Logically, shouldn't you have wanted to wipe us out to the last?"
Jiang Chen smiled serenely. His vantage point, naturally, was far beyond what other human leaders could comprehend.
Perhaps in the eyes of other human powerhouses, the Kuman tribes were certainly enemies to be struck down without mercy — best to eradicate them root and branch.
But Jiang Chen didn't see things that way. His perspective wasn't entirely from the human race's point of view.
He looked at things from a higher, more distant vantage point.