What did "breaking through in one move" even mean?
From the peak of the Celestial level to the Divine Dao — how many cultivators had been stopped cold by the threshold in between? Cultivators in this world were as countless as grains of sand on the ground, and yet how many among them were fortunate enough to break through to the Divine Dao?
Even someone like An Jiaye and the other Divine Dao cultivators — their own breakthroughs to the Divine Dao had involved all manner of miraculous fortune beyond what ordinary people could imagine, and even then, the process had been a brush with death nine times over.
And here was Jiang Chen. After only a dozen or so years, he had broken through continuously, "breaking through in one move" all the way to the third level of the Divine Dao. It was enough to make anyone lose the will to live.
Even An Jiaye himself was currently only at the third level of the Divine Dao, still one step away from the mid-stage of the Divine Dao — a threshold he had never been able to cross.
And of the people he had brought along, only two were at the third level of the Divine Dao. The rest were merely first or second level cultivators at most.
Divine Lord Jiaye was speechless for a long time before finally managing a bitter smile. "Fine. From the very first time I met you, I knew you were a martial arts freak. But now it seems you're an absolute monster among monsters. I've run out of words to describe how inhuman you are."
The other Divine Dao cultivators who had come with Divine Lord Jiaye had originally harbored all manner of doubts about Jiang Chen. Many of them had assumed he was merely a Celestial-level cultivator, and that whatever accomplishments he'd achieved had simply been done through others' hands.
Deep down, they hadn't truly been impressed.
But at this moment, every last one of their doubts and perplexities had been completely dispelled.
In just over a decade, he had gone from the Celestial level to the third level of the Divine Dao. This was simply not something any ordinary person could accomplish — in fact, throughout all of recorded history, it was doubtful that anyone on the Divine Abyss Continent had ever managed such a feat.
How could anyone like them presume to question such a person?
Jiang Chen had seen this kind of reaction many times before. He smiled faintly. "Divine Lord, these friends of yours — I take it they are all close companions of yours?"
"That's right. They are all like-minded fellow Daoists of mine. Everyone, this is the Jiang Chen I have told you so much about. Well? Does this young man live up to all the praise I've given him?" Divine Lord Jiaye's tone was clearly one of great pride.
These cultivators had all been forged in the endless prisons and were ordinarily extremely hard to impress — they rarely conceded respect to anyone. But this time, they had no choice but to yield.
Setting aside Jiang Chen himself, just the man standing at his side — Xia Tianze. His oppressive aura, his sheer presence, could crush any one of them without effort.
And yet such a person was willingly standing beside Jiang Chen, clearly acknowledging him as the superior.
That only proved the point further.
Seeing the wary looks everyone was casting toward Xia Tianze, Jiang Chen spoke up with a smile. "This is Elder Xia, a distinguished figure from the ancient Glazed Palace who participated in the ancient Demon Sealing War. He was sealed away by the Glazed Palace's great Divine Lord using a powerful Divine Ability, and has only recently emerged back into the world. I'd encourage you all to make his acquaintance."
An ancient-era Divine Dao cultivator?
At these words, everyone's hearts jolted. The gazes they turned on Xia Tianze grew even more reverent.
"Elder Xia, this is Divine Lord Jiaye. He is one of the most respected Divine Dao cultivators of the Myriad Abyss Islands, and someone I, Jiang Chen, hold in very high regard."
Xia Tianze nodded indifferently. "Not bad. At your age, to have cultivated to the third level of the Divine Dao — in terms of talent, you surpass me. It's a pity you weren't born in the ancient era. Otherwise, you would surely have been a great asset in the Demon Sealing War."