"Gaoqi, stay calm."
Jiang Chen smiled faintly. These rumors — he clearly couldn't care less about them.
"I'll just ask you one thing: is your superior Innate Wooden Spirit Body fake?" Jiang Chen asked with a calm smile.
Mu Gaoqi shook his head. "Of course not."
"Then did you cheat to win the Supreme Zone cave dwelling?"
"Absolutely not."
Jiang Chen laughed. "Then what are you worried about? Rumors die before the wise. As long as you've got nothing to hide, why on earth would you care about their lies?"
Mu Gaoqi scratched his head, genuinely impressed by Jiang Chen's composure. He could tell that Chen-ge truly wasn't panicking in the slightest — hadn't lost his footing one bit.
"Chen-ge, I'm not like you. My mental fortitude simply isn't refined enough yet. Sigh, I'm worried about what they might do to my master." Mu Gaoqi still held Elder Yunnie in the highest regard.
"Does Elder Yunnie worry about this?" Jiang Chen asked with a smile.
"My master goes about his days completely carefree, dismissive of all outside rumors. His attitude is actually quite similar to yours, Chen-ge. But those despicable people — they have no bottom line when it comes to spreading lies. I'm worried that if this goes on, it'll damage my master's reputation."
"The reason Elder Yunnie is dismissive is because he has the confidence to back it up. I won't make any grand claims about your master. In terms of martial cultivation, he may not have an absolute advantage within Dan Qian Palace. But when it comes to pills and elixirs — whether it's the Benwu Hall or the Chunqiu Hall — they can all step aside."
Mu Gaoqi listened, lost in thought.
"Gaoqi, let them prance around for now. When the time comes, I'll step forward and set the record straight. But once I do decide to make my move, they'd better be ready for a slap in the face."
It wasn't that Jiang Chen didn't want to step forward — he'd simply been waiting for the right moment.
These people spreading rumors and stirring up trouble — Jiang Chen wasn't angry at all. In fact, he was secretly delighted. What he was waiting for was for the rumors to ferment to their absolute peak before striking decisively. He'd crush the rumors and shatter their schemes in one blow.
Right now, the reason he wasn't responding at all — even hiding away in his cave dwelling — was to create a deliberate illusion, making the outside world think he was guilty and too afraid to respond.
The more he did this, the more arrogant his opponents would become, the more convinced they'd be of their own righteousness, and the more they'd take Jiang Chen's silence as proof of guilt.
This, in turn, would push them to escalate even further.
When that time came, Jiang Chen's counterattack would land all the harder.
Of course, the face-slapping was secondary. What Jiang Chen was really thinking about was making a fortune.
Seeing how wealthy Shen Qinghong was, Jiang Chen had long since set his sights on him. The Ling Shi shortfalls for the Nine Gates Burning Sky Formation — he planned to solve those by emptying Shen Qinghong's pockets.
Jiang Chen knew better than anyone that these rumors had to be Shen Qinghong's handiwork, involving the two major powers standing behind him.
"Gaoqi, go back for now. Don't concern yourself with all this gossip. Focus on cultivating the Heart of Rock properly. In a few days, I'll step forward and handle things."
Naturally, Jiang Chen wouldn't be making any appearances these next few days.
Because through his recent training, he'd already begun to sense faint signs of a breakthrough to the Earth Origin Realm.
He knew that he was separated from the Earth Origin Realm by only the thinnest membrane.
At such a critical juncture, Jiang Chen naturally wouldn't be distracted by responding to anything.
After sending Mu Gaoqi off, Jiang Chen entered seclusion. The baptism from the Wood Spirit Spring would benefit him over the long term. But it was the refinement of the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard's core — and the vital energy reserves it provided — that was the key to breaking through to the Earth Origin Realm in the short term.
Everything fell into place naturally. Twelve days later, Jiang Chen successfully broke through to the Earth Origin Realm.
Afterward, he spent several more days consolidating his new realm and strengthening his martial techniques and divine abilities.
The Ice Fire Demon Lotus in particular had become a top priority. While its water and fire attributes were formidable and it possessed powerful regenerative abilities, its durability still left something to be desired.
With his breakthrough to the Earth Origin Realm, Jiang Chen decided to merge the properties of the Primordial Magnetite Mountain with the Ice Fire Demon Lotus. By integrating the magnetite force, the Ice Fire Demon Lotus's durability would receive a perfect boost.
Before, every time he'd used the Ice Fire Demon Lotus to set up a defensive perimeter, a powerful enough opponent could always destroy its physical form.
Although the Ice Fire Demon Lotus could regenerate infinitely, this was clearly a disadvantage in battle.
After breaking through to the Earth Origin Realm, Jiang Chen could now control over two hundred Ice Fire Demon Lotus vines at once, further expanding both his defensive and offensive range.
"I possess the Ice Fire Demon Lotus, but the attack power of its physical form is limited by its current stage of evolution and can't achieve a massive breakthrough. If I could obtain a powerful fire source or a powerful ice source, the Ice Fire Demon Lotus's destructive potential would increase dramatically."
The Ice Fire Demon Lotus was a spiritual treasure renowned throughout the Myriad Heavens Planes — exceptionally pure in nature and highly versatile in form.
If one had to find a flaw, it was that its physical defense was somewhat weak, and its attack power wasn't particularly overwhelming.
But the Ice Fire Demon Lotus's true strengths lay in its versatile forms, the regenerative power of its Flame Heart Ice Marrow, and the fundamental purity of the spiritual entity — allowing it to harmonize with anything sharing its elemental nature.
The Ice Fire Demon Lotus could devour virtually any fire source or ice source without ever encountering a conflict.