Abandoned by humanity, stripped of all protection, reduced to prey for alien races—flesh and fish on their plates!
Though it was only a hypothesis, the thought sent a chill down Tie Can's spine. He could hear the worry in his father Tie Long's voice.
"Father, our Sixteen Kingdoms can't be in that dire a situation, can they?" Tie Can forced a painful smile.
"Worse than anything you could imagine! Over all these years, our Sixteen Kingdoms Alliance hasn't produced a single supreme powerhouse capable of breaking through the Spirit Realm. And the few who did break through to the Origin Realm are ancient monsters who attained that level centuries ago! The entire Sixteen Kingdoms Alliance, at most, has one Origin Realm Venerable anchoring each of the Four Great Sects!"
Origin Realm Venerable!
For Tie Can, these were beings of legend.
He had heard that the Treasure Tree Sect possessed an Origin Realm ancestor, but what that ancestor looked like or where he resided, Tie Can had never once bothered to find out.
It all felt too distant from him, too irrelevant to care about.
"Father, Origin Realm Venerables are legendary beings. Do the other factions in the Myriad Vastness Region really have more Origin Realm powerhouses than us?"
Tie Long gave a bitter smile. "More? Far more than just 'more'! Tie Can, you shine so brightly in the Treasure Tree Sect because I'm here backing you up. But at my level, if I were dropped into one of the powerful empires in the Myriad Vastness Region, I'd be nothing more than an ordinary mid-level sect official—couldn't even make it into the inner circle! Those great factions, those major sects—they count their Origin Realm powerhouses by the dozens, or even more!"
"What?"
Tie Can was utterly stunned.
The entire Treasure Tree Sect—forget Origin Realm Venerables—even Heavenly Spirit Realm experts numbered fewer than ten. As for the Origin Realm, there was only one, and he was a creature of legend.
"Don't be so startled. What I've told you is probably still conservative. Just like the Spirit Realm, the Origin Realm is divided into the Lesser Origin Realm, the Earth Origin Realm, and the Heaven Origin Realm. Our four great sects' Origin Realm Venerables are all at the first or second level of the Origin Realm—they're Lesser Origin Venerables, nothing more. In those major sects and great factions, Lesser Origin Realm cultivators are nothing remarkable. Their core powerhouses are at the Heaven Origin Realm!"
Tie Can was completely dumbfounded. In an instant, every last shred of his superiority seemed to vanish, leaving him sitting there like a wooden statue.
A frog at the bottom of a well?
He really was a frog at the bottom of a well!
...
News of Yang Zhao's death and the upheaval within the Dragon Tooth Guard spread through the Royal Capital in no time.
Before this, the struggle between Yang Zhao and Crown Prince Ye Rong, the grudge between Lü Wuji and Jiang Chen—these were common knowledge throughout the capital.
The capital's noble circles, those ministers and lords, had all been watching from the sidelines with great interest, eager to see who would come out on top between the Crown Prince and the Deputy Steward of the Dragon Tooth Guard.
In truth, most hadn't been optimistic about Crown Prince Ye Rong's chances. After all, backing Yang Zhao was an elder of the Treasure Tree Sect! When the Treasure Tree Sect was involved, even Shangguan Yi had to yield to Yang Zhao to some extent. Crown Prince Ye Rong, a newly installed Crown Prince with shallow foundations and insufficient backing—what could he possibly use to go head-to-head against Yang Zhao?
They all said Jiang Chen was the Crown Prince's deputy general. They all said Jiang Chen had killed Lü Wuji.
Yet among the capital's noble circles, the majority still didn't favor the Crown Prince.
Jiang Chen?
The ministers and lords acknowledged that Jiang Chen had some ability. But to suggest that an outsider youth could single-handedly take on Yang Zhao, let alone the Treasure Sect elder behind him—that was simply too absurd!
However— Events unfolded in a way that left everyone speechless.
Jiang Chen had charged straight into the Dragon Tooth Guard headquarters virtually alone, and with almost his own strength alone, had killed Xin Wudao and Qi Fengxian—two of Yang Zhao's diehard loyalists—right in front of Shangguan Yi and Elder Tie.
Moreover, under Elder Tie's direct suppression, he had shown not the slightest fear.
Even more astonishing, the reclusive Grand Tutor Ye Chonglou—who never involved himself in worldly affairs—had gone so far as to openly protect Jiang Chen, regardless of offending the father-and-son duo of the Tie family.
And most unexpected of all, the dignified Deputy Steward of the Dragon Tooth Guard, Yang Zhao, had died inexplicably in a sealed chamber!
Scene after scene, each more shocking than the last, unfolded one after another.
Everything had developed in a direction no one had even remotely anticipated.
Yang Zhao, who had wielded immense power within the Dragon Tooth Guard—power so great that even Grand Steward Shangguan Yi had to tread carefully around him—had died without anyone knowing how!
And his arrogant, overbearing cronies—some had been killed, some demoted, and all had been swept clean out of the Dragon Tooth Guard.
The once-insufferable Elder Tie had failed to gain even the slightest advantage against Jiang Chen, and had slunk back to the Treasure Tree Sect with his tail between his legs!
Only now did everyone realize just how laughably they had underestimated Jiang Chen!
Of course, it was hardly surprising that they had underestimated him.
After all, ever since Jiang Chen had arrived in the Tiangui Kingdom, he had kept a low profile, never making any grand display.
His first clash with Lü Wuji had been resolved in a small circle and hadn't spread throughout the capital's various circles.
Later, at Grand Tutor Ye's birthday banquet, although Jiang Chen had made quite an impression, many had dismissed it as mere luck—he knew a few unorthodox tricks and had won the old man's favor.
And during the Labyrinth trial, despite numerous suspicious circumstances, there had been no direct evidence proving just how formidable Jiang Chen truly was.