Chapter 556: Meeting Qiu Ruoshuang

Chapter 556: Meeting Qiu Ruoshuang

January 18th, 2025

After hearing all this, Su Chen finally decided to decline Qiu Ruoshuang's offer.

It wasn't that he wanted to reject Qiu Ruoshuang's kindness.

Rather, he felt that these items wouldn't significantly benefit him.

For someone at his level, the gains from these items would be minimal.

It would be a waste of resources.

Upon hearing Su Chen's explanation, Qing Yuan was momentarily stunned.

"Su Gongzi, you've already advanced to the Fifth Stage Perfection?"

Qing Yuan, having accompanied Qiu Ruoshuang, had witnessed countless geniuses.

She often followed the most outstanding warriors of Jin State, and yet she was amazed by Su Chen's rapid progress.

When Su Chen and Qiu Ruoshuang first met, he had only reached the Fifth Stage.

That was just the beginning of the Fifth Stage.

How much time had passed since then?

Qiu Ruoshuang's strength didn't seem to have increased as rapidly in the past.

Su Chen's response left Qing Yuan in a daze for a while.

She hadn't expected such an answer after her words.

Before coming, Qing Yuan had anticipated that Su Chen might politely decline.

However, she hadn't expected the reason for his refusal to be this.

After a long hesitation, Su Chen gently reminded her.

Qing Yuan finally spoke again.

This time, she took out the third item given to her by Qiu Ruoshuang, another map.

"Sister Ruoshuang once went to this place to seek treasures, and she felt something mysterious there.

Since Su Gongzi doesn't need the previous two items, please accept this one.

For a Fifth Stage Perfection warrior to take the next step, the difficulty might surpass the sum of all previous cultivation challenges.

By training there, even if there's no obvious improvement, Su Gongzi will undoubtedly gain a lot.

Su Chen readily accepted this gift.

From Qing Yuan, Su Chen also learned some news.

Qiu Ruoshuang would be returning to the Qiu Family for a while, but after that, she would likely seclude herself in her courtyard for cultivation.

She would talk about martial arts with the Qiu Family's elders and others.

Only after settling all matters would she shift her focus away from martial cultivation.

Qing Yuan's words slightly misconstrued Qiu Ruoshuang's intentions.

After Qiu Ruoshuang's prolonged seclusion, there were countless matters within the Qiu Family that required her attention.

Her primary purpose for returning was to handle these affairs.

Once the important issues were resolved, she would naturally devote more time to martial cultivation.

Qiu Ruoshuang's intention was to return to handle matters.

According to Qing Yuan, it seemed like Qiu Ruoshuang would return to the Qiu Family and continue her seclusion.

Having said what needed to be said, Su Chen and Qing Yuan bid farewell.

Before leaving, Qing Yuan handed Su Chen a jade pendant.

It wasn't the token of Celestial Vortex Town, but another token of Qiu Ruoshuang's.

With this token, Su Chen could use this private room in Summer Domain City in the future.

Of course, he could also use any other private room in the restaurant.

After leaving the restaurant, Su Chen didn't hesitate.

He followed the map's directions to the location Qiu Ruoshuang mentioned.

Currently, he had no other tasks at hand.

If not for today's events, Su Chen would have spent time searching for a training opportunity.

Now, it seemed like he had saved some time.

During this period, many powers in Jin State were seeking Su Chen.

After the Heavenly Alchemy Expo in Summer Domain City, Su Chen's influence had become too great.

His jade essence pill technique didn't originate from the Odd Tower or the Crystal Pavilion.

At least, on that day, anyone with clear eyesight could see that Su Chen's technique far surpassed those of the two sects.

On that day, Su Chen publicly declared that he would no longer have deep dealings with Zhu Ming Gong.

Since then, countless powers had sought opportunities to establish connections with Su Chen.

Moreover, Chu State had secretly sent people to investigate.

The Chu State pill refiners who attended the expo had reported the event to their government.

The Chu State government, with its ambitions, naturally had plans for this matter.

As long as Su Chen went to Chu State, any power could offer him extremely favorable conditions.

But it was difficult to find Su Chen's whereabouts.

They had the will but lacked the means.

No matter how good the conditions were, Su Chen didn't give them a chance to negotiate.

Su Chen was also aware of his current situation.

He would never accept invitations from strangers.

Among these strangers, there might be people from Wuluan Mansion, which was impossible to confirm.

This was why, even knowing that many were looking for him, Su Chen hadn't revealed himself.

According to the map...

This training location was in the northeast direction of Jin State.

To be precise, it was in the northeastern border region.

According to Qing Yuan's reminder, that area used to be Jin State's territory.

However, over the years, it had fallen and was now occupied by demonic beasts.

So, there were still many things to be cautious about when Su Chen went to that place.

Safety would be a significant issue.

Nowadays, Su Chen's strength had already reached the Fifth Rank, and he was even close to the Transformation Realm.

With their keen senses, demonic beasts would no longer overlook Su Chen as a weak warrior.

His main advantage was no longer being able to pass by them unnoticed.

He could only rely on his innate talent for detecting demonic beasts to have a stronger perception than them.

He could detect them from a greater distance.

But if he got too close, they would also sense his presence.

As a powerful nation, Jin State had conducted in-depth research on demonic beasts, far more thorough than Zhou State.

However, the border area was still challenging, and some land would fall to the demonic beasts.

This indicated that the problems faced by Jin State's border were quite severe.

Su Chen headed northeast.

When he was still a good distance away from the border, he was stopped near a city.

He was told that there was a demonic beast infestation in the northeast border region.

Su Chen was asked to temporarily avoid that area, as the battle there had intensified.

If anyone recklessly ventured in and was not injured by the demonic beasts, they would be even more unlucky if they were mistakenly injured by their own people.

Along the way, Su Chen found an opportunity and went ahead for half a day to take a look.

Indeed, in the northeast direction, there was a large group of celestial demons active.

These celestial demons were slightly better in that they did not form packs.

At least they fought alone, which was relatively normal for celestial demons.

Unlike the ones he encountered last time, these celestial demons had not formed swarms.

Seeing this situation, Su Chen finally decided to rest here temporarily.

He would wait until the situation stabilized before entering the wilderness to train and improve.

With the celestial demons wreaking havoc, he couldn't calm down to explore martial arts inside.

During the time Su Chen waited, Qiu Ruoshuang had already returned to the Qiu family.

Qiu Ruoshuang liked to keep a low profile.

In the Qiu family, only the core members and the pillars of the family knew about this.

Others were unaware of it.

Qiu Xingchuan was now also a core member of the Qiu family, so he naturally knew about Qiu Ruoshuang's return.

Furthermore, he had some matters that he needed to discuss with Qiu Ruoshuang.

Before going, Qiu Xingchuan mentioned this to Qiu Xiyu.

He told her that he was going to talk to Qiu Ruoshuang.

When Qiu Xiyu heard this news, she pulled her father aside and emphasized it from start to finish.

She specifically stated which matters were the most important and must be discussed, and which minor details could be ignored.

This attentive attitude made Qiu Xingchuan feel helpless.

Please... Collect... 6...9... Books...!

His daughter seemed to be more concerned about array formation cultivation than this.

Fortunately, Su Chen was excellent and capable enough.

If it were any other wastrel, he would have gotten angry and scolded them.

"Rest assured, your father has to manage such a large family and can handle so many matters.

Can't I handle these small matters of yours?"

Qiu Xingchuan managed to pacify Qiu Xiyu with a few words and went ahead first.

Qiu Ruoshuang did not have much time to spare, so she wouldn't give him too much time.

If Qiu Xingchuan didn't go now, he might miss the opportunity when it was his turn to discuss matters.

Nowadays, Qiu Ruoshuang had already entered the Unity Realm.

She was one of the only two Unity Realm cultivators in the Qiu family.

Apart from her, only the old ancestor of the Qiu family had such strength.

With such strength, Qiu Ruoshuang's status naturally rose.

As a Unity Realm cultivator, she couldn't possibly still be doing unimportant minor tasks.

In this world, the status of sect powers was largely determined by the strength of their warriors.

The Qiu family's current status was greatly contributed to by the Unity Realm cultivator.

The reason why the Qiu family held such a high status nowadays was also because they had gained another Unity Realm cultivator.

Everyone knew that in the next hundred years, the Qiu family would continue to thrive as it did now.

Qiu Xingchuan walked to the westernmost part of the Qiu family's mansion.

This quiet and secluded courtyard belonged to Qiu Ruoshuang.

Today, she had many affairs to handle.

These were the matters that had accumulated during her cultivation seclusion.

"Please wait here for a moment, Third Uncle Qiu. Sister Ruoshuang is still discussing matters with the elders."

Outside the quiet and secluded courtyard, apart from Qiu Xingchuan, there were already several others waiting here.

Here, a reception tea room was even built, specifically for guests to rest and wait.

Seeing Qiu Xingchuan, several people who had arrived earlier quickly stood up to greet him.

As the younger ones among them, with insufficient seniority, naturally had to make way.

They could only wait for Qiu Xingchuan to meet Qiu Ruoshuang first.

Sitting in the tea room, Qiu Xingchuan didn't feel anything amiss.

He was used to it.

Before Qiu Ruoshuang's promotion to the Unification Realm, it was more or less the same.

Now, with her elevated status in the Qiu family, more people sought her out, and it would only increase.

After about a quarter of an hour, Qiu Xingchuan was allowed to enter the courtyard.

This time, the elder didn't keep him waiting too long, unlike the previous occasions when he had to wait for over an hour.

In the courtyard pavilion, the attendant had already prepared a fresh pot of tea for Qiu Xingchuan.

After some casual greetings, Qiu Xingchuan began discussing the main issue.

"Although we dealt with the Celestial Demon Swarm in the northern border the last time, they've returned this year.

The threat isn't significant, and with more manpower, we can hold them off, as the demons aren't in large numbers.

But our manpower is limited, and we can't continuously counter them with human strength.

The demons, backed by the wilderness, maintain a significant advantage.

They can launch sneak attacks whenever they want, holding all the initiative.

We still need to use array formations to resolve the northern border issue.

This way, we can free up some manpower; people will eventually get tired.

Being constantly on edge, no one can withstand it."

Qiu Ruoshuang, sitting across from him, nodded.

Instead of directly addressing this matter, she asked Qiu Xingchuan, "I heard that Xiyu has obtained the Eighth Rank Array Master status?"

"After some setbacks, she finally passed the test," Qiu Xingchuan smiled, feeling proud of his daughter's achievement.

At her age, she had attained the Eighth Rank Array Master status, which, even if it couldn't compare to Qiu Ruoshuang's accomplishments, was still praiseworthy within the Qiu family.

Upon hearing this, Qiu Ruoshuang's expression also showed approval.

"Xiyu has been clever since childhood, and array formations have high requirements for cultivators.

Concentration, dexterity, and comprehension must be exceptional.

To achieve this rank at such a young age, I believe our family's array formation strength will greatly improve in the future."

Qiu Ruoshuang's praise made Qiu Xingchuan feel very comfortable, and he appreciated it.

Many praised Qiu Xiyu, but when someone as capable as Qiu Ruoshuang did so, he felt differently, even if the words were the same.

"Do you mean I should intimidate the northern demons, giving our Array Masters time and space to set up array formations?

Is that what you're implying?"

After a round of praise, Qiu Ruoshuang directly addressed the main issue.

As soon as Qiu Xingchuan mentioned those words, she had already guessed what her senior cousin wanted to say.

Qiu Xingchuan also nodded in agreement.

"Just let me know when you're free, and I'll go with you.

The area we've chosen for the array formation has been completely cut off by the demons.

Relying on Transformation Realm experts to retake that area might result in injuries.

After much consideration, I still hope you can step in.

I think it's best not to let others from our family take this risk."

Qiu Ruoshuang nodded; this was the purpose of the Unification Realm.

As long as she went to the wilderness border, the Celestial Demons would instinctively keep their distance.

"I'll check my schedule and send someone to inform you once I'm free."

Qiu Ruoshuang agreed, and she also thought this idea was good.

The Qiu family received many resources from the court annually.

In return, they had to make significant contributions to maintain their influence.

The northern border issue undoubtedly required the Qiu family's intervention.

Qiu Ruoshuang also hoped to handle this matter smoothly, ideally without any injuries.

After discussing the main issue, Qiu Xingchuan mentioned some minor matters.

These were tasks that Qiu Ruoshuang could handle within the family's manor, and Qiu Xingchuan was just informing her.

This way, she wouldn't be clueless when dealing with them later.

Before leaving, Qiu Xingchuan finally brought up the matter concerning Su Chen.

"By the way, Ruoshuang, I have a small matter, a personal one.

I'd appreciate your help."

Qiu Xingchuan felt a bit embarrassed, as it was clear that Qiu Ruoshuang was busy.

Yet, he was asking her to handle these minor matters.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end