Jiang Haokong felt that he was formidable in every respect.
Whether in natural talent or in combat power within the same realm, he refused to yield to anyone. Even before the Ji Clan Divine Son or the Eternal Divine Son, he had felt the same.
This was the pride that belonged to a chosen prodigy.
Yet the crux of the matter was that the power Lu Yuan had demonstrated was entirely beyond comprehension.
Jiang Haokong had always believed that while he was not inferior to those two divine sons, neither was he significantly stronger than them. Lu Yuan, however, had simply crushed them. Comparing himself to that, Jiang Haokong finally understood. He had no hope of catching up, so he might as well stop putting such suffocating pressure on himself.
This was not an admission of defeat out of cowardice; it was simply facing reality. Jiang Haokong realized that obsessing over surpassing Lu Yuan would only bring endless frustration upon himself.
Consequently, he was now completely at peace with it.
When Jiang Ningxian heard this, she could not help but shake her head, though she also felt it was for the best. It would save her younger brother from acting entirely fearless and arrogant. Acknowledging that someone had completely surpassed him was indeed a good thing.
She even mentioned it directly to Lu Yuan.
Upon learning of it, Lu Yuan felt rather helpless. He had never intended to measure himself against anyone; there was simply no need for it. All he needed to do was become sufficiently strong and resolve the approaching crises—nothing more.
Naturally, Lu Yuan had not remained idle during this period. Alongside his cultivation, he began guiding Zhu Qingyu and the others.
With the assistance of the Jiang clan, the younger generation grew at a remarkable pace. More and more people broke through into the Saint Realm, while others reached the Demi-Saint stage. Among them, Ao Ze directly achieved the rank of Great Saint.
Of course, none of them attained the immortal realm during this time. Even Ao Ze was still an immense distance away. There was no avoiding it—much like Lu Yuan, their period of cultivation and evolution had been too brief.
Reaching the Saint Realm was already deemed extraordinary by many extraterrestrial beings. If it had been their own people, who knew how long such progress would have required? Yet how much time had passed since the Milky Way Star Sector began its revival?
So many saints had emerged already. In the estimations of many onlookers, in less than a century, this star sector would genuinely be able to rank among the top hundred star sectors, and well toward the upper tiers at that.
Under these circumstances, several star sectors began choosing to cooperate with the Heavenly Court. Since both sides were at comparable levels of standing, mutual cooperation was far preferable to pointless hostility.
As for the fact that the Eternal Star Sector and the Ji clan intended to deal with Lu Yuan and the Heavenly Court, these third parties were not overly concerned. In the depths of the starry sky, such feuds were a common sight. It was unthinkable that powerful beings from those two colossal factions would slaughter every single person who had merely engaged in trade or cooperation with the Heavenly Court; that would be absurdly overbearing.
Lu Yuan did not involve himself in these matters, leaving Zhu Qingyu and the others to make their own decisions. These were administrative affairs, and it was unnecessary for him to oversee every single detail. Furthermore, it served as valuable training for his subordinates. Moving forward, they would eventually need to stand on their own.
After careful consideration, Zhu Qingyu and the others agreed. They understood that relying solely on the Heavenly Court's own strength to gain a firm foothold across the vast cosmos in the future would be extraordinarily difficult. Cooperating with other star sectors allowed them to gain broader insight and intelligence.
After all, almost everyone's objective at present was the great era providence. The issue was that no one knew how to obtain it. Given that, acquiring more potential allies was the wiser course.
Naturally, they also understood that one could never truly rely on outsiders, and they remained clear-eyed about why extraterrestrial clans chose to cooperate. Even with cooperation established, it remained strictly on the surface without deeper entanglements.
At the same time, the Heavenly Court decided to involve the Jiang clan.
Following the successive crises, the Jiang clan's assistance to the Heavenly Court had been evident to all, and practically no one could deny it. In a manner of speaking, both sides were almost like family now. In dealing with the various clans of the starry sky, they genuinely needed the Jiang clan's advice, as the Jiang clan possessed far greater knowledge of the wider cosmos.
During this time, the Heavenly Court also began seizing fortunes and heritages across various regions, led by Zhu Qingyu and her peers. Occasionally, they clashed and fought intense battles against extraterrestrial beings.
Before long, figures like Ice Fairy, Gu Sang, Zhu Qingyu, and the young celestial master Chunyang saw their names rise in prominence through these repeated struggles for legacy opportunities. They came to be regarded as the leading powerhouses of the Milky Way Star Sector's younger generation, standing on par with the sequence prodigies across the stars.
Although their cultivation and combat power were still marginally behind, time was on their side. No one doubted that once these figures matured, they would be fully capable of matching the sequences of the various clans.
From this, it was clear that the Heavenly Court had essentially been acknowledged by all as a power on their level. There was simply no other choice—that previous battle had been far too astounding for anyone to disregard.
As for Lu Yuan, in the eyes of all, he belonged to an entirely different tier. Though technically still part of the younger generation, he was already capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with the truly great powerhouses. Almost no one categorized him alongside the rest of his peers anymore.
Naturally, Lu Yuan paid no heed to such comparisons. Once the overall situation stabilized, he returned to secluded cultivation.
With the aid of the Ancient Heavenly Emperor Token, his strength had already reached the pinnacle of the Undying Immortal realm. Stepping up once more would bring him to the Grotto-Heaven Immortal stage, which was his next objective.
He possessed absolute confidence in achieving it. So long as he had time, breaking through was merely a matter of when. And Lu Yuan wanted that day to arrive as swiftly as possible.
The Eternal Clan and the Ji clan had recently fallen completely silent, without the slightest movement. Yet anyone with wisdom knew that the deeper the calm, the greater the impending storm.
Lu Yuan's priority was that with each fraction his strength increased, he would be able to channel even more providence. That way, when various crises arrived, he would have the formidable power required to resolve them. For him, this was of paramount importance.
As for external affairs, he left them alone. With the Jiang clan, along with Zhu Qingyu and the others, nothing too serious would go awry.
Inside the quiet room, Lu Yuan's eyes were shut tight.
Powerful waves of aura surged from his body in continuous billows. Yet the energy within him was no longer as wildly violent as before. The reason was simple: upon reaching his current level, no matter how immense the inner power grew, one could release and retract it with complete fluidity.
"I am only a single step away from the Grotto-Heaven Immortal stage. Once I attain that realm, I will possess the mighty power to open a pocket space of my own. Even if it can only be maintained for a brief while, it is still a qualitative transformation."
Stirring the power within him, Lu Yuan pondered silently. The Grotto-Heaven Immortal stage was a step higher, bringing an even keener perception of spatial laws and granting diverse, potent abilities.
Upon reaching that realm, he would be capable of stepping onto the Moon in an instant. Even truly traversing across star sectors would no longer be out of the question.
This was the objective of his current breakthrough!
Chapter 396