'It seems that he has not been slacking off these years.'
Hearing Qi Yu's words, Chen Heng smiled.
Following this, he chatted with Qi Yu for a while longer, after which Qi Yu left.
Chen Heng continued to sit there as he watched Qi Yu leave, not speaking.
With a gentle rumble, the palace hall's doors closed, leaving behind only Chen Heng.
"Time…" he said as he lightly sighed before getting up and walking out.
Time gradually passed.
In the following period of time, he continued to advance.
He led Great Chen forward and devoured other territories to make it stronger while also establishing friendly relations with large Sects, trying to befriend genius-level people.
On the other hand, his cultivation did not stop progressing either.
Ten years later, Chen Heng's Fortune reached its peak.
In that year, he broke through and became an Enlightened Master, becoming one of the peak existences in the Eastern Continent.
In the decades after, he turned to the Bohai region and began to expand there, wanting to take that under his rule as well.
This process took 30 years to complete.
30 years later, Chen Heng reached the peak of the Enlightened Master realm, returning to the cultivation of his previous life.
With this power, he was able to destroy all resistance and completely took the Bohai region into his control.
He became the owner of the Bohai Sea, and his fame spread everywhere.
After becoming the ruler of the Bohai Sea, Chen Heng did not continue to expand but instead settled down and began to govern the Bohai region.
The Bohai region was rich in resources; it was just that it was a remote place and had many evil cultivators and Outlanders, which was why it had not been able to develop.
After Chen Heng became the ruler of the Bohai region, this all changed.
He relocated many mortals to the Bohai region and had them develop there.
Following this, he restricted cultivators and suppressed evil cultivators, reducing their impact.
After many decades, this desolate Bohai region became more and more prosperous and lively.
By now, it had been 70 years since Chen Heng had come to this world.
In that year, Chen Heng received an old friend in his palace.
"It has been a long time," in the palace, a young man stood by himself as he looked at Chen Heng and lightly sighed.
The young man had a tall and straight figure as well as handsome looks; he looked quite extraordinary.
Looking at the young man, Chen Heng smiled, "Indeed. Long time no see.
"It has been 60 or 70 years; where has Your Highness been during this time?" Chen Heng softly spoke as he looked at this young man.
This young man was Song Qi.
After many decades, he had once again appeared and had come to the Bohai Sea to find Chen Heng.
"I went to some special places," Song Qi sighed as he recounted his experiences.
It turned out that back then, when he had entered a secret realm, he had triggered a formation that had transported him to another place.
"That was a very large region and many things were different than here."
Looking at Chen Heng, Song Qi spoke softly, "There were also cultivators in that region, but their cultivation system was different to this system.
"I struggled for a long time in that system before I finally found a way to return."
Chen Heng felt quite startled.
"You went to another region? And successfully came back?" His expression was quite startled as he observed Song Qi closely.
From his observations, he discovered some things.
After many decades, there were indeed some things different about Song Qi. His aura was different to that of the cultivators from the Eastern Continent and seemed quite weird.
Chen Heng had not noticed before, but now he sensed it.
He immediately felt quite shocked and startled.
According to Dan Qingzi's memories, if one wanted to leave from this region and go to another one, it required the power of at least ten True Lords.
The Song Qi before him evidently did not have this strength, so how had he done it?
Chen Heng asked Song Qi this question, while Song Qi only smiled.
"Directly destroying a boundary indeed requires that sort of power, but there is no need for such trouble if you pass through a stable passageway," he said.
Gathering ten True Lords to destroy the boundary and open up a path was the most direct, but also most resource-consuming, method.
Apart from this method, one could also go through an existing passageway.
These passageways were created by holy lands and all had set destinations. Many of them could still be used even after those holy lands departed.
It was through such a passageway that Song Qi had left this region.
However, most of those passageways were one-way only.
"That passageway was created long ago and was half-broken already, and it was extremely dangerous," Song Qi said as he sighed, "Decades ago, I was lucky to be able to successfully reach another region through it; otherwise, my body would have been crushed and I would have died.
"However, after reaching that place, I could not come back."
Speaking to there, he paused before saying, "This is not my real body; it's just a clone and does not have much power. I just sent it back to see some old friends."
"So it's like that," Chen Heng nodded, understanding the reason.
Following this, they began to talk.
The two of them were not ordinary people—Chen Heng was at the peak of the Enlightened Master realm and was a single step away from True Lord. He was essentially at the peak of this region.
As for Song Qi, despite being only a clone, he had his experiences from the other world.
The knowledge and cultivation methods from the other world gave Chen Heng great insight.
"You've been held back by this region," Song Qi said as he sighed, "This region has been broken and the spirit qi is in decline. It is much more difficult to cultivate here than in normal regions.
"Becoming a True Lord here is ten times more difficult in another domain."
Chen Heng repeated, "Spirit qi is in decline… Is that really the case?"
In the past, through Dan Qingzi's memories, he knew that spirit qi was in decline and cultivating here was quite difficult.
However, he had never thought that it would be to such an extent.
Song Qi nodded, "Indeed. The effects of this become greater the further one progresses in their cultivation.
"Under normal circumstances, those who can reach Enlightened Master here would be able to easily reach True Lord in a normal region.
"If you were in a normal region, you would most likely be a True Lord," Song Qi said as he sighed.
Chen Heng nodded and thought to himself.
So the decline in spirit qi was severe.
No wonder so many holy lands had relocated; they were most likely avoiding this.
It was just that although those holy lands could relocate back then, he could not, unless he could find a stable passageway.
It seemed that he could only find out about a passageway from Song Qi.
"Is the passageway that you used back then still usable?" Chen Heng asked as he looked at Song Qi.
"It should be barely usable," Song Qi said before shaking his head, "That passageway has not been maintained for a long time and has most likely decayed greatly.
"If you rashly enter, you will be in great danger," he said honestly.
Using this kind of passageway to go to another region was already an incredibly dangerous matter.
If the passageway was already damaged, that would be even more dangerous.
Using this passageway was like dancing on a steel thread; a single misstep could cause a horrific death.
Back then, Song Qi's luck had been quite good, resulting in him successfully making it through.
However, just because he had been able to do it did not mean that Chen Heng would have this kind of luck as well.
"There should still be similar passageways in the Eastern Continent."
Looking at Chen Heng, Song Qi continued, "You can search in the various areas to see if there are similar passageways. If your luck is good, you might be able to find a more complete passageway."
Following this, he listed out a few possible locations.
"Very well." Chen Heng nodded and remembered the places.
In the following period of time, Chen Heng did not cultivate and instead brought Song Qi around.
Their first stop was the previous Great Qi.
Great Qi now looked completely different, and it had fully assimilated into Great Chen.
As for the previous royal family, many of them were still alive, including the King of Qi.
From when Chen Heng had taken over Great Qi to now, it had been 60 or 70 years.
Ordinary people could not survive that long, but the Kings of Qi were usually martial artists. Given that Chen Heng also treated the royal family well, giving them spirit medicine and other resources, their lifespans were longer than those of ordinary people.
After Chen Heng took over Great Qi, he did not do much to them; he just locked them up and gave them good food and resources.
It was just that after many decades, it was impossible for the original King of Qi not to become aged. By now, he looked incredibly ancient.
From how it seemed, if Song Qi came back even a bit later, he might not have been able to see him.
Seeing his father again and looking at him, Song Qi felt quite amazed.
His entire life before he had been reborn, he had lived in the King of Qi's shadow; that was partially why his personality had been so weak.
Seeing his father like this, he lightly sighed and did not know what to say.
Decades had passed, and he had put behind the grievances from the past.
Song Qi was not interested in bullying an old man.
But then again, he had already done what he had wanted to do. Many decades ago, when Great Qi still existed, he had charged into the palace by himself and killed the Queen of Qi right before the King of Qi.
Thinking about that, he felt quite nostalgic.
"His body is not in good shape; he will probably die in another two years," Chen Heng said softly, "Are you not going to go in?"
Song Qi hesitated.
However, in the end, he still sighed and followed Chen Heng in.
"Who is it…"
Within the mansion, the elderly King of Qi was wearing elegant clothes, and he shakily turned towards where the footsteps were coming from.
Following this, he saw Song Qi.
Immediately, he froze and his hands trembled.
"Qi'Er?"
His body shook, unable to believe his eyes.
Looking at him like this, Song Qi deeply sighed and looked at his father, "It's me… I've come to see you."
Looking at this scene, Chen Heng turned and left, leaving just Song Qi and the King o Qi.
He sat outside, meditating and refining his soul as he silently waited.
Only after a long time did he hear footsteps, and he looked over.
Song Qi had come out.
After meeting with the old King of Qi, it looked like he felt quite at ease.
"Let's go," he looked at Chen Heng and spoke softly.
"Very well." Chen Heng nodded and did not ask about anything.
Following this, they left and went to other places.
After many decades, the world had greatly changed.
Back then, Great Qi's royal city had just been an ordinary city in the Eastern Continent.
It was still quite prosperous and most structures had been preserved, but there had been great changes.
The most obvious one was that there were many cultivators here now.
In order to foster the development of cultivators, Chen Heng opened up official institutions to examine and find people with cultivation potential.
After such people were found, they would be sent to the headquarters to be nurtured.
After much time, there were now many cultivators in Great Chen.
This was one of the reasons why Great Chen was so prosperous.
After going to the royal city, Chen Heng and Song Qi went to the North Yuan Plains.
The North Yuan Plains was the territory of the Northern Nine Bandits back then.
However, the Northern Nine Bandits had long since disappeared.
Back then after Song Qi had returned to Great Qi, he had destroyed the Northern Nine Bandits.
Chen Heng was not surprised about this.
Back in the original timeline, Song Qi had been imprisoned by these people for 15 years. After he had been reborn, they were most likely the ones he hated the most.
The Northern Nine Bandits were gone, but there were still many bandits around in this region.
After passing through these plains, they headed to many historical remnants and visited many places.
Some of the historical remnants were ones that Chen Heng had known about, while others he did not know about.
With Song Qi's help, Chen Heng was able to find many passageways.
They were all left behind by holy lands when they had left and could transport to certain destinations.
It was just that because those passageways had not been maintained in a long time, they were quite dangerous.
For some of the more damaged ones, they might even toss Chen Heng into the boundary between worlds.
If that happened, even a True Lord would not survive.
This was how terrifying the danger was.
After travelling around for half a year, they began to slow down because Song Qi's body could not last anymore.
After all, this body of Song Qi's was just a clone and could not live for long.
In actuality, if it wasn't for Chen Heng giving him spirit energy and spirit materials over the past half a year, he would not have been able to last for this long.
Looking at Chen Heng, Song Qi lightly sighed, "Looks like this clone can only go to here. It's a pity that I won't be able to travel the entire Eastern Continent."
He smiled and cupped his hands towards Chen Heng, "After this meeting, it will most likely be goodbye for the last time. The road ahead is still long; please stay well."
"You too," Chen Heng nodded.
Following this, he watched as Song Qi's body gradually turned transparent before dissipating into motes of spirit energy and scattering.
Only a few clothes were left on the ground.
Chen Heng's expression was calm but he inwardly sighed.
He also knew that it was most likely the last time he would see Song Qi.
Given that they were in two different worlds, unless Chen Heng could go through the passageway that Song Qi had gone through and go to the world that Song Qi was at, they would not be able to meet again.
However, Chen Heng was already used to these goodbyes.
After each simulation, he would have to say goodbye to his friends and family, and he would not be able to see them again.
This was quite similar.
Chen Heng waved his hand and put away the clothes Song Qi left behind before continuing his journey.
It had only been half a year and he had only traveled through a small portion of the Eastern Continent.
In the remaining time, Chen Heng decided to pick up the pace.
As such, he once again set out.
