Preparations

"Brother Chen, You wanted to see the Wu Tan City, no?"

Before Hong Chen could give his orders to the System, he sensed Gu Xun Er coming towards him and soon enough, he heard her low but sincere voice.

Hong Chen looked around to find Xun Er's face covered behind a blue veil and her eyes were a shade of pink, which was evidence enough of her misty eyes.

"Didn't Sister Xun Er say that this backwater empire has nothing to offer?" said Hong Chen with a smile and started walking towards her.

"That is true, Brother Chen, but I think we can discuss the strategy of dealing with Hall of Souls while you explore the city.

I mean you should know where is what if you are living here, no?"

"Well, I don't think discussing about the Hall of Souls in the streets for a pair of couple hundred other ears is a good strategy.

Also, I don't think I will stay here much longer."

This time, Hong Chen denied her, as he knew that many of her pursuers give her a lot of attention, and he made the mistake of doing that yesterday.

He shouldn't have been too upfront about his feelings for her, as that would lead someone to move away from you.

This kind of "Licking-Dog" behaviour was very tricky to deal with and it would often land someone like him in the "Friend-Zone".

He didn't want Gu Xun Er's undying friendship, as her 'friendship' wasn't going to give him the [Tou She Ancient God's Jade], unless Xun Er falls in love with him, she would never give him something as precious as that, or her Heavenly Flame.

She gives those to Xiao Yan because she is stupid and got groomed by a transmigrator like Xiao Yan who had plenty of experience in picking up girls, But Hong Chen didn't have that much experience but he sure as hell was not going to lose to the likes of Xiao Yan now.

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Xun Er's face fell when she heard Hong Chen.

'He is going to leave soon?'

Suddenly she regretted rejecting his request earlier. She became very sad as she didn't know where to go. Her best friend was probably playing with Xiao Mei, while her new friend was also going to leave her.

Most of the boys and girls in the Xiao Clan are not up to her standards, as she could not even spar with them without hurting them while the rest just wanted to touch her in the name of sparring.

Imagine a 10-years-old child who is sitting alone in the park as she has no one to play with. Kind of reminds you of Naruto sitting on a swing alone.

Looking at her miserable appearance, Hong Chen acted by making a sad expression on his face which didn't look too forceful, and started walking towards her.

"Can you imprint your spiritual signature on my Communication Talisman? With this, we can always talk even if we are away."

Xun Er looked up and saw Hong Chen handing her his communications talisman, which she took from both hands and imprinted with her spiritual signature.

"Don't be sad, Xun'Er, I will visit you every so often. Now can you ask Senior Ling Ying to come here? I need to talk to him about something."

Xun Er heard him say her name as 'Xun'Er', but she simply didn't care at the moment. She just handed Hong Chen his Communications talisman back, and before she could even open her mouth, Ling Ying appeared beside them out of thin air.

"Young Master Chen, You are leaving so soon?" Said Ling Ying as he still hasn't made a good relationship with Hong Chen according to Gu Yuan's instructions and was a little restless.

Hong Chen conveyed to him that he should let his master in the Wind-Lightning Pavilion know of the attack on him by the Hall of Souls, and should visit them soon. He did however promise to visit Gu Xun Er from time to time but that was all.

Ling Ying then told Hong Chen about the usual hotspots of the Hall of Souls deacons on the Dou Qi continent and ways to avoid them, after which he gave him a One-time-use [Gu Prontiff Shard], which if crushed, can instantly save him.

Ling Ying didn't tell Hong Chen of where this Shard would take him once crushed, but Hong Chen knew, that it would most definitely take him to the Ancient Clan.

"By the way, Senior Ying, The reason I wanted to meet with you, is because as you know, I have an extremely sensitive spiritual force, due to me being an Inscription master, and because of that, ever since I came here, I have been feeling the same level of uneasiness which I felt when I was being attacked by the deacon from the Hall of Souls."

Suddenly, Hong Chen dropped a bomb on both Ling Ying and Gu Xun Er.

This information meant that there was a presence of the Hall of Souls in Wu Tan City! Could it be that they are here for the piece of [Tou She Ancient God's Jade] too?

Seeing the shock on their faces, Hong Chen continued

"Actually, I have tried to locate where this uneasiness was coming from, and I seem to have triangulated the source to the Misty Cloud Sect.

I feel that a deacon from the Hall of Souls is there."

Ling Ying finally remembered to breathe as he heard the name of Misty Cloud Sect.

If it is them, then they are least not in the Wu Tan City, and they might not be aware of the existence of [Tou She Ancient God's Jade] shard with the Xiao Clan here.

Seeing that his plan was going flawlessly, Hong Chen bid them farewell for the last time, and started leaving while studying the detailed map of the Jia Ma Empire with the Hall of Souls hot spot, given to him by Ling Ying.

Ling Ying followed him for some time before Hong Chen had left the immediate vicinity of the Wu Tan Village, upon which he went back to guarding his princess.

'Although staying here had its advantages, but I cannot cultivate further with my physique like this. Even if Ling Ying had ways to make my physique stronger, it had risks in my secrets getting revealed and I am not about to give away my body to a Dou Emperor to thoroughly examine.'

Hong Chen also knew that it would take time for him to turn Xun Er's infatuation and friendship towards him into love and crush Xiao Yan's image in her heart, so he decided to do that slowly over the course of the next few years.

He could not kill Xiao Yan now because of Ling Ying, and hence, he had to let that cockroach live.

Once Hong Chen was far away from the Wu Tan City, he [Apparated] directly into the cave where he had left his Nether Crow, and fell on his knees due to exhaustion.

The greater the distance, the larger Dou Qi required to teleport.

As soon as he appeared, his Rank 4 Nether Crow became vigilant and covered Hong Chen with it's wings to protect him from any danger, while Hong Chen took out some pills from his spatial ring and started circulating his [Three Nuclei Empyrean Mantra], which very quickly refilled his Dou Qi reserves and soon he had recovered completely.

'Time to grind.'

For the next 1 month, Hong Chen just stayed in his cave and kept making scrolls, artefacts, glyphs, etc with his Inscriptions, and kept salvaging them.

Those materials were although rare, but the Salvage-o-Matic wouldn't give him many Salvage Shards for them, and hence he started turning them into treasures and in a month, he had gotten near to 900 Salvage Shards, getting his total over a thousand.

During this one month, he also got to witness the incredible growth rate of his [Three Nuclei Empyrean Mantra] as he broke through to 2-Star Dou Grandmaster and reached peak only in a month.

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Yi Xiyan was drinking a highly poisonous serum that she had just made when suddenly she sensed a very warm presence near her.

A smile appeared on her lips as she didn't need her eyes to confirm that Hong Chen had come back.

"Brother Chen you're back!"

Yi Xiayna was too excited and directly ran out of the House Hong Chen had made earlier and arrived outside, immediately embracing him in his arms.

'Already a 2-Star Dou Practitioner? What the F#ck?'

Suddenly Hong Chen's pride took a huge hit as he hugged Yi Xiayan back.

The fact that Yi Xiyan went from 1-Star Dou Disciple to 2-Star Dou Practitioner made Hong Chen think that he might not be the genius everyone says he is.

Yi Xiyan soon discovered her intimate position and immediately took a few steps back in embarrassment.

She was just too excited to see Hong Chen and didn't think much before hugging him.

"Hello Xiyan, I see your cultivation is coming along nicely."

"Yes Brother! The [Rainbow Poison Scroll] that you gave me is incredible. It had plenty of toxic recipes which can be made from Rank-1 herbs and wildflowers." responded Yi Xiyan with pride at the validation she craved from Hong Chen.

She literally had no friends and hasn't become the town Physician yet, as a result, she always misses her one and only friend Hong Chen.

The reason Hong Chen visited her was not to meet her, but to see if she was worth keeping or if should he salvage her for his trip, but now, seeing her cultivation climbing so fast, he knew what steps to take next.

"Nice Xiyan! Here, Take this movement and attack techniques. These are both Xuan Level Medium rank techniques. It will help you in future."

Hong Chen casually gave her some techniques that she can learn now, so that she can feel that he genuinely cares about her and feels indebted to him. Getting loyal followers was usually a slow process, and another reason was so that she could deal with characters like Mu Li in future, and doesn't need Xiao Yan, or another child of heaven to rescue her.

Hong Chen himself never learned other techniques because he looked down upon any technique which was lower than Earth grade.

Also, he firmly believed that being a "Jack of All trades, Master of none" is not the way to grow in a cultivation world. Learning 1000 techniques to the elementary level was still worse than learning 1 technique a thousandth time to perfection.

"Brother…This.."

Yi Xiyan's eyes turned foggy as she looked at the 2 books which were being offered by Hong Chen. She didn't have too much knowledge about the Dou Qi continent, but she knew that Xuan Level exercises were very rare.

She was just too touched by this and with trembling hands, she accepted them with emotion.

Hong Chen stayed with her for a day and made some stories of his travels and how he concocted some pills in the wild, after which he bid her farewell and started to go towards Wu Tan City.

The reason for coming back to Wu Tan City was obviously Gu Xun Er; but another reason was to kill Xiao Yan if he got the chance, as he didn't want any plot armour bullshit to happen and Xiao Yan to get some chances to advance. Xiao Yan was a sore spot in Hong Chen's eyes ever since the day he knew that Xiao Yan would not only destroy him and his family, but also bring the destruction to his Wind-Lightning Pavilion.

Gu Xun Er had changed.

Ever since she started to feel that in Xiao Yan's heart, she had no special place, she was desperate for his attention. In the Original novel, it wasn't until Xiao Yan lost his fame and became a cripple for 3 years, and when Xun Er took care of him in those years, that Xiao Yan became grateful to her and acknowledged her love, but now, neither Xiao Yan was cripple, and nor was she desperate for his attention anymore.

Most of the time, she would either send her day-to-day thoughts and greetings to the communication talisman of Hong Chen and wait for him to reply, and other times, she would cultivate with the help of the necklace Hong Chen had gifted her and that proved to be very useful as she could now at least control the Heavenly Flame in her to some extent and progress with her cultivation without worrying about suppressing the said Heavenly Flame.

Xiao Yan has also changed in this month as he became irate by nature and started snapping out at people because he couldn't find his mother's last gift to him, her Black Ring.

In his 2 lifetimes, he had never had such a loving mother, and he dearly loved her. On earth, he was an orphan who never got the love of his parents, and hence in this life, he valued his mom and dad greatly, but ever since his mother's ring was stolen, he had become suspicious of everyone.

His biggest mistake was when he snapped at Gu Xun Er, who came to him with worry about his recent change in attitude and left with her eyes cast downwards in sadness at his passive-aggressive shouting at her.

Gu Xun Er would often come to the house Ling Ying had created for Hong Chen on the precipice as it not only provided her with much-needed privacy but was also at her favourite spot.

If there was another reason for her spending time here, then few people could guess it.

It was one such day when Xun Er was cultivating while sitting on the cliff with a serene atmosphere under a cherry blossoms tree when suddenly she opened her eyes and looked up to see Hong Chen hovering above in front of her with terrifying purple wings on his back which were sparking with equally terrifying purple arcs of lightning.

Ling Ying had already discovered Hong Chen coming back, and he wasn't too shocked to see Hong Chen suddenly sprouting wings out of his back and flying towards the precipice where he first encountered them, as refining beast wings was not a new thing, and many people he knew had done it.

It had it's fair share of advantages and disadvantages; like they can be torn apart mid-flight and would be destroyed but natural Dou Qi wings could be instantly regenerated with Dou Qi. It was also true that the natural Dou Qi wings were a few points slower than beast wings and didn't have the trace amount of vindictive qi in them of the beast.

It wasn't too out of place for him to think that Hong Chen's master in the Wind-Lightning Pavilion, who themselves were a second-rate power of the central plains, would give him these wings so that he could escape the clutches of the Hall of Souls in the future.

'They still should've sent at least a Dou King level bodyguard' He thought as he looked at Hong Chen descending in front of Xun Er.

"Xun Er. How have you been?" Asked Hong Chen to still sitting Xun Er, who had a smile on her face at his arrival.

"Xun Er is Happy" she said as Hong Chen went up to her and sat against the Cherry blossom tree.

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Not far away from them, Ling Ying was surrounded by 2 other experts in the Dou Emperor realm from the Ancient Clan.

Dou Emperors and Dou Ancestors were not that rare in Ancient Clan and Hall of Souls, and hence when Hong Chen told Ling Ying about the possible presence of Hall of Souls in the Misty Cloud Sect, Gu Yuan had immediately dispatched these 2 Dou Emperors to recon the situation.

They were tasked to not kill the Hall of Souls Deacon if they found him, as that would lead the Hall of Souls to send more Deacons to investigate, so their task was to just find the purpose of the Hall of Souls in the Misty Cloud Sect.

It was quite possible that the Misty Cloud Sect has surrendered to Hall of Souls, but for what?

While Hong Chen was chatting with a more visibly happy Gu Xun Er, he was oblivious to the changes which have started to appear in the timeline due to the Butterfly effect.

Hong Chen was getting better and better with words as he started to incorporate poems and phrases from the earthly soul in his conversation and he was satisfied with himself when he saw Xun Er become shocked or happy when she listened to them.

Slowly and slowly, he also started to enjoy her companionship, and while she may still not be at the level of Han Yue for him in his heart, the benefit she would bring in the future made Hong Chen happy.

"Sister Xun Er, Take this. I have especially refined this for you. It will help you with your…cultivation."

"You are spoiling me with presents, Brother Chen. Xun Er still hasn't paid you back for the necklace."

"Silly girl. I am not selling you gifts, but giving them to you because I….I think they will help you in your cultivation."

Hong Chen purposely showed a little blush on his face as he shoved a silver bracelet in Xun Er's hands which was very cold to the touch.

As soon as Xun Er's hand touched the bracelet, the Heavenly Flame in her seemed to calm down.

Gu Xun Er was shocked again! Although she still hasn't confirmed to Hong Chen anything about her Heavenly Flame, but with the way he behaved now, she guessed that he knew about it and was not mentioning it because she had told him previously that asking her about her background and secrets is a taboo.

Hong Chen in the previous month tried to use the [Bone Chilling Flame] to refine the artefacts, and he found an interesting thing. It was that most treasures refined by the [Bone Chilling Flame] would remain cold and had the properties of calming down fire elemental particles as a passive effect.

After he discovered this, he refined this very thin bracelet for Gu Xun E.

'One time…The only time I almost fumbled at the term 'Heavenly Flame' and Brother Chen took it to his heart and made treasures for me. Am I really that much important to him? Does he gift treasures to other girls as well?'

Gu Xun Er's heart was on fire, and Ling Ying and the other 2 Dou Emperors from the Ancient Clan were no better.

They all just scanned through the bracelet and found the almost microscopic levels of powerful and defined inscribings.

They were hot all over!

Not only the inscriptions, but the properties of the bracelet were felt by them. They didn't know too much but they were Dou Emperors after all, and had some understanding of the treasures of heaven and earth and hence could feel the Dou Qi around the bracelet lose the fire elements and become calm.

Unlike with Yi Xiyan, Hong Chen spent a week with Xun Er, because she was definitely the most essential card to greater power and to also find an opportunity to kill Xiao Yan, but in the last week, he couldn't even find Xiao Yan in the Xiao Family compound through his spiritual senses.

"Xun Er, It's time for me to take the leave."

Xun Er was playing chess with Hong Chen when he said this, and although she didn't show it on her face, but this sentence which she was dreading not to hear from the day Hong Chen came back made her anxious!

Hong Chen waited for her reply but she didn't respond to him and just nodded her head as if to show she understood.

After completing the game of chess, Hong Chen went up to the cliff under the longing eyes of Xun Er, and without looking back, his wings sparked out of his back and he flew away.

A tear escaped Gun Xun Er's left eye as she saw the departing back of Hong Chen and thought

'How can someone become so special to a person in such a short amount of time?'

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"Well Preparations are complete."

Hong Chen came back to his Safe Haven in the Magic Beast mountain where his trusted Rank 4 Nether Crow was guarding the cave.

It was a very powerful beast that had specialization in speed and had served Hong Chen very well all this time.

He gave the Crow a few pills before going deep into the cave and sitting on a Bed which was shining with golden light.

Hong Chen had inscribed a couple of beds to automatically suck the Dou Qi from the earth and feed it to him for cultivation, and after making himself comfortable on the bed, he entered his mindscape.

'Salvation, transfer me to the world of [Against the Gods]'