481: Chapter 481 Golden Immortal Light Guides Us, Destination: Immortal Realm!

Su Chen felt a tightness in his chest.

It wasn't because something had gone wrong with his cultivation.

Rather, it was an indescribable feeling of frustration.

He looked to his left; Jian Buping was wreathed in Sword Qi, at the Quasi-Emperor Fifth Heaven, his entire being as sharp as an unsheathed divine weapon.

He looked to his right; the monk Monk Jiese was radiating ten thousand zhang of Buddhist light, also at the Quasi-Emperor Fifth Heaven, his solemn dharma form making people want to kowtow.

He looked ahead; Hua Nongying exuded a vast Imperial Might, at the Great Emperor Second Heaven, her temperament having upgraded directly from 'KTV Madam' to 'Empress of a Region'.

Then he looked at himself.

Great Saint First Heaven.

Just him.

All alone.

Remaining in the Great Saint Realm.

[My current situation is probably like—the whole class got into top-tier high schools, and I'm the only one repeating a grade in elementary school.]

[No, more accurately, it's like I paid the tuition for the whole class and sent them all to elite universities, but I didn't even get my own graduation certificate.]

[What the hell is going on!!! Why won't my cultivation advance at all after reaching Great Saint First Heaven?]

Just as Su Chen was internally vomiting blood in frustration,

Hua Nongying floated over.

Her eyes, which had become even more soul-stirring after her transformation, were filled with admiration and gratitude.

"Young Master!"

"I've achieved a Breakthrough to the Great Emperor Realm!"

Her voice was trembling, and she was so excited she didn't know where to put her hands.

"If it weren't for you using dragon horns to bribe the Golden Toad and book the Immortal Passing Pool..."

"I might never have touched the threshold of the Great Emperor Realm in this lifetime!"

Su Chen looked at her face, which was glowing with excitement.

His heart felt as sour as if he had swallowed a vat of aged vinegar.

But on his face, there wasn't even a ripple of emotion.

He lowered his head, casually scooped up a handful of pool water, and brought it to his mouth.

He calmly spat out two words.

"Keep low-key."

Hua Nongying was stunned.

Su Chen took another sip of the water, as if drinking a cup of tasteless plain water.

"It's just the Great Emperor Realm."

"In the Immortal Realm,"

"They might just be doormen."

He spoke with such breezy indifference, as if it were the most casual thing in the world.

The smile on Hua Nongying's face suddenly froze.

Not just her.

Jian Buping, Monk Jiese, Yue Qinghan, Qian Duoduo, Xinnu—everyone's smiles froze at the same second.

They all simultaneously remembered one thing.

That Golden Toad at the entrance.

The Great Emperor Realm.

A genuine Great Emperor.

What was it doing?

Watching the door.

Watching the door for Su Chen.

And it seemed quite happy doing it.

A chill ran down everyone's spines at the same time.

That inflated sense of 'I am invincible' they had just felt deflated with a 'pssh' sound, exactly like a balloon pricked by a needle.

The Buddhist light around the monk Monk Jiese dimmed a few notches.

"amitabha..."

"This Poor Monk was a bit too caught up in appearances just now."

His voice became incredibly humble.

Qian Duoduo looked even more relieved, as if he had survived a disaster.

"Thankfully the Boss reminded us..."

"If we went up to the Immortal Realm with that kind of arrogance, we'd probably be slapped right back down on the first day."

The atmosphere at the Immortal Passing Pool suddenly cooled down.

Su Chen stood up from the pool.

The pool water slid off his white clothes without leaving a single trace; he was spotless and clean, as if he had never stepped into the water.

He looked around at everyone.

His expression was no longer the lazy one from before.

His gaze darkened.

Everyone present felt the change—their Boss wasn't joking anymore.

"Listen up, everyone."

Su Chen's voice echoed over the empty floating island, swallowed by the starry sky, yet exceptionally clear.

"The Immortal Realm is not the Lower Realm."

"That Golden Toad just now was a Great Emperor, and it was just a doorman for a pool."

"What about the owner of the Immortal Passing Pool?"

"What about the teacher of the pool's owner?"

"What about the Sect Head of the power that teacher belongs to?"

Su Chen's string of rhetorical questions made everyone's faces look increasingly grim.

He didn't continue the line of thought because he didn't need to.

They could do the math themselves.

"So."

Su Chen withdrew his gaze, his voice returning to that lazy tone, but every word carried weight.

"After we go up."

"The first priority isn't to show off."

"It's to lay low."

"Only by staying alive do you have the right to talk about the future."

He paused.

"We are going to build our own power."

As soon as these words came out, everyone's expressions changed from solemn to solemn with an added three parts of excitement.

Building a power meant they would no longer be a loose collection of individuals; they were going to take root, establish themselves, and expand in the Immortal Realm.

Su Chen began calling out names to assign tasks.

"Qian Duoduo."

The fat man immediately straightened his back.

"Here!"

"You are responsible for finance and commerce. I'm not sure if money is easy to make in the Immortal Realm, but the principle that you can't do anything without money is the same everywhere."

Qian Duoduo patted his wobbly belly, his small eyes sparkling with sharp light.

"Don't worry, Boss! As long as there are living people there, I have the ability to fish the Immortal Stones out of their pockets!"

"Yue Qinghan, and you, Hua Nongying."

The four women looked over simultaneously.

"You will cooperate with Qian Duoduo to build an intelligence network. Yue Qinghan will be in charge of information gathering, and the three of you led by Hua Nongying will handle interpersonal infiltration."

Yue Qinghan nodded slightly, crisp and efficient.

Hua Nongying expressed her agreement with an extremely flirtatious glance, although her newly acquired Imperial Might upgraded the lethality of that wink from 'brothel top beauty' directly to 'national-level strategic weapon'.

Su Chen turned to Jian Buping without changing his expression.

"You're in charge of security. Whoever dares to come looking for trouble—"

"I'll teach them how to behave."

Jian Buping finished the sentence, his tone cold and hard.

He tapped his finger on the hilt of the starfall sword, letting out a clear, sharp hum.

"The sword stays, I stay."

Su Chen nodded and shifted his gaze to Monk Jiese.

"When the time comes, you specifically go around the nearby temples."

"Those promising young monks, or Loose Cultivators dissatisfied with the status quo, kidna... guide them all over here."

"In the name of promoting the Buddha's teachings."

Monk Jiese pressed his palms together, looking solemn and holy.

"amitabha."

"What This Poor Monk is best at is enlightening lost lambs."

He paused and added very seriously,

"With my mouth."

The whole place fell silent for two seconds.

No one wanted to ask if 'with my mouth' was followed by an unspoken 'and if the mouth doesn't work, then with my fists'.

Su Chen finally turned his gaze toward the edge of the pool.

Wang Baobao was squatting there, holding a piece of the golden pool wall and munching away happily.

"Crunch, crunch—"

Fragments of the pool wall fell from the corner of her mouth as she chewed with gusto, her cheeks puffing in and out like a little squirrel that had found a pine nut.

Su Chen's mouth twitched.

[This girl... she really eats anything, doesn't she?]

[Chewing on the wall of the Immortal Passing Pool? Does that thing even have Spiritual Qi? Or does she just think it has a good texture?]

[Whatever, forget it. As long as it saves on food costs.]

"Baobao."

Wang Baobao looked up, golden crumbs still stuck to the corner of her mouth, her large eyes blinking.

"You're in charge of holding down the fort."

"Anyone who refuses to listen,"

"You go and eat them."

Wang Baobao nodded her head vigorously, her pigtails bobbing, as she wiped the crumbs from her mouth.

"Okay, Boss!"

Her childish response echoed in the starry sky, sounding completely harmless.

But in the minds of everyone present who had heard that voice, the image of Long Aotian's Emperor-grade armor being eaten bit by bit like a snack by her simultaneously appeared.

A chill ran down their spines.

Su Chen took a deep breath.

He looked up toward the heavens above the floating island.

There, a golden beam of guiding immortal light was slowly descending from the infinite heights.

The light pillar pierced through the nebulae, through the Void Realm, and landed right in the center of the Immortal Passing Pool.

The warm immortal light enveloped everyone.

The moment of Ascension had arrived.

But before stepping into the immortal light, Su Chen's voice rang out again.

Deeper than before.

"There are two more things."

"The two most important things."

Everyone pricked up their ears.

"First: At all costs, find the whereabouts of my Fiancée, Yaochi Saintess Ling Qingzhu."

This sentence had no complaints, no mockery.

It was clean, sharp, and forceful.

"Second: Gather all intelligence on the Fallen Immortal Divine Cult."

When he spoke the second half, his speaking speed slowed down.

It was so slow that every word seemed to be ground out from between his teeth.

No one present could fail to hear the weight in those two sentences.

Their Boss, who seemed not to care about anything and maintained a lazy, mocking attitude toward everything...

Some things were truly etched into his bones.

"Understood?"

"Understood!"

Everyone responded in unison.

Their voices soared into the sky, booming in the stars, more sincere than any oath.

The golden immortal light swallowed everyone.

Su Chen felt his body become light, as if breaking free from some invisible shackles.

The floating island beneath his feet grew further and further away.

The stars above his head drew closer and closer.

He closed his eyes.

A few final lines flashed through his internal monologue.

[Ling Qingzhu.]

[Liu Ruyan.]

[Ye Linghan.]

[Wait for me.]

A flash of light.

By the side of the Immortal Passing Pool, all figures vanished.

The world returned to silence.

Only that Three-legged Golden Toad remained lying there, dragon horn fragments still on the corner of its mouth.

It smacked its lips, let out a loud burp, and then slowly closed its eyes.

The pool water regained its calm, reflecting the star-filled sky.