174: A welcome gift? The best thing in the world!

Led by Chen De, they navigated every challenge smoothly, arriving at their destination without a hitch.

It was a native city seized by Li Canghai, now serving as his stronghold.

As for how to treat the natives, across the three subsidiary continents, different True Core Disciples each had their own distinct policies.

Some focused on recruitment and subjugation, others on total annihilation...

The continent Chen De was currently on, Bai Xian Continent, prioritized suppression, with selling into servitude as a secondary, relatively milder approach.

After all, it was the continent with the strongest native forces among the three.

Acts like mass slaughter naturally had to be minimized to avoid overly straining relations.

Who knows, there might even be opportunities for cooperation in the future.

The bottom line of these natives had already been lowered repeatedly under years of pressure from the Qiu Xian Hall.

To put it bluntly, they themselves probably no longer knew just how low their bottom line had sunk.

Once inside the city, Chen De had nowhere else to go, so he headed straight for Li Canghai's residence.

He casually found a guard on duty at the gate and walked up to him.

Seeing Chen De's disciple attire, the guard understood his status and position.

The man immediately knelt down and kowtowed respectfully several times.

But what kind of morally upright person was Chen De? How could he allow someone to do such a thing to him?

In Chen De's heart, everyone had always been equal.

In Chen De's eyes, there were no slaves!

So, after the man finished kneeling, Chen De promptly helped him up.

He took out his disciple token, imbuing it with a trace of Myriad Transformation Realm martial aura.

He instructed the guard to quickly take it inside and report, "Say that the Inner Sect Disciple Ren Changhao requests an audience!"

Normally, a disciple of Chen De's rank definitely couldn't just casually request to see a Core Disciple.

After all, a higher rank could crush one to death; disciple hierarchies were the same, and even more brutally exposed.

Especially in a world where personal martial prowess was paramount.

The chasm between different statuses and classes was unimaginably vast.

In his previous life, Chen De had still needed to put on a show, pretending to care for his subordinates.

After all, no matter how powerful an individual was, they needed sufficient numbers to achieve certain goals.

But here, that was completely unnecessary.

However, for this gatekeeper before him, neither Chen De nor Li Canghai were people he could afford to offend.

Even if Chen De slapped him dead on the spot, Li Canghai would likely turn a blind eye.

So, all he had to do was deliver the item.

As for whether Li Canghai would see him or not, that was beyond his control.

After all, among the many Inner Sect Disciples of the Qiu Xian Hall, except for a very few,

who didn't want to curry favor with the Core Disciples, all trying every method to get close and build connections?

Whether one could get an audience depended mainly on Li Canghai's mood.

This was also why, when Chen De had just broken through outside, so many Inner Sect Disciples came to congratulate him.

To the extent that when Chen De told one disciple to hand over his wife, the man didn't hesitate at all.

He even proactively helped Chen De carry her into the room, stripped her clean, and placed her on the bed.

But Chen De possessed great benevolence; he was never one to enjoy things alone.

So, he ordered the congratulating disciples to line up outside.

Chen De still remembered glancing into the room as he left.

Her panicked, frightened, fright... joyful expression.

Presumably, she was also very happy to be able to contribute to Chen De's great benevolence and do her part for morality.

Unconsciously, Chen De seemed to have drifted off in thought.

He shook his head. Truly, getting older, starting to let his mind wander.

Back to the main topic.

That's why Chen De had attached a trace of Myriad Transformation Realm aura to his disciple token.

To tell Li Canghai: an Inner Sect Disciple is an Inner Sect Disciple, but a Myriad Transformation Realm Inner Sect Disciple is a Myriad Transformation Realm Inner Sect Disciple.

Even if Chen De's current rank was slightly lower, he was only short one core disciple assessment.

For a Myriad Transformation Realm disciple, becoming a Core Disciple was almost a foregone conclusion.

Sensing the aura Chen De left on the token, Li Canghai would naturally understand the situation.

Sure enough, not long after the gatekeeper went inside,

a hearty laugh immediately echoed from within the residence.

"Hahaha, so it's Chang Laodi who's come! Why didn't you send word ahead of your visit?

This old brother could have made proper preparations to receive you properly, Chang Laodi."

The voice arrived before the person.

As Chen De had anticipated, upon learning of his strength,

even though Chen De was still only an Inner Sect Disciple, the other party came out personally to welcome him.

And Chen De had never met Li Canghai before, nor did he know him.

Prior to this, they might not even have heard of each other's names.

Yet, right from the start, the other could address Chen De with such familiarity.

Clearly, he was also an old fox!

But then again, to cultivate to the Myriad Transformation Realm, one had to have lived for at least a few hundred years.

Having lived that long, except for the truly foolish,

the rest had long since become shrewd, crafty old foxes.

They might not try to please everyone, but they would absolutely avoid offending anyone.

Without seeing the man yet, Chen De also called out, "I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare. It's already quite presumptuous of me to come unannounced and disturb you.

How could I possibly trouble you to make preparations in advance?"

As he spoke, Li Canghai emerged from the residence.

Although he was at least several hundred years old, he looked relatively young, appearing like a man in his thirties.

Quite similar in age and appearance to Chen De's current body.

For Myriad Transformation Realm experts, lifespan reached ten thousand years.

Given their longevity, a few hundred or even a thousand years was but a drop in the ocean of their lives.

As for the Void Union Realm, the lifespan increase was even more monstrous, at least one hundred and eighty thousand years.

There was even one existing Void Union Realm expert who had lived for two hundred and fifty thousand years.

So, judging by appearance alone, one couldn't tell their approximate age.

For example, there were low-level cultivators—hundreds-of-years-old 'young girls' with wrinkled faces and white hair.

There were plenty of 'old women' who had lived for tens of thousands of years, yet remained youthful, gorgeous, with enchanting figures.

Just like that female corpse auctioned off at Chen De's previous auction.

Based on examination, she should have lived around eight thousand years. Not her full lifespan, but certainly not short.

Outwardly, she still looked like a girl of eighteen or nineteen.

In this world, judging people by appearance was highly inadvisable.

But judging by aura was remarkably accurate.

Li Canghai walked out, saw Chen De, and acted very amiably.

Upon seeing Chen De, he immediately jogged over to him.

Grasping Chen De's hand, he tried to pull him into the residence as a guest.

"Come in, come in! As soon as I heard it was you, I immediately ordered a grand feast prepared.

Today, since you've taken the rare initiative to visit your elder brother, I must ensure you leave fully satisfied."

Chen De was also Without any politeness (unceremonious). He immediately pointed at the people he had brought back. "In that case, I'll graciously accept.

Visiting for the first time, I couldn't prepare any decent gift.

I happened to hear that someone from your residence had gone missing, and I just coincidentally came across them.

So, I brought them along as a welcome gift for you!"