Inviting these geniuses here and using their power to repair the rune formation was Chen Heng's initial goal.
While they were here, he would also discuss cultivation with them and get to know them.
For these geniuses to rise up in this age, apart from their Fortunes, their talents were also indisputable.
In terms of pure experience, these people could not compare to Chen Heng, but in other respects, they would not lose to Chen Heng.
Their thoughts and research were treasures in themselves.
Of course, on another level, by interacting with people with Fortune, Chen Heng was able to deepen his understanding of Fortune. The Fortune Mark in his body continuously went through changes, becoming more and more complicated.
Of course, in this process, he had to use up large amounts of time.
Fortunately, Chen Heng did not lack time.
Enlightened Masters had a lifespan of 500 years, and after rising to True Lord, his lifespan had increased even more.
Unless a catastrophe happened, Chen Heng would most likely be able to live to 1,000 years old.
Compared to this number, the time that Chen Heng spent on this was not a big deal.
This was the advantage of being a high-level cultivator. With a long lifespan, one could investigate and research the things that they wanted to.
After reaching True Lord, Chen Heng had turned his attention from cultivation to researching the refinement of weapons.
It was not that he did not want to cultivate but that he could not.
This world had been ravaged and the spirit qi was in great decline. The more powerful the cultivator, the greater obstacles they faced.
Even though Chen Heng had sensed this when he was an Enlightened Master, it had not been too obvious.
However, after reaching True Lord, this feeling had become incredibly obvious.
After reaching True Lord, he could clearly sense how ravaged this world was. Even if he continued to cultivate, he would not be able to make any progress.
Because of how ravaged it was, this world was innately suppressing the existence of cultivators. Lower-level cultivators would not feel it as much, but higher-level cultivators would be greatly affected.
It was just like what Song Qi had said: Those who reached Enlightened Master here would most likely already be a True Lord elsewhere.
For Chen Heng to successfully become a True Lord in a ravaged world like this, it was almost incomprehensible.
As time went on, the spirit qi in this world would continue to go into decline, and cultivation would become more and more difficult.
It was still possible for Enlightened Masters to appear right now, but hundreds of years later, they would become rarer and rarer until they became legends like True Lords.
Thinking to there, Chen Heng lightly sighed, but he was unable to do anything.
Compared to ordinary cultivators, True Lords were incredibly powerful and like gods to mortals.
However, compared to an entire world, True Lords were not omnipotent.
A single True Lord could not affect this world and repair it. Otherwise, those holy lands would not have relocated.
Time continued to pass.
More and more geniuses and Enlightened Masters were invited by Chen Heng, and they engaged in discussions with him.
With the efforts from these people, the rune formation was being quickly restored.
By now, it had been 70% restored. This did not seem like much, but it was quite impressive already.
That rune formation had been created by holy lands, and even a True Lord like Chen Heng was stumped when looking at some parts.
If even a True Lord like him felt this way, then it was even more so for Enlightened Masters and the younger geniuses.
To be able to accomplish this was quite good.
It was not that likely to be able to continue to restore it; getting to this point was most likely the limit.
Chen Heng felt quite frustrated but he could only slowly research it and do his best to complete it.
In the blink of an eye, 50 years passed.
During this time, some of the people Chen Heng had known had already been buried in the ground.
Qi Yu's appearance started to go through changes, and he gradually became a middle-aged man.
The only thing that did not change was Chen Heng.
Although 50 years had passed, he did not look any different. However, it was not as if his appearance had been set, and would never change—rather, it was just changing very, very slowly.
With a True Lord's lifespan, he was still quite young and still had much time left.
It would probably take him hundreds of years to look like he was aging.
On this day, Qi Yu came to visit Chen Heng as usual. He put down the tea set in his hands, looked at Chen Heng, and hesitated for a while.
"Have you decided?" Chen Heng sighed and asked, looking at Qi Yu like this.
"Mm."
Qi Yu opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but he did not say anything in the end and instead looked at Chen Heng with a resolute expression.
"It's about time anyways." Chen Heng fell silent for a moment before smiling, "If you want to go, then go. It was quite difficult for you to reach this stage, and if you don't try, you most likely would not be able to accept it."
Decades ago, with Chen Heng's support, Qi Yu had finally reached the peak of Enlightened Master and was just a single step away from True Lord.
Now, after decades of training, the current Qi Yu was like Chen Heng back then, and he was standing before that door.
If he wanted to, he could try to break through at any moment.
Qi Yu had already made the decision, and he had come to let Chen Heng know today.
Chen Heng did not have any reason to stop him.
For someone like Qi Yu, once he had made a decision, he would not waver and would not change because of something that someone else said.
It was just that looking at Qi Yu's departing figure, Chen Heng could not help but sigh.
In actuality, Chen Heng did not feel much hope for Qi Yu breaking through—things were different to decades ago.
The current Qi Yu had already used up all of his Fate, and he was no different to any ordinary person.
With how bad this world's environment was, without the help of Fate, breaking through to True Lord was incredibly dangerous.
Moreover, Qi Yu could not compare to Chen Heng.
He did not have the patience that Chen Heng had, and he had some blemishes in his foundation; there was still room to improve.
With these blemishes in his foundation, they reduced his changes of success.
It was just that if Qi Yu wanted to completely fix these blemishes, that would be impossible—the time required for that would be at least over 100 years.
Qi Yu could not wait for such a thing.
As such, he did not have Fortune, like Chen Heng did back then, nor did he have a foundation as sturdy as Chen Heng's.
It was evident what his chances of success would be like, but Chen Heng did not say anything.
He had already said what needed to be said, but he could not change Qi Yu's mind.
Since things were like that, he decided to respect Qi Yu's decision.
After a few months, in front of a lake, a commotion once again happened.
Spirit qi began to gather from all directions, and dense spirit energy spread out.
The power contained within surpassed that of Enlightened Master, and the scene looked quite like that of Chen Heng breaking through back then.
Chen Heng was wearing a simple white robe and stood beside the water as he waited for the outcome.
As he watched on, the boundless spirit qi condensed into a magic seal with runes engraved on it.
A tall and straight figure could be seen, trying to stabilize the energy within him as he took in the surrounding spirit qi, trying to break through to a new level.
This was Qi Yu.
He was at the center of the vortex of the spirit qi, enduring intense pain.
Explosions continuously sounded out: They were sounds from spirit qi surging.
At the center, Qi Yu could not help but give a low roar, and runes appeared all over his body, giving off a unique and powerful energy.
Chen Heng could not help but frown—the situation did not seem right.
If everything was going smoothly, the situation should not be like this.
The massive and violent sounds were an indication that Qi Yu was unable to calm down the surrounding spirit qi; he could only use this kind of intense method to scatter it.
Ahead, ripples spread out.
Bang!!
A terrifying explosion sounded out from ahead.
The spirit qi in the surroundings became berserk, and it seemed to go out of control.
At the center, Qi Yu was sent flying out towards the horizon.
His face was pale without any color at all.
His body continuously exploded due to the rampaging spirit qi.
If this went on, he would be torn apart by the spirit qi, without even a corpse remaining.
It was at that moment Chen Heng finally acted.
He slowly stretched out his hand and divine energy spread out, covering this area.
After being covered by this divine energy, the rampaging scene was calmed down, as if a massive, invisible hand had appeared.
A terrifying disaster had been suppressed before it even began.
Following this, Chen Heng stretched out his hand and grabbed on to Qi Yu, and he carefully used his own spirit energy to nourish his body.
In the end, Qi Yu's ascension had failed.
Just like Chen Heng had expected, without a perfect foundation and having used up all of his Fortune, Qi Yu's ascension quickly failed.
Because Chen Heng acted in time, Qi Yu did not die, but he was unable to go back to his original state.
Now that he had failed, his Spirit Root had been destroyed and his cultivation foundation was about to collapse.
In the following days, his cultivation would continuously regress until he became a mortal.
Fortunately, Chen Heng had acted in time.
He used his spirit energy combined with all kinds of spirit pills to stabilize Qi Yu's cultivation so that it did not continue to regress.
In the end, Qi Yu was able to remain as an Enlightened Master, but his strength had drastically gone down.
This was unavoidable.
After failing an ascension, for Qi Yu to survive, it was already quite good.
Being able to preserve some of his cultivation was already very good luck.
After failing to ascend to True Lord, Qi Yu completely collapsed.
Because of the damage he had sustained trying to ascend to True Lord, Qi Yu's lifespan had been greatly reduced. In the end, he died after 100 years.
In response, Chen Heng could only sigh.
After 100 years, his only disciple had fallen, while he was still young.
It seemed that he still had a long time left.
Over the last 100 years, some of the geniuses grew and also chose to try to ascend to True Lord like Qi Yu.
It was just that all of these people failed in the end.
Some of these people fell just like Chen Yu in the original timeline, while others were able to survive. However, despite this, those people lost any opportunity to cultivate. Not only did their cultivations regress, but they could also no longer progress and even their lifespans were reduced.
Compared to all of those who had failed, as the world's only True Lord, Chen Heng seemed even more extraordinary and powerful.
During those 100 years, Chen Heng's strength and might once again increased, far surpassing other large Sects.
Chen Heng still did his best to progress.
His cultivation did not increase, but his accomplishments in rune formations greatly increased.
Now, he was one of the top Grandmaster refiners in the entire Eastern Continent.
This was just in terms of refining skill.
Adding on his advantages from his cultivation, he was the number one Grandmaster refiner in the Eastern Continent.
After all, although skills were important, the benefits he had from his cultivation were also evident.
For refiners of the same level, those with higher cultivation had a bigger advantage and could craft more powerful magic tools.
Time gradually passed.
Sitting inside his palace hall, Chen Heng silently cultivated and read through various texts so he could understand this world as much as possible.
The rune formation from back then was becoming more and more restored with the efforts of various geniuses.
By now, it was 80% restored.
However, this was the limit. Restoring it any further would be simply too difficult, and even Chen Heng had nothing he could do.
In the following 200 years, more and more geniuses appeared, but the restoration of the rune formation did not make much progress.
During these 200 years, Chen Heng also discovered something—as time passed, the spirit qi in this world was quickly disappearing.
Even though it was not very obvious in the short-term, after a long period of time, this was not something that could be ignored.
Even though the density of spirit qi at the center of the Eastern Continent did not change much, at some remote places, the spirit qi was unbelievably thin.
This was reflected in the cultivators of the current age.
200 years ago, there were still many Enlightened Masters, but after 200 years, there were fewer and fewer people ascending to Enlightened Master.
This was not because there were less geniuses but because the world was becoming even more ravaged.
As the spirit qi dissipated, this world became more and more unsuited for cultivation.
Perhaps in some time, even Enlightened Masters would become a rare existence.
Chen Heng could already see this scene.
By now, he had already finished preparing and was about to leave.
In the past few hundred years, he had had much time to prepare.
Even if he continued to stay, it would not be of much benefit to him.
Rather than staying here and wasting time, it would be better to leave and explore elsewhere.