Martial Cultivator

Chen Chao’s towering dharma idol stood majestic and imposing, its pressure vast and overwhelming. In the center of the lightning pool, after shattering those two so-called thunder pantheon deities, he instead seemed even more like a true god!

Beneath Chen Chao’s towering dharma idol, that daoist figure appeared incomparably small. And after Chen Chao pressed down with one massive hand, the figure was already battered, his head broken and face bloodied.

Chen Chao lowered his head to take a look, and only then did he clearly see the man’s appearance.

He was a middle-aged daoist dressed in a wide robe, his aura mysterious and profound. It was obvious he was also a Fuyun cultivator who had stepped beyond Nepenthe.

But at this moment, the middle-aged daoist’s face was covered in blood. Where was there any trace of the bearing of an immortal?

Facing Chen Chao’s towering dharma idol, the middle-aged daoist could only complain bitterly in his heart. Knowing Chen Chao was about to break through, he had come from overseas under orders, constructing this lightning pool here to forge a fake heavenly tribulation, intending to kill Chen Chao on the spot.

That way, even if Chen Chao died, that unreasonable martial artist would have no reason to trouble them, because everyone would only believe Chen Chao’s death was caused by the heavenly tribulation. It would be the will of heaven and earth, and no blame could be placed on anyone else.

Thus, he spared no expense of daoist qi to construct this lightning pool, all to fabricate the illusion of a heavenly tribulation.

And in his view, he had long since been a Fuyun cultivator. Dealing with a martial artist who had not yet broken through the limits of Nepenthe should have been effortless. But how could he have known that the opponent he faced was never an ordinary Nepenthe martial artist?

He also never expected that, despite disguising things so well, that martial artist would still detect a flaw, directly entering the lightning pool and crushing his scheme.

What he could not understand most was how, in this day and age, martial artists could be so unreasonable.

First there had been that middle-aged martial artist who shattered Mount Qiuling, killed its mountain lord, and left without a care. Now there was this one, only half a foot into the Fuyun, yet able to break apart the lightning pool he had painstakingly constructed.

It had originally been a desperate gamble. Now that the martial artist had broken the lightning pool he constructed, it just so happened to coincide with his weakest moment. Otherwise, he would not have been so easily beaten into such a state by this young martial artist.

The young martial artist, who had never intended to waste words with the middle-aged daoist, had his towering dharma idol remain expressionless as it directly stomped down with one foot.

With that single step, the entire lightning pool began to collapse instantly.

Although Chen Chao had not truly stepped into the Fuyun Realm, the qi within his body had been continuously rising, long surpassing the scope of Nepenthe. In other words, though he had not yet become a Fuyun cultivator, he had already stepped beyond the Nepenthe realm.

His current state was extremely subtle, one foot had already crossed the threshold into the Fuyun Realm, while the other still remained outside.

The middle-aged daoist circulated the last remaining qi within his body to resist Chen Chao. After all, he was still a Fuyun cultivator - a starving camel is still bigger than a horse. Any martial artist at the end of Nepenthe in this world would likely have no choice but to make a detour upon encountering him.

But Chen Chao merely stepped down expressionlessly, shattering his qi outright, defeating him again and again.

Afterward, Chen Chao stepped out from the towering dharma idol, shrinking back to normal size. He walked up to the middle-aged daoist, grabbed his sleeve with one hand, and gripped the hilt of his saber with the other.

“As for matters out at sea, this official does not intend to concern myself with them for now. But today’s matter will not end just like this. Sooner or later, this official will make a trip overseas.”

The middle-aged daoist had already been in utter despair. But upon hearing these words, a glimmer of light returned to his eyes. He let out a dry laugh, “That’s only natural. Leave some leeway in all things, so we may meet again in the future. There’s no need to push things to such extremes.”

In his view, Chen Chao speaking like this meant there was still room for negotiation. At the very least, it seemed this young martial artist did not intend to go all the way.

Chen Chao stared at the middle-aged daoist, narrowed his eyes, and smiled, “It seems Senior still doesn’t quite understand this official’s reputation. Before coming here, you should have asked the cultivators on this side what exactly my reputation is like.”

“What do you mean?”

The middle-aged daoist was suddenly alarmed, a bad feeling rising in his heart.

Chen Chao slowly drew his saber and said with a smile, “They all say this official is a devil. Senior, what do you think that means?”

The middle-aged daoist was stunned, his pupils instantly dilating. In the next moment, a streak of saber light appeared before his eyes in an instant.

But before the middle-aged daoist could take more than a few looks at that saber light, he could no longer see anything at all.

An additional headless corpse appeared here.

Chen Chao held the head in his hand, shook his head, and exhaled a breath of turbid air. “In this world, after provoking this official, how could one possibly get away without paying any price at all?”

After speaking, Chen Chao tossed out the head in his hand, raised his head to look toward the overseas direction, and narrowed his eyes.

As he had said, overseas matters were not yet something to be handled at this time. What Great Liang most needed to pay attention to now was the demons in the north.

However, with this incident, together with what had happened previously during the siege of Daoist Wuyang, Chen Chao would certainly make a trip overseas sooner or later.

At that time, whether it would be like the Great Liang Emperor. However, whether was it making Mount Qiuling pay the price or something else, it would be hard to say.

Chen Chao took a deep breath, turned his head to look at the towering dharma idol behind him, and said, “You go ahead. Our own matters can’t just be left for outsiders to worry about. That wouldn’t make sense.”

The towering dharma idol slowly nodded and strode toward the borders of Ying Prefecture.

While Chen Chao stood within the sea of clouds, sheathed his saber, took a deep breath, and felt the flow of qi within his body. He laughed boldly, “A Fuyun Realm under the age of 30? Is there a second person like that under heaven?!”

Chen Chao burst into loud laughter, then sat cross-legged in the sea of clouds and began to devour in the boundless qi of heaven and earth around him.

Previously, in Lu Ji’s dream, he had seen a gate in the sky. He had pushed it halfway open, yet personally closed it again, because at that time, Chen Chao already understood a principle: that gate had never been outside himself, but within his own body.

Cultivators always spoke of sensing heaven and earth in their cultivation, and qi refiners even more so. But for martial artists, it had always been about relying on oneself.

Heaven and earth, all things, for my use. Tempering an unparalleled body, this was what it meant to be a martial artist.

In the previous era, martial artists could cultivate magic spells and were beings feared by many cultivators. In this era, martial artists had walked onto a dead-end path, unable to cultivate daoist techniques. Yet powerhouses like the Great Liang Emperor could still suppress the world’s cultivators at the end of Nepenthe so thoroughly that none could lift their heads.

If that was the case, why insist on chasing the cultivation methods of martial artists from the previous era, striving to become one who could dual-cultivate techniques?

The road ahead was right here, why not keep walking it?

If a dead-end road was walked to its end, then carve out a new path beyond it!

I, Chen Chao, will not walk the martial path that has already been proven workable, but will instead open up a brand-new road, so that all under heaven may see it.

Some things others cannot accomplish are simply because they lack the ability.

And I, Chen Chao, will on this very path, forge once more a Great Dao that reaches the heavens!

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