"The Black Lotus Saint sent you to kill me?"
Beneath the gleam of the blade, the courtyard's table and chairs exploded. A spray of white snow and shattered green bricks flew in all directions.
When the dust settled.
Su Chen stood in his original spot, completely unharmed.
"Hm?"
"My strike was at the Peak of Perfection! It could even kill a Fourth Grade expert. Why are you unscathed!"
The figure's face was revealed.
Clad in a black Night Traveling Robe and a mask, wielding a thick Long Saber, but the delicate frame and slender, almond-shaped eyes revealed that this person was not a man.
"You have a cultivation?"
"No, that's not right!"
"Whether it was Qi or blood, I didn't sense anything in that moment. According to the rumors in the Imperial Palace, you're not supposed to have any talent for cultivation at all."
She was stunned.
The next instant.
She charged again, her blade held horizontally. A bolt of saber light flashed, illuminating the empty courtyard.
"Why are you trying to kill me?"
"Zhang Gui should have an agreement with the Black Lotus Saint. Even if he won't grant me my freedom, he shouldn't be sending people to kill me."
"Could it be that they suspect the Black-robed Envoy's death has something to do with me?"
Su Chen moved as if taking a leisurely stroll. With a slight shift of his feet, he once again dodged the bolt of saber light.
The Eighteen Golden Body Technique was powerful.
Far more powerful than anyone could imagine.
Su Chen had looked through ancient texts and finally found a faint trace of Old Demon Gujue. He was a Grandmaster from before the Great Liang Dynasty, and it was highly likely he was a peerless Grandmaster who was invincible against others in the same realm.
The Eighteen Golden Body Technique might not be a First-grade Technique, but rather a legendary Grandmaster Technique.
Just by stepping into the Fifth Grade Blood and Flesh Realm, Su Chen possessed a vigorous vitality comparable to a Martial Arts Prodigy at the Perfection of the Blood and Flesh Realm. The two Thousand-Year Treasure Medicines he consumed had certainly played a huge part in this.
But this didn't negate the power of the Eighteen Golden Body Technique.
Someone who truly cultivated the Eighteen Golden Body Technique to Fifth Grade Perfection would have a foundation at least ten times deeper than a Martial Arts Prodigy cultivating other Horizontal Refining Techniques.
In fact.
Su Chen suspected that since Old Demon Gujue, no one had been able to cultivate the Eighteen Golden Body Technique to its true Perfect Realm within each stage.
After all, once one reached the surging vitality of a Martial Arts Prodigy at the Perfection Level, they could immediately start charging toward the Fourth Grade Bone Marrow Realm.
To polish the foundation of a realm without directly consuming a Thousand-Year Treasure Medicine like Su Chen would inevitably take a very long time.
A person's life, even for someone as lofty as a Grandmaster, was at most a hundred years.
Besides a Longevity monster like Su Chen who didn't care about his lifespan, who else would polish the foundation of their realm to its absolute limit?
Right now, Su Chen had roughly reached the Mid-stage Blood and Flesh Realm of the Eighteen Golden Body Technique.
Three times the level of a Martial Arts Prodigy Level Fifth Grade Perfection!
"Pah!"
"Who the hell do you think you are?"
"My father was a master at the Peak of Third Grade, the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm! Could a useless piece of trash like you have killed him?"
"You really think you're something."
"Even if the Black Lotus Saint spares you, I won't! My father's last mission was to activate you. My father is missing, so what right do you have to still be alive?"
"Die!"
The black-robed person's clothes exploded, revealing a beautiful face and a body clad in Silver Armor. Gripping her saber again, she brought it cleaving down heavily toward Su Chen.
It was indeed a woman.
'In this Imperial Palace, she must be hiding her identity as a Palace Maid.'
The Path of Qi.
Fifth Grade Internal Qi Realm, Fourth Grade Violent Qi Realm, Third-Grade Gang Condensation Realm, Second-Grade Fury Gang Realm, First-Grade Celestial Sense, Breaking the Profound Gate, giving birth to True Essence, which corresponds to the Body Refining Leakless Realm, making one a True Essence Minor Grandmaster.
"Fourth Grade Violent Qi Realm, is it?"
"So you're his daughter."
"In that case, I'll send you down to join him."
Su Chen plucked a falling leaf from the courtyard air and sighed softly.
In that instant.
Hearing Su Chen's words, her eyes widened in disbelief. Then she reacted as if she'd been played for a fool and let out a cold laugh.
"Heh!"
"Have you lost your mind?"
"You're a mortal who's no match for me, and you still fantasize about killing my father, a Peak Third Grade…"
The next moment.
She couldn't say another word.
Su Chen took a step forward. His Black-robed Eunuch Robe billowed without any wind, and streaks of Golden Light suffused his skin. The terrifying vitality hidden within him—three times that of a Martial Arts Prodigy at Fifth Grade Perfection—erupted from his body with a BOOM.
"This is…"
"The Eighteen Golden Body Technique?!"
"You really killed my father?!"
BOOM!
She charged with her saber, her Violent Qi sweeping out.
In response, Su Chen simply held a single leaf.
BANG!
A terrifying amount of vitality was poured into the leaf. It became like a life-reaping sword, a piercing blade. In that instant, as the leaf whistled through the air, the once-howling wind and snow fell silent.
"This…"
"In this world… how could there be such…"
She fell to the ground.
A leaf like a blade had pierced her chest. In a fleeting moment, it exploded into countless specks of dust that scattered into the wind, becoming nothing.
She didn't finish her sentence.
In this world… how could there be such a powerful Fifth Grade Blood and Flesh Realm cultivator.
Even when her father was a Martial Arts Prodigy, at Fifth Grade Perfection or even when he had just stepped into the Fourth Grade, he had never possessed such a vast and terrifying vitality.
That night, Su Chen slew a Violent Qi Realm expert with a single leaf!
'The Fifth Grade Realm of the Eighteen Golden Body Technique is truly powerful.'
'After Old Demon Gujue, the peerless Grandmaster of the Great Zhou who swept through all those in his realm, no one has been able to display the true glory of the Eighteen Golden Body Technique. If that's the case, then let me be the one to carry it forward.'
'The true method of cultivating the Eighteen Golden Body Technique!'
Su Chen walked over, gently closed the woman's indignant, staring eyes, hoisted her onto his shoulder, and headed for the medicinal herb garden.
He always kept his promises.
He said he would bury them together, and he would bury them together.
At this very moment.
Su Chen's head snapped up, his gaze like lightning as he looked outside the Library Pavilion.
"Who's spying on me?"
"Get out here!"
In that instant, Su Chen's eyes, already as bright as shining stars, flared with Killing Intent once more.
Only the dead could know the secret of his cultivation.
"Master… Su…"
Xu Xiaohan stumbled out, trembling, his teeth chattering.
He never would have imagined it.
The Imperial Palace was in chaos, and his godfather, Zhang Gui, had sent him to the Library Pavilion to protect the frail, non-cultivating Su Chen. But instead, he witnessed such a terrifying scene.
'Isn't Master Su unable to cultivate?'
Every eunuch in the entire Imperial Palace knew about this.
And yet, he had seen this.
A Fifth Grade Blood and Flesh Realm expert, felling a Fourth Grade Violent Qi Realm master with the flick of a leaf!
Even those few Martial Arts Prodigies specially nurtured by the Martial Arts Bureau weren't this absurdly strong.
In this vast world, slaying a Fourth Grade expert as a Fifth Grade—even among Martial Arts Prodigies, only the handful at the very top could accomplish such a feat.
"Han, it's you."
After being served by him for many months, some attachment had formed.
Su Chen couldn't bring himself to strike.
While dragging the body and loosening the soil to bury the woman, Su Chen asked nonchalantly.
"What are you doing here?"
"Godfather… Godfather told me to come here to protect… protect you, Master Su…"
Xu Xiaohan's knees gave way, and he collapsed to the ground.
Because he saw that beneath the medicinal herb garden, there were other bones, dark and black. It was obvious this wasn't the first time Master Su had killed; he was well-practiced.
Who would have thought.
That Master Su in the Library Pavilion was actually a ruthless killer who wouldn't even bat an eye.
'Protect…'
'Su Chen can kill a Fourth Grade expert with a wave of his hand. What does he need my protection for, a mere Fifth Grade…'
Xu Xiaohan smiled bitterly in his heart.
'It's a good thing the Black-robed Envoy is already just bones. No one would be able to tell this was the missing Peak Third Grade expert from the Imperial Palace, the Vice Chief Steward of the Martial Arts Bureau. Otherwise, this little Han would probably have fainted from fright.'