Chapter 71.1: The Battle of Divine Strength! (I)

Night fell, yet the base of the Blood Fiend Sect remained brightly lit. The sect had taken over Gao Fortress, and although they had not officially relocated there, the fortress had essentially become the sect's headquarters.

The sect's elders had gathered in the main hall to report to their master, Yan Jiansheng.

"Master, over this period, we have purchased storefronts in all eight county cities of Nanyang Prefecture. We have begun selling the special incense, and business has been extremely prosperous. Moreover, we have expanded beyond Nanyang Prefecture and have already acquired stores in three neighboring prefectures. In the future, this special incense will surely spread throughout the entire Da Yu Dynasty, and our Blood Fiend Sect will rise to unprecedented glory."

The elders and disciples of the sect were all elated. Their founding ancestor had once been a Divine Strength martial artist, but no one of that level had emerged since. It was only after Yan Jiansheng became the sect master of the Blood Fiend Sect that he reached the Divine Strength Realm himself.

By chance, Yan Jiansheng had also created a special incense with ancient rock resin as its main ingredient. This had granted the sect a steady and inexhaustible source of wealth. Everyone knew that as long as Yan Jiansheng was around, the Blood Fiend Sect would surpass every height it had ever reached. Even the sect's founder paled in comparison.

However, unlike the jubilant elders, Yan Jiansheng showed little enthusiasm.

"Where is Zhuang Shisan? Any news of him?" he asked coldly.

"

Uh...

"

The elders looked at one another before one stepped forward to report to the sect master, "We have mobilized all available manpower to search for Zhuang Shisan. But it's almost as if he vanished off the face of the earth. We have found nothing, not even a trace of him. We are fairly certain he has already fled Nanyang Prefecture. Perhaps he was never from here in the first place, and destroying the Thirteen Riders of the Great Desert might simply be something he did in passing."

Their reasoning was sound. After all, many powerful martial artists wandered the world. Some acted chivalrously and intervened wherever they realized some injustice had been committed. Once such a matter was dealt with, they would simply get back on the road. The elders believed Zhuang Shisan to be one such wandering martial artist.

Yan Jiansheng neither agreed with nor refuted their theory. He simply asked, "What about Li Mu? Does he still refuse to reveal Zhuang Shisan's identity?"

"That dog of an official keeps trying to please both sides. His words are vague. He accepted our silver notes, yet he refuses to say a single thing about Zhuang Shisan's background."

"If he weren't the prefect, we would have butchered him already. Since when has the Blood Fiend Sect ever given out silver for nothing?"

The elders regarded Li Mu with disdain. In truth, if he truly angered them, they would actually go as far as to kill him. After all, killing an official those days was nothing. Perhaps they would not have dared in the past, but with the world in turmoil and the imperial court's authority waning, a mere prefect posed no difficulty for the Blood Fiend Sect.

"What a pity... It was the perfect chance to establish our authority. That Zhuang Shisan was fortunate to escape unscathed."

Yan Jiansheng shook his head. Indeed, given the sect's current resources, several days of fruitless searching could only mean that the man had already left Nanyang Prefecture.

Boom!

At that moment, the doors to the hall were smashed open by several corpses that landed on the floor before everyone else. They were disciples of the sect.

"Who is there?"

The elders turned at once, their gazes fixed intently on the entrance.

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Step, step, step...

A figure walked in from outside. They had never seen him before, yet he felt strangely familiar.

"You... Zhuang Shisan?"

A sharp glint flashed through Yan Jiansheng's eyes. He recognised Zhuang Shisan instantly, as he had seen many portraits of him. Although those sketches weren't the most accurate, the resemblance remained unmistakable.

"And you are Yan Jiansheng, the master of the Blood Fiend Sect, right? Did you not wish to use me to establish your might and crush my reputation to make yourself known across Nanyang Prefecture? Well then, just as you wished... I'm here."

Naturally, Lu Changsheng had altered his appearance into that of Zhuang Shisan before coming here. He had not sneaked in; he had come under the eyes of countless people, forcing his way straight into the sect's headquarters. Since they wanted to step on him to make their name known, he intended to crush the sect entirely.

"So you truly came here to die? You really think killing the Thirteen Riders of the Great Desert made you invincible?

Hah

, ridiculous. You're nothing but a frog at the bottom of a well[1]."

"That is right. The Thirteen Riders were a bunch of nobodies. We could have wiped them out long ago if we had so desired. You would never have had the chance."

The elders of the sect were all martial artists at the Organ Refinement Stage, all arrogant and dismissive. It was true that although the Thirteen Riders had caused considerable chaos, they were not widely renowned in the jianghu. As for the Seven Brothers of Cloud Mountain and the One-Armed Hero, who truly knew how they had died? Most believed they had been killed by the White Demons.

Lu Changsheng did not even bother to respond. He simply took a step forward.

Boom!

In that instant, blood qi surged above his head, coalescing into a crimson cloud.

One step...Two steps...Three steps...

The crimson cloud swelled with each step he took, until it filled the entire hall. This was not an eruption of blood qi. Rather, it was merely the natural aura produced by Lu Changsheng's vitality. The pressure he emanated was so terrifying that the elders felt as though they could barely move. Breath caught in their chests. They felt like they were suffocating.

"H-How can this be?"

"Feels like a tidal wave is pressing down on me... I... I can't even circulate my blood qi properly."

"So that's why he was so confident in going against the Thirteen Riders?"

The elders stared with wide eyes, unable to believe what they were sensing. As far as they were aware, Lu Changsheng was supposed to be in the Organ Refinement Stage, just like them. So how could the difference between them be so vast?

Of course, they could not have known that Changsheng had undergone two rounds of marrow transformation and blood replacement. As a result, his blood qi had soared to unimaginable levels. Without so much as lifting a finger, this Organ Refinement martial artist was suppressing them with just his blood qi!

Lu Changsheng walked forward until he was roughly three zhang away from Yan Jiansheng, then he stopped. Two or three elders were still standing nearby, close enough to reach out and touch him.

Lu Changsheng did not even spare them a glance, as though they were not even there. As he stood there, the Blood Fiend Sect elders were already on the verge of collapse, as though an entire mountain pressed down on them. They struggled to draw breath. The only other time they had experienced such oppressive might was when their master had stepped into the Divine Strength Realm.

"Could it be..." A few elders seemed to have realised something. They looked at Zhuang Shisan with utter horror.

"D-Divine... Divine Strength Realm?!"

The elder struggled to speak, forcing out the three words as his expression twisted with shock, disbelief, and a mix of other emotions.

"That's right. He's in the Divine Strength Realm. I never imagined that within the whole of Nanyang Prefecture there would be another Divine Strength martial artist aside from myself. No wonder you could sweep aside the bandits and eradicate the Thirteen Riders of the Great Desert."

At that moment, Yan Jiansheng rose to his feet. As he stood, a massive tide of blood qi surged out behind him, like a blaze of crimson flames that dyed the entire hall red. It rose to meet Lu Changsheng's aura head-on.

Caught between these two overwhelming forces, the elders felt even more suffocated. Their bodies strained even to twitch, and a deep sense of dread and despair sank into their chests. Only now did they truly understand how vast the gap between the Organ Refinement Stage and the Divine Strength Realm really was.

They had heard many stories and opinions about cultivation, like how Body Tempering cultivators were just stronger than ordinary men, nothing more. It was also said that those who reached the Divine Strength Realm had experienced a qualitative transformation, and as such, they no longer belonged to the same category as common people.

The elders never believed it. They had always told themselves that no matter how strong a Divine Strength martial artist was, they might at best defeat ten or even dozens of Organ Refinement martial artists before eventually being overwhelmed by numbers and killed.

But now, caught between Yan Jiansheng and Lu Changsheng, they understood how foolish they had been to believe that. In this state, what use would even hundreds of Organ Refinement martial artists be? They could not even move, let alone surround and kill someone.

At that moment, Lu Changsheng and Yan Jiansheng confronted each other from a distance, their auras clashing violently. Both had only recently broken through to the Divine Strength Realm, both overflowing with confidence, and neither would yield an inch.

1. 井底之蛙 (jǐng dǐ zhī wā) is a Chinese idiom that describes someone with a very narrow viewpoint who mistakenly believes their limited world is everything ☜