News of Tuoba Li’s death in the rear sent shockwaves through the entire Daqian Army. Everyone knew that having such a Great Zhou Martial Arts Master wreaking havoc behind their lines was a thorn in their side.

In the Profound Daoist Sect, when Su Zhenhe saw that the name left behind in Cangzhou was his own—and that the perpetrator used a hammer, no less—he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. His expression quickly turned grave, and his heart jolted.

"A Flesh Refining Realm cultivator killing a Daqian True Blood of the Soul Burning Realm, which is comparable to the Blood Exchange Realm..."

Su Zhenhe snapped his head up and stared at Yhu Jingshan, who stood before him.

"He’s... achieved the Great Perfection Realm in muscle, bone, and skin?!"

Yhu Jingshan’s eyes gleamed. "Only the number one True Inheritor of our Profound Daoist Sect could match him. To think that the little Celestial Craft Cave could produce a True Dragon... However, this matter has besmirched the Profound Daoist Sect’s name. I’m afraid Master will have to decide what to do..."

Su Zhenhe’s fingers tightened subconsciously, piercing through the letter without him even realizing it. He didn’t hear a word Yhu Jingshan said after that.

"Wentian You... I remember, he’s still in the Profound Daoist Secret Realm, isn’t he?"

-----------------

「The seventh day of the ninth month. Cold Dew.」 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Thirty li outside Yanbei City, the banners of the Daqian Iron Cavalry snapped in the northern wind.

Inside the main tent of the Central Army, amidst the swirling mist of Dragon Saliva Fragrance rising from a bronze beast-shaped censer, Dingyuan Marquis Yuwen Zhuo, commander of the Central Army, was polishing a three-foot-long Golden Inlaid Saber.

"Marshal, urgent report!!!"

A personal guard carrying an express military dispatch burst through the tent flaps, knelt before the command seat, and presented the letter with both hands.

The fragrant mist rising from the bronze censer swirled around Yuwen Zhuo, but it could not conceal a physique that could only be described as a living weapon.

Even seated, he stood like half an iron tower. Beneath his Profound Iron Armor, bulging muscles stretched the plates into menacing arcs. His dark gold Heart Protection Mirror reflected the gnarled veins on his neck, which were covered in fine golden scales. With every breath, the scales seemed to open and close like a living creature, their friction creating the faint sound of metal on metal.

When the Daqian commander rose abruptly to his feet, a bronze lamp hanging from the tent’s ceiling suddenly dipped three inches.

His nine-foot-tall frame cast a shadow that nearly swallowed the entire map of the Northern Territory. Beneath his black cloak, the protruding Dragon Vertebrae of his spine were faintly visible.

The skin visible in the gaps of his armor had a dark golden sheen, and his musculature resembled meteorite iron tempered a thousand times over. Even the joints of his hands were covered in calloused, scale-like skin.

"Report."

Yuwen Zhuo tapped his finger on the table.

The golden scales on his cheeks shifted as he spoke.

At the soldier’s five words, "General Tuoba Li is dead," the marquis’s knuckles turned white. The edge of his blade reflected the fine golden scales on his neck, which rippled as if alive.

"Got himself slaughtered by a Flesh Refining Realm kid?"

Yuwen Zhuo suddenly roared with laughter, as if he’d heard the most ridiculous joke in the world. The sound waves shook the tent, sending rainwater collected on the roof pattering down.

As the smile pulled at the corners of his mouth, the golden scales stood on end like those of an angry viper, refracting the candlelight into a chilling, shattered golden glint.

He sheathed the Golden Inlaid Saber at his waist. Amidst the hum of the Treasure Artifact, the golden scales spread from his neck to his cheeks. "The mastiff raised by the Tuoba Family got its eyes pecked out by a fledgling. That Greed Wolf True Blood really went to the wrong person."

Yuwen Zhuo suddenly slammed his saber into the table, the carved suanni beast head on its hilt biting through the nanmu wood. "Issue the order! From this day forward, the Greed Wolf Camp is to be placed under the command of the Left Brave Guard. As for the Tuoba Family..."

A mocking smile touched his lips. "Tell Old Ghost Tuoba that I will recover the remains of his precious son for him—if they can still be pieced together into something resembling a human."

The moment a cyan shadow appeared outside, the trembling of a hanging bronze wind chime ceased.

Two figures sliced through the air and into the tent, parting the flaps. The old man on the left carried a Profound Iron Heavy Sword on his back, a full five feet and seven inches long. Its spine had eighteen blood grooves caked with dark brown gore. On the right, a beautiful woman had a Red Steel Bone Whip coiled at her waist, crackling audibly. Each of its iron links was forged in the shape of a man-eating ghoul, and its tip was weighted with a Bone-Piercing Nail soaked in He Ding Red.

The collars of both their black robes were embroidered with a blood-red net pattern.

This was the insignia of the "Heaven and Earth Net," an organization Daqian had formed by recruiting masters from various factions within the ten prefectures of Yanbei Dao after annexing the region.

Yuwen Zhuo tossed the letter to them. "Three days ago, this boy hammered Tuoba Li to death in Luoyan Gorge, Cangzhou. He’s heading toward Qingzhou. Our Daqian Army forces will provide you with intelligence along the way. Bring me his head. I’d like to see what he looks like."

A Martial Artist capable of killing someone in the Blood Exchange Realm while at a lower level was undoubtedly an absolute genius of Great Zhou. Moreover, most of the Daqian’s True Blood Martial Generals—those at a realm equivalent to Washing Marrow and Refining the Internal Organs—were deployed around the Nine Radiance Sect and Yanbei City. Their purpose was to prevent the Great Zhou masters there from breaking out. This was particularly true for the Nine Radiance Sect, where a Daqian True Ancestor Realm master was locked in a standoff with a Great Zhou Nine Realms Qi Cultivation Supreme Grandmaster, making it impossible for either to act.

「That night at midnight.」

Having already entered Qingzhou, Xu Yunfan was meditating and regulating his breath in a ruined temple fifty li from Divine Weapon Ridge.

He had been fighting and running for days. His Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique was now only eighteen skill points away from the Minor Achievement Realm. It was a bit more efficient than his nightly battles with that vicious old woman, but...

Xu Yunfan sighed. Fighting wasn’t to his liking. If he could just lay low and survive, he would gladly do so.

’Give me ten years, and I could definitely achieve Great Mastery of my Divine Skills. I’d be invincible...’

He shifted the Mechanical Box carrying the Ginseng Child from his back, sliding it around to his chest. He flicked the Profound Steel mechanism, and the Ginseng Box, forged from Meteorite Iron and Profound Steel, popped open.

An aperture opened in the three-inch-square box. Ignoring the Ginseng Child’s furious shrieks, he took a deep breath.

He opened his mouth and swallowed the glob of boiling Spirit Marrow spat out by the Ginseng Child. A scorching heat entered his lungs, transforming into a lava-like current that rapidly spread through his limbs and bones.

The Pure Yang Inner Breath lying dormant in his flesh and blood was like a Flood Dragon that had smelled blood. It surged up through the muscles of his back, and wherever it passed, his muscles knotted like the gnarled roots of an old tree.

The Pure Yang Inner Breath, a product of his Pure Yang Qi Skill at the Great Success realm, could already perform a great circulation throughout his entire body, flowing through muscle, bone, skin, and flesh.

The pure Qi of Ginseng was swept up by his Pure Yang Inner Breath and carried along the Great Celestial Cycle. With every pass, his flesh and blood contracted and expanded slightly.

The great dragon of his spine popped, vertebra by vertebra. The Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength trembled continuously beneath his skin. The blood drained from his fingernails, leaving them with the cold, hard, cyan-gold sheen of Profound Iron.

’You have used a wisp of pure Qi from the Ten Thousand Year Ginseng King to aid your cultivation. Your Pure Yang Qi Skill’s Skill Level has greatly increased.’

A wisp of ginseng qi, finer than a human hair, had given him a full six points of Skill Level.

Cultivation was so much easier now than when he had been training his muscles, bones, and skin to reach the Perfection Realm.

"SCREEE!"

Xu Yunfan’s eyes snapped open. He walked out of the ruined temple and looked up at the Giant Kite Mechanism Bird circling high in the heavens.

Ever since leaving the Celestial Craft Cave, Xu Yunfan had specifically asked Mo Han of the Mechanical Hall to dispatch two Mechanical Giant Birds from the Giant Kite Team to serve as a constant early warning for him.

An enemy was approaching.

Suddenly, the sound of clacking abacus beads came from outside the temple. Seven Bone-piercing Needles shot through the roof tiles, aimed at seven major acupoints on his body.

Xu Yunfan’s gaze was profound, but he made no move. He simply allowed the seven Bone-piercing Needles to strike him.

CLATTER!