Chapter 100

Pond,

Sunlight converged toward the central talisman sword, brilliant and radiant; the temperature around the talisman sword surged sharply, boiling off vast amounts of steam that spread into a thin mist.

Shhh!

Jiang Ding reached out; the talisman sword flashed into a streak of golden light and landed in his hand, its searing heat subsiding, its touch warm and smooth as jade.

“There are still a few days left before the talisman sword reaches perfection—further tempering won’t yield much benefit.”

He infused his inner strength into every array pattern and blade body, then made his judgment.

When first forged, the talisman sword was extremely fragile—a gust of wind or a basin of black dog’s blood could strip it of its spirit and render it lifeless; as tempering deepened over time, it gradually became capable of defeating cultivators who had achieved minor inner qi mastery, then major inner qi mastery.

Now, it could effortlessly slay even a perfected inner qi cultivator.

Even a primordial cultivator… would not fear it.

At this point, it had nearly reached the absolute limit imposed by the talisman sword’s materials, the first-rank Great Sun Spirit Gathering Array, and the special Sharp Metal Array used in tempering.

It wasn’t that further enhancement was impossible—just that it would take decades of effort for even modest progress, with ten units of effort yielding only one unit of result.

“Let’s go see what the Taiqing Divine Iron I left at the Golden Knife Sect looks like.”

Jiang Ding shook his head, tucked the talisman sword into his sleeve, tapped his foot lightly, and departed the courtyard without a single glance back—he had stayed here over a month.

He activated the Great-Level Minor Concealment Technique; though he did not activate the camouflage suit’s optical invisibility, his entire aura became indistinguishable from rotting wood or lifeless stone.

Even passersby with tense expressions unconsciously ignored him.

In every movement, his inner qi spontaneously flowed through his entire body, gathering strength before shattering through the second extraordinary meridian—the Ren Mai—mending injuries, dispersing and tempering its countless minor branches.

No bottleneck.

Over the past two days, he had tempered and nourished over one hundred and sixty minor branches of the Ren and Du meridians; still remaining were seven thousand eight hundred and forty minor branches of the eight extraordinary meridians needing tempering and nourishment.

It would take ninety-eight more days to complete the Great Heavenly Cycle.

The Blue Gold Serum is currently being refined—if it arrives, the speed of meridian nourishment and tempering will increase dramatically.

“Hurry!”

“Damn it, why are the Green Ox Palace people helping the Yue royal family?”

Dozens of martial artists, faces streaked with blood, stumbled past Jiang Ding; one of them was the scarred blade master he’d seen yesterday, his face filled with regret and anguish.

“Kill! Reward ten taels of silver for any surviving member of the Divine Sword Society!”

“Collaborating with the Wolf Cult? Execute on sight!”

Several more martial artists passed by, their robes bearing the ink-wash emblem of the Green Ox Palace; they caught up with the scarred blade master and his companions, engaging them.

Taptaptap…

Dozens of steps behind, dozens of crimson-armored cavalry charged forward, lances like a forest, pushed to their utmost speed, crashing into the scarred blade master and his group, impaling them on their spears.

“Spare us! We didn’t know the Divine Sword Society colluded with the Demon Cult!”

“I’ll swear allegiance to the royal family’s primordial cultivator—Prince Mountain King!”

The last remaining martial artist collapsed to his knees, weeping and sniveling—but earned no mercy; a Green Ox Palace disciple beheaded him with a single sword stroke, coldly saying:

“Collaborating with the Wolf God Cult? Death is too good for you.”

Jiang Ding glanced several times at the crimson-armored cavalry after their charge.

Using exotic steeds and spear formations in coordinated charges—that was the ultimate combat form of elite troops; if such elite cavalry numbered over a thousand, even primordial cultivators would retreat.

Chen Chen, trapped among mountain cliffs, died in a frustratingly pointless way.

No wonder, through dynastic transitions, it was always the imperial court—not martial sects—that held dominion over the land.

This purge targeting the Divine Sword Society and its allies—those linked to the Zhendong Marquis and the Wolf God Cult—had raged through the entire day and night; countless martial artists had been killed, and the chaos in Chizhou City visibly subsided.

“I never thought the Yue Divine Iron Cavalry, founded by the founding emperor of Yue, would still retain such combat power today.”

Jiang Ding thought silently, then left the place.

Throughout, neither side noticed him—he had made little effort to conceal himself, yet they unconsciously ignored him.

At the edge of the slums,

Jiang Ding halted.

“Wu Ma Kong, today is your death day!”

One of the young men, handsome with piercing eyes, exclaimed excitedly.

It was Song Qing, the Ninth on the Dragon Phoenix List, the “Green Divine Sword,” whom Jiang Ding had met once at Long Xiuyun’s Four Seas Trading House.

As he swung his sword, a faint green glow surrounded him; streams of sword qi encircled a cold-faced black-clothed young man.

It was this man who made Jiang Ding stop.

Second on the Dragon Phoenix List—the “Half Ghost,” Wu Ma Kong!

Not because of fame—he had never cared about famous figures in the martial world, nor had any interest in idol worship.

What truly drew him was the way this black-clothed youth manipulated his inner qi.

Wu Ma Kong was surrounded by a chilling aura; each time he extended a finger, some invisible “force” seemed to exist in the void, empowering him—any single finger point shattered the emerald sword qi Song Qing unleashed, leaving no resistance whatsoever.

Had it not been for the presence of another, Song Qing would have been slain within five or six moves.

“What is this?”

“Can you spontaneously draw spiritual energy from heaven and earth to empower your techniques? Aren’t you just an inner qi cultivator?!”

Jiang Ding’s heart jolted.

This was a technique akin to a cultivator’s spell!

As far as he knew, the vast majority of immortal sect primordial cultivators couldn’t achieve this—yet this man, still in the inner qi realm, wielded it effortlessly; his talent was terrifying.

“I underestimated the world—after all, he’s among the supreme prodigies to emerge from billions.”

Jiang Ding lowered his condescending view of the Dragon Phoenix List.

In the fleeting moment of his emotional surge, both Wu Ma Kong and the others seemed to sense something—they turned toward him simultaneously, noticing for the first time a middle-aged swordsman with a weathered face standing nearby; their gazes sharpened.

On the other side,

The young man who could directly suppress Wu Ma Kong and prevent Song Qing from dying quickly was no ordinary person.

He was the first true disciple of the Green Ox Palace—the top-ranked Dragon Phoenix List cultivator, the “Exiled Immortal,” Li Qingyun!

Legend said he was a child the Grandmaster Qing Dao Ren had brought back from the deep mountains; before age sixteen, he was utterly unremarkable; after sixteen, he entered inner qi in a single day, achieved minor inner qi mastery in ten days, perfected inner qi in a hundred days, and ascended to number one on the Dragon Phoenix List at eighteen!

Had he not heeded the Grandmaster’s advice to temper and refine his foundation, he would have already reached primordial realm—this was universally accepted by the martial world.

Li Qingyun thrust out a palm; an invisible “force” clung to him, amplifying his ordinary palm strike to terrifying power.

The Green Ox Palace’s ultimate technique: Shocking Wave Palm!

This technique was discovered by the Green Ox Palace’s primordial ancestor during a torrential downpour; its palm energy was like threads, capable of trapping an opponent in a deep-sea vortex in an instant.

Now, his furious palm energy crushed Wu Ma Kong’s Yin Spirit Finger, and the lingering threads of force seeped into his fingers, causing his arm to tremble violently as he was forced back.

Li Qingyun’s “force” was stronger than Wu Ma Kong’s!

And vastly stronger!

Had they not both been trapped in the perfected inner qi realm, Wu Ma Kong would not have lasted this long.

As for Song Qing—even with Wu Ma Kong at a severe disadvantage, he could be dismissed with a flick of the wrist; he served only as a minor distraction.

“Terrifying talent…”

Jiang Ding recalled the intelligence on the Dragon Phoenix List, sighed, and admitted he was far inferior.