Chapter 275

The conference room was deathly silent.

Two seconds later, the double-blade leader drew his prosthetic short blade, pointing at Aqi and cursing: "What the hell are you?! A trash with no crystal core, daring to annex the Iron Blood Society? I'll tear you apart first!"

Before his words even finished, his whole body suddenly flew up into the air.

No one was seen making a move.

The double-blade leader was as if an invisible giant hand had clamped his throat, his legs frantically kicking in midair.

The mechanical joint at his neck emitted a piercing screech, sparks flying everywhere.

Crack.

His mechanical spine snapped.

The double-blade leader's corpse was flung onto the conference table like a torn sack.

The conference room fell utterly silent.

The remaining seven leaders turned deathly pale, not daring to breathe.

Aqi stared at the corpse on the table, suppressing his urge to vomit, and continued: "Anyone else with objections?"

No one answered.

In the abandoned air-raid shelter's conference room, the smell of blood masked the ever-present oil stench.

Tietu glanced at the double-blade leader's corpse, his eye twitching.

He was certain Aqi hadn't moved just then.

That kind of distortion force acting directly on physical space once again confirmed his suspicion.

That must be an immortal!

"Sect Master."

Tietu was the first to break the silence, dropping to one knee and lowering his posture to the utmost,

"The Ancient Immortal Sect has just been founded; we need to establish rules. Please instruct us, Sect Master."

Seeing this, the remaining seven leaders also dropped to their knees.

Aqi sat in the chief seat, spine ramrod straight, looking down at these gang leaders who once loomed high above him, their single word able to decide his life or death; an unprecedented thrill of power nearly overwhelmed his mind.

"How so, do you really think you're a local overlord now?"

Gu Yuan's lazy, mocking voice was like a bucket of ice water, dousing Aqi's fervor from head to toe,

"You can't even cast the most basic spell; any thug with a third-tier prosthetic could blast you into pulp. What do you have to cow them with?"

The smug look on Aqi's face froze instantly, and a cold sweat broke out across his back.

He instantly sobered, realizing he was nothing but a fox borrowing the tiger's might, all his confidence stemming from the unfathomable immortal within him.

He steadied his mind, suppressed the tremor in his voice, and affected profundity as he said to Tietu:

"For now, keep the rules as they are; all daily operations of the Ancient Immortal Sect are to be entirely handled by Tietu."

"Without my order, no one may act rashly."

"Now, immediately prepare a highest-security sealed chamber for me; I'm going into seclusion. Also, send all the highest-grade spirit-crystal cores and energy sources from your storehouse over here."

Tietu dared not defy in the slightest; he immediately kowtowed, accepted the order, and swiftly emptied an underground vault deep in the air-raid shelter.

With the heavy alloy door slamming shut, only Aqi remained in the sealed chamber.

The table was piled with dozens of third-tier crystal cores amassed by the Iron Blood Society, three fourth-tier cores, and two… fifth-tier cores!

As for sixth-tier, they have a price but no market.

"Immortal, everything is ready; what should I do next?"

Aqi asked respectfully in his mind.

His eyes fixed on the fifth-tier spirit crystal core, he felt excited.

"Once I implant it… I'll instantly become fifth-tier, a mighty Nascent Soul expert towering above others!"

"In the days ahead, I will personally guide your cultivation; are you willing?"

Aqi blinked.

Then came wild joy.

He knew the immortal's power.

To be taught by the immortal himself.

This is a blessing that could not be exchanged for lifetimes!

Without hesitation, Aqi dropped both knees onto the cold alloy floor, kowtowing three resounding bows toward the void, his voice trembling with excitement:

"I am willing! Immortal, as long as I can grow strong and never be bullied again, I can endure any hardship!"

"That's best; cultivation in the immortal realm… is extremely bitter."

……

……

In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

Aqi was shouldering a scrap armor plate weighing eight thousand catties, doing weighted frog jumps along the circular passage of the air-raid shelter.

Sweat mixed with grime slid down his forehead and splashed onto the rough concrete floor.

His leg muscles exhibited a pathological spasm, each jump accompanied by a grating sound of bone friction.

"Stop."

Gu Yuan's voice echoed in his sea of consciousness, without inflection.

Aqi, as if pardoned, dropped the armor plate, collapsed flat on the ground, and gasped heavily.

"In the Primordial Immortal Realm, even a toddler just learning to walk has meridian flexibility a hundred times greater than yours."

Aqi winced in pain, gritting his teeth and repeatedly crying out:

"Immortal, this practice really kills people. In the wasteland no one does this; when they get credit points they all buy high‑grade crystal cores, or directly swap for alloy prosthetics. How could a flesh body possibly endure such torment?"

"Mechanical ascension?"

Gu Yuan let out a cold snort, his contempt in his words unmistakable.

"Cutting the innate Dao body and replacing it with a heap of scrap copper and iron—that's self‑severing the foundation. The high‑grade crystal cores you speak of are nothing but residue spat out after others have chewed them. Relying on that, you'll never step onto the divine Dao in this lifetime."

Gu Yuan was not exaggerating.

The cultivation system of the Primeval Immortal Realm prized seizing heaven and earth's transformations to perfect one's own body.

A Qi's current condition is like a leaky sieve.

Gu Yuan forcibly used divine thought to shield his heart meridian, employed the realm's herbs, and forced him to squeeze his flesh's limits with the most primitive physical training, thereby activating the faint Dao‑body instinct hidden deep in his genes.

Each of these plants, by this world's standards, is at least eighth‑rank and above!

Only then, when he reached Realm 1, could he, in just three days, use his flesh to bear ten thousand jin!

Ten thousand jin.

That is already the usual limit in the Primeval Immortal Realm.

Of course, there are many atypical cases as well.

"Continue. Add two thousand jin to the armor plates." Gu Yuan issued the order.

A Qi let out a wail, yet dared not resist.

He had seen this immortal casually suppress Tie Tu.

He gritted his teeth, lifted another metal ingot onto the armor plate, and began the frog‑jump again.

At the same time, the East District of the Black Market.

This was the headquarters of another major gang, the Poison Python Gang.

Unlike the rough Iron Blood Society, the Poison Python Gang's base resembled a small underground hacker fortress.

Flickering screens and tangled data cables filled the area.

Gang leader Poison Python sat on a wide seat made of polymer material.

He was a thoroughcyborg fanatic; aside from his brain and half a heart, over eighty percent of his organs had been replaced with precision prosthetics.

His cultivation had reached the Golden Core pinnacle, just one step away from the Nascent Soul stage.

Deputy leader Shou Hou hurried into the room, handing over an encrypted data storage file.

"Boss, the inside line reports that Tie Tu's fourth‑rank energy‑gathering engine is dead. He can't even lift an ordinary hover motorcycle now."

Shou Hou lowered his voice, his tone tinged with uncontainable greed.

Poison Python's red‑glowing electronic eye spun rapidly, reading the video footage in the storage file.

The image was blurry, showing the scene of Tie Tu dragging his ruined body back to the base.

"Interesting."

Poison Python tapped the metal tabletop, "Tie Tu has always been tyrannical; who could shatter his fourth‑rank engine?"

"They say he provoked the wrong people outside. But that's irrelevant." Shou Hou leaned forward,

"The important thing is, the Iron Blood Society's underground vault holds two fifth‑rank broken infant crystal cores. Those are premium goods from the Upper City District's conglomerates. Tie Tu originally planned to use them next month to break through to the Nascent Soul stage. Now his engine is dead, and if we don't eat this fat meat, another gang will snatch it tomorrow."

Fifth‑rank crystal core.

Poison Python's electronic eye flared brighter red.

In the Celestial Pivot Source Realm, cultivation advancement depends entirely on a crystal core's computing power and spiritual energy reserves.

Without a fifth‑rank crystal core, even a hundred years of seclusion won't let him cross the Nascent Soul threshold.

As long as he obtains those two cores, he can become the sole ruler of the underground black market, and even qualify for a minor official post in the Upper City District, completely escaping this dark, sunless wasteland.

"What do the heads under Tie Tu say?" Poison Python asked.

"Leaderless, they say Tie Tu handed the position to a pauper kid who hasn't even installed a neural interface, renaming him 'Ancient Immortal Gate'. It's a total farce." Shou Hou mocked, shaking his head.

Poison Python stood, his mechanical joints emitting a faint hum.

"Gather all manpower, bring heavy electromagnetic cannons and interference generators; tonight, we flatten the Iron Blood Society, and those two fifth‑rank crystal cores, I'll claim them." Poison Python issued the death order.

The underground black market's rule of survival has always been this.

The weak are devoured by the strong; there's no logic to speak of.

The decline of Tie Tu's power is like tossing a bloody piece of flesh into a shark pack, provoking the most primal predatory urge.