Chapter 76: The Lowest-Ranked Law Enforcement Officer

"Stop holding back—something's off about this kid!"

The remaining twenty Divine Image Realm Realm cultivators finally came to their senses, staring at the golden-eyed youth not far away with the gaze one would give a monster.

Jiang Qin stood in the center of the ruins. This book is first published on Tiantian Kan Xiao Shuo — 𝓉𝓉𝓀. 𝓉𝓌 — super convenient, giving you an error-free, properly ordered reading experience.

Opposite him, twenty hundred-meter-tall Dharma Images rose from the ground one after another.

They blotted out the sky, their spiritual pressure heavy as mountains.

Thunderlight exploded behind Jiang Qin. Nine thunder dragons coalesced in the blink of an eye, startlingly lifelike.

"Roar—!"

The dragon's cry shook the heavens. The dragon bodies coiled, bathing the entire valley in a deep azure.

Both sides launched their attack once more.

The power of twenty Dharma Images converged into a torrent, crashing down to blanket the sky. The nine thunder dragons charged head-on, lightning and Dharma Images tearing, colliding, and exploding in the air.

Shockwaves rolled in wave after wave, sheets of rock on the mountain's surface torn away wholesale.

A giant sword-wielding Dharma Image was wrapped by two thunder dragons. The dragon bodies tightened, and the Dharma Image shattered.

But more Dharma Images surged forward.

Jiang Qin raised his right hand.

Thunder from across the sky converged into his palm, compressing, compressing again—a fist-sized orb of lightning took shape.

"Nuclear Explosion."

He gave it a gentle push.

The thunder orb rose into the air and collided with the three Dharma Images charging at the forefront.

First, a blue-white sphere of light expanded in silence.

Only then came the sound.

"BOOM—!!!"

Half of Mishoushan's peak vanished.

The shockwave, laden with shattered rock and lightning, swept across the valley.

The Spirit Sea Realm Martial Artists outside the estate were pushed back step after step by the blast, raising their arms to shield their eyes from the blinding white light.

When the light faded, they lowered their arms—

The valley had become a scorched crater several hundred meters across.

Jiang Qin stood at the center of the crater. The nine thunder dragons slowly descended, coiling behind him.

Opposite him, of the twenty-plus Divine Image Realm Realm cultivators, fewer than half remained standing. Their Dharma Images had all shattered, and the expressions on their faces had shifted from confidence to terror.

"What kind of joke is this? Is that guy really in the Divine Image Realm Realm?"

"When did the Zhenling Bureau produce a monster like this!"

…

At the same time.

The sea of clouds churned like tides, two figures standing apart atop the clouds.

Ge Wanshan stood with his hands behind his back, his grey robe flapping sharply.

Behind him, a hundred-meter-tall withered-bone Dharma Image loomed majestically. Hollow eye sockets flickered with ghostly green flames. In its hand it gripped a white-bone long saber, its blade wrapped in intense death qi—this was the "Zanggu Domain," condensed over a century through the sacrifice of countless lives.

Beside him, the clouds churned violently.

A massive serpent head emerged from the mist.

Its head alone was the size of a house. Pitch-black scales flowed with ghostly green poisonous light, and its slit pupils radiated the cold-blooded chill unique to reptiles.

Its hundred-zhang serpentine body glided slowly through the sea of clouds, the clouds it passed stained an eerie ink-green.

A late-stage fifth-tier Heaven Dark Python.

In battle it had not taken human form, for to a Fierce Beast, its true form was the strongest combat stance.

Ge Wanshan lifted his eyelids and looked toward Cangling opposite.

"I've lived on the Frontier for a hundred and twenty years. I've met at least most of the Law Enforcement Officers from the East China Headquarters."

He spoke, unhurried, as if making small talk. "Your name, Cangling, I've heard it too—ranked at the very bottom of the Law Enforcement Officers. They say it's because of your seniority, and Yue Beishan was too embarrassed to remove you."

He laughed once, his withered fingers tapping lightly at his own temple.

"The weakest Law Enforcement Officer, bringing along a kid who just broke through to the Divine Image Realm Realm, dares to come dig up the Ge Family's secrets. Should I say your Headquarters is arrogant, or that you, Cangling, have lived too long and grown tired of living?"

Cangling said nothing.

She simply stood atop the sea of clouds, her posture straight as a sword. The stray hairs at her forehead were lifted by the wind, revealing a pair of eyes calm to the point of emptiness.

Ge Wanshan narrowed his eyes, his patience gone.

"Zanggu."

He uttered two words, and the withered-bone Dharma Image behind him suddenly moved.

The white-bone long saber rose high. The death qi on its blade transformed into countless wailing phantoms—the wronged souls sacrificed by the Ge Family, forever imprisoned within the Dharma Image, becoming part of the Zanggu Domain.

The blade fell, death qi pouring down like a waterfall, completely engulfing the area where Cangling stood.

At the same time, the Heaven Dark Python also moved.

Its hundred-zhang serpentine body contracted sharply within the sea of clouds, then shot out like a spring.

Its massive jaws opened, revealing four venomous fangs gleaming with ghostly light. A mouthful of ink-green venom spewed forth, transforming into a rain of poison that blanketed the sky, cutting off all of Cangling's escape routes.

Death qi and poisonous rain descended simultaneously.

Ge Wanshan's lips curved upward.

Even a peak Earth Martial Realm cultivator would not dare take these two combined strikes head-on.

Cangling was merely late-stage Earth Martial Realm, caught in a pincer attack. He did not believe she could emerge unscathed.

Yet in the next instant, his smile froze.

The deathly aura dispersed; the poisonous rain fell to its end.

Cangling still stood where she had been, not having moved even half an inch from her position.

A faint golden light manifested around her; the moment the deathly aura and poisonous rain touched that layer of golden light, they melted away like ice and snow, vanishing without a sound.

And in her right hand, at some unknown moment, an additional sword had appeared.

The blade was slender, its entire body like frost; at the guard, a golden dragon motif was inlaid. That dragon motif was not elaborate — it could even be called simple — yet when Ge Wanshan's gaze fell upon it, an uncontrollable tremor rose from the depths of his soul.

The Tianming Python felt it too.

The hundred-zhang giant python's vertical pupils contracted sharply; its serpentine body instinctively coiled up, and a layer of dark-green shield surfaced over its scales — that was its strongest defense, one that even attacks from Fierce Beasts of the same rank could not breach.

As if recalling something, a terrified sound came from its mouth:

"That sword carries the power of the laws of our realm — a power only the great gods can wield. How can you control it!"

Cangling did not explain. She tightened her grip on the hilt.

She drew the sword from upper right to lower left in a slanting arc.

A streak of golden sword qi flew from the blade's edge.

At first the sword qi was only about three chi long, and it did not fly quickly. But with every zhang it traveled, its volume doubled and its speed increased by a fraction. At ten zhang it had become a three-zhang golden rainbow; at a hundred zhang it had transformed into a golden ribbon stretching across the sea of clouds, as if someone had drawn a stroke across the heavens, cleaving the entire sea of clouds in two.

"No!"

The Tianming Python let out a mournful hiss.

It felt the power contained within that sword qi — a fear it had never experienced before.

It desperately urged the poisonous light around its body; its hundred-zhang serpentine form twisted madly, trying to evade that sword qi.

But as if some unseen will had locked onto it, there was simply no way to dodge.

The sword qi swept past its seven-inch point.

The dark-green shield burst like a soap bubble; the pitch-black scales were sliced open like thin paper; flesh, bone, meridians — wherever that sword qi passed, everything separated in silence.

The hundred-zhang giant python was cut cleanly in two at its seven-inch point.

Beast blood poured down from the sea of clouds like a torrential rain, dyeing the Mishoushan below a sheet of crimson red; the two halves of the serpentine body fell from the clouds, crashing into the valley. The ground trembled, emitting a dull boom.

One sword.

A late-stage fifth-rank Fierce Beast — fallen.

Ge Wanshan's Withered-Bone Dharma Image stood frozen in place. He opened his mouth, his lips moved several times, before finally squeezing a few hoarse syllables from his throat:

"You… you… how is this possible?"

Cangling turned her head to look at him. The wind of the sea of clouds tousled her hair, and within those eyes that had always been as flat as dead water, for the first time a trace of the faintest emotion appeared — not killing intent, not anger, more like pity, and yet also like weariness.

The blade slowly rose, pointing at Ge Wanshan.

Ge Wanshan's face turned deathly pale in an instant. He wanted to retreat, but his body seemed pinned by that golden sword qi, unable to move. He wanted to open his mouth and beg for mercy, but his throat felt blocked by something, unable to produce any sound.

Above the sea of clouds, a second streak of golden sword qi lit up.

That was the last splash of color Ge Wanshan would ever see in his life.

The dragon-motif sword in Cangling's hand slowly dissipated.

She had never been any kind of powerhouse — only a pitiable person who had lost her homeland and fought for the sake of fighting.