Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Ambush

“I, Xu Zhe, once an Immortal Emperor, now newly in the Foundation Establishment stage, can swallow dozens of mountain ranges in a single gulp.”

At this moment, Xu Zhe regretted not bringing his diary; he could only recite these words silently in his heart.

Before him, the crystal-clear and dazzling Primordial Earth Essence Vein was releasing strands of yellow Primordial Earth Essence, which were continuously devoured by the earth spiritual root within his body.

Each strand of Primordial Earth Essence was the very quintessence of the five elements, comparable to a small spiritual ore vein. In this way, he truly had swallowed the equivalent of dozens of spiritual mineral mountains.

Meanwhile, the Primordial Earth Essence Vein was rapidly shrinking.

In the end, Xu Zhe’s earth spiritual root had grown immensely thick, clearly larger than the other four spiritual roots by several sizes—like a ferocious dragon-mountain, coiled and dormant within him.

The Primordial Earth Essence Vein, once the size of a fist, was now only as large as a thumb, and no longer contained any trace of earth element energy. Instead, it had become a crystal-clear, translucent bead.

Within the bead lay a vast world, seemingly sealing away hundreds of strange beasts from the mountains and seas, struggling and roaring in their confinement.

“The blood accumulated in those hundred sleeping pods has, after being purified of spiritual energy, been transformed into the lingering souls of beasts and sealed up?”

After sensing for a moment, Xu Zhe focused his divine sense, enveloping the tiny bead.

For the Primordial Earth Essence Vein, these remnants of beast souls from the demonic blood were nothing but dregs.

But for Xu Zhe, they were quite valuable. By devouring and refining these beast souls with his divine sense, his spiritual strength would grow rapidly, becoming ever more solid and unbreakable.

As for the bead itself, it was formed from the blood of a hundred mountain-sea beasts combined with the Primordial Earth Essence—a perfect tool for tempering his physical body.

Since he had already tempered his body to the level of copper skin with yin-cold energy, bolstered further by righteous qi for protection, even an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator—or someone like Qi Ming, suppressing his cultivation to the late Foundation Establishment stage—would be unable to harm him within a few moves.

Now, with this essence from a hundred mountain-sea beasts, tempering his flesh would make his body even stronger than before.

Not long after, as the last traces of beast souls vanished and the bead was completely absorbed, Xu Zhe finally breathed a long sigh of relief.

Devouring those beast souls with his divine sense had not been easy—it was akin to battling a hundred mountain-sea beast remnants at once. Any ordinary cultivator, even at the Core Formation stage, would have been incapable of such a feat.

“Truly worthy of myself!”

Xu Zhe nodded in satisfaction. His divine sense now spread over a thousand meters in all directions.

His physical body had also improved, his flesh and blood even more robust, yet Xu Zhe still felt a hint of regret.

Though the blood of those hundred mountain-sea beasts was extraordinary, the quantity was simply too little.

If only he’d had more, he could have tempered his bones to achieve iron bones and copper skin in one leap—without needing to open all 720 acupoints. He might have skipped straight from iron bones to a silver body, reaching the golden body stage directly.

If that were the case, with sheer physical power alone, he could contend against Core Formation cultivators.

“What a pity…”

Xu Zhe sighed, rising from the ground and glancing up at the top of the valley.

With a bang, the ground beneath his feet suddenly caved in and shattered. Xu Zhe shot up like a launched projectile, crossing to the edge of the valley and bursting through the barrier array.

Another thunderous crash, and he landed heavily, the ground beneath him splintering, cracks snaking out for several meters.

Xu Zhe was briefly startled, then nodded with faint satisfaction. “It seems… not bad at all. Though the iron bones are not yet achieved, the strengthening of my flesh has increased my strength quite a bit.”

Perhaps, he thought, he had underestimated himself again.

On paper, his strength was no longer one against a hundred, but one against two hundred!

“It seems the saying about physical cultivators being formidable in the early stages is not unfounded.

“If I were to face Qi Ming again now, I’m afraid one punch… No, one punch would kill him on the spot. Two-thirds of a punch should suffice to beat him half to death and leave him breathing.”

Thinking of this, Xu Zhe reached to pat his chest pocket, then paused.

He almost forgot again—he hadn’t brought his diary.

It wasn’t that he wanted to record how he could defeat Qi Ming with two-thirds of a punch, but rather he thought it necessary to note down his experiences in the path of body refinement.

With the body-tempering method from the Canon of Righteous Qi Demon-Sealing, his physical strength had improved by leaps and bounds. Coupled with the shield of righteous qi, his defenses were astonishing. Unless he encountered an opponent of vastly superior cultivation, he might never even feel pain.

“Now that my divine sense is strengthened and sleep is gradually being taken from me, even pain is starting to fade away,” Xu Zhe mused.

Letting his thoughts wander, he imagined: if he were the protagonist of a novel, the author must be quite a talent, having created a genre called ‘the Painless Stream.’

Bang!

At that moment, a muffled crash sounded behind him.

Xu Zhe froze, then his expression changed.

Someone had taken advantage of his distraction to launch a sneak attack!

Xu Zhe spun around swiftly, throwing a punch with all his might.

With a sickening splatter, a cloud of blood burst from his assailant’s body, and an entire arm was destroyed on the spot.

Yet his attacker reacted with remarkable speed, retreating several hundred meters in an instant. With a clang, the assailant dropped a large, bent iron staff, and with a thud, fell to his knees before Xu Zhe.

“Xu the Prodigy, it’s a misunderstanding!”

The man wailed in misery, his voice full of grievance and heartbreak.

Only now did Xu Zhe get a good look at his assailant—a bald old man, though not entirely hairless, with a few wisps of white hair left on either side of his head.

“Xu the Prodigy, I was only testing the strength of your physical body, and you shattered my entire arm! Is there any justice left in this world?”

The old man howled up at the sky, decrying the heavens for their injustice.

Yet in his heart, he was cursing non-stop.

What kind of monstrous freak is this kid? I used my third-grade Profound Yin Iron Staff to bash the back of his head, intending to drag him back for a wedding with Young Miss Chu, and the staff bent?

Never mind the staff—he took my whole arm with a single punch?

Damn, it’s a good thing I only sent a clone. Otherwise, my dignity in old age would be ruined.

Kneeling on the ground, the old man secretly felt relieved.

Xu Zhe, for his part, studied the old man in confusion. He didn’t look like an assassin or a master, yet somehow had managed to get close enough for a sneak attack.

“Who are you?” Xu Zhe asked.

“I’m none other than the steward of Chu Xiaotong!” the old man replied, puffing out his chest with pride, though still kneeling.

“Chu Xiaotong’s steward? Your surname is Shi?” Xu Zhe was momentarily perplexed. Why would Chu Xiaotong send her steward?

“That’s right. You may call me Teacher.” The old man replied.

Xu Zhe had no intention of humorously indulging the old man’s wordplay. He asked coolly, “Did Chu Xiaotong send you with a message?”

“Alas…”

In an instant, the old man’s expression turned somber, his eyes brimming with sorrow, as if he had a thousand words to say, all distilled into a single sigh.

“?”

Xu Zhe gazed at him, utterly bewildered.

The old man lifted his eyelids, casting Xu Zhe a glance, then sighed again, full of grief. “Young Miss has not smiled in a long, long time…”

…