Chapter 68.1: Divine Strength and the Profound Gate of Life and Death! (I)

“Such terrifying power, such unbelievable speed. Even the Divine Strength Realm elders from our cult wouldn’t be much stronger than this, would they?”

Elder Chu was utterly shaken when he realized the truth behind Lu Changsheng’s strike. What had looked like a single sword strike had actually been thirteen. Zhuang Shisan had unleashed thirteen perfectly placed attacks, with each one landing on a vital point of the Thirteen Riders.

For experts of this level, one strike was enough to seal the fate of their opponent. The Thirteen Riders of the Great Desert fell before they even knew what hit them.

Seeing the riders lay dead, and Elder Chu knew there was no point lingering. He drew back in silence, slipped into a dim chamber of the mountain stronghold, and vanished from the opposite side without making a sound.

Lu Changsheng had noticed him, of course, but made no move to pursue. He still had business to settle here.

The Thirteen Riders were gone, but the stronghold still crawled with bandits—hundreds of them, all steeped in blood and crime. Not one was innocent. If they escaped, they would scatter across Nanyang prefecture, igniting chaos wherever they went.

“Since I’m here, I might as well clean up everything,” Lu Changsheng murmured, his murderous aura flaring up. He would not allow for another tragedy like Xiaohe village.

“Run!”

“The leader’s dead! Run!”

“Head for the woods! He’s only one man! He can’t kill all of us…”

Many of the bandits made a run for it the moment they realized the Thirteen Riders had fallen. The mountain was thick with trees and tangled slopes, a maze of twisting paths and shadows. They were confident not even Lu Changsheng would be able to track all of them down if they scattered into the woods.

However, their hunter was intent on not letting a single one of them escape.

Buzz!

Blood qi surged violently through his body, far more fiercely than when he had uprooted the towering tree earlier. The qi burst skyward with great force, gathering and swelling into a massive crimson cloud.

“Go.”

The cloud detonated, and countless strands of blood qi shot forward in every direction. As they flew, each one rapidly condensed into a Silken Thread Sword, surging toward the bandits. Everyone within ten zhang of Lu Changsheng dropped dead.

Unrelenting, Lu Changsheng leapt toward areas where the bandits were most concentrated. Each time he landed, he would unleash another wave of Silken Thread Sword, wiping out every bandit within ten zhang of him. Everything in his path was torn apart and reduced to ruins. The entire mountain stronghold echoed with agonized screams and wails.

Less than fifteen minutes later, the stronghold was plunged into a deathly silence. The air hung thick with the scent of blood as hundreds of corpses lay strewn across the ground. This was no battle, but a one-sided massacre.

The few bandits who had managed to slip away from the carnage would never forget what they had witnessed. This horrifying experience would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Lu Changsheng stopped before the last surviving bandit in the mountain stronghold. The man trembled violently, his face drained of color.

“Where are the people of the White Lotus Cult?” Lu Changsheng asked.

“Th-They’re gone… The old man in white robes earlier, the one everyone calls Elder Chu. When you were fighting the thirteen leaders, Elder Chu sensed something was wrong and slipped away,” the bandit stammered.

“Huh. Elder Chu… I see.”

Lu Changsheng remembered now. He had indeed noticed the white-robed old man earlier, but he had not expected him to be one of the so-called White Demons.

He sure ran fast, Lu Changsheng thought, but didn’t pursue the matter any further. The White Demons were of little concern. Once the bandits were wiped out, they would not be able to cause any real trouble in Nanyang Prefecture.

Splurt!

Lu Changsheng drove his blade into the bandit’s throat. With that, he was the only one alive within the stronghold. His eyes scanned the field of corpses; he crouched down and proceeded to search them, though he couldn’t be bothered to go over every single dead bandit. Instead, he focused on the key figures, such as Organ Refinement martial artists. He first went for the corpses of the Thirteen Riders, which he searched with particular attention.

Having looted so many corpses, he had become quite apt at it; he had learned where martial artists usually kept their valuables and what tricks they used to keep them concealed. Even if something was tucked away with great care, it could never escape Lu Changsheng’s practiced hands.

“Hm? What’s this?”

After searching through a few of the Thirteen Riders, Lu Changsheng finally discovered something worthwhile: a tightly rolled piece of sheepskin filled with dense, tiny characters.

Truth be told, whether it was the desert tribes or the northern barbarians, their script was ultimately the same as that of the Da Yu Dynasty, all descending from the same ancient writing.

“Celestial Treasure-Refinement Secret Technique!” he exclaimed.

The sheepskin held a Divine Strength Realm secret technique, the kind only martial artists of that realm could practice. Until now, the only Divine Strength Realm secret technique in his possession had been the Divine Dragon Transformation secret technique, which focused on combat.

The Celestial Treasure-Refinement Secret Technique was different. According to the text, it consisted of seven layers, and for each layer one had to refine a specific, extremely rare treasure. Each refined treasure supposedly granted the martial artist the strength of ten cauldrons. With seven layers in total, the secret technique promised a staggering seventy cauldrons of strength.[1]

“But what does the strength of ten cauldrons even mean?” Lu Changsheng frowned slightly. He had no idea how much power that represented.

Regardless, he could sense the extraordinary nature of this secret technique, and knew it was unquestionably a rare Divine Strength Realm secret technique—perhaps even a top-tier one.

Carefully, Lu Changsheng tucked the sheepskin scroll away, then continued searching the other dead riders. To his surprise, he did not find a single Divine Strength Realm martial art manual. Either the Thirteen Riders had never had one, or they simply did not carry such valuables on them.

He went on to search the corpses of a few more bandits, but uncovered nothing of true importance. After that, he picked up the thirteen curved sabers scattered across the ground. These weapons would serve as proof that he had indeed defeated the Thirteen Riders. After wrapping them securely in cloth, he moved on to search the stronghold.

In the stronghold, Lu Changsheng found silver notes and silver taels. Although he was not exactly short on silver those days, one couldn’t have too much silver. However, given that the ingots were far too troublesome to carry, he only took the silver notes instead.

After rummaging for more than two hours, Lu Changsheng finally ended his search and took stock of what he had gathered. But beyond the silver notes and secret technique, Lu Changsheng had obtained something far more valuable: newfound clarity.

He stepped out of the stronghold and looked back. Silence hung heavy over the place. The ground was carpeted with bodies, and the stench of blood filled the air, resembling a slaughterfield straight from the depths of hell. And yet, Lu Changsheng felt a profound stillness rising within his chest.

With his heart now calmed, he could vaguely see a hazy black-and-white gate forming in the depths of his consciousness.

The Profound Gate… This is the Profound Gate of Life and Death!

Lu Changsheng couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement.

The threshold has appeared, and now the chance to break through to the Divine Strength Realm has finally come.

He knew that he could attempt to force open the Profound Gate at any moment now and step into the Divine Strength Realm. However, he would not rush; instead, he steadied his surging emotions.

A breakthrough of this scale was no trivial matter, and it was too risky to attempt it here in the mountains with hundreds of corpses around. A single mistake could lead to disaster.

I’ll return to the city first, Lu Changsheng thought as he turned and descended the mountain swiftly.

1. A cauldron in imperial China is known as a “ding” (鼎), and is typically with three legs, used for cooking sacrificial offerings and ceremonies. In cultivation novels, cauldrons can be used as a measurement of strength. Although there is no set measurement for how heavy one cauldron is, a large cauldron could be several hundred to over a thousand kilograms. So if a person has one cauldron of strength, it means they are already very strong. To see what it looks like, click here. ☜

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep