Turning the Tables on the Assassin, an Unexpectedly Generous Reward
In the days that followed, Chen Du did not go out.
After paying his respects to his master, he returned to his hut.
The master of Qingfeng Temple, whose Daoist name was Xuanwei, was a gaunt old Daoist priest with half-white hair and beard, but with extremely bright eyes.
When he saw Li Xuan standing unharmed in front of him, he visibly breathed a sigh of relief, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "It's good that you're alright."
Chen Du noticed that his master paused slightly as he withdrew his hand, his lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he only told him not to run around in the coming days before turning and leaving.
Chen Du did not press further. According to Li Xuan's memory, Master Xuanwei was not a talkative person, but he had always taken good care of him.
It was his master who told him the secret of his origins when he was ten years old, and it was also his master who secretly protected him and prevented outsiders from getting close all these years.
Master had concerns and reluctance, but there were some things he couldn't say. Chen Du understood.
He returned to the hut, closed the door, and sat cross-legged on the wooden couch.
For the next few days, he hardly left the room.
He meditates and practices breathing exercises during the day, and studies the laws of nature at night. Li Xuan's current body is only at the Third Realm of cultivation, with weak meridians and a shallow dantian.
However, his True Spirit contained all the insights gained from the Eleventh Realm, allowing him to rebuild his cultivation much faster than others.
He used the breathing techniques of Martial Canon to guide qi into his body, gradually cleansing his meridians and slowly drawing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into his dantian.
The concentration of spiritual energy in this world far exceeds that of Blue Star and the Divine Prison Realm; every breath feels like swallowing warm spiritual liquid.
He felt his body gradually transforming, his meridians widening, and his dantian filling up.
Several days later, a very slight vibration suddenly came from the depths of his consciousness.
[Calamity Warning triggered.]
[Simulation in progress... Simulation complete. An assassin will soon infiltrate Qingfeng Temple. Target: Li Xuan. Assassin's cultivation level: Peak Stage of the Tenth Realm. Assassin's methods: Unknown. Assassin's origin: Unknown.]
[Warning Details: The assassin will arrive at midnight three days from now. The outer formation of Qingfeng Temple can stop ordinary people, but the assassin's cultivation is extremely high and his methods of breaking the formation are very sophisticated.]
[Master Xuanwei has recently gone into seclusion and is unable to act immediately. If the host goes out, the assassin will act outside the temple; if the host remains inside, the assassin will infiltrate the temple and enter the house at midnight.]
[Suggestion: Do not leave this house for three days. Before midnight, use Qi-Concealing Technique to seal your aura and pretend the house is empty. Once the assassin enters, use the power of the law to kill them in one strike, leaving no trace.]
Chen Du frowned slightly after reading the prompts on the panel.
Peak Stage of the Tenth Realm, origins and methods unknown. The warning only gave him his cultivation level, but not any clues about the other party's identity, which is strange.
The Calamity Warnings are always very detailed, even simulating what kind of sleeping potion the assassin uses and who the mastermind is.
This time, however, the other party seemed to be shrouded in a thick fog, and even the Heavenly Dao could only glimpse his cultivation level, not his origin. He slowly exhaled.
The people who came were more troublesome than he had anticipated, but he did not hesitate and ordered them not to leave the house for three days.
He closed his eyes and activated his Qi-Concealing Technique to its maximum.
For the next three days, he didn't even open the door.
The young Daoist boy brought the food to the door, which he took in, ate, and then continued to sit cross-legged.
He suppressed his aura to a minimum, so low that even the people in the next room couldn't sense his presence.
But he knew that the other party was at the Peak Stage the Tenth Realm.
The Qi-Concealing Technique might be able to deceive someone at the Sixth Realm, but to deceive a Peak Stage Tenth Realm expert, he would have to seal off every trace of his aura.
He enveloped himself in the lingering aura of the Bury Heaven, Extinguish Earth, forming a faint barrier that blended seamlessly with the yin energy within the room.
At midnight on the third day, Chen Du sat cross-legged on the wooden couch, his eyes closed, his breathing long and steady.
He could sense a presence creeping in from outside the courtyard wall.
That aura was extremely deep and steady; it didn't even disturb a single withered leaf when it landed... Peak Stage of the Tenth Realm.
The newcomer's footsteps were silent, his aura extremely restrained, each step seeming as if he were treading on empty air.
He walked to the door, paused for a moment, and then the door opened silently.
A figure stood at the doorway, tall and slender, dressed entirely in black, with a thin, dark veil covering his face, obscuring his features.
He had no weapon in his hand, but the aura emanating from him made the temperature in the entire room drop several degrees.
He entered the room, his gaze sweeping over the wooden couch. There was someone on the couch.
A thin boy sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, as if meditating.
He raised his hand, a dark light gathering in his palm, and slapped it down towards the boy's crown.
But just as his palm was about to touch the boy's head, the boy suddenly opened his eyes, revealing a pair of extremely calm eyes.
Then, a power he had never experienced before erupted from the boy's body.
The first level of the Bury Heaven, Extinguish Earth completely enveloped the entire room.
The assassin's pupils constricted sharply, and he retreated rapidly, but it was too late.
That power descended like Eternal Night, like an abyss hanging upside down, engulfing his laws, soul, and body simultaneously.
He exerted all his strength to activate his Peak Stage Tenth Realm cultivation, condensing a thick shield of laws in front of him.
But the shield shattered like thin ice before that force.
He opened his mouth as if to shout something, but no sound came out of his throat.
Then he was swallowed up by that Eternal Night and vanished into nothingness.
Chen Du withdrew his hand, clearing the air from the room. Then he sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and a warm current of energy flowed into the depths of his consciousness... Calamity Qi, dense, heavy, and with a certain indescribable texture.
He roughly calculated that the Calamity Qi of this century was enough to bring him a considerable Heaven's Way's Gift after he turned the danger into Turn Danger into Safety.
He slightly curled the corners of his mouth. The assassin was dead; his origins and methods were unknown.
But he knew one thing: the other side had sent a peak-level Tenth Realm Peak Stage to kill him.
In this world, those at the Peak Stage the Tenth Realm are already giants.
The fact that someone like that could be used to kill a sixteen-year-old boy shows that the power behind the scenes far exceeds his expectations.
The Calamity Warning didn't tell him who the other party was, which meant that what lay behind that fog of mystery was far more unfathomable than an assassin.
He closed his eyes and continued his breathing exercises. Outside the small house, the night was deep, and the bell of Qingfeng Temple rang again, distant and serene.
Chen Du drew out all the Calamity Qi of the past century and sent it Heaven's Way's Gift.
Calamity Qi is different from White Qi and Black Qi. White Qi and Black Qi are the judgment of good and evil by the Heavenly Dao, which is warm and long-lasting. Calamity Qi, on the other hand, is something that rolls over from the tip of a knife, which is cold, sharp, and carries an indescribable sense of oppression.
The moment it surged into the Heaven's Way's Gift, his talent trembled violently, far more intensely than ever before. A moment later, a dark golden scripture appeared deep within his sea of consciousness.
The cover bears only three words: "The Heaven-Sealing Tribulation-Transcending Book". It is Eleventh Tier book containing the Medium Core Level Nine Law "Tribulation Traversal". This law feeds on tribulations and uses the user's own body as a furnace.
After achieving mastery, one will endure countless tribulations without perishing; each calamity is a tempering process, and every escape from death is a transformation.
The greater the tribulation, the greater the reward; the physical body, soul, and laws can all be reborn during the tribulation.
What shocked Chen Du even more was that this law seemed to share a common origin with the laws he had previously cultivated, namely the Bury Heaven, Extinguish Earth and the Divine Prison Law.
Bury Heaven, Extinguish Earth means annihilating all things; Divine Prison means imprisoning all things; Tribulation Traversal is about refining oneself through tribulations.
These three principles and three approaches are fundamentally the same, all focusing on the concepts of "suppression" and "bearing."
He read the scripture word by word, his heart surging with indescribable tremor. A century of Calamity Qi had been exchanged for an Eleventh Tier cultivation technique, along with a Medium Core Level Nine Law.
This law, together with his existing first-level domain of Bury Heaven, Extinguish Earth and second-level domain of Divine Prison Law, forms a complete system in the unseen realm.
He slowly exhaled. A Peak Stage assassin of the Tenth Realm, a single assassination attempt, and a century's worth of Calamity Qi.
He looked down at his hands, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
When he was in the Divine Prison Realm, he executed so many prisoners and accumulated White Qi for millions of years before he finally gained a 100,000-year-old understanding of a Lower First-Level Law from the Heaven's Way's Gift.
However, in this Ancestral God Realm, the Calamity Qi brought by a Peak Stage Tenth Realm assassin was directly exchanged for an Eleventh Tier cultivation technique.
The quality of the Calamity Qi far surpasses that of White Qi or Black Qi.
Because White Qi and Black Qi are the result of judging others, while Calamity Qi is something one gains by risking their life.
The Heavenly Dao is perhaps a kind of cold-blooded fairness towards the living beings of this world.
The greater the hardships you endure, the greater the opportunities you deserve.
He firmly imprinted the scriptures into his mind, closed his eyes, and began to deduce their meaning.
He had not yet grasped the Tribulation-Transcending Laws. The three laws slowly rotated in his sea of consciousness, resonating with each other, waiting for an opportunity to completely fuse them into one.
He slightly curled the corners of his mouth. The assassin was dead, and the person behind it would soon find out. The next one would probably be more than just Peak Stage Tenth Realm assassin, or they might use even more difficult methods. Zhihu had to put him to death.
But he didn't care; the more hardships he faced, the greater his gains would be.
He closed his eyes and continued breathing.