Chen Du did not walk fast.
He planted every step firmly,
like an old farmer measuring the land,
or a pilgrim on his way to worship.
His shoes had long since worn through, and his bare feet trod on the scorching earth.
He stepped over stones, thorns, and dried blood, yet suffered no new wounds.
But wherever he passed, the earth was wounded.
With every step, the soil beneath his feet sank slightly, leaving a shallow footprint.
The grains of sand around each footprint were shaken into powder by an invisible force!
An Immortal of Wrath, a fire raging within!
He would... destroy a kingdom alone!
His fury had reached its utmost limit, a weight even the earth could not bear.
And the panel continued to remind him.
[Astonish the World·Lie Low experience points +1]
[Astonish the World·Lie Low experience points +1]
[Astonish the World·Lie Low experience points +1]
[Astonish the World·Lie Low experience points +1]
[Astonish the World·Lie Low experience points +1]
[Current progress: Lie Dormant Lv7 (26/248) → Lie Dormant Lv7 (31/248)]
Even though he was no longer hidden among the field ridges,
even though his sword strike had shaken the entire Heavenly Human Realm, this seed was still growing.
Beneath the calm exterior, what was accumulating was no longer forbearance.
It was rage that deepened with every step he took,
an obsession that grew with every glance at the scorched earth.
[Enlightenment Through Anger·Becoming an Immortal Through Anger experience points +1]
[Enlightenment Through Anger·Becoming an Immortal Through Anger experience points +1]
[Enlightenment Through Anger·Becoming an Immortal Through Anger experience points +1]
The same was even truer of his other talent!
With every step he took, its experience points shot up.
With every step he planted, the rage in his heart grew purer.
The numbers leaping on the panel measured the intensity of that rage!
And now, that measure was climbing at an unprecedented speed:
[Enlightenment Through Anger·Becoming an Immortal Through Anger experience points +1]
[Enlightenment Through Anger·Becoming an Immortal Through Anger experience points +1]
[Enlightenment Through Anger·Becoming an Immortal Through Anger experience points +1]
[Current progress: Becoming an Immortal Through Anger Lv7 (23/248) → Becoming an Immortal Through Anger Lv7 (72/248)]
This was the burning of the anger he had accumulated over several years.
When he reached the end of this road.
Even he did not know how fiercely that rage would burn.
As Chen Du measured the Yan Kingdom's sins step by step along the yellow-earth road, his sword strike had already shocked the entire Heavenly Human Realm.
One sword strike had wiped out a hundred thousand. The routed soldiers of the Yan Kingdom had seen it with their own eyes and told the tale themselves.
When those routed soldiers fled back to the Yan Kingdom's Northern Border, some went mad, some became senseless, and some knelt on the ground, muttering over and over that the heavens had fallen.
News of an event so shocking to the world
reached the Zhao Kingdom's surviving cities,
reached the small kingdoms struggling to survive in the cracks,
and reached the martial sects nestled deep among mountains and vast marshes. Everyone who heard the news reacted first with disbelief.
The Profound Clarity Sect was the foremost righteous sect in the Heavenly Human Realm, with a thousand-year legacy. Every sect master in its history had been a powerhouse at Saint Tier or above.
Its current sect master, Lu Mingxiao, was at the Peak Stage of Saint Tier and had spent ten years in seclusion attempting to break through to the Heaven-Human Realm. The head elder managed all the Profound Clarity Sect's affairs in his stead.
When the messenger disciple brought the news to the council hall, several elders were drinking tea and discussing the Dao.
The head elder took the report and gave it a single glance. His teacup slipped from his hand and shattered on the bluestone floor.
The hall fell silent as the grave.
After a long while, the head elder spoke in a hoarse voice. "Report to the sect master at once. A newly risen Heavenly Human has appeared."
At the Northern Region Sword Hut, a white-haired old man chopping firewood stopped his axe and listened as a disciple read the report to the end in a trembling voice.
He was silent for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing. The disciple did not understand and asked his master what he was laughing at.
The old man tossed his axe into the woodpile and brushed the sawdust from his hands. "Fifty years ago, when the Blade Saint defended Ningdu, I was there. In that battle, the Blade Saint used his Peak Stage Saint Tier strength to take on an army head-on. He could be called the pinnacle of the mortal world.
"But even the Blade Saint couldn't wipe out a hundred thousand with one sword strike. This man is stronger than the Blade Saint, much stronger. I'm afraid he has already advanced to the Heavenly Human Realm.
"Go prepare our belongings. I'm going to see this newly risen Heavenly Human for myself."
At the Ten Thousand Poisons Valley, the Blood Saber Sect, the Vajra Temple, the Hundred Flowers Valley... the same scene played out in different places.
Shock,
doubt,
excitement, fear.
But regardless of their faction, whether they belonged to the righteous path or the demonic path, whether they were sect masters or rogue cultivators, everyone made the same decision at the same time... to go see the Heavenly Human.
They had to... see with their own eyes the traces left by that sword strike.
They had to see for themselves just what kind of person could have unleashed such a strike.
The Heaven-Human Realm was the very pinnacle of the Heavenly Human Realm's Martial Dao system.
Nowadays, those who could be called Heaven-Human Realm powerhouses could be counted on two hands.
Of those figures who stood at the top of the Heavenly Human Realm, which one was not ordinarily a hegemon of their own domain? Which one was not capable of making an entire province tremble three times with a stamp of their foot?
But now, without prior agreement, they put aside the affairs at hand and set out from their respective sects, all heading in the same direction.
The rise of a Heaven-Human meant that the entire power structure of the Heavenly Human Realm would be reshuffled.
Chen Du walked barefoot along the yellow-earth road, continuing on his way to the Yan Kingdom.
His pace was unhurried, and he planted every step firmly.
Yet he also noticed that, at some point, figures had begun to appear on both sides of the road.
At first there were only a scattered few, hiding behind trees or lying low on mountain ridges, watching from afar.
Later, their numbers grew.
There were cultivators in Daoist robes,
sabersmen from the northern region wrapped in animal skins,
veiled women of the demonic path, and Buddhist warrior monks in kasayas.
Some stood atop mountain rocks, some hid among the dense woods, and others stood openly by the roadside.
No one spoke, and no one stepped forward.
They merely watched from afar as the barefoot figure carrying a sword walked down the yellow-earth road.
Judging by their auras, any one of them would have been a renowned figure in the martial world.
There were Saint Tier experts, and even a few faint auras that had already reached the threshold of the Heaven-Human Realm.
They had come from the great sects across the Heavenly Human Realm, traveling a thousand miles to witness the birth of a legend with their own eyes.
And now, that legend was passing before them, step by step.
With each step he planted, the hearts of the powerhouses by the road gave a violent thump.
They, too, seemed to sense that his footsteps bore a fury and resentment such as the lands of the Heavenly Human Realm had never known in thousands of years.
Each step seemed to demand an answer from heaven and earth.
Where was justice in this world?
Any one of the hundreds of experts present could have stirred up a bloody storm in the martial world, yet not one of them dared step forward.
A stir suddenly ran through the crowd, and they parted to either side like a tide.
A vast, mighty aura swept in from afar.
It did not have the sharp edge of an ordinary Saint Tier aura,
but bore a pressure as weighty as a mountain,
as though all of heaven and earth resonated with it.
The Saint Tier experts present all changed expression. This was the aura of the Heaven-Human Realm.
The genuine, unmistakable Heaven-Human Realm.