I Am a Commoner

Zhang Xu looked in doubt and suspicion, and wondered inwardly if this Yan Nu'er was truly a monster. Yet why hadn't that talisman paper burned?

The Divination Talisman Paper was extremely sensitive to demonic aura, and at the slightest trace, it could spontaneously combust at room temperature.

"Perhaps the talisman paper got damp? This brat is bizarre, so he is an evil monster without a doubt!"

"Fortunately, I returned to the clan and fetched Old Ancestor's Iron Token!"

Zhang Xu's expression was respectful, and he drew out a book-axis cast of iron from his bosom, with eight characters engraved upon it: peaceful divine qi, eliminating and purging demonic fiends.

The previous day, the spring eye of the tea mountain had run dry, and he had gone to investigate, using talisman paper to detect that demons were haunting the tea mountain.

At night, nine more martial artists died, and Instructor Ma advised him to return to the clan to seek a treasure, so he had rushed back through the night into Hua County, and requested one of the three major magical artifacts left behind by Old Ancestor for the Zhang family: the jade talisman, the bronze contract, and the iron token.

The talisman could communicate with gods, the contract could command ghosts, and the token could subdue demons.

Although he was not a mystic practitioner and lacked the magic power to drive the true might of this iron token, he could sacrifice with his vital essence to summon the Three Lights Divine Qi refined inside by his ancestors.

The Three Lights Divine Qi specifically restrained evil monsters, resembling sunlight shining on snow or fire meeting dry firewood.

"May Old Ancestor's spirit in heaven grant protection..."

"Hah... pfft!"

Zhang Xu calmed his mind and closed his eyes, clicked his teeth, bit the tip of his tongue, and spat out a stream of blood arrows!

The vital essence was sprinkled onto the iron token and was absorbed into it in an instant. The next moment, something neither light nor fog, complete with five colors, spewed forth in a rainbow, brilliant as a gushing spring.

Zhang Xu hurriedly rushed close to Yan Nu, holding the iron token and waving it!

Yan Nu only felt his vision blur, and multicolored, gaudy things spewed all over his face.

"Monster, still not showing your true form!" Zhang Xu's face was pale, but his expression was extremely excited.

The two men, Han and Hu, were also full of anticipation. Although Zhang family's old ancestor had fallen... ah no, had ascended, the foundation of the Zhang family still existed!

However, soon their expressions became rigid.

"One hammer!" Gripping the chains, Yan Nu swung his arm and punched, piercing through the Three Lights Divine Qi to attack!

Previously he had always brandished the chains, but this sudden lunging forward, using the chains as arm guards to smash, caught everyone off guard in return.

Zhang Xu was standing right in front, and similarly had his eyes blinded by the Three Lights Divine Qi. By the time he found Yan Nu throwing a punch to strike, it was already too late to dodge, and he instinctively raised his hand out of habit.

"Clang!" The fine-steel chains collided violently with the iron token! The sound of metal clashing rang out piercingly!

Zhang Xu was blown away, his fingers covered in blood. Looking again at the iron token, there was already a trace of damage.

"How could it be useless? You... you are not a monster!" Zhang Xu knew deeply that the Three Lights Divine Qi possessed immense might. No matter how fierce a monster was when struck by it, it was impossible for it to have no effect at all, unless Yan Nu was a living mortal!

The objects left behind by various prominent families and cultivators to guard their houses generally would not be things that could take effect on mortals. In case family members acted recklessly and harmed a mortal, the backlash of the mortal world fire would directly seek out the cultivator.

Unless there was a karma-bearer! Meaning the magical artifact and talisman paper were kept at home, and another cultivator had passed their hands over them... Then if a mortal were harmed later on, it would trace back to him... Even if that person had merely touched it, they would "court disaster."

Ignoring distance, causality pursued!

With this consideration, the Zhang family's old ancestor had not left behind a single sharp weapon that could harm people.

The Three Lights Divine Qi was useless against mortals. Zhang Xu and the two men, Han and Hu, had all been sprayed, yet they were completely unharmed, as if it had merely been a rainbow.

"Two hammers!" Yan Nu pressed his advantage and refused to let up. Taking advantage of the fact that the opponent had no weapon, he charged in with brute force. After striking with his right hand, he hammered again with his left!

Zhang Xu dared not use the ancestral relics to parry anymore, and could only circulate his cultivation for body protection, fending off the blows with his arms!

Yet how could an arm withstand chains forged from fine steel?

"Ugh, ah!" Zhang Xu was blown away, crashing to the ground. This block shattered the bones of his right arm on the spot, and he could no longer hold the iron token, which bounced away.

"Three hammers!" Yan Nu alternated his arms back and forth, his offensive onslaught coming one after another, just like forging iron—repeating in a cycle, pressing his advantage relentlessly.

This time, he swung his arms in wide circles, whipping the chains around and cleaving vertically downward.

It looked as though he was about to beat Zhang Xu to death!

"Neigh!" At the critical moment, the neigh of a warhorse suddenly rang out! With a loud bang, Yan Nu was kicked flying!

Zhang Xu's beloved horse, fiercely loyal to its master, had galloped up, reared onto its hind legs, raised its hooves, and delivered yet another ferocious stomp!

Pfft! Yan Nu's abdomen was directly trampled, sending bloody froth splashing everywhere.

"Ah?"

"Ah?"

"What?"

The three men—Zhang, Han, and Hu—watched the warhorse severely injure Yan Nu and stood dumbfounded, doubting reality.

What kind of logic was this! A group of experts like them had fought for half a day, yet it was not as effective as a horse's hoof stepping on him?

"Does the warhorse restrain transformed cattle and sheep?" The two men, Han and Hu, began letting their imaginations run wild again.

"Shut up!" Zhang Xu cursed angrily, "What kind of metaphysics is this! It's all your fault for misleading me with your bullshit demonic arts. He doesn't know where he learned some body-protection divine skill, that's all!"

"He is simply a mortal!"

Zhang Xu had almost been beaten to death, and one could say he felt lingering fear. Coupled with the certainty that Yan Nu was definitely a mortal, he naturally grew angry out of shame.

At this moment, he finally stopped overthinking, circulated his true qi to the limit, picked up his long spear, and stepped forward with a direct thrust! He was resolved to kill Yan Nu!

Yan Nu brandished his chains, sent the warhorse flying, and charged toward the flower garden not far away, which was full of green grass.

Yet immediately afterward, he was pierced clean through from behind! The spearhead pinned him to the ground from his lower back!

However, despite the miserable agony, his liver, gallbladder, and intestines seemed long accustomed to such devastation, and they were actually still able to function.

"Whoosh!" Yan Nu swung his chains backhanded.

Zhang Xu immediately withdrew his spear and stepped back, wanting to parry, only to discover that Yan Nu hadn't swung the chains around at all!

A feint!

He had no true qi and couldn't swing them!

"Ha!" Zhang Xu thrust his spear again.

But Yan Nu had already bought himself time, rolling and scrambling to dodge, while taking the opportunity to bash his head against the ground and graze on grass to replenish himself.

He finally dragged things out until his true qi was once again fully replenished, instantly springing up from the body and using the chains to barely block the incoming spearhead.

Yet the subsequent killing moves were continuous and endless!

Zhang Xu had a single-minded focus, every spear thrust directly, every spear strike at full power! The long spear flickered with specks of cold light, stabbing urgently like a torrential rain, and every single blow even utilized spiral force.

Yan Nu saw nothing but spear shadows filling his vision, and could only circulate the Great Emperor White Jade Scripture with all his might, wrapping his chains around his arms and holding them vertically before his chest to protect vital points such as his head, face, and chest.

In merely an instant, a dozen bloody holes were added to his body!

"This brat has shed liters of blood! And... and he still won't die?" The two men, Han and Hu, watched in a daze. A person only had four or five liters of blood in total; was Yan Nu truly fighting until he bled himself dry?

Was this something a person could accomplish?

Fortunately, this brat did not understand forms. As long as they concentrated on executing moves, he had no way to counterattack.

Sure enough, Yan Nu retreated step by step, leaping backward unceasingly, while Zhang Xu was able to cling to him like a shadow, stabbing him until he could barely breathe.

"So stabbing him is all it takes? He's afraid of the spiral true qi?" Instructor Han felt profoundly ashamed. He also wielded a spear, and he knew moves like the Poison Dragon Drill as well, yet he had been bluffed into voluntarily discarding his spear to hold a whip. Had he known it was this simple, he would have broken this commoner's golden body long ago.

Pity that his long spear had been left at the execution ground, and there were no weapons around.

He simply stood to the side and cheered, "Fort Master is mighty!"

Zhang Xu's family heritage ran deep, and although his cultivation level was similar to that of Han and Hu, his combat power far surpassed theirs.

Now that it was certain Yan Nu was a mortal, there were no longer any obstructions in Zhang Xu's mind, and his spear art grew faster and faster! It was a pity his right arm was shattered and fractured, otherwise the battle would have been resolved in an instant!

"Ah, ah, ah!" Yan Nu had no other choice, and could only fight for his life. He simply abandoned defense, consuming true qi as if it were worthless, and his two chains whistled through the air, slaughtering everything around them. Only then did he manage to force Zhang Xu into a position where he could not close in for the moment.

However, he simply wouldn't close in.

"Ridiculous..." Zhang Xu stood with his spear horizontal, smiling coldly as he stood just outside the attack range, silently watching Yan Nu thrash about wildly.

Yet immediately afterward, his expression changed as he saw Yan Nu thrashing about while shifting toward a certain direction.

He wasn't running away, but rather...

"The Iron Token!" Zhang Xu's right arm had been shattered earlier, and the iron token had been knocked away. Following that was another intense battle, and he hadn't had the time to go look for it.

The two men, Han and Hu, lacked any discernment and were actually still flattering him from the side. On the contrary, Yan Nu had noticed the importance of this object to Zhang Xu.

Yan Nu picked up the iron token, and Zhang Xu charged up like a madman.

However, his spear technique became hesitant... The reason he could suppress Yan Nu was by relying on direct spear thrusts, but Yan Nu frequently used the iron token to parry, leaving Zhang Xu tied down and restricted!

This was an ancestral relic and a family treasure besides; how could Zhang Xu dare to damage it?

"Give it back to me!"

Amidst a roar, Yan Nu actually threw the iron token onto the ground.

Zhang Xu was astonished, not expecting him to actually hand it over, and hurriedly stooped to retrieve it, only to abruptly feel the hairs on his body stand on end!

It turned out Yan Nu had simultaneously swung his chains, seizing the opportunity to smash him to death.

"He's not a fool!" At the very last split second, Zhang Xu still abandoned the iron token and executed an incredible mid-air twist, dodging the blow!

Only a loud crash was heard as the bluestone slabs on the ground shattered apart.

"Where is the iron token?" When Zhang Xu looked back again, he saw the iron token had been smashed to pieces by the chains!

"No!"

He lunged back like a madman, but before he even had time to grieve, he saw a flash of intense light!

Zhang Xu finally recalled a clan precept that he had almost forgotten...

"Boom!"

The shattered iron token exploded with a bang! Rocks were sent hurtling, and dust billowed into the air!

The immense shockwave blew everyone away!

Zhang Xu bore the brunt of it, followed by Yan Nu and the two men, Han and Hu.

They felt dizzy and disoriented, their tinnitus roaring, and the internal organs inside their bodies had shifted positions!

When the tinnitus faded and the dust settled, the scene was already in utter ruins.

"Cough, cough, cough..." Zhang Xu coughed up blood violently, sitting up in a daze and looking at the large crater blasted out before him, feeling grief-stricken enough to weep!

Magical artifacts were not magic treasures; fundamentally, they were still vessels. If there were no protective talisman seals inscribed on the interior, their sheer load-bearing capacity was no different from ordinary vessels of the same material.

If a bronze mirror could be smashed to pieces by a hammer, then a magical artifact bronze mirror could likewise be smashed to pieces by a hammer just the same.

The iron token stored the old ancestor's magic power. Once damaged, it could no longer contain it, and all the energy erupted forth in a single instant.

That he was not blown to death was only thanks to the blessing that the magic power injected by the old ancestor was not very much.

Even so, under the protection of his full-strength true qi, he was still blasted until his clothes were tattered, his entire body was charred black, his skin and flesh were festering, and some of his internal organs had shifted... Both his internal and external injuries were extremely severe.

Looking at the two men, Han and Hu, they had simply been blown to death!

It was precisely because the two of them had no idea that magical artifacts could explode, and had failed to execute full-strength body protection in time.

In truth, even he himself had almost forgotten. The old ancestor was a figure from eighty years ago. Although he had left behind the precept of "not letting magical artifacts explode and harm mortals," he had never witnessed it after all. Naturally, they would have carefully guarded the magical artifacts, so as it was passed down generation after generation, the descendants had nearly forgotten about this whole business of them exploding.

"This unfilial descendant has failed to guard the ancestral relics..." Zhang Xu touched a few fragments of the iron token, and feelings of sorrow, shame, and terror surged up together.

At this moment, Yan Nu also crawled forward slowly, dragging a trail of blood as he moved toward a patch of grass in the distance.

Zhang Xu paused, then glared at Yan Nu with hatred carved into his bones!

"He's still alive? Dammit! You deserve to die!"

"Hah~ You're the one who deserves to die!" Yan Nu supported his body shakily, the sound of his breathing resembling the pulling of a broken bellows.

His injuries were also extremely agonizing; large patches of wounds on his body had been torn open, deep enough to reveal bone! The meridians in both his hands were severed, and his abdomen was so festered that his intestines could even be seen, yet his intestines were exceptionally resilient and did not actually slide outward.

For some reason, the matter of his internal organs being shaken out of place was not fatal to him. Instead, the pain of those displaced organs was something he endured in solid earnest, yet no matter how much it hurt, it did not prevent him from living.

"Cough..." At last, he reached the grass and ate some. His breathing could be described as extremely difficult, to the extent that he even had to endure a sense of suffocation while grazing.

"I... I can't move..." Having crawled to the grass with his last shred of strength and taking just a single bite, Yan Nu went limp and powerless, lingering on the brink of death.

He discovered that no matter how resolute his willpower was, he could no longer lift his hands... The tendons there had snapped under the unbearable burden. His legs were somewhat better, but the muscles were similarly torn apart, leaving him unable to move.

His whip wounds and spear wounds were still manageable, but the explosion of that magical artifact possessed immense might... He felt as though he were operating a body on the verge of total collapse.

Right at this moment of paralysis in his limbs, Yan Nu suddenly discovered that there was still one organ of his that could move, and that was his intestines.

Obedient as an arm and functioning like a third hand, they could even detach from the middle. He hurriedly manipulated his intestines to flow outward, covering a patch of grass to feed.

Sure enough, that worked too. After ingesting a good deal of sheep-grass, his vigor was replenished, and his hammer true qi loyally refreshed, allowing him to silently circulate the Great Emperor White Jade Scripture, which did not require meridians to operate.

"Hehe... I deserve to die?" Zhang Xu slowly stood up. Only he present knew that the magical artifact would explode.

Although his own body was also swaying unsteadily and his true qi was completely exhausted, it was precisely thanks to utilizing true qi for body protection at the very first moment that his injuries were ultimately the lightest.

Seeing Yan Nu collapse onto the ground with his intestines spilled everywhere, he figured the fellow was definitely dead for sure.

Thus, he walked up close, looked down from above, seized Yan Nu by the throat, and lifted him half a person high: "You said I deserve to die?"

"My distant ancestor was the Prime Minister of the former Han, the Marquis of Beiping! My high ancestor was the Imperial Censor-in-Chief of the former Wei!"

"My old ancestor cultivated the Dao on Mount Jiuhua for eighty years! My father ranks among the Famous Scholars of Langya..."

Yan Nu listened in utter bewilderment, and rasped, "I don't understand..."

Zhang Xu was just about to sneer, when he immediately heard the words: "...but it feels more and more useless."

His gaze turned fierce. Indeed, the Zhang lineage had branched out widely, splitting into many households over several centuries. Their particular branch was growing increasingly decadent.

Zhang Xu exerted force in his hand, fiercely choking Yan Nu's neck. If not for his true qi being depleted, this single move would have crushed Yan Nu's windpipe.

"What kind of mongrel are you! How dare you judge my clan!"

"I am a commoner."

True qi erupted within Yan Nu's body, and Zhang Xu's hand was jolted away as if he had touched an electric shock, staggering back two steps before collapsing to sit on the ground.

His facial expression changed drastically. How could this commoner still have true qi!

By what right! Over and over again, was it inexhaustible!

"Impossible... impossible!"

Seeing Yan Nu bashing his head against the ground and twitching in his limbs like a crawling worm, unable to stand up for a long time, Zhang Xu hurriedly looked all around, wishing to find a weapon to kill him.

He knew that Yan Nu was currently brimming with true qi inside his body; if he wasn't killed now, the one who died would be himself!

However, under the explosion of the magical artifact, where could any weapons be found at the scene? That long spear of his was already ruined, and the spearhead didn't even know where it had blasted off to.

Zhang Xu could only pick up a stone and smash it fiercely toward Yan Nu.

"Bang!" Yan Nu's head listed to one side, still struggling to stand up.

Zhang Xu felt a jolt of pain, and looking at his hand, he saw that he had actually cut his own fingers on the shattered gravel.

"Ah?"

"Why won't you just die!"

Zhang Xu went mad and smashed Yan Nu's head repeatedly.

"Die! Die! Die!"

"Bang, bang, bang!" The stones shattered upon Yan Nu's head, scattering countless stone powder and grit.

Yet it was useless. Yan Nu's body was as impregnable as bronze walls and iron ramparts, letting the stones smash down however violently they might, without suffering the slightest damage.

He still twisted and tried to crawl up, staring at Zhang Xu with blood-red eyes. His expression wasn't particularly fierce, but that unblinking focus made one's blood run cold.

"You, you, you..." Zhang Xu's pupils trembled as an extreme terror surged into his heart.

Seeing that he couldn't be killed, he turned, crawled, and fled.

"Someone come! Quickly, someone come and kill him!"

Zhang Xu crawled on the ground in panic and helplessness, but all around him were either corpses or traces of explosions, not a single person.

He was on the verge of a breakdown, tears welling in the corners of his eyes, his voice distorted.

This wasn't because he was fragile, but because it was so exasperatingly unfair. Yan Nu simply didn't play by the rules; his true qi somehow never ran out, and he didn't die even after losing several liters of blood!

An unspeakable helplessness and heartache welled up, and he actually burst into tears.

"Damn it! Dam—right! The horse!"

"Where's my horse! Come quickly and trample him to death!"

Zhang Xu remembered that his warhorse had once severely injured Yan Nu, and at this moment, it felt like finding a straw to clutch at.

Yet that horse had long since been injured by Yan Nu and fled; he shouted for a long time without a trace of it appearing.

"Where's the horse! Where's the horse! Save me!"

As Zhang Xu crawled, he looked back. By the time he had crawled ten zhang away, Yan Nu had already performed some crude basic treatment on his leg muscles, panting heavily as he slowly stood up, his intestines returning to their proper place.

Even though his hands still couldn't move and hung limply at his sides, Yan Nu sent a jolt of true qi through the soles of his feet and savagely leaped forward!

He drove the chains with his body, closing the distance while... leaning his upper body back and bending his waist!

Regardless of how this aggravated the agonizing injuries in his waist and abdomen, he arched himself backward like a great bow!

Holding his high head aloft, he soared through the air trailing two chains, resembling the posture of a phoenix.

"What kind of maniac is this..."

Zhang Xu looked in utter despair as the nearly paralyzed Yan Nu leaped through the air. Using his body as a bow, snapping his spine, swinging himself in a full circle, and infusing true qi, he finally managed to drive his arms and the chains, tracing a fatal arc!

The chains in his hands cleaved the air with a whistle, interspersed with the sound of wind and thunder! He struck down with the force to shatter heaven and earth!

Zhang Xu knew he was going to die, and with eyes about to burst, he roared, "Base commoner! How dare you kill me!"

At the moment of his death, he heard only a sound like a broken bellows.

"Times have changed!"

p.s: Sorry. This book has a cultivation system, and the status of metaphysics is equivalent to science. I know some people want to see pure ancient containment, with ancients acting like divine mystics using containment items, but that would be an 'ancient small Blue-White Society'. This Emperor Yan book couldn't be written that way because the Emperor Yan is too strong. Therefore, this book has normal spellcraft, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to show just how absolute an Absolute Trait really is.