Red Qi

Before dawn, the cold rain stopped, and the world was so dark that one could not see a hand held out in front of one's face.

The crude little hut had no windows, only a wooden door as its entrance, and it was even darker inside.

"Rustle..."

Two monks from Hanging Temple used the Immortal Qi in their hands as a small lantern that gave off a faint golden-white glow. The light was not very bright as they bent over and cautiously rummaged through the little room.

A gold-and-emerald jade hairpin.

The young monk found the hairpin among Chen Xuan's clothes. The instant his fingers touched it, he realized it had to be a treasure. Its material was extraordinarily unusual... There were also two sharp little swords half a foot long, but they were made of ordinary mortal iron and had no value.

This hairpin was a fine thing!

The young monk's heart leaped with excitement. He hurriedly cupped the hairpin in his palm and pressed his head against that of his senior fellow disciple beside him, widening his eyes to examine it.

The next instant.

A figure appeared without a sound. A hand faintly radiating White Light reached out, picked up the hairpin from the young monk's palm, turned it over in his own hand, and raised it high to examine it by the glow of White Qi.

"Tsk! Great minds think alike."

After that seemingly approving remark, Chen Xuan tilted his head down and looked at the two furtive figures before continuing, "But I don't understand. When you committed this deed, did you never consider the consequences?"

"You!"

The two monks were jolted with terror and froze where they stood. The young monk's heart pounded wildly with fright, and the injuries in his chest that had not yet healed immediately began to throb painfully.

The other monk, a middle-aged Second Ascension expert, looked even more horrified. He had not sensed Chen Xuan's movements at all. His opponent's strength far exceeded anything he had imagined!

"Clatter..."

Chen Xuan picked up his clothes and, while draping them over his sturdy, straight, powerfully built body, walked past the two men as though they were invisible, his gaze turning toward the crack beneath the door.

The night rain had stopped, and dampness mingled with the hazy, freezing fog.

"Click! Click!"

Sparse firelight glimmered throughout the camp. An old monk was boiling early porridge in a pot of Treasure Tea Soup. Some of the monks sat like clay statues, chanting the morning sutras, while outside the camp, several monks had already taken up tools and were silently chopping wood...

Some monks were looking toward Chen Xuan's side...

"Heh..."

Chen Xuan closed the half-open door and turned around.

In the dim light, the two monks seemed to see an inscrutable smile curling across Chen Xuan's sharply defined, handsome face. It made them shiver with dread, as if a powerful hand had seized their hearts, leaving them unable to breathe.

"Senior Brother..." The young monk's gaze was terrified as he struggled to force out the words.

When they had encountered Chen Xuan yesterday, they had merely taken him for an unusually alert ordinary Qi Refiner and had not truly thought much of him.

But the young monk had been cautious. To ensure nothing went wrong, he had still called over a senior fellow disciple who had long harbored resentment toward Hanging Temple. Yet now that he was truly facing Chen Xuan, he seemed to realize only at this moment what kind of person he had chosen to confront.

After discovering them, Chen Xuan had immediately moved, quickly checking whether there were any other accomplices outside... Then, seemingly having discovered something, he had turned around and firmly shut the wooden door, trapping them inside the room...

"You wretched bastard, are you trying to escape?!"

The middle-aged monk's expression changed drastically. He suddenly bellowed. With their deed exposed, his thoughts raced, and he immediately decided to turn the tables and accuse Chen Xuan instead.

This had already been within their plans. Qi Refiners possessed exceptionally keen senses. Once discovered, they could kill Chen Xuan with thunderous force, then slander him by claiming that he had been seduced by Six Desires Heaven Yan Yushu. No one would doubt such an excuse!

But if they did that, and the ancient scripture had no paper version, this trip would end in vain...

"Boom!"

At the same time, the middle-aged monk raised his fist. White Light blazed brightly as he attacked Chen Xuan without hesitation.

Although Chen Xuan had suddenly reached the Second Ascension, exceeding their expectations, did that mean he was the only Second Ascension expert here?

Back then, he had broken through the limits of his physique and entered the Second Ascension realm with the astonishing achievement of possessing more than five thousand jin of strength. Now, this single punch carried over ten thousand jin of force!

His opponent had only just broken through and had not yet had time to proceed along the path of the Second Ascension. How could he withstand it?

"Clang!"

A heavy impact rang out like Bronze Bell and Great Chime. The middle-aged monk's fist, suffused with golden-white radiance, was instantly clutched tightly by a large hand, forced to halt in midair.

"Crack, snap!"

Chen Xuan's five fingers were like iron pincers. He gripped the other man's fist with one hand, and a rough sound like metal scraping against metal came from his palm.

"Moo!"

A phantom giant elephant nearly a zhang tall filled half the room behind the middle-aged monk. It rammed forward with all its might, unleashing tremendous force as its four thick legs carved foot-deep trenches into the ground.

Yet Chen Xuan was like an indestructible mountain. Not only did his body remain utterly motionless, even his suspended arm did not tremble in the slightest.

"Where's your Immortal Qi?!"

The middle-aged monk was so shocked that his soul nearly flew from his body. Chen Xuan's palm was dim and utterly devoid of Immortal Qi. He had relied solely on the strength of his flesh to block the mighty punch driven by the Little Mammoth Trick.

He was terrified beyond measure, unable to understand what was happening!

Chen Xuan had broken through with eight thousand jin of strength. After his physique surpassed its limits, the nearly four thousand jin of strength accumulated through the Green Deer and Firebird tricks had completely fused into his body.

Twelve thousand jin!

In terms of strength alone, Chen Xuan now surpassed the vast majority of Second Ascension Qi Refiners.

One had to understand that even the most outstanding genius in the territory of Red Crow City, someone who broke through with a six-thousand-jin physique and doubled his strength upon reaching the second bodily limit, ultimately possessed only twelve thousand jin of strength!

"Immortal Qi?"

Chen Xuan's cold, stern face suddenly became clear behind their locked fists and palm, then instantly brightened to the extreme. Within his eyes, mouth, nose, and seven apertures, scarlet flames of unimaginable heat churned and surged forth at high speed, like a fire spring erupting!

"Open your eyes wide and take a good look!"

Chen Xuan was like an immortal who had stepped out of the flames. Orange-red tongues of fire danced even through his flying hair, igniting from the tips and transforming in an instant into roaring flames.

The fire technique blazed with flamboyant brilliance as Chen Xuan raised his maximally fierce, hard punch.

"Whoosh!"

The middle-aged monk's vision turned completely red. The blazing light on the incoming fist mark nearly melted his eyes, and the fear rising in his heart was instantly swallowed and annihilated by the radiance of Red Qi!

The Firebird spread its wings and let out a long, ringing cry!

"Clang!"

The middle-aged monk was sent flying backward. The giant elephant phantom's tusks snapped, and its enormous, bloated body seemed to be crushed by tremendous force, its skin and bones piling backward layer by layer before exploding into smoke with a bang...

One wall of the entire little hut vanished. Shattered splinters of wood were annihilated in midair, dancing like countless fireflies through the night...

"Hah... hah..."

The other young monk stared blankly and turned his head in bewilderment. In the night beyond the hut, more than twenty meters away, the enormous Firebird seemed to have clamped a charred bug in its beak before plunging headfirst into the earth. The sea of flames that exploded outward lit up the entire sky.

"Hiss, hiss!"

Wisps of smoke rose. The middle-aged monk, struck in two by a single punch, had a charred-black body. Red Fire refined white metal; even his bones, strengthened by White Qi, had been burned into brittle charcoal that shattered at a touch.

Everyone in the camp was jolted awake by the tremendous disturbance, and unrest began to spread.

"You, I..."

The young monk instinctively turned around and shouted in panic, "This is Hanging Temple! You can't kill people! I was wrong, I really was wrong!"

Amid the sparks swirling through the sky, Chen Xuan walked toward him. His voice was calm, yet cold and sharp as a blade.

"There's no need to beg me..."

A fire-wreathed palm descended, enveloping him.