Chen Xuan had practiced martial arts for three years, tempering his skills until they nearly reached the peak of the mortal world. Later, he began refining qi, but he never let his martial arts fall behind.
Martial Arts Grandmaster.
Using this term, which should never have appeared in connection with a young man, to describe Chen Xuan now was not the slightest exaggeration.
"This man's martial arts are no weaker than mine."
Chen Xuan only glanced at the young man before immediately sensing that something was wrong.
This was a terrifying realm that only someone like him, a martial artist who had reached the summit, could appreciate.
The young man stood seemingly at ease, completely undefended, yet his movements were perfectly natural, without the slightest opening. No matter which direction an attack came from, he could instantly counter and strike back.
"Other than me, there's actually another cultivator in this world willing to temper his martial arts to such an extreme?"
Chen Xuan muttered inwardly, finding it utterly inconceivable.
As one's realm rose, close-quarters combat was no longer important. The power of Immortal Qi and thaumaturgy was simply too great, too wondrous...
"Whoosh!"
The young man's senses were razor-sharp. He turned his head instantly, met Chen Xuan's assessing gaze, and raised a brow.
"What are you looking at?"
"..."
With a smile on his face, Chen Xuan took the unprecedented initiative to introduce himself.
"My name is Chen Xuan. I'm a martial artist."
Seeing that Chen Xuan was being friendly, the young man found it hard to lose his temper and said sullenly, "I'm Ye Kui. Do you know what a kui is? Some kind of ox... You're a martial artist? Aren't you a fisherman?"
With a fish spear on his back and a fishing net wrapped around his waist, Chen Xuan certainly did not look like a martial artist.
Chen Xuan did not take offense at the provocation in his tone. Instead, his gaze grew sincere, even carrying a hint of fervor.
"Daoist Friend Ye, you're a martial artist too, aren't you? Your heart of utmost sincerity toward the martial path is as dazzling as the blazing sun above us. I can feel it. Forgive my boldness, but I'd like to exchange martial arts with you. How about it?"
At this moment, Chen Xuan felt an intense urge to have a martial arts contest with the man named Ye Kui before him, one without Immortal Qi. It would surely be a flowing, exhilarating, earth-shaking battle between two people who had reached the pinnacle...
This was the mutual sympathy that arose between fellow travelers who had gone the farthest in the same field.
For a moment, Chen Xuan felt as if he had returned to the days when he practiced martial arts in the Willow Town martial arts academy, when he could freely do whatever he found interesting.
"Whoosh!"
At that instant, the grandmasterly aura of a martial artist who had returned to simplicity spread from Chen Xuan's body. The other man would surely understand what he meant!
"A heart of utmost sincerity toward the martial path? What the hell are you talking about?"
Ye Kui's face was blank. As if he could not sense Chen Xuan's grandmasterly bearing in the slightest, he shook his head. "I don't understand. Farewell."
He turned and walked away.
He moved very quickly. In the blink of an eye, his figure vanished.
"???"
Chen Xuan stood frozen in place. A moment later, the martial grandmaster's aura he had built up poured away like a thousand-mile flood.
He scratched the back of his head and stared at the fish spear jutting over his shoulder, his expression lost and baffled.
This Ye Kui.
Didn't he want to have a thrilling, fist-to-flesh battle between martial artists?
The importance and goodwill Chen Xuan had shown him—so much that he had even neglected his ally Yan Yushu—had been rejected just like that...
In an empty alley.
The young man named Ye Kui walked along in high spirits, both hands pillowing his head, a foxtail grass clamped between his teeth. He looked incredibly carefree.
"Heh, that pretty girl with the rotten heart must be Six Desires Heaven, right?"
"After I wake up tomorrow morning, I'll be able to see that supremely unlucky Longevity Species."
"Wonderful. Two of my kind are still alive."
"I heard Red Crow City used to have a Yellow Millet Dream, but it died. What a shame—I arrived a few days too late."
Ye Kui muttered inwardly as he walked. Then his mind passed over the young Qi Refiner named Chen Xuan whom he had just encountered.
Chen Xuan gave him a peculiar feeling, as if there were a resonance coming from the level of the soul...
But Chen Xuan's gaze had been far too sincere and fervent. It had made Ye Kui's heart turn cold and raised gooseflesh all over him, so he had hurriedly fled.
What a strange look!
"A heart of utmost sincerity toward the martial path? I haven't practiced martial arts for very long. Back then, I just directly..."
"Add points."
A strange smile curled up at the corners of Ye Kui's lips, and a flicker of blood seemed to pass through his eyes.
"Max it out..."
The air seemed to fill with a violent, bloody stench.
Inside a room in a courtyard provided by Peach Blossom Garden Ancient Village.
"You're going to undergo Feather Transformation?"
Yan Yushu's clear voice rang out in his mind.
"Yes. I met someone very interesting... and very dangerous."
Chen Xuan looked out the window. Atop a relatively tall wooden building, Yan Yushu's robes fluttered in the wind, her bearing dazzling. She resembled an immortal maiden about to ride the wind away. Looking down over the village spread across the mountainside, she was observing for any threats that might be lurking.
In truth, no accidents were likely to happen.
Hundreds of Ancient People lived here. If anyone caused trouble, they would be swiftly subdued.
If something truly did happen, it would be after they met the Longevity Species, the Heaven's Chosen of Peach Blossom Garden, tomorrow, and a group of cultivators and ghosts carried the Ancient Sage Relic away from here.
"By the way, that person is called Ye Kui. I feel that he was sizing you up from behind, and his gaze was different."
Chen Xuan reminded her. Although he had wanted to exchange martial arts with Ye Kui, it had only been a momentary impulse. He would not lose his basic powers of observation because of it.
"I'll be careful," Yan Yushu replied.
However, people staring at her was the most normal thing in the world. If she ever met someone who did not look at her, that would be when something strange was afoot, and she would need to become alert immediately.
"Click!"
Chen Xuan then shut the wooden window and began his Feather Transformation.
His blood-and-qi strength had reached more than sixteen thousand jin. Once he stepped into his third Feather Transformation, the tremendous enhancement brought by Yellow Millet Qi, together with the support of the Ascension Immortal Garment, would improve his body at the same time, directly pushing him past the twenty-thousand-jin threshold.
"Whoosh!"
Before long, white mist steamed and rose, filling the small room. A faint fragrance of grain gradually spread through the air.
"Psst!"
A strand of Azure Gold Immortal Qi appeared first, gleaming with a metallic luster. It was as if the curtain had been drawn back. In the next instant, hundreds and thousands of resplendent threads erupted at tremendous speed, carrying out the final thorough Marrow Cleansing of his body.
Chen Xuan slowly closed his eyes and sank into a shallow sleep. Every part of his body was bursting with new life. His internal organs thundered, while his skin shimmered with the luster of jade stones...
"If possible, I still hope to fight that martial artist named Ye Kui at least once. Even if I have to use Immortal Qi."
That was Chen Xuan's final thought.
"Whoosh!"
Not long afterward, an Azure Gold Ascension Immortal Garment gradually took shape in the air and slowly drifted down.
The feather garment settled over his body.
Time passed, and dusk descended.
Beneath the tall wooden archway at the foot of the mountain, the Ancient People scholar was organizing his books and putting away his tools.
"How strange. This year, when Peach Blossom Garden descended into the world, all kinds of demons and ghosts came."
He sighed inwardly, preparing to have the other Ancient People seal off the mountain paths and end the day's work.
Just then.
In the distance, a group of people dressed in black robes, their faces hidden beneath their hoods, came silently toward them like a flock of black birds beneath the night sky.
Seeing this, the Ancient People scholar's expression grew solemn. He straightened his clothes and sat upright in his seat once more.
A moment later.
One figure wrote a name in the register, then left the group and walked alone toward the village beneath the dusk.
A cool breeze swept past, lifting the brim of the hood to reveal a pair of gloomy eyes resembling those of a phoenix.
At his fingertips, a letter spun rapidly through the air.
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