Black Tiger, Black Ice Platform Black Armored Captain of Luyang Prefecture, Great Qin, Was Here to Kill You

With a single blow, the meridians of a Xiantian Realm Buddhist Cultivator renowned for his formidable Physical Strength were severed.

This was suppression through absolute power, a crushing advantage in both cultivation and martial combat techniques.

Whether in cultivation or the execution of martial combat techniques, Zhang Yuan far surpassed this early Xiantian Realm Buddhist Cultivator.

"Black Tiger, Black Ice Platform Black Armored Captain of Luyang Prefecture, Great Qin, was here to kill you."

Zhang Yuan gave a low shout, stepped forward, and drove a kick straight into the Xiantian Realm Buddhist Cultivator's already sunken chest.

That kick sent the Buddhist Cultivator flying three Zhang away and crashing into a blue stone. The stone shattered, and naturally, so did his body.

A mass of Xiantian qi instantly dispersed, turning into a column of smoke.

From Zhang Yuan's arrival and attack to his killing a Xiantian Realm expert, fewer than a hundred breaths had passed.

Such methods left the scattered Buddhist disciples around them staring in dumbfounded shock.

Since when had a Xiantian Realm expert become more fragile than a child?

These wandering martial artists simply did not understand what battlefield martial arts were.

Though Zhang Yuan cultivated quite a few techniques, he had long developed the habit of killing with a single strike. He never hesitated when he attacked.

On the battlefield, life and death were decided within three to five moves. Who would circle around and trade blows with you?

Unless he truly encountered an evenly matched opponent.

Unfortunately, no one here was qualified to stand as Zhang Yuan's equal.

Behind him, Yang Yaozu, who had rushed over with a long saber in hand, looked up at the rising column of smoke, bewilderment on his face.

That Xiantian Realm Buddhist Cultivator had actually been killed by Zhang Yuan?

"Take revenge for Guangyuan Stockade yourself."

Zhang Yuan's voice carried over.

Yang Yaozu's eyes instantly turned bloodshot. Gripping his long saber, he charged headlong toward the scattered Buddhist disciples.

The Guangyuan Stockade he had managed for over a decade had been slaughtered clean by these Buddhist disciples, then burned to bare ground in a single fire. How could he not hate them?

He wished he could carve these Buddhist Cultivators into a thousand pieces!

Zhang Yuan paid no attention to how Yang Yaozu took his revenge. He walked straight to the Xiantian Realm Buddhist Cultivator he had killed, felt around for a moment, and pulled out a small iron box.

The iron box had clearly been cast from meteoric iron. It had been hidden against the Buddhist Cultivator's chest, yet even Zhang Yuan's condensed fist force had failed to shatter it.

Fist force—or fist intent, as it was also called—was a method born when a martial technique was cultivated to an extremely profound level and merged with one's own cultivation and insights, transforming into a mysterious power.

Sabers, swords, and other weapons were no different. There was Sword Qi and sword radiance, sword dao intent, and saber technique intent.

These intents sounded complicated and profound, but to Zhang Yuan, they were merely like following the current downstream. Once a technique was cultivated to mastery, everything naturally fell into place.

With the support of such intent, the martial power one wielded increased by only seventy or eighty percent.

The reason so many cultivators held martial technique intent in almost superstitious reverence was that refining one's cultivation until it was pure, then making it harmonize with one's own insights, was an incomparably difficult task.

The overwhelming majority of experts needed decades or even centuries of cultivation and constant tempering before they had a chance to comprehend intent and gather great momentum.

In other words, anyone who cultivated a technique until it revealed intent was naturally an expert tempered over countless years.

Of course, at the same level, increasing one's combat power by seventy or eighty percent was already extraordinary.

When Zhang Yuan put away the iron box and stood up, Yang Yaozu had already slain all those Buddhist Cultivators.

He was Houtian Late-stage. With fury driving his attack, killing a group of Buddhist Cultivators whose minds had been cowed was not difficult.

Clang—

Yang Yaozu tossed away his long saber, dropped to his knees before Zhang Yuan, and knocked his head against the ground.

"Yang Yaozu thanks you, my lord, for avenging Guangyuan Stockade."

"My life is yours, my lord."

Without Zhang Yuan killing the Xiantian Realm Buddhist Cultivator, the blood debt of over a hundred people from Guangyuan Stockade could never have been repaid.

Yang Yaozu knew his own limits. With his aptitude, he would never enter the Xiantian Realm in this lifetime.

"Your life is of no use to me." Zhang Yuan's expression remained calm as he spoke aloud.

"Then I will return to face judgment with you, my lord." Yang Yaozu looked up at Zhang Yuan.

Zhang Yuan had said before that he would take him to the Martial Guard Bureau prison.

Zhang Yuan's gaze fell on Yang Yaozu. After pondering for a moment, he said, "Take the remaining people of Guangyuan Stockade to Jiulin County and seek refuge with the Zhao Family."

"If anyone asks, tell them Black Tiger saved you."

By the time the military clerk arrived at Guangyuan Stockade with Qi Junliang and the others, daylight had fully broken.

Zhang Yuan sat atop the stone cliff before the stockade, silver coins and weapons laid out before him.

"Zhang Yuan, are you all right?"

"Er He, were you hurt?"

"Brother Yuan!"

The crowd gathered around, examining Zhang Yuan with concern.

The road had been difficult to travel at night. From afar, they had seen flames soaring into the sky, along with the rising qi column of a Xiantian Realm Fall.

The people from the Martial Guard Bureau had truly feared that Zhang Yuan had died at Guangyuan Stockade.

"I'm fine."

Zhang Yuan stood and pointed ahead at the Xiantian Realm Buddhist Cultivator lying on the ground, his body twisted out of shape.

"These Buddhist Cultivators from Liangyuan Region planned to rob Guangyuan Stockade and wipe out most of it."

"But the mantis stalked the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Black Tiger killed them instead."

"The relic they were searching for was also taken by Black Tiger."

Zhang Yuan merely recounted what had happened, yet everyone could already fill in the rest.

It fit the conduct of wandering martial artists far too well.

The lowest-ranking bandits were always the ones who did the dirty work, lost their lives, and were cast aside.

Even powerful outsiders might not have the last laugh.

Those underworld experts were ruthless and had no loyalty or honor to speak of. More often than not, they were the ones who emerged victorious in the end.

"Black Tiger? That fellow who only recently killed the lord of Baichou Mountain?"

The military clerk shook his head and said solemnly, "He's already ranked among the top hundred on the Elite Ranking. The higher-ups even sent orders telling our Luyang Prefecture to keep a close eye on him."

For someone ranked among the top hundred of the Elite Ranking, intercepting and killing a Xiantian Realm Buddhist Cultivator was indeed not difficult.

"A relic... no wonder those Buddhist Cultivators were willing to fight to the death for it." Qi Junliang looked at the Buddhist Cultivators' bodies lying on the ground and spoke softly.

The martial guards went forward to search the burned stockade, gathered the corpses and bones, then brought the Buddhist Cultivators' bodies back with them.

The silver and weapons Zhang Yuan had collected were also registered as spoils.

Originally, the martial guards from Luyang Prefecture were meant to break camp and return to Luyang Prefecture early that morning. But because of last night's turmoil, one martial guard had died and two others had been severely wounded, leaving the military clerk furious.

When the Yong'an County magistrate arrived, the two discussed matters and dispatched Two teams of martial guards to patrol upstream along the Guangji River.

Several bandit stockades along the way were wiped out directly.

Quite a few bandits who received word escaped. Those who failed to flee either lost their lives or became prisoners.

After all, on that trip along the river, no one had been wrongly killed.

Because Zhang Yuan had pursued the enemy at night and gained many spoils, he was not assigned to suppress bandits. Instead, he remained to guard the camp and watch over the wounded soldiers.

In truth, they were simply letting him rest.

After ducking into his tent, he unfolded the booklet wrapped in cowhide paper.

"Iron Body Skill"

A Buddhist technique for tempering the body. It was not particularly brilliant, but it differed somewhat from martial arts and was useful for refining the fleshly body.

This was exactly what Zhang Yuan needed.

He currently lacked the opportunity to enter the Grandmaster Realm. Not knowing how to seek out and survive the Grandmaster Tribulation, he could only find ways to constantly temper his body and raise his combat power.

This Buddhist body-tempering technique could come in handy.

As he read through the booklet, he shattered an Insight Bead. After reading the technique three times and circulating it several times inside the tent, Zhang Yuan sensed a slight change in his body.

When he clenched his fists, there was an extra trace of tautness.

The strength of his body's qi, blood, and flesh had increased by at least two hundred jin.

Beyond the Iron Body Skill reaching minor accomplishment, Zhang Yuan's killing of the Xiantian Realm Buddhist Cultivator had also rewarded him with thirty-six Buddha Origin Beads.

Buddha Origin Beads were another layer of power cultivated by Xiantian Realm Buddhist practitioners, apart from Xiantian True Essence.

Putting away the technique manual, Zhang Yuan took a small iron box from his robes.

Inside that iron box lay a Buddhist sacred treasure: a relic.