Pointers

Rumble—rumble!!

This was neither the boom of cannon fire nor the collapse of a building. It was the earth-shaking commotion of the giant Zhao Jian charging forward in a frenzy. His already savage-looking face was now paired with this Giant Elephant Vajra Body, and the scars on his face twisted and trembled with his feral grin, making him look like a general rampaging through hell and feasting exclusively on hungry ghosts.

With Qi Cultivation Grand Completion and the tonnage of a dragon-elephant, Zhao Jian was an outstanding figure among the martial practitioners, whether in explosive power or toughness.

One hungry ghost after another stood before him.

They were like little electric scooters before a lucky heavy truck. They had barely emerged and had yet to make a move before the wild, muscular, bald brute sent them flying with a single collision and a savage grin!

Every attack from Geng Liangchen's Hungry Ghost Scene was brutally smashed aside by sheer force, as if nothing in the world could stop him while he thundered into the charge.

Although he had yet to become a Spirit Cultivation Practitioner, Zhao Jian had already touched that threshold. Even though he could not launch attacks on the mind and spirit, he could still defend against them passively. Besides, he was naturally thick-skinned and brawny, and after traveling far and wide, what ghastly tragedy had he not witnessed? The effects of the Hungry Ghost Scene were greatly reduced against him.

"Cackle, cackle, cackle! Geng Liangchen!"

"Stop your little ghosts!"

"If you ruin the Immortal Master's plans, I'll twist off your head and present it to the Immortal Master as an apology!"

In the blink of an eye, this wall of flesh had charged to one side of Geng Liangchen's hiding place. Zhao Jian could not be bothered to take the long way around. Facing the brick wall, he plunged both hands straight into it, his hands moving like wall-boring machines. He dug through it as easily and casually as if he were excavating a beehive.

After digging through the brick wall, Zhao Jian's feral grinning face squeezed in first.

"Heehee, Geng Liangchen, I'm here. I'm going to twist off your..."

Then Zhao Jian could no longer smile.

Geng Liangchen was clutching his head and kneeling on the ground, trembling violently in pain. Beside him stood Lan Yi, whose hair had returned to a black buzz cut. At that moment, Lan Yi had activated Colorless Eyes and was carefully scanning the out-of-control Geng Liangchen.

"Immortal Master, forgive me! I didn't know you were here! This humble martial man has disturbed you!" Zhao Jian's enormous head squeezed into the room. He hurriedly put on a fawning smile while cursing furiously inside.

Damn Huo Yuanjia!

Why had he sent me over here? Who knew what the Immortal Master and Geng Liangchen were doing here?

If they were doing something bad, I was definitely going to be in trouble. But if it was something good... Heh, Geng Liangchen had already been reduced to twitching like this. How could anything good come of it? He would rather he had seen nothing at all.

Zhao Jian was suffering inside. Huo Yuanjia had really dragged him into deep trouble!

Geng Liangchen had turned himself into a hungry ghost.

His cultivation of the Hungry Ghost Scene had advanced rapidly, but in the end, he still could not completely extinguish his humanity and reach the state of emptying both self and object, moving without stirring a thought.

Lan Yi, who was overseeing the entire situation, noticed that he had lost control and rushed over at once.

Qi Cultivation Grand Completion could not yet serve as a consumable, so Lan Yi could not simply leave him to live or die on his own.

"All conditioned phenomena are impermanent, arising and ceasing with every thought. Second, all things are without self. Third, stillness is nirvana." Lan Yi seemed deep in thought as he voiced his insights into Spirit Cultivation.

The insights of a top-tier spiritual-energy cultivator entered through the mouth and went straight into the mind, reaching the soul.

Geng Liangchen, twitching on the ground, struggled between hungry ghost and human. His spirit instantly encountered a vast, tranquil magnificence as grand as the starry sky. This direct exchange of mind and spirit was more soul-stirring and wondrously enlightening than words. Even the hungry ghost, faced with such profound greatness and dazzling splendor, could only shrink back in shame and submit completely.

Geng Liangchen immediately stopped twitching.

Even Zhao Jian, that hulking brute, looked bewildered, and the aura around him rapidly changed.

No one knew how much time passed.

Zhao Jian suddenly shuddered and awoke from a hazy dream he could no longer remember clearly. He instinctively raised a hand, and only a visible black, iron-like radiance hovered above his palm. This was his path of Spirit Cultivation, Vajra King Contemplation. It was difficult for it to affect martial practitioners of the same level, but its resistance to attacks on the mind and spirit was as impregnable as a fortress of bronze and iron.

"Huh? I've become a Spirit Cultivation Practitioner."

"You big oaf. It took you forever to break through into Spirit Cultivation, and I had to watch over you here so you wouldn't run wild and tear down the whole street."

Geng Liangchen's voice came from the side. At that moment, the darkness behind his head had covered half his face. It looked as if all his features had vanished, leaving only a shapeless mouth that seemed to have been enlarged.

"Geng Liangchen, you've returned to normal?" Zhao Jian frowned. He felt that Geng Liangchen had grown even more sinister and cold, like the soil of a mass grave, making him deeply uncomfortable.

"The Immortal Master gave me pointers." Geng Liangchen's teeth showed involuntarily as he replied with a faint smile.

"Hm? The gunfire has stopped. Were those Dongyang devils wiped out?" With a rumble, Zhao Jian rose to his feet and directly crushed the surrounding bricks beneath him. His body had grown several inches taller, and standing inside the room, he was practically a load-bearing wall.

Geng Liangchen moved a little farther away from this muscular monster in disgust.

Spirit Cultivation Practitioners hated opponents of Zhao Jian's type the most.

It could be said that apart from Lan Yi, even if everyone else joined forces, they might not have any good way to deal with Zhao Jian.

"The Dongyang people were wiped out long ago. The Immortal Master said that there was no sense in taking a beating without fighting back, so he had Master Huo and Zhao Sikong lead people over to the Dongyang concession to have a look around. While they were there, they seized the foreigners' armory." Geng Liangchen gave him a brief account of what had happened afterward.

After the Dongyang people were routed,

there had been no meaningful resistance.

Huo Yuanjia and Zhao Sikong, two martial practitioners who had also broken through into Spirit Cultivation amid slaughter and mortal danger, had effortlessly crushed the Dongyang people's final resistance, in which they brandished grenades and shouted "Long live the shattered jade." They had also taken prisoner the Allied Powers' observation delegation, whose members could not possibly outrun martial practitioners.

The martial practitioners carried out Lan Yi's orders.

Against this group of Dongyang devils with blood debts piled to the heavens, they had not left a single survivor.

This was also the first time in all these years that the Star-Han people, who had suffered endless humiliation on their own soil, had finally held their heads high! You have technology, and I have divine martial arts. Let us see who would be laughing at the end!

"Hiss, they actually sent Zhao Sikong over." Zhao Jian felt his teeth ache faintly.

His fellow clansman Zhao Sikong had once been the personal assassin of a gang boss in the Foreign Concessions. After being enlightened by Immortal Master Lan Yi, he had decisively abandoned darkness for the light, carrying that boss's blood-covered head as he went to receive the Immortal Master's Bestowing Martial Arts.

After pledging allegiance to Lan Yi, Zhao Sikong rarely took action.

Because of the nature of his cultivation method, he basically served as a shadow at Lan Yi's side.

Zhao Sikong's few appearances had all left a deep impression. He harbored an extraordinary hatred for gangs and unscrupulous merchants. Unless Lan Yi stopped him, the targets he dealt with generally died in extremely gruesome ways, easily bringing the word sacrifice to mind.

Now that Zhao Sikong had gone to the Dongyang concession,

even with Huo Yuanjia watching over him, there would probably still be a river of blood.

After all, the Dongyang merchants and lawless wandering warriors in the Dongyang concession were people Zhao Sikong had long wanted to hack into a thousand pieces.

"The Immortal Master has ordered that after you awaken, you are to choose twenty men and go with me to Shiliupu." Geng Liangchen's expression turned solemn.

"What are we going to Shiliupu for?"

"He didn't say. He only told us to cooperate with Chen Qimei... My guess is that it has something to do with warships."