Keeping Watch

Bang!

A single saber strike fell.

At the critical moment between life and death, the Sword-Wielding Man could not spare attention for anything else. He gathered all his strength into his treasured sword and used the flat of the blade to slide against and brace the strike. Saber and sword scraped along each other's edges, throwing up a shower of sparks. Under that overwhelming force, the Sword-Wielding Man's face turned even paler, and a thread of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Ha ha!! This is the price of refusing me."

With a one-handed twist, the Strongman swept the Golden Silk Great Ring Saber across again, forcing the Sword-Wielding Man to retreat again and again. Before long, the Blade-Wielding Strongman kicked him squarely in the chest.

Chen Luo did not watch the rest of the battle. Taking advantage of the gap while the two clashed, he swiftly fled the battlefield.

The Strongman's saber strike that Might Cleave Mount Hua had severely wounded the Sword-Wielding Man's internal organs. Though he had luckily evaded a fatal injury, there was no way for him to reverse his decline. The stamina replenished by his pills was rapidly exhausted; his defeat was only a matter of time.

After leaving the mountain hollow, Chen Luo followed the clues in his memories and activated General Fan's "brain" as he sped toward the jade mine.

The farther inward he went, the quieter it became.

The mountain forest at night was fraught with danger, but to Chen Luo, the real threat was the experts who had likewise cultivated the Martial Dao. Fortunately, those people were still in the outskirts and had not found the exact location.

Half an hour later, the sky had begun to brighten.

Chen Luo stopped in a valley. According to his memories, this was the mine entrance discovered by the Magistrate of Qingya County.

Because a special spirit mine had appeared, the Magistrate of Qingya County had silenced everyone present. He immediately reported the matter to Prince Ning afterward, and only he himself knew what happened next. General Fan had only discovered this place after arriving, through undercover agents under his command.

Chen Luo had found this place by using the letter Prefect Lou left behind, the Feng Shui Acupoint located with Third Uncle's help, and General Fan's brain, layering multiple factors together. That was precisely why he had arrived here ahead of those outside.

"Time of Sun and Moon Confluence."

Chen Luo leaped onto a raised platform and began waiting for the appointed hour.

This spirit mine entrance was no ordinary mine tunnel. It was a place that could only be entered at a special moment in time. When Chen Luo had first inquired about this news, even he had been shocked.

But he soon became even more excited.

Such a miraculous sight was surely connected to the Immortal Cultivators of legend.

He had been searching in the right direction!

The Grandmaster path was hard to seek; all hope lay in immortal cultivation.

With no one around, Chen Luo took out the Jade Slip again and began studying it. Though he had already memorized its contents, holding the Jade Slip in his hand still gave him a marvelous feeling. Especially when he called upon the Royal Family Brain, that marvelous sensation became increasingly distinct.

The Heavenly Dao moves and accumulates nothing; thus all things come to fruition.

The familiar words surfaced in his mind once more, guiding him into a wondrous state.

Neither dream nor dreamless, neither awake nor asleep.

In that state, when Chen Luo recalled the earlier battle between the Strongman and the Sword-Wielding Man, scenes he had not understood immediately became clear.

Grandmaster!

It was more of a state of mind.

Compared to them, what he lacked was a state of mind—a mysterious power hidden within the bloodline. It was precisely because Grandmasters possessed this additional mysterious power that they could mobilize one hundred percent of their Internal Qi, erupting with strength far beyond the Bone Forging Realm. Compared to a Grandmaster's, the Internal Qi of the Bone Forging Realm was like stagnant water. Every time it was mobilized, one had to circulate it personally. Grandmasters were different. A Grandmaster's Internal Qi was "alive." It could even defend on its own. The so-called Grandmaster Body-Protection True Qi was one manifestation of Internal Qi becoming alive.

After comprehending this, Chen Luo began deducing his own path to Grandmaster.

But as he thought and thought, he sobered up, because there was no trace to follow.

Creating something from nothing was beyond what someone at his level could accomplish. To understand the so-called Grandmaster path, he first had to become a "Grandmaster" himself. But if he had already become a Grandmaster, why would he still need to deduce the principles of the Grandmaster path? It was like the question of whether the chicken came first or the egg.

The result left Chen Luo dumbfounded.

A deadlocked loop?

"Niuwazi, hold on! Don't die!!"

A voice suddenly rang out, interrupting Chen Luo's thoughts. Looking toward the sound, he saw Old Man Tian, his face full of anxiety, dragging his eldest nephew toward the mountain. It truly was a twist of fate: the valley everyone else had struggled to find had been stumbled into by these people through sheer accident.

"Fifth Uncle, leave me behind."

"Bullshit! If I leave you behind, won't your dad skin me alive when I get back?" Old Man Tian was so furious at these words that he smacked the back of his nephew's head hard. If the other man had not been injured, he would likely have hit him even harder.

"Fang Cun, Fang Shan, you two hurry up and carry my Fifth Uncle away. This Time, I was the one who got him hurt. If I had listened to him earlier, we would not have fallen into this state." Tian Danu panted heavily. He knew he could not persuade Fifth Uncle, so he shifted his target to his two brothers.

Hidden atop the raised platform, Chen Luo also saw clearly.

An arrow was lodged in Tian Danu's leg, blood gushing out in streams. Only because the man was thick-skinned and tough-fleshed could he still endure it; anyone else losing that much blood would have fainted long ago.

"Eldest Brother..."

The two guards Tian Danu had ordered hesitated. Both brothers had been brought out by Tian Danu, and they had all come from the same village. Naturally, they did not dare lay hands on Old Man Tian.

"Quit your nonsense and help me already! Once those two Yamas behind us finish fighting, none of us will survive."

Old Man Tian impatiently kicked the two young men, making them lend a hand and hasten their pace.

The sight amused Chen Luo.

Dragons had the dragon's way, rats had the rat's path.

Setting everything else aside, Old Man Tian's knack for staying alive was beyond compare with his nephew Tian Danu's. No wonder he had dared take work on this route—his reactions were quick. Earlier, he had merely been bluffed by Tian Danu; otherwise, he would have fled with Chen Luo long ago.

"Quite the lucky life."

Chen Luo could not help smiling.

For now, he could not comprehend the Grandmaster path, so he would stop trying. In any case, he had never intended to walk this road into darkness. Perhaps if his luck was good This Time, he could directly skip Martial Dao cultivation and become an Immortal Cultivator.

"Who's there!"

Chen Luo's voice immediately startled the people below. The brothers Fang Cun and Fang Shan even drew their sabers.

But Chen Luo paid them no more attention. After that one sentence, he ignored them and continued studying the Jade Slip.

Even if he could not comprehend it, pondering it would ultimately do him some good.

In any case, he had already cultivated the Black Tiger Fist to its peak, and he had nothing else to do now.

Though he said nothing further, the people below still spotted him. Old Man Tian in particular looked as if he had seen his own dad when he saw Chen Luo. With a thump, he dropped to his knees.

"Great Hero, save us!"

Along the way, Chen Luo had resolved several dangers Old Man Tian encountered. When Chen Luo had later left the merchant caravan, he had even specifically warned him. Unfortunately, Old Man Tian had let lard blind his heart and believed his nephew's foolish words, which was why he had ended up in this situation.

"This place may not be safe either."

Chen Luo set down the Jade Slip in his hand and kindly reminded the four of them.

He was telling the truth.

This place was the entrance to a spirit mine. Once the time came, strange phenomena would surely appear. And once such phenomena descended, experts would one hundred percent come to investigate. When that happened, this place would surely become an asura battlefield.