Immortal Treasure

Wang Yun thought he had seen his share of grand spectacles, but when he saw this, his stomach churned. His face went pale, and his Adam's apple bobbed several times. He nearly threw up on the spot.

His wife, Zhang Lanhua, leaned out beside him and took one look. She immediately doubled over and vomited with a loud "Blargh," tears and snot streaking her face.

Jiang Tian slowly raised his feet and walked toward Wang Yun, one step at a time.

Rain streamed down his cheeks, washing the blood from his face and revealing the young, impassive face beneath.

"Wait!"

Wang Yun's eyelids twitched. His face spasmed as he forced out a smile, his voice tinged with appeasement. "Jiang Tian, it seems there's no deep-seated grudge between us."

As he spoke, a flash of pain flickered across his eyes. He gritted his teeth and continued, "It was only one son, after all. I'm not even fifty yet. I can have another. Let's bury the hatchet and make peace... How about it?"

He pointed toward the carriage behind him, raising his voice a little. "I'll give you all the gold, silver, and valuables in that carriage. From now on, let the past turn to smoke and dust. You take your broad sunny road, and I'll cross my narrow plank bridge."

"How about it?"

Jiang Tian stopped.

Wang Yun felt a slight easing in his heart, thinking there was a chance. The smile on his face grew brighter.

But then Jiang Tian suddenly burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha!"

His laughter rang especially loud through the curtain of rain.

Wang Yun's temples throbbed. He had no idea what Jiang Tian was laughing about, but still forced a smile. "Brother Jiang Tian, what are you laughing at?"

"What am I laughing at?"

The smile on Jiang Tian's face slowly faded. His expression turned as cold as ice, and he said, each word distinct, "If I kill you, won't all this stuff be mine anyway?"

Before his voice had even faded, he stamped down hard. His figure streaked through the rain, leaving a string of afterimages as he lunged at Wang Yun on the carriage like a bolt of black lightning.

His fist shot out. Three kinds of momentum clashed and intertwined across his knuckles, and the force of his punch whistled sharply through the air, bearing down on Wang Yun's face.

"You insolent brat! You've gone too far!"

Wang Yun's expression changed drastically. One hand reached into his clothes while the other suddenly seized his wife beside him.

As Zhang Lanhua stared in utter bewilderment, unable to react, he flung her out like a human shield, straight into the force of Jiang Tian's punch.

Zhang Lanhua was an ordinary person with no martial arts cultivation at all.

Like tender tofu struck by a sledgehammer, she burst apart under the force of the blow, turning into a cloud of blood before she could even scream.

Blood mist billowed, staining Jiang Tian's vision a dark red.

The residual force of his punch slammed into the carriage Wang Yun had been standing on, shattering it into flying splinters. Wood fragments shot everywhere, and scraps of cloth fluttered through the air.

Yet Wang Yun stood there unharmed.

Jiang Tian's pupils contracted sharply, his eyes full of astonishment.

A translucent, pale-yellow bell had encased and protected Wang Yun.

The bell didn't look solid. It seemed to be made of something illusory, giving it an ethereal, shifting quality, yet it was unbelievably sturdy, like an invisible wall of bronze.

The force of Jiang Tian's punch crashed against it, but the bell didn't budge. It didn't even leave a mark.

After all, he was now a Transformation Energy martial artist. Even if that punch had struck a real bronze bell, it would have caved in a huge dent.

"Hahahaha!"

Wang Yun laughed wildly inside the bell, his voice brimming with smugness and arrogance. His face showed not the slightest grief over his wife's death, as if what he had just thrown away were no more than a worn-out possession.

"Don't waste your effort! I obtained this Yellow Bell, an immortal treasure, years ago. A mere mortal like you could never break it."

An immortal treasure?

Jiang Tian's gaze tightened. He walked up to the bell and reached out to touch it.

It felt cool and smooth as a mirror, like a real object rather than something illusory.

Just as he had suspected, this world was not simple.

Did immortals really exist in this world?

He had already extended his lifespan by sixty years after breaking through to Transformation Energy.

But with a system in his possession, he would never be content to stop here.

Heavenly Fire Sect...

He took a deep breath, planted his feet, and drew back his arm. Invisible force surged along his entire arm as three kinds of momentum appeared—[Tiger in a Cage], [Bear in the Cave], and [Deer in the Snow]—intertwining around his fist.

He threw a punch!

"Clang—!"

A deafening peal of the bell rang out through the rain. The rain above Jiang Tian's head was shaken into a vast white mist by the sound waves and spread in every direction.

The bell wall didn't budge. Not even the faintest crack appeared on it.

His entire arm, however, went numb from the shock, and the web between his thumb and forefinger throbbed with pain.

"Hahaha!" Wang Yun laughed inside the bell, shaking his head smugly. "How could a mere mortal like you break an immortal treasure with nothing but your fists and feet? Stop wasting your effort! The gold, silver, and valuables in that carriage are more than enough for you. Why insist on coming after me..."

His answer was another punch.

"Clang—!"

This time, all five kinds of momentum surged at once.

They fused perfectly across his fist, unleashing power unlike anything he had shown before.

The bell shook violently. The faint yellow glow around it seemed to dim, losing some of its brilliance.

But there was still not a single crack in its walls.

Jiang Tian didn't stop.

One punch, then another, then a third.

Like a tireless machine, he hammered the Yellow Bell with one punch after another. The flesh on his knuckles split, and blood ran between his fingers, bleeding into the rain in pale red streaks. Yet he seemed not to feel the pain. His gaze remained unwavering.

"Clang—!"

"Clang—!"

The bell's peals kept exploding through the curtain of rain, each one more muffled and more urgent than the last.

With every punch, the yellow glow grew fainter, like an oil lamp about to burn out, its flame wavering.

He struck again.

"Crack—"

A faint snap, like thin ice beginning to break across a winter lake.

A tiny crack appeared in the bell wall, fine as a spider's thread, yet it pierced Wang Yun's heart like a knife.

The crack slowly spread outward, like a spiderweb unfurling. The bell showed no sign of shattering yet, but that fissure was enough to make Wang Yun's face change drastically.

His Adam's apple bobbed. Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and cold sweat soaked through the clothes on his back.

This immortal treasure... surely Jiang Tian couldn't really smash it?

Jiang Tian took a deep breath and stepped back. He lowered his body slightly, like a bow pulled to its limit.

Force surged around him, stirring up gust after gust of wind. Rain swept toward him on the currents, swirling into a small vortex around his arm.

In that instant, Jiang Tian drew all five kinds of momentum into his punch.

He compressed the force, then compressed it further.

"Break—!!!"

He threw his punch.

The rain around Jiang Tian was swept clear before his fist, as if an invisible giant hand had ripped a hole straight through the curtain of rain.

"Clang—!"

This peal was louder than any before it, so loud it nearly split eardrums.

"Crack—"

Another sharp snap.

Cracks spread across the Yellow Bell in great swaths—one, two, three... They crawled over the entire bell wall like vines growing wild.

Then—

"Boom!"

The Yellow Bell exploded, bursting into countless bright-yellow fragments that scattered through the rain like a shower of gold.

At that very instant, Wang Yun's left hand moved.