Indestructible Diamond!

The signal flare exploded in midair, its firelight dyeing half the sky red. The silent Yuhang City was instantly awakened and thrown into an uproar.

On the streets, densely packed Brocade Guards poured out from every alleyway. The clatter of scabbards striking one another rang out as they rushed toward the tavern. The rooftops were even livelier. More than a dozen figures lightly tapped the tiles and swept across the streets at high speed, leaving only afterimages beneath the moonlight.

The gates of the Zhejiang Regional Military Commission swung open with a bang. A Brocade Guard squad leader sprinted out, leaped cleanly onto his horse, cracked his whip, and sent its hooves shattering the moonlight on the bluestone pavement as it galloped toward the troops stationed outside the city.

The rear hall of the Regional Military Commission bore none of the appearance a military office should have had.

There were no weapon racks or sand-table maps. Instead, there were carved beams and painted rafters, artificial mountains and strange stones, rare birds and exotic beasts flapping about in cages, ancient trees and unusual flowers competing in splendor. This provincial military office was actually more lavish than a royal retreat.

Servants and maids held their breath as they moved carefully beneath the corridors.

At the center of the rear hall, Chu Lingtian lounged sideways on a soft couch, draped in a snow-white fox-fur robe.

He toyed with a jade ruyi scepter in his hand. His eyes were icy and unfocused as he stared ahead. Before him, more than a dozen dancers in sheer gauze swayed their waists, while musicians nearby trembled as they played and sang.

After watching for a while, the corner of his mouth twitched. It was less of a smile than a look of disgust.

With a casual wave, a vast surge of True Qi burst from his palm and condensed into an enormous golden hand of True Qi. Carrying an imposing, righteous pressure, it crashed down upon the dancers.

The dozen or so dancers did not even have time to scream before they were blasted away. By the time they hit the ground, they had fallen silent forever.

The servants and maids in the distance lowered their heads even further, their bodies trembling faintly. Several attendants jogged forward with practiced ease, dragging the corpses away in pairs. A maid dropped to her knees and carefully scrubbed away the remaining bloodstains until not a trace remained.

Chu Lingtian withdrew his hand as though he had merely swatted a fly.

"Plot Worlds are still far too backward..."

He muttered softly, his tone filled with weariness.

Those dancers were all mediocre trash, and the wine and delicacies were nothing but ordinary fare. None of it was worth his notice.

A year had passed. Other than the brief thrill he had felt at first from abusing his authority, plundering the people, and trampling lives, he had spent every remaining day of that year enduring.

At every moment, he longed to return to Origin Earth Star, then return to the life-bearing planet where his family resided.

He remembered that before being thrown into the Waste Disposal Bureau, he had possessed an entire high-tech city on his family's life-bearing planet. Its population, its technology—everything had revolved around him alone.

An emperor?

What kind of backward nonsense was that? How could an emperor possibly compare to him?

Therefore, whenever news of a suspected Player reached him, he went all out. Whether the person was the target or another Player, he treated them all with the same attitude of a lion hunting a rabbit and crushed them without exception.

Just like now. The signal flare had gone up, and a suspected target had appeared. As usual, he had made his arrangements: all his Grandmasters were deployed, the Brocade Guard searched the entire city, and the stationed troops prepared to break camp.

All he needed to do was wait—wait for the other party to be brought before him, then lightly prick them with the Soul-Splitting Thorn.

"Hurry up." Chu Lingtian stared blankly at the carved ceiling beams. "I can't stand staying in this damned place for another day."

On the second floor of the tavern.

Wang Xuan stood where he was, feeling the vast True Qi surging through his body.

All the True Qi of a Ninth Heaven of Grandmaster, along with the immense essence of qi and blood refined by the Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill, had been crammed into his body. He was like a powder keg on the verge of exploding. His boundless vitality had turned into a furnace, warping even the air around him with heat.

Anyone else would have already suffered ruptured meridians and exploded to death.

Ignoring the sensation that his body was about to burst apart, Wang Xuan opened the System Panel and fixed his gaze on the newly appeared line.

[Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill (Not Yet Initiated)]

"One-Click Max."

The moment the words fell, an enormous warm current erupted from the depths of his body.

The True Qi that had been swollen to the point of bursting within his meridians seemed to find an outlet. Drawn by that warm current, it rapidly dissipated. No—it was not dissipating. It was transforming.

His cultivation realm began to soar wildly, charging upward from the Fifth Heaven. Sixth Heaven, Seventh Heaven, Eighth Heaven... It smashed straight through the threshold of the Ninth Heaven and continued rising.

At the same time, that vast vitality began to be pressed inch by inch into his flesh. His originally lesser Indestructible Diamond Body was washed by this flood of qi and blood. His skin and flesh became denser, his muscle fibers tore apart and reformed, and his bones were repeatedly tempered as he rapidly evolved toward a true Indestructible Diamond Body.

Initiation, minor mastery, major mastery, perfection...

Then, it lightly stepped beyond a limit.

It was a realm even the founder of this Divine Art, the Strange Hero of Heavenly Pool, had never reached.

Unprecedented.

Wang Xuan opened his eyes and let out a long breath. It was scorching hot, like fire, condensing into a white trail in the air that lingered for a long time.

At that moment, he felt incomparably powerful.

His essence, qi, and spirit were once again madly tempered by the True Qi of the Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill. The Indestructible Diamond Force, possessing Supreme Hardness and Yang, replaced the Divine Illumination Scripture and the Energy Absorption Technique, becoming the dominant True Qi in his meridians. Heavy and condensed, it carried an indestructible will as it flowed mightily through his meridians.

The information on the System Panel also changed.

[Technique: Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill (Limit)]

[Trait One: Supreme Hardness and Yang (Indestructible Diamond Force)] True Qi possesses supreme hardness and yang. It can suppress and transform all cold, sinister, and aberrant internal force, forming a strange mutually reinforcing and restraining relationship with the Energy Absorption Technique.

[Trait Two: Indestructible Diamond] Combines physical defense and True Qi defense. When attacked, it can generate rebounding force and comprehensively enhance physical strength. Strength and agility are greatly increased.

The Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill had only these two traits. Yet each of those words carried tremendous weight. The Indestructible Diamond Force of Supreme Hardness and Yang formed one offensive and one defensive, one generating and one restraining, with the Energy Absorption Technique—a perfect pair. Indestructible Diamond combined physical and True Qi defense, rebound force, amplification, and bodily reinforcement, greatly increasing his strength and agility.

Besides that, the Grandmaster Player had also left behind two Ultimate Arts: Dragon Claw Hand and Reed Crossing River.