Coagulation Sixth Realm

Seeing Shen Zhou return with a cultivation manual in hand, many members of the Qin Family were astonished. "You really got it?"

Shen Zhou straightened up. "Did they dare refuse?"

Everyone glanced at the Taixuan Sword in his other hand and fell silent.

Wasn't this just blatant robbery?

Dongfang Hongyu chuckled. "This is nothing. I almost thought he was going to hack the Xu Family Head to pieces just now."

It had been a joke, but when it came to Shen Zhou, nobody doubted it.

They genuinely believed he was capable of doing such a thing.

Ancestor Qin, Qin Fenglan, and Qin Yuanshan could only shake their heads with wry smiles, though a gleam shone in both their eyes.

The Xu Family Head's attitude had made it clear that nobody could afford to underestimate the Qin Family anymore.

Even the Five Great Families had changed their attitude toward them considerably.

And it was all thanks to Shen Zhou fighting this battle for the Qin Family today!

With the Taixuan Sword drawn, the Qin Family would rise again.

That prophecy, originally meant to conceal the real one, seemed to be slowly becoming reality.

After that, things returned to normal.

The competition between the Xu and Qin Families finally began.

For some reason, however, Qin Fenglan told Shen Zhou he wouldn't need to take part in the rest of it.

Shen Zhou was puzzled and asked why. Qin Fenglan explained that the strength he had displayed had caused the Xu Family to change its strategy toward the Qin Family, from suppressing them to building friendly relations.

This time, the Xu Family was willing to honor the original division of the Fire Crystal Mine: an even split between the two families.

Returning the two-tenths share was the Xu Family's show of goodwill.

So the rest of the competition no longer mattered. The Xu Family wouldn't send Xu Baxia out, and would deliberately win only five matches, letting the Qin Family win five as well, so they could present that outcome to the outside world.

Shen Zhou raised an eyebrow. "You agreed?"

Qin Fenglan smiled. "The Qin Family can't afford to make too many enemies right now. The Wu Clan has already become our sworn enemy. Since the Xu Family is willing to turn hostility into friendship, naturally we welcome it. Besides, with you, Ancestor, holding down the fort, it's only a matter of time before the Qin Family returns to its peak. And what we lack most right now is time."

Shen Zhou seemed to understand. "So when you asked me to let those people from the Wu Clan go earlier, you were also buying the Qin Family time?"

"That's right. The Wu Family Head is dead, but taking revenge on us isn't as simple as they might like. First, there's the Qin Family's strength. With you here, we're no ordinary second-rate family anymore. We're a second-rate family with two top-tier Celestial Firmament Realm fighters.

"If the Wu Clan wants to move against us, they'll have to consider the cost of fighting the Qin Family to the death.

"At the same time, they'll have to consider whether the other Four Great Families would take advantage of the opportunity to kick them while they're down if the two of us went to war.

"The Wu Clan can't afford to gamble, and they don't dare to.

"So when they talk about revenge, they're mostly just showing the outside world where they stand."

Shen Zhou: "..."

He hadn't expected that even taking revenge between the great families involved so many twists and turns.

This kind of scheming really wasn't for him.

Shaking his head, he stopped paying attention to such things and focused on watching the show.

With Shen Zhou no longer taking part, the enormous gap between the Qin Family and a first-rate family became obvious.

Although Xu Baxia of the Xu Family didn't participate either, the Xu Family had more elite disciples. They had more than ten young disciples alone in the first or second stage of the Transformation Realm.

As for the Qin Family, apart from Qin Mingyue, who was at the peak of the second stage of the Transformation Realm, and three disciples in the early stages of the Transformation Realm, not a single member of the younger generation had reached the Transformation Realm.

If the Xu Family hadn't agreed to an even split, the Qin Family might have ended up with only one-tenth—or not even that.

Their middle generation was failing, and there was no one to take up the torch.

That was the Qin Family's biggest problem right now.

With the Xu Family holding back, the competition between the two families became utterly pointless to watch.

The Qin Family disciples' matches looked more like training sessions, and somehow, they ended up winning.

The other three families watching weren't fools. They quickly saw what was going on.

The Chu Family Elder said calmly, "Looks like the Xu Family intends to make peace with the Qin Family."

Chu Tianqi asked in confusion, "Is Shen Zhou really enough to make the Xu Family so wary?"

"It's not Shen Zhou they're wary of. It's the Qin Family Divine Weapon."

"Is there a difference?"

"Of course. Shen Zhou himself is only at the Blood Coagulation Fourth Realm, but the Qin Family Divine Weapon can raise him to the Celestial Firmament Realm. What if the Celestial Firmament Realm isn't the weapon's limit?"

"What? Are you saying the Qin Family Divine Weapon might be able to raise Shen Zhou's strength even higher, perhaps even... to the Core Formation Realm?"

Chu Tianqi was truly stunned this time.

Core Formation!

For martial artists after the Millennium Cataclysm, it was a towering mountain that could only be admired from afar, and scarcely anyone could even approach it.

Celestial Firmament Realm experts were rare, but with the resources of a great family, it was still possible to cultivate a few. Core Formation, however, hadn't appeared in nearly a thousand years.

Some said that once a person crossed into the Core Formation Realm, they would enter an entirely different world.

They would walk the path from martial arts to the Dao, leave the ranks of mortals, and become cultivators.

Their strength and very level of life would undergo a qualitative leap and transformation.

That was why Chu Tianqi was so shocked. He couldn't believe that if the Shen Family Divine Weapon really had such an ability, then once that happened, let alone the Five Great Families, who in the entire Great Cang Kingdom would dare provoke the Qin Family?

The Chu Family Elder spoke in a distant, unhurried tone. "The Young Head of Qin Family is only at the Blood Coagulation Fourth Realm, yet the Divine Weapon can raise him to the Celestial Firmament Realm. As his own strength increases, nobody can say how far the Divine Weapon will be able to raise him.

"Core Formation... Perhaps that day really will come."

Chu Tianqi gazed into the distance at Shen Zhou's figure. A glint flickered in his eyes, and his thoughts were hard to read.

As for the Yang Family...

After the Wu Family Head died, the Yang Family Head issued an order to his clansmen: from then on, they were to avoid provoking the Qin Family.

As he put it, "When the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman profits."

His plan was to watch the Wu Clan and the Qin Family fight first. Once they had worn each other down, the Yang Family would step in at the right moment and reap the benefits.

By then, either the Qin Family or the Wu Clan could become prey for the Yang Family.

That was the Yang Family's way of survival.

The Lin Family, meanwhile, said it wouldn't get involved in these struggles.

The Lin Family had two prodigies with Martial Soul bloodlines. They only needed to wait for the two prodigies to awaken, and the Lin Family would be secure.

So the Lin Family seemed unmoved by honor or disgrace, as if watching flowers bloom and wither in front of their courtyard. They stood apart from it all.

Amid everyone's conjectures and schemes, the competition between the Xu and Qin Families soon ended.

The crowds in the mountains began to disperse.

For the unaffiliated cultivators who had come to watch, the negotiations between the Xu and Qin Families had certainly been a rare spectacle.

The Wu Family Head and his son had both been hacked to death, making that the "climax" of the entire negotiation.

The competition between the Xu and Qin Families afterward had been a little disappointing.

Many people discussed it.

"I thought the Xu Family would crush the Qin Family in this competition. I never expected it to end in a draw. Who could've seen that coming?"

"Exactly. The Xu Family is supposed to be a first-rate family, and this is all they've got?"

"The Qin Family is a thousand-year-old family, after all. Looks like they still have some foundation."

"Give me a break. If that Shen Zhou hadn't drawn the Qin Family Divine Weapon, the Qin Family would've been swallowed up by the other Five Great Families before long. If you ask me, the Qin Family was just lucky. Their Heaven's Chosen showed up at just the right time..."

"In the end, the Xu Family was just too weak!"

"Yeah, what a letdown!"

For a while, many unaffiliated cultivators came to see the Xu Family as "pathetic."

Time passed quickly.

In the blink of an eye, more than a month went by.

After the North Mountain Mine incident, all of Flying Bird City had been in an uproar.

"New Qin Family Head slays Wu Family Head with a single sword strike."

"Qin Family Sword Drawer ascends to the Celestial Firmament Realm, shaking the Five Great Families."

"Shen Zhou slays father and son of the Wu Family, forging a new legend!"

After all sorts of rumors spread, Shen Zhou and the Qin Family's reputations reached their peak.

To avoid all the commotion, Shen Zhou chose to return to White Deer Academy and cultivate in seclusion.

Fame and prestige were all fleeting. Only strength that was truly his mattered.

Of course, during this time, the Wu Clan also retaliated against the Qin Family. They even sent assassins to White Deer Academy to kill Shen Zhou, but the Qin Family and Old Man Ji's group drove them off.

It seemed to be just as the Ancestor of the Qin Family had predicted: the Wu Clan's talk of revenge was a show of its attitude, but it still had to think carefully before going to war with the Qin Family outright.

Aside from that, everything seemed to settle down.

One day.

At White Deer Academy.

Inside a bathhouse.

Shen Zhou and Dongfang Hongyu were each soaking in a large wooden tub. Steam billowed from the tubs, and the thick smell of medicine filled the air.

This was a medicinal bath!

It was a method used by body-refining martial artists to stimulate the major acupoints throughout the body, heal hidden injuries, and strengthen the flesh.

The medicinal ingredients in Shen Zhou's tub, however, were several times those in Dongfang Hongyu's. Their effects were naturally much more intense and stimulating.

Both of them had their eyes closed and their breathing steady as they circulated their energy, intent on refining and absorbing the medicinal power in the tubs.

As they absorbed it for longer and longer, the originally ink-black medicinal water quickly grew clear, until at last it was as clear as water.

Before long, Dongfang Hongyu exhaled and opened his eyes first. Feeling the changes in his body, he grinned. "I can't believe I've reached the Coagulation Sixth Realm so quickly. Your grandpa Pang is a genius!"

Dongfang Hongyu had practiced cultivation before coming to the Southern Prefecture, but he had only barely reached the Coagulation Fourth Realm.

After arriving in the Southern Prefecture, he had broken through another realm.

He had thought he wouldn't break through again for at least another half a year. He hadn't expected to advance again after just over a month at White Deer Academy. The chubby lad felt he had made the right choice in coming here.

But when he turned his head and saw Shen Zhou still soaking in the medicinal tub, refining the medicinal power, he couldn't help muttering, "This guy's realm is lower than mine, but he used three times as many medicinal ingredients. With the medicinal power working through him, it must be no different from soaking in lava, but his body can actually take it. He's a freak!"

As he spoke, Dongfang Hongyu quickly got dressed. Then, so as not to disturb Shen Zhou's cultivation, he left the room.

But just as he reached the doorway, a surge of powerful qi and blood rolled out behind him.

Qi and blood surged outward, and the air trembled.

Dongfang Pangpang turned back in shock. "This guy broke through again already?"

Inside the room, Shen Zhou abruptly opened his eyes, and light shot from them.

He clenched his fist. His bones and sinews crackled, and his skin quickly turned the color of stone.

Hard and powerful.

Shen Zhou looked down at the results of his cultivation and nodded with satisfaction. "The Coagulation Sixth Realm, plus the second layer of the Golden Body Art—the Stone Skin Realm. At last, my month of hard cultivation hasn't gone to waste."