A Girl? The Fifth Inheritor?

The scene before him made him raise an eyebrow.

In the open space in the center of the mine, seven or eight Cultivator dressed in uniform gray-blue Daoist robes were besieging a slender figure covered in blood.

Dust billowed in the center of the mine.

The figure being attacked was a young girl, who looked no more than fifteen or sixteen years old. Her moon-white dress was already mostly stained with blood.

Her hair was disheveled, and there was a cut on her face from a magical Law Artifact, with blood dripping down her cheek onto the gravel at her feet.

His cultivation level is only at the Early Golden Core.

Even with such injuries, the girl still bit her lip tightly, her hands gripping a spirit sword already covered in cracks, her posture stubborn and resolute.

There was no fear in her eyes, only a kind of obsessive ruthlessness.

The seven or eight Cultivator surrounding her Middle Golden Core realm, and each of them had a silver Black Tortoise emblem embroidered on the left chest of their Daoist robes.

Chen Changqing recognized the logo.

A subordinate force of the True Martial Immortal Sect.

As one of the ten major righteous sects, the True Martial Immortal Sect has a large number of small and medium-sized sects and Aristocratic Clan under its command. These forces act under the banner of the True Martial Immortal Sect and act arrogantly in their respective territories.

"You brat, if you know what's good for you, hand over the stuff, and our Black Tortoise Hall might leave you with a whole corpse!"

The leader was a fierce-looking middle-aged Cultivator, at the Peak Late Golden Core, wielding a bronze-colored longsword, the blade still bearing traces of the girl's blood.

Several of his companions also made threatening remarks.

"You're right. For a girl like you, without any sect or affiliation, to carry such valuable items is a sin in itself."

"Hand it over obediently, and maybe our leader will be in a good mood and spare your life."

The girl wiped the blood from her face and spoke in a cold voice.

"Dream."

"Hey, you're being stubborn."

The middle-aged Cultivator sneered and raised his long sword.

"Brothers, stop dawdling. Cripple her, and the loot will be ours."

Seven or eight Cultivator simultaneously unleashed their Law Power, their azure-blue True Essence light enveloping the girl in layers.

The girl gritted her teeth and raised her sword, the cracked spirit sword barely managing to block the first wave of attacks. But the second wave followed immediately, a blade of light cleaving through her protective True Essence and leaving a deep, bone-revealing wound on her shoulder.

"Ah--"

The girl let out a muffled groan, staggered back several steps, and knelt on one knee.

The spirit sword finally gave way and broke in two.

"It's over." The leading middle-aged Cultivator sneered as he stepped forward. "Don't blame us for being ruthless; blame your bad luck—"

His words came to an abrupt halt.

Because his body suddenly became immobile.

An invisible force descended from the sky, like an ancient mountain crashing down.

Seven or eight Golden Core Cultivator simultaneously felt a tightness in their chests, as if their surging True Essence was being gripped tightly by an invisible hand, making it impossible to mobilize even a trace of it.

"What... what is that?!"

The middle-aged Cultivator's pupils contracted sharply. He tried to turn his head to look, but his neck was as stiff as if it had been cast in iron.

A calm voice came from above.

"The forces under the True Martial Immortal Sect?"

Everyone strained to look upwards.

On the rocky platform at the edge of the mine, a young man in a white robe appeared out of nowhere.

The young man stood with his hands behind his back, his face handsome and his eyes indifferent.

He was just standing there casually, yet he exuded a suffocating sense of oppression. This oppressive feeling wasn't a deliberately released pressure, but merely the aftershocks of his natural aura.

But even this slight aftershock was enough to make all the Golden Core Cultivator present feel suffocated.

Cold sweat instantly beaded on the middle-aged Cultivator's forehead, and his back was soaked through.

He was Cultivator at the Peak Late Golden Core, and considered himself a significant figure in a place like Separation Fire City.

The pressure emanating from this young man was a hundred times more terrifying than any Purple Mansion Realm expert he had ever seen.

No, this is not a level that someone in the Purple Mansion Realm can possess.

The middle-aged Cultivator's throat was so dry it felt like he had swallowed a handful of sand; he forced out a sound.

"Senior... I am a steward of the Black Tortoise Hall under the True Martial Immortal Sect. Our hall master is a master of the Purple Mansion Realm, and is related to the True Martial Immortal Sect's— "

"Ants."

Chen Changqing interrupted him.

The voice was very soft, and the tone was very indifferent.

It was so understated that it seemed to be stating a perfectly ordinary fact.

He didn't even lift a finger.

He simply raised his hand casually, palm down, and pressed down lightly.

The power of heaven and earth suddenly coalesced.

Boom!

An unseen, immense force descended from the void, precisely covering the area where seven or eight Cultivators in gray-blue robes were located.

There were no flashy Law Technique effects, no earth-shattering roars.

There were only a few muffled "crackling" sounds, like crushing a few ripe fruits.

Seven or eight Golden Core Cultivator didn't even have time to scream before their bodies were completely shattered by the crushing force.

Blood, flesh, broken bones, and fragments of Law Artifact artifacts were scattered all over the sandy ground of the mine.

From the moment Chen Changqing raised his hand to the moment everyone died, the entire process took less than a breath.

It didn't even last a full breath.

The mine fell into a deathly silence.

The wind howled through the abandoned mine entrance, swirling up bloody debris from the ground.

The girl kneeling on the ground froze completely.

Her lips parted slightly, her pupils dilated to their limit, and only one image remained in her mind—the white-robed youth had simply raised his hand, and eight Golden Core Cultivator had turned into a pile of minced meat.

Golden Core Cultivator.

In her understanding, the Golden Core Realm was already an extremely powerful existence. She herself had cultivated for many years before barely touching the threshold of the Early Golden Core stage, while middle-aged Cultivator at the Peak Late Golden Core were, in her eyes, almost insurmountable mountains.

But this "mountain" was as fragile as paper in front of that young man.

The girl's fingers trembled uncontrollably; the excruciating pain from her wound was now the only thing keeping her conscious.

She forced herself to raise her head and look at the white-robed figure on the high platform.

The young man was slowly walking down from the platform.

The footsteps were light, each thud on the gravel was eerily clear.

The girl instinctively gripped the broken half of the sword hilt, her whole body tensing.

She didn't know whether this mysterious person who suddenly appeared was friend or foe.

What level of existence is someone capable of annihilating Golden Core Cultivator with a wave of their hand?

Nascent Soul? Spirit Transformation? Or something even higher?

Chen Changqing stopped three steps away from the girl and looked down at her.

His gaze didn't fall on her face, but rather on a bronze pendant hanging around her neck.

The pendant was exactly the same as the Inheritance Token in his Heaven-Stepping Ring.

The girl's muscles were taut like a bowstring.

The aura emanating from the white-robed youth in front of her was too powerful; even though he hadn't shown any hostility, her body still instinctively issued a warning.

Danger.

Extremely dangerous.

The girl held the broken sword horizontally in front of her, her voice hoarse but still relatively calm.

"Thank you for saving me, senior. May I ask your honorable name?"