I Crushed the Sumeru Ring and Dragged the Stele Out of the Immortal City!

Lu Chen stepped over shattered jade dust and strode toward the pile of mangled flesh.

The Foundation Establishment steward's body had long since been crushed into meat paste beneath the thirty-thousand-pound Dao Stele. Red and white matter had splattered everywhere.

Within the heap of rotten flesh, only a severed hand still attached to part of its forearm remained relatively intact.

A Sumeru Ring emitting a faint blue glow was set on its broken index finger.

A storage artifact for cultivators.

Lu Chen bent down, pinched the ring between two rough fingers, and forcibly tore it off the severed finger. Sticky strands of blood still clung to it.

Back when he had scraped out a living in the mud alleys, mortals often whispered in private that an immortal's Sumeru Ring could only be opened with divine sense. Even if an ordinary person got hold of one, they could only treat it like a worthless stone.

Lu Chen had no divine sense, and there was not a trace of spiritual energy in his body to erase the steward's mark.

But he understood one thing perfectly well.

No matter how hard the shell was, if the force was great enough, smash it to pieces on the spot, and whatever was inside would naturally fall out.

He gripped the blue ring face between his thumb and forefinger.

The qi and blood of the eleventh layer of Iron Cloth Shirt instantly surged madly, racing along the great tendons in his arm before pouring into his fingertips.

Veins bulged across his iron-gray skin. Beneath his flesh, black metallic patterns erupted with a terrifying oppressive force.

"Creak."

The incredibly hard ring face gave an ear-piercing crack.

The instant the fracture appeared, the spatial formation within the ring collapsed on the spot.

Violent spatial currents burst wildly from the crack, carrying a savage aura that sought to tear everything around them into shreds.

Lu Chen did not even blink.

The Ultimate Dao Furnace thundered within his chest.

Crimson qi and blood surged from his palm and directly covered it.

The purest, most tyrannical Ultimate Dao qi and blood, with utterly unreasonable brutality, forcibly suppressed the rampaging spatial currents within his palm.

"Explode for me!"

Lu Chen suddenly exerted force through his finger joints and squeezed hard.

With a crisp snap, the Sumeru Ring exploded into a cloud of powder.

Without divine sense to protect them, the items inside were directly exposed to the spatial currents.

The fragile jade slips and century-old spirit herbs that the steward had treasured like jewels were shredded into pulp the instant the space collapsed, turning into useless dregs devoid of all medicinal potency as they fell to the ground.

Only several bottles of pills made from exceptionally sturdy material, along with a black iron chain as thick as an adult's arm, landed on the bluestone pavement with a clang.

A large handful of spirit stones also fell out and rolled across the ground.

Lu Chen did not even glance at those glowing spirit stones.

A few worthless rocks could not fill A-Nan's stomach, nor could they buy a bowl of hot soup.

He bent down and grabbed the thick coil of black iron chain in one hand.

It was immensely heavy.

This was a chain used specifically by immortal sects to bind high-ranking demon beasts, forged from century-old cold iron mixed with demon bones.

Ordinary iron could not possibly withstand the Dao Stele's terrifying thirty-thousand-pound weight; a few tugs would snap it apart. But the hardness of this Demon-Locking Chain was just right.

Dragging the heavy chain, Lu Chen turned and walked to the enormous Dao Stele embedded at an angle in the ruins of the white jade city wall.

He wound one end of the chain twice around the thirty-thousand-pound black stele, then tied a dead knot along its stone grain.

He pulled the remaining length of chain taut.

One loop, two loops, three loops.

Lu Chen tightly wrapped the chain around his right arm, thick with knotted muscle, and his broad shoulder.

The cold iron chain scraped against his iron-gray skin, producing a dull metallic rasp.

Every time it tightened, the muscles in his arm instinctively swelled outward in resistance, while blood vessels throbbed beneath his skin.

Lu Chen tilted his head and gently rested his cheek against the little body tied to his shoulder.

"Hold on tight. Big brother's taking you away."

Lu Chen gave A-Nan a small bounce on his back.

A-Nan's two bloodstained little hands reached through the gaps in the cloth strips and clutched Lu Chen's coarse collar tightly.

Lu Chen turned back around, thrust his right shoulder forward, locked the muscles of his waist and abdomen in an instant, and drove with both legs.

Clatter!

The thick black iron chain instantly stretched taut, and the great tendons in his shoulder bulged violently beneath his skin.

Dragged by that unreasonable monstrous strength, the massive thirty-thousand-pound battle stele was forcibly hauled out of the ruins.

Stones at its base plowed a trench half a foot deep through the ground.

Lu Chen took one heavy step forward.

His feet crushed the white jade bricks scattered across the ground, sending stone dust flying in every direction.

Thus, dragging the city-suppressing weapon that the immortal sects took pride in, he strode through the ruins filling the city and crossed the wall that had once pressed mortals firmly to the bottom.

He entered the wilderness beyond.

At that moment, deep within the inner city.

Atop the white jade tower of Black Mud City's City Lord's Manor.

A man dressed in the robes of an outer sect elder of the Azure Firmament Sword Sect stood at the tower's edge, staring fixedly at the collapsed inner-city wall in the distance.

He was the City Lord of Black Mud City.

The City Lord's face was livid, his cheeks twitching uncontrollably.

His hands rested on the white jade railing, his ten fingers squeezing so hard they had turned white. His nails dug deeply into the stone, scraping out glaring dust.

The gravitational field from that direction had just been far too terrifying.

Even from across more than half the inner city, the true essence in his dantian had felt sluggish.

That suppressive force, which utterly restrained the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, had robbed him of even the slightest courage to lead people in pursuit.

Several inner-city guard commanders stood beside him, each too terrified to breathe loudly.

"City Lord, should we activate the inner city's killing formation, or send spirit boats after that brat?" one commander dared to ask.

"Chase your ancestors!"

The City Lord swung his hand and viciously slapped the commander across the face, sending him rolling across the floor with blood spilling from his mouth.

His chest heaved violently, and great beads of cold sweat ran down his forehead.

Today was the day the Azure Firmament Sword Sect's Holy Maiden returned home to sever her mortal ties.

At such a critical moment, a mortal without spiritual roots had smashed down the city wall, crushed a Foundation Establishment steward into meat paste, and even uprooted and dragged away the Dao Stele suppressing the earth veins.

If this matter were truthfully reported to the sect, and the higher-ups cast blame upon him, then the Holy Maiden's severing-mortal-ties ceremony would be stained by such disgrace.

There was no way he, an outer sect elder, could keep his head on his shoulders. His entire family would be thrown into the sect's earthfire furnace and burned to ash!

They absolutely could not say a mortal had done it!

A mortal had smashed an immortal city's wall with physical strength? If word got out, the Azure Firmament Sword Sect's century of prestige would be swept into the dust!

The City Lord's eyes darted rapidly. He abruptly turned around and glared through gritted teeth at the group of subordinates kneeling on the ground.

"Pass down the order! Today's chaos in Black Mud City was caused by the Azure-Water Qilin suddenly going berserk and smashing down the city wall!"

The commanders froze for a moment, then hurriedly slammed their foreheads against the ground.

The City Lord lowered his voice further and forcefully nailed down this version of events.

"As for Lu Chen... he is no mortal at all! He consumed a demon beast's true blood and was possessed by evil demonic forces—a demonic cultivator!"

"He had already fallen completely into demonic corruption. That is why he destroyed the city-suppressing Dao Stele!"

"Do you understand?! Report this intelligence to the Heavenly Secrets Tower and the Immortal Alliance's local station! Classify it as a Blood Demon disturbance!"

The commanders repeatedly voiced their assent, scrambled to their feet, and ran downstairs.

Standing atop the high tower, the City Lord let out a long breath of foul air.

That nail of twisted black and white had been forcibly driven into the ruins of Black Mud City.

When the Nine Provinces Immortal Alliance later listed Lu Chen as a "Blood Demon" and hunted him across the world, this would be the most direct karmic origin.

Night winds had begun to rise over the wilderness.

The wind carried a piercing chill, slipping straight through the gaps in one's clothes.

Yet lying on Lu Chen's back, A-Nan could not feel the cold wind at all.

Her whole body felt warm.

That drop of incomparably pure Ultimate Dao blood that Lu Chen had fed her was slowly circulating through her small body.

The pure blood radiated astonishing heat, protecting her heart and veins.

Her little hands gripped Lu Chen's collar, while the gray cloth strip covering her blind eyes fluttered softly in the wind.

A-Nan could not "see" the desolate scenery around her. Before her remained nothing but darkness.

Yet within her mind, another strange image had appeared with perfect clarity.

She tilted her head slightly toward Black Mud City, which was receding farther and farther behind them.

In that direction, she "saw" countless clusters of icy blue light.

Large and small, densely packed, those lights gathered over the inner city.

At that moment, the icy blue lights trembled violently in midair, giving off a nauseating scent of fear.

Those lights represented the true essence of cultivators.

Having absorbed the purified blood filtered through Lu Chen's Ultimate Dao Furnace, A-Nan's constitution had undergone a heaven-and-earth transformation.

Not only could she sense those cultivators' emotions, but through the instincts of Ultimate Dao qi and blood, she could directly "see" their cowering forms behind the city walls, scared out of their wits.

"Brother Chen."

A-Nan pressed her face against Lu Chen's burning-hot back and murmured softly.

"Those cold people in the city... they're trembling."

Lu Chen's footsteps paused.

He turned his head and reached his broad left hand back to touch A-Nan's little hand gripping his shoulder.

The instant he touched it, Lu Chen's expression changed slightly.

A-Nan's palm had become very hard.

She had once possessed only dry bones from malnutrition, but now, beneath his touch, there was an exceptionally tough texture.

Having just absorbed so much essence purified by the Ultimate Dao Furnace, the little girl's bones were undergoing an overbearing reconstruction toward some unknown direction.

This was a sign of the "Jade Bones" transformation brought by Ultimate Dao qi and blood.

"Don't worry about them."

Lu Chen withdrew his left hand, softening his voice somewhat.

"Those lackeys will tremble every time they see us from now on."

"Mm."

A-Nan nodded firmly and buried her little face in the crook of Lu Chen's neck.

The sun had completely set, leaving only the faintest final afterglow on the horizon.

The dim yellow light stretched Lu Chen's shadow long.

The shadow of the massive black Dao Stele followed behind him, like a mountain constantly moving forward across the wilderness.

Ahead, an unbroken range of black mountains had already emerged at the edge of sight.

That was the outer forest of Immortal-Breaking Mountain.

The immortal sects had laid down an ironclad rule: the outer region of Immortal-Breaking Mountain was forbidden territory for mortals. Demon beasts ran rampant within, and ordinary people who entered would absolutely not survive the time it took to burn a stick of incense.

Yet now, facing the waves of bloody wind blowing from the forest, Lu Chen drew a deep breath.

He felt that this deep forest, filled with nothing but demon beast piss and rotting leaves, was ten thousand times cleaner than that immortal city packed with formation screens and so oppressive it made one unable to breathe.

"Clatter—"

"Clatter—"

The heavy black iron chain dragged continuously over the wilderness strewn with broken stones, grinding out a piercing sound.

In the silent expanse, devoid of even the slightest other noise, that metallic scraping carried far into the distance, becoming a nightmare that made the scalp of low-ranking immortal sect disciples go numb.

Just as Lu Chen, carrying A-Nan on his back and dragging the thirty-thousand-pound Dao Stele, was about to step across the forest boundary of Immortal-Breaking Mountain—

Several leaves silently drifted down from the dark canopy ahead.

Within the pitch-black forest, several pairs of eyes suddenly lit up with a ghostly green glow.

Those eyes stared fixedly at Lu Chen, gleaming with intensely greedy ferocity, treating them entirely as a succulent lump of meat delivered right to their doorstep.