I Have No Dantian—Brute Force Tears Apart a Deadly Formation Barehanded

The bronze doors slammed shut.

The heavy sound of metal grinding together completely cut off the noise of the black market outside.

Inside the treasure vault, the dim stone floor instantly lit up with a layer of murky gray light. The first-rank Spirit-Sealing Suppression Formation fully activated.

The gray light was exceptionally domineering. Rather than cutting off the spiritual energy of heaven and earth outside, it transformed into wisps of murky mist that drilled straight into a cultivator's sea of qi and dantian. Any immortal cultivator who touched this gray mist would have their true essence contaminated on the spot, their meridians blocked inch by inch.

Immediately afterward, over a hundred mid-grade spirit stones embedded in the surrounding high walls flared brilliantly in unison.

The pure spiritual energy within the spirit stones was violently extracted and burned to power the second formation.

The incomplete Blood Fiend Trapping Dragon Formation began operating.

Dense crimson wind blades wove into a net in midair. Carrying ear-piercing shrieks, they completely sealed off the living creature at the center of the vault.

The slightly plump shopkeeper hid at the formation's life gate near its edge.

With his hands clasped behind his back, the fat on his face bunched together in excitement as he threw back his head and let out an utterly arrogant laugh.

"Once you enter the rear vault of Myriad Treasures Pavilion, don't even think about walking out!"

The shopkeeper stared at Lu Chen, surrounded by gray mist and red light, his tone full of mocking certainty.

"This suppression formation is a treasure bestowed by the higher-ups of the merchant association. Once the spirit-sealing gray light shines on you, forget a half-baked cripple like you suffering backlash from a forbidden technique—even a true Foundation Establishment grand cultivator would have to obediently fall in realm and watch his true essence scatter!"

The shopkeeper spat on the ground.

"This is a business where you can't escape even with wings. I advise you not to waste your strength. Leave your things behind obediently, and I might even decide to leave you an intact corpse."

The moment his words fell—

The crimson wind blades at the center of the formation surged forward without mercy.

Dozens of violent wind blades instantly chopped into Lu Chen's body.

The already tattered, oversized black cloak did not last even half a breath before it was ripped into countless strips of cloth that danced through the air.

The scraps fell to the ground.

The body beneath the cloak was fully exposed beneath the formation's light.

There was none of the immortal grace or transcendent bearing of a cultivator—only knotted, iron-gray muscles.

Every piece of flesh seemed to have been cast from black iron, branded with an even deeper layer of dark metallic patterns.

The dense crimson wind blades came one after another, hacking relentlessly at Lu Chen's skin.

Clang! Clang-clang-clang!

The thunderous crash of metal striking metal rang madly through the treasure vault.

Blinding sparks burst down from Lu Chen's chest, shoulders, and arms.

The wind blades shattered.

The terrifying skin membrane of the twelfth layer of Iron Cloth Shirt bore only a few faint white marks.

There was no blood, no wounds deep enough to expose bone.

They had not even managed to cut a single hair from Lu Chen's body.

The shopkeeper's smile instantly froze.

His eyes widened as his hands clutched the wooden rack beside him. His eyeballs nearly bulged from their sockets.

"Impossible..."

"How could you not leak even a trace of true essence?"

The shopkeeper's mind buzzed. Decades of common sense accumulated in the cultivation world had been ground into powder beneath someone's feet at this moment.

The gray mist of the suppression formation curled around Lu Chen, yet it could not find any opening to invade.

This man before him, like a savage beast, simply did not have a dantian!

No sea of qi, no spiritual roots—where would he get true essence to contaminate?

This killing formation, laid down at enormous expense by the merchant association, was not even as threatening to him as a mud pit. He was resisting it purely with that freakish body of his!

Lu Chen did not waste even half a sentence on him.

The Ultimate Dao blood and qi of the twelfth layer erupted completely at that moment.

His heartbeat boomed through the treasure vault like war drums.

The sound of his blood flowing was like great rivers surging onward.

Lu Chen suddenly raised his right arm.

The century-old Black-Iron Chain, covered in dark red blood scabs, instantly stretched taut around his thick arm.

An extremely piercing sonic boom exploded through the air.

He rammed straight into the wall with his entire body.

Boom!

His chain-wrapped fist smashed directly into the main formation foundation on the wall.

Lu Chen's five terrifyingly thick fingers clamped onto the glowing jade formation disk like iron pincers.

His knuckles exerted force, and wildly violent pure-yang blood and qi squeezed out through the gaps between his finger bones.

Crack... crack!

A teeth-grinding sound of friction rang out.

The incomparably hard jade formation disk, said to be capable of withstanding the full-force strike of a Foundation Establishment grand cultivator, was instantly covered in cracks under his sheer grip strength.

Lu Chen's five fingers continued to close inward.

Bang!

The formation disk was crushed alive into stone powder.

Fine jade fragments mixed with stone dust leaked down through his fingers in a fluttering stream.

The brilliant red light of the immortal formation on the wall was snuffed out alive in Lu Chen's rough palm like a guttering candle in the wind.

The instant the formation core shattered, the arrogant wind blades in the air above the vault collapsed on the spot, turning into faint spiritual energy and vanishing without a trace.

The shopkeeper was scared out of his wits.

All his schemes and greed became nothing but a joke before absolute violence.

His trembling hand pulled a high-grade Golden Light Body-Protection Talisman from his sleeve, and he viciously slapped it onto his chest.

A golden true essence barrier instantly spread open, wrapping his entire body inside.

The shopkeeper turned around and used every last ounce of strength in his body to sprint madly toward the bronze doors.

So long as he escaped through those doors, there would still be rogue cultivators in the black market outside, along with Myriad Treasures Pavilion guards.

So long as he could get out!

He had only taken two steps.

A tremendous crash suddenly rang out behind him.

Lu Chen bent his legs slightly, and the bluestone floor tiles beneath his feet shattered from a single stomp.

How terrifying was the explosive force of the twelfth layer of Iron Cloth Shirt?

His tall, burly body shot forward like a cannonball, instantly crossing a distance of thirty feet.

The shopkeeper's back tightened as a huge shadow already covered his head.

Lu Chen appeared behind the shopkeeper and directly extended his right hand, covered in calluses and metallic patterns.

That large hand pressed against the golden protective barrier without obstruction.

"Break for me."

Lu Chen's five fingers suddenly exerted force, and a hundred thousand jin of brute strength crushed inward madly.

The golden barrier let out an extremely teeth-grinding cracking sound as its surface rapidly caved in.

It did not even last half a breath.

Pop!

The true essence barrier, said to be able to block the full-force strike of an early Foundation Establishment cultivator, was directly crushed into flying motes of light beneath Ultimate Dao brute force.

Lu Chen's hand continued forward.

The web between his thumb and forefinger clamped precisely around the shopkeeper's fat neck.

His feet left the ground.

The shopkeeper was lifted into the air one-handed by Lu Chen.

The face that had usually looked down upon the black market's rogue cultivators was now suffocated purple-red.

The shopkeeper's legs kicked wildly in midair.

Both hands clawed desperately at Lu Chen's arm.

Riiip...

His fingernails scraped against the iron-gray skin membrane and all snapped off at the roots. Blood streamed from all ten fingers, yet he could not even scratch Lu Chen's outer skin.

His neck was completely locked, his windpipe nearly crushed flat.

Tears and snot smeared across the shopkeeper's face.

He wanted to beg for mercy. He wanted to promise over all the mountains of gold and seas of silver in the treasure vault. He wanted to hand over the foundations of Myriad Treasures Pavilion.

Yet his throat could not produce a complete syllable.

All he could do was force out absurd, leaking gasps of "Huh, huh."

The lofty gift of speech possessed by an immortal cultivator was stripped away completely at that moment.

Only the most primal suffocation and despair remained.

Lu Chen stared at him, directly ignoring the pleading in his eyes.

He had no interest in hearing the fat man's nonsense.

The knuckles of his right hand casually twisted to the right.

Crack.

A crisp sound rang out.

The shopkeeper's cervical vertebrae were snapped cleanly. His head tilted at a bizarre angle, and his legs fell completely limp.

Break the barrier, seize the neck, snap the spine.

The three movements did not even take a full breath.

The howling of wind blades that had filled the treasure vault abruptly ceased.

The entire underground space fell utterly silent, leaving only the dull thud of the fat corpse hitting the floor.

Lu Chen casually kicked the corpse into a corner.

He turned around, his gaze sweeping directly across this rear treasure vault that Myriad Treasures Pavilion took such pride in.

The supplies packed across the shelves were dazzling.

On the shelves to the left sat more than ten mid-grade magic artifacts gleaming with flowing light.

On the shelves to the right were piled dozens of jade slips inscribed with cultivation art inheritances from various immortal sects.

Lu Chen did not spare them another glance.

He had no spiritual roots. Magic artifacts and jade slips were not as useful to him as a few jin of cooked beef to fill his stomach.

His gaze passed directly over these treasures that cultivators would fight until their heads bled for.

At last, it locked firmly onto the deepest corner of the treasure vault.

Several large pig-iron vats stood side by side there.

Simple dust-avoidance formation patterns for preservation were engraved across their surfaces, along with frost formation patterns that emitted a chilling air.

Lu Chen strode over and lifted the lid from one of the pig-iron vats in a single motion.

A rich scent of vegetation essence mixed with a pungent stench of blood rushed at his face.

The vat on the right held a mountain of century-old ginseng piled carelessly inside, its roots thick and its juices full.

The large vats on the left were filled with the flesh of low-grade exotic beasts freshly hunted from Immortal-Breaking Mountain.

A thin layer of frost still covered the chunks of meat.

Lu Chen's shriveled stomach walls suddenly spasmed.

The pure-yang blood and qi of the twelfth layer of Iron Cloth Shirt was being consumed violently.

These raw materials that cultivators disdained were precisely what he lacked most right now.

Lu Chen gripped the edges of the pig-iron vat with both hands, his Adam's apple rolling.

The Ultimate Dao Furnace was ready to eat.