Defying Fate

In the warm chamber, sunlight streamed through the window and fell upon Ironman Tu.

Sure enough, Heaven never bars every path.

Looking at the two letters on the table, Ironman Tu was so stirred that he could not help laughing aloud. This butcher, known to others as a man of few words and stern manner, rarely revealed his true temperament like this.

One of the letters had just been brought by Fu Quan, while the other had been sent earlier by the spy he had planted in the An Family.

His talent in martial arts was unparalleled. No matter what martial art it was, he could learn it at a glance. Yet when he tried to break through to Martial Grandmaster, he had been stuck for a long time, unable to advance. The root of it was that he had never been able to comprehend the power of Divine Intent.

Iron Armor Art had made him, and Iron Armor Art had ruined him. The formidable Iron Armor Art, combined with all the martial arts he possessed, had forged Ironman Tu's illustrious reputation. Yet as the Iron Armor Art grew ever more profound, it not only affected his body, but even showed signs of dulling his mind. This was the fundamental reason he could not comprehend Divine Intent.

Once he realized where the problem lay, he began searching for every possible method that could help him break through to Martial Grandmaster. By a twist of fate, he eventually found the An Family.

When outsiders spoke of the An Family now, their first impression was that of an immortal-cultivating family. Few knew that the An Family had originally founded itself through martial arts. At its peak, three Martial Grandmasters had stood side by side within the An Family. It was precisely by relying on such overwhelming martial strength that the An Family had carved out a foundation amid that chaotic age, laying deep roots for its later transformation into an immortal-cultivating family.

"According to the information that wastrel uncovered, the reason the An Family was able to produce several Martial Grandmasters was that they possessed a treasure called the Refining Heart Stone. With its aid, martial artists had a certain chance of comprehending their own Divine Intent."

"I had been hesitating before. The An Family is not easy to deal with; they have genuine Qi Refining cultivators overseeing them, not someone the River-Sweeping Bandits can provoke. But now, the opportunity has been delivered right into my hands."

He ground the two letters into powder between his fingers, and Ironman Tu made up his mind.

According to the information Fu Quan had sent, after their Qi Refining Old Ancestor died, the An Family had responded at once, promptly moving their core members and treasures away. That meant the Refining Heart Stone was very likely still in the hands of the An Family.

"This may be my last chance. Only by becoming a Martial Grandmaster and cultivating True Force can I curb the yin energy's erosion and continue living. And after becoming a grandmaster, if I can truly tame that yin energy, perhaps I really can set foot upon the immortal path with this Crude Stone Body."

"I was born with only a Crude Stone Body, not a Spirit-Aperture Body. I do not have the fate of an immortal, but I refuse to believe in fate."

His gaze brimmed with resolve, sweeping away the gloom of old. Ironman Tu stepped out of the warm chamber, walking from darkness into sunlight.

His life had not been smooth. Though he was a member of the Gao Family, he belonged to a branch so distant it could scarcely be called a branch at all, and he received no resources whatsoever. Later, after learning of the immortal path, he traveled everywhere seeking immortals and asking after the Way. He had finally found a true cultivator, only to discover that the other man had a perverse temperament and directly treated him as a test subject for medicine.

Yet his life was not meant to end there. While the companions around him died one after another from the drug trials, he not only survived, but his body grew stronger and stronger through each experiment. In the end, he seized an opportunity. When the wicked cultivator's enemies came knocking, he stole some martial arts manuals and a Daoist scripture the man had collected, then fled Dead Man Valley.

Later, to avoid being caught by the wicked cultivator, he hid here and there for a time and devoted himself to martial arts training. Only after confirming that the wicked cultivator had not pursued him did he emerge again. It was from that point on that he truly began writing his own legend.

He roamed the martial world alone, cutting down countless opponents and becoming a renowned hero, living as freely as the wind. Only later, when he grew tired of such a drifting life, did he come to Qinghe County, establish a bandit stronghold, and lay down his own foundation.

But after experiencing so much, he understood that being nothing more than a river bandit held no future. Though he was powerful, he was still only a martial artist, while this world had cultivators. For that reason, he took the initiative to approach the Gao Family and used his surname to establish ties with them.

The Gao Family naturally did not care about a branch so distant it could not have been farther removed. But if that branch possessed considerable strength and could be put to use, it was another matter. Thus, the River-Sweeping Bandits successfully draped themselves in a layer of Gao Family skin.

That layer of skin could not guarantee that the River-Sweeping Bandits would thrive in both the underworld and the daylight world, but so long as they did not court death on their own, the nearby forces truly capable of dealing with them would not deliberately target them.

Under such circumstances, coupled with Ironman Tu's painstaking management, the River-Sweeping Bandits gained their current power. Yet although the River-Sweeping Bandits had now grown into a force to be reckoned with, Ironman Tu himself had fallen into a desperate situation. Only today had he glimpsed a ray of dawn.

As Ironman Tu's orders went out, the River-Sweeping Bandits immediately began to move. On the surface, nothing seemed to change, but countless spies were dispatched.

After operating on the Clear Source River for so many years, the River-Sweeping Bandits had long established their own intelligence network. Who knew how many fishermen were connected to them, serving as their eyes and ears?

Clear Source Commandery was three parts flatland and seven parts mountains, with peculiar terrain. If the An Family wished to leave Clear Source Commandery quickly and head for Joy Mountain Commandery, traveling by water was almost certainly their only choice. This time, quite a few people had made moves against the An Family. They could not remain hidden for long; only by leaving Clear Source Commandery could they make the best choice.

As for fleeing directly into the mountains and forests, that was also an option, but it was far too dangerous. In those poor mountains and treacherous waters, the forests truly devoured people.

However, although the River-Sweeping Bandits had begun moving because of the An Family, Jiang Chen, who was in Golden Sand Valley, remained unaffected for the moment. While undercurrents surged outside, Jiang Chen silently digested what he had gained. In the blink of an eye, a month passed quietly.

Over that month, the turmoil stirred up by the An Family not only failed to subside, but grew ever more intense. There were two focal points of contention. One was the An Family's holdings left behind in Qingxi County, including that spirit spring and a hundred mu of spirit fields. The other was the treasure the An Family had hidden away.

The former was the true foundation of a family, immensely valuable. But precisely because of that, ordinary people had no right to enter the contest for it. The latter, however, was hidden in the shadows, and so many people set their hearts on it.

Over the past month, remnants of the An Family had been found one after another, but the so-called treasure remained as intangible as mist. These remnants were mostly abandoned pawns, deliberately left behind by the An Family to buy time and throw people off the scent. The An Family's true core seeds had vanished completely.

Under such circumstances, some chose to give up, some chose to scrape the ground three feet deep, and some chose to spread a great net and silently wait for the fish to swim into it.