After Millya finished speaking, she and Chen Xu stared at each other.
"That's it?" Chen Xu looked utterly baffled.
"I'm not a Martial Artist. It's already impressive that I know this much." Millya pulled up the blanket, intending to get some proper sleep.
"Meet at the foot of Azure Illumination Mountain at eight tonight."
Chen Xu recalled Master Cheng's words: once In-Ranked Martial Arts reached a certain level, a Martial Artist's mind and body would undergo certain changes alongside their Martial Arts.
Through those changes, a Martial Artist's physical abilities and spiritual presence would receive a tremendous boost. After that boost came the so-called [Martial Form] realm.
Putting the two together, those changes probably meant that one's spirit could interfere with reality, or rather, that one's aura could influence reality.
But when he activated Tiger Might, he could already make people feel fear. Could that not be considered interference?
Lost in thought, he left the guest room and prepared to leave the inn.
He could use this time to make one final round of Clearwind Martial Hall.
Azure Illumination Mountain.
Azure Illumination Mountain was no different from the other mountains in Jinning Commandery. Normally, only nearby residents climbed it. After the murder case involving the mentally ill occurred, most of the surrounding residents moved away, and the place grew even more desolate.
As they walked along the creaking stone path, two long shadows stretched beneath the moonlight.
"There is a Tomb here belonging to a powerful Martial Dao expert. I don't know what mechanisms are inside. When I first discovered this place, I wasn't strong enough to venture deeper.
"Azure Illumination Mountain got its name during the Great Qi era, though I can't remember the exact year."
"Great Qi was the dynasty before the Great Abyss?"
"That's right. They say that era was when the Martial Dao was at its most prosperous, but because of the Imperial Court's blockade, most information about it has been lost."
Millya led Chen Xu to the cliff at the summit of Azure Illumination Mountain.
"Look at where the moonlight is shining."
Chen Xu raised his head and followed the moonlight downward.
The moonlight spilled over the bluish stone extending beneath the cliff. Beyond that lay darkness, and nothing could be seen.
"So that's what Azure Illumination means?" Chen Xu raised an eyebrow. He had thought it carried some special significance.
"The entrance is beneath that stone." Millya shone her flashlight around and took out the tools she had prepared from her backpack.
She was far weaker than Chen Xu and needed equipment to enter the cave.
With a light leap, Chen Xu landed beside the stone and shone his flashlight inside.
It was empty and silent, seemingly nothing more than an ordinary cave. There was nothing special about it, only a long passage leading somewhere unknown.
"There are no mechanisms in the outer area. Otherwise, I would have been buried here the last time I came." Millya ducked into the cave, with Chen Xu close behind.
The passage bore obvious marks of excavation. It was definitely not naturally formed.
After walking for about two minutes without encountering any mechanisms, they entered a stone chamber of roughly one hundred square meters.
Stone table, stone stools, Stone Bed...
Everything in sight had been carved from all kinds of stone.
"Ah!" Millya screamed. Chen Xu turned toward the sound and saw a dark figure gnawing at something on her body near one of the rooms within the stone chamber.
Even with Assault Glory on, the rest of her body had no protection. Caught off guard, the reaction speed of an ordinary person held her back, and she could not even put up a timely defense.
After struggling slightly, chewing sounds came from the dark figure on top of her. An ordinary person with even a little less courage would probably have been scared out of their wits.
That afternoon, she had still been immersed in the joy of obtaining Assault Glory, imagining the future. That night, she met her end in an isolated cave. All one could do was sigh at life's unpredictability.
Chen Xu shone his flashlight over. The dark figure was no four-legged Monster, but a naked man with disheveled hair.
Yet he was doing something only a mindless beast would do: devouring his own kind.
The beam from the powerful flashlight made it difficult for him to adjust, and he retreated into the room.
Looking at Millya's expression of death without closure, Chen Xu sighed softly.
This was the difference in strength. If it had been him, even an ambush would not have fazed him. He would not have been subdued in a single blow, left without the power to resist.
"Lu Long?" Chen Xu called out tentatively.
The room instantly fell silent. Perhaps because he had not spoken for a long time, he struggled through several syllables before croaking hoarsely, "You know me?"
It really was him. Chen Xu's expression shifted slightly. In the memories of the original owner of this body, the last news of that mentally ill man was that he had fallen off a cliff. Yet when the search team went to the bottom the next day, they found no corpse at all.
If not for that, so many people would not have left that area.
"A mentally ill man who killed sixteen people in one night. The news reported it."
Bronze-colored skin covered Chen Xu's entire body as he clenched his fists. From what he had just seen, Lu Long moved much faster than he did. In numerical terms, it was at least around 5, making him quite troublesome.
At those words, a hoarse and desolate laugh came from the room. "I never thought the final memory I, Lu Long, would leave behind in this world would be like this. How ironic, truly ironic!
"But so what? When I appear before the world again, I will be a newly reborn Martial Artist—Lu Long!"
As if sharing the same thought, the two struck like lightning.
A tremendous crash echoed through the stone chamber, its reverberations unending.
Chen Xu threw dozens of punches in succession. Lu Long slammed into the stone wall, then sprang away and began circling.
Realizing that he was at a disadvantage in strength, Lu Long's years of experience made him swiftly choose the fighting style most favorable to himself.
"Your flesh must be very chewy." As Lu Long moved, he spoke in all kinds of ways, trying to make Chen Xu feel fear or distract him for even an instant.
He also had some desire to converse. Enduring loneliness was painful. Even though his heart for the Martial Dao was as firm as iron, he still occasionally felt lonely.
He would first beat this man until he was gravely injured, then slowly vent his frustrations until Chen Xu bled to death.
"So the rumor that there are Martial Arts at the [Martial Form] level here is true." Chen Xu's gaze followed Lu Long's movements like a fierce tiger stalking prey for an opportunity to strike.
"There are indeed, but you won't get the chance to see them!" Lu Long's palms shot out like Vipers striking, launching a relentless assault.
Chen Xu guarded his front with his left arm. His level-six Tiger Might erupted at full force, combining with Tiger Howl Fist in his right hand as he forcibly traded injury for injury.
Lu Long's hands struck Chen Xu's left arm, and pain immediately shot through both palms. It felt as though he had not struck a human body, but a steel plate with astonishing defenses.
"It doesn't hurt at all!" Seeing this, Chen Xu felt even more at ease. Apart from a few areas like his eyes, he simply stopped defending and charged into Lu Long through the storm-like barrage.
You can hit me countless times, as long as I catch you once...
"Monster! You've trained your hard martial arts to such a level!"
If the parents of Jinning Commandery knew that the murderous Monster they used to scare children was calling another human a Monster, who knew what they would think.
Sensing that Lu Long was considering a tactical retreat, Chen Xu flashed forward and blocked the passage.
If he let this guy escape, would he not have taken all those hits for nothing?
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