Rising Sun Mountains

After returning to the Jiang Family, Su Chen first went to find Xu Yin and gave her the Hundred-Year Supreme-Yang Pill.

Su Chen did not say much to Xu Yin, only telling her to take the Hundred-Year Supreme-Yang Pill.

Given Xu Yin's trust in Su Chen, she naturally did so without the slightest hesitation.

Watching Xu Yin swallow the Hundred-Year Supreme-Yang Pill, Su Chen finally set one major concern in his heart to rest. Barring any accidents, the cold poison in Xu Yin's body would be completely purged by the Hundred-Year Supreme-Yang Pill within seven days.

"Auntie, I'm going to the Rising Sun Mountains. I'll be back within a month at the latest. While I'm gone, take good care of yourselves," Su Chen said.

"The Rising Sun Mountains?" Xu Yin asked. "Xiao Chen, are you going into the mountains to train?"

"Yes, I want to train in the mountains for a while." Su Chen nodded.

Although Su Chen had not cultivated martial arts in his previous life, he knew that for martial artists, actual combat was the best way to improve one's strength. Actual combat could often draw out a martial artist's potential. In particular, those who had undergone trials of life and death often saw their strength soar, because nothing tempered a person more than being balanced on the knife's edge between life and death.

Having been reborn, what Su Chen craved most urgently was great strength. No one understood better than he did that only by wielding great strength could one hold his own fate and the fates of those around him firmly in his hands.

Xu Yin looked at Su Chen. For some reason, this young nephew of hers felt increasingly dependable. Training in the mountains was clearly a dangerous undertaking, yet when Su Chen spoke of it, he gave off the air of having everything under control.

Even so, Xu Yin was still very worried. She reminded him, "Have you brought enough healing medicine?"

Su Chen nodded. Before returning, he had gone to Five Treasures Hall and bought some medicinal pills and powders for treating injuries, all of them quite costly. He could have obtained such medicine from the Alchemy Guild as well, but Su Chen did not want to abuse that privilege.

"Wait a moment, Xiao Chen." Xu Yin seemed to recall something and turned around.

She went into the room. When she came back out, she was carrying a sword case in her hands.

"Open it and have a look." Xu Yin set the sword case on the table and spoke softly.

Su Chen opened the sword case and saw a three-foot blade within. Cold light flowed over the sword's body; it was clearly forged from high-grade refined steel. Unlike ordinary swords, however, this longsword was exceptionally broad, at least twice the width of a normal sword.

Three words were engraved on its scabbard: Vast Sea Sword.

"This was the sword your uncle Jiang Hai left behind. He used it often back then. After he left, Tingyi didn't like practicing swordsmanship either, so it was left idle all this time." Xu Yin cast a nostalgic glance at the sword case. "A weapon should be drawn often. Xiao Chen, I'll give you this sword for protection."

Su Chen took the Vast Sea Sword from the case. The blade had a pleasing weight to it and sat very naturally in his hand, far superior to an ordinary iron sword.

"Thank you, Auntie. I really like it." Longswords forged from such high-quality refined steel were difficult to find outside, and Su Chen had taken to this sword almost at once.

"Xiao Chen, the Rising Sun Mountains are very dangerous. You must be careful when you train there." Though Xu Yin was worried, she also knew that no true martial artist could be raised in a greenhouse. If Su Chen wanted to advance further on the martial path, he had to undergo the test of real combat.

Fortunately, the powerful demon beasts of the Essence Condensation Realm in the Rising Sun Mountains dwelled in the deepest parts of the range. As for Qi-Attraction Realm martial artists, so long as they did not venture too deep, the outer regions of the Rising Sun Mountains were an excellent place to train.

Su Chen returned to his room to make some preparations, then set out for the Rising Sun Mountains.

The Rising Sun Mountains were not far from Clear River City. Traveling one hundred and twenty li southeast from Clear River City would bring one to the outer reaches of the mountains. Since the journey was not far, Su Chen did not bring much luggage—only several changes of clothes and some medicinal pills.

Even so, those belongings still required a fairly large bundle to hold them all.

It would be nice to have a storage ring.

Su Chen knew there was no point in wishing for one. Storage rings, which everyone in the Pill Domain had possessed in his previous life, were exceedingly rare treasures in Clear River City. Even Master Mo might not have one.

Putting the thought aside, Su Chen began rushing toward the Rising Sun Mountains at full speed. With the speed of someone at the Peak of the Eighth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm, the journey of one hundred and twenty li would take only an afternoon and a night.

Su Chen's goal in coming to the Rising Sun Mountains this time was to break through as much as possible and raise his cultivation to the greatest extent.

Two days later.

At the outer edge of the Rising Sun Mountains, within a dense forest.

"One Sword, Five Waves!"

A flash of sword light sliced a Qi-Attraction Realm Eighth Layer demon beast—a Carrion-Eating Rat—into two.

At the same time, the sword light grazed a nearby sapling as thick as a bowl's mouth, severing it in two as well. Its cut was smooth as a mirror.

"The Vast Sea Sword truly is sharp."

Su Chen nodded in satisfaction. Glancing at the Carrion-Eating Rat's corpse, he murmured, "It's time to head a little deeper."

He had been in the Rising Sun Mountains for two days already. During that time, he had remained in the outermost regions, searching for demon beasts to test his skills against. But the Rising Sun Mountains were not littered with demon beasts everywhere; most of the creatures here were merely wild animals. Over the past two days, Su Chen had encountered only a dozen or so demon beasts in total.

Moreover, the demon beasts at the very edge of the Rising Sun Mountains were all at the Eighth Layer of the Qi-Attraction Realm. They could no longer serve to temper him.

Only by fighting stronger demon beasts could he quickly reach the Ninth Layer of the Qi-Attraction Realm.

The powerful demon beasts all lay deeper within the Rising Sun Mountains. Su Chen sheathed the Vast Sea Sword and headed farther in.

After walking for about the time it took to burn an incense stick, Su Chen saw a black shadow flash past him. He immediately drew his sword. "An Iron-Tailed Leopard!"

The Iron-Tailed Leopard was a demon beast at the Ninth Layer of the Qi-Attraction Realm, far stronger than demon beasts at the Eighth Layer. Even Su Chen had to treat it seriously now.

Generally speaking, when human martial artists fought demon beasts, even if both sides were at the same realm, the human martial artist would lose eight or nine times out of ten. Demon beasts were born fighters, possessing innate combat instincts and a greater variety of combat methods than human martial artists. Unless a human martial artist was a born combat genius, it was difficult to contend with a demon beast of the same realm.

Not to mention that Su Chen was only at the Peak of the Eighth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm and had yet to truly break through to the Ninth Layer. In terms of cultivation, he was still somewhat inferior to the Iron-Tailed Leopard.

However, Su Chen's advantage was Layered Wave Slash. This immensely powerful martial skill, though unranked, granted him formidable ability to challenge opponents above his realm and gave him the confidence to contend with a Ninth Layer Qi-Attraction Realm demon beast.

"One Sword, Five Waves!"

Su Chen did not waste words and directly slashed his sword at the Iron-Tailed Leopard.

The Iron-Tailed Leopard clearly had not expected this human at the Peak of the Eighth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm to dare launch a frontal attack against it. It immediately let out a roar and pounced at Su Chen with the speed of a gale.

Clang!

Su Chen's sword collided violently with the Iron-Tailed Leopard's tail in midair, producing a teeth-grating sound of metal striking stone.

Su Chen felt a sharp ache shoot through his wrist. At the same time, he saw a sword wound more than half an inch deep appear on the Iron-Tailed Leopard's tail, blood flowing from it.