Chapter 39: Ninth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm - Heavenly Domain Alchemy Sovereign

"Very good!" Su Chen's lips curved upward. The Iron-Tailed Leopard's tail was the hardest part of its entire body, and it relied heavily on that tail in battle. Injuring its tail was equivalent to injuring a human martial artist's arm.

Moreover, Su Chen had not even fully unleashed the Layered Wave Slash, yet it already possessed such power. This satisfied him greatly.

"Sevenfold Waves of One Sword!" Seizing the momentum, Su Chen pursued and slashed an even more powerful strike at the Iron-Tailed Leopard.

Su Chen's relentless assault thoroughly stirred the Iron-Tailed Leopard's savage nature. It roared again and again, its massive body lunging forward as it tangled with Su Chen in battle.

From his previous life to this one, this was Su Chen's first battle fought with such exhilarating abandon. The more he fought, the more excited he became; his swordsmanship flowed ever more smoothly like drifting clouds and running water, and he reveled in the passion of combat.

In his previous life, because he could not cultivate, he could only devote himself to alchemy, pouring all his regret at being unable to walk the martial path into the art of pill refinement.

In this life, he had finally gotten his wish and become a true martial artist, savoring the thrill brought by growing strength.

At this moment, the Iron-Tailed Leopard had practically become Su Chen's sparring partner, allowing him to unleash himself to his heart's content and temper his strength. Through this live combat, Su Chen's understanding of the martial path rapidly deepened as well.

Finally, after the time it took for an incense stick to burn, the Iron-Tailed Leopard was drenched in blood and covered in wounds. Its prized iron tail was nearly severed. A trace of fear filled its eyes as it stared at Su Chen, unable to understand why this seemingly weak human was so powerful.

"Sevenfold Waves of One Sword!" At the height of his exhilaration, Su Chen unleashed another Layered Wave Slash, now perfected to the point of mastery.

At that instant, a string of crackling sounds like beans popping in a pan erupted from Su Chen's body. Waves of air surged around him, sweeping fallen leaves and dust through the surroundings like a gale. The vortex of qi in his dantian compressed to its absolute limit!

Bang!

With a muffled boom, the qi vortex in Su Chen's dantian expanded by a full circle. This meant that in the midst of battle, he had broken directly through to the Ninth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm!

"Ha ha, breaking through in battle—what a thrill!" Su Chen laughed loudly. The power of the Ninth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm poured forth, all of it infused into the Vast Sea Sword as he struck the Iron-Tailed Leopard before him with a peak-state Sevenfold Waves of One Sword!

Psh! A pillar of blood shot into the sky. Half the Iron-Tailed Leopard's tail and its head were sent flying by that slash. As the head spun through the air, disbelief still lingered in its eyes, as though it could not believe that it had been so easily killed by a weak human.

Quite a bit of blood had splashed onto Su Chen as well, but he had no mind for it now. He merely half-closed his eyes and immersed himself in the delight of his breakthrough.

"Sure enough, every layer is a different world. The Ninth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm is more than a little stronger than the peak of the Eighth Layer. That demonic beast had been evenly matched with me before, but after breaking through, I could kill it in an instant."

As Su Chen sensed the power of the Ninth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm within him, his entire aura became sharper than before, like a keen sword freshly tempered in furnace flames, brimming with edge.

Su Chen felt that although he had stood high above all others as the Dust Pill Emperor in his previous life, looking down upon the masses, he had never possessed the solid sense of security he now felt from walking the martial path one step at a time.

Being able to live another life truly was a gift bestowed by heaven.

Putting away his thoughts, Su Chen found a stream, washed the blood from his body, and changed into a clean set of clothes.

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Drawing a deep breath of the sweet, fresh air in the Rising Sun Mountains, Su Chen muttered, "Now that I've broken through to the Ninth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm, I should be able to try looking for that place."

Su Chen had come to the Rising Sun Mountains not only to gain experience and improve his strength, but also for another important purpose: to search for a place he had heard about in his previous life.

In his previous life, an earthshaking curiosity had once emerged in Clear River City. An ordinary Qi-Attraction Realm martial artist who had once been utterly obscure suddenly seemed to undergo a complete rebirth one day. He displayed astonishing martial talent, his strength rising at breakneck speed, and soon became a martial powerhouse dominating one region. Later, he was even recruited by the Cloud Abyss Empire's imperial family, granted noble titles, and rose straight into the clouds.

Many people had wondered what kind of opportunity had caused that martial artist to undergo such a transformation.

Yet by a twist of fate, Su Chen had once seen a map. It was said that the martial artist had accidentally found the place marked on that map, obtained an opportunity there, and only then experienced his later surge in strength.

And the location marked on that map was within these Rising Sun Mountains!

Su Chen did not know what sort of opportunity was hidden in that place, but he knew it was certainly no small one. Otherwise, an utterly ordinary martial artist could never have undergone such a transformation overnight.

Judging from the timeline, there was still some time before that martial artist's sudden rise in strength. In other words, that martial artist most likely had not yet found that place.

What Su Chen needed to do now was seize this opportunity.

Su Chen did not feel that doing so meant he was wronging that martial artist. The essence of the martial world was a life-or-death struggle for resources. No powerhouse had ever climbed upward without stepping on heaps of other people's corpses; those who were not ruthless enough could never become strong.

At once, Su Chen recalled that map in his mind. Though many years had passed, he still remembered it with great clarity.

"That place should be deeper within the Rising Sun Mountains."

Su Chen slung his pack over his back and continued onward into the depths.

For the next five days, Su Chen traveled through the Rising Sun Mountains. The deeper he went, the denser the demonic beasts became. Over those five days, he encountered more than a hundred demonic beasts in total, though fewer than ten were truly worth taking seriously.

With Su Chen's current Ninth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm strength, ordinary demonic beasts at the Ninth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm could no longer threaten him. Only the stronger ones among them posed even a slight danger.

As for demonic beasts at the Tenth Layer of Qi-Attraction Realm, he had not encountered any yet.

During these five days of real combat, Su Chen had also cultivated the Layered Wave Slash to the level of Eightfold Waves of One Sword, doubling its power once again.

According to the memories in Su Chen's mind, he was no longer very far from the location marked on that map.

At that moment, Su Chen's ears twitched. He suddenly heard what seemed to be cries for help and sounds of fighting coming from nearby.

"Someone nearby?"

Su Chen knew that people being in the Rising Sun Mountains was nothing unusual. Many medicinal herbs grew here, and martial artists often formed herb-gathering parties to enter the mountains and collect them.

But the sounds coming from nearby clearly were not from herb gathering, nor even from humans fighting demonic beasts. They sounded like two groups of people fighting each other.

Moreover, those sounds were drawing closer and closer to Su Chen.