Battle About to Begin

In the Martial Arena.

A tall, burly figure materialized, two sledgehammers the size of human heads hanging from his waist. Muscles coiled across his body like knotted dragons, and as he stood in the Martial Arena, he resembled an iron tower.

Ghost Butcher Shentu Hong!

Gu Yuanqing recognized him at a glance. He had killed this man with Sword Control a few days ago, yet he had not expected the Trial Space to have imprinted him as well.

Shentu Hong's expression was wooden, like that of a dead thing.

Gu Yuanqing did not rush to begin. He simply stood there and waited quietly.

After a long while, Shentu Hong showed no sign of waking. Gu Yuanqing immediately realized that his earlier idea was feasible—in this Spiritual Mountain Trial ground, everything was still governed by his will.

Although he could not control who appeared, as long as he did not wish to begin, the trial opponent would not awaken.

He immediately sat down cross-legged and circulated his Mental Method, finding that the Vital Energy within his body moved exactly as it did in the outside world.

He tested a few minor alterations to his Mental Method and discovered that their consequences were no different from those in reality. Moreover, after sustaining internal injuries, he only needed to exit the trial ground and enter again for his wounds to vanish completely, without affecting his physical body in the outside world.

At once, a thought stirred, and the Array Qi within his body began to depart from its original route. This was the Heavenly Dao Zen Heart Art Gu Yuanqing had deduced and modified.

Gu Yuanqing had achieved True Martial through one hundred and eight Acupoints. Those one hundred and eight Acupoints formed the array foundation that anchored the Profound Martial Secret Treasure. Like building blocks, the array formed by those one hundred and eight Acupoints was the most fundamental part; all subsequent True Martial cultivation expanded upon this great Acupoint array.

The stronger one's foundation, the greater the improvement at every layer. This was also one reason why he could battle ordinary Profound Martial Ninth Layer cultivators while only at the Profound Martial Seventh Layer.

When he had achieved True Martial, Gu Yuanqing had weighed his options and ultimately had not used the Three Hundred and Sixty Circumferences Array to achieve True Martial. It could be called a great regret.

Afterward, whenever he had spare time, he still deduced the Mental Method he had failed to complete back then. He had already made some progress, but many parts still required verification.

He had already achieved True Martial. If he loosened the original array, he might damage his foundation, causing the Profound Martial Secret Treasure to retreat back into Between Particles. That would truly be throwing away the watermelon to pick up sesame seeds.

But here, he had no worries at all and could naturally experiment as recklessly as he pleased.

As his True Qi changed course, several Acupoints that had not originally been incorporated into the array foundation were brought in. The nature of his True Qi gradually began to change as it passed through different Acupoints, while the Qi of the Acupoints themselves also changed according to the True Qi nourishing them.

The radiance of the Acupoints in the original array foundation gradually dimmed. The connections between them had not broken, but they weakened accordingly.

Within the Crimson Palace, the Profound Martial Secret Treasure trembled faintly. This was a sign that the original array was about to collapse and the Secret Treasure was becoming unstable.

Gu Yuanqing steadied his mind, refusing to be affected, and continued directing his True Qi through other Acupoints.

It sounded slow, but Gu Yuanqing's True Qi passed through more than two hundred Acupoints in less than half the time it took an incense stick to burn.

By then, the Profound Martial Secret Treasure was shaking quite noticeably. The original array was on the verge of collapse, and Gu Yuanqing hastened his pace. He had to complete the cultivation art experiment before the True Martial grand array was utterly destroyed.

Two hundred, two hundred and forty, three hundred, three hundred and thirty...

When his True Qi passed through the three hundred and thirty-sixth Acupoint, the original great array finally crumbled completely.

The Profound Martial Secret Treasure broke free from the Crimson Palace, and the True Qi and Qi of Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha within it surged back in a torrent.

Wherever they passed, his meridians shattered inch by inch.

With a thunderous boom, flesh and blood flew in all directions. Within the Spiritual Mountain Trial ground, Gu Yuanqing's entire body exploded, leaving neither corpse nor bones behind.

In North Spring Mountain, Gu Yuanqing slowly opened his eyes. His gaze was dazed at first, only gradually recovering after a long while.

"So this is the consequence of the True Martial grand array collapsing completely? No wonder so many people, even after obtaining better cultivation arts once their cultivation rises, still dare not switch to them. The risk is simply too great. So-called deviation of Qi is nothing more than a minor matter!"

Gu Yuanqing still felt lingering fear. Fortunately, he had never tried this in reality.

"The cultivation art still needs improvement. Before the original great array completely collapses, I must form a new array to stabilize the Profound Martial Secret Treasure. Still, there is no need to rush this matter. I have time to replace the Acupoint array before breaking through to Grandmaster."

After resting briefly, Gu Yuanqing reentered the Spiritual Mountain Trial. This time, however, he did not continue his experiments. With a thought, he began battling Ghost Butcher Shentu Hong.

This man's moves were broad and forceful. The twin sledgehammers in his hands possessed peerless might, whipping up gust after gust of fierce wind and sending countless clouds of sand and dust swirling.

Yet when his moves shifted, he lost none of his agility. He handled lightness and heaviness as he pleased. His powerful body-tempering art was such that when Gu Yuanqing swept his sword across him, even after breaking through the protection of the Profound Martial Phenomenon and striking his neck, it only left a faint bloody mark.

With one careless misstep, Gu Yuanqing had no choice but to take a blow head-on. With a clang, the web between his thumb and forefinger split open, and his longsword nearly flew from his hand.

After that exchange, Gu Yuanqing became even more cautious.

"His strength should be at the peak of True Martial! No wonder he ranked fourth on the Black List. His only weakness is that his Movement Technique is somewhat lacking in agility."

After a fierce battle, Gu Yuanqing relied on his Movement Technique to seize the upper hand throughout, leaving wound after wound on Shentu Hong's body, yet he could not kill him. Those twin sledgehammers guarded every potentially fatal opening as tightly as iron gates.

"Fortunately, I encountered him on North Spring Mountain and used its power to suppress his True Qi. Otherwise, even a Flying Sword would not have been able to kill him!"

After an hour, Shentu Hong's aura began to decline. Gu Yuanqing finally seized his chance. Enduring a hammer blow, he drove his sword into Shentu Hong's left eye.

The price was that every bone in his left arm shattered. A miserable victory!

In the span of a breath, all his injuries recovered. Just as Gu Yuanqing was about to fight the next person, that sensation of being watched suddenly rose again.

His consciousness withdrew from the Trial Space, but Mountain Observation still failed to discover where the other party was.

He frowned. This feeling was exceedingly unpleasant. He clearly knew someone was spying on him, yet he had no idea who it was.

"Can Grandmasters really act so wantonly?" His expression darkened.

Atop Hongyan Mountain Waterfall.

All of the Dragon Gall Six Heroes lay on the ground, their fates unknown.

Two old men stood side by side upon a Green Stone, gazing from afar toward North Spring Mountain opposite them.

One was short and small, like a dwarf, his eyes heavy with sleep and his whole body reeking of alcohol. A heavy sword longer than he was tall hung slanted across his back, while he held a wine jar in his hand.

The other was bent at the waist and hunchbacked, leaning on a Bamboo Staff. Layer upon layer of wrinkles covered his face, and an aura of impending death emanated from his entire body.

"Old fellow, what do you think?" The hunchbacked elder's voice was hoarse and utterly lacking in strength, making it seem as though he might drop dead at any moment.

The short elder took a swig of strong wine.

"The one at the foot of North Spring Mountain should be that youngster in the imperial capital known as the Sword Saint, right? I heard he has not left the royal capital for forty years. I never expected the Imperial Court to send him. When I 'looked' at him just now, he should have sensed me as well."

"Looks like that old emperor takes this place quite seriously. The only strange thing is, if he values it so much, why not bring Gu Yuanqing back to the royal capital? If it were the royal capital, even if we had ten times the nerve, we would not dare go there."

"Perhaps he wants to see which of us old undead are still alive."

"That would fit the Imperial Court's usual style—casting a long line to catch a big fish, unafraid of snapping the bait."

"Cough... cough... It seems these youngsters nearby have been frightened senseless and do not dare make a move. How about we go up and take a look first? While we are at it, we can see whether any old fellows have crawled out of their coffins with the same idea as us."

The short elder tilted back his head and poured the remaining half jar of wine into his mouth.

Bang! The wine jar shattered against the mountain rock.

"Exactly what I had in mind!"

As his words fell, the atmosphere around the entire mountain peak began to turn grave. All things fell silent, as the aura belonging to Grandmasters spread forth...