Li Yunfei's face twisted savagely, killing intent rolling off him. Whether or not the Shen family had discovered this place, he could seize the initiative as long as he captured Ning Chuan first.
He was deeply puzzled. Why had Ning Chuan appeared here, and what had happened to those two guards?
As these thoughts raced through his mind, he reached Ning Chuan in the blink of an eye, launching a vicious strike at him.
A useless live-in son-in-law actually dared to come here?
He was courting death!
Boom!
But just then, Li Yunfei's pupils abruptly contracted. He saw violent blood energy surging around Ning Chuan, who punched straight toward him without dodging or retreating.
Fist met palm, and the air thundered.
Li Yunfei shuddered violently. An irresistible divine force struck him, as though a colossal beast had rammed into him. Every bone in his body felt ready to fall apart, and his arm snapped with a crack.
"Pfft... You... you actually have cultivation? How is that possible?!"
Blood sprayed from Li Yunfei's mouth, and his eyes filled with sheer horror.
Wasn't Ning Chuan the famously useless live-in son-in-law of Flame Dragon City?
Everyone knew that Ning Chuan's meridians had been severed inch by inch and his Martial Dao foundation destroyed. Even a Three-Star Alchemist had been helpless. How could he possibly have cultivation?
"Is my cultivation such a surprise? Haven't you always wanted to kill me so you could claim Qian Xun for yourself? But I gave you a chance, and you couldn't make anything of it!"
Ning Chuan sneered, his gaze utterly cold.
He pushed off the ground and darted forward like lightning, reaching for Li Yunfei's neck.
"Ning Chuan, die!"
Li Yunfei roared, brimming with hatred and fury. Unbelievable as it was, the Ning Chuan before him truly possessed cultivation.
And his combat strength was so formidable that it made Li Yunfei's heart tremble.
"I slaughtered even those two Spirit Sea Realm guards of yours. What chance do you think you have?"
Ning Chuan's gaze remained icy. He struck with his palm, unleashing peerless divine strength that sent Li Yunfei staggering backward. Then his hand shot out like lightning, seized Li Yunfei by the neck, and hurled him against the mountain wall.
Pfft!
Blood gushed from Li Yunfei's mouth. His internal organs shook violently, and he crumpled before Ning Chuan like a dead dog.
Although both were at the ninth level of Meridian Opening, the gulf between them was as vast as heaven and earth.
Ning Chuan's terrifying strength horrified him, and immense fear welled up in his heart.
Only now did he realize that both guards in the valley had died at Ning Chuan's hands.
"Ning Chuan, you can't kill me! If you kill me, the Li Family won't let you get away with it! My eldest brother is a disciple of the Black Tortoise Academy. He's not someone you can afford to offend... Let me go... I promise I'll never oppose you again..."
Li Yunfei shouted, fierce on the outside but craven within, unable to conceal the terror in his eyes.
He had seen the killing intent in Ning Chuan's eyes.
He panicked completely!
"You talk too much!"
Ning Chuan's gaze was utterly indifferent. He gripped Li Yunfei's neck and tightened his hand sharply, crushing his throat.
The light gradually faded from Li Yunfei's eyes, leaving them filled with unwillingness and despair.
He had never imagined that he would die at the hands of Ning Chuan, that useless live-in son-in-law.
More importantly, he had already set his plans in motion. Before long, he would have been able to put Ning Chuan to death, and even the Shen family would have suffered. But he would never see any of it.
After killing Li Yunfei, Ning Chuan felt a wave of ease sweep through his entire body. Even his soul seemed lighter. His thoughts flowed freely, and blood energy surged through him, showing signs of a breakthrough to the Spirit Sea Realm.
It was as though the original owner's final lingering obsession had vanished as well.
Only now had Ning Chuan truly fused perfectly with this body, the two becoming one.
"Since I've come to this world, why not climb to the pinnacle of the Martial Dao and see how magnificent it is?"
Ning Chuan murmured, a sharp glint in his eyes.
Next, he dealt with the bodies of Li Yunfei and the two guards, finding banknotes worth several hundred thousand taels on them. On Li Yunfei, he also found one hundred and eight spirit stones and two bottles of One-Star Spirit-Breaking Pills, pills used to break through to the Spirit Sea Realm.
Clearly, Li Yunfei had come here this time to break through to the Spirit Sea Realm.
In the end, however, Ning Chuan reaped all the benefits.
Ning Chuan tied their bodies to a massive rock and threw them into the deep pool beneath the waterfall, destroying the corpses and erasing the evidence.
Finally, Ning Chuan returned to the cave.
"To think a Purple Dawn Lotus was growing in this Purple Spirit Spring! Judging by its appearance, it must be nearly a thousand years old. What a fine treasure!"
Ning Chuan's gaze settled on the purple lotus.
This Purple Spirit Spring should be enough for me to break through to the Spirit Sea Realm. If it isn't, I can swallow the Purple Dawn Lotus directly!
With that thought, Ning Chuan jumped straight into the Purple Spirit Spring.
All his meridians were now open, and his blood energy was immense. He had already reached the peak of the Meridian Opening Realm, making this the ideal time to break through to the Spirit Sea Realm.
Ning Chuan sat cross-legged in the Purple Spirit Spring and circulated the Chaos Gods and Devils Art.
His pores opened, and his blood energy surged as his body devoured the vast purple dawn spiritual energy within the Purple Spirit Spring.
Ning Chuan seemed to become a black hole, accepting every trace of spiritual energy and refining it into his body.
The vast, pure spiritual energy circulated through Ning Chuan's body before converging on his dantian.
Boom!
The tremendous surge of spiritual energy shook him like thunder. A barrier within his dantian seemed to be pierced through in an instant.
A vast spirit sea opened up.
The purple dawn spiritual energy surged like an ocean, pouring into Ning Chuan's dantian spirit sea and steadily expanding its boundaries.
A newly opened dantian spirit sea usually measured around a hundred zhang across.
One that reached a thousand zhang was already enough to mark its owner as a genius!
Now, as Ning Chuan devoured the vast purple dawn spiritual energy, his dantian spirit sea began expanding violently.
One thousand zhang!
Two thousand zhang!
Three thousand zhang!
Unbeknownst to Ning Chuan, even the Purple Dawn Lotus had been drained of all its spiritual essence. Spiritual energy from a hundred li around converged on him, pouring into his body.
In the end, his dantian spirit sea reached ten thousand zhang before its expansion slowly stopped!
Wisps of spiritual energy gathered within the vast dantian spirit sea, leaving it looking empty.
Yet Ning Chuan felt a powerful sense of strength, as though a wellspring of power had appeared inside him. His physical strength had doubled, reaching a terrifying two hundred thousand jin of divine force!
"I've finally opened my dantian spirit sea! A ten-thousand-zhang spirit sea and two hundred thousand jin of divine force-such terrifying physical strength is probably something only an expert at the seventh or eighth level of the Spirit Sea Realm could possess!"
Ning Chuan slowly opened his eyes, excitement and joy shining within them.
He had entered the Spirit Sea Realm in a single step.
His cultivation had officially broken through to the first level of the Spirit Sea Realm!
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