Will Statue

"What can it bring me?" Lu Chen asked in a deep voice.

"Go to the back mountain. What you can learn there depends on your own ability. Hurry up—where are the demon beasts I told you to kill? Take them out and let Jiuding cook them. We'll have a proper celebration!"

As Old Ancestor Tianyan spoke, he tossed down the wine flask. "Don't forget to fill it with wine!"

"Fuck me!" Lu Chen was on the verge of breaking down.

The flask might have been only palm-sized, but it contained its own space and could hold three huge jars of wine.

"You win!" Lu Chen ground his teeth in fury.

As for leaving in indignation, he had better forget it.

On the way into the city, he had seen plenty of people with unfriendly expressions.

There was no need to say it—the news of what he had done in Chixiao City and even Cangwu City had spread.

He did not believe Lu Ran would have remained idle for half a month.

The moment he went down the mountain, endless trouble would surely come for him.

He should take a look first.

Clang!

A demon bull's corpse was thrown out.

"What does that mean?" Seeing Fang Jiuding still looking at him, Lu Chen froze.

"That's not even enough to fill Senior Sister's tooth gap!"

"I..." Lu Chen's heart skipped a beat. Could they be this impoverished because Xiong Yao ate too much?

He took out all fifteen demon beast corpses. With a wave of Fang Jiuding's hand, they were collected into the pot.

"Damn, this pot..." Lu Chen was truly stunned.

It had swallowed fifteen demon beast corpses in one go. What kind of pot was this?

"I'll go help!"

Thud, thud, thud...

After saying that, Xiong Yao carried her hammer away.

After filling the wine flask and tossing it to the old man, Lu Chen slipped through the back door to the back mountain.

As he looked at the towering giant statues before him, Lu Chen's mind shook.

He felt as insignificant as an ant before them.

It was not a visual sensation, but one that struck his soul.

It was the influence of will—the Martial Dao Will.

Lu Chen clenched his fists hard.

Every statue represented a kind of Martial Dao Will.

They were visualization targets for Martial Dao Cultivators seeking to comprehend divine abilities.

Lu Chen moved half a meter closer to one of the statues. Boom!

His body seemed to suffer a heavy blow, and he bent over at once.

Images of being struck again and again by a hammer kept flashing through his mind.

As though he were being forged like iron.

"Damn it, I'm a man, not iron!" Lu Chen nearly collapsed.

With each successive heavy impact, ripples spread around Lu Chen.

Three heads poked out from the ruined hall's window.

"Old man, didn't you say you'd been following him all along? Guess how long he can last."

Old Ancestor Tianyan chuckled. "Want to make a bet?"

"No bet!" Xiong Yao refused outright.

"I say he can't last a hundred breaths!" Fang Jiuding's eyes rolled as he suddenly said.

"Go, go, go! Get back to cooking! You're everywhere!"

Old Ancestor Tianyan suddenly reached out and tossed Fang Jiuding back into the main hall. No one knew what he smashed into, but a rumbling crash rang out along with Fang Jiuding's curses.

Yet to the surprise of the two of them, Lu Chen slowly straightened up.

Though he had not moved forward, neither had he retreated.

He simply stood there without moving.

Ten breaths, fifty breaths, a hundred breaths...

"Holy shit!" Old Ancestor Tianyan suddenly shrieked, startling the absorbed Xiong Yao into shuddering.

Lu Chen had actually taken a step forward.

The eighteen statues loomed like ancient gods lowering their gaze. The Martial Dao Will settled within blade scars and sword shadows condensed into substance, crushing Lu Chen until his spine creaked.

He stood before a spear-wielding statue, veins bulging at his temples while his blood and qi churned around him like boiling water.

This spear intent was tyrannical beyond compare, as though it wanted to grind every inch of his sinews and bones into dust.

"His bloodline was taken, and his qi sea is flawed!"

Lu Chen gritted his teeth and activated the Myriad Manifestations Furnace Art. The qi sea furnace in his dantian hummed and trembled, shredding and refining the spear intent that had invaded his body.

The shattered Martial Dao Will turned into tiny streams that flowed into his meridians, causing a trace of scorching heat to rise from the depths of his withered bloodline.

"Still not enough!" He suddenly stepped forward. The spear intent's pressure tripled at once, and several bloody wounds instantly split across his skin.

In a daze, it seemed as though a thousand troops and ten thousand horses came charging through the dust. Just as their iron hooves were about to crush his soul, a violet radiance suddenly burst from the furnace.

"This is..." Lu Chen's pupils shrank sharply.

A certain shackle deep within his bloodline actually loosened a fraction beneath the violet radiance's cleansing, only to return to lifeless silence in the next instant.

He wiped the bloody foam from the corner of his mouth and gave a bitter smile.

He was completely certain that if his bloodline had not been taken, he would have had a chance to awaken his first divine ability.

As dusk stained the ruined hall, Fang Jiuding banged on an iron pot and shouted inside the main hall.

The thick soup within the pot boiled and rolled. The meat stew made from fifteen demon beasts glistened with golden oil.

"Junior Brother, come quickly!" Xiong Yao sat cross-legged beside the pot. She did not care that her beast-hide short outfit was covered in grease stains. Planting her iron hammer on the ground, she scooped up a huge chunk of meat.

"Visualization requires a proper balance between tension and relaxation. You can't comprehend anything on an empty stomach."

The moment Lu Chen sat down, Fang Jiuding had already piled his earthenware bowl into a small mountain.

"Food supplements are cultivation too." Fang Jiuding waggled his brows.

"Back when I joined, I ate 'Eight Treasures Stew' for three months straight..."

"Keep bragging. Go on." Xiong Yao said vaguely, "Have you forgotten how hungry you were when you first arrived? You looked like a monkey..."

Cough, cough! Old Ancestor Tianyan hurriedly coughed to interrupt her.

He shook out three jars of wine and laughed. "Today is for welcoming a newcomer. Say something happy, hehe..."

Old Ancestor Tianyan broke open the mud seals, and the fragrance of wine mixed with medicinal aromas spread through the air. "Let me introduce her. Back then, to save the villagers whose village had been slaughtered by bandits, this girl Xiong endured the lightning tribulation and forced a breakthrough. She is now at the third level of the Golden Core Realm."

The wine jar was suddenly snatched away by Xiong Yao.

She tipped back her head and drank half the jar. A blush spread over her bronze skin. "Why bring that up? Junior Brother even knelt for seven days and seven nights begging for pills to extend his gravely ill mother's life!"

Fang Jiuding's playful expression suddenly froze.

"Unfortunately, when he returned, his mother was already gone."

Lu Chen's hand holding the bowl trembled. "How many spirit stones are needed for three months of food?"

Fang Jiuding's eyes lit up, and he held up five fingers.

"Fifty?" Lu Chen's eyelids twitched.

"F-Five hundred!"

Pfft!

Lu Chen sprayed out a mouthful of wine. "That much?"

Five hundred low-grade spirit stones meant fifty thousand gold coins. That was not enough for three people to eat? What the hell did they eat?

"She cultivates through eating. I cultivate through cooking!" Fang Jiuding gave a bitter smile.

"You really got eaten into poverty?" Lu Chen blinked.

"We were already poor as hell!" Xiong Yao curled her lips.

"The old man is too lazy to move all day long. More importantly, Tianyu Academy suppresses our Tianyan Academy. No one in Yanjing dares do business with us."

"Even when we go out hunting, they constantly harass and sabotage us!"

"Every few days, they come here to challenge us. We can't cultivate in peace at all!"

"It can be said that Tianyu Academy bears a great deal of responsibility for us falling into such straits!"

"And you don't do anything about it?" Lu Chen looked at Old Ancestor Tianyan.

Old Ancestor Tianyan rolled his eyes. "Why should I interfere in matters between juniors? If I step in, they can bring out a whole crowd too. Tell me, should Tianyan Academy disband then, or disband?"

Lu Chen opened his mouth, then fell silent.

Fuck, he had truly been tricked.

He had thought that because of Lu Ran, he might end up opposing some of Tianyu Academy's disciples.

Now it was great—he had become the enemy of every disciple in Tianyu Academy.

"The imperial clan..." After saying those two words, Lu Chen fell silent.

Tianyu Academy stood even above imperial authority. Clearly, the imperial clan could do nothing either.

"What about the Royal Academy? Is it the same as us?"

"Not quite. After all, they have the imperial clan's support, and they run things with great vigor. It is simply stipulated that only imperial clan disciples may join. Outsiders cannot!"

Fang Jiuding's face was full of regret. "If not for that, I might have entered the Royal Academy. Ow! Why did you hit me?"

Fang Jiuding looked indignantly at Old Ancestor Tianyan.