Xiong Yao rolled her eyes. "Master only gave you a tap. If I gave you a hammer blow for eating from the bowl while eyeing the pot, you'd deserve a beating!"
After a pause, she continued, "Picking up from that haul just now, Tianyu Academy has grown too large to control. Great Yan is in such chaos, and its roots can all be traced back to Tianyu Academy. It could be called the biggest malignant tumor."
Lu Chen was startled. "Then... the statues in the back mountain... I saw quite a few traces. Where did those statues go? They weren't stolen, were they?"
Xiong Yao nodded. "There were originally thirty-six. Eighteen were stolen!"
"Damn it!" Lu Chen cursed.
"If you've got the ability, take them back!" Old Ancestor Tianyan curled his lip.
The three of them fell silent.
"Alright, alright, enough of these irritating matters. Drink, drink!"
Fang Jiuding raised his cup. "No matter what, our Tianyan has grown stronger, hasn't it? Hahaha... bottoms up!"
This time, they had really caught a fat prize.
There was all the wine they could drink and all the food they could eat.
They stuffed themselves without restraint.
The sight was like a pack of demon beasts that had starved for ten days or half a month. Lu Chen's scalp went numb just watching them.
It reminded him of the pig farms from his previous life. Damn it...
What sort of people had he ended up following?
And when it was over, he still had to obediently hand over five hundred spirit stones.
He had passed the first round of assessment just like that. Of course, not completely—there was still the matter of daily care.
There was also a second round, but none of the three had said what it specifically involved.
The second round was not for them to decide.
That filled Lu Chen with curiosity.
Three days later, Lu Chen slumped beneath the statue imbued with saber intent.
He had already visualized over half of the eighteen statues. The agitation in his bloodline grew increasingly obvious, yet whenever he was about to touch that shackle, it was always like plucking flowers through mist—he could not grasp anything tangible.
"When your bloodline was taken, your origin was damaged. You need a special treasure to restore it, or you must seize back the bloodline you lost!"
Old Ancestor Tianyan's voice entered his sea of consciousness.
Lu Chen's heart sank.
Lu Ran had been accepted as the final disciple of Tianyu Academy's headmaster. Lu Chen knew perfectly well what it meant to take it back.
He truly would become an enemy of all Tianyu Academy.
Just then, a sword cry suddenly rang out from the horizon.
A jade carriage pulled by nine azure luan birds broke through the clouds. A young man in robes white as snow sat atop it.
"He's here!" A gleam of brilliance burst from Old Ancestor Tianyan's eyes.
This was precisely Lu Chen's second assessment: defeat the Tianyu Academy disciple who had come to challenge him.
"Junior Brother Lu." Smiling, the young man tossed down a battle invitation. "Three days from now, before your academy's mountain gate..."
"Get lost!" Lu Chen roared.
His body vanished from beneath the statue, and when he reappeared, he was already atop the jade carriage.
He immediately threw a punch.
Boom!
The white-robed young man's hairs stood on end. Before he could strike, pain erupted in his back, and he was hammered off the jade carriage like a bomb.
Screech!
The nine azure luan birds cried sharply and tried to counterattack, but four Qi and Blood Domains suddenly appeared. Their bodies stiffened, and they fell straight from the sky.
Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff...
Saber light surged one after another. The nine azure luan birds became headless luan birds, their enormous corpses twitching violently a few times before falling still.
"Senior Brother, catch!" Lu Chen grabbed one luan bird by the leg and flung it out.
Fang Jiuding caught it with his pot and put it away.
"You dare kill the academy's demon beasts? You're dead!" Zhuo Jiuyou flew into a rage.
Tianyan was practically about to be struck from the rolls, yet they still dared provoke Tianyu Academy. This was truly turning heaven and earth upside down.
"No need for any arena. Right here!" Lu Chen spread out his Soul Severing Saber. "Fight!"
His voice shook the clouds, and his battle intent surged like rolling waves.
Zhuo Jiuyou's heart trembled. He had actually been cowed by Lu Chen's aura.
Xiong Yao and Fang Jiuding, who were watching, were both utterly astonished. He had only been tempered for a few days, yet his aura was already so terrifying. This junior brother was extraordinary.
"You think I'm afraid of you?"
Zhuo Jiuyou leaped up, his expression ugly beyond measure.
He had been careless—far too careless.
Not only had he lost face, but the other side had even killed his flashy demon beast. Utterly unacceptable.
A mere Qi Surge Realm cultivator actually thought he was someone important.
He stood in the air, his black robes billowing like raven feathers. In his hand, a Crimson Thunder Banner stirred the winds and clouds.
The pressure of a second-stage Golden Core cultivator poured down, making the ancient trees in the mountains rustle violently.
He was a disciple of Tianyu Academy's secret division, ordered to probe Tianyan's true strength. He had never expected to stumble before he even began.
He would be laughed to death when he returned.
"I will repay every bit of the humiliation from before!" Zhuo Jiuyou sneered. With a shake of the Crimson Thunder Banner, nine bolts of lightning fire entwined like dragons and serpents, crashing down upon Lu Chen.
Lu Chen tapped the ground lightly with his toes, activating Wind and Thunder Steps. His figure vanished like an afterimage.
The lightning fire brushed past him, blasting a scorched pit three zhang wide into the ground.
He drew the Soul Severing Saber with a backhand motion, saber qi carrying Killing Intent as it slashed straight at Zhuo Jiuyou's neck.
"Paltry tricks!"
A bronze shield flew from Zhuo Jiuyou's sleeve, forcibly blocking the saber qi.
The thunder patterns on the shield blazed brightly, rebounding the saber qi.
Borrowing the momentum, Lu Chen spun around, his blade carving an arc of light as it struck at his opponent's lower body.
Zhuo Jiuyou rose into the air to evade it, then swung the Crimson Thunder Banner again. Lightning fire condensed into a gigantic net, sealing off all eight directions.
Lu Chen narrowed his eyes slightly, and his Qi and Blood Domain silently spread out.
The lightning fire touched the edge of the domain and sank as though caught in a swamp.
He seized the chance to teleport behind Zhuo Jiuyou. Saber force hissed like a venomous serpent striking with its tongue. "I'll be taking your treasure."
The phantom of the Myriad Manifestations Furnace suddenly appeared. A sweep of dark light from its mouth drew in the lightning fire.
Zhuo Jiuyou's expression changed abruptly. Just as he tried to retreat, the Soul Severing Saber had already pierced his protective Spiritual Light.
The instant the saber tip touched the Crimson Thunder Banner, the furnace roared, forcibly extracting the lightning fire origin within the banner!
"Bastard!" Zhuo Jiuyou's eyes nearly split apart. He struck his palm toward Lu Chen's chest.
Lu Chen took the palm wind head-on. With a flick of his blade, the Crimson Thunder Banner flew from Zhuo Jiuyou's hand.
The furnace flames surged, refining the magic artifact into a mass of Lightning Fire Essence in the blink of an eye.
Zhuo Jiuyou staggered backward, while the storage bag in his sleeve had already been sliced open by saber force.
Spirit stones and pills rained down, only to be swept clean away by Lu Chen's furnace.
"That's another month of food expenses. Thanks!"
Lu Chen grinned and struck Zhuo Jiuyou in the center of his back with the flat of his blade.
The Golden Core expert crashed into the mountain ravine like a kite with a snapped string, sending up a spray of water.
Zhuo Jiuyou saw stars from rage, humiliated and grief-stricken beyond endurance.
He had lost completely.
"Just you wait! Aaargh..." Zhuo Jiuyou's furious roar faded into the distance.
Yet three bursts of mocking laughter rang out from the mountain.
"I'm going into seclusion!" Lu Chen called out before vanishing.
Before coming here, he had already reached the peak of the sixth level of the Qi Surge Realm. He had been suppressing himself, unwilling to break through.
After this battle, the bottleneck broke open on its own. Even if he did not want to break through, he had no choice.
Inside a stone chamber in the back mountain, he sat cross-legged.
This time, he did not use the Lightning Fire Essence. Instead, he stored it separately in his storage ring.
It was one of the treasures needed for a breakthrough to the seventh level, so he had to save it.
Besides, the Myriad Manifestations Furnace already possessed ample energy.
The Myriad Manifestations Furnace and the Qi and Blood Furnace roared. Boundless qi and blood boiled like magma.
Violent energy coursed through his body, the recoil wrenching agonizing pain from his meridians.
Lu Chen gritted his teeth and endured it. His Qi and Blood Domain compressed layer by layer, then, through continual refinement, fused into the sphere within the Qi and Blood Furnace.
The Qi and Blood Furnace shook violently. Qi and Blood Detachment extended ten zhang outward, transforming into a giant flaming python that smashed apart the mountain rocks.
The seventh level of the Qi Surge Realm—achieved!
Qi and blood could now take form.
He could condense it into all manner of shapes for attack.
He was preparing to temper himself among the statues to stabilize his cultivation when Fang Jiuding's voice rang out from the ruined hall.
"Junior Brother, we're out of rice. Go down the mountain and find a way to buy some!"
Lu Chen staggered, nearly falling over.
Paying three months' worth of food expenses did not mean he was free of responsibility. He also had to handle the purchasing for those three months.
Helplessly agreeing, he made a few quick preparations and headed down the mountain.
Along the way, he spotted at least three spies.
"Now this is interesting. Staying on the mountain and doing nothing but cultivating isn't much of a life!"
The corner of Lu Chen's mouth curved up as he casually arrived on the main street.
Before you continue