Lu Chen bled from all seven orifices, yet he bared his teeth in wild laughter.
Three clones shot out, each wielding an external furnace as they slammed into the fist shadows.
Amid the explosive shockwaves, Lu Chen closed in like a ghost, his Soul Severing Saber stabbing straight at Wan Tong's throat.
"You're courting death!" Scales surfaced across Wan Tong's neck, and the blade tip scraped out blinding sparks.
He seized Lu Chen's wrist in passing, his right knee wrapped in Gale Force as it drove toward Lu Chen's chest and abdomen.
This close-range ram had once blasted a Golden Core cultivator's protective treasure into powder.
At the critical moment, astonishing vital energy also erupted from Lu Chen's body.
Layer upon layer, it condensed around him.
The instant the two collided, his vital energy shattered. Lu Chen used the force to fly backward, blood tracing a bleak, beautiful arc through the air.
"That felt good!" He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, the fighting spirit in his eyes burning even hotter.
The three clones suddenly surrounded Wan Tong, and their external furnaces exploded at the same time.
The violent energy tore apart the Asura phantom, and cracks finally appeared in Wan Tong's protective aura.
Wan Tong flew into a rage and formed hand seals with both hands.
The sky abruptly darkened. Nine bolts of blood-red lightning crashed down, condensing into a huge hammer coiled in electricity within his palm.
A warhammer carrying a portion of the lightning laws.
"Die!"
At the instant the massive hammer fell, Lu Chen actually withdrew his furnace.
He spread his arms wide to meet the lightning, blood mist bursting from every pore across his body—he intended to temper his body with heavenly lightning!
"Madman!" The old man watching the battle cried out in shock.
The moment lightning pierced his body, Lu Chen shook violently from head to toe. The Myriad Manifestations Furnace revolved with all its might, swallowing it all.
At the same time, waves of energy surged from it, replenishing his expenditure and repairing his injuries.
When the lightning dispersed, Lu Chen crawled up from the scorched arena and sneered. "My turn!"
"Impossible!" Wan Tong cried, swinging his hammer to meet the incoming blade light.
This slash contained the lightning laws returned by the Myriad Manifestations Furnace. It was even sharper, even more violent.
Bang!
The lightning warhammer exploded on the spot. The saber aura did not slow, crashing into Wan Tong's bronze skin.
His skin tore apart like paper.
The Asura phantom wailed and scattered. Wan Tong dropped to his knees.
He stared in disbelief at the Soul Severing Saber embedded in his chest.
A rasping "Hah... hah..." came from his throat.
Lu Chen pulled out his saber and turned. A flash of blade light streaked through the air, and Wan Tong's head flew from his body. Before it could fall, the external furnace swallowed it.
His corpse was taken as well.
The supervising old man staggered, nearly falling flat on his face.
When he looked up, his face was full of fury, his gaze vicious enough to devour someone as he roared:
"Who told you to kill him?"
"Sorry, I couldn't hold back my blade and accidentally killed him!"
Pfft!
The old man directly sprayed out a mouthful of hot blood.
One reason was Lu Chen's provocation. The other was the three statues that had flown away.
They had fucking lost again.
"Junior Brother, you're so handsome I could die! Roar roar roar..." Xiong Yao waved her iron hammer and shouted excitedly.
"Hahaha, Junior Brother, you've fulfilled the long-cherished wishes of so many academy ancestors! That's fucking incredible! Look at those idiots—they've all turned into dumb-haired chickens! Hahaha..."
Fang Jiuding was so excited that he could barely speak coherently.
"Leave!" the old man roared, knowing that staying any longer would only bring greater humiliation.
"Hey, hey, hey, you can send out a Golden Core Realm fifth-level expert. Don't tell me you don't have one?" Lu Chen continued to bait them.
The old man's head spun.
Fuck, it wasn't over yet? He still wanted more!
But no matter what, they could not take the risk again.
If they failed, someone would chop off their heads on the spot.
"What about you people? Did you all just come to watch the show?"
Fuck your grandpa...
Many people nearly started cursing aloud.
Whoosh...
They scattered like birds and beasts, vanishing in an instant.
"Hey, hey, hey, you haven't taken the arena with you!" Lu Chen continued provoking them.
Many people nearly had a mental breakdown.
They had never been humiliated so miserably before!
"Pah, so you're just a rabble!"
Mm, mm, mm...
So many people were furious enough to want to turn back and fight him to the death.
He was killing the man and breaking the heart!
Rumble...
The mountains of Tianyan Academy rumbled.
As the statues returned to their places one by one, twenty-seven pillars of will shot into the sky, converging amid the clouds into a golden vortex.
The ruined halls shuddered with rustling tremors, and emerald vines grew from the cracks between their tiles;
the dried-up spirit spring began gushing forth once more.
Xiong Yao's black iron hammer automatically floated into the air. As the rust peeled away from its surface, ancient inscriptions were revealed;
Fang Jiuding's battered pot breathed out rosy light, while a map of mountains, rivers, and the realm unexpectedly manifested across its bottom.
"The Martial Dao River..." Old Ancestor Tianyan raised his head toward the sky, tears glimmering in his clouded old eyes.
Only great powers could see the golden dragon of fortune coiling atop the mountain. Its roar made Yanjing's city-protecting grand formation flicker uncertainly.
Behind the pearl curtain on the top floor of the Drunken Immortal Tower, a masked woman abruptly rose to her feet.
The jade cup crushed between her fingertips turned to powder. Her voice trembled with suppressed emotion. "All twenty-seven have returned to their positions..."
The leader of the Shadow Guard knelt on one knee. "Should we activate the plan?"
"No!" The woman raised a hand to stop him. "If that pack of madmen discovers that Tianyan's fortune is reviving, they will certainly spare no cost..."
She looked in the direction of the imperial palace. Beneath her mask, her cherry lips bit out streaks of blood, her eyes filled with worry.
Yanjing's autumn was thrown into chaos by the pillars of light from the twenty-seven Martial Dao Will statues.
Tianyan Academy's ruined mountain gate even took on a hint of majesty beneath the circling golden dragon of fortune. Even the old man selling sugar figurines by the street felt an indescribable pressure seeping from those broken walls and ruins.
Yanjing was shaken, and the shock even spread throughout the nation.
Chixiao City, Lu Family ancestral hall.
Three wisps of green smoke curled up from the incense burner, yet they could not conceal the anxiety filling the hall.
Lu Ran's father's memorial tablet had split in two. The elders kneeling below it had trembling knees—they had just received the recording sent from Yanjing.
"Lu Chen... he really killed Wan Tong of Tianyu Academy..." Third Elder Lu Changqing stared at the rolling head in the water mirror, his throat making a clicking sound.
Outside the hall, the autumn wind swept dead leaves against the windows, just like the day Lu Chen had swept through the Lu Family.
"Pass down the order!" The First Elder suddenly smashed the table before him. "Withdraw the spirit stones being offered to Tianyu Academy!"
"But Young Master Lu Ran..."
"Idiot! Can't you see Lu Chen's current combat strength? The Martial Dao Second Realm! He kills Golden Core cultivators as easily as butchering dogs! Can Lu Ran do that? Can he?!"
The First Elder's beard and hair stood on end. "We cannot remain muddleheaded any longer. Lu Chen did not attack us last time because he remembered the Lu Family's grace in raising him. We cannot squander that grace away!"
"Whether it is Lu Ran or Lu Chen, both are members of my Lu Family. Whoever wins or loses will follow fate. The Lu Family cannot afford this gamble!"
After speaking, the First Elder's face was full of sorrow.
If not for Lu Chen's bloodline being plundered, Lu Ran would have remained in the Lu Family to inherit the position of family head, while Lu Chen would undoubtedly have entered Tianyu Academy and become the dean's final disciple.
The Lu Family would surely have risen to power.
But now...
Lu Chen was still such a monstrous genius, and he had become Lu Ran's mortal enemy. What should have been cause for celebration had instead made the Lu Family a nationwide joke.
They had played a fine hand into complete ruin. What a tragedy!
The same scenes played out among the major families of Chixiao City.
The Zhao Family threw the plaque engraved with "Congratulations to Lu Ran for Entering Tianyu" into the rubbish heap overnight.
The eight carriages in the Qian residence's rear courtyard turned around, and the resources originally meant for the Lu Family were taken back.
The families that had intended to curry favor with the Lu Family also halted their actions, waiting to see how things unfolded.
Behind Tianyan Academy, the furnace roared like thunder.
Lu Chen sat cross-legged beneath a statue, a fragment of Martial Dao Will floating above his palm.
This was obtained when the myriad furnaces refined Wan Tong's corpse.
Mysterious patterns covered the fragment's surface, faintly outlining an Asura phantom.
"This is true intent that only a Martial Dao True Form can possess. Using it now would be somewhat wasteful!"
Lu Chen hesitated for a moment and could not bear to use it.
Martial Dao Cultivators were difficult to encounter, and killing one was even harder.
Using it now would be wasteful, and he had deeper considerations as well.
He then took out another seven Golden Core Law Fragments.
Before you continue