Pine Tree Grave Outside the City

Old Ancestor Tianyan suddenly looked at Lu Chen and said sternly, "What do you want?"

"N-nothing, I was just asking!"

Old Ancestor Tianyan glared at him. "Stop thinking about the imperial mausoleum. It's not something you can just take if you want to. Be careful not to get yourself killed!"

Lu Chen curled his lips.

He could even kill Ancient Demons, so who could kill him inside the imperial mausoleum?

However, he didn't say anything else. He took out another Blood Marrow and stuffed it into Old Ancestor Tianyan's hand.

Tomorrow was the start of the New Year's Martial Arts Tournament, and Yanjing was holding celebratory events everywhere. After dinner, Lu Chen went down the mountain.

Xiong Yao and Fang Jiuding had also planned to go down the mountain to watch the excitement, but Old Ancestor Tianyan had thrown them into the statue group to awaken their bloodlines.

Looking at Yanjing from the mountain, the city was decorated in red, and colorful lanterns adorned the night sky, making it look vibrant.

There were celebratory activities everywhere, with crowds of people.

As soon as he descended the mountain, Lu Chen's ears twitched slightly, and his eyes turned cold.

Someone had set up hidden sentries to watch him at the foot of the mountain.

However, he ignored them. After a pause, he flickered and appeared on the main street.

The street was bustling with noise.

Red lanterns hung under the eaves of every house, carved with runes. The red light condensed in the air to form words like "Peace Year After Year" and "Prosperous Martial Arts."

Children chased the shadows cast on the ground, laughing and jumping.

An old man selling sugar paintings at the street corner sent a paper crane flying from his sleeve. As its wings flapped, it pulled out silver sugar threads, sketching the shapes of Qing Luan and phoenixes in the air.

The surrounding youths jumped up, trying to catch them. Suddenly, the sugar paintings came to life, transforming into palm-sized spirit beasts that circled the crowd before landing in the children's palms, exuding a sweet fragrance.

"Look! The spirit lamps in the direction of the martial arts arena are lit!" someone shouted, and the entire street looked up.

Thirty-six giant glazed lamps soared into the sky from the martial arts arena, each the size of a millstone.

The souls of demonic beasts were sealed within the lamps. Awakened by spiritual energy, they transformed into phantoms fighting within the flames. The sparks that splashed down like falling starlight, like a celestial maiden scattering flowers.

A thunderous roar of cheers erupted from the crowd. Children were lifted high by their parents, elders trembled as they stroked their beards, and young cultivators clenched their fists, their eyes filled with longing.

Lu Chen lingered among them, watching with great interest.

Although he had seen such sights in his previous life, even more spectacular ones, the celebratory scenes from this different world were still very different from his past life.

He truly felt the brilliance of the martial arts civilization.

As the night deepened, the long streets of Yanjing were lit as if it were daytime.

Lu Chen leaned against a carved railing, his fingertips lightly tapping a glazed cup. The spiritual wine within rippled, reflecting the myriad of firefly-like lights in the sky.

On a high platform in the distance, the thirty-six demonic beast soul lamps suddenly exploded in flames, transforming into crimson fire dragons that soared and coiled, eliciting earth-shattering cheers from the crowd.

He narrowed his eyes as a faint, elusive fragrance brushed past his nose.

When he turned around, a plain handkerchief had appeared on the bluestone road. A half-bloomed ice crystal lotus was embroidered on its corner.

He unfolded it to read: "Three quarters past midnight, the Peerless Princess invites you to meet at the pine tomb outside the city."

"Outside the city?" Lu Chen chuckled, and flames rose from his palm, burning the handkerchief to ashes.

As a princess of Yan, she had to sneak around to meet someone?

Clearly, this meeting was not simple.

He wanted to see who this "someone" was.

Perhaps he could get some Golden Core fragments, or even Nascent Soul fragments.

His plan required a large quantity of these scraps.

Lu Chen downed the wine in his cup in one gulp and disappeared into the crowd.

The moon was past its zenith, and the pine forest rustled.

Lu Chen walked slowly, stepping on the pine needles covering the ground. His three Furnaces trembled slightly, and his three clones turned into phantoms, stealthily moving around.

Ahead, tombs were scattered. Four figures stood beneath the thickest ancient pine, all dressed in black.

"Young Master Lu is indeed bold and skilled!" the Nascent Soul cultivator at the forefront said, his voice hoarse like grinding glass. A section of a white bone mask was visible beneath his hood.

"The Princess had a last-minute engagement and specially ordered us to await you here!"

Lu Chen smiled faintly. "Stop playing coy. That's a terrible excuse!"

Lu Chen sneered, his hand caressing the hilt of his Soul Severing Saber.

From the perspective of his left clone, three wolf fangs were buried under a pile of dead branches ten feet away, their crimson poisonous glow faintly visible through the soil.

The Nascent Soul cultivator snorted coldly and suddenly shot nine blood-red beads from his sleeve.

The beads grew rapidly in the wind, transforming into blood lightning that whistled towards them.

Almost simultaneously, three figures erupted from underground, their blades aimed directly at Lu Chen's dantian!

"Rise!"

Lu Chen retreated three steps, and three clones shot out from the shadows.

The left clone raised its hand and threw the Asura Furnace. The furnace's opening flashed with a dark light, swallowing the sky full of red lightning.

The right clone pressed its palms to the ground, and a phantom of the furnace inverted like a bell, forcefully suppressing the three figures into the ground.

The central clone then unleashed a saber strike, its saber aura directly aimed at the Nascent Soul cultivator's forehead.

"Good kid!" the Nascent Soul cultivator exclaimed in surprise. He clasped his palms together, and a hundred-zhang-tall blood-colored Dharma Appearance appeared behind him.

The Dharma Appearance swung its six arms, and countless blood-colored lightning bolts rained down like a storm.

Lu Chen's main body, however, smiled at this moment—he had been waiting for the Dharma Appearance to reveal itself!

The Earth Shattering Collapse Fist was thrown without any fancy moves. Space distorted wherever the fist passed.

The Bone Dharma Appearance exploded with a roar, and the backlash forced the Nascent Soul cultivator to spit out a mouthful of black blood.

The three clones seized the opportunity to form a formation, their furnace chains intertwining into a net that tightly bound the three Golden Core cultivators.

A Bone Warrior shot out from the Bone Furnace, and with three spears, killed the three Golden Core cultivators on the spot.

"Who sent you?" Lu Chen stomped on the Nascent Soul cultivator's chest, crushing his ribs. The Devouring Furnace in his palm hovered above the cultivator's head. "Speak!"

"It was Qiu Mo. He incited the Little Wolf King to attack you."

Before the cultivator could finish speaking, his head was swallowed by the furnace.

Lu Chen captured the struggling Nascent Soul and, seeing it tremble, couldn't help but sneer, "Qiu Mo, you truly don't know when to die!"

He hadn't agreed to the other party's invitation; was he provoked?

Where did this temper come from!

He suppressed the cultivator's Nascent Soul within the Devouring Furnace.

He couldn't kill him yet.

He didn't want to alert the Little Wolf King.

After searching the corpse for a small bag, he then had the Myriad Manifestations Furnace refine it directly.

He obtained a Nascent Soul fragment.

Looking at the contents of the bag, Lu Chen grinned.

There was something he needed: Blood Thunder Seeds.

Three of them.

Of course, there were also spirit stones, mid-grade spirit stones at that, a hundred of them.

Equivalent to ten thousand low-grade spirit stones, a fortune.

Not to mention the melted Nascent Soul and Golden Core fragments.

"Qiu Mo, hehe... what a troublemaker!"

Lu Chen let out a cold smile and vanished with two flashes.

The night wind swept past the eaves, and Lu Chen silently moved along the green tiles.

In the distance, the three-story pavilion of "Drunken Immortal Residence" was brightly lit. Two figures could be vaguely seen through the carved window lattices—they were Qiu Mo and the Little Wolf King Di Kun.

Lu Chen formed a hand seal, and the Myriad Manifestations Furnace released a wisp of blood mist that enveloped him, his aura completely merging with the night.

He clung to the edge of the eaves and flipped into the corridor, hearing the crisp sound of clinking cups.

"Lu Chen should have been captured by now, right?"

Qiu Mo's voice was filled with malice. "He doesn't know what's good for him. I'll make him wail at my feet, hehe..."

"Let me torture him first! I want to eat his flesh raw!" Di Kun's pale face was filled with viciousness and anger.

Having been nearly killed by Lu Chen, he had completely lost face and couldn't even mention the marriage alliance anymore.

It could be said that it had disrupted all his plans.