The spectators in the imperial capital all wore horrified expressions as they witnessed the same sight.
A figure in green robes walked across the sky.
Several thousand meters away in the sky, the old immortal was drenched in blood, staring fixedly at Chen Xia's sky-walking figure. The flying sword beside him trembled and hummed incessantly.
His gaze was fierce. Gritting his teeth, he beckoned with one hand. The flying sword let out an angry cry and rose upside down, its tip aimed straight at Chen Xia's head.
"I cultivated for two hundred years and entered the Dao through the flying sword. My killing power should be the greatest under heaven! You're a cultivator who relies on nothing but his fists. What gives you the right to challenge me like this?!"
The old immortal seethed with indignation!
He had cultivated bitterly for two hundred years to reach Golden Core. After emerging from seclusion, he should have been unrivaled in the world. What gave Chen Xia the right to rise within a hundred years and become someone no weaker than him?!
Chen Xia stopped walking across the sky and looked at the old immortal. He extended one hand, holding it before the corner of his mouth again. His eyes seemed to ripple in water, turning completely transparent as he replied.
"Because you're trash."
The old immortal froze.
Before he could even react, Chen Xia was in front of him again, and his fist had already landed on him.
Horror filled the old immortal's eyes. He simply could not understand how Chen Xia could move at such terrifying speed.
No matter how little he understood it, that fist landed squarely on him.
His figure shot backward again, carving a furrow through the air. Even his blood evaporated in the heat generated by friction with the air.
The old immortal gritted his teeth, raised a hand before his chest, and summoned his flying sword.
A shadow suddenly enveloped his body, and he immediately looked up in horror.
He saw Chen Xia's eyes looking down at him, and a hand reaching for his head!
Horrified, the old immortal rapidly formed hand seals with the fingers before his chest. His flying sword became an arc of light, hurtling over with fierce Sword Qi to slash at Chen Xia's head!
The flying sword was fast, and its killing power was even greater.
If it struck, the old immortal was confident it could pierce Chen Xia's skull.
Unfortunately, it had no chance of striking at all.
Chen Xia caught the blade with one hand.
The flying sword gave a mournful, trembling cry. Held in Chen Xia's single hand, its blade had already begun to crack. It wailed incessantly as all its Sword Qi dispersed.
The old immortal stared blankly.
Chen Xia held his head in one hand and hurled him toward the ground like a ball.
Boom!
A tremendous noise erupted in the sky.
The old immortal's body struck the ground in an instant and plunged a thousand meters deep, shattering untold amounts of earth. The ground collapsed for several thousand meters around.
Three breaths later.
Half the imperial capital had collapsed. There were no casualties.
Chen Xia gripped the flying sword's hilt in one hand and pressed his other palm against its tip, beginning to compress it inward. His brute strength disregarded all its Sword Qi and crushed the flying sword into ash, which scattered on the wind.
The surrounding Constabulary experts were dumbfounded. This was a completely one-sided beating. The old immortal had absolutely no power to fight back against the State Preceptor.
It was like an adult beating a child.
Chen Xia took a step, his figure flickering from several thousand meters above to the ground. Looking at the half-dead old immortal amid the crater, he exhaled a breath of turbid air. Some of his anger subsided, and he asked.
"Have you been this arrogant since you were little?"
The old immortal spat out a great mouthful of blood. Unable to move his body anymore, he stared fixedly at Chen Xia and replied.
"I had neither father nor mother. I went up the mountain at three, practiced the sword at sixteen, and was invincible under heaven at twenty-six."
Chen Xia frowned and lifted his foot, casually kicking a pebble. It shot out and blasted apart the rubble beside the old immortal's head. Then he commented.
"That's still no reason for you to be this arrogant."
The old immortal coughed up another mouthful of blood. Staring at Chen Xia, he sneered. "Cultivation under heaven comes down to one word: seizing. If you don't fight and seize, what will you cultivate with? Other people's handouts?"
By adding points.
Chen Xia really wanted to say that, but he held back and shook his head.
"If you want to fight for things, go fight with people who want to compete. Why come to the imperial capital and run wild?"
The old immortal sneered. "I came precisely to compete with you. The fortuitous opportunities in this world are limited, not enough for two people to ascend. Only by killing you would I have a chance to ascend."
Chen Xia crouched, resting both hands on his knees, and replied flatly.
"With your aptitude, you want to ascend?"
The old immortal fell silent for a moment, then merely replied, "You're stronger than me, so naturally, whatever you say is right."
Chen Xia shook his head, his gaze sharpening. "When you came here, you should have been prepared to die."
The old immortal fell silent. Only after a long while did he reply, "You're not merely at Golden Core."
"Mm." Chen Xia nodded. "I'm at Multicolored Core."
He was indeed telling the truth.
The old immortal offered no comment. More blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, and he looked as though he had little time left. After catching his breath for a while, he spoke again.
"When you achieve Nascent Soul, you will ascend. This world cannot accommodate a Nascent Soul Cultivator. You will ascend to the immortal realm, and barring anything unexpected, you should be assigned to the superior sect, the Fuyao Immortal Sect."
Chen Xia frowned. "Why are you telling me this? Hoping I'll have a sudden burst of kindness and spare your life?"
"Hahaha!" The old immortal laughed loudly, blood gushing from his mouth again. He no longer cared, speaking as he vomited blood.
"I'm only telling you that no matter how powerful you are in this world, after ascending, you'll be nothing but a lowly ant!"
Chen Xia was somewhat puzzled. "Then why do you want to ascend? To become an ant?"
The old immortal fell silent. Another moment passed before he spoke.
"If you don't ascend, your only path is to exhaust your lifespan, your body perishing and your Dao ending. Only by ascending can you pursue the Great Dao of eternal life, even if it means starting over as an ant."
Chen Xia smiled.
Then he really had no need to ascend.
His lifespan was already infinite, and he could add points and level up every year. Only an idiot would ascend to compete with those immortals.
Seeing Chen Xia's smile, the old immortal spat out more blood and said coldly, "Laugh all you want now. Once you reach the Upper Realm, with that unwillingness to fight and seize, you'll spend your whole life as an ant beneath other people's feet!"
Chen Xia casually picked up a pebble from the ground and smiled at the old immortal.
"At least I'm still alive."
That one sentence was enough to utterly destroy the old immortal.
There was nothing more that needed saying.
Holding the pebble, Chen Xia hurled it fiercely. The air cracked explosively. Looking in the direction the pebble had flown-
There was a bloody hole between the old immortal's brows, and the light in his eyes was gradually fading.
Chen Xia had already pierced through the old immortal's soul.
Dark clouds instantly gathered in the sky, and a dense drizzle began to fall.
This was heaven weeping after a Golden Core's death.
[Fortune effect: killed a Golden Core expert of this world. Invincible Intent +1]
Invincible Intent?
Chen Xia was slightly surprised. After all, he considered this relatively rare. Previously, beating an immortal from the Upper Realm to death had only given him three wisps of Invincible Intent.
Now, killing a Golden Core at the same realm gave him one wisp. That really was easy.
Chen Xia thought about it and felt that this Invincible Intent probably also depended on which world he was in. For example, Golden Core was the strongest existence in this world, so killing a Golden Core at the same realm could also earn him Invincible Intent.
However, this Invincible Intent required three thousand wisps to be useful. Only then could he become an invincible person and open the path of a Great Emperor.
His four wisps of Invincible Intent probably were not enough to condense even a single invincible finger. For now, he could only keep them to look nice.
Not far away, Huang Qingyue saw that the fight was over and hurried over, dragging her weakened body along. She examined Chen Xia closely and asked with concern.
"You weren't hurt, were you?"
If she had asked that while the old immortal was still alive, it probably would have angered him enough to make him jump up on the spot.
Throughout the entire battle, he had not even touched Chen Xia once, yet Huang Qingyue could actually ask whether he was hurt?!
Fortunately, the old immortal was already dead and did not have to endure such torment.
Looking at Huang Qingyue's pale face, Chen Xia felt a pang for this silly girl. He wiped the blood from her pretty face and said softly.
"He wanted to fight me, so you should've just let him come. He couldn't beat me anyway. Why bother stopping him yourself? One look at him tells you he's a brute who doesn't know how to hold back. With your delicate skin and tender flesh, stopping him wasn't worth it at all."
A happy smile curled Huang Qingyue's lips. She knew Chen Xia was concerned for her, but she still offered a timid explanation.
"I was afraid he'd disturb your cultivation. You told me you were going to form your Golden Core. What if he disturbed you and made you fail?"
Chen Xia shook his head. "I could've killed him even without forming my core. If something like this happens again, run first. Don't worry about me. I'm invincible."
At least in this world, Chen Xia was invincible.
Huang Qingyue nodded obediently. "All right, but can I watch from the side?"
"Then make sure you watch quietly. Don't come out to stop anyone again," Chen Xia said with a smile.
Huang Qingyue raised her arm and showed it off, laughing sweetly. "I won't."
"Is your injury all right?" Chen Xia asked worriedly, looking at Huang Qingyue's pale face.
Huang Qingyue thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of Chen Xia caring about her. It was like eating the sweetest honey as a greedy little child. She could never savor enough of that happiness.
Lowering her head, she replied softly, "It should, probably, possibly be fine."
Chen Xia frowned. "Let me see."
Huang Qingyue covered her full, upturned breasts. A faint blush rose on her pale, pretty face, and she lowered her head, saying with extreme shyness, "You can't just look."
Chen Xia froze for a moment, then marveled at how Huang Qingyue really knew where to get injured.
With that, he asked no further questions. Instead, he called people over to clean up the battlefield and have the old immortal's corpse cremated while they were at it. They could scatter the ashes into the sea.
It was not about seeking some poetic significance. Chen Xia simply wanted to scatter the ashes of that old bastard.
Huang Qingyue lowered her eyes, a flicker of disappointment passing through them unseen by anyone else.
And so the old immortal's emergence ended.
Next, everyone under heaven would learn that the old immortal had lived only half a month after emerging.
Fourteen days out in the world, proclaiming all his lofty ambitions.
One day in the imperial capital.
Dead.
Even his ashes had been scattered.
A legend of his generation had perished, his body gone and his Dao ended, leaving many martial-world experts sighing.
Thus, the "half-invincible" label Chen Xia had carried for a hundred years finally lost its "half," leaving only invincible!
That night.
After taking her medicine, Huang Qingyue stood at her doorway. Looking at Chen Xia, who was about to enter his room, she called out, her cheeks faintly red.
"Brother Chen."
Chen Xia turned in puzzlement. "What is it?"
Huang Qingyue turned her head aside, looking exceptionally bashful beneath the bright moonlight. Her little hand brushed back the hair beside her ear, revealing an ear tip so red it seemed about to drip blood.
"Would... would you like to look at... my... my in... injury?"
Chen Xia first froze, then straightened his expression. Cupping his fists, he said solemnly.
"Tonight, we discuss only medicine, nothing else."
"Then hurry inside." Unable to bear her embarrassment, Huang Qingyue quickly retreated into her room.
Chen Xia strolled after her, preparing to show off his skills.
His medical skills, that was.
The warm morning sun had just risen, and the mist had yet to disperse. The great bell in the imperial capital rang out with a lingering toll.
Long before that, Chen Xia had already sat down on the steps outside Huang Qingyue's door. Propping his head on one hand, he gazed at the hazy morning mist and pondered.
Naturally, he and Huang Qingyue had spent the night discussing medicine.
In particular, they had gained the most basic understanding of the body's various acupuncture points. There was nothing shameful about it. It was biological instinct.
Chen Xia accepted biological instinct, too.
But they had not reproduced. It was not that he could not.
It was Huang Qingyue who could not.
Huang Qingyue was injured and ought to rest properly and receive some therapy. What sense would there be in suffering another "injury"?
Chen Xia cared about Huang Qingyue and did not want to "hurt" her, so he decided to arrange another day.
Huang Qingyue was naturally delighted. She pulled Chen Xia down to sit on the bed and asked him to tell her a story.
And so, with a serious expression, Chen Xia began telling a story that had influenced his entire life. To suit this era, he even changed some of it.
"Chapter one: the landlord's wife."
The plot had its twists and turns. Huang Qingyue listened with her heart pounding, without the slightest desire to sleep.
Fortunately, Chen Xia later stopped the story, and Huang Qingyue pulled the quilt over her blushing head, preparing to sleep.
Only then did Chen Xia come outside and sit on the threshold, propping up his head as he thought.
He was considering what he should do with his future path. Should he simply hide in this world and slowly add points?
He himself did not mind. After all, he would live forever.
But Huang Qingyue would not live forever. To obtain eternal life, she would have to ascend to the immortal realm.
Besides, Chen Xia still had to visit Xu Zhen in the immortal realm.
So he could not stay in this world forever. Someday in the future, he too would ascend to the immortal realm.
Therefore, before ascending, he had to prepare and reach his strongest state, so he could at least secure a place for himself after ascending.
Only then could he continue protecting Huang Qingyue.
He believed he would be invincible one day, but he did not want to lose too much before becoming invincible.
If it were Law Treasures or cultivation methods, he would not mind. Losing wealth to avert disaster, after all.
But there were things in this world far more important than Law Treasures and cultivation methods.
Sitting on the steps, Chen Xia slowly exhaled. Looking as though he had figured something out, he stood, gazed at the rising sun and the moon that had yet to fully recede, patted his sleeves, and said with a smile.
"It's decided. Starting today, I'll forge invincibility!"
P.S. Brothers, tap that update reminder. Ten thousand words tomorrow. One tap from you, one tap from me, and tomorrow there might be even more.