Chapter 113: Slaying an Immortal with Martial Arts!

"Rumble!"

Wang Ping turned back, only to see a seething expanse of fiery light. Heaven and earth blurred beneath its glare as rolling heat waves rippled outward.

The sheer temperature incinerated the surrounding forest the instant it brushed past like a breeze, setting the night sky ablaze. And this was merely the shockwave. It was hard to imagine the scene at the very epicenter swallowed by that inferno.

"A Grandmaster... this is a Grandmaster!"

Seeing Divinity and Indestructibility. A Martial Dao Grandmaster. In terms of cultivation alone, they could rival the outer sect disciples of the Immortal Gate—cultivators who had survived the Human Tribulation and forged magic power.

Now, Wang Ping was witnessing it with his own eyes.

Glancing back, Wang Ping traced the path Chenlong had carved. Just a split second ago, Chenlong had been lying in wait three kilometers away, biding his time.

Until Wang Ping crushed the armor fragment inside his robes, signaling him to strike.

In that fleeting instant—a thousandth of a second—Chenlong crossed those three kilometers and brought his blade crashing right down toward Kongzhi's brow!

To put it bluntly, that dash achieved the sub-light speed state Wang Ping had once barely scraped, and Chenlong executed it with far greater ease. Thus, by the time he materialized before Kongzhi and brought his blade down, the searing blast had already kicked up a maelstrom of dust and sand, erupting into a mushroom cloud that pierced the heavens!

"Holy shit..."

Wang Ping sprinted madly while popping open his newly acquired Sumeru Vajra Umbrella, barely weathering the shockwave from Chenlong's slash.

'Thank god I have this semi-divine weapon for protection.'

If he hadn't, he would have had to drag Ji Wuhen into the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag to hide, which most likely would have destroyed the artifact entirely.

Just then.

"...Why didn't you say so earlier?"

A thoroughly aggrieved groan suddenly came from his shoulder. It was Ji Wuhen. Despite having been immobilized, he had somehow managed to shake off a portion of the binding effect.

But his current mood was far from pleasant. The look he shot Wang Ping was full of bitter resentment. After all, the reality was obvious by now: Wang Ping was Kongzhi's main target. He was just collateral damage. And this whole ambush—to think there was a Grandmaster hiding in the shadows!

If you had a helper like this, why the fuck didn't you say so earlier!

A wave of sheer relief washed over Ji Wuhen. Truthfully, back when he was immobilized, he thought he was completely screwed. He never expected such a turnaround.

"A Grandmaster slaying a Loose Immortal... I never expected I'd get the chance to witness this with my own eyes..."

"Brother Ji, don't be too optimistic."

Wang Ping glanced at Ji Wuhen and snapped, "This Brahma Cultivator is much stronger than the Loose Immortals you know. The Lord might not actually win."

"I'll unseal you as quickly as possible."

Wang Ping hoisted Ji Wuhen up and channeled his spiritual consciousness into him.

"If the Lord loses, you and I will have to step up... don't think about running away, unless you want to gamble on his character and believe he won't come looking for you afterward."

Ji Wuhen: "..."

Crap, I've really boarded a sinking ship this time!

...

At the epicenter of the inferno.

Chenlong casually stretched his limbs. His heavy armor clanked with his movements—a symphony of iron and steel—while the horse-chopping blade in his grasp vibrated with a continuous, ringing hum.

Opposite him, Kongzhi stood with his palms pressed together. His kasaya was mostly in tatters, exposing robust muscles densely carved with Sanskrit text. Yet, nothing could conceal the thin line of blood across his neck—the mark left by Chenlong's Peerless Slash. It had sheared through flesh, missing decapitation by a mere fraction of an inch!

"A pity, a pity."

Chenlong shook his head. Rather than pressing the attack, he pulled on the reins. The Crimson Dragon Steed beneath him drew to a halt, its hooves stamping fiery prints into the ground.

This Crimson Dragon Steed was the manifestation of a divine weapon's spirit.

Tracing its origins, it came from his leg armor, the Vermilion Dragon Boots. Its Art of War allowed him to summon this dragon steed, possessing the profound ability to tread on wind and walk through thin air.

'Yin Hu was not wrong.'

'This Loose Immortal... really is different from the others.'

Chenlong appeared relaxed on the surface, but his heart was heavy with solemnity. That previous strike hadn't been a probe; he had delivered that slash with the absolute determination to kill his opponent outright.

Long before making his move, fully three kilometers out, Chenlong had summoned this dragon steed and broken into a gallop, steadily building up speed and momentum. Simultaneously, he had utilized his helmet—another divine weapon, the Nether-Concealing Helmet. By employing its Art of War, he had completely masked his aura and form, only unleashing everything at the very last second.

This was the true Peerless Slash.

It relied on a mount to build up blinding speed and momentum during a long-distance charge, funneling every ounce of that kinetic energy into a single strike. Once that slash was spent, he would have to build up momentum all over again.

Thus, he wouldn't draw his blade lightly. But when he did, it was meant to divide life and death.

In truth, an ordinary Loose Immortal facing that strike would have been obliterated without a corpse left behind. Chenlong had more than enough combat experience to back that up.

However, Kongzhi did not die.

Whether it was the shockwave detonated by the slash, the blistering heat, or the sonic boom... his opponent had perfectly weathered it all, only failing to entirely dodge the edge of his blade.

And even that had a reason.

'My Coiling Dragon Formation-Breaking Blade possesses the Art of War known as Formation-Breaking, which can forcibly shatter a Loose Immortal's magic power. It was supposed to be my most unexpected trump card...'

Faced with a strike arriving at god-like speed, the immediate reaction of almost all Loose Immortals was to circulate their strongest magic power to defend themselves. But doing so played right into Chenlong's hands. His heavy blade would effortlessly shatter their magic power, reaping their lives in the blink of an eye.

Life and death were decided in that singular instant.

The moment it passed, the vast majority of Loose Immortals would already be dead. Even if they possessed potent artifacts or spells, a corpse couldn't cast a thing.

However, the flip side was equally true.

'If I land a strike like that and they still don't die... then I've run into a formidable foe I can hardly handle.' Chenlong stared dead ahead at Kongzhi.

At the same time, Kongzhi let out a long exhale.

"Good blade, good artifact, good martial arts... I recall that one hundred and twenty years ago, when I entered seclusion, the Great Shun Martial Dao hadn't yet reached this level."

"I was careless."

Of course, his biggest act of carelessness was lending out the Sumeru Vajra Umbrella.

Had he been holding the Sumeru Vajra Umbrella against that previous slash, he wouldn't have sustained a scratch. But alas, the artifact had been lent out, so he was the one left to suffer the consequences.

"Amitabha."

Kongzhi softly chanted a Buddhist invocation. He showed no shock or rage, only tranquility. As his words faded, the bloody line across his neck rapidly stitched itself back together.

Chenlong's face darkened when he saw this:

"More of these stinking immortal cultivators' spells..."

In mere moments, Kongzhi completely mended his wounds. He rolled his shoulders and neck. Where his monk's robes had been blown away, the Sanskrit characters tattooed across his bare skin gleamed brilliantly.

Instantly, Sanskrit chants resonated through the surroundings. Layers of auspicious clouds gathered overhead, while golden lotuses bloomed beneath his feet. With a thunderous boom, heaven and earth connected, abruptly raising a magnificent temple. The melodious toll of bells echoed out, deafeningly loud. Its grand doors stood wide open, resembling the gaping, bloody maw of a colossal beast.

Witnessing this, Chenlong merely tugged on his reins.

"Neigh!"

The dragon steed unleashed a long whinny as roaring flames flared once more. But this time, the fire originated from the dead center of Chenlong's breastplate, where his Heart-Protecting Mirror coalesced a blindingly incandescent white light.

The next second, Chenlong's figure disappeared.

"Rumble!"

A hundred times the speed of sound—a threshold Wang Ping had to go all out just to scrape—was merely Chenlong's starting acceleration. Lightning and fire flowed in his wake wherever he went.

"This is too insane..."

From afar, Wang Ping—who had been monitoring the battle with his spiritual consciousness the entire time—was absolutely spellbound. What Chenlong was displaying right now was the very state they had all dreamed of achieving.

A hundred times the speed of sound, maintained casually!

Armed with a complete set of divine armor, Chenlong didn't have to worry about his physical body failing to endure the strain. He was unreservedly displaying the sheer violence of speed.

For a man and his steed in this state, galloping itself was an act of destruction. If one were to look down from the heavens right now, they would trace the path of his charge: a winding serpent of lightning and fire tearing through the forest floor, crashing fearlessly toward Kongzhi's position!

The fiery serpent and the grand temple.

One was manifested from a Brahma Cultivator's magic power, profoundly ethereal; the other was a martial artist in full charge, divinely unstoppable. They clashed like two savage, prehistoric beasts fighting to the death!

"And this is only a Martial Dao Grandmaster..."

Wang Ping murmured under his breath. He hadn't forgotten Chenlong's earlier words—even with this monstrous level of strength, he openly admitted he couldn't defeat a true Great Grandmaster.

Just how strong did you have to be?

Could they truly rival the Divine Power he had once witnessed—the Heaven Within the Pot, a technique capable of forging its own world and overturning mountains and seas?

Let alone whatever lay above the Great Grandmaster Rank?

"Kill!"

A furious roar tore through the air, but the sound wholly failed to keep pace with Chenlong's charge. Only after he had crossed blades with Kongzhi several times did the booming shout finally catch up.

Chenlong's blur of a figure orbited Kongzhi. Relying on the magic-shattering properties of his Coiling Dragon Formation-Breaking Blade, he relentlessly chipped and hacked away at Kongzhi's temple.

Streaks of Buddhist light were shorn away.

The rhythmic Zen chants were violently interrupted.

Several times, Kongzhi attempted to ride the wind into the sky, but Chenlong's god-like speed instantly cut him off, forcing him back down to the ground.

From afar, it looked just like a serpent of lightning and fire tightly suffocating the temple, locking it in the center as it lunged in to swallow its prey whole!

"Ami—fucking—tabha!"

Kongzhi finally lost his composure and cursed, sorely missing his Wind-Thunder Demon-Subduing Pestle. If he still had his artifact on hand, how could he possibly be reduced to this passive state?

At the same time, his mind buzzed with confusion.

'Child of Destiny... why?'

By now, it was glaringly obvious that this was all a setup. The Child of Destiny was actively trying to kill him... but he couldn't fathom the reason why.

Even more bafflingly, how could a Child of Destiny—who supposedly knew nothing and was entirely under Book Mountain's thumb—scheme against him? From conning him out of his artifact to acting utterly obedient, it was painfully clear that the boy had a flawless grasp of his true motives.

It made absolutely no sense!

'Unless... the one making a move is Book Mountain!'

At that thought, an epiphany struck Kongzhi: 'Daoist Xuanhe... that bastard must have been playing along with me on the surface, while secretly orchestrating this death trap!'

Rumble!

Suddenly, the deafening crack of his temple shattering derailed his train of thought. He snapped his gaze up to see a sweeping wave of lightning and fire burning through the sky, silhouetting a lone figure against the blaze.

A second later, that figure plunged from the sky.

"He's not human at all anymore!"

Wang Ping didn't hesitate for a second. Grabbing Ji Wuhen, he bolted even further away, mentally clicking his tongue in disbelief—because he realized Chenlong had sped up once again!

Earlier, he had been moving at a hundred times the speed of sound.

Now, he was pushing three hundred, maybe even five hundred times the speed of sound... In this state, he was less of a human and more of a blazing meteor.

And then, the meteor struck the earth.

"Boom!"

In an instant, the very earth seemed to turn from solid to liquid. The ground surged in violent ripples as sand and dust choked the sky. Countless trees caught in the blast were violently uprooted and tossed into the air.

Wang Ping and Ji Wuhen were thrown bodily into the air.

Looking back, they watched the blazing meteor slam right into the temple. Like the final straw breaking a camel's back, it blasted the grand structure into absolute oblivion.

Staring at the destruction, no matter how pessimistic he had been before the battle began, Wang Ping couldn't suppress a swelling sense of anticipation. He stared intently at the battlefield:

'Slaying an Immortal with martial arts... can he win?'