Chapter 85

Chapter 85: Defeating a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, the Conspiracy Revealed

“To ambush and murder another sect’s disciples out in the open—has the Ren Yang Sect truly become this shameless?”

Zhao Chun’s voice went razor-cold. She hadn’t expected the man in front of her to admit his identity without the slightest hesitation.

He only smiled and shook his head. “If people know, then it’s ‘in the open.’ If they don’t, it never happened.”

As he spoke, he extended an arm. A massive worm slid off his shoulder, crawled up his forearm, and looped around his waist like a living belt.

The Ling Zhen Sect had drilled this into them long ago: if a Ren Yang cultivator carried a life gu capable of Externalization, you struck the gu first—no questions, no mercy.

Sword Light Realm flared.

Zhao Chun blurred into motion, sweeping in like an autumn gale through dead leaves. Her blade flashed once—and the worm’s head flew.

The Ren Yang cultivator tried to retreat, but he was a heartbeat too slow. Sword Light Realm fell cleanly, and the creature didn’t even have time to shriek.

“Fine skill, Fellow Daoist.”

It sounded like praise, but fury sharpened every syllable. He stared at her as if seeing her for the first time, stunned that she was an Entry Realm sword cultivator. The impulse to eliminate this rising threat from the Ling Zhen Sect hardened into cold resolve.

Zhao Chun had already reached the same conclusion. This Ren Yang disciple was definitely Foundation Establishment Stage. After the fusion of her two sword arts, no mere Qi Refining Stage cultivator could survive that strike—man and gu would have been cleaved apart together.

She wasn’t wrong.

His name was Chen Song Shi. He had only stepped into the Foundation Establishment Stage recently. Originally, he had come as one of the Ren Yang Sect’s Qi Refining Stage disciples to witness the ceremony. Fortune had nourished him to completion, and he had long since secured a Foundation Establishment spiritual item, keeping it close until the right moment. On Tun Qi Mountain, he seized that moment and built his Spiritual Foundation in a single breath.

There was something else Zhao Chun didn’t know.

The Ren Yang Sect had indeed been sending disciples in secret to assassinate the Ling Zhen Sect’s talents—but their targets weren’t Qi Refining Stage cultivators. They were after Liu Xuan and Jiang Yun, the two prodigies of alchemy and swordsmanship.

Today’s clash with Chen Song Shi was nothing more than bad luck. The two of them had emerged from secluded cultivation around the same time. When Chen saw Zhao Chun in Ling Zhen Sect robes, her aura only at Qi Refining Stage, he decided that killing one more was still killing one more. And so this disaster fell from the sky.

“You’re only at Qi Refining Stage, yet you’ve already brushed the edge of a Dao realm,” Chen Song Shi said, his tone slick with envy. “That kind of talent makes people sick with jealousy.”

He swept a hand over the severed section of the worm. The creature shuddered violently, its body rippling—then, impossibly, a new head pushed out from the wound.

Chen’s smile sharpened. “Too bad you met me today. Your luck ends here.”

He had only just entered the Foundation Establishment Stage, and he hadn’t mastered Incarnation Art, one of the sect’s three great secret techniques. His life gu couldn’t act as a true Externalization body on its own yet. He still needed Command Art to control the worm, which meant he couldn’t fully free himself to weave seals and cast at will.

The worm’s head and upper back bristled with needle-like spines. They fired in bursts—thin streaks that whistled through the air—and even as Zhao Chun slipped past them, she saw the spines regenerate almost immediately. The creature’s severed head had already proven the same truth: it could regrow.

She kept moving, but her thoughts stayed icy.

Regrowth like this defied the natural order. It had to consume an enormous amount. He couldn’t use it without limit.

And he wasn’t like Zhuo Gong Qing, whom Du Fan Zhi had fought earlier. Zhuo Gong Qing and his venomous spider could coordinate like two fighters, covering each other in battle.

Chen Song Shi was different. Like Tu Mian, he had to split his focus to control his gu, and his own body was constrained.

Unless…

Unless he had Incarnation Art.

Zhao Chun’s gaze hardened. In the next instant, her sword intent shifted completely, and her killing line snapped toward Chen Song Shi’s head.

“Not good!”

Chen cursed under his breath. He threw up his worm-wrapped arm as a shield while his other hand surged with true qi and thrust forward.

Hatred between the two sects ran too deep. Once they met, there was never going to be anything but death.

Chen flicked something from his sleeve. It detonated between them with a deafening roar. Under cover of the blast and smoke, he condensed the life gu into a tight ball and swallowed it, forcing it down as he tried to activate Inner-Nurture Art.

Zhao Chun didn’t know what had exploded. Her ears rang, pain pulsing behind her eyes. But through the haze, she caught the motion—and she moved.

Sword Light Realm tore through the smoke in a rapid storm. She closed the distance in a blink and severed his other arm before he could complete the technique.

Chen Song Shi hadn’t even begun Inner-Nurture Art when her blade was already descending toward his skull.

Then a voice cut through the chaos, urgent and sharp. “Junior Sister—spare him!”

Zhao Chun’s sword stopped.

The tip rested against Chen Song Shi’s brow, less than a hair’s breadth from piercing.

Zheng Chen Qing stood behind her, eyes wide with disbelief. To strike that fast and stop that cleanly—her control was already at Subtlety Realm.

“Senior Brother Zheng?” Zhao Chun asked without turning her head.

Her blade lowered. In the same motion, she drove a surge of true qi into Chen Song Shi’s lower abdomen, shattering his dantian. His body went slack, whatever resistance he still had snuffed out at the root.

Only then did she sheath her sword and turn.

Zheng Chen Qing exhaled, admiration flickering through his grim expression. “Recently, Ren Yang Sect cultivators have been ambushing our disciples around the sect. If we keep a living witness, we can interrogate him. Even if he refuses to speak, he can still serve as proof.”

Before Zhao Chun could respond, Chen Song Shi—collapsed on the ground—let out a cold laugh. “Stop smearing the Ren Yang Sect. Since when did my sect send people to your Ling Zhen Sect to assassinate disciples? Kill me, flay me, do whatever you want—but keep your filthy accusations to yourself.”

Zheng Chen Qing’s face darkened. “Accusations? You were trying to kill our disciple today. What, does the Ren Yang Sect raise cowards who dare to act but won’t admit it?”

Caught with the deed in plain sight, Chen Song Shi’s expression twisted. He ground his teeth. “If I didn’t do it, I didn’t do it. Today, I admit what happened today. Everything else… I admit nothing.”

Zhao Chun cut in, calm and final. “Arguing is pointless. Take him back and let the elders decide.”

If they dragged him through the open and were seen by cultivators of the Zhi Yue Sect, questions would be inevitable. Zheng Chen Qing summoned a small pagoda-like tower, preparing to seal Chen Song Shi inside.

Zhao Chun saw the hatred gathering in Chen’s eyes—too sharp, too concentrated. A chill slid down her spine.

No.

She grabbed Zheng Chen Qing by the robe and yanked him backward hard. “Senior Brother—careful!”

The next heartbeat exploded into blood and bone.

Chen Song Shi’s body ruptured, detonating outward. The shockwave hit like a wall. Even from more than ten meters away, Zhao Chun and Zheng Chen Qing felt their dantians shudder, their true qi churning into chaos. If they had taken it head-on, it would have crippled them—possibly killed them.

Zheng Chen Qing stared at the gore-stained ground, still shaken. “You shattered his dantian. By all logic, he shouldn’t have been able to self-destruct…”

“The Ren Yang Sect’s life gu methods are strange,” Zhao Chun said quietly. “His dantian was destroyed, but the gu wasn’t dead. That must be how he forced it.”

Zheng Chen Qing nodded, his breathing finally steady. It was a pity they couldn’t bring him back for questioning—but given his temperament, even if they had, he likely would have died before saying a word.