Chapter 24: Entering the Third Rank

This palace turmoil involved no charge of ten thousand rebels, no desperate sacrifices, and no assassins attempting to slay the Emperor. There were only seven First-Rank figures standing with hands behind their backs atop the palace towers.

At their head stood a man in purple robes, standing proud at the absolute pinnacle.

The number one on the World Martial Rankings.

A dual First-Rank Little Grandmaster, Zhang Gui.

The imperial palace was in total chaos.

Never had a day been as chaotic as this night.

"Tell me, do you think Zhang Gui will succeed in this mission?"

Inside the Library of Books, a faint voice sounded behind Su Chen.

It seemed to appear out of thin air, yet as if it had always been there.

Standing by the window on the ninth floor of the Martial Pavilion's Library, Su Chen slowly closed the window. Without turning his head, he gazed deeply at the seven resolute figures.

The Purple-Robed First Overseer.

Four First-Rank experts from the great sects of the martial world.

And two First-Rank experts from the martial world who had just been incorporated and joined the Emperor.

"First-Rank experts are few and far between; where would these extra martial world experts come from? Are these two from the Holy Sect?"

Su Chen turned to look.

He saw a figure dressed in ink-black standing amidst the ninth floor of the Martial Pavilion, curiously examining the cultivation classics stored there. Hanging from his waist was a black, refined bamboo token.

A Leader and a Saint of the Black Abyss Holy Assembly.

The Leader commands the believers of the world.

The Saint carries out assassinations and commits every evil imaginable, wiping out all enemies of the Holy Sect.

"The Black Lotus Saint!"

"A dignified Second-Rank expert, why have you come here instead of providing support?"

Su Chen possessed the memories of the original host, so he recognized at a glance that the man before him was the Black Lotus Saint, the one who had recruited him into the sect.

The Leader was First-Rank.

The Saint was Second-Rank.

One official, one unofficial.

As a secret cult, they could not compare to the two great sects that widely recruited disciples; they possessed only a single First-Rank expert.

"Only one is a Leader of my Holy Sect; the other is from the Rakshasa Sect! Three hundred years ago, the Rakshasa Kingdom was destroyed by the Great Liang's Founding Emperor. The Rakshasa royalty founded the Rakshasa Sect, and through three hundred years of inheritance, they will certainly support anyone seeking to destroy Liang."

"Moreover,"

"In this battle, there are as many as six Little Grandmasters. With such high certainty of success, why wouldn't the madmen of Rakshasa come?"

"As for me,"

"Heh, ever since you entered the palace, nineteen of my secret spies have either died or gone missing, yet you, the lowest-tier 'Huang Jiu' of the villains, have managed to live quite well."

"Black-Clad Envoy, Deputy Manager Xu Sanmo! Huang One, Shen Linglong! Xuan Two, Deputy Manager Wuchen; Xuan Five, Deputy Manager Luo Xuan; Xuan Six, Deputy Manager..."

In an instant, Su Chen heard the names of four Deputy Managers.

He thought for a moment.

Thinking of the five Great Managers buried in the medicinal fields of the Library, Su Chen fell into silence.

It seemed he really had killed many people from the Black Abyss.

"Everyone in the palace says you, Su Chen, are merely lucky, relying on your connection with the Purple-Robed First Overseer to attain your current power and status. The Sixth Manager governs the Martial Pavilion, but I don't believe it..."

"You killed so many of my secret spies, yet you claim you have no martial arts? How is that possible!"

"Eight years ago, when Black-Clad Envoy Xu Sanmo disappeared, I should have come to personally clean up the sect."

"Huang Jiu, oh Huang Jiu!"

"When you joined the sect, did you forget the hatred you held for Great Liang?"

As he finished speaking—

Boom!

The Black Lotus Saint tore away a page, which exploded into countless lethal fragments like iron leaves, whistling toward Su Chen.

To this, Su Chen had only one response: a single punch.

Blood-flames rolled like a dragon.

Gilded bones and hundred-refined sinews resonated in unison!

The Rushing Thunder Force!

A terrifying gust of wind swept across the surroundings at that moment.

"Ha! You still claim to have no cultivation?"

"Wait."

"Is that the 'Sixteen-Foot Golden Body Art'?"

"Peak Fourth-Rank."

"No, that's not right."

The Black Lotus Saint's expression changed, and he cried out in shock.

"You aren't practicing the ordinary 'Sixteen-Foot Golden Body Art,' but the Ultimate Realm of every stage of the 'Sixteen-Foot Golden Body Art'! If you obtained this method from Xu Sanmo, and you have practiced for eight years, you have already achieved two Ultimate Realms?"

The Black Lotus Saint, this Second-Rank expert, felt waves of shock crashing through his heart.

The 'Sixteen-Foot Golden Body Art' was a Grandmaster-level technique he had obtained from the Demon Mountain Range. However, human life lasts only a hundred years; following the path of the Ultimate Realm, one would spend an entire lifetime merely polishing those realms, making it impossible to become a true master.

It was a technique that was tedious to practice and a waste to discard.

Because it was considered impossible for anyone to master, it had simply been treated as a First-Rank technique and bestowed upon the Black-Clad Envoy, Xu Sanmo.

As it turned out, someone had actually mastered it.

"Very good."

"I am actually starting to feel a bit of appreciation for talent."

"However,"

"I must still ask you to die."

"With such talent, having betrayed the Holy Sect, you cannot be allowed to live!"

The Black Lotus Saint raised his hand to strike, blood-colored astral qi erupting from his palm.

Second-Rank Wrathful Astral Realm!

The violent astral qi, like a rolling mad dragon, ravaged the area.

Clearly, the Black Lotus Saint was well aware of the terrifying strength of the Purple-Robed First Overseer, Zhang Gui, who possessed dual First-Rank cultivation. He intended to kill Su Chen quickly and did not dare use his signature Lotus Astral Qi, opting instead to use other martial arts to execute him.

In the chaos, white jade porcelain bottles shattered on the ground.

A colorless, odorless poison began to dissipate.

Su Chen was sent flying by a palm strike.

His body was heavily injured, with blood continuously seeping out.

"You have mastered two Ultimate Realms; it is fortunate you were discovered early, otherwise, the Holy Sect truly wouldn't have been able to do anything to you, not even clean up the sect..."

Before the Black Lotus Saint could finish his cold laugh—

In the next instant, his eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

He saw that Su Chen, who had been heavily injured, actually healed more than half of his wounds in the blink of an eye. The injuries grew lighter and lighter, healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"What kind of constitution is this?"

"Do you have demonic blood in your body?"

"Monster!"

"You aren't even human!"

The Black Lotus Saint's killing intent grew even more fervent.

It was at this moment that Su Chen took a ginseng root from his robes and stuffed it into his mouth.

Instantly, a phenomenon spread out.

The Black Lotus Saint's eyes widened again, and his breathing became rapid.

"This is..."

He recognized it.

This was the scent of the millennial treasure king, the Ginseng King.

It appeared once every three hundred years.

Every time it appeared, it would stir up heaven-shaking slaughter and throw the world's mountains and rivers into chaos.

"Spit it out!"

"My thousand-year Ginseng King root!"

The Black Lotus Saint charged, completely unaware that a faint, twisting pain had already begun to radiate from his chest.

"Sorry!"

"Since I've let you see it, I can't let you live."

"Saint Lord!"

Su Chen stepped forward, his red robes billowing. A terrifying aura surged at this moment, surrounded by blood-flames, with bones and sinews resonating. The foundation accumulated from the two Ultimate Realms, coupled with the surging medicinal power, flooded into his marrow.

At this moment, Su Chen's aura changed drastically, leaping into the Third-Rank Marrow Cleansing Realm.

"So what if you are Third-Rank?"

"I am the Second-Rank Wrathful Astral Realm! The Black Lotus Saint who commands the life and death of ten thousand people!"

"Even if you are Second-Rank, I can still kill you!"

At this moment, the Black Lotus Saint no longer hid his strength. His thick, wrathful astral qi surged, striking out with brilliant crimson lotus true qi.

A First-Rank technique: the Fire Buddha Lotus.

In the next moment—

A violent, twisting pain struck his chest.

His dantian instantly went empty.

The rolling wrathful astral qi, like solid flames of lotus, exploded like bubbles.

The Second-Rank lethal poison, Heart-Devouring Powder, had finally taken effect after ten breaths.

"What is this?"

"Ah!"

The Black Lotus Saint was incredulous.

Su Chen, meanwhile, landed a punch directly on his forehead, causing the Black Lotus Saint to bleed from all seven orifices. Su Chen couldn't help but offer a final warning.

"Are you not even a little curious about how the Third-Rank peak Marrow Cleansing Envoy died at my hands back then? This is the answer: the Second-Rank lethal poison, Heart-Devouring Powder..."

Boom!

The generation's Second-Rank expert, the Black Lotus Saint, opened his mouth in disbelief and fell silently to the ground, devoid of any life.

He was a Second-Rank expert, a peak Second-Rank expert, only half a step away from breaking through the bottleneck to birth True Yuan and leap into being a Little Grandmaster—a peak master of the era. Killing Su Chen should have been a trivial matter.

He never expected to fall because of such a trivial matter...