Chapter 51: Sharpening the Sword

Speaking of which.

This was the first time Su Chen had encountered demons. Standing ten feet tall, one was a bull and the other a tiger, both possessing human forms with lustrous fur—one as hard as iron, the other a non-human monster, while the demon itself was a mass of pitch-black, mist-like demonic qi condensed into armor.

Facing the two second-grade demons, Su Chen did not even lift his eyes; his gaze remained fixed on that single horse carriage.

To be precise.

He was watching the pile of wreckage and minced flesh, within which remained a weeping head. Though gnawed upon beyond recognition, it was the little boy, Xiaoyangzi, whom he had seen just a few days ago.

"Still so weak, only capable of crying even now."

Su Chen walked toward the carriage.

"Watch out!"

"He is the number one on the Martial Rankings, a Wind-Snow Grandmaster!"

Roars of warning echoed through the air.

At that moment.

The figure in red gritted his teeth and forced himself up, bracing his trembling legs. Death was certain either way; he might as well fight.

Two second-grade demons hunting a first-grade cultivator was an easy task.

Even if they couldn't kill Lord Su, if they could trigger a fierce battle and drag it out until three first-grade demons sensed the fluctuations and descended, there would still be a chance.

"A first-grade cultivator?"

"Haha!"

"First-grade flesh appearing just when we need it—how marvelous."

The two demons, the bull and the tiger, both wore mocking expressions. Their breathing was heavy as they swallowed their saliva; it wasn't as if they hadn't killed first-grade cultivators before.

To this day, they still savored the memory of that delicious first-grade flesh.

In an instant.

They erupted with pitch-black demonic qi, crushing the wind and snow and exploding through the dark earth. Moving left and right, accompanied by violent gusts and swirling snow, they lunged forward with heavy force.

"You want to eat me? Are you even qualified?"

Su Chen lifted his eyes and swept a glance over them.

*Boom!*

An unprecedented sense of terror surged into the hearts of the two demons. In that moment, they felt as if they were facing a first-grade demon lord.

This is bad!

This human cultivator is a hard nut to crack.

"Retreat!"

Before they could even express their terror.

Thunderous cracks echoed from Su Chen's bones and muscles. Ninety-nine layers of thunderous sounds exploded at once, and the resulting lightning-strike force erupted outward.

*Boom!*

In that instant, the two demons—the tiger and the bull—passed right by the advancing Su Chen. Wrapped in violent winds, they slammed heavily into the ground, causing spiderweb-like cracks to spread across the frozen earth, stretching far into the distance as if without end.

"There's a chance!"

"As expected of second-grade demons, to clash with Su Chen so recklessly and still remain unscathed... it seems we can hold out until the three first-grade demons arrive."

"It's worth it! It's absolutely worth it..."

The man in red was ecstatic. His originally pale face instantly flushed with color, revealing a smile of profound relief.

After all, Su Chen was only second-grade.

Being of the same grade, and with him added to the fray, how could they not fight Su Chen to a standstill?

He would survive!

In the next heartbeat.

The man in red could no longer smile.

*Pfft!*

The two ten-foot demons began to tremble as spiderweb cracks continuously appeared across their bodies, spraying out foul, black demonic blood.

*Crash!*

The bull and the tiger collapsed one after another.

What had once been majestic and imposing were now nothing more than piles of minced flesh and wreckage on the ground, their previous arrogance completely vanished.

"This..."

The man in red's eyes widened. A chill shot straight to the top of his skull, and the courage he had painstakingly gathered by standing up vanished in an instant.

His knees went weak.

He fell back to his knees, trembling uncontrollably like a heap of mud, filled with terror.

A mere flick of a finger to slay a demon.

No.

Su Chen hadn't even lifted a finger, yet two second-grade demons were annihilated!

He had become even stronger.

Or rather.

Back in the Library, they had never truly forced out Lord Su's true strength.

"Lord Su, spare me!"

"Spare me!"

The man in red cried out in a tremor, kowtowing repeatedly until his scalp bled.

He finally remembered that night in the Library, when Su Chen, at the second grade, had suppressed three first-grade experts with peerless grace!

"Why bother?"

"You escaped the disaster of the Library two years ago; why must you die on a snowy night two years later?"

"Kill yourself."

After saying this, Su Chen didn't even spare him a glance. He turned back to the carriage, attempting to piece together the remains of Xiaoyangzi, of which only the head remained.

Unfortunately.

The rest of Xiaoyangzi's body fragments were likely in the bellies of other demons.

Once upon a time.

The high-ranking official in red that Su Chen had to look up to in the Library had become a mere nobody, someone he didn't even care to look at as he knelt at his feet.

"You want me to kill myself?"

The man in red was unwilling. Seeing Su Chen's back turned to him, he didn't hesitate; he turned and bolted, his angry qi surging like fire as he fled toward the Heavenly Martial Tower.

"Presumptuous!"

"Lord Su told you to kill yourself. Are you deaf? Did you not hear him!"

A cold voice rang out.

A large, crimson python-patterned robe blocked the man's path.

"Get out of the way!"

"Do you really take yourself that seriously, you West Depot Director?"

"We, the Imperial Managers, revere the authority bestowed upon you by His Majesty and the ten thousand West Depot riders under your command—not your pathetic third-grade cultivation..."

The man in red cursed furiously, waving his hand to strike down Xu Han.

A junior who had risen during the reign of the former Emperor Jianwu, whose potential peaked at the third grade, yet dared to pull his whiskers and tell him to kill himself?!

You think you're Su Chen?

*Pfft!*

A mist of blood exploded.

The second-grade man in red looked in disbelief at the palm of true essence that had pierced through his surging angry qi, his eyes filled with utter incredulity.

Since when had this West Depot Director become a first-grade True Essence Grandmaster?

He... was only in his thirties.

"Zhang Gui's complete Heaven-Swallowing Demonic Art..."

Before he could finish his sentence, a terrifying true essence surged into his body, swallowing his angry qi whole and sucking him dry like an old man's corpse.

On the other side, Su Chen was digging holes, unearthing the scattered bones one by one to rebury them, so they wouldn't be left exposed to the elements.

Su Chen spent two days and one night burying the tens of thousands of exposed skeletons.

The ground was covered in small mounds.

When everything was finished.

The swirling snow had calmed significantly.

"Lord Su."

For these two days and one night, Xu Han had stayed close to Su Chen, never leaving his side.

"What is it?"

"Are you afraid I'll lose my mind and go kill the young Emperor? Rest assured, I'm not that stupid. Even setting aside that mysterious white-robed figure I can never quite figure out, I might not even be able to defeat a first-grade demon."

"Without complete certainty, I will not strike that sword..."

Su Chen wiped the dirt from his hands.

Then, he departed.

Soon.

One by one, the West Depot agents gathered. Looking at the traces left behind and the corpses of the man in red and the demons, they were struck with horror.

"What are you looking at? I killed them all. Hurry up and clean up the mess..."

"Director, is it too early to move against the young Emperor? Won't that alert them? What if they become vigilant?"

"It matters not!"

"Release the Great Zhou Butcher from the dungeon and let him take the blame. Since we are cooperating with Great Zhou, this is a perfect opportunity to show our sincerity."

After dealing with his confidant, Xu Han rushed toward the apothecary without pause.

Seeing Su Chen in the apothecary, waving a fire poker as if practicing sword moves, he breathed a sigh of relief.

It was good that he hadn't gone to kill the young Emperor.

No one knew better than him what the young Emperor was plotting, or how terrifying that white-robed figure was...

"Xiao Hanzi, go and help me forge a sword."

Su Chen looked at Xu Han.

Xu Han froze. No one had called him by that name for many years; the last person to do so had been fed to the fish in the water by him.

At this moment, he felt as if he had returned to the old days. He bowed respectfully.

"Yes, Lord Su."

Walking out of the apothecary.

His eyes shone brightly.

"Lord Su deserves the most powerful sword."

"It is just right. This will let people know my status as a first-grade True Essence Grandmaster. No matter what, I cannot lose face for Lord Su."

A few days later.

The martial world was shaken.

The imperial court was also stunned.

Even the young Emperor took notice.

Because the West Depot's Xu, who had once been predicted to remain at the second grade for life, had led three thousand Imperial Guards to descend upon the Sword-Washing Pool of the former three great sects.

With a single finger, wind and thunder converged, leveling the Sword-Washing Pool to the ground. With his status as a peak first-grade True Essence Grandmaster, he had annihilated the newly emerged first-grade expert of the pool and claimed the world-renowned divine weapon, the Dust-Washing Sword.

Rumor had it that the Dust-Washing Sword was indestructible, capable of carrying various intents and borrowing the power of heaven and earth; it was once the weapon of a Grandmaster.

The apothecary.

In front of the furnace.

Looking at the Dust-Washing Sword, which was entirely azure yet surrounded by a bloody aura, Su Chen was speechless.

"Killed someone again?"

"If I remember correctly, I asked you to go to the blacksmith and get me an ordinary iron sword."

"Lord Su deserves the best and strongest sword," Xu Han smiled.

In his vision.

From this trip, the ten years of life-flame he originally possessed had shrunk again, becoming like Zhang Gui's flickering candle in the wind.

Su Chen understood. He had lost more lifespan again, attempting to emulate Zhang Gui by climbing to the dual first-grade Grandmaster status to become a peak first-grade expert.

"Is it worth it?"

"For Lord Su, everything is worth it."

A man in his thirties, Xu Han currently bore none of the murderous demeanor of a Director; he smiled like a child, overjoyed that he could finally help Lord Su.

That wasn't what Su Chen was asking.

Xu Han didn't know.

Su Chen could see a person's life-flame.

He was asking: Is it worth spending the latter half of your life to achieve this brief moment of peak first-grade status?

Zhang Gui did it for revenge.

What was he doing it for?

"Forget it."

"Whatever your plan is, come find me before your final struggle. I will give you something that might lend you a helping hand."

Su Chen reached into his robe for a brocade box, inside which lay a Thousand-Year Ginseng King.

Thirty-one pieces of Longevity Qi.

From the pottery jar, a small turtle poked its head out, looking at Su Chen's robe with a pitiful, envious gaze, drooling.

So fragrant! It wants to eat.

Turtle is hungry.

"I lack nothing."

"Very well."

Xu Han wanted to refuse, but he nodded and accepted.

"Lord Su."

"The whereabouts of the former Princess of the Northern King, that Empress, have been found."

"The jade token is in her hands."

"Wait for me a little longer."

"There isn't much more Xiao Hanzi can do for you..."

Reaching the door, Xu Han turned back and said, "If in three years... never mind, it's nothing..."

Xu Han didn't know that Su Chen already knew he only had three years left to live.

A few more days passed.

The young Emperor finally discovered the disappearance of the demons and began sending demons disguised as Imperial Guards to search the entire palace.

Su Chen was not in the apothecary; for the past two days, he had been out of the city pulling weeds from Zhang Gui's grave.

Five years passed.

Every year he pulled them, and every year they grew back.

"Strange, is someone else killing demons just like me?"

The Imperial Guards had been withdrawn.

Because the more they investigated, the more missing guards (demons) they found, to the point where they dared not continue.

"What is wrong with you?"

"How can you hold hunger so well!"

Whether it was an illusion, when Su Chen lifted the lid, he seemed to see the little turtle letting out a lazy, satisfied burp, even though he hadn't fed it any Longevity Qi.

Turtle is hungry, wants to eat Qi.

The black jade turtle rubbed against Su Chen's probing finger, looking pitifully at the crystal core in Su Chen's arms, drool pooling on the floor.

*Biu!*

Su Chen flicked the little turtle back into the jar and closed the lid. He then sat holding the Dust-Washing Sword, closing his eyes to rest, using himself as a whetstone to nurture sword intent and hone the blade, waiting for the heaven-shaking strike three years from now.

Since the second-grade internal organs could not be rapidly perfected, and the Wind-Snow Sword could not reach the first grade to achieve perfection, he would instead cultivate the "Three Transformations of Creation" obtained from the Sword Fate Page.

"The karma planted in the Library back then has borne the bitter fruit of today. In three years, I will set everything right."

Turtle is hungry, going hunting.

The little turtle tucked its head in and scurried out of the apothecary, sniffing around before running toward the Heavenly Martial Tower, leaving a trail of drool.

Soon.

The little turtle returned, satisfied.

Night.

The Heavenly Martial Tower.

The atmosphere was silent.

The young Emperor, the white-robed man, and two first-grade demons all had grim faces as they stared at the pitch-black blood and the half-torso remains scattered on the ground.

Where was the third first-grade demon?

It was right there on the ground.

"What on earth is happening?"

"Setting aside the disappearance of several second-grade demons..."

"Now even first-grade demons are being killed! Could something have escaped from the Immortal Treasury beneath the Heavenly Martial Tower? But that's impossible..."

"It's not yet three years until the Great Liang's destiny fractures and the Immortal Treasury rises."

Master Chu's expression was dark and uncertain.

Meanwhile, the culprit—the great demon—was sitting obediently inside Su Chen's pottery jar.

What Two-Faced Black Tortoise?

After being fed Su Chen's Longevity Qi, having risen from the brink of death, this Two-Faced Black Tortoise had transformed into an entirely different creature.