Chapter 12: Blood Flame Realm

Time passes, fleeting like a shuttle.

The twenty-fourth year of Tianwu, the seventh day of the third lunar month. Spring was in full bloom; the Library was filled with flowers, and the scent of exotic blossoms permeated the courtyard. Su Chen stood quietly, dressed in a black robe, holding a scroll.

"This must be the first spring since I transmigrated here."

Su Chen felt a bit dazed.

In the twenty-third year of Tianwu, the old Emperor was assassinated. He had transmigrated at the very end of the seventh month and experienced that palace upheaval.

Now.

Nearly a year had passed.

The Seed of Longevity within his body remained a mere embryonic root, swaying slightly without wind, showing no change at all. Su Chen remained stuck at the perfection of the fifth-grade Internal Qi Realm.

Clearly, time was still insufficient; the Seed of Longevity could not continue to grow.

But fortunately, time was the one thing he had in abundance.

"Is Master Su in?"

Outside the Library, a young eunuch in a green robe looked at Su Chen with reverence.

When a man gains power, even his chickens and dogs ascend to heaven.

Although Xu Xiaohan was cautious and attentive in front of Su Chen, he wasn't exactly ruling the inner palace, but he had become a person of some standing and reputation.

His talent was not weak, and having consumed many secret medicines bestowed by Zhang Gui, he had forcibly broken through to the fourth-grade realm last month, truly securing his position as a blue-robed steward.

The young eunuch outside the courtyard was a godson taken in by Xu Xiaohan.

"The access token for the Martial Pavilion has been obtained."

"When would it be convenient for you, Master Su?"

The young green-robed eunuch inquired.

In the inner palace, robes represented status, but for a green-robed eunuch to show such reverence to a black-robed one was unique to Su Chen.

The Martial Pavilion was a vital stronghold of the inner palace.

The Library contained only ordinary classics.

The Martial Pavilion, however, housed cultivation techniques and even esoteric arts; it was of the utmost importance and was always guarded personally by the Chief Eunuch of the inner palace, the Red-Robed Second Chief.

Even though Zhang Gui held a third-grade cultivation and acted as the head of the Shangwu Bureau, he had to concede many benefits and spend a long time to secure this Martial Pavilion access token for Su Chen.

"In this palace, I am nothing but an idler. Let's go now."

The imperial palace had countless halls and pavilions, rockeries, and stone forests—a breathtaking sight.

As they walked along, passing by a certain palace, Su Chen paused slightly. It was deathly quiet, save for the sound of a shrewish woman cursing.

Qingfeng Palace.

The cold palace for concubines.

"My son will be the Emperor before long, and then I will kill you all!"

"Kill you!"

"Kill every last one of you."

A beautiful woman dressed in coarse cloth, looking even worse than a palace maid, her hair disheveled and her expression insane, was being held to the ground by several green-robed eunuchs, who were whipping her with thick, salt-soaked towels.

The woman was in her thirties. Even disheveled and insane, her peerless beauty was undeniable. Su Chen naturally recognized her.

"Consort Liang, once the most beautiful in the harem and titled the First Noble Consort, has fallen to such a miserable state."

At the height of her power, a single word from Consort Liang could shake the imperial court.

Alas.

With the death of the old Emperor and the Fifth Prince, and the subsequent purge of the court by the Purple-Robed First Supervisor, Consort Liang had long since become a madwoman whom everyone in the harem could bully.

Su Chen walked away.

The world is full of vicissitudes. He had seen high towers rise, and as time sang its song, he saw them collapse into ruins in the blink of an eye.

The Martial Pavilion was imposing, nine stories high. Each floor was as tall as the ten-zhang height of Su Chen’s Library, reaching nearly a hundred zhang—over three hundred meters—into the sky. This Martial Pavilion stood like a sharp sword piercing the heavens, containing the three-hundred-year cultivation heritage of the Great Liang.

"So you are Zhang Gui's sworn brother?"

The Deputy Chief Eunuch of the Martial Pavilion, a man nearing fifty with hair half-black and half-white, looked at Su Chen with interest. After sizing him up, he shook his head and sighed.

"No blood or qi. It seems you really are a mortal. I truly don't know why Zhang Gui spent such a high price to get this token for you..."

"Seventeen, and still unable to step into the gate of cultivation. Your life will be just like this."

"You may read all the classics on the first three floors. Above the third floor, the cultivation techniques—those related to the third, second, first grades, and even the legendary Grandmaster level—are off-limits..."

Having said this, the Deputy Chief waved his hand to let him pass.

Su Chen stepped into the Martial Pavilion alone.

"Strange."

"My blood and qi are surging, seven times that of a fifth-grade perfection martial prodigy. It’s one thing that they can't see my Longevity True Qi, but why can't they even see my fifth-grade Flesh Realm perfection?"

Su Chen had not deliberately hidden it.

This was not the first time.

If he didn't make a move, others would think he was a mortal without any cultivation, as if there were a layer of concealment on his body hiding everything about him.

"But this is fine, too."

Stepping into the Martial Pavilion, there were countless classics, floating in stone boxes in mid-air like stars shining in the night sky.

"What technique do you seek?"

The Chief Eunuch of the Martial Pavilion, dressed in a red robe, his hair white and withered like rotten wood, sat cross-legged in the center. His eyes remained closed, as if he were unable to open them.

Su Chen did not dare to underestimate this man.

The Red-Robed First Chief of the inner palace.

A peak second-grade, perhaps even a former first-grade.

He was the second most powerful person in the eunuch hierarchy, beneath only the Purple-Robed First Supervisor. Even the Purple-Robed First Supervisor, who was like an Emperor Emeritus, had to give this old eunuch some face.

But Su Chen knew clearly.

This old eunuch was dying.

Unlike the feigned frailty of the Purple-Robed First Supervisor that night, this Red-Robed First Chief had little lifespan left. In Su Chen's eyes, his vitality was like a candle in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment.

"I seek no technique, just looking around."

"I've finished the books in the Library, so I came to see the cultivation classics of the Martial Pavilion."

With that, Su Chen began to browse the classics on his own.

The Red-Robed First Chief said nothing more, as if he had fallen asleep.

For the next half-month, whenever Su Chen was free, he would hang the Martial Pavilion token at his waist and come to browse the classics. He wasn't very interested in the cultivation techniques or killing arts.

After all, no matter how powerful the techniques on the first three floors were, they couldn't compare to a peak first-grade technique, or even the Grandmaster-level "Six-Zhang Golden Body Formula"...

And no matter how powerful the killing arts were, how could they withstand the absolute power of a punch from someone with ten times the blood and qi of a perfect martial prodigy?

"Interesting."

"Are there such demons in this world?"

"Repaying kindness like the 'grass-tying and ring-carrying' legends... interesting, interesting."

In the Martial Pavilion, Su Chen couldn't help but chuckle when he read something amusing.

In this world, at least within the borders of Great Liang, there were many demons. Between cities, demons held sway; only cultivators could pass, while mortals died upon encountering them.

Whether it was the path of Qi or the path of the Body, without secret techniques or precious medicines, even a peak first-grade expert—known as a "Little Grandmaster"—only had a lifespan of a hundred years, or even less.

Those demons were even shorter-lived. To live longer, they had to eat humans and devour cultivators, consuming the "human spiritual energy" that only humans possessed to slowly increase their meager lifespans.

Those demons that lived over a hundred years were, without exception, powerful second-grade or even first-grade demons who had eaten at least ten thousand people.

"You came to this Martial Pavilion, and you really were just reading for leisure?"

"Do you know how precious this Martial Pavilion access token is?"

The Deputy Chief looked at Su Chen in disbelief, his face twitching.

Furthermore.

What surprised him even more was this

Even someone with poor cultivation talent should have gained some enlightenment after reading so many cultivation classics—either by swallowing the energy of heaven and earth to give birth to their own Qi, embarking on the path of Qi, or by stirring their own blood to boil, embarking on the path of the Body.

But Su Chen, after half a month, showed no reaction at all, as if...

"As if he has no talent for cultivation at all. What a waste of a token."

Su Chen said with a smile, then returned the Martial Pavilion token.

He had seen enough of the first three floors.

Since the token had expired, he didn't need it anymore.

"A useless mortal, just lucky enough to become Zhang Gui's sworn brother. Zhang Gui is too sentimental; if it were me, I would have taught such trash to stay far away from me."

The Deputy Chief spoke with contempt.

However.

"Elder Chu..." He looked up, his expression immediately becoming respectful, and trotted over to serve the Red-Robed First Chief.

The white-haired Red-Robed First Chief, who looked like withered wood and was nearing his end, stared fixedly at Su Chen at this very moment, uttering a shocking statement.

"Qi like a dragon, blood like a tiger, body like a furnace, dragon-tiger blood flame..."

"This is the fifth-grade Flesh Realm that only exists in legends."

"No."

"Did I see wrong?"

The Red-Robed First Chief rubbed his eyes, only to find that the thousand-zhang shadow of the blood-flame dragon and tiger he had just seen was merely a hallucination from his dazed, dream-like state.

The young black-robed eunuch before him had a plain aura, nothing special—just one of the countless mediocre mortals of Great Liang.

"He is just a mortal."

"Elder Chu."

"You must have seen wrong."

"He is just an ordinary eunuch who got lucky and is remembered by Zhang Gui for old times' sake."

"If it weren't for Zhang Gui, I wouldn't even glance at a little eunuch like him."

The Deputy Chief said slowly.

On this day, Su Chen had read all the classics on the three floors of the Great Liang Martial Pavilion. With a sudden realization, he finally crossed that threshold, reaching the fifth-grade perfection. His blood and qi surged like a dragon and a tiger, his blood boiling throughout his body like burning flames.

Fifth-grade perfection, ten times the blood and qi of a martial prodigy!

The Blood Flame Realm, which, like the Grandmaster level, only existed in ancient legends!