Chapter 9: A Fifth-Rank Defeating a Fourth-Rank

"Did the Saint of the Black Lotus send you to kill me?"

Under the blade's light, the courtyard tables and chairs exploded into fragments. The falling snow, along with the blue bricks, shattered and scattered in all directions.

When the dust finally settled, Su Chen stood exactly where he had been, completely unscathed.

"Hmm?"

"My strike was at the pinnacle; it is enough to kill even a 4th-grade expert. Why are you unharmed!"

The figure revealed her face.

She wore black night-traveling clothes and a mask, wielding a thick, long blade. However, her petite frame and narrow, phoenix-like eyes betrayed the fact that she was not a man.

"You have cultivation?"

"No, that's not right!"

"I sensed neither Qi nor blood at that moment. According to rumors in the palace, you shouldn't have any aptitude for cultivation at all."

Huang was stunned.

The next instant, she attacked again, her blade sweeping horizontally. The brilliant light of the blade illuminated the empty courtyard.

"Why kill me?"

"Zhang Gui should have an agreement with the Saint of the Black Lotus. Even if he doesn't want me to be free, he shouldn't have sent someone to kill me."

"Could it be that they suspect the Black-Clad Envoy's death is related to me?"

Su Chen strolled leisurely, his footsteps shifting slightly, and he once again dodged the sweeping blade light.

The *Six-Zhang Golden Body Art* was powerful.

Far more powerful than the world could ever imagine.

Regarding the lone demon Gu Jue, Su Chen had searched through ancient texts and finally found a trace of information. He was a grandmaster from before the Great Liang Dynasty, and very likely a peerless grandmaster who swept through his peers, invincible at his level.

The *Six-Zhang Golden Body Art* might not even be a 1st-grade technique, but rather a legendary grandmaster-level technique.

Having just stepped into the 5th-grade Flesh and Blood Realm, Su Chen already possessed a vast amount of Qi and blood comparable to a martial arts prodigy at the peak of the Flesh and Blood Realm. The two thousand-year-old medicinal treasures he had consumed certainly played a large role, but that could not negate the power of the *Six-Zhang Golden Body Art*.

Those who truly practiced the *Six-Zhang Golden Body Art* to the 5th-grade perfection possessed at least ten times the foundation of other martial arts prodigies who practiced external tempering methods.

In fact, Su Chen suspected that since the lone demon Gu Jue, no one else had been able to reach the true perfection of the *Six-Zhang Golden Body Art* at each stage.

After all, once one reached the surging Qi and blood of a martial arts prodigy's perfection, they could immediately launch an assault on the 4th-grade Tendon and Bone Realm.

Polishing the foundation of a realm, without consuming thousand-year treasures as Su Chen had, would inevitably take a long time.

A person's life, even if they reached the level of a grandmaster, was at most a hundred years.

Aside from an immortal monster like Su Chen, who didn't care about lifespan, who else would polish their foundation to the absolute limit at every stage?

Currently, Su Chen had roughly reached the mid-stage of the Flesh and Blood Realm of the *Six-Zhang Golden Body Art*.

It was three times the level of a 5th-grade martial arts prodigy at perfection!

"Bah!"

"Who do you think you are?"

"My father, a high-level expert at the 3rd-grade peak, the Marrow Cleansing Realm—is that someone an incompetent waste like you can kill?"

"Don't flatter yourself."

"Even if the Saint of the Black Lotus lets you go, I won't. The last mission my father carried out was to activate you. My father is missing, so why are you still alive?"

"Die!"

The black-clad figure's clothes exploded, revealing a beautiful face and a body clad in silver armor. She wielded her blade again, slashing heavily toward Su Chen.

She was indeed a woman.

In this palace, she must have been using a palace maid's identity as a cover.

The path of Qi.

5th-grade Internal Qi Realm, 4th-grade Explosive Qi Realm, 3rd-grade Condensed Gang Realm, 2nd-grade Furious Gang Realm, 1st-grade Heaven-Connecting Perception, breaking through the mysterious barrier to give birth to True Essence—this corresponded to the Body Tempering Leakless Realm, making one a True Essence Lesser Grandmaster.

"4th-grade Explosive Qi Realm, is it?"

"So, you are his daughter."

"In that case, I will send you down to accompany him."

Su Chen plucked a fallen leaf drifting in the courtyard and sighed slightly.

At this moment, hearing Su Chen's words, her eyes widened in disbelief. Then, reacting as if she had been played, she let out a cold laugh.

"Heh!"

"Have you lost your mind?"

"A mere mortal, who isn't even a match for me, dares to dream of killing my father, a 3rd-grade peak..."

The next moment, she could no longer speak.

Su Chen took a step forward. His black eunuch robes fluttered without wind, and his skin was stained with streaks of golden light. The terrifying Qi and blood hidden within his body, three times that of a 5th-grade martial arts prodigy at perfection, erupted with a roar.

"This is..."

"The *Six-Zhang Golden Body Art*?!"

"My father really was killed by you?!"

Boom!

She attacked with her blade, her Explosive Qi sweeping out.

To this, Su Chen had only one leaf.

Bang!

The terrifying Qi and blood were injected into the leaf. Like a life-reaping sword or a sharp blade, in that instant, the noisy wind and snow fell silent amidst the whistling of the leaf.

"This..."

"How could there be such a..."

She collapsed to the ground.

The leaf, acting as a blade, pierced through her chest. In the instant it flew, it shattered into countless specks of powder, vanishing into the wind.

She didn't finish her sentence.

How could there be such a powerful 5th-grade Flesh and Blood Realm expert in this world?

Even when her father was a martial arts prodigy at the 5th-grade perfection, or even when he had just stepped into the 4th grade, he did not possess such surging, terrifying Qi and blood.

That night, Su Chen used a single leaf to slay an Explosive Qi Realm expert!

"The 5th-grade realm of the *Six-Zhang Golden Body Art* is truly powerful."

"Sweeping through my peers, since the peerless grandmaster of the Great Zhou, the lone demon Gu Jue, no one has been able to display the true glory of the *Six-Zhang Golden Body Art*. Since that is the case, I shall carry it forward."

"This is the true cultivation method of the *Six-Zhang Golden Body Art*!"

Su Chen walked over, closed the woman's wide, unwilling eyes, hoisted her up, and headed toward the medicinal field.

He had always kept his word.

He said he would bury them together, so he would bury them together.

At this very moment, Su Chen suddenly raised his eyes, looking outside the library, his gaze like lightning.

"Who is spying?"

"Get out here!"

In that instant, Su Chen's eyes, which were already shining like stars, erupted with killing intent once more.

The secret of his martial arts could only be known by the dead.

"Su... Master..."

Xu Xiaohan walked out, trembling, his teeth chattering.

He never expected this.

The palace was in chaos, and his godfather, Zhang Gui, had sent him to the library to protect the frail, non-cultivating Su Chen. Instead, he had witnessed such a terrifying scene.

Master Su, wasn't he unable to cultivate?

Every eunuch in the palace knew this.

Yet, he had just seen this.

A 5th-grade Flesh and Blood Realm expert, with a flick of a leaf, had beheaded a 4th-grade Explosive Qi Realm expert!

Even the few martial arts prodigies heavily cultivated by the Martial Arts Bureau were not this ridiculously strong.

The world was vast.

To kill a 4th-grade expert while being at the 5th grade—even among martial arts prodigies, only those at the very top could achieve such a feat.

"Xiaohan, it's you."

After months of serving him, there was still some affection.

Su Chen couldn't bring himself to kill him.

Dragging the corpse and loosening the soil to bury the woman, Su Chen asked nonchalantly.

"What are you doing here?"

"Godfather... Godfather sent me here to protect... to protect you, Master Su..."

Xu Xiaohan's knees went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.

Because he saw that beneath the medicinal field, there were other bones, dark in color. It was clear that this was not the first time Master Su had killed someone; he was well-versed in it.

No one would have guessed that Master Su in the library was actually a ruthless, cold-blooded killer.

"Protect..."

"Su Chen can kill a 4th-grade expert with a flick of his hand; why would he need a 5th-grade like me to protect him..."

Xu Xiaohan smiled bitterly in his heart.

Fortunately, the Black-Clad Envoy was already nothing but bones, and no one could tell that this was the missing peak 3rd-grade expert of the palace, the Deputy Director of the Martial Arts Bureau. Otherwise, Xiaohan might have been scared into a faint.