Chapter 181: Settling an Old Grudge

The moment the pill entered his throat, an exceptionally heavy torrent of spiritual qi surged into Chen Lingxi's body.

At this point, Chen Lingxi had not even begun to circulate the Six Qi True Method to refine the pill.

"Truly extraordinary!"

A faint smile touched Chen Lingxi's lips as he circulated his technique and began to refine the pill.

The spiritual qi flowing from the pill grew even more boundless.

It was so vast that Chen Lingxi felt his Qi Sea could hardly contain such dense spiritual qi.

'With such immense medicinal power, even if I step into the Tenth Floor Realm, I probably won't be able to consume it all.'

Chen Lingxi thought as he refined the pill.

This single session of refinement lasted an entire month.

For a month, Chen Lingxi sat cross-legged in the cave dwelling, remaining perfectly still.

Outside the cave, the sun rose and set, the wind howled, and the snow fell, but he remained completely oblivious. He simply spent day after day refining the boundless spiritual essence contained within the pill.

His Qi Sea expanded significantly over this month.

The spiritual liquid was clear and deep, its bottom nowhere to be seen.

It was like a tranquil, unruffled lake.

Chen Lingxi continued his breathing exercises, and his own spiritual qi grew increasingly dense.

Daring not to slack off, he continued to circulate the Six Qi True Method, refining the medicinal power surging into his body bit by bit.

Time quietly slipped by in this day-to-day arduous cultivation.

Another two months passed.

When Chen Lingxi opened his eyes again, the aura surrounding him was completely different from before his seclusion.

Within his Qi Sea, the spiritual liquid had expanded to its absolute limit. The incredibly dense spiritual qi flowed sluggishly within it, on the verge of turning tangible.

Chen Lingxi sensed his dense spiritual qi and his vast Qi Sea.

His state of mind gradually settled into tranquility.

He had not yet stepped into the Qi Circulation Tenth Floor realm.

This was only because he had not forgotten Emperor Daye's designs on him.

Emperor Daye still held the Mirror Listening Cauldron Vessel capable of divination.

The moment he stepped into the Heaven-Facing Realm, Emperor Daye might make a move against him.

'As things stand, stepping into the Tenth Floor Realm is merely a matter of a single thought. Furthermore, thanks to the True Edict of Approaching the Dao, my combat strength is already incredibly formidable. There is no need to rush.'

'Emperor Daye is waiting for me to step into the Heaven-Facing Realm. I have Vision Roaming and can track his movements, so there is no need to rush into the Heaven-Facing Realm.'

Chen Lingxi pondered.

'Moreover...'

Chen Lingxi narrowed his eyes, sensing the massive amount of medicinal power sealed deep within his Qi Sea.

'A great deal of medicinal power remains from that precious pill. Once I step into the Tenth Floor Realm, I only need to digest this residual power in my Qi Sea to easily push my tenth-floor spiritual qi to grand completion.'

'By then, I will likely be only a single step away from the Eleventh Floor Realm.'

Having made up his mind, he stopped overthinking, stood up, and walked out of the cave dwelling.

The snow outside the cave had stopped.

Standing at the entrance of the cave, Chen Lingxi took a deep breath of the cold mountain air, feeling comfortable from head to toe.

The slight stuffiness from days of arduous cultivation was completely swept away.

'The Credit Peddler once told me that this world birthed a Great Sage named Great Sage Luoyuan.'

'The Great Sage is slumbering, and his incarnation still remains in this world.'

Chen Lingxi's thoughts flashed; he guessed that this Great Sage's incarnation was connected to the mysterious Liu Changle.

'Now that my cultivation has yielded some results, I will head to Yuanjiang Prefecture to find my mysterious friend and see if I can uncover any spider silk and horse tracks.'

Chen Lingxi set out immediately. He activated the Cloud Soaring Technique, ascending straight into the clouds and soaring through the sky.

After flying past the mountain range, he suddenly frowned slightly and turned to look into the distance.

At the very edge of the distant horizon, intense waves of blood qi were surging into the sky.

The blood qi was scorching and violent. It pierced straight through the clouds like an invisible signal fire, dyeing half the sky dark red.

"Hmm?"

Chen Lingxi raised an eyebrow slightly, and the Method of Qi Observation silently activated in his eyes.

Spiritual qi flowed out from his Qi Sea, traveling all the way up his meridians and pouring into his eyes.

In an instant, the scene on that distant horizon became perfectly clear to him.

It was a plain a hundred li away.

On the plain, two great armies were engaged in a fierce slaughter.

One side flew the "Evil-Suppressing" banner; they were precisely Xiao Changlv's Evil-Suppressing Army. The other side raised the King of the East's flags, marking them as the elite forces under the King of the East.

Where the two armies clashed, blood qi churned like boiling water, and the battle cries shook the heavens and the earth.

Countless streaks of blood qi collided and intertwined on the battlefield, every clash erupting with a muffled, thunderous boom.

Chen Lingxi's gaze passed over the warring soldiers and landed on a mountain peak at the rear of the battlefield.

Several figures stood upon that mountain peak.

Chen Lingxi recognized one of them; it was none other than Xiao Zhushan.

This younger brother of the Evil-Severing Heavenly King was currently clad in armor. With that long saber—which was over two fingers wider than an ordinary Goose-Feather Saber—hanging at his waist, he stood with his hands behind his back beneath the commander's banner.

He stared down at the battlefield with a grave expression.

Behind him stood three generals, all of whom possessed the blood qi cultivation of the Nine Revolutions Realm. Their auras were as heavy and profound as mountains.

Beside Xiao Zhushan stood a young woman in silver armor with a narrow-bladed longsword hanging at her waist. It was Xiao Taozhuo.

This woman certainly possessed some courage to dare don armor and take to the battlefield.

Right at this moment...

At the other end of the battlefield, a figure suddenly stepped onto the peak of a low mountain.

He wore a black brocade robe and a jade belt, his hair crown meticulously arranged. He looked exactly like a pampered nobleman.

However, the churning blood qi surrounding him looked nothing like what a nobleman ought to possess.

That blood qi was a lustrous white. It seeped out from his pores thread by thread, condensing on the surface of his body to form a blood astral shield several inches thick.

A terrifying presence rolled outward, and an unimaginable aura emanated from him.

His blood qi had already reached the pinnacle of perfection. Every drop was refined to the extreme and contained an indescribable, profound mystery.

Above Entering Profound.

'King of the East,' Chen Lingxi silently mouthed the name in his heart, a glint of light flashing in his eyes.

He was no stranger to this Entering Profound King of the East.

During his Absolute Perception Deduction, when he used the Longevity Bridge outside Qinghua Province to ask Xiao Changlv for essence blood, the King of the East had watched him from afar atop Flowing Cloud Mountain. The killing intent in his eyes had been blazing, his might shaking the heavens.

Later, he had swung his sword at the King of the East on Flowing Cloud Mountain, but the King of the East had shattered his sword light with a single punch, sending him plummeting to the earth along with the Longevity Bridge.

At that time, Chen Lingxi had still been no match for the King of the East.

But today, seeing the King of the East appear, a faint smile touched Chen Lingxi's lips.

"It can be considered an old grudge! We might as well settle it right here and now."

He immediately commanded the Cloud Soaring Technique and shot straight toward the battlefield on the plain.

On that battlefield.

The King of the East slowly stepped off the mountain peak. His pace was entirely unhurried, as if he were strolling leisurely in a quiet courtyard.

The King of the East had revealed himself.

Xiao Zhushan's expression changed drastically.

"Not good!" he blurted out, a flash of horror in his eyes. "Lure the tiger from the mountain!"

Across the way, a faint smile surfaced on the King of the East's lips atop the other mountain peak.

He tilted his head slightly. His gaze swept over the commander's banner of the Evil-Suppressing Army before settling on Xiao Zhushan.

"Xiao Changlv is already in seclusion."

"Who else in the Evil-Suppressing Army can stop me?" the King of the East murmured.

His gaze swept over the generals on the mountain, then lowered to watch the two warring armies.

"Today, by crushing Xiao Changlv's sixty thousand troops and killing Xiao Zhushan and Xiao Taozhuo, I can secure total victory."

Before his voice even faded, the King of the East moved.

He took a step forward, and the blood qi around his body erupted with a boom!

That surging blood qi burst from his body like an inverted waterfall, instantly engulfing a radius of several dozen zhang!

The indescribable blood qi rolled and surged!

The King of the East bent his knees and launched himself into the air!

The mountain rock beneath his feet instantly shattered with a deafening boom. He crashed down like a falling star, plunging straight toward the other mountain peak!

He arrived in an instant, raising his hand and launching a palm strike right at Xiao Zhushan.

The moment the palm strike began, monstrous blood qi instantly swept forward!

Xiao Zhushan gritted his teeth and drew his saber, pushing his bodily blood qi to the absolute limit.

The broad-bladed long saber flipped in his hand, and dark golden blood qi explosively ignited along the blade. With a single slash, the saber astral energy shot forward like a dark golden streak, crashing head-on into the palm imprint.

With a thunderous boom, the saber astral energy and the palm imprint violently collided.

Xiao Zhushan let out a muffled groan. He was sent flying backward by the terrifying recoil force, blood spurting wildly from his mouth.

The long saber in his hand buzzed incessantly, the dark golden blood qi along its blade having largely dimmed.

With just one palm strike, Xiao Zhushan had been wounded!

The King of the East gave him no chance to catch his breath. Stepping close, he unleashed another palm strike.

This palm strike was even heavier and more tyrannical than the last. As the palm astral energy tore through the air, it was like a true mountain falling from the sky.

Xiao Zhushan struggled to block horizontally with his saber, but the palm strike violently rattled the blade. The webbing between his fingers tore open, and blood trickled down the hilt as he was knocked back dozens of zhang once again.

Seeing this, the three Nine Revolutions generals attacked simultaneously.

Three streaks of Nine Revolutions blood qi surged up like columns of signal smoke, crashing toward the King of the East from three different directions.

But the King of the East casually swept his sleeve.

The large sleeve whipped through the air with unimaginable speed. Streaks of blood qi shot out from it, accurately burying themselves in the foreheads of the three Nine Revolutions generals.

The three men jolted. The light in their eyes instantly extinguished, and their bodies plummeted.

With a single strike.

Three Nine Revolutions experts perished instantly!

Xiao Taozhuo's face went pale, but she remained completely fearless, even drawing the long saber from her waist.

The King of the East's gaze fell upon her, his expression utterly cold.

Right at this moment...

In the distant sky, a wisp of cloud drifted over.

The cloud appeared slow but was actually unimaginably fast. Streaks of lightning were wrapped within it, making it look like the technique of an immortal!

The King of the East frowned slightly and turned his head.

He watched as the cloud came to a halt above the battlefield, revealing a figure.

The person was dressed in black. He was exceedingly handsome, his expression calm, naturally bearing an unhurried grace between his brows.

Within his deep eyes, a faint streak of golden lightning slowly circulated.

Other than this...

This person emitted absolutely no other aura, looking just like an ordinary person who had never cultivated.

But how could an ordinary person ride the clouds and fly?

This person was none other than Chen Lingxi!

The King of the East's gaze fell upon Chen Lingxi, and the killing intent in his eyes abruptly flared.

"Chen Lingxi?" the King of the East asked slowly. His voice contained the full blood qi of a Tenth Profound martial artist, ringing out like a divine being beating a war drum and shocking the sounds of slaughter across the battlefield into a momentary pause.