Chapter 250 - 131: Killing Fu Chenzhou (2)

If you don’t contend, your resources dwindle. You have no choice but to fight.

Vice City Lord’s Mansion, the study in the rear courtyard.

Fu Chenzhou put down the scroll in his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose.

The candlelight flickered, illuminating his somber face.

"Someone."

He called out toward the door, his voice laced with exhaustion.

There was no response.

Fu Chenzhou’s heart skipped a beat for no apparent reason. He subconsciously circulated the aura of his True Essence Realm Perfection cultivation and stared warily at the door.

The study door slid open without a sound.

A figure in a gray robe stood outside. The candlelight stretched his shadow long, casting it down the corridor.

Fu Chenzhou’s pupils constricted abruptly, and every muscle in his body tensed in an instant!

"Liang Cheng?!"

His voice was hoarse with disbelief. "How dare you come here?!"

Liang Cheng stepped inside and closed the door behind him, sealing them off from the outside world.

"City Lord Fu," he said calmly, "the score for your ambush will be settled today."

"Good! Very good!"

Fu Chenzhou’s shock and fury morphed into a savage expression. "I was just worrying about how to find you. Since you’ve delivered yourself to my doorstep, you can leave your life behind!"

Before the words had even faded, he lunged!

He unleashed the full power of his True Essence Realm Perfection cultivation. He thrust out a palm, and his immense True Essence, infused with Cyan Mist City’s unique Cyan Mist Force, materialized into a solid, cyan Palm Seal that tore through the air!

The force of the palm strike was so fierce that the candlelight in the study swayed violently and papers scattered everywhere.

He had launched this palm strike in a rage, aiming for a swift kill!

At the same time, he channeled True Essence into his right hand, drew a sword from the wall, and prepared to slay Liang Cheng in one move to finally quench the hatred in his heart.

But Liang Cheng neither retreated nor dodged. With a mere thought, a faint golden Gang Shield materialized around him, its surface faintly shimmering with ancient patterns.

BOOM—!!

The cyan Palm Seal smashed squarely into the Gang Shield, but it was like a stone dropped into the ocean. Liang Cheng’s figure remained as steady as a boulder. The Protective Gang Shield merely rippled with golden light, proving itself incomparably tough!

Only his outer gray robe was torn in a few places by the fierce palm wind.

Liang Cheng didn’t want to cause a huge commotion, so he directly used softness to overcome hardness—the Mixed Element Gang Body, a perfect balance of hard and soft!

Fu Chenzhou’s expression changed drastically, the horror in his eyes impossible to conceal!

’His full-powered palm strike, backed by his True Essence Realm Perfection, was blocked head-on, and his opponent is completely unscathed?!’

’How is this possible?!’

’Just a few months ago, he had to flee from me, wounded!’

The sword in his hand remained un-thrust, frozen by his momentary stupor.

"My turn."

Liang Cheng’s voice rang out, cold as ice, as the Zhenxian Saber was already unsheathed.

He gripped the saber with both hands in a simple motion, raised it high above his head, and brought it down in a swift slash!

[Mountain-Breaking Saber·Severing Life Energy]

Condensing the Tidal True Essence from the Third Layer of the Broken Wave Technique, the saber’s light became a razor-thin line. It sliced through the air without the slightest whisper of wind, locking onto all of Fu Chenzhou’s vital energy!

Fast!

Vicious!

Decisive!

Fu Chenzhou was scared out of his wits. An intense premonition of death drove him to desperately channel all his True Essence, raising his sword horizontally in a block and thrusting upward to try and parry the fatal strike!

SHIIING—!

The light of the saber flashed and was gone.

Fu Chenzhou froze in place, his upraised sword halted mid-air, his face a mask of horror and despair.

A barely perceptible line of blood appeared at his hairline, running straight down, over the bridge of his nose, his lips, his chin, his throat, his chest...

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but only a bloody froth emerged.

The next moment, his body split cleanly in two along the bloodline, toppling slowly to the left and right.

Blood splattered, and his organs spilled out.

Liang Cheng sheathed his saber, bent down, and quickly searched Fu Chenzhou’s corpse.

A few bottles of Elixirs.

Liang Cheng frowned. ’To me now, these are commonplace.’

He then searched the study, eventually finding some rare Spirit Grass and, in a hidden compartment, a Gang Condensing Pill. ’Looks like he was preparing to break through to the True Gang Realm?’

’All the better for me.’

He put away the Gang Condensing Pill and continued searching. He found two sheets of cowhide paper, and his eyes narrowed. He tucked them securely away, planning to read them later.

Finally, there were some letters. He skimmed through them without much interest, but suddenly his gaze turned cold. One of them was signed by none other than the Treasure Pavilion!

He gathered all the letters.

After a thorough search to ensure nothing was missed, he took out the Jade Bottle of Corpse-Dissolving Powder that Ye Zhiqiu had given him. He uncorked it and sprinkled the white powder evenly over the two halves of the corpse.

TCHH TCHH TCHH...

Green smoke rose as the flesh and blood dissolved into liquid at a visible rate. In the end, even the bones turned into a pool of clear water that seeped into the cracks between the floor tiles.

In just a few moments, Fu Chenzhou had vanished from the face of the earth, leaving no trace behind.

Liang Cheng quickly cleaned up the signs of the fight in the study. Once finished, his figure flickered and disappeared into the night.

「One day later.」

The City Lord’s Mansion was in chaos.

"The City Lord is missing!"

"Quick! Search!"

Three days later, they had found nothing.

Cyan Mist City was thrown into utter chaos.

An inconspicuous cargo ship had already departed quietly from Central Origin Island’s port three days prior, heading east.

On deck, Liang Cheng faced the sea breeze, gazing toward the whitening sky in the East.

In his hand, the stack of letters glimmered faintly in the morning light.

Treasure Pavilion...

There was no specific signature, but he could see the clues within.

Qian Wanjing!

...

The cargo ship sailed east.

Having killed Fu Chenzhou, the malevolent energy that had been weighing on Liang Cheng’s heart for months finally dissipated for the most part.

He sat cross-legged in his cabin, but he didn’t let his guard down just because he had achieved his revenge.

Revenge was only the first step. On the path of the Martial Dao, if you don’t advance, you fall behind.

He took the Gang Condensing Pill from his robes and examined it closely.

During the half-month sea voyage to Cyan Mist City, he had never stopped his Cultivation.

’Previously, under the assault of the Demon Core Energy, the resilience of my Meridians improved even further. Coupled with reaching the Great Success stage of the Mixed Element Gang Body, if I get my body into the right state, I could take the Gang Condensing Pill.’

At this thought, he looked inward, observing his True Essence surging through his Meridians like a mighty river.

"My Gang Body is at Great Success. I can take it a step further."

He put down the Gang Condensing Pill and picked up a Tier Four Demon Core instead, holding it in his palm. The Crossing the Sea True Intent Fragment began to quietly circulate within him.