In the crowd watching in the imperial city, everyone's expressions were shocked as they witnessed this scene.
A figure in green robes was walking on air.
The old immortal was standing in the sky several kilometers away, his whole body drenched in blood, staring fixedly at Chen Xia who was walking on air. The flying sword beside him was trembling incessantly.
His eyebrows were sharp, and he clenched his teeth tightly. With a wave of his hand, the flying sword let out an angry cry and rose up inverted, its sword tip pointing straight at Chen Xia's head.
"I have cultivated the Dao for two hundred years, mastering the flying sword as my path. This should make me the number one in terms of killing force in the world. How can you, a mere cultivator who relies solely on your fists, dare to challenge me like this?!"
The old immortal was extremely resentful in his heart!
He had painstakingly cultivated for two hundred years to form his Golden Core, and should have been unrivaled in the world after leaving seclusion. How could this Chen Xia have risen to become an existence on par with him within just a hundred years?!
Chen Xia's steps through the air came to a stop as he looked at the old immortal. With one hand stretched out, he made a wiping motion in front of his mouth corner again, his eyes swirling like flowing water, turning completely transparent as he replied.
"Because you're a useless fool."
The old immortal's expression froze.
Before he could react, Chen Xia was already in front of him, and his fist was already descending onto him.
The old immortal's eyebrows shot up in shock. He truly could not understand how Chen Xia could utilize such a terrifying speed.
No matter how much he did not understand, the fist landed squarely on his body.
His figure was blown back again, carving a ravine in the air. The blood stains were evaporated by the high temperature generated from the air friction.
The old immortal gritted his teeth and gestured in front of his chest, summoning his flying sword back.
His body was suddenly enveloped in a shadow. He looked up in shock and saw it was Chen Xia looking down at him, as well as the palm grabbing towards his head!
The old immortal's expression was alarmed. His fingers on his chest quickly formed seals, and the flying sword transformed into an arc of light, shooting over swiftly carrying a sharp sword aura, aiming to sever Chen Xia's head!
This flying sword was very fast, and its power even more tremendous.
If it hit its mark, the old immortal was confident it could pierce through Chen Xia's skull.
But unfortunately, it did not even have a chance to hit.
Chen Xia grabbed the sword blade with one hand.
The flying sword let out a mournful cry, held in Chen Xia's palm. Cracks had already appeared on the blade, and it was crying incessantly now, its sword aura completely dissipated.
The old immortal's expression was blank.
His head was being held in Chen Xia's grasp. It was flung to the ground just like tossing a ball.
Boom!
A deafening sound exploded in the air.
The old immortal's body instantly contacted the ground, drilling kilometres deep, pulverizing untold amounts of earth. The ground collapsed within a radius of several kilometres.
After three breaths.
Half of the imperial city collapsed, but no one was harmed.
Chen Xia held the hilt of the flying sword in one hand, while his other palm pressed against the sword tip, starting to compress inwards. His barbaric strength ignored all the sword aura, directly grinding the flying sword into flying ash, dissipating away with the blowing wind.
The high-level inspectors from the Imperial Guards around them were all dumbfounded, this was just a one-sided thrashing, the old immortal did not have any power to fight back before the National Teacher.
It was like an adult beating a child.
Chen Xia took a step, his figure flashing from thousands of meters in the air to the ground in an instant. Looking at the half-dead old immortal in the crater, he let out a breath, and some of the anger in his heart dissipated. He asked,
"Were you always this arrogant since you were young?"
The old immortal spit out a large mouthful of blood. His body was already immobilized. Staring fixedly at Chen Xia, he replied,
"I was orphaned at three, went up the mountains at six, started practicing the sword at sixteen, and became unrivaled in the world by twenty-six."
Chen Xia frowned, and casually kicked a pebble. It shot out with a boom, blasting apart the rubble next to the old immortal's head. Then he commented,
"That's not a reason for you to be this arrogant."
The old immortal coughed out another mouthful of blood, staring at Chen Xia, and sneered, "Cultivation in this world is all about seizing opportunities. If you don't fight and seize, how do you cultivate? Rely on handouts from others?"
By killing monsters for experience points.
Chen Xia really wanted to say that, but held it in. He shook his head,
"Since you want to compete, then go compete with the people you want to compete with. What are you causing trouble in the imperial city for?"
The old immortal gave a cold laugh, "I came to compete with you. The fortunes of this world are limited, not enough for two people to ascend. Only by killing you do I have a chance to ascend."
Chen Xia squatted down, resting his hands on his knees, and replied plainly,
"With your talent, you think you can ascend?"
The old immortal was silent for a moment, and only answered, "You are more powerful than me, so naturally whatever you say is right."
Chen Xia shook his head, his gaze growing cold, "When you came, you should have been prepared to die."
The old immortal was silent. After a long while, he finally replied, "You're not just at the Golden Core realm."
"Mm." Chen Xia nodded, "I'm at the Colored Core realm."
This was indeed the truth.
The old immortal did not comment, but spit out another mouthful of blood at the corner of his mouth. He already looked to be on the verge of death. After a brief pause, he continued speaking,
"When you form your Nascent Soul, you will ascend. This world cannot accommodate Nascent Soul cultivators. You will ascend to the immortal realm, and if nothing unexpected happens, you should be assigned to the Upper Pill Palace Sect."
Chen Xia frowned, "Why are you telling me all this? Hoping I'll show mercy and spare your life?"
"Hahaha!" The old immortal laughed loudly, blood spurting from his mouth again. He did not care at this point, and continued speaking while spitting blood,
"I just want to tell you, no matter how powerful you are in this world, after ascending, you will still only be a lowly ant!"
Chen Xia was somewhat puzzled, "Then why do you want to ascend, just to become an ant?"
The old immortal fell silent again. After another moment, he finally said,
"If you don't ascend, the only path left is having your lifespan run out and your Dao dissipating. Only by ascending can one pursue the grand path of eternal life, even if starting over as an ant."
Chen Xia smiled.
Then he really did not need to ascend.
His lifespan was already endless, and he could still level up every year. Only an idiot would ascend to roll with those immortals.
Seeing the smile on Chen Xia's face, the old immortal spat out another mouthful of blood, and said coldly, "Go ahead and laugh for now. When you reach the Upper Realm, with your attitude of unwillingness to fight and seize, you will only be able to be trampled underfoot as an ant for all eternity!"
Chen Xia randomly picked up a pebble from the ground, smiling at the old immortal,
"At least I'm still alive."
This one line was enough to kill the old immortal.
There was nothing more that needed to be said after this.
Chen Xia pinched the pebble and flung it out forcefully. The air exploded, and looking in the direction he threw,
There was a bloody hole between the old immortal's eyebrows, along with his eyes that were slowly losing their color.
The old immortal's soul had been pierced through by Chen Xia.
The sky instantly filled with dark clouds, and a fine drizzle began to fall.
This was the heavenly tears after the death of a Golden Core cultivator.
[Atmospheric Effect: Killing a top Golden Core cultivator in this plane, Indomitability +1]
Indomitability?
Chen Xia was a little surprised. After all, he felt this stuff was quite rare. Previously, he had hammered an Upper Realm immortal to death and only obtained three drops of Indomitability.
And now, beheading a Golden Core cultivator of the same realm could provide one drop. This was really simple.
Chen Xia thought about it and felt that the amount of Indomitability was probably dependent on which plane it was obtained in. For example, Golden Core was the strongest existence in this plane, so killing a peer Golden Core cultivator here could grant Indomitability.
However, three thousand drops of Indomitability were needed to have an effect, to accomplish an Indomitable One and embark on the path of a Great Emperor.
His current four drops probably were not even enough to condense an Indomitable finger. For now, it was just something good to have on hand.
Not far away, Huang Qingyue saw the fight was over. She hurriedly dragged her frail body over, carefully looking Chen Xia up and down, and asked caringly,
"You're not injured, are you?"
If these words were asked while the old immortal was still alive, it probably would have angered him to jump up on the spot.
Throughout the entire fight, he had not even touched Chen Xia once, yet Huang Qingyue could actually ask whether he was injured!
Fortunately, the old immortal was already dead, spared from such torment.
Chen Xia looked at Huang Qingyue's pale complexion, feeling somewhat distressed over this silly girl. He wiped the blood stains from her pretty face and said gently,
"He wanted to fight me, you should have just let him come. He couldn't beat me anyway. There was no need for you to block him yourself. One look and you could tell he was a reckless brute. He didn't know how to control his strikes. It was too thoughtless of you to try and block him with your delicate self."
The corners of Huang Qingyue's mouth curled up in a blissful smile. She knew Chen Xia said this because he cared for her. Still, she weakly explained,
"I was afraid he would disturb your cultivation. You told me you wanted to form your Golden Core. What if he disrupted you and caused your core formation to fail?"
Chen Xia shook his head and said, "I can kill him even without concocting pills. If something like this happens again, run first and don't worry about me. I'm invincible."
At least in this world, Chen Xia was invincible.
Huang Qingyue nodded obediently and said, "Okay, but can I watch from the side?"
"As long as you watch quietly and don't try to stop me again," Chen Xia laughed.
Huang Qingyue rolled up her sleeves and flaunted her arms, giggling, "I won't anymore."
"Is your injury okay?" Chen Xia looked at Huang Qingyue's pale complexion with concern.
Huang Qingyue relished Chen Xia's caring feelings for her. It was like when she was a greedy child, eating the sweetest honey. This feeling of happiness was never enough to savor.
She lowered her head and softly replied, "It should be...probably...maybe it's fine."
Chen Xia frowned, "Let me take a look."
Huang Qingyue covered her pert breasts and her fair face flushed red. She lowered her head, extremely shyly said, "You can't just look as you wish."
Chen Xia was stunned for a moment, then sighed at how easily Huang Qingyue got injured.
Thus, he didn't ask further. Instead, he called people to clean up the battlefield and took the Old Immortal's corpse to be cremated, with the ashes scattered into the sea.
It wasn't that he was pursuing some kind of sentiment. Chen Xia simply wanted to scatter the ashes of this old rogue.
Huang Qingyue's eyes were downcast, flashing with a loss that others could not see.
So the Old Immortal's time in this world ended.
From now on, everyone in the world would know that the Old Immortal only lived for half a month after emerging into the world.
He was in this world for fourteen days, boasting ambitious aspirations.
He went to the imperial city for one day.
And died.
His ashes were scattered by others.
The legend of an era thus passed away meaninglessly, making many martial artists in the jianghu sigh.
Thus, the "half" in the century-old label of "half-invincible" attached to Chen Xia was finally removed, leaving only invincible!
That night.
Huang Qingyue, who had taken medication, stood at her door and called out to Chen Xia who was about to enter the room. Her face was flushed red.
"Brother Chen."
Chen Xia turned around in puzzlement, "What's the matter?"
Huang Qingyue looked away, her entire being seemed extremely shy under the bright moonlight. She brushed aside the hair by her ear, revealing an ear tip as red as dripping blood.
"Do you...do you want to see...see my injury...my injury?"
Chen Xia was stunned at first, then his expression became serious. He clasped his fist and solemnly said,
"Tonight, we will only discuss medical techniques, nothing else."
"Then come in quickly," Huang Qingyue was truly too shy to bear, and hurried into the room.
Chen Xia also swaggered in after her, ready to showcase his martial arts.
Referring to medical techniques.
The next morning, the warm morning sun had just risen, and the fog had not yet dispersed. The great bell in the imperial city rang out leisurely.
Chen Xia had been sitting on the steps outside Huang Qingyue's door much earlier, propping his head with one hand, looking at the hazy morning mist, pondering over things.
He and Huang Qingyue had of course spent a night discussing medical techniques.
In the process, they gained a basic understanding of the various acupoints on the human body. This was not something shameful, but the instinct of living beings.
Chen Xia also accepted the instincts of living beings.
But he did not reproduce offspring, not because he was incapable.
It was because Huang Qingyue was incapable.
Huang Qingyue was injured and should properly rest and recuperate. How could she withstand another "injury"?
Chen Xia felt heartache for Huang Qingyue and didn't want to "injure" her. He decided to postpone it for another day.
Huang Qingyue was naturally delighted. She pulled Chen Xia to sit on the bed and asked him to tell her a story.
So Chen Xia put on a serious expression and told a story that had influenced his entire life, altering some parts to fit this era.
"Chapter One: The Landlord's Wife."
The plot was a bit intense. Huang Qingyue listened with bated breath, not at all wanting to fall asleep.
Fortunately, Chen Xia stopped the story later, and Huang Qingyue also covered her blushing head with the quilt, ready to sleep.
Only then did Chen Xia leave and sit on the doorstep, propping his head to think.
He was thinking about what to do with his path in the future, just hiding in this world and slowly gaining strength?
He didn't care, after all he was immortal.
But Huang Qingyue was not immortal! To gain immortality, she would have to ascend to the Immortal Realm.
Moreover, Chen Xia still wanted to see Xu Zhen in the Immortal Realm.
So he could not stay in this world forever. He would also ascend to the Immortal Realm one day in the future.
Therefore, before ascending, he had to make preparations and reach his strongest state. That way, after ascending, he could at least gain a foothold.
Only then could he continue to protect Huang Qingyue.
He believed that one day he would become invincible, but he didn't want to lose too much before becoming invincible.
He wouldn't mind losing treasures or martial arts techniques. Avoiding financial ruin was key.
But in this world, there were things much more important than treasures or techniques.
Chen Xia sat on the steps and slowly exhaled. His expression was like he had figured something out. He stood up, looked at the rising sun and the moon that had not completely set, slapped his sleeves and laughed.
"It's decided. Starting today, I will work towards becoming invincible!"
PS: Brothers, please give some reminders to update. I'll write 10,000 words tomorrow. You give me one reminder, I'll write one more bit. So there can be even more tomorrow.