Chapter 134 | The Galgame Martial Saint

The white jade doors slowly closed behind them, completely cutting off the outside world.

The spiritual energy here was dense, yet it was strictly governed by extremely harsh laws. Zhou Qingmu followed closely behind, looking left and right, vividly portraying a lowly senior banner who had never seen the world and had mixed into the core area purely by luck.

"Vice Commander Gu, does this count as us directly entering the True Monarch's treasure vault?"

Zhou Qingmu leaned in and lowered her voice, her tone carrying an irrepressible excitement:

"Look at the patterns on these walls; they are made of top-quality spirit-attracting sand. Just scraping a bit off to sell on the capital's black market could fetch quite a few spirit stones. This Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying True Monarch was certainly a wealthy man back in the day."

Gu Chengming stopped, glanced back at her, and said helplessly, "Senior Banner Shen, watch your words. The laws within the Zhou Shrine are strict; it is best not to speak of such things."

Zhou Qingmu immediately nodded, putting on the air of a little follower, clearly enjoying herself immensely.

The two continued forward, and the corridor eventually opened up into an extremely wide circular domed hall.

In the center of the hall, there were no dharma treasures or weapons, nor were there any mountains of spirit stones or pills.

There was only a massive white jade stone platform, upon which a single jade slip hovered silently, emitting a soft golden light.

Surrounding the stone platform were four towering jade walls, covered in dense ancient seal script.

The rules of the Zhou Shrine were immediate. As soon as the two stepped into the hall, several lines of shimmering golden characters appeared in mid-air.

【Those who enter this hall must observe the True Monarch's life】

【Those who observe without respect shall be expelled】

【Those who observe without reflection shall be expelled】

"These rules are quite overbearing."

Zhou Qingmu muttered softly to the side, "They won't even let people not understand."

Gu Chengming did not respond and walked straight to the white jade stone platform.

The wonders within Tianque carried heavy karma. Since the Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying True Monarch had left such an inheritance, he would surely test the character and intent of his successors.

He raised his hand, his fingertips lightly touching the hovering jade slip.

In an instant, the light and shadows within the hall shifted abruptly. The surrounding jade walls seemed to come to life, as the golden ancient seal script detached and reorganized, turning into vivid images.

It appeared to be the life of the Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying True Monarch.

...

The story's beginning was not the birth of a brilliant auspicious omen, but the chaotic daily life of a mundane small town.

The True Monarch's common name was Zhou Li, born into a relatively wealthy scholarly family.

The Zhou family had only one son for generations, so they naturally doted on this single child while also placing high expectations on him.

Master Zhou was determined to raise his son into a well-educated and polite gentleman, hiring the most learned teacher in the city to instruct him from a young age.

However, the young Zhou Li was a total devil incarnate.

The images on the jade walls were incredibly vivid. At three years old, Zhou Li smashed the old teacher's inkstone to dye the white geese in the courtyard with black feathers. At five, he stole his father's official seal and ran to the market to stamp every pig owned by the butcher, claiming he wanted to see if this "official prestige" could keep the pigs from the blade. At seven, he went even further, taking down the ancestral tablets enshrined in the hall and rearranging them by height and weight, saying the original arrangement did not conform to the rites in his heart.

Master Zhou trembled with rage, and family discipline became a daily occurrence.

Every time he was beaten, Zhou Li neither cried nor made a scene, only staring at his father with wide eyes.

"Father beats me because I do not follow the rules."

In the image, the young Zhou Li held a ruler high with both hands, his palms red and swollen:

"But Father taught me that in the application of rites, harmony is of the highest value. Father beats me and I feel pain; where is the 'harmony' in that? If rules cannot make people peaceful and harmonious, why should they be followed?"

Master Zhou was rendered speechless by this twisted logic and could only curse him as a rebellious son.

Zhou Li's mischief did not stem from malice, but from his doubt toward the so-called social rites around him.

The more his parents used red tape to bind him, the more acutely he could find the logical loopholes in those rules.

He did not understand why the poor had to kowtow to officials, he did not understand why elders could avoid punishment when they made mistakes, and he did not understand why the path of the sages written in books was full of compromise and hypocrisy when put into practice.

By the time he was ten, Master Zhou finally admitted defeat, thinking the child was likely possessed by some evil spirit. Secular academies could no longer teach him, so he spent a fortune and used connections to send him to a celestial sect high above the clouds—the Taiping Monastery.

The Taiping Monastery was a prestigious righteous sect in the cultivation world at the time.

Its sect's tenet was "Accord with the heavenly dao, remain quiet and non-active, and govern the heart with rites."

After entering the Taiping Monastery, Zhou Li's personality still did not settle down.

When his mentors told him to sit in meditation and refine qi, he would instead run to the Scripture Repository to flip through the sect laws left by predecessors. When they told him to recite daoist scriptures, he would point out in class that the interpretations of "Heaven and Earth are heartless" and "The Dao follows nature" were contradictory.

The Enforcement Elder of the Taiping Monastery was so angry his beard fluttered, and he punished him to sweep the three thousand white jade steps of the main peak.

This sweeping lasted for three years.

For three years, Zhou Li held a broom, sweeping from the foot of the mountain to the summit.

He watched how the morning dew evaporated under the first light of dawn, how the autumn leaves followed the wind's path to fall into the soil, and how the disciples within the sect strictly divided their food, clothing, and housing based on their cultivation level.

One night when he was thirteen, Zhou Li dropped his broom and sat on the white jade steps.

The image on the jade wall zoomed in, freezing on the young Zhou Li's eyes.

"I understand."

The young Zhou Li said softly, "Mortal rites are used to constrain the weak, but the rites of heaven and earth are the tracks upon which all things run. As long as one is within heaven and earth, one cannot escape this order."

The moment his voice fell, Zhou Li broke through two realms in a single night, reaching the Third Realm.

His comprehension was incredibly high, reaching a point of flawless compatibility with the Taiping Monastery's extremely strict and order-focused cultivation arts.

He no longer talked back to his mentors and became extremely law-abiding, turning into the most impeccable disciple of the Taiping Monastery and a recognized genius of the cultivation world.

However, when Zhou Li was twenty years old, the tone of the images on the jade walls suddenly became extremely oppressive.

The catastrophe known as the "Miasma Tide" descended.

The records regarding the Miasma Tide on the jade walls were vague and even somewhat distorted.

There were no specific enemies, no rampaging monsters, only a boundless expanse of foul, viscous substance spreading from the far east.

It was not a physical flow of water, but a conceptual disaster.

Wherever the Miasma Tide passed, the sky turned a bruised purple-black, and the spiritual energy was severely polluted, becoming violent and highly toxic.

When mortals were touched by the Miasma Tide, their bodies would grow tumors within hours, their sanity would be lost, and they would tear at each other. If cultivators accidentally absorbed the polluted spiritual energy, they would suffer qi deviation at best, or have their meridians shattered and explode at worst.

The entire mortal world turned into a purgatory.

Cities collapsed, the land was covered in corpses, and black sludge surged from cracks in the earth, swallowing all life. Countless small sects vanished under the impact of the Miasma Tide, and even those high and mighty great cultivators appeared powerless before this heavenly force.

As one of the leaders of the righteous path, the Taiping Monastery faced the most difficult choice in its history.

Before the main peak hall, the Sect Master of the Taiping Monastery stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the purple toxic mist that had already spread to the edge of the sect-protecting array.

All the elders and inner sect disciples stood solemnly here.

The Sect Master's voice echoed across the mountain peak.

"The heavenly dao is constant; it does not exist for a sage king like Yao, nor does it perish for a tyrant like Jie. The Miasma Tide is a great calamity of heaven and earth, caused by the accumulation of the karma of all things. It cannot be resisted by human strength, nor blocked by cultivators." The Sect Master closed his eyes, "The Taiping Monastery's inheritance has lasted for thousands of years; our lineage must not be severed. Pass my decree: from this day forth, the Taiping Monastery shall seal the mountain and lock its gates, cutting off all internal and external arrays. We shall not emerge until this calamity passes."

Below the hall, everyone bowed in unison, shouting, "We respectfully obey the Sect Master's words."

Zhou Li was also in the crowd; at that time, he was only at the peak of the Third Realm, merely an outstanding junior in a great sect like the Taiping Monastery.

He bowed along with the others, his movements still perfectly matching the Taiping Monastery's "rites," without a single flaw to be found.

The image on the jade wall stopped at the final moment of the Taiping Monastery's sealing.

The heavy Dragon-Severing Stone was slowly descending, and the massive sect-protecting array began to completely isolate the entire Mount Taia from the outside world. Zhou Li stood at the very edge of the sect array.

The wind blew from the foot of the mountain, carrying a heavy scent of blood and the stench of rotting flesh. The purple-black clouds in the sky hung very low, as if they could collapse at any moment.

Zhou Li stood straight. His face was hidden in the shadows, his expression unreadable.

But the sounds drifted in.

Those were the cries of mortals—an old woman's desperate wailing as she held her dead grandson, a strong man's shrill curses as he struggled in the mud, and the final pleas of countless families before being swallowed by the Miasma Tide.

Logically, the main peak of the Taiping Monastery towered into the clouds and was isolated by the sect-protecting array; a Third Realm cultivator should have been absolutely unable to hear the cries of mortals below the mountain.

These sounds were echoing directly upon Zhou Li's dao heart.

Zhou Li's hands, hidden in his wide sleeves, were trembling uncontrollably. His eyes were fixed on the purple-black tide below, and spiritual energy surged wildly through his meridians.

"Zhou Li, withdraw!"

The Enforcement Elder's voice came from behind him.

"The Dao follows nature, and this is nature. If you step out of this array, not only will you fail to save them, but you will also throw away a seed of our Taiping Monastery for nothing. Focus your mind and restrain your qi; this is the rule of the sect, and the rule of heaven and earth."

Zhou Li turned around, looking at the elder who had taught him for ten years, looking at the towering main hall of the Taiping Monastery behind him, and looking at his fellow disciples who had also chosen to remain behind closed doors.

What an agonizing moment it was. He had learned rules since childhood, and at the Taiping Monastery, he had carved them into his very bones. He knew better than anyone that the elder was right—a Third Realm cultivator jumping into the Miasma Tide wouldn't even cause a ripple.

Ultimately, he loosened his clenched fists, raised his hands, and bowed deeply toward the Taiping Monastery.

"This disciple obeys."

The Dragon-Severing Stone crashed down. The sect-protecting array completely closed.

The Taiping Monastery was sealed.

In the years that followed, the records on the jade wall moved extremely fast.

Inside the sealed Taiping Monastery, Zhou Li no longer listened to the sounds outside. His talent was indeed world-shaking; with a mortal body, he attempted to analyze the underlying logic of the Dao Thrones granted by the heavenly dao.

He pored over ancient texts and deconstructed arrays day and night. His cultivation also rose steadily—Fourth Realm, Fifth Realm—breaking through everything in his path.

Finally, he succeeded, creating a set of cultivation arts that could self-deduce and, to some extent, interfere with the condensation of Dao Thrones—

《Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying Art》.

And he himself, relying on this art, attained his own "Dao Throne" within the secret chamber of the Taiping Monastery.

The Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying True Monarch was born.

At this point, the images on the jade wall turned into the principles of his lifelong cultivation: Benefiting others, saving the world, proselytizing, and saving oneself.

However, from here, the story began to turn extremely strange.

The records on the jade wall tried to show how the True Monarch practiced these four principles, especially the "saving the world" part.

But the images "got stuck." They showed the True Monarch covered in golden light, walking out of the Taiping Monastery, and then? How was the Miasma Tide resolved? How did the True Monarch save all living beings in the toxic mist? What world-shaking divine powers did he use?

Nothing. There was nothing.

The images on the jade wall skipped ahead very jarringly. One moment the True Monarch was making a grand vow at the gates of the Taiping Monastery, and the next, the scene switched directly to a prosperous era with blue skies, a recovering earth, and blooming flowers.

Beside it was a line of extremely hollow text: 【The True Monarch illuminated heaven and earth with rites and laws. The Miasma Tide dissipated upon meeting him. The people were moved by his grace, and the world was at peace.】

There was no logical causal relationship, no details of any battle, and not even an explanation of how the Miasma Tide actually retreated.

It was like a third-rate storyteller who suddenly stopped writing halfway through and finally threw together a forced happy ending.

The story ended abruptly there.

...

As the final line of shimmering golden characters faded, the towering jade walls around them lost their spirit and stopped flowing. The vivid images shattered back into stiff seal script and vanished deep into the jade walls.

The hall returned to a deathly silence. Gu Chengming stood before the white jade platform, his brow furrowing deeper after watching this vast life story.

"Vice Commander Gu, finished?"

Zhou Qingmu stretched her somewhat stiff neck to the side. "This True Monarch's life was quite magnificent. But wasn't that last part a bit too much of a cop-out?"

Zhou Qingmu's casual comment happened to strike the exact sense of incongruity in Gu Chengming's heart.

A person who had been rebellious and questioned rules since childhood ended up as a sage who treated rules as the supreme dao. A person who had listened to the cries of mortals when the Miasma Tide descended but ultimately chose to compromise, bowing to sect rules and hiding in a turtle shell, ended up with a Dao Throne whose core was "benefiting others" and "saving the world"?

It made no sense logically.

Cultivation required a clear dao heart. When Zhou Li chose to retreat and obey the sect's interests at that moment, his dao heart was already set.

He sought to preserve himself and the lineage.

How could such a person deduce a Dao Throne centered on "saving the world"?

And if the Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying Art was truly related to the Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying True Monarch, and if the True Monarch was truly someone who could watch the people of the world die for the sake of the sect's big picture as recorded on the jade walls, the Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying Art would never have its current personality.

【The Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying Art watched the life story of the Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying True Monarch just now and has not recovered for a long time】

【It wants to refute it, but does not know how to start. An indescribable emotion is brewing within it】

Seeing the content in the dialogue box before him, Gu Chengming thought, "As expected."

This familiar reaction was just like when the Qingxin Art had its bond event; it had also shown a rare look of confusion.

So it's finally here? The bond event for the Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying Art.

Zhou Qingmu, in her guise as "Shen Jinghong," crossed her arms and asked, "What does Vice Commander Gu think?"

"History is mostly polished by later generations, half true and half false. There is no use in over-analyzing it." Gu Chengming's tone was calm, but in the next moment, he shifted the topic: "However, if we set aside these grand merits and sins and speak only of the True Monarch's cultivation art, it does share some similarities with the 《Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying Art》 I practice. If the two are truly related, I have some different insights."

Zhou Qingmu raised her eyebrows slightly, looking like she was all ears. "Oh? This subordinate would like to hear more."

Gu Chengming looked toward the dome of the hall. "The world thinks the words 'Zhou Rites' are about strict rules, hierarchy, and rigid dogmas. The red tape required to ask with ritual at the stone tablet earlier seemed to confirm this."

"But that is not the case. If rules were only used to box people in, then this art would have become a few pieces of scrap paper long ago. I believe the 《Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying Art》 is not about 'observing rites' at all, but about 'rectifying the heart'."

He pointed to the surrounding white jade walls. "Rites and laws have never been unchangeable heavenly laws. They were established with the initial purpose of maintaining order in a chaotic world, so that most people would have a path to follow, food to eat, and a life to live. When a set of rites can protect all living beings, it is the righteous path. But when those rites become a butcher's knife for those in high positions to prey on the common people, or a shackle that makes it impossible for people to live, they become a man-eating beast."

Hearing this, the smile on Zhou Qingmu's lips slightly faded, and a hint of genuine inquiry appeared deep in her eyes.

Gu Chengming continued, "Therefore, the 《Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying Art》 does not cultivate rigid dogmas, but expediency. Only by knowing the greater righteousness can one distinguish right from wrong. When encountering an evil law, one should smash it and establish new rules; when encountering chaos, one should use any means to reorganize the social order. Accordinging with the heavenly dao is not about teaching people to be deaf and blind or to be submissive, but to enable one to protect those who should be protected between heaven and earth."

"The so-called heavenly rectifying of the heart is to measure the heavenly dao with the human heart. Rules are dead, but people are alive. As long as the original heart is pure and does not violate the greater righteousness, even if one's actions are eccentric or one's methods are ruthless, that is still practicing the true 'Zhou Rites'."

【Hearing these words, the confusion in the eyes of the Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying Art cleared up a bit. After painful reflection, it praised: Breaking the old to establish the new is the true great dao. Chengming's words deeply resonate with it!】

And Zhou Qingmu, after hearing these words, stared fixedly at the young cultivator who was only at the early stage of the Third Realm. The disguise deep in her eyes faded, replaced by a few sparks of genuine admiration and agreement.

This kid understood what true Zhou Rites were better than those old fogies in the capital who had read dead books their whole lives.

It was at this moment that a semi-transparent prompt box quietly popped up in the center of Gu Chengming's vision.

【A deep, heartfelt agreement from a fellow daoist has been detected. Daoist Karma has been established.】

【「Daoist Connection」 CG unlock progress increased by 20%】

Looking at this prompt, Gu Chengming thought this was a pleasant surprise. His superior, who was traveling incognito, not only didn't blame him for his bold words but actually truly considered him a kindred spirit.

Before he could savor this gain, a beam of extremely pure golden spiritual light suddenly descended from the dome of the Zhou Shrine hall.

This was not an attack, but a "response" from this Dao Throne Wonder to Gu Chengming's words just now.

The blessing of the Zhou Shrine had arrived.

The golden light was like physical warm water, pouring straight down from Gu Chengming's crown. The golden light traveled through his limbs and hundred bones, cleansing the few remaining impurities in his meridians. The noble qi of the 《Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying Art》 merged perfectly with this source-sharing power, his aura rising steadily. Everything seemed logical and natural.

Third Realm, Third Level.

Gu Chengming slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, feeling his body become light and his spiritual energy foundation several times thicker than before.

In a place as full of danger as Tianque, being able to get a free realm increase was naturally excellent.

He slightly clenched his fist, feeling the abundant spiritual energy flowing through his fingertips. He was about to turn around to thank Zhou Qingmu and then carefully investigate if there were any other secrets to this white jade platform.

However, the peace within the hall did not last long.

The originally steady laws of the Zhou Shrine suddenly experienced an extremely faint stall.

Gu Chengming did not notice anything unusual at first, until his peripheral vision swept across the other side of the white jade stone platform—

There, at some unknown point, another person had appeared.

It was a male cultivator of medium build, wearing an inconspicuous gray robe.

He stood there as if he had merged into the surrounding jade walls and stone platform.

If one did not stare closely, their gaze would naturally slide past him, and even a divine sense scan would ignore him.

The moment Gu Chengming looked at the other party, his sea of consciousness exploded.

【The 《Red Dust Phantom Step》 is sounding a loud alarm!】

【This person is extremely dangerous. Fellow Daoist Gu must be careful!】

Gu Chengming's heart skipped a beat, and he reacted immediately. A living person had appeared without warning in this core area isolated by the laws of the Zhou Shrine, yet his first instinct had been that the other party was harmless and utterly ordinary.

Cognitive Barrier?!

This contrast between psychological expectation and reality, combined with the frantic warning from the 《Red Dust Phantom Step》, could only mean one thing.

The gray-robed male cultivator before him, who had zero presence, was a terrifying existence capable of distorting common perception.

The gray-robed male cultivator clearly hadn't expected that someone would have already reached the core hall of the Zhou Shrine before him.

His goal in sneaking into Tianque this time was extremely clear: to take advantage of the chaos among the various factions at the outskirts of the secret realm and use his own concealment divine powers to silently take over this Zhou Shrine.

As long as he controlled the core laws of the Zhou Shrine, he would hold the absolute initiative in the upcoming battle for the "Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying True Monarch Dao Throne."

"It seems I am a step too late."

The gray-robed male cultivator's voice carried a hint of amusement. His eyes swept over Gu Chengming and Zhou Qingmu, easily seeing through their Third Realm cultivation.

The rule for the third phase of Tianque was "kill to seize opportunities."

Since these two cultivators could trigger the blessing of the Zhou Shrine, they must have a very deep karmic connection with the True Monarch's Dao Throne. Killing them and taking that karma for his own use would naturally make his subsequent plans even smoother.

Without any nonsense or leaking any pressure.

The gray-robed male cultivator simply raised his right hand casually, his index finger slightly bent, and flicked it toward Gu Chengming's brow.

Before the thought of activating his cultivation art to resist could even arise in Gu Chengming's mind, a slender figure blocked his path without warning.

Zhou Qingmu stopped acting!

The token at her waist representing her status as a Night Guard senior banner swayed with her movements, and her right hand gripped the horizontal blade at her waist that had never been unsheathed.

The shell of her cultivation, which had been deathly suppressed at the Third Realm, shattered with a bang. The abyss-like aura of a Fifth Realm Night Guard Director was completely released within this white jade hall.

Zhou Qingmu drew her blade.

The swing of this blade carried no dazzling blade light, nor any earth-shaking momentum.

It was an extremely grand yet minimalist image.

Gu Chengming only saw Zhou Qingmu's wrist flick lightly, and in the next instant, the everlasting lamps flickering in the hall were extinguished.

They weren't blown out by the wind; rather, the concepts of "light" and "sound" within this space were cleanly severed by that line of the blade.

On the canvas of reality, a straight horizontal line was pulled out of thin air by a pure black blade. Wherever the line passed, the Cognitive Barrier, the protective laws, and even the space where the gray-robed male cultivator stood all silently split apart like paper.

It was the exact same strike Gu Chengming had seen on the flower boat!

—Night Severance!

The gray-robed male cultivator's face changed drastically, his eyes full of fear and disbelief. He pushed his movement technique to the limit, attempting to flee into the void to escape this fatal strike.

When two Fifth Realm great cultivators clashed within this closed Dao Throne Wonder, the mere residual law ripples would be enough to grind everything around them into dust.

Zhou Qingmu knew this well.

In the instant before the blade edge cut through the void, she slightly tilted her head and looked back at Gu Chengming. She wore a helpless smile, not explaining her identity as a Fifth Realm great cultivator, nor mentioning where she would go next.

That smile carried a bit of the embarrassment of being "caught red-handed," and also a bit of expectation for her subordinate to go out and make his way.

Everything was understood without words.

In the next moment, Zhou Qingmu's left hand crushed a jade talisman flowing with spatial laws.

The white jade floor tiles beneath Gu Chengming's feet instantly turned into a void vortex.

The sensation of weightlessness suddenly hit him, and the surrounding spatial fragments receded frantically like a rotating lantern.

The hall, the horizontal blade, the terrified male cultivator, and Zhou Qingmu were all left behind.

Gu Chengming was forcibly sent out of the Zhou Shrine.

...

Meanwhile.

Outside the Zhou Shrine in the Tianque secret realm.

Ren Wencai hid behind a massive broken stone pillar, holding his breath.

As a veteran sword cultivator who had struggled in the cultivation world for many years, he knew the dangers of this secret realm. Now that the rules had changed, the interior of Tianque had become a massive hunting ground; any abnormal fluctuation of spiritual energy could attract countless greedy gazes.

At this moment, he was staring at the Zhou Shrine not far ahead.

The disturbance from the Zhou Shrine just now was definitely not caused by ordinary cultivators fighting; it felt more like the underlying laws of a certain world being severed and reassembled.

"There's a major change."

Ren Wencai calculated silently in his heart.

The Zhou Shrine had always been known for its strict rules. To cause such a stir, someone must have touched the most core opportunity, and might even have already taken the treasure.

He had intended to move closer to investigate, but stopped when he rounded a patch of ruins.

With his seasoned experience and sharp divine sense, he sensed several chaotic yet malicious auras lurking among the crumbling walls ahead.

Ren Wencai quietly activated a concealment technique, merging his form completely with the surrounding gloom as he slowly moved forward. Through the gaps in the rubble, he saw their appearances.

There were five people in total, all dressed as rogue cultivators with varied clothing, and the dharma artifacts they held were mostly of the sinister and cruel variety.

The leader was a middle-aged man with a scarred face. His aura was thick, having already stepped through the threshold of the middle stage of the Fourth Realm. There was also one early stage Fourth Realm, while the others lingered in the Third Realm. They were currently spread out in a fan shape, deadlocking the only path before the main gate of the Zhou Shrine.

Ren Wencai cast an extremely faint wind-listening technique to catch the small bits of conversation from afar.

"The disturbance in this Zhou Shrine is too terrifying. Are we really going to block them here?" A thinner rogue cultivator asked with a hint of tension in his tone.

Scarface let out a cold laugh and lowered his voice:

"The bigger the disturbance, the more incredible the fortune inside. The current rules of Tianque are to kill for opportunities. No matter which immortal is inside, they will surely be low on spiritual energy when they come out after such a commotion. We'll wait at our ease; with the five of us forming an array to ambush, even a peak Fourth Realm great cultivator won't have it easy."

Hearing this, Ren Wencai let out a cold sneer in his heart.

Rogue cultivators.

The most despicable trade in the cultivation world.

These people were unwilling to put in the hard work to comprehend the dao, specializing instead in halfway ambushes and the business of killing and looting.

When they met those with high cultivation, they acted like grandsons; when they met someone alone or heavily injured, they swarmed them.

Ren Wencai always prided himself on the character of a sword cultivator and utterly despised this lack of martial virtue.

His fingers moved slightly, and the natal flying sword in his sleeve already let out a faint hum.

He calculated that if the person coming out of the Zhou Shrine was an evil cultivator, he would let them fight it out; if it was a righteous fellow daoist, he might have to step in and teach these reckless rogue cultivators a lesson.

Just then, the space above that massive ritual stone tablet before the Zhou Shrine gates distorted violently.

Accompanied by a burst of blinding white light, a figure was extremely crudely spat out from inside the Zhou Shrine.

The figure flipped in mid-air and landed steadily on the bluestone floor.

The breathing of the rogue cultivators instantly became heavy, and various dharma artifacts began to glow with lethal light.

Ren Wencai also narrowed his eyes to look closely.

After seeing the person's build and face, Ren Wencai's mind went blank.

It was a young man wearing the standard black uniform of the Daqian Night Guard. His face was handsome and his expression was calm. Having just been teleported out, he did not appear flustered at all, instead quite leisurely brushing off non-existent dust from his sleeves.

—Chengming?!

Why was he here?!

Logically, he should have been following the seniors in the Daqian Night Guard to handle some minor supernatural incidents. Why did he run to Tianque?!

Ren Wencai's heart instantly leaped into his throat. In his eyes, although Gu Chengming was brilliant and had high comprehension, he was ultimately a young man who had not seen much of the world.

Encountering such a life-and-death trap set by a group of desperate outlaws, the boy would surely suffer a great loss!

There was no time to think about the reasons, because the rogue cultivators in the ruins had already made their move.

"Strike!" Scarface roared.

The five rogue cultivators' cooperation was extremely seamless.

A black net poisoned with toxic venom expanded in the wind, sealing off all of Gu Chengming's paths above and to the sides. Three soul-extinguishing needles glowing with an eerie blue light silently pierced toward Gu Chengming's back. And the Fourth Realm scarface directly sacrificed a ghost-head saber, bringing a shrill whistling sound as it cleaved straight for Gu Chengming's face.

Lethal moves without reservation, without a single word of nonsense; this was pure life-and-death combat.

Facing this desperate situation closing in from all directions, Gu Chengming, who had just been forcibly kicked out of a life-and-death clash between Fifth Realm great cultivators, had no trace of fear in his eyes. Instead, his mind was full of what had happened in the Zhou Shrine and the potential Zhou Rites bond event to follow...

Ren Wencai didn't even care to maintain his concealment technique. His sword intent erupted like a volcano, and three natal flying swords shot out from his sleeves, turning into three brilliant sword dragons with an indomitable resolve.

Ren Wencai had already prepared for the worst at this moment.

This joint strike from the five people was close to the power of a peak Fourth Realm. He planned to risk damage to his natal flying swords to forcibly shatter the poison net and soul-extinguishing needles first, then tank the scarface's saber strike himself, using the recoil to rush to Gu Chengming's side, grab him by the collar, and immediately burn his essence blood to use Blood Escape to flee.

However, just as his flying swords crossed the ruins and had not yet touched the black net.

The sky turned dark.

Without warning, it wasn't the gray clouds of Tianque pressing down, but something extremely massive that had forcibly squeezed into this space, blocking all light.

Ren Wencai's forward-charging body suddenly stalled, and he instinctively looked up. The group of rogue cultivators who were casting spells also froze, seeing a sight that made their brains stop thinking entirely.

An iron-gray mountain peak appeared out of thin air directly above Gu Chengming's head.

Gu Chengming stood in the shadow of the mountain, only slightly tilting his body.

Then the mountain moved. With Gu Chengming as the center, it swept outward.

That black net, which was said to be able to trap Fourth Realm cultivators, was like a joke before that iron-gray mountain body. Those several Third Realm rogue cultivators didn't even have time to scream before they were sent flying out of the range of divine sense perception, their lives or deaths unknown.

Ren Wencai stopped in mid-air. His three flying swords lost their target guidance and hovered blankly about a dozen yards away from Gu Chengming.

"What on earth is that?!"

The scarfaced rogue cultivator was, after all, at the middle stage of the Fourth Realm, and his reaction was extremely fast.

In the instant the Burial Sword Tomb swept past, he forcibly stopped his forward momentum, frantically squeezing the spiritual energy in his body to roll and crawl back dozens of yards, barely avoiding being physically cleared out by the mountain.

But even so, the violent gale brought by the Burial Sword Tomb's sweep still made his blood surge, and his ghost-head saber let out an overwhelmed groan.

The scarfaced rogue cultivator knelt in the rubble, looking at the hovering mountain again, his legs trembling so much he couldn't stand up.

Only then did Gu Chengming slowly shift his gaze to the surviving rogue leader.

"Killing and looting is disloyal, untrustworthy, discourteous, unwise, inhumane, unfilial, and a sign that you don't like eating pancakes with scallions!"

Gu Chengming rapidly recited the pre-battle label-pinning declaration and pointed his index and middle fingers toward the scarface.

A burst of noble qi, pure to the extreme, erupted from his fingertips.

That power seemed to be stacked with countless unreasonable law increments: carrying a rejection of non-Daqian cultivators, carrying the pressure of a superior scrutinizing an inferior, carrying the judgment of an unrighteous person, and even a strange, incomprehensible fury toward those who do not like eating pancakes with scallions.

This infinitely amplified impact turned into a visible white airwave, crushing everything in its path with the force of a landslide.

"BOOM—!!!"

The massive sound felt like it would flip the dome of Tianque.

The area where the scarfaced rogue cultivator was, along with the continuous ruins, broken stone pillars, and even the bluestone floor behind him, all suffered a devastating blow the moment they touched that white airwave.

There were no flying rocks or rising dust.

Only absolute annihilation.

The impact arrogantly erased every obstacle in its path.

When the airwave dissipated and the gale calmed.

The ruins that had originally stood before the Zhou Shrine had completely vanished. In their place was a straight trench several yards wide and bottomless, extending to the very end of his vision.

And at the edge of the trench, the middle stage Fourth Realm scarfaced rogue cultivator was slumped on the ground like a pile of mud.

His meridians were all shattered, his protective qi was broken to pieces, blood poured from his seven orifices, and his chest was collapsed; he was clearly more dead than alive, heavily injured and on the verge of death.

Ren Wencai stood a hundred yards away, his hands still maintaining the sword gesture, looking at the figure standing at the end of the trench without a single hair out of place, then at the terrifying deep groove that looked like it had been turned over by a god's plow.