Ascending to Godhood: I Can Foresee All Futures

Chapter 283: Chapter 164: First of the Ten Heroes_2

Until the traitor was eliminated, the entire Cyan Flood Dragon Alliance could not rest easy.

After giving these instructions, Zhou Kuohai still didn’t dare to let his guard down. He prepared to contact Taiping Dao immediately to inform them of the news so they could make their own preparations.

However, he wouldn’t tell anyone about this plan for the time being.

He no longer fully trusted the many elders in the alliance, fearing that one of them was a spy for the Government Office.

.....

「The twenty-ninth of May, the Eighth Year of Mingjing.」

A piece of news spread, instantly shaking the entirety of Ning’an Prefecture.

The news itself was simple.

It was just a single, short sentence.

Chen Sheng, Deputy Captain of the Jingwu Bureau’s G Camp, had comprehended a Mental Realm. At the Danxia Sect, he fought and defeated an opponent of a higher realm, severely wounding Lu Xuanzhou, the Young Master of Luoyun Manor!

The moment the news broke, countless people were in an uproar.

Everyone knew who Lu Xuanzhou was. They knew he had once trained with the Vast Sea Upper Sect, his cultivation had reached the Profound Gang Realm, and he was ranked third among the Ning’an Ten Heroes. He was a supreme genius of the Martial Dao.

He held the title ”Sword that Subdues Qu Shui,” and his renown was extraordinary.

In fact, news of his return had been circulating for some time.

At the time, many people had been hoping to see a good show.

After all, the recent wedding-crashing incident had caused Luoyun Manor’s prestige to plummet. As the Young Master, how could Lu Xuanzhou possibly remain indifferent?

And yet, for the next few days, nothing happened.

Many secretly speculated that Luoyun Manor was avoiding a public spectacle, feeling it would be unseemly to openly throw their weight around.

But no one expected that the battle would happen after all.

And in such an unexpected way.

The great Lu Xuanzhou, an expert of the Profound Gang Realm, had actually lost to Chen Sheng, who was only in the Earth Fiend Realm?

Upon hearing the news, most people’s first reaction was disbelief.

After all, the gap between the Earth Fiend Realm and the Profound Gang Realm is immense.

Even the most talented geniuses would find it difficult to win a battle against someone of a higher realm.

How could Chen Sheng have possibly pulled it off?

Many people acknowledged that Chen Sheng’s strength was impressive and his aptitude was top-notch; otherwise, he couldn’t have defeated a string of Martial Dao geniuses like Xiong Lie, Li Xuance, and Lu Maozhi.

But that didn’t mean Chen Sheng was invincible below the Profound Mastery Realm, which was why he was only ranked fifth among the Ning’an Ten Heroes.

It was because there were even stronger experts ranked above him.

Furthermore, while ordinary Martial Masters didn’t know what a Mental Realm was, high-level experts with profound cultivation did. And it was precisely because they understood that they found the news all the more unbelievable.

Logically speaking, not even every expert in the Mystic Realm was capable of comprehending a Mental Realm.

For an Innate Martial Master, it was considered impossible.

The difficulty involved was far beyond what an ordinary person could imagine.

At least, before this, there had never been a report in Ning’an Prefecture of an Innate Martial Master comprehending a Mental Realm. Not even for Dharma Treasury of Golden Spring Temple or Zhang Daoming of Qingfeng Temple had such a thing ever been rumored.

Filled with suspicion, many people began contacting the elders and disciples of the Danxia Sect for confirmation. The response they received, however, left them all silent.

The news was true!

Although the Danxia Sect did not corroborate the detail about the Mental Realm, they confirmed that he had indeed defeated Lu Xuanzhou.

After all, the battle had taken place before many witnesses.

In fact, the news had originally leaked from the Danxia Sect, even though Bai Qing had later ordered everyone to keep quiet about it to avoid unnecessary trouble.

But the Danxia Sect was full of gossips, and the news was impossible to contain.

However, while the news may have originated from the Danxia Sect, the fact that it spread throughout Ning’an Prefecture in half a day was due to a powerful push from Luoyun Manor in the background.

They wanted to make Chen Sheng a public target, a thorn in the side of Golden Spring Temple and Qingfeng Temple.

This time, Luoyun Manor spared no effort in hyping up Chen Sheng’s fame.

To achieve this, they didn’t even hesitate to disparage their own Lu Xuanzhou, omitting the initial, hard-fought struggle between the two and focusing only on the part where Chen Sheng severely wounded Lu Xuanzhou in two strikes.

Once confirmed, the rumors quickly intensified.

While not yet common knowledge, many Martial Artists in the teahouses and restaurants of Ning’an Prefecture were discussing the matter, their words filled with admiration and astonishment for Chen Sheng.

And disdain for Lu Xuanzhou.

Amidst this wave of fervent discussion, Chen Sheng’s reputation skyrocketed.

For a time, his name shook all of Ning’an.

Furthermore, as the news spread ever wider, Luoyun Manor continued to push from the shadows, hailing Chen Sheng as the new number one of the Ning’an Ten Heroes, a peerless genius not seen in sixty years.

If an ordinary person had made such a claim, it would have been met with disagreement, perhaps even widespread ridicule.

But Chen Sheng had a solid battle record to back it up.

Although his cultivation was a step behind, he had comprehended a Mental Realm.

With such talent, if he couldn’t be called the first of the Ten Heroes, who could?

If anyone was unconvinced, they were free to go and challenge him.

As these rumors propagated, Chen Sheng’s title as the head of the Ten Heroes grew more and more renowned.

.....

「Golden Spring Temple, Arhat Hall, Rear Mountain」

This area was not open to the public; it was where the temple’s upper echelons met to discuss affairs and engage in their spiritual practice.

The hall’s furnishings were simple and archaic. The floor was paved with gray bricks, and the air was thick with the scent of curling sandalwood smoke. Several ancient bronze Arhat statues stood silently in the dim light, adding to the solemn and somber atmosphere.

At this moment, several old monks with auras as deep as the ocean sat on prayer cushions. They were clad in crimson or bright yellow kasaya robes.

They were none other than Kongjian, First Seat of Golden Spring Temple’s Precepts Institute; Xuanming, First Seat of the Arhat Hall; Xuanbei, First Seat of the Prajna Hall; and Xuan Ku, First Seat of the Bodhi Institute.

The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

”Amitabha Buddha.”

Xuanbei, the gaunt-faced First Seat of the Prajna Hall, was the first to speak. His voice was not loud, yet it echoed clearly through the silent hall: