Martial Cultivator

When Chen Chao whose face was deathly pale turned around, the blood at the corner of his mouth had already stopped flowing, and even the cracks on his body had disappeared. Only his complexion remained frighteningly white, like the legendary soul-reaper, the White Impermanence.

Yu Xiyi frowned and asked, “Are you alright?”

Chen Chao smiled and shook his head. “What could be wrong? I almost killed the Demon Emperor. It’s just that old thing ran faster than I expected.”

Yu Xiyi rolled his eyes. At this moment, all the generals on the city wall had already left, leaving only him, Yun Jianyue, Xie Nandu, and Chen Chao.

Only then did Yun Jianyue take out a small jade bottle from his robes and toss it to Chen Chao, saying calmly, “Pills from the Infatuation Daoist Temple. They probably won’t do much for your injuries, though.”

Chen Chao caught the jade bottle and was not medicinal pills. He poured all the pills directly into his mouth, chewing a few times before swallowing them.

In any other situation, this would have been a wanton waste of God’s good gifts, but at this moment, Yun Jianyue said nothing. There was only a trace of worry in his eyes.

“I won’t stand on ceremony then. After all, pills from the Infatuation Daoist Temple are definitely better than my own. If you need me to do anything in the future, just say the word.”

After swallowing the bottle of pills, Chen Chao looked at Yu Xiyi teasingly. “So what, Great Sword Immortal Yu, you came empty-handed?”

Yu Xiyi cursed in annoyance, “Surname Chen, don’t you know us sword cultivators are famously broke?!”

In truth, they were not broke, it was just that sword cultivators devoted everything to their swords, and only to their flying swords.

Chen Chao smiled faintly, rubbed his cheek, and called the two of them over. Sitting down directly on the ground, he got straight to the point, “I don’t know about others, but I’m sure of one thing, this Daoist Yun, Temple Master Yun here definitely wants to hear the details of that battle.”

Yu Xiyi objected unhappily, “Do I really seem that shallow in your eyes?”

Chen Chao said nothing, only looked at Yun Jianyue.

Yun Jianyue simply sat down cross-legged and looked at Chen Chao, who had just fought the Demon Emperor, and asked curiously, “You’ve just fought him. I want to hear your assessment of him.”

Chen Chao thought for a moment, then said seriously, “The truth is, he is on a completely different level compared to other Fuyun cultivators in this world.”

”To put it simply, if we take the old daoists from the back mountain of the Infatuation Daoist Temple as a reference, the weakest among them would be that Mr Cao. Before I was injured, I was about on par with him, maybe slightly stronger but not by much. Then your temple’s old daoists would generally be a bit stronger than me, though some of them, I might still win in a real fight. But I would be relying on youth and abundant vitality, while they would be weakened by age and declining blood vitality.” ”Above them would be the Sword Sect Master. He walks the path of the sword, and purely in terms of killing power as he has shown so far, he should have no problem dealing with two or three of your temple’s old daoists. As for him facing the Demon Emperor, it would take at least three Sword Sect Masters to reach a draw. To kill the Demon Emperor, you would need four.”

By this calculation, it meant that ordinary Fuyun cultivators, even several of them together - especially someone like Cao Chong - were simply not important in the eyes of the Demon Emperor.

Yu Xiyi scratched his head. “I thought the Sect Master was some kind of incredible figure. Turns out he’s just nothing special after all.”

Chen Chao looked at Yu Xiyi helplessly. At this moment, the Sword Sect Master was still unquestionably regarded as the strongest human cultivator in the world. Yet in this guy’s eyes, he had somehow become so insignificant?

Yu Xiyi then asked curiously, “But isn’t His Majesty still around? If he returns, could he kill the Demon Emperor?”

Chen Chao nodded and smiled. “I think there wouldn’t be much problem, but the issue is that Uncle can’t come back.”

The previous battle with the Demon Emperor had shaken the world and drawn the attention of all under heaven. If the Great Liang Emperor wanted to know about it, he definitely would have known. Yet in the end, he did not appear, which could only mean that he truly could not leave.

To put it another way, if he could not return even at that time, then no matter what situation arose afterward, he probably still would not be able to return.

It was a very simple principle.

“When doing things, you can’t always think about relying on others. Oftentimes, you can only rely on yourself.”

Chen Chao glanced at Yu Xiyi and clicked his tongue. “If Great Sword Immortal Yu had already become a Fuyun great sword immortal, then this time we definitely could’ve killed the Demon Emperor. Who knew Great Sword Immortal Yu was only a great sword immortal? Last time you even almost got killed by that woman.”

Yu Xiyi shot to his feet with a swish and cursed, “Surname Chen, can you speak properly? Back then with Autumn, Your Father here spared her puny life!”

Chen Chao looked at him without speaking.

Yu Xiyi sat back down somewhat guiltily. “Who the hell knew that woman would somehow also become a great sword immortal? Though honestly, in my opinion, her sword dao realm is pretty average. But with that thing boosting her, whenever she fights someone it’s basically two against one. That’s a bit troublesome.”

Chen Chao changed the subject and looked at Yun Jianyue with a smile. “Looks like in the future, when facing the Demon Emperor, it’ll still have to be the three of us.”

He had no intention of telling Yu Xiyi that Autumn becoming the great sword immortal she was now had a lot to do with himself.

Yun Jianyue smiled at Chen Chao. “Future matters can wait for the future. If you still have the energy now, you can tell us about the profundities of Fuyun.”

Hearing this, Yu Xiyi also became serious. He raised his brows at Chen Chao. “Don’t keep things hidden. Bring out all the good stuff and talk about it.”

Just as Chen Chao was about to speak, he suddenly turned his head.

At that moment, Yu Xiyi and Yun Jianyue also raised their heads simultaneously.

The three of them all looked toward the young female sword cultivator who had chosen to stand not far away and gaze into the distance when the three of them first started chatting.

Atop the city wall, sword intent was now dense, and sword qi abundant.

Clearly, that rarely-seen woman who possessed nine lifeblood flying swords was now on the verge of reaching the threshold of Nepenthe.

She was about to become a female sword immortal.

Yun Jianyue sighed emotionally. “From now on, the world will gain another female sword immortal.”

Chen Chao smiled. “She should’ve broken through a long time ago.”

Xie Nandu’s talent had always been exceptional. Otherwise, the Dean would not have decided to accept her as his final disciple after only one glance back then. It was just that over the past years, this young woman had not devoted all her thoughts to cultivation. Otherwise, she probably would have become a sword immortal long ago.

Her cultivation speed should not have been slower than Yu Xiyi’s.

Even so, she still advanced faster than the overwhelming majority of cultivators in the world.

......

......

Only after that young man had been gone for a long time did the countless demon soldiers finally begin to recover their senses. Never in their wildest dreams had they imagined that one day, a human would stroll calmly and leisurely through a million-strong demon army while they truly had no way to stop him and could only watch helplessly.

This had to be called a humiliation.

But by now, there were very few demons who wished to erase that humiliation, because that demon lord earlier had been effortlessly killed by Chen Chao right before their eyes.

That scene would likely remain in their minds for many years to come, impossible to forget.

Autumn lingered there for a long while before turning northward. As she passed through the military camp, Demon Lord Redsleeve looked at her junior with a smiling expression and asked, “Little Autumn, he just left like that. Are you happy about it?”

Autumn did not answer and merely walked on in silence.

Demon Lord Redsleeve smiled and casually said, “If you see that nephew of mine, remember to tell him that the face he lost, I, as his aunt, will reclaim for him on the battlefield. He can’t beat a child, but surely I can still smash apart the Northern Frontier Great Wall, right?”

Autumn said nothing and simply continued forward.

Once she left the demon army camp, she figured out certain things. That fellow earlier, when he walked from north to south, truly had already been at the end of his strength. If he still had any remaining ability, it was probably only enough to kill one more demon lord. If he had killed her, then he definitely would not have been able to leave.

“Still as scheming as ever. No wonder you managed to survive under his hands.”

Autumn smiled, though no emotion could be seen on her face.

“Fine then. Living is living. I’ll just keep you alive so I can kill you myself.”

After leaving behind those words, Autumn accelerated rapidly, and very soon arrived at the Onan River. The demon princess then stood exactly where Chen Chao had once stood, looking toward the north at the faintly visible demon royal city.

As she looked at that royal city, she naturally knew that her royal father was also watching her.

......

......

Things in this world rarely remain secret.

Especially the battle between Chen Chao and the Demon Emperor. The commotion had simply been too great, to the point that countless cultivators desperately wanted to know the result. Thus, many cultivators immediately rushed toward the Northern Frontier. However, they also understood that if the battlefield between the two lay beyond the Northern Frontier, then they could only stop there.

But compared to doing nothing, they still could not suppress their desire to know the outcome, and so they gathered beneath the walls of the Northern Frontier Great Wall.

Countless cultivators now stood before the city gates, wanting to see the Northern Frontier Great General and learn from him the details of the battle between Chen Chao and the Demon Emperor.

Ning Ping and Gao Xuan stood atop the city wall where the cultivators below could not see them. Listening to the noisy clamor below, Ning Ping chuckled and said, “If these people find out that kid didn’t die, they’ll probably immediately crown him as the number one powerhouse of the human race.”

Gao Xuan nodded and said, “That’s a good thing too. At the very least, many more cultivators will come to the Northern Frontier. This is something that never existed before. For over two hundred years, our Great Liang Dynasty has resisted the demon race through its own strength alone. Who could’ve imagined that by today, it would turn into this? The entire world joining hands. Forget the previous emperors, even Emperor Taizong and the founding emperor probably could never have imagined such a day.”

Ning Ping sighed emotionally. “Back then, when His Majesty told this general that the world would change in the future, this general still didn’t believe it. Looking at it now, His Majesty truly had far-reaching vision.”

Gao Xuan shook his head. “It’s not that His Majesty had far-reaching vision. It’s that His Majesty did many things over these years, and then chose an excellent successor.”

These sorts of words could only be spoken in the Northern Frontier. Anywhere else, people would consider them to have ulterior motives.

Ning Ping said nothing and merely looked into the distance.

That young martial artist had already arrived atop the city wall. Looking at the cultivators who had come from all directions, he merely smiled faintly without speaking.

The cultivators below the wall were first stunned. After a brief silence, an earth-shaking wave of cheers erupted, so loud it seemed as though it might overturn the Northern Frontier Great Wall itself.

On this day, a shocking piece of news spread throughout the entire human race.

Chen Chao, Lord Warden Commander of Great Liang, had fought a battle against the Demon Emperor.

And was not defeated.