Chen Kuang kept walking forward and crouched down in front of Bai Fen, looking at him with eager anticipation.
"Weren't you going to kill me? Come on, whatever trump cards you've got left, just bring them all out."
He honestly hoped that Bai Fen would just explode with rage, roar into action, and fight him for another three hundred rounds.
This guy's cultivation level was the perfect distance from his own to let both the Invincible Before the Divine and the Flesh Reishi passives shine to their fullest, ensuring that he wouldn't die instantly, but also that Bai Fen wouldn't be completely incapable of killing him either.
Take just now, for example: if Chen Kuang hadn't comprehended Vajra Bodhi, he really might have been crushed into a pile of minced flesh by Bai Fen before he could even unleash the Song of Weed-Cutting.
Flesh Reishi couldn't create something from nothing, if he were ground into paste evenly across the ground, it wouldn't be able to reassemble him into a humanoid form.
Conveniently, Bai Fen's methods were almost purely physical and didn't involve any strange sorcery, which avoided Chen Kuang's current biggest weakness.
This guy was practically the perfect boss to farm levels from.
A single brush with death in a desperate situation could earn him a new cultivation level, was there a more cost-effective, risk-free deal in the world than this?
In just a few minutes, he had already leaped over an entire major realm within the Innate Stage.
Chen Kuang was almost getting addicted as his mind began to wander toward the other two Moon-Embracing Realm experts from the Martial Saint Pavilion.
But he quickly forced his blood-heated brain to cool back down.
Trying to level up through this passive was, after all, just a theoretical possibility. He couldn't let himself be blinded by this short-lived, illusory thrill.
Crossing a major realm was one thing, but the Innate Realm was the most unique among all the stages. It couldn't be used as a reliable basis for gauging how this leveling trick would perform.
The Innate Realm had only three tiers: Origin Force, Unified Force, and Virtual Force.
In truth, the entire Innate Realm was just a transitional phase on the path from mortal to immortal, it could even be called "half a realm," merely laying the groundwork for Tower Ascension.
That's why its subdivisions were so few and focused solely on different transformations in Spiritual Energy.
At this moment, while it looked like Chen Kuang had leapt across an entire major realm, in reality, he'd only advanced three minor tiers.
The passive Destruction and Rebirth raised his cultivation by one minor tier per near death.
Breaking through the Innate Realm was easy, but replicating this trick in higher stages? Far harder.
Just Tower Ascension Realm alone had twelve tiers!
Which meant he'd have to "die" twelve times!
Sure, he could technically repeat this process an unlimited number of times thanks to Flesh Reishi, but one mistake, and it was game over.
The sudden surge of cultivation, the flood of Spiritual Energy coursing through him these were the most tempting baits within this deadly trap.
Whew...
In the span of a lightning-flash, one fleeting thought shift felt to Chen Kuang like he'd narrowly avoided another death tribulation.
His back was almost sweating cold.
But none of these thoughts showed on his face.
Outwardly, he remained calm and expressionless, even curling his lips into a smile as he looked toward Bai Fen again.
These concerns were about the future. Right now, Bai Fen was still the perfect target to grind on.
So long as he could still fight.
But Bai Fen clearly wasn't going to play along. He had no intention of giving Chen Kuang even the smallest bit of help.
The torrential rain that had paused due to the overwhelming heat of his blazing flames now fell once again, soaking this once-dignified Firebrand Sect Sect Master until he looked like a drowned rat.
Yet Bai Fen seemed utterly unaware. Crawling on all fours for a while, he staggered upright and tried to flee again. Then he stumbled, coughed up blood, fell, picked up a branch, and began swinging it wildly in all directions.
He seemed to have fallen into some hallucination, his eyes were glazed over, and he muttered repeatedly, "I'll kill you... I'll kill you..."
He had completely forgotten about the actual Chen Kuang.
In the rain, this man swinging a tree branch looked nothing like a sect master or a powerful expert of the Moon-Embracing Realm but more like a lunatic.
Chen Kuang blinked, then suddenly drew in a breath as realization hit.
Hiss...
This guy had actually gone insane.
That was... not something he had expected.
But thinking about it more carefully, it wasn't too hard to understand.
When he used The Stars, by plucking Bai Fen's Heaven-Searing Sword, he was technically playing the zither, which activated the passive Heavenly Demon Law.
The emotion infused into the zither tone, magnified by the murderous intent from the Song of Weed-Cutting, must have included the near-maniacal killing frenzy from the time he rampaged through the black-armored soldiers in the illusion.
The Heavenly Demon Law was by far the most sinister of his passives. The name alone made that obvious.
Back during the capital siege, he had used it to induce suicidal madness in the black-armored troops by triggering negative emotions from his previous life.
This time, it had driven a Moon-Embracing Realm cultivator completely mad.
Chen Kuang rubbed his chin and watched Bai Fen alternate between maniacal laughter and paranoid vigilance.
His thoughts shifted toward a more reasonable theory.
This Bai Fen clearly had a strong blood lust, and it wasn't the pure kind.
The fact that he could remember exactly how many people he had killed meant he was someone deeply introspective, not simply indifferent to life.
More likely, he enjoyed the act of killing.
Someone like that must have accumulated a mountain of buried negative emotions.
Those negative emotions were what cultivators often referred to as heart demons.
To cultivate was to refine one's thoughts, to keep a clear mind, so the path would remain open and unobstructed.
The real reason Bai Fen went mad might not have been the Heavenly Demon Law itself, it merely lit the fuse. The explosion came from within: his heart demons had erupted, and he suffered Qi Deviation.
Of course, Chen Kuang's freakish performance in battle, being unkillable and even growing stronger with each strike, had been a significant trigger too.
"Tch."
Chen Kuang clicked his tongue in disappointment as he looked at the now-insane Bai Fen. With a wave of his hand, the Dragon Gums Zither, buried somewhere in the rubble, soared into his grasp.
He brushed the scorched ash from the instrument, letting the rain rinse it clean. The entire zither glistened as if brand new, completely unscathed.
That showed just how tough the tooth from Brother Wen Si really was...
Unfortunately, after the whole fight, he hadn't actually used this zither.
At his current combat level, facing opponents far above his cultivation, it was basically impossible to elegantly play zither music to kill them.
Chen Kuang pondered for a moment, then stood the zither upright, resting it against the ground as he studied it carefully.
Maybe he should learn how to... beat someone to death with it?
He was just thinking this when a gleeful cry rang out.
A figure in soft goose-yellow rushed over like a fledgling bird seeking its mother's arms, throwing herself into his chest with a full, soft impact.
"Wuwuwuwu-I really thought you were gone!"
Shen Meinan hugged him tight, wailing as she checked each of his limbs, patting him all over to make sure he hadn't lost an arm or leg.
Heaven knew how terrified she'd been watching from the sidelines. Several times, her Mystic Spiritual Treasures were nearly destroyed just from the aftershocks. She'd nearly died herself more than once.
She really had wanted to help.
But at this level of combat, she couldn't even understand what was happening.
All she could see was Chen Kuang being crushed the entire time, dancing on the knife-edge of death again and again. It had seemed hopeless more than once, and her heart had almost stopped.
Yet somehow, he had managed to cross the massive chasm in cultivation and defeat a Moon-Embracing Realm powerhouse in a head-on fight!
Shen Meinan stood in stunned silence for a long time, rubbing her eyes repeatedly to make sure Bai Fen vomiting blood and going insane wasn't some kind of illusion.
Only then did she throw herself into his arms again.
She anxiously checked Chen Kuang over once more, took out healing medicine, and began searching for the terrifying wounds she'd seen before, wounds that had absolutely been fatal.
Especially since he'd just undergone a complete rebirth. His physical body had only just stabilized. Any mistake in healing could leave lasting damage.
But after groping around for a while, she froze.
She stared at him, completely dumbfounded.
"How is there... nothing?"
Not even a scratch. Not a single blemish.
His newly reborn flesh was so flawless it could have belonged to an immortal.
Chen Kuang had just opened his mouth to tease her when the young lady suddenly puckered her lips, then burst into sobs.
Chen Kuang panicked.
"Huh? What happened? You were fine just now, why are you crying all of a sudden?"
He was standing here, alive and well, completely uninjured, wasn't that a good thing?
Confused, he reached out and wiped away her falling tears. Her skin was soft and smooth, so he couldn't help lingering for a moment.
Shen Meinan looked up at him through her tears and sobbed,
"You must be a ghost already! Otherwise how could you not have a single wound, wuwuwuwuwuwu!"
Chen Kuang: "..."
He stared helplessly at the foolish girl in front of him, whose imagination ran wild, then looked left and right for Chen Kuang's corpse.
When she didn't find it, she wailed even more miserably.
"Wuwuwu... How can he be completely dismembered? That's too tragic..."
The supposedly dismembered Chen Kuang: "..."
There was indeed a corpse in the illusion, but unfortunately, it couldn't be brought out.
Chen Kuang couldn't help but complain in his heart.
At this moment, he had a rather complicated expression and wasn't sure whether Shen Meinan loved him or hated him.
If she loved him, then how could she not accept the fact that he was alive, to the point of fabricating a narrative where he'd died?
But if she hated him, then why was she crying so bitterly now that she thought he was dead?
Then, seeing that he was soaked from head to toe, Shen Meinan let out a sigh of relief and said, "Good thing it's raining. I heard ghosts can't be exposed to sunlight or they'll dissipate. You must be careful from now on!"
She wore an expression of utmost seriousness, then added, "Oh right, I forgot, ghosts can't touch things... In that case, I'll hold an umbrella for you from now on!"
Chen Kuang let out a long sigh and said quietly, "Then how are you touching me right now?"
Shen Meinan froze. Her expression changed dramatically, turning pale as a sheet.
"You mean... I'm dead too?!"
Chen Kuang: "..."
You really are something else.
At this point, he seriously suspected that Shen Meinan was the leftover placenta that Shen Xingzhu left behind in the womb for ten years.
Slap!
He wordlessly smacked her on the head and flicked the water off his hand. "Wow, look at us two ghosts getting soaked by rain."
Shen Meinan covered her head in frustration. "Don't hit my head! I'll get dumber!"
Chen Kuang raised his brows and waved his hand in front of her.
She glanced at his hand, then at herself, and finally stuck out her tongue sheepishly.
"Oh..."
So, we're not ghosts after all...
The girl coughed awkwardly, trying to cover up her embarrassment. "I was just joking earlier. You didn't actually believe me, right? Haha. There's no way I'm that stupid.."
"Right?" She looked at Chen Kuang with a hopeful, pitiful gaze.
What else could he say?
Chen Kuang sighed. "Yes, yes..."
Right now, Shen Meinan looked just like a teary-eyed kitten.
She whimpered and abruptly changed the subject.
"Are you really not hurt?"
Chen Kuang answered honestly, "Still a bit of internal injury."
Most of his injuries had already healed, especially the superficial ones.
But internally, he'd been thoroughly scorched by Bai Fen's flames, to the point that his body had essentially been remade. It was natural that healing would take a bit longer.
Besides, the passive Invincible Before the Divine was still in effect.
Because although Bai Fen had gone mad, he wasn't dead yet, and still harbored killing intent toward Chen Kuang, which meant he still counted as an enemy.
Soon enough, Chen Kuang's wounds would fully recover.
But when Shen Meinan heard this, she fumbled out a jade bottle, poured out something between liquid and solid, with a luminous, watery, jade-like sheen.
"Take this Revolving Water Spirit Bead. Channel your Spiritual Energy to activate it, it'll protect your heart meridian and aid healing!"
Chen Kuang took it, just about to decline, but suddenly paused.
His expression changed instantly as he looked from the Revolving Water Spirit Bead in his hand to Bai Fen, who was still raving mad nearby. A strange look flickered across his face.
"I'll borrow this for a bit."
Shen Meinan muttered, "It was meant for you anyway... what's the point of 'borrowing'?"
Chen Kuang rushed over to Bai Fen, activated the Revolving Water Spirit Bead, and applied it to his body.
Shen Meinan stared blankly. "Even if he's gone mad, he's still your enemy who nearly killed you, why save him?!"
Chen Kuang nodded solemnly. "Exactly. That's why I need an extra layer of insurance."
He sat down, laid the Dragon Gums zither across his knees, took a deep breath, and began to play.
The melody was one Shen Meinan had heard before and even described the sheet music for, it was the incomplete score given by Lin Eryou, which Chen Kuang had named Anonymous.
This piece nourished divine sense.
Before reaching the Moon-Embracing Realm, a cultivator's divine sense was merely a wisp of awareness, hardly useful.
It was only after reaching that realm that one could begin cultivating Divine Abilities.
The most fearsome of those abilities involved affecting and even controlling others' divine sense.
Under normal circumstances, Chen Kuang had no qualifications to attempt something so advanced. His divine sense used to be like a candle in the wind, one gust, and it was gone.
Trying to use a Divine Ability like that would just backfire and turn him into a vegetable.
But now, things were different. He had reached the Tower Ascension Realm, his divine sense was solid and radiant.
With Anonymous, he could now stabilize it and attempt things he previously couldn't.
And with the Heavenly Demon Law, which weakened others' divine sense, he could replicate a similar effect.
Plus, Bai Fen was now insane, his mind fully shattered. This made him an ideal test subject.
Chen Kuang didn't need to create a fully obedient puppet, he just needed Bai Fen to stop rampaging and sit quietly in the corner, lost in his own inner demons.
He didn't even need to erase Bai Fen's hatred.
In fact, he wanted Bai Fen's hatred!
As long as Bai Fen was alive and mentally trapped, still bearing hostility toward him, Invincible Before the Divine would always remain in effect.
If Shen Meinan hadn't produced the Revolving Water Spirit Bead, he wouldn't have even considered this, since Bai Fen clearly should've died from his injuries.
But now? It was worth a try.
The piece was short and before long, Chen Kuang opened his eyes again.
Bai Fen staggered to his feet, eyes vacant.
Who knew what hallucinations he was seeing, his face was twisted and he kept muttering: "A man can be killed, but not humiliated..."
Shen Meinan clearly recognized that it was a divine sense technique and curiously asked, "What's he seeing?"
Chen Kuang coughed. "Unspeakable."
The truth was, even he didn't know. He wasn't yet capable of manipulating others' divine sense that precisely.
He had already exhausted all he had just to get Bai Fen to stop waving a tree branch around and calling it a sword.
As for what kind of hallucination Bai Fen was experiencing, that wasn't his concern.
Shen Meinan gave a simple "Oh."
Chen Kuang asked, "How long can the Revolving Water Spirit Bead keep him alive?"
Shen Meinan hesitated. "Given his condition... at most, a quarter of an hour."
Chen Kuang smiled. "That's plenty."
Boom!
Suddenly, a corpse dropped from the sky and landed in front of them.
Chen Kuang squinted he recognized the man. It was Shi Youguang, an elder from the Rotten Branch Mountain, and one of the other two pursuers.
Cause of death: a single sword through the forehead. The strike was clean and narrow, almost invisible unless you looked very closely.
It revealed a level of swordsmanship bordering on the divine.
A familiar voice soon followed.
"This one had a storage pouch. I've already dispelled the seal, you can take it."
Chen Kuang's eyes lit up. He stepped forward, rummaged through the corpse, and indeed found a storage pouch.
In this world, storage pouches were rare Spiritual Treasures, as they involved complex spatial techniques akin to "a mustard seed holding a mountain."
Naturally, such important items were locked with seals, akin to passwords.
Unless you were as powerful as Shen Xingzhu, you couldn't break those seals.
Chen Kuang had killed many cultivators before, but he'd never bothered looting them because he couldn't use the items.
This time, Shen Xingzhu had done him a rare favor.
He was a bit suspicious, maybe this was part of her broader plan?
But on second thought, she had already made the first move. There was no need to contrive a theft just to make him face his inner demons.
So, he accepted it gladly.
Elsewhere, on a nearby rooftop, Lin Eryou landed lightly, waving his feather fan.
Whatever technique he had used, not a drop of rain touched him.
Seeing the scene below, he smiled and bowed. "It seems this crisis has been thoroughly handled by you, Ruogu."
Chen Kuang replied, "Thanks to Brother Lin for diverting the other Martial Saint Pavilion pursuer. Otherwise, this would've dragged on even longer."
Lin Eryou landed, but then paused, his pupils narrowing.
"Ruogu, you've already reached the Tower Ascension Realm?!"
He laughed. "You really tricked me well, didn't you?"
Clearly, he thought Chen Kuang had been hiding his cultivation level.
Chen Kuang didn't correct him. He simply smiled.
"Just a stroke of luck."
"But then why not kill him?" Lin Eryou looked at Bai Fen. "He's got one foot in the grave. Don't tell me you're ransoming him back to the Firebrand Sect?"
Chen Kuang shook his head. "This crisis may be over, but all of Jishao Prefecture is still in danger."
"There are names on that list still waiting to be saved. How could I sit idle?"
He looked at Lin Eryou, smiling. "Surely you're also curious, how will this storm end?"
"But what I'm more curious about is this, how did the Prefect know I was at the Chen residence? Enough to confidently tip off the Martial Saint Pavilion? To my knowledge, up until that point, no one had leaked my whereabouts."
"I hadn't interacted with many people, except for... all of you."
Lin Eryou's eyelid twitched. "Come on now, Ruogu. You know I've always treated you as a friend. How could I harm a friend?"
Heh. That's a lie.
But it didn't matter. Chen Kuang had mostly figured him out.
From the princess, he'd already learned that the disciples of Liberty Mountain were tasked with finding a successor. Lin Eryou had likely chosen Zhou Yanwei.
And at the moment, it seemed that Lin Eryou intended to use Jishao Prefecture, specifically, the turmoil within it, to help Zhou Yanwei build a power base.
The first goal was Jishao Prefecture.
The second: Chen Kuang and the Soil True Officials.
As for the Prefect's sudden betrayal and the Martial Saint Pavilion's aggressive response, that was likely a misstep.
Hence, Lin Eryou had chosen to remain at the Chen residence and help stabilize things.
Chen Kuang gave him a long look and patted him on the shoulder. "In that case, Brother Lin, I'll leave you here to await my good news."
He smiled. "Or perhaps consider... who should be the next prefect of Jishao?"
...
Prefectural Office.
The Great Zhou Enlightenment Envoy paced impatiently in the grand hall, his face alight with excitement, bloodlust, arrogance, and anticipation.
He was waiting for news, waiting for his subordinates to wipe out everyone bold enough to defy the Great Zhou.
Tomorrow, he would stand atop the ceremonial altar and personally behead them all, tossing their bodies into the lake below!
Such was the joy of power, life and death in the palm of one's hand.
Outside, in the corridor, Fan Hailong stood with hands behind his back, frowning slightly at the sky. He felt... a vague sense of unease.
Crack!
A bolt of lightning split the night sky.
Fan Hailong squinted.
Beyond the main hall, he saw a figure walking toward them, unhurried, holding a zither in his hands, and on his back..
He appeared to be carrying a corpse.