The world of martial arts, the immortal swordsman in the mortal realm.

Chapter 233, Chapter 248, The River God of Tongtian? Spirit Spring Cave

More than three hours later.

Lu Chen had flown for about 20,000 miles when suddenly a vast, seemingly endless river appeared ahead of him.

Lu Chen hovered above the great river, looking at the river in front of him and then at the left and right. All he could see were low hills, interspersed with some valleys and plains. He did not see any mountains that immediately struck him as vibrant and majestic.

"Deviated from course?"

Lu Chen did not know the exact location of "Lingxu Mountain".

Although I knew the general direction, flying from more than 20,000 miles away, I really didn't know how far off course I would have to go.

Lu Chen wasn't in a hurry, and looked at the great river ahead with great interest:

"Could this river be the Tongtian River?"

He flapped his wind and thunder wings and flew towards the opposite bank. It took him almost eight or nine minutes to see the land on the other side. After a rough estimate, he realized that the river was indeed more than eight hundred miles wide.

"It really is the Tongtian River!"

Lingxu Mountain is located on the east bank of the Tongtian River. After exploring the width of the river, Lu Chen turned back and flew away, feeling a sense of wonder:

"This is a famous scenic spot from Journey to the West! I wonder what year it is now, and whether the Great King of Inspiration has come to the Tongtian River to cause trouble..."

Flying back to the east bank, Lu Chen wanted to find someone to inquire about the location of Lingxu Mountain. He flew upstream along the riverbank for hundreds of miles and finally saw a riverside village. Just as he was about to go over and ask, he suddenly felt that the atmosphere of the village was a bit strange.

He stopped a thousand feet away and looked at the village. The village, which had about a hundred households, was completely silent, without a sound of people or dogs.

Having refined too much killing tribulation energy, Lu Chen was exceptionally sensitive to "killing tribulation." Upon closer inspection, he saw black baleful energy and blood-red tribulation energy rising from every corner of the village in his spiritual vision, condensing into clouds in the air and enveloping the entire village.

"The entire village was wiped out, not a single survivor? Were they attacked by bandits or demons?"

Just as they were guessing, they suddenly saw what appeared to be figures moving around in the village.

With Lu Chen's current cultivation level, a thousand feet was not far. He focused his energy on his eyes and took a closer look. He saw that the figure was a giant with a crocodile head and a human body, wearing black leather armor and dragging a huge crocodile tail behind his buttocks.

It was at least ten feet tall, with one webbed hand dragging a huge guillotine behind it, and the other hand gripping a thigh, chewing it with relish.

It was so large that it chewed up an adult's thigh in just a few bites. Then it bent down, picked up a human head, and threw it into its mouth. With a bite and a gnaw of its long mouth full of fangs, it chewed the head to pieces, and a lot of blood splattered from between its teeth, making Lu Chen frown.

"demon?"

Although he knew that most of the demons in the Journey to the West world had the habit of eating people, and even the mounts kept by gods and bodhisattvas, and even the star lords in the heavens, liked to descend to the mortal world from time to time to eat people to relax, as if they treated people as livestock, knowing this was one thing, but seeing demons eating people with his own eyes still cast a shadow over Lu Chen's heart.

After carefully sensing the surroundings and confirming that there was only one crocodile demon in the village, Lu Chen lightly flapped his Wind and Thunder Wings and flew swiftly towards the village.

The crocodile demon was somewhat slow to sense things. It wasn't until Lu Chen flew into the village and was only a dozen feet away from it that the crocodile demon, which was picking through the corpses on the ground, realized something was wrong. It suddenly turned its head to look at Lu Chen, and without saying a word, swung its huge guillotine, which was no less than nine feet long, and slashed fiercely at Lu Chen.

Sa!
With a sharp, piercing sound, a wave-like blade of light surged forth from the guillotine, its edges covered in serrated edges, resembling a crescent-shaped saw, as it slashed fiercely toward Lu Chen.

A flash of white light appeared in Lu Chen's palm, revealing the White Rainbow Sword. He gripped the hilt with his five fingers and gently flicked and deflected it. The sharp, crescent-shaped blade light then changed direction and slashed back at the crocodile demon.

The crocodile demon was shocked and swung its blade again, the huge guillotine slashing out horizontally and colliding fiercely with the returning blade light.

boom!
Amidst a deafening explosion, the ground trembled violently, and the blade shattered into pieces, shooting out in all directions and slicing huge, crisscrossing cracks into the ground. Nearby houses were also cleaved in pieces, with several collapsing.

The crocodile demon shuddered and slid backward, its two enormous claws carving two deep furrows into the ground.

After sliding back more than ten feet, the crocodile demon roared and plunged its guillotine blade deep into the ground with both hands. Its tail also pushed off the ground, barely stopping its slide.

Then it glared fiercely at Lu Chen and roared indistinctly:

"I am the Crocodile Vanguard under the command of the Tongtian River God! Where did you come from, you lowly cultivator, daring to lay a hand on me?"

"The River God of Tongtian?" Lu Chen sneered, "What river god is there in the Tongtian River!"

The Tongtian River is 800 li wide and flows for tens of millions of li. If there were a river god in such a vast river basin, what a high position he would be.

Therefore, while there may be water gods governing a small section of the Tongtian River in certain areas, there is absolutely no river god who governs the entire Tongtian River.

The crocodile demon roared:

"It wasn't there before, but it is now! Now that my king has taken over the Tongtian River, he is the god of this Tongtian River!"

Lu Chen narrowed his eyes slightly:

"Your king, could he be the King of Inspiration?"

"The King of Inspiration?"

The crocodile demon was taken aback:
"What it is?"

So he's not the King of Inspiration?

Then what are you so arrogant about?
Lu Chen flicked his sleeve, and a sword light flew out.

The sword light soared into the sky, reaching a height of ten zhang, before swiftly stabbing down at the crocodile demon.

Seeing the sharp sword light, the crocodile demon dared not block it and dodged. However, when the sword light pierced the ground, it suddenly burst out with a strangely cold freezing air, which swept and impacted in all directions.

Wherever the freezing air passed, snowflakes fell from the sky and solid ice formed on the ground. The crocodile demon was hit by the freezing air, and its claws were instantly frozen in place. A layer of white frost quickly rose on its body, and its originally agile movements suddenly became stiff and slow.

As a crocodile, even after becoming a demon, it still cannot escape the limitations of its nature and is extremely restrained by ice and cold.

Kaka!

As the ice spread, ice crystals as hard as black iron rapidly climbed up from the crocodile demon's legs, piling up to its chest in the blink of an eye, freezing most of its body, along with its tail, into solid ice.

The crocodile demon's aura rapidly weakened, and its hands trembled so much that it could no longer hold the knife, causing the huge guillotine to fall to the ground with a clang.

But it still gritted its teeth and mumbled incoherently:
"You, you mere mortal, dare to, dare to harm my Crocodile Vanguard... my Great King..."

Lu Chen flew to its front, raised his longsword, the tip pointing directly at its right eye, barely an inch away, and said calmly:

Why did you massacre this village?

"No, they disrespect the King, refuse to offer tribute, and even dare to invite mediocre cultivators to attempt to subdue my King! They deserve to be slaughtered as a warning to others!"

"worship?"

"It's just ten young and strong people sacrificed each year..."

Ten "young and able-bodied people sacrificed" every year?
Just pay it back?

Lu Chen's eyes were cold:

"What kind of demon is your king?" "Heh, only now you know fear? Too late! My king is, is a dragon-seed divine crocodile, possessing, possessing great supernatural powers to overturn rivers and seas, to summon thunder and lightning... If you, if you dare to harm me, my king will avenge me, and will stew you and your entire family in one pot..."

Lu Chen felt that this demon was probably not very bright, as he still dared to make threats under these circumstances.

Do you know where Lingxu Mountain is?

"Lingxu Mountain? Go upstream for another seven or eight hundred miles, and you'll find Lingxu Mountain..."

"very good."

Lu Chen nodded, and with a burst of sword energy from the White Rainbow Sword, it pierced through the crocodile demon's eyeball with a soft "poof," penetrating straight into its brain and instantly ending its life.

This crocodile demon is quite powerful. That large guillotine blade, forged entirely from black iron, weighs no less than five hundred catties. It can be wielded with one hand effortlessly, and the blade light just now was also exceptionally powerful.

Even disregarding innate talents and supernatural abilities, in terms of melee combat skills alone, that cold dragon might not be able to defeat it, so it's no wonder it can serve as a "vanguard".

Unfortunately, due to his nature, he was too weak to resist the cold and was naturally countered by Lu Chen's ice sword. All his skills were frozen, and he could only offer his neck for slaughter.

After killing the demon, Lu Chen carefully examined its corpse again, but found no treasures on it.

That makes sense; most wild demons in the mortal realm don't have any good treasures.

Demons who can display their treasures usually have powerful backers.

Since there were no treasures and Lu Chen didn't know how to dispose of the demon corpses, he simply decided to offer them as a sacrifice.

They gathered some stones, built a simple altar, and repeated the steps of offering the blood of the Cold Dragon. The Heavenly Soldier Talisman emitted a beam of crystal light, enveloping the Crocodile Demon. The Crocodile Demon's corpse vanished instantly, and the Heavenly Soldier Talisman gained three more merit points.

"Three merit points? This huge crocodile demon only has a little more merit than four ounces of Cold Dragon Blood? Is it because of the difference in rarity?"

After pondering for a while, Lu Chen began exchanging for Nourishing Essence Pills again.

This time, he only exchanged one Nourishing Essence Pill at a time, exchanging his three merit points for three Nourishing Essence Pills in three separate transactions.

He carefully sensed and pondered the principles behind each spatial fluctuation that brought the Nourishing Essence Pill.

He has now unlocked "Sword Six: Void". Although he has not yet started cultivating, he has a deeper understanding of the various changes in the spatial dimension.

Including the previous teleportation using the crocodile demon's corpse, after four times, Lu Chen has a deeper understanding of the teleportation function of this Heavenly Soldier Talisman. He feels that at most another fifty or so times will be needed to unlock this two-way teleportation function. Initially, he felt that it would take more than a hundred times to unlock this function, but now that he has unlocked Sword Six, the number of times he needs to comprehend it has been halved.

After storing the three Nourishing Yuan Pills in his storage space, Lu Chen glanced at the Xuan Iron Guillotine but didn't bother to pick it up.

He owns an entire black iron mine, with so much black iron that he can't possibly use it all. Occasionally, he can even mine a piece of the essence of black iron. This black iron knife, weighing over 500 jin, is no longer a concern for him.

Lu Chen flew over the village, looked at the village littered with corpses, and sighed. He pointed and the White Rainbow Sword flew out, piercing the ground and activating the Earthquake Calamity Sword.

As the sword energy surged forth, the ground shook violently, as if an earth dragon had turned over, burying the entire village underground in the blink of an eye. A mound rose from the ground, serving as a collective grave for all the villagers who perished.

Having done this, Lu Chen did not linger and flew upstream.

Flying upstream for seven or eight hundred miles, a small, spiritually significant mountain came into view.

This mountain is located on the banks of the Tongtian River, and is only about two hundred feet high, stretching for more than ten miles.

However, although the mountain possessed spirituality, it was not as Lu Chen had imagined, with spiritual energy forming clouds, babbling springs, exotic flowers and rare herbs everywhere, and flocks of spirit birds and beasts.

The plants in the mountains are taller than elsewhere, but there are no rare or exotic plants. The birds and beasts are more lively and agile, but they can't be considered rare or exotic animals.

Lu Chen was initially disappointed, but quickly came to terms with it:

"Alright, truly spiritually rich mountains and rivers are not something a small sect like the Void Sword Sect, with only one heir for three generations, can occupy. Being able to occupy a small mountain with some spiritual energy as a training ground is already quite good."

"And with my current strength, this small mountain is just right. At least powerful cultivators and demons wouldn't even look at this kind of territory..."

Lu Chen flew into the mountains, took out the inherited jade sword, infused it with true energy, and sensed the location of the Void Sword Sect's cave.

Soon, following his senses, he arrived at the end of a bamboo forest.

At the end of the bamboo forest stands a cliff over thirty feet high. From the top of the cliff hang vines adorned with various small flowers, cascading down to the bottom and making the cliff face quite beautiful.

Lu Chen arrived at a cliff face that was also covered by flowers and vines, showing no signs of abnormality. Holding a small jade sword, he infused it with true energy. The small jade sword trembled slightly and shot out a beam of crystal light, which disappeared into the cliff face.

Then, the flowers and vines on the cliff face seemed to be lifted up by an invisible hand. The cliff face also trembled slightly, caved inward, and slid to the left, revealing a passage that was ten feet high and seven feet wide.

Holding a jade dagger, Lu Chen stepped into the passage and saw eight bronze mirrors embedded on each side of the passage.

These bronze mirrors also serve as defensive mechanisms. If someone breaks in without a token or the owner's permission, the mirrors will unleash a dense barrage of sharp sword energy to kill the intruder.

Since Lu Chen used the inherited token to open the cave, the sixteen bronze mirrors on the passage wall did not react. Instead, they emitted a soft light, illuminating the passage.

Although it has been more than ten years since it was maintained, the mountain has spiritual energy, and the magical artifacts can draw on spiritual energy to maintain their operation.

As Lu Chen ventured deeper into the passage, the portal behind him closed on its own, and the vines on the cliff face also automatically closed up, so that from the outside, there was no sign of anything unusual.

After passing through this passage, which is about twenty feet long, the space suddenly opens up, revealing a rather spacious underground area.

This space is different from ordinary caves.

Inside, there are ponds, streams, bamboo groves, gardens, a wooden bridge spanning the stream, a small building standing in the bamboo grove, and several small but exquisitely designed houses, which are full of the charm of gardens.

At the heart of this cave dwelling is a small, spiritual spring.

The source of the spiritual spring is a stalactite pool, artificially shaped like a lotus flower and only the size of a water vat.

At the bottom of the stone pool, there are some small holes from which the spiritual spring water overflows.

Although small, it is the source of spiritual energy for the entire Lingxu Mountain. All the defensive and lighting artifacts in this cave, as well as the growth of spiritual plants in the garden, depend on this spiritual spring.

If it weren't for this small spiritual spring, the Lingxu Mountain cave would have been abandoned long ago after more than ten years of neglect.

Furthermore, a magic array is set up inside the cave, confining most of the spiritual energy of the spring within the cave, making the spiritual energy inside the cave far more concentrated than it appears from the outside.

The reason why it was not completely restrained is that the spiritual spring originates from a natural spiritual aperture deep underground. As it emerges from the ground, some of it dissipates along the mountain and into the entire Lingxu Mountain. Even with the capabilities of the Void Sword Sect, it is impossible to completely restrain the underground spiritual aperture.

Lu Chen explored every corner of the cave and was quite satisfied with the environment.

Its location is secluded, and its spiritual energy doesn't seem particularly abundant to outsiders, so it won't attract the envy and competition of powerful individuals. Moreover, it has existing buildings, decorated with an elegant garden style, making it an ideal place for quiet cultivation.

"We can bring Rong'er and the others over now..."

[Second update! Requesting monthly votes!]

(End of this chapter)