From absorbing the essence of the sun and moon to achieving divine mastery in martial arts

Sheng Hai, National Martial Arts Hall Base, Command Building.

The atmosphere was heavy and oppressive.

Cang Lian stood in front of the table and reported his discoveries in Misty Swamp Town in detail.

He deliberately withheld the sensations from the Blood Soul Needle, only stating that it was a conclusion drawn through observation and deduction.

"The Blood God Cult's stronghold is in Misty Swamp Town? What kind of place is that?!"

After hearing the report, Chu Zhaoxue, who had been sitting still, suddenly stood up!

Her usually calm and collected phoenix eyes suddenly flashed with a terrifying light.

"Is everything you said true?" Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried a chilling sense of oppression.

"I can't guarantee it's completely true, but there's at least a 90% chance!" Cang Lian met her gaze, her tone firm.

He had to convince Chu Zhaoxue and get her to act; this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"Good! Very good!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Chu Zhaoxue slammed her hand on the table and declared decisively, "Pass on my orders! Level One combat readiness! Yan Tang, notify the 'Azure Wolf' and 'Poison Fang' squads to assemble immediately! Also, transfer an elite company from Chu Xiao's camp; depart in half an hour!"

Her orders were clear and decisive, without any hesitation.

Before long, the roar of engines outside the command building broke the tranquility of the base.

A row of military trucks stood in neat rows, their headlights piercing the twilight like sharp swords.

Cang Lian saw that the so-called "Azure Wolf" and "Poison Fang" teams were all martial artists with a deep and solid aura. The two leaders had bulging temples and their eyes were full of sharp light, undoubtedly experts of the Transformation Realm!

The remaining eighteen people were all steady in their steps and had long, deep breaths, clearly all masters of internal strength.

And then there's that elite company, with over two hundred men, all equipped with German weaponry: helmets, Mauser rifles, light machine guns, submachine guns, mortars, and grenades—the firepower of just one company is comparable to that of an independent regiment during the War of Resistance against Japan!

This lineup is absolutely amazing!

Let alone eradicating cults, they are the best of the best, even on the front lines!

"Cang Lian, please show me the way!" Chu Zhaoxue, dressed in a crisp military uniform with a fine Mauser pistol hanging at her waist and an ancient sword in her hand, said to Cang Lian with a heroic air.

"Yes, General!" Cang Lian sat in the passenger seat of the command vehicle, his heart filled with excitement.

He never imagined that his words could mobilize such enormous power.

The convoy, like an iron torrent, surged out of the base and sped toward the town of Misty Swamp.

On the way, Cang Lian reminded him again, "General, be careful when you go in. According to my intelligence, the townspeople there, regardless of age or gender, are very likely members of the Blood God Cult."

"The whole town is like that?" Upon hearing this, all the martial artists in the carriage gasped in shock.

Even Chu Zhaoxue, a veteran of countless battles, frowned upon hearing this.

A cold glint flashed in her eyes as she issued a ruthless order through the vehicle's communicator: "All units, take note! Once within the territory of Misty Swamp Town, treat the town as a war zone! Any suspicious activity, attempts to escape, or resistance—shoot to kill immediately, without warning!"

"Yes!" A cold, uniform response rang out in the communication channel.

A day later, the group arrived at the area shrouded in a thin mist.

Fog Marsh Town is as quiet as a dead city.

The convoy stopped about a kilometer from the town entrance.

Cang Lian was very cautious. He knew that his task was to "find" and "report" the location, not to participate in the battle.

He chose a hillside overlooking the entire town, where the view was expansive enough to observe the whole situation.

He saw Chu Zhaoxue leading her elite troops, cautiously entering the main street of Misty Swamp Town.

Although he couldn't hear, he focused his mental energy into his eyes, and with eyesight far exceeding that of ordinary people, he could clearly see that the troops were starting to question people.

At first, everything seemed to be calm.

The townspeople answered the questions obediently.

But less than a minute later, something unexpected happened!

While a soldier was questioning a woman holding a child, the woman suddenly revealed a sinister smile, pulled a blood-stained dagger from the swaddling clothes, and stabbed it viciously into the soldier's throat!

The soldier reacted quickly, dodging to the side, but this scene served as a signal!

In an instant, the entire town came to life!

Those townspeople who originally seemed harmless suddenly surged out from all directions like awakened blood corpses, their eyes flashing with a crazy and bloodthirsty red light!

"Bang bang bang!"

Chu Zhaoxue brought an elite company from the new army, whose marksmanship was extremely accurate.

Faced with this sudden riot, they did not panic at all. The cold bullets instantly wove a net of death, and the townspeople who scattered and tried to launch a sneak attack fell one after another under the gun barrels.

Cang Lian watched from the hillside, his heart pounding with fear. For the first time, he had such a direct experience of how vulnerable a martial artist below the Transformation Realm was in the face of the modern steel torrent.

No matter how fast you are, can you outrun a bullet?

No matter how skillful you are, can you dodge a barrage of bullets?

On such a battlefield, the only thing you can do is pray that the enemy's marksmanship isn't good enough.

He saw Chu Zhaoxue calmly wave her hand and give the order, and the troops, like a highly efficient meat grinder, charged in all the way.

But the fog in the town was so thick that they soon disappeared into the hazy mist.

But the gunshots continued.

And they are getting farther and farther apart, denser and denser, and more and more chaotic.

The more Cang Lian listened, the more she felt something was amiss.

The rhythm of the gunfire changed from precise bursts to chaotic spray, interspersed with the sounds of grenade explosions.

This doesn't seem like a one-sided suppression; it's more like... a bitter struggle!

Later, the gunfire gradually decreased, becoming sporadic and filled with a sense of despair.

In the end, not a single gunshot was heard.

The entire town of Misty Swamp returned to a deathly silence.

"Could it be... over?" Cang Lian murmured to herself.

He was filled with unease and dared not venture into that eerie silence. He could only suppress his doubts and continue to wait outside the town.

After waiting for about half an hour, just when he thought everything had settled down.

Suddenly, "Clang clang clang clang!"

A burst of sounds, as dense as raindrops, clashing of swords suddenly erupted from the deepest part of the town!

The sound was crisp and rapid, filled with the metallic clang of killing intent, and it grew louder and more intense!

Immediately afterwards, "Boom! Boom! Boom!"

That was the sound of a house exploding! As if torn apart by an invisible force, wood chips and bricks shot into the sky!

Cang Lian was greatly alarmed and immediately concentrated her mental energy into her eyes.

His gaze pierced through the thick fog, and he could vaguely see two extremely fast points of light colliding and entangled wildly in the center of the town!

He recognized one of the figures; it was Chu Zhaoxue!

She wielded a gleaming ancient sword, her swordplay bold and sweeping. Each strike was accompanied by a sharp whistling sound that tore through the air, and the sword energy swept across the land, turning the surrounding houses into dust!

Her opponent was a man dressed in a blood-red robe.

His attire resembled that of an ancient heretical priest, with a bull-horn mask on his head, obscuring his features. However, the eerie, violent, and bloodthirsty aura emanating from him made Cang Lian's heart tremble even from a distance.

Undoubtedly, both of them are experts in the Gang Jin realm!

The scene of the battle was beyond his imagination!

Chu Zhaoxue's sword light was like a silver dragon emerging from the sea, dazzling and full of majestic and righteous masculine energy.

The blood-robed man's attacks were incredibly strange. He had no weapons, only his bare hands. Each strike he made created a cloud of bloody mist that seemed corrosive, even causing the air to hiss.

Every clash between the two made Cang Lian's heart pound and her soul tremble.

That was a battle beyond the comprehension of mortals; it was a fight between gods!

"Could it be... the leader of the Blood God Cult?" Cang Lian was shocked.

"What about the others? The two Transformation Realm experts, the eighteen Dark Realm experts, and the entire elite company of soldiers that Chu Zhaoxue brought—where are they all?"

Just as he was deep in thought, his mind reeling from the unimaginable battle before him, the situation took another dramatic turn!

The two intertwined lights and shadows fought fiercely, and finally, they clashed in the most devastating way in the town!

"boom--!!!"

A deafening roar erupted, as if a heavy bomb had exploded on the spot!

The shockwave, visible to the naked eye, spread out in a ring, scraping away a layer of soil from the ground!

Smoke and water vapor shot into the sky, forming a short-lived mushroom cloud.

Chu Zhaoxue and the man in the blood-red robe were like two meteors launched by a tremendous force, each flying more than ten meters before crashing heavily to the ground.

"puff--!"

Almost simultaneously, the two coughed up a mouthful of scalding blood, staining the ground in front of them dark red.

They struggled to stand up, but the severe internal injuries left them completely exhausted. They tried several times, but only managed to convulse on the ground before finally collapsing back down.

Both of them were on the verge of death.

Seeing this, Cang Lian's heart jumped into her throat.

He took a deep breath, suppressing his surging blood, and bravely jumped down the hillside. He ran quickly towards the town, reached Chu Zhaoxue's side, and asked anxiously, "General, are you alright?"

Chu Zhaoxue's face was completely bloodless, but the moment her phoenix eyes saw Cang Lian, they suddenly flashed with a terrifying light!

With her last ounce of strength, she screamed hoarsely, "Cang Lian! Quick! Take my sword...go over there and kill him!"

"Boy!" The man in the blood-red robe opposite him also saw Cang Lian and instantly became anxious. "How many silver dollars do you earn a month? Is it worth risking your life for her? Kill her, and I'll give you unparalleled martial arts and countless riches! Gold, beauties, power—whatever you want, I'll give you!"

Cang Lian understood the situation very clearly.

Without hesitation, he turned and walked toward Chu Zhaoxue's ancient sword, ready to deliver the fatal blow.

However, the moment he picked up the sword...

A dark figure, like a ghost, leaped out from the thick, impenetrable fog in the town and landed silently beside the man in the blood-red robe!

"Master, are you alright?" The person who came was a thin middle-aged man. He knelt on one knee, his voice filled with awe.

"Haha, Mist Monkey! You've come at the perfect time!" The blood-robed man's eyes erupted with the wild joy of surviving a catastrophe. With his last ounce of strength, he pointed at Cang Lian and roared hysterically, "Quick! Kill that brat over there!"

Upon hearing the sound, the gaunt middle-aged man suddenly looked up, his sinister eyes locking onto Cang Lian.

A force far stronger than Canglian, as refined as steel, suddenly erupted from his body!

"Peak of Internal Strength?!"

The moment Chu Zhaoxue sensed this aura, her expression changed drastically!

"Hahaha...hahahaha!"

Seeing this, the man in the blood-red robe let out a triumphant and arrogant laugh, "Internal force against external force... the advantage is mine! Chu Zhaoxue, you're dead! You're dead!"

(Thanks to Kungfu Bible for the monthly pass!)