After the college entrance examination, my identity as a Mahayana Immortal Venerable could no longer

Dark red crystal powder seeped through his fingers, mixing with the rainwater and splashing onto the cracked asphalt road.

Lu Yuan flicked the wolf blood off the back of his hand.

The stench in the air was so strong it could make you vomit your dinner from the night before. At the foot of Panlong Mountain lay the corpses of tens of thousands of mutated wild beasts. The limbs that weren't quite dead yet twitched instinctively in the mud and water.

Lin Zhen braced himself on his knees with both hands. The military dagger had long since fallen into the puddle.

He gulped down the cold air, which smelled of blood, into his lungs. His gaze was fixed on Lu Yuan's muscular back.

There is no celestial essence. There are no dazzling special effects that inspire awe and reverence.

This man, relying solely on his bare hands, tore a thirty-meter-wide alley of blood and flesh through the horde of beasts in just three minutes.

"Lin Zhen."

Lu Yuan turned around.

Lin Zhen shuddered. He instinctively stood at attention, his heels hitting the mud with a soft thud.

"Mr. Lu, what are your instructions?" Lin Zhen's voice was as dry as if he were chewing sand.

"Clean the meat thoroughly."

Lu Yuan glanced at the villa area shrouded in thick fog halfway up the mountain.

"The smell of blood is too strong. It will attract the evil energy of the dragon vein underground. Qingxue is sleeping inside. Don't make any noise and disturb her."

Lin Zhen swallowed hard and nodded repeatedly.

"Don't worry, sir. I'll immediately dispatch the chemical defense troops from the Jiangzhou Military Region. They'll have the ground completely cleared within three hours."

Lu Yuan didn't reply.

He raised his head and looked towards the northern capital.

His dantian was as parched as a desert. The black chains of the Heavenly Dao Life-Stealing Curse tightly bound his nascent soul. Each heartbeat brought forth a dull, tearing pain.

He lacks true essence. He cannot wield a sword. Nor can his words manifest magic.

Jiangzhou is 1,200 kilometers away from the capital.

If we wait for the astronomical observatory to reschedule fighter jets, it will take at least two hours round trip.

Two hours. Enough for that old fox Zhou Ming to erase all traces, and even escape into the underground bunker of some foreign embassy.

"Mr. Lu. Mr. Li's private plane is waiting at Jiangzhou Airport..." Lin Zhen saw through Lu Yuan's intention and boldly reminded him.

Lu Yuan didn't look at him.

He took a step forward and stood in an open space.

Then, he raised his hands, fingers spread wide.

It was as if he wanted to embrace the air. He plunged his ten fingers directly into the empty void in front of him.

Lin Zhen's eyes widened.

In his line of sight, the air around Lu Yuan's fingers suddenly distorted like ripples on water. This distortion wasn't due to high temperature, but rather to some kind of extremely pure, violent compression.

crunch.

A chilling sound of physical cracking rang out in mid-air.

Lu Yuan's arms were bulging with muscles. The veins looked like twisted little snakes protruding beneath his skin.

Hundreds of tons, even thousands of tons of muscle force, are concentrated and released in a fraction of a second.

stab.

The space in front of him was torn open by him, leaving a two-meter-long black crack.

There is no formation. There are no spatial coordinates.

It was through the sheer weight of the Mahayana-stage physical body, which disregarded the laws of lower-dimensional physics, that the fragile spatial barrier of Earth was torn in two.

Inside the crack was a churning, swirling void wind.

Lu Yuan didn't even blink. He strode inside.

The crack behind him closed rapidly with a loud bang.

Lin Zhen collapsed onto the muddy ground. His hands and feet were ice-cold.

He originally thought that Lu Yuan's most terrifying ability was his immortal techniques that could summon heavenly lightning.

Now he understands.

Peel away that veneer of immortality. Inside lies a tyrannical dragon capable of tearing apart the very fabric of the world with its bare hands.

......

The capital city. Two hundred meters underground at the headquarters of the Astronomical Bureau.

Office of the Director of the Third Division.

Zhou Ming was pressed against the head by four dark, hollow micro-bulbs. He was firmly pressed against the large, solid wood desk.

The coffee that had spilled on the table had gone cold. It dripped down the edge of the table onto his custom-made suit trousers.

A series of hurried footsteps came from outside the corridor.

The explosion-proof door was pushed open from the outside.

Old Li, wearing his military uniform blackened by the intense heat of the nuclear explosion, strode in, his military boots clicking. Chu Jianguo followed closely behind.

The air in the hall instantly dropped to freezing point.

"Let him go."

Old Li pulled out a chair, sat down with a flourish, and slammed his pistol on the table.

The four guards put away their guns and retreated to the sides.

Zhou Ming stretched his shoulders, which had been sore from the massage. He slowly took out a silk handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the coffee stains off his face.

Even when he was in dire straits, he still hadn't lost the bureaucratic mannerisms he'd developed over decades of immersion in the power structure.

"Mr. Li, what are you up to?"

Zhou Ming tossed the handkerchief onto the table and straightened his tie.

"I'm the head of the Third Division of the Astronomical Bureau. You bypassed the disciplinary inspection department and had the internal security forces point a gun at my head. That's not in accordance with regulations."

Old Li let out a cold laugh.

"The rules. You will cooperate with the Wang and Ye families. Use your highest authority to lock the physical gates of Panlong Mountain in Jiangzhou. This will lure tens of thousands of mutated beasts to besiege Mr. Lu's dojo."

Old Li leaned forward, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Zhou Ming.

"When you did this, did you never think about the rules?"

Zhou Ming remained completely calm.

He even pulled out a chair and sat down opposite Old Li.

"Old Li, let's not beat around the bush. Those two idiots, Wang Zhentian and Ye Qingcang, have already been killed by Lu Yuan. The two great families of the capital have vanished."

Zhou Ming placed his hands crossed on the table.

"But I'm different from them. I hold leverage. You wouldn't dare kill me. Lu Yuan wouldn't dare kill me either."

Chu Jianguo, listening nearby, frowned deeply. His hand had already reached for his holster.

"Who do you think you are, daring to bring up Mr. Lu?"

"Because I know the complete coordinates of the Sirius star system."

Zhou Ming's single sentence plunged the entire office into a deathly silence.

Old Li's pupils suddenly contracted.

He had personally witnessed the fragment of the array plate capable of drawing upon the dragon veins of China at the bottom of the nuclear crater. Lu Yuan had mentioned it then. It was a water pump from the Sirius star system.

"The Yin Corpse that the Wang and Ye families kept in the Heavenly Prison. It's only a part of it."

Zhou Ming watched Li Lao's reaction and a smug smile appeared on his lips.

"The Blood River Sect's interdimensional teleportation arrays have long been engraved in every corner of the Earth. Do you think Lu Yuan can rest easy after killing a few clowns?"

Zhou Ming held up three fingers.

"Three days. At most three more days. The highest-ranking executive of the S.H.I.E.L.D. in Asia has secretly infiltrated Beijing with twelve S-class mutants."

"They reached an agreement with those old fogies from the Ancient Martial Arts Alliance to publicly execute Ye Qingcheng using a Heavenly Thunder Array at the Beijing Martial Arts Arena."

Zhou Ming leaned back in his chair.

"This is just bait. The S.H.I.E.L.D. has acquired fragments of Boundary Stones globally at exorbitant prices and pieced them together to create a force field that can temporarily isolate the laws of heaven and earth. As long as Lu Yuan dares to step onto the martial arts stage, even if he were a terrestrial immortal, he would be instantly drained of all his power and rendered a cripple."

Several veins bulged on the back of Old Li's hand.

"You're telling me all this to curry favor."

"This is a deal."

Zhou Ming looked directly into Old Li's eyes.

"Right now, only I know the location of the core array of the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s force field. And only I know the other three backup interdimensional nodes that the Sirius region has planted in China."

Zhou Ming tapped on the table.

"Spare my life. Arrange a private plane for me to Switzerland. I'll hand over this intelligence to the authorities intact. You can use that to report to Lu Yuan. In return, he'll be behaving himself."

"If you don't agree."

Zhou Ming smiled.

"Then let that Mahayana Immortal Venerable go to the martial arts arena to die. When the army from the Sirius Star Region arrives, we'll all be buried with this Earth."

This is a perfectly calculated, open strategy.

Zhou Ming was certain of the authorities' fear of the Sirius Star Region. He was also certain that Lu Yuan wouldn't abandon Ye Qingcheng.

As long as the information gap exists, he is irreplaceable.

Old Li fell silent.

His hand, resting on the table, slowly clenched into a fist. His nails dug into his flesh.

As one of the highest authorities in China, he was all too aware of the significance of this intelligence. If they could obtain the location of the cross-dimensional node, the authorities could make preparations in advance, and might even avert a devastating catastrophe.

But the price was: letting go of the traitor who almost killed Lu Qingxue.

"Mr. Li, time is of the essence." Zhou Ming glanced at his watch. "When will the private jet be ready?"

boom.

Old Li hadn't spoken yet.

The two-meter-thick reinforced concrete blast wall behind Zhou Ming suddenly emitted a muffled thud as it succumbed to its weight.

Followed by.

Large areas of cracks appeared on the concrete surface.

It wasn't blown open by explosives. Something was forcibly pushing its way out from inside the wall.

Crunch. Crunch.

Amidst the ear-piercing scraping sound, a black crack appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the wall.

The steel bars at the edge were snapped by some terrifying force. Pieces of concrete shattered and crashed all over the ground.

A hand stained with dark red, dried blood reached out from the crack and gripped the wall bricks.

Pull it outwards.

Boom!

Half of the wall collapsed.

Lu Yuan emerged from the churning void winds, his upper body bare.

The dust in the office was blown away by the violent airflow lingering on his body.

The four guards couldn't even lift their guns. Their legs were shaking like leaves.

A top-secret fortress two hundred meters underground. They didn't use the main entrance. They simply tore open space with their bare hands to walk in. This is something only carbon-based lifeforms could do.

puff.

Without a second thought, Old Li slid off the chair, his knees slamming into the rubble.

"Mr. Lu."

Chu Jianguo also knelt down, not daring to raise his head.

Zhou Ming sat in the chair. He looked as if his spinal cord had been drained.

The smugness on his face was still frozen at the corners of his eyes. But his pupils were already dilated. His Adam's apple bobbed violently, yet he couldn't utter a sound.

Lu Yuan walked to his desk.

He lowered his head and glanced at Zhou Ming's expensive custom-made suit.

"What did you just say you wanted to offer me in exchange?"

Lu Yuan's voice was calm. There was no anger. Nor was there any murderous intent.

It's like asking a dead person whether they want their coffin lid made entirely of copper.

Zhou Ming's teeth began to chatter wildly. He gripped the edge of the table tightly with both hands, trying to find a sliver of room for negotiation in Lu Yuan's unfathomable eyes.

"Mr. Lu... I know about the interdimensional node in the Sirius system... I also know about the force field array core that the S.H.I.E.L.D. set up at the martial arts arena..."

Zhou Ming desperately swallowed the sour water.

"Kill me. Then you'll know nothing! Ye Qingcheng will die! And you'll be drained dry by that force field... Ah!"

Zhou Ming didn't finish his sentence.

Lu Yuan stretched out his right hand.

His five fingers were spread wide, like an iron clamp, gripping Zhou Ming's skull tightly.

He did not use any of his true energy.

The terrifying power of the Mahayana stage physical body traveled down through his finger bones. Zhou Ming's skull emitted a teeth-grinding cracking sound.

"You think bargaining chips are for negotiating?"

Lu Yuan exerted force with his wrist, lifting Zhou Ming off the chair and into the air.

In the world of cultivation, bargaining chips are used for searching.

Soul-searching technique.

In the past, when Lu Yuan used Soul Search, he would gently envelop the other person's consciousness with his true essence, slowly extracting their memories.

But he has no true essence now.

He could only use the most violent and primal divine consciousness of the Mahayana stage, like a red-hot steel rod, to directly and brutally stab into Zhou Ming's cerebral cortex.

"Ugh... Ugh!"

Zhou Ming's eyeballs bulged out of their sockets instantly. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot.

His limbs convulsed wildly in mid-air. Saliva mixed with white foam dripped down the corners of his mouth.

The pain of having one's soul torn apart and searched alive is a hundred times more cruel than being slowly sliced ​​to death.

Ten seconds.

All of Zhou Ming's memories—including his bedwetting at age three, his embezzlement at age twenty, and every recent secret call with the S.H.I.E.L.D.—were forcibly copied by Lu Yuan's divine sense.

Along with the location of his prized "isolation force field array eye," and the coordinates of the remaining three backup nodes in the Sirius star system.

Lu Yuan released his grip.

Zhou Ming collapsed to the ground like a pile of rotten flesh.

His cerebral cortex has been completely smoothed out. Even his pain receptors have been burned away. Now, even if you cut his flesh with a knife, he will only lie on the ground drooling. He has become a complete vegetable, needing to instinctively maintain even breathing.

Lu Yuan grabbed a silk handkerchief from the table and wiped his fingers.

He glanced at Old Li kneeling beside him.

"The affairs of the martial arts arena are none of your official business."

Lu Yuan threw the handkerchief at Zhou Ming's face.

"Since they want to see thunder, I'll personally send them rain."

Old Li was kneeling on the ground, his forehead covered in pebbles.

"Sir... Zhou Ming just said that the SHIELD consortium has set up a force field that can isolate the laws of heaven and earth... You now..."

Although Elder Li was unaware that Lu Yuan had lost his true essence, he could sense that Lu Yuan no longer possessed the imposing aura of a celestial being. Only pure physical malevolence remained.

"Force field."

Lu Yuan gave a cold laugh.

He is currently worried about not finding a place that can withstand the full power of a Mahayana-stage physical body.

The backlash from the Heavenly Chains made his bones itch all over. That so-called isolating force field... perfect for using as a punching bag.

"Three days later, have the Astronomical Bureau block off the roads within a ten-mile radius of the martial arts arena."

Lu Yuan turned around, not even glancing at the hole in the wall. He strode towards the blast door of the office.

"Also, prepare twelve coffins. The S.H.I.E.L.D. members are quite large; buy the extended versions."