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

Lu Yuan's right foot paused in mid-air for half a second.

A few drops of murky seawater stuck to the sole of the shoe, under the influence of gravity, broke free of the rubber treads and crashed vertically into the blood-red patterns that were spreading wildly on the bluestone slab.

The moment the water droplets shattered, Lu Yuan's foot stomped down.

There were no overwhelming fluctuations of true energy. There was no blinding light from magical techniques. There was only pure, absolute kinetic energy that defied the laws of geophysics.

The moment his feet touched the ground, the entire 30,000-square-meter martial arts platform, centered on Lu Yuan, jumped.

This is not an illusion.

The two-meter-thick reinforced concrete base emitted a sickening metallic cracking sound under the pressure of that stomp. The haphazardly scraggly blood grooves were forcibly squeezed and deformed by an invisible force. The foul-smelling blood that was flowing upwards from the grooves, along with the chilling, malevolent energy gushing from the ground, was forcefully slammed back into the drain by this terrifying downward force.

boom!

A crack several hundred meters long exploded from beneath Lu Yuan's feet. The bluestone slabs at the edge of the crack turned to dust.

Then comes the second. And the third.

The entire martial arts arena resembled a crisp biscuit struck by a sledgehammer, instantly becoming covered with a spiderweb-like abyss.

The hundreds of Ancient Martial Arts Alliance disciples kneeling on the edge were thrown into the air before they could even scream. Their blood, which had been forcibly stripped from their bodies by the underground formation, was now physically stopped by the formation's core, causing the reversed blood pressure to rupture their capillaries. Large plumes of blood mist exploded in mid-air.

The ground beneath Lu Yuan's feet completely collapsed.

He and the rubble crashed straight into the abandoned air-raid shelter in Xishan, directly below the martial arts platform.

Thirty meters underground. The air was thick with the smell of mold that had been fermenting for years and the pungent stench of blood.

The dome of the air-raid shelter was smashed open, leaving a hole more than ten meters in diameter. Large sections of load-bearing walls and steel bars crashed onto the offering table, smashing the neatly arranged sacrificial offerings to pieces.

The blood sacrifice array plate held in Ye Qingcang's hand suddenly cracked open with three deep, bone-revealing cracks.

"The key to the formation has been broken!"

The dark red demonic cultivator's fragmented soul in mid-air let out a furious shriek. A chilling wind swept across the concrete wall, leaving streaks of pale frost.

Ye Qingcang stared intently at the young man who emerged from the dust.

Lu Yuan brushed the dust off his black windbreaker, strolling leisurely as if he were visiting his own backyard.

Ye Qingcang's eyes twitched violently twice. He couldn't sense any fluctuations of true energy or spiritual power from Lu Yuan.

The intelligence was correct. This kid withstood the nuclear explosion in the Heavenly Prison; his true essence was long since drained.

"Without true essence protecting you, you dare to jump into the Yin Ghost Sect's Blood Transformation Array all by yourself."

Ye Qingcang slammed the cracked array plate to the ground. He bit his right index finger and drew a strange blood talisman on his forehead.

"Today I'll strip off your Mahayana-stage body and use it as a vessel for the sect leader's descent!"

"Kill him! Drain his life force!"

The demonic cultivator's divided soul twisted violently in mid-air, transforming into a gaping maw full of fangs, carrying a chilling aura that could freeze souls, and lunged straight at Lu Yuan's face.

The Yin Ghost Sect's Blood-Devouring Soul-Transforming Technique is specifically designed to break through physical defenses. Even a tiny touch will drain the life force of any martial artist, whether they are an internal energy cultivator or a grandmaster of the Transcendent Realm, turning them into a dried-up corpse within three seconds.

Lu Yuan stood still without even lifting his eyelids.

He looked at the gaping maw lunging at him and slowly raised his right hand.

"In the world of cultivation."

Lu Yuan's thumb and forefinger precisely pinched the neck of the illusory figure.

"You outer sect trash of the Yin Ghost Sect aren't even qualified to carry my shoes. What are you pretending to be, some ancient great power, coming to Earth?"

The pure Yang Qi and blood of the Mahayana stage suddenly erupted from Lu Yuan's fingertips.

There was no true essence driving it. It was merely the extreme masculine energy contained within the physical body.

Sizzle!

That cold, sinister fragment of the demonic cultivator's soul was like a piece of fatty meat thrown into a red-hot iron pot, emitting a sizzling sound. Large plumes of black smoke billowed from between Lu Yuan's fingers.

"ah--!"

The demonic cultivator's divided soul let out a shrill scream, twisting and turning desperately in an attempt to break free. The Yin energy, powerful enough to corrode even refined steel, struck Lu Yuan's hand, leaving not even a red mark.

"You're not a mortal! That's impossible!"

"I don't like people yelling and shouting from below."

Lu Yuan clenched his five fingers.

puff.

The phantom was crushed to a third size.

The demonic cultivator's split soul was terrified and immediately softened its voice.

"Senior, spare my life! I'm merely a pawn sent by the Blood River Sect to collect the Boundary Stones! I know the entire plan for the Sirius Starfield!"

"You don't need to tell me."

Lu Yuan placed his free left hand directly on the head of the demon cultivator's remaining split soul.

Physical soul search.

The divine consciousness of the Mahayana stage transformed into countless invisible steel needles, brutally piercing the core memory area of ​​the demonic cultivator's divided soul. It completely disregarded whether this violent reading would turn the other's intelligence into a jumbled mess.

The air-raid shelter echoed with the heart-wrenching howls of the demonic cultivator's divided soul.

Three seconds later.

Lu Yuan released his left hand. The demonic cultivator's divided soul had turned into a wisp of transparent white smoke and completely dissipated into the air.

"The lowest level of the capital's imperial prison. A stagnant, icy pool."

Lu Yuan grabbed a tattered piece of canvas hanging on the wall next to him and wiped his hands.

"Feeding mutated corpses with the essence and blood of living people. Hiding the backup array core of the Sirius Starfield interdimensional teleportation array right under the noses of the Chinese government. Your Ye and Wang families do have some brains after all."

Standing ten meters away, Ye Qingcang's legs went weak, and he knelt directly on the cement ground.

A large wet patch had seeped from his crotch, and the strong smell of urine filled the air-raid shelter.

He instantly killed the divided soul of the Yin Ghost Sect's deacon. He could even use soul-searching techniques with ease.

This monster doesn't need true essence at all. He himself is the walking law of heaven.

"Mr. Lu... Mr. Lu..."

Ye Qingcang's teeth chattered wildly, making a clicking sound. He braced himself on the ground with his hands, pressing his head firmly into the blood-stained dirt.

"The Ye family has $80 billion in assets overseas... and half a fragment of a boundary stone is in a Swiss bank vault... If you spare my life, all of this is yours!"

Lu Yuan threw the rag he had used to wipe his hands onto Ye Qingcang's head.

"How much did your Ye family do behind the scenes the day my mother had the car accident?"

Ye Qingcang straightened his back instantly.

He suddenly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, and was about to speak in a pretext of defense.

Lu Yuan stepped on his right knee.

Click.

The entire shinbone of his right leg was broken in the opposite direction, with the white bone fragments piercing through the hem of his suit trousers and exposed to the air.

"No need to say anything. I'm in a hurry."

Lu Yuan bent down and placed his right hand on the top of Ye Qingcang's head.

"I'll go get those things myself."

The grip strength of the Mahayana stage explodes instantly.

Ye Qingcang didn't even have time to scream. The sound of his cervical vertebrae breaking was unusually crisp in the empty basement.

Lu Yuan, holding the head that was still staring blankly into the ground, turned around and walked to the bottom of the large hole that had been smashed open.

Legs slightly bent.

boom.

Lu Yuan leaped into the air and jumped back to the ground of the martial arts platform through the large hole that was more than ten meters deep.

The thunderclouds in the sky had dissipated. Blinding sunlight pierced through the gaps in the clouds and fell on the broken bluestone slabs.

Ye Qingcheng remained in the same kneeling position as before.

The pure white training uniform had been stained a dark red with blood and dust. Blood beads were still seeping from the eight holes that pierced the bone.

clack.

Ye Qingcang's head was thrown in front of Ye Qingcheng. Black blood was still oozing from the severed wound.

Ye Qingcheng stared at the head that remained open in death, a broken sound like a bellows being pulled out of her throat.

That was the current head of the Ye family, a powerful figure who controlled one-third of the underground forces in the capital. His neck was snapped like a chicken being slaughtered.

"Owner."

Ye Qingcheng lowered her head even further, her cheek pressed against the cold bluestone slab.

"Clean the wound thoroughly."

Lu Yuan didn't even glance at the corpse on the ground.

"Your life is mine now. If you bleed out, it will just waste my medicine."

"Yes."

Ye Qingcheng gritted her teeth. Her pure Yang blood had been refined by Lu Yuan, and despite her severe injuries, her recovery ability far surpassed that of an ordinary Grandmaster. She forced herself to sit up, tore off a piece of her clothing, and began bandaging her wounds.

A dense roar of propellers came from the outside of the martial arts arena.

Five military attack helicopters painted in pure black hovered above the martial arts arena.

More than a dozen special ropes were thrown down. Dozens of fully armed special operations team members from the Immortal Bureau quickly rappelled down, immediately set up a cordon around the area, and pinned all the surviving disciples of the Ancient Martial Arts Alliance to the ground.

A light helicopter, unarmed, landed steadily on the edge of the giant crater.

The hatch opened.

Chu Jianguo, a high-ranking official of the Beijing Defense Zone, wearing a crisp military uniform, strode up to Lu Yuan.

Three meters away from Lu Yuan, Chu Jianguo stopped abruptly, bowed at a ninety-degree angle, and performed a perfectly standard salute.

"Mr. Lu. Mr. Li sent me to take over the aftermath work."

Chu Jianguo stared intently at his toes, not daring to look at the head of the Ye family patriarch on the ground, nor at the west grandstand that had been blasted into nothingness by the antimatter bomb.

"The Chinese government has officially notified the S.H.I.E.L.D. that all of its assets in China have been frozen. The research department of the Bureau of Extraordinary Immortals is currently packing up and transporting the remains of those twelve S-class mutants away, leaving no trace whatsoever."

Chu Jianguo took a deep breath and lowered his voice.

"Old Li asked me to pass on a message. Whoever you want to kill, the military will be responsible for handing over the knife. If you want to exterminate an entire clan, the defense zone will be responsible for digging the pit. I only ask that you... show mercy and not completely destroy the capital's ley lines."

Lu Yuan pulled a cigarette case, which was wrinkled from being soaked in seawater, out of his pocket.

Chu Jianguo immediately took out a windproof lighter from his military uniform pocket, held it with both hands, and lit it.

Lu Yuan took a drag and exhaled a ring of pale blue smoke.

"How is my sister doing in Jiangnan?"

Chu Jianguo broke out in a cold sweat instantly.

"Director Lin Zhen sent a coded message twenty minutes ago. Miss Lu's spiritual energy response has completely stabilized. However..."

Chu Jianguo swallowed hard.

"Within a 50-kilometer radius of Panlong Mountain, there have been signals of a large number of high-dimensional energy bodies gathering. They are all S-class mutated beasts that have come out of the deep mountains and forests. Director Lin has used the highest authority of the Astronomical Bureau to cut off all civilian signal networks near Panlong Mountain and sealed off the villa area with physical barriers."

Lu Yuan flicked off his cigarette ash.

The medicinal power of the Extreme Flame Dragon Marrow is too potent. Lu Qingxue is now a walking, talking treasure. The mutated beasts are drawn to it by its scent.

With the Nine Heavens Spirit Gathering Array he set up in place, nothing bad will happen in the short term.

"Since Elder Li is so sincere..."

Lu Yuan threw the half-smoked cigarette butt on the ground and stubbed it out with the sole of his shoe.

"Then arrange a car for me. To the prison."

Chu Jianguo's body trembled violently.

"Mr. Lu. The bottom level of the prison is currently a top-level physical containment zone. After you detonated the nuclear bomb there last time, the radiation levels exceeded the safe limit by several hundred times. Moreover..."

Chu Jianguo lowered his voice, his tone filled with barely concealed fear.

"The guards stationed outside the prison report. Starting this morning, a strange sound of flowing water has been coming from the bottom level of the prison. It's like... something is crawling out of a stagnant, cold pool."

That's not radiation.

Lu Yuan turned around and looked at Chu Jianguo's pale face.

"That's the corpse energy from the zombies fed with the blood essence of living people by the Ye and Wang families."

Chu Jianguo's mind went blank, and his blood pressure spiked to the top of his head.

The lowest level of the imperial prison holds China's most notorious criminals. How could someone possibly raise corpses with living people right under the military's nose?

Five minutes.

Lu Yuan ignored Chu Jianguo's shock.

"Clear the road to the prison. I don't like traffic jams."

At the same time.

The Imperial Prison of the Capital. Seven levels below ground.

This is the ruins left after being completely destroyed by a tactical nuclear bomb. Five-meter-thick radiation-shielding lead plates were twisted and deformed by the blast, and vitrified rocks radiating high temperatures were everywhere.

The deepest part of the ruins.

That once bottomless, stagnant pool of water is now boiling violently.

A thick layer of dark red grease floated on the water's surface. An extremely strong stench of rotting corpses was rising wildly through the ventilation ducts.

Glug. Glug.

The sound of bubbles bursting echoed in the deathly silent underground space.

A withered arm covered in long white hair suddenly emerged from the water and clung tightly to the charred rocks at the edge of the icy pool.

A miniature metal tracker was embedded in the wrist of his arm. The tracker was engraved with the joint emblem of the Wang and Ye families.

Followed by.

A face devoid of features, leaving only a gaping, dark mouth, slowly rose from the boiling blood.

The face without eyes turned precisely toward the exhaust vent above its head.

That's the direction leading to the capital city.

A violent death aura, beyond the comprehension of Earth's divine realm warriors, was frantically absorbing the remaining nuclear radiation energy from the surrounding area through the pores of this mutated corpse.

The backup core of the interdimensional teleportation array is now fully activated.