Fantasy: Starting with a bowl, you can exchange it for endless cultivation.

Duan Yanxin's attack method was fist fighting.

Five years ago, at the age of 25, he was ranked 547th on the list of prodigies at his peak.

He entered the early stage of the True Essence Realm at the age of twenty-six.

He entered the mid-stage of the True Essence Realm at the age of twenty-eight.

Having accumulated enough experience in the mid-stage of the True Essence Realm, and now at the age of thirty, he is only one step away from the late-stage of the True Essence Realm.

When he unleashed the full power of the martial arts he practiced, its strength was no less than that of someone in the late stage of the True Essence Realm.

"Heavenly Fire Fist!" he roared.

He channeled his immense inner energy, transforming it into flames that burned fiercely on his body.

He seemed to transform into a man of fire.

Then, he quickly gathered the flames on his body into his fist, and then punched Gu Chen.

The flames on his fist, compressed to their limit, turned a dark red, and the heat they contained distorted the air.

They charged straight at Gu Chen.

Upon seeing this, Gu Chen drew the Fire Profound Blade from his waist.

The alien true essence within his body surged forth.

It transformed into demon-subduing runes and landed on the blade.

The entire surface of the Fire Profound Blade lit up with a blood-red light.

The third move of the Demon-Suppressing Blade Technique, the Demon-Subduing Slash, is extremely powerful. With the full amplification from his Azure Dragon Phenomenon, it can easily suppress those in the late True Essence Realm.

It was more than enough to deal with Duan Yanxin's punch.

Gu Chen swung his sword and unleashed a powerful strike.

A massive, blood-blue demon-subduing blade beam, accompanied by a resounding dragon's roar, hurtled towards Duan Yanxin's punch.

The blade's edge clashed with the fiery fist!

boom!

The area around the training ground.

Everyone felt a sharp aura and heat wave spreading outwards, stinging their faces.

A huge tremor and explosion occurred in the air.

In the end, the blade's edge prevailed.

The force of his punch was shattered by the direct slash, and Duan Yanxin was sent flying backward by the blow.

It crashed onto the ground at the far edge.

A knife wound appeared on his body, and the surrounding flesh was blurred by the blade's edge.

A violent surge of alien true energy entered Duan Yanxin's body along with the blade's edge, attempting to destroy his physical form.

His blood and qi surged, and Duan Yanxin spat out a mouthful of blood.

He hurriedly circulated his own true essence to suppress the true essence that had invaded his body.

This scene left everyone around dumbfounded.

Duan Yanxin, who was in the mid-stage of the True Yuan Realm and just one step away from reaching the late stage, was still no match for Gu Chen.

He unleashed his signature move, the Heavenly Fire Fist, but was still defeated by Gu Chen.

Gu Chen's move just now had already reached the level of a True Essence Realm Perfection expert.

hiss!

Everyone present gasped in shock.

Whether it's the people from the City Lord's Mansion, or the City Guard, the Surveillance Bureau, the Divine Garment Bureau, the Night Watch Bureau, or the people from the six major forces in Jiuwan City.

At this moment, everyone felt that this scene was too surreal.

The ability of one person to take on challenges beyond their level is truly astounding.

Gu Chen actually possesses this level of strength.

Their previous estimates were all too low.

They have the capability.

Gu Chen should be able to rank at least in the top 400 of the Prodigy Ranking.

It's truly unbelievable.

They finally understood.

Gu Chen not only mastered the Four Beasts Celestial Phenomenon Technique, but he also cultivated the first-grade martial art of the Traveler that he had previously obtained to at least the advanced level.

With the amplification and enhancement of his physical body by his body-refining divine skill and the extraordinary phenomena, he was able to unleash this level of strength.

Wen Wushuang's previous defeat was not unjust.

Even a master of Duan Yanxin's caliber has been defeated; Wen Wushuang's previous defeat was already inevitable.

at this time.

Duan Yanxin had already suppressed the true essence that Gu Chen had just invaded his body with a single strike.

Now, enduring the knife wounds on his body, he stood up, cupped his hands to Gu Chen, and said, "Director Gu is indeed young and promising; I admire him."

After saying that, he staggered away in the direction where the Wen family members were.

The direction in which the Wen family members are located.

Now everyone's face darkened.

Even Duan Yanxin was defeated.

Gu Chen is truly ridiculously strong.

With Gu Chen possessing such strength, their plans were doomed from the start.

It's laughable that they've been creating hype and publicizing this battle for the past few days.

The result was that they dug a huge pit for themselves. Now, Wen Wushuang of the Wen family and Duan Yanxin, the expert they sent out next, have both been defeated by Gu Chen.

It was a complete loss of face.

Gu Chen shocked everyone once again.

Outside Jiuwan City, the aristocratic families who had come specifically to watch the battle found it all quite amusing.

The Wen family has shot themselves in the foot this time, losing both their wife and their army.

The Wen family had already hinted at this beforehand.

As long as Gu Chen accepts Wen Wushuang's challenge and wins, the Wen family will no longer target the Cheng family, which is under Gu Chen's command.

Now that Wen Wushuang has been defeated in front of so many people, he naturally has to keep his promise.

The Wen family wanted to use this opportunity to suppress Gu Chen and his forces as a warning to others.

It has completely failed.

Even his final act of disregarding his reputation by having Duan Yanxin challenge Gu Chen ended in defeat.

The Wen family has utterly lost face.

now.

The direction in which the Wen family members are located.

Wen Jiexing gave Gu Chen a deep look, then said to Wen Wushuang and the others, "Let's go."

Done.

He then left with a group of Wen family members.

He was too ashamed to stay there any longer.

Now we've lost both face and dignity.

It's impossible to ask him, a fifth-rank expert, to go and fight Gu Chen again.

He can afford to lose face, but the Wen family can't.

Moreover, he dared to attack Gu Chen despite being from an older generation.

His fate will definitely not be any better than that of Tian Lie of the Qingyun Sword Sect, who shamelessly attacked Gu Chen before.

After Wen Jiexing left with the Wen family, his face dark, Wen Jiexing...

The surrounding crowd dispersed as well.

Today we are fortunate to witness these two battles.

The audience in the entire martial arts arena felt extremely satisfied.

The Wen family's actions in the desolate state during this period can be described as arrogant and domineering.

They actually managed to force all the powerful families in the desolate state to submit, and even demand that they hand over 20% of their annual income to the Wen family.

This had long displeased many powerful families.

It's so satisfying to see the Wen family get their comeuppance.

After today, let's see what face the Wen family will have left to demand that all the other aristocratic families submit to them.

Gu Chen returned to his residence.

Cheng Mengling followed.

They brought 20,000 taels of silver.

She said, "Brother Gu, my Cheng family is currently unable to estimate the approximate annual income, but optimistically, if the expansion of our industry and business routes goes smoothly by the end of the year, we should be able to earn around 1.2 million taels."

"Since we have chosen to completely submit to you from now on, we will hand over 20% of our annual income to you, which is 20,000 taels a month. This is this month's amount," Cheng Mengling said.

Upon hearing this, Gu Chen accepted the silver.

Somewhat surprisingly, if the Cheng family continues to develop at its current pace, it could earn 1.2 million taels a year.

If it were before I met him...

I doubt they could even earn 200,000 taels a year.

The industry's scale has increased sixfold.

"Of course, this is an optimistic estimate," Cheng Mengling explained. "If things don't go well, we won't earn this much. In fact, although it seems like we earn a lot, we also put in a lot of manpower and resources. In addition, there are the silver coins we provide to support the Cheng family and the pills they consume. We can only keep about 300,000 taels. After handing over 240,000 taels to Brother Gu, we will still have 60,000 taels left, which can be used as reserve funds and expansion funds."

The Cheng family seems to earn a lot of money.

But the consumption is also high.

In particular, opening up new trade routes is extremely costly, coupled with the expansion of the family business.

The more skilled individuals are needed, the more they will require employment. A mere first-level Innate Realm retainer would require 1,200 taels of silver per year to support.

Those who reach the second level of the Innate Realm will receive 2,400 taels of silver.

For those at the third level of the Innate Realm, the price is three thousand six hundred taels.

Those who reach the fourth level of the Innate Realm will receive 4,800 taels of silver.

Those who reach the fifth level of the Innate Realm will receive six thousand taels.

This is just the silver offered, not including the pills. The consumption of pills is twice that of silver.

It would cost 12,000 taels of silver to support a master at the fifth level of the Innate Realm for a year.

Now, with the help of Gu Chen's power...

The Cheng family has recruited two rogue cultivators at the fifth level of the Innate Realm to serve as retainers.

Four experts at the fourth level of the Innate Realm were also recruited.

The nine individuals at the third level of the Innate Realm.

There are already more than fifty people in the second and first stages of the Innate Realm.

In addition to the Blood Refining Realm guards, there are nearly a thousand people.

To run such a large business, you need to support such a large number of strong individuals.

Otherwise, there wouldn't be enough powerful figures to oversee the important shipping routes during normal times.

Goods are easily robbed by river bandits and mountain bandits.

The Cheng family gave him the equivalent of 70% of the profits they earned.

"Okay, just focus on maintaining stable development." Gu Chen patted Cheng Mengling on the shoulder and said, "Thank you for your hard work."

Although the Cheng family gave him most of the profits.

But the Cheng family has also become powerful.

They are also beneficiaries.

A win-win situation for everyone.

After all, a certain percentage of the Cheng family's income came from the sales of his alchemy.

Even the top-tier families in the third tier only earn a few hundred thousand a year, and after deducting investments, they only make a profit of tens of thousands.

Naturally, they can't compare to the Cheng family.

Only the Cheng family could achieve this by hitching a ride with him.

It wouldn't work if it were any other city's chief of the night watch.