Achieving physical sainthood begins with the Iron Shirt technique!

Lu Chen stepped over the shattered jade powder scattered on the ground and strode over to the pile of mangled flesh.

The body of the Foundation Establishment Manager had long been crushed into a bloody pulp by the 30,000-jin Dao Stele, with red and white substances splattered everywhere.

Amidst the pile of rotten flesh, only a severed hand, still attached to its forearm, remained relatively intact.

On that broken index finger was a Sumeru ring that emitted a faint blue light.

Storage artifacts for cultivators.

Lu Chen bent down, his rough fingers pinching the ring, and ripped it off his severed finger. Sticky blood still clung to it.

Back when people were making a living in the mud alleys, mortals often whispered among themselves that the immortals' Sumeru Rings could only be opened with divine sense, and that even if ordinary people obtained them, they could only regard them as broken stones.

Lu Chen had no divine sense, nor any spiritual energy to erase the mark left by the steward.

But he knew exactly what was going on.

Even the hardest shell can be crushed on the spot if you use enough force, and the contents inside will naturally fall out.

He held the blue cabochon between his thumb and forefinger.

The Qi and blood of the eleventh layer of "Iron Shirt" instantly circulated wildly, rushing along the major tendons of the arm and pouring into the fingertips.

Veins bulged on the iron-gray skin, and the black metallic texture beneath the skin exuded a terrifying sense of oppression.

"Crunch."

The extremely hard material of the cabochon emitted a very piercing cracking sound.

The moment the crack appeared, the spatial magic array inside the ring collapsed instantly.

A violent spatial turbulence erupted from the crack, carrying a ferocious aura that seemed to tear everything apart, attempting to shred everything around it into pieces.

Lu Chen didn't even blink.

The ultimate furnace roared and throbbed within his chest.

Crimson blood surged from his palm and covered the area directly.

The purest and most violent ultimate qi and blood, in a completely unreasonable and domineering manner, suppressed those rampant spatial turbulences firmly in its palm.

"Explode it for me!"

Lu Chen suddenly exerted force with his knuckles and squeezed hard.

With a crisp "crack," the Sumeru Ring instantly shattered into a cloud of dust.

Without the protection of divine sense, the items in the space were directly exposed to the turbulent currents.

Those fragile jade slips and century-old spiritual herbs that the steward had once treasured were torn to shreds the moment the space collapsed, turning into a pile of completely ineffective waste that fell to the ground.

Only a few bottles of extremely sturdy pills and a black iron chain as thick as an adult's arm crashed onto the bluestone slab with a clang.

A handful of spirit stones also fell out and rolled all over the ground.

Lu Chen didn't even glance at the glowing spirit stones.

A few broken stones couldn't fill Ah Nan's stomach, nor could they buy her a bowl of hot soup.

He bent down and grabbed the thick, black iron chain.

It feels extremely heavy.

This is a chain specially used by the immortal sect to lock up high-level demonic beasts. It is made of century-old cold iron mixed with demonic bones.

Ordinary ironware simply couldn't withstand the terrifying weight of the Dao Stele, which weighed 30,000 jin; it would break with just a couple of pulls. But the hardness of this Demon-Locking Chain was just right.

Lu Chen dragged the heavy iron chain and turned to walk to the huge road stele that was stuck diagonally in the ruins of the white jade city wall.

He wrapped one end of the iron chain twice around the 30,000-pound black monument and tied a tight knot following the rock texture.

The remaining long iron chain was straightened.

One lap, two laps, three laps.

Lu Chen tightly bound the iron chains to his right arm, which was full of bulging muscles, and his broad shoulders.

The cold iron chains clung to the iron-gray skin, emitting a dull metallic scraping sound.

Each time the belt tightened, the muscles in his arms would instinctively bulge outwards to resist, and the blood vessels would throb beneath his skin.

Lu Chen turned his head and gently leaned his cheek against the small body tied to his shoulder.

"Hold on tight, I'll take you away."

Lu Chen bounced the girl on his back.

A-Nan's two small, blood-stained hands peeked out from the gaps in the cloth strips and gripped Lu Chen's coarse cloth collar tightly.

Lu Chen turned around, thrust his right shoulder forward, locked his abdominal muscles instantly, and exerted force with both legs.

"Splash!"

The thick black iron chain taut instantly, and the large veins on his shoulders bulged out from under his skin.

The massive battle monument, weighing 30,000 jin (approximately 15,000 kg), was dragged out of the ruins by this unreasonable and monstrous force.

The stones at the bottom had carved a trench half a foot deep into the ground.

Lu Chen took a heavy step.

His feet crushed the white jade bricks scattered on the ground, sending stone dust flying everywhere.

He dragged the city's most prized treasure, the one that the immortal sect was so proud of, and strode across the city's ruins, the wall that had once held mortals captive.

Stepping into the wilderness.

……

At this moment, deep within the inner city.

On the white jade tower of the Xuanni City Lord's Mansion.

A man dressed in the robes of an outer sect elder of the Qingxiao Sword Sect stood on the edge of the tower, staring intently at the collapsed inner city wall in the distance.

He is the city lord of Xuanni City.

The city lord's face turned ashen, and his face twitched uncontrollably.

His hands rested on the white jade railing, his ten fingers straining until they turned white, his nails digging deep into the stone, scraping out a pile of glaring powder.

The gravitational field that just came from over there was terrifying.

Even though he was separated from the inner city by most of it, the true essence in his dantian was feeling sluggish.

This suppressive force, which completely restrained the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, made him utterly lack the courage to lead a group in pursuit.

Several inner city guard commanders stood nearby, each one too frightened to even breathe.

"Lord, should we activate the inner city's ultimate killing formation, or send a spirit boat to chase after that brat?" a commander asked boldly.

"I'll chase you down, my foot!"

The city lord slapped the commander hard across the face, sending him sprawling to the ground, his mouth full of blood.

His chest heaved violently, and large beads of cold sweat streamed down his forehead.

Today is the day the Holy Maiden of the Azure Sky Sword Sect returns to her hometown to sever ties with the mortal world.

At this critical juncture, the city wall was smashed down by a mortal without spiritual roots, the Foundation Establishment Supervisor was smashed into a pulp, and even the Dao stele that suppressed the earth veins was uprooted and dragged away.

If this matter is reported to the sect truthfully, the higher-ups will blame her, and the Holy Maiden Zhan Chenli will be tainted with such a stain.

He's definitely going to lose his head as an outer sect elder, and his whole family will be thrown into the sect's furnace and burned to ashes!

It absolutely cannot be said that it was done by an ordinary person!

A mortal used his physical strength to smash the walls of an immortal city? If this gets out, the Qingxiao Sword Sect's century-old prestige will be completely swept away!

The city lord's eyes darted around rapidly. He suddenly turned around, glaring at his kneeling subordinates with gritted teeth.

"Pass down the order! The chaos in Xuanni City today was caused by that Azure Water Qilin suddenly going berserk and crashing into the city wall!"

The commanders were stunned for a moment, then quickly kowtowed to the ground.

The city lord continued to lower his voice, emphatically insisting on maintaining this stance.

"As for Lu Chen... he's no ordinary mortal! He's a demonic cultivator who has swallowed the true blood of a demonic beast and is possessed by evil spirits!"

"He had long since become completely possessed by demons, which is why he destroyed the town's sacred stele!"

"Did you understand! Report this news to the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion and the Immortal Alliance's outpost! Classify it as the Blood Demon's rebellion!"

The commanders readily agreed and got up to run downstairs.

The city lord stood atop the tower and exhaled a long breath of stale air.

This nail, which turned black into white, was forcibly hammered into the ruins of Xuanni City.

The reason why the Nine Provinces Immortal Alliance later listed Lu Chen as a "Blood Demon" and issued a nationwide manhunt was the most direct cause and effect.

……

In the wilderness, the night wind has already begun to blow.

The wind carried a biting chill, seeping straight into the seams of people's clothes.

A-Nan lay on Lu Chen's back, but she couldn't feel the cold wind at all.

She felt warm all over.

The extremely pure drop of ultimate blood that Lu Chen had just fed her was slowly circulating within her small body.

This pure blood radiated an astonishing heat, protecting her heart.

Her small hands gripped Lu Chen's collar, and the gray cloth covering her blindfolds fluttered gently in the wind.

Anan could not "see" the desolate scenery around her; all she could see was darkness.

But a different, eerie image clearly appeared in her mind.

She turned her head slightly, facing the direction of Xuanni City that was getting further and further away behind her.

In that location, she "saw" countless clusters of ice-blue light.

These lights, large and small, gathered densely in the inner city area.

At this moment, these icy blue lights were trembling violently in mid-air, emitting a nauseating and terrifying odor.

Those rays of light represent the true essence of cultivators.

After absorbing Lu Chen's filtered pure blood, A'Nan's physique has undergone a tremendous transformation.

She could not only sense the emotions of those cultivators, but also use the instinct of her extreme Dao blood to directly "see" their terrified and cowering appearance as they hid behind the city wall.

"Brother Chen."

A-Nan pressed her face against Lu Chen's burning back and whispered something.

"Those cold-hearted people in the city, they are shivering."

Lu Chen paused in his steps.

He turned his head to the side, and reached out with his large left hand to touch the little hand that was gripping his shoulder.

The moment they met, Lu Chen's expression changed slightly.

A-Nan's palms became very hard.

She used to be nothing but malnourished, withered bones, but now, when you touch her, she has an extremely tough texture.

Having just absorbed so much essence purified by the Extreme Furnace, the little girl's bones are undergoing a domineering reshaping in some unknown direction.

This is a sign of the "Jade Bone" transformation brought about by the ultimate Qi and Blood.

"Ignore them."

Lu Chen withdrew his left hand and softened his voice.

"Those lackeys will have to tremble every time they see us from now on."

"Um."

A-Nan nodded vigorously and buried her face in Lu Chen's neck.

The sun had completely set, leaving only a faint, extremely dim afterglow on the horizon.

The dim light cast a long shadow of Lu Chen.

A huge black stele followed behind him; it was a mountain that was constantly moving forward across the wasteland.

Ahead, a continuous black mountain range appeared on the horizon.

That is the outer forest of Broken Immortal Mountain.

The immortal sect has a strict rule that the outer perimeter of Broken Immortal Mountain is a forbidden zone for mortals, where demonic beasts roam freely and ordinary people who enter will not survive the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

But at this moment, Lu Chen took a deep breath, facing the gusts of fishy wind blowing from the forest.

He felt that this deep forest, filled with the stench of demonic beast urine and rotten leaves, was a thousand times cleaner than that immortal city, which was filled with array light screens and so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

"Splash—"

"Splash—"

The heavy black iron chain dragged on the gravelly wasteland, making a harsh, grinding sound.

The sound of metal scraping against metal carried far across the quiet, utterly silent wilderness, becoming a nightmare that sent chills down the spines of even the most junior disciples of the immortal sects.

Just as Lu Chen, carrying A-Nan and dragging the 30,000-jin Dao Stele, was about to step into the border of the Broken Immortal Mountain Forest.

A few leaves fell silently from the dark canopy of trees ahead.

Suddenly, several pairs of eyes glowing with an eerie green light appeared in the pitch-black forest.

Those eyes were fixed on Lu Chen, gleaming with an extremely greedy and fierce light, completely regarding them as a piece of fat meat that had been delivered to their doorstep.