Achieving physical sainthood begins with the Iron Shirt technique!

On the edge of Dongxuan Prefecture, on the outskirts of the Boundless Black Market.

The air was thick with the strange stench of old talisman ash and inferior pills. The black market was originally a lawless place, recognizing only spirit stones and not people. Today, however, this unwritten rule was utterly shattered by an overwhelmingly powerful, savage aura.

Lu Chen carried the 100,000-jin [Suppressing Heaven Desolate Bone Primordial Fiend Tablet] on his back, with a huge cloth bundle roughly tied around his waist.

Inside that rough animal hide bundle were hundreds, even thousands, of flying swords shattered by his attack and ruined protective magical artifacts. With each step he took, the broken metal scraps collided with each other, producing an extremely ear-piercing symphony of broken copper and scrap iron.

His heavy black iron boots slammed onto the bluestone slabs on the outermost edge of the black market. His immense physical body, weighing 100,000 jin, required no magical manipulation whatsoever.

"Snap!"

The stone slab beneath his feet shattered instantly, and spiderweb-like cracks spread wildly outwards from him. Muddy water poured out along the cracks.

The two rogue cultivators guarding the black market gate, used to throwing their weight around, were terrified when they looked up and saw this burly man with bare chest and jet-black skin walking towards them.

The stench of blood, freshly brewed from the Great Wilderness Poison Spring, mixed with the tyrannical aura accumulated from killing hundreds of Qingxiao Sword Sect cultivators, solidified into a tangible substance.

The two rogue cultivators suffered severe leg cramps and collapsed to their knees in the mud. They dared not even mention the introductory jade slips they usually collected as they passed by, and could only kowtow to the ground, feigning death.

Lu Chen didn't even give those two a second glance. He strode across the black market gate.

The independent cultivators and vendors on both sides shrank into the shadows, barely breathing. Everyone trembled as they looked at the ancient demon god carrying the enormous black stone tablet.

Lu Chen's goal was clear: to head straight for the three-story white jade pavilion in the very center of the black market, a building adorned with carved beams and painted rafters and exuding a rich, ethereal aura.

Wanbaolingge Branch.

This place holds the most lucrative profits of the Boundless Black Market, a major base for cultivators and merchants to amass wealth. What he needs can only be found in such lucrative establishments.

"Bang!"

Lu Chen kicked open the carved sandalwood door, breaking the hinges and sending the entire door flying into the hall and smashing to pieces.

The main hall of the Lingge Pavilion was covered with precious snow silk carpets, and the air was filled with the fragrance of sandalwood.

A steward in the late Foundation Establishment stage was comfortably slumped in a grand chair, holding a gilded teacup and slowly sipping the freshly brewed spiritual tea.

The sound of the door shattering startled him, and the scalding tea spilled onto his silk robe.

The steward looked up and immediately noticed Lu Chen's mud-covered appearance, his body covered in dried blood and mud, and a tattered wolf skin hanging on his chest, inside which was a little blind girl.

The sense of superiority he had felt from years of living in a high position among the immortals instantly surfaced, and his disgust was impossible to hide.

"Where did this beggar from the underworld come from? Don't you know the rules of the immortals?!" The steward slammed his hand on the table, stood up, and began to curse in a shrill voice, "Get out!"

Lu Chen strode to the long counter made of a single piece of golden nanmu wood.

He untied the huge cloth bundle tied around his waist. His large, thick hands gripped the animal hide opening and slammed it down hard onto the smooth countertop.

"boom!"

The hundreds of pounds of scrap metal from the flying sword, combined with the residual force transmitted through Lu Chen's arm, exploded on the spot.

A large crack, two fingers wide, appeared in the sturdy golden nanmu wood cabinet. The exquisite jade and glass tea sets that were usually used to entertain distinguished guests on the table were instantly shattered into dust by the violent shock.

The jade powder covered the steward's face.

"You're asking for death!" The steward was furious and was about to crush the jade pendant with the bell at his waist to call out the assassins to chop him up.

Lu Chen reached into the pile of scrap metal and pulled out a disc with intricate purple-gold runes. He slammed it onto the cracked tabletop with a loud crack.

The Three Luminaries Mysterious Gold Plate.

The dazzling purple-gold spiritual light instantly illuminated the entire hall, and a strong golden core stage array fluctuation swept over us.

The foreman's curses caught in his throat, nearly choking him. He stared intently at the disc, his breath catching in his throat.

He had dealt with various sects for many years, so he naturally recognized this thing. It was a treasured artifact carried by a senior formation cultivator at the Qingxiao Sword Sect branch, and it was impossible for it to be found on the market.

How could such a precious treasure end up in the hands of a body-refining brute who doesn't even have any true energy fluctuations?

The foreman's mind raced, and extreme greed instantly took over. This country bumpkin was definitely an ignorant bumpkin who had somehow gotten a bargain off a dead man.

The steward wiped the powder off his face and put on a sinister fake smile.

"So you're just a conman who profits from the dead. The items are valuable, but unfortunately, they can't be brought into the open. Taking them out will only bring you trouble." The manager tapped the counter with his finger. "My Wanbao Lingge is doing a good deed and will take the fall for you. I'll give you ten low-grade spirit stones, and I'll take all this junk."

Extreme class arrogance and unscrupulous price-cutting are the most common tactics used by merchants who cultivate immortality to swindle and exploit the remnants of the lower realms.

As soon as he finished speaking, a faint sound of mechanisms turning came from the walls around the attic.

Ten heavily armored black market assassins emerged from the shadows, carrying large, armor-piercing crossbows with eerie green arrowheads all aimed at Lu Chen. On the hall's ceiling, the runes of a miniature strangulation array began to light up.

The good cop and the bad cop sing together, and the murderous intent of the traitors is openly displayed.

After hearing this utterly absurd statement, Lu Chen grinned, revealing his gleaming white teeth, and laughed in an extremely gruff manner.

He couldn't be bothered to waste a single word.

The veins beneath the dark skin of his right arm suddenly bulged. His large, thick hand shot out like lightning, reaching across the counter.

The speed was so fast that even a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator like the steward couldn't maintain a protective aura. That large, calloused hand, like a giant iron clamp, gripped the steward's neck tightly.

With the strength of a hundred thousand jin, he lifted himself upwards.

The manager's feet left the ground instantly, and he thrashed wildly in mid-air like a duck being choked.

"Uh... How dare you! I am..." The steward pried Lu Chen's fingers apart with both hands, desperately urging his dantian to release his true energy.

The true essence light struck the skin on Lu Chen's arm and dissipated instantly, leaving not even a white mark.

Lu Chen used his free left hand to grab the Three Luminaries Mystic Gold Plate that was shimmering with spiritual light on the table. He held it up in front of the steward's horrified eyes.

With all five fingers exerting force, he unleashed a frenzied, extreme burst of power.

"Garara..."

The chilling sound of metal twisting echoed throughout the lobby.

The high-level array plate, nurtured by a Golden Core cultivator for a hundred years, was twisted into a useless lump of iron in Lu Chen's bare palm. Hard, purple-gold fragments fell down in a flurry.

The magical artifact's light was extinguished on the spot.

The foreman's eyes bulged out of their sockets; he was terrified. Crushing a Golden Core treasure with bare hands? What kind of monster is this?!

"I'm not here to do business." Lu Chen tightened his grip, his voice so powerful it made the steward's eardrums bleed. "Fourth-tier beast true blood, plus a hundred-year-old Earth Marrow Grass. If you can't produce it, I'll burn your head to the ground."

Seeing that the steward's life was hanging by a thread, the ten assassins around the hall did not hesitate and immediately pulled the triggers of their crossbows.

"Whoosh whoosh!"

Ten heavily poisoned, armor-piercing arrows tore through the air, heading straight for Lu Chen's back and the wolf-skin-covered vitals on his chest. At the same time, dozens of sharp, invisible wind blades descended from the strangulation array on the ceiling.

Lu Chen didn't even turn his head. His broad right shoulder suddenly sank, releasing the support that had been on his shoulder.

"boom!"

The 100,000-jin (50,000 kg) Primordial Evil Stele of the Desolate Bone of the Heavenly Suppression crashed onto the white jade floor.

The ground within a radius of several dozen feet simply could not withstand such absolute, inanimate pressure. The instant it landed, an extremely terrifying force of extreme death pressure rebounded, transforming into a visible, violent wave of air that swept out in all directions.

The ten poisoned crossbow bolts that were fired were crushed by the immense pressure as soon as they entered the three-foot radius around Lu Chen.

The arrow, forged from high-quality steel, exploded into clumps of iron powder in mid-air, the poison evaporating completely before it could even splatter.

The shockwave continued to rise, slamming violently into the strangulation array patterns on the ceiling.

"Snap!"

The defensive array of the entire Wanbaoling Pavilion was as fragile as paper, collapsing and disintegrating inch by inch before it could even withstand the attack for a moment.

The jade floorboards cracked and collapsed in large areas. The sturdy load-bearing columns groaned under the strain, splintering wood everywhere. The entire three-story attic was shaking violently, on the verge of collapsing completely and turning the place into a pile of rubble.

The person in charge was already sending out cracking warning signals from his cervical vertebrae, and his tongue was sticking out long.

At this critical moment, a frantic, pig-slaughtering scream came from the second-floor stairwell.

"Stop! Brilliant warrior, have mercy!"

A portly, middle-aged man dressed in a robe adorned with gold and ingots tumbled and crawled down the stairs. He was the head of this branch pavilion, a pavilion master at the early stage of the Golden Core realm.

The portly pavilion master landed unsteadily and was nearly knocked over by the violent aftershocks. He frantically wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve while bowing deeply to Lu Chen.

A fawning smile squeezed onto his fat face, not daring to utter a single word about smashing the shop or killing anyone. This merchant's ability to sway people according to their status was ingrained in his bones. If he encountered a truly ruthless individual capable of smashing the building to pieces with a single punch, he would be quicker than anyone else to kneel down.

Lu Chen stomped his large foot on the base of the evil monument. He casually flicked it away.

The half-dead manager was thrown directly into the collapsed rubble pit next to him, his fate unknown.

The fat pavilion master trembled all over. He hurriedly took something out of his wide sleeves, raised it high above his head with both hands, and presented it with utmost respect.

It was a warm, extremely cold jade bottle. Its surface was engraved with ice-sealing array patterns used to lock in the loss of spiritual energy, and wisps of cold air were emanating from it.

"Hero, please calm down! Your men were blind and offended the true god." The fat pavilion master bowed like a shrimp. "This contains the full amount of the true blood of a fourth-tier Crimson Flame Scaled Tiger, and the essence of a hundred-year-old Earth Marrow Grass has also been fused into it. Consider it a small token of our apology to you, brave warrior."

Lu Chen stood there imposingly, his two thick fingers reaching out to grab the extremely cold jade bottle without any hesitation.

The bottle felt cool to the touch and had a strong, unusual bloody aroma.

It was tucked inside the thick, dark wolfskin covering Lu Chen's chest. Little A'nan lay there quietly. She hadn't made a sound until, the moment the jade bottle approached, a faint, pale halo suddenly appeared beneath her blood-red jade eye-covering garment, mixed with jade powder.

Those ancient spiritual eyes, capable of seeing through illusions, faintly sensed the deathly stillness mixed within the strange fragrance.

And in the front.

The fat pavilion master remained in an extremely humble sliding kneeling posture.

But in the shadow of that drooping, fat face, an extremely vicious and sinister scheme was spreading wildly.

The jade bottle did indeed contain high-level true blood, and the quantity was exactly as described. However, he added three drops of "Nascent Soul Water" from the deepest part of the black market to the bottom of the bottle.

That's a deadly poison that can cause a Nascent Soul stage cultivator's internal organs to rot and turn into a pool of blood within a few breaths! If this barbaric body cultivator greedily swallows even half a mouthful, he will immediately die without a trace of bone.

The fat pavilion master was already calculating in his heart how many astronomical spirit stones he could sell for after the big man fell, along with that strange black stele and that powerful physical body.