Achieving physical sainthood begins with the Iron Shirt technique!

Two deacons from the Qingxiao Sword Sect's Punishment Division carried heavy crossbows weighing thousands of pounds through the poisonous forest.

What met the eye was a scene of carnage. The three bloodthirsty black-haired giant mastiffs used for searching the mountains had not even left behind a complete corpse.

Limbs and mangled flesh littered the ground. The dog's head was crushed to powder, and thick, black blood dripped down the withered leaves. The long-faced deacon swallowed hard, cold sweat soaking through his robes.

These are top-tier ferocious beasts, fed with human flesh and blood at great expense by the Punishment Department. If these three dogs were together, even a Core Formation stage cultivator would have several pounds of flesh torn off without resorting to magic weapons.

The rough, uncouth man carrying the black monument in front of him was breathing steadily, without a single decent bloody hole in his body.

Just how high has this monster cultivated its physical body? Could it be that the legendary ancient demon god who devours the brains of cultivators has been resurrected? The long-faced deacon's heart pounded, and his legs trembled uncontrollably.

Retreat meant certain death, and they couldn't explain themselves back. The long-faced deacon's fingers went numb, and he forcefully pulled the trigger of the heavy crossbow with his index finger. The deacon on the left followed suit and pulled the trigger as well.

The steel-forged mechanism emitted a teeth-grinding scraping sound. The thick crossbow string snapped back. It required no spiritual energy, relying entirely on pure mechanical brute force.

Six armor-piercing heavy arrows, each as thick as an index finger, were released from the bow. The arrowheads were soaked in a deadly, bone-corroding poison. The air was torn apart by these six iron rods. They split into two groups, one aimed at Lu Chen's throat and the other at his heart.

Lu Chen stood motionless, not even blinking. His goal on this trip was to ensure A'nan's safety; he absolutely could not allow such a hidden weapon to graz the little girl in the slightest.

With his right hand outstretched, he grasped the thick, century-old black iron chain wrapped around his right arm. He then exerted force backward with his powerful arm. He used the 90,000-jin (approximately 45,000 kg) Primordial Ferocious Stele of the Heaven-Suppressing Desolate Bone as a heavy stone door, pulling it from behind to three feet in front of his chest, completely blocking his path.

Six armor-piercing arrows were driven deep into the barren bone patterns on the surface of the ominous monument. Not even a spark flew.

The steel arrow shaft couldn't withstand the force of the recoil and snapped into dozens of scrap metal fragments. The iron slag fell to the ground. The poison on the arrowhead splashed onto the nearby granite rocks. Large plumes of white smoke rose from the stone's surface, emitting a pungent, putrid stench of death. The stone was corroded, leaving pitted, dark holes.

"You dare to show off this pathetic skill?" Lu Chen's eyes were filled with ruthlessness. He took a half step back with his right leg.

He used his toe to lift half of the giant mastiff's broken rib, covered in blood and flesh, from the ground. The dog bone was as thick as a child's arm. Lu Chen tensed his thigh muscles, concentrating the force of 100,000 jin into a single point, and kicked the end of the bone.

The air was kicked out with a sharp whistling sound. The severed rib turned into a blurry afterimage. The deacon on the left hadn't even had time to turn the trigger to fire a second volley of arrows.

His ribs had pierced through his chest, which was clad in a ceremonial robe, spanning several dozen feet. The immense kinetic energy propelled his body backward, pinning him firmly to the trunk of a century-old, withered tree behind him.

The wood cracked, and a large section of bone pierced through the trunk. The deacon twitched twice and died on the spot.

Seeing his companion's miserable state, the long-faced deacon disregarded all sect rules. He dropped his heavy crossbow and turned to run for his life. As he ran, he frantically pulled a golden, protective talisman from his robes.

This was his trump card, bought from the Wanbaoge Pavilion in Zhongtian Prefecture at the cost of half his fortune. He crushed the core of the talisman with two fingers.

But he forgot that this was the Great Wilderness, a desolate zone where no immortal laws could be allowed to run rampant. The talisman had barely been crushed when a golden light, less than half an inch long, shone from its surface.

Before the protective aura could even take shape, the faint spiritual energy was abruptly extinguished by the domineering repulsive force of the Great Wilderness. The golden light faded, and the talisman turned into a clump of ashes that scattered in the wind.

The rules of the Great Wilderness are constantly being highlighted. Without the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, these high and mighty cultivators are not even as good as ordinary martial artists.

The long-faced deacon's face turned completely pale. Without the support of spiritual energy, he was running 30% slower than usual. He was doomed to die at the hands of this mud-legged fellow today.

Lu Chen watched the fleeing figure ahead, then strode forward with his powerful legs. His feet, carrying the force of ten thousand jin, stomped on the ground, churning up the earth beneath his feet. In just three steps, he covered a distance of twelve zhang, directly catching up to the long-faced deacon.

Lu Chen raised his large, rough hand. With his fingers spread, he pressed down hard on the long-faced deacon's right shoulder blade. He exerted force with his wrist and pressed down hard.

The long-faced deacon had no chance to resist. His knees slammed heavily onto the granite below.

The stone shattered, and his kneecaps were smashed to pieces. His upper body was pressed tightly into the muddy puddles in front of him.

He was forced to swallow foul-smelling yellow mud. He struggled to lift his head and spat out a mouthful of muddy water mixed with broken teeth.

Lu Chen's fingers dug into his collarbone. If he didn't ask for some information, wandering aimlessly in this desolate forest would be a huge waste of time, and the monument on his back was cursed and needed to be removed with earth fire. He needed to keep someone alive to extract information.

"Point a way, live. Shut up, die." Lu Chen didn't say anything more.

The long-faced deacon's features contorted in pain. To save his life, he revealed everything about the Department of Punishments.

"Immortal, spare me...don't kill me! The sect has already set up a Bloodstained Iron Net around the perimeter; you can't break through. You're under the Ancestor's Yin Curse; you can only seek out the Poisonous Fire..." He trembled as he used his mud-covered hands to pull out a finely drawn sheepskin map from his robes and handed it to Lu Chen. "This map marks the deepest part of this miasma forest...a spring of venomous fire. It's an extremely malevolent fire formed from the stagnant energy of the Great Wilderness, capable of burning through any curse."

Lu Chen took the map and glanced at the locations circled in red cinnabar. He tucked the parchment scroll into his waistband.

Seeing that he had accepted the gifts, the long-faced deacon thought he had escaped a disaster and was about to beg for mercy.

Lu Chen raised his right foot, the sole of his boot aimed at the back of Lu Chen's head. These bastard cultivators hadn't shown any mercy when they were extracting bone marrow from people in Xuanni City.

Letting him go today will only lead to more traps tomorrow. "If you don't cut the weeds at the root, they'll grow back in the spring breeze." This is the ironclad rule Lu Chen learned in the muddy alley.

One stomp. Skull shattered. The long-faced deacon's bones broke inch by inch from the shock of that stomp.

His entire body was kicked away by Lu Chen. It arced through the air before landing several dozen feet deep in the bottomless poisonous swamp. After a few bubbles rose to the surface, it fell silent. Without a trace of mercy.

The open space returned to deathly silence. Lu Chen turned and walked to the deacon nailed to the tree. He reached out and felt around the deacon's waist. He didn't touch the magical artifacts that required spiritual energy to operate, but instead pulled down several bulging leather bags.

Untying the knot revealed a generous amount of dried rations and high-quality second-tier demon beast jerky. This was good stuff, perfect for Anan to snack on and nourish her. A ruthless plunder of supplies, ensuring no one left empty-handed.

At the bottom of the leather bag, Lu Chen found a jade slip, entirely emerald green and engraved with intricate cloud patterns, used for communication between inner disciples of the Azure Sky Sword Sect. It was extremely expensive; even touching it would result in the loss of both hands for an ordinary person.

Lu Chen held the jade slip in his hand, examining it closely. This kind of object, only suitable for sending messages, wouldn't make a sound in the Spirit-Severing Zone. What the immortals considered treasures—high-grade materials—were nothing more than a pile of flashy junk in his eyes, and extreme contempt flashed in his gaze.

He pinched the jade slip's outer shell between two fingers, increasing the pressure with his thumb and forefinger. Cracks appeared on the emerald green jade surface. The array patterns inside, used to store spiritual energy, were forcibly crushed. With a crisp sound, the jade slip's outer shell shattered into powder. Lu Chen brushed the powder away. At the very core of the jade slip, a piece of spiritual jade marrow, the size of a longan and radiating a soft green light, remained.

The chalcedony had a restrained luster, lacking any violent spiritual energy, and felt warm to the touch. Lu Chen held the spiritual chalcedony in his hand and rubbed it back and forth in his rough palm. Using brute force to control his movements, he managed to smooth out all the sharp, jagged edges of the array formations on the surface of the chalcedony.

He looked down at the wolf skin tied to his chest. A-Nan, her eyes covered by a white film, was quietly listening to the sounds outside, her little hands gripping the edge of the wolf skin.

"Take this and play with it." Lu Chen stuffed the rounded spirit jade marrow into A'nan's little hand.

Anan held the glowing bead, feeling its warmth. The green light within the bead seeped through her fingers. Even the most precious celestial treasures couldn't compare to her daughter's toys; Lu Chen gave it to her to play with as a marble to pass the time.

With dry rations and a map, their goal was clear: the Poisonous Fire Spring in the Earth's Lungs would be their next stop. Lu Chen stuffed all the second-tier jerky he had scavenged into the innermost layer of the wolf skin, nestled close to A-Nan, warming it with his body heat.

He walked to the discarded, heavy crossbow. The bowstring was woven from the back sinew of a hundred-year-old demonic python mixed with the silk of a thousand-year-old golden silkworm; it was extremely resilient and could not be cut by a knife. Lu Chen grabbed both ends of the bowstring and pulled hard, ripping the entire mechanism apart and separating the bowstring. This bowstring was of good quality; it would be perfect for binding a child.

He folded the bowstring in half and braided it into a sturdy double-stranded rope. He wrapped it around the wolf pelt where Anan was, then reinforced it twice more around his shoulders and back, tying a tight knot. The 90,000-jin black stele was still being dragged by the black iron chain, but with the added layer of the demonic python bowstring on Anan's carrying strap, the protection was much more secure. He did all this swiftly and decisively, without the slightest hesitation.

As they prepared to shoulder the black monument and set off again, the little girl nestled in his arms stretched out her delicate arm and patted Lu Chen's sweaty neck with her small, jade-colored hand.

Lu Chen stopped what he was doing and looked down at her.

Anan opened her small mouth and coughed twice. She spat out a small bead of blood, about the size of a longan, radiating a strong, warm, and vibrant aura. This was the pure blood essence she had repeatedly refined within her body after swallowing those few century-old herbs and the pure blood of the exotic beast not long ago, thanks to her newly awakened Jade Bone Physique, but which she hadn't yet fully digested and absorbed.

The little girl held the bead of blood in her hand, groping her way towards Lu Chen's right arm. There, in order to burn the bone-attaching curse on the black monument, Lu Chen had forcibly torn off a large chunk of flesh with his bare hands. Although there was no bleeding, the wound was gaping open and deeply torn.

A-Nan pressed the warm drop of blood onto the crack in Lu Chen's right arm.

The blood droplet touched the skin and flesh, transforming into a soft crimson light that seeped directly into the cracked muscle fibers. This extremely pure life force showed no resistance whatsoever.

A faint grinding sound came from the wound. The deep gash, revealing the bone, rapidly closed and closed at a speed visible to the naked eye. In just a few breaths, a new, dark membrane covered it.

Not even a faint scar remained. Completely unmarked.

Normally, Lu Chen would use this ultimate physical body to shield the blind girl from all the storms and dangers, and feed her the purest medicinal power.

Today, this little hand that he once held so protectively in his arms has actually begun to give back its most precious things to heal his wounds. One-way protection has turned into two-way care.

Lu Chen rubbed his muddy hands on his trousers until they were dry before reaching out to touch A-Nan's soft hair.

Lu Chen straightened up and gripped the black iron chain tightly with one hand. He took out the sheepskin map from his pocket and glanced at it in the direction of the deepest part of the miasma forest.

The fiery spring of lung poison ahead is the last chance to completely eradicate the Azure Sky Curse.

With brute force of 100,000 jin flowing through his legs once more, Lu Chen dragged the 90,000 jin giant monument and plunged headfirst into the even deeper black mist.

The road ahead will certainly not be peaceful.