The Longyuan River, surging endlessly, vast and magnificent, stretched as far as the eye could see, as if a true jiao-dragon was lurking at the bottom of the river.
This was an important river within the borders of the Dali Dynasty, stretching for ten thousand miles, with mighty rolling waves crashing against the shores, flowing past the outside of Longyuan Province. Longyuan Province was named after this very river.
Night.
Looking from afar, the Longyuan River appeared just like a massive black dragon coiled upon the earth, towering and grand, fully displaying the glory of water's virtue.
The bright moon traveled among the lotus-like clouds, and the night breeze blowing through the reed beds added a beautifully wonderful atmosphere.
However, on a sandy beach at the upper reaches exactly a hundred miles away from Longyuan Province, a middle-aged man with a very tall and burly figure, dressed in dark gold clothing, was endlessly running and leaping, a good three points faster than the quickest cheetah.
Rip! Rip!
At his speed, his physical body while running actually tore a long wave of air. This air wave surged, crackling, much like the turbulent river water.
Even the fastest horse that could travel a thousand miles a day was not half as fast as him.
"Swoosh!" Swoosh! Swoosh!
Just as this middle-aged man in dark gold clothing was running, suddenly by the riverside ahead, torches were ignited all at once! Silhouettes flickered! Finally, the sound of countless strong crossbows piercing the air came whistling over.
"Flying Crane Repeating Crossbows!"
Facing the rain of arrows, the middle-aged man frowned slightly and dropped his body downward, pressing against the sandy beach like a piece of paper, and actually managed to dodge the continuous volley of crossbow arrows in one fell swoop.
"Bai Haichan, you cannot escape. Hand over the 《Nine-Orifice Golden Pill》 and the 《Jiao-Dragon Crouching in Yellow Springs Map》! Surrender to my Fang family, and not only will you be spared the death penalty, but you can also enjoy wealth and glory. With your physical body cultivated to the tenth tier realm of Divine Transformation! My Fang family will absolutely treat you as an honored guest!"
The torches burned brightly, and hundreds of people surrounded this middle-aged man named Bai Haichan all at once.
One of the leaders stood with his hands behind his back. As he spoke, an imposing aura of having everything under control arose naturally. He was dressed in luxurious brocade clothing, with graying hair at his temples, carrying a kind of worldly vicissitude on his face that saw through the affairs of the world, and his eyes were exceptionally bright, reflecting the moonlight like gems.
"Longyuan Fang Family, Fang Zeshan!"
Bai Haichan stood still and looked at the leader who spoke, then looked all around, discovering that the hundreds of people surrounding him were all brimming with strength, divided into several waves. The inner layer consisted of warriors holding brightly shining longswords, the outer layer consisted of warriors aiming repeating crossbows, and the outermost layer held torches to seal off the surroundings.
On the repeating crossbows held by those warriors, a magnificent, pure white immortal crane was carved, and the crossbow arrows shot out from the crane's beak.
This kind of repeating crossbow had an extremely long range and immense piercing power. It was the authentic weapon the Longyuan Province's Fang family obtained from the Yuhua Sect.
"That's right, it is exactly me."
Fang Zeshan smiled: "I did not expect Mr. Bai Haichan to actually recognize me."
"Your elder brother Fang Zetao is the Governor of Longyuan, a high official wielding power over a region, and the Fang family deeply enjoys the favor and trust of the Dali Emperor. Since I have arrived on the Fang family's grounds, how could I not familiarize myself with the prominent figures? But to think you actually knew I had the Nine-Orifice Golden Pill and the Jiao-Dragon Crouching in Yellow Springs Map on me. It seems this information came from the Yuhua Sect." Although Bai Haichan was surrounded, he did not care in the slightest and spoke with composure.
"The ancestors of my Fang family were disciples of the Yuhua Sect. Waiting here for Mr. Bai Haichan this time is exactly due to a flying crane message from the Yuhua Sect." Fang Zeshan moved his body, taking a step forward, his joints trembling slightly, as if playing a kind of soothing music.
"You, Bai Haichan, finding the Jiao-Dragon Crouching in Yellow Springs Map and the Nine-Orifice Golden Pill in the ancient tomb of Yellow Springs Mountain is a matter unknown to others, but the Yuhua Sect knows it absolutely clearly."
"The Nine-Orifice Golden Pill is an elixir that can help one glimpse into the Supernatural Realm. And the Jiao-Dragon Crouching in Yellow Springs Map holds the secret of a massive treasure. Your Fang family wants them all; could it be you are plotting rebellion?" Bai Haichan gave a mock laugh.
"Silence! The Jiao-Dragon Crouching in Yellow Springs Map, my Fang family will naturally offer it to the Emperor. As for the Nine-Orifice Golden Pill, it can allow my Fang family to produce an expert of the Supernatural Realm, greatly enhancing our family's status in the royal court." Fang Zeshan suddenly shouted: "It seems you, Bai Haichan, are unwilling to hand over these two items. Then I will just have to take them from your corpse!"
"Is that so!"
Bai Haichan's eyes suddenly narrowed, and from the slits of his eyelids, a brilliant light forcefully shot out! Boom! His body dashed forward, his clothes fiercely trembling. His body moved like a swimming fish, like the form of a dragon, crossing a distance of tens of paces in an instant. He arrived directly in front of Fang Zeshan, leaving his subordinates without even the chance to react.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…
Fang Zeshan only felt the surrounding air being forcibly squeezed out, seemingly forming a brief vacuum. Then a massive fist continuously expanded in his eyes, about to blast his head apart in one strike.
The might of a single punch was as fierce as this.
"Crane Dancing in the Endless Sky!" At the juncture of life and death, Fang Zeshan finally displayed his outstanding strength. The two large muscles on his back braced, swish! Just like an immortal crane spreading its wings, his body became light and fluttery, moving along with the wind of the punch. His body instantly dodged away.
"Good, Pine Crane Myriad Longevity Fist. You have cultivated your physical body to the ninth tier realm of Spirit Communication, but you are still no match for me! Call your elder brother Fang Zetao to come!"
While Bai Haichan was speaking, his body did not stop, but rushed into the crowd instead.
"Bang, bang, bang…" Bang, bang, bang!
One guard's head was directly smashed, leaving a corpse on the spot. The temples of five guards were pierced by his fingers, dripping with blood. Following that, ten guards were struck flying on the spot by his ghost-like body, their internal organs rupturing right there, exactly as if they had been rammed by a thousand-jin horse carriage.
Cultivating the physical body to the tenth tier realm of Divine Transformation meant that five horses could not pull the body apart, showing how majestic the strength was and how tough the bones and sinews were. It was simply invincible, a human lethal weapon.
In an instant, the encirclement of hundreds of people was instantly broken through by Bai Haichan.
"Fang Zeshan, how dare you block me. I will temporarily set down note of your head, and come take your life another day." Bai Haichan broke through the encirclement and strode swaggeringly away.
The remaining guards fired their "Flying Crane Repeating Crossbows" one after another, but when the crossbow arrows struck his body, they were blocked by that dark gold clothing, unable to penetrate.
Evidently, this dark gold clothing of his was a treasured garment, impervious to swords and blades.
With a treasured garment protecting his body and the physical strength of five horses, who in the world could stop him?
"Bai Haichan, since you are here, you might as well stay. Why are you in such a rush to leave?" Right at this moment, suddenly, an ethereal voice, just like smoke and clouds, resounded.
"Who!"
Bai Haichan halted his body, unmoving as mountain rocks and vegetation, his spirit condensing into a solid mass, sensing his surroundings.
Subsequently, within his line of sight, a woman in white clothing, with skin like congealed fat, eyebrows like crescent moons, and jade-like bones and ice-like skin, slowly walked over from beneath the moon by the river.
As if she were a fairy who had descended from the Moon Palace!
And also like a Dragon Palace Princess from within the Longyuan River!
Heaven and earth became pure and clean, rippling with a holy flavor.
As soon as this woman in white appeared, those guards immediately stood in solemn silence: "Eldest Miss!"
Fang Zeshan also stopped: "Qingxue, why have you returned?"
This woman in white was exactly the Eldest Miss of the Fang family, Fang Qingxue.
"Second Uncle, I just returned from the Yuhua Sect." Fang Qingxue nodded towards Fang Zeshan, "Leave the matter here to me."
"Leave it to you? What a big boast!" Bai Haichan looked at Fang Qingxue, suddenly raised his hand, whoosh, whoosh, a dark light shot straight towards Fang Qingxue.
This dark light was a flying wheel the size of a palm, intensely sharp sawteeth covering both sides.
This was Bai Haichan's ultimate hidden weapon, the "Dark Fiend Wheel," forged from tungsten steel. Flung out with the five-horse strength of a Divine Transformation expert, within three hundred paces, with a flash of dark light, any master would be instantly impaled.
This move was Bai Haichan's sure-kill move. He was confident that even an expert of the same Divine Transformation tier as him could hardly escape death!
However, an abnormal change occurred.
That "Dark Fiend Wheel" struck to within three feet of Fang Qingxue and suddenly stopped! It stopped without any reason, as if an invisible force around Fang Qingxue's body froze all things.
Zzz, zzz, zzz…
A dense spiderweb of electrical filaments, flashing with crystalline light, appeared once again around Fang Qingxue. Everyone present felt a powerful electrical current. Everyone's bodies went numb, and the fine hairs on their skin and the hair on their heads stood up.
The electrical currents lashed at the "Dark Fiend Wheel" forged from tungsten steel, and that Dark Fiend Wheel actually melted like a candle, dropping onto the sandy beach. The extreme heat of the melting metal stimulated smoke from the sand.
To have a dense electrical net all around the physical body! Melting gold and dissolving iron!
This kind of power was no longer a living person, but a ghost or god!
"Ah! Supernatural Realm! You stepped into the Supernatural Realm! At such a young age, you actually cultivated to such a realm, a world-shocking talent! The Fang family is going to dominate the world! The Yuhua Sect, an immortal dao sect under heaven, has produced another genius!" Bai Haichan roared in shock, turned his head, and ran wildly!
When the physical body was cultivated to its extreme peak, with a powerful physique, the heart pumping massive nutrients through blood to the brain, the brain would gradually unlock its potential. Through special cultivation methods, this potential would turn into a mysterious magical power. Possessing magical power allowed one to manipulate thunder and lightning, flames, levitate physically, kill with flying swords, and do all kinds of things impossible for ordinary people.
This was exactly the Supernatural Realm!
There were extremely numerous martial arts masters in the world, but those who cultivated to the Supernatural Realm were not even one in ten thousand.
The Supernatural Realm, once stepped into, was a separation of heaven and mortal!
Although Bai Haichan had cultivated his physical body to the extreme limit of the Divine Transformation realm, to take another step and breakthrough into the Supernatural Realm was harder than ascending to the heavens.
Dealing with this kind of expert who had stepped into the Supernatural Realm, Bai Haichan could only run away.
"Purple Lightning Yin Thunder Blade…"
Watching Bai Haichan run away, already nearly out of her line of sight in just a few breaths, Fang Qingxue, with her white clothes fluttering, let out a low and drawn-out chant. Her finger flicked in the empty air, and a ball of purple lightning radiant energy the size of a fist brewed in her hand, rapidly spinning, before forcefully blasting outwards, transforming into six streaks of blade light that swept over a thousand paces, severing space to strike!
The powerful electrical currents swept past furiously, causing the reed beds by the river to burst into flames.
Boom!
There was no leeway to dodge at all.
Bai Haichan's entire body was struck! Immediately, the smell of scorching meat wafted out. That treasured garment capable of resisting swords and blades was also torn apart by the intense electrical currents.
Splash!
He staggered and ran wildly, falling into the surging Longyuan River.
"With vital force extinguished, what is the use of fleeing?" Fang Qingxue took a step forward, her body actually levitating in the air, arriving above the river surface, with the rolling waves flowing beneath her feet. Seeing the place where Bai Haichan fell into the water, she grasped with a single hand.
A lump of powerful suction force emanated from her palm, and that river water was actually sucked up into the sky, forming a thick, barrel-like pillar of water. Bai Haichan's body was actually caught up in the water pillar.
"《Jiao-Dragon Crouching in Yellow Springs Map》!" Fang Qingxue looked at Bai Haichan's body, flicked her finger again, and an ancient scroll painting, along with a palm-sized gold and iron box, were drawn over by her magical power.
Just as these two world-shaking rare treasures were about to fall into Fang Qingxue's hands, the situation suddenly changed. Upon contacting the nourishment of magical power, that ancient scroll painting suddenly vibrated, swoosh! It unfurled in an instant.
The grand background of this painting was pitch black, deep, and dim, exactly like the Nine Underworld Yellow Springs. Within this, faintly, there was a jiao-dragon lying dormant, seemingly asleep yet not asleep, seemingly awake yet not awake.
Suddenly, this jiao-dragon opened its eyes, rolled up Bai Haichan all at once, and actually drilled into the river water, vanishing without a trace in an instant.
"So this Jiao-Dragon Crouching in Yellow Springs Map cannot be tainted with magical power, and upon receiving the drive of my magical power, it awakened a sliver of power! Worthy of being an ancient wondrous treasure harboring massive mystery."
Fang Qingxue was deep in thought, looking toward the river; absolutely no shadow was left. A jiao-dragon entering the water travels thousands of miles in an instant, so how could it possibly be chased down?
"Qingxue, you actually cultivated to the Supernatural Realm! My Fang family has finally produced an expert of the Supernatural Realm after a hundred years!" Fang Zeshan was immensely excited. Even though Bai Haichan escaped, his heart was still filled with wild joy.
"Second Uncle, dispatch people and arrange them to search along the way. Within the borders of our Longyuan Province, both the upper and lower reaches of the Longyuan River must be searched. Bai Haichan was struck by my Purple Lightning Yin Thunder Blade; his vital force has been cut off and he cannot live for much longer. That Jiao-Dragon Crouching in Yellow Springs Map merely absorbed a tiny bit of my magical power, triggering the grand formation contained within it. It's nothing major. Upon finding this map, I intend to take it back to present it to the Sect Master of the Yuhua Immortal Sect."
Fang Qingxue's tone was light: "I will go back first, and see my father."
While speaking, this world-shocking woman who had cultivated to the Supernatural Realm glided through the air, just like an immortal crane, and disappeared from the sight of everyone.
"Pass down the order, the officials of every county and every prefecture must mobilize manpower to search the entire region!" Fang Zeshan issued the command.
The head of the Fang family was the Governor of Longyuan Province, a high official wielding power over a region, possessing the supreme authority to command the military horses, military administration, and civil administration of an entire province. When the governmental order went down, it would be carried out vigorously, and no one would dare disobey.
…
Hah! Hah! Hah!
The black night had passed, and it was already the early morning. After Fang Han finished his chores, he quietly hid in the reed beds by the Longyuan River outside the city. Following the methods of exercising strength he had secretly learned, he continuously performed various movements to train his strength.
After being whipped by the Second Miss of the Fang family, Fang Qingwei, and then rewarded with silver, Fang Han trained even more bitterly.
He tied several sandbags to his limbs, running, leaping, rolling up and down, striving to train his limbs, waist, and abdomen to be full and powerful.
As for the "Pine Crane Myriad Longevity Fist" cultivated by those core disciples of the Fang family every morning, Fang Han clearly remembered every form and stance in his heart. But he did not practice it.
Because he already understood that he had to train the strength of his limbs, waist, and abdomen to be solid and possess enough flexibility before he could train the stances. Otherwise, there would be no effect, and without strength, any stance would just be an empty frame.
Nourishing life, training strength, and stances; the three-fold steps had to be cultivated step by step.
Punching out fist after fist, sweat splashing everywhere, shining with dazzling crystalline light under the morning sunlight of the reed beds.
Ah ya!
Suddenly, hitting the crude sandbags, after striking hundreds of times in succession, Fang Han felt golden stars shooting around before his eyes, his head buzzing, his physical stamina exhausted to the extreme limit.
Subsequently, both his legs lost all strength, and with a thud, he slumped softly into the reed beds on the sandy beach.
"It still won't do. Even though I used five taels of silver to improve my life these past days, it fundamentally cannot compare with those core disciples of the Fang family. They eat bird's nest, deer antler, ginseng, and black-bone chicken every day. But with my five taels of silver, I can only occasionally eat meat a few times, so it's impossible to carry out that kind of intense training every day."
Lying flat on his back on the sandy beach, facing the sky, Fang Han sighed.
It turned out that his secretly learning martial arts and secretly training these past days, though yielding minor results, could not even remotely compare with those Fang family disciples. After all, the foundation of nourishing life had vastly too great a difference.
If this continued, it was impossible for him to train his physical body to the realm of divine strength.
"Entering servitude as a slave, studying can no longer let me stand out. Martial arts have even less a way to be cultivated. Could it be that I will be a subordinate, a servant, for my entire life? With never a day to emerge and succeed?"
Fang Han murmured…
Splash, splash!
Right at this moment, the sound of water came from the reed beds by the riverside. It sounded as if a huge fish had run aground.
"What's going on?" Fang Han endured the soreness all over his body, climbed up, and walked out. He immediately saw, within a swirling water current in the reed beds, a person actually floating!
This person was dressed in dark gold clothing.