At this moment.
Li Xinnian toyed with the storage ring in his hand. A wisp of white smoke drifted from the ring and entered his mouth.
In an instant, fragments of Liu Rusi's memories concerning Su Chen began to flood into his mind.
He saw it.
He saw Liu Rusi and Su Chen huddling together in the secret realm, and he also heard Su Chen unilaterally pouring his heart out to her.
And he saw that Liu Rusi, just as he had deduced, had indeed had many opportunities to escape the Aeternus Sect and the Ding family.
But she had weighed the pros and cons and chosen not to go to Su Chen, which is what led to the situation of Su Chen coming here all alone.
"Interesting."
Li Xinnian licked his lips. "The Peerless Art... It seems Brother Su is really hiding quite a few good things."
As his voice fell, a cultivator in a long black robe landed beside him like a black mist.
This person was bald, had ordination scars on the top of his head, and there were ligature marks on his neck.
If an expert from Eternal Sun Prefecture were to see him, they would certainly recognize him—he was the Impetuous Monk of the Great Ming King Temple from long ago!
"Reporting to the Young Master," he said.
"I have already followed your instructions and secretly met with the direct heir of the Ding family's 127th generation.
He is very interested in the matter of Ding Zerui coveting the position of direct heir."
The Impetuous Monk was still holding a Buddhist salute, but in the blink of an eye, he ruthlessly made a slicing gesture across his own neck.
"Does this humble monk need to go..."
Li Xinnian pondered for a moment and inquired, "Senior, if it were my Grand-uncle Changsheng, what would he do?"
The Impetuous Monk mused for a long time.
"He would probably send this humble monk to the Imperial Capital, use multiple connections until it could no longer be traced back to our Hall of Heavenly Principle, then find a way to incite conflict between the two parties and send Ding Zerui to his death.
The entire process would probably take several years, and finally..."
"Say no more!"
Li Xinnian's face turned black. He gritted his teeth. He had intended to make a decision, but the moment he thought of Grand-uncle Changsheng's schemes, he realized he wasn't skilled in this area.
"Go and see my grand-uncle. As for this storage ring, deliver it to my grand-aunt's hands."
"Yes."
As the Impetuous Monk departed, Li Xinnian looked in the direction Su Chen had fled, his expression complex. A look of disappointment flashed through his eyes.
...
Beneath the ten immortal mountains of the Aeternus Sect.
Su Chen stood holding his sword.
People were coming from all directions—Nascent Soul and Golden Core cultivators, one after another.
"Senior? Where is the Senior?"
Such a desperate plight made Su Chen's expression turn ugly.
He had already prepared a backup plan; two years ago, he had been forced by an expert from the Duravia Trade Prefecture into Bright Spirit Valley, and there, he met an old senior from Eternal Sun Prefecture who had withdrawn from the world.
That old senior was suffering from a hidden injury, but no one was more familiar with that kind of injury than him.
The old senior owed him three favors.
The first was to gift him the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures of Bright Spirit Valley, allowing him to cultivate to his current realm in just three short years.
The second was to come and help him take back Liu Rusi.
But the old senior had yet to appear.
"Heaven intends to destroy me."
Su Chen's eyes were downcast.
He had done it. In front of all the experts of the entire Duravia Trade Prefecture, he had shown them that he was the peerless, unrivaled genius.
Yet he had never imagined that after living two lives, he would actually repeat the same mistake, failing once again because of a woman.
At this moment, he suddenly felt utterly foolish.
The old seniors from the Azure Cloud Region had come for his sake; his brother, Li Xinnian, and his Senior Sister, Nangong Qingya, had fearlessly held back the enemy for him.
He had so many people worth living for, yet he had acted like a fool for one Liu Rusi?
"Hahaha!"
The wind and snow beat against his body.
In this pale, white world, he suddenly threw his head back to gaze at the cultivators in the sky rushing toward him like a tide.
His eyes were bloodshot. The oppressive might of an expert from sixty thousand years ago was fully revealed, actually causing the cultivators above to freeze for an instant.
Su Chen let out a wild, savage laugh.
"It's just a pity that this wind and snow have blinded my eyes. In that case, I will simply shatter this wind and snow!"
Following his roar, the wind and snow paused!
The 'Turmoil' storage ring in his hand—the very thing that had allowed him to reincarnate —actually began to flicker with black light, and the aura on his body began to surge dramatically.
At this moment, Su Chen felt his mind become crystal clear. This instantaneous epiphany caused the Heaven and Earth Spirit Qi to pour into his physical body.
The Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures he had obtained from Bright Spirit Valley were also digested in an instant.
"Not good, his aura... How is this possible? How can he have the aura of a Nascent Soul?"
"There's something strange about this kid. Kill him!"
"Set up a formation! We absolutely cannot let him escape."
"..."
In an instant, the great battle erupted. Amidst the wind and snow, a dragon soul roared, and the Heaven and Earth Spirit Qi raged wildly.
But even if Su Chen had temporarily obtained the power of the Nascent Soul realm, how could he possibly be a match for an overwhelming tide of cultivators?
"I am not reconciled..."
Just as he fell from the sky in exhaustion, propping himself up on one knee with his golden sword, his vision growing increasingly blurry, the cultivators rushing in from all over the sky unexpectedly froze once more.
He saw a black Asura Dharma Body appear, like an anomaly in the vast white snow.
One black divine spear after another instantly formed an array, shielding him.
A nine-headed black lion descended into the snowfield.
The knight in black armor upon it pulled the reins on the giant lion's neck, and the beast landed heavily, stamping its feet and roaring at the heavens.
The black-armored knight's voice was colder than this harsh winter day, compelling all the Nascent Soul cultivators of the entire Duravia Trade Prefecture to retreat in terror.
"Quite lively. This General would like to see if, after all these years, you cultivators from the Duravia Trade Prefecture have made any progress at all."
As Su Chen lost consciousness, he saw only that black-armored general, one man and one spear, charge toward the dense, numberless tide of Duravia Trade Prefecture cultivators.
Only a murmur remained, "Such a person actually exists in this world?"
An unknown amount of time passed.
Li Xinghuo, covered in wounds, descended riding the nine-headed giant lion.
He soothed the heavily scarred beast for a moment, then glanced at the unconscious Su Chen.
Silently, he took the 'Turmoil' ring from Su Chen's hand.
He probed it for a moment, his brow immediately furrowing tightly, then placed the ring back on Su Chen's hand.
---
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