Martial Cultivator

After leaving the ferry crossing, within less than a hundred miles, the sky turned dark. Chen Chao once again took out the lantern prepared by Xie Nandu for him in advance. He was not planning to rest on the spot; instead, he wanted to travel through the night. After reaching the Bitter Sea Realm, not sleeping for ten days or even half a month hardly affected him anymore.

However, after walking for a short while, Chen Chao felt some turbulence in the qi within his body, causing him to furrow his brows slightly. Actually, this was because he had already reached high-level Bitter Sea Realm, he was already not far away from the Great Beyond Realm. When he was in the Divine Capital, Chen Chao had considered whether to break through this realm before leaving. Breaking through in the Divine Capital had at least two advantages. Firstly, after breaking through, going to the Sword Qi Mountain would be more assured. Secondly, in the Divine Capital, there would definitely be a good place for the breakthrough where he would not be disturbed. However, after some thought, Chen Chao decided to temporarily suppress his realm. He felt that advancing too quickly might not be a good thing. It was better to consolidate his foundation, which would be more helpful for his future advancements.

After encountering the three peerless martial artists: the Lord Warden Commander, the Great General, and the Great Liang Emperor, Chen Chao's ambitions grew. It was not just about reaching the Nepenthe Realm anymore. As martial artists cultivate, if they reached a cultivation realm like the Great Liang Emperor, they could similarly instill fear in cultivators. Since there was the Great Liang Emperor as a precedent, why could there not be him, Chen Chao, who followed?

However, while some thoughts might be good, putting them into practice was not necessarily that easy. Along the way, with each surge of his qi, although Chen Chao managed to suppress it every time, it became more frequent as time went on. Even Chen Chao felt a bit of a headache at this moment.

Although he could leave it be and allow the qi to surge, then effortlessly step into the Great Beyond Realm, Chen Chao still wanted to see if he could hold on for a few more days. At least he wanted to hold on until he really could not anymore before choosing to break through.

After stopping in place for a moment and suppressing the turbulent qi in his body once again, Chen Chao breathed a sigh of relief. However, immediately afterward, demonic qi surged around him. A wild demon on the mountain had already targeted him.

Chen Chao reached his hand out to grip his saber hilt, narrowing his eyes as he waited for the demon to approach.

Most of the demons roaming the Great Liang Dynasty had relatively low cultivation realms. Unless one had extremely bad luck, it was rare to encounter a demon that even Chen Chao could not handle.

Perhaps because Chen Chao did not release his own aura, or perhaps because Chen Chao's current blood vitality was too exuberant and the temptation was too great, in any case, that demon hiding in the night did not choose to leave. Instead, it gradually approached Chen Chao under the cover of darkness. Chen Chao remained expressionless, waiting for the demon to come closer, preparing to finish it with a single blow.

After an instant, a blood claw suddenly pierced through the night and lunged at Chen Chao's face. Chen Chao did not dodge or evade. The broken saber at his waist was unsheathed in an instant, directly slashing towards the blood claw.

Chen Chao swung his saber extremely fast. Before the demon could react, his blade had already struck the blood claw, hacking it off effortlessly.

As the blood claw fell to the ground, a painful howl erupted from the darkness.

Chen Chao was expressionless, simply tossing the lantern in his hand forward to illuminate the path ahead.

A demon covered in blood-colored fur appeared in front of Chen Chao. However, it was now standing upright. It was likely not far away from being able to take human form. This also implied that this demon had likely consumed countless humans over the years. After all, demons within the Great Liang Dynasty rarely followed orthodox cultivation methods; most of them relied on eating humans to increase their cultivation realms. The simplest way for them to advance was to keep feeding on humans.

Chen Chao's figure followed the lantern as he swung his saber once again, the saber light instantly illuminating the scene several dozen feet ahead of him.

The demon's eyes widened in extreme fear. There was nothing but terror in its eyes. It had initially thought it had encountered prey with exuberant blood vitality to feast upon, but it had not expected the other party to be so powerful. It seemed that the opponent was likely a martial artist with an extremely high cultivation realm.

"Spare me, Immortal Master!"

At this critical moment, the demon suddenly opened its mouth to beg for mercy. It had already attained a human form and could speak human language. It was not far from completely transforming into a human. If it died here, all the years of painstaking cultivation would have been in vain.

Chen Chao continued to swing his saber without stopping, not offering any response. Whether it was because the demon intended to attack him, or because he was a military official of the Great Liang Dynasty, or because this blood demon had likely devoured numerous civilians from the Great Liang Dynasty before encountering him, there was no reason to spare it.

In the end, Chen Chao swung his saber down, directly cutting off this demon's head.

However, as the demon's head fell, Chen Chao swung his saber again, cutting open the severed head, and the demon bead inside fell out.

Chen Chao reached out and grabbed the demon bead.

A hand covered in demon blood.

Killing demons and retrieving demon beads was something Chen Chao had done countless times. Although it had been a long time since he last did it, he still did not feel unfamiliar with it. His movements flowed smoothly, like clouds and flowing water; extremely natural and smooth.

However, the moment he grabbed the demon bead, Chen Chao suddenly felt something was amiss. Reacting swiftly, he almost instantly opened his hand and threw the demon bead away.

But even so, he suddenly felt his vision darken. In a daze, he seemingly saw a little girl holding a sugar figurine standing in front of him, smiling at him. Chen Chao almost stumbled to the ground, but after staggering, he leaned against an old tree. Chen Chao felt chest tightness, shortness of breath, and weakness. He eventually sat down heavily, but the figure of the little girl did not dissipate. She stood in front of the lantern, looking at him just like that.

The qi inside Chen Chao's body began to surge wildly at this moment. The qi that had just been suppressed began to rampage uncontrollably inside him again for some unknown reason. Chen Chao's mind was scattered, unable to concentrate. All he could see was the figure of the little girl.

Looking at him from over there.

Chen Chao's head throbbed painfully, as if something was growing inside his brain, about to burst it open completely.

Furrowing his brows, Chen Chao gritted his teeth, not letting out a single sound.

The qi inside his body began to roam rampantly. Beads of blood even started to seep from his skin.

But Chen Chao paid no heed to the pain in his body. After all, he had endured longer than ordinary martial artists during every medicinal bath to temper his body. However, the pain in his head left him powerless to resist.

After an unknown period of time, in a daze, Chen Chao suddenly heard a voice echoing in his heart. It was very soft, but it did indeed sound out.

"Can you really do nothing for her?"

The voice was light, like the surface of a lake, rippling gently.