Hall Master Zhao cut an unremarkable figure—plain-faced, white hair whipping in the wind. But his black robes shimmered with an extraordinary divine radiance, and behind him loomed a colossal black divine mountain, its boundless power pressing down on the world like the bars of a prison. That mountain was no mere backdrop. It was a Divine Weapon.
He unleashed his cultivation without restraint—peak ninth level of the Divine Core Realm. A terrifying ocean of True Yuan surged outward, black radiance bleeding into the sky in every direction, endless and overwhelming.
"Not much cultivation, but you sure know how to put on a show," Lu Chen scoffed, shaking his head. "Anyone who knows better can tell a Divine Core Realm expert just showed up. Anyone who doesn't would swear an Immortal King had descended."
Hall Master Zhao moved with frightening speed. In the span of a few breaths, he crossed dozens of miles and materialized not far from Lu Chen, close enough for his voice to land like a hammer blow.
"You dare act this brazenly before me, you fiend?!" His voice rang out like a struck bronze bell—deafening, oppressive, designed to rattle the bones.
Lu Chen didn't flinch.
"What's with the yelling?"
"You just want my Azure Dragon Spear, don't you?"
"Why slander me as a fiend? If you want it, come and take it."
He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, spear in hand, utterly unmoved. He had already made his decision: he would use this man to temper his Dragon Spear Art. The name of the technique was no accident—it truly had something to do with dragons. He'd stumbled across it by sheer luck when he first acquired it, a windfall he hadn't expected.
"Sharp-tongued, I'll give you that," Hall Master Zhao said, his tone dropping into a cold snort. "But I wonder how much real skill is hiding behind that mouth." He was coveting the peak-grade Divine Weapon, no question about it. He just had no intention of admitting it out loud. Treasure belonged to whoever was strong enough to take it—that was the way of this world.
"Suppress!"
With a single wave of his hand, the black divine mountain launched skyward. Divine might cascaded down from it like a waterfall as it came crashing toward Lu Chen.
So he's opening with a low-grade Divine Weapon against someone weaker than him. He must already be wary of the Azure Dragon Spear's power.
Lu Chen saw through it instantly. The black mountain was a low-grade Divine Weapon being driven with the force of a high-grade one—Zhao was overcharging it on purpose. The man was afraid of the spear.
Smart. Just not smart enough.
"Dragon Spear Art!"
Lu Chen vanished. True Yuan exploded outward as the Azure Dragon Spear screamed forward, carrying a killing aura that shook the air itself, aimed straight at the black mountain. He wasn't going all out—not yet. This was a test. A tempering. He was sharpening his technique, using Zhao's assault as a whetstone.
"Break!"
The spear became a dragon and shattered Hall Master Zhao's oppressive might like it was made of paper.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Azure Dragon Spear met black mountain in a thunderous exchange. Lu Chen hadn't unleashed the spear's full power—instead, he let the mountain's force crash into him again and again, meeting each blow with a thrust and absorbing the profound mysteries of the Dragon Spear Art through raw, repeated contact. With every strike, new insights flooded his mind.
This was his talent on full display: seven to eight times that of an average Heavenly-Grade genius. Every move he made felt like ten thousand. In what should have taken months, he compressed into moments—transforming from a novice into a grandmaster in the span of a single exchange. A terrifying metamorphosis.
"Suppress!" Hall Master Zhao kept hammering the black mountain forward, probing for an opening, hunting for a kill shot.
Zhao is at the peak of the ninth Divine Core Realm, and his cultivation technique is a Perfection-stage Mysterious-grade peak. My cultivation is lower—but the quality of my True Yuan isn't. I've reached Small Success with the Golden Body Art, a Mid-grade Earth technique. That matters.
In raw True Yuan quality, Lu Chen wasn't far behind Zhao. In Divine Weapons, Zhao couldn't even compare. What Zhao had in his corner was the ability to weaponize the black mountain, multiplying its output to levels that should have overwhelmed any peer.
Should have.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Azure Dragon Spear became a shadowy dragon, weaving between the mountain's strikes from every angle, never taking a blow head-on, always threading the needle. The roars of each collision shook the sky—louder than thunder, heavier than storms. To the outer disciples watching from below, it looked like a battle between gods. Most of the outer elders had gone pale. Their mouths were open. Their expressions said it all: Lu Chen wasn't just holding his own against a peak Divine Core Realm expert.
He was suppressing him.
Wang Wuji and the other six felt a chill crawl up their spines at the same moment. If this version of Lu Chen had been standing across from them earlier... they wouldn't have just lost. They might not have made it out alive.
"This brat is far more troublesome than I thought!" Hall Master Zhao's expression darkened. He had walked in expecting a fourth-level Divine Core Realm cultivator—someone who might have a powerful weapon but shouldn't have been capable of this. He had gravely miscalculated.
"Suppress!"
"Suppress!"
"Suppress!"
He threw True Yuan into the black mountain without holding back, unleashing a barrage of killing moves in rapid succession. But Lu Chen countered each one, his movements growing smoother with every exchange, the hesitation bleeding out of each thrust until there was nothing left but instinct.
In a matter of moments, he reached the Entry stage of the Dragon Spear Art.
This was an Earth-grade peak technique—a full tier above his cultivation method. It had five stages:
Twin Dragon Kill
Nine Dragon Kill
Hundred Dragon Kill
Thousand Dragon Kill
Myriad Dragon Kill
He had just cracked the first one open.
Entry is easy. Small Success is going to hurt.
Lu Chen frowned slightly. With his Heavenly-Grade talent, it had taken him a full day and night to reach Small Success with the Golden Body Art. For a technique a full tier higher, that timeline would stretch to at least two days. The thought left him quietly dissatisfied with his own pace. Once the Azure Sky Sect situation was cleaned up, he'd have to venture into the Forbidden Zone of Longevity Mountain. A cultivation-enhancing treasure would go a long way right about now. And maybe—just maybe—he'd run into Shen Qing while he was in there.
If anyone could hear his inner monologue, they'd probably spit blood on the spot. Being dissatisfied with a Heavenly-Grade talent that ran seven to eight times stronger than average? Heavenly-Grade itself was already vanishingly rare. A multiplier like his was practically unheard of.
"You're actually using me to temper your martial skill?!!"
Hall Master Zhao's voice cracked with outrage. After everything—after all the collisions and counters—the truth had finally clicked into place. Lu Chen hadn't been fighting him. He had been training on him. Using a peak ninth-level Divine Core Realm expert as a living practice dummy.
He had been played.
The humiliation sent rage boiling through every vein.
"Figured it out?" Lu Chen's voice was almost bored. "Too late. I've already mastered it." A beat. "Now let's find out how powerful it really is."
"Azure Dragon Spear Art, First Stage—Twin Dragon Kill!"