Leaving aside the matter of a certain Cardinal of the Sky Demon Cult waiting for the Sentinels, Holy Children, Elders, Grands, and Heavenly Champions, Duan Tianhe had just finished a video call with Deputy Zhou that lasted an hour and twenty-eight minutes in the chief's office of Lingzhou City's MAD.
After hanging up, Duan Tianhe chuckled bitterly and rubbed his temples.
Honestly …
His head hurt!
Given the current situation, all he could do as the chief of the Lingzhou City MAD was logistics and relaying information … there was no helping it since he was too weak.
How long had it been?
A month?
How many people had died in his domain in a month or so?
Leaving aside those below rank-seven, eleven of the Sky Demon Cult's Heavenly Generals had died. Including the one killed by the Daemon Panther at Mount Helan, there were twelve.
Ten Celestial Dippers had died!
Of the nine Sky Demon Cult Elders, the Senior Elder, Third Elder, Fourth Elder, and Sixth Elder had all died at Jiang He's hands, which meant that half of them were gone.
One of the two Sentinels of the Sky Demon Cult had fallen as well!
Moreover, it had only been a little over a month since he reached rank-seven, was it not? Even the weakest of the dead, the Tranquil Heavenly General would not lose out to him …
Nonetheless, Duan Tianhe did not report what happened tonight through normal channels. He felt that it was necessary to keep it a secret, since divine-tier elites of the Sky Demon Cult might come for him tomorrow morning if the 'spies' intercepted such shocking news and it reached the ears of the Sky Demon Cult's leaders.
He would report it in secret and contact Zhou Yu directly. Even if the Sky Demon Cult knew that a group of elites had fallen at Lingzhou City, they would not act recklessly without understanding the situation.
Drumming his fingers on his desk, Duan Tianhe had his subordinates cook him instant noodles with ham, and slowly relaxed.
Zhou Yu had made his stand clear.
On Lingzhou City's side, aside from Ji Dongxu who stood guard on the surface, a divine-tier elite would be dispatched in secret to protect Jiang He and Lingzhou City.
"With a divine-tier elite watching over us, we at least don't have to fear the Sky Demon Cult's elites."
Duan Tianhe muttered, and could not help chuckling.
Heavenly Demon Cult?
The Sky Demon Cult was founded at the beginning of the Revival of Qi, and over the last ten years, they had been causing trouble all over the world. A few years ago, the elites of various nations had come to an agreement to cull the cultists for a period of time, but the results were not as great as Jiang He's!
"I wonder how the Sky Demon Cult would react when they learn about this."
…
Late at night.
At the village entrance.
After waiting for three to four hours, the black-robed Cardinal of the Sky Demon Cult slowly scowled.
Whipping out his phone, he called the Sentinel of the Right, the Senior Elder, the Fourth Elder, and the Flowing Cloud Holy Child …
Unfortunately, no one picked up the call.
Something had happened!
In such a moment, even if the black-robed Cardinal of the Sky Demon Cult had a million doubts, he had to admit that something might have happened to them.
"What's going on?"
"The Sentinel of the Right, the Great Elder, the Fourth Elder, the Flowing Cloud Holy Son, the six Venerables, and the six Heavenly Generals of Earthly Wrath. With such a force, where in the world can't they go as long as they're in the Divinity realm? Why would they fall in a small Lingzhou City? "
"I don't think there are any elites in Lingzhou City, right?"
So be it if the Grands and Heavenly Generals died, and even the Fourth Elder was nothing.
Even so, the Holy Faith had paid a great price to nurture each of the Holy Children. A rank-eight martial artist in his twenties …
That was already very powerful!
Most importantly, the Sentinel of the Right and the Senior Elder …
"The Sentinel of the Right is rank-nine in the Boundary of Wills, and he only needs one more step to enter the Holy Lake, convert his body and ascend to divine-tier. The Senior Elder is not far from that level either."
The black-robed Cardinal was a little frightened.
Those were the elites of the Holy Faith, and the Saint would be furious if something happened to them, and might even take it out on the Cardinal.
He took to the air and flew toward Lingzhou City, killing intent surging from his body as he was intent on finding out what was going on. Even so, he suddenly sensed something before he could fly twenty-five kilometers, and promptly withdrew his aura, diving into a village below to hide.
Whoosh!
A blade radiance streaked through the dark horizon, streaking toward him.
It was not actually a blade radiance, though.
Still, the blade will of the person flying in the air was so overwhelming that it gave off an illusion.
It was a middle-aged man with a buzz cut.
He was only around 1.7 meters tall, but he gave off the impression of being very muscular. His eyes scanned the land below, and he frowned, before suddenly waving his hand. A war blade appeared in his palm, and he swung it downwards.
Whoosh!
A massive slash slashed down, and with a resounding boom, the village below was split apart by that one slash. There was no telling how many houses were cut apart, and as the Blade Qi engulfed it, many houses collapsed with a resounding crash.
The middle-aged man landed from the night sky, and with a flick of his sleeve, the dust kicked up by the collapsing houses was dispersed.
He searched within the ruined village, and finally stopped in front of a puddle of blood.
After staring at it for several seconds, the middle-aged man could not help laughing. "From this day forth, I shall stand guard over Lingzhou, and I shall cut down any evil that dares to cause trouble here!"
He took to the air and disappeared into the night.
It was a long while after the middle-aged man was gone that the black-robed Cardinal of the Sky Demon Cult crawled out from beneath the ruined village. His black robes had been shredded by the Blade Qi, revealing a bizarre face. His eyes were eerie as he spoke hoarsely, "Three Blades Lin …"
"Wasn't that guy standing guard over Mount Kunlun? Why would he come to Lingzhou City? "
There was a look of wariness in the black-robed Cardinal's eyes as he stared at the direction where Three Blades Lin had disappeared, and he turned, giving up on heading to Lingzhou City.
… …
Jiang He was not aware of such things.
It was two in the morning, but Jiang He was not asleep.
Having just finished bathing, he had changed into his silk pajamas and was leaning on his soft Simmons bed, surfing the web on his laptop.
After browsing through the Warrior Home forums for a while, Jiang He posted a post asking for immortal arts … now that the open beta testing was over, it was officially open to the public.
Any martial artist or Awakened who had passed the Martial Arts Department (MAD) assessment could use their personal information and 'Martial Artist Identification Number' to log into Warrior Home, which was why the number of posts and registrations instantly increased.
Some had even calculated that there were more than five hundred thousand registrations on Warrior Home. Including some unregistered martial artists and Awakened, the total number of martial artists and Awakened in the Hua Nation was over seven hundred thousand.
This number might sound like a lot, but in reality, it was equivalent to a population of more than a billion in Sino Nation. The ratio was about 2000: 1. Among these people, more than half of them were low-ranked martial artists and low-level Extraordinary Awakened.
"Now that martial arts are becoming common, even educational institutions are undergoing major reforms. There might be a nine-year compulsory martial arts education in the future, and the number of martial artists would definitely increase as time passes."
Turning off his computer, Jiang He mused to himself, "The Murong clan might have some fragments of immortal arts, but the other clans might have them too … or even among the commoners. Maybe I could put it up in another newspaper or make some news …"
Casting a wide net to catch a big fish.
Still, what Jiang He looked forward to the most was the Five Holy Grounds of Martial Arts.
The Five Holy Grounds had a long history and profound foundations, and it was highly likely that they would have immortal arts.
Therefore, Jiang He could not wait to visit the Five Holy Grounds.
"The Tantra Secret Realm opens on the seventh of October … we would reach there on the sixth, wouldn't we?"
"It's already the second of October … no, it's already midnight, so it should be the third."
Three more days and he would be able to verify his theory.
Thinking about it …
He was a little excited.
"I'll farm hard from tomorrow onwards, and try to improve my ability by up to five times before I reach Tantra. I would have more confidence when I speak to the elites of Tantra then."
The sleepiness that he had brewed just now was actually … gone?
"I didn't sleep well yesterday, but I'm not sleepy at all today."
Jiang He was rather surprised.
He remembered that it was written in many novels that sleep would become dispensable as one's ability improved, and many people would be fine even if they did not sleep for years …
His scalp went numb!
Jiang He felt a little terrified.
Could the price of becoming a champion be a severe lack of sleep?
Gasp!
That was just too frightening!
"Whatever, I'm not going to sleep. I'll come up with a divine sleep technique or the Dream Heart Sutra tomorrow to help me sleep, or plant some sleeping pills to ensure sleep quality."
Jiang He flipped to his feet.
Since he could not sleep, he would not sleep.
With a wave of his hand, he took out two tufts of Sword Will Barrenwort.
Right now, Jiang He had four tufts of Sword Will Barrenwort. He had used one of them once at Jiangnan, and much of the sword will inside had been depleted, while the other one was grown from Sixth Elder's grave.
"Half of the sword will is depleted, and it would be an inferior seed if I keep planting it. I might as well just use it for cultivation."
"As for the grass on Sixth Elder's grave … I can't keep planting it since it's already planted. The night is long, and I can't sleep, so I'll use it to cultivate sword will to kill time."
Ooom!
With a thought, his spirit engulfed one tuft of Sword Will Barrenwort.
Soon enough, Jiang He could feel the pure sword will contained within the Sword Will Barrenwort.
The sword will kept clashing against his will, honing his own sword will … Jiang He could feel that his sword will was becoming clearer and sharper, and even his spirit was slowly improving under the honing.
Snikt!
Jiang He's sword will turned into a small sword and tore apart the sword will contained within the Sword Will Barrenwort. Soon, the entire tuft of Sword Will Barrenwort rapidly withered, meaning that the sword will contained within was completely depleted.
Opening his eyes, Jiang He extended his senses.
"If the Boundary of Wills is divided into ten parts, I've grasped around thirty percent of thunder will. As for sword will …"
"Around twenty percent."
"Not bad, not bad. Keep learning!"
A long time later.
Snikt!
The second tuft of Sword Will Barrenwort shattered.
Jiang He frowned and muttered, "I've grasped around thirty percent of sword will …"
"The first Nine-leaf Sword Will Herb allowed me to comprehend sword intent, and my comprehension of sword intent reached 20%. But the second one only increased my sword intent by 10%. The effect is greatly reduced!"
Jiang He felt a little helpless.
Such was cultivation.
The further one progressed, the harder it got.
He had sacrificed a night of sleep in exchange for a little bit of insignificant progress in his sword intent …
"Sigh, it's so hard for me."
(PS: The first chapter is out today. I'll try to get two more chapters tonight.)
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