Chapter 92 – Azure Cloud Sect: One Azure, One Cloud—One Sect, Two Gates

Bang!

Lu Chen stomped hard, shattering the ground beneath his feet as he instantly closed in on the nearest Black Iron Cauldron Man, throwing a powerful punch.

The vibrating Spiritual Power combined with the terrifying force of the Mountain-Crushing Fist seemed capable of shattering everything.

This single punch from Lu Chen completely pulverized the Black Iron Cauldron Man before him.

Black metal fragments intertwined with twisted flesh scattered everywhere.

Crimson blood carrying a foul, rotting stench splattered in all directions.

[You have slain a Black Iron Cauldron Man (Qi Condensation Stage Three). Gained 30 EXP, Black Iron Ore*1…]

Lu Chen didn’t even glance at the notifications flashing across his panel.

Without pause, he charged toward another Black Iron Cauldron Man.

No flashy movements, no carefully devised strategies.

Lu Chen simply threw another punch, and the Black Iron Cauldron Man shattered on the spot, utterly destroyed.

Bang! Bang! Bang!…

Within the mine, Lu Chen’s figure continuously darted about. Each punch represented another Black Iron Cauldron Man meeting its end.

In just a few breaths’ time, more than half of the dozen or so Black Iron Cauldron Men in the mine had been shattered by Lu Chen.

Just as Lu Chen was wreaking havoc, several sharp whistling sounds suddenly came from behind him.

Although his cultivation hadn’t reached the Foundation Establishment Stage yet, preventing him from developing spiritual sense perception,

relying on the omnidirectional, dead-angle vision provided by his breakthrough Azure Lotus Eyes, Lu Chen immediately spotted the ambush from behind.

He saw five Bronze Cauldron Men in the mine maintaining throwing postures.

Five bronze spears were flying toward him at astonishing speeds, covering most of the area around him and making evasion difficult.

Undoubtedly, these five spears were their doing.

Facing this spear ambush, Lu Chen unusually chose not to dodge. Instead, he stood his ground, forcefully clapping his fists together before his chest.

Divine Ability… Body-Forging Furnace!

As a surge of immense Qi and blood erupted, Lu Chen’s body became enveloped by a phantom image of a black Qi Blood Pill furnace.

The next moment, the five sharp bronze spears struck Lu Chen’s physical body.

Clang! Clang! Clang!…

With five clear metallic rings, the bronze spears that hit Lu Chen’s body snapped in half on the spot.

It was as if they hadn’t struck flesh and blood at all, but rather an indestructible steel furnace.

Lu Chen looked down at the spots where the bronze spears had struck him.

He found that aside from minor tears in his clothing, his skin only showed slight scratches.

With injuries this minor, if he didn’t hurry to a clinic immediately… the wounds would heal on their own!

Through this experiment, Lu Chen gained a rough understanding of his current Body-Forging Furnace’s defensive capabilities.

Theoretically, those below Qi Training Stage Six couldn’t even injure him.

Only those at Qi Training Stage Six or above could harm him.

And this was just the Proficient level of Body-Forging Furnace.

If he could cultivate this skill to the breakthrough level,

Lu Chen speculated that even ordinary Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators would find it difficult to break through his ‘Furnace Body.’

The main drawback was that while maintaining the Furnace Body, he couldn’t move and consumed massive amounts of Qi and blood.Otherwise, the actual effect of this divine ability would be far too terrifying.

After testing the power of ‘Vibration Technique’ combined with ‘Mountain-Crushing Fist’ and the defensive effect of the Body-Forging Furnace divine ability in sequence, Lu Chen no longer intended to continue playing with these Cauldron Men.

Although he had ample time, it wasn’t something to be wasted casually!

Ding!

With a mere gesture from Lu Chen, the black ring on his right hand instantly transformed into a pitch-black spirit sword that fell into his hand.

He then held the Ink Dragon Sword horizontally before his brow.

In the next moment, a terrifying sword intent… swept across the entire area.

Dragon Transformation Sword Intent, accumulating water… to form an abyss.

The Cauldron Men within twenty meters of Lu Chen suddenly felt as if they had fallen into an abyss, their faces filled with terror as they looked in his direction.

A massive flood dragon phantom had appeared behind Lu Chen at some unknown time, gazing coldly at them from within the endless abyss as if looking at a group of ants.

Facing such a monster, the Cauldron Men couldn’t even think of resisting – they didn’t dare to move at all.

Suppression – this was the absolute aura suppression Lu Chen exerted upon them by unleashing his sword intent!

After what seemed like an eternity, under the fearful and desperate gazes of all the Cauldron Men, the Ink Dragon Sword in Lu Chen’s hand finally descended slowly.

“Slay.”

As that icy word left Lu Chen’s lips.

An ethereal dragon claw descended from the sky, slowly falling upon the numerous Cauldron Men.

Though this claw appeared ordinary, it crushed all the Cauldron Men to death on the spot!

Boom!

When the dust settled, Lu Chen calmly sheathed the Ink Dragon Sword as he looked at the cleared mine.

The power of Dragon Transformation Sword Intent was something even the powerful Gold-Devouring Ant-Man could hardly withstand, let alone these mere Qi Condensation Stage Cauldron Men evil spirits before him?

[You have slain a Black Iron Cauldron Man (Qi Condensation Stage Three), gained 30 experience points, Black Iron Ore1…]

[You have slain a Bronze Cauldron Man (Qi Training Stage Six), gained 60 experience points, Bronze Spirit Ore1, Soul Crystal Shard (White)*1…]

Dense streams of panel information once again flashed before Lu Chen’s eyes, taking quite some time before finally stopping completely.

Seeing the Bronze Spirit Ore dropped by the Bronze Cauldron Man, Lu Chen immediately retrieved it without hesitation and crushed it with a single palm.

[Body-Forging Art (Furnace Form): Proficient 6/2000]

Looking at the finally increasing experience for his Body-Forging Art skill, Lu Chen nodded in satisfaction.

He then scanned his surroundings, searching for the Bronze Spirit Ore hidden within the ore vein.

Before long, he had located all positions of these Bronze Spirit Ores and began repeating the operations he had performed earlier in the mine tunnel.

Using Mountain-Crushing Fist to excavate Bronze Spirit Ore, then absorbing the metal energy within the Bronze Spirit Ore to cultivate the Divine Power: Body-Forging, repeating this process…

Ten days later in the game.

“Mountain-Crushing Fist and Body-Forging Art have reached another bottleneck. It’s about time I moved to the next location…”

[Body-Forging Art (Furnace Form): Mastery 6/4000]

[Effect: Can devour metal to temper the body, forming a refined steel physique. At Major Achievement, can forge a weapon body (Weapon Body Type: Furnace)]

[Special Effect·Furnace: Increases elixir absorption effect by fifty percent]

[Mountain-Crushing Fist: Mastery 1/6000]

[Effect: Its momentum like mountains, its fists like peaks, when the fist strikes… mountain ranges crumble!]

[Innate Divine Ability·Heretical Avatar: First Realm 21/30]

[Current Experience Points: 8325]In ten days, Lu Chen utilized vast amounts of bronze and iron ore to advance his Body-Forging Art to a new Realm.

During this process, he also incidentally mastered the Mountain-Crushing Fist to the proficient level.

Truthfully, this was only possible due to the unique nature of the Body-Forging Art and Mountain-Crushing Fist skills.

Had it been any other type of skill,

it would have been pure fantasy to achieve proficiency in such a short time.

After all, the Body-Forging Art only required devouring special ores, and the mine was overflowing with them, enabling such rapid progress.

Although Mountain-Crushing Fist was a fist technique, it shared many similarities with swordsmanship.

Thus, with his Dao-Grade swordsmanship as a foundation, Lu Chen found training the fist technique twice as effective.

Three days to become adept, ten days to reach proficiency.

Though specific to these skills, Lu Chen had unknowingly undergone a remarkable transformation, his talent far surpassing what it once was.

Inside the massive mine, Lu Chen first glanced at a distant, narrow, and deep mining tunnel before fixing his gaze on the mysterious black wall exposed after he shattered the mine wall, falling into deep thought.

Just as there had been instance bosses in the ‘Ancient Cultivator Tomb’ and ‘Ancient Sword Tomb,’

Lu Chen knew that the Pot-Lifting Brute instance must also have one.

Moreover, he speculated that this instance’s boss might far surpass previous ones like Ye Chenglin from Ten Thousand Talisman Peak and Fang Heng from Hidden Sword Peak.

Through his exploration, Lu Chen had gradually uncovered the mine’s true nature.

This was no ordinary mine—it was an immense Spiritual Vein!

And resting upon this Spiritual Vein was an enormous cauldron.

Lu Chen discovered this while mining bronze spiritual ore when he hit a black wall.

Not only could his Mountain-Crushing Fist not damage it, but even his enhanced Azure Lotus Eyes’ X-Ray Vision failed to penetrate the wall.

Driven by curiosity, Lu Chen stubbornly unleashed his Dragon Transformation Sword Intent, hoping to breach the wall.

The result shocked him.

His Sword Intent, which even the Gold-Devouring Ant-Man couldn’t withstand, couldn’t leave a scratch on the black wall.

This forced Lu Chen to question the wall’s origins.

In the following days, he wandered along the massive wall, using his Azure Lotus Eyes to observe its full form.

Soon, a terrifying idea began to form in his mind.

The black wall… didn’t seem natural!

In fact, it might not be a wall at all, but a slightly curved, colossal pillar!

With this inference, Lu Chen used his remarkable memory to compare the black pillar to the bodies of the Cauldron Men.

To his astonishment, the massive black pillar resembled nothing more than part of a giant cauldron’s leg!

Combining this with the immense Spiritual Vein beneath the mine and the black pillar extending down to it,

Lu Chen’s mind finally conjured an astonishing image:

Perhaps Kangding Peak wasn’t just about Body Cultivators training by carrying cauldrons.This also meant that the mountain peak itself… was an enormous cauldron!

And what supported this great cauldron was the massive Spiritual Vein beneath Kangding Peak!

Using the cauldron to suppress the Spiritual Vein, seizing the creation of heaven and earth.

Lu Chen dared not imagine what level of Divine Ability the founder of the Azure Cloud Sect must have possessed to achieve such terrifying power that could move mountains and fill seas.

Could a Transformation Soul Stage Cultivator truly accomplish such a feat?

Lu Chen seriously doubted this.

One must understand that Kangding Peak stood thousands of meters high, making it the second tallest peak in the Azure Cloud Sect after the primary peak, Azure Clouds.

Lu Chen could believe that a Transformation Soul Stage Cultivator could move a mountain hundreds of meters high.

But moving a mountain thousands of meters high? He… didn’t believe it.

It was after learning part of the truth about Kangding Peak that Lu Chen inexplicably recalled a long-standing secret rumor within the sect.

That the so-called Azure Cloud Sect never represented just a single sect, but should be understood by separating the characters ‘Azure’ and ‘Cloud’.

A Qing Sect, standing proudly among countless rivers and green mountains.

A Cloud Sect, seated high above in the Thirty-Three Heavens.

He initially thought this was just Azure Cloud Sect disciples boasting about their sect.

But now it appeared that the so-called Azure Cloud Sect… might truly be one sect with two mountain gates.

One in the heavens, one on earth.

Astonishing, utterly astonishing.

When this thought emerged in Lu Chen’s mind, he was frightened by his own realization.

Because this not only meant the Azure Cloud Sect was far more powerful than he had imagined.

But more importantly, even such a powerful sect eventually encountered a great calamity and disappeared in the long river of time.

This inevitably prompted a Soul-searching question from Lu Chen.

If this calamity could reach even the Thirty-Three Heavens, could his game avatar… truly remain unaffected?

After this thought emerged, Lu Chen felt as if a colossal wave was slowly approaching him.

No escape route, nowhere to hide.

To find a solution, Lu Chen had been thinking deep inside the mine for an entire day…

In the mine, Lu Chen subconsciously bit his fingernail, his mind racing rapidly.

This was a habit he had carried over from his previous life, something he only did unconsciously when facing extremely difficult problems.

After who knows how long, the deep furrow in Lu Chen’s brow gradually smoothed out.

He murmured to himself: “Any cataclysmic change in the world cannot appear instantly; there must be warning signs.”

“And given the Azure Cloud Sect’s capabilities in the game, if they had detected such signs, they wouldn’t be unprepared at this point.”

“Therefore, this should indicate that the game era I’m in is likely just before that great calamity.”

“While the latest generation disciple I encountered in the instance was indeed only the 75th generation, this doesn’t mean the Azure Cloud Sect only reached the 75th generation before its destruction.”

“After all, once a calamity strikes, the sect definitely couldn’t bury every disciple’s remains in the sect cemetery.”

“So under ideal circumstances, I should have at least a thousand years of development time left in the game.”

“With a thousand years, progressing at my current rate, even if I cannot achieve Immortal Ascension, I should be close.”

“A thousand years, a thousand years…”

Lu Chen repeated these words while lowering his right hand.

Then he raised his head, his gaze firm as he looked toward the passage leading deeper into the mine not far away.”The Great Dao is fifty, but the Heavenly Dao derives forty-nine, with humanity escaping as the one. I… should still have a sliver of hope.”

“Because as long as my in-game self remains unharmed, my real-world self won’t be affected.”

“My in-game self… needs to change strategies.”

“Foundation Establishment—once I complete the Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment and confirm I have the ability to protect myself from Golden Core Stage cultivators, I must venture outside the Azure Cloud Sect more often. This way, I can gain experience faster while searching for clues about the world-ending calamity.”

“Only by knowing enough can I better prepare and survive that catastrophe…”

After clarifying these thoughts, Lu Chen took a deep breath and stopped pondering the question that chilled him to the bone.

A thousand years is long, yet a thousand years is short.

Because ten years in the game equals one year in reality.

Though his in-game self has a thousand years, converted to reality, it’s merely a hundred years.

While his real-world self faces no immediate danger, if his in-game self meets misfortune, his real-world self won’t fare well either.

So the time truly left for him… isn’t much.

“Regardless, within one real year—ten game years—I must complete the Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment. I can’t delay any longer…”

“Time… waits for no one.”

Lu Chen never expected that what started as a simple trip to an instance for some experience would lead him to stumble upon such a shocking secret.

His mood shifted from relaxed to unbearably heavy.

Sometimes, knowing too much really isn’t a good thing…

After setting aside those chaotic thoughts, Lu Chen headed straight for the depths of the instance.

The secrets of Azure Clouds, the heaven-earth calamity—all were too distant for him now.

He had to focus on the present and enhance his strength as much as possible.

And what he needed most right now was undoubtedly to clear the current instance.

Deep in the mine, after emerging from the narrow tunnel, Lu Chen finally arrived at a vast underground space.

There, an enormous iron chain was deeply embedded in the ceiling, seemingly connected to something.

Surrounding the chain, numerous cauldrons of various types were arranged in a special formation.

The outermost layer consisted of the most numerous Black Iron Cauldrons, roughly a thousand in count.

Next were the Bronze Cauldrons, numbering about a hundred.

Then came the Mithril Cauldrons, several dozen in number.

At the very center stood a single Golden Cauldron.

However, the Golden Cauldron was now tilted more than halfway, as if on the verge of toppling.

Beside it, a gaunt, emaciated corpse was bearing the Golden Cauldron, struggling to maintain that delicate balance.

Lu Chen observed the corpse and keenly noticed something amiss.

The corpse’s hands were mostly eroded by the falling Golden Cauldron, and its knees, pressed against the ground, had worn away large patches of flesh, exposing bare bone.

Though Lu Chen didn’t know how long the corpse had maintained this bearing cauldron posture, he knew it… was nearing its limit.

Because the Golden Cauldron had already accumulated a mass of twisted flesh, and numerous tumors had grown around its body.

It looked ready to transform into a Cauldron Man at any moment.

Black Iron Cauldron Men are at Qi Condensation Stage Three, while Bronze Cauldron Men are at Qi Training Stage Six.Though Lu Chen didn’t know why he hadn’t encountered any Mithril Cauldron Men, he assumed they were either at the ninth level of Qi Condensation Stage or Foundation Establishment Stage.

As for this Golden Cauldron, if it were to transform into a Cauldron Man, Lu Chen conservatively estimated it would at the very least reach Foundation Establishment Stage, and possibly… even attain strength comparable to Golden Core.

Thinking this, Lu Chen immediately drew the Ink Dragon Sword and began moving toward the Golden Cauldron.

If he allowed this Golden Cauldron to complete its transformation into a Cauldron Man, even if he employed the Heretical Sword, he might find it difficult to inflict the slightest damage upon it.

Such was the might of Golden Core.

As Lu Chen approached the Mithril Cauldron area, the desiccated corpse that had remained still… slowly spoke.

“Retreat… leave…”

These words seemed to cost the desiccated corpse considerable effort, causing its body to visibly sink further under the Golden Cauldron’s weight. The distorted flesh within the Golden Cauldron… increased noticeably, accelerating the transformation into a Cauldron Man.

Lu Chen silently observed the desiccated corpse, and information about it immediately appeared before his eyes.

[Pang Xiao (Golden Cauldron Man/Foundation Establishment Stage Corpse)]

[Cultivation: Foundation Establishment Stage Ninth Level]

[Description: Direct Lineage Disciple of Kangding Peak, proficient in physical techniques and partial Mountain Moving Art, extremely dangerous]

(End of chapter)