Martial Arts: Starting with Upgrading the Dilapidated Temple

Chapter 92 The Shocking Change at Spirit Lake

The dense forest on the north side of the Hidden Cloud Realm.

Several corpses dressed in pale white robes lay haphazardly in the pile of fallen leaves.

Luo Mingcheng squatted on the ground, pinched a flying needle with a faint blue light between two fingers, and then removed the sword wound on the neck of another corpse.

"Young Sect Master, look at this." Luo Tianheng hunched over and stepped forward, his face full of anger. "These women from the Hundred Flowers Sect and the sword cultivators from the Auspicious Cloud Sect are truly ungrateful. For a few worthless herbs, they even dare to use dirty tricks against people from our Tianheng Sect. A lower sect is a lower sect; they don't understand any rules at all."

Luo Mingcheng ignored him, his fingers tracing down the sword mark on the deceased's neck and pressing it against the sunken chest.

Click.

With a little force, the deceased's sternum caved in like mud, and a faint grinding sound came from inside.

Luo Tianheng continued to ramble on from the side: "Young Sect Master, in my opinion, once we leave the secret realm, we must have the Sect Master give these two sects a good talking-to and make them return all the spiritual herbs they gathered as an apology—"

Snapped!

A sharp, crisp slap echoed through the woods.

Luo Tianheng crashed heavily into the tree trunk behind him.

Two bloody back molars flew out, mixed with saliva.

The Tianheng Sect disciples around them were so frightened that they didn't dare to breathe.

"Fool. You've been stuck in Tianqing's pigsty for sixty years, have your brain been eaten by pigs?" Luo Mingcheng stood up, took out a silk handkerchief to wipe his hands, and threw it on the corpse with disgust. "Open your dog eyes and see clearly. These sword wounds and poison needles were all added after death to cover up the truth."

Luo Tianheng, clutching his swollen cheek, scrambled back to Luo Mingcheng's feet, ignoring the blood at the corner of his mouth. "Young Sect Master—this injury wasn't inflicted by them?"

"A bunch of women from the Hundred Flowers Sect who are used to using magical weapons, can shatter a person's heart and sternum into powder with a single punch? And those useless people from the Auspicious Cloud Sect who practice soft swords, do they have this kind of unreasonable strength?" Luo Mingcheng kicked Luo Tianheng in the shoulder, knocking him over again. "This is clearly pure brute force! It's the work of those peasants from your Tianqing Continent who practice qi and blood cultivation!"

Luo Tianheng collapsed to the ground, his eyes wide with disbelief. "Impossible! All the blood packs that came in from the Sea King's Tomb are here—some are dead, some have been captured. How could there be any that escaped?"

"The facts are right in front of you, and you still dare to talk back!" Luo Mingcheng's eyes were so sinister they were almost dripping with water. "He was able to kill my Tianheng Sect members silently, and he could also use deception to incite infighting among the six sects. This Tianqing rat is not only physically strong, but also extremely vicious."

With a flick of his wrist, several palm-sized, jet-black array flags appeared in his palm.

The flag was embroidered with intricate runes in gold thread, and as soon as it was taken out, the surrounding spiritual energy seemed to stagnate.

Luo Tianheng gasped upon recognizing the array flags. "The Heaven-Locking Array Flags? The sect leader brought you these?"

"The rules of this secret realm are suppressing everyone's strength, limiting us to the Yi Jin Realm. This rat is probably a body cultivator at the Inner Strength Realm or even the Tong Qi Realm, relying on his strong physique to play tricks." Luo Mingcheng manipulated the array plate in his hand. "Pass down the order: Tianheng Sect disciples, immediately gather your forces. Lock down this area!"

Luo Mingcheng gritted his teeth, his refined and scholarly demeanor completely gone. "You destroyed the White Bone Altar and still dare to kill people from my Tianheng Sect."

Once I've dragged this rat out, I'm going to personally rip out his tendons, skin him, and use all his violent blood and energy to refine him into a human pill to make up for the deficiencies in the array plate!

"Report—"

A disciple of the Tianheng Sect scrambled into the dense forest and knelt down with a thud.

"Young Sect Master! Something's happened at Spirit Lake!"

Luo Mingcheng, clutching the battle flag, said with a grim expression, "What's the panic? Is the sky falling?"

"Spiritual energy! A tremendous surge of spiritual energy is rising into the sky! This disciple is panting heavily; it's a hundred times more concentrated than the five-hundred-year-old spiritual herb we discovered before! This is definitely a rare treasure descended upon the world!"

Luo Mingcheng paused, the sinister look in his eyes instantly replaced by greed.

"A rare treasure?" Luo Mingcheng put away the array flags and sneered, "This Cloud Hidden Realm is our Tianheng Sect's backyard. What kind of rat, Tianqing, dares to come in? I'll take the treasure first, then settle accounts with him. Send the order down to gather all the forces from the six sects and rush to Spirit Lake immediately!"

Luo Tianheng quickly scrambled to his feet, ignoring the slap mark on his face, and said with a beaming smile, "Young Sect Master, you are blessed with great fortune! This kind of opportunity must have been prepared for you!"

Luo Mingcheng glanced at him: "You old dog know how to talk. Come on, let's see what good stuff it is."

Above the Spirit Lake.

Xu Hao strode out of the main cabin and looked in the direction Chen Yuanzhi was pointing.

The once calm, mirror-like lake surface is now bubbling and churning violently.

"Boss, the thing underwater is really weird."

Chen Yuanzhi held several poison tubes in his hand, his face grim. "I just tried throwing a water-testing poison pellet down, but it didn't even make a sound."

Mud Monkey clung to the gunwale, peering down, his legs trembling: "Second Master, your poison might work on people, but if there's a thousand-year-old turtle down there, your dose wouldn't even be enough to fill its teeth."

Before the words were even finished, the center of the lake suddenly collapsed downwards, forming a huge black whirlpool.

The surrounding spiritual energy seemed to be drawn by some force, frantically converging towards the center of the vortex.

-

The Zhenyuan had just absorbed too much array energy, and the high-grade spiritual herbs emanating from the storage bags that Xu Hao was checking had clearly awakened the living ancestor at the bottom of the lake.

boom!

Water jets shot skyward, and sprays of water pelted the deck.

A colossal creature burst forth from the water.

The mud monkey plopped down in a puddle, its mask askew in fright: "My goodness, it really is a turtle!"

Luo Meng swallowed hard, gripping the steering wheel tightly: "This isn't a turtle, it's a mountain!"

What appeared before everyone was an ancient black tortoise.

Its size was even larger than the previously upside-down palace of bones.

The turtle's shell was covered with sharp bone spurs, each one gleaming with a cold, eerie blue light.

The Xuan Turtle opened its eyes, its two enormous pupils, like blood moons, locking onto the Zhenyuan ship on the water's surface.

A loud bang was heard in the air.

An indescribable, terrifying pressure descended with a thunderous roar, accompanied by the gaze of the Xuan Turtle.

It surpassed the Tongqiao Realm and possessed an aura comparable to the Golden Core Stage of the Chenhuang Continent and the Divine Transformation Realm of the Tianqing Continent!

A colossal wave surged up from the ground, directly lifting the massive Zhenyuan ship and sending it crashing heavily onto the shallow shore.

A painful creaking sound came from the bottom of the boat.

puff-

On the deck, Mud Monkey didn't even utter a sound before his knees buckled under the oppressive force, and he collapsed onto the wooden plank, coughing up a mouthful of blood.

Luo Meng, relying on his physique at the Yi Jin Jing level, stubbornly refused to kneel, but his bones were being crushed and creaking, and blood began to seep from his seven orifices.

"Boss—we can't hold on any longer." Luo Meng gritted his teeth and squeezed out a few words.

Chen Yuanzhi's face turned pale, and he quickly threw out more than a dozen specially made poison canisters.

Yellow-green toxic smoke exploded in mid-air, attempting to obstruct the Xuan Turtle's vision.

The black tortoise didn't even blink.

Before the poisonous smoke even got within ten feet of the Xuan Turtle, it was instantly blasted away by an invisible protective aura, leaving not a trace.

Xu Hao planted his feet firmly on the bow of the ship, his inner strength and blood surging wildly as he desperately resisted the suffocating pressure.

He looked at his subordinates who were coughing up blood from being crushed, then looked up at the two giant eyes that resembled blood moons, and gripped the Sea-Devouring Blade at his waist.

"Everyone back to the cabin! Lock the cabin doors! This is the Divine Transformation Realm!" Xu Hao roared, and the mud monkey scrambled into the lower deck, not forgetting to drag Luo Meng, who was bleeding from all seven orifices from the pressure.

Chen Yuanzhi's face turned ashen. He kicked the cabin door shut and then locked the bolt tightly behind him.

Xu Hao's feet were firmly planted on the tilted deck, and his inner strength and blood energy erupted without reservation.

His entire body resonated, producing a popping sound like exploding beans.

He gripped the hilt of the Devouring Sea Blade with his other hand, and the dark red blade was instantly covered with a layer of extremely cold and malevolent energy, freezing the surrounding air into black frost.

"Open it!"