On the Path to the Great Dao

Under the terrifying pressure, Marshal Xi involuntarily manifested his Realm of Emptiness!

His Realm of Emptiness hung in the air, his Primordial Spirit seated within it. Around him, the sun and moon alternated, the starry river changed as swiftly as swirling dust, gathering and dispersing, giving one the feeling that seas could turn to mulberry fields, time could easily pass, yet he remained eternal and unchanging.

Two Realms of Emptiness hung in the sky, four suns and moons shining upon each other, emanating a terrifying sense of oppression.

Cold sweat broke out on Marshal Xi's forehead.

Young.

That was his first thought.

This iron plate was too young.

He looked to be only around forty years old, right in his prime, vigorous in blood and energy, with a powerful physical body. Beating up elderly people of the same realm must be effortless for him, as easy as blowing away dust!

Was this iron plate at the Return to Emptiness realm or the Great Ascension Realm?

The fishing float on the river moved slightly; a fish had taken the bait.

But Marshal Xi dared not lift the rod.

He didn't even dare move a muscle.

Before such a rarely-seen grandmaster, the slightest unusual movement from him would likely reveal a flaw and get him personally executed!

When fishing, he always disliked interfering with the fish biting the hook, beautifully calling it going with the flow, letting the willing take the bait. With his abilities, if he cast an empty hook and willed it, he could probably hook every fish in the entire river.

But what fun would that be?

Real fishing relied on luck, watching the fish test the bait, watching the fish bite, only then did one feel the joy of a harvest.

But now, Marshal Xi wished he could curse this damn fish. Why did it have to bite the hook right now?

What he wanted to curse even more were those five survivors from the Mountain-Moving Clan.

For the Mountain-Moving Clan, the five survivors contacting the Fu Zheng Pavilion was a major event, but for him, it was not. However, he was nearby anyway, and idleness was idleness, so he decided to come see how the other members of the Fu Zheng Pavilion would deal with Chen Shi, offering a little guidance, promoting the younger generation.

Yet he never expected that after arriving here, he would encounter such a formidable opponent!

How old was he?

Marshal Xi's temple twitched. Age was extremely important because it was key to whether one could cultivate to the Great Ascension Realm.

For example, many people speculated he had already cultivated to the Great Ascension Realm, but Marshal Xi knew he was still very far from it.

The Great Ascension Realm was extremely peculiar; one either broke through within ten years of entering the Return to Emptiness realm, cultivating to the Great Ascension Realm, or one could only wait for the hundred-year opportunity.

He hadn't broken through within ten years.

His blood and energy had withered. Failing within ten years meant he wouldn't live to see the hundred-year mark.

But this young man had probably cultivated to the Return to Emptiness realm and achieved his Realm of Emptiness around the age of thirty.

He absolutely had the hope of achieving the Great Ascension within ten years!

If this person cultivated to the Great Ascension Realm, there would be no need for a duel at all. Marshal Xi would have only one path: kneel on the ground, admit defeat, and beg the other for mercy!

"What realm is he actually at? Can I withstand him?" On Marshal Xi's forehead, beads of sweat the size of beans continuously slid down.

Auntie A Ying stared dumbfounded at her man. His broad back felt as solid and reliable as the Blue Sky itself, standing there, giving her an incomparably secure feeling.

To Marshal Xi and the others, A Zhuo gave the impression of the Blue Sky pressing down, suffocating.

But to her, the impression was reliability.

No sense of oppression at all, just solid and reliable.

As long as he stood in front, even if the sky fell, he could hold it up for her.

She had never imagined that her honest, reliable husband, the man she needed to protect with two kitchen cleavers, was actually this powerful, powerful beyond belief!

She had always thought the clumsy A Zhuo was an honest man who needed her protection. She had never imagined that it had always been the clumsy A Zhuo protecting her.

In her impression, A Zhuo was the honest A Zhuo.

They had known each other since childhood.

A Zhuo lived in Shuikou Village, she lived in neighboring Yangping Village. The two villages weren't far, so they often met.

When Chen Yindu lured A Zhuo away from her side, she was only eleven. They were playing outside the village when Chen Yindu gave her a lollipop and just took A Zhuo away.

For a long time after A Zhuo disappeared, she wept bitterly, desperately wanting to find that sinister middle-aged uncle and bring A Zhuo back. She always felt she had wronged A Zhuo. If she hadn't coveted that lollipop, perhaps she wouldn't have lost A Zhuo.

Even if she had to offer ten lollipops to get A Zhuo back, she would have agreed.

After a few months, A Zhuo returned, still the same clumsy A Zhuo.

She was overjoyed, playing with A Zhuo just like before.

Some time later, the middle-aged uncle came again to lure A Zhuo away. This time, even facing ten lollipops, her heart didn't waver. She held A Zhuo's hand tightly, refusing to let go.

But A Zhuo still followed that middle-aged uncle named Chen Yindu, leaving for another few months.

And so it went, back and forth. She would often come to the bridgehead of Shuikou Village, craning her neck, waiting for A Zhuo to return.

And so, the two of them slowly grew up.

She gradually grew into a young woman, A Zhuo grew into a young man.

When she continued waiting at the bridgehead, the A Zhuo who returned was often covered in wounds, beaten like a dead dog.

Her heart ached terribly. She would help him wash off the blood, bandage his wounds, mend his clothes.

"A Zhuo, find a proper livelihood."

She leaned against A Zhuo's scarred chest. "Don't go out with that scoundrel surnamed Chen anymore. You find a proper livelihood, I'll convince my parents to marry me to you. Then you'll have a home, you'll have roots, you won't run around anymore, and you won't get hurt."

"Okay," A Zhuo said.

He very seriously learned beekeeping. It was a proper livelihood; beekeeping could support a family.

A Zhuo became a beekeeper, often needing to go out to tend the bees because he had to chase the nectar, leaving for months at a time. She always worried that A Zhuo, out there, might be eaten by evil spirits, or killed by robbers, or seduced away by a fox spirit.

She had never imagined that honest, simple A Zhuo would learn such skills as he had now.

"This dead man, he never told me what he learned from Old Man Chen," she thought, but her heart felt warm.

She knew A Zhuo was afraid she would worry, and afraid of implicating her.

Her man going out to tend bees might not necessarily be to do good deeds; he might be going to do bad things. But he was always good to this family.

A Zhuo took a step forward.

With this step, the two Fu Zheng Pavilion Merit Officers and Military Consultants, Fang Tan and Wei Xize, seemed to be hit by an invisible wall. They vomited blood profusely but remained standing where they were, unable to move.

They seemed nailed in space-time. Simultaneously, an invisible behemoth, a pure solid object, compressed their bodies and Primordial Spirits, squeezing everything inside them outward.

Through their mouths, it expelled everything within their bodies!

Fu Zheng Pavilion Chief Clerk Tang Baling bled from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. His robust body was becoming flattened. He struggled to move his body but could only move his eyeballs; everywhere else was immobile.

He wanted to project his Primordial Spirit out of his body to escape, but his Primordial Spirit was also firmly pressed down.

From within the body of Fu Zheng Pavilion Sacrificial Officer Dou Qi came crackling sounds of bones shattering. Among the Fu Zheng Pavilion members present, aside from Marshal Xi, his cultivation was the strongest, but the injuries he suffered were also the most severe.

He was already at the Body Unification realm, his magic power extremely profound. However, the stronger the cultivation, the greater the pressure suffered.

With A Zhuo taking this step, his bones were almost all broken, with hardly a single intact bone remaining!

He had never felt such terrifying pressure before.

Even when the Fu Zheng Pavilion's Chief Administrator displayed his cultivation, he hadn't shown such formidable oppressive force!

Of course, the Chief Administrator wasn't an enemy; there was no need for him to exert pressure on them.

A gurgling sound came from Sacrificial Officer Dou Qi's throat. It was the sound of all the air in his chest being expelled through his windpipe. He could no longer see; his eyeballs were squeezed and distorted, on the verge of having his physical body crushed.

At the same time A Zhuo took this step, Marshal Xi in the small boat on the river, holding his fishing rod, straightened up. The two Realms of Emptiness collided violently.

The collision was silent, with no unusual sound from the two great grotto-heavens. However, the fishing rod in his hand made a "swish" sound as the fishing line flew forward along the river channel. The Shuikou Bridge about a li away was sliced through its center by the fishing line, yet it remained standing steadily.

However, with the sliced point on Shuikou Bridge as the centerline, space seemed to also develop an extremely fine cut mark. The left and right sides of Shuikou Bridge's centerline seemed to exist in two different worlds. The river water was cut in half by this line, the water on both sides no longer flowing into each other.

Saintess Xuan had originally walked onto the bridge. Seeing this scene, she hurriedly stopped, sensing that this tiny, thin line contained a lethally threatening power!

"Marshal Xi's strength is truly too formidable!"

She couldn't help but marvel. Even within the Buddhist holy land, Bodhi Monastery, one could only find a few experts capable of achieving this!

This cut mark gradually faded, and the river water became one again.

The bridge trembled slightly, then returned to calm.

Saintess Xuan still didn't dare step onto the bridge.

Just now, space had been sliced open by the fishing line. Although it seemed restored, residual power remained. If she approached, she feared she might be cut in half.

She needed to wait a while longer, for the residual power to completely dissipate, before it would be safe.

Meanwhile, at the bow of the boat, Marshal Xi's clothes flapped loudly. The bamboo rain hat on his head exploded with a crack, shattered bamboo strips flying everywhere, revealing an aged, weathered face.

This face was full of wrinkles, but the man was very spirited.

His face naturally commanded authority without anger, the superiority cultivated from long being above others. His hand holding the fishing rod was extremely steady, like a high official who had retired to the mountains and forests, fishing to cultivate his mind and nature.

A Zhuo's step should have crushed Dou Qi, Tang Baling, Fang Tan, and Wei Xize, but he used his own Realm of Emptiness to forcefully block A Zhuo's pressure.

"His cultivation hasn't reached the Great Ascension Realm yet!"

Marshal Xi felt slightly relieved. If A Zhuo's cultivation had reached the Great Ascension Realm, just this step would likely have crushed even him, pulverizing all his internal organs, mixing all his flesh, blood, and bones into a paste, then expelling it from his mouth!

A Zhuo was the same as him, both at the Return to Emptiness realm, both standing at the peak of Return to Emptiness, just half a step away from Great Ascension.

Even though the other hadn't cultivated to the Great Ascension Realm, he felt the vigorous blood and energy from a Return to Emptiness realm expert in his prime, surging over overwhelmingly, making his aged body somewhat unable to withstand it.

"If I were also young..."

He didn't continue the thought. If he were also young, he definitely wouldn't have cultivated to the Return to Emptiness realm, much less have his current cultivation.

In his youth, facing A Zhuo, he would only have lost faster and more miserably!

A Zhuo's eyes revealed a strange light. Seizing the momentum, he took another step forward.

With this step, Marshal Xi felt the heavens and earth tilt, the sky and ground twisting and rotating, crushing toward him.

The fishing rod in his hand broke inch by inch. The river surface beneath his feet exploded, the small boat turning to dust.

"Go—"

He soared into the air. His Primordial Spirit emerged from his Realm of Emptiness, extending a giant hand to grab Dou Qi, Chief Clerk Tang, and the others, then swept along the river surface, whistling away!

His fishing line hadn't broken. Now, the fishing line whistled, growing longer and longer, encircling Shuikou Village once.

He used the lives of everyone in Shuikou Village as a threat, aiming to detain that terrifying country bumpkin. As long as the other hesitated for a moment, he would have a chance to escape with everyone.

He flew over the bridge. Saintess Xuan was also swept up by him, flying together into the distance, rushing into Great South Lake.

A Zhuo flew out, chasing to the bridgehead, and indeed stopped. He raised his hand, pinching one end of the fishing line.

He flicked his finger, and the fishing line flew out.

The fishing line encircling Shuikou Village whistled, chasing after Marshal Xi.

Marshal Xi was in mid-air, running wildly with his legs, when he suddenly paused slightly. A finger twirled, and the fishing line whistled as it flew around his finger, tangling into a ball.

He continued running. Both his legs were severed at the knees, and he fell into the lake.

Just now, A Zhuo had flicked the fishing line with his finger, cutting off his legs.

Marshal Xi didn't stop for a moment, urging his magic power to fly, swift as the wind.

Behind him, A Zhuo did not pursue.

Marshal Xi carried everyone, speeding across the lake surface. The group was terrified, constantly looking back. Saintess Xuan was also shocked and uncertain.

Defeated.

The Fu Zheng Pavilion's second strongest expert had actually been defeated, defeated by Chen Shi's uncle, an unknown country bumpkin!

The unfathomably deep Marshal Xi had even lost a pair of legs!

Her mind was in a daze. Did Chen Shi also have such a powerful expert following him?

Marshal Xi slowed down. The group looked at him, shocked and uncertain. They saw Marshal Xi cough up large mouthfuls of blood, his aura weakening drastically.

When A Zhuo took those two steps forward, most of the pressure had fallen on Marshal Xi, leaving him severely injured.

Coupled with having his legs severed, this elder appeared utterly defeated.

The group was horrified. Marshal Xi was a senior expert whom the Young Master had gone to great lengths to invite out of seclusion. He had only agreed to come out and help the Young Master seize the world and re-establish the Zhu family's legitimacy because he had grown restless after prolonged stillness.

Who would have thought he would nearly perish here!

Falling at the hands of a village peasant from a small lakeside village!

"I'm not seriously injured, just my cultivation is damaged!"

Marshal Xi sat in the air, looking at his legs. His legs had been severed at the knees, but the cut ends weren't bleeding. He had used his magic power to seal all the blood vessels.

"He didn't pursue. My legs are currently walking in the lake, coming this way."

Though Marshal Xi's complexion wasn't good, he remained composed. "Once the legs return, I'll just reattach them. It's just the other injuries will require some time to recuperate."

Dou Qi, Chief Clerk Tang, and the others breathed a sigh of relief. Fang Tan said, "It's good Marshal Xi isn't seriously hurt. That person, who knows what his background is..."

He had just said this when they saw a painted pleasure boat floating toward them.

On the boat, a pretty boat girl raised her hand and cast out a fishing net. She should be a fisher, but did fishers in this world use painted pleasure boats?

They were just feeling puzzled when they saw the boat girl pull in the net, laughing, "Caught a pair of big fish. Hehe, so it's stinky feet... You offended the Provincial Graduate, and you still think you can leave?"

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