Behind Feng You stood an elder with long eyebrows, glaring fiercely as he demanded, “What’s so urgent?”
The other elders also looked curiously at the elder who had just entered.
The elder respectfully replied, “Grand Elder, that Chu Tian has destroyed our pill vault, herb storage, and treasure repository. Now, he’s at the technique library, and it’s caught fire!”
The Grand Elder, Li Xing, widened his eyes. “What? Isn’t the formation active? How did he get in?”
The elder explained the situation, and Li Xing’s face darkened. Feng You, still healing, trembled in fear. “Grand Elder, you must stop him and hold him off until my sister and the Sect Master return!”
Li Xing withdrew his healing aura and stood up with a snort. “Our Tianxing Sect has stood for thousands of years. How could an insignificant sect less than a century old possibly destroy us?”
Hearing Li Xing’s readiness to act, Feng You sighed in relief. Li Xing led several elders out. They soon arrived at the burning tower. Only a few disciples were standing nearby, too scared to get close.
Li Xing glared at them. “Useless! All of you are useless!”
At that moment, a window on the highest floor of the tower opened, and Chu Tian leaned out, grinning down at Li Xing and his group. “I thought the Tianxing Sect didn’t have any Golden Core late-stage experts. Turns out there’s one left.”
Li Xing gritted his teeth. “You’re Chu Tian?”
“Obviously. Or are your old eyes too blurry to tell?”
“You—!”
“Ding~ Rage points +1.”
Chu Tian, delighted by the notification, thought, Finally, someone who gets angry at me!
He realized he needed to stay low-key in the future. If people feared him too much, it would be harder to provoke their anger and earn rage points.
Smiling mischievously, he taunted, “Hey, old man, your Tianxing Sect is a joke. A bunch of Golden Core experts afraid of a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator?”
“You brat! Don’t get cocky!”
Li Xing crossed his hands, summoning a water-blue pillar of light to extinguish the flames on the tower instantly. Chu Tian chuckled. “Not bad, old man. You put out the fire pretty fast.”
“Boy, you should never have entered our technique library!”
Li Xing aimed a stream of blue light at a water-blue orb atop the tower, activating it. The orb released a powerful blue glow, forming a protective barrier around the library like a miniature formation.
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Chu Tian tapped the barrier outside the window and was repelled. The system chimed in:
“Ding~ High-grade spiritual artifact: Heavenly Spirit Orb. Capable of generating a barrier with Nascent Soul-level defense in a small area.”
Turning to the injured Jin Cheng behind him, Chu Tian asked, “Where is this Heavenly Spirit Orb located?”
Weakly, Jin Cheng pointed upward. “The tower’s peak…”
Chu Tian frowned. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“I… I forgot,” Jin Cheng muttered weakly, terror evident in his eyes.
Outside, Li Xing’s triumphant voice rang out. “Brat, just stay put. When our Young Mistress and Sect Master return, it’ll be your end!”
Chu Tian wasn’t one to sit idly by. He headed to the center of the tower and unleashed his strength, smashing through the structure until he reached the orb. The Heavenly Spirit Orb hovered before him, its defenses impenetrable.
Jin Cheng muttered feebly, “It’s no use. The orb’s defenses are too strong unless you have Nascent Soul-level power.”
Chu Tian pulled out a storage pouch, dumping out the treasures he’d looted earlier. Sifting through the pile of pills, his eyes lit up at a particular bottle. “Perfect!”
Jin Cheng’s eyes widened in horror. “You’re not thinking of taking that, are you?”
“Why not?” Chu Tian grinned. “The Tenfold Strength Pill increases strength tenfold for a short time. Two pills give twentyfold, three pills thirtyfold…”
“Stop!” Jin Cheng interrupted. “The pill has severe side effects! If you take more than two at once, you’ll explode!”
Chu Tian shrugged. Confident in his body, refined through eighty-one temperings, he decided to take the risk. He popped one pill into his mouth.
The pill’s energy surged through him like popping candy, amplifying his spiritual energy and power tenfold. While his dantian felt like it might burst, his refined Foundation Establishment body quickly stabilized the surge.
After confirming he could handle it, Chu Tian laughed gleefully and swallowed the remaining four pills in the bottle. Jin Cheng, terrified, scrambled backward, fearing Chu Tian might explode and take him along.
With the five pills consumed, Chu Tian’s strength skyrocketed to fiftyfold. His confidence surged as he unleashed the third stage of his sword technique, slashing the orb. The Heavenly Spirit Orb trembled before being flung away.
Seizing it mid-air, Chu Tian landed atop the tower and laughed. “Thank you, Tianxing Sect, for this wonderful gift!”
Li Xing and the elders were stunned.
“He… he took Tenfold Strength Pills!” someone exclaimed.
Li Xing quickly ordered everyone to retreat, smirking. “Brat, you’ve doomed yourself. Those pills are poison, and you just took several at once.”
Chu Tian grinned, holding the orb. “Yep, five in one go. But oddly enough, I feel fine.”
“Ridiculous!” Li Xing sneered. “The pill’s effects last for ten breaths. After that, your body will collapse—or worse, explode!”
As his power ebbed, Chu Tian remained unscathed, laughing. “Old man, sorry to disappoint, but I’m still perfectly fine.”
The crowd was dumbfounded, and Li Xing stammered, “Impossible! This is impossible!”
Chu Tian activated his Flying Cloud Steps, gliding down to Li Xing. Channeling energy into the Heavenly Spirit Orb, he trapped Li Xing in its barrier.
The other elders fled in terror as Chu Tian smirked at the ensnared Li Xing. “Old man, this spiritual artifact is amazing. Just a little energy, and it’s fully operational. How convenient!”
Li Xing raged. “Release me, you bastard!”
“Ding~ Rage points +1.”
Chu Tian chuckled. “Not enough. Get angrier!”
“You’ll regret this!” Li Xing roared.
Suddenly, the ground beneath the Tianxing Sect trembled. Startled, Chu Tian muttered, “What now?”
A massive tiger emerged from a cracked mountainside. The beast was five to six times larger than a normal tiger, its golden fur bristling like spikes.
Li Xing laughed maniacally. “Behold! Our Tianxing Sect’s guardian beast has awakened, and the Young Master is already controlling it!”