Chapter 40: The Unlucky Ancient Cultivator

The battle at Zhao Family Ravine had already begun.

The ancient Tribulation-Crossing body cultivator descended over Zhao Family Ravine, his aura surging to the heavens, blood-soaked slaughter qi boiling off him, the pressure so terrifying it seemed to crush all demon cultivators beneath it.

With a single strike, heaven and earth shuddered, the nine skies shattered.

Blinding immortal radiance followed his movements. Immortal mist coiled around him as one terrifying phantom after another appeared, condensing into golden guardian bodies that charged through countless spatial domains.

“How strong! As expected of an ancient body cultivator! He’s insane!”

Countless experts gulped hard, incomparably tense.

This was an ancient Tribulation-Crossing powerhouse!

But then—

“Bang!”

A deafening explosion rang out.

Before the opening move of that ancient body cultivator who had created the Martial Dao could even land, a figure faster and stronger than him appeared right in front of him.

“Not good!”

The ancient body cultivator’s pupils shrank. His expression changed drastically, as if he’d just seen the most terrifying thing in the world.

He panicked and tried to dodge—but there was no time.

Without any suspense at all, his body shot backwards like a cannonball, sent flying by that sudden figure’s punch. Blood splattered in all directions, raining down across heaven and earth.

The one who’d attacked was none other than Zhao Futu!

“How is this possible…”

Both the ancient body cultivator and Zhao Futu were utterly dumbfounded.

They both cried out in disbelief—

But the lines were completely different.

Ancient body cultivator: “How is he… this strong?!”

Zhao Futu: “How is he… this weak?!”

“Pff!”

Hearing Zhao Futu’s words, the ancient body cultivator spat blood on the spot, trembling with rage.

Is this how you insult people?!

“You’re courting death!”

The ancient body cultivator roared in fury, activating a secret art to stabilize his injuries. He stared at Zhao Futu like some blood-crazed beast.

“No wonder you dared scheme against me. But you’ve underestimated me!”

His body swelled, his mouth opening wide to swallow mountains and rivers.

Countless mountains flew straight into his mouth.

In just an instant, his body had ballooned to several thousand meters tall, the sun and moon resting on his shoulders, his entire form glowing a blazing gold like some Arhat from the Buddhist path.

He formed a seal with his hands and punched toward Zhao Futu.

The momentum was overwhelming. The air itself kept detonating with thunderous booms.

“Pay the price!”

However—

“Bang!”

The enraged, powered-up ancient body cultivator was sent flying by another punch from Zhao Futu.

This time, he crashed straight into the ground, blasting apart a storm of soil and stone.

The earth split open into a ravine a thousand meters deep.

“Get up. We’re not done.”

Zhao Futu’s anger was still burning.

Not because this ancient body cultivator had challenged him—but because all his master chefs had been poached.

“What kind of monster are you?!”

The ancient body cultivator finally panicked completely, fear filling his eyes.

How long had he even been asleep?

How could such a powerful body cultivator exist in the world?

Had there been some great explosion of immortal arts? Or a revolution in cultivation itself?

He didn’t hesitate for even a moment and turned to flee.

It wasn’t that he was cowardly.

On the contrary, ancient cultivators were all about “dignity.” Every time they ran away, they carried a heavy psychological burden about it.

But his opponent was too strong.

Fighting him was no different from being a punching bag.

Two punches, and he’d almost been beaten to death.

“How arrogant! He actually isn’t chasing me!”

The ancient body cultivator shot off into the distance, moving at the absolute limit of his speed.

He’d started out terrified—but when he realized Zhao Futu wasn’t chasing, a cold smile crept across his lips, his expression twisting.

“Just you wait. I’ll make you pay!”

But—

Before the words had even fully left his mouth—

“Crack!”

A dazzling divine light flashed, like a blazing sun erupting into the sky.

Ahead of him stood a row of people dressed in golden robes, each of them like a towering golden mountain—envoys of the Not-For-Profit Chamber of Commerce.

A few of them were jointly activating an enormous Damage-Assessment Lantern.

“Fellow Daoist, you have, without cause, damaged one hundred and seventy-eight spiritual stone mines belonging to our Not-For-Profit Chamber of Commerce, one hundred and seven thousand mu of spiritwood, and three million one hundred and twenty thousand rare spirit beasts…”

“The total compensation due is one hundred and twenty-three trillion spirit stones.”

“Will that be cash, card, or work-repayment?”

The Chamber of Commerce envoys spoke in unison.

“Where did this blind dog crawl out from? Get lost!”

The ancient body cultivator was utterly impatient. He’d already been furious, his anger burning to the heavens.

It was one thing to be beaten up by a junior.

But now even some random cats and dogs dared block his path?

“Bang!”

Unsurprisingly—

The ancient body cultivator was smacked flying like a baseball by one of the envoys swinging a special Chamber-of-Commerce artifact—
the Money Tree.

Thunder blazed, winds howled, the sky changed color.

The other envoys also began to swing their Money Trees, forming a circle around him and batting him back and forth like a ball.

“No!”

“What kind of monsters are you people?!”

“Let me go!”

The ancient body cultivator’s face went completely ashen. Despair filled his eyes; terror flooded his gaze.

Of course, he could tell that these guys weren’t actually as strong as that body cultivator who’d just punched him around.

But he was already heavily injured. His power had plummeted.

He simply couldn’t handle them anymore.

“You forced me!”

With that thought, he gritted his teeth and let out a feral roar. His expression turned deadly serious; his eyes went vicious.

Spiritual power surged from his body as countless runes danced around him.

Even heaven and earth trembled in response.

He chose to self-detonate and escape!

Boom!

As the explosion went off, he dragged his broken body like a swimming dragon, rocketing toward the distant sky as fast as he could.

As if he meant to flee this entire world.

“Stop!”

“You’re already speeding!”

“Huh? Not only are you not slowing down, you’re accelerating? Trying to outrun my flying sword?”

The commotion immediately alarmed the experts of the Suspended-Sword Division.

Sword cultivators by the dozen stepped onto their swords, moving so fast they were like streaks of rainbow light, chasing after him.

“No!”

“Stay away from me!”

Feeling the pursuers behind him, the ancient body cultivator completely fell into despair.

He was on the verge of a breakdown.

He was already like this—
why wouldn’t they just let him go?!

And how long, exactly, had he slept?

Back when he went into hibernation, he’d clearly been invincible under heaven.

Why was he this miserable the moment he woke up?

In the end—

“Oh? A Tribulation-Crossing cultivator, huh. Next time, don’t speed.”

“Clamp him.”

The Suspended-Sword Division powerhouses surrounded him, pulling out special handcuffs and shackles to lock down his dantian and his Dao Fruit.

The ancient body cultivator: “…”

Only now did he finally understand.

It turned out these three groups weren’t even on the same side.

At the very least, they hadn’t teamed up to hunt him on purpose.

He’d just accidentally managed to provoke all three of them at the same time.

And had then been beaten and chased down all the way.

Originally, he’d still had methods he could use to try and keep running.

But now… he truly didn’t dare.

He was terrified that if he kept running, he’d provoke a few immortals next.

That karmic backlash would be way too big.

This world is way too brutal.

“The righteous path is ridiculously strong.”

“That was one hell of a beautiful three-way coordination.”

“Compared to them, our Demon Path is like some tiny mountain trail.”

The demon overlords in the Demon Grotto hadn’t missed a second of the spectacle.

None of them looked away.

They watched the fight from beginning to end.

Now, one by one, they sank into depression, their faces full of despair.

All of them seemed to have put themselves in the ancient body cultivator’s shoes.

They genuinely pitied him.

“How are we supposed to revive the Demon Path in this kind of world?”

“Did heaven mess up the prophecy or something?”

“Are we really that strong?”

They were terrified.

Some of them were even starting to doubt the so-called Heavenly Mandate.

Until Third Senior Brother of the Demon Grotto, Ping Wuqi, spoke up with a complex expression and uttered one very short sentence.

“All this turmoil started… because of one casual sentence Xu Gu said while doing a mission outside.”

(End of this Chapter)