Volcanic Age

The Dark Heavens Association's Vast Gate Star, the Xia Wu Sect Master.

Not much was known about her. She was as good at hiding things about herself as she was at controlling the flow of information.

All that was known was that she was the Xia Wu Sect Master and a great beauty—along with her impressive cultivation.

"You've got such a good eye, Honey~," the Xia Wu Sect Master, Vast Gate, said with a seductive smile. Only the courtesans around them seemed surprised by Zhou Xuchuan's sudden exclamation.

"Even though they call you the Silent Messenger, I didn't think much of it. I assumed you were just strong for the Black Hand, but you're actually more impressive than I thought."

As Vast Gate stood up and walked forward, the Murderous Harlot immediately moved from her position at the head of the room and prostrated herself.

The courtesans remained dazed until this moment, only now beginning to realize what was happening and looking surprised.

"Originally, I was going to tear your limbs apart for making a mess of the underground arena…" Vast Gate said, pulling out a long bamboo pipe and lighting it.

"Whew…"

A cloudy smoke slipped from between her thick lips.

"But I've changed my mind."

"To what?"

"I had assumed you were, at most, a Transcendent expert. I never expected you to have reached the Harmony Realm. Even if I barely hid myself, to be able to find me is no ordinary feat; I'll give you that."

"H-harmony…" the Murderous Harlot muttered, startled.

From her perspective, as someone who had barely reached the Transcendent Realm after spending nearly her entire adult life stuck in the Peak Realm, the Harmony Realm was far beyond her comprehension.

She had assumed that the Silent Messenger was, at best, a Transcendent, to think things had turned out far beyond her imagination.

If the Silent Messenger really was a Harmony Realm Master, it meant that he would easily be able to enter the One Hundred Experts Under Heaven, and the only thing keeping him from it was a lack of fame.

"I'm a surprisingly generous person. While I'm annoyed that you brats ruined one of my businesses, considering your abilities…"

"Pfft."

A laugh escaped Zhou Xuchuan's lips before he could stop himself.

"Why are you laughing?" Vast Gate asked with a smile on her lips. However, her eyes were clearly not smiling.

"I'll let it slide if you have a convincing reason for your laughter, but if there isn't one, you'll regret it."

"No, it's just that this seems more doable than I thought."

"You're not putting your faith in those things you've hidden in the ceiling when you say that, are you?" Vast Gate remarked, her narrowed eyes glowing with an eerie light.

Zhou Xuchuan met Vast Gate's eyes without answering, and she stared back at him silently.

Time seemed to pass slowly, as it was so silent that one's pulse could be heard.

Sweat dripped from someone's forehead and fell slowly.

The moment it hit the ground, Vast Gate's eyes closed.

Bang!

Zhou Xuchuan didn't miss the opening. He threw the dagger that had slipped out of his sleeve as if he had been waiting for this moment.

The tip of the dagger sliced through the air, tracing a long arc.

The moment it was about to reach its target's neck, time, which seemed to have almost stopped earlier, returned to normal as Vast Gate struck the dagger with the long bamboo pipe in her hand, deflecting it to the side.

Woosh!

The deflected dagger spun through the air as Zhou Xuchuan kicked off the ground and flew forward.

"Jiang Nengchu!"

As Zhou Xuchuan called out, Jiang Nengchu had already gotten up and drawn the sword hanging from his waist.

"I'll leave the Murderous Harlot to you!"

Boom!

The ceiling above the path leading to Vast Gate suddenly broke open.

Little Ghost emerged from the cleanly cut hole that looked like it had been cut with a knife, holding one of the Three Swords of the Spring and Autumn Annals, Tai'e, that Zhou Xuchuan hadn't used in a while.

Zhou Xuchuan shot forward and circulated his qi to the limit as he caught the blade that Little Ghost threw over.

BOOM!

A roar like thunder erupted. Then, qi poured out from his dantian and condensed to form sword aura.

This all happened in an instant.

At the same time, the sword aura violently spun around and oscillated, making a buzzing sound.

Vast Gate!

The Phantoms had told him that the key to assassination was to make the enemy let down their guard and deceive them. As the moment an assassin's intentions were discovered, the assassination would have failed; they advised either diverting the enemy's attention or hiding completely.

That was why Zhou Xuchuan had deliberately deceived everyone from the moment he had arrived.

Considering it was Vast Gate, the Star who controlled and valued information more than anything, she would definitely investigate everything about the Silent Messenger.

So, all she would find regarding the Silent Messenger was that he was an assassin.

It all started with this one fact.

If Vast Gate had been on the level of the Ten Empyrean Overlords or even the Sword Demon, Zhou Xuchuan would have recognized her unfathomable power and not attempted anything, but it wasn't like that in reality.

A Transcendent Realm assassin who was nearing the Harmony Realm.

He fed that information into the surrounding gossip and disguised himself to match that level to convince her. Moreover, he had hidden Phantoms in the ceiling, creating the illusion that he had prepared them as a last resort.

More doable than I thought?

It was all a facade!

Zhou Xuchuan knew how terrifying the Dark Heavens Association was. He also knew exactly how thorough and strong the Seven Stars Division leaders were.

The moment he underestimated them, he would lose.

Keeping that in mind, he thought about it several times before making a plan.

Violet Haze!

He would deceive everyone before ending it in a single blow.

Dawnbreaker!

A sword enveloped in a rotating sword aura shot forward, tearing through the air with a horrifying sound.

Right in front of the sword, Vast Gate reacted instinctively before she could even register the shock of what had just happened.

What the hell!

Vast Gate's delicate jade hands shot up. Strangely, her hands, from the tips of her fingers to her wrists, were stark white.

Her body, sensing danger, instinctively reacted and released an incredible power to block the sword aura that raced toward her.

BOOOOM!

The impact was deafening.

Aura collided with aura, generating a shockwave that rippled through the room.

"Ahhh!"

The force sent courtesans near the walls flying, rolling across the floor.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end. The faintly purple-tinged sword aura and the blindingly white palm aura continued to clash, tearing the surroundings apart.

Vast Gate's eyes widened in shock.

She realized that the attack before her was the divine art of the Mount Hua Sect. However, she was more amazed by the sheer power coming from the sword than by the flash of recognition regarding the technique itself.

A groan escaped her lips as disbelief and questions flooded her mind.

This is ridiculous!

Although Vast Gate looked young, she was actually quite old.

Not only had her aging slowed down after ascending to the Harmony Realm, but she had also practiced a Disguise Art and a Dual Cultivation Art like the Murderous Harlot.

The number of men whose lives she had stolen by sucking their vital qi easily exceeded four digits.

In reality, she was an old woman who was from the same era as the Ten Empyrean Overlords, and her accumulated qi wasn't anything to scoff at.

Above all, after joining the Dark Heavens Association, she constantly received support in the form of elixirs and cultivation resources, far surpassing the average cultivator.

With all that, just what in the world was going on?

No matter how suddenly she had to draw on her qi, she had just used an amount of qi that no one, except the Ten Empyrean Overlords, would be able to endure.

Yet the man before her went beyond just enduring it—he had overpowered it.

Still, despite her shock, she didn't remain frozen.

"Ha!"

She raised her right hand, forcing the sword aura that pushed against her palm aura to change direction.

The sword aura aimed at her eyebrows failed to completely penetrate the white wall before it, even though Zhou Xuchuan had put everything he had into it.

A groan escaped Vast Gate as she felt the strain of using her qi so suddenly. Her internal organs were tingling from using too much force.

Fortunately, the violent clash of aura was mitigated as she diverted the sword aura, and the resulting shockwave disappeared.

However, that relief only lasted for a moment. Zhou Xuchuan's attack wasn't over.

"Ha-a-eup!"

The moment her body was about to fall backward due to the force of the collision, Zhou Xuchuan's right arm muscles swelled, veins throbbing painfully.

The sword that had been knocked upward toward the ceiling stopped abruptly before cleaving down like an unstoppable force.

Seeing the sword coming down as if it was about to split her head open, Vast Gate screamed inwardly as she tried to block the attack with a double-palm strike.

'So this is what he was aiming for!'

There was a limit to how much qi one could hastily gather. Even if she succeeded in blocking the first move, she would be forced to show an opening afterward.

In addition, due the blow she had just taken, her body was thrown off balance, forcing her backward. In a normal situation, one wouldn't have been able to exert their strength properly.

It was a single sword that seemed as if it would split everything apart.

At that moment, Vast Gate laughed in disbelief.

"Haha, huh…?"

Where did that momentum from earlier go?

She watched as the sword seemed to float in the air like a cloud.

Instead, what she saw was a fist clenched before her as Zhou Xuchuan pulled back his left arm with all his might.

A feint into a feint into a feint!

The dagger, Violet Haze Dawnbreaker, and the downward cleave were all feints.

Zhou Xuchuan continued to squeeze his overworked lower dantian. He pulled on the poison he had stored from the Poisonblood Valley and the Tang Family.

The poison qi that surged from below his navel passed through the tianchi acupoint[1] near his chest and headed toward the tianquan acupoint.[2]

Soon, it passed through the quze, qiemen, jianshi, neiguan, daling, laogong acupoints, ultimately spanning the pericardium meridian and exiting through the zhongchong at the tip of the finger.[3]

Zhou Xuchuan's right arm, which he had seemed to use with all of his might, no longer had any strength left.

All of his strength was concentrated on his left hand.

His muscles swelled and then relaxed.

As the contractions and relaxations of his muscles repeated, his arm began to radiate intense heat.

The first stage of the Green Eyes Ten Thousand Poisons Art imbued one's body with poison and created an innate immunity, while the second allowed the user to handle poison freely.

From the third stage onward, it could be used in close combat, which meant that as long as the user could make contact, they would be able to poison the opponent.

Though Zhou Xuchuan didn't have any specific technique guiding his attack, he had now created a fist capable of taking life.

WOOOSH!

Zhou Xuchuan twisted his waist and shoulders to apply a rotational force, and as he gained speed, his power exploded.

The fist fell with an explosive wave that reminded Vast Gate of a sledgehammer.

She scrambled to find some way to block the incoming blow, but it was impossible, no matter how superhuman her reflexes and cultivation were.

Her hand was raised above her head, attempting to block the strike, while her body tilted backward, suspended in midair.

Then, as if she welcomed it, Zhou Xuchuan's fist slammed down on her open abdomen.

Boom.

The sledgehammer fell, sending shockwaves coursing through her entire body.

Her skin, which had become smooth through stealing vital qi, rippled as the shock spread through it.

"AGHHHHH…!"

Vast Gate's back arched like a bridge, blood spurting out from her gaping lips and scattering into a mist.

The white palm aura wrapped around her hand shattered into pieces as she was unable to bear the pain, dissipating into the air.

BOOOM!

As her bent back straightened, a loud noise erupted, and the floor of the Southern Fire House exploded beneath her.

A crack raced across the ground like a spider web, quickly spreading throughout the entire floor, causing the ground below Vast Gate to cave in in a circular pattern.

"Kya!!"

The courtesans waiting on the lower floors screamed and retreated when the ceiling suddenly collapsed.

Vast Gate, who had fallen to the ninth floor, was in despair as she felt her broken spine and vomited blood.

She hadn't been injured since she reached the Harmony Realm. As she felt that forgotten pain once again, she was about to scream.

But before that, she cursed.

"This… bastard…!"

She saw Zhou Xuchuan pulling his right hand back, forming another fist.

"There's still one more left."

He spared no effort. He didn't have that sort of leisure.

He swung his fist again, pouring all of his energy into the blow.

His eyes were filled with the determination to kill.

Why?

Vast Gate was puzzled as she met his gaze.

There was something beyond bloodlust in his eyes. For some reason, it seemed as if Zhou Xuchuan was staring at his mortal enemy—no, something even worse than that.

He looked at her with a gaze that almost seemed filled with resentment, as if he had survived just for this moment.

Had she unknowingly created this grudge?

However, before that question could be answered, the sledgehammer struck again.

A perfectly clean line, aimed at a face that could no longer block it.

The moment Zhou Xuchuan's fist pressed lightly against the bridge of Vast Gate's nose, a thunderous noise erupted, and the floor of the now nine-story building collapsed.

1. Roughly one centimeter above your nipple on both sides. ☜

2. The intersection of your pectoralis, deltoid, and bicep brachii muscles. ☜

3. The pericardium meridian is the meridian that spans your arm that corresponds to your heart. In order, the acupoints are: your elbow, the middle of your forearm, one finger's breadth below the middle of your forearm, two fingers' breadth below the middle of your forearm, three fingers' breadth below the middle of your forearm, your wrist, between the base knuckles of your pointer and middle finger, and the tip of your middle finger. ☜