While Long Chen was in seclusion, the Righteous and Corrupt paths of the seven prefectures were all deeply shaken.

When the Jiuli secret realm had closed, thousands of disciples had come out. The news of Long Chen battling the peak experts of the Righteous and Corrupt paths rapidly spread.

The most shocking information was how in that final clash, those peak experts had been blown away like dried up sticks by him. Everyone thought Long Chen would be the hope of the Righteous path, a chance for them to soar in power.

At the same time, there were many people that denounced the Pill Tower. They had stuck their hands into the Righteous and Corrupt struggles, and it had been unfair to the Righteous path. They hoped for the Pill Tower to give them an adequate explanation.

However, no response came from the Pill Tower. From some backchannels, it was learned that Huo Wufang had apparently been sent back to the Pill Tower half-alive.

Every single bone in his body had been broken. The Pill Tower had immediately taken action to heal him. However, that healing had been so painful that Huo Wufang would have preferred to die.

Back then, Long Chen hadn’t killed him. Instead, he had fed him a medicinal pill. That medicinal pill had actually been what had managed to keep Huo Wufang alive.

However, within that medicinal pill had also been a strong poison. It was a kind of poison that would seep into his bones, and as soon as something tried to heal those bones, it would activate the poison.

That poison targeted only the nerves, and it wouldn’t kill him. Instead, it would just make him feel so much pain that he would wish himself dead. Long Chen hated Huo Wufang to the peak, and all he wanted was for Huo Wufang to suffer endless pain.

Although Huo Wufang liked to act incomparably arrogant, in truth, such people were all weak and cowardly inside. In the face of death, they would do anything to survive.

It was precisely because Long Chen had known what kind of person Huo Wufang was that he had forced him to consume this medicinal pill he had personally refined. It was all to make him be filled with enough pain to want to die, all while knowing he wouldn’t even have the courage to kill himself.

Huo Wufang had been sent to his Huo family on the very day he had returned from the secret realm. However, whether or not he had been healed was something no one knew.

As for the Righteous path’s questions, the Pill Tower still hadn’t given an explanation. In comparison to the Pill Tower’s silence, there were quite a few sects that had flown into a rage because they had lost too many of their elite disciples. Those were people Long Chen had killed. Some sects hadn’t had a single one of their disciples return.

In comparison, the smaller sects ended up benefiting greatly. Their disciples had not only survived but had also brought back a large harvest of spatial rings. The treasures in those spatial rings were several decades worth of resources to them.

However, those smaller sects had also become completely silent.

Their returning disciples were filled with gratitude toward Long Chen, but had been sternly warned not to run their mouths. Some of the more stubborn ones had even been imprisoned.

One reason was that their sects were too small. If news of their gains spread, it would provoke jealousy from others. The other reason was that Long Chen had become everyone’s target now. Who dared get close to him now?

The Righteous path was in an unstable condition, with wild undercurrents flowing behind the scenes. But the Corrupt path was in an even more chaotic state. Long Chen had almost completely annihilated the Corrupt path’s top geniuses of the seven prefectures. Of their peak experts, only Yin Luo had returned and only half of him at that.

If there hadn’t been a powerful healer present then, perhaps he would have already died.

There had been more than a hundred thousand Corrupt disciples that entered the secret realm. But less than a thousand of them had returned. That was completely unacceptable. It was a huge blow to their core strength.

Nowadays, Long Chen was classified as a must-kill figure to the entire Corrupt path. Any names that had been placed on their must-kill list would be hunted down with the Corrupt path’s full strength.

Within a hidden hall, there was a stone stele over thirty meters tall. It was engraved with tens of thousands of names. Furthermore, a red ‘X’ had been slashed on top of each of those names. That meant they were already dead.

There was only one name without an X over it, and it was one that had only just been carved, making it extremely eye-catching. That name was: Long Chen.

…

BOOM!

A mountain collapsed as a wave of qi soared into the sky. Rays of light were shining from Long Chen’s body. Two stars were shining within his eyes, and his aura could frighten even the heavens.

Now, both those stars were equally bright. Furthermore, as those two stars slowly rotated, they released a volcanic power.

“It’s finally completely condensed!” Long Chen raised his head and laughed uproariously. His voice sounded like the roar of a god, shaking the land.

“After obtaining the primal chaos bead, even my cultivation base can rapidly advance.” Long Chen clenched a fist, excitedly sensing the surging spiritual qi in his body.

Long Chen had spent all his time refining Alioth Pills. Not only had his Alioth Star become completely condensed, but he had even advanced three cultivation levels, reaching the twelfth Heavenstage of Tendon Transformation.

He was just one step away from the thirteenth Heavenstage and undergoing the heavenly tribulation. Then he would be in Bone Forging.

Long Chen sighed, muttering to himself, “With both stars fully condensed, my combat strength should have increased by over ten times. I should be able to dominate the Bone Forging realm, and I don’t have to fear Meridian Opening experts. But I still am not an equal opponent for Xiantian experts. The barrier between the Xiantian and Houtian realms is just too great.”

Xiantian experts were too powerful. Even Luo Bing, who had only just broken through to the Xiantian realm, had already been so powerful.

Currently, his best option would be to flee as far as possible. At the very least, he should wait until he broke through to Meridian Opening before returning.

However, he always felt a bit anxious. He felt as if something was wrong, but no matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t figure it out.

“Ah, whatever. I’ll stealthily inquire what is happening with the supermonastery.” Long Chen took out some medicinal liquid and applied it over his face.

Looking in a mirror, he made some adjustments, turning himself into the likeness of an ordinary man in his thirties who was slightly yellowed.

He looked as ordinary as possible. If he was thrown into a crowd, it would be impossible for anyone to notice him. Switching out his robes, he began to rush into the distance.

The next day, he found a city. He just happened to be hungry, and so he found a restaurant to eat in. Just as he was about to start eating, he heard the large man beside him begin talking to his neighbor. This man’s tongue had already grown loose from drinking.

“Why are you looking at me like that? You think I’m just bragging cause I drank too much?” That man’s voice was clearly slightly displeased.

“Don’t blame me. Even if you said this when you were sober, no one would believe it, let alone now when you’re completely drunk.” The other man was holding back laughter. He seemed extremely familiar with the large man.

“Tch, if you hadn’t invited me to drink, do you think I’d tell you something this big? Let me tell you, this matter is absolutely true.” His voice suddenly dropped to a whisper. “There’s no harm in me telling you this. My older sister’s husband’s big brother’s aunt’s fiancé-”

“Damn, how many relationships are you going to list?! I’m already lost,” cursed the other man.

“Aiya, just ignore those relationships. In any case, her fiancé is a disciple from the number one Xuantian Monastery. Three days ago, we were drinking together, and he only told me this because he drank too much. You can’t tell others this, or it will cause a disaster.” When he reached this point in his story, he even paused his drinking.

He looked around and saw the only one close to him was an ordinary man who had a sickly yellow tint to him. There were not the slightest fluctuations coming from him, so he didn’t seem to be a cultivator. Only then was he at ease.

“You were telling the truth? The first monastery really is planning on killing two Xiantian experts and a group of geniuses?”

Long Chen’s teacup instantly shattered. He suddenly appeared in front of that large man and grabbed his throat.

“Was that the truth?!”

“You…?!”

The two of them were both completely startled. These two were both in the Tendon Transformation realm, but when they met Long Chen’s gaze, they immediately felt numb and cold. A sensation of death filled their hearts, and they couldn’t even bring themselves to think about resisting.

“Speak! What happened?!” raged Long Chen.

An incense stick’s time later, those two had both woken up from their drunk state. They were both drenched in sweat, looking like they had just gotten out of a pool.

The larger man told Long Chen everything he knew. Under Long Chen’s interrogation, he didn’t even have the courage to hold back a single thing.

Once Long Chen left, they both collapsed on the table. They had never seen such a terrifying person in their lives.

Long Chen’s expression was gloomy, and killing intent was exploding from him. From that person, he had learned that after he had fled, the first monastery had still taken the advantage.

There had been several more people to join the first monastery, and some of them had wanted to chase after Long Chen. As a result, Ling Yunzi had become absolutely furious and slaughtered four sect leaders.

That had stunned everyone, even the second monastery’s sect leader. He had only taken action to display his own power and fight for the first monastery ranking.

But Ling Yunzi was slaughtering sect leaders. That made him feel the situation had turned sour, and he had pulled back.

Due to that, Ling Yunzi and Cang Ming had been surrounded by everyone, heavily injured and finally captured. As for Tang Wan-er and the others, they were also captured.

It was said that this matter had even alarmed the assistant monastery head, and in their rage, they had ordered everyone other than Hua Biluo to be imprisoned. The only gratifying thing was that Guo Ran and the others were still alive.

But what infuriated Long Chen was that the first monastery had sent out news that three days from now, they were going to execute all of them.

This fury didn’t cloud Long Chen’s mind. He knew this matter was completely unreasonable and made no sense. First of all, he was the crux of the matter as the main offender. If they were to punish people, they had to punish him, not the other geniuses. Even if there was to be punishment, they should have only punished Ling Yunzi and not the others.

Second of all, the cause of all this was very simple. It had all been because the first monastery had targeted him. They had been the root of the trouble, and only then had the situation developed to that point. If they really wanted to target him, then they were lacking an honorable reason. They shouldn’t be proceeding with this so openly without any fear.

Third, the location was wrong. If someone was to punish these people, they should have done it at the supermonastery. Why would they punish them at the first monastery? Something was fishy.

“Good, very good! As expected, they really did hide the truth. Then let me see whether you can hide the truth, or I can hide your lives for all eternity.” Surging with killing intent, Long Chen rushed toward the first monastery.