Gu Benchangâs expression changed drastically. He frantically circulated his magical power, forming hand seals to control his Spirit Sword, determined to shred Lin Changâsheng to pieces.
But he found out that his Spirit Sword wasnât responding to him at all.
"Crack!"
With a crisp snap, Gu Benchang suddenly realized that heâd lost the connection between his divine sense and his own Spirit Sword. Whatâs more, the young cultivator in front of him had simply snapped the sword into three pieces with his bare hands!
Gu Benchangâs face went ghostly pale!
"What kind of crappy scrap metal is this?!"
"Just trash!"
Lin Changâsheng tossed the broken Spirit Sword to the ground, stared at the Peak Foundation Establishment cultivator before him, and let out a cold laugh, eyes brimming with contempt.
The next moment.
Lin Changâsheng unleashed Three Thousand Thunder Moves, flickered forward in a blur, and swung a punch straight at the Peak Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Gu Benchang saw the danger and tried to back away, but it was already too late.
He felt a stabbing pain in his waist. Looking down, he saw a bloody gash on his flank, blood gushing out in a fountain.
"No!"
Gu Benchang felt the magical power in his dantian wildly drain away, his whole being flooded with weakness!
His eyes went wide with disbelief, and he crashed to the ground.
Lin Changâshengâs silhouette flashed. He snatched up Gu Benchangâs storage bag from his waist, and with a snap of his fingers, a fireball dropped onto Gu Benchangâs body. In a blink, his flesh was engulfed in a ball of flame.
Smash a spiritual artifact, kill the man, seize the loot!
The whole thingâslick as flowing water, lightning-fast!
The surrounding cultivators all watched with heightened wariness, backing away in unison.
In the Foundation Establishment Area, the Peak Foundation Establishment cultivators were the dominant force. Yet this young man had just wiped out a Peak Foundation Establishment cultivator with a mere Foundation Establishment Sixth Layer cultivation, in the blink of an eye!
His strength was absolutely terrifying!
"What? His physical body is actually this tough? He just grabbed a Peak Foundation Establishment cultivatorâs Spirit Sword with his bare hand?"
"Heâs just at the sixth layer, and he managed to grab the spiritual artifact of a Peak Foundation Establishment cultivatorâholy crap, thatâs nuts!"
"He twisted a Peak Foundation Establishment cultivatorâs spiritual artifact apart with his bare hand. Am I hallucinating?"
"......"
Seeing Lin Changâsheng go off like that, with just Foundation Establishment Sixth Layer cultivation grabbing and breaking a Peak Foundation Establishment cultivatorâs spiritual artifactâeveryone was absolutely rocked, talking all at once!
At that moment.
The ten-plus Foundation Establishment cultivators attacking the array all stopped operating their spiritual artifacts and retreated a few steps.
[Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array (Entry Level 0/1000)]
Just then, a red notification popped up on Lin Changâshengâs panel.
"Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array!"
Seeing the panel notification, Lin Changâshengâs eyes flashed.
[Detected Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array entry level. You can simplify by consuming 500 spirit stones. Simplify?]
Again, a prompt appeared on the panel.
Lin Changâsheng didnât immediately simplify. He swept an indifferent glance, warily looking at the other Foundation Establishment cultivators, then flickered away.
He wasnât really leaving; he just wanted to find someplace away from prying eyes to pull out those spirit stones and simplify the Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array.
Judging by how slow the others were bombarding the array, they werenât going to break in anytime soon.
Heâd simplify the array on his own, then push it to perfection and go straight in to snatch up all the spirit medicine inside!
Just as Lin Changâsheng was leaving, a Peak Foundation Establishment cultivator from Taiyin Island watched his figure with killing intent in his eyes, magical power surging in his spiritual artifact.
This guy.
Another disciple of Taiyin Sect, and a cousin to the recently-deceased Gu Benchang.
"Senior Brother Gu, donât act rashly. Even though heâs only at the sixth layer, thereâs something creepy and terrifying about him. Wait till the Void Hall trial is over, then leave it to the sect elders."
"Donât forget, Elder Jian died at the hands of a Foundation Establishment Third Layer cultivator!"
Just then, a young cultivator beside him pressed down his Magic Sword, shook his head, and advised softly.
"Thanks for the reminder, Junior Brother Jian!"
Gu Benhai was stopped by Jian Kefa, breaking out in a cold sweat down his back.
The fate of Uncle Jian Shaowu was warning enoughâhe had no plans to die so soon.
"To grab a Peak Foundation Establishment cultivatorâs spiritual artifact bare-handed at the sixth layer... thatâs a freakishly strong physical body. He might even be on par with Daoist Long."
Yu Lingfei stared at Lin Changâshengâs departing figure, beautiful eyes wide in shock, muttering, "I wonder who Daoist Long is disguised as? Hm... no way, could it be...?"
Suddenly, Yu Lingfeiâs eyes snapped wide, a bold speculation forming in her heart.
"Iâm supposed to be the Golden Talisman Immortal Sectâs new generation prodigy, and Iâm at Foundation Establishment Seventh Layer. At best, I can fight a Peak Foundation Establishment cultivator to a drawâthereâs absolutely no way I could do what he just did so effortlessly."
"Who is this guy? How can he be so strong?"
"Compared to him, what sort of prodigy am I, anyway?"
Shi Hao, tall and handsome, stood by the Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array, watching Lin Changâsheng recede into the distance. His eyes were filled with shock.
In the past, he always thought that having refined a strand of Heaven and Earth Qi and possessing dual spirit roots made him a standout among his peers. Yet watching that cultivator just nowâkilling a Peak Foundation Establishment with a flick of the wristâhe felt totally outclassed inside.
"Heâs actually this powerful?"
"How come weâve never heard of him before?"
By the Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array, Mu Yunfeng and Tu Yunfei exchanged glances, their faces equally stunned.
The two of them were also new-generation top loose cultivators, both having refined one strand of Heaven and Earth Qi, and advanced to Foundation Establishment Sixth Layer. Since they were loose cultivators, all their resources came from their own efforts.
They both regarded themselves pretty highly.
They figured that the so-called prodigies of the sects, loaded up with sect resources, were actually nothing special compared to themselvesâjust hype.
But now, watching Lin Changâsheng slaughter a Peak Foundation Establishment cultivator with a wave of his hand, their pride took a serious gut punch.
"Everyone, letâs keep blasting this array! The main ingredient for snow spirit pills is insideâwe canât give up halfway!"
Then, a Peak Foundation Establishment old man swept his gaze over Jian Kefa, Mu Yunfeng, Tu Yunfei, Shi Hao, and Yu Lingfei.
"Daoist Zhong is right!"
"...."
Hearing the old cultivator, Jian Kefa, Mu Yunfeng, Tu Yunfei, Shi Hao, and Yu Lingfei all nodded and kept attacking the array.
Lin Changâsheng dashed away at full speed.
Soon, he arrived ten miles away, deep in the forest.
"Simplify!"
With a wave, Lin Changâsheng brought out 500 spirit stones, and tapped confirm on his panel.
[Dao Simplification: Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array simplifying... simplification success... Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array = Hidden Spirit Stone!]
Just as Lin Changâsheng tapped confirm, a red notification popped up on his panel.
"Hidden Spirit Stone?"
Seeing the result of the simplification, Lin Changâsheng widened his eyes in disbelief.
He had plenty of spirit stones.
But how exactly did hiding them grant experience points?
"Letâs stash one and see what happens!"
With a try-it-and-see attitude, Lin Changâsheng took a spirit stone from his storage bag and hid it behind him.
Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array experience points +1!
"Huh! It really works!"
Seeing the notification, Lin Changâshengâs eyes lit up. He reached into his storage bag, and instantly, more than ten thousand spirit stones appeared. Lin Changâsheng grabbed them with a blast of magical power and stashed them behind him.
Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array experience points +1!
Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array experience points +1!
......
[Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array (Great Success 2/8000)]
"Huh? Already at Great Success?" Looking at the new notification, Lin Changâshengâs eyes almost popped outâthis was way too fast.
No wonder the simplification panelâs so busted!
He had a ton of spirit stones in his storage bag.
Lin Changâsheng immediately drew out fifty thousand more spirit stones and stashed them away.
[Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array (Perfection)]
Just as Lin Changâsheng finished stashing the stones, he got a red notification on his panel, and at the same time, a massive stream of information surged into his mind, instantly fusing with his consciousness.
This torrent of informationâ
It was the entire perfected comprehension of the Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array, plus the technique for array formation.
In that instant, Lin Changâsheng felt like heâd mastered a hundred years of insight into the Five Elements Spirit Summoning Arrayâabsolutely magical.
This arrayâ
Covered roughly ten miles in range, and could absorb and gather the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi from a hundred miles in every direction. Normally, itâd be set up near a spirit medicine garden or a cave dwelling.
"Heh heh, while you guys are busy trying to break the array, Iâll just slip in and steal the spirit medicines right under your noses."
Lin Changâsheng was pumped with anticipation.
Array formation complete, he headed back immediately, avoiding the cultivators attacking the grand array and circling around to enter from the Array Sectâs entrance.
Inside the Five Elements Spirit Summoning Array, the space covered around five miles and held three medicine plots.
Clearly, this was a small medicine garden. The spiritual energy was so thick it bordered on the surreal, with a dense white mist swirling everywhere.
From inside the array, Lin Changâsheng could see more than twenty cultivators outside, hard at work blasting the array.
Overhead, the hemispherical glow of the array shield shimmered with each impact like an overturned bowl.
"Whoa!"
"So much spirit medicineâthis trip was totally worth it!"
Lin Changâsheng spotted two snow reishi not far off, at least three-hundred-year-old. Further away, there was a solid haul of ginseng, polygonum multiflorum, polygonatum, cistanche...
Plenty of them were over two hundred years old.
"Heh heh, you guys keep trying to break that arrayâIâll just drain the whole garden from the bottom!"
Watching the cultivators struggle outside, Lin Changâshengâs eyes flashed. He got busy looting, setting aside a dedicated storage bag.
All the ginseng, polygonum multiflorum, polygonatum, cistanche, and other spirit medicines went inâhe left only anything younger than fifty years behind.
Took every herb over fifty years old.
The low-year stuff wasnât much good to him.
"Swish!"
Just then, a flash of white light appeared ahead.
"Whatâs that?"
Lin Changâsheng reacted instantly, probing with his divine sense, but found nothing there. Suddenly, another flash of white appeared about twenty yards away.
"Hmm? Is that a ginseng?"
"A millennium-old one?"
Lin Changâshengâs powerful divine sense blanketed the whole grand array. He finally spotted itâa ginseng that had developed sentience, topped with two big, bright green leaves.
Its body looked like a tiny human about a foot tall, skin pale yellow with horizontal wrinkles, and little root-hands and feet. It clearly feared Lin Changâsheng.
In the medicine field, it kept shifting locations nonstop.