Chapter 54: The Divine Elephant's Strength
“Not good!”
The air rang with the sharp clash of steel.
As an innate spirit vessel, Murong Yu’s premonition was keenly sensitive. The undisguised malice in Lu Sheng’s laughter instantly put her on guard. The moment she saw Lu Sheng draw his blade, she responded in a flash—her sword left its scabbard to meet his attack.
Yet she was still a step too slow. Under Lu Sheng’s relentless onslaught, she managed to parry only three strikes before his razor-sharp long blade sliced straight through her sword. Had it not been for Duanmu Yun and Duanmu Qun’s swift reactions—drawing their weapons to assail Lu Sheng—she might very well have been cut in two on the spot!
——
“Brother Lu, stay your hand!”
The clash had erupted so suddenly that even Guan Yingfan, himself a martial master, only spoke after the skirmish had ended. Now he gazed at the four people inside the room, locked in tense confrontation, while An Guoyan kept him subtly in check. A wry smile twitched at his lips.
He admitted to himself that his decision to let Lu Sheng read the records of the Lu and Murong clans had been calculated: to provoke old grudges, to test Lu Sheng’s strength, and to force Lu Sheng into relying on the Four Seas Trading Company. But he hadn’t anticipated Lu Sheng’s attack would be so abrupt—and that his weapon would be so lethally sharp!
“If Murong Yu had not been an innate spirit vessel and wielded a second-rank mystic weapon, she would never have blocked those first few blows from Lu Hun—she might truly be dead now!”
“This Lu Hun is as unruly as ever—impossible to control!”
Murong Yu was famed for her beauty, a scion of the renowned Murong clan with formidable innate power. In the Western Regions, she was hailed as the most beautiful goddess of her generation. Yet faced with such a vision, Lu Sheng had shown no mercy, coming within a hair’s breadth of cutting her down where she stood.
Guan Yingfan gained a deeper understanding of Lu Sheng’s nature: ruthless, dangerous, just like his ancestor Lu Hunxuan.
“Thank goodness I didn’t challenge him just now,” Guan Yingfan thought, recalling Lu Sheng’s attack. Although he too was a martial master, his expertise lay in commerce, not in life-and-death combat. Compared to those who fought for survival in the martial world, his combat power was far inferior.
With such a keen blade in hand, Lu Sheng could easily have slain him.
——
“Everyone, calm yourselves! Please, calm down!” Guan Yingfan stepped forward, interposing himself between the opposing sides. “Mr. Lu, though your ancestor bore a grudge against the Murong clan, the fact that it was never spoken of means it was considered resolved. Miss Murong, Mr. Lu is a guest of the Four Seas Trading Company—there’s no need for the Fire God Sect to meddle further.”
He had seen countless such predicaments and was adept at diffusing tension. Especially in situations like this, where one side was powerful but alone, and the other had numbers but had just suffered a setback—such equilibrium was the perfect ground for his skill.
“Manager Guan, are you saying the Four Seas Trading Company intends to shield this man?” Duanmu Yun spoke, frowning at the deep notch and ruined mystic pattern on his saber. It was a second-rank mystic weapon, but a single exchange had left it damaged.
“That long blade of his is at least as sharp as a third-rank weapon,” Duanmu Yun thought, weighing Lu Sheng’s strength. “Though it was a sudden attack, to unleash five strikes in an instant and repel the three of us—”
“This man’s cultivation is at least late-stage martial master!”
Both he and Murong Yu, as chosen son and daughter of their sect, were gifted prodigies in their early twenties, already at mid-stage martial master level. Duanmu Qun, who accompanied them, was a peak martial master of many years. For Lu Sheng to dare launch a sudden assault on the three of them and still appear composed when he withdrew—his strength was at least late-stage martial master.
Confronted by such a man, even while pursuing Murong Yu, Duanmu Yun dared not provoke him directly. Thus, he could only press the matter with the Four Seas Trading Company—lest the old feud between the Murong and Lu clans entangle the Duanmu clan as well.
——
“Three people, two at mid-stage martial master, one at the peak—more than enough to kill them,” Lu Sheng thought, evaluating his opponents as Duanmu Yun had done.
A moment ago, he had feigned anger, following Guan Yingfan’s lead, casting aside the disguise of his Frost Skill. Like most Lu clan scions, he simultaneously unleashed the mystic energy of both his middle and lower dantians—each containing four layers of energy vortex, combined to match an eight-vortex, late-stage martial master’s cultivation.
“I didn’t even go all out just now. With only two dantians’ power and my blade, killing these three would not be difficult. The real threat is the person outside.”
His long blade had been forged from multiple second-rank mystic weapons, refined with merit for the purpose of cutting through the body of a fourth-rank dragon whale beast. Though its mystic patterns were not of the highest grade and it was technically a second-rank weapon, in terms of sharpness it was at the very peak of the third rank—otherwise, it could never have pierced the dragon whale’s defenses.
Had he struck with full force just now, not only the people but their weapons would have been cleaved in two. What held him in check was the presence of someone lurking beyond the room.
——
“Not a sound from them, their energy and spirit utterly concealed... If not for the faint fluctuation when I cut Murong Yu’s sword, I might never have noticed.”
When he broke Murong Yu’s sword, Lu Sheng had been poised to press the attack, but a sudden sense of danger made him hesitate. Thus he parried Duanmu Yun and Duanmu Qun’s blows and withdrew.
“Anyone who can make me feel such a threat must at least be a grand martial master. Is this person sent by the Murong clan to protect Murong Yu, or perhaps an admirer of hers? Such concealment feels like the legendary Stone Concealment Technique—could the person outside be the mighty Stone God of the Western Regions?”
His thoughts turned to Shi Ying, pursued by Murong Yu and Duanmu Yun, and to what he had read in the Genius Rankings: “Shi Ying, age twenty-six, ranked ninth on the Genius List, eighty-seventh on the Earth List. It’s said he had a fortuitous encounter and is the true inheritor of the Divine Elephant Power.”
The Divine Elephant Power was a famous tradition in the Western Regions, said to be an ancient art best suited to those with the bloodline of the divine elephant. Yet the bloodline was long extinct. The art’s fame was not due to its might, but its accessibility—it was easy to learn and widespread in the Western Regions. Yet, for all its ease, few ever mastered it to become martial masters.
Until a young man named Shi Ying appeared in a small Western clan.
——
“Shi Ying is an innate spirit vessel. It’s said that as a child, he saw a painting of a divine elephant crossing a river and from it grasped the true essence of the Divine Elephant Power. With this, his cultivation soared, and by twenty he became a martial master, earning a place on the Genius List!”
“But this also brought disaster: his clan was annihilated.”
A minor family in the Western Regions suddenly produced a Genius List martial master, one who achieved it through the Divine Elephant Power—unsurprisingly, the news caused a sensation. When word spread that Shi Ying had grasped the true meaning of the Divine Elephant Crossing the River, fortune-seekers descended like locusts, consuming the entire Shi clan. Shi Ying himself barely escaped, saved only by a loyal old servant named Shi Yinjian.
“One year ago, after advancing to grand martial master, Shi Ying slew nearly all his enemies, including a man ranked on the Earth List—thus offending the Fire God Sect.”
The Fire God Sect, supreme in the northwestern regions, was immensely powerful. By challenging them, Shi Ying brought their pursuit upon himself. Though he escaped by virtue of his strength, his old servant Shi Yinjian was captured.
“Shi Yinjian was merely a servant, not even a martial master—normally, someone like him could never escape the Fire God Sect’s clutches, nor would they dispatch their chosen son and daughter to pursue him. Clearly, there is some hidden motive.”
Lu Sheng recalled Guan Yingfan’s earlier mention of the grade-six snow lotus: “Spirit vessels are adept at communing with spiritual entities. Shi Ying, as an innate spirit vessel, may have encountered a grade-six snow lotus during his years in hiding—and told Shi Yinjian about it. The Fire God Sect must have obtained the secret from Shi Yinjian.”
There were many ways in the martial world to extract secrets from those without martial mastery or spiritual training. After two years of accumulating knowledge and fully comprehending the Lu clan legacy, Lu Sheng himself no longer needed a mind-control parasite; he now had several means to temporarily control others.
“The Shi clan’s Stone Concealment Technique allows one to hide as if turning into stone, making it nearly impossible to track. Even the Fire God Sect would struggle to find them, at least for a while—which is why they deliberately released Shi Yinjian, hoping to use him to locate Shi Ying.”
“Most likely, the Four Seas Trading Company learned of the matter at this point as well.”
It was as if he had witnessed it all firsthand; by following the slenderest threads, Lu Sheng had deduced the truth.
——
He continued his conjecture: “Murong Yu, aged twenty-one, innate spirit vessel, mid-stage martial master, ranked fifty-seventh on the Genius List. This woman seems to have some connection to Shi Ying.”
When he attacked Murong Yu earlier, he had sensed the danger outside—such concern was hardly mere chivalry.
“Does Murong Yu know the true purpose of this mission, or is she unaware? Was she sent here simply because of her gift, or because the Fire God Sect knows of her connection to Shi Ying—assigning her here on purpose?”
He glanced at Duanmu Yun, and the situation only became more intriguing.
“Duanmu Yun, age twenty-three, innate meridian vessel, mid-stage martial master, ranked sixty-first on the Genius List—he’s been pursuing Murong Yu.”
“A chosen son, the most beautiful goddess of the younger generation, and the fugitive pursued by the Fire God Sect, with the secret of the grade-six snow lotus between them—these three must have a story worth watching.”