Chapter 143: I Have Come to Challenge the Mountain Gate

The battle between Qin Chuan and Gu Qiuyou lasted merely a few seconds.

The miserable screams reached halfway up the mountain, leaving the disciples and elders on the plaza utterly astonished and bewildered.

An outer-door elder in his fifties frowned and asked, "What is going on? From the sound of it, that seemed to be Gu Qiuyou."

Another outer-door elder chuckled with a hint of sarcasm, "Elder He, I suspect that fellow simply couldn't hold it in any longer. Guarding the mountain gate is no pleasant task, after all."

Elder He wore a suspicious expression, clearly being the more prudent of the two. After a moment of thought, he said, "Elder Liu, you had better take a few men down to investigate."

Elder Liu twisted his mouth in mild discontent, yet he did not refuse. He turned to a group of disciples and commanded, "You lot, come with me!"

Accompanied by ten disciples, Elder Liu had barely descended a hundred meters when he spotted a figure in black slowly walking toward them from afar.

With every step the man took, he seemed to traverse several meters in the blink of an eye, leaving a long trail of afterimages in his wake.

Elder Liu said in utter astonishment, "Th-this... what movement technique is this?"

In truth, this was no supreme movement technique of Qin Chuan's; he was merely walking at an exceptionally brisk pace, yet it produced such an illusion.

Although Elder Liu was also an elder, his cultivation was evidently a tier lower. It was not until Qin Chuan stepped within a thirty-meter radius that he finally snapped back to his senses.

"Not good! Enemy attack!"

"Whoosh!"

Hearing the system prompt, Qin Chuan directly activated two consecutive blinks to close the distance, followed instantly by a sweeping strike to close in for the kill.

Under such circumstances, his movement technique appeared all the more bizarre and unfathomable.

Terrified out of his wits, Elder Liu instantly grabbed a disciple standing beside him and hurled him forward as a human shield, then turned and bolted.

For Elder Liu understood all too well that Qin Chuan was clearly here to slaughter his way up; if even Gu Qiuyou could not stop him, what could possibly resist him?

"Ah! Master!"

The disciple who had been thrown forward by Elder Liu shrieked in absolute terror.

The remaining disciples were struck dumb with shock. Could this truly be the gentle and amiable master they knew?

Alongside their terror, a chilling sensation crept into the depths of their hearts.

"Ding! Target eliminated..."

"Ding! Slaughter state triggered."

In this state, Qin Chuan glided to within a meter of Elder Liu in the blink of an eye, recalled his longsword, and smashed it down with immense force.

Why refer to it as a smash? Because this was the third stage of the sweeping strike—a heavy blow dealing 120 percent damage to targets within a five-meter radius ahead, with the range increasing by two meters per level.

In other words, once Qin Chuan's heavy strike reached level six, it would inflict area-of-effect damage across a fifteen-meter radius.

"Bang!"

"Aah!"

With a single sweep of the sword, Elder Liu and the disciples were obliterated into dust, leaving not even a fragment of bone behind.

Qin Chuan did not show the slightest shred of mercy. He treated the men of Black Wind Cliff entirely as wild mobs to be farmed, reaping yet another massive wave of merit points.

This chain of miserable screams echoed with crystal clarity halfway up the mountain, sending a cold sweat coursing through everyone present.

"Enemy attack! Form the array!"

Realizing that a grave disaster was unfolding, Elder He immediately ordered the deployment of the hundred-man sword array.

By now, the disciples were all gripping green spiritual swords in their hands, forming the array with panicked and flustered movements.

The unknown has always been the most terrifying existence of all.

Up to this point, they had no inkling of what had actually transpired.

It was only after the grand array was fully formed that they finally regained a semblance of security.

Three hundred disciples, each holding a Starlight Sword, possessed a formidable group sword skill.

The origin of this sword skill lay in the collective linkage abilities of spiritual entities.

The sword skill of the array before them was known as the Starlight Strike, classified as a ranged attack.

A level-one green-light sword array possessed a base attack power exceeding 500, with each subsequent level doubling the base attack.

Currently, this was a level-three sword array, pushing its base attack beyond 2,000, with a striking range of thirty meters.

Simultaneously, the average level of the wielders provided a 1 percent attack bonus; at present, the average level of the three hundred disciples stood at thirty-five.

This meant the attack power of the Starlight Strike could reach over 2,700.

One had to admit, this was an immensely powerful sword skill.

Only by keeping countless spiritual entities in captivity could the formation of such a sword array even be possible.

Consequently, these three hundred disciples were the elite of the outer door.

At this moment, Qin Chuan slowly ascended to the flat ground halfway up the mountain, a faint smile still lingering at the corners of his lips.

"Hiss!"

The moment Qin Chuan appeared, the crowd could not help but draw in a sharp breath of cold air.

Initially, they had anticipated a massive horde of invading enemies, yet in the end, it was merely a single man in black—and one of such tender youth at that.

Right then, even Elder He's heart trembled violently. Elder Liu had only gone down a short while ago, yet he was already separated from the mortal world forever.

Just how terrifying must this man in black be?

What shocked Elder He even more was the red glow radiating from the longsword in Qin Chuan's hand, which directly gave him a chilly sensation beneath his groin.

"Hiss! A red-tier spiritual weapon!"

Elder He violently sucked in another breath of cold air, yet the sight of the red-tier spiritual weapon instantly stirred his greed anew.

The temptation of a red-tier spiritual weapon was something few beings in the spirit realm could ever resist.

"He is only at level thirty-four; I am not entirely without a chance!"

At this juncture, the Starlight Strike became Elder He's sole pillar of reliance.

Qin Chuan's lips curled upward as he advanced at a leisurely pace. Catching sight of the three hundred-man sword arrays, he felt a mild surge of curiosity.

"What manner of sword array is this? It feels rather interesting."

At that instant, Elder He's eyes flashed with a chilling gleam as he pointed fiercely at Qin Chuan and barked, "Blast him to smithereens!"

In unison, the three hundred disciples swung their Starlight Swords in a synchronized motion.

"Starlight Strike!"

Three colossal sword projections blasted directly toward Qin Chuan, their sheer momentum projecting an aura of absolute terror.

These three sword projections struck from different angles, enveloping a thirty-meter radius.

The flat ground itself was merely some thirty meters across, and Qin Chuan happened to be standing dead center in the eye of the storm.

Should those three sword strikes connect, Qin Chuan would undoubtedly suffer grievous injury, if not death.

In the blink of an eye, the massive sword projections completely swallowed Qin Chuan's figure.

"Boom!"

Three deafening explosions rang out almost simultaneously, shaking the flat ground violently and kicking up billowing clouds of dust.

"Ha! He's dead!"

"This fellow was nothing special after all!"

...

Exultant smiles broke out across the disciples' faces as they exhaled collective sighs of relief, suddenly concluding that what they had witnessed moments before must merely have been an illusion.

"Splendid, excellent! Surround him! Do not let the red-tier spiritual weapon escape!"

Elder He appeared utterly ecstatic at that moment, burning with impatience to claim the red-tier spiritual weapon for himself.

When the master of a spiritual weapon was slain, the weapon itself would suffer backlash and plunge into a brief state of dormancy.
This was the absolute best opportunity to claim it; one simply needed to use soul-restraint techniques to control the spiritual core, and ownership of the weapon would instantly transfer.

Yet, in the very next instant, everyone's smiles froze solid.

Qin Chuan emerged from the rolling dust, a faint smile still resting upon his lips, maintaining his unperturbed and effortless demeanor.

Elder He's eyes widened to their utmost limits as he let out a shocked shriek, "Th-this is impossible!"

At that moment, Qin Chuan cut the figure of an unrivaled supreme expert, frightening the men of Black Wind Cliff into breaking out in cold sweats.

Their proudest sword skill had utterly failed to produce even the slightest effect—such a shock defied description.

The three sword strikes executed just now were entirely capable of blasting a cultivator around level forty into smithereens.

They could even have inflicted massive damage upon a level-fifty cultivator, yet they had produced zero effect on Qin Chuan, who was merely level thirty-four.

Consequently, the disciples all assumed they had crossed paths with an unfathomable supreme expert, causing the Black Obsidian Swords in their grips to tremble uncontrollably.

The gap between a red-tier spiritual weapon and a green-tier spiritual weapon could truly be described as an unbridgeable chasm.

If the Black Obsidian Swords were not terrified, it would instead have appeared somewhat unnatural.

The present situation was exceedingly bizarre.

With every single step Qin Chuan advanced, the men of Black Wind Cliff instinctively retreated by a step, their movements so synchronized it was truly breathtaking to behold.

If word of this scene were to spread, it would likely cause the jaws of every single person in the entire spirit realm to drop in mockery.

At this juncture, Elder He asked with extreme difficulty, "Sen... Senior, might I ask what profound business brings you to our domain?"

As those words left his mouth, all the disciples exchanged glances of sheer disbelief.

"What kind of situation is this?"

"My goodness, events have clearly surpassed the boundaries of my imagination."

"Could it be that he truly concealed his level?"

...

A lingering question arose in the hearts of every disciple: Was Qin Chuan genuinely only level thirty-four?

From growing out of a rotten piece of timber into what he was today, transforming from a mocked black wooden sword into a dread-inspiring senior, less than half a year had passed.

If one were to speak of such a feat, no soul in the entire spirit realm would believe it, yet it was an absolute reality.

Qin Chuan calmly replied, "I am here to flatten the mountain gate."