The Modern Martial Immortal

Chapter 273: Displaying Power

The Fang family needed time to pack up.

Yaoguang led Fang Yueming and a small group of the Fang family’s elites onto the Void Disk, making it head straight toward the Cloud Sword Sect.

Only after boarding the Void Disk did Fang Yueming realize that Yaoguang and his group were not backed by any major power.

From their demeanor, they seemed to have only recently migrated here from a nearby great world.

Yet upon learning this, Fang Yueming felt even more delighted.

Forces that had migrated from outside were extremely common on the North Sea Star. Being unfamiliar with the land, they often chose to recruit local factions.

Most of them were ordinary forces that had merely been fortunate enough to evade the outer perimeter's star bandits. They were rather weak, with their strongest members being only self-proclaimed Psyche-Transforming Ream cultivators whose true combat strength could not even compare to a Radiant Sun Golden Core.

But the force they had pledged allegiance to this time was clearly far more powerful.

They didn't even take seriously the Cloud Sword Sect, which had a Blazing White Golden Core cultivator. That alone spoke volumes.

If the Fang family could seize this opportunity, they would surely soar in the future.

Reaching the Eternal Light Realm would be easy, and even condensing a Crimson Golden Core would no longer be an unattainable dream.

With enough time and accumulation, if one day they could nurture a Crimson Golden Core under sixty years of age and have them join a top-tier power, the Fang family would achieve a complete leap in status.

After all, once someone condensed a Crimson Golden Core and joined a top-tier faction, they could claim the status of a disciple of that power.

With that reputation alone, others would fear them.

They would truly rise from the bottom ranks of the North Sea Star, finally possessing a sliver of status worth mentioning, no longer relegated to being a minor faction whose name would be forgotten the moment it was destroyed.

***

The Void Disk traversed through space, passing over quite a few towns and factions along the way.

Compared to Huaigu City, these settlements were smaller, usually sustained by a single family of cultivators or by several families banding together for survival.

During the journey, Fang Yueming introduced the surroundings in great detail: "The Yunchuan Mountains stretch for one hundred and fifty thousand kilometers. Their size rivals that of several provinces of the Great Shang Immortal Dynasty. However, many regions are overrun by daemons, and there are also mutated dead zones formed under the influence of the North Sea Star. The only habitable areas lie in the eastern, southern, and western regions. In total, there are 103 cities, each housing between ten thousand and a hundred thousand cultivators, with roughly four million cultivators overall..."

Yaoguang listened quietly.

He knew that those who Fang Yueming referred to as cultivators were those who had successfully reached the Foundation Building Realm.

Those who had not reached that level were generally not counted by most factions, except by forces such as the six Fiendish Dao sects.

And the reason those Fiendish Dao factions counted mortals was that they could use them when refining treasures like the Myriad Soul Refinement Banner or Blood Fiend Banner. They were, in essence, a resource.

Many bandits attacked cities and territories precisely to slaughter mortals, harvest souls, or capture populations for trade.

Because of the great immortal-fiend war that had erupted three hundred years ago and only recently neared its end, Fiendish Dao forces had been forced to shrink their territories. As their population declined, the price of cultivation resources such as Myriad Soul Pearls rose by tens of thousands of spirit stones.

Many Fiendish Dao cultivators could only lament that they could no longer afford them.

Major powers had long foreseen this trend. They supported forces outside the North Sea Star, sending them to raid nearby great worlds for population and resources.

The war between the Lunar Fiend Empire and the Great Cangwu World had erupted precisely for this reason.

Yaoguang's psychic consciousness swept over the towns below. There were just over thirty cultivators, and more than a thousand mortals who had not reached the Foundation Building Realm.

These people lived within areas covered by arrays. Unless they broke through to the Foundation Building Realm, they would never be able to leave the safety of those arrays.

Could such beings, who lacked even the right to walk openly upon the earth, truly be regarded by cultivators as the same kind of species?

By the same logic, would Core Formation cultivators, who could live for a thousand years, truly value Foundation Building or Unity Realm cultivators, whose lifespans were only one or two hundred years?

If one grew attached, only to return from a journey and find them dead of old age, it would bring nothing but sorrow.

Over time, Core Formation cultivators naturally stopped investing emotions in those below them.

Likewise, a Crimson Golden Core cultivator could crush hundreds or thousands of Core Formation cultivators as easily as ants. When interacting with a Crimson Golden Core cultivator, others had to tread carefully, feeling constant pressure. Why would such a person continue to associate closely with them?

Without interaction, even if someone with a slight connection died, the Crimson Golden Core cultivator would feel nothing.

It was difficult for people to empathize with those they neither knew nor interacted with.

This applied to all cultivators, from Core Formation cultivators to Golden Core and even to Void-Piercing Realm cultivators who could live for tens of thousands of years.

This was no longer merely a difference in tiers. It was a difference in species.

Even among mortals with the same short lifespans, those at the top often felt little toward the lives of those below them. How much more so for top cultivators, who one could consider to effectively be a different species altogether?

Expecting them to care about ordinary people was like asking ordinary people to concern themselves with the daily lives of ants behind their homes. It was foolish to say the least.

In places with order, high-tier cultivators still show some restraint toward mortals. But in the intensely competitive environment of the North Sea Star, both indifference and malice are magnified to an extreme... In ancient times, great figures already held the power of life and death over the masses. How much more so now... Yaoguang continued to adjust his mindset.

Since he had arrived on the North Sea Star, he had to force himself to accept its rules. At least until he gained the power to define those rules himself.

The Void Disk flew for less than an hour before Fang Yueming reported respectfully, "Perfected Master Yaoguang, the Cloud Sword Sect lies ahead. By now, we have likely already been detected by their scouts..."

"Mhmm." Yaoguang acknowledged and transmitted his voice to Li Hanqiu, "Perfected Lord, I’ll leave the rest to you."

"Alright." Li Hanqiu nodded slightly.

With the World-Stabilizing Ring, although his current strength did not match a true Void-Piercing Realm expert, dealing with a Blazing White Golden Core was effortless.

As his figure rose into the air, he performed several spatial shifts and appeared above the Cloud Sword Sect in an instant.

The moment the sect had detected the massive Void Disk approaching, it had already activated its protective array. Radiant light enveloped the core region of the sect.

As for the cultivators and towns in the surrounding areas that depended on the Cloud Sword Sect, when faced with impending danger, the sect did not spare them a single glance.

As soon as Li Hanqiu arrived, the Cloud Sword Sect’s supreme elder, Long Wuyin, immediately offered a fist-and-palm salute in greeting from within the array. "I wonder which exalted immortal has honored our sect with their presence. We failed to welcome you from afar. Please forgive us."

He quickly added, "Our Cloud Sword Sect is currently at war with our rival, the Dark Light Sect, and cannot invite you inside to host you properly. Please leave your name. Once the war is over, we will definitely prepare a generous gift and personally visit to apologize."

His attitude was impeccable. Yet Li Hanqiu did not respond. He simply raised a hand and pointed toward the protective array that covered a radius of over a hundred kilometers.

In the next moment, a ripple that twisted space and tore through all things spread from his fingertip and slammed into the Cloud Sword Sect’s protective array.

Under the impact of this spatial distortion, the array, which could withstand attacks from an Azure Golden Core cultivator, seemed like paper. It shook violently and shattered in less than a single breath.

At the instant the array collapsed, countless elders maintaining it coughed up blood, while many of the array’s foundational regions crumbled.

Within the array, the trace of cunning in Long Wuyin’s eyes was instantly replaced by despair.

"Void-Piercing Realm!" he exclaimed.

He had originally been considering that if this intruder were merely average in strength, or even evenly matched with him, he would risk the complete destruction of the Cloud Sword Sect just to seize that extraordinary treasure behind him.

But the moment Li Hanqiu made his move, that terrifying power, far beyond Long Wuyin's expectations, crushed all his hopes.

Amid terrified cries, this Blazing White Golden Core cultivator completely lost the courage to fight. As the array shattered, he transformed into a streak of sword light and fled at full speed.

The sect? Its disciples? His family? He abandoned them all!

At that moment, he only wanted to get as far away as possible from the Void-Piercing Realm expert behind him.

Even as he fled through the air, a crimson aura surged from his body as he tried to activate some forbidden evasion art.

Unfortunately, the gap in strength was too great.

Before a Void-Piercing Realm expert, let alone a Blazing White Golden Core, even the elite Azure Golden Core true disciples of the Ten Great Immortal Dao Sects would struggle to turn the tide.

Anyone who could survive before a true Void-Piercing Realm would already be hailed as a once-in-ten-thousand-years prodigy.

Under such circumstances, Li Hanqiu did not even move. Through his control of spatial power, he directly crushed Long Wuyin with a vast gravitational force comparable to a Primordial Void, cutting his escape short.

Then, he tore through the air.

"No! Spare me... The entire Cloud Sword Sect is willing to serve you..." Long Wuyin’s terrified plea rang out.

In the next instant, his entire body was twisted and crushed under that gravity, comparable to a Primordial Void.

Even at the final moment, when his Blazing White Golden Core erupted with dazzling brilliance, shaking that terrifying force, the intense heat and light still could not escape its grasp. After flickering briefly, it was swallowed entirely.

He died on the spot.

The residual waves of gravitational force spread outward, tearing soil and trees from the ground across a fifty-kilometer radius and lifting them into the air.

The atmosphere above, along with the ever-present spiritual power, was drawn into a massive vortex, as if the winds and clouds across hundreds of kilometers were about to change color.

Yet all these phenomena vanished as the light and heat from the Golden Core’s self-destruction were extinguished and reduced to nothingness.

A void spanning over fifty kilometers formed in the sky.

Considering that the Nine Cauldrons Sect still intended to temporarily occupy the Cloud Sword Sect’s territory, Li Hanqiu did not allow the aftermath to spread further.

As the gravitational force rapidly contracted, the energy from the Golden Core’s explosion was compressed into a single point of white light before being extinguished entirely.

He had even deliberately restrained his power, ensuring that the Cloud Sword Sect’s headquarters was not swallowed.

"This is the power of a Void-Piercing Realm expert." Yaoguang felt a surge of emotion.

He finally understood why the path of the battle immortal, despite its many flaws, could still endure on the North Sea Star.

Its increase in combat strength was simply too fast. Just a year ago, Li Hanqiu’s combat power had been below his. But now, he had been completely left behind.

Compared to Yaoguang, who had been somewhat mentally prepared, Fang Yueming, who had witnessed Li Hanqiu unleashing true Void-Piercing Realm power firsthand, had only one thought in his mind. We struck gold! My family is about to rise!