Chapter 113: Rampage Through Xuanwu Pavilion
Xuanwu Pavilion sent Yan Rong, Yan Fang, and two other Yan family disciples named Yan Zheng and Yan Wu to welcome Chen Shi.
As for Yan Qing, who had been beaten by Chen Shi, he did not come. Yan Shuo, who was close to him, also stayed away.
The moment Chen Shi kicked open the main gates, the four Yan brothers reacted one after another. Without a word, they each activated their Divine Shrines and Divine Embryos, summoning their Golden Cores.
Yan Rong was the first to manifest his Golden Core. His had reached nine revolutions, the same realm as Fu Leisheng back in Xixiang County.
But unlike a wild-grown scholar like Fu Leisheng, he had received the Yan clan's top guidance from childhood, training in the finest techniques and consuming the highest-grade Foundation Establishment Pills.
And after arriving in Lei County and joining Xuanwu Pavilion, he had cultivated diligently and arduously, building a foundation even thicker than Fu Leisheng's back then!
Under the power of his Golden Core, Xuanwu Pavilion's gates melted in an instant. The two attendants caught in the blast had their clothes ignite, their flesh dissolve, leaving only white bones that soon crumbled to ash and scattered!
The sheer strength of his Golden Core drew awed glances.
But the next moment, he heard a thunderous roar. A towering figure charged straight at him—three heads and six arms, faces ferocious, standing about sixteen feet tall. One face vaguely resembled Chen Shi's, still boyish.
"Chen Shi! What technique is this?!" Yan Rong's heart jolted. Though Chen Shi now loomed large, he was not bulky. As a child, he lacked much muscle. In this sixteen-foot demonic god form, he had massive bones and feet, with bulging muscles barely covering the frame, appearing somewhat gaunt.
Yet that head of red hair billowing toward the sky was striking.
He was not truly three-headed and six-armed. The extra two heads were formed from externalized vital energy and blood condensed into shape, illusions made manifest.
Even the weapons gripped in Chen Shi's six arms were shaped from vital energy and blood, controlled by different incantations—not real weapons.
The Yan family had similar methods, but nothing this complex.
Before he could react fully, accompanied by a muffled thunderclap, Chen Shi's hatchet was already descending on Yan Rong's head. Caught off guard by the speed, he could only retreat!
Boom!
His body slammed into the spirit screen behind him. Directly opposite Xuanwu Pavilion's gates stood a massive spirit screen carved from Qianshan stone, twenty feet long and twelve feet high. When Yan Jingsi served as county magistrate, he had hired master craftsmen to engrave tales of the Yan ancestors pioneering the wilderness, venturing into West Ox New Continent, exorcising evils, and slaying demons.
Masterful Ming craftsmanship, lifelike in every detail—clearly expensive.
Even Qianshan stone could not withstand Yan Rong's impact; it cracked on the spot. As Yan Rong flew backward through the air, his nine-revolution Golden Core shot forward. His finger tapped it, unleashing its full power!
A tongue of flame erupted, sweeping toward Chen Shi with enough heat to melt the spirit screen into lava!
Chen Shi's falling hatchet sliced the flame tongue in two, turning it into twin fire waves that surged outward.
The two waves stretched thirty or forty feet, burning down the walls on either side of the gates like opening two side doors six or seven feet wide.
Yan Rong landed hard, crashing through the sedan hall's double wooden doors with excessive force.
The sedan hall was where Xuanwu Pavilion disciples, the county magistrate, or esteemed guests parked their sedans.
Noble visitors to Xuanwu Pavilion rarely walked; slaves carried them in sedans around the spirit screen into the hall, where they would dismount and greet the host.
Though Chen Shi had made some filthy money selling rat tails and passed the scholar exams, how could he compare to a hereditary clan like the Yans?
Showing up on foot like him would earn mockery from clan disciples as a penniless bumpkin.
Yan Rong had just steadied himself when he saw Chen Shi's arms and legs stretch long. In one step, a longsword pierced Yan Wu, while the other hand whipped out a long cord that wrapped Yan Zheng's neck and yanked him back. A third hand thrust a short halberd into Yan Zheng's heart!
"Yan Zheng! Yan Wu!"
Yan Rong's eyes bulged with rage, blood streaming from them as he charged forward. He saw Chen Shi's massive frame pivot, six arms whirling six weapons in a whistling frenzy as he lunged at Yan Fang—
The corpses of Yan Wu and Yan Zheng still hung impaled on the sword and halberd.
Among the four, Yan Fang ranked second only to Yan Rong. His Golden Core at seven revolutions came from the Yan family's *Qianshan Hall Compendium*, specifically the Twelve Zodiac Demon Gods Chapter.
Legend held that after the Yan ancestors arrived in West Ox New Continent, they encountered twelve demon gods and created it.
Cultivating this art caused heads to sprout from the neck, connected by trachea and blood vessels.
Upon Golden Core completion, heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys would grow—the five viscera and six bowels.
At Nascent Soul stage, limbs would emerge, forming big-headed freaks also called demon god spawn.
At Soul Transformation stage, they would become twelve distinct demon god forms of immense power!
Few in the Yan clan practiced it, as it required harvesting living souls.
Harvesting living souls meant killing the living for cultivation, feeding human souls to nurture the twelve demon gods for faster manifestation.
This heaven-defying art invited thunder tribulations before reaching the pinnacle, but its power far outstripped peers upon any success.
Yan Fang relied on Flood Dragon Shangshan's favor to cultivate it.
To refine his Golden Core into a dragon, Flood Dragon Shangshan had flooded many riverside villages and towns, drowning hundreds each time.
Shangshan favored Yan Fang, reserving the living souls of those swept into the river for his own use while leaving the rest for Yan Fang.
Thanks to this boon, Yan Fang had reached seven revolutions in the Twelve Zodiac Demon Gods Chapter.
The other two Yan disciples, Yan Zheng and Yan Wu, were at six and four revolutions in the *Qianshan Hall Compendium*'s Azure Charm Decree. Though less potent than the demon gods chapter, it was no trifle—yet both fell to Chen Shi in one clash.
Chen Shi swung their corpses at Yan Fang. Yan Fang retreated while transforming into a headless torso, twelve heads floating before and behind him. His Golden Core emerged from his Divine Embryo and hovered in the air.
The Golden Core was profoundly baleful; Yan Zheng and Yan Wu's corpses melted into green liquid in moments.
The twelve heads flew apart—front, back, left, right, up, down—in different directions, each spewing a jet of green flame at Chen Shi.
The Twelve Zodiac Demon Gods Chapter's most vicious trait was its corruption: it tainted all spells and treasures, shredding talismans effortlessly. Even an Eight Trigrams Guarding Scripture barrier would burn through under its green fire.
He had once used it to incinerate a formidable talisman master.
Yet the invincible green flames scorched Chen Shi's weapons harmlessly and left his body untouched.
The Canopy Demon-Subduing Great Law was orthodox Northern Celestial Law. Chen Shi's current form was the true dharma body of the North Pole Canopy Great Emperor. Even ink drawings with dog blood and cinnabar on paper repelled evil—how much more the true dharma body?
Chen Shi plunged into the midst of the twelve demon heads. Yan Fang tried to flee, but Chen Shi's hatchet cleaved the headless body in two.
In Chen Shi's view, Yan Fang's technique was full of flaws. The twelve flying heads offered wide vision, but the unguarded body—with mere arms and legs—couldn't withstand his assault, so he cleaved it casually.
This was a flaw of the Twelve Zodiac Demon Gods Chapter.
Perfected, it birthed twelve demon gods with supreme defense. But at this stage, just twelve heads looked scary and worked against ordinary cultivators—at best. Against Chen Shi, it died in one exchange.
Chen Shi spun, hatchet chopping then main sword slashing. Sword strike followed by imperial bell smash. Hacking and turning, his six weapons wheeled, punching through walls and snapping sedan hall pillars.
Yan Rong closed in when suddenly, red hair billowed from the crowns of Chen Shi's three heads, revealing a tiny temple where true qi swirled.
Sensing dire peril, Yan Rong knew it was bad and flipped back.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Six formless sword qi burst from the tiny temple, sweeping the sedan hall's pillars bare, flipping the roof, and collapsing the walls!
Chen Shi let out a soft "Eh?" in apparent puzzlement, then strode out of the rubble on long legs, charging after Yan Rong.
His surprise stemmed from wonder: Yan Rong had clashed with him twice without dying.
Few could withstand even two exchanges.
The two barreled one after another into Xuanwu Pavilion's Myriad Volumes Hall, where Yan disciples studied and honed techniques. The earlier commotion had alerted them; several Yan disciples and a crowd of handmaidens now stood ready, each activating their Divine Shrines and Embryos.
Some sixteen or seventeen handmaidens cried out at Chen Shi's entry, their true qi forming flying needles that shot forth!
Chen Shi couldn't fully dodge, taking over a hundred needles in his body before Yan disciples' spells struck. The Canopy Demon-Subduing Great Law shattered; he staggered back with wounds—mostly needle pricks, not spell damage.
The Yan disciples' spells—like true qi blades or sword edges—dented Chen Shi's skin before his surging vital energy dispersed them.
Only true qi flying needles pierced skin into muscle, even bone!
His vital energy far exceeded others'; punctured, it sprayed like fountains, splattering a zhang away.
This Soulstart Thirteen Needles was also orthodox, excelling at breaching close-combat cultivators' dharma bodies, golden bodies, or protective astral qi.
The handmaidens charged from Myriad Volumes Hall for another strike, but Chen Shi's body shrank rapidly. The instant he landed, he twisted like a great serpent coiling, foot planting as his waist whipped upward in a flip.
Whooshing air-ripping sounds rang out as formless qi blades flashed past.
Yan Rong reacted fast, dropping prone. But the sixteen or seventeen handmaidens froze mid-motion, afraid to budge.
Behind them, the Yan youths' limbs flew apart, heads severed.
Thud! Chen Shi landed, stepping the North Dipper Jade Pivot Pace as he charged past the handmaidens.
The wind from his passing stirred them; red lines appeared at their waists, which split open. Upper bodies slid down slowly, legs rooted, until they buckled moments later.
Yan Rong dashed into the Plucking Elegance Pavilion. Boom—the doors shattered under Chen Shi's fist. Yan Rong vaulted to the second floor, about to leap from the window to the rear yard, when a chill hit him: "The rear yard houses the aunts and womenfolk. Leading this killer god there would turn it into a river of blood!"
He wheeled toward the Dragon-Nurturing Pool instead.
Behind him, Chen Shi pursued with North Dipper Jade Pivot Steps, starlight twinkling underfoot. Jade Pivot Pace refined skin in the North Dipper Seven Refinements. The hundred-plus needles had pierced muscle and bone—not fatal.
The real issue: skin breached, he couldn't activate Canopy Demon-Subduing Great Law.
It demanded peak vital energy overflow at the flesh's blood limit, bound by the law into the three-heads-six-arms divine spectacle.
That spectacle was vital energy-formed, not grown flesh, requiring a leak-proof body with all acupoints sealed.
Thus, Chen Shi first had to heal his skin wounds.
The pair burst into the Dragon-Nurturing Pool. Yan Rong, terror-stricken, bellowed, "Chen Shi is killing! Come help!"
Many Yan disciples were cultivating in Xuanwu Pavilion; hearing him, they poured out. Chen Shi had sealed his needle wounds, ignoring the Great Law. Footing North Dipper Seven Star Steps, he skimmed the pool, then pounced like a tiger to shore—clang clang! Two sword qi struck him!
The sword qi barely grazed skin before his internally-driven Golden Core vital energy blasted them apart.
He too was Golden Core realm, two revolutions. Unlike others' externally-projected fields, his was internalized in flesh.
Hyper-condensed, it was even mightier!
He punched out, sending the frontal foe flying with his Golden Core, skewering him on a tree branch protrusion—dead for sure.
Seeing more descending from the hill, releasing spells from the peak, Chen Shi surged his vital energy, tanking the attacks head-on. He stormed up the stone steps, shrugging off a Yan disciple's Golden Core suppression, grabbed his head, and smashed it into the side cliff.
Thud!
Skull split.
Thud!
Brains splattered.
Chen Shi sprang up, sweeping the legs of a descending Yan disciple, then leaped, toe-kicking his throat.
As the corpse flew out, Chen Shi darted beneath, index finger spearing a handmaiden's throat ahead. She had meant to use needles but hesitated fearing friendly fire; he crushed her windpipe and neck bones, ending her.
Chen Shi snapped a pillar topped by a stone lion and hurled it, piercing a Yan disciple's chest. Striding forward, in a few bounds he slew several more, reaching Xuanwu Pavilion base.
Yan Mo and others retreated inside, spells primed, awaiting him.
All three levels—upper, middle, lower—bristled with talismans and seals. Once triggered, not even heaven-piercing means could escape.
Yet after half a moment, Chen Shi still hadn't entered.
Suddenly—WHOOSH! Chen Shi hoisted the massive waterwheel from behind Xuanwu Pavilion high, swung it full circle in a spin, and hurled it at the pavilion!