Ch. 165 - The Third Battle Physique Awakens

The torrential rain poured down heavily, flooding the entire Holy Mountain.

The storm had come suddenly. The inner court disciple, cloaked in spiritforce, used it to form a protective barrier that kept the rain at bay.

He frowned slightly and said to the crowd, “Today’s assessment ends here. Those who haven’t passed yet, return for now. Come back when the rain stops tomorrow. Those who have passed, follow me. I’ll take you to your living quarters.”

Although many of the youths were reluctant, they had no choice but to leave the Holy Mountain.

The rest followed the inner sect disciple into the Supreme Primal Sacred Ground, an Imperial Lineage ruled by two Grand Emperors, full of legendary tales at the very heart of the Eastern Continent.

Once inside the sect, the newcomers finally began to take in the grandeur before them.

Towering peaks pierced the sky, stretching far beyond sight. Floating pavilions hung upside down from the horizon, violet qi drifted in from the east, and auspicious clouds blanketed half the heavens.

The storm hadn’t disturbed Supreme Primal Sacred Ground. If anything, it made the colossal sect seem even more ethereal.

Each disciple used spiritforce to form a shield above their heads, all except for Jiang Mochou. He ignored it, letting the rain drench him completely.

His thin frame, under the downpour, looked like a candle flickering in a storm, ready to be extinguished at any moment.

Jiang Mochou remembered it all very clearly. He had once been just an ordinary boy in a small mountain village.

His mother died shortly after giving birth to him, and his father raised him and his sister through hardship.

If nothing unexpected had happened, he would’ve lived a quiet life, ordinary but complete, and ended it with a simple period in the cycle of birth, aging, illness, and death.

But fate is rarely fair. The heavens are often cruel.

Jiang Mochou remembered. He always remembered clearly.

It was a spring day in April, with the gentle breeze and soft sunlight dancing across the ground.

A group of white-robed men descended from the sky, and from that moment, his life was changed forever.

His sister was taken by force, and his father was killed trying to protect them.

He should’ve died too, but his sister threatened to take her own life. Only then did they let him go.

He fled from the village, his once simple but loving home utterly destroyed.

…

His long hair soaked by rain, he couldn’t tell whether the wetness on his face was rain or tears.

The inner court disciple led the group to the area where servant disciples lived.

It was a desolate patch of land, with countless wooden huts built close together.

Jiang Mochou gave them a glance. There had to be at least several thousand.

The inner court disciple said blandly, “These huts were built by former servant disciples. Some are occupied, some are empty. Choose whichever you like. If there aren’t enough huts, build your own. I’ll assign your tasks tomorrow.”

Everyone answered in unison.

Once the inner court disciple left, the servant disciples began choosing their huts.

Because Jiang Mochou was at the Meridian Forging Realm, he was easily the strongest among them.

No one dared to compete with him when he picked a hut.

Inside, it was incredibly basic: a bed, a table, and a set of servant robes hanging on the wall.

After entering, Jiang Mochou lay down and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

…

Outside, the rain still poured like a waterfall from the heavens.

There was no sign of it stopping. As night fell, the sound of the downpour, “shhhhhh,” echoed endlessly.

It was as if the world itself was being drowned.

Jiang Mochou stood silently by the window, watching the rain.

That night, there was no moon. No stars. The sky was oppressively dark.

Once everything was cloaked in darkness, he slipped out of the hut under the cover of night.

The rain beat down in torrents, swallowing his figure in the storm and blackness.

…

Two paths split before me, straight, smooth roads.

One led to heaven: no wind, no sun, no challenge, no glory.

The other blazed with fire and led to hell: a blood-red sky, a land full of suffering, where fate was bleak and cruel.

But I, a mere mortal, walked through the flames, enduring the searing heat.

With fists in my hands, I shattered the heavens, destroyed hell, and carved out a path for myself, Jiang Mochou.

…

Leaving the servant disciples' quarters, Jiang Mochou carefully navigated through wind and rain, arriving at an unremarkable hillside within Supreme Primal Sacred Ground.

He stood at the base, his entire body soaked.

Slowly, he pulled out a compass-like object, deep blue and circular, with a pointer inside.

The pointer aimed directly at the foot of the hill.

He put the compass away, then drew a shovel from a hidden storage ring.

With spiritforce surging through his hands, he began to dig.

Despite the storm, he dug a pit dozens of meters deep.

It was only deep into the night that he stopped.

His hands trembled as he unearthed a red bead from the pit.

He leapt out, still shaking, then pulled out two more red beads from his pouch.

As the three beads touched, crimson light flared.

It looked like three balls of blazing flame, slowly merging together.

…

The story seemed to return to the past, when the boy fled his village in despair.

He wandered without direction, unsure what to do or where to go.

He dreamed of revenge, but how could a simple village boy challenge an Imperial Lineage led by two Grand Emperors?

He stumbled through life until one day, while being chased by a beast, he leapt into a nearby river.

The water was clear. The beast roared at the riverbank, then left.

He thought he had escaped, but he couldn’t swim.

The raging current dragged him under. As he lost consciousness, he accidentally slipped into an underwater cave.

There, he found the first red bead, and the blue compass that could lead him to the rest.

Following its guidance, he found the second bead in a hidden secret realm.

There was a formation guarding it. Though he obtained the bead, he was trapped inside for over two years.

Fortunately, the realm had enough supplies to sustain him.

Two years later, the formation’s energy ran dry, and he escaped.

He followed the compass again, and to his surprise, the third bead was hidden within Supreme Primal Sacred Ground itself.

“The Third-Ranked Battle Physique: Scarlet Flame Imperial Physique!”

He looked at the merging beads in his hands, feeling the immense power within.

Jiang Mochou slowly lifted his head, eyes sharp and deep.

“I will walk alone, yet who in the world will not know my name?”

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