Chapter Sixty-One: Xu Tianjiao, a True Man

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A cultivator at the Foundation Establishment stage—one punch from a distance, sending a Nascent Soul cultivator crashing from midair?
How could that be possible?
Was this another actor arranged by the Celestial Mechanism Sect?
After their initial shock, most people’s first reaction was to question the Celestial Mechanism Sect.
After all, they had pulled such stunts more than once or twice before.
Otherwise, this scene would be simply too absurd, utterly unbelievable.
“Refund! Refund!”
“Return our tickets!”
Many people in the stands began to shout and heckle.
“Refunds? Ticket returns? Impossible. Our sect’s motto is: no refunds, no exchanges!”
“Junior brother, don’t be like that. Actually, you can get a refund—the refund window is in Afghanistan. Don’t ask me where Afghanistan is; that’s just what the head of our sect said.”
The disciples of the Celestial Mechanism Sect stationed at the venue responded with utter calm, clearly used to this sort of chaos.
“It’s fake! This scene is definitely fake! There’s no way I’m buying it!”
In one of the viewing rooms, a Nascent Soul cultivator shouted angrily.
Another Nascent Soul cultivator gripped the window, ready to leap out, clamoring to challenge Xu Zhe’s fist for himself.
But in the next moment, they witnessed something even more shocking.
The Nascent Soul cultivator, furious after being struck down, unleashed a flying sword technique to kill Xu Zhe.
Yet Xu Zhe was even more impressive—he unleashed a flying sword of artifact grade.
And most infuriating of all, he tried to use a sword art to duel the Nascent Soul expert, but barely began the opening stance before it was interrupted.
However, the artifact-grade sword was completely unaffected.
With just a tremor of its blade, the sword art, painstakingly formed by the Nascent Soul sword cultivator, collapsed instantly—even his life-bound flying sword cracked.
“An artifact!”
The entire audience could no longer contain themselves, exclaiming in amazement.
This man actually possessed a flying sword of artifact grade!
Across the entire Azure Gift Continent, there were said to be fewer than five such artifacts in existence.
Where did he get such a treasure?
Inside the Jade Pool’s viewing room, there was utter silence.
A group of white-haired old women, together with their young female disciples, wore expressions of iron.
“Could it have come from the Holy Master?”
“When Sister Li and the others went to the Valley of Prodigies, they were delivering precious treasures on behalf of the Holy Master, gifts for Xu Zhe. Could it be…”
“How is that possible? Even the Holy Master herself has no artifact—how could she give such a rare treasure to Xu Zhe?”
“Could the rumors be true? Did Master Lin truly…”
“Enough!”
One old woman silenced the disciples’ gossip, her face dark with rage, trembling violently.
“This is infuriating! If the Holy Master really sent out such a treasure, then today, even if I offend the Vermilion Bird Army, even if the Holy Master herself is displeased, I’ll take the treasure back!”
The old woman, at the Out of Body stage, shrieked her fury.
At the same time, a wave of uproar swept across the stands outside.
All eyes returned to the scene unfolding before them.
The Nascent Soul sword cultivator was now unleashing the “Four Symbols Sword Array!”
This was a sword art unique to the Jade Pool Holy Land!
Though notoriously difficult to control—with a risk of backlash—it was said that, if successfully executed, it could obliterate any peer of the same rank, its power terrifying beyond compare.
And then, before everyone’s astonished gaze, Xu Zhe didn’t retreat—he charged straight into the sword array.
“Courting death!” sneered several white-haired old women in the Jade Pool viewing room, their pupils constricting.
But in the next instant, the flying swords merely sparked harmlessly off Xu Zhe’s body.
No one could remain calm now.
Good heavens—he had achieved the Golden Body realm!
Awakened only days ago, yet he’d already cultivated a Golden Body.
Wasn’t it supposed to be mere Copper Skin?
“He’ll still die!” the old women in the viewing room gritted, nearly gnashing their teeth.
The Golden Body was powerful, yes, but before a Nascent Soul cultivator—especially one who had mastered the Four Symbols Sword Array—it was nothing.
Yet just as the four sword shadows were about to fall,
everyone held their breath.
Xu Zhe, before all eyes, delivered a textbook demonstration: “How to Break the Four Symbols Sword Array, Step by Step.”
With ease, the sword array collapsed in an instant.
The Nascent Soul sword cultivator suffered a backlash from his own array, gravely wounded on the spot, barely clinging to life.
In an instant,
the stands erupted in chaos.
The Four Symbols Sword Array—broken so easily? Simply force the four symbols to transform into the five elements, then disrupt the five elements’ flow—the array shatters without resistance.

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The Four Symbols Sword Array, one of the Jade Pool Holy Land’s signature sword arts, had in this moment suffered a social death.
“Pfft!”
A few of the old women in the viewing room were so furious they spat blood on the spot.
“Impossible—this…cannot be.”
“Since the founding of our Jade Pool Holy Land, the Four Symbols Sword Art has swept the four continents. How could there be such a fatal flaw?”
“Xu Zhe, you villain! To expose the weakness of the Four Symbols Sword Array before everyone’s eyes!”
“Now that all know how to break the array, the overall strength of our Jade Pool will drop by at least thirty percent!”
“Xu Zhe must die!”
The more they spoke, the angrier they became—unable to accept such a blow, their vision went black, nearly fainting.
…
“All hail the Lord of the Halls! Soon you’ll unite the Twelve Temples!” Ji Dali slid from the sofa to his knees, tears streaming down to the floor.
Meanwhile, in the other viewing rooms, representatives of every faction were growing restless.
A prodigy barely awakened for a dozen days, at Foundation Establishment, with a Golden Body, artifact in hand, and able to instantly spot the flaw in the Four Symbols Sword Array—there was no way this was simple.
This was weight, far heavier than they’d ever imagined.
“Hurry, report this to the Sect Master! No wonder the Vermilion Bird Army took a stance early—they must have known everything.”
“Send word into the secret realm—order all disciples within to assist Young Lord Xu unconditionally!”
One after another, every faction sprang into action.
Secret missives flew from the buildings, and someone had already posted everything to the Myriad Phenomena Spiritual Web.
Yet as the crowd bustled, another earth-shattering revelation appeared on the screen.
The Nascent Soul sword cultivator revealed his identity—he was truly from Jade Pool Holy Land, but acting under Li Xunhuang’s orders, disguised as a Shocked God assassin, to kill Qu Hongxiu.
And they even claimed to have a “South Chaos Operation!”
Were they plotting to throw the Southern Heaven Continent into turmoil?
In the stands, cultivators from the Southern Heaven Continent could no longer contain themselves, leaping up to curse loudly.
“Shameless Li Xunhuang! Shameless Jade Pool Holy Land! How dare you try to kill our little God of War from the south?”
“Since the Four Continents Council was founded, there’s been peace for years—who’d have thought some are still scheming? South Chaos Operation—chaos my ass!”
“To hell with them! Let’s launch a Chaos East Operation, Chaos West Operation!”
“What’s the point? Just launch a Chaos Jade Operation—what’s Jade Pool Holy Land but a glorified brothel?”
“Outrageous! This is infuriating!”
“Do they really think the Southern Heaven Continent is easy prey?”
Curses flew back and forth.
Then, another twist appeared on the screen.
The Jade Pool disciples entering the secret realm—all at the Core Formation stage—arrived en masse.
Upon landing, they made no distinction between right and wrong, immediately accusing Xu Zhe and Qu Hongxiu of ambushing their Senior Sister Zheng.
This scene left countless onlookers trembling with anger.
How base the Jade Pool Holy Land had become.
When would the people finally stand up for themselves?
Xu Zhe answered that question with a single stomp.
His words—“Now that she’s dead, what price must I pay?”—brought catharsis to the Southern Heaven cultivators, filling them with satisfaction.
To their ears, it was as though he were saying, “I’ve killed her, what are you going to do about it?”
Yet the Jade Pool disciples on screen refused to let it go.
They saw only that Xu Zhe had crushed a defenseless Nascent Soul cultivator—
but not how she’d been rendered powerless in the first place.
Their arrogance and insolence on screen appeared utterly absurd to all watching.
“So, this is Jade Pool Holy Land?”
“To think I once believed their disciples to be celestial maidens—turns out they’re just prostitutes.”
“How comical, daring to show such disrespect to Young Lord Xu.”
“If it were me, I’d have finished them off long ago.”
“Sigh, Young Lord Xu is still too kind, trying to reason with them.”
“As if anyone from Jade Pool would listen to reason.”
In an instant, Jade Pool Holy Land became the universal target of ridicule.
The uproar from the stands even reached the viewing rooms above.
The white-haired old women and their disciples wore faces of utter gloom, the room’s atmosphere dropping below freezing.
The scene kept playing.
Another sword cultivator from Jade Pool continued provoking Xu Zhe.
The outcome brought untold satisfaction to the crowd:
Xu Zhe finally stopped wasting words—one punch sent his foe flying, and he finished the matter with a single kick before all eyes.
“Incredible!”
“Young Lord Xu—a true man, just as he should be!”

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“Wrist King! Jade Pool begs for mercy!”
Countless cultivators raised their arms and cheered, filled with excitement.
Especially when Xu Zhe uttered that final line—“Even your Master Lin wouldn’t dare speak to me like that.”
Everyone felt a surge of awe at his dominance.
The Celestial Mechanism Sect disciples on site were already drafting articles on their Myriad Phenomena Jade Tablets, composing yet another grand piece.
The title: “Young Lord Xu: Even Master Lin Would Not Dare Speak in My Presence.”
With this, the recorded broadcast drew to a close.
Yet everyone was left wanting more, clamoring for the Celestial Mechanism Sect to keep the live feed locked onto Xu Zhe.
Not only the people in the stands, but nearly all the dignitaries in the viewing rooms upstairs made the same demand.
The Celestial Mechanism Sect was in a panic—they had already sent orders for all their disciples in the secret realm to find Xu Zhe.
But so far, no one had tracked down his whereabouts.
…
Within the secret realm, Xu Zhe and Qu Hongxiu had long since left the battlefield behind.
Qu Hongxiu had peppered Xu Zhe with questions along the way: how did he get his artifact, how did he cultivate such strength, and so on.
Xu Zhe answered each time, briefly and truthfully: he found the artifact by chance, and his strength was the result of his own hard work, cultivated step by step.
Qu Hongxiu was left crestfallen.
Found the artifact by chance?
If you don’t want to answer, fine—but why such a terrible excuse? Do you think I’m a fool?
“Tsk, this secret realm is even bigger than I thought. It won’t be easy to find what we’re looking for,” Xu Zhe said as he led Qu Hongxiu, searching all the while, but still finding no sign of a suspected Heavenly Domain passage.
“Uncle Xu, what exactly are you looking for? Some sort of rare treasure?” Qu Hongxiu asked.
“No,”
Xu Zhe shook his head, pondered for a moment, then stopped where he stood.
He pulled out a blank jade slip, swiftly recorded a technique, and handed it to Qu Hongxiu.
“This is the ‘Heaven-Earth Fire Separation Method.’ It suits you well—study it to improve your strength, so you won’t be helpless if you meet another Nascent Soul cultivator.”
With that, Xu Zhe scanned the surroundings again.
“Uncle Xu, I’m only late-stage Core Formation. Isn’t it normal I can’t fight a Nascent Soul cultivator? Do you think everyone is a monster like you?”
Qu Hongxiu protested, annoyed—she was among the best in the Core Formation stage, yet Xu Zhe seemed to look down on her.
As for the technique Xu Zhe gave her, she wasn’t particularly impressed.
Could it really let her defeat a Nascent Soul cultivator? Impossible!
With a little carelessness, a little calm, and a lot of nonchalance,
Qu Hongxiu sent her divine sense into the jade slip, and then—
“Ah…”
She let out a squeal, high-pitched and shrill, a blend of excitement, shyness, and surprise.
What kind of divine technique was this?
It was too profound, too marvelous!
It could enhance her life-bound fire, transform her own flames into law, and contained the great Dao of heaven and earth itself. If she mastered this, her power could easily double or triple!
“Uncle Xu, this…this is incredible! Who created this technique? Why have I never heard of it before?” Qu Hongxiu, utterly thrilled, grabbed Xu Zhe’s sleeve and questioned him.
“I’ve forgotten who created it. Hurry and study it carefully—the technique isn’t difficult. How long do you think you’ll need to learn it?” Xu Zhe asked.
He felt there was need to investigate the center of the secret realm, but Qu Hongxiu was too weak—she had a blazing bird bloodline, yet feared fire and poison, which made no sense.
So he needed her to master the ‘Heaven-Earth Fire Separation Method’ quickly, then he could bring her to the core area.
“Probably…” Qu Hongxiu thought seriously, then raised three pale fingers. “Three…”
“Three days?” Xu Zhe frowned—that was a long time.
The technique wasn’t hard; he’d learned it after a single reading.
Did Qu Hongxiu really need three days? Her talent seemed a bit lacking.
“???”
Qu Hongxiu looked at Xu Zhe, puzzled. “Three days?”
She realized suddenly: “Are you kidding, Uncle Xu? This technique is so profound—at least three years to get the basics! To truly master it, to comprehend it fully, would take thirty years at least.”
“???”
Now it was Xu Zhe’s turn to stare blankly at Qu Hongxiu.
Three years?
Thirty years?
Was she joking?
“Oh, Uncle Xu, you haven’t practiced it, so you wouldn’t understand. This technique is very hard!” Qu Hongxiu waved her hand, her expression suggesting no one understood the ‘Heaven-Earth Fire Separation Method’ better than she did.
Xu Zhe couldn’t be bothered to argue. He extended his hand, palm up.
With a hiss,
a plume of fire leapt instantly forth, following a set path across his palm, rapidly forming two interlocking bagua diagrams of flame, aligned above and below—Heaven and Earth in perfect harmony.
…