Chapter 103: A Chance to Survive!

Chapter 103: Chapter 103: A Chance to Survive!

Inside Zhiyuan Hall, Fang Xu looked at Lu Qingluo and Chu Muyun, voicing his decision.

"Fang Xu, you can’t!"

"Fang Xu..."

Upon hearing his plan, the two women were filled with worry and ready to stop him.

"It’s decided. There is no other way." Fang Xu cut them off decisively, finalizing the matter right then and there. He then looked at Huang Qingzhou beside him with a pleading expression. "Senior Brother Huang, if I am unfortunate enough to fall in the ruins, I beg you to take Mu Yun and Senior Sister to the Ascension Sect after you get out. Please take good care of them."

Huang Qingzhou’s expression darkened slightly before he said with some annoyance, "Don’t be in such a hurry to leave your last words, kid. If you have the energy for that, you’d better figure out how to survive. Here! Hurry up and read it!"

After tossing the ruins guide printed by the Great Yu Dynasty to Fang Xu, Huang Qingzhou looked at Lu Qingluo and Chu Muyun. "Let’s all go out. Don’t disturb him."

Lu Qingluo glanced at Fang Xu but said nothing more, simply wheeling Chu Muyun out of the room.

"Fang Xu... I’ll wait for you to come back," Chu Muyun said, looking at him reluctantly.

Fang Xu stood up and gently ruffled her hair. "Don’t worry, I will definitely return."

After seeing the three of them out, Fang Xu opened the ruins guide. He carefully read through everything about the ruins, memorizing every detail before setting the book down in deep thought.

According to the book, the Tilan Mountain ruins seemed to be a world of their own. Inside, there were numerous traps, Restrictions, and a type of monster known as Humanoid Demons. It was teeming with danger. The main portion of the ruins was located underground, which was also the area most Martial Artists chose to explore. It was estimated that the underground ruins had seven stages in total. Currently, most explorers could only reach Tier Two.

This was because, starting from Tier Two, a strange Restriction would appear within the ruins. This Restriction suppressed a Martial Artist’s own vitality and power. Within the area covered by the Restriction, whether one was a Martial Master or a Martial Venerable, they could only utilize pure physical strength; achieving Qi Detachment was completely impossible.

Moreover, within the Tier Two area, the Humanoid Demons were extremely numerous and powerful. Since the ruins had opened, the number of Martial Artists who had died in Tier Two had already reached a terrifying figure.

Fang Xu realized this might be his chance. Upon noting this information, a glimmer of hope rose in his heart. As long as he could reach Tier Two of the ruins alive, the gap in strength between him, Yu Mountain Tianyi, and the others would be drastically narrowed.

There was one more thing. Thanks to his setups over this period, the "good friends" who had died in the ruins numbered at least several dozen, if not a hundred. The inheritances left behind by these friends were mostly various attribute points. Once he entered the ruins and harvested these legacies, his strength would undoubtedly double, or perhaps grow even stronger! These attribute points directly enhanced his physical strength, which shouldn’t be affected by the ruins’ Restrictions. When the time came, it would be hard to say who was truly the strongest!

Yu Mountain Tianyi... Su Cheng...

A faint trace of killing intent flashed through Fang Xu’s eyes. If given the opportunity, he wouldn’t mind finishing them both off for good inside the ruins! Before that, however, he still needed to elevate his strength as much as possible.

Casting aside his distracting thoughts, Fang Xu took out the Beast Hide containing the *Divination God Treasure* and entered the Realm of Inner Observation. His current strength had already reached the peak of the Fifth Realm for a Martial Disciple. After tonight, he might be able to break through to the Sixth Realm. However, against opponents like Yu Mountain Tianyi or Su Cheng, such an improvement was negligible.

After some thought, his consciousness immediately arrived inside the very first acupoint he had opened—the Inner Acupoint.

Within the massive Acupoint Space, the gray Qi of Chaos had already been completely absorbed. Only that towering, heaven-reaching giant Stone Sect stood before him. Not far in front of the Stone Sect, a strange wooden staff floated in midair, emitting a faint fluorescence.

His Consciousness Body materialized into his physical appearance. Fang Xu reached out and grasped the strange wooden staff. Feeling the faint energy radiating from it, a hint of joy rose in his heart.

When Lu Zhiyuan first gifted him this staff, its quality had been completely indiscernible. After using it several times, he only felt that this bizarre staff could definitely rival graded weapons. Now that it had been nurtured as a Life Weapon within the Acupoint Space up to this point, the aura it emitted was noticeably stronger. Not only that, but the staff’s length seemed to have changed as well. When Lu Zhiyuan had handed it over to him, the staff had been just over three feet long. Now, its length had unexpectedly grown to around four feet!

Gripping the long staff, Fang Xu vaguely sensed a faint trace of vitality emerging from within it. This vitality was incredibly weak. Just as he tried to perceive it more closely, it vanished entirely, as if it had only been an illusion.

Standing in the Acupoint Space with the long staff in hand, Fang Xu looked at the colossal Stone Sect towering before him, an eager urge welling up in his heart. When he had first broken through to the Martial Disciple realm, he had attempted to smash open the Stone Sect in front of him, but failed. Now, he was at the peak of the Fifth Realm and had absorbed numerous inheritances. His strength was boundlessly greater than it had been back then. It was time to try again!

Acting on his thoughts, Fang Xu carried the long staff and stepped closer to the Stone Sect, slowly tightening his grip!

"Haa!"

He stomped heavily on the ground. Borrowing the reactionary force of the Eight Extremes Stepping Technique, his body leaped high into the air. He swung the long staff fiercely, smashing it toward the Stone Sect before him! The moment it was swung, the strange long staff expanded rapidly. A Heaven-Reaching Staff Shadow, carrying the momentum of a collapsing mountain, crashed into the Stone Sect!

At the moment of impact, the entire Acupoint Space violently shook!

Bizarrely, not a single sound was produced. The deafening silence was absolute. The terrifying rebound force instantly sent Fang Xu’s Consciousness Body flying backward for dozens of feet. He tumbled through the air multiple times before barely managing to stabilize himself.

RUMBLE!

RUMBLE!

Following a series of deep, booming rumbles, the massive, previously airtight Stone Sect unexpectedly revealed a tiny crevice!

Overjoyed by this sight, Fang Xu hurriedly flew back to the front of the Stone Sect, wanting to peer through the crack to see what the world behind it looked like. However, the crevice was simply too narrow. Through the gap, he could only vaguely make out expanses of vast white mist; he couldn’t see anything else.

Yet, as he drew close to the crevice of the Stone Sect, he clearly felt a bizarre energy—one that made his consciousness tremble slightly—slowly seeping out from the narrow opening. Fang Xu could distinctly sense that while this strange energy was incredibly faint, it felt extraordinarily pure. As it trickled out from behind the Stone Sect, it gradually began to fill the Acupoint Space.

The energy within a Martial Artist’s Acupoint Space was fixed, and his Inner Acupoint had already been completely refined prior to this. But now, after the Stone Sect was forced open by a crack, a strange new energy had unexpectedly appeared.

Fang Xu was thrilled.

If a normal Acupoint Space could be compared to a deep pool of water—deep but ultimately finite—then his Acupoint Space was a deep pool with a flowing spring. Once the water was used, new water would flow in to replenish it. As long as the "spring" behind the Stone Sect didn’t run dry, the water in his Acupoint Space would never be exhausted!

Right now, however, the spring’s inlet was still a bit too small. He had to find a way to widen it. With this in mind, he immediately retreated a few dozen feet and raised the wooden staff again, preparing to strike the Stone Sect one more time!

The Heaven-Reaching Staff Shadow materialized once more! The giant Stone Sect trembled violently after being struck!

Yet, after the commotion died down, Fang Xu discovered that the crevice remained exactly the same as before. It hadn’t widened in the slightest. It seemed that his current strength was only sufficient to open such a tiny gap.

After attempting it one more time and proving his hypothesis correct, Fang Xu decisively gave up on continuing to bombard the Stone Sect. Withdrawing his consciousness slowly from the Acupoint Space, he began attempting to guide this energy seeping from behind the Stone Sect to temper his physical body.