Chapter 243.3: Into Kang City; Tang Manor Destroyed; the Slaughter Begins! (III)

The Tang family's situation had changed completely, and everyone knew it. Yet the change meant little to ordinary people, since the Tang family's shops opened as before and business went on as usual. Not even the family's partners felt any disruption. The only ones affected were those of the fourth master's people, whom Tang Lu had eliminated completely.

This woman, once the eldest young lady of the Tang family, had shown people how ruthless she could be, and for some time now, anyone in Kang City who mentioned Tang Lu fell silent as though struck dumb with fear.

But this Tang Lu, so feared by everyone else, now stood respectfully before Lu Changsheng like a servant, without a trace of arrogance in her. He never said anything; he just studied her closely.

Over this period Lu Changsheng had also uncovered a few of the Divine Region's secrets.

No power of the Martial Dao or the Immortal Dao could appear here, for the moment it did, the power of faith would detect it. However, one could hammer and temper the flesh and keep raising the body's strength, which meant returning to the very first step of the Martial Dao, the Body Tempering Realm!

Not even the strength of blood qi was permitted, only pure body tempering: stronger bones, more explosive power in the muscles, and through that a great rise in strength and movement arts.

It amounted to walking a single road to its end, specializing in body tempering and nothing else. Still, an ordinary person's ceiling on that road was surely limited, for however long one hammered at the flesh, there had to be a limit. No physical body could outmatch an army or pose the slightest threat to a deity. Surely, that was what the deities wanted.

Lu Changsheng thought to himself, By the regulations of the Great Moon Divine Empire, a person's physical strength is graded into ten tiers. An ordinary person is first tier, someone who has tempered his body is second tier, a step beyond that is third tier, and so on.

It seems like the Great Moon Divine Empire wants its subjects as physically strong as possible. Purely physical strength, of course, with no power of the Martial Dao or the Immortal Dao whatsoever, not even a trace of that kind of training.

Pure physical strength. The stronger the body, the more of a deity's power it can carry. Such people usually end up as pawns of the deities, acting in their stead and keeping a firm grip on the affairs of the Great Moon Divine Empire.

To that end, the Great Moon Divine Empire even holds the Divine Child Trial. Those with the most powerful bodies from every corner of the empire travel to the Moon Capital for it, and the strongest of them can ascend to heaven in a single step, entering the service of the Great Moon Divine Empire under the title of Divine Child.

Everything Lu Changsheng knew of this came from what Tang Lu had gathered over these past months.

The Great Moon True God of the Great Moon Divine Empire has gone to war with neighboring empires several times, and lost every one of them.

When empires go to war it looks like a matter of martial strength being slightly inferior, but in reality, the True Gods behind them must have measured themselves against one another, and this one most likely lost. Which suggests that the Great Moon True God isn't especially strong. It's equivalent to the Human Saint Realm at most.

Even so, I must pin down exactly where it's hiding. Otherwise, I'll alert the enemy and find myself surrounded, and then a deity fragment will be the least of my worries. My own life would be at risk. So where could the Great Moon True God be hiding?

Lu Changsheng narrowed his eyes. The Moon Capital!

Indeed, the Great Moon False God was said to be there, which meant the equivalent True God had to be there as well.

Naturally, Lu Changsheng could not simply fight his way into the Moon Capital; he had to establish the True God's exact position first and then strike all at once, so that a single blow would settle it. For now, he still had to lie low.

Regardless, he needed someone in the Moon Capital gathering intelligence, and an ordinary person there would be useless, never able to reach the core of anything. It had to be someone of real importance, and Lu Changsheng already had his plan.

Tang Lu is the perfect fit.

If Tang Lu took part in the Divine Child Trial and became a Divine Child, she would receive the power of the Great Moon False God or the Great Moon True God, and that would give him his chance to learn the True God's precise location. Of course, for that plan to work Tang Lu had to become a Divine Child, which meant strengthening her body further still.

"Tang Lu, come here," Lu Changsheng whispered. "The formula I gave you for the medicinal solution. Do you have everything ready?"

"Everything is ready."

"Then soak in it every day. I'll also stimulate your body directly to help it transform quickly."

Lu Changsheng did not have much time. He did not wish to linger in the Divine Region more than he needed; the longer he stayed, the more likely it was for him to be exposed. There were still a few months until the next Divine Child Trial, and he had to make full use of them to temper Tang Lu's body several times over so that she could reach the standard of a Divine Child.

It was not an easy undertaking. With his divine abilities and Saint Body off the table, they only had his medicines and instructions to work with.

The days passed one after another. Tang Lu kept to herself and rarely went out, handling only the family's major affairs and delegating the lesser matters to those below her, which earned her the gratitude of the whole household.

In just a few months, she had won over their hearts entirely and set the family back on a steady footing. Tang Chong was maturing fast and learning to manage its business, since he was the official patriarch.

Splash.

Tang Lu sat up in the bathing tub. Her skin had been bronzed before, roughened by wind and sun during the flight for her life, but after months of soaking daily in the medicinal bath, along with Lu Changsheng's own work on her—the massage and stimulation that drove the blood through her body—her flesh had strengthened at a rapid pace.

Every bone and muscle in her body was now many times stronger, and even her skin had become extraordinarily tough, shedding three full layers in the process. It was pale now and looked delicate enough to break at a touch, yet in toughness it surpassed oxhide, and within that slight frame was a frightening strength.

Tang Lu felt no hint of embarrassment before Lu Changsheng. Stirred with feeling, she knelt respectfully before him. "Thank you, Master."

She understood perfectly well how formidable she had become, her body brimming with explosive force.

Set against the woman she had been a few months earlier, the difference was like heaven and earth. It was as though she was someone else entirely, and all of it had been given to her by the Evil God before her.

Lu Changsheng was thoroughly satisfied with her progress.

Three months in the Divine Region. The formation sealing the Divine Region doesn't seem to block the momentum of the masses at all. Only I must be extremely careful when cultivating my Saint Body. I absolutely cannot manifest it, and not the faintest trace of aura can be allowed to leak.

Lu Changsheng glanced at his Status Panel.

[Status Panel]

Host: Lu Changsheng

Perception: 863,000 (Praised for a Hundred Generations)

Primordial Chaos Saint Body: momentum of the masses (42%)

His Primordial Chaos Saint Body had already reached forty-two percent, which was excellent, and his Perception was steadily approaching the one-million mark.

There was not much time left before the Divine Child Trial, and Tang Lu's body had already reached the point where no amount of help from Lu Changsheng could make a significant improvement in a short span.

It was time.

"Tang Lu, you should go and take the Divine Child Trial. Remember, your goal is the Moon Capital. You will sit the Divine Child Trial there," Lu Changsheng said gravely.

"Yes, Master," she replied, perfectly composed.

To sit the trial in the Moon Capital she first had to pass the local ones, the county trial, the prefecture trial, and the province trial, and only after clearing the province trial would she be qualified to travel to the Moon Capital. The county trial was only a few days away.

"Go." Lu Changsheng waved a hand and Tang Lu withdrew respectfully.

I hope she doesn't disappoint me... Lu Changsheng was looking forward to seeing Tang Lu astonish everyone.

A few days slipped by and the day of the Kang City county trial arrived, with the county yamen already filled with people.

The Divine Child Trial was very nearly the most closely followed examination in all of Kang City and indeed the whole Great Moon Divine Empire, because becoming a Divine Child meant ascending to heaven in a single step, far better than serving as a civil servant. Thus, even a mere county trial in Kang City drew countless eyes.

The trial was also completely fair and impartial, since the Great Moon False God was watching—or rather, since the power of faith presided over it, and no one dared tamper with anything.

Tang Lu set out for the county yamen early in the morning with her people, and Lu Changsheng mingled with the crowd, watching her in silence. When she produced her registration and moved to enter the county trial, however, an uproar went up all the same.

"What? Ms. Tang Lu is entering the county trial?"

"The trial is open to men and women alike, but it's almost always just men. Even when a woman participates, it's really just going through the motions. What matters most in the Divine Child Trial is physical constitution, and how can a woman's physical constitution compare with a man's?"

"They say Ms. Tang Lu is no ordinary woman. She started quite a slaughter at Tang Manor, so her constitution is probably formidable."

"Formidable enough to beat men who've trained day in and day out for ten or twenty years?"

"Well, let's wait and see. They say Ms. Tang Lu is a great beauty, though I've never laid eyes on her. Now's my chance..."

For a while, Tang Lu's appearance made the whole Kang City county trial livelier than it had ever been.