Volcanic Age

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to overcome that wall.

Zhou Xuchuan had wanted to reach the next level by harnessing the power of the Divine Pill of the Au Co. However, it wasn’t as easy as he had thought.

It’s not that his cultivation didn’t show any progress. His Violet Haze Divine Art, which had remained at the same stage since he turned eighteen, finally advanced.

He went from the Eighth Stage to the Tenth in a single stride, which was great news.

The Violet Haze Divine Art only revealed its full potential at the Tenth Stage. Anything below that point was barely half as effective.

Up until he reached this stage, Zhou Xuchuan had just forcefully pushed the techniques by using his qi reserves. Now, he no longer needed to waste qi unnecessarily to achieve the same results. On top of that, the Violet Haze Sword Sutra would grow stronger as well.

But now, I can no longer hide it.

Just in case, he tried to form aura at the tip of his sword. Instead of the faint haze from before, this time it was a clear violet.

The characteristics of the Violet Haze Divine Art were unmistakable whenever he tried to condense his qi into aura. He had lost his ability to conceal it.

After all, wasn't the next realm something that every martial artist dreamed of? He had wanted to reach the realm that he hadn't been able to achieve in his previous life.

However, reaching that realm wasn't as easy as he thought. No matter how he leveraged the power of the Divine Pill, he couldn't break through the wall.

To truly reach the next realm, he had to climb the stairs of enlightenment and follow the proper steps.

It wasn't called the Righteous Dao for no reason.[1]

Shortcuts weren’t tolerated.

It was possible for him to modify his body through things like Bodily Transformation or Extreme Temperature Immunity, but it was impossible for him to raise his realm through such shortcuts.

"It wasn't passed down as the elixir of the Fire Immortal for nothing."

The Divine Physician examined Zhou Xuchuan’s body for a moment, smiled in satisfaction, and withdrew his hand from Zhou’s wrist.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” The Divine Physician said, turning away as he muttered medical terms, seemingly organizing his thoughts.

Until recently, he had been waiting eagerly for Zhou Xuchuan to come out, but now, he seemed to have lost all interest.

“Divine Physician, I have a proposal.”

Zhou Xuchuan quickly called the Divine Physician over before he could get lost in his thoughts.

“Proposal?”

The Divine Physician stopped muttering, turned around again, and stroked his beard, his eyes shining with curiosity.

"Yes. To be exact, it's more of a request than a proposal. I have some elixirs that I haven't been able to identify yet."

These elixirs were obtained from the Tomb of the Ominous Demon and from defeating the Dark Heavens Association. He had sent them all to the Gold Will Merchants for identification. However, some of them hadn't been identified yet.

“Sorry, but I don’t have time for that.”

“I obtained some of them from the Dark Heavens Association.”

“Hmm, then, maybe I should take a look?”

The Divine Physician immediately changed his stance.

They not only had access to elixirs as powerful as Pure Stalactite Milk but also knowledge of resources like the Divine Pill of the Au Co.

Since what Zhou Xuchuan was speaking of also came from that organization, the Divine Physician showed interest.

"That's not all I have to offer. If you continue to help me, I'll show you some precious elixirs and cultivation resources. Of course, you'll be allowed to freely record the effects after I take them to help with your research."

"Hehehe. Not giving them to me but letting me look at them. Thank goodness my disciples aren't around. If they had heard that, they probably would have gone crazy and said something along the lines of, ‘You arrogant bastard! Who the hell do you think you're talking to?!’"

Who was the Divine Physician?

He was someone that not even the Martial Alliance Leader, the Greatest Under the Heavens, couldn't treat lightly.

It was bold for Zhou Xuchuan to make an offer to someone who hadn’t even bothered to thank him after being handed money—especially when the offer was simply to let him 'see it.'

If there was someone present who owed a debt to the Benevolence Clinic or the Divine Physician, they might have been angry and cursed him.

"I'll accept your offer."

However, to the Divine Physician, such things were trivial matters.

The precious elixirs and neidans that he hadn't yet seen were more important.

I hope they can catch the Divine Physician's attention.

It was good that the Divine Physician readily accepted. On the other hand, the fact that it was so easy to grab his attention if presented with something interesting made him uneasy, as it meant that the Dark Heavens Association would be able to do the same thing.

By taking advantage of his curiosity, he temporarily secured the cooperation of the Divine Physician and Benevolence Clinic behind him.

After receiving the Divine Physician's promise, Zhou Xuchuan decided to change out of his ruined clothes and move toward his assigned quarters.

However, after stepping out of the cultivation hall, he had no choice but to stop.

"I greet the Alliance Leader."

The Martial Alliance Leader, Nangong Weiwu, stood waiting for him, his hands behind his back.

Zhou Xuchuan greeted him with a puzzled expression. He hadn’t expected the Alliance Leader to be waiting for him.

What's this sly old man planning?

The Martial Alliance Leader had come to see him in person, meaning that it must not be an ordinary matter. His fatigue disappeared, replaced by tension.

"I haven't come to eat you or blame you, so don't be nervous. You can relax."

Nangong Weiwu smiled softly as if he were the grandfather from next door.

However, he wasn't the grandfather next door. He was the Martial Alliance Leader and the Completion Sword of the Ten Empyrean Overlords. It was impossible for Zhou Xuchuan to relax.

"Would you like to take a walk?"

It was clear the Alliance Leader had come for a reason. Zhou glanced around, curious if others were nearby, but saw no one.

"I'm sorry, but I just came out of a cultivation hall, so my attire isn't very presentable…"

"Don't worry."

Snap.

When Nangong Weiwu snapped his fingers, a masked, black-clad man appeared out of nowhere.

The black-clad man handed Zhou Xuchuan a neatly folded uniform and vanished as if he had never been there.

The Iron Sword Shadow Corps!

There were many units within the Righteous Faction's Martial Alliance. Among them, the strongest was the Iron Sword Shadow Corps.

However, information about its size and members was kept secret, and only the Martial Alliance Leader could give them orders.

The only known facts about them were that they could solve any impossible mission and that they were all, at the very least, Peak Realm experts.

Even after the end of the Era of War and Chaos, there wasn't much information about them, meaning that Zhou Xuchuan didn't know much about them, either.

“I will gratefully accept this.”

Recalling what he could about the Iron Sword Shadow Corps, he took the uniform and immediately changed.

He glanced at the inner sleeve and saw a plum blossom embroidered on it.

It seemed as though the Alliance Leader had planned and prepared to meet him in advance. He wondered what he wanted to discuss.

"Let's move somewhere else first. While I've gotten rid of the people around here, I’m sure there are still plenty of eyes watching."

Zhou Xuchuan followed Nangong Weiwu to the bamboo forest, which was about half a mile away from the main headquarters of the Martial Alliance.

It was a hidden formation that he had been to before.

"Ha!"

The moment he stepped forward, an enemy attacked.

An image of Nangong Weiwu turning around and stabbing his neck with the tip of the sword appeared before Zhou Xuchuan. However, that was just an image, not reality.

Previously, the moment he had arrived at the hideout, Nangong Weiwu had attacked him to see how well he could react. Fortunately, that didn't happen this time around.

"Oh ho," Nangong Weiwu exclaimed with excitement.

"You’ve improved quite a bit since we last met. I was nowhere near your level at your age…"

Nangong Weiwu had tried to mix true hostility and bloodlust into his aura, but instead of retreating, Zhou Xuchuan had only ended up shrinking back slightly.

“It’s because I prepared myself mentally.”

Zhou Xuchuan cursed inwardly as he recalled the previous incident.

“The Dark Heavens Association.”

The smile disappeared from Nangong Weiwu’s lips.

Zhou Xuchuan’s face also hardened.

“Isn’t there something you deliberately left out?”

As expected of the Martial Alliance Leader.

Zhou Xuchuan pretended to be impressed.

He hadn't reported everything about the Dark Heavens Association to the Martial Alliance.

There had been many circumstances that had made him hide certain things.

Some of them were things that he wouldn't be able to explain without revealing his previous life, but others were due to other circumstances.

"Do you believe what I said about them?"

"Hmph. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t have called you here."

A hunched old man walked out from the bamboo forest—the Strategist of the Martial Alliance, Zhuge Zhonghao.

"If what you said is true, then that Dark Heavens Association must have planted a spy within the Alliance…"

Zhuge Zhonghao frowned, the wrinkles on his face deepening.

"It looks like you know how to use your brain, considering you didn't say everything in front of the others."

Zhou Xuchuan nodded with a smile of agreement.

"As expected of the Strategist. I knew you would notice."

He had originally planned to tell them everything as soon as he arrived at the Martial Alliance. However, he found it difficult because the Divine Physician was always by his side, asking him when he would take the Divine Pill.

At that time, several visitors also kept bothering him, and the Martial Alliance Leader and the Strategist seemed busy, making him decide to wait until later.

Fortunately, Nangong Weiwu and Zhuge Zhonghao noticed as soon as he came out from the underground cultivation hall and made time for him.

“I’ll get straight to the point,” Zhou said, his expression turning serious.

"One of the leaders of the Martial Alliance or the leaders of the Righteous Faction is secretly one of the heads of the Dark Heavens Association."

"Ha!”

A groan left Nangong Weiwu’s mouth.

Avaricious Wolf.

The seven organizations of the Seven Stars Division each held a different responsibility.

The Blessed Existence Division was the brains, and the Vast Gate Division was the intelligence.

The Twisted Melody Division was balance and treachery, while the Pure Faith Division was assassinations and surveillance of traitors.

The Warped Valor Division was 'strength,' consisting of only a small number of elites, and the Destructive Soldier Division was 'military.'

Most of the soldiers of the Seven Stars Division belonged to the Destructive Soldier Division.

Finally, the role of the Avaricious Wolf Division was the 'center.'

In short, his division was where the middle management and traitors were stationed.

Although the Avaricious Wolf Division hadn't been revealed yet, it was home to people of high social status or those who could provide funds or connections.

"Are you saying that the leader you're talking about might be within the Alliance?"

“Not exactly. But there is a high chance that the leader is within our leadership."

After the Era of War and Chaos, while information about the Dark Heavens Association was made public, many things remained secret.

One of them was information about Avaricious Wolf himself.

Nothing had been revealed about Avaricious Wolf other than the fact that he was a member of the Righteous Faction. To be more precise, all other information about him had been deliberately covered up.

Due to the Era of War and Chaos, the murim was on the verge of destruction. In a situation like that, if it were revealed that one of the leaders of the Dark Heavens Association, the direct cause of the chaos, was one of the leaders of the Murim Alliance or the main Righteous Faction, the consequences would have been catastrophic.

At that time, the Righteous Faction had barely managed to secure peace. However, it had been struggling to recover after their power had been torn apart.

The situation had been so bad, and they had been lacking in talent to such a degree that they had to appoint someone like me as an elder. In the midst of all this, the Righteous Faction couldn't just sit by and watch one of their remaining forces get destroyed.

The Era of War and Chaos left deep and lasting scars.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Their power was less than half of what it had been in their prime. Due to a lack of funds, they had no choice but to leave their destroyed buildings and bases as they were.

In that state, if they were to allow their power to weaken further or lose another faction to retaliation over the traitor, the outcome was obvious.

So, the Righteous Faction had only one choice. Only an extremely small number of people could know the information that could cause trouble in the future, hiding it from the rest.

The authority of an Elder of Mount Hua wasn't enough to know the identity of Avaricious Wolf.

That was why there had been nearly no information available about Avaricious Wolf, the center of the Dark Heavens Association.

Because of the secrecy, investigating him and his division required clearance and the help of high-ranking figures within the Murim Alliance.

Blessed Existence, Destructive Soldier, Warped Valor, Avaricious Wolf… and the Dark Heavens Association Leader. There are five of you left. I'll definitely find you.

1. Remember, the words for Dao and the word for Path are the same, just used differently based on context. So, here, it's wordplay to denote the Righteous Dao of the Righteous Path. ☜