176: Chapter 176 The Fifth Life, The Blazing Sun Illuminates the Martial Path (124)

He performed a nimble turn in mid-air, dodging the Dark Iron Crocodile's attack.

At the same time, a cold light flashed from the dark iron saber in his hand, and channeling all his True Qi, he thrust it fiercely toward the Dark Iron Crocodile's left eye!

"Puchi!"

The blade pierced precisely into the Dark Iron Crocodile's left eye, and black-red blood gushed out.

The Dark Iron Crocodile let out a shrill scream, twisting its body frantically as its massive tail swept toward Chu Shi, accompanied by a whistling wind.

Using the momentum, Chu Shi leaped up and landed on the Dark Iron Crocodile's back.

His left hand gripped the protruding scales on the Dark Iron Crocodile's back tightly, while his right hand raised the battle saber, aiming at the gap between its skull and spine, and he hacked down fiercely!

"Kacha!"

The blade cleaved through the scales and severed the spine.

The Dark Iron Crocodile's massive body twitched a few times before it stopped moving and slowly sank to the bottom of the lake.

The entire battle lasted no more than a few dozen seconds.

Chu Shi landed on a lotus leaf and lightly flicked the blood off his saber.

Dealing with such a Yao Beast that lacked intelligence and fought only on instinct, he appeared quite relaxed.

Afterward, he tapped lightly on the lotus leaves to reach the center of the lake, plucked all seven bone-cleansing lotus, and carefully stowed them into his Storage Pouch.

Each bone-cleansing lotus allowed his body to adapt to eight more strands of temporal mist, lasting for 12 hours.

With sufficient willpower, these seven bone-cleansing lotus were enough for him to Cultivate at 6x acceleration on the Temporal Platform for a week.

Having harvested the bone-cleansing lotus, Chu Shi's mood improved significantly.

He continued along the lakeshore and, by a swamp, found three more stalks of Soul-Condensing Grass.

Soul-Condensing Grass could temporarily increase one's willpower limit by 10%, making it an extremely precious treasure for Martial Artists who Cultivated under high-acceleration conditions for long periods.

Chu Shi also stowed the Soul-Condensing Grass into his storage ring and was preparing to venture deeper when he suddenly heard the sounds of fighting and angry shouting not far away.

"Damn it! I found this Soul-Calming Flower first!"

"Why should it be yours just because you found it first? If you have the ability, let's settle this with our skills!"

Chu Shi raised an eyebrow and sheathed his dark iron saber into the scabbard on his back before putting it into his Storage Pouch.

A saber was useless against human Martial Artists.

His sword skills were fine for dealing with ordinary Martial Artists in the outside world, but against these true Geniuses, he would only be crushed by their Legacy.

His true killing move in this life was the Blazing Sun Fist Imprint personally taught by Peak Master Lieyang.

He quietly passed through a dense forest and saw two Martial Artists fighting in a cool valley.

On a nearby rock grew a pale purple Soul-Calming Flower, its petals trembling slightly and emitting a faint fragrance.

Both Martial Artists were at the Middle Stage of the Copper Bone Realm, fighting to a standstill.

Chu Shi watched for a while and discovered that both of their strengths were quite average.

Although they lived up to the name of Geniuses, they were still far inferior compared to him.

Even though he had just had a Breakthrough.

However, Chu Shi was not in a rush to rush out and suppress them.

These two were making quite a commotion, and he had to be careful and guard against any other "mantises" hiding in the forest.

After a moment, having observed in detail, Chu Shi did not find any other Martial Artists hiding.

Instead, the situation on the field had changed.

One of the burly, fierce-looking Martial Artists was caught in a flaw by his opponent and sent flying away with a single slash.

He slammed heavily into the rock, spat out a mouthful of blood, and temporarily lost his ability to fight.

"Hahaha! Trash! The Soul-Calming Flower is mine!"

The winning Martial Artist laughed heartily and turned to pluck the Soul-Calming Flower.

Just then, he suddenly felt a cold aura lock onto him.

He turned around abruptly and saw Chu Shi standing at the edge of the forest.

"Who?!"

The man's expression changed, and he gripped his long saber tightly, looking at Chu Shi vigilantly.

He had just experienced a bitter battle and was currently at a point where his energy was depleted.

Moreover, he could feel that the aura of the young man before him was much stronger than that of the guy he had just defeated.

Chu Shi did not speak, just watching him quietly.

His gaze fell upon this person, and his True Qi circulated quietly within his body.

He could clearly feel that the person had 72 tempered Copper Bones in his body, 8 more than his own.

However, the aura of these Copper Bones was pure and dense, without any scent of other mixed metals, clearly not the Secret Bones like his own.

"They are just pure Copper Bones; even if he has tempered 72 of them, what use is that?"

Chu Shi thought to himself and slowly took a step forward.

"What do you want?!"

His expression changed drastically, he retreated a step, and raised his long saber, pointing it at Chu Shi.

Chu Shi made no move, only walking forward slowly.

A moment later, the man felt uneasy under Chu Shi's gaze, and after weighing his options, he painfully gave up the Soul-Calming Flower that was right before his eyes.

He did not want to lose the big for the small.

Having made up his mind, he held his saber toward Chu Shi and slowly retreated into the jungle behind him.

Chu Shi watched the man leave quietly, still making no move.

In the absence of enmity, he did not want to force a battle and send someone out of the Secret Realm.

Withdrawing his gaze, Chu Shi looked back toward the Soul-Calming Flower.

To his surprise, the defeated Martial Artist had also quietly retreated during the standoff between them.

This made him feel deeply emotional, thinking that he was indeed not the protagonist.

The Geniuses who entered this Temporal Secret Realm were all actually normal people with functioning intelligence.

Shaking his head, Chu Shi scanned the surroundings again, confirming that there were no "mantises" hiding.

He walked quickly to the Soul-Calming Flower, carefully plucked it, and stowed it into his Storage Pouch.

Afterward, Chu Shi looked up at the sky peeking through the treetops; the sun was hanging directly overhead.

"It is still early."

He muttered to himself, his gaze sweeping across the surroundings.

The aura of the two people fighting just now had dissipated, and only the rustling of wind through the leaves remained in the valley.

Chu Shi did not return the way he came, but instead chose a new direction and walked toward the deeper parts of the Secret Realm.

This path was much harder to walk than the previous lakeshore; the ground was covered in tangled old tree roots and waist-deep weeds.

Occasionally, one or two poisonous scorpions or Iron-Backed Centipedes of the Iron Skin Realm would dart out from the grass, but they were all reduced to fly ash by a casual flick of Chu Shi's finger, unable to even get within three feet of him.

He did not walk fast; every step was steady, his body tense, and his five senses remained spread out, covering a range of several dozen zhang.

Along the way, he also encountered a few ordinary Body Refining herbs; although they were not precious special Heaven And Earth Treasures, they were better than nothing, so Chu Shi collected them as well.

However, after walking for another hour or so like this, let alone special Heaven And Earth Treasures, he did not even encounter a decent Yao Beast.

This area seemed to have been scoured by someone, clean and empty.

Chu Shi shook his head helplessly, stopped, and leaned against a thick, ancient tree.

He looked up at the dense canopy above, where sunlight could only filter through the gaps, casting scattered spots of light.

It appeared incredibly quiet and peaceful.

"It seems I chose the wrong path after all; the resources here have been mostly cleared out by those who came before."

"Should I go back and track one of them?"

"Thinking about it, they should know more..."