Willpower?
The Shen Family elder stared blankly at Lu Chao. The answer was simply inconceivable.
He shook his head frantically...
"Impossible. We may be nobodies in Red Sword City, but that doesn’t mean we’re completely ignorant."
"Our ancestors left behind records."
"How could something as ethereal and illusory as willpower possibly break the cruel rules of the Heavenly Destiny Bone?"
The surviving Shen Family elder refused to believe Lu Chao’s words.
But Lu Chao’s gaze was cold as he replied nonchalantly, "I have no reason to lie to a dead man. Now, tell me about the personnel Red Sword City sent to my Azure Flame Sect. What are their realms, and how many are there?"
The Shen Family elder stared wide-eyed at Lu Chao, his gaze vacant. His answer was...
"A few dozen, I suppose."
"As for their realms, how would I know? In their eyes, the Saint Bone Shen Family is worse than pigs and dogs."
The moment his words fell... PFFT!
Lu Chao ended the Shen Family elder’s life with a single strike of his sword.
The elder died with his eyes wide open, unable to believe even in his final moments that Lu Chao could have broken the rules of the Heavenly Destiny Bone with so-called willpower.
And Lu Chao, in truth, had not lied to him.
It wasn’t the unique nature of his Life-taking Star-devouring Bone that Lu Chao relied on. He had shattered the rule with his will alone.
They had truly and utterly suppressed his Fire Roaring, his Water Chant, and his Life-taking Star-devouring Bone, preventing him from circulating any True Qi at all.
Anyone else in that situation would have been terrified.
But he was Lu Chao. He was uncannily calm.
Because Lu Chao himself possessed a so-called Life-taking Bone, he refused to believe in the rule that it was a calamitous star. And since he didn’t believe that, he certainly wouldn’t believe in the cruelties Chi Ting spoke of.
The idea that a Star-level Destiny Bone couldn’t overcome a Moon-level Destiny Bone, that it must be suppressed by it...
Lu Chao simply refused to believe that nonsense.
So he had frantically circulated his True Qi and violently shattered the suppression of the Moon Mortal Bone...
At the time, he showed no outward signs of trouble, but inside, a storm was raging. While breaking the Moon Mortal Bone’s suppression, he felt as if his Fire Roaring Saint Bone and Water Chant Bone were about to shatter.
Every bone in his body ached to an extreme degree.
It was like the terrifying pressure of an absolute rule.
But for Lu Chao, nothing was more painful than the time he had died. His absolute will, and the powerful conviction that the Life-taking Bone was not a calamitous star, had violently burst through everything.
He stared at the dead Shen Family elder and said coolly, "When your heart knows no fear, all Heavenly Destiny Bones are nothing more than forms of power. There are no Heavenly Destiny Bone rules—only a will that is strong enough."
Just as he finished speaking, Cheng Yunsu walked over and asked, "Lu Chao, what do we do now?"
The current situation was...
Chi Ting had fled to the Azure Flame Sect’s Flame Forbidden Land, but that Forbidden Land was already occupied by people from Red Sword City. Besides their Young City Lord, there were certainly other terrifyingly powerful experts with him.
Just as Yan Mu had guards and a terrifying Demon Beast mount, it was impossible for this Young City Lord of Red Sword City not to have the same.
With just the two of them, they stood no chance against such an opponent.
And they didn’t even need to go to the Forbidden Land; Chi Ting might soon return with Red Sword City’s experts to kill them.
Lu Chao murmured in reply, "The Azure Flame Sect’s Forbidden Land is the only hope for our Azure Flame Domain right now, and it’s the foundation of the Azure Flame Sect. We absolutely cannot let Red Sword City’s people breach it first. We have to go, even if it’s a suicide mission."
If they didn’t, the Azure Flame Domain would be completely finished, and the Azure Flame Sect would disappear forever...
"Besides, Brother Chang..."
As Lu Chao spoke, he looked over at Chang Yuan, who was lying on the ground, and said softly, "Perhaps some people are still clinging to the false hope that being treated like dogs and slaves was just Yan Mu’s way. They might think that other people from Cyan Sword and Red Sword Cities would treat the Azure Flame Domain kindly."
At this, a corner of Lu Chao’s mouth lifted slightly...
Chang Yuan’s experience proved there was no room for such hope. The people from Cyan Sword and Red Sword Cities would seize his wife and son as they pleased, and they would kill the Dragon Flame Warriors left at the Beast Flame Academy as they pleased.
Even the Saint Bone Shen Family was treated like nothing more than pigs and dogs. They didn’t see the people of the Azure Flame Domain as human at all.
"There is no hope but to fight!"
"The Barrier Illusion Realm on each floor of the Forbidden Land is our only bargaining chip against them," Lu Chao added in a low voice. "Once inside the barrier on any floor, no one can make a move."
And once you enter the 6th Floor, turning back leads to an illusion realm of a battlefield slaughter—a point of no return for many.
If we want to fight the people from Red Sword City, we have to rely on the barriers of each floor in the Forbidden Land.
With that said, Lu Chao fell silent and walked toward Chang Yuan...
Chang Yuan was no longer screaming. He lay on the ground, muttering to himself, "’A will that fears no cruelty... a will that fears no cruelty... My wife and son are suffering. What the hell do I have to be afraid of!’"
He was actually repeating Lu Chao’s words. Then, he let out a furious roar... BOOM!
The True Qi throughout his body suddenly erupted. It was the True Qi of a Peak Innate Realm cultivator, a realm Chang Yuan hadn’t been able to break through for over a decade. But at this very moment, his True Qi suddenly transformed.
From the Innate Realm, he instantly stepped into the Transformation Realm.
Chang Yuan had broken through. He had finally shattered the Innate Realm that had held him back for over a decade. Then, he continued to charge upward wildly, reaching the Peak of the Transformation Realm in the blink of an eye before surging on...
With another BOOM, he broke into the True Fate Realm. Once the barrier was shattered, his power exploded.
He shot straight to the True Fate Sixth Layer before finally stopping.
This left both Lu Chao and Cheng Yunsu standing there, stunned. This surge was even more ferocious than when Lu Chao had reclaimed his two Heavenly Destiny Bones.
But Lu Chao’s shock quickly turned to delight. "This is the realm that Tiger Flame, the former number one genius of the Hundred Countries, should have! Over a decade of accumulation and madness has finally allowed Brother Chang to erupt completely!"
Cheng Yunsu added, "What blocked Chang Yuan’s breakthrough wasn’t any Heavenly Destiny Bone rule, but his own state of mind."
Lu Chao nodded. Bearing the title of the Hundred Countries’ number one genius, Chang Yuan had suffered a huge blow and fallen into a vicious cycle, unable to break through. The more anxious he became, the more impossible it seemed. But now, he had finally shattered it—because of Lu Chao’s words, and because he needed to save his wife and son.
WHOOSH...
Chang Yuan shot to his feet. The pain from his wounds and his severed tendons had completely healed with his breakthrough.
He stared intently at Lu Chao. "Brother Lu Chao, thank you."
With that, Chang Yuan spun around. "I’m going to save my wife and son now. I can’t wait another second."
He took a step, intending to march toward the Azure Flame Sect’s Forbidden Land.
But Lu Chao quickly rushed to stop him. "Brother Chang, don’t be reckless! We have a chance in the Azure Flame Sect’s Forbidden Land. Even if they have experts Above the Creation Peak, we’ll have an opportunity to kill them all."
Chang Yuan’s body trembled violently as he continued to walk. How could he not be reckless?
"Brother Chang, their weakest members are likely at the Peak Realm, and their strongest is definitely Above the Creation Peak! That’s a realm we in the Azure Flame Domain have almost no experience with. You can’t just go and throw your life away."
"Listen to me. We’ll go together."
Finally, at the sound of Lu Chao’s somber voice, Chang Yuan stopped, his body still trembling uncontrollably.