Chapter 55 Tears Drench the Garments

Various sects and cultivation schools across the world boast a myriad of different techniques, each claiming superiority and striving to recruit the most naturally gifted cultivation prodigies to build up their heritage.

Yet, since the pre-Qin era, the classification of a cultivator's rank has naturally maintained a universally recognized standard.

Those below the fourth rank are as common as stray dogs, and no one cares to waste ink describing them.

The fifth rank is known as Penetration.
True qi unblocks all meridians in the body, the vitality of flesh and blood flourishes, and physical strength is generated.

The sixth rank is known as Mystery Craft.
True qi can be both rigid and yielding, can flow over the skin and hair, can form a protective aura, and can communicate with mysterious armory runes.

The seventh rank is known as Wondrous Transformation.
True qi is extremely condensed; not only can it imbue ordinary objects, but it can also act as an extension of flesh and blood, transforming endlessly with countless marvelous uses.

However, the eighth rank is known as Divine Might!

Between the eighth rank and the seventh rank, the boundaries of true qi appear distinct, yet it can still leave the body and is merely more condensed.

Yet the difficulty lies precisely in this lack of an obvious boundary.

Among all cultivation sects in the Great Tang, there are more than a hundred techniques for cultivating true qi, and at least seventy of them completely lack methods for progressing from the seventh rank to the eighth rank.

This is because among all cultivators who practiced these seventy-odd techniques, not a single one had ever reached the eighth rank.

Those who practiced these techniques, no matter how strong their condensed true qi became, had no predecessors' experiences to draw upon, nor did they know what kind of divine might their true qi could manifest.

The transition from the seventh rank to the eighth rank is a qualitative leap.
The key lies in opening up a unique divine might.

Because of companions like Yin Shiniang and Granny Long, Chen Tu understood the path of advancement from the seventh rank to the eighth rank far better than ordinary cultivators.

Opening up divine might sounds simple, but in reality, it is the comprehensive result of predecessors' experiences, one's own cultivation insights, serendipity, stumbling about blindly through trial and error, and years of deliberate practice.

Take the Xie family's Listening Wave Sword Courtyard as an example. Over the past forty or fifty years, countless outstanding young swordsmen have come and gone. The cultivation techniques were the same, the sword forms were the same, but ultimately, due to differences in state of mind, comprehension, aptitude, willpower, and temperament, they produced only Feng Shuqing as the single eighth-rank cultivator who had unlocked divine might.

His eighth rank was clearly a relatively weak one.

Judging from the outcome of the sword duel between Yin Shiniang and Feng Shuqing, Feng Shuqing's unique divine might was the residual form of condensed sword qi.
The sword qi he condensed could linger in the air like a real sword without dissipating, continuing to exist and advance according to the sword intent.

In Chen Tu's eyes, this divine might was nothing special.
For Chen Tu had witnessed with his own eyes how certain true qi techniques could achieve a degree of sword qi condensation and residue even at the seventh rank.

That person was none other than Gu Shiwu.

During his previous clash with Gu Liubai, he felt that Gu Liubai's true qi was not fiercely powerful, but rather peculiar.
Later, during the battle between Gu Liubai and Geshang, he saw it completely clearly.

The reason Gu Liubai was able to defeat Geshang was not only because this fellow was exceptionally formidable when wielding sword techniques with both left and right hands, but the primary reason was that Geshang had fallen for his trap.

When Gu Liubai traded injury for injury and stabbed Geshang, his true qi remained trapped within the wound. At the moment of the final fatal strike, that true qi suddenly burst forth, causing Geshang to slow down instantly.

Yet, amidst all the powerful true qi techniques in the world, one could hardly find two or three of that caliber.

No matter how inferior the divine might, it remained divine might.
How could a seventh-rank cultivator possibly withstand Feng Shuqing's brand of divine might?

A seventh-rank swordsman's strike is just a strike, and the discharged sword qi lacks the sharpness of a real sword. Yet once his sword technique unfolds and the tip of the sword shivers, a dozen or so dim-yellow little swords appear in the air.

These little swords are almost indistinguishable from the tip of a real sword!

With Feng Shuqing possessing such marvelous swordsmanship, unleashing dozens or hundreds of flying swords into the air with a few casual strikes, how is a seventh-rank cultivator supposed to block that?
With their bare heads?

Therefore, the eighth rank represents the absolute peak of the mortal realm today!

The ninth rank is the stuff of legendary martial saints—capable of standing against ten thousand men.

Moreover, according to the traditions passed down from the pre-Qin era, such a martial saint pays no heed to the enemy's rank, nor whether the enemy wears armor or carries all manner of bizarre military hardware. Even if among ten thousand men there are numerous eighth-rank divine might wielders, multiple seventh-rank cultivators, and a massive array of heavy armor, he can still come and go as he pleases.

The sole criterion for measuring the ninth rank is that not a single army in the world can kill him.

Even with tens or hundreds of thousands of troops, no matter how many cultivators are present, he can slash his way in and out. Even if he cannot slaughter his way through the entire army, he can still escape before exhaustion sets in.

All past dynasties combined have produced only two or three such martial saints, both of whom are now enshrined in temples by posterity.

The current Great Tang certainly possesses no ninth-rank cultivator.
There is not even a single cultivator willing to prove that they can survive the encirclement and annihilation of a hundred-thousand-strong army.

If the Great Tang had one, Tubo would likely not dare deploy troops against the Great Tang at all.
For Tubo has yet to produce a single eighth-rank cultivator to this day, yet it has already beaten the Great Tang's army several times!

Even in Chang'an, which gathers the talents of the empire and where it is said that a falling clothes-drying pole will hit a cultivator, third and fourth-rank cultivators are as common as stray dogs, while sixth-rank cultivators are true rarities.

Luo Qing is a sixth-rank cultivator.
Among all the frontier generals in the Yangguan and Yumen Pass regions, counting them one by one, those who can defeat him in single combat do not exceed ten.

Li Xizhi, who follows Pei Yunqun, is merely of the seventh rank.

Yet the swordsman just deployed by the Zou family manifested condensed sword qi the moment he struck—he was unexpectedly also of the seventh rank!

For the Zou family of Youzhou to produce a seventh-rank swordsman was already astonishing to the extreme, but such a swordsman was blasted to death by He Huoluo with a single punch.

With true qi wrapped around his fist, possessing a divine might harder than a sharp blade—if this wasn't an eighth-rank cultivator, what else could it be?

According to Yin Shiniang's estimation, Chang'an and Luoyang combined possessed at most five or six eighth-rank experts, and Yin Shiniang believed that perhaps only two of them surpassed her.

Regardless of whether they could defeat Yin Shiniang or not, counting them one by one, even if Chang'an and Luoyang possessed a total of six eighth-rank experts...
Did his own faction now possess three eighth-rank experts?!

Chen Tu's mood became exceptionally heavy.
He felt that upon reaching Chang'an, he would only be fit to slaughter pigs.

He felt that the Tubo leader, Zanzhu, did not suffer from excessive paranoia, but rather had coincidentally made the wisest choice.
Otherwise, what Gao Jue was playing with in his hands right now might not have been Mangbuzhi's hat, but Zanzhu's.

If Chen Tu, an accomplice of He Huoluo, had his mind impacted to the verge of collapse, the Zou family members opposite him were naturally even more shattered.

Zou Suiyi and the butler-like figure were chattering their teeth continuously.
To encounter an eighth-rank expert out here in the barren wilderness?

Their state of mind was akin to visiting a brothel in Youzhou, only to discover that the courtesan entertaining them was the reigning empress.
It was utter absurdity.

Gu Liubai smiled at the members of the Zou family.
Zou Suiyi and the butler-like figure began to tremble all over, shaking so violently that even Chen Tu felt they looked like they were dancing some sophisticated foreign dance.

"Wouldn't it be better to just do honest business?" At this moment, Gu Liubai, who had lost a hand and was still putting on a brave front, finally spoke up. He sighed, "Are you guys always this lawless in your business dealings? It's a good thing I sent two letters to your Zou family."

The sound of a carriage curtain being lifted rang out.
Among the eight carriages not far behind Gu Liubai, two people stepped down.

Zou Suiyi and the butler-like figure had been trembling violently, but the moment they clearly saw the faces of those two people, they collapsed onto their knees with loud thuds.

A tall, upright young man with a resolute expression was supporting an elderly woman who looked even older than Granny Long, walking slowly toward Gu Liubai and Zhou Luer.

The elderly woman was dressed in very simple clothes with a full head of white hair, but every single strand was neat and smoothly combed. Although she had some difficulty walking on her own, she still gave an impression of upright features and graceful poise, as if countless moral teachings had been deeply carved into her very bones.

Her gaze was not fierce. Ever since she stepped out of the carriage, she kept her eyes fixed on Zhou Luer. Her breathing and vital energy were unstable, as if she might faint at any moment due to excessive emotional agitation, yet Zou Suiyi and the butler-like figure remained prostrated on the ground, not even daring to look at her.

Meanwhile, the resolute-looking young man supporting her kept his gaze fixed on Gu Liubai and He Huoluo for a long time, unable to look away.

He had always believed that Gu Liubai's arrangements were mere empty bluffs, and had even resolved in his heart that if Zou Jianan's identity proved false, he would not allow Gu Liubai and the others to leave alive, purely on account of making such an elderly person run about on such a grueling journey.

Yet tonight's events had completely exceeded his imagination.

Who could have imagined that Manager Wu, who had been loyal to the Zou family for decades, would do such a thing? Who could have imagined that Zou Suiyi of the Zou family's fourth branch, usually the most honest and reliable of men, would turn out to wear such a vicious face upon arriving here?

Who could have expected that they could still manage to invite the renowned Black Flood Dragon Swordsman, Mo Qiushan?

Even more unthinkable was that the Black Flood Dragon Swordsman, who could walk sideways across Youzhou, was beaten to death with a single punch by a one-armed man who looked like nothing more than a carriage driver!

Eighth rank! Eighth rank! Eighth rank!
His mind was entirely filled with these words.

The elderly woman kept staring at Zhou Luer.
Zhou Luer had originally been grinning all along.
With Gu Shiwu and He Huoluo around, even if the sky fell, he felt it was none of his business.

Yet as the firelight flickered across the elderly woman's face and he caught sight of the tears welling in her eyes, for some reason, he could no longer smile.
He felt inexplicably panicked.

The elderly woman spoke in a pleading tone, making her voice as calm as possible, "Can you... let me look at your birthmark?"

Zhou Luer didn't utter a single nonsense word; he turned around on the spot, dropped his trousers, and exposed his bare buttocks.

As a result, the elderly woman's knees instantly went weak. Even with the young man supporting her, she lunged forward and collapsed against Zhou Luer.

Zhou Luer was so startled that his entire body stiffened in terror, not daring to move, and he didn't even pull his trousers back up.

The elderly woman, whose extraordinary bearing and well-read background marked her clearly as a matriarch of a great clan, suddenly threw her arms around Zhou Luer and began to wail aloud: "My pitiful great-grandson! You've finally returned! How much suffering you must have endured—there's nothing left of you but bones, not even a couple of ounces of meat..."

She wept with heart-rending grief, her entire body shaking incessantly, while Zou Suiyi and Manager Wu, prostrated not far in front of her, were frightened into fainting dead away.

When Zhou Luer first heard the word "great-grandson," his mind didn't register it, and the elderly woman's face was completely unfamiliar to him. But seeing her wail with such heartbreaking sorrow, her face twisted in anguish, he inexplicably found the old woman pitiful and her face began to look somewhat familiar. A sourness welled up in the bridge of his nose, and before he knew it, he too couldn't help but throw his head back and howl in grief.

Consequently, the moment the old woman heard him howl, she wept even more hysterically, sobbing so hard she could barely catch her breath.

Clearly lacking physical strength, she clutched Zhou Luer so tightly that he felt as though all the bones in his body were about to be crushed.
And so, he too could only keep on howling.

He didn't even know what he was crying for; he just felt an overwhelming urge to wail.