"Chen Shi!"

In front of Black Mountain Granny's temple, the green smoke and clouds rippled, and the temple door seemed like a large mouth, speaking, "Granny didn't come looking for you, yet you've come to me! Fine, today Granny will send you on your way, leaving nothing of you behind! Children, kill him for Granny—"

The gray-clad rat spirits, upon receiving Black Mountain Granny's command, surged down the mountain like a tide. From afar, the sound of their Midnight Demon Slaying Swords cutting through the air could be heard, whistling in the wind.

They were unlike the human cultivators Chen Shi had encountered before.

Human cultivators would hesitate to harm their own, but these rat spirits wouldn't.

They didn't care if their own were in the way; they would unleash their spells regardless, even if it meant cutting down their own.

Among the red-clad rats rushing down, Chen Shi saw four or five killed by their own Midnight Demon Slaying Swords.

Chen Shi took a deep breath, holding a massive vermilion beam in his hand, wielding it with ease like the golden staff of the Monkey King.

"If it's about destroying this evil temple, then let's wipe them all out!"

He stepped on the Seven Stars, causing starlight to explode around him, easily dodging the incoming sword energy. With a change in his sword technique, sword energy shot out from the Divine Altar, sending enemies tumbling.

"Slow, slow, slow..."

"How can you kill someone being this slow?"

Chen Shi strode forward, swinging the vermilion beam, thunder roaring as he struck upwards. With a point of his sword technique, a rat's head fell to the ground.

Interestingly, these gray-clad rats had learned the Midnight Demon Slaying Sword from the Heavenly Heart True Qi Technique, likely taught by human cultivators. Their swordsmanship was quite impressive.

But to Chen Shi, they seemed too slow, lacking explosiveness. Some sword energies could be dodged without even using the Big Dipper Seven Stars Step.

His own sword energy, however, was incredibly fast, never missing its target and always managing to cut down opponents.

He could even control the direction of the sword energy with his mind.

This was an instinctive action for him, feeling he could influence the sword energy's path and thus unleashing it freely.

This allowed him to never miss with his sword.

But to these gray-clad rats, his sword energy, which could even bend and change direction, filled them with fear.

Chen Shi hadn't learned any other spells, only the Midnight Demon Slaying Sword, which he learned from an old book of the Heavenly Heart True Qi Technique given to him by Li Tianqing. It was no different from others' Heavenly Heart True Qi Technique.

The reason the Midnight Demon Slaying Sword changed in his hands was because he didn't have a Divine Fetus and couldn't gather magical power, so he could only keep refining the Seven Northern Dipper Refinement, honing his bones, heart, blood, flesh, and spirit.

His spirit became incredibly strong as a result.

A strong spirit might not seem useful.

But when releasing sword energy, it could influence the sword's trajectory.

The influence wasn't huge, but it was enough to make the originally simple demon-slaying sword unpredictable.

Chen Shi found the rat spirits' sword energy slow, but to other Divine Fetus Stage cultivators, their speed was definitely not slow.

It was just that Chen Shi was too fast, making them seem slow.

Chen Shi swung the massive beam effortlessly, unleashing the power of various talismans like the Thunder Talisman, Five Thunder Talisman, Great Five Thunder Talisman, Palm Thunder Talisman, Thunder God's Ten Generals Talisman, and Five Suns Heavenly Thunder Talisman.

The heads of the gray-clad rats exploded like blood-red flowers blooming on their necks.

In just a moment, he had fought his way from the foot of the mountain to halfway up.

Ahead, the rat heads surged downward, while five white-bearded elder rats looked down angrily, filled with murderous intent.

Behind them, dark clouds gathered, covering the mountain top.

Right beneath the dark clouds was Black Mountain Granny's temple.

Suddenly, one of the white-bearded elders pointed at Chen Shi, and sword energy shot out from its golden core.

This sword energy wasn't invisible but visible, blood-red and hair-thin, numbering in the hundreds, making it hard to defend against.

Chen Shi swung the beam, sweeping away the blood-red energy with a thunderous roar.

In an instant, all the blood-red energy shattered.

He raised the red beam with one hand, standing it upright. Suddenly, his blood and Qi surged, his body growing from child-sized to nearly adult-sized, and he kicked the base of the beam.

The red beam flew up, parallel to the ground, crashing forward, releasing thunder and lightning along the way.

The gray-clad rats couldn't withstand the thunderous sound of the Thunder Talisman, and their heads exploded.

He pushed the red beam with one hand, sprinting forward, charging at the five elder rats with all his might.

Meanwhile, the subtle sword energy in his Divine Altar collided with each other.

His other hand formed a sword technique, hidden behind him.

One white-bearded elder flashed forward, raising a hand to block the incoming red beam, sneering, "Chen Shi, you haven't formed a golden core, you don't even have a Divine Fetus, and you dare to come and destroy our temple?"

Its front paw blocked the beam, but the force from the beam was so strong that it pushed the elder back.

At the same time, the rolling thunder and fire on the beam exploded around it, making it unsteady and causing blood to trickle from its mouth.

Two more white-bearded elders stepped forward, each placing a hand on the beam.

The combined strength of the three golden core stage demon cultivators barely stopped the beam's momentum.

The three rat elders were shocked.

"My body is my Divine Fetus, spells obey my will!"

Chen Shi's left hand moved slightly, and sword energy shot out from the Divine Altar behind his head.

However, the three white-bearded elders had golden cores protecting them, forming an invisible force field above their heads.

This sword energy, though invisible and intangible, slowed down as it entered the force field, eventually stopping in mid-air, vibrating intensely, making the air blurry.

The three white-bearded elders sighed in relief, but suddenly, a second sword energy followed the first, crashing into it and shattering it into hundreds of pieces, pointing in different directions.

The second sword energy penetrated further into the force field.

Then a third sword energy arrived, shattering the second.

The third sword energy reached one of the white-bearded elders.

In the force field, more shattered sword energy accumulated.

Whoosh...

Four more sword energies flew in like lightning, each one shattering the previous, advancing further.

In the blink of an eye, Chen Shi's left hand pointed forward seven times, and in just a moment, the chain of sword energies pierced through the force fields of the three demon cultivators.

The seventh sword energy pierced through the neck of the white-bearded elder.

The elder raised a hand to clutch its throat, but its head slid off its neck.

Its golden core force field collapsed, and the shattered sword energies shot forward.

The other two white-bearded elders leaped back, avoiding the incoming shattered sword energies, while their golden cores flew out, pressing down on Chen Shi.

As they leaped into the air, Chen Shi jumped up, kicking the end of the beam. The long beam, over two zhang long, shot towards Black Mountain Granny's temple like an arrow.

"I refine my blood and spirit, forging them into a core. Golden Core, turn!"

Chen Shi landed, sprinting forward like a galloping horse.

The two golden cores pressing down couldn't stop his steps.

"Why can't I destroy the mountain, break the temple?"

He punched forward, and one of the white-bearded elders landing in front of him saw Chen Shi's fist coming.

Accompanied by rolling thunder, the punch was deep and powerful.

The elder raised a hand to block, but with a crack, its arm bone shattered, and its five fingers were crushed by the terrifying force.

The punch pressed its shattered hand bones into its face.

"Underestimating me at the golden core stage is a path to death."

Before Chen Shi's words finished, his foot landed, his thigh muscles tensed instantly, and the tendons at the base of his leg expanded, filled with True Qi, making his leg appear much thicker, with muscles distinct and defined.

His right leg exerted force, like a giant python turning, and as his body rotated, his other leg swung down like a large blade, striking the neck of another white-bearded elder.

For the first time, the elder felt its body was so fragile.

It had refined its golden core to the second turn, using it to temper its body over the years, believing it had removed impurities from its blood, bones, and marrow, strengthening its organs and body.

But Chen Shi's leg not only broke its neck but also shattered its confidence.

However, it had no time to think, as its brain was violently shaken, and its soul extinguished.

Chen Shi landed, sprinting towards the red beam rushing into Black Mountain Granny's temple.

The beam he kicked out was about to crash into the temple.

Inside the temple, black energy surged out, blocking the beam.

Though Black Mountain Granny had lost her divine form, her power was still formidable, her spells incredibly strong.

At the same time, the two remaining white-bearded elders rushed towards the beam, trying to stop it from entering the temple.

"Whoosh..."

A figure rushed past them, stirring up a whirlwind.

The red ribbon behind Chen Shi's head was pulled straight as he flew past the two white-bearded elders, leaping forward.

At this moment, the black energy formed by Black Mountain Granny's power had become a thick wall. The beam was stuck in the wall.

Just then, Chen Shi arrived, grabbing the end of the beam with both hands, his right toe touching the ground, and he rolled his body.

The beam spun with him, and suddenly, golden light burst from its surface. The dozens of Thunder Talismans Chen Shi had drawn exploded, thunder and lightning roaring in all directions.

The temple's gate was blasted apart, and the energy wall was swept away.

Chen Shi surged his blood and Qi, his golden core circulating to his right fist, which he punched into the end of the beam.

The beam made a deep whooshing sound as it shot through the temple courtyard, heading for the main hall.

Behind Chen Shi, the two remaining white-bearded elders had no time to chase the beam and attacked him together.

These two rats stood like humans, moving with the grace of martial arts masters, their every move exuding the aura of a grandmaster.

In their attacks, hands, feet, elbows, knees, and tails all became weapons, striking at Chen Shi.

The most dangerous were their tails.

The rat tails, over a zhang long, made ear-piercing sounds as they whipped through the air, the tips even tearing through the air with a deafening sonic boom.

Each time the tails struck, the ground, whether stone or brick, shattered like tofu.

Their Divine Fetus sat in the Divine Altar behind their heads, raising their golden cores, moving like lightning.

The golden cores were surrounded by blood-red light, less than a foot long, as thin as hair, but they were sword light.

Because they consumed humans, drank blood, and absorbed moonlight, their golden cores were impure, and so was their sword energy, tinged with blood.

The light surrounded the golden core in three layers, each layer half a foot apart, forming a blood-red light sphere around the golden core, four to five feet in diameter.

The golden cores rolled through the air, sometimes skimming the ground, sometimes flying around, closely following Chen Shi.

Wherever the blood-red light passed, walls, floors, and pillars bore tiny holes, pierced by the light.

In the temple courtyard, there were stone statues of rat people. When touched by the tails or golden cores, they shattered, sending debris flying.

Chen Shi moved with the Big Dipper Seven Stars Step, his speed incredible, circling the courtyard in an instant, shaking off the two golden cores.

Behind him, the two white-bearded elders were fast, closely following.

A long tail whipped through the air, striking the top of his head with a clang.

Fortunately, he wore an iron hat; otherwise, the strike might not have pierced his skull, but it would have knocked him out.

The iron hat was dented.

Chen Shi's footwork suddenly changed, from Steady Star Step to Gem Star Step, then to Pivot Star Step.

These were the three stars from the base to the tip of the Big Dipper, especially the leap from Gem Star to Pivot Star, from the lowest to the highest point.

When Chen Shi used Steady Star Step, his body almost skimmed the ground. When he transitioned to Gem Star Step, his left foot stepped out, treading on air. By the time he used Pivot Star Step, he was over a zhang high in the air.

His right foot stepped out, head down, feet up, as if walking in the sky.

Starlight exploded underfoot, forming the Pivot Star Talisman.

Chen Shi almost collided head-on with a white-bearded elder, slapping its ears with both hands, causing such a violent shock that its eyes nearly popped out.

He landed and rushed towards the temple's main hall.

At this moment, the vermilion beam whistled into the main hall, heading straight for the Black Mountain Granny statue.

Around the black statue, green mist and black smoke rolled, suddenly flowing into the statue as if it contained infinite space.

As the beam was about to smash the black statue, the statue's face caved in, its entire head seeming like just a shell, with the interior a pitch-black hole.

The surface of the black hole was lined with shiny, rice-like teeth, densely packed, stretching into the depths, with no end in sight.

It was a giant mouth, like a bottomless pit.

No wonder cultivators passing by Black Mountain said the guardian of Black Mountain, Black Mountain Granny, was more like an evil spirit than a godmother.

The vermilion beam fell towards the mouth, and even the dozens of Thunder Talismans Chen Shi had drawn couldn't harm Black Mountain Granny.

Just as she was about to swallow the beam completely, Chen Shi appeared from outside the hall, reaching out to grab the end of the beam, pouring all his True Qi into it recklessly.

"No!"

The black statue suddenly stood up, about a zhang and six feet tall, with black arms moving, each arm eight to nine feet long, with fingers as thin and long as a spider's legs, reaching for Chen Shi, pressing down so hard he could barely breathe.

"No!"

She screamed shrilly, grabbing Chen Shi's neck with one hand, lifting him up, while other hands grabbed his head, ankles, and wrists, about to tear him apart.

Suddenly, the golden dragon drawn on the vermilion beam began to move.

The dragon's roar echoed, and an incredibly vast and terrifying aura erupted, shattering the black statue's head with a bang.

The dragon's roar was deafening, knocking the white-bearded rat that had rushed in unconscious.

Chen Shi was also dazed, seeing the main hall crumble under the golden dragon's dance.

Moments later, Black Mountain Granny's temple was leveled.

The golden dragon coiled atop the ruins, its aura overwhelming, letting out a long roar.

It echoed through the valley, shattering all extraordinary powers, before vanishing into the vermilion beam.

The headless black statue, with its eight arms still gripping Chen Shi, suddenly shattered, turning to powder and falling to the ground.

As Chen Shi landed, he turned and swung his hand, sending a sword energy from the Divine Altar to cut the unconscious white-bearded elder in half.

Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Destroying the mountain and temple, how could he not wipe them out completely?

End of Chapter.