Chapter 3128: News That Shocked The Immortal Realm!
Chapter 3128: News That Shocked The Immortal Realm!
The scarred valley was still settling into silence when the ripples of what had transpired began to spread.
Sword intent still lingered like a storm in the heavens, etched into the clouds and carved into the land. But while the scar of battle remained fixed in the Ashfall Plains, the story of the battle began moving with a speed even faster than sword light.
By the time healers were rushing to bind the Grand Elder’s arm and Lin Mu had been laid down by his companions to rest, word had already left the valley.
Witnesses carried it on trembling lips, jade slips flared with hurried recordings, and talismans streaked like meteors toward every sect, clan, and court with ties to Ash Crown City.
And foremost among those who seized the tale was the Smoldering Rock Merchant Union.
Merchants were predators of a different kind. Where swordsmen carved scars into mountains, traders carved their names into hearts and ledgers. For them, speed was profit. And no news promised greater profit than this:
"Lin Mu, Fifth Tribulation Immortal, battles the Grand Elder of the Xian Sword Sect, Huo Jianyang—a Transcendent Immortal—and the fight ends in a draw!"
The moment their scribes confirmed the authenticity of the event, jade messages flew in all directions. Branch unions lit up with signal arrays. Letters, Jade Slips, Couriers and hired cultivators carried the tale through teleportation arrays, across rivers, even into the void itself.
Their motives were simple.
The one who reported first would be seen as the closest witness, the most reliable partner. And by linking themselves openly with Lin Mu... by loudly proclaiming their access to the man who had just shaken the Silent Lotus World, they would harvest a bounty of prestige.
Contracts would flow easier. Rivals would hesitate. Negotiations would tilt in their favor.
And, more subtly, the Union tied Lin Mu’s rising name to their own banner. If he became a legend, they would ride his light. They had already vowed to serve him to their best abilities due to the nudging by Lady Kang before.
Plus what they had thought of a forced burden had now become a great benefit for them instead.
The very first copy of the report, however, was not sent to strangers.
It was delivered directly to Lady Kang of the Great Kang Auction House.
The moment the message reached her, she lifted the jade slip, brows arching higher with every word she read. Then, a smile curved her lips, one of satisfaction rather than surprise.
"At last," she murmured. "He’s finally showing the world what he truly is."
For so long, she had worried that Lin Mu played his role too small.
That he cloaked himself in humility and caution even as power surged beneath his skin.
He was not a minor talent. He was not a shadow clinging to greater names.
He was himself. And now, the world was forced to see it.
Lady Kang tapped her fingers against her armrest, already calculating the waves this would send. With Lin Mu’s name blazing across the realm, every faction would want a piece of him. But unlike those scrambling merchants, she was his companion. She had stood at his side, walked with him, fought alongside him, witnessed his growth firsthand.
Most of all... She owed him a life debt. Her own life.
This battle was not the work of patronage or borrowed blades. It was Lin Mu’s own Dao, his own fists, his own will.
For the first time, she felt as though he was taking the stage he deserved.
Meanwhile, Lin Mu lay in a quiet chamber of his assigned residence in Ash Crown City, his body trembling from exhaustion.
More than ninety percent of his energy reserves had been poured into the clash. Fifty percent of it vanished in an instant with the Mountain Collapsing Fist: Third Form—Devastator.
Even his resilience, his overflowing vitality, was pressed to its limit.
But as his body ached and his meridians still burned, Lin Mu’s eyes were steady.
"It was worth it," he whispered to himself.
Because now, he knew.
He knew where he stood in the world.
Against a Transcendent Immortal... not just any transcendent, but Huo Jianyang, once a General of the Immortal Court, the One Eyed Sword Lord... he had not crumbled.
He had not been brushed aside like dust.
He had stood. He had clashed. And he had drawn.
The memory of the fight replayed in his mind.
The Grand Elder’s sword skills; precise, domineering, honed by endless campaigns.
The strange, almost unbelievable form of his Dao Embryo: a pill, the Sword Lord Core Dao Embryo, brimming not only with Dao traces but with Dao insights.
Lin Mu had felt it in his bones. The elder was walking at the very brink of realms!
"Against weaker Transcendents..." Lin Mu thought, "I could win."
The realization filled him with both pride and clarity.
But he did not allow arrogance to creep in.
This had been an open and fair battle.
On a battlefield where both men stood face-to-face, drawing upon strength, skill, and Dao. If it had been a fight to the death, he would have fought differently. He would have used shadows, stealth, ambush, the cunning methods of one who valued survival over spectacle.
That was his true nature. That was the difference between survival and honor.
Still, even with every trick at his disposal, Lin Mu understood one thing clearly:
If he had not chosen to end the battle in one great strike... he would not have survived it.
His Devastator had done more than unleash his might—it had stolen time.
It had forced the Grand Elder to halt his assimilation of the Sword Lord Core’s stored intent and unleash all that he had absorbed that far.
Lin Mu shivered at the thought:
’If that assimilation had continued... if that mountain of sword intent had fully entered the elder’s body...’
He would have lost. Without question.
Lin Mu closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. His fists clenched, not in despair, but in resolve.
"Good," he muttered. "Now I know what I must prepare for."
But outside the quiet of his chamber, the storm was only just beginning.