Die with eyes wide open

Unlike Long Chen's, that Qi vortex was only a few dozen zhang in diameter, and it wasn't perfectly round; it looked as if it had been slightly flattened.

Most importantly, his Qi vortex was just a Qi vortex. It was different from Long Chen's Divine Ring; although Long Chen's Divine Ring appeared transparent, there was a faint glow emanating from within, like a rainbow.

However, the Qi vortex condensed by Elder Sun was a blurry mess, like a bowl of white rice porridge that had been forcibly stirred into a halo.

Long Chen's mouth hung open as he looked at the "Divine Ring" behind Elder Sun, his expression one of disbelief. This was just too exaggerated.

Seeing the shocked expression on Long Chen's face, Elder Sun laughed crazily, "How is it? Are you shocked? In my hands, this 'Rebellion Killing' Divine Technique is a hundred times more powerful than it is in yours!"

Elder Sun could feel that after the "Divine Ring" appeared behind him, he could clearly sense the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi and absorb it to his heart's content.

This was something he had never been able to do before. With such a Cultivation Technique, he could Cultivate much faster.

Most importantly, Elder Sun had been stuck at the Peak of the Bone Forging Realm for many years. After condensing the "Divine Ring" this time, he clearly felt that the Bottleneck had loosened significantly.

According to his estimates, it wouldn't be long before he could advance to the Pulse Condensation Realm, becoming an expert like Elder Tu Fang, and there would be nowhere in the world he couldn't go.

He even had a fleeting thought of starting his own sect, because with his strength, he was qualified to be the Sect Leader of a second-rate force; why should he suffer here?

Therefore, the moment Elder Sun condensed the "Divine Ring," he thought of Long Chen. Just thinking of Long Chen made his teeth itch with hatred.

He knew that Long Chen had a good relationship with Senior Brother Wan, and since Senior Brother Wan happened to be in seclusion, he ordered a chore disciple to secretly deliver a letter to Long Chen, arranging for him to come here.

Long Chen actually arrived as promised, which delighted Elder Sun. As long as he killed Long Chen, the secret of this Cultivation Technique would sink into oblivion forever.

Long Chen looked at Elder Sun with a complex expression and sighed, "How did you do it?"

"Haha, of course I Cultivated according to the Cultivation Technique you gave me. Do you really think I'm senile? Did you think your little tricks could fool me?" Elder Sun sneered.

"What do you mean?" Long Chen was stunned.

"What do I mean? Hehe, although the Cultivation Technique you gave me was correct, you deliberately marked the path for the True Qi circulation.

At the time, I was wondering why you were so meticulous in marking the path. Later, I discovered that you truly had ill intentions; that path was a reverse circulation route.

"Hmph, I, Sun Changqing, have lived for nearly a hundred years; how could I be fooled by such a petty trick? I practiced your drawn Cultivation Technique route in reverse, and it actually worked! Brat, you can die with no regrets now, right?" Elder Sun said sinisterly.

No way, that actually works?

This time, Long Chen was truly shocked. The Cultivation Technique he gave him was entirely real, and the circulation path was also real.

This guy actually didn't trust him and practiced it in reverse; no wonder the "Divine Ring" he condensed was such an oddity.

Long Chen sighed, "It seems you really used the heart of a villain to measure the belly of a gentleman. The Cultivation Technique I gave you is absolutely real; I didn't mess with it at all."

"Hmph, is there any point in saying these things when you are about to die?" Elder Sun grinned viciously.

Long Chen couldn't be bothered to argue with him, but this Elder Sun was truly a weirdo. To think he could condense a Divine Ring by practicing in reverse—it was completely beyond his expectations.

At this moment, the Aura on Elder Sun's body was extremely powerful, and his pressure was several times stronger than before; he could definitely kill Long Chen with ease.

However, there wasn't a trace of panic on Long Chen's face. All that remained was calmness, and even a hint of pity. Yes, pity.

"Do you know? Actually, when I received the letter, I knew you were the one playing tricks. Although Senior Brother Wan has just been promoted to Elder, if he wanted to discuss something with me, he would never put on airs and arrange to meet me out here; he would visit me in person," Long Chen said calmly.

"Hehe, it's a pity you still came," Elder Sun said disdainfully.

"Yes, I still came, because I found it strange. Logically speaking, someone who should have died long ago shouldn't be able to impersonate others to write letters, so I came," Long Chen said.

"What do you mean?" Elder Sun was stunned, then shouted angrily.

"I mean, you should have died long ago. Your being alive surprised me, so I wanted to come and see," Long Chen explained.

Elder Sun didn't know why, but looking at Long Chen's excessively calm face, a trace of inexplicable fear arose in his heart.

"Stop the nonsense, go to hell!" Elder Sun shouted, his Aura exploding, and he slammed his palm toward Long Chen.

"Bang!" With a loud explosion, flesh and blood splattered everywhere.

Elder Sun had a look of horror on his face. He stared blankly at his body; he was now lying on the ground.

His body from the chest down had disappeared. His flesh and blood were everywhere, staining the ground red.

Long Chen slowly moved the huge shield in his hand away. He glanced at the flesh and blood on the shield, hesitated for a moment, and then threw the shield away.

"This… what exactly is going on?" Elder Sun, now left with only his torso and above, asked with a look of horror.

If it were an ordinary Cultivator, they would have died on the spot after losing their internal organs. However, as an expert in the Bone Forging Realm, Elder Sun had a large amount of energy hidden in his arms, which could briefly sustain his life.

However, in this state, he was undoubtedly going to die; the energy in his arms could only allow him to hold on for a few more moments.

"Sigh, why bother? The Cultivation Technique I gave you was completely correct. If you had practiced it normally, you would have exploded and died at home.

Yet you chose to practice it in reverse and then invited me out. Are you trying to disgust me one last time before you die?" Long Chen said with a depressed expression.

"Long Chen, I admit defeat. For the sake of me dying soon, let me be a ghost who understands why I died," Elder Sun said with a deathly pale face.

Elder Sun felt that his death was too unjust; he wanted to know how he had actually died.

Long Chen hesitated. Originally, Long Chen hated this guy, especially since this guy had just tried to kill him.

According to Long Chen's usual temper, whether you die knowing why or not has absolutely nothing to do with me.

But seeing Elder Sun, a dignified expert of the Bone Forging Realm, end up in this state, he couldn't help but sigh and say, "Actually, you died because of your greed. In this world, some things are not yours. If you try to seize them by force, you will end up like this."

"Haven't you heard that I am a Cultivator without a Spiritual Root? In fact, not only do I lack a Spiritual Root, but I also have no Dantian."

"And this Cultivation Technique of mine can only be practiced by those without a Dantian. For those with a Dantian, during the first step of Qi Gathering, it would be like lighting a firecracker, causing the Dantian to explode."

"Actually, if you had followed the normal cultivation route, you might have had a sliver of a chance to save your life, though your Dantian definitely wouldn't have been saved."

"But you were too clever for your own good. You practiced in reverse, and you somehow managed to refine that lopsided, ugly thing, and you actually thought you had succeeded."

"I believe you just finished practicing it and, without even testing its power, you couldn't wait to come and kill me."

"Although that ring of yours has some power, it is all external force. Once you want to use it, you must use the power of your Dantian to activate it."

"The moment you activated it, the external power instantly rushed into your Dantian, and then you… Bang! You exploded," Long Chen sighed.

The circulation path diagram of the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art that Long Chen drew was real, but that was just the Cultivation Technique used during Qi Gathering, intended to prepare for condensing the Fengfu Star later.

Elder Sun naturally didn't know that one could Cultivate without a Dantian, so he followed conventional logic. However, Long Chen was quite impressed by Elder Sun's boldness.

To actually be able to condense such a ring by practicing in reverse was quite something; at the very least, Long Chen had never dared to think of doing that.

Long Chen reached out and took off Elder Sun's ring, took out the four black zircon stones, and arranged them on the ground in order, revealing the characters on the back.

"Here, take a good look at these four characters," Long Chen said.

"Ni, Shi, Sha, Bi… Ni Shi Sha Bi… You're an idiot?"

Elder Sun finally understood that he had fallen into a trap from start to finish. He stared fixedly at Long Chen, his eyes filled with resentment and unwillingness, "Long Chen, you bastard, you are a devil! Even if I die, I will come back in the middle of the night to claim your life! You just wait…"

After saying these words, Elder Sun finally exhausted the energy in his body. His head tilted to the side, and he died. However, even in death, his eyes were still glaring fiercely at Long Chen.

Long Chen curled his lips, brushed the dust off his body, and muttered to himself, "Damn, I run into everything. He's already dead and still wants to scare me. Good thing my guts aren't small."

He looked around, found a pit, threw the remaining half of Elder Sun's body into it, kicked some dirt over it, and buried him.

"Although you were a piece of trash, well, once a person dies, the debt is cleared. Fortunately, before you died, you did something good, so I won't hold it against you. Now that I've buried you, we're even."

"If you are still unconvinced and turn into a vengeful ghost, you can come find me anytime. I'll teach you other ultimate techniques, and next time, I'll definitely make you die fully convinced!"

After saying this, Long Chen stopped wasting words and returned to the branch sect. In the quiet valley, gusts of autumn wind blew, sounding like whimpering.

Three days later, news of Elder Sun's disappearance spread throughout the branch sect, but the branch sect wasn't greatly shaken by his disappearance.

Because Elder Tu Fang came forward and said that Elder Sun had resigned from his position as Elder and left on his own, everyone understood.

No wonder they felt Elder Sun had been acting strangely these days, constantly running outside, and even selling off his belongings at low prices; so he was changing jobs.

However, no one was surprised by Elder Sun's "job change," because ever since his performance on the battlefield was exposed by Tu Fang, his status had plummeted.

From having his rewards halved to being stripped of his lucrative position at the Xuantian Pavilion, it was clear that Elder Sun had no future at the Xuantian Branch Sect, so it was normal for him to leave.

Although he didn't know how Elder Sun had disappeared, Tu Fang could roughly guess his fate. Competing against a Heaven and Earth Anomaly like him, Elder Sun was definitely tired of living.

Therefore, Tu Fang suppressed the matter, not wanting it to affect the normal operation of the branch sect.

Long Chen was also well aware of this matter. He believed that Tu Fang had seen something, but he didn't care.

Counting the days, it had been over a month since the great battle ended. Everyone else's cultivation was soaring, while he was still stuck in place. This was absolutely not okay; he had to Cultivate.

After greeting Tang Waner, Long Chen headed alone toward the place where the thunder clouds were dense.