Ascending to Godhood: I Can Foresee All Futures

The reason the major powers hadn’t resorted to underhanded tactics yet was twofold. First, their own interests hadn’t been harmed. Second, all factions adhered to certain unwritten rules.

Besides, apart from his actions against Luoyun Manor, he hadn’t done anything too outrageous to the other powers, so they naturally wouldn’t turn on him so easily.

But once the battle at Wushan Mountain was over, things would be different.

Therefore, he had to increase his strength as quickly as possible. Only by raising his Cultivation to the Mystic Realm would he have the power to protect himself.

"Sir, something’s not right around us."

Li Huai Sheng quietly moved to Chen Sheng’s side and spoke in a low voice.

He hadn’t noticed anything at first, but as they went deeper into the dense forest path, Li Huai Sheng felt that it had become too quiet. Even the birds and beasts were silent, which was clearly wrong.

Chen Sheng’s gaze swept across their surroundings. "On guard," he said lightly.

Chen Sheng had already foreseen this. He knew that experts from the Blood River Sect would make a move on him today, either to seize the Profound Flame Order or to confirm if he had it. Thus, Chen Sheng was in no hurry.

With his current strength, anyone below the Profound Mastery realm...

...was asking for death!

If he factored in his protective Spirit Talismans, the Blood Evil Demon Talisman, and the Dreadful God Talisman, and if he seized the right opportunity...

...he might even be able to slay someone above Profound Mastery.

"On guard!" Li Huai Sheng barked immediately.

The dozen or so riders around them instantly reined in their horses, spreading out in a well-drilled formation. Their hands fell as one to their sword hilts, their eagle-sharp gazes sweeping every shadow that could hide an enemy.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

The very instant Li Huai Sheng’s voice faded, the sound of something tearing through the air erupted.

Bloody shadows flickered like phantoms from deep within the woods and from behind boulders, their speed so great they left only afterimages.

In the blink of an eye, seven crimson rainbows, thick with the stench of blood, had planted themselves like nails across the road ahead.

The bloody light receded slightly, revealing figures within.

All were clad in signature dark-red robes, on which twisted patterns of rivers and white bones looked exceptionally sinister in the dim forest light.

The leader was a bald man with a gaunt face covered in strange, blood-colored markings. His eyes shone with a scarlet light not belonging to the living.

The aura around him billowed without restraint, radiating the pressure of the Profound Gang Realm. Moreover, it was far deeper and more solid than that of someone who had just entered this stage.

Beside him stood another man whose aura was slightly weaker, but he was also firmly in the Profound Gang Realm.

The remaining five were all Innate Martial Masters at the Chaoyuan or Earth Fiend Realm.

The moment the seven of them appeared, a heavy Evil Qi and the stench of blood mixed with an immense pressure that spread through the area.

It made Xu Shenzhi, Li Huai Sheng, and the others catch their breath. Their faces instantly grew grave, and beads of cold sweat even broke out on their foreheads.

Two at the Profound Gang Realm, five at the Innate Realm.

Their side only had three Innate Martial Masters. Even though the Captain had once performed the miracle of defeating a Profound Gang expert, facing an ambush from such a lineup...

"Captain..."

Xu Shenzhi and Li Huai Sheng looked at Chen Sheng in unison, their voices tense.

"Don’t panic."

Chen Sheng’s voice was still steady, even carrying a faint trace of mockery.

He gently raised his hand and made a downward pressing gesture.

This simple gesture, however, seemed to possess a strange, magical power.

The taut strings of Xu Shenzhi’s and Li Huai Sheng’s nerves inexplicably loosened.

Although they didn’t know the source of their Captain’s confidence, countless past experiences had taught them that whenever the Captain wore this expression, it meant everything was under his control.

"Chen... Sheng."

The bald leader’s scarlet eyes locked onto Chen Sheng, his voice hoarse and dry.

"Such courage, to remain calm in the face of danger. You are truly worthy of your title as the head of the Ning’an Ten Heroes."

But then, his tone shifted, becoming laced with the playful confidence of a cat toying with a mouse.

"This Squad Leader knows you have some skill, that you’ve fought above your level and defeated a Profound Gang expert before. That is why today, what’s been prepared for you... is more than just one Profound Gang expert."

The Blood-Robed bald man first gestured to his companion, then glanced at the five murderous subordinates behind him.

"A wise man submits to the circumstances. If you’re willing to obediently answer a few of this Squad Leader’s questions, then for the sake of the Jingwu Bureau, sparing your life is not out of the question."

"Is that so?"

Chen Sheng raised an eyebrow, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. "Then I must thank the Squad Leader for his magnanimity."

The bald Squad Leader paid no mind to Chen Sheng’s perfunctory reply. What he truly cared about were the questions to come, and Chen Sheng’s subtlest reactions upon hearing them.

"Three months ago, inside Shuimuyue Nunnery, you led a team to besiege and kill one of my Blood River Sect’s Protectors. On his body... did you happen to see a Token, neither gold nor jade, of an archaic design?"

The bald Squad Leader asked directly, his gaze like a hook.

He was trying to catch the slightest flicker of emotion on Chen Sheng’s face.

Chen Sheng met his gaze and suddenly smiled, a smile that seemed rather cold in the dim forest.

"That question... Why don’t you go down below and ask him yourself?"

Then, Chen Sheng’s tone shifted. "And as it happens, I can send you on your way!"

The instant the word "way" left his lips, Chen Sheng moved.

Without warning, without gathering power, his warhorse hadn’t even neighed before he shot into the air like a black bolt of lightning loosed from a bow.

A terrifying aura—far more potent, more condensed, and as substantial as a mountain—erupted from his body, dwarfing that of any Profound Gang Martial Artist present.

SHIIING!

The clear ring of a blade tore through the air.

The moment the Dragon Roar Blade left its sheath, a dark, profound gleam of blade light flared to life.

Within that blade light, a frigid Mental Realm that could sever all things and annihilate all techniques erupted, enveloping the area.

"What?!"

"Profound Gang?! This aura..."

The playful confidence on the Blood-Robed bald man’s face instantly froze, replaced by boundless horror.

His pupils contracted violently, and his heart felt as if it had been viciously squeezed by an invisible hand.

What erupted from Chen Sheng was clearly the aura of the Profound Gang Realm! And the purity and condensation of his Gang Qi, the sharp terror of his Mental Realm, far exceeded his imagination.

The incoming blade strike hadn’t even reached him, yet it made his Divine Soul tremble and a chill run through his body, making him feel a sense of mortal peril he had never before experienced.

Blood Demon Slaughter Spirit!

At this moment of life and death, the bald Squad Leader dared not hold anything back.

His wide, blood-colored sleeves billowed as a scarlet blade gleam—condensed to the extreme and reeking of a cloying, sweet stench—shot out with a piercing shriek to meet the dark blade light.

This was the ultimate Secret Technique he had painstakingly cultivated for decades. It had drunk the blood of countless experts, and he was confident that even a Profound Gang expert of the same level would find it hard to block its edge.

However—

The next instant, a scene unfolded that was unbelievable to him, to all the Blood River Sect disciples, and even to Li Huai Sheng and Xu Shenzhi.

The menacing crimson blade gleam, at the moment of contact with the dark blade light, was like a hot knife slicing into congealed lard. There was a faint but grating "TSSSSS" sound.

Then... without the slightest resistance, it was sliced in two.

The crimson brilliance instantly dimmed and disintegrated, scattering into a sky full of drifting specks of bloody light.

But Chen Sheng’s dark blade light had not weakened in the slightest. On the contrary, having shattered the obstruction, it gained an even greater sense of unstoppable resolve and sharpness, like a divine ray falling from the highest heavens, striking straight for the bald Squad Leader’s face.

’Not good!’

Boundless fear engulfed the bald Squad Leader, scaring him witless. He frantically channeled all his Gang Qi, deploying layer after layer of a viscous, blood-like Protective Gang Shield in front of him, covered in faint runes. This was his last resort.

"PFFT-CHH—"

The soft sound was heard again.

The multiple layers of Blood Gang, which should have been enough to block a full-powered assault from an expert of the same level, were as fragile as water-soaked parchment before the dark blade light. They crumbled on contact, unable to provide even a moment’s delay.

The blade light flashed and was gone.

Time seemed to stand still for an instant.

The bald Squad Leader stood frozen, his eyes wide open, his pupils still holding boundless terror and confusion.

A very fine line of blood appeared, running straight down from the center of his brow, across his nose, lips, throat, and chest... all the way to his abdomen.

"Hh... hhh..."

A broken, airy sound escaped the bald man’s throat. He seemed to want to raise a hand to touch the line, but his arm was too heavy to lift.

The next moment.

BANG!

With a muffled bang, his stout body, along with the sinister blood robe he wore, exploded without warning, turning into a spreading mist of blood that scattered and rained down upon the ground.

The forest fell deathly silent.

Only a light breeze passed through, stirring the lingering stench of blood.

Li Huai Sheng, Xu Shenzhi, and the others stood with their mouths agape, palms sweating on their sword hilts, their minds a complete blank.

The remaining six disciples of the Blood River Sect had the savage sneers and murderous intent frozen on their faces, replaced by boundless shock and terror. They stared as if they had seen a ghost at the slowly dissipating mist of blood.

And, beyond the blood mist, at the calm-faced Chen Sheng, who stood with his blade in hand.

Their Squad Leader, a veteran fiend of the dignified Profound Gang Realm.

Just like that, he’d been... killed with a single slash?

Without even leaving a corpse behind!

————