Top-Tier Perception Starts From Basic Fist Techniques

The Dragon Abyss Saint slightly narrowed his eyes at the pair in front of him. "Hmm? I recognize Zhang Ling, Sect Master of the Hundred Flowers Sect, but I don't recognize you. What do you call yourself, Fellow Daoist?"

There was no rage in his voice. Instead, he looked almost genial. However, the men who knew him best knew that the more genial he looked, the scarier the situation was going to be.

Lu Changsheng stood with his hands behind his back and did not look at the man at all. His eyes went past him directly into the Sacred Spirit Palace, where he had already found the Spirit Saint.

"I'm Lu Changsheng, the Supreme Elder of the Hundred Flowers Sect."

"Spirit Saint, you once swore that the secret world would go to whoever kills Long Yuan. Does that still stand?"

Lu Changsheng did not raise his voice, but it was clearly conveyed to everyone at the scene. Every man inside and outside the palace heard it.

The Spirit Saint's eyes lit up with eagerness. "Of course it stands! Kill him, and I'll put the secret world in your hands myself!"

At long last, somebody was willing to fight Long Yuan! His oath stood for a long time, but not one person had taken action because they were too afraid of the man. The waiting had worn him down. Now, a stranger with the strength of an Earth Saint had walked out of nowhere to volunteer. How was he supposed to feel anything but elated?

Lu Changsheng's question told everyone present exactly what he had come for.

"What? This guy came here specifically to kill the Dragon Abyss Saint?"

"Who is he? Last I knew, the Hundred Flowers Sect was on its last legs with no Earthly Saint at all. Where did this Supreme Elder come from?"

"Since the sect comes from a Heavenly Saint lineage, their foundations are solid, but that was a million years ago! These days, they don't even have one Earthly Saint. They're propped up by that grand formation and nothing else."

"You're behind in the news! His name is Lu Changsheng, and he really is their Supreme Elder, though he's only held the post for a few months."

"I also know him! He's not bad; he'd barely shown mercy before when he combed through the Hundred Flowers Mountain Range, killing three Earthly Saints in a single blow. He is as vicious as they come, cut from the same cloth as the Dragon Abyss Saint and arrogant in the same way."

"Three in a single blow? Tell me properly in more detail..."

In a short span of time, the story of Lu Changsheng defeating three Earthly Saints in one strike went around the crowd. As it made the rounds, Dragon Abyss Saint's genial face darkened. The story of him killing three Earthly Saints in one strike was revealed as well, but it didn’t matter to him.

What mattered to him was that the man before him had come to stand up for the Spirit Saint, which made him an enemy, and Long Yuan had never been gentle with enemies.

Long Yuan’s voice became cold. "Fellow Daoist Lu, do you mean to make an enemy of me?"

Lu Changsheng merely stood with his hands behind his back. His face did not change as he nonchalantly replied, "Dragon Abyss Saint, I'll be borrowing your head."

"You dare!"

Boom!

A terrifying Martial Dao Will erupted from the Dragon Abyss Saint like a volcano. It surged forth, sweeping across the surroundings before finally crashing down on Lu Changsheng.

Though he came face to face with the Martial Dao Will, Lu Changsheng kept his hands behind his back. He did not move in the slightest, like a rock on the coast letting the waves break over it.

On the contrary, the crowd around him quickly fell back. Being caught under a Martial Dao Will like that was a miserable experience, and even the men who had come with him got out of the way.

Long Yuan had never needed help defeating anyone. He had always succeeded in doing so alone. Besides, against someone on his own level, his subordinates would be of no use anyway.

"Hm? Well, this Martial Dao Will... sure is a domineering one!" Lu Changsheng took his time carefully feeling out the Martial Dao Will of the Dragon Abyss Saint. He even found it interesting. There was something in it that said, "In this world, I alone am supreme."

It was an extreme Martial Dao, and everyone knew that the more extreme a Martial Dao was, the stronger it was. A Martial Dao Will built on that dominance had left the Dragon Abyss Saint without a real rival at his own level. Anyone who faced him was instantly restrained by it and could never fight him at full strength.

The next moment, Lu Changsheng's own Martial Dao Will came out.

Boom!

It was the Infinite Martial Dao Will, and the whole idea of it rested on the word "infinite." Whatever Martial Dao his opponents brought forth, it didn't matter. Infinity was big enough to accommodate it.

The two invisible Martial Dao Wills met in the air and came close to taking on shape. The martial artists watching only had to brush against it to feel the weight of a mountain on their shoulders and their whole world turning over. That feeling was just plain awful.

The Earthly Saints among them felt it, too. Though they were all Earthly Saints, they were not all the same. Top-tier ones like Lu Changsheng and Long Yuan could destroy ordinary Earthly Saints.

As one could imagine, killing an ordinary Earthly Saint came as easily to them as killing a Human Saint. The commotion was made only by their Martial Dao Wills touching, and it was already that bad.

"What fearsome Martial Dao Wills! This is what a top-tier Earthly Saint is like!"

"Who knew anyone around Sacred Star City could stand against Long Yuan? Especially in a battle of Martial Dao Will, he had never met his match. His Martial Dao Will had been practically invincible, but right now, look at it! It's barely effective."

"Barely effective? It's worse than that! The Dragon Abyss Saint is losing, and fast! Just what kind of embryo did Lu Changsheng condense from his Martial Dao such that it can grind the Dragon Abyss Saint's Martial Will down? How terrifying."

"No way... the Dragon Abyss Saint lost an exchange of Martial Dao Wills? I don't believe it."

The situation looked evenly matched a moment ago, but now, it was a different story. Long Yuan's Martial Dao Will conceded some ground, then more, and finally broke. His face changed, and he shouted, "I'll kill you!"

He moved his Dao Body without any thought and drove a fist straight toward Lu Changsheng. Though the blow never touched him, the punch was so fierce that the air in front of it was compressed. Standing in front of the punch felt like standing in front of a wave about to grind someone beneath it at any moment.

Facing this Earthly Saint opponent for the first time, even Lu Changsheng felt a spark of danger. Though it really was merely a spark and no more. If real danger was like a bonfire, this opponent was but a candle flame. To threaten Lu Changsheng, one needed to bring forth a wildfire.

Buzz.

Lu Changsheng's own Dao Body came out, and both hands turned over in an instant.

"Heaven-Turning Seal!"

He emphasized each word, and on the last word, his Dao Body's palms came down.

It was a palm that could compress heaven and earth together, one that could overturn the stars in the sky. Even the surrounding spectators felt their senses warp and their world flip over, as though their direction of up and down had genuinely swapped places.

Crash!

Finally, the two Dao Bodies clashed fiercely. In a fight between Dao Bodies, it was plain accounting. The strong were strong, and the weak were weak. There were no clever tricks or workarounds about it. It all boiled down to whose punch was stronger.

Lu Changsheng had not even had time to suppress the Dragon Abyss Saint with his Martial Dao Will, but it wouldn't have made any difference anyway. A clash of Dao Bodies was never something he feared.

"Ahh!" the Dragon Abyss Saint screamed.

One exchange was all it took, and everyone saw it clearly. Lu Changsheng's Dao Body succeeded in his attack the way a hand would go through dried grass. It cleanly shattered the Dragon Abyss Saint's Dao Body, and the palm that could overturn heaven and earth came down on the Dragon Abyss Saint's Dao Body once more.

As for the result? Long Yuan's Dao Body came apart and broke into powder in an instant. Before he could finish his last cry, his Dao Body already crumbled. He was dead! The terror of Sacred Star City was dead just like that.

And it had taken merely one blow.

For a while, nobody outside the Sacred Spirit Palace said anything. The whole area went dead quiet, and it took a long while before anyone came back to himself.