The cultivation world was just that shameless. As long as you were strong enough, you didn’t need to have any misgivings about whatever you did. The ‘truth’ could be changed at any time to suit your needs.

As for whether other people believed it or not, it didn’t matter. Either they had to agree that it was true, or you would kill them.

This was an extremely bald-faced scheme without any skill or substance. But they also didn’t need such a thing. In fact, the simpler it was, the better.

A while ago, Long Chen had even asked the Xuan Master why the Central Plains’ experts didn’t use their heads.

And the Xuan Master had clearly replied that experts didn’t need to use their heads. That was too troublesome. All they needed was enough power.

Now, the Grand Han was a perfect example. With a powerful backer, they didn’t need a marvelous scheme, nor were they afraid of others knowing the truth. That was because everyone had to believe their truth, the truth of the Pill Tower. Those who didn’t believe would have killers come to their doors. The cultivation world was simply this shameless, this roguish.

“Do you really think your Pill Tower can be so overbearing and conceal the truth from the masses?” demanded Long Chen, his killing intent spreading. He knew that Xia Yunchong and Xia Youluo were in danger right at this moment.

No one could have predicted that the Grand Han would have such crazy ambitions of borrowing the strength of other powers to devour the other three nations. This danger had come far too suddenly and without any premonitions.

“Correct. My Pill Tower is the heavens in this region, and Pill Valley is the heavens of the entire Martial Heaven Continent. As for you people, you are just ants who can only rely on us to live. If we want you to die, you’ll have to obediently wait for your death. Sometimes being dumb is another kind of intelligence. As for those idiots who like to think of themselves as smart, their deaths are always the most miserable.

“I don’t mind telling you this. Even once the Grand Xia, Grand Chu, and Grand Zhou’s elites are all killed, there won’t be any war. First, let’s ignore the pressure of Pill Valley, the assistance of the ancient races, and the threat of the Bloodkill Hall. The hypocritical, sanctimonious people of the three nations won’t truly start a war.

“They don’t want their citizens to be drawn into it, because in any war, whether you win or lose, it’s always the common citizens that have the highest casualties. The Grand Xia, Grand Chu, and Grand Zhou care too much about those ants’ lives. On the other hand, the Grand Han knows that battle is just this cruel. The goal of a battle is to win more resources. So the Grand Han dared to do this.

“That’s why it’s fated that the Grand Xia, Grand Chu, and Grand Zhou that have lost a third of their dragon veins’ karmic luck are doomed to decline. They don’t dare to fight due to their own soft-heartedness. Furthermore, they’re afraid of other sects participating, so their decline is set in stone.

“As for the Grand Han, they’ll have devoured the three nations’ karmic luck, eventually dominating all four nations. There’s no suspense at all. So do you understand now? Not only is it impossible for you to escape, but the Grand Xia, Grand Chu, and Grand Zhou have no chance either. Submitting to me now is your only chance of survival. Not only will I let you live, but I’ll also let you live grandly. Abandon your meaningless struggle.”

Dan Chu looked at Long Chen confidently, seeming omnipotent in his current state. Anyone would feel a sense of powerlessness if their positions were switched with Long Chen.

But Dan Chu had no idea that Long Chen was recording everything he was saying with a photographic jade in the primal chaos space. His eyes were the windows to the photographic jade. Everything he saw, everything he heard, it was all stealthily recorded. Dan Chu was fundamentally unable to sense it.

Right now, he was saying all this to make Long Chen submit to him. He wanted to take Long Chen’s treasures for himself.

Although he could win against Long Chen, he might lose out on his treasures. If he pushed Long Chen too far and gave him no hope, Long Chen might destroy his secrets and kill himself.

So he was not only breaking Long Chen’s hope step by step and fracturing his Dao-heart, but he was also giving him enticement.

After all, he came from the Pill Tower. In his eyes, the Pill Tower was a supreme existence, while others were ants. He thought anyone would treat joining the Pill Tower as the glory of a lifetime.

But Dan Chu gradually became more and more shocked. Long Chen’s spiritual yuan was clearly growing weaker and weaker, but he was unable to exhaust that final little bit that Long Chen had left.

Once Long Chen had no more spiritual yuan, he would be Dan Chu’s prisoner and could be taken away.

Right now, he didn’t dare to suddenly unleash his full power. He wanted Long Chen to completely exhaust himself to the point that he didn’t even have the power to kill himself.

“Long Chen, as long as you swear your loyalty to me, I definitely won’t kill you. Following me will be your life’s glory. It’ll be a hundred times better than whatever life the Xuantian Dao Sect can give you.”

Right now, Long Chen had descended into silence, delighting Dan Chu. Although he made his voice sound grave, he couldn’t conceal all his excitement.

He thought Long Chen’s confidence was starting to be rattled. So he directly gave him his promise. But in truth, this promise was no different than a fart.

So what if he swore he wouldn’t kill Long Chen? This was a con that could not be more overused. Couldn’t he just tell someone else to kill Long Chen and that wouldn’t be breaking his promise?

Long Chen stared at Dan Chu without saying a word, seeming to be hesitating but unable to make a decision.

“No problem. You can slowly consider it. I’ll give you enough time,” said Dan Chu.

Long Chen’s expression didn’t change, but he was delighted inside. Enough time? Good, those were exactly the words he had been waiting to hear.

Dan Chu’s cultivation base was at the ninth Heavenstage of Foundation Forging. He was a rank eight Celestial and in control of the thirty-sixth ranked Earth Flame.

However, Dan Chu would never have imagined that there would be someone capable of controlling fire to the point that they would not only be able to resist his flames, but would even be able to extract his spiritual yuan from those flames without him even sensing it.

With his Pill Sovereign memories, when it came to controlling flames, Long Chen could be rated as unrivaled beneath the heavens. Furthermore, Huo Long could cooperate perfectly with him.

As Long Chen stealthily extracted Dan Chu’s spiritual yuan, Huo Long also devoured the energy of this flame. Using a special technique, Long Chen put on the illusion that he was getting exhausted, but was actually absorbing all of Dan Chu’s spiritual yuan to make up for his exhausted spiritual yuan.

Seeing Long Chen seem to be considering his promise, Dan Chu became even more confident. For him, the worst case had been Long Chen going crazy. But now this method of slowly boiling the frog was being very effective.

The two of them didn’t speak for a while. Dan Chu’s expression was calm, while Long Chen’s was a bit nervous. Sweat began to drip from his head.

An hour later, Long Chen’s body was starting to quiver. After two hours, the quivering became more intense.

Life was like a play that required acting skills. Long Chen was now ashen, covered in sweat. But his gaze was complicated, as if he was caught between two difficult options. It was like he was trying to decide the hardest thing in his life.

Dan Chu was starting to smile. He continued to use his spiritual yuan to control his flames and surround Long Chen. From the start, he had been maintaining the same output. He could sense that victory was in sight.

These two hours had been extremely important. It was like refining pills. He couldn’t be impatient and had to be calm and steady. As an alchemist, Dan Chu was deeply aware of this principle.

Two hours.

Four hours.

Six hours.

When the sixth hour passed, Dan Chu finally felt that something was wrong. He was shocked to find that he had unconsciously used up thirty percent of his spiritual yuan, while Long Chen still looked like he was on the verge of breaking. His sense of alarm finally rang.

“Bastard, you dare to con me?!”

Dan Chu tested his suspicions by gradually increasing his output. Finding that Long Chen didn’t react much, he knew he had been duped.

The flames that filled the world suddenly shot at Long Chen. Flame chains tried to bind him.

“Haha, it’s too late,” laughed Long Chen. His spiritual yuan had recovered by twenty percent, filling him with confidence. A huge flame dragon appeared. It was Huo Long.

But Huo Long was different from before. Its original blood color had now turned violet. It was emitting greater power than ever before.

Because of Dan Chu’s overconfidence and his greed for Long Chen’s treasures and secrets, he hadn’t noticed his own spiritual yuan or flame energy had dropped a great deal. Now that he sensed it, he realized Long Chen’s flame dragon had already grown much stronger.

Furthermore, it was releasing violet flames. It opened its mouth and actually devoured the flame chains coming toward it.

“Bastard, you damn bastard!” Dan Chu’s expression changed. He sensed his Earth Flame energy being devoured by Huo Long in that instant.

Forming hand seals, a huge violet sword appeared behind Dan Chu. Heaven and earth shook as a terrifying pressure crashed down.

This was a terrifying attack. If it struck Huo Long, it would very likely collapse and have its core injured.

Although Huo Long had devoured quite a bit of the Soul Devouring Violet Flame, the power difference between them had been too great. Right now, it would be not bad for Huo Long’s power to be able to enter the top fifty of the Earth Flame Rankings. If it was struck, the consequences would be terrible.

Pow!

Just as Dan Chu was forming hand seals and about to unleash this terrifying attack, the boots on Long Chen’s feet lit up, and with a single step, he appeared in front of Dan Chu, slapping him across the face.

Dan Chu didn’t notice any danger. He merely sensed his vision darken for an instant before he felt his face become numb and he was sent flying.

Originally, Long Chen had thought that perhaps this blow would be able to kill Dan Chu. Although he hadn’t had any killing intent behind it or stored up any power, considering his current strength, a physically weak alchemist should still not be able to bear it.

But just as his palm had been about to land on Dan Chu’s face, countless flame runes had appeared around it, blocking ninety percent of his force.

However, it didn’t stop his palm from sending Dan Chu flying. The forming of his sword was interrupted and it collapsed.

Huo Long had already flown out. The huge sword collapsed into flame runes once it was interrupted by Long Chen, and Huo Long devoured them all.

Dan Chu was shocked and infuriated at being slapped. Just now, he had felt Long Chen’s slap to be far too strange. There hadn’t been the slightest omen before he had been struck. If it hadn’t been for his Pill Flame automatically protecting him, his head would have exploded.

Just at this moment, a blood-colored saber-image soared into the clouds, cutting through heaven and earth. Bringing with it an air of death, it slashed toward Dan Chu.