This Earth Is A Bit Fearsome

Having seen so many formidable fighters so early in the morning made him feel that his eyes had just been opened.

 He never thought that there were so many fighters of such caliber to be found in the entirety of Huaxia.

 The number was more than ten times greater than he had expected.

 However, he was able to tell that many of them were unable to keep their auras well-concealed, so much so that even the disciples of the Seven Invincible Sect were able to sense it. It was obvious that they had not been past their breakthroughs for long.

 They’d probably benefitted from the recent deepened restoration of the spirit qi. Back in the old days, HuaJin Masters would have been able to reign supreme in a region, while Baodan Grandmasters would have been considered legends of their time.

 However, just a few years ago, Baodan Grandmasters were reduced to only top-notch fighters at regional levels. They were no longer able to reign supreme at those levels in recent times, and in some remote corners, they were reduced even further to only formidable ones.

 Spirit qi continued to be restored, and formidable fighters emerged in great numbers. Lin Sheng certainly knew about that, yet the point had never hit home the way it did in that moment.

 His powers were such that he would have been able to reign supreme back in the old days, yet all that power was just barely enough to keep himself safe these days.

 He truly felt the gap between them right there and then, so much so that he felt it to be rather ridiculous. He had not been able to sense so much before seeing all that was in front of him now. It was only at that moment that he realized that the outsiders had been right all along—the cultivator scene in Min Province was made up of a bunch of weaklings.

 The Seven Invincible Sect had truly thought themselves invincible prior, but from the looks of things at the moment, they began to realize that they were truly the ones living under a rock. They were just like a worm in some obscure corner thinking itself a dragon.

 Gosh, we’ve been ridiculous!

 Without the scene before his eyes, there was no way he would have known that the world actually had so many exceptional people in it.

 The stress he felt inside deepened. All that pride he had felt after becoming a Martial Arts Legend was quickly fading away.

 In the future, Deity level notwithstanding, if he were unable to get to National Guardian level, he would not be able even to keep his foothold in Min Province or to maintain all that he had built thus far.

 Any National Guardian out there could easily tear down all that the Seven Invincible Sect had built for themselves. The only hope they had was Lu Xuan.

 As an agency of the government, there was no way that the Special Task Force would side with them unless they were willing to join the Special Task Force’s ranks.

 However, that was not an option for them, as siding with the Special Task Force meant that they were reduced to lackeys. They would never even consider it–unless they were really, truly backed into a corner.

 Lu Xuan’s powers enabled him to rise above all in Min Province, but he had never thrown his weight around unnecessarily. On the contrary, he was always the one everyone was able to rely on.

 He knew that the Chen Clan, and possibly all the forces of the province, regardless of size and lineage, thought the same. Otherwise, here would not have been so many people going out of their way in secret just to express goodwill to Lu Xuan.

 “So many here today for the express purpose of seeing Mr. Lu fight. I wonder when I will get to such a level,” said a disciple of the Seven Invincible Sect, feeling rather envious.

 The very reason he was able to follow Lin Sheng on that trip was undoubtedly that he was one of the extraordinary ones among the younger generation.

 However, he was still a Level Four HuaJin Master at the moment. While that would have really made him somebody in the old days, his achievements were hardly worth mentioning in the present day.

 Lu Xuan, on the other hand, was several years younger than he was, yet the man was able to attract so many formidable ones to just watch him fight a single fight. That made the young disciple very envious.

 All the younger members of the sect were feeling just as envious, and the envy was written all over their faces.

 “But I guess Mr. Lu’s powers make it possible for him to win, no? I heard that he was the one who annihilated the Soul-snatcher Sect,” that disciple said in an affirmative manner.

 While they were not actually all that familiar with Lu Xuan on a personal level, when compared to the people from the Holy Dragon Corporation, who were obviously outsiders, Lu Xuan no doubt felt like one of their own.

 Furthermore, it was thanks to Lu Xuan’s guidance that their big brother, Lin Sheng, had been able to make such a huge breakthrough. All of the members of the sect felt only gratitude for him.

 “That’s not necessarily going to happen,” commented an elder of the sect, who was dressed in white and looked to be in his fifties or sixties, as he shook his head.

 “Elder Chen, is that Great Ancestor of the Song Clan really that powerful? So much so that not even Mr. Lu will be able to take him on?” the disciple said to the elder dressed in white.

 “Well, you fellows are too fresh off the boat to know that in the era before spirit qi was restored, when cultivators were far fewer in number, that Great Ancestor was already a Baodan Grandmaster reigning supreme somewhere.”

 The elder in white continued.

 “Heh, I was just about your age back then, maybe a tad bit older than you all are, and my powers were few levels below where you all are today. I had only joined a little while before, so much so that even my Level Two felt wobbly, when I saw Song Lingfeng fight.”

 The crowd’s eyes widened when they heard that. It was something that happened nearly two decades ago, in the time before the world had entered its restoration stage. Being able to reach Baodan Grandmaster level back then would have made one a genius unlike any other.

 “The one who fought him was another Baodan Grandmaster. Well, that’s hardly considered anything worth mentioning today, but that was already considered a showdown between giants back in those days.”

 The elder then continued, “You fellows have never seen Song Lingfeng fight with your own eyes, so you can’t imagine just how frightening he was. You might say that becoming a Baodan Grandmaster back then was a far more formidable and difficult feat than it is in the present day.”

 “I may be a Baodan Grandmaster myself now, but if I were to truly fight, I wouldn’t be able to take on Song Lingfeng as he was back then, even if there were to be three of me fighting him at the same time.”

 The younger disciples were all astonished by what the elder said. Despite being a Level Five Baodan Grandmaster as well, the difference in combat prowess could have been that between heaven and earth.

 “You all probably don’t understand that other than differences due to the limitations put on us by the world, as well as the great difference in combat prowess right after making a breakthrough, the most important thing is that we of the Seven Invincible Sect are but a bunch of self-taught lone cultivators in the eyes of the Song Clan and the Holy Dragon Corporation.” The elder seemed to have a sarcastic look in his eyes when he said that.

 “The founder-grandmaster of the Seven Invincible Sect was but a Level Five Baodan Grandmaster. You could say that we already had a patchy and difficult path ahead of us, as there is nothing we could refer to with our training, requiring us to carve a new path for ourselves. The Holy Dragon Corporation, on the other hand, is greater than we could even imagine. National Guardian level is nothing, as not even Deity level has been a limit for them. They have a far easier time in their cultivation than we do.”

 The crowd only then realized how critically important it was to have a truly formidable force to serve as backing. The fact was so important that, for common folks, it could determine just how far they would get with their training throughout their lifetimes.

 Just when the elder in white was still feeling exasperated at how different these lone, self-taught cultivators were from those esteemed forces, a powerful aura suddenly zipped past.

 A lame monk had just zoomed past the crowd at great speed.

 “Isn’t that the lame monk who is renowned all over the southwest?” The elder in white was shocked. While his powers were nothing to brag about, his advanced age meant that he had seen and known more than the other disciples of the Seven Invincible Sect.

 As such, he was naturally able to recognize the lame monk, and there was only one thought that crossed his mind.

 The National Guardians are here!