Volume One: The Youngest of the Three Hundred Chapter Ninety-Seven: In Death... One Must See the Body

Upon hearing Chen Chang’an’s words, the man in blue armor frowned slightly. "What do you mean? What 'Coulomb'... explosion?"

"It’s Coulomb!"

Chen Chang’an corrected him with a look of utter disdain. Simultaneously, he channeled his remaining internal energy and strength into his left hand, wielding the Zangming blade to unleash a "Slaying Immortal" strike.

In the blink of an eye, the sharp blade aura swept out eight petals of cyan radiance, striking the ground directly in front of him and the tunnel walls in several other directions.

"Rumble!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"

The overwhelming, mountain-toppling force caused the entire tunnel to collapse. The walls split asunder, and the high-concentration rock salt embedded in the soil was pulverized into fine powder, filling the entire space.

"Ridiculous. You risked your life for that strike, yet you didn't even hit me!"

The man in blue armor spoke in an icy tone, raising his Water-Reflecting Sword. "I don’t have time to waste on you!"

He surged forward, stepping through the layers of pulverized rock salt floating in the air. His sword traced a straight arc, piercing Chen Chang’an’s chest with a sickening squelch.

"Ah!"

A wave of intense pain flooded his body. Chen Chang’an gritted his teeth, forcing himself to endure it as he spoke with difficulty: "It’s not that I missed; it’s that you were never my target to begin with!"

As he finished the word, he drove his blade into his own right shoulder blade, once again triggering the passive effect of the Xinglang Demon Bone in his numb, rigid arm. Countless lightning-etched arcs crackled and flashed in a crisscrossing web.

"Today, I’ll give you a free science lesson. A Coulomb explosion is a phenomenon where a strong electromagnetic field couples electronic excitation energy into atomic motion."

"To put it simply in the current context, it is what happens when sodium chloride and oxygen are ignited..."

"Bang!"
"Bang!"

Before Chen Chang’an could finish, the powerful arc bursting from his shoulder blade ignited the floating rock salt particles, detonating them into clusters of fireballs.

The temperature soared rapidly, the fireballs expanded, and a chain reaction rolled into countless mushroom-shaped clouds of flame. The entire tunnel felt as if a thousand grenades had been detonated at once, engulfed in smoke and deafening roars.

Several hundred meters above, in the original tunnel, Ye Lin was continuously gathering power, attempting to trigger a "Boundary Shift" to spatial-jump and help Chen Chang'an. Unfortunately, he was "drained dry" and could not perform a second shift.

His eyes reddened, and he pounded the ground in desperation. "Chen Chang’an, what on earth are you trying to do?"

"What exactly are you doing?"

"Rumble!"

As he shouted in anxiety, the ground beneath his feet trembled violently. The floor shook, the altitude plummeted, and the surrounding walls collapsed, causing the space to cave in.

If one were to look down from above, a bizarre sight would be visible: the entire hillside used to worship Lu Yue had collapsed below the land’s horizon in an instant, forming a massive crater.

...

Time ticked by. The next morning, the first rays of dawn broke through. Aside from the crater, which had sunk several hundred meters below sea level, everything else appeared normal.

In the jungle outside Ganquan Village, Cao Wu and Cheng Mulong personally led a hundred Black-Clad Guards to the scene.

"Hurry! According to the intelligence gathered, Ruan Jingchu and Tao Yuan were ambushed last night before they could even reach Ganquan Village."

"If that’s the case, Chen Chang’an might be in danger!" Cao Wu urged.

They pushed forward, finally stopping at the entrance of the village. Ruan Jingchu, the "Xuan" rank Black-Clad guard Tao Yuan, and the others who had been sent to guard the salt mine were lying on the ground, their lives hanging in the balance.

"It seems the intelligence was correct; they were indeed ambushed before they could enter the village."

Cheng Mulong stopped, sighing with a solemn expression. He and Cao Wu began to administer aid. After a flurry of activity, Tao Yuan, the highest-ranking among them, slowly opened his eyes.

"How do you feel? What exactly happened?" Cao Wu asked with concern.

Tao Yuan shook his head groggily, dusting the charred remains off his clothes, and bowed in apology. "Vice Commanders, it is my fault."

"I was leading everyone to Ganquan Village to help Chen Chang’an secure the salt mine, but I never expected to be ambushed the moment we arrived!"

"Please... punish me, Vice Commanders!" he said, heartbroken.

Cheng Mulong retorted angrily, "This is not the time for that. How many enemies were there?"

Tao Yuan shook his head in shame. "I don’t know. Just as we arrived, a massive force struck us. Everything went black, and I lost consciousness!"

"This..."

A look of dread appeared in the eyes of Cao Wu and Cheng Mulong.

"According to the message Ruan Jingchu brought back, the mastermind behind the Ganquan Village plague only uses poison needles to attack from the shadows; their personal strength is mediocre."

"Tao Yuan is at the Sixth-Rank Harmony Realm. If he was taken down without even noticing, then the attacker must be at least at the peak of the Soul-Forging Realm."

"This doesn't make sense. If the enemy were truly that powerful, why would they let Ruan Jingchu leave the village and return to the Black-Clad Guards to report?" Cheng Mulong wondered, perplexed.

Cao Wu thought for a moment and said, "That means, aside from the mastermind behind the plague, there is another faction intent on seizing the salt mine. They happened to arrive and cross paths with Tao Yuan and Ruan Jingchu at the village entrance, and so they attacked!"

Cheng Mulong’s expression changed drastically. "If that’s the case, and even Tao Yuan was defeated in seconds, doesn't that mean Chen Chang’an is in grave danger?"

Cao Wu, uncharacteristically panicked, ordered some of the members to stay behind to look after the still-unconscious Ruan Jingchu and the others, then led the rest into Ganquan Village.

"Wait! There is deadly poison in the air. You all pull back. Let Tao Yuan find a way to clear the poison before you provide support."

Soon, Cao Wu sensed the anomaly and ordered a retreat. Only she and Cheng Mulong, using their Seventh-Rank Life-Death Realm cultivation to seal their vital meridians, pressed into the village.

"According to the information Ruan Jingchu brought back yesterday, the salt mine is on the hillside north of the village. If a battle occurred last night, Chen Chang’an must be there."

"Yes!"

The two made their judgment with precision and reached the hillside in minutes.

The villagers, now "recovered from their illness," were gathered around, chattering loudly. "How could the entire hillside collapse? My God!"

"Why would this happen? Could it be that Great Emperor Lu is furious because Master Chen cured our illness yesterday?"

"Oh, stop spouting nonsense! Master Chen made it clear there was no plague; someone poisoned our village!"

"Hey! Come to think of it, where is Master Chen? Why can't I see him? Sister Niu, didn't the village chief arrange for him to stay at your place last night?"

"I don't know either!"

Tie Dan squatted quietly amidst the noise, drawing circles on the ground with a stick, muttering, "Master Chen, please don't let anything happen to you!"

"He will be fine. Can you tell me what happened?" Just as Tie Dan finished speaking, Cao Wu and Cheng Mulong appeared before him.

"You... who are you?"

Cheng Mulong smiled. "We are friends of Chen Chang’an. Can you tell us exactly what happened?"

Tie Dan looked at them with excitement, thinking that finally someone had come to save Big Brother Chen. In his subconscious, he had already concluded that the village's savior was likely in grave danger, so he spilled everything he knew, eyes full of anticipation.

After hearing his account, Cao Wu and Cheng Mulong’s expressions turned cold and heavy.

Cheng Mulong’s tone was laced with despair. "According to what Tie Dan said, Chen Chang’an took action last night, likely having already identified the culprit who poisoned the village!"

"But he was facing not just that culprit, but a mysterious power that even Tao Yuan of the Harmony Realm could not resist!"

Cao Wu pressed her hand against her chest to steady her racing heart, suppressing a sense of loss she hadn't felt in over a decade. Her voice was low. "The collapse of this hillside was clearly caused by a battle, yet there are no obvious marks on the surface."

"So..."

Cheng Mulong seemed to realize something. "So their battle must have taken place underground? That is what caused the hillside to cave in!"

"Yes, find the entrance!"

The two began to search immediately. After much scouring, they found a spot where the soil was extremely loose. Cheng Mulong swung his massive fists, pounding away again and again, quickly uncovering a vertical tunnel that had existed but was buried by the collapse.

"It must be here. Let's go down!"

"Agreed!"

Cheng Mulong and Cao Wu jumped down without hesitation. Upon reaching the bottom, they were met with a scene of utter devastation and ruin. Massive white rocks blocked the way, leaving no room to stand. Occasionally, a piece of clothing could be seen poking out from the gaps, clearly buried by the collapse.

"Ouch!"

Just as the two were scanning the area, a bloodied arm reached out from between two white rocks, followed by a miserable wail.

"Bang!"

Cao Wu swept aside the rocks with her sleeve, revealing a severely wounded Ye Lin.

"You... what on earth happened here!"

Cheng Mulong quickly helped him up. At the same time, he poured his own Seventh-Rank Life-Death Realm internal energy into Ye Lin, nourishing his meridians and repairing his wounds.

Once the pain subsided and his consciousness returned, Ye Lin gasped, "Quick... save Chen Chang’an!"

Cao Wu and Cheng Mulong squatted down, speaking in unison: "Where is he?"

It wasn't that they prioritized Chen Chang’an over Ye Lin, a fellow newcomer to the Black-Clad Guards; it was simply obvious to anyone that Chen’s situation was significantly more dire.

"Cough! Cough!"

Ye Lin coughed up several mouthfuls of blood. In his desperation, he recounted the entire process, including the appearance of the man with eagle-like claws and the man in blue armor.

"So..."

Cao Wu’s expression grew heavy. "The people who intervened to seize the salt mine and attacked Tao Yuan at the village entrance are the same group behind the disappearance of Princess Changning at Sanyuan Temple and the Little Lotus case."

"They are behind everything. What exactly are they trying to do?"

Putting aside her speculations, she looked at Ye Lin. "Vice Commander Cheng and I will use our Seventh-Rank power to help you trigger the 'Slaying Life' Origin Art. Take us to the last location where Chen Chang’an and the man in blue armor were!"

"Alas, it’s impossible!"

Ye Lin shook his head, his tone tragic. "I don’t know what method Chen Chang’an used to cause the entire underground to collapse, but the deeper tunnel I sent him to using the Boundary Shift has been completely buried and filled in."

"To put it simply, that space objectively no longer exists. Even the highest level of Boundary Shift cannot reach it."

"This..." Cheng Mulong’s face turned black.

Cao Wu looked at the ground beneath her feet, muttering gloomily: "How... how could he die!"

After a brief silence, Cao Wu asked, "How deep was the tunnel you sent him to, relative to this level?"

Ye Lin gritted his teeth. "About three hundred meters!"

"Alright!"

Cao Wu and Cheng Mulong spoke in unison: "Dig down. Even if we have to dig three feet deep into the earth, we will find Chen Chang’an."

"We must see him alive, or... see his corpse!"