Volume 1, Chapter 137: The Ninth Layer of the Formless Realm, The Balance of Cultivation.

"Brother Jiang Chen, how did you get here?" Ye Zhi asked, puzzled.

Jiang Chen patted her head. "I knew you were in danger, so I naturally came. I was just delayed by some matters on the road."

The fighting had begun almost simultaneously for everyone, which meant that if Jiang Chen had come to their side, there would be no one left to assist Li Changsheng and Liuli. Shen Huaizhu was about to ask, but Jiang Chen, seeing through her thoughts, said directly, "I know what you want to ask, but someone else is heading to Li Changsheng's side. We will go and rendezvous with them in a moment."

Although she had doubts, Shen Huaizhu did not press the matter; this was hardly the time for reminiscing.

Jiang Chen said softly, "Hurry up. I'm in a rush. I need to finish you off quickly so I can head back."

Akagi Saichi asked in confusion, "Impossible. How could you have come up here? What about Gomon Juichiro?"

Jiang Chen gave a hum, pulled Gomon Juichiro’s weapon from his jade pendant, and tossed it to the ground. "You mean him? I just finished him off a few minutes ago. Sent him to meet his master."

Akagi Saichi froze. He found it hard to believe. Gomon Juichiro was among the strongest of their party; for this man before him to have fought and killed a Sword Saint head-on, his strength was clearly formidable.

"If you managed to kill Gomon Juichiro, then you must be at your limit now. Stop pretending that you aren't injured," Akagi Saichi insisted. He believed that even if Gomon Juichiro were dead, this man could not possibly be unscathed; otherwise, Gomon Juichiro’s name would be a total joke.

Jiang Chen beckoned with one hand. "Come and try, and see if he had the strength to hurt me."

The mechanical monster looked toward Akagi Saichi, who gave a slight nod. The next second, the ground trembled violently as the mechanical monster swung its fist toward Jiang Chen’s head. It was easy to imagine that if Jiang Chen had taken that blow head-on, his skull would have burst like a watermelon.

Yet, Jiang Chen did not move. When the fist slammed down, a massive crater exploded into the earth. However, it was not Jiang Chen in the pit, but the mechanical monster. The massive construct lay on the ground, somehow defeated.

Jiang Chen stood at the edge of the pit and said, "Do you understand now?"

Akagi Saichi could not believe Jiang Chen was this powerful, or that he could withstand the mechanical monster without even dodging. This was one of the first generation of Wuxiang-realm monsters that the entire Island Nation had spent all their resources to develop. Ordinary Wuxiang-realm cultivators would be torn to shreds if they encountered it, yet this man had knocked it down in a single move.

"Who exactly are you? Weren't all the Great Xia's Land Immortals sent away? Why are you still here?" Akagi Saichi looked at Jiang Chen’s youthful face, struggling to recall any Land Immortal from Great Xia so young. Had he known this, he would never have come.

Jiang Chen said with interest, "Thirty seconds left. Do you have anything else to say? If not, be on your way."

Akagi Saichi pulled out a small blade and stabbed it into his own leg. The mechanical monster on the ground rose into the air and floated before him.

"Heh, for the sake of the Island Nation, if I can trade my life for a Land Immortal's, it is worth it!" Akagi Saichi stood before the monster as its body began to disassemble. He reached out, grasped the mechanical monster’s core, and crushed it. In an instant, the monster’s body stopped moving.

But after crushing it, Akagi Saichi ripped his own heart out and placed it into the empty space where the core had been. From the moment his heart was removed, Akagi Saichi was effectively dead; he had transferred all his abilities into the mechanical monster.

With a thud, Akagi Saichi collapsed like a pile of mud. Using his own heart to sustain the construct showed a pathetic level of loyalty. However, Jiang Chen did not hold this mechanical monster in high regard—or rather, in the world of martial arts, no one could truly catch his eye.

"External power is, in the end, only external power." Jiang Chen walked over as the mechanical monster completed its fusion. Behind him, Shen Huaizhu and Ye Zhi watched anxiously. Despite their own injuries, they were terrified for Jiang Chen, as they had been brutally beaten by this monster earlier.

The mechanical monster leaned forward, and a waterfall of blood surged from its fist. Anything that touched the blood was instantly corroded away.

Jiang Chen’s body erupted in golden light. His right hand, wrapped in radiance, punched forward. Without any resistance, the creature was impaled by his fist. But the mechanical monster used that golden light to kick off against it, sending itself flying backward to escape Jiang Chen’s first wave of attacks. Its silhouette looked massive under the moonlight; standing on the hill, it appeared like a giant. Compared to it, Jiang Chen seemed infinitesimally small.

The mechanical monster’s body grew larger, seemingly absorbing all biological energy in the vicinity. A small squirrel that wandered into the exclusion zone was instantly sucked dry into a husk. Furthermore, the monster’s cultivation realm was climbing steadily.

"Brother Jiang Chen, I’ll go stop him! We can't let him keep absorbing, or we really won't be able to stop him!" Ye Zhi was about to step forward, but Jiang Chen grabbed her hand.

"No need. Let him absorb," Jiang Chen stopped her.

Ye Zhi countered, "But if we let him keep absorbing, he might break through to the Land Immortal realm! At that point, the three of us together might not be his match. Let's not wait any longer, please?"

Only Jiang Chen knew that not everyone could step into the Land Immortal realm. In this world, now starved of spiritual energy, the Earth could not sustain someone at the peak of the Wuxiang realm in making that breakthrough. Unless one Land Immortal died, another could not be born, as the balance of spiritual energy had to be maintained.

"Trust me, he will not break through to become a Land Immortal," Jiang Chen comforted her. Even if it did reach the Land Immortal realm, Jiang Chen was not afraid. In his eyes, Land Immortals were just harder to kill, not impossible.

As Jiang Chen predicted, the mechanical monster stopped at the ninth level of the Wuxiang realm and could not advance any further.