NIP Chapter 48: The First Breakthrough of Kunlun
Chapter 48: The First Breakthrough of Kunlun
"BOOM—!!!"
The deafening explosion completely stunned the main peak of Kunlun! Snow poured down, and the world seemed to be shattered by a heavy hammer, the sound making people's eardrums ring painfully!
The white marble ground beneath Lu Yuan's feet didn't even struggle for half a second before blasting a crater several meters in diameter into the sky. Debris mixed with soil shot upwards, completely obscuring the sun and moon. Who could have predicted that a boy who looked only eighteen years old could unleash such power with a single kick? This was the physical strength of a peak Golden Core cultivator; in the entire martial arts world of Earth, that was a dimensional reduction attack, a pure crushing defeat!
The hundred-meter-thick rock layer underground was as brittle as paper in the face of this force, less durable than a soda cracker in a child's hand, crumbling into dust in an instant. Before the flying stone chips could even land, they were violently repelled by the protective aura surrounding Lu Yuan, not even touching the hem of his clothes, instantly maximizing his coolness!
His figure floated like a feather, slowly landing at the bottom of the pit, his expression as indifferent as if he were looking at a pebble on the roadside, as if what he had just trampled was not the foundation of the Kunlun Holy Land, but just an eyesore of broken stone.
At the very center of the pit, a colossal gate forged from deep-sea silver stood there, its panels covered with densely packed spirit-locking array patterns, each pattern gleaming with an eerie light—this was the ultimate defense that Kunlun had painstakingly developed over a thousand years, said to be unbreakable.
If it were any other secret sect, this defense could hold a peak-level expert indefinitely. Even if they bombarded it with mortars for three days and three nights, they wouldn't even be able to break a piece of paint, let alone shake a giant gate.
Lu Yuan didn't even lift his eyelids, nor did he bother to glance at the array patterns. He slowly raised his right hand, bent his index finger, and gently flicked the door panel.
"Click—!"
The crisp sound sent chills down one's spine! This Deep Sea Silver Gate, capable of withstanding even a nuclear bomb, was shattered by a single flick of his finger. From the point of impact, it instantly crumbled into tiny fragments the size of fingernails, leaving not a single intact piece. Kunlun's millennia-old heritage was utterly meaningless before him—incredibly fragile!
The next second, an incredibly strong medicinal fragrance wafted out from behind the door, so fragrant that it made one's soul almost float away—this was a treasure that Kunlun had collected for thousands of years, and any one of it would be fought over by cultivators!
Lu Yuan stepped inside, his expression still indifferent, as if the treasure in front of him was no different from the roadside weeds, and not worth his attention at all.
This underground treasure vault is as big as three basketball courts, and the surrounding walls are inlaid with fist-sized luminous pearls, making it as bright as day. The contents of the vault can be seen clearly, it's almost blinding!
In the very center, tens of thousands of low-grade spirit stones were piled up like a small mountain, their surfaces shimmering with a faint spiritual energy. Although in Lu Yuan's eyes, this spiritual energy was extremely impure, even inferior to the scraps he used for cultivation, on this Earth where the connection between heaven and earth was severed and spiritual energy was so scarce that it was almost impossible to find anything, this pile of spirit stones was enough to drive any cultivator mad, making them willing to risk their lives for it!
On the left-hand rosewood shelf, hundreds of jade boxes, sealed with spiritual light, were neatly arranged, clearly containing valuable items. On the right, various knives, spears, swords, and halberds were piled up, each gleaming with the light of a magical artifact. If left out, any one of them would cause martial arts masters to fight tooth and nail for it.
Lu Yuan walked straight to the medicine shelf on the left, casually lifted a jade box without any hesitation. Inside the box, a ginseng root, entirely blood red with seven leaves, lay quietly. Its roots were intact, still carrying the chilling aura of Kunlun Mountain, its spiritual energy tightly concealed. It was clearly no ordinary product.
"Seven-leaf blood ginseng, a thousand years old, barely enough to be used as a catalyst for alchemy." He spoke casually, as if evaluating a roadside snack. With a flick of his finger, the thousand-year-old blood ginseng flew directly into his Nine Heavens Storage Ring without even a pause.
Immediately afterwards, Lu Yuan lightly touched the storage ring with his fingertip—good heavens, the air in the entire treasure vault was instantly sucked away, and an invisible suction force was directly pulled to its maximum!
Spirit Stone Mountain, hundreds of jade boxes, all the magical artifacts, and even the sandalwood shelf holding the spiritual herbs vanished completely in a fraction of a second, leaving not a speck of dust behind! It was utterly domineering; Kunlun's things were completely wiped out, not even a single piece of firewood or a single pebble remained—it was simply incredible!
Lu Yuan glanced at the empty treasure vault, his eyes showing no emotion. Just as he was about to turn and slip away, his gaze suddenly stopped—the stone platform at the deepest part of the treasure vault, which had been hidden by the Spirit Stone Mountain, was now finally revealed.
It was a palm-sized black fragment, its edges shattered and jagged, as if it had been forcibly torn off. Its surface was still covered with dried dark green marks. It looked unremarkable, yet it exuded a strange and ancient aura.
A barely perceptible hint of surprise flashed in Lu Yuan's eyes. He walked over and picked up the fragment with two fingers. The moment his fingertips touched it, the golden core within his body began to throb wildly, and an unfamiliar aura surged in—he instantly realized that this thing was definitely not from Earth!
The dark green marks on the fragment are the blood of a high-level demon beast from the cultivation world, and it was definitely no more than five hundred years old when it died.
Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow, threw the fragment into his storage ring, and muttered to himself: Earth has been sealed off from the heavens and earth for thousands of years, and even the lightning tribulation of the Golden Core stage cannot be brought down. Things from the cultivation world have disappeared. How could there be blood of a demon beast from five hundred years ago?
It seems the waters of Kunlun are even more murky than he thought. But that's alright, at least it keeps him from getting too bored on this spiritually barren Earth; at least there's something to do.
Lu Yuan lightly tapped his toes, and his body instantly sprang up, like an arrow released from a bow, rushing back to the ground along the passage. His speed was so fast that he was just a blur, invisible to the naked eye.
On the ground, the cold wind howled and the snow fell heavily. The four Kunlun elders, who had been encased in Lu Yuan's Glazed Flame, were still rolling around in the snow, their bodies charred black, their skin sizzling and oozing oil, and their throats emitting wheezing sounds like broken bellows. They were in a terrible state, yet they didn't have the slightest strength to resist—their proud cultivation was nothing more than ants in front of Lu Yuan, and they were simply easy prey.
Lu Yuan didn't even lift his eyelids, as if the four elders in front of him were just four annoying cockroaches. With a flicker, he transformed into a streak of light, tearing through the swirling snow and flying towards the southeast. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared without a trace, leaving only a mess in Kunlun and endless snow, a story of arriving and departing in a hurry.
Meanwhile, eighty meters underground in the capital, the highest-level defense command center was in complete chaos.
On the large screen, a high-definition topographic map of the Kunlun Mountains was being refreshed rapidly, the screen was flashing incessantly, and the red alarm was deafeningly loud. The atmosphere in the entire command center was so oppressive that it could suffocate people, and even breathing had to be done carefully.
The radar operator's fingers flew across the keyboard, almost blurring the lines between his fingers. The veins on the back of his hands bulged like earthworms. His face was deathly pale, and his lips trembled. He had been so nervous that he had bitten his tongue, and blood still clung to the corner of his mouth.
"Sir! The satellite detector has crashed! The elevation data for the main peak of Kunlun Mountain..." He swallowed hard, his voice trembling uncontrollably, "The elevation of the main peak... it's lost three hundred meters out of thin air! A whole three hundred meters, my God!"
Standing behind the operator, Chu Jianguo gripped his thermos tightly, five deep finger marks etched into the stainless steel cup, his knuckles white. His face was ashen, and he was breathing heavily, as if he couldn't catch his breath. He abruptly turned to the elderly man sitting in the central swivel chair, his voice trembling with disbelief: "Commander, the protective array of Kunlun Mountain is impenetrable even with our most advanced technology, not even the new type of bunker-buster bomb can break it… but now…"
The old man waved his hand, interrupting him, and slowly stood up. He walked unsteadily to the front of the big screen, his eyes fixed on the snow-capped peak that had been forcibly flattened and was now 300 meters shorter. His face was so solemn it could drip water.
"From today onwards, there is no such thing as Kunlun in China." The old man's voice was calm and indifferent, but it carried a chilling coldness. His hands behind his back trembled slightly uncontrollably. He knew better than anyone that the person who could single-handedly flatten Kunlun's 300-meter elevation and break the mountain's protective formation was definitely a formidable character that no one dared to mess with!
He turned his head abruptly, his cloudy eyes bloodshot, his tone hard and brooking no argument: "Jianguo, you personally go to Jiangnan City, bring those two three-thousand-year-old Tian Shan snow lotuses from Kuli, and deliver them to that master yourself. There can be no negligence whatsoever!"
Chu Jianguo was completely stunned, his face changing drastically. He hurriedly advised, "Commander! Those two snow lotuses are your life-saving medicine! They're meant to keep you alive, you can't be so impulsive!"
"Shut up!" the old man roared, his voice booming throughout the command center. "I can still breathe for a few more years! But that guy is a living Yama, capable of tearing the earth apart and flattening Kunlun Mountains single-handedly. We can't afford to offend him!"
He took a deep breath, his tone softening slightly, but still filled with apprehension: "His annihilation of Kunlun this time wasn't out of spite; the people of Kunlun were courting death and crossed him—his sister is still in Jiangnan City. As long as his sister is in Jiangnan, he is the pillar of stability there, and no one can touch him!"
The old man's eyes sharpened, and he spoke each word with absolute clarity: "Notify all war zones to immediately raise security in Jiangnan City to the highest level! Not even a fly carrying the virus is allowed to set foot in Cloud Peak Manor! Anyone who dares to lay a finger on that man, I'll kill him on the spot!"
The scene shifts to Yunding Mountain Villa in Jiangnan City.
The sky was already turning a pale white, and the cold wind was still howling. The open space outside the manor was in complete chaos, resembling a battlefield. Last night's one-sided massacre had terrified Zhao Tiancheng's hundreds of thugs. Half of them fled overnight, while the rest huddled in the grass halfway up the mountain, not daring to breathe or utter a sound—they had witnessed Lu Yuan's ruthlessness firsthand; he was the kind of man who could crush them with a flick of his wrist. Who would dare to court death?
Lin Zhen, wrapped in a thick military overcoat, squatted beside the bulletproof Maybach. His nose was red from the cold, his face was still deathly pale, and his eyes still held the shadow of last night. He took out half a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, pulled one out, and put it in his mouth, but his hand holding the lighter trembled like a leaf, and he couldn't light it no matter what he did—not from the cold, but from fear, he was truly terrified.
A detective cautiously approached, his voice low and trembling with unease: "Director Lin, it's dawn... that gentleman hasn't returned yet..."
"Shut your filthy mouth!" Lin Zhen angrily threw his unlit cigarette at the detective's face, his tone extremely irritable, but inwardly he was panicking. "It's better if he doesn't come back! If he really did, who knows what he would have done to Kunlun!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a gentle breeze blew by, and the large iron gate of the villa swayed silently.
Everyone instinctively looked over and were instantly stunned—Lu Yuan was dressed casually, carrying an ordinary plastic bag filled with steaming hot xiaolongbao and soy milk. He appeared out of nowhere in front of the gate like an ordinary eighteen-year-old student, with a calm expression and walking slowly, without the slightest airs.
Lin Zhen's chin slammed onto his knee with a thud, his eyes wide as saucers, his face filled with disbelief—Lu Yuan was spotless, without a trace of blood, and his white sneakers were completely clean. It was as if the ruthless Yama who had trampled Kunlun last night and killed countless people was not him at all; the contrast was striking!
But only Lin Zhen knew how terrifying the boy in front of him was. The air within ten meters of him was as if the oxygen had been sucked out, so oppressive that it was suffocating. The pressure emanating from his soul made the hairs on his body stand on end, making it difficult to breathe. He wished he could disembowel himself on the spot just to relieve this fear.
Lu Yuan turned his head, glanced indifferently at Lin Zhen who was squatting by the car, and casually uttered three words: "Thank you for your hard work."
These three simple words startled Lin Zhen so much that he froze, unable to hold back any longer. With a "thud," he slammed his knees onto the cold cement floor, knelt down, and banged his head against the ground, his forehead turning red. His voice, filled with extreme awe and fear, was almost a shout: "Serving Mr. Lu! I would die a thousand deaths!"
Lu Yuan ignored him and casually pushed open the iron gate to walk into the villa. His back was slow and leisurely, indifferent and casual, as if the loud kowtow that Lin Zhen had just made was just a trivial matter.
Only after Lu Yuan's figure completely disappeared from the villa entrance did Lin Zhen collapse to the ground, panting heavily. His back was soaked in cold sweat, and his whole body was trembling like a leaf—the oppressive aura just now had almost crushed his soul.
He shakily pulled out his phone, and a encrypted text message from Chu Jianguo popped up on the screen. It was just one sentence: "Kunlun is gone. You stay there and serve that guy well. I'll bring some good stuff over right away."
Lin Zhen stared at the text message, his stomach churning, but he didn't dare utter a single complaint. He turned his head to look at the quiet villa on the mountaintop, his eyes filled with awe and lingering fear.
Who could have imagined that the entire martial arts world of China, the Kunlun lineage that has been passed down for thousands of years, would be overturned and trampled flat in one night by an ordinary-looking eighteen-year-old boy carrying a steamed bun!
From this day forward, in the world of Chinese martial arts, Lu Yuan is the only ruler, and no one dares to disobey him!