483: Chapter 483 The sweeper is stronger than you, the candied hawthorn seller could wipe out your whole family.

Jian Buping bit down so hard his molars cracked.

The metallic taste of blood seeped from the depths of his jaw.

His Battle Intent—that peerless Sword Intent he took such pride in, which was enough to sever the stars—was crushed into the lowliest dust at this moment.

The sensation was beyond words.

It was as if a peerless swordsman who had spent his entire life practicing the blade finally reached the summit, only to find that every cook wielding a meat cleaver on the mountaintop could see through all his flaws with a single glance and casually swat him into the dirt with the back of a blade.

For the first time, the hand he used to hold his sword felt the true weight of the starfall sword.

It wasn't the heaviness of an emperor weapon.

It was the weight of a piece of common iron—useless and burdensome.

The sound of the monk Monk Jiese's chanting came to an abrupt halt.

He knelt rigidly where he stood, his hands pressed together so tightly that his knuckles turned white; his lips trembled, but not a single word could escape them.

Buddha Light?

The Buddha Light had extinguished itself the very moment that Old Woman's broom had swept through the air.

After a long while, he finally managed to squeeze a dry, raspy Buddhist chant from his throat.

“amitabha.”

“That... that benefactor must be a Great Power who has cultivated for countless millennia. They have already integrated the Dao of Sweeping into the Heavenly Principles, Returning to Simplicity.”

“This Poor Monk... is far inferior.”

He tried to use profound Buddhist logic to mask his loss of composure.

But his eyes, completely unfocused from fear, and his knees, shaking like a sieve, betrayed him utterly.

Hua Nongying's face had lost every trace of color.

As high-spirited as she had been when she achieved her Breakthrough to the Great Emperor Second Heaven in the Immortal Passing Pool,

she was now equally filled with bone-chilling despair.

She didn't make a sound, but the way she looked at Su Chen had completely changed.

It was no longer an ambiguous, flirtatious admiration, but the instinctive urgency of a drowning person clutching at their only piece of driftwood.

Great Emperor Second Heaven?

In this place, such a Realm wasn't even worthy of carrying the shoes of an old person sweeping the streets.

The corner of Su Chen's eye twitched violently.

He watched Qian Duoduo slide down a stone pillar thirty yards away like a pile of limp mud, then looked at the Old Woman who continued sweeping with her head down as if nothing had happened.

He didn't go to help Qian Duoduo, nor did he dare to spare another glance at the Old Woman.

He slowly turned his head, his gaze crossing the plaza toward an inconspicuous street corner.

There, an old man wearing a blue cloth jacket that had been washed until it turned pale was leaning against the base of a wall with his legs crossed, picking his teeth with a toothpick.

In front of him, a bamboo pole held several skewers of Tanghulu that didn't look particularly fresh.

He looked even more ordinary than the Sweeping Auntie.

So ordinary that he looked like any lazy old man one might find anywhere in the mortal countryside.

Su Chen's Divine Thought was like a single, gossamer strand of spider silk, reaching out with an almost subservient caution.

The moment it touched that toothpick—

Buzz—!

Su Chen's pupils instantly constricted into dangerous pinpricks!

His Divine Soul felt no pain, but it was as if all his senses had been instantly drained away.

There was nothing there.

And yet, there seemed to be everything.

It was a void of Sword Intent.

A Sword Intent so pure, condensed, and beyond the limits of his cognition that it had already become the Law of that world itself.

Never mind the Eighteenth Ancestor of the Earth Immortal Realm.

Even if the ancestors of the Eighteenth Ancestor were to show up, they would likely be nothing more than a speck of dust before this aura.

Su Chen's Divine Thought recoiled in horror as if it had touched a red-hot branding iron!

A layer of cold sweat instantly soaked through the white robes on his back, clinging clammily to his skin.

A sweeper is a Great Emperor.

A Tanghulu seller is a terrifying existence who could insta-kill an Earth Immortal with a toothpick.

Su Chen stood where he was, motionless, his expression as calm as a pool of stagnant water.

But inside, his mind was a raging storm; his internal thoughts were racing so fast they were about to burn out his Divine Soul.

[Did I fucking take the wrong Ascension passage?]

[How is this the Immortal Realm Reception Platform? Is this a nursing home or a labor camp for gods?]

[The sweeper is a Great Emperor, the Tanghulu seller is a Sword Immortal... then what Realm must the landlord collecting rent be? An Immortal Emperor?]

[I can't even think about it, I really can't!]

[I was bragging to Hua Nongying before, saying 'Great Emperors might just be doormen in the Immortal Realm.']

[I thought I was just acting cool.]

[Turns out, I was fucking doing documentary reporting!]

[That Great Emperor Golden Toad at the gate really is a doorman. And now the street sweeper is also a Great Emperor.]

[Then what about me, a Great Saint First Heaven... what am I supposed to be here? A piece of trash that can breathe?]

“Boss.”

Wang Baobao's soft voice drifted over as she tugged on Su Chen's sleeve.

There wasn't a hint of fear in her big, dark eyes—only pure curiosity and appetite.

“The air here tastes so good.”

“It smells even better than that Golden Dragon brother's armor.”

“Can I pack some air to take with me?”

Su Chen looked down at her.

This girl wasn't suppressed by the Laws of the Immortal Realm at all; in fact, she was more energetic than she had been in the Lower Realm, her little face flushed with health.

[Fine.]

[The only normal person in the whole group—or rather, the only abnormal one.]

[You don't care about the logic of cultivation at all; in your world, there's only 'edible' and 'inedible.']

[In a sense, you're the strongest one here.]

Yue Qinghan stood closely beside Hua Yingxue, her eyes darting rapidly behind her black veil.

She didn't lament, nor did she show fear.

Instead, while no one was paying attention, she quickly pulled that specially-made recording spirit stone from her Storage Ring.

She clicked it once toward the Sweeping Auntie's back.

Then clicked it again toward the old man selling Tanghulu.

“Are you crazy?!” Hua Yingxue hissed, her voice full of horror. “You dare to take pictures in a place like this? Do you want to die?”

Yue Qinghan ignored her entirely, her hands moving so fast they left afterimages as she stashed the recording spirit stone away.

Her war correspondent instincts were screaming—this was exclusive material that could blow the entire intelligence world apart!

Su Chen let out a long breath.

He had wanted to take a deep breath, but the Immortal Qi he inhaled was so concentrated it nearly choked him to death on the spot.

He looked around.

It was over.

This team was impossible to lead now.

Everyone was more demoralized than the last.

Jian Buping gripped his sword hilt, his eyes hollow; he looked like a piece of rusted scrap metal.

Monk Jiese was still kneeling on the ground, trying to use Buddhist dharma to salvage his collapsed worldview.

Qian Duoduo was whimpering and playing dead at the base of a distant stone pillar.

Hua Nongying was clutching his sleeve so hard it seemed as though her Dao Heart would shatter the moment he let go.

Only Wang Baobao was squatting at the edge of the plaza, holding a stone step engraved with ancient Law runes and gnawing on it with loud crunches, eating with great relish.

Su Chen closed his eyes.

Three seconds later,

he opened them again.

In those lazy eyes, all the shock, horror, and hesitation had been replaced by a cold, absolute clarity.

“Listen up, everyone.”

His voice wasn't loud.

But every word was like a steel nail being driven ruthlessly into their Sea of Consciousness.

“Wipe those 'my parents just died' looks off your faces.”

“No panicking.”

“No screaming.”

“And absolutely no putting on your bullshit Quasi-Emperor or Great Emperor airs in this place!”

His cold gaze swept over everyone like a blade.

“In the Lower Realm, you were Prodigies, Buddha Sons, and Sect Masters.”

“But here—”

“You are nothing.”

“If anyone dares to show even a hint of a high-and-mighty expert's posture here, the consequences won't be as simple as being swatted away.”

“That lady had a good temper and just swept him aside like trash.”

“If you run into someone with a bad temper...”

Su Chen paused, his tone grim.

“You might be incinerated on the spot.”

Qian Duoduo, who was playing dead in the distance, gave a violent shudder and even his whimpering stopped.

Jian Buping slowly released his grip on his sword hilt. His face was still as pale as paper, but he gritted his teeth and gave a heavy nod.

He was a proud swordsman,

but he wasn't a fool.

In a place where a kitchen knife could insta-kill a divine sword, drawing his blade would be seeking death.

“amitabha.”

Monk Jiese finally climbed to his feet and patted the dust off his knees.

He forced a smile that looked more painful than crying.

“This Poor Monk feels that... what Benefactor Su says is absolutely correct.”

“Buddha said, one who can yield and expand is a true man.”

“Buddha never said that,” Jian Buping corrected coldly.

“Buddha says it now,” Monk Jiese replied without batting an eye.

Hua Nongying also finally let go of Su Chen's sleeve. She smoothed out her disheveled dress and took a deep breath. The panic in her fox-like eyes was forcibly suppressed, replaced by the characteristic calm and shrewdness of a merchant.

“Young Master Su is right.”

Her voice regained its stability.

“The Immortal Realm's waters are deep. As newcomers, the most important thing isn't to show off our strength.”

“It's to stay alive.”

“We must first figure out the rules here before planning anything else.”

Su Chen gave her a look of approval.

As expected of a shrewd person who managed to raise a Sect in a chaotic world; her reaction was fast enough.

He withdrew his gaze and looked toward the broad, seemingly bottomless stone path at the end of the plaza that led into the city.

“Let's go.”

“We'll enter the city first and find a place to stay.”

“We need to find out exactly which remote corner of the Immortal Realm this is, what the rules are, and if killing... requires paying compensation.”

He took the first step.

That step landed on the hard bluestone as steady as a mountain.

His back was straight and his expression was composed, as if everything was still under the control of the Divine Son of the Su Family.