Nine Heavens Martial Emperor

Although Lin Hao knew his physical body was powerful, his current situation was far from optimistic.

He couldn’t circulate his Cultivation Technique. No matter how strong his body was, his stamina would eventually run out.

And these damn things were endless. As his strength waned and their numbers held, Lin Hao could already imagine what awaited him.

His sense of crisis intensified when he saw one of the rats, in an effort to brace itself against the gale from his fist, bite down on the hard rock wall. The stone crumbled like tofu.

The sharpness of these rats’ teeth was beyond anything he had imagined.

Their claws were just as formidable; the stone walls of the passage might as well have been tofu under their talons.

An army of ants can devour an elephant. Even with his powerful physique, the consequences would be unthinkable if this endless swarm of giant rats managed to get close.

Lin Hao controlled the force of his punches, using only ten percent of his strength. He fought off the giant rats while searching for a way to break the stalemate.

This ten percent was not to be underestimated. Outside Celestial Jade City, Lin Hao had once clashed with an Elemental Realm Martial Artist without using any martial skills, unleashing a massive force of fifty thousand jin.

Now, just ten percent of his power was equivalent to about five thousand jin.

The wind from his fists howled, and the giant rats couldn’t get anywhere near him.

Finally, Lin Hao’s eyes suddenly lit up.

Behind the swarm of giant rats was a circular cave. At its entrance, a creature even larger than the others stared covetously at Lin Hao.

Moreover, Lin Hao noticed something.

The massive rat’s tail was inside the cave, and whenever it wagged it, more giant rats would pour out. The number of rats emerging was directly proportional to the frequency of its tail-wagging.

This discovery delighted Lin Hao.

’Needless to say, that giant rat must be the leader.’

He had made the discovery, but killing it would be incredibly difficult.

It was positioned right at the cave entrance. If his first strike missed, it would surely retreat inside, making it ten thousand times harder to kill.

’I only have one chance.’

Suddenly, Lin Hao stumbled, nearly falling. A giant rat shot past him, tearing a piece of cloth from his clothes.

Lin Hao leaned his back against the rock, one hand gripping the wall for support while the other continued to punch. He gasped for air, panting heavily.

Then, Lin Hao saw the leader let out two sharp squeaks, and the other giant rats’ attacks grew even more frantic.

A flash of delight appeared deep in Lin Hao’s eyes as he suddenly activated his Cultivation Technique.

The True Essence in his body instantly began gushing out.

This time, the attacking rats didn’t stop. Instead, the leader’s nose began to twitch as it greedily inhaled Lin Hao’s True Essence.

’This is my chance!’

Lin Hao grabbed something with his free hand and then hurled it with all his might.

SPLAT!

With a soft sound, the leader’s head abruptly exploded.

SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAK!

The giant rats’ squeals were filled with terror. They receded like a tide, disappearing back into the cave in the blink of an eye.

WHOOSH...

’My guess was right after all.’

With the immediate crisis averted, Lin Hao let out a long sigh of relief and slumped unceremoniously to the ground to recover his stamina.

Just then, his hand brushed against something cold.

He picked it up and saw that it was a skeleton.

The skeleton was perfectly intact, and its size seemed to be a perfect match for one of the giant rats.

"Huh? What could have gnawed it clean to the bone like this?" Lin Hao muttered, puzzled.

But just then, the hairs on his neck suddenly stood on end, and he shot to his feet.

SMACK!

Though he had reacted quickly, something still struck him in the back. Thanks to the protective resilience of his physical body, he felt no pain, but getting hit still annoyed him greatly.

He turned to look and froze.

On the rock wall behind him, a massive black cat had appeared out of nowhere.

That wasn’t the most shocking part. What was shocking was that it was holding a bloody corpse in its claws.

Lin Hao glanced toward the cave entrance. The corpse of the giant rat whose head he had blown apart was gone.

Needless to say, the corpse in the black cat’s claws was that very same giant rat.

This made Lin Hao’s pupils contract sharply.

’This is too bizarre and terrifying.’

And in just that short time, the giant rat was once again nothing but a skeleton.

Tossing the skeleton aside, the black cat’s claws suddenly extended and shot toward Lin Hao with incredible speed.

BOOM!

Lin Hao failed to dodge and was struck again, his body slamming hard against the rock wall behind him.

Now he finally understood how the black cat had evaded his senses.

Not only was it extremely fast, but its claws could also extend and retract at will.

MEOW...

After another cry, its claws lashed out again.

Fortunately, Lin Hao was prepared this time and dodged in a flash.

BOOM!

Its claws struck the hard rock wall, sending stone fragments flying everywhere. A large, deep hole appeared, a testament to the astonishing power of the attack.

Having missed its strike, the black cat pounced directly at Lin Hao with extraordinary agility.

This time, Lin Hao didn’t dodge. Instead, he threw a punch.

MROW...

The black cat let out a pained shriek as its body slammed heavily against the rock wall.

But to Lin Hao’s surprise, after only a moment’s pause, it lunged at him again.

Lin Hao was slightly astonished.

’My punch carried a force of at least five thousand jin.’

’For this black cat to still be able to fight after a hit like that... in terms of power alone, it’s already far superior to the giant rat leader.’

Now, as it attacked again, Lin Hao increased his power by another twenty percent. A violent force erupted from his fist.

BOOM!

With that single strike, the black cat’s body was sent flying backward. It slammed heavily against the rock wall before falling to the ground, motionless.

Lin Hao let out a breath and decided to move on.

’There’s no way it could have survived a punch like that.’

Lin Hao proceeded slowly.

He had only just entered, yet he had already encountered a series of Devil Beasts he had never even heard of. He didn’t dare let his guard down.

The most critical issue was that he couldn’t use his Cultivation Technique here. The moment he tried, his True Essence would pour out of him, and he had no idea how many more dangers awaited him up ahead.

"Demon Suppression Cave, I’ll use you to explore the limits of my physical body. I hope you don’t disappoint me." Lin Hao’s gaze burned with intensity as he looked ahead.

Before obtaining the Godslaying Celestial Slash Skill, Lin Hao, like all other Martial Artists on the continent, had believed that the Blood Coagulation Realm only had nine layers and that a force of ten thousand jin was the absolute limit of that realm. But what was the reality?

Outside Celestial Jade City, using only his physical body to clash with an Elemental Realm expert, Lin Hao had withstood a massive force of fifty thousand jin.

That collision of forces had completely redefined Lin Hao’s understanding of the martial path and the human body.

That moment taught Lin Hao that the human body was profoundly mysterious, and anything was possible.

He had a wild thought: if fifty thousand jin was possible, then sixty thousand, seventy thousand, or even one hundred thousand might not be just a fantasy.

A massive force of one hundred thousand jin was the kind of power only a First or even Second Layer Elemental Realm master could achieve.

Only Lin Hao would dare to entertain such an audacious idea.

It was because of this idea that when Lin Hao discovered he couldn’t use his True Essence in the Demon Suppression Cave, he felt not disappointment or fear, but a faint sense of excitement and anticipation.

As he walked step by step into the depths, Lin Hao’s focus and spirit reached an unprecedented peak.

It was a spiritual sublimation.

If Lin Hao could truly prove his theory—if his physical strength could reach sixty, seventy, or even one hundred thousand jin—then the sky of the martial path would be his to soar through freely.

BOOM!

He hadn’t gone far before he ran into another crisis.

A single silken thread appeared in his line of sight.

Then, that one thread became two, two became three... In the blink of an eye, a giant web had formed.

His path forward was completely blocked by the web.

’It’s a spiderweb!’

Lin Hao was smart enough not to punch it, but he fell into the trap anyway.

A massive force surged toward him, pulling his body forward involuntarily. Lin Hao quickly tried to anchor himself, but a giant spider appeared ahead and abruptly shot a glob of silk from its mouth.

The silk was incredibly fast, and after passing through the web, it burst open. Caught off guard, one of Lin Hao’s arms was immediately entangled.

With a single tug from the spider, Lin Hao’s already unstable body was yanked forward, sending him crashing directly toward the web.

Just as he was about to collide with it, Lin Hao’s body twisted in an unbelievable way, changing his orientation.

The next moment, his back slammed solidly into the spiderweb.

PHEW...

Lin Hao didn’t panic; instead, he breathed a sigh of relief.

’If hitting the web is unavoidable, I have to choose the most advantageous way to do it.’

Clearly, having his back stuck was far better than having his front plastered to the web.

And with that twist, Lin Hao saw clearly that there was another, even more enormous spider in front of him.

His body was trapped on the web. ’This isn’t good.’ While Lin Hao was trying to struggle free, the giant spider in front crawled closer. It waved its long pedipalps, and the entire web began to lower.

Lin Hao was baffled for a moment before he realized his body was being dragged along.

Lin Hao tried to break free, but he found that the silk spat out by the giant spider was astonishingly sticky, preventing him from exerting any force at all.

’This is really, really bad.’

Lin Hao struggled to lift his head, searching for a way to escape. What he saw, however, was the giant spider’s pair of terrifyingly huge eyes, and the long strands of silk trailing from below them.

’Don’t tell me these two spiders have a lair, and they’re dragging me back to slowly savor as a meal?’

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before his suspicion was confirmed.

When his body stopped moving, the giant spider that had been in front of him suddenly scurried up to the ceiling of the passage. A strand of silk then descended, and Lin Hao’s body was immediately hoisted into the air.

It looked like the giant spider wanted to spin another web right here. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

But Lin Hao had no intention of letting it have its way.

As the silk line pulled him off the ground, just as his body was about to be drawn taut, Lin Hao suddenly arched his back. Then, using the last point of contact with the ground for leverage, he launched himself upward like a cannonball.

In mid-air, Lin Hao twisted his body again, positioning himself to slam into the ceiling with his back.

For this maneuver, Lin Hao used almost all of his strength.

His speed was incredible, and the force he generated was beyond imagination.

BOOM!

Lin Hao’s entire body smashed into the ceiling. The passage rumbled violently as if the very mountains were shaking.

His physical body had punched a massive hole straight through the rock ceiling.

The giant spider on the ceiling above him had not been spared; Lin Hao’s body had smashed it right into the hole.

Lin Hao felt a warm sensation spreading across his back, accompanied by the flow of liquid.

Needless to say, the giant spider had been dispatched by the human-shaped weapon he had become.

He had dealt with one, but there was still another below. Lin Hao tried to repeat his trick, but this time, it failed.