I Can See Your Combat Power

Chapter 431: Chapter Four Hundred Twenty Seven: Du Sha

Translator: 549690339

Tang Martial Arts Hall, Wind Media Department

Having spent an entire night painstakingly reviewing the centuries-old archives of the Red Cloud Village, Tang Luo felt he had gained a profound understanding of this power outside of Xiling. It was only after going through these archives that he realized Du Sha’s fame.

While the Red Cloud Skill is merely a Bridal Clothes Technique, the abundant mineral vein resources from the Red Cloud Mountain, which makes Red Cloud Essence frequently visible, has caused the strength of the Du Family to continuously grow.

At the peak of the Du Family’s power, they possessed as many as six Fierce Realm power users. This was almost equivalent to the size of a mid-sized noble family. Were it not for their struggle with fertility, like the Cao family, their strength would have easily been enough to gain entrance into the center of Xiling.

But the Red Cloud Mountain, which led to their rise, eventually led to their fall as well. With the over-mining of Red Cloud Crystal Essence, the strength of the Du Family started to decline. From the entire clan practicing with Red Cloud Essence to the point where only the most excellent members of the clan could use it – everyone else could only use normal Red Cloud crystals.

As this clan rule was enforced, the number of experts within the Du Family started to dwindle. After the peak generation had passed, the Du Family began to lose its momentum.

However, everything seemed to follow the law of reversals. Just as the Du family gradually faded out of public view, Du Sha rose to prominence.

Foundation Building at eight, Mortal Realm breakthrough and awakening of seven-tier Earth Level Stone Heart Bloodline at fifteen – he could transform into a stone man. He was slow but resistant to attacks, and his stone skin was invulnerable to swords and spiritual powers. Even a martial artist who does not use martial techniques could become a top-tier warrior in the Mortal Realm upon awakening the Stone Heart Bloodline.

But this bloodline was challenging to enhance. Some sword and body cultivators even felt that turning into a stone giant wasn’t an enhancement but a limitation to many of their offensive techniques, so this bloodline was rated as a seven-tier Earth Level.

This was an overall assessment of Xu Clan based on known bloodlines. It did not mean that this bloodline had no potential. It was placed at this level because either the path was too narrow or there were various difficulties.

However, for Du Sha, there was no bloodline capability more fitting than the Stone Heart Bloodline. The Red Cloud Skill perfectly matched the Stone Heart Bloodline, and being the Red Crystal Giant enhanced his speed, strength, and defense. He could easily execute the killer moves of the Red Cloud Skill and further amplify its power. The Stone Heart Bloodline showed an unprecedented strong power in Du Sha’s hands, making him invincible in equal tiers.

Having reached the peak of Mortal Realm at the age of 21, Du Sha naturally began his journey. His travels left behind legends exclusive to him.

From a young age, he held a strong sense of righteousness and despised the practices of most noble families. In his mind, he had a simple standard for good and evil. He believed that, at the very least, noble families should not oppress the weak or enslave civilians. But how many families could abide by such a standard in the world?

Outside of Xiling, the civilians lead a miserable life, with an average lifespan of only 30 years, which speaks volumes about the reality.

Even a noble person dies young at the age of eighty, but civilians couldn’t even reach half of that lifespan. This infuriated Du Sha. On the first day when he entered Lanshan City, he had a conflict with a local bully.

Ever since, a mighty dragon doesn’t suppress the local snake, primarily because the local snake has long established its influence and connections. Oftentimes, behind a seemingly insignificant power, there lies a group of impressive kinsmen. Du Sha, who killed the bully, hadn’t the chance to take delight before he was besieged by the bully’s kin who heard the news and rushed over.

Demonstrating poor leadership qualities, Du Sha fought against the bully’s kin. The giant formed by the Stone Heart Bloodline allowed him to ignore some inferior Mortal Realm joint attacks. Even more so, due to the properties of the Red Cloud Crystal, many types of spirit arts not only failed to harm him but also got reflected by the crystal formation.

A group of fifty Mortal Realm warriors was severely defeated by him, causing them to flee. Du Sha earned his fame from this battle.

Knowing that Mortal Realm can’t hurt the crystal incarnation, a Fierce Realm warrior of Lanshan City made his move, and Du Sha was relentlessly pursued by that Fierce Realm warrior. Fortunately, the Stone Man, which had been strengthened by a massive amount of Red Cloud Crystal Essence, was incredibly robust. Even the Fierce Realm could not harm him, and surprisingly, he managed to escape.

But Du Sha wasn’t the kind of person who would concede defeat easily. Since he knew that the bully’s family’s Fierce Realm could not harm him, he repeatedly entered Lanshan City, confronting the bully’s family.

He entered Lanshan City time and again, getting injured each time, and then escaping. The most dangerous time was when he was seriously injured and forced to jump into the Lingjiang River. He drifted nearly a thousand miles until he was pulled ashore near Shen Ping.

The person who saved him was Liu Chan, a young lady always thinking about chivalry but constrained by family rules. After a few days of recovery, Du Sha recovered from his injuries. The two grew familiar during their chats. Liu Chan found out about how Du Sha got injured and developed a peculiar feeling towards him.

Then the Du Family went to the Liu Family in Shen Ping to propose a marriage. Du Sha brought Liu Chan back to Xiling. The following year, Du Ziteng was born.

After that, Du Sha and Liu Chan traveled together, eliminating bandits and upholding justice. Due to the strengthening effect of the Stone Heart Bloodline on the spiritual power, he broke through the Mortal Realm and reached the Fierce Realm at the age of thirty-seven. The very second he became a Fierce Realm practitioner, he became the top martial artist of the Du Family and the defender of Red Cloud Mountain.

Now, the not-yet-forty-year-old Du Sha is a renowned expert in Xiling. Tang Luo could clearly see this in the notes of the archives. Even among the current Martial Ancestors in the Tang Clan, only a few could confidently say they would win against him. Tang Luo glanced at the list, and all listed were body cultivators with powerful abilities that had been cultivated hard for decades. Among those under fifty, only Tang Sen was listed.

Such a strong individual yet he had never been courted or befriended by noble clans. That alone was strange. But if the Tang Clan’s information was accurate, Tang Luo could understand why there were no noble families extending an olive branch.

Because the current head of the Du Family, despite his advances in life, still possessed a pure heart and acted with righteousness. How could you court someone like that? Guided by his understanding of right and wrong, he was like a ticking time bomb; strong as he may be, no one wanted to get close.

Fortunately, Red Cloud Village was far from the center of power in Xiling and lacked resources that others might covet. Since this powerful man enjoyed living quietly in his corner, clans of Xiling were only too glad to let him be.

In recent years, Red Cloud Crystal Essence has become increasingly scarce, and there are less than a hundred direct descendants of the Du Family left. Du Sha is seen as the last glory of Red Cloud Village, making this not-yet-forty-year-old powerhouse feel somewhat tragic.

“That’s to say, despite knowing such drawbacks they still had to practice, ancestors of the Du Family were indeed stubborn.” Tang Luo shook his head, closed the archive and sighed.

Given the resources at the peak of the Du Family, finding a set of ordinary Profound Level techniques should not have been difficult. If they had switched to a Profound Level technique with no drawbacks and restructured their clan’s resources accordingly, they wouldn’t have lacked talent as they did now. But it seemed like there was some fixation in the Du Family, insisting on practising the Red Cloud Skill as if choosing otherwise would dishonor their ancestors.