"Is that all you’ve got?"
Xu Yunfan turned coldly. His Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace abruptly changed its form, shifting from hard to soft as it coiled toward Chu Sheng’s wrist like a nimble serpent.
Chu Sheng hastily withdrew his fist, but the mace’s tip suddenly accelerated, lashing viciously against his ribs!
"PUH!"
Chu Sheng spat blood as he was sent flying backward, three of his ribs broken.
He barely managed to stabilize himself, only to see Xu Yunfan leap into the air. The mace was raised high, its tip gathering Ten Extremes True Qi into a blade of Gang Qi that made Chu Sheng’s skin sting.
The killing move of the Ten Extremes Martial Arts, "Returning Ruins"!
How could Fairy Yun Lan, standing at the side, allow him to land another killing blow?
If Chu Sheng died, she feared she wouldn’t escape unscathed from someone with Xu Yunfan’s terrifying power.
At that moment, a trace of regret welled up in her heart. ’If I had known this would happen, I never should have jumped in.’
’In the end, my state of mind was lacking. I let the Profound Yellow Qi on Xu Yunfan cloud my judgment.’
In the next instant, she swiftly purged all distracting thoughts. Her eyes focused solely on Xu Yunfan’s form.
"Star Soul Lock!"
She tapped the Heart Inquiry Bell with her fingertip. The chime transformed into invisible chains that coiled around Xu Yunfan’s limbs as her sword shot out again, aiming straight for his eyes.
A Tier Eight Divine Weapon might have formidable defenses, but the head was ultimately still flesh and blood.
A grim, cold smile played on Xu Yunfan’s lips. Faced with Fairy Yun Lan’s killing blow aimed straight for the space between his brows, he didn’t dodge or evade. Instead, he raised his hand to meet the blade head-on!
"CHINK!"
The moment the sword tip struck his palm, the Dragon Scale Armor gauntlet erupted with blinding sparks. Ten Extremes True Qi boiled within his flesh, forcefully halting the Sword Momentum three inches from his palm.
Fairy Yun Lan’s pupils shrank. Her "Star Meteor Piercing Rainbow" technique should have been able to pierce through metal and stone, yet now it felt as if it had struck ten-thousand-foot-thick Profound Iron, unable to advance another inch!
Before she could change her move, Xu Yunfan’s five fingers clamped down hard. His palm muscles let out a sharp "CLANG," like metal striking metal, as he caught the sword’s blade.
As the sword trembled, a sharp pain shot through Fairy Yun Lan’s wrist.
Xu Yunfan’s left hand had already locked onto her fair, sword-wielding wrist like an iron hoop. His Ten Extremes True Qi surged up the length of the blade, shredding her sleeve to pieces!
"Have the swords of your Penglai Pavilion been abroad for too long...?" Xu Yunfan’s voice was laced with a bone-chilling cold. "They’re not even fit to scratch an itch for me."
He spoke with indifference, his mind already made up. His right hand swung the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace down toward Chu Sheng’s head!
Chu Sheng roared and thrust both fists skyward, attempting to block the mace head-on.
However, the moment the immense killing power of Returning Ruins, formed from the Ten Extremes True Qi of the Ten Extremes Martial Arts, met his fists, his pride and joy, the Fierce Sun True Gang, melted away in an instant like snow in boiling water!
"BOOM!"
The mace slammed down. Flesh and blood flew from Chu Sheng’s fists, and the bones in his forearms shattered inch by inch.
Its momentum unabated, the mace’s shaft forced him to his knees, his impact shattering the Martial Arts Arena’s floor into a spiderweb of cracks.
"The Jiuyao Sect’s ’Venerable Lieyang’?" Xu Yunfan looked down at Chu Sheng’s blood-soaked face, his voice as cold as the Cold Abyss. "After today, the Jiuyao Sect will need to change its venerable’s title."
Before his words had even faded, the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace was raised once more.
"Stop!"
Fairy Yun Lan shrieked. Her blade trembled violently, and Xu Yunfan, feeling its sharpness, was forced to open his fingers. Finally free from his left hand, Fairy Yun Lan thrust her sword toward the fatal acupoint on his back!
But it was as if Xu Yunfan had eyes in the back of his head. He shifted slightly, taking the blow on his shoulder guard, while his mace swung unhesitatingly toward Chu Sheng’s skull!
"CRUNCH!"
A splatter of red and white. Chu Sheng’s headless body swayed and then crashed to the ground.
Fairy Yun Lan flew back ten zhang, her sword hand trembling slightly.
She finally realized that the man before her was not someone a Nine Realms Qi Cultivation Supreme Grandmaster could possibly contend with.
The Dragon Scale Armor, the Horizontal Body Training, the terrifying strength, the Ten Extremes True Qi—with these factors combined, Xu Yunfan was virtually invincible in this realm!
Her opponent, it seemed, had reached the absolute peak of Nine Realms Qi Cultivation.
Xu Yunfan indifferently wiped the bloodstains from his palm. His Ten Extremes True Qi surged like a mighty river, and the wound on his palm, pierced by the sword, began to writhe with regenerating flesh in an instant.
As his True Qi transformed into flowing Vitality, the tissues knitted together at a speed visible to the naked eye, not even leaving a scar.
What was even more horrifying was that the hole pierced through the Dragon Scale Armor Leaf began to glow with a reddish-gold light. The patterns on the Armor’s surface lit up one by one. The broken scales grew and fused back together as if they were alive, restored to their original state in the blink of an eye, and even seemed to exude a sharper glint than before.
The humming resonance of his True Qi and the Armor made the rubble within a ten-zhang radius tremble.
His gaze swept over the wreckage.
Daoist Guanshan was devoid of all Vitality, Chu Sheng’s head was crushed, and Fairy Yun Lan’s defenses were shattered.
He slowly raised the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace. Blood dripping from its tip sizzled and steamed on the green bricks below. His gaze fell upon Fairy Yun Lan, the last one standing.
Seeing Xu Yunfan’s gaze turn to her, Fairy Yun Lan’s body tensed slightly, and she couldn’t help but speak.
"We can talk. My Penglai Pavilion possesses a true Immortal Technique. If you are willing to share the Profound Yellow Qi, Penglai Pavilion has a way to help you step onto the Immortal Path."
Seeing that Xu Yunfan seemed not to have heard her, merely walking slowly toward her with the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace in hand, Fairy Yun Lan couldn’t stop herself from continuing, "This world is a cage, and the Ninth Realm is its limit. If you take that next step, disaster will surely befall you."
The Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace suddenly erupted with a blinding, blood-red light. With a flick of his wrist, Xu Yunfan sent the mace tearing through the air like a scarlet dragon emerging from an abyss, a violent vortex of Ten Extremes True Qi aimed straight for Fairy Yun Lan’s heart!
Fairy Yun Lan’s pupils shrank. Already prepared, she activated the Star Heart Inquiry Technique, and her sword’s edge bloomed with seven rays of starlight that formed a protective barrier.
However, this Body-Protecting Sword Gang shattered upon contact with the mace’s tip. The Ten Extremes True Qi coiling around the mace was like a bone-corroding poison, riddling her famous Penglai Protective Sword Qi with holes.
"PFFT!"
The mace pierced through her chest, pinning Fairy Yun Lan to the Obsidian Base of the Black Tortoise Martial Arts Arena.
She vomited a large mouthful of blood. The Star Heart Inquiry Bell, trembling violently, split in two. Before its chime had completely faded, Xu Yunfan had already stepped onto the end of the mace’s handle.
Ten Extremes True Qi blasted down the mace’s shaft and into her entire body. Her ice-and-jade body, forged through the Secret Martial Arts of Penglai Pavilion, made sickening cracking sounds as it broke under the strain. Blood sprayed from her acupoints as they burst one after another.
"You won’t understand... you will be just like me, falling into an endless abyss... In this world, no one can transcend..."
Fairy Yun Lan’s bloodstained fingertips scratched futilely at the mace’s shaft, her pupils reflecting Xu Yunfan’s cold face.
Xu Yunfan apathetically twisted the mace’s handle. The nine dragon engravings on its shaft lit up one by one, completely obliterating Fairy Yun Lan’s remaining Vitality.
The setting sun, red as blood, illuminated the shattered remains of the Black Tortoise Martial Arts Arena in the center of Jade Capital City.
Guo Lang, the Supervisor of the Astronomical Bureau, sat slumped against a broken wall in the distance. His official robes were covered in dust and blood, and the shattered Compass in his hand had long since stopped spinning.
He stared intently at the three corpses nearby: Daoist Guanshan of the Profound Daoist Sect, his head split open; Chu Sheng of the Jiuyao Sect, his skull shattered; and Fairy Yun Lan of Penglai Pavilion, her heart pierced through.
Three Ninth Realm Supreme Grandmasters, whose might shook the Great Zhou’s Six Paths, now lay dead on the ground like ants.