The setting sun was like blood, and the evening breeze carried a scent of withered grass mingled with earth.
Niu Kuanyu reined in his horse atop a small earthen mound. Gazing into the distance, his eyes settled upon an inn not far away.
The inn was not large, coated in a layer of dull gray dust, with an aged wine banner fluttering gently in the wind.
"The hour grows late. Why not rest here for the night?" Niu Kuanyu suggested.
None objected. The party promptly led their horses toward the inn.
A waiter hurried out to greet them, leading their mounts to a stable at the side while the travelers stepped through the front door.
Once inside, they found eleven or twelve patrons already seated, all dressed in the garb of martial wanderers. Some sat gathered together drinking wine and eating meat, while others sat alone by the windows, their sabers and swords laid within arm's reach.
When these patrons saw Huang Tian and the others enter, every one of them was slightly startled. It was not that they recognized anyone, but rather that the eight men walked with steady steps and possessed surging vigor—a single glance revealed they were formidable experts.
This was especially true of Niu Kuanyu in the lead. His coiled, knotted muscles strained against his clothes, radiating an imposing, suffocating presence.
"What would the honored guests like to eat?" a waiter asked, walking over with an ingratiating smile.
Niu Kuanyu casually ordered several jin of meat and two jugs of wine, then waved for Huang Tian to take a seat with him. As for Nie Kun and the other five men, they divided themselves between two nearby tables.
Sitting opposite each other, once the meat and wine were brought out, Niu Kuanyu took a leisurely sip. "This wine is rather poor."
Setting down his cup, he squinted out the window.
Outside, three elders clad in gray robes with their hair bound in wooden crowns were walking unhurriedly toward the inn.
His mind eased, and he turned back to Huang Tian, offering a wry, contemplative smile. "Huang Tian, like many others, I have truly been curious about you. How is it that you cultivate so quickly?
"Some say your talent is simply too extraordinary. Yet it is not as though I have never met geniuses of peerless brilliance.
"In former years, Chief Commander Wan Shenyang possessed unmatched talent, yet even he could not break through five realms in under half a year to become a rank-five martial artist, let alone decapitate a rank-three Grandmaster."
Huang Tian gave a slight nod. That was true enough. His advancement had been far too swift; even Wan Shenyang, who had stepped into the Celestial Being realm in twenty years, could not compare.
"I am truly puzzled. Could your talent really surpass that of the Chief Commander?"
Niu Kuanyu's gaze gradually sharpened. "Or do you truly harbor some secret?"
At these words, Nie Kun and Tie Qi at the other table turned pale. They instantly seized the hilts of their weapons. At the same time, Niu Kuanyu's four confidants drew their sabers, locking into a tense standoff with the two.
Huang Tian smiled. "So the Vice Commander also wishes to know the secret behind my rapid cultivation?"
"Naturally." Niu Kuanyu made no attempt to conceal his intention, stating plainly, "As long as you are willing to surrender that secret, I can grant you a way to live."
Bang!
The wooden door of the inn was suddenly kicked open, wood splinters flying everywhere. The three gray-robed elders stepped inside in unison, an oppressive aura radiating outward from their bodies.
"The Three Elders of Qin Province?!"
Among the patrons, one knowledgeable martial artist recognized their identities and gasped in terror. His expression twisted wildly before he violently vaulted through a window to flee.
With his flight, even though the remaining diners did not know who the Three Elders of Qin Province were, they easily guessed that a horrific slaughter was about to erupt. One after another, they scrambled to escape. Even the innkeeper realized disaster loomed and slipped away on tiptoe.
Soon, only the two opposing factions—Niu Kuanyu's men and Huang Tian's—remained in the common room.
"What do you th—"
Boom!!!
Before the word "ink" could leave his mouth, Huang Tian's qi and blood erupted like a thousand volcanoes roaring to life. A tangible plume of blood qi soared straight up like a beacon of smoke, and his true qi surged as vast and boundless as the sea.
"Strike!!"
The leader of the Three Elders of Qin Province bellowed. The longsword in his sleeve flashed out like an emerging dragon. The moment he moved, the two elders beside him flicked their swords as well.
Whoosh!
Three dazzling sword lights flared into existence within the void!
One sword was like a meteor piercing the moon, its silver radiance gleaming as it tore through the air with a piercing shriek, resembling a falling star trailing a searing white tail as it plunged toward the earth!
One sword was like a flood dragon leaping from the sea, the howling sword wind carrying the faint, resonant rumble of a dragon's roar with majestic might!
One sword was like a peacock spreading its plumage, thrusting out hundreds of frosty glints in a split second, each speck of light a bone-chilling sword qi!
As the three sword lights thrust toward Huang Tian, they suddenly converged. In an instant, it was as if a flower bloomed in the open air.
A flower blossomed from the fusion of countless dazzling sword lights!
That flower was blindingly brilliant and breathtakingly gorgeous, so alluring that for a moment it masked the lethal killing intent concealed within!
Just as the Three Elders of Qin Province struck, Niu Kuanyu also surged to his feet with a roar. His bones and muscles thundered, his qi and blood rumbled, and channeling his true qi like a surging tsunami, he threw a straight, devastating punch directly at Huang Tian!
That fist seemed as heavy and terrifying as a sacred mountain crashing down!
Under the sheer pressure of his punch, the solid wooden square table separating the two of them shattered into countless fragments with a loud bang. Before the woodchips could scatter, they were seized by the howling fist gale that followed, transforming into a violent torrent of splinters blasting backward.
Over a dozen chairs and benches were whipped into the air by the raging wind, tumbling into the walls and shattering with dull, violent impacts.
The inn's wooden windows blew outward with a deafening crash, jagged laths and shards spraying outside like a storm of arrows. The gray tiles on the roof were lifted by the soaring shockwave, rattling and cracking into pieces as clouds of dust and tile fragments rained down from the beams.
The earth trembled!
Wind dragons seemed to coil within the room!
Seen from the outside, the entire inn looked as though it were being shoved upward by several colossal dragons breaking free from their shackles, on the verge of being ripped apart by monstrous force!
A fist!
A fist like a toppling mountain!
A sword!
A sword as exquisite and ruthless as a blooming datura!
Facing this near-fatal onslaught, Huang Tian remained calm. His black hair danced wildly in the howling wind like dragons and serpents.
Clang!!
In that split second, a sliver of light suddenly ignited within the void!
That light was infinitesimally faint, like a distant star twinkling in the pitch-black night sky.
Yet in the blink of an eye, countless beams of light and innumerable twinkling stars appeared around Huang Tian.
Infused by his sea-like true qi, those points of light transformed in a breath into countless cold-gleaming currents—no, not currents, but sabers! Shining, silvery-white, piercing blade astral qi!
The instant those hundreds and thousands of blade astral qi materialized, they spun, intertwined, and collided madly, letting out a dense, hair-raising shriek. The space around Huang Tian instantly became a raging, thundering ocean of sabers!
The sea of sabers surged and howled, and every single "wave" was an edge capable of severing steel and jade.
Wave after wave rushed forward to meet that exquisite, dazzling sword flower, like an ocean crashing down upon a blazing, boiling volcano.
Boom!!!
In just a snap of the fingers, the boundless blade astral qi submerged the gorgeous, tragic sword flower, then whipped up an enormous tidal wave that crashed down toward the Three Elders of Qin Province, blotting out the sky.
"No!!"
A shrill, agonizing shriek had barely begun before it was swallowed by the relentless sound of countless blade astral qi slicing through flesh.
Arms, legs, torsos—
Amid a series of horrifying, wet squelches, the three Grandmasters—who had cultivated bitterly in the third rank for decades and possessed power enough to dominate a region—were chopped and dissected into dozens of mangled pieces by the crisscrossing blade astral qi in a fraction of an instant!
Blood splashed violently like an overturned jar of dye, painting the inn's pillars, walls, and floor in splattered streaks of crimson ink.
Fragments of internal organs and shards of bone mixed with thick gore flew in all directions. A stench of blood so dense it seemed solid instantly overwhelmed every other scent, suffocating the entire room.
In a single exchange, the Three Elders of Qin Province were thoroughly dead!
At that moment, Niu Kuanyu's punch had not yet landed. He faintly heard the terrified cries of the Three Elders before their deaths, but he thought: It does not matter! Once this fist lands, everything will be over!
He roared in his heart, only to see Huang Tian move.
Huang Tian stood as well. His right palm snapped shut, clenching into a fist that burst the air with a deafening pop reminiscent of a tiger's roar and a dragon's chant. Then, he smashed his fist forward straight at Niu Kuanyu's incoming strike!
The air was violently displaced and crushed in an instant, letting out a wail like howling ghosts.
Boom!
Before the two fists even made contact, their true qi, vast as mountains and seas, collided. Inside the inn, it was as if a grayish-white mushroom cloud erupted, and a visible shockwave expanded outward in all directions.
The entire inn blew apart with a resounding explosion. Sturdy pillars, countless roof tiles, and clumps of thatch flew backward. The four walls collapsed, and the earth looked as though it had been ploughed, churning up a wave of dirt nearly ten feet high. Every tree and patch of grass within a hundred zhang was snapped in two by the furious gale!
Rumble!!
When the two fists finally collided, it was like a sacred mountain crashing into a falling meteor. An even more violent shockwave erupted, sending a circular ring of raging winds sweeping outward in all directions. For hundreds of zhang around, nothing remained but the shrieking tempest and airborne rocks whipped through the sky.
Simultaneously, within the ruined remnants of the inn, a crisp, sharp crack rang out.
To Niu Kuanyu's sheer horror, under the glorious, overwhelming power of Huang Tian's fist, the sleeve of his right arm shredded into tatters. Immediately following that, the bones of his arm shattered, and his muscles and tendons snapped inch by inch, bursting into a tragic, brilliant mist of blood that scattered in the air!
And it did not stop there!
The residual force of the fist, still as inexhaustible as mountains and seas, slammed into his chest. Niu Kuanyu felt an indescribable, colossal force lift his feet clean off the ground. He flew backward violently, spraying a long arc of fresh blood across the sky!
"How! How is this possible?!"
As he tumbled through the air, his mind fell into a daze of absolute disbelief.
A mere martial artist of the middle three ranks—how could he defeat someone like him, who was considered a formidable combatant even among rank-two experts, with a single punch?!
This was impossible!
Unless one was a peak rank-one Grandmaster, no one could possibly crush him with such effortless ease!
Yet reality had unfolded before his very eyes!
He had struck first, yet his arm had been shattered by a single punch from Huang Tian!
He had not even possessed the strength to fight back!
Could it be that his strength is in no way inferior to a rank-one Grandmaster?!
The moment this thought rose in his mind, he felt an overwhelming sense of absurdity.
A martial artist of the middle three ranks, yet wielding the might of rank one!
And this middle-three-ranks martial artist had cultivated for less than half a year!
In under half a year, he had gone from an ordinary mortal who had not even developed force into a peak rank-one Grandmaster who could stand at the summit of an entire province!
Did this make any sense?!
Was this still the Five Directions Realm?!
Just what kind of monster was he facing?!
While he was still plunged in shock and disbelief, the explosive crack of displaced air echoed. Looking down, he saw Huang Tian stomp his right foot forward with violent force. The ground caved in, and cloaked in a raging gale of air currents, Huang Tian shot into the sky, pouncing toward him.
"No! I cannot let him get close!!"
Even in his daze, his rich experience in mortal combat made him instantly realize that he had to pull away from Huang Tian. Otherwise, it would take only one punch!
One punch would be enough to blow him to pieces mid-air!
With a furious roar, Niu Kuanyu sharply twisted his body in mid-air. True qi surged wildly as he prepared to take flight and flee a hundred li away.
Yet at that moment, an indescribable heat and crushing weight descended from above without warning!
He snapped his head up, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks.
Above in the sky, without anyone noticing, a boundless expanse of crimson clouds had unfurled!
The red clouds rolled and churned like flowing magma, blanketing dozens of mu of sky, radiating a suffocating, searing heat and an aura of pure destruction.
At the center of those crimson clouds, the colossal phantom of an ancient cauldron slowly materialized.
The cauldron had three legs and two ears, its form archaic and desolate. Its surface was carved with countless intricate, mystical runes that gleamed with searing light, radiating a resplendent divine majesty capable of suppressing all eight directions!
Crushed beneath that divine majesty, Niu Kuanyu felt as though thousands of towering mountains were pressing down upon him. He could not move an inch; no matter how desperately he pushed his true qi, he could not break free.
His face instantly drained of color, his eyes filling with deep, utter despair.
Right at that moment, Huang Tian, who had soared into mid-air like a giant roc, raised his hand and formed a blade.
"Clang!!"
A blade light as pure and white as a silk banner flashed into the void.
The spiritual qi of heaven and earth converged toward that blade light. In a tenth of a finger-snap, it swelled into a glorious celestial blade three hundred zhang in length!
The howling gale seemed to freeze at this instant. The churning fiery clouds in the sky appeared to stand still. Even the phantom of the cauldron suppressing the four directions tilted slightly toward the blade light, as if bowing in reverence.
Whoosh!
Facing Niu Kuanyu suspended in mid-air, Huang Tian slashed downward through the empty expanse.
The celestial blade fell in tandem!
This strike seemed exceptionally slow—slow enough that Niu Kuanyu could clearly see its trajectory as it cleaved through layers of atmospheric waves.
Yet it was also unimaginably fast—so fast it surpassed the speed of thought!
"No!"
Niu Kuanyu's eyes nearly tore at the corners, his terror-filled pupils reflecting that blade light, which was as merciless as heaven itself!
He wanted to rally his qi and blood, to unleash the century of true qi he had painstakingly accumulated.
Yet!
It was too fast!
Far too fast!
Before he could make a move, the blade light swept pitilessly across his body.
"I... I am not reconciled!"
"I have yet to attain rank one!"
"I have not even witnessed the majesty of a Celestial Being!"
"How could I die here?!"
Squelch!
No matter how bitter his hatred or how deep his regret, under that single blade, his body was cleanly split in two, sliding silently apart.
Yet the glorious blade light did not lose its momentum. Continuing upward, it cleaved straight into the dense sea of clouds hanging above the nine heavens.
Riiiip!
Like a god swinging a halberd, it slit open the celestial canopy.
Above, that vast and heavy sea of clouds was split cleanly into a straight trench hundreds of zhang long!
Innumerable clouds billowed and receded to either side. The final rays of the setting sun poured down through the chasm in the clouds like a celestial river spilling over, forming a magnificent, breathtaking waterfall of golden light.
And within that waterfall of light, Huang Tian stood tall, his robes fluttering in the wind!
Chapter 118