A Fist Subdues Heaven and Earth Like the Blazing Sun

"Demonic Cult scoundrels, anyone has the right to cut you down!!" Farther in the distance, a thunderous shout from Xu Shu echoed over the battlefield, startling Xie Zheng and Long Zhang midair. "They're from the Demonic Cult?!" The two exchanged a look and prepared to strike. As disciples and successors of grand sects, executing vile fiends of the Demonic Cult was only natural and right. Yet just as they were about to intervene, the battle on the ground shifted. *Thump! Thump! Thump!* Following a violent collision, Xiahou Yin's iron-tower frame was thrown uncontrollably backward several paces. With every step he planted, a footprint half a foot deep was gouged into the earth, churning the soil and spreading jagged fissures. Huang Tian, however, merely swayed slightly before steadying his stance, the dark-gold staff in his grip humming ceaselessly. "Good! How thrilling! Hahaha!!" Even after being knocked back, Xiahou Yin laughed unrestrainedly. "Still, this is as far as you go!" He abruptly let out a beastlike roar. *Boom!* An aura far more ferocious and violent than before detonated from within his flesh. A barrage of sharp cracks erupted from his bones and tendons as his entire body shot up by more than a foot. His skin instantly flushed crimson, as though magma were coursing just beneath the surface, and thick blue veins bulged and knotted like twisting pythons. Boundless true qi burst from his pores, and his ballooning, engorged muscles ripped his clothes to shreds with a violent tear. "Die!!" Like muffled thunder detonating between heaven and earth, Xiahou Yin's eyes turned crimson. With an enraged roar, he swung the colossal hammer in his hands straight down at Huang Tian's head. This blow came crashing down as if the sky itself were collapsing, suffocating all surrounding vitality and leaving no room to dodge. In Huang Tian's field of vision, there was only that vicious, colossal hammer dragging a sweeping torrent of white air, plummeting straight from above. Huang Tian's expression remained unchanged. True qi surged and erupted through him, pouring into the dark-gold staff until its surface blazed with profound gloom, the deep black radiance pooling as if an abyss were about to spill over. The staff trembled faintly, emitting a clear, feverish hum as it met the mountain-crushing blow head-on! *Hummm—* This collision unleashed another deafening shockwave, yet beneath the reverberating roar, a faint wail was mingled into the impact. "Not good! The divine armament in Huang Tian's hands can't take it!" Long Zhang noticed that after the hammer and staff clashed, the dark-gold staff bent almost to the point of snapping. Though it sprang straight again an instant later, it was clear that it could not endure much longer in such a brutal clash. *Clang!!* Xie Zheng drew his sword far more decisively than Long Zhang. Seeing that Huang Tian's divine armament could not hold out, he plummeted from the sky and flew straight for Xiahou Yin! A crisp sword chime resonated across heaven and earth! The chilling sword light was like bright silver moonlight falling from the heavens, like lightning tearing through the vast sky, like the Milky Way cascading down from the horizon! The brilliance illuminated every inch of the surrounding hundreds of yards. The dust drifting in midair, the spurting blood, and the wind-swept wood chips were all picked out in vivid detail under this single stroke. Body like a startled swan, sword like celestial light! Beneath this strike, space itself seemed to freeze and stall. Yet within that frozen expanse, Xiahou Yin smashed through the crashing waves of intent and moved with a roar! Facing the biting sword light, he swung his colossal hammer, slamming its head with uncanny precision straight into the center of the beam spanning the sky. *Ding! Thud!* A crisp shatter was followed by a dull impact. The resplendent sword light shattered like glazed glass, bursting instantly into countless firefly-like motes that dispersed into the air. Behind the shattered radiance was Xie Zheng's horrified face. Having smashed the sword light, the hammer had crashed solidly into his chest like a raging, tempestuous sea! *Crack!* The distinct sound of snapping bones rang out. Xie Zheng turned pale and coughed up a mouthful of blood. His body flew backward like a kite with its string cut, hurtling dozens of yards through the air before slamming heavily into the ground, gouging a human-shaped crater into the soil. Long Zhang's expression shifted drastically. He dropped rapidly to Xie Zheng's side, scooped him up, and fed him an elixir shimmering with precious light. Color soon returned to the injured swordsman's face. "Insignificant ants, yet you dare meddle!" Xiahou Yin paid them no further mind. Turning back, he locked his crimson eyes onto Huang Tian once more. Another hammer strike cleaved through the sky, carrying the triumphant momentum of having shattered Xie Zheng's sword light as it crashed down without the slightest pause! His aura grew grander, and his killing intent deepened! *Phoo—* Watching the colossal hammer rapidly expand in his pupils and staring at Xiahou Yin's savage, brutal grimace, Huang Tian exhaled softly. Then, he tossed the wailing staff behind him. The staff planted diagonally into the ravaged earth, humming incessantly. At the same time, all twelve of his major tendons snapped taut. His tendons and bones chimed in unison, his blood vitality surged violently into the firmament, and his true qi rippled outward in rolling waves. Explosive cracks echoed from inside his body, and an incandescence bright as fire burst from all around him. He curled his fingers into a fist, snapping the air with a red-waved sonic boom as if gripping a sweeping expanse of fire clouds. Within those fire clouds rested a magnificent, majestic, and archaic cauldron. An ancient, desolate aura arose from deep within him. Then, his spine arched like a great dragon. His left foot stomped half a pace forward, sinking deeply into the earth like an unshakeable peak. He pulled his right fist back to his waist, and then, like a hidden dragon bursting from the abyss, he drove it upward in a thunderous strike! Crimson brilliance surged; blast waves tore through the air! The archaic cauldron grasped within his fist hummed with immense resonance! *Boom!!* Fist and giant hammer clashed violently! A roar like a meteor striking the earth erupted, and a visible, concentric shockwave surged in all directions, turning earthen dragons upward and filling the air with sand and dust. Huang Tian's frame sank slightly, the ground beneath his feet dropping half a foot, yet his body never wavered, his spine straight as an arrow. Xiahou Yin, however, stumbled back more than a dozen paces. The palm gripping the colossal hammer—broad as a cattail-leaf fan—actually trembled, a split tearing open at the webbing of his thumb. *How is this possible?! After using my secret technique, my strength can hurl elephants and seize dragons. Aided by a divine armament, how could I fail to overcome his bare fist?!!* Shock filled his heart, and a sliver of dread faintly surfaced in his previously wild crimson eyes. Yet the emergence of this fear brought him intense rage and shame! *How could I feel fear! That is an emotion reserved for the weak!!* He bellowed internally, then exhaled a deep, scalding breath of air, preparing to lift his hammer and smash down again. But with a sharp pop, Huang Tian had already closed the distance. His right fist descended violently like an artillery shell, dragging a tempestuous vortex of air in its wake. Before the punch even reached him, Xiahou Yin's hair was whipped backward, and the skin of his face warped under the gale. He bellowed, raising his hammer to block. The fist struck the stone-block hammer with a rumble like rolling thunder. *Dong!* A second punch! A third punch! A fourth punch! The fists grew faster and faster. At first, afterimages could still be discerned; later, all that remained was a sky full of flickering crimson streamers, like a downpour of meteors falling from beyond the heavens, pouring frantically upon that colossal hammer!! *Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong!—* The dull impacts cascaded without pause, like countless primordial mammoths stampeding across the earth! With every blow that landed, Xiahou Yin felt an unmatched force pierce through the hammer and slam ruthlessly into his arms and body. His swollen muscles quivered frantically, his knotted veins groaned, and his bones let out an overtaxed creak. Under this peerless, divine fist, the formidable blood vitality and true qi he had erupted via his secret technique were battered, wavering and scattering punch by punch! "This is... far too strong!!" In the distance, Xie Zheng and Long Zhang, having barely caught their breath, stared dumbfounded at Huang Tian as he shattered mountains with every punch and beat Xiahou Yin into total submission. "Were we really planning to exchange pointers with him?!" Long Zhang murmured, lost in a daze. Even across dozens of yards, he could feel the terrifying power of those divine strikes. He felt that if he were the one facing Huang Tian, he might not even survive a single blow. Exchange pointers? To hell with that! A contest of give-and-take where both parties improved was exchanging pointers; getting blown apart in one punch was just slaughtering a novice! He didn't want to be a helpless scrub— *No! I can't let this go on! I must strike back! I can't let him dictate the rhythm!* Xiahou Yin screamed inwardly, struggling to swing his colossal hammer in retaliation. Yet Huang Tian's fists were simply too fast, his power too savage. Xiahou Yin dared not open his guard to strike back; otherwise, a single punch would blow him to pieces! "Aaargh!! Block it!!" At this moment, he was like a lump of pig iron under the furious pounding of a forge hammer, retreating continuously, bearing the endless descending might. The fortieth punch! The fiftieth punch! The seventieth punch! Huang Tian fought with mounting exhilaration. The blood vitality inside him surged like a mighty river, roaring to the heavens. With every punch he threw, his comprehension and feel for the thousands of martial techniques he had previously studied deepened, sending ripples across the lake of his inspiration. True combat was indeed the finest method to synthesize all arts! He let out a hearty laugh, his momentum soaring like a dragon, his fist intent like the midday sun scorching all things and suppressing myriad foes! Under the battering of this supremely yang, unyielding fist force, Xiahou Yin's body was actually compressed by more than a foot, shrinking back to his size before employing his secret technique. The giant hammer in his grasp gave a low, wailing hum, burdened beyond endurance as its glow faded to dullness. The ninetieth punch! The ninety-first punch! The ninety-second punch! Xiahou Yin's hands gripping the hammer were already drenched in blood. Grim white bone poked through his skin, his whole body trembled uncontrollably, and blood spilled from his mouth. The ninety-ninth punch! This blow contained the invincible momentum accumulated across the preceding ninety-eight strikes, descending like a falling star, blazing like the sun patrolling the sky! *Dong!!* With an enormous blast, Xiahou Yin could no longer hold onto the weapon. The stone-block hammer tore free from his grip and hurtled backward through the air, crashing into the dense woods dozens of yards away. Now his guard was wide open, with nothing left to block the torrential fists. The hundredth punch! "Die!!" Huang Tian voiced his strike like spring thunder. Step! Twist! Thrust! A fist like red-flame colored glaze drove straight forward, pressing toward Xiahou Yin's chest. The fist did not appear fast; one could even clearly make out the flowing red luster upon its surface and the faint silhouette of an archaic cauldron. Yet Xiahou Yin felt the space around him thoroughly pinned by this blow, the air turning viscous as glue. "No!!" He strained the final scrap of his blood vitality and force to dodge, yet he could not budge an inch. He could only watch helplessly as that fist crossed several paces and pressed against his heart. *Thwack—* Time seemed to freeze at this very instant. Xiahou Yin's towering frame shuddered violently. His eyes bulged out, and all the light in his pupils died away, turning gray and lifeless. The next instant, the savage fist force completely detonated inside his torso. *Boom!!* A dull, colossal roar echoed out like an ancient mammoth stomping the earth! Except for his head, his flesh, bones, and internal organs—everything—erupted into a cloud of red mist with a bang, showering countless droplets of blood into the air in an eerie, tragic display! "He... is dead. A supreme expert possessing rank-one strength was beaten to death by Huang Tian barehanded..." Long Zhang murmured blankly, as if in a dream. Turbulent waves raged inside Xie Zheng's heart as well. When he had stepped in to clash with that hammer-wielding giant earlier, a single blow had beaten him into the dirt; he knew all too well how terrifying that brute's strength had been! And yet, an expert of the Demonic Cult with such formidable might had been hammered to death by Huang Tian's bare fists! This was simply absurd! Paying no attention to the dazed and disbelieving pair, Huang Tian drew back his fist and stood tall. Looking into the distance toward where Xu Shu and Elder Duan were locked in combat, he tapped the ground with his toe and soared over like a roc spreading its wings. In merely a few breaths, he arrived. Both combatants took fright at the sight of Huang Tian. An ominous premonition surged in Elder Duan's heart, and he blurted out in dread, "Where is Saint Yin?!" "Beaten to death by me, of course!" Even as the words fell, Huang Tian arrived flanked by rolling wind and thunder, driving a fist down toward Elder Duan's skull. The elder was horrified. *Impossible! How powerful was Saint Yin—how could he be beaten to death! But if the victor hadn't been decided, how could he have pulled away to come here?!!* His mind raced frantically, and a thought of utter despair arose in Elder Duan's heart: perhaps Saint Yin... really had been killed by him! If Saint Yin was dead, how could he himself hope to escape? Almost out of sheer despair, he thrust his sword, unleashing hundreds of biting rays of sword light. Yet facing a fist like the collapse of heaven, every ray of sword light vanished without a trace in the span of a finger-snap. And the fist's momentum was not spent—no, it had not weakened in the slightest! Carrying surging, titanic might, it slammed heavily onto Elder Duan's skull! *Bang!!* Eyeballs, cheekbones, bridge of the nose, and jawbone all burst apart. His skull was forcibly hammered down into his chest cavity! His body stood rigid for a breath, then toppled backward, crashing onto the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust. Slaying his foe in a single strike, Huang Tian did not linger for a second. He took to the air once more, arriving where the rank-three Assistant Commissioner was battling the woman in the purple dress. *Whoosh!!* A shrill gust of wind howled. The woman in purple, locked in combat with her opponent, looked back in horror only to find Huang Tian already behind her, swinging a palm toward her enchanting face. Astonishment! Terror! Before she could react, the palm touched her cheek. *Thwack!* A muffled detonation! The charming head of the woman in the purple dress burst apart like a ripe watermelon struck by an iron hammer! Skull, blood, and long black hair mingled together, splattering in all directions. The headless, slender body stood stiff for a moment, then toppled forward, collapsing heavily onto the pitted earth and splashing a few muddy blossoms of blood—