Divine Mountain

Absurd. Terrifying. Madness! Prostrate on the ground, Zhang Yu and the others stared at Deacon Liu, who was barely breathing, their hearts gripped by terror and disbelief. Whoosh— A gust of evening wind swept through the alleyway, kicking up a wisp of dust and grit that drifted over the dazed Nie Kun and Tie Qi. Only then did the two snap back to their senses. Nie Kun looked at the wrecked alleyway and at Zhang Yu and his cohorts, collapsed after being shattered in a single breath. His mouth opened, but for a moment, he did not even know what to say. Tie Qi was in no better state. He stared blankly at Huang Tian, who stood tall and composed, while a tempest seemed to churn inside his own mind. Weren't Nie Kun and I ordered to protect him? Why does it look like Huang Tian is stronger than us?! No, not just stronger than us—he's stronger than everyone here combined! Just that brutally overpowering sonic Lion's Roar technique alone was virtually unmatched in the fifth rank! Moreover, sonic martial arts had always been god-tier techniques for wiping out small fry. Beneath the fifth rank, no matter how many martial artists came, it would be useless—so long as Huang Tian's true qi was not exhausted, minion-level fighters could never even get close. Only fifth-rank martial artists, relying on their profound true qi, could barely close the distance and fight hand-to-hand. Even then, they had to prepare in advance; otherwise, they would end up caught off guard and dazed by the sound waves, just like Deacon Liu and Deacon Wu! He only just broke through to the middle three ranks, yet he already possesses peak fifth-rank, nearly fourth-rank strength. Is he even human?! Tie Qi was beginning to question his reality. For an ordinary martial artist, winning nine out of ten battles against peers of the same rank already made them an exceptional talent. Fighting someone one rank higher without losing was exceedingly rare. As for fighting someone two ranks higher—in all his years, he had never witnessed a single instance. In his memory, only the legendary Celestial Beings and brilliantly gifted first-rank Grandmasters had ever achieved such a feat in their youth! "Right. I always believed Huang Tian was destined to become a supreme first-rank Grandmaster anyway. Now that he's just entered the sixth rank, what's so strange about him defeating several fifth-rank martial artists? Nothing strange at all. Perfectly normal..." He muttered silently to himself, trying his best to calm his mind. Nie Kun, on the other hand, did not overthink things the way Tie Qi did. After his brief shock, he kicked off with his right foot, bursting through the air. He hurtled like a cannonball toward Deacon Wu, who still had strength to spare, both fan-sized palms crashing toward his chest with the momentum of upending mountains and overturning seas. Deacon Wu's eyes widened. True qi surged furiously through his limbs. Slapping the ground hard with his right hand, he executed a desperate barrel roll to evade Nie Kun's boulder-shattering blow, then sprang upward, aiming to vault over the dark, towering wall to escape. How could Nie Kun allow him to get away? He struck with another palm—this one even stronger than the first. Having mastered the Mountain-Pushing Wave-Stacking Palm, each of his strikes grew progressively more powerful than the last. A deep, stagnant black true qi, dark as a shadowy pool, churned across his palm, so dense and heavy that it seemed to arrest the surrounding air. Deacon Wu felt as though he had plunged into a deep river, the raging currents pinning his movements in place. He let out a roar, his blood vitality boiling to its absolute limit! Blood trickled from his eye sockets, nose, and ears, but he paid it no heed. His spine snapped taut, fingers curling into fists, and he drove his punches forward with immense force against Nie Kun's palm. Bang! Bang! Bang! Thunderous sonic booms rang out as air currents churned violently. Deacon Wu took Nie Kun's mountain-heavy, sea-deep palm strikes head-on. Borrowing the rebound force, he twisted nimbly in midair, soaring skyward like a falcon darting through the forest, gliding gracefully toward the high wall. A path to survival lay right before his eyes! Ecstasy surged through his heart. His arms spread like wings, and just as his toes were about to brush the top of the wall— A sudden thought crossed his mind, and he glanced back instinctively at the young man who had shaken him to his core. "He didn't chase after me?" Huang Tian still stood where he was, merely watching his flight with a clear, calm gaze. Deacon Wu instinctively let out a sigh of relief. Yet in the very next second, he felt Huang Tian's eyes turn into a bottomless vortex, wielding a soul-snatching pull that seemed to swallow his consciousness whole! Boom!! In a daze, he saw a mountain! A towering, primeval divine mountain piercing through the clouds! The mountain stretched without end, vast, majestic, and solemn, as though it had stood between heaven and earth for hundreds of millions of years, ancient and primordial. An instinctual sense of insignificance and awe froze his limbs and bones like ice, bringing the true qi surging through his entire body to a dead halt. What terrified him even more was that atop the divine mountain, amid ten thousand li of layered clouds, five colossal dragons of different colors, thousands to tens of thousands of zhang long, freely flexed their scales and claws. Their majestic, indifferent gazes pierced through the clouds, piercing through his body like tangible divine swords! Deacon Wu felt as if struck by lightning, crushed beneath the weight of the divine mountain and skewered by the dragons' gaze. His mind went entirely blank! All thoughts of escape and every combat instinct were pulverized in that instant. His gathered true qi abruptly collapsed, and his body, once as light as a falcon, turned heavy as stone, instantly freezing and plummeting from the air! Behind him, Nie Kun, pursuing in midair, felt a wave of bewilderment at why the man had suddenly stiffened. But he naturally would not let such an opportunity slip by. Another tremendous palm strike slammed squarely into Deacon Wu's back. Crack-bang!! The sound of fracturing bones was crisp and clear. Deacon Wu violently spat out a mouthful of blood, crashing heavily to the ground like a tattered sack and kicking up a cloud of dust and gravel. Amid the swirling dust, he struggled to turn his head toward the motionless Huang Tian. His eyes were filled with pure terror, and with a low whimper of agony, he plunged into total darkness. Nie Kun slowly withdrew his palm, straightened up, and looked back at Huang Tian in startled disbelief. Did he just attack? But I didn't see Huang Tian make a single move. A gaze! Martial will! Recalling the entire sequence of Deacon Wu freezing up, Nie Kun understood at once, and another shock gripped him. To paralyze a fifth-rank martial artist with nothing more than a glance—just how terrifying was his martial will?! No, no matter how strong his will is, it shouldn't freeze a fifth-rank martial artist entirely. The main reason is that this man had already been scared out of his wits by Huang Tian earlier, and with his heart completely unmoored in his frantic bid to flee, Huang Tian's gaze was able to strike him stiff with sheer terror... Even after figuring out the underlying reason, Nie Kun's heart could not settle. How could Huang Tian be this strong? Does he even need our protection?! He opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly, the sky in the distance reflected a massive sheet of firelight, followed by someone shouting loudly, "Fire! Fire!" "They have accomplices!" Nie Kun's expression changed, and he felt an impulse to give chase immediately. Yet he forced his feet to halt. Capturing the killers' accomplices could wait, but Huang Tian had to be kept safe—even if he doubted he could beat Huang Tian in a fight himself... Rumble, rumble, rumble! Just then, a succession of explosive detonations echoed from the distant sky. Beneath the pale moonlight, a figure in a crimson brocade robe bore down like rolling wind and thunder. Everyone looked up to see Bai Yuanfu, his hair and beard bristling in towering fury!