The Saint's pressure came swiftly and vanished just as swiftly.
Like an enraged tide sweeping across heaven and earth, then like a defeated army fleeing in panic.
After the pressure receded, the air atop Skeleton Mountain seemed to have frozen into iron, crushing everyone until they could barely breathe.
Yu Ding Zhenren, Cihang Daoren, Puxian Zhenren...
The Chan Sect Golden Immortals stood rooted to the spot like wooden carvings whose souls had been stripped away, their minds utterly blank.
Their final support, their omnipotent master, had actually retreated just like that.
Forced back by a single sentence from that man.
That fact terrified them ten thousand times more than being killed on the spot.
Amid the deathly silence, Qin Feng slowly turned around.
His gaze carried not the slightest pressure as it swept calmly over the Chan Sect immortals, whose faces were ashen.
A teasing smile crept back onto his lips.
"Alright."
Qin Feng's lazy voice shattered the frozen air, as though he were merely chatting about household matters.
"Your master has already left. Now, it is time for us to settle the score."
He slowly took a step forward.
That single step made Yu Ding Zhenren and the others shudder violently. As if struck by Nine Heavens Divine Thunder, they all shrank back.
With his hands behind his back, Qin Feng strolled around the frightened group as if taking a leisurely walk, his gaze appraising them like livestock awaiting slaughter.
"Let me see..."
He raised one finger, his tone casual.
"You trespassed into my Skeleton Mountain cave abode and destroyed my dojo. That is one."
"You ganged up on the few with the many, shamelessly set up a grand formation, and besieged me. That is two."
"You launched sneak attacks and underhanded schemes, using disgraceful methods utterly devoid of immortal bearing. That is three."
With every charge Qin Feng listed, the Chan Sect immortals' faces grew a shade paler, their bodies trembling like leaves in the wind.
Qin Feng stopped before Cihang Daoren. He had already turned deathly pale with fright and could barely remain standing.
"And the most important one..."
The smile vanished from Qin Feng's face, and a cold gleam flashed through his eyes.
"You frightened my friend."
He paced back before the group, his smile reappearing, though it was now filled with mockery.
"Tell me, how should this debt be settled?"
How should it be settled?
Yu Ding Zhenren's immortal heart was bleeding, and indescribable humiliation and grief surged straight to his head.
Eleven of the Twelve Golden Immortals had been crippled, their eldest brother's Dao foundation had been destroyed, and their sect's treasured artifact had been taken. Now he was asking them how to settle the score?
Where was justice? Where was the Great Dao?
Yet he did not dare utter a single word.
Before an existence capable of forcing even a Saint to retreat, they had no right to speak of justice.
Qin Feng seemed too lazy to wait for their answer.
With a turn of his wrist, a jade streak of light appeared from nowhere and transformed into a scroll that slowly unfurled before him.
Upon the scroll, ancient golden characters flowed with eternal divine charm, emanating an aura that made even Grand Unity Golden Immortals' hearts pound in alarm.
"Since you do not know how to calculate it, I have always been easy to talk to, so I will help you think of a solution."
Qin Feng pointed at the scroll, smiling like a fox that had stolen a chicken.
"I do not want your lives. Just compensate me according to the items on this list."
The Chan Sect immortals' gazes were involuntarily drawn to the scroll.
After only one glance, everyone's breathing stopped.
"One Chaos Green Lotus Seed..." Yu Ding Zhenren's lips trembled as he read out the first item.
"One hundred drops of Three Lights Divine Water..." Puxian Zhenren's voice was hoarse, as though someone had seized him by the throat.
"One fist-sized piece of Nine Heavens Breathing Soil..."
"One section of the Innate Gourd Vine Main Root..."
"One fragment of Buzhou Mountain containing Pangu's Will..."
Every name on the list was like a primordial divine hammer smashing viciously against their Primordial Spirits.
Every item on it was a legendary Divine Artifact, enough to drive Quasi-Saints mad and stir up endless seas of blood.
Some had even vanished from the prehistoric world after World Creation.
How was this a compensation list?
He clearly wanted to scrape the entire Chan Sect, along with the very ground of Kunlun Mountain, clean to a depth of three feet!
"Y-You are delusional!"
Unable to bear the immense shock any longer, Cihang Daoren let out a shriek.
"Forget us—even if we emptied the entire Jade Void Palace, we could not gather one-tenth of the items on that list!"
"Oh? You cannot gather them?"
Qin Feng raised an eyebrow and flipped his palm. The ancient Fan Tian Seal appeared in his hand.
He idly tossed the Fan Tian Seal on his fingertip. That relaxed, casual gesture left the Chan Sect immortals terrified out of their wits.
"Then there is nothing I can do."
Qin Feng's tone suddenly turned cold.
"I have already pointed out two paths for you. Either bring the items to pay for your lives, or all of you will stay here today and become fertilizer for my Skeleton Mountain."
It was a naked threat, without the slightest attempt at concealment.
Using the Chan Sect's supreme treasure to threaten the Chan Sect's disciples—what humiliation could be greater?
Yu Ding Zhenren and the others' faces went from deathly pale to ashen. Their final thoughts of resistance were utterly crushed.
They had no choice.
Before absolute strength, dignity was the cheapest thing of all.
Yu Ding Zhenren painfully closed his eyes, and a tear of blood slid from the corner of his eye.
As the only person capable of taking charge at the moment, he endured the stabbing pain from his Primordial Spirit and rapidly formed hand seals before his chest.
A faint golden light transformed into an inscrutable rune, merged into the void, and vanished.
That was the Chan Sect's core secret art, capable of directly contacting the Saint's Dojo within Jade Void Palace.
Every Golden Immortal's heart rose to their throat.
Their lives and the Chan Sect's honor rested on this single moment.
Only a few breaths passed.
A cold, indifferent will devoid of all emotion crossed endless time and space and descended into Yu Ding Zhenren's mind.
There were no words.
Only one character.
"Granted."
That one word was like the final straw that broke the camel's back, completely shattering Yu Ding Zhenren's last mental defenses.
His body swayed, and he nearly collapsed on the spot.
His master had agreed.
The Saint had actually agreed to such utterly absurd extortion!
The instant after the Saint's will descended.
The skies above Kunlun Mountain, billions of miles away, changed color.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Hundreds upon thousands of immortal lights shot into the sky from the depths of Jade Void Palace, tearing through the void and converging into a dazzling river composed of countless rare treasures. At a speed beyond what the naked eye could catch, it surged directly toward Skeleton Mountain.
This earth-shattering sight left all the Great Powers of the eastern prehistoric world dumbfounded.
"That is... the direction of Kunlun Mountain!"
"Heavens! So much treasure light! What is the Chan Sect doing? Moving house?"
"No! That direction is... Skeleton Mountain!"
All the Spiritual Senses spying on the scene fell completely silent.
They watched helplessly as the river of treasure light crossed the void, appeared above Skeleton Mountain, and poured down like an overturned celestial river.
Immortal herbs tens of thousands of years old, divine gold capable of refining Acquired Spiritual Treasures, jade radiating Innate Dao Rhyme... countless treasures piled up before Qin Feng, nearly forming a small mountain.
Qin Feng casually waved his hand, and the mountain of treasures vanished.
He glanced at the list in his hand and frowned slightly.
"Hm? It looks like quite a lot. How has it only made up seventy percent?"
That dissatisfied mutter nearly made Yu Ding Zhenren cough up blood.
Seventy percent? That was already ninety-nine percent of the Chan Sect's accumulation over countless epochs! What more did he want? Did he truly intend to leave them with nothing?
However, before he could speak.
Several more rays of treasure light, even more brilliant than before, flew over from the direction of Kunlun Mountain.
Within that treasure light were three top-grade Acquired Spiritual Treasures and even a decent low-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure!
Yuanshi Tianzun's emotionless Dao voice rang out through the void.
"The remainder shall be offset with these."
Qin Feng glanced at the Spiritual Treasures and finally nodded in satisfaction.
"Fine. For the sake of your sincerity, Yuanshi, we will call this debt settled."
He waved his hand again and collected the final compensation.
Then, as though shooing flies, he waved at Yu Ding Zhenren and the others.
"You may get lost now."
Unbearable humiliation!
Yu Ding Zhenren, Cihang Daoren, and the others felt waves of boiling blood repeatedly crash through their minds. They nearly self-destructed on the spot from shame and fury.
But in the end, all their humiliation turned into relief at having survived the disaster.
Without saying a word, they helped up their unconscious eldest brother Guang Chengzi, supported their other severely injured fellow disciples, and transformed into miserable streaks of light that fled without looking back from this nightmare land that had shattered their Dao Hearts.
The news spread across the prehistoric world like a storm.
The Chan Sect's Twelve Golden Immortals had suffered a crushing defeat at Skeleton Mountain. Yuanshi Tianzun had personally intervened only to be forced to yield, and in the end, he had emptied the sect's coffers to compensate Qin Feng with massive amounts of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures in exchange for his disciples' lives.
The Chan Sect had lost all face.
The Saint had lost all face as well.
From this day onward, the name Qin Feng of Skeleton Mountain would become an inescapable shadow hanging over the hearts of every Great Power in the prehistoric world.
Before you continue