Qin Feng's words, "Don't be afraid. I'm here," were like a warm current that instantly melted all the ice in Shi Ji's heart.
But those supremely gentle words, falling into Taiyi Zhenren's ears high in the sky, were no less than the most vicious mockery.
You're here?
What the hell are you?
Taiyi Zhenren snapped out of the agony and shock of his destroyed magic treasure. His handsome face twisted with extreme rage, devoid of any immortal bearing.
He stared fixedly at the gray-robed figure below, his Spiritual Sense sweeping wildly as he tried to see through the other's origins.
The aura was ancient and unfathomable, as though it had existed as long as heaven and earth.
Within that body seemed to lie a terrifying power capable of shattering stars.
But what about his cultivation?
There wasn't the slightest fluctuation of Magic Power!
He was just a mortal?
No, impossible!
How could a mortal shatter his Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover merely with the aftershock of emerging into the world?
Taiyi Zhenren's mind raced, and an absurd yet seemingly only reasonable explanation surfaced.
"So that's it!"
A flash of realization crossed his eyes, soon replaced by deep scorn and greed.
"I understand now! You're no Great Power at all. You're merely an Innate Being that has just taken form, possessing nothing but brute strength and not even knowing how to conceal your aura!"
The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became.
In the primordial world, there were always some exceptionally blessed beings, born with heaven-defying foundations and possessing great Magic Power and divine abilities from the moment they came into existence.
But such beings often awakened their intelligence extremely late. Like a child clutching a mountain of gold, they simply did not know how to wield their own strength.
This fellow before him had to be one of them!
His terrifying aura? That was because he did not know how to restrain it, allowing his power to leak out!
He had shattered the Divine Fire Cover with a roar? That had been a one-time outburst from stirring his own origin power while taking form!
Having figured that out, the fear that had just risen in Taiyi Zhenren's heart instantly vanished, replaced by boundless excitement.
This was an Innate Being with extraordinary foundations!
If he could capture him and refine him into a life-bound incarnation, or directly devour his origin... wouldn't his cultivation soar to the heavens in a single step? He might even glimpse the threshold of the Quasi-Saint realm!
As for the strength he had displayed just now?
He was merely a brute who could not even use Magic Power. What was there to fear?
"Where did this Demonic Evil come from? How dare you meddle in the affairs of my Chan Sect without knowing the immensity of heaven and earth?"
The greed and arrogance in Taiyi Zhenren's heart completely overwhelmed his reason. Looking down from above, he shouted sharply, once again wearing the arrogant expression of a Chan Sect Golden Immortal.
"I don't care what your origins are. Offending me today marks the beginning of your eternal damnation!"
"You're courting death!"
As the words fell, he forcibly suppressed his Primordial Spirit's injuries and formed a hand seal, attempting to activate the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover once more.
But the moment his Spiritual Sense stirred, he abruptly remembered that his treasure had already been blown into fragments.
Taiyi Zhenren's face instantly turned the color of pig liver, and he was humiliated beyond measure.
With a furious roar, he directly sacrificed the shattered fragments of the Divine Fire Cover, pouring vast Magic Power into them.
"Burn the heavens and boil the seas for me! Burn him to death!"
The fragments blazed with scarlet light. Though they could no longer gather into divine fire dragons, they still spewed out even more violent and chaotic innate divine fire than before, sweeping toward Qin Feng like an overturned sea of flames.
This time, he would burn that fool who did not know his place, along with that Stone Goblin, into ashes to vent the hatred in his heart!
The sea of fire towered into the sky, its might terrifying.
Shi Ji, who had just begun to feel a glimmer of hope, went pale once more and instinctively tried to stand in front of Qin Feng.
This man had emerged into the world for her. She absolutely could not watch him fall into danger because of her.
But the moment she moved, a warm, powerful hand gently settled on her shoulder.
Qin Feng did not even turn to look at her. He merely continued to face her with that tall, straight back.
Facing the terrifying sea of fire capable of burning mountains and boiling seas, Qin Feng did not so much as lift an eyelid.
He simply raised his right hand casually and gave the surging crimson blaze ahead a light wave.
The motion was like swatting away an annoying fly—casual and utterly unconcerned.
That palm strike appeared incomparably slow, not even stirring a trace of wind.
Yet at the instant it was swung, an indescribable Dao resonance spread outward.
Time seemed to have been set to slow motion at that moment.
Space, meanwhile, froze completely.
The violent innate divine fire, which seemed capable of burning everything to ashes, abruptly came to a halt while still a hundred zhang away from Qin Feng.
Every flame, every heatwave, every trace of power was fixed in midair, forming an incomparably bizarre tableau.
Then, that seemingly casual palm strike arrived after yet struck first, ignoring the distance of space as it landed upon the frozen sea of fire.
There was no earth-shattering boom.
There was no world-destroying explosion.
The innate divine fire that could make even ordinary Grand Unity Golden Immortals blanch, along with the magic treasure fragments of the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover, became like snow under the blazing sun, like dust wiped away by a rag beneath that light palm.
Beginning from the point of contact, they silently annihilated, broke apart, and vanished.
Not even a spark or grain of dust remained.
It was as though they had never existed in this world.
Crushed!
This was true crushing—complete annihilation at the level of laws!
High above, the savagery and greed on Taiyi Zhenren's face had yet to fade when they froze completely.
His pupils contracted to the limit in that instant, shrinking into the most dangerous pinpoints!
His mind crashed entirely in that instant, turning blank.
This... what was this?
What kind of divine ability was this?
What kind of power was this?
Before he could recover from that fear that overturned everything he knew, he discovered in horror that after erasing all his attacks, the residual force of that swinging hand had not diminished in the slightest.
That palm, fair and slender, perfect as a work of art, pierced through frozen space, tore apart the shackles of time, and pressed toward his face at a speed he could neither comprehend nor react to.
It struck after yet arrived first!
Every hair on Taiyi Zhenren's body stood on end!
A deadly crisis from the deepest depths of his soul crashed into his heart like countless icebergs.
He wanted to dodge, to flee, to bring out every magic treasure he had to defend himself.
But it was useless!
His body, his Primordial Spirit, and his thoughts all seemed to be completely suppressed by the supreme Dao resonance carried by that hand. He could not move even the slightest bit!
He could only watch helplessly as that palm grew larger and clearer in his vision.
"Slap—!"
An incomparably crisp and thunderous slap exploded like Nine Heavens Divine Thunder, echoing across all of Skeleton Mountain and even throughout tens of thousands of li around it.
The next moment.
Before the utterly stunned gazes of Shi Ji, Biyun, Caiyun, and every surviving living creature on Skeleton Mountain.
Taiyi Zhenren, one of the Chan Sect's Twelve Golden Immortals, profound in cultivation and noble in status, who had been so incomparably arrogant just moments before, was sent flying like a ball struck by a giant.
His entire body streaked through the air in a tragic arc. Accompanied by a long trail of immortal blood glittering with specks of golden light beneath the sun, he finally became a tiny meteor and vanished beyond the distant horizon.
He did not even have time to let out a scream.
Skeleton Mountain fell silent enough to hear a pin drop.
No, there was not even the sound of a pin falling.
The wind stopped, the clouds stilled, and every Spirit Monster stopped breathing.
Shi Ji's already astonishingly large phoenix eyes widened even further. Her small mouth parted slightly, and she stood there utterly petrified, like a clay statue.
Her two young attendants, Biyun and Caiyun, rolled their eyes back and nearly fainted from fright on the spot.
One slap.
Just one utterly casual slap.
A renowned Grand Unity Golden Immortal, whose name shook the primordial world... had simply been sent flying?
Man and magic treasure alike, without even a scrap left behind, directly erased from Skeleton Mountain in both physical and conceptual terms?
Shi Ji felt her Primordial Spirit trembling—not from fear, but from an unprecedented shock so extreme that it surpassed the limits of imagination.
Could a stone truly possess such power?
Was this truly... her protector?
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