"How dare you kill someone right in front of me? Do you really not take me seriously?"
With a whoosh, the blade qi came at him menacingly, sonic booms erupting wherever it passed through the air.
Immediately afterward, with a bang, the punch that should have killed him was deflected, allowing him to narrowly escape with his life.
"Get out of my way! If I want to kill him, not even the King of Heaven himself can stop me. He must die."
When King Yama summons you to die at the third watch, you cannot live until the fifth. Ye Yang did not even look at him; he simply swung around and smashed out with a punch.
"My lord, save me!"
The leader watched as all of his subordinates were slaughtered by the young man before him in the blink of an eye.
The spirited confidence he had shown moments earlier had vanished. His guts had been torn apart with terror, and he had become timid as a mouse, nearly wetting his pants.
"It's over. I'm really going to die this time. Even with my lord here, can't he save me?"
The force of the punch was unstoppable. A moment ago, he had merely been caught off guard and had his concentration slightly disrupted by the other side's surprise attack.
But now, this was a killing blow. What else could his opponent say? No one could save him.
Wherever the punch landed, the void collapsed. The tremendous force compressed the space around him, and before he could even let out a pained howl, his entire body exploded into a mist of blood.
Killing the other man's subordinate right in front of him—this was Ye Yang's boundless dominance at that moment, and it was all built upon overwhelming strength. Without that strength, it would all have been empty talk.
He was no false braggart who merely talked. He was a man of action. If he said someone would die, that person died, with no chance of escape. So what if the other side's reinforcements arrived?
"Good boy, you've got guts. You've thoroughly angered me."
The man had not even arrived, yet hidden weapons came first. With a clang, they rang out with a crisp sound.
It was a flying knife forged from some unknown material. It shot out from an unknown direction, only to be sent flying by a punch from him.
"Kid, you really do have some skill. Fortunately, I made thorough arrangements; otherwise, you truly might have gotten away."
Before his voice had even faded, the surroundings suddenly darkened, as if night had descended ahead of time.
"Wait, this is murderous intent at its peak. What is he trying to do? Does he look down on me and want his subordinates to test me first?"
Ye Yang's heart tightened. He looked up and saw dozens of black shadows darting in from all directions. Each radiated a formidable aura, clearly displaying the traits of well-trained assassins.
The Heavenly Secrets Pavilion was known as the most mysterious assassin organization. The power they displayed openly was far from all they possessed; their hidden strength was even more terrifying.
They took people's money and dispelled their troubles. They would never stop until they achieved their goal, killing their target no matter what.
In short, they would use every means necessary to achieve their objective. They had to see their target alive or see his corpse dead; otherwise, they would never rest.
"Kid, you're not worthy of being my opponent. First get through this round, and then you'll be qualified to fight me!"
Their movements were perfectly synchronized and utterly silent like ghosts as they surrounded Ye Yang.
"What? Are you afraid to face me yourself? Do you want to send your subordinates to act as your scapegoats and test me first?"
A murderous atmosphere filled the air, and even Ye Yang's breathing grew heavy.
"Kid, stop flaunting your sharp tongue. Let your strength do the talking. We won't fall for your tricks."
The man who had suddenly appeared did not waste a word. With a grand sweep of his hand, dozens of black shadows surrounded him.
His gaze was as sharp as a torch as he swept his eyes over the surroundings, missing no detail and leaving Ye Yang no chance to escape.
"Enough nonsense. Begin the countdown. The final three seconds." The man stood atop a jutting rock, looking down from above like an emperor judging a commoner.
"One, two, three..."
The final three-second countdown began immediately. In Ye Yang's eyes, it was nothing more than a joke.
They had already laid the Tianluo Earth Net, sealing off both Heaven and Earth with nowhere to escape. Naturally, they did not care about this tiny amount of time.
"Heh heh, do you think having more people will let you take me down? Isn't that a little too simplistic?"
Ye Yang surveyed the surroundings and had already formed his judgment. On the surface, none of these people possessed particularly formidable cultivation, and none had reached the pinnacle.
However, years of tacit understanding had made their cooperation seamless. They could use a formation to achieve effects that ordinary teamwork could not, creating a result where one plus one was greater than two and causing their opponent no small amount of trouble.
"Enough nonsense. Attack! We must see him alive or see his corpse dead. Don't let him escape."
"My lord, rest assured. We Thirty-Six Heavenly Stars are not called that for nothing. We'll make this ignorant brat pay the price."
The thirty-six men's auras linked together, as if they had become one entity. Individually, their cultivation had only recently reached the peak of the Martial King realm.
But through a special secret art, combined with the formation they created, their strength underwent a qualitative transformation.
With a bang, a booming sound seemed to erupt inside their bodies. Immediately afterward, their bodies swelled like balloons.
They expanded and contracted in turns, creating a horrifying sight.
"Primal Chaos Scepter, Creation as Merit!" The leader circulated the mysterious cultivation method he practiced, borrowing the strength of the others to forcibly raise his cultivation to an inconceivable level.
"First Level of the Martial Saint realm!"
"Second Level of the Martial Saint realm!"
"Third Level of the Martial Saint realm..." The breakthroughs continued. Though this did smack of forcing seedlings to grow by pulling them upward, one still had to admire the other side's methods.
With a hum, powerful waves of air spread in all directions, knocking people off their feet. A large swath of trees in the Small Woods was blown down, forming a vacuum zone.
"Wait, has he already broken through to the Martial Emperor realm? No, something's wrong. This is only a False Emperor realm, merely equivalent to a Half-Emperor expert."
Ye Yang watched coldly from the sidelines. Since the other side had already spoken, he would not make a move unless his men were wiped out in a single strike.
"Kill!"
Times had changed. Any ordinary person would have long since been scared witless.
Moreover, the Tianluo Earth Net had already been laid here, with ambushes on all sides and killing intent everywhere. No one could escape.
"Activate the formation—the Thirty-Six Constellation Formation!"
There were thirty-six formation cores in total, with each man occupying one position. Bursts of light shot into the sky, weaving together.
"Kid, kneel!"
His voice rang like a great bell, his momentum soaring like a rainbow. His words carried the force of law. With a single command to kneel, merciless gravity increased a thousandfold and surged toward Ye Yang.
"Not good. These people are fighting desperately again!"
Ye Yang had just been considering how to break through the enemy's tactics when, caught off guard, he sensed the changes in Heaven and Earth.
"Parlor tricks, overestimating yourselves. Since you insist on this path, let me shatter your trump card and make you lose all hope."
He clenched his fist and gently swung his arm. His punch shot forth like a dragon, forming a blast of innate astral wind that slammed head-on into their formation.
With a boom, none of them held back. The moment they struck, they unleashed their full strength as though it were their final move.
They all sought to kill with one blow and resolve the trouble in a single strike, never needing a second.
"Supreme Nine Swords, First Sword—Heaven-Splitting!"
At that moment, endless darkness was torn open, as if the entire firmament had been ripped apart by formidable sword qi.
"Not good! We fell for this kid's trap. Leave at once!"
The ambushes on all sides had merely been their ploy. The dagger revealed at the end was their true killing move—unfortunately, their opponent was Ye Yang.
"Kid, stop immediately! We can negotiate anything!"
At that moment, the man who had been sitting back and watching finally could not hold himself back. He nearly jumped to his feet.
Before you continue