Heaven and Earth Change Color, Thunder Aids the Display, Martial Path's Apex Reveals Its True Form

He had guarded the core of the family for years. Though he knew the major events of the world through the intelligence network, he had rarely traveled Great Liang's vast territory himself.

This was the first time he had ever witnessed such a savage battle, one whose sheer momentum was terrifying.

In the Southern Border, he had only occasionally clashed with the Gu Tribe. Those wildlings mostly fought in secret with strange arts and poisonous Gu, using underhanded methods. They had never displayed such spectacular destructive power.

Moreover, the Kong Family's group consisted almost entirely of Martial Masters, yet they were already in such a sorry state. What would happen to ordinary, unarmed civilians if they were unfortunate enough to be caught up in a battle like this?

Martial Masters who abused their martial prowess mostly harmed ordinary commoners.

The aftershocks of a single battle could easily claim countless lives, leaving them without even a place to voice their grievances.

For a time, his thoughts churned chaotically, yet he felt none of the exhilaration of witnessing a clash between powerful experts.

Kong Tianpeng, standing beside him, felt entirely different, having spent years adventuring outside.

His eyes shone, his breathing quickened, and he stared fixedly at the two figures in the distance, colliding and interweaving like Gods and Devils. He was trembling with excitement.

"This... this is a real battle!"

Thinking back to his so-called "Jianghu killings" in the past, they had been nothing more than children squabbling.

The familial joy of reuniting with his wife and children some days ago had been cast completely to the back of his mind.

Indeed.

His heart could never return to calm waters and a tranquil shore.

He could not let go~

After so many years drifting through the Jianghu, after so many years of martial clashes, it was not something he could simply put down because he said he would.

Deep in his heart,

he was a Jianghu Martial Master first, and only afterward a father and a husband.

This world—

in the end, it belonged to Martial Masters.

At the center of the battlefield, Chen Duan sent a vicious heavy punch straight toward Feng Qu Xian's ribs.

Feng Qu Xian raised his palms. His hand wound around like a venomous snake, a subtle force bursting forth and diverting the power of the punch elsewhere.

At the same time, his other palm silently slipped out, grazing toward Chen Duan.

Chen Duan's reaction was just as swift as lightning. The moment his punch's force was redirected, he twisted his body and stepped sideways, avoiding the sharp edge of the palm.

After that probing prelude, the two men's momentum rose higher and higher, and they officially entered an even more perilous second stage.

Chen Duan had changed his battle strategy. He no longer relied on his formidable physique to meet his opponent's palm force head-on. Instead, he began fighting like a Martial Master, his movements and footwork turning elusive and strange, his fists concealing skill changes and traps.

Every one of Feng Qu Xian's palms carried Cold Poison, far more violent than that of ordinary cold corpses. Even with Chen Duan's surging qi and blood, he had to divert a great deal of qi and blood and inner force to keep neutralizing it.

At the same time, his opponent's true qi was vicious in nature. It resembled the "Gut-Severing Force" of the Inch Soft Palm, boring madly into wounds and invading the body. Together with the Cold Poison, it formed a pincer attack that continually battered Chen Duan's physical defenses.

As a result, the Withered Wood Meets Spring of the Wood Element Art at his wounds was already stretched thin. Its healing speed fell far behind the rate of destruction, forcing him to activate the Power of Tissue Proliferation.

These two layers of attack placed considerable pressure on Chen Duan. He had no choice but to abandon his brutal, flesh-against-flesh brawling and switch to a more intricate martial style.

Yet the moment he changed strategies, Feng Qu Xian altered his response as well.

When both sides discarded pure clashes of strength and began competing on the level of fighting methods, Chen Duan discovered that his opponent's greatest advantage was not the Cold Poison or true qi, but his extraordinary experience with these "fighting methods."

The core of a Martial Master's fighting method lay in skill changes and traps.

What was false became real, what was real became false; truth and illusion gave birth to each other, linking together ring after ring. Changes concealed further changes—that was a skill change. A trap was bait hidden among those changes.

For an ordinary Martial Master, changing moves meant "take one step and see three steps ahead." The mind had to move faster than the hands and feet. At the level of the Five Levels, mental calculation could reach the realm of "take one step and calculate ten steps ahead."

Yet the skill-change techniques Feng Qu Xian displayed now had completely exceeded that category. It was as if, at the instant he made a move, he had already deduced the hundred moves that followed.

His moves flowed together seamlessly, and his traps were laid with exquisite precision. Chen Duan's mental calculations could barely keep pace, and he repeatedly stumbled into traps his opponent had woven.

As for the counterattack traps Chen Duan set, Feng Qu Xian could see through most of them, easily avoiding or breaking them.

This caused Chen Duan to suffer far more injuries than his opponent.

However, Chen Duan quickly understood. This was experience in fighting at the Break Apex level.

Although Feng Qu Xian's realm had fallen to the Fifth Level and he could no longer use Break Apex inner force, that experience still remained in his mind.

Using Break Apex experience and techniques to fight a Fifth Level opponent—clearly, Feng Qu Xian had begun taking Chen Duan seriously!

And that was indeed the case.

Although he appeared arrogant on the surface, able to disdain his opponent amid a life-or-death struggle, deep down he could not help feeling astonished by this junior's strength.

After all, he had originally planned to defeat Chen Duan during the initial "warm-up." His disgusting Cold Poison alone was enough to bring most Five Levels Martial Artists to their knees. With his disgusting true qi trait added on top of that, there was even less to say.

He could see that Chen Duan's qi and blood were abundant, but he had never expected them to be abundant to this degree. Chen Duan could continuously neutralize his Cold Poison and invading true qi, while the attacks from his hands showed not the slightest sign of weakening. They truly flowed without end, as though they were inexhaustible.

Now that the battle had reached its second stage, even if he ultimately won, it would actually be a victory without honor. After all, he was using the fighting wisdom of the "Break Apex" level to bully a junior at the Fifth Level.

What did the fighting method of "Break Apex" represent? Even if its essence were given to a First Level Martial Master, it would be enough to let him cross the gulf between realms and slay a Third Level Martial Master in reverse.

Furthermore, Feng Qu Xian had detected several other traces of inner force on Chen Duan. Though they were hidden extremely deeply, they could not escape his Break Apex vision, and those inner forces appeared to be quite extraordinary.

Besides that, there was the astonishing power of flesh regenerating on his opponent's body. Feng Qu Xian could not see any inner force driving it. Could it be an anomalous creature's special trait? And Chen Duan's fist technique always gave him a feeling of déjà vu, yet for some reason, he could never remember why.

Taken together, the secrets on this junior's body were far too numerous. If not for the fact that his fighting style still seemed somewhat "immature," Feng Qu Xian would almost have suspected that Chen Duan, like himself, was an old monster who had slept through some bygone era before awakening again.

Most crucially—and what angered him somewhat—he could actually feel that Chen Duan was still holding back something massive!

He was fighting a Demonic Path Magnate to the death, yet he still dared to hold something in reserve? He truly had no idea how to write the word "death."

"Junior! Stop hiding your tricks! Bring out the thing you've kept at the bottom of your chest!"

Feng Qu Xian's enormous body leaped into the air with extraordinary lightness, transforming into a "dark cloud" that blotted out the sky and sun, covering the space above Chen Duan.

At that exact moment, a peal of thunder rang out, echoing his movement.

Feng Qu Xian hung high in the air.

Both palms slowly traced an arcane trajectory.

Within their field of vision,

his arms seemed to begin duplicating and splitting apart.

They appeared slow, yet changed in the blink of an eye.

In the time it took to blink, they had transformed into hundreds, even thousands, of new arms, impossible to distinguish as real or illusory.

Layer upon layer, dreamlike and fantastical,

they filled the entire sky overhead, completely sealing off every route Chen Duan could use to evade.

Under the formidable pressure,

the surrounding air froze.

Even time seemed to halt, no longer flowing.

Several bolts of lightning followed the thunder, white lines repeatedly tearing open the sky above Feng Qu Xian.

His figure flickered between brightness and darkness.

It was as if he alone had torn open this heavenly curtain.

"It's the Thousand Illusory Palms!"

On the cliff, Duan Chonghe's eyes widened as he stared at Feng Qu Xian hovering nearby, not daring to shift his gaze even for half a breath.

His voice trembled, filled with indescribable excitement and shock.

According to the secret lore passed down by his ancestors, this technique was one of the signature arts with which Feng Qu Xian had once swept across the world.

The Duan Family even treasured a painting depicting Feng Qu Xian using the "Thousand Illusory Palms" to battle a powerful foe. It was called Portrait of the Demon Lord Fuxian.

The painting was said to have been created by a highly accomplished Martial Master. It contained some of the original technique's martial essence and could almost rival a Visualization Diagram.

Duan Chonghe had studied the painting for years, attempting to comprehend its mysteries, yet he had never found the door in. He had only grasped its form, never its spirit.

But at this moment, he was witnessing the original figure from the painting with his own eyes, personally displaying that legendary supreme technique.

The static scene in his mind from Portrait of the Demon Lord Fuxian perfectly overlapped with the living figure of the Devil Master before him, carrying the might of heaven and earth.

In an instant, enlightenment poured over him like nectar.

The obscure and unfathomable points that had baffled him despite endless thought suddenly became crystal clear! Inspiration and realization surged into his heart like a living spring.

"Husband? Husband?"

"Old Duan! Hurry and leave!"

"Boss, are we leaving or not?"

The other companions had long since been frightened by the terrifying scene in the distance, resembling a battle between Gods and Devils, and urged him repeatedly to move.

But Duan Chonghe, who had initially made the decision to retreat, now seemed stupefied, deaf to everything around him.

His eyes were fixed in rapture on that distant figure, his entire being immersed in the manifestation of supreme martial truth.

Seeing her husband looking as if his very soul had been hooked away, Xu Miao felt puzzled, yet inexplicably developed a trace of jealousy.

She had seen an unprecedented madness in her husband's eyes, an infatuation she had never enjoyed herself.

Unable to stop herself, she pursed her lips and reached out to tug Duan Chonghe's arm. "Husband! Stop looking! Let's go!"

Duan Chonghe suddenly flung his arm, breaking free of his wife's grip. He took two steps forward and stopped only at the edge of the cliff.

He gazed up at the battlefield and murmured, his voice filled with reverence and yearning:

"This... is true martial arts...?"

Even a single posture from Feng Qu Xian during battle displayed such profound martial essence that it left him intoxicated and immensely benefited him.

If he left today, would he ever have another chance like this in his life?

Would he ever see hope beyond Break Apex again?

Perhaps not.

Thinking back to how he had once wanted to become the "new Feng Qu Xian," he now felt that notion had been laughable—so laughable, so arrogant and ignorant of the vastness of heaven and earth.

He finally understood why the old ancestor of his family had once followed this Devil Master beneath his banner without hesitation, vowing to die in his service.

Duan Chonghe spoke, as if he had made some sort of decision, leaving everyone behind him baffled and alarmed:

"We're not leaving."