The Might of a Single Finger

Dead silence.

On the Official Road, even the wind seemed to have stopped blowing. The sunlight remained bright, yet it brought no warmth. Only an icy terror spread through the air.

The minds of everyone in the merchant caravan went blank. The sight before them had completely overturned everything they knew. That harmless-looking young man had merely waved his hand casually, as if brushing away dust, and instantly cleared out more than a dozen vicious Soul Master Bandits? This was not a battle at all. It was simply... a miracle! Or rather, a demonic act!

Barak, the infamous Soul Emperor bandit leader around Nuoding City, felt as though he had fallen into an ice cellar. A chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head! The scar on his face twisted from sheer terror, making him look even more ferocious.

He stared fixedly at Zhang Bufan, trying to find even the slightest trace of Soul Power erupting from him, trying to find a Soul Ring configuration belonging to at least a Soul Douluo, perhaps even a Titled Douluo. But there was nothing! Absolutely nothing! He still could not sense any Soul Power fluctuations from the other party, as though he were a completely ordinary person!

The more this was the case, the stronger Barak's fear became. This could only mean one thing—the other's strength had long surpassed the limits of his perception and reached a level he could not comprehend! He had concealed his aura so perfectly, yet his attacks were earth-shattering... What kind of monster was this youth?!

"Y-you... who exactly are you?!" Barak's voice was dry and hoarse, trembling uncontrollably. He gripped the Giant Axe Martial Soul in his hand tightly. It was the support he relied upon, a Tool Martial Soul emanating a dim blood-red glow. Two yellow, three purple, and one black—Six Soul Rings slowly pulsed around it, displaying his Soul Emperor-level strength. Yet the Soul Rings that had once given him countless victories and confidence could not bring him the slightest sense of security now.

Zhang Bufan found Barak's tense expression and cold sweat rather amusing. He yawned, looking utterly bored. To be honest, he could not muster even the slightest interest in an opponent of this level. It was like a Max Level God-Equipped Big Boss returning to the beginner village and seeing an Lv10 Wild Boar roaring nearby. Other than finding it noisy, there was really nothing else to feel.

"Me?" Zhang Bufan tapped his nose with a finger and said lazily, "Just an Enthusiastic Citizen passing by. I can't stand seeing people like you bully the weak and vulnerable, ruining the overall image of our Soul Master Team."

His careless attitude stabbed deeply into Barak's frayed nerves. The feeling of being utterly ignored, of being treated like an ant, caused hysterical fury to rise within him alongside his fear!

"Stop playing tricks! I don't believe you're really that freakish!" Barak roared, trying to use his voice to drive away the fear in his heart. "Sixth Soul Skill, Mountain Splitting Earth Shattering Slash!"

His sixth black Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring suddenly lit up, and immense Soul Power poured madly into the Giant Axe Martial Soul in his hand. The giant axe instantly expanded several times over, transforming into a Blood-Colored Battle Axe Phantom the size of a door panel. Carrying the terrifying force to tear open the earth and split mountains apart, it cleaved straight down at Zhang Bufan's head! This all-out strike from a Soul Emperor was horrifyingly powerful. Before the axe even arrived, the fierce wind pressure had already cracked the ground beneath Zhang Bufan's feet!

This was Barak's ultimate trump card. He had once severely wounded a Soul Emperor of the same level with this move! He believed that even if the other party truly was a Soul Douluo, he would never dare remain so arrogant in the face of this life-risking blow!

The merchant caravan members screamed in terror, as if they could already see the bloody scene of the young man being split in two.

Yet in the face of this terrifying attack capable of splitting mountains and shattering stone, Zhang Bufan did not even raise an eyelid. He even had time to complain inwardly: Tch. The move's name sounds pretty imposing—"Mountain Splitting Earth Shattering"? What a shame. Flashy but impractical, terrible Soul Power waste, crude force application, and flaws everywhere... A Soul Skill at this level isn't even good enough to serve as an appetizer for my Nine Cauldrons.

Just as the Blood-Colored Battle Axe Phantom was about to fall upon his head, Zhang Bufan finally seemed to react. Slowly... he extended a finger.

His Right Index Finger was fair, slender, and looked incomparably fragile.

Then, with that finger, he lightly poked at the Giant Axe Phantom containing a Soul Emperor's full-force attack, powerful enough to cleave even wrought iron apart.

There was no glow of Soul Power, no eruption of momentum. It was just an utterly ordinary finger.

Under Barak's eyes, wide as copper bells, and the incredulous stares of the merchant caravan, that seemingly fragile finger came into contact with the violent Blood-Colored Battle Axe Phantom.

Time seemed to stretch infinitely at that instant.

The expected sight of a broken finger and flying flesh never appeared.

Nor did the expected earth-shaking collision of energy occur.

Instead, there was only an extremely strange, teeth-grating... sense of solidification.

The Giant Axe Phantom, powerful enough to split mountains and rend the earth, seemed to strike an Invisible Wall of Sighs the instant it touched Zhang Bufan's fingertip. All its momentum, all its destructive force, all its Soul Power, were forcibly strangled and frozen in midair at that very moment!

The axe blade was less than a centimeter from Zhang Bufan's fingertip. Yet that one centimeter was like an uncrossable chasm.

The rage and madness on Barak's face instantly froze, turning into absolute absurdity and horror! It felt as though he had not struck flesh and blood, but the barrier of the entire world! He frantically urged his Soul Power with all his strength, yet the Giant Axe Phantom could not even tremble!

How was this possible?! One finger?! Just one finger?!!

The next second, something even more soul-shattering happened.

Zhang Bufan's finger, which was braced against the Giant Axe Phantom, moved slightly forward and gave it a gentle push.

Yes, just such a casual push.

"Crack—boom!!!"

First came a crisp sound, like Glass Shattering. Starting from the point where it touched his fingertip, dense cracks instantly spread across the frozen Blood-Colored Battle Axe Phantom!

Then came a thunderous explosion! The entire Giant Axe Phantom, along with the enormous amount of Soul Power Barak had poured into it, exploded completely without warning like an Internally Detonated Bomb! It transformed into the purest Heaven and Earth Energy and vanished into nothingness!

"Puh—!"

With his Martial Soul and Soul Skill so brutally shattered by force, Barak suffered the most direct and violent backlash! A fountain of crimson blood burst from his mouth, mixed with fragments of internal organs! It was as though an Invisible Giant Hammer had struck him head-on. He flew backward at several times the speed at which he had charged in, like a Cannonball Out of the Barrel!

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..."

His huge body smashed through more than a dozen trees beside the Official Road, each thick enough to require two people to wrap their arms around. Wood Chips flew everywhere, and Smoke and Dust filled the air. In the end, after collapsing part of an Earthen Slope, he slid limply to the ground like a Tattered Sack. No one knew how many bones in his body had broken. He was deeply embedded in the mud, completely unconscious, his breath weak to the extreme.

Whether he lived or died was up to fate.

Zhang Bufan slowly withdrew the finger that seemed to contain world-destroying might. He brought it to his lips and gently blew on it, as though blowing away dust that did not exist.

He glanced at the huge Human-Shaped Pit in the distance and the wreckage-lined "Flight Trajectory," then shook his head and muttered softly in a tone that carried both pity and mockery:

"With strength like that, you still tried to rob people? Your professional standards are seriously lacking. In your next life... forget it, whether you'll even have a next life is hard to say. You'd be better off going back and farming honestly. At least then you won't get poked to death by someone's finger."

Sunlight fell across his handsome face. His smile was gentle and harmless.

But in the eyes of the surviving merchant caravan members, the youth was no different from Gods and Demons walking among mortals.

He clapped his hands as though he had merely swatted a buzzing mosquito to death, then turned his gaze toward the merchant caravan members, who were still frozen in place. He revealed what he believed was a very "kind" smile.

"Alright, the trouble's been dealt with. You... are you okay?"