Wind Snow Prefecture, deepest within.
A secret chamber built entirely of soundproof blackstone.
Tie Zhan, lord of Iron Clothes Fortress, shot to his feet from his steel chair.
BANG!
His thick fingers slammed down on the stone table before him, sending several cracks branching across its surface.
"Chu Jue is dead! That old monster from the Divine Sea Realm—his head was blown apart with a single punch!" Tie Zhan's eyes were bloodshot, and his breathing rasped like bellows.
The moment he heard the report, even his vaunted steel bones had seemed to turn to ice.
"That kid isn't human at all! He's an ancient ferocious beast wearing human skin! He can crush spirit weapons with his bare hands. How many punches can the gates of Iron Clothes Fortress take?"
Li Xuekuang, sect master of Blood Saber Gate, paced frantically around the secret chamber.
The fine-grade Blood Saber at his waist thrummed uneasily, resonating with the disorder of its master's True Qi.
"The Prefecture City has to act!" Li Xuekuang stopped abruptly and glared at the Prefecture Lord seated at the head of the table.
"Prefecture Lord Xiao! Heavenly Sword Sect is gone. If that madman comes knocking on our doors one by one, our two factions will be next, and the whole Great Wind Snow State will descend into chaos! You represent the Imperial Court. Are you going to watch him slaughter his way through the Prefecture City?!"
At the head of the table,
Prefecture Lord Xiao Tiannan sat perfectly still.
He wore a Cloud Pattern Official Robe, his expression imposing.
The immense true essence of the early Divine Sea Realm flowed through his body like a deep abyss, forcefully suppressing the agitation radiating from Li Xuekuang and Tie Zhan.
Xiao Tiannan toyed with two smooth, lustrous Jade Gallbladders in his hand.
"Crack."
His thumb suddenly pressed down, crushing one of the Jade Gallbladders into powder.
The jade dust sifted through the gaps between his fingers.
"What's there to panic about?" Xiao Tiannan's voice was icy, his murderous intent utterly undisguised.
"He wiped out Heavenly Sword Sect and shattered the balance of power in the Great Wind Snow State. The Imperial Court won't tolerate a madman like that, beyond its control."
Tie Zhan took a step forward and asked urgently, "Will you make a personal move, Prefecture Lord? That kid's body is bizarre. He killed Chu Jue with one punch. If you face him alone..."
"If I meet him head-on, he might take a bite out of me," Xiao Tiannan said, tossing away the half of the Jade Gallbladder that remained.
He reached into his sleeve and drew out a copper token, dark blue all over and radiating a bone-piercing chill.
Clack.
The token landed on the stone table.
Li Xuekuang and Tie Zhan's eyes were instantly drawn to it.
"Cold Dragon Blood Abyss?!" Both men sucked in a sharp breath.
It was the Imperial Court's Forbidden Land in the deepest part of the Great Wind Snow State!
Xiao Tiannan planted both hands on the stone table and leaned forward, a vicious glint flashing in his eyes.
"Exactly. That kid relies on brute strength, loves to kill, and likes swallowing the flesh and blood of high-grade demon beasts, doesn't he?"
Xiao Tiannan let out a cold laugh.
"An ancient Seal Mountain Great Array locks an demon beast from the middle Divine Sea Realm at the bottom of that abyss—a creature the Imperial Court keeps captive. The Ice Calamity Dragon."
"That beast has been hungry for three hundred years. Its blood and vigor are like an ocean. The moment it catches even a trace of a living person's scent, it'll go completely berserk."
Li Xuekuang's eyes suddenly lit up, and his hurried pacing came to a complete stop.
"You mean... use a borrowed blade to kill him?"
Xiao Tiannan straightened up.
"I'll send someone with an invitation and the token to the Forbidden Land. We'll say the Prefecture City and your two factions are willing to bow and make peace. We'll invite him to a banquet at Cold Dragon Blood Abyss and offer the Imperial Court's treasury as compensation."
"The moment he dares to take one step into the abyss..."
Xiao Tiannan's right hand clenched into a fist.
"We'll fully activate the ancient Seal Mountain Great Array from outside! Seal off every escape route and wake that Ice Calamity Dragon ahead of time!"
Tie Zhan clenched his fist, a vicious smile finally spreading across his face.
"A mid-Divine Sea Realm dragon! Its body is ten times harder than steel! No matter how tough that kid's body is, to the dragon he'll be nothing but a bone that's a little harder to chew. A turtle trapped in a jar—no escape!"
"Get it done at once," Xiao Tiannan said, settling back into his grand chair.
"Let the dragon eat him. Then we won't even have to clean up the bones."
Fifty miles outside Prefecture City,
a barren wilderness strewn with rocks.
Sun Yu stood bare-chested, dark-red Asura Demonic Marks beneath his pale skin pulsing slowly like a heartbeat.
He stood before a massive boulder ten zhang tall.
He didn't draw his saber or throw a punch.
Sun Yu simply took one casual step forward.
VMMM!
The bottomless black hole deep within his dantian roared into motion.
Eight Desolations Prison Suppressing Technique—Initiation!
Prison Suppressing Force Field!
Centered on Sun Yu, the space within ten zhang of him suddenly warped, visible to the naked eye.
Gravity soared tenfold in an instant!
Crack, crack, crack, crack!
A dense barrage of teeth-grinding fractures rang out.
The massive, ten-zhang boulder couldn't withstand it for even a single breath.
No external force had struck it.
Under the terrifying pressure of tenfold gravity, the boulder crumbled from the top down, collapsing inch by inch until it became a pile of fine stone dust, spread evenly across the ground.
The ground within ten zhang sank three chi, as if an invisible hand had pressed it down.
Standing at the center of the force field, Sun Yu rolled his neck. His joints rang out like the clear song of a sword.
With tenfold gravity weighing on him, he didn't feel the slightest discomfort.
The ultimate foundation of the Asura Undying Body perfectly absorbed the crushing weight, turning it into a whetstone that tempered his flesh.
Just then,
Screee!
A sharp eagle's cry rang out from the sky.
A Wind Chasing Eagle, two zhang long, plunged down from the clouds at high speed, carrying a messenger dressed in Prefecture City official robes.
The messenger was in the early Fetal Transformation Realm. Acting under Xiao Tiannan's death order, he had come to find Sun Yu, though he was quaking in his boots.
Riding on the eagle's back, the messenger spotted Sun Yu in the middle of the rocky wasteland from far away.
He swallowed, forced down his fear, and steered the Wind Chasing Eagle toward the ground.
"Lord S-Sun!" the messenger shouted, trying to display the Prefecture City's authority from midair.
The Wind Chasing Eagle folded its wings and glided straight toward Sun Yu.
The next instant,
the Wind Chasing Eagle's enormous body had just crossed into the ten-zhang radius around Sun Yu.
BOOM!!!
A dull, crushing burst of flesh and blood.
The Wind Chasing Eagle didn't even have time to scream.
The tenfold-gravity Prison Suppressing Force Field slammed down on its back like ten invisible iron mountains!
Its bones shattered one by one, its organs burst on the spot, and its whole body was crushed into a cloud of crimson mist in midair!
Aaaah!!!
The messenger on its back let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Now without a mount, he dropped like a shooting star, hurled toward the ground by tenfold gravity.
Crack! Crack!
The messenger hit the ground on both knees. His hard kneecaps shattered instantly.
He ended up prostrate in the crater three paces from Sun Yu, forced into a posture of utter humiliation.
The savage pressure made blood seep wildly from his internal organs. He couldn't even lift a finger.
Sun Yu lowered his head.
His eyes were as cold as an abyss as he looked down at the messenger.
With a thought,
the tenfold-gravity Prison Suppressing Force Field instantly contracted and vanished.
The pressure eased.
The messenger vomited mouthful after mouthful of blood, clawing desperately at the stone dust with both hands as his whole body shook like a leaf.
In the early Fetal Transformation Realm, he hadn't even been able to get close to this man!
"Someone from the Prefecture City?"
Sun Yu's voice was calm, devoid of emotion.
The messenger endured the agony of his shattered knees, not daring to look Sun Yu in the eye.
Trembling, he pulled a gold-edged invitation from his clothes, along with a dark-blue copper token radiating cold.
He held them high above his head with both hands.
"L-Lord Sun! Your subordinate is here by order of Prefecture Lord Xiao, to... to deliver an invitation!"
The messenger stammered, his teeth chattering violently.
"Prefecture Lord Xiao, Lord Li of Blood Saber Gate, and Lord Tie of Iron Clothes Fortress... the three lords have heard of your peerless prowess."
"The three lords have no wish to make an enemy of you. They're willing... willing to bow and make peace!"
"They've prepared a grand banquet to apologize at Cold Dragon Blood Abyss, in the deepest part of the Great Wind Snow State. They're willing to hand over the Prefecture City's highest authority and its treasury resources. All they ask is... is that you let go of your anger!"
Sun Yu stood where he was, his arms hanging loosely at his sides.
He didn't take the invitation.
He only looked down at the dark-blue copper token held over the messenger's head.
A faint trace of demon aura emanated from the token, ancient and steeped in savagery.
"Bow and make peace?"
The corner of Sun Yu's mouth curled into a cruel smile.
He raised his right foot and planted it directly on the messenger's head.
His foot pressed down slightly.
Thud.
The messenger's face was ground into the stone dust. His nose broke, and blood ran freely.
"Three old foxes controlling an entire state, and Heavenly Sword Sect is barely gone before they come crawling over with their necks washed clean?"
Sun Yu's voice was a chill wind blowing out of the depths of hell, stabbing into the messenger's ears.
"Why choose Cold Dragon Blood Abyss?"
"What's inside?"
Sun Yu pressed down harder.
The messenger's skull creaked under the unbearable pressure, as if it would burst like a watermelon the next moment.
The sheer terror of death shattered the messenger's resolve.
Loyalty to the Prefecture City wasn't worth a damn before absolute violence.
"I'll tell you! I'll tell you! Don't press down!"
The messenger wailed. Tears mingled with the blood from his nose and ran into his mouth.
"Cold Dragon Blood Abyss is an Imperial Court Forbidden Land! At the bottom of the abyss, they've locked up an Ice Calamity Dragon from the middle Divine Sea Realm!"
"The Prefecture Lord and the others never intended to negotiate! They're going to activate the ancient Seal Mountain Great Array from outside and trap you in the abyss, so the dragon can eat you!"
The messenger poured out Xiao Tiannan's entire plan in one breath.
Sun Yu's foot eased slightly.
He narrowed his eyes.
A Hongmen banquet.
Killing with a borrowed blade.
These schemes had been exactly what he expected.
But the demon beast the messenger had mentioned made Sun Yu's breathing suddenly grow heavier.
"Middle Divine Sea Realm."
"Ice Calamity Dragon."
A feverish, scarlet light burst from Sun Yu's eyes.
He had just fused the Fetal Transformation Creation Art with the Asura Undying Body.
Whether it was the vast lake of True Qi in his dantian, which needed endless energy to fill, or the newly initiated Eight Desolations Prison Suppressing Technique, clamoring to be fed—
both required an immense foundation of blood and vigor!
The pills and herbs from Heavenly Sword Sect had barely been enough to tide him over.
What he lacked most right now was the flesh and blood of high-grade demon beasts!
Sun Yu lifted his right foot.
He bent down and snatched up the dark-blue copper token.
It was freezing to the touch, and sure enough, it carried a trace of dragon-kind Killing Intent.
Sun Yu straightened and casually tucked the token into his clothes.
He looked down at the messenger sprawled at the bottom of the crater, covered in blood.
"Get lost."
Sun Yu turned around, casually pulled on a black robe, and strode toward the depths of the wilderness.
"Tell Xiao Tiannan that I, Sun, accept the invitation!"
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