First Battle in the Earth Yuan

"Well, well, little mouse, I've finally caught you. Take him down!"

He Jun stared at Lin Yiqing in the courtyard, stunned for a moment before a look of pleasant surprise crossed his face. With a wave of his hand, several gang members rushed forward, intent on capturing Lin Yiqing.

"Bang!"

The men had barely charged forward when, before they could even get close, Lin Yiqing swept his leg, sending them all flying and crashing to the ground in a heap.

Among them were even key members of the gang who had reached the ninth stage of the Body Tempering Realm.

"Bastards!"

The joy on He Jun's face vanished instantly, replaced by a dark, gloomy expression. He had not expected his subordinates to fail to withstand even a single move from the boy!

This contradicted the intelligence report significantly. It had clearly stated the seventh stage of the Body Tempering Realm; now, he would believe it even if someone claimed Lin Yiqing was at the early Earth Origin Realm.

"Second Brother, you go. Take him down, dead or alive!"

Thinking this, he turned his head and ordered the man standing to the side.

He had not expected the target to be so troublesome, but since he had already accepted the benefits from the Second Master of the Lin Family, he naturally had to see the job through.

He Ying was leaner than He Jun, but the massive Nine-Ring Blade strapped to his back made it clear that he was not someone to be trifled with.

In the vast Qingyang Town, where several major forces were deeply intertwined, the Blade God Gang's survival to this day was inseparable from the strength of these two brothers, and He Ying was particularly notorious for his brutal, murderous nature.

Hearing this, He Ying slowly stepped out from behind He Jun. Without a word, he stomped his foot against the ground, his figure shooting forward like a bolt of lightning. The moment he closed the distance, he drew his Nine-Ring Blade and hacked down fiercely at Lin Yiqing!

"Die!"

Lin Yiqing's eyes flickered. The moment the man closed in, he had already grasped his movements. While He Ying appeared swift and peerless, in his eyes, this speed was nothing more than average.

The calm Origin Energy within his body surged violently, and a cold, white light coated his skin. With the rich luster of his Origin Energy, his late-stage Earth Origin Realm strength, and a physique tempered by Greater Yin Qi, he honestly did not know exactly how strong he had become.

However, he knew that Earth Origin Realm cultivators like He Ying were nothing but scum.

He spun around and delivered a fierce kick. The peerless power, akin to an ancient, heaven-supporting divine beast, struck He Ying and literally blew him apart!

"Bang!"

Scattered blood splattered, painting the ground a deep red. Before the surrounding members of the Blade God Gang could even react, He Ying had become a mangled corpse with only half a body remaining.

"Ah! A-a monster!"

"Run! The Vice Leader is dead!"

In an instant, the Blade God Gang scattered like birds and beasts. Everyone fled for their lives, as if they would drop dead on the spot if they lingered for even a single moment.

As for He Jun, seeing his brother meet such a miserable end, his eyes were filled with terror. Seeing a late-stage Earth Origin Realm expert kicked to pieces had scared him out of his wits.

With such strength, he would have believed it even if someone said the boy was at the late-stage Heaven Origin Realm. How could there be such a heaven-and-earth difference from the intelligence report?

This was no child to be toyed with; this was a monster wearing the skin of a child!

Run, only by running do I have a sliver of a chance at survival!

He did not doubt for a second that if the boy wanted to kill him—a mid-stage Earth Origin Realm cultivator—it would also take only one move!

Seeing the man flee, Lin Yiqing kicked the Nine-Ring Blade on the ground, sending it flying toward He Jun. With He Ying dead and He Jun terrified out of his mind, it seemed the Blade God Gang would be wiped off the map today!

"Swish!"

The Nine-Ring Blade, imbued with immense force, tore through the air with a series of sonic booms. He Jun felt a bone-chilling killing intent completely envelop him.

At the very moment the flying blade was about to pierce him, he twisted his body with all his might, shifting slightly to the side so that the blade only severed his right arm.

"Ugh!"

He Jun gritted his teeth, his face turning beet red, but he dared not let out a sound, focusing only on sprinting away.

"Hum!"

Suddenly, he felt a heavy blow to his mind. In an instant, the world spun, and his entire body went limp as if his bones had been pulled out, causing him to collapse to the ground.

"I am curious. What benefits did Lin Mang give you to make you chase me for several days without end?"

At this moment, a crisp voice rang out. Though youthful, it was filled with a chilling coldness. This was the first sentence Lin Yiqing had spoken since they had met.

"Young Master Lin, you are a dragon soaring in the nine heavens, while we are just mud-crawlers in the mire. We dare not speak of benefits; we merely rely on others to survive and do their bidding."

He Jun paused for a moment, gasping for air, and struggled to sit up from the ground. He smiled bitterly and said, "I fear you will laugh at me, but it was merely some low-grade spirit herbs and a few hundred Yang Yuan Stones. After all, the information we received said you were only a Body Tempering Realm cultivator. If Young Master Lin Hong hadn't given a death order, we wouldn't have kept hounding you."

Hearing this, Lin Yiqing had a clear picture. Although the Lin Family was not the top power within this radius of several hundred miles in Qingyang Town, they were still a first-rate force; ordering a third-rate gang like this was a simple matter.

"Get lost."

Seeing the members of the Blade God Gang scattering and the Vice Leader He Ying slain, with He Jun himself having lost an arm and his cultivation ruined, Lin Yiqing could not be bothered to strike again and spoke indifferently.

Seeing this, He Jun could only offer a bitter smile. He tore off a piece of his clothing to crudely bandage his severed arm before bowing and walking toward the deeper buildings.

"Whoosh!"

Just then, a silver-white spear flew past at high speed. In the blink of an eye, it pierced through He Jun's body, pinning him to the spot.

"Nephew Yiqing, Second Uncle will teach you a lesson: when you cut the grass, you must remove the roots!"

Hearing these words, Lin Yiqing's pupils constricted. His Origin Energy surged within him, his entire body tensing like a leopard. He stared fixedly at the few people walking from not far away.

"Lin Mang, Lin Hong, and Lin Yun."

The appearance of Lin Mang was entirely within Lin Yiqing's expectations, but what caught him off guard was that Lin Yun had also appeared here.

"Cousin Yiqing, could it be that you have broken through to the Earth Origin Realm?"

Looking at the devastation covering the ground, Lin Yun seemed to have thought of some earth-shattering possibility, and he couldn't help but ask in a trembling, horrified voice.

"How is that possible! This brat was only at the seventh stage of Body Tempering a short while ago; there is no way he could have broken through to the Earth Origin Realm. Someone must be helping him!"

Lin Hong's eyes were bloodshot, and he looked at Lin Yiqing with a ferocious expression as he shouted.

He hated Lin Yiqing to the extreme. As a high and mighty pride of the Lin Family, he had been knocked off his pedestal by an unknown boy from a branch family. Whenever he thought of the way everyone looked at him that day, the poisonous fire of hatred tormented his proud heart day and night.

"It seems that martial art manual is even more extraordinary than I imagined, to have allowed you to become an Earth Origin Realm cultivator in such a short time. It is truly terrifying! Even Lin Langtian, the peerless genius of the Lin Main Family, was about your age when he made his breakthrough. But you must remember, he is a genius of the Main Family; looking across the entire Great Yan Dynasty, he is a top-tier existence."

Lin Mang forcibly suppressed the urge to step forward and seize it directly, fearing that the other party might choose to go down with him, and couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

He now suspected that Lin Yiqing might have had an even greater stroke of fortune. A third-rate cultivation technique was unlikely to create such a young Earth Origin Realm expert, unless the other party was truly a peerless genius seen only once in a century!

However, he did not quite believe in the latter possibility.