Huff, huff!
The Wang Family's patriarch struggled to rise, but the searing pain in his chest left him gasping for breath.
He lifted his head, his eyes bloodshot as he glared fixedly at Chen Changming.
"I... was defeated so thoroughly!"
The Wang Family patriarch murmured inwardly, a bleak feeling welling up within him.
It had taken him over a thousand years to cultivate to the fifth layer of the Void Refinement Realm. Even along the borderlands of Azure Nether Province, he had been a figure of some standing. Yet today, before the Wang Family clansmen, he had been beaten as miserably as a dead dog.
Humiliation, fury, resentment, fear—every emotion churned violently in his chest.
The Wang Family patriarch glared wide-eyed and roared, "Wishful thinking! The Pagoda-Lifting Heavenly Art is the treasure that safeguards my Wang Family! I would rather die than hand it over to an outsider like you!"
"That isn't up to you."
Chen Changming let out a soft sigh, then leaped into the crater and planted a foot on the Wang Family patriarch's chest.
His foot was not heavy, yet it pressed precisely onto the sunken wound.
"Ah—"
The Wang Family patriarch screamed, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.
It felt as though a mountain were crushing his chest. Every breath took all the strength he had.
"Patriarch!"
The Wang Family clansmen cried out in alarm. Several Void Refinement Realm cultivators tried to rush forward, only to be nailed in place by a single look from Chen Changming. That gaze was as cold as a blade, reminding them of the heaven-destroying, earth-shattering punch from before.
"I made myself very clear. I only wish to borrow it for a look." Chen Changming added a little more pressure with his foot. "Which is more important—your life, or