Zhao Tiezhu was so furious that he stomped his feet. "What a pack of ungrateful wolves!"
Lin Qing'er's expression darkened as well.
Qin Yuan, however, remained calm as ever and turned back into the hall.
"Senior Brother Qin, aren't you angry?" Zhou De followed him inside and could not help asking.
"Why should I be angry?" Qin Yuan said blandly. "Their choice to leave is their loss, not mine."
He sat down cross-legged again and closed his eyes.
"Just wait and see."
That night, at midnight.
Qin Yuan extracted today's twenty years of cultivation on schedule. Combined with the twenty years stored yesterday, it turned into a vast torrent that surged through his body.
Forty years of cultivation!
That was already equivalent to two hundred years of arduous cultivation for an ordinary Golden Core cultivator!
The Nine Revolutions Profound Origin Art revolved frantically, guiding that immense Spiritual Energy toward the Nine Revolutions Golden Core in his dantian. The Golden Core slowly spun, swallowing the incoming Spiritual Energy like a whale drawing in water. The nine markings on its surface gradually lit up with a faint golden glow.
The barrier between the early and middle stages of the Golden Core Realm began to loosen beneath the impact of that power.
Crack... crack...
Faint cracking sounds rang out within his body.
Qin Yuan clenched his teeth and drove the cultivation art with all his strength. Spiritual Energy roared through his meridians like an enraged river, battering that natural chasm time and time again.
No one knew how long passed.
It felt as though a hundred years had gone by, yet it also felt like only an instant.
"Rumble—!!!"
The barrier shattered completely!
The Nine Revolutions Golden Core suddenly expanded by a full circle. Its color changed from pale gold to pure gold, and the patterns on its surface became clearer and deeper, radiating a vast pressure like the sea.
The middle stage of the Golden Core Realm—achieved!
And it was no ordinary middle-stage Golden Core—it was the middle stage of the Nine Revolutions Golden Core!
Qin Yuan opened his eyes, golden light flowing through them. His aura was at least three times stronger than before. His Spiritual Sense had expanded to five thousand zhang, enough to cover nearly half the True Disciple region.
He slowly rose to his feet and walked outside the hall.
In the eastern sky, the morning sun was just rising.
"Time to meet that Lei Ba."
The True Disciple region, Sixteenth Peak—Thunder Peak.
This mountain was a hundred zhang taller than Blazing Peak, and the quality of its spiritual vein was even better. At the summit stood a grand palace built entirely from black stone. In the plaza before it stood an iron banner ten zhang tall, embroidered with a huge character: "Thunder."
At that moment, dozens of disciples had gathered in the plaza. They were all Lei Ba's lackeys and attendants.
Lei Ba himself sat boldly on a stone chair before the hall, with a beautiful female cultivator tucked under each arm. Wang Lin, Zhang Hai, and Li Mo knelt before him.
"So? Can the Spiritual Energy at Blazing Peak compare to mine?" Lei Ba asked with a grin.
Feeling the Spiritual Energy around them, several times denser than before, Wang Lin and the other two wore fawning expressions. "It can't compare, it can't compare! Senior Brother Lei's place is the true sacred ground for cultivation!"
"At least you know what's good for you." Lei Ba nodded in satisfaction. "Follow me properly from now on, and you won't lack benefits."
Before his words had even faded, a calm voice came from the mountain path.
"Lei Ba, come out."
The voice was not loud, yet it clearly spread across the entire mountain.
The plaza instantly fell silent.
Everyone turned toward the mountain path.
Qin Yuan, dressed in a gray robe, was slowly walking over. His pace was unhurried, yet he carried an air of calm composure. Wherever he passed, the watching disciples retreated and made way for him.
Lei Ba narrowed his eyes, released the female cultivators in his arms, and slowly rose to his feet.
"Qin Yuan?" He looked Qin Yuan up and down, then his pupils suddenly shrank. "You... broke through?"
He could sense that Qin Yuan's aura was far stronger than it had been yesterday! That was absolutely not the pressure an early-stage Golden Core cultivator should possess!
"I got lucky and broke through." Qin Yuan said indifferently. "So I came to spar with you."
"Spar?" Lei Ba sneered. "I think you came here to die!"
He took a step forward, and his figure instantly appeared in the center of the plaza, ten zhang away from Qin Yuan.
"Since you came knocking at my door, I'll show you what a true middle-stage Golden Core cultivator is!"
As his words fell, lightning exploded around Lei Ba's body!
Dazzling arcs of electricity danced over his skin, crackling loudly. He formed hand seals with both hands, and dark clouds instantly gathered overhead. A bolt of lightning as thick as a water barrel tore through the clouds and struck down at Qin Yuan's head!
Mysterious Grade Low Rank spell, Heavenly Thunder Incantation!
The might of this attack far surpassed Zhao Wuji's Burning Heaven Lion's Wrath! Before the lightning even arrived, its terrifying pressure had already drained the color from the surrounding disciples' faces, forcing them to retreat again and again.
Wang Lin and the other two were so frightened that they collapsed to the ground, regret surging through their hearts—they had never imagined Lei Ba's strength would be so terrifying! This strike could probably blast an early-stage Golden Core cultivator to death outright!
Faced with this heaven-destroying, earth-shattering strike, Qin Yuan still did not move his feet.
He merely raised his right hand, spread his fingers, and lightly clenched them toward the descending lightning.
"Disperse."
As that single word left his lips, the thick bolt of lightning abruptly froze in midair!
Then, before everyone's disbelieving eyes, it shattered inch by inch! It turned into sparks of electricity that scattered through the air and vanished without a trace!
The savage grin on Lei Ba's face froze completely.
"Impossible! Even late-stage Golden Core cultivators wouldn't dare take my Heavenly Thunder Incantation head-on! How could you possibly—"
His words came to an abrupt stop.
Because Qin Yuan moved.
With one step, his figure vanished from where he stood. When he appeared again, he was already before Lei Ba.
It was still that simple punch.
Straight, plain, without the slightest flourish.
But the instant that punch flew out, Lei Ba felt as if heaven and earth were crushing down on him! Terrifying fist intent sealed off every path of retreat, leaving him unable even to raise a hand to block!
"No—!!!"
He roared wildly, frantically circulating all the Spiritual Energy in his body. Lightning flashed crazily over his skin as he tried to form his strongest defense.
But before that punch, it was all futile.
The fist landed on his chest.
"Pfft—!!!"
Lei Ba flew backward like a cannonball, smashing down half the palace. Then he plowed a ten-zhang-long trench through the ground before finally coming to a stop. His chest had caved in, blood spraying wildly from his mouth. Even the Golden Core within his body had cracked, and his cultivation directly fell back to the early stage of the Golden Core Realm!
One punch.
Another single punch.
The entire scene fell deathly silent.
All the watching disciples, including the other True Disciples who had originally come merely to watch the spectacle, stared blankly at the gray-robed figure in the center of the plaza.
Wang Lin and the other two had faces as pale as ashes. They lay collapsed on the ground, trembling all over.
They finally understood what they had missed.
Farther away, Wen Ruofeng and Jian Wuhen stood atop another mountain, watching the scene with complicated expressions.
"Good thing we didn't make a move." Wen Ruofeng shook his folding fan and gave a bitter smile.
Jian Wuhen stood with his sword in his arms, a grave expression appearing in his eyes for the first time. "This man... must not be made an enemy."
On Thunder Peak, Qin Yuan withdrew his fist and looked toward the True Disciple stele.
Lei Ba's name, ranked sixteenth, dimmed and vanished. A new name appeared:
[Sixteenth place: Qin Yuan, Fifth Peak True Disciple, middle-stage Golden Core.]
He turned around, glanced at Wang Lin and the other two lying sprawled on the ground, said nothing, and headed straight down the mountain.
Behind him lay a mountain full of shock and deathly silence.
Before you continue