"Boom!"
There was no earth-shaking crash, only an extremely muffled thud that seemed to strike every heart.
As the sound faded, an extraordinarily tall, imposing figure appeared before the crowd.
He simply stood there, yet he was like an unclimbable mountain ten thousand fathoms high, cutting through Lu Changsheng's mountain-toppling Martial Intent and holding it at bay.
The suffocating pressure in the hall vanished like snow melting in the sun the moment he appeared.
Everyone gulped down air and looked up, terror still in their eyes.
"Grandmaster Ye is here."
Someone in the crowd let out a cry they could not contain.
Ye Ducheng.
In the martial world of the Great Xin Dynasty, that name belonged to a living legend.
First among the Guangzhou Ten Tigers, he had beaten every challenger in Lingnan with his fists and given rise to the astonishing saying that one man alone could hold a city.
Countless Martial Cultivators saw him as the idol they would spend their lives pursuing—and a monument they could never surpass.
Li Xiang looked over. This legendary Grandmaster had none of the bearing of an ethereal sage.
He wore a coarse-cloth short jacket that exposed two Granite arms knotted like coiling dragons. His hair and beard were white, every strand standing stiff as a steel needle, and his whole body radiated the raw, violent beauty of a Primordial Beast.
"Great-grandfather, what brings you to Riverside? You could have told me you were coming."
Standing beside Hong Tianbao, Ye Wanqing showed just the right hint of surprise as she asked the question she already knew the answer to.
"The world's a big place. This old man goes wherever he pleases. Since when do I have to report to a little girl like you?"
Ye Ducheng did not look her way. His