"My name is Hao Feng, of the Wu Shang Lineage." The young man with demonic markings between his brows announced his origins.
He radiated indescribable confidence and pride.
Wu Shang was a terrifying, ancient clan, its horrors beyond words. Its Ancestral Arts were renowned throughout the Immortal Domain and the Foreign Realm.
Immunity to laws, imperviousness to all arts.
There was no answer to it.
"No need. Let's fight!" He Xian's weakness came from within, not from his outward condition. He had burned his primordial spirit and blood essence. At this moment, he was powerful, constantly at his peak.
Wisps of aura streamed from his pores. Like a second son of the Heavenly Emperor, he shone with vigor.
It had to be said that He Xian surpassed him in both outward appearance and bearing!
The final arena would equalize the combatants' cultivation realms. In other words, Hao Feng's cultivation would be suppressed to the Self-Slaying Realm.
At the same level, He Xian feared nothing.
That was why he looked so relaxed. Had he needed to fight someone above his realm, things really would have been a little troublesome.
He Xian studied this successor of the Wu Shang Lineage.
To have emerged from among all those great Escape One Realm cultivators of the Emperor Clans without even rumpling his clothes, Hao Feng was clearly a formidable character.
He vaguely remembered that Hao Feng would become a leader of the Foreign Realm's younger generation and had once declared that he would slay Shi Hao.
The penultimate arenas were divided by cultivation realm. One determined the strongest in the Self-Slaying Realm, the other the strongest in the Escape One Realm.
Then those final two would fight to determine the sole victor.
This was the Foreign Realm's tradition.
For there was no first place in letters, and no second place in martial prowess.
Being matched against a great Escape One Realm cultivator in the third arena, as He Xian had been, was exceedingly rare.
"Let's fight!" He Xian stood with his hands behind his back. Was I really about to reach the top of the Foreign Realm's younger generation so soon? It felt a little dreamlike. Imperviousness to all arts, nothing more. I had nothing to fear.
"The imperial blood of seven clans?" Suddenly, Hao Feng's expression turned icy.
He seemed to have discovered something extraordinary.
He Xian's clothes were soaked in ancient blood bearing seven different auras. Like a battle immortal bathed in blood, he had been stained with it during his battles.
"You defeated at least seven members of the Emperor Clans?" he asked.
"Nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs, not worth mentioning!" He Xian shook his head, utterly unconcerned.
What he wanted now was to stand at the pinnacle of the Foreign Realm's younger generation.
"Kill!" He Xian launched his assault, swinging both fists as though pushing an entire great world down upon his opponent.
An unstoppable momentum emerged, crushing all before it like rotten wood and withered grass. Invincibility, selflessness, supremacy, sole dominion-these were wills brimming with demonic power.
Like floodwaters bursting through a dam, they surged toward Hao Feng. Muffled thunder exploded with utter ruthlessness. Hundreds upon thousands of streams of fist-light cascaded down like waterfalls, annihilating all living things.
Hao Feng remained entirely unmoved. He held a halberd in his left hand and punched with his right. Every manifestation melted against him like ice and snow, turning to vapor. A layer of forbidden Dao essence covered his body, granting immunity to the Great Dao and the tribulations of all heavens.
Rumble!
A fist emerged, driving straight forward. Its movement was slow, yet so terrifying that it threatened to tear one's primordial spirit apart. Even an ancient universe seemed about to burst beneath it, sink into ruin, and be consigned to reincarnation.
More terrifying still, the space around that fist not only dissolved external Daos, but resonated with ancient manifestations, drawing down one great star after another in a merciless killing blow, as though to blast apart every obstacle.
Rumble!
Their fists met. The heavenly expanse shattered, the void collapsed, and great stars broke apart and burned, tearing open pitch-black, fathomless chasms where they stood.
The manifestations of He Xian and Hao Feng's clash grew even more astonishing, beyond description.
Pfft!
Under this blow, He Xian clearly felt the power of his fist's force diminish drastically, with less than a tenth remaining. Was this the Wu Shang Lineage's imperviousness to all arts? It truly defied heaven.
But that was all it amounted to. The force of his fist was conviction, an invincible will that gazed down upon the world and all eternity.
He pressed forward step by step, as though trampling apart the eternal azure heavens. His steps were heavy. The probing was over.
They were about to embark on a truly terrifying, ferocious battle to the death.
"You're quite good!" Hao Feng spoke at last, putting aside his contempt. His fist had actually been struck hard enough to ache. For the first time, he felt as though his imperviousness to all arts had failed to weaken his opponent's divine might. It was bizarre, and it unsettled him.
He had to uncover the reason.
Imperviousness to all arts was the foundation of their lineage, the capital that made them invincible throughout the world. He would not allow an art that countered it to appear.
No member of the Wu Shang Clan would allow it.
"You were the one who defeated that great cultivator from the Gu Clan, weren't you?" When Hao Feng entered the competition, he had regarded Gu Rong as a formidable enemy. That lineage wielded space in one hand and time in the other, making them equally difficult to counter.
Yet in the final arena where the great Escape One Realm cultivators gathered, he had not seen Gu Rong anywhere. That had left Hao Feng disappointed for a long while.
"So what if I was!" He Xian approached step by step, his battle blood boiling. He was about to reach first place again. Young people were always brash and yearned for glory, and he was no exception. "Kill!"
Like a martial madman, he fought this member of the Wu Shang Lineage that the whole world feared.
It was a bloody battle. Heaven and earth converged, and chaos arose. Both men possessed the momentum to swallow the eight wildernesses and reign over the world. Boundless murderous energy poured out, making the battlefield seem a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
Bang, bang!
Bang, bang, bang!
A hundred exchanges!
Two hundred exchanges!
Five hundred exchanges!
Within a few breaths, they had traded over a thousand blows!
They were evenly matched. This time, He Xian gained little advantage even in physical strength. The Wu Shang Lineage was also renowned for its powerful bodies, and the clan possessed a supreme scripture no weaker than the Indestructible Scripture.
This lineage's tradition was to suppress opponents with imperviousness to all arts, then use physical strength to batter them into pieces.
Besides, only Hao Feng's magical power had been suppressed to the Self-Slaying Realm, not his physical body.
Whoosh!
As the two exchanged blows, countless manifestations rose, fell, and intertwined. Myriad Daos perished, everything became black holes, and all manner of savage beasts leaped forth. Naturally, there was no shortage of primordial gods and demons, roaring through heaven and earth in a dazzling array.
"Hahaha! Imperviousness to all arts, manifest!"
Hao Feng fought himself into a frenzy of excitement. For the first time, someone at his own cultivation realm could battle him to this extent. This was a terrifying opponent who did not fear their Wu Shang Lineage's supreme art. His excitement made even his hair stand on end.
Crimson lightning coiled around Hao Feng. Holding a great bronze halberd, he charged forward with the invincible valor of a god or demon.
The Wu Shang Clan's fundamental great art appeared once more. He seemed to have raised a divine ring of heaven and earth that encircled him and followed his movements. Wherever he went, he was the law, he was the Dao. With every movement, all arts came to nothing. He resembled a son of light.
"I'm going to put you to the test and see whether you truly can withstand my clan's supreme art!"
Hao Feng unleashed the full force of his power to dismantle the Great Dao. Dazzling white light covered his entire body, Dao patterns interwoven across it as the Great Dao hissed and crackled.
He thrust out a great hand, taking control of heaven and earth and encompassing everything within it, then swung his long halberd in a sweeping slash from the side.