A hundred thousand troops of the Heavenly River Navy sealed off Peach Mountain.
The Heavenly River Water Aura hung down from the nine heavens, pressing the split mountain until it shook with thunderous rumbles.
Li Jing stood before the army, golden light surging from the Exquisite Pagoda in his palm, his killing intent aimed straight at Yang Jian.
That mass of dark clouds had condensed from the Heavenly River Water Aura.
Water-element law descended, and cold mist seeped constantly from Peach Mountain's fissures.
Yao Ji took just one breath, and her face grew several shades paler.
This navy was utterly different from the Heavenly Soldiers who had come before.
They neither panicked nor rushed to attack.
A hundred thousand troops settled into formation at once, layer upon layer of magical power locking down the void. Even Peach Mountain's remaining Sealing was pressed into stillness, its flickering halted.
Before the army's ranks.
Li Jing, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, wore golden royal robes and held the Exquisite Pagoda in his hand, his expression dark beyond measure.
His gaze swept over Peach Mountain.
The main peak had been cleaved in two.
The Heavenly Emperor's Golden Edict Talisman had been shattered completely.
The Four Heavenly Kings' broken divine armor lay scattered among the clouds. The lingering light of their divine stations flickered uncertainly, their auras so depleted they could barely maintain their Divine Forms.
Li Jing's pupils contracted slightly.
They lost.
The Four Heavenly Kings and tens of thousands of Heavenly Soldiers actually suffered such a crushing defeat.
His gaze finally settled on Yang Jian.
The youth stood before Yao Ji, his shoulders and back stained with blood, yet his figure remained as steady as a mountain.
This was Yao Ji's son, the one the Heavenly Court had been hunting?
A demigod youth who should have been crushed with a casual flick of the hand had actually reduced Peach Mountain and the Four Heavenly Kings to this state.
Absurd.
All the more reason he deserved to die.
Li Jing forcibly suppressed his shock, and the Exquisite Pagoda slowly rose from his palm.
Golden light illuminated three thousand li.
"Yang Jian!"
Li Jing's voice thundered across Peach Mountain, amplified by the formation of a hundred thousand naval troops.
"You split Peach Mountain without authorization, destroyed the Heavenly Emperor's Edict, and abducted a condemned immortal of the Heavenly Court."
"Do you admit your guilt?"
The pagoda's golden light crashed down.
Within that golden light lay both the Exquisite Pagoda's suppressive power and the army-commanding might bestowed by the Heavenly Emperor's Edict.
Even an ordinary Golden Immortal's mind would have faltered beneath that pressure.
Yang Jian merely raised his eyes.
He looked at Li Jing without the slightest hint of retreat in his gaze.
Killing intent lay deep within his eyes, none of it spilling out.
Like a blade already drawn, waiting only to fall.
Li Jing's brow twitched.
That look made him deeply uncomfortable.
There was no fear.
No pleading for mercy.
He did not even acknowledge Li Jing, the Heavenly Court's grand marshal, as someone worth his attention.
"Insolence!"
Li Jing barked coldly.
"I descended by the Heavenly Emperor's Edict, and you still dare defy my orders?"
Yang Jian did not answer.
He merely turned back to Yao Ji.
"Mother, wait here for me."
Yao Ji caught his wrist, her eyes filled with worry.
"Jian'er, the Heavenly River Navy guards the waterways of the nine heavens. Combining their forces into formations is their greatest strength."
"If Li Jing brought them here, he must have a killing move prepared."
Yang Jian gently eased her hand away.
"They're just standing in the way."
"I'll go smash them."
As his words fell.
He raised his head toward the center of the Heavenly River vortex.
There, a deep-blue formation talisman was taking shape.
The magical power of all hundred thousand naval troops poured into it.
That was the formation's core.
Li Jing saw where Yang Jian was looking, and the chill in his eyes deepened.
"You figured it out?"
"Unfortunately, you're too late."
He abruptly raised his hand.
"Deploy the Heavenly River Sea-Covering Grand Formation!"
"Suppress Peach Mountain!"
"Bind Yao Ji!"
"Execute Yang Jian!"
A hundred thousand naval troops roared in unison.
"As commanded!"
Rumble!
High in the nine heavens, the Heavenly River Water Aura spun furiously.
The deep-blue formation talisman fully took shape.
Every line upon it seemed to carry a tributary of the Heavenly River.
Terrifying water-element law pressed down from the talisman, instantly making the surrounding space unbearably heavy.
Fragments of Peach Mountain had barely risen into the air before they were crushed to powder.
Watching from afar, Yu Ding Zhenren's expression darkened.
The Heavenly River Sea-Covering Grand Formation.
This was no ordinary military formation.
This was a killing formation the Heavenly Court's navy only deployed to suppress Primordial Demon Kings.
With a hundred thousand naval troops working together, it could draw heavenly river law down into the mortal world in a reverse deluge.
Once it descended, ten thousand li of mountains and rivers would be ground into lifeless wasteland by water-element law.
And now.
Li Jing had turned this formation upon Yang Jian.
Yao Ji's face abruptly went white.
"Jian'er!"
Yang Jian did not retreat.
He stepped forward, and the void beneath his feet collapsed.
Fifty divine elephant particles trembled at once.
His figure shot into the sky, heading straight for the formation's core.
Li Jing sneered.
"Brute."
"Do you truly believe your brute strength alone can break my Heavenly River Grand Formation?"
He thrust both hands downward.
"Heavenly River Suppression of Hell!"
The deep-blue formation talisman crashed down, hanging three feet above Yang Jian's head.
The next instant.
The magical power of a hundred thousand naval troops became the Heavenly River's crushing weight, bearing down upon Yang Jian's flesh and divine soul from every direction.
Yang Jian's body abruptly sank.
It was as though he had been pressed into a boundless deep sea.
Every wisp of water vapor weighed as much as a mountain.
Every strand of law burrowed into his body through his skin, bones, and meridians.
Crack.
A muffled sound came from his shoulder bones.
A bloody fissure opened across his skin.
Then a second, and a third.
Fifty divine elephant particles trembled together, but water-element law pressed upon them until their circulation grew sluggish.
Fine ripples of water appeared on the surface of every particle.
At the sight, the hundred thousand naval troops' morale soared.
"He's pinned down!"
"That wretch can't move!"
"The Heavenly King's might is unmatched!"
Li Jing held the Exquisite Pagoda in his palm, the coldness in his eyes intensifying.
"Yang Jian."
"Before the Heavenly River Grand Formation, that little bit of brute strength cannot save you."
"Today, I will cast both you and Yao Ji into the Heavenly River's water source."
"You will be suppressed for eternity."
Yu Ding Zhenren, far away.
The Jade Purity Immortal Light within his sleeve stirred.
He saw it clearly.
This was no longer a simple contest of strength.
Through the formation of a hundred thousand troops, water-element law was sealing and suppressing both flesh and divine soul at once.
Yang Jian could break formations with strength and use the furnace to refine the remnants of the edict.
But against water-element law truly summoned by the combined might of a hundred thousand naval troops, he still lacked a complete means of dealing with it.
If he kept holding out, his meridians would collapse first.
Yu Ding Zhenren was just about to act.
Yet Yang Jian suddenly closed his eyes.
"Law..."
He spoke softly.
"So this is law."
The crushing pressure continued to deepen.
The water ripples had already spread to his neck.
More and more bloody fissures appeared across Yang Jian's body.
Yet his aura did not falter.
Deep within his dantian.
The Hell Furnace slowly turned.
The dark-golden divine fire wavered beneath the pressure of water-element law, yet never went out.
Yang Jian recalled his master's words.
All things could be refined.
Magical treasures could be refined.
Immortal bodies could be refined.
The Heavenly Emperor's Edict could be refined.
Then heavenly river law should be refinable too.
"Let my body be the furnace."
"Let my blood be the fire."
Yang Jian's eyes snapped open.
"Fifty divine elephants, burn!"
Boom!
All fifty divine elephant particles released their origin flame at once.
Blood and vital energy boiled within his body.
He forced all that power into the Hell Furnace.
The dark-gold divine flames abruptly surged, turning black and red.
This move was perilous in the extreme.
If the furnace could not swallow the Heavenly River Law, the backlash would first tear apart his meridians and soul.
Yet Yang Jian did not hesitate in the slightest.
He raised his head and fixed his gaze on the deep-blue formation sigil overhead.
"You want to suppress me?"
"Then I'll refine your formation."
The next instant.
The mouth of the Hell Furnace burst open.
A shadowy vortex took shape within it.
An utterly domineering devouring force erupted from Yang Jian's body!
Boom!
The Heavenly River Heavy Water weighing down on him actually began to surge backward.
Strand after strand of Water-Element Law was forcibly dragged into his meridians.
Then swallowed by the Hell Furnace.
Black-and-red divine flames blazed.
The rippling patterns of law disintegrated.
Pure essence flooded back through his entire body.
The bloody cracks across Yang Jian's skin rapidly healed.
The water patterns on his fifty Divine Elephant Particles were refined away, inch by inch.
The first naval soldier turned pale.
Then the second, and the third.
The formation's backlash had begun.
"What's happening?"
"My magical power is being drained!"
"The formation's core is collapsing!"
The voices of the hundred thousand naval soldiers finally fell into chaos.
The sneer on Li Jing's face froze.
He abruptly tightened his grip on the Exquisite Pagoda and barked, "Hold the formation! Strengthen the Heavenly River Law!"
"Anyone who dares retreat will be beheaded by this king!"
The naval soldiers forced their magical power into motion.
The deep-blue formation sigil lit up again.
More Heavenly River Water Aura poured into the formation.
But the more they poured in, the faster Yang Jian devoured it.
Like a bottomless divine furnace, the Hell Furnace refined the Water-Element Law into Yang Jian's own essence, mouthful by mouthful.
Boom!
A thunderous sound rang out within Yang Jian's body.
The fifty-first Divine Elephant Particles awakened!
Then.
The fifty-second!
The fifty-third!
His aura soared once more.
He began tearing at the power of the Heavenly River Grand Formation pressing down on him.
Yu Ding Zhenren's pupils abruptly contracted.
"He's refining the laws..."
Even he felt his heart tremble as those words left his mouth.
How long had Yang Jian even been cultivating?
Yet he could already use the Hell Furnace to devour the Heavenly River Law invoked by a hundred thousand naval soldiers!
Li Jing understood what was happening too.
For the first time, genuine terror appeared in his eyes.
"Stop!"
"Sever the formation!"
"Sever the formation, now!"
But it was too late.
Yang Jian raised his hand, his five fingers clamping onto the deep-blue formation sigil from afar.
"Now you want to sever it?"
"Too late."
Crack!
The formation sigil split apart.
All hundred thousand naval soldiers coughed up blood at once.
The Heavenly River vortex shook violently, as though an invisible hand had torn it open from within.
Yang Jian stood beneath the formation's core, black-and-red divine flames coiling around his entire body.
He looked at Li Jing.
"This is what you were relying on?"
Li Jing's face turned ashen.
The Exquisite Pagoda trembled wildly in his palm.
Just as he was about to activate the pagoda, a ripping agony suddenly struck deep within his soul.
A black-and-red thread of karma was forcibly torn out from the depths of his primordial spirit.
Li Jing's expression changed sharply.
"Who?"
At that very moment.
From the direction of Guanjiangkou, a streak of black-and-red Demonic Qi tore through the void along the Father-Son Karma, hurtling straight into the battlefield at Peach Mountain!
Heaven and earth abruptly darkened.
The Exquisite Pagoda's golden light wavered under the pressure.
Within that Demonic Qi, the figure of a young boy slowly emerged.
Defiant.
Cold.
Seething with resentment that towered to the heavens.
Li Jing's pupils contracted sharply.
"Impossible..."
The figure raised his head, his voice seeming to rise from the depths of the Nine Nether.
"Li Jing."
"The Nezha you shattered with your own hands has returned."
The next instant.
The black-and-red Demonic Qi exploded.
Nezha's voice resounded across Peach Mountain.
"Wash your neck clean."
"Today, I've come to collect your debt!"