Yang Jian was just about to kowtow and agree.
Just then.
Rumble!
Outside the ruined temple, lightning tore through the night. Fierce winds poured through the gaps in the doors, scattering the remnants of incense ash across the altar.
An angry shout laden with immortal might bore down from the sky.
"Listen up, you vile wretches inside!"
"I am the vanguard serving under Li Jing, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King! By decree of the Jade Emperor, I have come to apprehend Yao Ji's remaining brood!"
"You have ten breaths to crawl out here and kneel!"
"After ten breaths, the temple falls, and you die!"
His voice carried the languid ease of a cat toying with a mouse.
He did not take the people inside the temple seriously at all.
Startled awake by the thunderous noise, Yang Chan weakly clutched Yang Jian's collar from his back, her fingertips trembling uncontrollably.
"Brother... they've caught up..."
"Close your eyes. Don't look."
Yang Jian gently placed his little sister in a corner of the altar. His voice was quiet, but his hands were steady.
He straightened and faced the temple doors.
The Heavenly Court.
The Jade Emperor.
These people had killed his father and imprisoned his mother. Now, they would not even spare two children.
He clenched his fists, blood seeping between his fingers.
He had nothing.
No magical power, no magical treasures, nothing that could stand against the heavenly soldiers.
Despair poured over him like ice water from above.
"Great deity..."
Yang Jian raised his head and looked toward the divine statue on the altar, its golden radiance still lingering.
Gu Changqing's voice was calm.
So calm that he might have been discussing something utterly trivial.
"The Heavenly Court? The Jade Emperor?"
"A pack of false gods who have usurped the high heavens. They aren't worth your fear."
"Yang Jian."
"Receive this technique."
Before his words had faded.
A beam of golden divine light shot from between the statue's brows and plunged into Yang Jian's forehead!
Boom!
It felt as though someone had hurled a sun into Yang Jian's mind.
A scripture of unfathomable vastness branded itself into the depths of his soul, word by word.
"Divine Elephant Suppressing Prison Force."
The cultivation method for its first level emerged with the clarity of a brand.
How to guide his blood and vital energy, how to strike at his particles, how to make his flesh a prison that could suppress all things.
He was still far from comprehending the whole.
But he knew how to take the first step.
"Thank you for granting me this technique, Master!"
Yang Jian kowtowed heavily.
When he raised his head again, his gaze had changed.
Gu Changqing's voice came from the statue, offering only two brief words.
"Go on."
"Yes!"
Yang Jian drew a deep breath, turned, and strode toward the temple doors.
Outside the temple.
Dozens of silver-armored heavenly soldiers stood in formation with their halberds, encircling the Mountain God Temple three ranks deep.
The divine general at their head held a magical net in one hand, impatience written all over his face.
Several heavenly soldiers behind him had already put away their halberds. One sat cross-legged on a cloud, polishing his armor.
In their eyes, this assignment was easier than catching a wild rabbit.
"Creak-"
The temple doors opened.
A youth drenched in blood stepped out of the shadows.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
He stood on the steps, his gaze sweeping over every heavenly soldier present.
That gaze was far too calm.
He did not look like someone driven into a dead end. He looked as though he were surveying a heap of clutter about to be cleared away.
"So you've come out?"
The divine general snorted.
"Kneel. Bind your own hands and return to the Heavenly Court with me."
Yang Jian did not answer.
He closed his eyes.
Within his body, his blood and vital energy circulated furiously along the pathways of the first level of the Divine Elephant Suppressing Prison Force.
All his blood compressed and gathered, hurtling toward a single point deep within his dantian.
A particle lay dormant there.
The first of eight hundred and forty million particles.
The first impact-it was repelled.
The second-repelled.
The third-a crack appeared on the particle's surface.
The divine general's expression darkened.
"Refusing to kneel?"
"Then I'll beat you until you do."
"Form up!"
At his command.
Dozens of heavenly soldiers swung their halberds in unison, linking their magical power.
A Heavenly Net woven from immortal light unfurled in the air and descended over Yang Jian's head with a piercing hum!
This was a standard-issue magical treasure of the Heavenly Court, made specifically to capture fugitives. Once it ensnared someone, it sealed their flesh and froze their blood.
An ordinary cultivator caught inside could not even struggle.
The shadow of the net descended, blocking the last patch of sky above Yang Jian's head.
At that very moment.
The fourth impact.
Boom!
The cracks on the particle's surface burst apart!
An impossibly deep elephant's trumpet sounded from the depths of Yang Jian's chest.
It was no auditory illusion.
Every heavenly soldier present heard it.
The sound seemed to come from the abyss of the ancient Primordial World, carrying the dust and bloodshed of countless ages.
Yang Jian opened his eyes.
Something in his pupils had changed.
The power pouring from the awakened first particle flooded his limbs and every part of his body. His bones cracked, and every inch of muscle felt like a cable twisted taut anew.
He raised his right fist.
Facing the Heavenly Net bearing down on him, he unleashed a punch.
No magical power.
No immortal light.
Only pure strength that could crush everything.
The instant his fist struck the Magic Net, Yang Jian's entire arm shuddered violently, his bones giving muffled groans under the unbearable strain!
The Heavenly Net caved inward three feet beneath his blow.
Several cracks burst across its surface, immortal light flickering wildly.
But it did not break.
"That's all?" The divine general sneered. "How could a mere mortal like you possibly break the Heavenly-"
He never finished.
Yang Jian roared.
The newly awakened particle within him was squeezed to its limit, humming on the verge of shattering.
The flesh over his knuckles split open, revealing glimpses of white bone.
His second punch-slammed out!
This punch was three times heavier than the first.
Cracks spread from the center of the Heavenly Net in every direction.
But it did not break.
The net shuddered violently for several breaths, then its cracks actually began to mend.
"Ha!"
Suspended in midair, the divine general gave a cold laugh.
"The Heavenly Net is a standard-issue magical treasure forged by the Heavenly Court, with an innate ability to repair itself. A mortal like you couldn't break it even if you punched until your hand snapped-"
Boom!
A muffled crash cut him off.
Deep within Yang Jian's chest, another elephant's trumpet erupted.
Deeper than the first.
Heavier.
The second particle-awakened.
Even Yang Jian had not expected it.
All he knew was pain.
Most of the bones in his right forearm and fist had shattered. White bone stabbed out through his flesh, and every nerve screamed.
But that pain was like a key, prying open something deeper within his body.
His blood and vital energy surged wildly once more, rushing toward the second dormant particle.
There was no resistance whatsoever.
A single surge woke it.
"What's happening?!"
The divine general's pupils contracted sharply.
He could clearly sense it-the aura emanating from that youth was soaring.
A moment ago, it had merely surprised him.
Now, it was beginning to unsettle him.
Yang Jian lowered his head.
His right arm was ruined.
He raised his left fist.
The strength of both particles poured into his left arm at once. His bones crackled in rapid succession, his muscle fibers stretched to their limits, and bulging veins began to stand out beneath his skin.
"Again!"
His third punch thundered out.
This punch carried the howl of wind.
No-it was not the wind.
It was the anguished cry of air compressed by brute force.
His fist struck the Heavenly Net.
The entire Magic Net caved violently inward like a bronze gong struck by a massive hammer. Its newly mended cracks burst open again in an instant, more numerous and more densely packed than before!
The immortal light across the net flickered frantically, brightening and dimming. Its repairs clearly could no longer keep pace with the damage.
"Impossible!"
The divine general roared, his voice cracking.
"Pour in more magical power! Everyone! Hold the Magic Net with everything you've got!"
Dozens of heavenly soldiers gritted their teeth and channeled their magical power, desperately pouring the spiritual radiance from their long halberds into the Heavenly Net.
The net's brightness barely steadied.
But everyone's hands were trembling.
Because through the Magic Net, they saw Yang Jian's eyes.
There was no reason in those eyes.
No fear.
Only a beast driven into a corner, instinctively, madly burning itself away.
"Still not enough..."
A hoarse growl emerged from Yang Jian's throat.
The power of two particles coursed through every limb and bone. He could feel that he was more than twice as strong as before.
But the Heavenly Net was repairing itself, too.
Those heavenly soldiers were still pouring magical power into it.
Two punches could crack it. Could three shatter it?
No way to be sure.
His body was already teetering on the edge of its limits.
Half the bones in both arms were shattered, and his muscle fibers were tearing. Every movement felt as though someone were dragging a rasp back and forth through the gaps between his bones.
His consciousness was fading, too.
At that very instant-
Yang Chan's faint, tearful cry came from the ruined temple behind him.
"Brother..."
That single cry.
Like a red-hot iron needle, it pierced the deepest part of his heart.
His mother was pinned beneath Peach Mountain, suffering day and night.
His younger sister trembled behind him, helpless and alone.
He was their only pillar of support.
He couldn't fall.
He couldn't!!
"I, Yang Jian-"
Yang Jian bit down hard on the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of blood essence onto the Heavenly Net!
"Even if I die, I'll die on my feet!"
His fading consciousness snapped into focus at that moment-
Deep within his body, all six dormant particles, amid the desperation of impending death and towering hatred-
Were utterly ignited!
Boom!!!
The trumpeting of mammoths from the Primordial Ancient World exploded within him!
The third, the fourth... all the way to the eighth of the eight hundred and forty million particles awakened with a thunderous surge!
Vast, boundless, primal, tyrannical torrents of primordial mammoth power flooded madly through every limb and bone!
His broken wrist bones locked back together under the infusion of power, and the immortal-light garrotes that had bitten into his muscles snapped apart inch by inch!
His body did not grow larger.
But every inch of muscle, every inch of bone, seemed to have been infused with divine metal.
Yang Jian slowly rose to his feet.
The Heavenly Net shook violently, its immortal light flickering wildly.
The divine general's smile froze on his face.
"No... impossible..."
Yang Jian did not look at him.
He simply aimed at the great net overhead and, without any flourish-
Threw a punch.
This punch carried no fluctuations of magical power, no flowing immortal light.
Only utterly pure, all-crushing... strength.
In the fist's wake, the air compressed to its utmost limit and let out a shrill, agonized cry, forming a white shock wave visible to the naked eye!
His fist struck the Heavenly Net.
The Heavenly Net, supposedly capable of imprisoning even a True Immortal, at the instant it touched his fist-
Was like thin ice meeting the blazing sun.
It did not last even a single breath.
From the center outward, it cracked, burst apart, and disintegrated inch by inch!
Fragments of immortal light exploded across the sky, then vanished completely like bursting bubbles.
One punch.
Just one punch.
The Heavenly Net-shattered!