Peach Mountain's seal lit up.
The moment Yang Jian stepped onto the mountain's foot, the entire mountain shook with a thunderous roar.
Golden runes emerged from the rocks, ancient trees, and streams, like shackles of the Heavenly Court that had slumbered for years, only to be jolted awake by force.
Boom!
A terrifying repulsive force bore down on his head.
The ground beneath Yang Jian's feet cracked instantly, and loose stones were crushed to powder.
Yet he did not retreat.
Fifteen divine elephant particles trembled simultaneously within him. His immense blood energy surged through every limb and bone, forcibly withstanding the first crushing wave of Peach Mountain's restrictions.
"Mother."
Yang Jian raised his head toward the cliff halfway up the mountain.
Below the cliff, clouds and mist churned. Countless golden runes interwove into a formation, sealing the entire main peak.
That was where Yao Ji was imprisoned.
It was also the place he had to reach, even if he had to slaughter his way through the heavenly soldiers' blockade and force his way past the Heavenly Court's pursuit.
"Your son is here."
Yang Jian stepped upward.
Thud!
As his foot landed, the mountain shook.
Countless restriction runes erupted at once. Golden light surged like waves, crushing toward him layer after layer.
This force could crush ordinary cultivators below the Heavenly Immortal realm, shattering their bones and tendons and shaking their primordial spirits.
Yang Jian's shoulders abruptly sank.
But in the next instant, the fifteen divine elephant particles within him roared together, forcibly driving that oppressive force back.
Crack!
A long fissure split the mountain path beneath his feet.
Yang Jian continued climbing.
No immortal arts.
No magical treasures.
He challenged the restrictions head-on with his flesh alone.
With every tremor of the fifteen divine elephant particles, he took another step upward.
Peach Mountain's great formation roared incessantly under his assault. Clouds and mist rolled through the mountain, and the sealing runes on the cliff began lighting up one by one.
In the void.
Yu Ding Zhenren stood behind the shadows of the clouds, watching with an expression graver than ever before.
When he had pursued Yang Jian to Peach Mountain, he had assumed someone had forcibly elevated the boy's combat strength through an evil art.
But after witnessing this scene firsthand, that judgment had begun to waver.
There was no Jade Purity Immortal Light around Yang Jian, nor any circulation of magical power typical of a cultivator.
Only that profoundly heavy blood energy sustained his continued ascent.
"This child's body..."
Yu Ding Zhenren's gaze sharpened.
Even experts of the Ancient Witch Clan who specialized in cultivating the flesh might not have been able to withstand the Heavenly Emperor's restriction so forcefully at the same realm.
Stranger still, that power belonged neither to Yuqing nor to Shangqing, and bore no trace of the Western Heretical School.
For a moment, even Yu Ding Zhenren could not discern what legacy it came from.
"Someone really has altered Yang Jian's fate."
He looked toward the summit.
The disturbance from Peach Mountain's great formation was growing ever louder.
If Yang Jian continued forcing his way through, once the seal fully reacted, word would surely reach the Lingxiao Treasure Hall.
When the Heavenly Court's thunder descended, this child would likely have no path back.
Yu Ding Zhenren sighed softly.
"Very well."
He took a step, his figure materializing from the void as he landed on the mountain path ahead of Yang Jian.
With a sweep of his sleeve, a strand of gentle Jade Purity Immortal Light spread out, temporarily blocking the pressure of the restrictions bearing down from all sides.
Yang Jian stopped.
He raised his head and stared coldly at the Daoist before him.
"Who are you?"
Yu Ding Zhenren's expression remained calm.
"I am Yu Ding, a Daoist of the Jade Void Palace on Kunlun Mountain."
He named his lineage not to intimidate the boy, but simply to calm this youth brimming with killing intent.
Yet Yang Jian's expression did not change in the slightest.
Kunlun or otherwise.
Jade Void or otherwise.
Anyone standing before Peach Mountain now was an obstacle in his path.
"Move aside."
As those words fell, even the wind along the mountain path seemed to grow colder.
Yu Ding Zhenren frowned slightly.
"Child, I know you are desperate to save your mother."
"But the Heavenly Emperor personally laid Peach Mountain's seal, linking it to the earth veins of the entire mountain range. Forcing your way through like this will only alert the Heavenly Court."
"When that happens, never mind saving anyone-you will struggle even to preserve yourself."
Yang Jian stared at him.
"My mother is beneath this mountain."
"She is imprisoned here, suffering day and night."
"If I don't go up, she will have to keep waiting."
Yu Ding Zhenren said gravely, "Even saving someone requires a proper method. Your foundation is not yet stable. Recklessly charging into the formation will only cost you your life as well."
The chill in Yang Jian's eyes deepened.
"Today, I am here only to save my mother."
"If you stop me, you are my enemy."
His words fell.
Boom!
The fifteen divine elephant particles trembled simultaneously.
The blood energy around Yang Jian surged explosively, sending ripples through the Jade Purity Immortal Light Yu Ding Zhenren had spread out.
Yu Ding Zhenren's gaze changed.
He had already made a generous estimate of Yang Jian's strength.
Only now did he realize he had still underestimated him.
The power within this child was even more violent than the lingering aura at Guanjiangkou.
"Foolish child."
Yu Ding Zhenren sighed.
"Since words cannot persuade you, I can only restrain you first and explain things afterward."
He pressed two fingers together like a sword, gathering Jade Purity Immortal Light at their tips.
A pure, righteous talisman seal appeared and descended toward the space between Yang Jian's brows.
This was not a killing move.
It was merely the Body-Binding Forbidden Art, one of the Chan Sect's secret arts, which could temporarily seal the meridians and blood energy, preventing its target from continuing to force his way into the formation.
Yang Jian's gaze turned fierce.
The instant that talisman seal descended, the rocks beneath his feet exploded.
The fifteen divine elephant particles trembled in unison.
Facing that ray of Jade Purity Immortal Light, he unleashed a punch.
Where his fist passed, the pressure of the restrictions was forcibly pushed aside, and the golden runes on both sides of the mountain path shuddered wildly.
Yu Ding Zhenren had intended only to subdue him gently.
Only when the fist reached him did he realize he had underestimated this strike.
The Eight-Nine Arcane Art activated on its own.
Hum!
A golden halo rose from his skin, and a protective golden body formed before him, its majestic visage solemn and its aura weighty.
The fist struck the golden body.
There were no elaborate divine abilities.
No transformations of magical power.
Only fifteen streams of divine elephant strength pouring into his fist and smashing down head-on.
Clang!
A deep, tremendous crash rang through the mountain.
The rocks beneath Yu Ding Zhenren's feet shattered, and he stumbled back three full steps.
His sleeves snapped in the wind, and a layer of Jade Purity Immortal Light around his body was shaken apart.
The protective golden body did not shatter.
But a hairline crack had appeared across its chest.
Yu Ding Zhenren steadied himself, his gaze settling on that crack and lingering there for a long time.
He was one of the Twelve Golden Immortals of Chan Sect.
He had cultivated the Eight-Nine Arcane Art for years, safeguarding both his flesh and his primordial spirit.
Even if he had not used his full strength just now, a boy who had yet to enter the Daoist path should never have been able to crack it with a single punch.
"The golden body of my Eight-Nine Arcane Art..."
Yu Ding Zhenren slowly raised his head and looked at Yang Jian.
"You actually cracked it with one punch?"
Yang Jian likewise did not pursue his attack.
That punch had left his right arm slightly numb.
The Daoist before him was far stronger than the Heavenly Court's divine generals.
But he had no intention of retreating.
Peach Mountain stood right behind him.
His mother was beneath it.
He had no second path to take.
Yang Jian clenched his fingers again, and the fifteen divine elephant particles let out a low rumble within him.
"I told you."
"Don't stand in my way."
As Yu Ding Zhenren looked at the obsession in his eyes, fierce enough to burn everything to ashes, his heart trembled slightly.
At that moment, he finally understood.
This child was no longer the youth of the Yang family whom heaven's secrets had destined him to bring back to Kunlun and patiently teach.
Another hand had already pushed his fate in an entirely different direction.
Just as their auras confronted each other.
Rumble!
A tremendous crash suddenly came from deep within Peach Mountain.
Every sealing rune on the cliff lit up at once, and golden light shot into the heavens.
Yang Jian abruptly turned his head.
Yu Ding Zhenren's expression changed as well.
Peach Mountain's seal had been alerted.
The next instant, an exceedingly weak woman's voice drifted from the depths of the cliff.
"Jian'er..."
Yang Jian's entire body went rigid.
That voice was very faint.
Yet like a blade, it pierced straight into his heart.
"Mother!"
His eyes instantly turned bloodshot, and the fifteen divine elephant particles within him erupted simultaneously.
At that very same moment.
In the Lingxiao Treasure Hall of the Thirty-Three Heavens.
The Heavenly Emperor's Dharma Mirror suspended above the hall abruptly blazed with dazzling golden light.
Someone was breaching Peach Mountain's formation!