"You're Yang Wei, right?"
Chen Xia asked the question calmly.
A chill flickered in Yang Gang's eyes, and the blue steel sword in his grip hummed. He snorted coldly. "You're courting death!"
Chen Xia nodded and chuckled. "You can save those words for yourself."
Yang Gang sneered and drew his blue steel sword, his face brimming with killing intent. "You dare call yourself an immortal? Then I'll see whether you have an immortal's power."
Chen Xia did not answer. He sank his mind into his consciousness and added all the points he had accumulated over ten years to strength.
[Points allocated successfully. Strength: 35]
Immense strength surged wildly, but no unusual phenomena manifested, and it soon settled down.
He patted the ash clinging to his sleeve. Without even looking at Yang Gang, he remarked casually.
"You came at the wrong time."
The blue steel sword in Yang Gang's hand rang clearly as he replied with a mocking laugh. "As long as I kill you, it's the right time."
His words held no courtesy now, laying his killing intent bare.
Chen Xia lowered his head and blew on the ash on his sleeve instead. Only then did he face Yang Gang and say with a smile.
"You should have come thirty-five years ago, on the night I killed your younger brother. The longer you put it off, the less you should have come."
This was the truth, because Chen Xia would keep growing stronger, and the speed of his growth was extraordinarily exaggerated.
Only then did Yang Gang learn that Chen Xia really had killed his younger brother. Yet his expression barely changed. His lips stretched into a savage grin as he nodded.
"It's just as well you killed that disgraceful piece of trash. Now I'll have every justification for killing all of you."
Chen Xia's expression was calm. "Your killing intent is a little heavy."
"How could I become an immortal if it weren't?!"
Yang Gang roared and said no more. Wielding his blue steel sword, he stomped the remaining half of the ferry landing to pieces. With a piercing sword cry and rolling sword Gang, he shredded the streets in his path and slashed straight at Chen Xia.
The surrounding martial heroes dared not get involved and hurriedly retreated.
Halfway there, the sword Gang stopped abruptly.
The sword cry faded.
Yang Gang stared grimly at the sight before him.
The sharp blade pointed upward, with two fingers hooked down over its tip.
Those two fingers alone pinned down all the sword Gang and force.
Chen Xia had hooked the blue steel sword with one hand!
The martial artists watching were horrified, unable to believe their eyes.
"You don't even have enough basic strength, yet you want to swing a sword like the others?"
Chen Xia asked with a smile. He turned his two hooked fingers upright and curled them, then abruptly flicked the sword tip.
Clang!
The entire blue steel sword gave an extraordinarily loud, trembling ring. Immense, unbroken force rapidly traveled through the blade, making it ripple like ocean waves.
The force quickly passed from the blade into Yang Gang's sword arm, then through his entire body.
The sleeve on Yang Gang's sword arm exploded into fine powder. He shot backward fifty paces, landing on the water before he barely managed to dispel the force.
Chen Xia smiled casually. "You needed to retreat fifty paces to take a flick of my finger. If you took a punch from me, wouldn't you end up back in your mother's womb?"
Yang Gang gritted his teeth, his expression icy, and retorted defiantly, "I'm just afraid you don't have the ability to turn back time!"
"Have you misunderstood something?" Still smiling, Chen Xia explained.
"I meant your mother's womb in your next life."
Yang Gang was furious. Arrogant and haughty by nature, how could he endure such mockery? He abruptly stamped on the water, a lotus blossoming beneath his feet. His blue steel sword flashed with a keen edge as he said coldly.
"Since you're so eager to court death, I'll grant your wish!"
Yang Gang released his grip, letting the blue steel sword drop into the water. At the same time, the lotus began spinning beneath his feet. Its six petals fell one after another and sank into the water.
The martial heroes watching frowned. By rights, petals should have floated on the surface, but Yang Gang was using an immortal's methods, which indeed could not be judged by common sense.
Yang Gang suddenly pressed two fingers together and jerked them upward.
The water trembled, and flying swords swiftly burst out, hovering before him.
The blue steel sword led them, while the other five, formed from pink lotus petals, flanked it in support.
The watching martial artists' eyes widened in utter horror.
This was clearly a sword-control Divine Ability, a genuine immortal's method!
Yang Gang's lips curled into a cold sneer as he mocked Chen Xia. "I'll slice your flesh open one stroke at a time, then cut through your bones, dig out your organs, and light a sky lantern with your soul!"
Chen Xia straightened, scratched his cheek, and sighed in some distress, shaking his head.
"Unfortunately, I'm a kind person, so I can't give you such fine 'treatment.' As for returning the favor..."
He paused, then continued with a smile. "I'll just beat you to death."
"Your death is at hand!" Yang Gang snorted coldly and pulled his paired fingers upward. A pink flying sword abruptly shot toward Chen Xia's neck.
His two fingers kept moving.
The flying swords followed one after another.
Neck, brow, heart, side of the head.
All seven flying swords targeted fatal spots, holding nothing back.
Madness flickered in Yang Gang's eyes, killing intent churning within it.
He was the most gifted person in his immortal sect in three hundred years. He ought to have been second only to his master, and every mortal under heaven should have bowed and scraped before him.
He had come down the mountain under the banner of avenging his younger brother, but in truth, he simply wanted to kill, to experience the feeling of standing high above others and ending their lives at will.
Yet how had an immortal suddenly appeared, even being named alongside his master as the world's two immortals?
How could Yang Gang accept that? His desire to kill Chen Xia now filled his heart to overflowing!
The first flying sword came straight for Chen Xia's neck. The remaining six followed close behind, attacking his vital spots in succession.
Without even looking, Chen Xia brutally seized the first flying sword. Immense force crushed down through his hand, reducing it to fine powder.
Six remained.
With a casual glance, Chen Xia saw every incoming flying sword clearly. Black-and-yellow Qi gathered in his pupils, and he opened his mouth and exhaled.
A light breath of Flood Dragon Qi made all six flying swords ring and tremble!
The flying swords formed from lotus petals fell straight to the ground and withered.
Everyone vaguely seemed to hear a dragon's cry, yet when they recalled it, it felt somewhat hazy, and they could not tell whether it had been real.
The final blue steel sword stood embedded in the ground, not daring to move.
Yang Gang looked shocked. His paired fingers kept waving, but no matter what he did, he could not summon the blue steel sword from the ground. His gaze gradually grew blank as he muttered to himself.
"How could this happen? How could..."
A disdainful smile rose on Chen Xia's lips. "With this, you think you deserve to be called an immortal?"
Yang Gang stood dazed on the lotus, his expression blank, and did not answer.
Chen Xia curled a finger. Flood Dragon Qi rolled between his fingers, and all his strength gathered into that single finger. His smile faded as he said calmly.
"Let me show you what a true immortal is."
He flicked that finger.
Dense Flood Dragon Qi surged.
The streets along its path began shattering inch by inch, even the soil deep beneath them brutally plowed open.
Time seemed to slow at that moment. Even the cries of distant birds could be heard with perfect clarity.
The Flood Dragon Qi rolled onto the water, tearing open an enormous gap and exposing the riverbed dozens of meters below.
The Flood Dragon Qi struck Yang Gang's body. Along with the gouged-open riverbed, he instantly flew backward three thousand meters and slammed into the summit of a low mountain in the distance.
Rumble.
The mountaintop began to collapse.
Yang Gang was gone. Only bloody froth could be seen evaporating from the freshly shattered crater in the mountaintop.
Indeed, that single flick from Chen Xia had directly vaporized Yang Gang.
The surrounding martial artists froze. Looking at the great river neatly divided before them and the collapsed mountaintop in the distance, they opened their mouths but did not know what to say.
One finger to sever a river, one finger to shatter a mountain, one finger to kill an immortal.
Three feats, each requiring only one finger.
This was the might of a true immortal!
They could not help shuddering, cold sweat breaking out on their backs. If they imagined themselves in Yang Gang's place, taking that flick, they reckoned not even their bones would remain before the river was severed.
Thus, their gazes toward Chen Xia grew increasingly reverent.
Yet Chen Xia was stunned at that moment. A notification sounded in his mind.
[Fortune takes effect. Elementary Flood Dragon Qi → Intermediate Jiaolong Qi]
Judging by the notification, his Flood Dragon Qi should have upgraded. He could also clearly feel a dense stream of Qi surging through his body now.
Chen Xia yawned and waved at everyone. "If there's nothing else, I'll head back first."
The three sect leaders hurriedly said respectfully, "Please, go ahead. Whatever you need, just tell us. We'll do everything in our power to accomplish it!"
"All right, all right." Chen Xia nodded, then suddenly asked, "How much do you know about this Yang Wei's immortal sect?"
The three sect leaders hurriedly replied, "Yang Gang... no, Yang Wei was a disciple of the immortal sect eighty li away. He joined thirty-five years ago and became that immortal's final disciple."
"He was already famous thirty-five years ago, though mostly notorious. He committed plenty of deeds that offended heaven and reason. We never expected him to be able to join an immortal sect."
"As for his immortal sect, it was reportedly founded three hundred years ago. Its sect master was also Great Song's only resident immortal before you, and even received recognition from immortals of the Heavenly Realm."
"A hundred years ago, that immortal also emerged and swept through the Dragon-Raising Temple. But there have been no such exploits this past century. He reportedly entered closed-door cultivation, vowing not to emerge until he succeeded."
"Mm." Chen Xia nodded, then offered a sincere blessing. "I hope he's really dead."
"Uh..." The three sect leaders dared not respond to that and merely smiled ingratiatingly.
"You certainly love to joke."
"Mm." Chen Xia nodded indifferently and replied, "I am quite humorous."
The three sect leaders were just about to smile in response.
"But that last remark wasn't a joke."
Chen Xia added.