"Junior Brother, a sneak attack is no act of a gentleman! And looking like that, could you be a member of the demon race?"
Ning Chen crawled out of the pit, his dark face flushed red, but his eyes were full of raging waves. He had actually been knocked back by a single punch?
With the fifth level of the Primordial Battle Body, the first form of Heaven Breaking, and a physical body he had tempered for so many years, he had actually been knocked back.
To save face, he could only claim that Xiang Yun had ambushed him. Seeing Xiang Yun's strange appearance, he couldn't help asking.
As soon as he said this, the watching disciples erupted in uproar. Was the Young Hall Master of the Primordial Hall actually a member of the demon race?
Wu Xun also looked at Xiang Huang, seemingly asking what was going on. After all, Xiang Yun now looked like a jumble of various demons.
Xiang Huang indicated that he didn't know either, but he still said in a booming voice, "Do you think that if he were a demon, the Hall Master wouldn't be able to tell?"
"You think your eyesight is better than the Hall Master's? If Xiang Yun really could fool the Hall Master, that would mean he was at the Reincarnation Stage. He was just a tiny thing when I found him."
"A Reincarnation Stage demon pretending to be a baby to come to the Eastern Xuan Region? Interesting."
Xiang Huang's words dispelled the little doubt Wu Xun had. That was right; they had watched Xiang Yun grow up.
He was just a little unusual.
But he definitely wasn't a demon. If a Reincarnation Stage demon really had entered the Eastern Xuan Region, they would accept it.
"A demon? I think a demon ate your brain."
Light and darkness flickered in Xiang Yun's eyes.
"As for a sneak attack, you know perfectly well whether it was one, Senior Brother. Besides, even if it was, so what?"
"First of all, we in the Primordial Hall have always been barbarians."
"Besides, when you fight a vicious beast, what methods can't you use? Senior Brother, has it been too many years since you last fought? How did you come to adopt the ways of those hypocrites from the Yuan Sect?"
Hearing Xiang Yun's words, Ning Chen growled, "You can call me weak, but you can't call me a hypocrite. Watch out, Young Hall Master!"
At once.
Golden light erupted around Ning Chen, and Origin Energy burst out, transforming into a phantom that stepped forward, bringing with it waves of primordial presence. The moment it appeared.
A terrifying pressure descended on the surroundings.
"Hmm, a Martial Arts Spirit. Not bad!"
Xiang Yun nodded slightly. This was the Hall Master of the Primordial Hall who had created the Primordial Battle Body. One didn't need to master Heavenly Martial Arts completely; as long as one understood them deeply enough, one could receive a portion of their power.
Even for body-refinement martial arts.
The phantom immediately merged with Ning Chen, and his presence drew infinitely close to Nine Yuan Nirvana.
"Earth Splitting!!"
In an instant.
Ning Chen shot into the sky, his fist shaking the void. It carried countless streams of Nirvana Qi, forming a terrifying wind pressure that swept through the surroundings.
This punch would strike even someone at Seven Yuan Nirvana dead on the spot, leaving their primordial spirit power unable to bring them back to life.
But Xiang Yun merely shook his head. "Is that all you've got?"
Heavenly Horned Ant Precious Technique, unleashed!
An enormous golden ant suddenly appeared behind him, a sharp horn growing from its head. It loomed over heaven and earth, ferocious beyond compare.
In an instant.
Xiang Yun clenched his fist and threw a fierce punch, shaking heaven and earth.
Another Heavenly Tyrant Fist.
This one was even more terrifying than the last.
With a boom.
Ning Chen flew backward even faster than he had come, crashing once more into the enormous pit he had just burst out of and sending clouds of dust into the air.
"With strength like that, you dare look down on me as a child?"
"Let this show you clearly: from now on, I reign supreme among my peers!"
Xiang Yun looked down at Ning Chen in the pit.
By now, Ning Chen's vest had long since burst apart, and his shorts were gone too.
That was how physical clashes went. Without Origin Energy to protect one's clothes, they were liable to burst apart once one fell into a disadvantage.
What was more, Ning Chen's Nirvana Golden Body was now flickering between dim and bright, and even the Nirvana Qi within him was circulating sluggishly.
The undergarments he had formed with his golden body kept flickering in and out of sight.
But Ning Chen paid no attention to that. The flush on his face was now impossible to hide.
Don't misunderstand. It wasn't embarrassment.
He had been beaten red.
The terrifying force behind Xiang Yun's punch made him feel as though he had returned to the time when, at the Creation Realm, he had entered the Primordial Mountain Range and narrowly escaped death from the jaws of a Nirvana vicious beast.
Helplessness, terror, the feeling of being utterly crushed!
It had returned for a limited time.
Everyone fell silent. Although they had thought Xiang Yun should be stronger than Ning Chen after the first punch.
They hadn't expected the second punch to be even stronger. Had he defeated an Eight Yuan Nirvana cultivator in two punches?
Between Three Yuan Nirvana and Eight Yuan Nirvana lay more than just five minor realms.
There were two major levels between them.
At Four Yuan Nirvana, one could form objects with one's golden body, giving disciples of the Primordial Hall a tremendous boost in defense. At Seven Yuan Nirvana, one developed primordial spirit power.
Their recovery became even more terrifying, yet even so, had Senior Brother Ning Chen still been sent flying?
And he had been sent flying twice.
"Want to keep fighting?"
Xiang Yun folded his arms. It seemed that unless one reached Nine Yuan Nirvana, there was no major transformation at Eight Yuan Nirvana either.
At Nine Yuan Nirvana, however, one gained a primordial spirit stratum corneum. That was harder to say; he hadn't fought one.
And the Primordial Hall had no one at Nine Yuan Nirvana.
The strongest of this generation had only reached Eight Yuan Nirvana. Those of the previous generation had either failed their breakthroughs and turned to ashes or become Life Profound elders.
Whoever reached Nine Yuan Nirvana would still worry about whether they could break through? On the contrary, continuing not to break through was the unusual choice.
Without a state of mind that pressed ever forward, one could never reach Nine Yuan Nirvana in the first place.
It could only be said that the Ten Great Precious Techniques combined with the Heavenly Tyrant Body were still far too overpowered. Of course, it was the Heavenly Horned Ant Precious Technique that was overpowered.
It was almost perfectly suited to the Heavenly Tyrant Body.
"I lost."
Ning Chen knew that even if he kept going, he could never defeat Xiang Yun. He could accept defeat.
"So... Young Hall Master, do you support the Divine Ability Faction?"
Ning Chen couldn't help asking.
After all, as Ning Chen saw it, wasn't Xiang Yun picking a fight with him because he supported the Divine Ability Faction?
Xiang Yun withdrew his Tyrant Body Ancestral Form and shook his head. "Of course not. I don't like taking sides. As I see it, taking sides is just a bunch of weaklings seeking approval."
"As for these so-called factional disputes, when all is said and done, you're still not strong enough. If you were already at the Life Profound Realm at your age and could fight above your level against someone at Death Profound."
"The Body Refinement Faction would have won long ago. Does anyone dare make my master take sides? No, right?"
Hearing Xiang Yun's strength-is-all argument, Ning Chen couldn't help saying, "But you aren't that strong either."
Xiang Yun landed beside Ning Chen and held out his right hand. Ning Chen hesitated for a moment, then took it and pulled himself to his feet.
"Naturally. That's why I'm only picking fights with you and Senior Brother Xun Wu. That's already enough for me."
Xiang Yun said it as though it were only natural.
Ning Chen fell silent. He understood what Xiang Yun meant. He wasn't taking sides, but he didn't like the current atmosphere in the Primordial Hall.
So he picked fights with him and Xun Wu.
Direct, straightforward, overbearing-but that was the Primordial Hall's style!
"You're right, Young Hall Master."
Ning Chen was willing to accept defeat. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him, and he chuckled. "Then are you going to beat up Xun Wu later, Young Hall Master?"
"What are you saying? I'm not beating him up. I'm making him see reality. He isn't strong, yet he keeps yapping away. No wonder the Primordial Hall has looked weaker than the Sword Sect to outsiders for so many years."
Xiang Yun corrected Ning Chen's description of beating someone up.
"I'll come watch too."