The instant the silver needle sank between his brows, Chu Yunfei's spiritual power became a barrel of gunpowder set alight.
The spiritual power fluctuations around him surged at an inconceivable speed.
Second level of Spirit Martial Realm.
Third level of Spirit Martial.
Fourth level of Spirit Martial.
He crossed three minor levels in just two breaths.
But that was not the end. His spiritual power continued to climb, like a flood dragon released from its cage, smashing through every obstacle as though crushing rotten wood.
Fifth level of Spirit Martial.
Ninth level of Spirit Martial.
It was as though all the air had been sucked out of the arena. Everyone stared blankly upward at the figure shrouded in dark-gold spiritual light on the platform, losing even their most basic judgment in that moment.
"His cultivation is still rising."
"He's at the ninth level of Spirit Martial. How is it still rising?"
"What kind of method is this? This definitely isn't a normal breakthrough."
Murmurs rose one after another, only to be drowned out by even greater shock.
Because after pausing for an instant at the peak of Spirit Martial, Chu Yunfei's spiritual power fluctuations did not stop.
Zhao Baimei abruptly rose from his seat, his beard and hair stirring without wind.
His aged eyes, murky all year round, flashed brilliantly as he stared fixedly at Chu Yunfei on the platform. His expression shifted repeatedly between shock, worry, and some complicated emotion.
"A forbidden art," Zhao Baimei said quietly. "Using the soul as a catalyst to forcibly exhaust his life potential and drive his cultivation skyward. An art like this-does he have a death wish?"
Zhou Huanzhang's fist stopped just short in midair.
He had not stopped of his own accord. The spiritual power fluctuations erupting from Chu Yunfei had formed an invisible shock wave that forcibly dispersed his fist's force before it could reach its target.
Zhou Huanzhang retreated two steps, his expression as ugly as though he had swallowed a fly.
Lin Wanyin shouted, "Chu Yunfei, stop! Have you gone mad?"
Chu Yunfei stood where he was.
Dark-gold spiritual power seethed around him like boiling water, forming what resembled armor woven from pure spiritual power. His eyes were completely filled with dark-gold light, his pupils reduced to two vertical golden lines. He looked less like a human than some ferocious beast from ancient times.
But his body was trembling violently.
That trembling came not from fear, but from pain.
A thin crimson thread of blood was seeping from the spot between his brows where the silver needle had entered.
The thread of blood wound down the bridge of his nose and dripped onto his chin. Within his sea of consciousness, his soul felt as though someone were repeatedly searing it with a branding iron. Every thought arose with tearing pain.
The price of the forbidden art.
Using soul and life as fuel in exchange for a brief surge in strength.
Life was what burned; power was what it bought.
The price was steep, too.
Deep within his sea of consciousness.
Xiaoxiao Dragon's voice carried anxiety she could not suppress.
"You brat, do you really have a death wish? Once this forbidden art is activated, there's no reversing it. Cracks have already begun appearing in your soul. If this goes on..."
"Is there any other way?"
Chu Yunfei's answer was brief and calm.
Xiaoxiao Dragon fell silent.
She was a remnant soul within his sea of consciousness, and she saw more clearly than anyone.
At this moment, Chu Yunfei faced the encirclement of the entire sect. His first-level Spirit Martial cultivation made him less than an ant before those Heavenly Origin Realm elders.
Without the forbidden art, never mind taking the Giant Que Sword away today-whether he could leave the martial arena alive was uncertain.
But the price was too great.
She said nothing more, merely channeling a wisp of power left within her remnant soul into Chu Yunfei's sea of consciousness, silently helping stabilize his cracking soul.
On the platform.
The peak Spirit Martial spiritual power crashing through Chu Yunfei's body reached its limit.
That spiritual power was like a torrent trapped in a gorge. Unable to find an outlet, it began surging upstream.
The barrier between the Spirit Martial Realm and the Heavenly Origin Realm.
It was thicker and sturdier than the barrier between Qi Condensation and Spirit Martial. Under normal circumstances, breaking through it required years or even decades of accumulation.
But the power of the forbidden art obeyed no such reason.
Chu Yunfei gritted his teeth and gathered all the spiritual power in his body, smashing it into that barrier like a red-hot iron hammer.
Boom!
The barrier shattered.
At that moment, the sky above the martial arena changed.
Thick black clouds abruptly surged across the previously cloudless sky, churning like boiling water, with faint flashes of lightning within.
Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi rushed toward the center of the platform from every direction, as though drawn by a colossal vortex.
Chu Yunfei's presence climbed once more.
First level of Heavenly Origin Realm.
The entire martial arena fell utterly silent.
This silence was not caused by their earlier shock. Everyone's mind had collectively crashed at that moment.
First level of Heavenly Origin Realm.
From the first level of Spirit Martial to the first level of Heavenly Origin Realm.
An entire major realm crossed.
"Madness." The lips of the old man with the lowest cultivation among the elders trembled, his voice audibly shaking. "An entire major realm. He forcibly raised his cultivation by an entire major realm."
"How horrifying must the price of such a forbidden art be?" Another elder's expression was grave. "Burning life and soul in exchange for power-even if he survives this battle, most of his cultivation will be crippled."
"But the problem now is..." A third elder swallowed. "His strength is already at the first level of Heavenly Origin Realm."
Zhou Huanzhang's expression turned as ugly as could be.
He did possess Heavenly Origin Realm cultivation, but there were differences in strength within that realm as well.
His cultivation was at the third level of Heavenly Origin Realm. Although he still held an advantage over Chu Yunfei at the first level, the overwhelming gulf between them no longer existed.
What was more, this man had cultivated a low-grade earth-tier sword technique to great perfection.
Zhou Huanzhang dared not imagine how terrifying the power of the Heaven-Severing Slash at great perfection would be when combined with first-level Heavenly Origin Realm spiritual power.
But he had no way back.
The Giant Que Sword's secret could not become known to outsiders. That was the consensus among their group of elders.
That sword absolutely could not fall into Chu Yunfei's hands.
"So what if it's a forbidden art?" Zhou Huanzhang forced himself to calm down, his lips twisting into a scornful curve. "You're merely exhausting your life by force. Ultimately, it isn't your own power. It's unworthy of the stage."
Despite his words, his attack no longer held any of its earlier casualness.
He drove the Heavenly Origin Realm spiritual power within him to its fullest and threw a punch.
This punch was more concentrated and more ferocious than any before it.
Third-level Heavenly Origin Realm spiritual power bore down like a mountain. The air burst wherever the force of his fist passed, and fragments of dark rock turned to dust in the surging blast.
Chu Yunfei raised his hand.
Abyss Swallower came into his grasp.
He did not use the Heaven-Severing Slash.
He simply thrust his sword forward.
That thrust contained no elaborate moves, no dark-gold sword radiance soaring into the sky, no vision of a flood dragon breaking through water.
Only pure power.
First-level Heavenly Origin Realm spiritual power poured into the Abyss-Devouring Sword. The simple, ancient blue-black longsword gave a deep hum, and the fine patterns concealed within its metallic grain suddenly lit up, releasing blue-black light.
The sword tip pierced precisely into the center of Zhou Huanzhang's fist force.
Boom-!
The fist force shattered.
Like a boulder cleaved down the middle by a sharp blade, Zhou Huanzhang's full-powered punch crumbled before the Giant Que Sword's edge.
The Sword Qi continued forward with undiminished momentum, plowing a long crack through the protective spiritual power before his chest.
Zhou Huanzhang's body lurched backward, his feet dragging two deep furrows across the ground. He lowered his head to look at the crack before his chest, his expression turning from disbelief to horror.
Dark-red blood seeped from the crack.
He was wounded.
An elder at the third level of Heavenly Origin Realm had been wounded by a single sword strike from a youth who had only just used a forbidden art to reach the first level of Heavenly Origin Realm.
"How is that possible?" For the first time, Zhou Huanzhang's voice trembled.
He was not the only one.
Everyone present who had seen the scene clearly widened their eyes.
Chu Yunfei did not stop attacking.
He could not stop. The forbidden art had a limited duration, and every breath he delayed consumed more of his soul. He had to eliminate every obstacle as quickly as possible, then leave with the Giant Que Sword.
But the sound of wind behind him told him that the watching elders could finally sit still no longer.
Three Heavenly Origin Realm presences locked onto him almost simultaneously.
Chu Yunfei abruptly turned, sweeping his sword outward.
Dark-gold sword radiance intertwined with blue-black sword light, forming a dazzling arc that blocked all three incoming attacks at once.
A shock wave spread in every direction from the collision. The already fractured platform collapsed completely beneath that power, massive chunks of dark rock raining down.
One against three.
One first-level Heavenly Origin Realm cultivator against three Heavenly Origin Realm elders.
Madness.
Everyone had the same thought.
But Chu Yunfei was indeed fighting, and he was not merely taking a beating.
Driven by Heavenly Origin Realm spiritual power, the sword intent of the Heaven-Severing Slash displayed terrifying might far beyond what it had possessed in the Spirit Martial Realm.
With every falling sword strike, dark-gold sword radiance became an enraged flood dragon, charging left and right through the three elders' encirclement.
Zhou Huanzhang swallowed a healing pill, suppressed the injury in his chest, and rejoined the battle.
One against four. The elders had cast aside all shame, joining forces to surround Chu Yunfei and force him back step by step.
But Chu Yunfei's counterattacks were equally fierce enough to strike fear into the heart.
"Heaven-Severing Slash!"
The dark-gold sword radiance swelled severalfold, burning spiritual power in an almost self-destructive manner. It became a pillar of light that devoured everything, blasting fiercely toward the elder with the lowest cultivation among the four.
The sixth elder.
His name was Chen Shouyi. At the first level of Heavenly Origin Realm, he was the weakest of the four.
He raised his defenses with all his strength, forming an earth-tier spiritual shield before him. But that shield held against the dark-gold pillar for only half a breath before shattering with a crash.
Sword Qi pierced his right shoulder, spraying blood.
Chen Shouyi grunted and flew backward, tumbling several times through the air before slamming heavily into the martial arena's ground and leaving a deep crater.
He lay in the crater and struggled a few times, unable to stand.
The entire arena erupted.
"The sixth elder's been cut down!"
"A Heavenly Origin Realm elder was knocked down by one strike!"
"Four Heavenly Origin Realm cultivators surrounded him, and he still took one down? What kind of monster is he?"
Chu Yunfei had no time to listen. The moment Chen Shouyi was out of the fight, the remaining three elders' attacks had already reached his back.
The next second, he turned sideways to evade the seventh elder's palm strike, but Zhou Huanzhang's sword radiance and another elder's fist force struck simultaneously, leaving no room to dodge.
Boom!
Chu Yunfei took both Heavenly Origin Realm attacks head-on and was sent flying again.
He forcibly steadied himself in midair, lightly tapped a flying fragment of stone with his toes, and used it to turn.
The Abyss-Devouring Sword traced an arc of light through the air, and the Heaven-Severing Slash's sword radiance swept toward the seventh elder like a bolt of silk.
Caught off guard, the seventh elder was struck in his left arm. The armor over it shattered, flesh split open, and blood gushed out. He screamed and staggered backward.
The instant Chu Yunfei landed, his figure flashed. Driving the Divine Movement Art to its limit, he appeared before Zhou Huanzhang.
The Abyss-Devouring Sword thrust forward.
This strike carried the resolve to stake everything on one throw. The dark-gold light at its tip condensed into a fist-sized point, so dazzling that no one could look directly at it.
Zhou Huanzhang blocked with all his strength, his protective spiritual power forming several layers of barriers before him.
But the power of this strike exceeded his expectations.
The barriers shattered.
One layer, two layers, three layers.
Sword Qi pierced every defense, leaving a second wound on Zhou Huanzhang's chest.
This one was deeper than the last, so deep that the white bones within were almost visible.
Zhou Huanzhang spat out a great mouthful of blood and frantically retreated.
But Chu Yunfei had paid a price as well.
Under the four men's encirclement, several more wounds had appeared on his body, and blood soaked his already tattered robes.
The forbidden art's consumption of his soul was also increasing rapidly. His vision began to blur intermittently, and the cracks within his sea of consciousness grew larger and larger.
He could not hold on much longer.
I have to leave as soon as possible.
Chu Yunfei swept his gaze toward the Giant Que Sword, confirmed that the treasured sword was in hand, then turned, activated the Divine Movement Art, and sped toward the exit of the martial arena.
Yet a terrifying pressure descended from the sky.
Like the heavens collapsing, that pressure pinned Chu Yunfei firmly in place with a force several times greater than the combined might of Zhou Huanzhang and the other three.
"You vile beast. You killed my sect's elders. Today, I cannot let you live."
Sect Master Zhang Qingfeng finally made his move.
Chu Yunfei saw only a dark-robed figure float down from the elders' seats before an irresistible force struck his chest.
His vision went black.
As though struck by an enraged savage beast, his body flew backward from the center of the martial arena to its edge, smashing through a row of stone seat backs along the way before finally slamming deep into the stone wall surrounding the arena.
The wall shattered, and broken stones rained down, burying half his body beneath the rubble.
Blood gushed from his mouth, and the pain within his chest nearly made him pass out.
The sect master's strength far surpassed that of those elders.
It was a height the current Chu Yunfei could not reach even if he used a forbidden art.
Zhang Qingfeng walked slowly toward him, his dark robes trailing an arc across the ground. His face was calm and unruffled, his eyes devoid of any trace of extraneous emotion, as though his attack just now had been no more than crushing an ant.
"Put down the Giant Que Sword. I will give you one last chance."
Chu Yunfei struggled to lift his head from the rubble. The dark golden light in his eyes had dimmed considerably, but it still had not gone out.
He opened his mouth, baring bloodstained teeth, and grinned.
"In your dreams."
A trace of coldness finally surfaced in the depths of Zhang Qingfeng's eyes, and he raised his palm.