Chen Yang's earth-shattering challenge rang out like ice water dropped into a vat of boiling oil — in an instant, the dead-silent plaza erupted into chaos.
After a brief, absolute stillness, a roar of laughter nearly blew the roof off the square!
"Hahahahaha! What did he say? He wants to challenge Senior Brother Li Yan? Did I hear that wrong?"
One Outer Sect Disciple doubled over with laughter, clutching his stomach, tears streaming from his eyes.
"Fifth level of the Qi Refinement Realm? He actually hid his cultivation? I underestimated him!"
Another Outer Sect Disciple, who had sensed the Spirit Pressure of the fifth level of the Qi Refinement Realm that Chen Yang was now releasing without restraint, flashed a brief look of surprise — only for it to be swiftly replaced by even deeper mockery.
"But so what? Senior Brother Li Yan returned from his training expedition having already reached the seventh level of the Qi Refinement Realm! Does he think a gap of two minor stages is as easy to bridge as eating and drinking?"
"What a load of hot air — a toad yawning wide! The Holy Sons and Holy Maidens of the top great sects in the Eastern Region might be able to fight across stages during the Qi Refinement Realm, but who are they? Every one of them carries peerless cultivation techniques and eats spirit pills like candy! He's a Menial Disciple by origin — what gives him the right?"
"What gives him the right? His death wish! I think he knows he's dead today and wants to go out with a bang — die in a blaze of glory! Hahaha!"
"Senior Brother Li Yan is a heaven-sent genius, destined for Foundation Establishment and even Core Formation in the future! Is he the kind of person a dirt-footed nobody can challenge? Pfft! It would dirty Senior Brother's hands!"
Mockery, contempt, and gleeful laughter surged in from all directions like a tide, threatening to drown Chen Yang entirely.
No one believed he was serious, and no one thought he had even the slightest chance of winning.
In their eyes, this was a complete and utter farce — a man marching to his own death.
Up on the high platform.
Lin Yang was first stunned, then broke into a wide grin as though he had just heard the funniest joke in the world. His delicate face split into a smile, his folding fan snapping open with a sharp crack, his shoulders shaking with laughter, his mouth stretched so wide it could barely close.
"Interesting, how interesting! Junior Brother Li, did you hear that? Hahaha… this ant… this ant dares to challenge you? And wants a duel to the death? I… I truly haven't heard anything this laughable in many, many years!"
He laughed and pointed his fan down at Chen Yang, as if watching a clown performing for attention.
In stark contrast to the laughter on this side, the Menial Disciples who had just swarmed Chen Yang stood at the other end of the plaza.
Every one of them gaped, their faces written with shock and disbelief.
"F-fifth… fifth level of the Qi Refinement Realm?!"
One laborer who had charged in the most aggressively stammered, instinctively pressing a hand to his still-aching chest.
Now that Chen Yang was releasing his Spirit Pressure without reservation, they could truly feel that dense spiritual energy — far beyond anything they possessed.
"He just now… didn't use any spiritual energy at all…"
Another laborer stared at the wooden staff broken in two in his hands, then looked at the companions sprawled across the ground — most with broken bones but no mortal wounds — and a belated chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.
If Chen Yang had used his spiritual energy just now… if what they had faced was a fifth level of the Qi Refinement Realm cultivator fighting at full strength…
They dared not imagine what that scene would have looked like.
Several laborers from the medicine garden who had once received Chen Yang's kindness — Wang Laosan, Liu Er, and the like — now burned red with shame, wishing they could find a crack in the ground to disappear into.
They had just raised their weapons against someone who had shown them mercy and once done them a kindness — all for the sake of a vague, uncertain spot…
On the ground, Xiaodouzi's cultivation had been crippled. The searing agony of his shattered qi sea nearly sent him into unconsciousness, and the ringing in his ears drowned out the specific words of the mockery around him.
But his blurring vision remained locked on the figure standing alone at the center of the arena, facing every sneer and every drop of malice.
He saw Chen Yang's dark hair stirring in the faint breeze stirred up by the surging spiritual energy. He saw the faded, washed-out laborer's robe spattered with the blood of the battle just fought — like some unyielding totem.
Disheveled, jeered at by countless people — yet that straight spine had not bent even a fraction.
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"This… this must be what a true immortal's bearing looks like…"
The thought drifted hazily through Xiaodouzi's mind.
"Unbowed before power, unafraid of fate… unafraid of heaven and earth… Big Brother Chen…"
Fierce pain and weakness surged over him again, yet the corners of his mouth pulled into a faint, barely perceptible curve.
He had no regrets. Even if he could live it over a hundred times, a thousand times, he would never raise a hand against Chen Yang.
Meanwhile, Li Yan — the one directly called out — had already shifted from his initial shock to a face of absolute, thunderous fury!
A terrifying fire-ferocity aura erupted from within him. His moon-white brocade robe billowed without wind, the temperature around him spiked sharply, and the stone slabs of the platform beneath his feet let out faint crackling sounds, as though about to be scorched apart!
"You — seek — death!"
Three words, squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying a blazing killing intent like a volcanic eruption!
The rage in his heart had reached a towering inferno!
This ant!
This laborer!
This piece of trash!
This waste!
This worm!
How dare he!
How dare he?!
To challenge him in public, in this manner of the low defying the high?!
For Li Yan, this was an unprecedented humiliation — more mortifying than being slapped across the face!
Whoosh!
His figure flashed, and before anyone's eyes could follow, a scorching wave of air slammed into their faces.
Li Yan had transformed into a streak of crimson light, crossing dozens of meters in an instant and landing heavily before Chen Yang, the force of his arrival sending a tremor through the ground!
He fixed his gaze on Chen Yang, eyes burning as if he wanted to devour him alive, and with a fierce flick of his right hand —
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Four streaks of light shot toward the steward disciple beside the White-Beard Elder who was overseeing registration — four gleaming, translucent low-grade spirit stones.
"The remaining registration fee! I'm paying it for him!"
Li Yan's voice was ice-cold to the bone, yet it contained the fury of a volcano on the verge of eruption.
"This challenge — I, Li Yan, accept!"
The steward disciple scrambled to catch the spirit stones, not daring to breathe.
The White-Beard Foundation Establishment Elder furrowed his brow deeply. He looked at the murderously charged Li Yan, then at Chen Yang — whose cultivation was lower yet whose eyes held unwavering resolve — and after a moment's deliberation, he spoke:
"The sect has rules for challenges, meant for sparring and encouragement — to stop at first blood. You are both disciples of the same sect. Why must this be a duel to the death? Perhaps…"
"Elder!"
Chen Yang cut in sharply, interrupting the Elder's words.
His gaze did not turn to the Elder — it remained locked on Li Yan's face, his voice calm yet carrying an authority that brooked no argument:
"This disciple has only one question for Senior Brother Li!"
He raised his hand and pointed toward Xiaodouzi lying on the ground in the distance, barely breathing.
"Why did you strike against Xiaodouzi? He is only at the second level of the Qi Refinement Realm and had committed no wrong. Simply because he refused to turn on his fellow disciples, you dealt him this vicious blow — crippling his cultivation and severing his path of cultivation! You are both disciples of the Verdant Wood Sect. Do you feel even a shred of guilt?!"
At these words, quite a few Menial Disciples in the plaza instinctively lowered their heads, their hearts stirring with unease.
"Guilt?"
Li Yan looked as though he had heard the most absurd joke imaginable. A cruelly arrogant smile curled his lips. He didn't even bother glancing in Xiaodouzi's direction, his gaze sweeping over Chen Yang with contempt, as if looking at a pile of filth.
"When you step on an ant blocking your path, do you feel guilty?"
His voice suddenly rose, dripping with undisguised disdain, carrying across the entire arena:
"Laborers are laborers! Less than pigs and dogs! Worthy of being called sect disciples? Never mind crippling him — even if I killed him on the spot right now, extracted his soul and refined his spirit, who here would dare say a single word against it? Hm?!"
His cold gaze swept the crowd. Those laborers and Outer Sect Disciples who had harbored some sympathy for Xiaodouzi all shrank under his stare, lowering their heads in terror, not one daring to meet his eyes.
The last trace of warmth in Chen Yang's eyes vanished completely, leaving only a fathomless, glacial cold.
He gave a slow nod, his voice dropping to a terrifying low:
"Good. Very good. I hope you can still be this arrogant in a moment."
"Arrogant? Hahaha!"
Li Yan seemed utterly provoked, bursting into wild laughter.
"I've wanted to kill you for a long time! If it weren't for that vile woman Zhao Yanran pleading by my pillow every time, begging me to spare your miserable life, do you think you'd have lived to see today?!"
He deliberately bit down hard on the words "by my pillow," his face twisting into a lewd and degrading sneer:
"Just thinking about how a piece of trash like you, a piece of garbage like you, once touched Junior Sister Zhao's body — it makes me sick! Today you've come looking for death yourself — perfect! I'll clean house for Junior Sister Zhao and cut off whatever lingering mundane feelings she has once and for all!"
These words were venomous to the extreme — not only insulting Chen Yang, but dragging Zhao Yanran through the mud as well.
Chen Yang's fists clenched in an instant, his nails digging into his palms, fresh blood seeping out once more.
Yet his face showed no expression at all. Only those eyes — so deep they seemed to swallow all light.
"Done with your speech?" Chen Yang's voice was calm in a way that chilled the soul.
"Die!"
Li Yan's patience snapped entirely, his killing intent surging to its peak!
He wasted no more words. The fire-attribute spiritual energy of the seventh level of the Qi Refinement Realm exploded from within him!
His hands flew through a rapid series of seals, crimson spiritual light blazing around his body, the fire-attribute Spiritual Energy in the air rushing madly toward him. A scorching, savage aura instantly blanketed the entire arena!
"Blazing Flame Serpent Devour!"
He let out a fierce cry and thrust his right hand forward!
Roaaaar!
A shriek rang out — like a cry from some primordial beast of the ancient wilds!
A colossal serpent formed entirely of raging flame materialized from thin air!
Its body was as thick as a barrel, stretching dozens of meters in length, its scales clearly defined, its fangs bared, its pair of hollow flame-eyes locked onto Chen Yang — radiating terrifying heat and an aura of annihilation!
The disciples nearby were driven back step after step by the scorching wave, their faces etched with horror.
"It's Senior Brother Li's signature spell technique! The Blazing Flame Serpent!"
"What terrifying power! The aura of that flame serpent is almost at the eighth level of the Qi Refinement Realm!"
"That guy is dead for sure! One strike like that and there won't even be ashes left!"
The blazing flame serpent let out a deafening roar, carrying a fearsome might capable of incinerating all under heaven, and lunged at Chen Yang with its maw wide open!
In its wake, the bluestone slabs on the ground were scorched black and cracked apart, the air warped, and waves of heat rolled outward!
Faced with this terrifying strike — one capable of instantly obliterating the vast majority of Mid Qi Refining Stage cultivators — Chen Yang's pupils contracted sharply. Every muscle in his body tensed in an instant. The Nine Revolutions Body Tempering Art surged to its absolute limit, and the spiritual energy within him churned at a speed never seen before!
Life and death — decided in a fleeting moment!