Chapter 243 Weakness

With a loud roar from Sun Tianyang in the arena, a terrifying shockwave of spiritual energy suddenly erupted from the center of his body, instantly shattering all the sword shadows that filled the sky.

Seeing this, Yang Yan felt a trace of shock in his heart. The tenacity of a Spirit Sea Realm expert indeed exceeded his expectations. Moreover, the Sun Tianyang before him was not just at the first tier of the Spirit Sea Realm, but the second.

One must know that once strength reaches the Spirit Sea Realm, improving with each tier becomes extremely difficult. Of course, once a breakthrough is successfully achieved, one's power multiplies several times compared to before.

Just as the sky-full of sword shadows vanished, the look of astonishment on Yang Yan's face flashed and disappeared, replaced by a soft chant that escaped his lips.

"The sparrow opens its beak, the swallows fly in pairs, carving inscriptions upon the phoenix's plumes!"

As the crane-like cry faded, Yang Yan was seen balancing on one foot in mid-air. His right hand held the jade-green longsword—formed entirely from condensed spiritual energy—high above his head, resting horizontally. His left hand extended two fingers, gently stroking the blade from the hilt and sliding continuously toward the tip!

Hum, hum, hum!

As Yang Yan's fingers continuously moved forward along the blade, the emerald-green radiance emanating from the sword gathered rapidly toward the front. The violently compressed, berserk energy caused his fingers to constantly vibrate and tremble against the metal surface!

At a certain moment, when Yang Yan's fingers came to a complete halt at the very tip of the blade, the longsword, enveloped in countless layers of dense spiritual energy, suddenly burst forth with tens of thousands of dazzling green rays. The entire sky was dyed emerald, and Yang Yan's killing-intent-filled face flickered in the oscillating light.

When the power reached its absolute peak, Yang Yan's right arm, gripping the sword, violently slashed toward Sun Tianyang not far away!

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

Three extremely piercing sounds of tearing wind echoed through the mid-air. Three razor-sharp, emerald-green blades of spiritual force, carrying a terrifying speed that seemed to rip the air apart alongside a piercing whistle, hurtled toward Sun Tianyang at a speed invisible to the naked eye.

Sun Tianyang's expression abruptly shifted. Although those three tiny green wind blades looked entirely unremarkable, given his cultivation, he could naturally sense the terrifying energy hidden within them. Furthermore, their speed was simply too fast, leaving him no time whatsoever to react or dodge.

Gritting his teeth fiercely, Sun Tianyang quickly anticipated the precise spots where the three incoming attacks would strike his body. He rapidly mobilized the crimson spiritual energy coating his surface, heavily fortifying those three specific areas of his physique.

Clang, clang, clang!

Accompanied by three piercing metallic collisions echoing through the air, the three razor-sharp wind blades heavily slammed into Sun Tianyang's body.

The immense impact transmitted from the protective barrier on his skin deep into his torso. Staggering as if struck by a heavy blow, Sun Tianyang's figure was forced back dozens of steps through the void before he finally managed to stabilize himself. Looking down, he discovered that the three spots struck by the wind blades had already developed fine cracks.

Such a situation naturally left Sun Tianyang's heart filled with absolute dismay. The martial domain summoned by his second-tier Spirit Sea Realm cultivation was ordinarily unbreakable by attacks from peers of the same realm. Yet, the opponent's sword technique had actually begun to fracture his defensive domain. Such a development was truly horrifying.

A youth not yet twenty years old was capable of battling a second-tier Spirit Sea Realm expert to a standstill without losing the upper hand. This level of cultivation talent defied even the definition of monstrous. Moreover, Sun Tianyang was certain that even if one searched the younger generation of the entire Flying Cloud Empire, finding someone capable of rivaling Yang Yan would be practically impossible.

If one spoke of peak Spirit Connection Realm experts under the age of twenty in the empire, they might be rare, but they certainly existed.

However, for someone like Yang Yan to possess such age and cultivation while fighting a second-tier Spirit Sea Realm cultivator to this degree—not a single other person could be found!

This was because the gap between the peak Spirit Connection Realm and the Spirit Sea Realm was simply too vast, like a deep chasm impossible to bridge merely through the subtlety of cultivation methods or martial arts techniques.

To put it simply, a cultivator who had reached the first tier of the Spirit Sea Realm would not fear even the simultaneous siege of five or six peak Spirit Connection Realm experts. This was the absolute suppression of sheer power.

Yet the youth before him had forcibly overturned this rule. Yang Yan not only fought him head-on, but in their preceding exchanges, Sun Tianyang had even been faintly forced into a disadvantageous position.

Yang Yan's outstanding performance naturally deepened the murderous intent burning in Sun Tianyang's heart.

At this point, the two parties had reached an irreconcilable state. If he failed to leave Yang Yan dead here today, he feared he would never again have the opportunity to eliminate him.

Not only would he fail to avenge his son, but the Crimson Sun Gate—built upon the sweat and toil of his entire lifetime—would likely be reduced to ashes, suffering total destruction.

However, just as Sun Tianyang resolved himself to deal a fatal blow, his gaze suddenly locked onto Yang Yan not far away, causing his pupils to violently contract.

The cracks appearing on Sun Tianyang's crimson spiritual armor were naturally impossible to hide from Yang Yan's sharp spiritual perception. He was quite satisfied with the destructive effects produced by the Four Extinction Sword Art.

True to his nature, he would never let go of an opportunity to beat a drowning dog. Therefore, the very instant Sun Tianyang was momentarily distracted by the aftermath of the attack, Yang Yan's hand seals rapidly shifted.

"Extinction Seal."

With a sudden, cold cry, Yang Yan's palm seals blurred as a translucent, crystalline light seal materialized in his hand.

It appeared no larger than a palm, and upon its formation, there were no volatile energy ripples radiating from its surface. Yet, Sun Tianyang in the distance could clearly sense the terrifying power concealed within it.

"Why is this brat so monstrous? Not only has he reached this level of cultivation at such a young age, but the martial arts he commands are all exceedingly rare and exotic, possessing terrifying offensive power. Could it be that he obtained all these benefits from that treasure?"

Sun Tianyang's heart was shaken with profound shock, and a moment later, he hit upon a probable explanation.

Yang Yan had been an orphan since childhood; by his own strength alone, he could never have found a way to acquire such profound martial arts techniques. Thus, Sun Tianyang logically attributed everything to the Sun Pearl residing within Yang Yan's body.

Moments later, the shock on his face was gradually replaced by greed and killing intent.

"Fearsome Lion's Wrath."

With that thought, a ferocious roar burst from Sun Tianyang's lips. The fire-attribute spiritual energy within his meridians surged like a roaring river, converging endlessly toward the palm of his hand. Moments later, a crimson lion's head, measuring several zhang in size, formed before him.

The exact instant his martial technique formed, the natural energy of heaven and earth in the surrounding air suddenly turned turbulent. A scorching wave of heat swept outward, casting a fiery red glow across the entire grand hall below.

Although the crimson lion's head did not appear overwhelmingly massive, its body contained an incomparably vast amount of restrained energy.

At that exact moment, following a thunderous roar, Sun Tianyang punched violently toward Yang Yan's location. Immediately thereafter, the ferocious crimson lion's head let out a heaven-shaking roar, its entire body springing to life as it sprinted forward, hurtling toward Yang Yan at terrifying speed.

Seeing this, Yang Yan's expression turned grave. With a flip of his palm, the translucent light seal flew directly from his hand, charging fearlessly and with suicidal determination toward the giant lion's head.

"Soul-Devouring Seal!"

No sooner had the first translucent light seal launched than Yang Yan's hand seals shifted once again without a moment of hesitation.

As his hand gestures flew, another translucent, crystalline light seal appeared in his palm moments later. While it bore a strong visual resemblance to the first, only those with exceptionally sharp spiritual perception could discern the distinction.

This light seal in Yang Yan's hand radiated a formless ripple, and only those familiar with him would recognize it as the power of the soul.

Now that Yang Yan's soul realm had stepped into the Great Accomplishment of the Spirit Realm, his inherent soul power had multiplied. Consequently, the power unleashed by the Soul-Devouring Seal had undergone earth-shattering changes.

The boundless soul force contained within it was immeasurably denser than before, and Yang Yan's comprehension of the Soul-Devouring Seal had risen to an entirely new height.

Once his hand seal was re-formed, with a wave of his hand, the Soul-Devouring Seal mirrored the previous Extinction Seal, charging violently toward the crimson lion's head.

"Another complete set of martial techniques! Exactly how many trump cards does this brat possess?"

Witnessing this scene from afar, Sun Tianyang's expression twisted violently.

On the Tianyuan Continent, martial techniques were classified not only by the Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, and Yellow grades, but also by various degrees of strength and weakness.

For instance, Yellow-grade martial techniques designed to be used in conjunction with a supreme treasure naturally possessed far more formidable offensive power than ordinary techniques. Even more so were complete sets of martial techniques—such as two or three techniques combined—whose combined might far surpassed individual spells, occasionally even allowing a leap across grades from the Yellow grade to the Mysterious grade.

Therefore, even across the entire continent, complete sets of martial techniques were extremely rare. At the very least, Sun Tianyang himself did not master a single complete set.

Yet, in such a short span of time, Yang Yan had already displayed two complete sets of martial techniques. This blow to Sun Tianyang was by no means insignificant.

Having lived over half a century and roamed the cultivation world for the better part of his life, his experiences and fortuitous encounters were naturally numerous. Yet who could have anticipated that his gains over several decades were inferior to the bounty possessed by a youth of seventeen or eighteen standing right before him?

Comparing the two nearly gave Sun Tianyang the urge to vomit blood.

However, before his shock could fully subside, Yang Yan's hand seals began to shift yet again.

"Could it be..."

Just as the murmur left Sun Tianyang's mouth, with the continuous shifting of Yang Yan's gestures, a pitch-black light seal—no larger than a chicken's egg—suddenly materialized before him.

The light seal was as dark as ink, resembling a deep, abyssal black hole. An ordinary person staring at it even for a fleeting second would experience the illusion that their soul was about to be devoured.

As a Spirit Sea Realm expert, Sun Tianyang naturally perceived the extraordinary nature of that light seal. Under careful sensing, his expression abruptly shifted into extreme shock and disbelief.

"That is... dead qi?! How is this possible?!"

The expression on Sun Tianyang's face at that moment was far uglier than if he had seen a ghost.

As a Spirit Sea Realm practitioner, he naturally understood what dead qi represented. It was a substance that only manifested within the body once a cultivator reached the peak of the Spirit Sea Realm or the Life-Forgetful Realm.

Dead qi was fiercely destructive, capable of corroding everything it encountered—including a cultivator's flesh, bones, and blood. Even the energy of heaven and earth and the spiritual power within one's body would undergo distortion upon contamination by it.

This was precisely the reason why practitioners of the Life-Forgetful Realm could stand proudly atop this world.

Because once dead qi was generated within their bodies, its corrosive effect on spiritual energy granted Life-Forgetful experts an overwhelming advantage in combat. Since nearly all offensive means used by those below the Life-Forgetful Realm relied on spiritual power, facing this essential suppression made it impossible for the two sides to fight on equal terms.

Yet at this very moment, the very same dead qi that filled him with dread had appeared on a youth of seventeen or eighteen years old. How could he not be shocked and astonished?

A moment later, however, Sun Tianyang calmed down and discovered the clues. The dead qi aura he sensed from Yang Yan did not originate from the youth's own body, but rather stemmed from the martial technique he wielded—specifically, that eerie black light seal.

"Where on earth did this kid get so many martial techniques?"

This was the first time in all his years that Sun Tianyang had ever encountered a martial technique capable of inducing a trace of dead qi. If such a technique were to leak out, it would undoubtedly drive every single expert below the Life-Forgetful Realm in the Flying Cloud Empire frantic, causing them to fight tooth and nail to seize it.

Yet Sun Tianyang clearly had no leisure to mind that now, for he had already sensed an extreme threat emanating from Yang Yan's attacks.

The martial technique he had just unleashed was the High Mysterious-grade "Fearsome Lion's Wrath," obtained from an ancient ruin. Over many years of wandering the cultivation world of Qingzhou, it had become his ultimate, fatal trump card. The Crimson Sun Gate owed its current status largely to the contributions of this very technique.

Thus, although Yang Yan's successive combo techniques were formidable and bizarre, he still held immense confidence in his own ultimate move.

At that moment, Yang Yan's hand seals completed their transformation in a flash. With a sweep of his palm, a breathtakingly pristine black light seal materialized, blasting explosively toward the giant crimson lion's head in the distance.

The black light seal streaked across space like a dark comet, trailing a pitch-black tail of light behind it, carrying an extremely bizarre and oppressive aura.

As the black light passed through space, it brought forth not a single spatial ripple, not even the slightest energetic wave. Yet for some inexplicable reason, it instilled a profound sense of heavy oppression in all who watched.

A moment later, the first translucent light seal finally collided violently with the giant crimson lion's head.

Accompanied by a heaven-shaking explosion, an extremely terrifying energy storm abruptly erupted from the point of impact, and the corresponding hand seal instantly shattered and vanished.

After weathering the impact of that terrifying energy storm, the energy shrouding the giant red lion's head in mid-air trembled violently, its color dimming slightly.

However, the second light seal arrived immediately after. The moment it detonated, a formless energy ripple released from the explosion pierced straight through the giant red lion's head, rippling outward toward Sun Tianyang directly behind it.

"Indeed, it is soul power."

Seeing the formless ripple expanding toward him, Sun Tianyang sneered. His glabella similarly radiated a formless force, and the two energies collided like opposing water waves in mid-air.

When the two formless waves of soul power clashed, no sound was produced. The world seemed to sink into an uncanny silence, overshadowing even the preceding spiritual shockwaves and the screams of the countless people below the hall. Many felt as though their ears had suffered a temporary bout of deafness.

The stalemate between the two formless soul ripples did not last long before a result was produced. Yang Yan's Soul-Devouring Seal energy ripple made contact with the wave emitted from Sun Tianyang's glabella. After a brief stalemate of four or five breaths, the latter was directly shattered in a crushing, irresistible fashion by the soul force of Yang Yan's seal.

"What?! This feeling... it's Great Accomplishment soul power! How can this be?!"

The horror painted across Sun Tianyang's face at this moment far surpassed anything before.

To possess such astonishing talent and strength in spiritual energy at such a young age was one thing, but to surpass him in soul attainment as well felt nothing short of a surreal dream.

In the cultivation world, there were certainly those rare heaven-defying existences who dual-cultivated soul power and spiritual energy; Sun Tianyang had heard of them. However, for soul power to reach the Great Accomplishment of the Spirit Realm while physical strength matched a Spirit Sea Realm expert without losing ground, such a person should at least be thirty years old or older.

Yet the youth before him looked barely seventeen or eighteen.

His own soul force had only just barely crossed the threshold into the Lesser Accomplishment of the Spirit Realm because his spiritual cultivation had broken into the Spirit Sea Realm.

He had assumed that no matter how monstrous the youth's spiritual cultivation was, it was utterly impossible for his soul power to surpass his own.

Yet Sun Tianyang had miscalculated. The soul power Yang Yan currently displayed completely surpassed him by an entire tier; the two were simply in different leagues. Now he finally understood why Yang Yan was able to walk on air without reaching the Spirit Sea Realm—the fellow was manipulating his own soul force to do so.

However, there was no time for him to dwell on it, for once the soul shockwave at his glabella was shattered, the soul attack unleashed by Yang Yan's seal swept toward him with extreme velocity.

Gritting his teeth fiercely, Sun Tianyang had no choice but to mobilize every ounce of soul force remaining at his glabella, hastily forming a formless barrier before him.

The very instant the soul barrier formed, the formless soul shockwave arrived, heavily crashing into the barrier.

Under the onslaught of the soul shockwave, Sun Tianyang's defensive barrier held for a mere instant before shattering directly. At that moment, Sun Tianyang's body stiffened abruptly.

He felt as though his soul had suffered a devastating blow, accompanied by a wave of dizziness and sharp pain stabbing through his mind, forcing a mouthful of fresh blood to spray from his lips.

Spitting out that blood allowed Sun Tianyang's body to feel slightly relieved, though the glare he cast toward Yang Yan grew even more venomous.

Noticing that Sun Tianyang had actually sustained injuries, a look of fleeting astonishment appeared on Yang Yan's face.

Although he knew other cultivators generally did not cultivate soul power, Sun Tianyang was, after all, a second-tier Spirit Sea Realm expert; with his spiritual advancement, his soul power should not have been weak. Yang Yan had never expected that a mere soul shock from the Soul-Devouring Seal would inflict actual injuries on him.

At that exact moment, the third black light seal collided with the giant crimson lion's head. A ring of pitch-black energy ripples immediately expanded outward. Though the expansion of these ripples produced no sound, upon contacting the crimson lion's head, it was as if they devoured the latter. The incomparably solid beastly form suddenly grew dimmer and dimmer, ultimately dissolving into nothingness amidst Sun Tianyang's stunned and disbelieving gaze.

Realizing that he had grasped Sun Tianyang's weakness—namely, his relatively vulnerable soul defense—Yang Yan knew that claiming victory was now merely a matter of time.