Chapter 264 Instant Kill

"Ah."

Just as Yang Yan used the defensive barrier formed by his soul power to block the attack from behind, that pale figure in front was finally sucked into the pitch-black black hole at that very moment.

Piercing shrieks immediately echoed from within the black hole, mixed with hair-raising, bone-chilling sounds of chewing, making anyone who heard them shudder involuntarily.

At this exact moment, the entire region of the Qingxuan Mountains fell into an extraordinary silence. Countless gazes were fixed on that pitch-black void with expressions of shock and terror. Although they were not caught inside it themselves, they had a vague feeling that had they been sucked in, they would have had absolutely no chance of survival whatsoever.

This intuitive feeling of theirs was verified merely dozens of seconds later. Accompanied by a series of crisp, cracking sounds, the pitch-black black hole suddenly rotated in reverse and spat out a small pile of white bones, flinging them outward one by one. Finally, a white skull clattered to the ground, causing a sense of profound terror to rise in everyone's heart.

An expert whose strength had reached the fourth layer of the Spirit Sea Realm had been killed instantly and effortlessly by Yang Yan, to the extent that not even a complete corpse was left behind!

Such a scene naturally shocked Xie Xuantian, who was standing not far away, to the extreme. Although he had witnessed Yang Yan's growth journey all along and had never underestimated him, the scene unfolding before his eyes was truly somewhat unbelievable. To obliterate the opponent instantly in a single exchange of blows—could it be that the current Yang Yan had already reached the fifth or even the sixth layer of the Spirit Sea Realm?!

Of course, the person experiencing the deepest shock and terror at this moment was none other than Lu Wu, who also hailed from the Xuantian Temple.

Although Pale usually appeared somewhat rash and impulsive, Lu Wu was painfully aware of his actual strength. Pale's power had already reached the peak of the fourth layer of the Spirit Sea Realm, and strictly speaking, he was even slightly stronger than Lu Wu himself. Such an expert, even placed within their Xuantian Temple, could be considered an elder-level figure.

Yet less than a minute ago, he had been defeated by a youth barely eighteen years of age, and had thus fallen, meeting a most tragic end.

"This person is no longer someone I can defeat!"

The moment this thought abruptly flashed through his mind, Lu Wu did not hesitate in the slightest; his figure directly flashed away toward the distance.

At this very moment, the corners of Yang Yan's mouth curled into a cold, grim arc. Since matters had progressed to this point, he had no reason to hold back. Furthermore, given his personality, he would never allow someone who intended to kill him to escape, even if that person belonged to the Xuantian Temple.

Yang Yan's relationship with the Xuantian Temple could already be described as irreconcilable. Since he had completely offended them, he naturally had no reason to leave behind a potential enemy for himself.

"You are a cautious person and quite familiar with the survival rules of the cultivation world. What a pity that you had a pig-headed teammate."

As this cold shout fell, facing the fleeing figure in mid-air, Yang Yan did not hesitate at all. His palm brushed swiftly across his Cosmos Sack, and two extremely sharp daggers appeared in his palm!

These two daggers were the spoils of war Yang Yan had acquired after killing Xu Chuan earlier. They had reached the level of quasi-mid-grade spiritual treasures, making them supremely suitable for executing the Piercing-Back Demonic Fist.

As this thought crossed Yang Yan's mind, he hesitated no longer. Silently reciting an incantation, the fluorescent glow on the two daggers continuously converged toward his right arm.

As the energy was endlessly sucked into Yang Yan's right arm, within just a few breaths, the brilliant light previously emanating from the two daggers gradually dimmed until they finally looked like scrap metal.

Having completely absorbed the energy, Yang Yan's right arm now faintly glowed with a pale golden light, radiating an extremely terrifying energy fluctuation.

However, Yang Yan was evidently not satisfied yet. As his hand seals shifted once more, the ambient energy within a radius of dozens of miles suddenly became extremely violent. It then transformed into torrents resembling tornadoes, surging continuously toward Yang Yan as the center, forcibly and aggressively pouring into his right arm.

Under the infusion of such a vast amount of energy, Yang Yan's right arm swelled by roughly a full circle, and the violent energy within it was nearly bursting out, barely able to be contained.

Until a certain moment, when the energy within his arm condensed to its absolute limit, Yang Yan finally halted his frantic and greedy absorption of energy.

"Piercing-Back Demonic Fist."

As Yang Yan's fierce shout echoed, his right arm abruptly lashed out toward the direction of Lu Wu's escape. A fist projection of about a zhang in length, carrying an unrivaled and immensely powerful energy fluctuation, shot toward the fleeing Lu Wu at a speed difficult to capture with the naked eye.

At this moment, Lu Wu was also filled with extreme terror. Having witnessed the fate of Pale at Yang Yan's hands, it was no wonder he had lost his fighting spirit entirely. Pale had been slain on the spot by Yang Yan in a single round, and Lu Wu, whose strength was slightly inferior to Pale's, naturally lost all confidence to continue fighting. Perhaps reporting the events that had transpired here back to the higher-ups of the Xuantian Temple as quickly as possible was the paramount priority.

Just as this thought arose in his mind, however, a sudden chill pierced through him, immediately followed by a fierce tearing sound behind him accompanied by violent energy fluctuations. Waves of turbulent shock churned in his heart, and he hurriedly turned his head back, only for his expression to change drastically.

The fist phantom, mere zhang-sized though it was, gave him a sensation as heavy and fierce as a collapsing Mount Tai. It approached at terrifying speed, closing the distance to within five zhang of his front in the blink of an eye.

Even across this distance, the air in front of the massive fist shadow was forcefully compressed into a concave arc, and the compressed air actually formed a formidable air cannon, pressing down upon Lu Wu with immense crushing pressure.

At this point, escaping was completely out of the question. Only one method remained: to endure Yang Yan's attack head-on. Perhaps that would grant him a sliver of a chance at survival.

"Great Roc Shield."

Thinking of this, Lu Wu's expression hardened ruthlessly. In an instant, he gathered all the spiritual power within his body, forming a golden, firebird-shaped defensive shield in front of him.

The shield carried an earthy-yellow hue, and the firebird faintly possessed a defensive armor-like layer condensed from spiritual power.

At this moment, Yang Yan easily saw through his defense. Lu Wu's native spiritual power attribute was earth-type, which was particularly adept at defense, and the grade of the defensive martial art he deployed should not be low.

"However, merely attempting to suppress the Piercing-Back Demonic Fist with this kind of trick still seems rather naive."

A smile played at the corners of Yang Yan's mouth. His comprehension of the Piercing-Back Demonic Fist had now ascended to a new stage, and coupled with the fact that the artifact he used to channel the fist technique was a quasi-mid-grade spiritual treasure, the power it displayed was far beyond anything he could achieve previously.

Yang Yan's plan at this moment was very simple: he had to kill these two men with thunderous means, which would serve as a disguised warning to the Xuantian Temple and the Wind and Cloud Pavilion. If anyone dared to treat him, Yang Yan, as a soft persimmon, they would be making a grave mistake.

"Rumble..."

In mid-air, Yang Yan's massive fist shadow finally collided with the golden firebird, instantly producing an earth-shattering explosion. At the point of impact, fierce shockwaves rippled outward like water waves, causing the spatial void to fluctuate violently.

The next moment, a crisp cracking sound abruptly erupted from the golden shield in front of Lu Wu. Then, everyone watched in horror as the defensive armor—formed by the concentration of all Lu Wu's spiritual power—began to sprout dense webs of cracks. Finally, unable to hold on any longer, it shattered into a sky full of fragments amidst his horrified gaze. Deprived of its defense, Lu Wu's body was savagely struck by the oncoming Piercing-Back Demonic Fist.

Bang!

A muffled sound of flesh colliding echoed in mid-air. Lu Wu felt as though his body had been brutally rammed by a heavy tank; the immense force pushed him backward relentlessly. Bursts of bones snapping echoed from his chest, and mouthfuls of blood sprayed endlessly from his mouth, mixed with fragments of shattered internal organs.

Boom!

In the end, driven by that immense force, Lu Wu's body was violently slammed into a mountainside within the Qingxuan Mountains. His body was blasted deep into the rock face by the fist projection of the Piercing-Back Demonic Fist, and bright red blood slowly trickled down through the cracks, signaling that he had clearly lost all signs of life.

As for the earlier battle with Pale, although it appeared to be a victory decided in a single move, it had not been as effortless for Yang Yan as it seemed.

First, due to the opponent's carelessness and underestimation, the initial power behind Yang Yan's attack had only been executed at about seventy to eighty percent of its full potential. By the time Pale realized the terrifying nature of Yang Yan's strike, it was already too late to muster a stronger counter-attack.

Another reason was that Yang Yan had utilized his primordial spiritual power. As a rare special physique seen perhaps once in several millennia or even tens of thousands of years, the density of Yang Yan's primordial spiritual power was three to five times stronger than the perfected water-type spiritual power within Pale's body. An attack launched with such overwhelmingly potent spiritual power, combined with the Black Dragon Seal—which had reached the level of a mid-grade spiritual treasure—was naturally ferocious beyond compare.

Moreover, upon witnessing Pale's blazing sun attack, Yang Yan had experienced a sudden flash of inspiration. Controlling his mind in that split second, he similarly manipulated ten black dragons according to the pattern, ultimately combining them under the reinforcement of his primordial spiritual power to forge a black hole-like attack.

The sheer destructive power of the martial skill accidentally combined in this manner was something even Yang Yan himself had not anticipated.

The rich devouring force emanating from that black hole was something not even cultivators at the fifth layer of the Spirit Sea Realm dared to ignore lightly. Any slight carelessness would result in being sucked directly into the black hole, just like Pale, having one's flesh, blood, and cultivation completely devoured.

With Pale's demise, the black hole formed by the ten black dragons began to gradually separate, finally transforming back into ten streaks of light that plunged directly into the Black Dragon Seal resting in Yang Yan's palm.

At this very moment, the Black Dragon Seal trembled slightly in Yang Yan's hand. With his acute soul perception, he actually sensed that the Black Dragon Seal had grown faintly stronger than before.

"What a strange feeling!"

A surge of secret astonishment arose in Yang Yan's heart. With soul power having reached his level, any sensation was never groundless; there had to be a reason behind it. His previous perception had indeed detected a change in the quality of the Black Dragon Seal.

One must know that if this hypothesis were true, it might trigger a massive uproar.

Because once a magical artifact was successfully refined, barring monumental fortune or undergoing a rare restoration of a broken artifact—which might enhance its original grade—its rank was forever fixed at the moment of its creation.

Yet the Black Dragon Seal in his hands right now showed signs of subverting this very rule.

Upon careful sensing, he discovered with shock that the grade of the Black Dragon Seal in his hand was indeed faintly rising. The source of this enhancement was presumably the energy provided by Pale, which had been absorbed into his body.

Noticing this magical effect, Yang Yan felt immense joy. If his guess proved correct, a magical artifact capable of devouring others' cultivation to elevate its own rank was truly a supreme treasure rarely seen in the entire cultivation world.

"It seems I should find an opportunity to absorb some more people's cultivation, flesh, and blood in the future, to see if it can advance once more."

Such a thought lingered in Yang Yan's mind. He also felt a slight trace of regret that he hadn't used the Black Dragon Seal to absorb Lu Wu's cultivation and flesh as well; doing so would have allowed him to experience the changes in the Black Dragon Seal even more directly.

Thinking of this, Yang Yan retrieved the Black Dragon Seal with a nonchalant flick. Then, his figure flickered as he walked over to Xie Xuantian, who remained in a state of stupor, cupped his fists, and said,

"Sect Master, you should go back and tend to your injuries first. Leave these small fries to me!"

Hearing Yang Yan's words, Xie Xuantian finally snapped out of his daze. Looking at the pile of white bones on the ground not far away and the fresh blood seeping from the mountain wall, he finally comprehended what had transpired.

The two experts at the fourth layer of the Spirit Sea Realm dispatched by the Xuantian Temple had been completely slaughtered by Yang Yan within the span of merely half an hour!