Deep within the mountain ranges, silence fell. Even the ferocious birds and savage beasts had sensed the danger — every one of them went still, not daring to make a sound.
On the ground lay a heap of bloody pulp and shattered bone. The middle-aged Daoist nun and her two companions had been slain completely by the golden magical weapons, departing forever from the ancient path of the supreme trials.
The golden world behind Ye Fan had vanished. He stood quietly in place, without surging waves of powerful energy — simply facing his remaining opponents in silence.
“You’ve killed them — don’t think you’ll be walking away yourself!” One of the men behind Jun Wei Mountain Lord curled the corner of his mouth, revealing a trace of contempt.
“The path we walk is our own. If you come rushing here to throw your lives away, no one can stop you!” The man whose jaw Ye Fan had once shattered gave a cold laugh.
Jun Wei Mountain Lord stood ahead of them. He possessed the bearing of a dragon and a tiger — his physique powerful, his hair thick and dense, his bearing magnificent. A faint halo of light surrounded him, violet in color, resplendent and crystalline.
He was like a divine king from the celestial realm descending to survey the mortal world — incomparably majestic. With each opening and closing of his eyes, it was as though cold lightning danced throughout the entire mountain range, tearing through the void.
“It seems a battle between you and I is now unavoidable,” Jun Wei Mountain Lord said. His words carried authority, like those of a sovereign. The violet-gold crown above his head cast down wisps of imperial Dao immortal energy.
“There is no need for pretense. Is this not exactly what you wished — to lure me here for a battle?” Ye Fan gave a cold smile.
“You are mistaken — you think far too highly of yourself. A battle? We merely intend to put you through a thorough thrashing!” someone beside him said, his words cold and sharp, carrying a certain arrogance.
“With just the four of you?” Ye Fan’s lips curled in a cold light.
“We were simply holding back before. Now we will let you understand what supreme mysterious arts are — what it means to be unmatched among peers!” one of them said calmly.
“Let me duel him,” Jun Wei Mountain Lord said.
“There is no need for Fellow Daoist Jun Wei to act. The four of us are more than enough — he won’t have the opportunity to seek your guidance today.” One man blocked Jun Wei Mountain Lord, then looked toward Ye Fan, a trace of mockery at the corner of his mouth.
Ye Fan narrowed his eyes, regarding Jun Wei Mountain Lord with a hint of cool detachment. “Do you dare fight me?”
“Did you not hear what we said? Today it is we who will cut you down — to let you understand how vast this universe is, and how formidable true masters can be!” one of them said lightly.
“This lord has had enough. Come forward and submit, all of you!” Long Ma’s scales shimmered all over, scarlet flames coiling around its body, ringing with metallic resonance as its killing intent erupted.
Ye Fan waved his hand, signaling it to fall back. After carefully sensing their auras, he discovered a truth — these four were far from the shallow, insignificant figures they appeared to be. They were all genuinely powerful.
In particular, they had positioned themselves in four directions in a pattern that seemed to follow some immutable ancient law — casual-looking on the surface, yet profoundly deep. These were no simple individuals.
In fact, Ye Fan even sensed a thread of dangerous energy from these four — they might be even more troublesome to deal with than Jun Wei Mountain Lord. Their flippant manner was very likely a façade.
“Cutting you down today has no suspense whatsoever!” one of them taunted, his eyes carrying a sinister sharpness.
“Boom!”
Ye Fan moved suddenly — launching a fierce attack, transforming into a bolt of golden blazing lightning as he charged at one of them. He chose the man from moments ago.
“Crack!”
Another slap — this one solid and full. With the force behind Ye Fan’s palm, he could reduce entire mountain ranges to flying ash.
Yet this time the man was only sent flying, bloodied, his jaw shattered — he was not annihilated in body and soul.
“Roar…!”
That man erupted in fury. Back in the Thirty-Sixth Zone he had already had half his face shattered by Ye Fan — and now it was happening again, leaving him utterly humiliated.
“No shame, no face — I’m targeting your face specifically!” Long Ma called out from the side.
But Ye Fan was frowning. Though he had shattered the man’s jaw, his golden battle energy had been neutralized and absorbed into the man’s body.
What sort of mysterious technique was this, capable of dissolving all attacking force? It was truly strange.
“Clang!”
The four moved as one, each radiating light, as though a sheet of primordial magnetic lightning danced among them — every person became wrapped in gray mist, obscuring their forms.
In that moment, the four seemed to fuse into one. They could share life force, and the injured man instantly recovered, his blood staunching itself.
At the same time, Ye Fan’s golden battle energy appeared on the bodies of all four — condensing into four streams, forming four sword blades that shot outward and came slicing back at Ye Fan himself.
“Clang clang…!”
A piercing sound rang out. Ye Fan countered swiftly, his heart lurching — he was facing his own energy, returned to him as a reaction from their bodies.
“The Four Symbols Ancient Saint Formation!”
Ye Fan’s gaze sharpened. This was a peculiar formation — not drawn upon the earth, but using the four men themselves as its banners. A living formation, formed from their bodies — mysterious and incalculable.
The four were far from ordinary. Coming together now to arrange this formation, they had channeled an ancient killing energy that had stolen the creative force of heaven and earth — boundlessly terrifying.
Ye Fan battled them, wielding his full array of brilliant techniques, golden blood energy surging to the sky — yet the formation absorbed all of it, only to reproduce it and redirect it back at him.
From Taiji came Two Polarities, from Two Polarities came Four Symbols, from Four Symbols came Eight Trigrams — they had evolved the Four Symbols Formation diagram, calling wind and rain, arranging within it a miniature world of divine demons.
Ye Fan’s expression grew grave. Beyond fighting four powerful opponents, he also had to contend with this formation — there was no room to take it lightly.
Using people as formation banners was very different from an ordinary formation, and far more difficult to break. With a hundred-million-jin shackle weighing on his body, Ye Fan deployed the Movement Script to charge through it, gradually wearing down the supreme formation diagram’s power.
At last, he slowly extricated himself from the predicament of battling against his own force.
“Strike!”
Ye Fan roared. Above his head, an ancient mirror floated, projecting immortal divine radiance. He channeled the Battle Saint Technique to manifest the Void Mirror, seeking to use the divine light within it to shoot down one of the four.
Pfft!
It was an absolutely razor-sharp strike — one of the men was pierced through, drenched in blood. Yet a gray-white mist appeared on his body, and the four — sharing a single fate — immediately worked together to restore him.
“To think you are this powerful — yet no matter how great your divine abilities, you will die here! Sacred spirit, revive — let the formation diagram manifest!” the four shouted together.
Above each of their heads, one blurry corner of a Dao diagram appeared. Then the divine radiance blazed brilliantly as solid, physical forms surged out from the crown of each of their heads.
The formation diagram!
Not woven from light — these were four real, physical corners of a formation diagram, assembling themselves in the void into a half-moon shape, sweeping down to cut at Ye Fan.
This forced him to change expression. The Black Emperor had once said — once an ancient saint formation cultivated a physical form of its own, its power would be dozens of times more terrifying!
No wonder these four carried such confidence — they commanded an actual ancient formation diagram, something far beyond a mere grand formation.
Clang!
Behind Ye Fan, five-colored divine light surged upward. Five precious swords rotated and hacked, all of them slashing at this treasure diagram, filling the air with piercing sounds.
The four were greatly shocked, their bodies shuddering continuously. The ancient diagram was broken apart once more, dividing back into four corners to return above their heads.
“Channel your life essence — use the formation diagram to kill him!” One of them sprayed a mouthful of life essence from his mouth, causing his one corner of the diagram to seem to take on life — breathing on its own, inhaling and exhaling the refined energy of heaven and earth.
The other three did the same. The ancient formation diagram merged back into one and swept down at Ye Fan, grinding down all worldly laws — capable of cutting away every trace of the Great Dao.
“Boom!”
This time Ye Fan directly unleashed the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist — fierce, domineering, unrivaled in valor under heaven. His golden blood energy surged like a tsunami, great golden waves rolling skyward, scattering the clouds, as though to bring the heavens crashing down!
A cracking sound rang out — piercing and jarring. That terrifying formation diagram was sent flying once more, dissolving back into its four corners. All four powerful cultivators coughed up blood and staggered backward, their faces an iron gray.
Each held one corner of the formation diagram and examined it closely — fine cracks had appeared on the surface. Truly an alarming discovery.
How powerful was his attack? He had actually fractured the supreme formation diagram. A few more exchanges like that, and it might well be destroyed.
Ye Fan felt neither joy nor sorrow. His mind was tranquil. He had come to believe that these four together were no weaker than Jun Wei Mountain Lord — everything they had shown before was a pretense.
“Primordial Magnetic Forbidden Technique — strike!”
One of them shouted. The gray-white mist on their bodies returned — a peculiar force. Terrifying beams of demonic light blazed through heaven and earth, grinding toward Ye Fan to destroy him.
Ye Fan swung his fists in fierce counter, the sound ringing and thunderous, deafening all around him. He collided with every beam of primordial magnetic divine light — even a single breath of overflowing energy was enough to obliterate an entire mountain range. The power was without limit.
This was absolutely a forbidden secret technique — the divine power behind it was colossal. All four deploying it together, united as one, was enough to move even those at the level of Imperial Sons.
Ye Fan’s heart stirred. This was a supremely wondrous technique — to see it wielded by all four of them was genuinely astonishing. The power of primordial magnetism lay outside the Five Elements. In battle it was elusive and unfathomable, impossible to guard against.
Zing, zing…!
A fearsome resonance rang out. Ye Fan was as though locked in battle against a million heavenly swords — his entire body enveloped by primordial magnetic immortal light, a force capable of grinding down all Great Dao attacks.
The Four Symbols Formation appeared again. Each corner of the formation diagram fused with its respective master, binding to their bodies and shielding them.
They then released themselves completely — each transforming into a beam of primordial magnetic immortal light, like four human-shaped bolts of lightning, charging in every direction, capable of contending with Ye Fan head-on!
This far exceeded what the world could have imagined. Their power was beyond the comprehension of ordinary people — this was the supreme application of divine technique, giving them a decisive advantage.
Of course, every swing of Ye Fan’s Six Paths Reincarnation Fist gave them no end of grief in return. Several times the immortal light dimmed and forced their true forms to emerge, as they coughed up great mouthfuls of blood.
“Jun Wei Mountain Lord, help us — this man is too powerful!” One of them finally could hold on no longer. He had taken several significant injuries; his form had nearly shattered.
“Boom!”
Ye Fan swung his fist — wind and thunder roared, mountains and rivers lost their color, sun and moon lost their light. He punched clean through one of the men. All the bones throughout his body shattered, and half of him exploded into ruin.
Then the remaining three, in the form of human-shaped primordial magnetic immortal light, swept through in a single burst, immediately restoring the shattered man’s body. Their fates were bound as one.
“Truly a powerful secret technique,” Ye Fan murmured to himself.
Dong!
The five-colored divine light merged into one. Behind Ye Fan, five precious swords combined into a single Dao sword and brought it down upon the four-corner formation diagram that had merged together once more.
“Pfft” — “Pfft”…!
All four spat blood and went flying. The formation diagram split apart once more. Each of them was deathly pale, their faces filled with disbelief.
How could one person be this powerful? Fighting alone against all of them — their supreme formation diagram and their forbidden secret techniques could not hold him back!
“Boom!”
Jun Wei Mountain Lord struck. He opened with surging, towering divine might. One great hand covered the heavens — this was the famous “World Within the Palm,” seeking to absorb Ye Fan into it.
Yet what met him was a golden foot. Ye Fan stamped down with enormous force, nearly shattering that great hand, and it recoiled with a thunderous tremor. Ye Fan broke the technique by sheer power — a single step carried him out of the World Within the Palm, and he stood facing Jun Wei Mountain Lord directly.