Ye Fan crushed Ji Yunfeng to death with the Mountain-Cradling Seal, reducing him to ash. Atop the severed peak, a deathly stillness fell. Everyone stared blankly. A disciple of an ancient clan had been struck down.

The scene just witnessed had been devastating. Mountains hurled from the hands, force pressing down a Ji Family powerhouse — Ye Fan’s display had been too astonishing, with the bearing of an overlord who rips up mountains and lifts cauldrons.

Only after a long silence did the many young cultivators of Qu Province rouse from their daze, releasing a tide of murmuring voices.

“Who on earth is he — could he be a demon king reincarnated? Cradling mountains to crush enemies — this is too terrifying!”

“The Mountain-Cradling Seal is an outstanding technique of the Northern Region and demands enormous divine power. Most people can barely use it, yet this person keeps forming the seal over and over, hurling nine great mountains in one breath. This is utterly deranged.”

“Could he be of the Divine King physique? How else could he possess such terrifying potential — his divine power seemingly endless, growing stronger the more he fights?”

Atop the severed peak, all was in complete uproar. Everyone was talking at once. A disciple of an ancient clan had been killed here in front of them — this was no small matter.

The person had struck down a Ji Family disciple in front of the entire assembly. This concerned the honor and reputation of the ancient clan — this was no friendly contest; it was an act of purposeful slaying.

“Who are you?!”

The other three Ji Family members all stood high in the sky, surrounding Ye Fan. Their eyes blazed with fury, killing intent fully revealed.

The grand gathering of Qu Province’s younger generation had been organized in the name of their clan by these few individuals, and this person had come to the venue and slain the organizers — the result cast a shadow over the Ji Family’s reputation.

“I will avenge Yunfeng!” One of them declared coldly — and vanished into thin air in the next instant, disappearing completely!

“Gasp!”

The crowd erupted in shock. In broad daylight, a form had simply faded away — leaving everyone staring in disbelief.

Ye Fan’s long robe fluttered. Immortal energy enveloped him, serene and otherworldly. He stood quietly in place, utterly unruffled and composed.

Mist drifted. Space twisted. A patch of void darkened faintly, and a figure flashed — the Ji Family cultivator burst out, spitting a divine sword from his mouth, slashing at Ye Fan from behind.

But Ye Fan seemed to have known in advance. He moved without any trace of alarm, extending a composed golden fist — striking later yet arriving first — meeting that brilliant divine sword head-on.

Dang!

The resonant note carried for more than ten li, echoing through the Yun Duan Mountain Range. The golden fist sent the sharp sword flying. Cracks spread across its surface — then it shattered inch by inch, like rotting wood, crumbling apart in the air, a rain of golden powder sifting to the ground.

“The Void-Walking Art!”

“Correct — this is another one of the Ji Family’s supreme secret arts. Within a short distance, one can traverse the space itself. The potential for lethality is extreme — unpredictable, impossible to guard against!”

“This is a world-shaking supreme technique — a vital art recorded in the Void Ancient Sutra — one of the Ji Family’s closely guarded secrets!”

At this moment, the people atop the severed peak finally understood why that disciple had vanished so abruptly — he had been demonstrating a wondrous art.

This secret technique was enormously dangerous. In the midst of a battle it could come and go without trace, killing without form, leaving opponents in constant terror.

Yet Ye Fan was unafraid. He understood this secret technique thoroughly — Ji Ziyue had given him the complete formula, and he himself had mastered the Void-Walking Art.

Since arriving in the Northern Region, he had never used it — partly to avoid exposing his identity, and partly for another reason: he had trained in the footwork technique of the old madman, which made the Void-Walking Art something he could take or leave as he pleased.

Ji Yuncheng was taken aback. He had never expected the other person to evade so easily, showing no alarm — no panic at all.

Without a sound, he vanished again, deploying the Void-Walking Art to strike at Ye Fan once more.

Rumble!

Space twisted and blurred. A massive black handprint erupted without warning — a scene of sheer terror, so sudden it stunned the mind.

The black handprint covered the sky, looming over Ye Fan, roaring and rumbling as it slapped downward. Ye Fan raised a golden fist to resist.

Dang!

The sound shook the heavens — like a great iron hammer striking the divine drum of the celestial court — filling the ears with a humming resonance and giving the head a spinning, dizzy feeling.

Atop the severed peak, many bodies swayed, staggered backward a dozen steps or more, blood surging in their chests.

There was no denying it — this black handprint combined with the Void-Walking Art produced extraordinary results. The two secret techniques working in concert caused the power to rise sharply.

Below, many of the spectators had gone pale. They recognized they could never withstand this themselves. Striking from nowhere, ambushing without warning, and then unleashing that black great hand — against a cultivator of the Dao Palace Secret Realm, it was lethal.

Yet Ye Fan met it. His golden fist blocked that black great hand, holding it suspended in the air.

This person was clearly stronger than Ji Yunfeng, however. The black great hand was like a vast dark cloud, its black mist surging to the heavens — rumbling, thunderous — pressing downward like a mountain, relentless in force.

This was an energy of extreme terror: dark and oppressive, filling one with dread. The great hand sprawled across the sky, blotting out the sun, like a vast black ocean surging forward in a rush!

Ye Fan’s fists blazed with golden brilliance. He struck upward nine times in succession, causing the heavens to rock and everyone watching to change color.

The sight was breathtaking — raw physical force of this magnitude. The golden fists had the void on the verge of collapse, nine strikes shaking the sky — shattering that black great hand in the air!

Ye Fan had cultivated the supreme attack technique among the Nine Secrets, which could be transformed into various lethal arts — the Sun Moon Seal, the Mountain River Seal, the Fire Phoenix Seal, and others.

But he could not reveal them here. The Holy Combat Technique was infinitely variable, and if he were seen producing various divine seals, all of them executed at the ultimate level, someone would be able to deduce the truth.

If that happened, the major sacred grounds would certainly act. For the sake of the Nine Secrets, they would hunt him relentlessly — and the Jiang Family would go berserk.

The supreme offensive arts among the Nine Secrets could not be displayed in public.

“Ji Family disciples — this is all you amount to? I thought you would be so much more remarkable. Why not have all three of you come at once — save me the trouble of cutting you down one by one.”

Ye Fan was deliberately goading them. He knew that unless driven to the last extreme, they would find it difficult to lose face by ganging up on him. Their background was a burden they carried — representing the ancient clan, three against one was not a good look, however it was told.

“I alone am more than enough to fight you!” Ji Yuncheng bellowed.

The two Ji Family disciples standing nearby had expressions that were less than pleasant. They had both been about to act just moments before.

“Let him have a fair fight first. If he cannot match this person, we can step in at any time,” one of them transmitted privately.

If they truly could not prevail, they would strike together — combined, and with intent to kill. Life and victory mattered more than anything; even if it invited criticism, so be it.

Ji Yuncheng unleashed the full extent of his power. The Void-Walking Art carried him in and out of the void at will, deployed to a level of almost miraculous execution — coming without shadow, leaving without trace. The black handprint crashed through the heavens, rumbling without pause, filling the hearts and souls of the spectators with terror and dread.

Ye Fan’s lips curved in a faint cold smile. He did not dodge swiftly, but instead seemed to scramble, always resolving the crisis by the narrowest margin — deliberately lulling his opponent into complacency.

“The Void-Walking Art is truly peerless — a killing technique without rival. In a contest between cultivators of the same level, whoever possesses it begins in an unassailable position.”

“Truly fearsome — there is simply no knowing from which direction the attack will come. This mysterious figure is very powerful, but right now he has been put completely on the defensive.”

“It is no wonder the Void Ancient Sutra is called a great emperor’s legacy — its depths are unfathomable; the secret arts within it defy all comprehension.”

The spectating cultivators all exclaimed in admiration.

Ye Fan smiled coldly to himself. Unless this art was cultivated to its absolute pinnacle, anyone with a sufficiently powerful divine sense could develop a kind of foreknowledge — predicting in advance from where the opponent would emerge.

Without reaching the state of becoming one with the void, there would always be disturbances, and those disturbances could be used to counter even this supreme secret art. Moreover, he himself possessed mastery of it.

But Ye Fan could not help but feel deep admiration in his heart. The wondrous art left by the Void Emperor was a pinnacle of the Great Dao — if truly refined to the state of great perfection, it would be inconceivably terrible, equivalent to existing everywhere and nowhere at once, formless and shadowless, destroying enemies within the void in a single thought.

Unfortunately, Ji Yuncheng could not possibly reach that state yet.

As time passed, everyone became convinced that Ye Fan had been suppressed by the Void-Walking Art — that he could not counter this supreme technique, and would inevitably be defeated.

At last, Ye Fan made his move. He pinpointed the location where Ji Yuncheng was about to emerge, then glanced at the positions where the other two Ji Family disciples stood.

The void blurred. Ji Yuncheng had barely appeared when he felt the pressure of a mountain pressing down from above — and that golden fist was already waiting outside, as if he had delivered himself straight to it.

His Void Great Handprint had already been formed and ready — but it could not block the blow. This time Ye Fan’s dual fists were many times stronger than before.

Golden fist-wind surged. Blazing radiance flooded outward. Dense golden clouds rolled and billowed — like an ocean of waves crashing in row after row — sending many of the cultivators atop the severed peak flying away. And that was just on the ground; high above in the sky, it was even worse.

Ye Fan had moved in for the kill, breaking through the black great hand. His golden fist sent a sound like crashing ocean waves through the sky, shaking the heavens.

Boom!

Pitiable Ji Yuncheng — he had charged straight into that fist himself. The Void-Walking Art had been his rise, and now it was his ruin. He had delivered himself to the fist.

Pffft!

Ji Yuncheng was beaten to pulp. Not just his physical body — even a cultivator of the Four Extremes Secret Realm would have perished under a fist like that.

Golden waves surged to the heavens, surging and billowing, shaking in every direction, thick golden clouds filling the sky — the golden tide sweeping many people off their feet.

“Yuncheng!”

The two Ji Family disciples who had been watching let out cries. The Void-Walking Art had clearly been suppressing their opponent — so how had he suddenly been struck dead in the next moment?

Both were grief-stricken and furious, charging forward simultaneously!

Before landing the killing blow, Ye Fan had already calculated his positioning. He vanished in an instant — his intent had never been to kill only one.

In that moment, he deployed the Ji Family’s Void-Walking Art — appearing out of nowhere, cutting off one of them, and driving the Void Great Handprint forward!

The shift came so abruptly that no one had anticipated it. No one had imagined that this great enemy also possessed the Ji Family’s incomparable supreme technique — the Void-Walking Art.

Ye Fan’s calculation was precise. When he emerged, the Ji Family disciple was charging straight toward him — and ran directly into the terrible black great hand.

This was the Void Great Handprint driven by the Holy Combat Technique. Like a black expanse of sky pressing down from above — the power within it was simply beyond any attempt to gauge.

Crack!

A sound that made the flesh crawl rang out. The black great hand shattered the Ji Family disciple in the air — body and soul obliterated.

“You…” The last and most powerful of the four Ji Family disciples charged forward, his face white as paper, lips trembling.

Below, a great uproar broke out. This was nearly inconceivable — this person had used the Ji Family’s own incomparable technique to cut down a Ji Family member.

“The heavens — he used the Void-Walking Art and killed one of the Ji Family’s powerhouses.”

“No wonder he showed no fear of the Void-Walking Art — he knows this secret art himself.”

“Who are you?!” Ji Yunlin roared, his face iron-dark. Three of the four young Ji Family elites had been wiped out in less than half an hour — only he himself remained.

By now, the several disciples of the Yaoguang Holy Ground could no longer stand by watching. Most of the Ji Family members were already nearly gone — they surged into the air.

“Was this gathering of Qu Province’s young cultivators not organized specifically for me? Then surely you already know who I am.”

The white mist dispersed. Ye Fan revealed his true face — standing quietly in the sky, black hair flowing, eyes bright and clear, robes billowing, a quality about him that was transcendent and apart from the world.

“It is you… Ye Fan?!” Ji Yunlin felt a thunderclap detonate inside his skull. He had never — not for one moment — imagined it would be him.

The four Yaoguang disciples were equally stunned. The very person they were looking for had come straight here and was rampaging wildly. This was entirely beyond what any of them had expected.

The many cultivators of Qu Province were left speechless, and then the space below erupted in noise. This young man was the one the Ji Family had been hunting — a shock indeed. How incredibly audacious, to show himself openly while under the Ji Family’s warrant for his capture, rather than going into hiding.

“Void-Walking Art against Void-Walking Art. Handprint against handprint. Let us see who is stronger and who is weaker — what do you say?!” Ye Fan called out.

“You…” Ji Yunlin nearly coughed up blood.

“You all want to kill me, don’t you? Today, I have come to you myself!” Ye Fan made clear he had come here to kill without restraint.