Ye Fan and Pang Bo had no time to dodge. The Azure Wood Seal moved far too swiftly compared to those rune patterns — it arrived in an instant, directly enveloping the space above their heads.
The square Azure Wood Seal had been less than an inch in size when it first shot out, but in the blink of an eye it had grown to the scale of a house, with azure qi billowing all around it like surging mist.
Beneath the crushing pressure that poured down over them, Ye Fan and Pang Bo felt as though an entire mountain had descended upon them. They resisted with everything they had.
Boom!
The two of them pushed upward with both hands, trying to heave the descending Azure Wood Seal off them — but to their dismay, the ground beneath their feet instantly cracked apart, their legs sinking down into it. One could only imagine what monstrous pressure they were bearing.
Boom!
The Azure Wood Seal shuddered. Endless azure mist billowed forth. It grew larger again — tall as a palace hall now — and continued descending.
“Even a boulder weighing ten thousand catties would have been sent flying by now, so what kind of thing is this — how can it be so unimaginably heavy…”
Ye Fan and Pang Bo felt their arms growing heavier and heavier. Then the ground beneath them sank again — their legs buried to the knee, the earth splitting open in great fissures all around them.
“You like planting things headfirst so much — I’ll plant you both into the ground as living trees,” Han Feiyu said, advancing with a cold smile that chilled the air.
Boom!
The Azure Wood Seal shuddered once more. The dim azure mist roiled, and the pressure on Ye Fan and Pang Bo surged again. Their bodies sank another time — this time their legs went entirely under, leaving only the upper halves of their bodies above the surface.
“If this keeps up, we’ll be crushed to a pulp.” Ye Fan sensed the danger and said quietly to Pang Bo.
“Don’t worry — I won’t let you die easily…” Han Feiyu sneered coldly. It went without saying that he intended to torment them.
By now, both Ye Fan and Pang Bo could feel a creeping numbness in their arms. If it went on this way, they would inevitably lose the strength to resist and be ground steadily into the earth. Ye Fan gestured to Pang Bo, signaling him to release his hold and break free to get out. Pang Bo shook his head — if he let go, he feared Ye Fan alone could not hold on, and would be pressed to a pulp.
“There’s no more time, and no other choice…” Ye Fan gritted his teeth and forced out those words. The pressure from above was too immense — even with his flood-dragon-and-elephant strength, he could not sustain it indefinitely.
Pang Bo understood the situation perfectly. One of them had to break free and deal with Han Feiyu — otherwise there was simply no way out. Yet the one who stayed behind would be in dire straits: it was already an enormous effort for two people to hold up the Azure Wood Seal, and with only one person remaining it would be even more dangerous.
There was no other choice. One person had to remain to hold the seal. Pang Bo was not the sort to be indecisive — when the moment called for it, he acted without hesitation. He released his hands and pressed hard against the ground, pulling the lower half of his body free.
Boom!
The Azure Wood Seal shuddered, pale green light rippling from it. The enormous pressure set Ye Fan’s arms trembling, and he sank once more — chest and everything below swallowed into the earth, the Azure Wood Seal now less than one meter from the ground.
Pang Bo’s heart seized with alarm. Cold sweat broke out across him instantly. He shot forward like an arrow, at maximum speed.
Boom!
Green light flashed, the massive seal rocking and shaking. The instant Pang Bo broke free, the great seal pressed directly down onto the ground, burying Ye Fan headfirst beneath it.
Pang Bo’s courage and spirit nearly shattered. He moved at absolute full speed, utterly frantic, and in an instant had thrown his arms around Han Feiyu, both hands locking on like iron pincers, wrenching and tearing with all his might.
Han Feiyu had never expected it for a single moment — that one of the two boys he had pinned down and rendered helpless would burst free and tackle him to the ground like a starving wolf tearing into him.
Thud — thud — thud…
Pang Bo straddled Han Feiyu and pounded him like a war drum, bringing his fists down again and again in relentless strikes.
The watching crowd was astonished. No one had imagined Pang Bo could break out.
Han Feiyu may not have had Pang Bo’s raw strength, but he had, after all, cultivated a thread of divine power from his wellspring and could mobilize his full vital energy — a layer of divine luminescence immediately covered the surface of his body. Pang Bo’s fists slammed down hard, yet they did not inflict excessive injury, only drawing a thin trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth.
Even so, Han Feiyu’s eyes went red. When had he ever suffered such humiliation? He struggled with violent force, and his Bitter Sea blazed with a burst of radiance, blasting Pang Bo away. Then several iron-chain-like divine rune patterns shot out from his Bitter Sea — glowing and gleaming — coiling toward Pang Bo to bind and destroy him.
Pang Bo dodged hastily, raising a nearby boulder to block, then hurled it back with brutal force.
“I will tear you apart!” Han Feiyu’s expression became terrifyingly malevolent. Multiple divine rune patterns coiled around his body, and then like bolts of lightning, they shot toward Pang Bo.
Boom!
At that very moment, the great Azure Wood Seal that had been pressed to the ground suddenly heaved itself upward. Ye Fan erupted from underground, hands holding the seal aloft, and with all his strength hurled it at Han Feiyu. Green light blazed out as azure mist billowed — it crashed down toward him like a small mountain.
At Han Feiyu’s level of cultivation, he could not focus his attention on two things at once — simultaneously controlling the Azure Wood Seal and the divine rune patterns was beyond him. During his struggle with Pang Bo, that lapse had given Ye Fan the chance to break free. Ye Fan moved like a lightning bolt, leaving a long trailing afterimage as he charged forward directly behind the Azure Wood Seal.
As the Azure Wood Seal reversed and came crashing back, Han Feiyu’s expression changed drastically. He stopped attacking Pang Bo and recalled his rune patterns, trying to regain control of the seal and use it to kill them both.
But Ye Fan was too fast — he arrived at almost the same moment as the seal. The very instant Han Feiyu reasserted control over the Azure Wood Seal and brought it to a halt, Ye Fan was already there, right in front of him. His right leg swept in a sweeping arc and connected with a thunderous kick squarely across Han Feiyu’s face. Blood sprayed, and Han Feiyu went flying from the force of it — shooting sideways a full twenty-some meters, blood pouring from his nose and mouth. Losing its controller, the Azure Wood Seal crashed heavily to the ground.
Ye Fan did not pause. His body became a streak of light as he gave chase directly. Before Han Feiyu had even landed, Ye Fan was already there — and midair, he drove one foot down onto him with crushing force. Such a devastatingly weighty stomp made everyone around him shudder just from watching. The ground lurched violently, and Han Feiyu’s body very nearly snapped in two.
At almost the same instant, Pang Bo had also arrived. He raised his foot and delivered a ferocious kick, driving it hard into Han Feiyu’s abdomen.
“Attack his head — don’t let him concentrate!” Ye Fan barked in a low voice.
Pang Bo understood immediately. They could not allow Han Feiyu to gather his focus and control that wooden seal again — if he did, they would be in danger once more.
Thud — thud — thud…
Both of them possessed tremendous physical strength — each kick powerful enough to send a thousand-catty boulder flying. Each blow thundered down onto Han Feiyu’s body, the very ground shaking in rhythm. Had it not been for the continuous flow of radiance from Han Feiyu’s Bitter Sea, forming a protective layer over the surface of his body, he would surely have been stomped to a pulp by the two of them.
The onlookers were stupefied. The two boys had been on the verge of annihilation just moments ago, and yet somehow they had reversed the situation entirely — now they had Han Feiyu pinned beneath them and were beating him without mercy. It was simply beyond belief.
“To scheme for our deaths at your age — just how venomous must you become by the time you grow up? Better just to stamp you out right now!”
Despite saying as much, neither of them truly intended to cause a death. Going that far would bring too grave a consequence upon them — the wrath of an elder would seal their fate. But they had no intention of letting Han Feiyu off easily either, and they channeled full force through their feet, steadily dimming the protective luminescence around his body.
Han Feiyu tried to regain control of the Azure Wood Seal, but failed every single time. The seal rose and fell and crashed down again and again. He was barely coherent now from the beating, unable to concentrate his mind. In the end, Han Feiyu was spent — his Bitter Sea could no longer flow out divine luminescence, and he was sent rolling and tumbling again and again beneath the feet of two physically overwhelming opponents, his cries of agony unceasing.
“You cultivate a Bitter Sea, draw out a thread of divine power, and you already think yourself a master? You wanted to kill us — you’re not nearly qualified enough for that!”
“We have no quarrel with you and no enmity — why were you targeting us?”
“So young, yet your mind is already so deeply vicious — actually scheming to torture us to death…”
Ye Fan and Pang Bo showed no restraint at all, afraid that Han Feiyu was feigning. They kept striking heavily, quickly leaving his cheeks swollen and puffy, his tears and snot streaming, blood pouring from his nose and mouth, his head bloated like a pig’s.
Though Han Feiyu could no longer endure the pain and kept crying out, his eyes still burned with ferocious hatred as he stared at the two of them, brimming with venomous malice.
“This young man is clearly a genuinely sinister piece of work. I think it’s very necessary to deal with him once and for all.”
“The way he’s been targeting us — and the way he still holds such a grudge — if we don’t deal with him now, he’ll truly be a problem.”
Hearing the two of them discussing this, Han Feiyu was finally gripped by fear. He cried out loudly: “Don’t kill me—!” — his voice deliberately raised so every onlooker could hear. Then he lowered his voice: “Don’t kill me, you two. My great-uncle is an elder of Spirit Void Cave Heaven. If you kill me, you won’t survive either…”
Ye Fan and Pang Bo both frowned. They felt that things were becoming rather troublesome.
“The enmity has already been made — there’s no undoing it now anyway…”
Hearing these words, Han Feiyu was terrified all over again. “Don’t kill me. This grudge is nothing. I swear I’ll never trouble you again…”
Ye Fan and Pang Bo exchanged a glance. Killing him in front of all these people right now was genuinely not a good idea — facing the fury of an elder, they would almost certainly die. So for now, they left him alive.
In the end, Ye Fan hauled him to the edge of the lotus pond, grabbed him by the ankles and held him upside down, about to fling him in.
“You…!” Han Feiyu’s eyes blazed with fury. If they really planted him headfirst in the mud, he would lose all dignity — he would never be able to hold his head up in Spirit Void Cave Heaven again.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two flashes of radiance appeared in the distance. Two divine rainbows swept down from a nearby cliff face and landed by the lotus pond. The onlookers immediately fell back — these were clearly powerful cultivators. Anyone who could ride divine rainbows in flight must already have a divine spring flowing in their Bitter Sea, must already have attuned with the Wheel of Life and released the divine power wellspring.
“Senior Brother Li Fei, Senior Sister Wang Jing…!” Seeing these two descend, Han Feiyu immediately called out: “You’re on patrol and law enforcement duty today? Quickly take these two into custody — they’re trying to kill me!”
The man and woman, who appeared to be in their late twenties, carried themselves with a certain quality: the man bearing a free and easy bearing, the woman ethereal and otherworldly. Neither was especially strikingly handsome or beautiful, yet they both emanated an air of the immortal path.
Li Fei gave Han Feiyu an unhurried glance. “We watched the whole thing just now. You provoked the confrontation first — the fault does not lie with these two.”
“You—!” Han Feiyu was both startled and furious, but he did not dare raise his voice against these two.
Wang Jing stepped forward a few paces and said to Ye Fan, “Even though he was at fault first, he has already suffered enough. Please put him down.”
Seeing that neither of them intended to take Han Feiyu’s side, Ye Fan did not want to embarrass them, and so he dropped Han Feiyu onto the bank of the lotus pond.
Han Feiyu got to his feet, eyes blazing, staring daggers at Pang Bo and Ye Fan. He then shot a deeply dissatisfied glance at Li Fei and Wang Jing, let out a loud derisive snort, and turned to leave.
Li Fei called after him from behind: “Junior Brother Han — I advise you not to act recklessly in the future. Pang Bo has now been formally recognized by Elder Wu Qingfeng as an Immortal Seedling. If you make any foolish moves, even your great-uncle may not be able to protect you.”
“What?!” Han Feiyu spun around instantly, his face a picture of disbelief. “He — he’s an Immortal Seedling?!”
“That is correct. An Immortal Seedling.”
Ordinary disciples might not know what being an Immortal Seedling signified, but Han Feiyu — as the youngest grandson of an elder — could not possibly be ignorant of it. Every cave heaven and blessed land treated their Immortal Seedlings as treasures to be guarded and nurtured, for they represented the very foundation of that sect’s future strength and glory.
To search for a decade or more with full dedication and still perhaps find none — that was how rare a constitution suited to immortal cultivation truly was. Once found, it would be cultivated as the sect’s generational inheritor. At this moment, the number of Immortal Seedlings in Spirit Void Cave Heaven certainly did not exceed five.
“That’s impossible…” Han Feiyu’s face was filled with disbelief. “If he’s an Immortal Seedling, why would he still be coming to Spirit Void Cliff to learn the Dharma?”
“That is because Elder Wu Qingfeng did not want him to feel that he was special — elevated above others. In truth, Elder Wu Qingfeng personally instructed him several months ago, and passed down the Dao Scripture to him as well.” Wang Jing answered his question.
Upon hearing that Elder Wu Qingfeng had personally passed down the Dao Scripture, Han Feiyu’s complexion turned an ashen iron. He knew for certain then that this was an unquestionable Immortal Seedling.
Li Fei continued: “Elder Wu Qingfeng has been closely watching over both of them. What happened here just now happened to fall within his sight, and so he felt it necessary to disclose that Pang Bo is an Immortal Seedling — in the hope that you will not act recklessly again.”
Han Feiyu’s expression was dreadful to behold. He flung his sleeves and turned to leave.
Pang Bo had been standing in a daze all this while, and only when Han Feiyu was about to go did he seem to come to his senses. His expression turned peculiar, and he asked Li Fei and Wang Jing: “So what you’re saying is, I don’t need to worry about him going forward?”
Wang Jing thought he was anxious and afraid, and reassured him: “There’s no need to worry. Never mind that he’s an elder’s grandson — even if it were the Sect Master’s descendants, they wouldn’t dare do anything to you…”
“That puts my mind at ease then…” With those words, he strode forward in pursuit.
It was not worry or fear at all — it was plainly that he wanted to continue thrashing Han Feiyu some more.
Li Fei and Wang Jing were stunned momentarily, genuinely at a loss for words.
Han Feiyu’s expression shifted dramatically. He felt something deeply unpleasant lodged in his gut. Suppressing his fury, he shoved through the crowd and vanished from sight.