CRUNCH!!!
Xuanyuan Zhen wasted no time snapping neck, in front of everyone watching. Lin Dong's shock was immense. He never thought he would die like this. The faces of everyone were filled with astonishment. He actually dared do it.
"You dare!!,"Lin Tian was filled with rage upon seeing his brother get killed before him. "I'll tear you apart!!."
"Don't kill him yet Deacon Lin Tian," said the Core Formation cultivator beside him," I can sense a powerful physique possessed by this boy. I'd like to extract it first. Then you can do whatever you like" He looked at Xuanyuan Zhen's purple-golden blood Qi with obvious greed in his eyes, as if viewing a meal.
"Fine," Lin Tian said. Then he began charging towards Xuanyuan Zhen, unleashing a palm strike with half of his strength.
Zhen first looked at the man beside Lin Tian with disgust. To think that people like this exist. He'll make sure that bastard regretted having such thoughts like that. But first he'll have to handle Lin Tian. He charged towards him throwing a fist to counterattack. Both attacks collided.
Xuanyuan Zhen was sent flying backwards, while Lin Tian remained in place. Xuanyuan Zhen sighed helplessly to himself. Peak Foundation realm was already his limit. Lin Tian on the other hand was astonished. For a Body Tempering realm cultivator to survive an attack from a Core Formation 2nd stage cultivator was a thing of wonder. Such a genius would be a threat if allowed to grow.
'This child must not stay,'he thought. He charged with full strength this time. He released a spirit sword from his spatial ring.
Xuanyuan Zhen seeing this felt chills running down his spine. He activated his Desolate Saint Body and Firmament Overlord Body to the extreme. His body exuded a primordial sacred aura and celestial domineering might, enhanced by the Primordial Breath and Myriad Arms Intent he dashed towards Lin Tian.
'Rushing Wind Sword Art'
Lin Tian used a sword technique learned from his sect. Sword Qi manifested in wind blades cutting towards Xuanyuan Zhen. Each strike sent him flying. He was at a disadvantage during this confrontation. If not for cultivating the Myriad Arms Tempering Scripture, he would have no doubt be shredded. This was his first life and death battle. He still fought like his life depended on it.
Lin Tian became for frightened as he fought. His arm already felt numb as his spirit sword collided with Xuanyuan Zhen's fist.
"Deacon Fang!, Deacon Yun,"he called out,"I'll need your help to subdue this little beast."
Both figures, released their swords from their spatial rings.
Fang Yuan's sword was covered with flame and lightning as he unleashed a yellow grade sword technique, the Blazing Thunder Sword Art. Yun Xun's sword became somewhat ethereal as he used the Misty Cloud Sword Art to join in the attack.
The air screamed. Not with wind, but with the piercing shrieks of three distinct sword arts converging on a single point: Xuanyuan Zhen.
Lin Tian's Rushing Wind Sword Art came first, a barrage of a hundred invisible blades that sliced the very air, forcing Zhen into a desperate, twisting dodge that shredded his robes and drew fine lines of blood across his skin. Before he could find footing, the ground erupted. Fang Yuan's Blazing Thunder Sword Art struck, a single, concussive bolt of sword-light that carried the fury of a storm. Zhen crossed his arms, his tempered bones groaning under the impact. The force hurled him backward, his boots carving trenches in the earth.
He had no time to recover. From the shimmering aftermath of the thunder, Yun Xun emerged like a phantom, his Misty Cloud Sword Art silent and lethal. His blade weaved through the air, intangible as mist one moment, and condensing into a needle-point of certain death the next. It slipped past Zhen's guard, aimed directly for his heart.
With a guttural roar, Zhen twisted. The blade meant for his heart plunged deep into his shoulder instead, scraping against bone with a sickening grind. Icy coldness, followed by searing pain, exploded through his body. He staggered, his left arm hanging uselessly.
"The freak is finished!" Lin Tian crowed, his wind blades gathering for a final, decapitating strike.
They surrounded him. The Rushing Wind howled to his left. The Blazing Thunder gathered to his right. The Misty Cloud blade, still slick with his blood, poised to strike from the front. He was cornered, his body a canvas of cuts and burns, his blood Qi churning chaotically from the effort of simply staying alive.
This was it. The precipice.
He had fought with every ounce of ferocity, every instinct honed by the Weapon and Battle Intents tempering his body and blood. But it wasn't enough. The gap was too vast. As the three killing blows descended, a profound silence fell over his mind. The whispers of the Killing Intent he had absorbed, once a chilling void, now felt like a familiar cloak. He accepted it. This was the end.
And in that absolute acceptance, something shattered.
It was not a crack in a bottleneck. It was the sound of a universe being born inside his flesh.
BOOM.
A shockwave of pure, physical force erupted from his body, silent yet tangible. The three elders were thrown back as if struck by a mountain, their flawless sword stances broken, their eyes wide with disbelief.
The Rushing Wind died. The Blazing Thunder sputtered out. The Misty Cloud dispersed.
Xuanyuan Zhen stood, but he was no longer the same. He slowly straightened, the deep wound in his shoulder knitting shut before their eyes, with a terrifying, visible density, as if his flesh was stone reforming itself.
He had not broken through to Qi Condensation.
He had broken through to a realm he did not know existed.
The 11th Stage of Body Tempering. The Extreme Realm.
It was not a step forward. It was a leap into a new dimension of power.
He looked at his hands, then at the three stunned elders. The air around him grew heavy, saturated with the crushing pressure of his newfound physical supremacy.
"You…" Yun Xun whispered, his Misty Cloud Sword feeling as insubstantial as a reed. "What are you?"
Xuanyuan Zhen did not answer with words.
He answered with motion.
He didn't run. He appeared before Lin Tian. There was no blur, no afterimage. It was as if space itself conceded to his will and deleted the distance between them. His hand, now looking more like polished obsidian than flesh, shot out and closed around the blade of the Rushing Wind Sword.
Lin Tian poured his Core Formation-level Qi into the weapon, trying to unleash a storm of cutting energy. The sword screamed.
And then it shattered into a thousand harmless pieces in Zhen's grip.
Before the shards could hit the ground, Zhen was already moving. He turned, his movement a physical law unto itself, and met Fang Yuan's charging Blazing Thunder Sword with a simple, direct punch.
Fist met divine lightning.
The thunderous sword light extinguished. The sword itself bent around his knuckles like soft clay, and the force traveled up Fang Yuan's arm, shattering every bone it touched with a series of wet, explosive cracks.
Yun Xun, the Origin Sword Sect Deacon, tried to fade away, to become one with the environment. But there was no hiding. Zhen's Killing Intent, now fully awakened and magnified a hundredfold by his breakthrough, locked onto his soul. To Yun Xun, it felt like the concept of "death" itself had just personally marked him.
Zhen didn't even look at him. He simply pointed in Yun Xun's direction and made a slight gripping motion with his hand.
Crunch.
Yun Xun collapsed, not a mark on his body, but his eyes vacant. His soul had been crushed by the sheer, oppressive weight of a physicality that defied the heavens.
The fight was over. The three Core Formation experts lay broken, one disarmed, one crippled, one soul-dead.
Xuanyuan Zhen stood amidst the wreckage, his chest rising and falling steadily. He wasn't breathing heavily from exertion. He was breathing in the new reality of his own existence. The 11th Stage of Body Tempering wasn't just a new level of strength.