"Good! Good! Good!"
Nán Fēng was rendered speechless by Cháng Sūn Wú Jì's arrogant words, managing only to utter three "good"s. His ample flesh began to tremble irregularly, as if concealing something within.
*Boom!*
Like a river bursting its banks, a terrifying surge of blood qi erupted towards the sky.
Nán Fēng's eyes blazed with a bloody fury. He raised his fist and swung it forward, the path it carved igniting illusions of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, a terrifying vision akin to purgatory that instilled dread in all who witnessed it!
"Presumptuous!"
Cháng Sūn Wú Jì narrowed his eyes and let out a commanding roar.
Golden, domineering true qi coalesced into an iron fist, its formidable power cracking the ground.
The man punched forward, his iron fist exploding like a catapulted stone, sending a wave of airborne qi crashing through space.
Nán Fēng, his corpulent body in motion, charged forward. Facing the oncoming dominance, he threw a punch.
*Boom! Crack!*
The blood-red fist met the domineering iron fist in a collision.
A terrifying roar echoed as the earth split inch by inch. Everyone instinctively covered their ears, the sound so violent, amplified by the echoes within the stone cave, it sounded like the sky was collapsing.
"Rumble!"
As expected, Nán Fēng gained the upper hand. This was because his was pure physical strength, whereas Cháng Sūn Wú Jì's was illusory true qi.
The surface of the iron fist cracked, emitting golden light, before it detonated with a thunderous blast, sending a shockwave skyward.
However, this time, Nán Fēng did not retreat from the explosion.
With a furious roar, his blood qi surged like a possessed demon. He took several more steps forward, directly entering Cháng Sūn Wú Jì's domain.
Nán Fēng, aflame with bloody rage, unleashed his domain underfoot. It overlapped with the golden domain, and instantly, endless specters surrounded him, his blood qi surging once more, his killing intent exploding.
"So strong!"
Cháng Sūn Wú Jì sensed this and was taken aback.
He knew Nán Fēng's physique was formidable, but he hadn't expected that even his domineering true qi couldn't stop him. Moreover, the killing aura of the opponent's domain was so potent it could even augment his physique.
But his physique, too, was strong.
"Within my domain, to confront me with your physique, I truly don't know if you're confident or foolish!"
Cháng Sūn Wú Jì did not flinch. He clenched his fist, his entire being condensing his overbearing power into it. He prepared to meet Nán Fēng's punch head-on.
But at that moment, something unexpected happened.
"Brother, hold your hand!"
"Cháng Sūn Wú Jì isn't a fool. If he dares to act like this, he must have his trump cards."
"We've already provoked too much enmity. If something goes wrong, we'll be damned beyond salvation!"
Seeing Nán Fēng's blood qi surging, even activating his domain as if prepared to fight to the death, the third brother among the Northwest Four Oddities, skilled in divination, quickly stepped forward and grabbed his arm.
"Get lost!"
Nán Fēng was consumed by rage at that moment and paid no mind to such things. With a casual flick of his wrist, he sent the small, grey-rat-faced third brother flying several meters away.
"Third Brother!"
The second brother, Xī Dú, cried out in alarm and then abruptly summoned a massive gray bear, positioning it directly in front of Nán Fēng.
"What the hell are you doing!"
Nán Fēng recognized the summoned beast before him, but he did not stop. He swung a punch.
The four-stage gray bear also roared and charged to meet it.
*Boom! Crack!*
With a heavy blow, the bear was sent flying dozens of meters, crashing into the surrounding wall with a pained howl.
Nán Fēng was also forced back several steps, his eyes wide with rage, his blood qi slightly dispersed by the impact.
"Brother, calm down. You must listen to what Third Brother said!"
Xī Dú, suppressing his heartache, recalled the gray bear and once again blocked Nán Fēng.
He was, of course, the one who most wished Cháng Sūn Wú Jì dead. But Third Brother understood how to avoid misfortune and had exceptional skills in treasure hunting and surveying, serving as their strategist and the backbone of the Four Oddities.
Their reputation in the Northwest was largely due to Third Brother's contributions.
"Is Third Brother alright?"
Nán Fēng gradually calmed down.
He slowly withdrew from Cháng Sūn Wú Jì's domain, retracting his blood qi.
He looked with concern towards his third brother, who was as thin as a rat. The man had always been in poor health, and Nán Fēng had almost injured him just now.
"It's nothing."
The man shook his head, coughed twice, and gave a wry smile.
"Brother, in times of life and death, do not so easily use your killing domain again. You truly fail to distinguish friend from foe."
Nán Fēng turned away, offering no defense.
Once the killing domain was activated, he would indeed be affected. Although he would grow stronger with each passing moment, he would ultimately lose his reason.
Third Brother's injuries were sustained years ago, inflicted by Nán Fēng himself.
"What did you divine?"
The second brother, Xī Dú, was not concerned with these matters. Frowning, he desperately wanted to know what had compelled Third Brother to intervene so recklessly.
"I didn't divine anything," the man shook his head. "I just felt it was not right."
"A feeling?"
A sharp glint flashed in Nán Fēng's eyes. This was not a question of doubt, for Third Brother's intuition had always been incredibly accurate. On several occasions when they had ventured into dangerous places to seize opportunities, it was thanks to his premonitions that they had narrowly escaped peril.
"Yes, I felt that if the fight continued, the situation would become very unfavorable for us."
"And even setting aside my intuition, we shouldn't have attacked."
"Although our average strength surpasses that of other cultivators, we are not invincible."
"Those so-called allies would turn into hungry wolves ready to bite us at any critical moment. If you, Brother, were to sustain any injuries due to Cháng Sūn Wú Jì, or if all four of us were injured, have you considered how precarious our situation would become?"
Third Brother, Tán Yù, frowned and analyzed calmly.
Before the Great Apocalypse, he had studied geomancy and divination for a period, delving into the art of fortune-telling. However, when he now dared to divine his own fate, he found only a mist.
Heaven's secrets were not to be revealed. Perhaps life and death hung by a thread, so he had to be extremely cautious.
"The Cháng Sūn family is not to be provoked for now."
After a moment, Nán Fēng took a deep breath.
He clenched his fist, and the trembling of his flesh subsided.
His third brother was right. There were too many strange circumstances surrounding this matter. To rashly attack was highly inadvisable. He needed to ascertain the opponent's true strength before he found himself unable to back down and brought suffering upon himself.
"What, not attacking anymore?"
Cháng Sūn Wú Jì seemed disappointed. He had intended to feign injury to gain Xǔ Mù's sympathy, but the opponent had stopped. Still, it didn't matter.
The man glanced at Xǔ Mù, who stood silently by the cave entrance, and felt an immense sense of calm.
Unflustered in the face of danger – this was absolute confidence in one's strength.
"It's over."
Cháng Sūn Wú Jì noticed that the person who had initially reported the situation among the Northwest Four Oddities was now charging towards Xǔ Mù. They seemed on the verge of combat.
With a ruthless resolve, he took another step forward.
*Thump!*
An unparalleled, domineering pressure enveloped Nán Fēng's portly frame.
Sensing the provocation and seeing Cháng Sūn Wú Jì's movement, Nán Fēng's face darkened:
"Cháng Sūn Wú Jì, I once respected you as the head of the former dynasty's royal family, but I never expected you to be so overbearing and pushy! If you take one more step forward, I will risk my life to bury you here!"
Cháng Sūn Wú Jì burst into laughter, his aura ascending to its peak:
"Those who harm others shall be slain by others. If I bully you, what is so wrong with that!"
His eyes flowed with golden light, his voice emanating supreme authority, like a divine king descending from the heavens.
Seeing this, Nán Fēng glanced at Third Brother, then could endure no longer. He shouted loudly:
"Fellow allies, please join me in slaying this villain!"
"Any who participate in the encirclement, regardless of the merit, will be awarded two hundred points."
"Kill Cháng Sūn Wú Jì, the head of the Cháng Sūn family, and be rewarded five thousand points!"
"Do not fear the imperial court seeking trouble with you. We, the Northwest Four Oddities, have never feared the imperial court!"
Nán Fēng's voice boomed, striking the hearts of the onlookers. He was offering five thousand points as a bounty for Cháng Sūn Wú Jì's head!
This immediately made the ability users who had intended to stand by and watch, like mantises preying on cicadas, somewhat tempted.
In reality, the difficulty of simply killing Cháng Sūn Wú Jì, when valued against what five thousand points could procure, was not worth it; it should have been at least thirty thousand.
But the crucial point was that there were too many of them now, over forty lords.
If they attacked simultaneously, Cháng Sūn Wú Jì would likely be unable to put up much of a fight.
In other words, they wouldn't have to pay any price, could gain points just by acting, and even have the chance to obtain five thousand without expending any effort. Why wouldn't they?
"Patriarch, quickly retreat! Go to other caves and find the King of Ling Hai to avenge us!"
The cultivators' eyes were now gleaming greedily, viewing them as prey.
The members of the Cháng Sūn family fell into despair simultaneously.
They couldn't escape this damned place. Trapped within the stone cave, they had no way out.
Moreover, with their strength, even if they managed to break through, they likely wouldn't be able to defeat the demons outside the safe zone of the cave, and would only await death.
But Cháng Sūn Wú Jì was different from them. As a direct descendant of the Cháng Sūn royal family, despite his internal injuries, his strength remained formidable.
If he could break through the siege, he might indeed find other ability users in different caves to avenge them!
"Where can you run? These are all our people!"
Nán Fēng laughed cruelly. They had completely sealed off this space. There was no escape!