Chapter 245: The Fierce Battle!

Dark red energy and boundless spiritual storms suddenly surged across the sky, directly tearing away the roofs of the grand halls below.

By this time, the majority of the Kunyang Sect members had either fled, died, or been severely wounded. They were not fools; they knew that a battle of this magnitude was far beyond their ability to participate in. Consequently, aside from those who were too injured to escape in time, there were no further casualties.

Staring at Yang Yan not far away with an extremely gloomy gaze, Sun Tianyang cast a look at the devastated halls below, a monstrous killing intent surging within his heart. He roared angrily at Yang Yan,

"Little bastard, today I will tear you limb from limb!"

Sun Tianyang had reached the absolute peak of fury. Not only had both of his sons died at Yang Yan's hands, but the Kunyang Sect—which he had spent decades painstakingly building—had also been reduced to this wretched state by this young man.

Yang Yan took in every bit of the hatred in Sun Tianyang's eyes. A mocking smile instantly surfaced on his face, and he suddenly shouted back coldly,

"You old dog, the Kunyang Sect's fate today is entirely your own doing. Back then, my father regarded you as an elder brother, holding absolute trust in you. Even on his deathbed, he never harbored the slightest doubt, leaving behind a blood-written letter telling me to come to the Kunyang Sect in Qingzhou if I ever faced hardship. Who would have thought that you are nothing more than a backstabbing ingrate who betrayed his sworn brother? If I, Yang Yan, do not wipe out your Kunyang Sect and execute you, this old dog, here today, how could I ever face my father in the netherworld? Old dog, prepare to die!"

Yang Yan's frigid shout detailed indisputable facts, leaving Sun Tianyang with no room whatsoever to refute.

Indeed, Yang Yan's father had acted with utmost benevolence and righteousness toward this sworn brother of his. When Sun Tianyang initially claimed he wanted to build a faction, Yang Yan came to his aid without a second thought. Sun Tianyang's original intention had been to exploit Yang Yan's strength and reputation to serve as his free enforcer.

However, as the Kunyang Sect grew increasingly prosperous, Sun Tianyang began to grow apprehensive that Yang Yan might covet the sect. After all, a vast majority of the loyal subordinates who had built the sect alongside them looked up to Yang Yan as their leader. Therefore, although Sun Tianyang was nominally the master of the Kunyang Sect, his actual prestige within the sect fell short of Yang Yan's.

Such a situation naturally troubled him. If Yang Yan were to harbor thoughts of seizing the sect, Sun Tianyang would undoubtedly find himself at an overwhelming disadvantage, and his hard-earned empire of decades would vanish into thin air.

Just as he was racking his brain for an excuse to drive Yang Yan away, it happened to coincide with the birth of Yang Yan's child. Overjoyed, Yang Yan dropped everything concerning the Kunyang Sect without hesitation and happily returned to Jinzhou for a family reunion.

Sun Tianyang had secretly breathed a sigh of relief at this. This was precisely why he chose to frame Yang Yan's family: that guy had a notoriously stubborn, single-track mind and utterly disdained worldly factions and powers—making him the easiest kind of person to exploit.

There were rumors that three major sects within the empire had sent representatives trying to invite Yang Yan to join them, only to be rejected by that fellow without a single moment of hesitation. Such bold resolve was something ordinary people could never muster.

Shortly after that incident, a mysterious faction approached him with extremely tempting conditions, instructing him to make a covert move against Yang Yan and assist in hunting down the whereabouts of the Devour-Treasure Pearl.

At the time, he had hesitated, but the thought of the generous rewards proposed by the other party completely dispelled his misgivings, and he agreed.

Consequently, among the masked men in black who pursued Yang Yan's family sixteen years ago, there were indeed members of the Kunyang Sect.

Yet, he had not personally taken part, and the men he dispatched were his most trusted subordinates—most of whom had joined the Kunyang Sect later on—leaving Yang Yan entirely in the dark about their true identities.

To be frank, given Sun Tianyang's cultivation talent, it would have been utterly impossible for him to reach the second layer of the Spirit Sea Realm at such an age. When he first befriended Yang Yan's father, the latter was already a powerhouse at the fifth layer of the Spiritual Realm, whereas Sun Tianyang's strength was merely at the first layer, despite being nearly twenty years older.

Naturally, Yang Yan was magnanimous and straightforward; as long as the personalities matched, he would befriend even a commoner. Therefore, he had never cared about the disparity in their cultivation levels at the time, and Sun Tianyang had precisely exploited this flaw in his character.

The reason for his explosive surge in strength over the years was directly linked to the mastermind behind the murder of Yang Yan's father.

Backed by such a powerful faction, the cultivation resources Sun Tianyang obtained—including martial arts techniques, cultivation methods, and medicinal pills—were simply unobtainable within the Kunyang Sect. Thus, fueled by these numerous favorable conditions, he was able to achieve what he did today.

Sun Tianyang was inherently an ambitious man. Having gained power, he was unwilling to remain subordinate to others, and thus he intended to secretly acquire the Devour-Treasure Pearl to study it himself.

Although his behind-the-scenes instigators had not told him the true purpose of the object, Sun Tianyang had managed to deduce a few things through subtle hints, guessing that it was undoubtedly a rare and peerless treasure.

Since even the faction backing him desired it so urgently, he might as well seize it for himself and study it thoroughly. If he reaped any rewards, he would surely be able to break free from the shackles of his backers—after all, being subservient to others for a lifetime did not suit his nature.

Yet, despite inquiring about it secretly and openly for all these years, he had never found any trace of Yang Yan's descendants. When his subordinates previously reported that Yang Yan had hurled the Devour-Treasure Pearl along with his infant son off a sheer precipice on his deathbed, Sun Tianyang had searched that region dozens of times to no avail.

Over the years, the hope in his heart had gradually faded, and he assumed that both Yang Yan and the Devour-Treasure Pearl had been devoured by wild beasts in the mountains.

Thanks to Zhang Tai's watertight secrecy—claiming Yang Yan was merely an adopted child taken in from elsewhere—Sun Tianyang had never suspected that Yang Yan could still be alive.

Just as he was on the verge of abandoning all hope, Yang Yan had actively sought him out. With Sun Tianyang's cunning, fox-like nature, he naturally would not have believed Yang Yan's words so easily; however, the moment he laid eyes on that blood-written letter, all doubt vanished from his heart. He knew his sworn brother's handwriting and tone of voice far too well.

Upon confirming Yang Yan's identity, a wave of wild joy had surged within him. Having lurked in Qingzhou for decades, he finally saw an opportunity to dominate the cultivation world of the Fengyun Empire. Naturally, he was not about to let it slip away. Therefore, after probing Yang Yan's strength, he decided to have his two sons personally attack Yang Yan and unearth the whereabouts of the Devour-Treasure Pearl.

Never in his wildest dreams had he expected that even his own strength would fail to accurately gauge Yang Yan's true cultivation, leading him to fall into a trap that cost his two sons their lives.

Amidst his grief and hatred, the astonishing cultivation talent and prowess displayed by Yang Yan only served to cement one certainty in his mind: the Devour-Treasure Pearl must be on Yang Yan!

Reaching the peak of the Spiritual Realm at the mere age of seventeen or eighteen, coupled with those freakishly powerful and bizarre martial arts techniques, and a soul force surpassing his own—Sun Tianyang was convinced that none of this was a coincidence.

There was only one possible explanation: Yang Yan had gained unimaginable benefits from the Devour-Treasure Pearl!

Realizing this, a latent frenzy stirred deep within Sun Tianyang's heart.

In truth, for a man capable of turning against his own sworn brother, familial ties held virtually no restrictive power. While his two sons held a slightly different place in his heart compared to others, they were still far from enough to compare with his grand ambition of hegemony.

If he lost sons, he could always father more. But the fleeting opportunity to capture Yang Yan and obtain the Devour-Treasure Pearl was a once-in-a-lifetime chance that would never come again.

Yet, the immediate problem confronting him was that the methods and formidable strength Yang Yan currently displayed far exceeded his previous expectations, even posing a genuine threat to him.

Even when he had unleashed high-tier martial arts techniques like the Roaring Lion's Furious Qi, he had still failed to shatter Yang Yan's attacks, and he himself had suffered minor injuries from the preceding spiritual shockwave.

Even so, he had completely run out of options. Their relationship had reached a point of irreconcilable enmity; even if he were to humiliate himself and beg for mercy on his knees, judging by the ruthlessness Yang Yan had shown, he would never be spared.

With a roar, Yang Yan instantly executed the Heavenly Void Clear Step. His movement appeared utterly bizarre, yet possessed a terrifying speed. One second Yang Yan was hundreds of feet away, and in the blink of an eye, he had closed the distance to within dozens of feet of Sun Tianyang!

Supplemented by the reinforcement of his soul force, the speed Yang Yan displayed was faintly beginning to outstrip Sun Tianyang's.

At this moment, Yang Yan had fully activated his Profound Ice Body, enveloping his entire body in the torrential water-attribute spiritual energy surging from his Qi sea. Matching his terrifying speed, he blasted straight toward Sun Tianyang, hammering his fist—laden with piercing, biting gales—directly toward Sun Tianyang's head.

As Yang Yan's strength had grown, any casual punch he threw possessed the might to split mountains and shatter earth. Coinciding with the dual reinforcement of his spiritual energy and physical body, the very instant his fist swung out, the air directly in front of him shattered violently, swirling into tornado-like tempests. A brief vacuum formed instantly before his fist, and faint, pitch-black spatial tears flickered wherever his knuckles passed—one could easily imagine the sheer devastation of that blow.

Faced with such a ferocious onslaught from Yang Yan, Sun Tianyang naturally dared not slack off in the slightest. Fire-attribute spiritual energy erupted across his body once more as he charged straight at Yang Yan.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

In mid-air, the relentless collision of two figures produced continuous sounds of physical impact. Every single clash between the two kicked off piercing shockwave ripples resembling howling gales, instantly driving the ambient energy between heaven and earth into a state of violent turmoil.

The longer they fought, the more alarmed Sun Tianyang became. Earlier, when they had both tested Zhang Tai, he had merely thought Yang Yan's spiritual energy cultivation was somewhat tricky. But once they entered close-quarters hand-to-hand combat, he realized to his horror that he was actually falling behind in this style of fighting.

Because Yang Yan, having unleashed the Heavenly Void Clear Step, now surpassed him in pure speed.

What troubled him even more was Yang Yan's freakish physical strength, which far exceeded that of ordinary mortals.

Only now did he truly understand the meaning of the term "human-shaped tank."

Every single one of his attacks, upon contacting Yang Yan, felt as though it had struck an iron plate, sending a turbulent surge of blood through his meridians. Yang Yan's entire body had hardened into something indestructible; while his own strikes inflicted virtually no damage on Yang Yan, taking even a single mistimed punch from Yang Yan would prove thoroughly agonizing.

As the battle wore on, Sun Tianyang gradually found himself on the defensive, and Yang Yan's fierce offensive had already inflicted internal injuries upon him.

"I cannot drag this out any longer!"

A resolute decision formed within Sun Tianyang's mind.

Judging by the strength Yang Yan currently exhibited, he was at a disadvantage in both close-quarters combat and soul force. Pitting his weaknesses against the other's strengths was a dead end; widening the distance and engaging in a battle of pure spiritual energy was his only path to victory.

Yet, even as he made up his mind, Yang Yan's attacks clung to him like bone-gnawing maggots, tailing him relentlessly like a torrential storm, granting him not the slightest opening to extricate himself.

Amidst this continuous onslaught, his body took several heavy punches from Yang Yan. A turbulent wave of blood surged within him, and he coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood.

Realizing this, Sun Tianyang hardened his heart. Continuing this stalemate held zero benefits for him.

Steeling himself, he chose to take Yang Yan's incoming punch head-on. As his figure blasted backward, he leveraged the kinetic force of Yang Yan's strike to rocket himself nearly a hundred feet away in an instant.

Seeing this, a trace of surprise flickered in Yang Yan's heart. Sun Tianyang truly lived up to his reputation as the master of the Qingzhou Kunyang Sect; being able to stand tall in the Qingzhou cultivation world for so many years meant he indeed possessed extraordinary traits—even if those traits were acquired through the betrayal of friends.

Yet, the cultivation world was inherently a place where the weak were prey to the strong. If one were like a flower in a greenhouse, lacking worldly experience and harboring naive kindness, survival in such a treacherous realm was nearly impossible.

As the saying goes, the good die young while villains live for millennia; the cultivation world offered countless living examples of this truth.

While Yang Yan was ruthless toward his enemies, his personality actually bore a striking resemblance to his father's. He never showed the slightest mercy when dealing with foes, but toward the friends and family he acknowledged, he would exhaust every ounce of his being to protect them. Unlike his father, however, Yang Yan was far sharper in judging character; at least among the few friends he acknowledged, not a single one possessed the capacity to betray him.

Retreating a distance, Sun Tianyang wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, fixing his gaze on Yang Yan with the cold malice of a venomous snake, and hissed viciously,

"Little bastard, today I will make you die here no matter what!"

Consumed by blistering fury, Sun Tianyang—who had enjoyed fame in the Qingzhou cultivation world for decades—had never suffered such utter humiliation, let alone being driven to this pathetic state by a youth of seventeen or eighteen.

Not only had both his sons been slaughtered, but the Kunyang Sect itself had been reduced to ruins.

If Yang Yan were allowed to escape alive today, he would no longer have the face to show himself in the Qingzhou cultivation world.

As murderous rage surged within him, Sun Tianyang slammed a sudden palm against his own chest, and a mouthful of vital essence blood spewed from his lips.

Rather than scattering upon the ground, that cluster of vital essence blood seemed guided by some unseen force in mid-air, weaving into a bizarre pattern before mapping itself directly onto his chest.

With a muffled pop, the robes across Sun Tianyang's chest shattered completely. Though invisible to Yang Yan's eyes, the eerie blood-red runes formed by his vital essence blood had branded themselves onto his chest like a tattoo, with fresh crimson blood endlessly circulating through them, exuding an eerie and dangerous aura.

As the fresh blood coursed through those uncanny diagrams, Sun Tianyang's aura began to skyrocket once more.

Third layer of the Spirit Sea Realm, fourth layer... until finally, Sun Tianyang's aura surged all the way to the threshold of the fifth layer of the Spirit Sea Realm!

A deep shock rippled through Yang Yan's heart. Secret techniques capable of elevating one's strength in a short span of time were exceedingly rare. Once a cultivator reached the Spirit Sea Realm, every single layer of advancement required a colossal amount of energy; therefore, for a cultivator at this level to use a secret art to boost their strength by a single layer was already an astonishing feat. Yet Sun Tianyang had forcefully elevated his power by nearly three layers in one go!

Such a feat was truly startling.

What Yang Yan did not know was that Sun Tianyang had been driven to a desperate, heaven-defying extremity to employ this secret art; otherwise, he would never have resorted to it lightly.

While this secret art granted an immense surge in power, the price exacted from the cultivator was beyond what ordinary men could bear. The toll it took on the physical body was astronomical, and it could only be sustained for a mere ten minutes. Once those ten minutes expired, the user would plummet into a state of total exhaustion, devoid of the slightest combat capability.

Furthermore, the terrifying backlash would leave the caster bedridden for half a month.

With such a heavy price paid, achieving this magnitude of power amplification was only to be expected.

As Sun Tianyang's cultivation aura soared, the pupils in his eyes transformed entirely into a scarlet hue, imparting a terrifying and ghastly appearance.

Having abandoned any desire for idle chatter with Yang Yan, Sun Tianyang abruptly shook both arms. The eerie blood-red runes on his chest began to writhe, faintly condensing into streams of crimson blood that ultimately enveloped his entire body.

"Blood Demon's Lament!"

A furious roar burst from Sun Tianyang's lips. The torrents of blood wrapped around his entire body like a blood-drenched cocoon, and the moment his shout fell, his physical frame began to expand rapidly. Within mere breaths, it ballooned to a height of several dozen feet.

Under Yang Yan's astonished gaze, Sun Tianyang's form continued to swell until it finally manifested as a scarlet monster roughly twenty feet in size in mid-air.

The beast possessed a gaping blood-red maw and bore a canine-like shape—remarkably similar to a hound, save for the fact that it was a monster stained entirely in red, radiating a chilling terror.

"Blood Fiend Slays the Heavens!"

At a certain moment, a furious howl burst from the monster's jaws toward the heavens. Its massive form began to spin like a top, accelerating at a breakneck pace until it transformed directly into a crimson blood sphere twenty feet wide.

Inside the blood sphere, pulses beat rhythmically like a living heart, and with every single beat, ripples of terrifying energy storms erupted. The entire world darkened abruptly, lightning flashing and thunder roaring as if the apocalypse had arrived.

Yang Yan's expression turned intensely grave. He had run out of retreats, and he could sense a genuine, life-threatening aura of danger emanating from that blood sphere.

Without a moment's hesitation, Yang Yan flipped his palm, and a black light seal manifested within his grasp.

It was none other than the mid-grade treasured artifact he had previously seized from those fellows of the Heavenly Dragon Empire—the Black Dragon Annihilating Heaven Seal!

Ever since acquiring this magical treasure, Yang Yan had never found an appropriate opportunity to unleash it. He naturally coveted the matching martial arts techniques designed for it, and had therefore been practicing them in secret ever since obtaining it.

Though driving this item with dark-attribute spiritual energy would yield multiplied effects and power, Yang Yan possessed the primordial yin constitution; the primordial yin energy within his body was only stronger than dark-attribute spiritual energy, making it supremely suited for activating the Black Dragon Seal.

Moreover, Yang Yan was no longer who he used to be. His current strength had reached the peak of the Spiritual Realm, and the spiritual energy in his body was no weaker than that of the black-clad man from the Heavenly Dragon Empire. He harbored absolute confidence that the Black Dragon Seal would bloom with peerless brilliance in his hands.

With that thought, boundless heroic spirit surged within Yang Yan. With a hearty laugh, a steady stream of spiritual energy poured into the black seal. A close inspection would reveal that every trace of spiritual energy surging from his body was pitch black.