Chapter 157 Overwhelming Combat Power

The indifferent youth jerked backward in a hasty retreat.

As Yi Tian punched forward continuously, boundless solar flames erupted, blazing enough to scorch the heavens and boil the oceans. The youth felt a sense of extreme danger; the primordial essence gathered into protective elemental shields could not withstand it even for a fraction of a second.

Seeing his opponent retreat, Yi Tian instantly closed the distance.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Every single punch of his could shake the void, and torrents of flames filled the air, incinerating everything. The indifferent youth felt an unbearable heat as soon as he came within dozens of paces of Yi Tian, a terrifying scorching power sufficient to swallow him whole.

Consequently, the indifferent youth maintained his distance from Yi Tian.

Of course, his attacks did not stop.

He traced out streaks of terrifying, silent dark light, possessing a horrifying penetrating power, and swept toward Yi Tian’s position.

Even though those dark rays of light had more than half of their power incinerated by the solar flames, they still pierced through that space of dozens of paces, striking right in front of Yi Tian with extreme ferocity and peril.

Swish!

With a thought from his divine mind, Yi Tian vanished into thin air the next moment and reappeared directly in front of the indifferent youth.

Boom...

Yi Tian threw a punch.

The indifferent youth's expression shifted as a cloud of black mist suddenly surged from his body, scattering like haze in an instant.

"Ah!"

Yi Tian's fist smashed into the dispersing black mist, and the terrifying solar flames instantly annihilated a large portion of it.

The next moment, the wisps of black mist scattered and then reassembled in the distance, manifesting the figure of the indifferent youth.

However, his complexion was somewhat pale at this moment.

The blow Yi Tian had just dealt him caused him no small amount of injury.

"Die!"

Murderous intent surged overwhelmingly within the indifferent youth.

He had not expected the youth before him to be this formidable. The monstrous flames were simply too terrifying, to the point that even he could not withstand them, and the black mist he transformed into had been effortlessly eroded and incinerated.

As a seed-level disciple of the Dark Gate and a top-tier expert at the Primordial Dan level, being suppressed and injured by his opponent was a supreme humiliation and shock to him.

One must know that he hailed from the Dark Gate, a deeply mysterious sect. However, the legacy of this sect was extremely brutal, requiring countless trials of hardship with an exceptionally high mortality rate.

The arts they practiced in the Dark Gate were assassination techniques—highly bizarre and endlessly troublesome. To martial artists of the same realm, they were utterly terrifying.

"Triple Bursting Qi Strike!"

Suddenly, the aura of the indifferent youth surged violently, and a formidable pressure pervaded the air.

The next moment, he appeared in front of Yi Tian as if teleporting, his short sword slashing toward Yi Tian in an instant.

Swish!

Yi Tian shifted away.

The short sword in his opponent's hand was a top-tier lower-grade magical treasure, incomparably sharp. Even though his physical body was extremely resilient, injuries would be inevitable, so he chose not to take the blow head-on.

Yet at that very moment, the indifferent youth instantly caught up with Yi Tian, his attack descending once again.

When Yi Tian once again executed his divine movement technique to evade the strike, the opponent reappeared like a shadow clinging to its form, as if he had been locked onto by the adversary and could not shake him off.

Faced with the relentless aggression of the indifferent youth, Yi Tian ceased his evasive maneuvers.

Only one of them could survive this encounter.

This meant that Yi Tian had no choice but to engage in a decisive battle with his opponent; dodging could not resolve the issue.

Realizing this, Yi Tian let out a loud shout and grabbed directly at the short sword the indifferent youth was bringing down.

Clang...

That ghostly and terrifying sword was grasped firmly by Yi Tian’s right hand, producing a piercing metallic screech and scattering sparks in all directions. Yi Tian’s large hand was like the sturdiest mountain, completely locking the short sword in place.

Shock burst within the eyes of the indifferent youth.

He felt as though the short sword in his hand had been firmly nailed into the void, making it utterly impossible to pull it back.

He could even see that Yi Tian’s large hand had only been sliced open with a shallow bloody gash by his sword.

"How can his physical body be so formidable!"

This thought flashed through the mind of the indifferent youth, and the shock in his heart lingered for a long time.

However, his attack did not cease.

Another short sword suddenly appeared in his left hand. Incredibly sharp, it turned out to be a transcendent lower-grade magical treasure. Although it could not compare to the other one, this alone showed how immensely wealthy his assets were.

"Divided Sword Art!"

With a soft cry, the short sword in his left hand abruptly swept across the void, transforming into two streams of sword light that assaulted Yi Tian.

This attack was extremely venomous and bizarre.

Even Yi Tian could not have imagined, for a split second, that his opponent's offensive would be so continuous and unbroken.

Just like that, caught off guard, Yi Tian was struck on the body by the two streams of sword light instantly. Two long sword wounds appeared, biting three points deep into his flesh, which constituted a considerable injury for Yi Tian.

"Die!"

Yi Tian had not expected that after his magical treasure was seized, the opponent would not choose to retreat, but instead launch a fatal attack against him.

Yet, his opponent had still miscalculated.

Yi Tian’s Vajra Indestructible Profound Art had broken through to the third level, successfully withstanding his full-strength attack.

Yi Tian’s physical body was capable of resisting attacks from top-tier human-realm experts; even top-tier lower-grade magical treasures struggled to tear his flesh. It could be said that he held a massive advantage in combat.

Ordinary human-realm experts, no matter how astonishing their battle prowess, would generally not have terrifyingly strong physical bodies unless they practiced body-refinement techniques. Being able to reach the strength level of ordinary lower-grade magical treasures was already quite astonishing; such physical bodies would still suffer injuries or even be slain when facing attacks from elemental-qi-level human-realm experts.

Even entities like earth-realm behemoths did not possess much stronger physical bodies. Even after years of subtle and imperceptible tempering, their physical bodies might break through to the level of transcendent or even top-tier lower-grade magical treasures. Yet, against the world-destroying attacks of peers of the same rank, their physical bodies were undoubtedly the most fragile part.

It could be said that no matter how powerful their cultivation base was, their physical bodies remained relatively weak. If they were careless, even beings with low cultivation bases could threaten their lives.

Yi Tian believed that once he cultivated the third level of the Vajra Indestructible Profound Art to its absolute peak, the attacks of the youth before him would fail to cause him any harm whatsoever.

The indifferent youth’s momentum was now exhausted, and at this moment, it was Yi Tian’s optimal opportunity to strike.

"Die!"

Yi Tian grabbed the short sword with one hand and clenched his fist with the other. Suddenly, the solar flames surged violently, resembling the descent of a fire god, appearing like a miniature sun in the thousands of paces of void.

Boom!

With a single punch from him, the entire heaven and earth lit up.

"Shadow-Transformation Art!"

The indifferent youth abruptly transformed into a sky full of black mist.

However, Yi Tian’s terrifying punch had already smashed into the endless black mist, and the horrifying solar flames instantly swept across the surroundings, continuously incinerating the countless wisps of black mist.

"Ah!"

A miserable scream echoed across the void.

The next moment, a figure tumbled out in a wretched state. At this point, his entire body was charred black, looking utterly miserable, and his life aura was rapidly fading away.

Boom!

A terrifying flame erupted from within his body, rapidly burning his physical form into wisps of green smoke in an instant.

Immediately after, a small pagoda plummeted downward, accompanied by a top-tier lower-grade magical short sword and another transcendent lower-grade magical short sword.

Yi Tian stepped forward and caught them all with one hand.

As Yi Tian caught the small pagoda, he sensed its extraordinary nature; an immensely vast and terrifying energy seemed to be contained within it, and once activated, it would trigger earth-shattering might.

Could this small pagoda be a top-grade magical treasure?

This thought flashed through Yi Tian’s mind.

He was unaware of the news concerning the emergence of the Heavenly Square Treasure Pagoda; however, the aura of this small pagoda was a thousand times, ten thousand times more terrifying and massive than the Earth Fire Bead. For Yi Tian, it was not difficult to distinguish.

At the same time, Yi Tian searched around, but failed to find the storage ring on the indifferent youth.

It was likely that the storage ring on his person had been thoroughly destroyed by Yi Tian's solar flames.

Yi Tian quickly cast his gaze toward the disciples of the God-Protecting Sect and Duo Feng whom he had slain earlier. The storage rings on them had probably not been ransacked yet, and there might be plenty of resources inside.

Leaving the resources in those storage rings to rot here would truly be a waste; it would be better to repurpose them to avoid letting others benefit.

Just as Yi Tian was about to scavenge those storage rings, several figures suddenly appeared in the distance.

Not good!

Seeing this, Yi Tian immediately turned around and left.

He possessed the precious treasure of the small pagoda on his person. Once discovered, it would undoubtedly provoke covetousness and attempts to seize it by force. Moreover, with so many people having been slain here, he might be mistaken for the sole perpetrator who killed them all. At that point, it would be impossible to clear his name. Better to slip away quietly and save himself a world of trouble.