The middle-aged man's heart skipped a beat. "You... you've been on guard against me all along!"
"Haha, I've been waiting for you! Yet you only strike now!" Qin Yang observed his opponent's Boulder Crushing Hand technique and felt a spark of recognition.
The Boulder Crushing Hand's attack was ferocious, concentrating all bodily strength into the palm, exuding an unstoppable momentum. Yet its weakness was glaringly obvious - beyond the devastating power of that single strike, the practitioner's entire body became vulnerable!
"Unstable lower stance. No room for redirection. While the all-in approach is bold, it's ultimately..."
"Breeze Brushing Willows!"
Qin Yang chuckled, his body shifting diagonally as his right hand gently swept upward.
The middle-aged man's palm glowed with an eerie azure light, carrying enough force to split city gates. Yet in this moment, it proved utterly ineffective as Qin Yang casually deflected the strike aside.
"Impossible!" The man's pupils constricted. Had Qin Yang engaged in direct confrontation, he might have found countermeasures. But now...
All his energy had been channeled into his palm, leaving him completely unable to recover his strength. His body twisted awkwardly, leaving him completely exposed like fish meat on a butcher's block.
Seizing the opening, Qin Yang unleashed his Racing Thunder Fist, landing a critical strike to the opponent's waist.
Pfft! The middle-aged man coughed up blood, his body flying sideways. He crashed into a tree with a thud before collapsing to the ground.
Struggling to his feet, the man wiped the blood from his mouth.
"Damn you! You actually managed to outmaneuver me!" he snarled, his voice thick with hatred. "Next time, I'll crush your skull!"
Suppressing his injuries, the man circulated his true energy and charged forward again.
Not bad. His cultivation technique is solid, Qin Yang observed inwardly. If he'd been using any other method, that punch would have crippled him.
"You call this 'outmaneuvering' when you were the one sneaking up behind me?" Qin Yang scoffed. "Pathetic! Since you want a fair fight, I'll grant you one!"
Boulder Crushing Hand! Qin Yang's eyes narrowed as he mirrored the man's technique.
The middle-aged man's eyes lit up with satisfaction. He'd been the one to break Qin Yang's defense earlier, leaving him severely injured. Now it was time to return the favor!
If he could divert Qin Yang's palm strike, he could counter with his own Boulder Crushing Hand - a single blow that would snap Qin Yang's torso in half at the waist!
"Rise!" The man thrust his arm forward, attempting to redirect Qin Yang's palm strike.
Qin Yang found this amusing. He twisted his palm, changing the forward strike into a downward one that landed squarely on the middle-aged man's hand.
Crack!
Their palms met in a resounding slap.
"Ah!" The man's hand was crushed into pulp, his bones shattered to dust.
"Impossible! How can you also know the Boulder Crushing Hand? The clan said you stole our Qin Family Martial Arts - it's true! And you've actually cultivated to this level?"
Sweating from the pain, the man gritted his teeth. "Even at the Great Accomplishment stage, the Boulder Crushing Hand shouldn't be so agile!"
"Have you been cultivating all this time and still don't understand the principle of holding back three parts of your strength?" Qin Yang asked with a smile.
"But if you do that, the power of the Boulder Crushing Hand will be greatly reduced!" the man protested.
Qin Yang shook his head slightly. "That's your fault for not cultivating a proper technique. By adjusting the timing and striking with full force when the opportunity arises, how could the power be reduced?"
The man clenched his jaw. "You little brat, you actually have some skills. Just wait!"
With that, he pulled out a piece of clothing from his robe and threw it high into the sky.
Qin Yang looked up at the spherical magical artifact. "What kind of thing is that? Why throw it so high? Could this be..."
The spherical artifact ascended into the sky. Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, and a pillar of red qi shot upward! After reaching incredible heights, the pillar dispersed into a crimson cloud visible for a hundred miles!
This massive red cloud was connected to the ground by a red thread. Anyone within a hundred-mile radius could easily locate the source!
"Holy shit, it really is a signal flare?" Qin Yang's face filled with frustration.
"Ha ha, scared now? The Qin Family has issued an Eight Divine Clans extermination order against you. All Qin members in the secret realm are searching for your trail right now. Just wait for death!" The middle-aged man sneered.
"Oh." Qin Yang's expression remained calm as he stared coldly at the man. "Whether I die remains to be seen, but... you're definitely dead."
The middle-aged man's face paled. "If you've got guts, don't use our Qin Family Martial Arts!"
"Your Qin Family Martial Arts?" Qin Yang laughed bitterly. "Let me show you what true Qin Family Martial Arts look like. Dying to this technique won't be such a bad way to go!"
Qin Yang's fingers formed a sword-like gesture, their tips glowing with a pale green-white true qi. He executed the Dragon Soaring Steps, appearing instantly beside the middle-aged man and making a light slicing motion at his neck.
The man's eyes widened. "Is that... the Shocking Sword Finger?" he thought, but no sound escaped his lips as his vision swam and darkened.
His head soared into the air like a kicked ball, rolling away across the ground.
The Qin family disciples who had surrounded Qin Yang earlier felt icy dread grip their hearts. In the blink of an eye, their leader lay dead?
"Shocking Sword Finger... That's our Qin Family's secret art! Only elders and core disciples are qualified to learn it!"
"Qin Wuyi is also a Qi Sea Realm cultivator. Why does Qin Yang's execution of this technique seem infinitely superior?"
The disciples exchanged glances. Someone gave a meaningful look, and several others produced magical artifacts.
"Strike while he's unprepared!" One disciple hurled his chains, the metallic clatter of links filling the air as the weapon descended like a net upon Qin Yang.
Others followed suit, unleashing hidden weapons - darts and blow arrows rained down on Qin Yang's position.
"You're all cut from the same cloth, aren't you? So fond of ambushes." Qin Yang snorted coldly, not even turning around as he took a gentle step forward.
Though he moved forward to evade, Qin Yang's figure vanished from his original position, reappearing behind the entire group!
The true essence of the Dragon Soaring Steps martial art was complete invisibility! Like a true dragon, glimpsing only the head without the tail. His direction of movement became utterly indiscernible!
"Shocking Sword Finger!"
His finger-like sword thrusts rained down, sending all opponents collapsing to the ground.
"Even I can't easily challenge beyond my rank, so where did you get your courage and confidence?" Qin Yang looked at the corpses, unable to suppress a laugh.
Looking up at the red cloud signal in the sky, the smile on Qin Yang's face grew even wider.
"I'll wait right here. Saves me the trouble of chasing after you." Qin Yang stood calmly in place, and within moments, his true qi had fully recovered to its peak.
"The Yin-Yang All-Embracing Art is truly heaven-defying..." he marveled, feeling the surging true qi within him.
"Qin Yang! How dare you kill so many of my Qin Family members?" A thunderous shout came from afar.
An old man suddenly appeared. After surveying the scene, his face darkened. "What boldness! You killed people and didn't even run? You actually stayed to await your death?"
Qin Yang slowly opened his eyes, his expression calm while his mind was filled with a chorus of "motherfuckers".
"A Zongshi Realm cultivator?" Black lines appeared on Qin Yang's face. He had only intended to wait for a few more recently killed groups, never expecting an elder to show up directly.