Chapter 358 - 355: Surpassing the Ranking
Chapter 358: Chapter 355: Surpassing the Ranking
"Duan Wuya, did the Netherworld Pavilion order you to attack me?"
Not a hint of panic showed on Fang Han’s composed expression. He spoke slowly, his voice steady.
His confidence was rooted in a strength that surpassed his ranking on the Celestial Pride List.
Upon hearing this, the curve of Duan Wuya’s lips widened slightly, revealing a playful, mocking smile.
He straightened up, twirling his long saber in a flourish before letting the tip point diagonally toward the ground.
"The Netherworld Pavilion? Yes, they did give an order."
He spoke unhurriedly, as if stating a trivial matter of no consequence.
"However, that is not the main reason I am here today."
He paused, his dark red eyes fixed on Fang Han’s face, as if searching for any flicker of emotion.
"Someone has paid a high price for your life."
"Someone wants to buy my life?"
Fang Han’s eyes flickered as a name quickly surfaced in his mind.
He spoke, his voice still steady, but beneath the calm, a sharp, icy edge could be felt.
"Was it Wan Yuntian?"
Duan Wuya raised an eyebrow slightly. A flash of surprise in his eyes quickly morphed into even deeper amusement.
He didn’t deny it, merely letting out a soft chuckle that sounded exceptionally jarring in the quiet forest.
"Not too stupid, are you."
Duan Wuya offered his praise, but his tone held no sincerity.
"A pity you won’t live past today. You’ll never get your revenge on him."
"I don’t think so."
Fang Han said, his gaze profound.
When the Ten Thousand Treasures Building had offered their apology, he’d had a vague premonition. Based on what he knew of Wan Yuntian’s personality from the intelligence gathered by Tingyu Hall, Wan Yuntian was not one to let things go.
Now, his suspicions were confirmed. Wan Yuntian had indeed not given up. In fact, he had escalated things, actually bribing Duan Wuya to take his life.
"Is that all? How boring!"
A look of boredom crossed Duan Wuya’s face.
He had originally thought that upon learning the truth, Fang Han would become angry, fearful, question him hysterically, or perhaps even beg for his life in despair.
All of those were his favorite kind of "appetizers."
However, Fang Han’s expression remained calm.
There was no furious roar, no fearful trembling, not even a single curse uttered against Wan Yuntian.
This reaction was far too dull.
He sighed softly, but the sigh was laced with an irrepressible killing intent.
"There’s no fun in teasing you. Let’s just get down to business."
Before his words had even faded, the aura around him erupted!
A terrifying pressure, like a tangible mountain, crushed down on the surroundings.
The surrounding air suddenly stagnated, and the fallen leaves on the ground were blasted away by an invisible Qi Force, revealing the dark soil beneath.
On his dark red long saber, a crimson light surged. The blade hummed, like a long-starved beast that had finally caught the scent of blood.
He moved.
No build-up, no warning—just a single strike.
SWOOSH—!
The long saber, wreathed in dark red Saber Qi, tore through the air with a piercing shriek as it slashed directly at Fang Han.
This strike held no flashy moves, only pure, overwhelming dominance and killing intent.
Wherever the Saber Qi passed, the air was ripped apart, creating a series of sonic booms.
Fang Han’s gaze sharpened.
The Cloud Splitting Sword was instantly unsheathed, its dark cyan blade glinting with a cold light under the sun.
He did not retreat, nor did he dodge. He met the attack head-on!
CLANG—!!!
Sword and saber clashed violently in mid-air!
A deafening metallic shriek exploded like a thunderclap on a clear day, startling countless birds into flight from the forest.
Dark red and deep cyan light frantically intertwined, eroded, and annihilated each other.
Immediately after, a visible ring-shaped shockwave radiated wildly from the point of impact like a tsunami.
BOOM! RUMBLE—!
The scene left in the shockwave’s wake was horrifying.
The trees on both sides of the main road were battered as if by a typhoon, sending a shower of splintered branches and shredded leaves flying everywhere.
The ground was scraped clean of its top layer, kicking up a towering cloud of dust and dirt.
At the center of the Qi Force, Fang Han and Duan Wuya both grunted, their bodies hurtling backward uncontrollably.
Fang Han retreated more than ten steps, each step leaving a deep footprint in the hard ground, with spiderweb-like cracks spreading from them.
The arm holding his sword was slightly numb, and the qi and blood within him churned, but his gaze remained as sharp as a blade.
Duan Wuya also retreated more than ten steps, his feet carving two deep trenches in the earth.
He steadied himself and glanced down at his right hand. The webbing between his thumb and forefinger was faintly numb.
Lifting his head, he stared intently at Fang Han with his dark red eyes. The initial playfulness and mockery had completely vanished, replaced by solemnity.
"Impressive Swordsmanship."
He spoke in a low, hoarse voice.
Fang Han didn’t respond, merely holding his sword horizontally before him, his gaze as calm as still water.
The next moment—
SWISH! SWISH!
The two of them shot forward at almost the same time.
Fang Han pushed his Wind and Cloud Escape to its limit, his figure seeming to merge with the wind, becoming a faint cyan afterimage—ethereal and impossible to track.
The Cloud Splitting Sword transformed into streaks of cyan light, stabbing, paring, and slashing. Each move was incomparably sharp, carrying a ferocity that could tear through anything.
Duan Wuya’s Body Technique was equally strange. The Netherworld Pavilion’s Qinggong was known for its dark, phantom-like movements. His figure moved like a ghost, weaving through the sky full of sword shadows.
His dark red long saber spun like a wheel, its Saber Qi crisscrossing the air. Every slash seethed with brutal killing intent, clashing violently with Fang Han’s Sword Qi.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG—!
The sound of metal on metal rang out in a dense, rapid-fire succession, like popping beans.
Sword Qi and Saber Qi spilled out, laying waste to everything around them.
A massive boulder, as tall as a man, was grazed by a strand of Sword Qi and split silently in two, the cross-section as smooth as a mirror.
An ancient tree, so thick it would take two people to encircle it, was struck by Saber Qi and exploded with a BANG, sending splinters flying.
The ground was densely covered with a crisscrossing network of sword and saber marks, several feet deep, as if it had been repeatedly plowed by countless sharp blades.
The two fought speed with speed, their figures flashing, clashing, separating, and clashing again amidst the devastated forest.
Every exchange unleashed a deafening roar and an even more violent shockwave.
In an extremely short amount of time, the two had already exchanged over fifty moves!
The longer Duan Wuya fought, the more solemn his expression became.
He had thought he’d already overestimated Fang Han, but he had still, in fact, underestimated him.
Fifty moves had passed, and he had not gained the slightest advantage!
Fang Han’s Body Technique was phantom-like and elusive. He was always able to dodge his killing blows at the last possible second and counterattack from an unexpected angle.
Even more terrifying was Fang Han’s Swordsmanship; it was unbelievably fierce.
Every thrust carried a Realm that seemed capable of tearing everything apart, as if he wasn’t wielding a sword, but the sharpest wind between heaven and earth.
’Fang Han’s strength is definitely not just fifty-fifth on the Celestial Pride List!’
Duan Wuya was inwardly stunned.
After another fierce clash, both were thrown back, landing dozens of yards apart to face each other from a distance.
Duan Wuya stood with his saber, his chest heaving slightly, his dark red eyes locked on Fang Han.
He took a deep breath, and the aura around him suddenly transformed!
BOOM—!
An aura far more violent and terrifying than before erupted from within him.
The intensity of this aura far surpassed the Late Stage of Fourth Grade; it had astonishingly reached the Late-Stage Fourth Grade Limit. It was as if a long-slumbering beast had finally opened its crimson eyes.
His black robes whipped about him in the windless air, and the ground beneath his feet cracked and splintered.
The crimson light on the dark red long saber surged, becoming almost tangible. The blade vibrated with a low hum, emitting a hungry shriek.
Fang Han’s expression tightened.
This aura was infinitely close to the Third Grade!
"Surprised?"
Duan Wuya spoke hoarsely, a cruel smile playing on his lips.
"That weakling Wan Yuntian gave me a five-hundred-year-old Blood Coral."
"Although it wasn’t enough to help me break through to the Third Grade, it pushed me into the Late-Stage Fourth Grade Limit. I’m now just one step away from the Third Grade."
He slowly raised his long saber, its tip pointed at Fang Han from afar.
"Possessing strength far beyond your rank on the Celestial Pride List, Fang Han, you have indeed surprised me. But you still won’t be leaving here alive today."
Even after witnessing Fang Han’s strength, he was still confident he could kill him. The reason was simple: he, too, possessed strength far beyond his rank on the Celestial Pride List.
As his voice fell, he moved.
This time, his speed was at least thirty percent faster than before!
The dark red saber light, like a bolt of crimson lightning tearing through the heavens, slashed fiercely toward Fang Han with world-ending power!
Wherever the saber light passed, the air was ripped asunder with a piercing shriek.
The ground was cleaved open, leaving a hideous chasm several feet deep and over a hundred yards long. The earth at its edges was overturned and scorched black.
Even the light itself seemed to be devoured by this strike. Between heaven and earth, only that indestructible crimson remained.
Fang Han’s pupils contracted sharply.
He could feel the terror of this strike.
But he did not retreat.
The Inner Qi from the Profound Wind Technique surged through him at an unprecedented speed. The vast Inner Qi of a Late Stage of Fourth Grade cultivator poured into the Cloud Splitting Sword without reservation.
On the sword’s blade, a cyan brilliance erupted, accompanied by a clear, ear-splitting ring.
The Sword Momentum of the Nine Swords of Sky Splitting, at the Great Success Level, was pushed to its absolute limit!
Seventy percent of his Wind Momentum was frantically gathered and compressed onto the sword’s edge.
At the tip of the sword, the air shrieked as it was torn apart. A transparent ripple spread out, as if space itself was about to be ripped open by this one strike.
Sky Splitting!
Fang Han roared in his heart as his Cloud Splitting Sword, now a cyan streak of light containing all of his Essence, Qi, and Spirit, shot forward to meet the crimson saber light!
CLANG—!!!
Saber and sword clashed head-on for the second time!
This collision was far more violent, far more terrifying than any before!
Dark red and deep cyan light madly intertwined, crushed, and annihilated one another, as if invisible thunder was roaring and countless sharp blades were slicing through the air.
And then—
BOOM! RUMBLE—!!!
A world-shaking explosion, like a chain of thunderclaps from the highest heavens, threatened to rupture one’s eardrums.
A visible, ring-shaped shockwave radiated wildly from the point of impact like a tsunami!
The scene left in the shockwave’s wake was apocalyptic.
Within a radius of thirty yards, every tree, regardless of thickness, was either uprooted or snapped in half. Broken branches and shredded leaves filled the sky as if swept up by a hurricane.
Several feet of the ground’s surface was scraped away, revealing bare rock beneath. The rock itself was covered in a network of deep, bottomless cracks.
A massive boulder weighing well over a thousand pounds was caught in the shockwave and instantly exploded, shattering into countless fist-sized rocks that shot out in all directions.
Even a small hill in the distance had a corner sheared off by the aftershock, sending earth and stone tumbling down and raising a massive cloud of dust.
Dust filled the air, blotting out the sun. For hundreds of yards around, there was nothing but chaos.