Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen: Suppressing the Venerable One

Jiang Fan slew Tao Cheng and beheaded Chen Guang in the blink of an eye.

Neither of these two was any ordinary figure.

Tao Cheng was the chief disciple at the heart of the Hidden God Sect, ranked third on the Human List, even above Lei Chen, fully capable of standing against an ordinary primal spirit expert and even killing one in battle. And yet he had fallen so utterly, so easily.

As for Chen Guang, he was a true primal spirit cultivator and an elder of the Divine Sword Sect, and he too had been cut down without effort.

The powerhouses watching from the shadows were all shaken.

"He has surely stepped into the primal spirit realm. In just over a year, he has gone from foundation building to primal spirit. What kind of fortune could be so heaven-defying? Did the Nameless Sword Sect leave behind some treasure, or did he truly encounter some even greater opportunity?"

Many of the onlookers burned with excitement, their hearts in turmoil.

On the arena, Jiang Fan swept his gaze around with wild, sharp arrogance.

He knew the true heavyweights had yet to appear, yet he could already sense one will after another locking onto him, unrestrained and unhidden.

Their absence was only the result of mutual wariness among the various factions lurking in the dark.

Boom!

At that moment, on a cliff several thousand meters away, a terrifying aura surged upward. Immediately after, a column of fire shot straight into the firmament, briefly dimming the sunlight itself.

An old man in red, with a cloud of fire above his head, stepped forward. Like shifting the earth beneath his feet and shrinking the miles to inches, he arrived in an instant a hundred meters from the life-or-death arena.

"At last, someone worth his name has come out!" A cold light flashed in Jiang Fan's eyes.

Lei Chen frowned and sent him a thought. "He is the Hidden God Sect's elder, the Crimson Fire Venerable, at the second step of primal spirit, the Soul Embryo realm. He is no ordinary foe. Brother Jiang, run!"

"No need."

Jiang Fan gave only those two words, but killing intent already rose in his heart. He recalled what Uncle Yu had once said: among the one demon, one fiend, and one man responsible for the calamity that destroyed the county seat, one of them was this Crimson Fire Venerable.

And now this man was not only unharmed, but daring to show himself in the open.

"Tao Cheng was my Hidden God Sect's core senior disciple, our face, even the future sect master. You killed him as if slaughtering a dog!" The Crimson Fire Venerable strode through the air and descended onto the arena. A greedy glint burned in his red eyes. "I will not forgive you, and neither will my Hidden God Sect. Jiang Fan, seal your cultivation and come with me to the Hidden God Sect, and you may yet have a sliver of hope. Otherwise, this will be your burial ground!"

"I killed Tao Cheng on the life-and-death arena," Jiang Fan said with a cold snort. "Besides, I am an imperial inspector. Above me stands the Human Emperor. How could I allow a mere sect to act so recklessly?"

"Bold boy!" The Crimson Fire Venerable's eyes seemed to spit flame. "Since you insist this is a life-and-death contest, then very well, I shall take you down right here!"

"Then try."

Jiang Fan's Returning to One Sword spat out a blaze of sword light, his momentum gathering like a tide.

"As you wish."

The Crimson Fire Venerable flashed forward and appeared before Jiang Fan. He reached out in a grab, and the void seemed to collapse. The air around Jiang Fan twisted violently, while three fire dragons coiled and surged.

"Good!" Jiang Fan's expression turned strange. In the next instant, the Returning to One Sword vanished from his hand. His bones resonated, his tendons snapped taut, and his right fist clenched. Thunder cracked in his palm as he drew back and struck, shattering the fire dragons before slamming into the Crimson Fire Venerable's hand.

Twenty-four layers of inch fist mastery, a twenty-fivefold amplification of power, unleashed the strength of the third level of the Profound Dao Art to an unimaginable degree.

"Not good!"

The Crimson Fire Venerable was no fool. In a fraction of a breath, he sensed the terror of that fist and, with a sharp turn of mind, a shield appeared before his palm.

It was a magical artifact, a mid-grade defensive artifact. The next moment, with a dull crash, the shield was smashed to pieces.

The Crimson Fire Venerable seized that opening and retreated swiftly.

Yet a layer of cold sweat had already broken out on his forehead.

"How can his body and strength be so terrifying?" He had felt no fluctuation of mana in that punch. There was only one possibility: raw fleshly power.

"Where do you think you're going?" Jiang Fan roared and shifted through the air, instantly closing in.

His two fists shook as if holding limitless force.

The Crimson Fire Venerable reached out, grabbed, and flung. Blazing flame condensed to the extreme, transforming into thunder and exploding, yet Jiang Fan smashed it to dust with two punches.

"Die!" Jiang Fan cried out, driving a fist toward the other's chest.

"Shadow Escape Technique!"

The Crimson Fire Venerable's body flickered and vanished in an instant, leaving Jiang Fan striking empty air.

"Tricks of no consequence!"

Jiang Fan snorted, turned about, and casually slapped outward. Mana surged like a flood, forming a bolt of pure yang thunder that blasted the hidden Crimson Fire Venerable back into view, his hair disheveled and his robes in tatters.

"You ant, you dare wound me!" the Crimson Fire Venerable bellowed in fury. He opened his mouth and spewed out a black banner. With fingers joined like a sword, he pointed at it, and the banner rose into the air, releasing a streak of black light that fell upon Jiang Fan.

"This is the Soul-Seizing Banner, a high-grade artifact, specially made to restrain the soul. So what if your body is strong?" the Crimson Fire Venerable sneered.

"Is that so?"

Jiang Fan's body came to a halt, but the corner of his mouth curled into a grin, revealing rows of white teeth. In his mind, the purple mansion spanning a hundred miles roared with surging waves, instantly tearing apart the black light that had rushed in.

What was strongest in him now was not his body, but that terrifying purple mansion.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

At that moment, the Soul-Seizing Banner trembled faintly. Its radiance dimmed, and cracks even appeared upon it.

"What? Impossible!" The Crimson Fire Venerable was aghast.

Jiang Fan's eyes flew open. In an instant he was before the other man, and his fist crashed toward his ear.

The howling fist wind tore the protective divine light around him to shreds.

"It's over!"

The Crimson Fire Venerable was horrified, but how could he be willing to die without a struggle? Light burst from between his brows, and streams of mana surged forth, condensing into eighteen barriers.

Crash!

Eighteen barriers could not possibly withstand Jiang Fan's punch. They shattered one after another.

Just as the other man's head was about to burst open, Jiang Fan paused slightly and drew back a fraction of his strength, sending the Crimson Fire Venerable flying thousands of meters away.

Whoosh!

He shifted through the air again and seized the Crimson Fire Venerable by the throat. Looking at the dizzy, dazed, unfocused man, Jiang Fan narrowed his eyes. Two beams of light shot from them straight into the center of the other's brow as he asked in a low voice, "Was the massacre of River Hundred County by the river demon carried out through secret collusion? Who was involved?"

"It was me!" the Crimson Fire Venerable answered even more dazedly, almost without awareness. "It was me! Together with the Eight-Foot Demon God and the Three-Eyed Evil God, I laid the grand scheme, bathed River Hundred County in blood, and used the slain to sacrifice the altar... ah!"

The next moment, he screamed in agony and came back to himself, panic flooding his face. "What did you do to me?"

"What did I do?" Jiang Fan's expression turned icy. "My soul-bewitching art tasted pleasant, did it not? You said everything that should have been said, and everything that should not have been said. Heh, who would have thought that the calamity of River Hundred County was the work of collusion with demons and fiends. Hahaha! An elder of the Hidden God Sect, in a human body, and yet so utterly devoid of conscience. You deserve death a thousand times over!"

Though he had long since known the truth, Jiang Fan still could not suppress the rage in his heart.

At that very moment, a horrifying pressure suddenly descended.

In the sky, a sword light flew out, spanning tens of thousands of meters, and in an instant reached the space above his head.

This sword light was filled with destructive power, intent on killing Jiang Fan and the Crimson Fire Venerable together.

"Master, you cannot kill me!"

The Crimson Fire Venerable was even more terrified, unable to stop himself from crying out.

Jiang Fan looked up, his gaze cold, while his hand still surged with mana, forming layer upon layer of restraints that had already sealed the Crimson Fire Venerable away.

Crash!

At the same time, a great halberd suddenly appeared in the sky and shattered the sword light.

"Crimson Fire Venerable, so you were colluding with demons and fiends. No wonder my investigation was secretly obstructed by the Hidden God Sect!" Ji Changkong stepped into view on the wind, looked at Jiang Fan, and nodded in satisfaction. Yet when his eyes swept over the Crimson Fire Venerable, the killing intent in them was laid bare without the slightest concealment.

He lifted his head, turned his gaze, and looked into the distance. With a cold snort, Ji Changkong said, "Yuan Cheng, trying to silence him?"