The eagle-beaked old man asked coldly.

"Yellow Bear's man..." Guardian Xiang paused, then added, "The one who's always been making trouble for us."

The eagle-beaked old man's expression flickered, but his eyes quickly turned frigid. "Attack! Kill him! Since it's already done, we might as well be absolutely thorough!"

In an instant, several bursts of murderous intent erupted in the hall, locking firmly onto the handsome young man in the pit.

The air currents shifted silently, and the atmosphere rapidly grew oppressive.

"Wait!"

At this moment, Pei Ye suddenly spoke.

"All of you, stay out of this."

Pei Ye's expression was peculiar, his eyes cold, as he slowly enunciated each word, "Let me handle this myself."

Saying this, Pei Ye calmly began to walk step by step towards the handsome young man in the pit.

As he walked, he gently loosened the muscles in his shoulders, arms, and legs.

The crisp sound of his joints cracking echoed as waves of cold, murderous intent washed over him.

"You ruined my meticulously planned strategy. I hadn't even come looking for you, yet you delivered yourself to my doorstep. Good, good, good..."

A chilling smile spread across Pei Ye's face as he said softly, "Today, I will… HUH?!"

Before Pei Ye could finish his words, his pupils suddenly contracted violently.

In the corner of his eye, he barely glimpsed a black shadow rapidly tearing through the air. Immediately after, a loud THUD! A force like a sledgehammer struck his chest. His eyes bulged, and he was sent flying as if hit by a dump truck.

BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM!

Pei Ye smashed through several walls, flying dozens of meters before finally stopping.

In the hall, the corners of Guardian Xiang's and his two companions' eyes twitched slightly. They glanced at the handsome young man who now stood where Pei Ye had been, calmly retracting his fist. After a brief hesitation, they chose to retreat several steps and watch the fight from a safe distance.

"Good, very good!"

Not long after Lu Yuan's punch, an furious, sharp cry echoed.

Then, a ghostly figure rushed in again from outside.

Lu Yuan took a shallow breath.

The next moment, a bright light flashed in his eyes.

Level 3 [Absolute Focus]!

Level 1 [Unconquerable Instinct]!

Both abilities activated simultaneously.

Instantly, he entered a state driven by instinct, yet his mind was as clear and calm as an icy lake.

His martial senses were pushed to their peak.

Time itself seemed to stretch, and everything before him slowed down.

The ghostly figure quickly became clear: Pei Ye's face, slightly contorted with shame and anger, every change in his expression, every movement... Lu Yuan captured it all perfectly.

Level 2 [Sure-kill—Spirit Crane Skill: Mistakenly Picked Immortal Orchid]!

Lu Yuan raised his right hand, his fingers curving upwards.

With exquisite timing, just as Pei Ye closed in to a meter and raised his hand to attack, Lu Yuan deftly caught his arm.

His fingers clenched, tightening, digging deep into Pei Ye's flesh.

Then...

With a powerful backhand swing!

BOOM! CRASH!

The floor of the villa's living room suddenly exploded, forming a large crater. Pei Ye was driven headfirst straight into the concrete.

After executing this fluid series of movements, Lu Yuan took two steps back, calmly waiting for Pei Ye to rise.

"..."

Guardian Xiang and his two companions, standing by and watching, felt the corners of their mouths twitch slightly. Their fingers moved... but they forcibly restrained themselves.

"AH! BOOM!—"

The ground erupted. With a furious cry, Pei Ye shot out of the concrete pit, reappearing on the field.

His trench coat and its lining were now tattered and covered in dust. There were no visible injuries, but he looked utterly disheveled.

"Very good, very good."

Pei Ye's handsome face contorted slightly. His eyes fixed deadly on Lu Yuan as he spoke in a chilling tone, "Truly worthy of being that old bastard's sole true disciple. So young, yet your Crane Sect martial arts are quite good. You want to test your skills against me, is that it? Fine..."

BOOM!

A dense white Vigor erupted from Pei Ye's body, flowing around him like molten silver.

His trench coat billowed, and the surrounding dust was violently pushed outward, forming rolling air waves.

A Spirit Crane True Intention, fully ten meters tall with snow-white wings, appeared above Pei Ye's head, flapping its wings. In that instant, Pei Ye's aura surged to an unprecedented peak.

"...I am but a step away from the Grandmaster Realm, at the very peak of the True Intention realm! Have you ever witnessed a ten-meter-tall White Crane True Intention?" Pei Ye's face was ferocious and wild, his arms spread like a crane's wings, his aura immense. He looked at Lu Yuan and let out a sinister, unbridled laugh. "My dear little junior brother of the Crane Sect!

"Today, let your senior brother teach you properly...

"What the Crane Sect truly is! What martial arts truly are!"

Pei Ye's aura was like a tornado, churning the air and stirring up dust and debris throughout the villa's hall.

The sheer Pure Martial strength he displayed at this moment even drew a faint look of admiration from Guardian Xiang and his two companions watching nearby.

Their choice of Pei Ye, their desire to promote him as the next Evil Emperor, was not solely due to his Innate Evil Martial Physique or his good fortune in obtaining the previous Evil Emperor's sarira.

It was primarily because Pei Ye's own talent and aptitude were outstanding, one in a million!

At such a young age, he was on the verge of stepping into the Pure Martial Grandmaster Realm.

Across the entire Ancient Martial Arts World... how many could achieve this?!

Lu Yuan's expression, however, remained calm.

The turbulent airflow billowed the hair at Lu Yuan's temples, but his eyes, like deep pools, remained utterly unfazed.

Level 1 [True Intention of Spirit Crane], activate!

BOOM!

Lu Yuan's True Intention was also released.

A white crane over six meters tall appeared above his head, facing Pei Ye's ten-meter-tall white crane from a distance.

However, in terms of both aura and size, it was significantly inferior.

Pei Ye scoffed, the corner of his mouth twitching.

But the next second...

Level 1 [Indomitable Will], activate!

The sound of ancient, desolate tribal horns echoed in Lu Yuan's mind. His spirit and will were further galvanized by the surging battle intent...

BOOM!

The Spirit Crane True Intention, already over six meters tall, suddenly ballooned, instantly growing to over seven meters.

"Hm?"

Pei Ye's expression shifted, a hint of surprise on his face.

But his expression quickly reverted to contempt and disdain. He tugged at the corner of his mouth and sneered softly, "A little interesting. But not much..."

He hadn't even finished speaking when he suddenly felt an inexplicable suppression.

His facial features seemed to contort violently.

Following that, he found that all the air within the living room seemed to distort.

This distorted air, like translucent, swimming fish, frantically surged towards Lu Yuan's White Crane True Intention.

In an instant, the White Crane True Intention, already over seven meters tall, continued to expand explosively.

BOOM!

Ten meters!

It was now the same size as Pei Ye's peak-level White Crane True Intention.

But it wasn't over.

BOOM!

The ten-meter-high White Crane True Intention surged again!

Its size instantly reached fifteen meters!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

With the influx of those transparent fish, the fifteen-meter-tall White Crane True Intention grew explosively, section by section.

Soon, it surpassed the confines of the villa, expanding outwards.

Not only that, but the originally graceful and ethereal White Crane also underwent a massive transformation during this process. Its agile essence rapidly faded, replaced by tendrils of cold, sinister aura that crept up, dyeing its white feathers black.

A moment later.

The atmosphere inside the entire villa became utterly oppressive.

Pei Ye, and Guardian Xiang and his two companions who were observing, all wore expressions of stunned disbelief.

Heads tilted back, they stared dumbly at what had materialized before them—

A terrifying great bird True Intention, a full thirty meters tall, with crimson eyes and jet-black wings, its entire body emitting wisps of Black Qi. It resembled a crane, yet not quite; a crow, yet not entirely.

This terrifying behemoth had the entire villa enveloped beneath its wings.

With a slight flap of its wings, the entire villa began to shake.

The air within the villa seemed to roil like colossal waves, bringing an indescribable, suffocating pressure to bear upon Pei Ye and the other three.

Compared to this super-massive, horrifying black bird True Intention, Pei Ye's ten-meter White Crane True Intention... looked like an underdeveloped chick!

"What... what in the world is going on?"

Pei Ye mumbled, his head tilted back, his expression vacant.

No one answered him.

Lu Yuan, with his black hair and black eyes, dressed in black, stood beneath this thirty-meter-tall terrifying black bird True Intention.

The airflow around him subtly warped. With every gesture, he seemed capable of conjuring a hurricane or a tsunami out of thin air.

He calmly looked at Pei Ye before him and slowly raised his hand.

The terrifying black bird True Intention behind him, Black Qi soaring to the heavens, its eyes crimson, mirrored his movements.

The next second...

BOOM!

On the battlefield, a ten-meter-high White Crane True Intention was instantly and brutally crushed by a terrifying, pitch-black avian claw.

A figure shot out like a cannonball, smashing through an interior wall of the villa with a BOOM, sent flying out yet again...

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