Scrape, scrape—

The keen spearhead dragged across the rough ground.

Shen Yi's breathing was in disorder; the blood on his palm ran down the shaft and reddened the scales along it, the damp lake wind lifted the hem of his robe, and the Nanyang patterns on the white gown had dimmed a little.

The howl that spirit-spear method gave off did appalling damage to the path infant's five organs.

The Heavenly Phoenix Undying True Body was after all only an ordinary technique; even with a dharma-robe to guard him, he had taken no small hurt.

He put away the corpses of the five demons.

Then went back up Yajiao Mountain.

This one dragon grandson had pressed him far harder than that Return-to-Void-at-Perfection Manor Lord of the Peach Spring Manor.

Every stroke Shen Yi made had been made at full strength.

Even with Xuanqing's gift, the purple qi inside the Boundless Demon-Sovereign Palace had dimmed a great deal.

The aura about him too was somewhat spent.

But in the instant he set foot on Yajiao Mountain, the breathing of every Yan there quickened.

There is a reason an immortal sect wins the loyal support of so many dependencies.

Besides strength, the most important thing is that it will stand forth and take the matter on.

Shen Yi might for the moment lack an immortal sect's foundation.

But he truly dared to stand forth.

And what was more… he could win.

In those calm eyes there seemed to lurk a savage beast gone mad — like a young lion king newly come to the throne, fresh from the killing, covered with wounds, licking them clean while his eyes passed indifferently over his own subject country.

Nobody dared meet them.

"……"

Under Shen Yi's gaze Yan Xianqing felt, unaccountably, that he could not breathe.

In all he had learned of this young man before, there had been talk of his methods in the killing, and talk of his supreme gifts — and no talk whatever of his ruthlessness.

Not the ferocity of slaughter, but the ruthlessness of a colossus before he rises.

The…