“Tang Jie!” Peng Yaolong, Ye Tianshang, and Meng Shixue shouted in unison.

On the sparring platform, Tang Jie stood opposed to Han Shuangyue.

His steps were unhurried, his expression relaxed, his body radiating confidence.

‘No point in fighting unless you’re at Violet Palace’?

What sort of bravado and arrogance is this? The spectators were somewhat bedazzled by this display.

But Han Shuangyue refused to back down, glaring at Tang Jie. “You have to fight me!”

Tang Jie looked at her and shook his head. “I’ve just returned to Rosecloud, so I’m not in the mood to fight right now, only to chat with my good brothers.”

He had barely finished speaking when a roar rose up from below.

Countless Horizon Ocean Pavilion disciples were raising their arms and shouting, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

In the eyes of Horizon Ocean Pavilion’s cultivators, Han Shuangyue was an invincible war god. A mere Cai Junyang wasn’t enough for her to express her full power, and even Tang Jie might be no match for Han Shuangyue…

Tang Jie’s reply made all of them cry out.

Even Cai Junyang said, “There will be time to converse later. Since you’re here already, it would be a pity if you didn’t fight a little.”

This kid was a martial maniac, treating fighting like a lifestyle. Victory was secondary, and he acted entirely according to his nature. Really, he was the ideal successor to the Martial Lord’s Dao.

Tang Jie had no interest in bullying small children. His strength had soared after Verdant Cloud, so none of his peers were capable of fighting him, and only his seniors were a match. Han Shuangyue simply wasn’t worth fighting.

After some thought, Tang Jie said, “Since you insist on fighting, then let’s do this. If you can take one punch from me, it counts as your win.”

“What?” Everyone was stunned, and then enraged.

Han Shuangyue was the number one genius of Horizon Ocean Pavilion, superior to Tang Jie in aptitude, talent, and cultivation time, and she had even been nurtured by the sect. For Tang Jie to brazenly say that he was going to defeat Han Shuangyue in one punch was utterly humiliating.

But for Tang Jie, this was absolutely normal. Although Han Shuangyue was in Soul Transformation, she was only at the initial level and far from the peak. There were even many fiend kings in the Verdant Cloud Domain who could beat her. One punch would settle things without question.

Without another word, he punched at Han Shuangyue.

It looked like a simple punch, but it was actually packed with the purest laws of the world. As it flew toward her, Han Shuangyue felt like a giant sky-soaring pillar was smashing toward her, rapidly filling up her vision.

If not for the Heavenly Book of Detachment rendering her emotionless, such that even a cultivator who was about to be pierced through the heart by a thousand blades or pulverized to bits would not show even the slightest emotion, she would have screamed.

Her sense of danger told her that this punch was extremely threatening, so Han Shuangyue put all her power into her Detachment art, unleashing a splendorous glow that condensed into an enchanting forest.

Tang Jie’s punch fell on that forest like a rock thrown into the water, creating countless ripples and shattering the reflections within.

The forest collapsed under Tang Jie’s punch, dissolving into rainbow motes of light.

At the same time, Han Shuangyue was sent flying by this blast of energy, her body drifting along like a falling leaf and elegantly landing on a corner of the sparring platform, as if Tang Jie hadn’t sent her flying at all.

For a moment, the spectators didn’t know what was going on, thinking that Han Shuangyue had easily neutralized the punch and cheering her on. Only a few of them noticed Han Shuangyue suddenly paling.

A gust of wind howled.

Tang Jie drew his fist back and smiled at Han Shuangyue. “Your strength isn’t bad. Based on what I know, the only person at your cultivation level who can beat you is the Seven Absolutions Sect’s Wang Juemie.”

“What cultivation level are you?” Han Shuangyue asked. Tang Jie’s punch had been too strange and powerful, bearing the ferocity of a body cultivator and also the immense spiritual energy of a law cultivator.

Tang Jie replied, “Part of me is at Soul Transformation.”

This reply confused Han Shuangyue, but after giving Tang Jie a hard look, she said, “I lost.”

These words threw the crowd into an uproar.

Han Shuangyue had really lost!? And she had lost to a single punch! Some were unwilling to believe, shouting and cursing, some even suspecting that Han Shuangyue was colluding with Tang Jie and had lost on purpose.

Han Shuangyue ignored all of them, turning to leave. After flying a great distance, however, she suddenly stopped. At this moment, she stopped suppressing her wounds and threw up a large amount of blood.

Tang Jie’s punch just now had inflicted severe internal wounds.

Han Shuangyue felt much better after throwing up this blood. She muttered, “Tang Jie, I didn’t think you had already reached this level. Alas, the pitiful me only has the title of a genius. All I knew was to bury myself in training, only occasionally going out. As a result, I was stuck in the small pond that is Endsea, a mere frog in the well, never realizing that growth only comes from truly experiencing tribulations and hardships!”

Han Shuangyue’s eyes glinted with frost, and then she flew off again. She had made up her mind to go out adventuring in order to grow stronger.

Meanwhile, Tang Jie turned to Cai Junyang.

Cai Junyang asked, “Why did you only get back now?”

Tang Jie replied, “The roads were rather rough.”

The two looked at each other and burst out laughing as they hugged.

Peng Yaolong, Ye Tianshang, and Meng Shixue also jumped onto the stage, the five of them getting into a group hug. Xu Miaoran, Wei Tianchong, and the others also joined in, and these former classmates, now supporting pillars of the Basking Moon Sect, were finally all together, all of them laughing and cheering.

Suddenly, a voice came from the heavens: “Tang Jie!”

It was like a clap of thunder, drowning out everyone’s laughter and becoming the only sound in the world.

Xu Miaoran raised her head in shock. “The Jewel Immortal Sovereign?”

A woman had appeared in the air, as majestic as a mountain, her face solemn and serene like a Bodhisattva, her face radiating dignity and might. This was one of the three power holders of Horizon Ocean Pavilion, the Jewel Immortal Sovereign.

As this ethereal figure opened her eyes, she looked down at Tang Jie, and her eyes instantly exuded a supreme pressure that had everyone wanting to prostrate. Tang Jie felt this pressure the most, like a mountain weighing down on his head, trying to make his knees bend.

Although Tang Jie could fight Violet Palace cultivators, that was limited to Infant Tending Tier Violet Palace cultivators. He was no match for Deification experts, let alone a Soul Projection expert like the Jewel Immortal Sovereign, who was many times stronger than Aurora.

The Jewel Immortal Sovereign’s glance made Tang Jie feel what Han Shuangyue had felt just moments ago, the despair of facing the unstoppable.

But all geniuses shared a common trait of being fearless against immense pressure, courageously facing it. Tang Jie let out a deep roar, and countless rays of light emerged from his body, weaving themselves into Tang Jie’s Infinite Palace Dao Art.

The Infinite Palace had been further improved, and it now needed barely any time at all to take form, repelling the Jewel Immortal Sovereign’s gaze beyond its walls.

“Eh?” The Jewel Immortal Sovereign remarked in surprise, “A Dao Art?”

With her sharp eyes, she could instantly tell that Tang Jie had used a Dao Art.

He had only cultivated for less than two hundred years, but he already had a Dao Art? She was alarmed by this rate of progress, and the desire to kill Tang Jie that had arisen from the death of Sang Hongmei grew only stronger. Googl search ovl(F)re.et

She raised a finger and thrust it at Tang Jie.

With the thrust of a finger, a crack immediately appeared in the grandiose structure of the Infinite Palace.

It wasn’t because the Infinite Palace’s defense was lacking. The Jewel Immortal Sovereign was simply too strong.

There was an entire cultivation realm between her at Tang Jie, like comparing a Mortal Shedding Spirit Master to a mortal. This attack could have killed swaths of cultivators of his level. To block her finger was something worthy of boasting about.

But it wasn’t even over yet, for the Jewel Immortal Sovereign thrust out her finger again.

The blast of energy slammed into the Infinite Palace, and another crack appeared in the complex.

As she thrust her finger again and again, the end of days was visited upon the palace, walls crumbling, towers vaporizing, birds exploding, and plants withering. As for all the traps and formations within, they didn’t even get the chance to activate before they were obliterated by that fearsome might.

The Horizon Ocean Pavilion disciples were dumbfounded.

While their Immortal Sovereign was divinely powerful, Tang Jie’s defenses were also formidable in their own right. The Infinite Palace had already blocked seven attacks in a row from a Soul Projection Titan. In other words, even with an entire cultivation realm over Tang Jie, the Jewel Immortal Sovereign was not capable of instantly killing Tang Jie.

How was this even possible?

But their surprise meant nothing to the situation. The Jewel Immortal Sovereign’s merciless finger continued to fall. The stronger Tang Jie appeared, the more she wanted to kill him.

The ninth finger, the tenth finger, the eleventh finger! After these three fingers, the entire palace had been razed, with not a single building left standing. The Jewel Immortal Sovereign sent down her twelfth finger, aiming straight for Tang Jie, not even sparing those around him. She was already killing one, so she might as well kill fourteen!

Just when her finger was about to land, Xu Miaoran rushed forward to hug Tang Jie.

But the Jewel Immortal Sovereign simply pointed at her, rendering her completely immobile, before continuing to send her finger at Tang Jie.

At this moment, a streak of light shot from the sky toward her.

What seemed like a simple streak of light forced the Jewel Immortal Sovereign to pull back her attack and go on the defense. As she fended off that light, she barked in anger, “Xu Guanghua, are you trying to stop me!?”

A man’s relaxed voice resounded across the heavens. “So you’re saying I should just let you kill my son-in-law? Jewel, you’ve gone too far.”