Far off—almost touching the horizon. Only a cloud or two remained, luminous with an otherworldly iridescence, like the inside of a magnificent seashell. Beneath these clouds lay a dark band of silhouette; an irregularly drawn, haphazard curve.

Facing the sunlight that was slowly emerging above him, He Yiming stretched out both hands flatly. A distinct metallic sheen rippled across his palms. Opposite him stood Bai Lingba, the one who had displayed terrifying might just yesterday, driving back two experts of the Yixiantian realm with only two fists.

“Be careful.”

With a light exclamation from He Yiming, his body dipped slightly, his toes pushing off with barely perceptible force, and he shot forward like a bolt of lightning toward his opponent.

His hands extended straight out, and only after they struck did they unleash a sharp, piercing sound of cutting the air.

Bai Lingba simultaneously raised both hands, but the color on his palms remained completely unchanged, just as usual.

The four hands met precisely in mid-air, resulting in a crisp clang.

He Yiming’s expression instantly shifted. Even he felt an incredible, overwhelming force radiating from the point where their palms crossed—a power that truly exceeded his limit of endurance. The sensation traveled from his fingertips, through his palms, along his wrists, into his forearms, elbows, and shoulders.

It was as if a novice martial artist, using all their strength, had slammed into a steel plate.

A wave of searing pain made him question whether his arms had been broken.

At this moment, He Yiming finally understood something. He realized why Yu Jinglei and Zhuo Wanlian had immediately retreated after just one exchange, daring not to meet his power head-on again. And why they had been so certain, agreeing unanimously that Bai Lingba was a master of the Sanhuajuding realm.

If he hadn't known Bai Lingba’s true nature, he might have reached the same conclusion.

Flipping once in the air, He Yiming landed steadily on the ground.

When fighting Bai Lingba, he had certainly received far better treatment than Yu Jinglei and the others. As soon as he retreated, Bai Lingba would absolutely not pursue him.

He reached out and gently rubbed his arms; the sharp pain had not diminished in the slightest—if anything, it intensified.

A flow of pure Wood element Zhenqi spread through his limbs. Only after this Zhenqi passed through his arms did the violent throbbing subside considerably.

He Yiming let out a long sigh, cursing himself inwardly. How could he have become so dense? Knowing this fellow’s body was harder than Vajra, why had he tried to meet force with force? Wasn't that just asking for death?

Shaking his head, He Yiming’s gaze suddenly lifted, and his body vanished from where he stood.

The moment he reappeared, he was already behind Bai Lingba.

A punch, infused with massive Zhenqi, slammed brutally into Bai Lingba’s back. He Yiming had gathered all his power for this strike; the Zhenqi within the fist was nearly the maximum he could instantly muster.

With a resounding boom, Bai Lingba was finally sent flying by the blow. Under He Yiming’s full-force attack, even he could not maintain his balance.

However, in mid-air, he spread his arms flatly, his limbs undergoing an extremely bizarre transformation. His extended arms momentarily seemed to flatten, much like a bird’s wings, allowing him to glide for a distance before landing safely on the ground, completely unharmed.

He Yiming stared at him, dumbfounded, only then remembering that this person’s form could change at will. He cursed inwardly, wondering who could have manufactured such a monstrous humanoid weapon. Anyone meeting him would likely be driven to sheer delirium.

Looking up at the slowly rising red sun, a surge of boldness unexpectedly welled up in He Yiming’s heart.

Although he had repeatedly told himself not to engage this non-human directly, now, at the break of dawn, his heart was filled with an urge he couldn't quite decipher.

His body slowly settled into a half-crouch. An immense battle intent rose inexplicably from him. Metal element power surged around him like a raging tide.

With a flip of his wrist, the great broadsword on his back appeared in his hand as if by spectral means.

This was achieved by using his Zhenqi to manipulate his muscles, drawing the greatsword from his back to his hand. Although the process was immensely complex, he executed it with effortless grace, feeling a natural sense of flow.

Gripping the great broadsword tightly, He Yiming’s eyes were solemn—a look of power rooted in almost devout faith: the absolute, unshakable confidence he held in the invincible power of the great broadsword.

As the blade settled in his hands, this confidence swelled violently, and his aura soared toward the heavens, exploding outward in all directions from him as the epicenter. Subtle, invisible vibrations stirred the air—the result of Zhenqi being circulated to its extreme, communicating with the energies of heaven and earth.

On the high wall in the distance, several figures appeared one after another.

Besides Yu Jinglei, Zhuo Wanlian, Lu Zhengyi, and Yuan Lixuan, there were even two Xiantian powerhouses from the Master Hall of the Kaifeng Kingdom. They were Master Maolie Guang and his disciple Cheng Fu, who had previously fought He Yiming.

However, everyone watched from afar. No matter how shocked they were, none dared approach the central area.

He Yiming held the sword with both hands and slowly raised it. The four-meter-long blade seemed to weigh thousands of pounds, ascending inch by painstaking inch in his grasp.

With every inch the blade rose, He Yiming's imposing aura strengthened. His eyes locked onto Bai Lingba in the distance, as if he were the only person left in the entire world.

Invisible rings of wind gently swirled around him, as if he were the eye of a colossal vortex, accumulating immense power for an explosion.

Zhuo Wanlian’s throat bobbed slightly. His gaze toward He Yiming was filled with apprehension, even a touch of dread.

During their first encounter, he had been driven to desperation by He Yiming using a tree as a blade.

At that time, he had assumed He Yiming’s greatest skill lay in Wood element techniques, where his talent was unparalleled.

But now, feeling the intense aura emanating from the great broadsword, he realized He Yiming’s true strength was not in the Wood element, but in this peerlessly sharp Metal element mastery, capable of cleaving the heavens and shattering mountains and seas.

His fists tightened unconsciously, and one question lingered persistently in his mind: If He Yiming had used this great broadsword—a weapon a hundred times more terrifying than the tree-blade—in their previous fight, what would the outcome have been?

At this moment, all of He Yiming’s focus was concentrated into a single point.

Within his body, Water element Zhenqi circulated ceaselessly, followed by Wood, Fire, and Earth, finally condensing once more into Gold element Xiantian Zhenqi.

The Five Elements merged; when these five distinct energies completed a grand cycle and returned to the Gold element, He Yiming’s aura crystallized at its absolute peak, unable to strengthen further.

In the eyes of everyone present, He Yiming’s figure now seemed to stretch boundlessly tall.

Under the pressure of this inhumanly powerful aura, everyone felt a difficulty in moving, as if wading through thick mud. Even Yu Jinglei and Lu Zhengyi were enveloped by a sense of terror. They looked at the great broadsword, shining brilliantly in the sunlight, and shared a sorrowful thought: If this blade were aimed not at the Sanhuajuding expert Bai Lingba, but at them, they would possess absolutely no chance of survival.

Though everyone knew He Yiming was immensely strong, the fact that a newly ascended Yixiantian expert could instill such feelings in peers of the same rank was horrifying in itself.

Yet, just as He Yiming’s aura reached its zenith and he prepared to strike—

Bai Lingba suddenly did something that left everyone utterly stunned and incredulous.

He abruptly turned and, under the gaze of all onlookers, fled the courtyard at a speed far exceeding anyone's imagination. The absolute velocity he displayed at that moment was in no way inferior to the full burst of any Xiantian powerhouse.

Everyone froze for an instant.

In truth, under the overwhelming momentum of He Yiming’s impending strike, no matter how incredibly powerful Bai Lingba had proven himself—even if he had simply swatted He Yiming dead like a fly—it would not have caused such astonishment.

In their minds, Bai Lingba was a supreme master of the Sanhuajuding level.

But now, Bai Lingba had fled. Faced with He Yiming, an Yixiantian expert, he chose not to fight honorably but to retreat actively.

It was as absurd as a Xiantian expert facing a Houtian expert, only for the Xiantian master to turn tail and run the moment the Houtian expert gathered all their power for a final, desperate blow.

He Yiming, holding the great broadsword aloft, was equally filled with an unparalleled sense of frustration, an urge to vomit blood rising within him.

For an expert of his caliber, if he chose not to use his ultimate move, that was one thing. But if he decided to go all out, recklessly using his trump cards, the very first prerequisite was to lock onto his opponent completely.

This was, after all, a final, mutually destructive gambit. If he couldn't secure his target, the attack would strike empty air, leaving him utterly vulnerable to slaughter.

Therefore, once a Xiantian expert unleashed their ultimate move, the attack—locked by Qiji (vital energy)—could not miss. Even if the opponent tried desperately to flee, even if their movement skills far surpassed his own, avoiding such a desperate strike was near impossible.

But Bai Lingba had succeeded.

As he turned and bolted with maximum speed, He Yiming, whose aura had climaxed, stood dumbfounded. He could no longer lock onto Bai Lingba’s presence, making it impossible to unleash the strike.

He had forgotten that Bai Lingba was not a person but a humanoid weapon fashioned from some rare metal.

Every living being possesses a unique aura, innate from birth. Any creature born from a womb carries some degree of fixed signature. It is precisely because of this inseparable, birth-given aura that Xiantian experts could lock onto their enemies; if one party harbored fear or fled in panic, they would be subject to the irresistible pull of that signature, unable to escape the terrifying tracking even if they fled to the ends of the earth.

However, although He Yiming could not fathom where Bai Lingba had crawled out from, one thing was certain: he was definitely not born from a maternal body. He was like a massive boulder, only this boulder could walk, move, jump, and run.

Even though He Yiming could lock onto the auras of experts on a level far higher than his own, when facing a mere stone, all means of Qiji tracking—save for his eyesight—were useless.

No matter how powerful the person, one could not track a stone by its aura...

His immense power boiled fiercely. Having lost its outlet, He Yiming’s body felt like a massive gunpowder keg on the verge of explosion.

Zhuo Wanlian and the others changed color drastically. They clearly sensed the colossal power contained within He Yiming. Under the pressure of this power, they felt plunged into an ice cellar, daring not even twitch a finger or blink an eye.

Infinite fear gripped their hearts; if He Yiming redirected the fury of that strike toward them, today would surely be their death anniversary next year.

To their even greater astonishment, He Yiming’s sword momentum—taut as an arrow on a string, like an erupting volcano—did not actually release.

Although He Yiming’s expression was terrible—as if he had been constipated for three days and nights, or as if someone owed him millions and refused to pay—undeniably, the aura within him was slowly receding.

His body seemed to have transformed into a massive, limitless sponge, absorbing the surging, towering momentum that was about to erupt, drop by drop.

After an unknowable period, once He Yiming’s aura had completely retracted, everyone, including Yuan Lixuan, let out an involuntary sigh of relief. They were consumed by lingering dread. However, everyone except Yuan Lixuan was a seasoned veteran of wide experience.

After witnessing this confrontation, a strange new light entered their eyes when they looked at He Yiming. Even Yu Jinglei, who had condensed two flowers, felt it.

When a person’s aura is raised to its peak, especially when, like He Yiming, he successfully stimulated his potential through some unknown technique, achieving a power far surpassing the pinnacle of the Yixiantian realm, his ultimate move is generally capable of being unleashed but not withdrawn.

To forcefully draw back that fully drawn arrow would result in more than just minor internal injuries.

To achieve this feat implied that the aura He Yiming released had not reached the true peak state.

All the Xiantian powerhouses looked at He Yiming with disbelief.

He... still had reserves!

However, they did not know that He Yiming had indeed pushed his aura to the absolute limit; it was impossible to climb even a sliver higher. The only reason he could retract it smoothly was due to his unique physical constitution.

His Dantian—which functioned like a black hole—made extracting Zhenqi difficult, but returning Zhenqi to it presented no problem whatsoever. Even the cold energy contained within the old dark-green jade bottle had been completely absorbed and converted into one of He Yiming’s power attributes; a mere shockwave of accumulated aura was hardly comparable.

Slowly lowering the great broadsword, He Yiming casually disassembled it into three sections and repacked it on his back. Although he possessed the treasure of the Spatial World, the great broadsword was his lifeblood. For a super-weapon meant for immediate self-preservation, he certainly wouldn't store it in a spatial dimension.

Yu Jinglei composed himself, forcing a smile that seemed painted on his face, and approached He Yiming, saying jovially, “Junior Brother, this great broadsword truly only realizes its full potential in your hands.”

He Yiming raised an eyebrow; mentioning the great broadsword always stirred a strong sense of pride within him.

Zhuo Wanlian and the others also gathered around. However, Maolie Guang and Cheng Fu felt an involuntary sense of constraint in He Yiming’s presence. This was the natural reaction of the weak confronting the strong. Even though He Yiming showed no aggressive posture, this shift occurred spontaneously.

“Brother He, your swordsmanship truly opened my eyes,” Zhuo Wanlian said sincerely. “To make Senior Bai retreat without a fight is truly astonishing.”

Yu Jinglei nodded repeatedly, adding, “Junior Brother’s techniques are incomparably powerful. Even after Senior Bai retreated, he maintained his composure without pursuing—I am truly ashamed in comparison.”

Though Zhuo Wanlian remained silent, his expression of deep contemplation indicated his thoughts were virtually identical.

He Yiming felt an even deeper gloom. Did he not wish to pursue? But the problem was that he could not lock onto the opponent's Qiji. Relying solely on eyes and ears...

He sighed, knowing it was impossible to explain, and even if he did, they wouldn't believe him. In Yu Jinglei and the others' minds, Bai Lingba was a master even stronger than they were. Thus, unless they were completely brainless, they would never attempt to lock onto Bai Lingba’s aura without provocation. If someone were to do so, it would be equivalent to outright defiance, and no one would defend them if they were instantly slain for it. In this world, especially when facing a superior master, no one attempts such suicidal behavior.

Suddenly, a figure ran back from the distance—it was Bai Lingba, who had momentarily departed.

Everyone immediately fell silent. Despite their disdain for his character, none were foolish enough to openly challenge his seniority and patience.

Bai Lingba approached the group. He Yiming, his mood heavy, asked, “Brother Bai, why did you retreat just now without fighting?”

“Your strike was powerful; I wasn’t confident I could take it. Why shouldn’t I retreat?” Bai Lingba replied matter-of-factly.

The others exchanged glances, utterly speechless...

Bai Lingba nodded slightly toward He Yiming, then swaggered back toward his room as if nothing extraordinary had occurred.

A chill ran through everyone’s hearts. They had never encountered such a shameless, peak-level Sanhuajing expert before. They simultaneously resolved within themselves: even if it meant offending the Heavenly King himself, they must never offend this man. Absolutely not! Absolutely not...