The multitude of martial artists from the Celestial Gate hadn't even registered the battle had begun before they realized it was already over. The unparalleled, world-destroying aura stirred by the combined assault of the five masters was extinguished in an instant? The Celestial Gate martial artists looked at each other, then at the fallen figures of Han Zhongli and Tieguai Li on the ground, and finally at the injured He Xiangu and the insect warrior Lan Caihe. They suddenly realized that none of them had actually witnessed how the preceding battle unfolded.

Lan Caihe knelt on the ground, staring at Qin Fen and roaring out sounds akin to a beast's howl. The bones in his broken right arm audibly clicked and writhed as they rapidly restored themselves to normal. The five fingers, stained with Han Zhongli's blood, moved under his control, emitting faint wisps of ethereal blue light.

Poison! Lan Caihe's fingertips carried deadly venom! It was just a pity that his toxin couldn't penetrate Qin Fen's arm, let alone succeed in poisoning him.

He Xiangu remained seated on the ground, the turbulent surge of her blood and energy gradually subsiding. Her originally vibrant, perceptive eyes were now filled with vigilance and caution. That single strike was too formidable; it was merely the 'Bikong Palm'! If he had truly closed the distance, she feared she would have been annihilated instantly.

Recalling that solitary move, He Xiangu harbored deep doubts. If she had charged toward Qin Fen just now, would he have swatted her away as effortlessly as flicking a fly?

Lu Dongbin had sustained no physical injury, yet his expression was gloomier than anyone else's. The reddish-brown hue of his face was overlaid with a layer of ashen white, and beads of cold sweat dotted his forehead. His eyes were locked immovably onto Qin Fen.

As a combatant, and the only true ranged attacker in the group, one had to maintain a comprehensive overview and see clearly every situation on the battlefield.

Lu Dongbin saw everything that had transpired. Precisely because he saw it all, the mental shock he sustained was a full third more intense than anyone else's.

The information on the eighteenth-star-level insect warrior Lan Caihe in the Celestial Gate's records stated: Primal instinct of a beast, fearless of death or injury, one hundred and twenty percent combat focus, a true peak powerhouse among the eighteenth stars. Even when encountering a nineteen-star-level supreme expert, he could still rely on his death-defying, mutually assured destruction style to prevent the opponent from fully utilizing their capabilities, thus stalling for a significant amount of time.

Lu Dongbin desperately wanted to return to the Celestial Gate immediately, find the person who supplied this intelligence, and mince them into bloody paste with his Magnetic-Kinetic Flying Sword! What "true peak powerhouse of the eighteenth star level"? What ability to "threaten a nineteen-star expert"? Lu Dongbin's lips twitched, roaring inwardly: Did the person who provided this information have a brain? After all the extravagant praise you heaped upon him, this eighteenth-star expert, supposedly unparalleled in the world, possessed none of the power you described in the hands of this young man named Qin Fen.

Lu Dongbin's peripheral vision swept across the distant ground. Tieguai Li was dead, and Han Zhongli had also perished! These powerful martial artists, who had earned their strength through a hundred battles and could serve as vital forces for the Celestial Gate, had been killed in an instant.

How could this be? Impossible? Lu Dongbin was too spent to utter such exclamations of shock; the reality was before his eyes. In this duel against the five great masters, Qin Fen hadn't even moved his feet, yet he defeated them instantly, as if performing a commonplace, utterly ordinary action, showing not a flicker of excitement on his face for winning such a fight.

That sigh... Lu Dongbin stared into Qin Fen's eyes and involuntarily shuddered. That sigh was profoundly lofty, as if looking down upon all living beings.

Is this the strength of the current generation's peak experts? Lu Dongbin's expression aged by a decade in an instant. Was this world truly on the verge of changing? Several years before Qin Fen's ascent, there had been another young man who had also effortlessly cast him aside with a single gesture, but—bang—that time was different from this one.

That time, even powerhouses as mighty as the Jade Emperor and the Tathagata were rendered utterly incapable of retaliation before that unnamed young man, forced to retreat from the competition for the Divine Beasts of Jupiter. Qin Fen, at least, wasn't as strong as that individual.

Was history about to repeat itself? Lu Dongbin violently shook his head—absolutely not! History must not be allowed to repeat itself! This rising talent named Qin Fen must be extinguished! Otherwise, in the near future, he would undoubtedly become the true great enemy of the Celestial Gate! An enemy whose threat surpassed even that of the Underworld! Absolutely no one like the Second Azure Dragon could be allowed to emerge again! Lu Dongbin ground his teeth until they clicked incessantly, staring fixedly at Qin Fen, his hands unconsciously clenching into fists again. His eyes, sharp as knives, darted toward a corner of the woods, and he spoke coldly, "Since friends from the Underworld have arrived, come out. Do the people of the Underworld habitually survive in the shadows, accustomed to being cowards, is that why you are called the Underworld?"

Qin Fen didn't need to turn around. From the moment Lu Dongbin voluntarily recalled his Magnetic-Kinetic Flying Sword during the fight, the Underworld contingent was still five hundred meters away.

Rotting leaves were crushed underfoot, emitting a distinct sound within the forest—a sound that was somewhat scattered yet conveyed no sense of chaos.

From the dark woods emerged nearly a hundred martial artists clad in all-black combat uniforms. Most of them held XNll4 automatic shotguns, weapons particularly effective against mutated beasts in the forest. The fact that the opposing Celestial Gate martial artists were using them didn't prevent the Underworld members from employing the same tools.

Swish, swish. Upon seeing the large contingent of Underworld martial artists appear, the Celestial Gate forces simultaneously pivoted their rifles, aiming squarely at the newcomers.

The members emerging from the Underworld, upon sighting the Celestial Gate, acted as if the confrontation had been rehearsed. The nearly one hundred LL4 automatic shotguns in their hands were instantly zeroed in on the Celestial Gate martial artists.

Two hundred XLL4 automatic shotguns were locked in opposition, everyone tensing as they stared intently at the other side. A single accidental discharge would immediately trigger a chain reaction of spitting fire.

Lu Dongbin ignored the direction of the nearly one hundred XLL4 automatic shotguns. These weapons were usually reserved for dealing with mutated creatures. They could only pose a fatal threat to Martial Dao Masters or above under one specific circumstance: when the Master had suffered grievous bodily harm during a clash with another Master and was no longer capable of maintaining their true combat prowess.

Lu Dongbin's gaze was fixed on the three individuals leading the Underworld contingent, his voice slow and forceful, yet brimming with hostility: "This must be the Night Roaming God, if I recall correctly? The other two should be Yama Kings? May I ask your names?"

The biggest difference between the Underworld and the Celestial Gate was the former's preference for concealment. This wasn't cowardice; rather, the Underworld martial artists shared a common belief: true power requires sufficient mystery to match their esteemed status.

Even as rivals, it was difficult for the Celestial Gate to ascertain the identities of the Underworld's strongest experts. It was precisely because of this secrecy that Yama Heavenly Son, the most mysterious of the Yama Kings, could slay several of the Eight Immortals upon his debut, while the Celestial Gate couldn't even accurately identify him, only inferring through various intelligence channels that the Yama Heavenly Son was the strongest of the younger generation on Mars, the one known as the Martian Legend, Shangguan Chuanqi.

"King Biancheng."

"King Taishan."

"The Sixth and Seventh Halls among the Ten Halls?" Lu Dongbin scrutinized the hoarse, low-pitched voice of King Biancheng. His physique was abnormally massive, nearly matching the insect warrior Lan Caihe—a height well over two meters and twenty, not slender but densely packed with bulging muscle, moving with the presence of a small mountain. Even standing still, he projected immense pressure.

His short, golden-yellow hair, somewhat rough pale skin, and the glimpse of chest hair beneath his collar gave him the appearance of a Siberian brown bear.

Lu Dongbin carefully examined King Biancheng's knuckles; the bone surface was flat, like cast iron—a mark left by years of rigorous fist training from youth.

King Taishan was significantly better looking than King Biancheng, possessing an ideal Eastern physique, an eighteen-five frame that was neither thin nor fat, radiating a powerful sense of latent strength. His actual power far surpassed that of the Sixth Hall Yama King, Biancheng—eighteenth-star level! The Seventh Hall was stronger than the Sixth? Lu Dongbin looked astonished. According to the data held by the Celestial Gate, the ranking of the Underworld's Yama Kings was ordered by strength, so why was the Seventh Hall superior to the Sixth?

King Biancheng snorted. This kind of strange look was not new. Once, he had saved King Taishan, which resulted in King Taishan, now stronger than him, having no reason to surpass his positional authority—though too few people knew of this concealed history.

King Taishan looked at the viscous puddle of gore on the ground, unable to immediately identify whose remains it was. As his gaze shifted, he quickly spotted the corpse of Han Zhongli and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Han Zhongli of the Eight Immortals is dead? Who was the assailant..." Before King Taishan's confused voice finished, a low gasp escaped his throat: "This is... the Sinner Chen Ni? The number one fierce general under Zuo Dongting! Rumor had it that during his seclusion, he had reached the peak of the seventeenth star level and had a high probability of becoming an eighteenth-star martial artist. How..."

Due to the relationship with the Saturn Generals, the Underworld possessed more detailed information regarding the military than the Celestial Gate. Chen Ni, a name perpetually at the top of the bounty list, had his files thoroughly acquired by the Underworld.

"Could it be...?" King Taishan looked from Han Zhongli to Chen Ni, his eyes subtly turning as he deduced. Was that powerful energy eruption just now caused by Chen Ni fighting Han Zhongli to the death before his own demise?

Lu Dongbin watched King Taishan's expression shift between apprehension and change, and sighed softly: "Sixth Hall Yama King, I know what you are thinking. But I regret to inform you, your assumption is incorrect. The deaths of neither Chen Ni, nor Han Zhongli or Tieguai Li, were the result of mutual combat."

Tieguai Li was also dead? The two Yama Kings and the Night Roaming God from the Underworld stared at the pile of raw flesh with surprise. Was that Tieguai Li? If they didn't die from infighting, then who possessed the power to kill them so utterly?

Lu Dongbin slowly raised his hand and pointed towards Qin Fen: "Let me introduce you. This is Qin Fen."

A: Less than an hour and a half ago, I updated Chapter One. Now I'm updating Chapter Two! My condition today is no worse than yesterday; I feel great. I really enjoy this feeling; come on! In another hour or two, if you refresh, you'll see, wow, the third update for Gao Lou is here too. Drop me some monthly votes to stimulate me? Let's see if I can be provoked into six updates today?