Only I am Venerable

As if he hadn't even seen the crowd, Qin Li strolled leisurely toward them. Everyone instinctively tensed up, yet Qin Li simply slipped through a gap in their midst, intending to walk away.

'So arrogant!' The same thought surfaced in everyone's mind.

An old man in dark robes with a grizzled beard stepped directly into Qin Li's path. "Hold a moment, friend," he said calmly. Though his voice was soft, it was filled with authority, carrying the air of a superior.

Someone in the crowd immediately began to whisper, "Heh, I didn't expect the Hai Family to show up. Now things are really getting interesting!"

"The Hai Family? You mean the Hai Family from the Land of the Far West?"

"Is there any other Hai Family in the world that would be worth my surprise?" the first speaker snorted disdainfully before adopting a reverent tone. "The Land of the Far West is home to countless Sects and prominent families. But when you talk about the truly top-tier powers, Moon Shaking Immortal Palace is one, Tongtian City is another, and the Hai Family... they're one, too! There are also a few Hidden Sects, but they almost never make an appearance, so we don't really count them."

"Just those three? What about Lengqiu Palace? Don't they count?" someone asked.

"Lengqiu Palace? Their strength is rumored to be formidable, but they never interact with outsiders. Their Sect is extremely reclusive and doesn't recruit disciples publicly. Heh, but get this—the men who died today were all from Lengqiu Palace. This Qin Li has some serious nerve. A young man who truly doesn't know his own limits. He killed an Outer Elder from Lengqiu Palace. You think they're going to let him get away with that?"

At this, Qin Li calmly met the grizzled old man's gaze and asked with a placid expression, "Is there something you need?"

"I am Hai Jinzun!"

BOOM!

When the grizzled old man uttered those four words, another gasp rippled through the crowd. The way many people looked at Hai Jinzun changed.

Hai Jinzun, a once-in-a-generation genius of the Hai Family from the Land of the Far West! At the age of three hundred and eighty-seven, he had already reached the Pill Nascent Soul Transformation realm!

The Land of the Far West was filled with powerful experts, and there were even some at the Thunder Tribulation Realm. However, the first great hurdle for a Martial Artist was advancing from the Venerable Realm to the Shattered Void.

In other words, as long as a Martial Artist in the Land of the Far West was willing to cultivate, almost none were below the Venerable Realm. But to break through from the Venerable Realm to Shattered Void... some might only need a few decades. Take Han Mei, the Saintess of Moon Shaking Immortal Palace, for instance. Her actual age was forty-eight.

That was why Han Mei was hailed as a peerless genius! The kind that only appeared once every few centuries!

But to go from the Shattered Void to the Pill Nascent Soul Transformation realm required at least five hundred years! It wasn't a realm one could reach simply by having a sudden epiphany.

The accumulation of Spiritual Qi from the heavens and earth, one's comprehension of the Martial Dao, and the mastery over one's Spiritual Power and soul... the slightest deviation in any of these would lead to failure!

And the consequences of failure were far beyond what anyone could bear. It wasn't a matter of suffering a cultivation backlash—it was instant death!

Thus, no one would dare attempt to reach for the Pill Nascent Soul Transformation realm without absolute certainty. A Shattered Void cultivator was already an incredibly powerful existence!

Likewise, if a Martial Artist at the Shattered Void realm mastered the Heaven and Earth Laws and was proficient in using Magic, their Combat Value would be absolutely terrifying!

That was why, even among the Sects in the Land of the Far West that possessed legacies from Ancient Times, it was incredibly rare to see a Martial Artist reach the Pill Nascent Soul Transformation realm before the age of five hundred!

The appearance of one was always a sensational event!

And Hai Jinzun had successfully broken through to the Pill Nascent Soul Transformation realm over one hundred and fifty years ago. Now, more than 150 years later, the over-500-year-old Hai Jinzun had long since stabilized his realm. Even in the Land of the Far West, he was a figure no one dared to underestimate!

Then there were the people with Qin Li. The Old Ape, Bai Zhongshan, an ancient creature who had lived for tens of thousands of years, had only just managed to break through to the Pill Nascent Soul Transformation realm with great difficulty—and only with Qin Li's help.

As for She She, she was a Spirit Beast who had also lived for over ten thousand years. Without Qin Li, there was no telling how long she would have remained stuck at the peak of the Celestial Venerable realm.

Therefore, if this crowd from the Land of the Far West knew that Qin Li's current strength had already reached the Pill Nascent Soul Transformation realm, they would be stunned into statues.

If Hai Jinzun was a peerless genius, then Qin Li was an absolute monster!

That's why, even after Qin Li had killed several of Lengqiu Palace's Outer Elders with unbelievable speed, not a single person would have considered the possibility that his strength had already reached the Pill Nascent Soul Transformation realm.

Because... that was simply impossible!

It wasn't something that could be achieved just by being a genius! Over millennia, this fact had become a deeply ingrained, unshakable belief in the minds of all Martial Artists.

So, when Hai Jinzun stepped forward to stop Qin Li, many people were utterly astonished. At the same time, they all settled in to watch the show, thinking, 'Let's see if this Qin Li still dares to act so arrogantly now.'

But what made everyone's jaws drop was that Qin Li's behavior was more arrogant than even their wildest imaginations... ten thousand times more!

After asking "Is there something you need?", Qin Li didn't say another word to Hai Jinzun. He didn't even spare him a glance, not even out of the corner of his eye.

He had been completely and utterly ignored!

Qin Li casually stepped around Hai Jinzun. To the average observer, it looked like someone simply walking around an obstacle. But those with true power couldn't help but feel their hearts stir.

This was especially true for Hai Jinzun himself. He was well aware of his own power. He had already reached the mid-to-late stage of the Pill Nascent Soul Transformation realm and could sometimes sense a turbulent energy in the world around him, as if a Thunder Tribulation could descend at any moment.

Hai Jinzun had been forcefully suppressing it, as he lacked the confidence to face the Celestial Thunder just yet. Otherwise, he could have attempted his breakthrough to the Thunder Tribulation Realm within the next century!

Despite his surprise, a deep-seated anger surged through him. 'In all these years,' he thought, 'even without relying on the Hai Family's name, how many have ever dared to be so insolent in my presence?'

It wasn't as if the Land of the Far West lacked Martial Artists at the Pill Nascent Soul Transformation realm. On the contrary, after countless years of accumulation, there were quite a few grand figures at the Pill Nascent Soul Transformation and even Thunder Tribulation Realms!

But they were, without exception, old monsters who had lived for a thousand, or even several thousand, years. Someone like him was an absolute prodigy among the younger generation! If he so wished, Hai Jinzun could even reverse his aging to appear as a man in his thirties or forties!

But now, to be ignored by a wet-behind-the-ears brat... Hai Jinzun snorted coldly. "Young man, it's best not to be too arrogant!"

As he spoke, an immense pressure erupted from his body, bearing down solely on Qin Li!

Even so, the surrounding crowd couldn't help but stumble back, their faces aghast as they stared at Hai Jinzun. 'It seems Hai Jinzun's power has truly reached the pinnacle!' they thought in amazement.

Then, something even more incredible happened! If they had been shocked before, now Qin Li's actions sent a cold sweat down everyone's spines!

Because in the very instant Hai Jinzun's immense pressure bore down on him... Qin Li struck!

That's right. Qin Li's body twisted, his hands slicing through the air. Two dazzling beams of red light, radiating waves of scorching heat, slammed viciously into Hai Jinzun's Protective Gang Qi.

BANG! BANG!

With two loud bangs, Hai Jinzun's incredibly strong Protective Gang Qi shuddered violently from the impact of Qin Li's attack. It didn't shatter, but it was on the verge of collapse.

Just as Hai Jinzun, enraged, was about to retaliate, Qin Li raised a fist and roared, "Old man, do you dare take a punch from me?"

"You want to die? I'll grant your wish!" As Hai Jinzun spoke, he threw a punch of his own, smashing it toward Qin Li's fist while sneering inwardly, 'Martial Artists from the Celestial Essence Continent all love to practice techniques with swords and sabers. They have no idea that the Hai Family's greatest skills lie in their fists and feet!'

Quite a few people in the crowd were aware of this fact. Many looked at Qin Li with expressions of pity, thinking, 'This young man is too arrogant; he's about to pay a heavy price! Of all the people to offend, he had to pick a major figure like Hai Jinzun. Offending him might have been forgivable out of ignorance. But to challenge a peerless genius of the Hai Family using their own specialty...'

'...Isn't that just asking to die? He's dug his own grave!'

Some even wore expressions of pity, as if they couldn't bear to watch. 'From this day on,' they thought, 'the Martial World will have lost a young, rising star, and Hai Jinzun's fearsome reputation will have another tale to its name.'

BANG!

A violent, explosive sound erupted in the air.

Hai Jinzun staggered back... twenty, thirty steps in a row. His old face was flushed crimson, and his eyes blazed with a look of utter, incredulous horror that completely eclipsed his earlier confidence.

A trickle of fresh blood slowly seeped from the corner of Hai Jinzun's mouth.

The peerless genius from a family famed for its fist techniques, an expert at the mid-to-late stage of the Pill Nascent Soul Transformation realm and over five hundred years old, had just been sent stumbling back dozens of steps by a single punch. And then... he coughed up blood!

It was unbelievable! Simply beyond belief! Everyone stared, dumbfounded, at Qin Li, who hadn't moved an inch.

"Gods, what kind of brute strength is that! Not even Senior Hai Jinzun was a match for him?"

"That... that can't be just brute strength! Where in the world could you find brute strength that powerful? I don't believe it!"

"Bah! If it wasn't brute strength, what was it? Did you feel even the slightest fluctuation of Primordial Power from Qin Li just now?"

"I... I really didn't. But... how is that possible? How?"

"You saw it with your own eyes. Nothing's impossible!" someone concluded matter-of-factly.

"Go back and tell your sect-mates what happened. You think they'll believe you?" another retorted with a scoff.

"..."

As the crowd buzzed with discussion, a storm of complex emotions raged in Hai Jinzun's heart. It was a bitter mix of overwhelming grief, tinged with a thread of pure terror.

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