212: My courage is beyond your imagination!

Ye Chen couldn't help but chuckle as he looked at Wang Zhenyue's dying eyes, which had suddenly burst with ecstasy, and shook his head.

"Old Master Wang, do you really think..."

"...that a pack of rats hiding in a stinking gutter, afraid to see the light, can actually change anything just by barking a few times?"

Wang Zhenyue's throat was being throttled, making it difficult to breathe, but the venomous resentment on his face was impossible to hide.

"Little... little bastard... cough cough... you have no idea how powerful my son-in-law is..."

"That is a... power... beyond your imagination..."

"Oh?" Ye Chen's eyes narrowed slightly, and a cold arc curled at the corner of his mouth. "Then my courage..."

He paused for a moment, and his wrist twisted.

*Crack!*

The sound of bone snapping exploded under the deathly silent night sky!

The ecstasy, resentment, and fear in Wang Zhenyue's eyes instantly froze.

Then.

It quickly dimmed and dispersed.

His head slumped to the side at a bizarre angle. With a casual flick, Ye Chen tossed him like a piece of trash in front of the Wang Family Members kneeling on the ground.

"...is also beyond your imagination."

The entire area fell into a momentary, deathly silence.

Immediately following—

"Old Master!!!"

"Grandfather!!!"

"Family Head!!!"

The Wang Family Members kneeling on the ground were like a powder keg instantly ignited, bursting into heart-wrenching wails and terrified roars!

Wang Zhenshan and Third Master Wang's eyes nearly split from rage. They struggled to crawl up, but due to their heavy injuries, they could only reach out in vain, watching helplessly as Wang Zhenyue's corpse rolled into the dust.

Wang Yuan screamed even louder, scrambling and crawling to the body. He hugged his grandfather's corpse, his whole body shaking like a sieve as tears and snot flowed freely.

Despair!

Fear!

Anger!

It spread wildly through the Wang family crowd like a plague.

Above the steps, the previously erratic aura around Nether Spring, who wore the pale ghost mask, suddenly solidified!

Behind the mask, within those deep eye sockets, black flames seemed to burn silently.

The Prison Master's absolute order to him was to protect the Wang family at all costs, especially Wang Zhenyue's life.

But now...

Wang Zhenyue's neck had been casually snapped right before his eyes by this young man named Ye Chen, like wringing a chicken's neck!

The mission was a failure.

The price of failure was to carry his own head back to see the Prison Master.

"Heh... heh heh..."

An angry laugh came from behind the mask.

Nether Spring slowly raised his hand and pressed it against his pale ghost mask.

"Kid, you are simply..."

"...seeking death."

An aura far more terrifying, cold, and tyrannical than all the Xuan Realm experts of the Wang family combined exploded from Nether Spring's thin, tall body like a volcano that had been dormant for ten thousand years!

*Rumble!!!*

Black energy, like a physical tide, swept out in all directions with him at the center!

Several Wang family experts kneeling nearby didn't even have time to scream before they were struck by the edge of that energy. Their faces instantly turned black, their skin sizzled as if corroded by strong acid, and they collapsed without a sound, their life force extinguished!

An evil technique!

A poisonous evil technique!

"Oh my god!"

Chu Niubi was so scared that he scrambled back into the house.

Bai Wanqing also instinctively took half a step back.

Ye Chen, however, looked up at Nether Spring.

"Is this the only nonsense you can spout?"

"Weren't you going to exterminate ten generations of my clan? Bring disaster to my friends and family?"

Ye Chen walked toward Nether Spring step by step, spreading his hands at the same time.

"Come."

"I'm right here."

"Do you dare to try?"

"Try... I'll try!"

Nether Spring's voice was as cold as ice from the Nine Serenities. The moment the last word fell, he moved!

That wide black cloak snapped violently like bat wings.

The next second, he had already appeared three feet to Ye Chen's left!

A palm with pitch-black nails silently pressed toward Ye Chen's ribs!

Within the palm, black gas thick as ink churned and surged, vaguely condensing into a hideous skeleton ghost face. It opened its hollow mouth and bit down with a nauseating, sickly sweet stench of rot!

There was no sound of wind, no whistling of strength, only that sinister corrosive energy that seemed as if it would even corrode the air itself!

"A trivial trick."

Ye Chen didn't dodge. He twisted his waist to generate power and met it head-on with a simple straight punch!

Although the opponent's move looked bizarre and evil, it was actually just poison.

How to break it?

Ye Chen smiled coldly. The first layer of Layered Wave Strength erupted!

On the fist's edge, a pale golden glow, solid as substance, clashed head-on with the pitch-black skeleton!

*Bang—!!!*

A dull thud sounded, like two pieces of pig iron colliding!

The air wave exploded, and the ground beneath both of them cracked and sank simultaneously!

Ye Chen's figure swayed slightly, and he took half a step back.

Nether Spring also retreated half a step, a flash of surprise and suspicion crossing his eyes behind the ghost mask.

His 'Bone-Eroding Nether Poison Palm' had actually been blocked head-on by the opponent's pure, masculine, and fierce true qi?

Moreover, that counter-shock force was ridiculously large!

Before he could think further, Ye Chen's second punch followed like a shadow, arriving immediately!

It was still a straight punch, but the speed was faster! The momentum was heavier!

The second layer of Layered Wave Strength stacked and exploded!

The wind from the punch made Nether Spring's face sting. He didn't dare to be careless. With a sharp howl, he thrust both palms out. Pitch-black poisonous gas surged wildly, forming three layers of intersecting and overlapping poison palm barrier walls in front of him!

"Boom!"

Fist and palm collided again!

The poison gas barrier walls vibrated violently, letting out an overwhelmed groan before shattering with a bang!

Nether Spring let out a muffled groan and retreated three steps.

With every step back, he left a footprint an inch deep in the hard concrete ground!

In contrast, Ye Chen stood as steady as a rock, not moving an inch!

Nether Spring's pupils suddenly contracted behind the mask!

How is this possible?!

His poison technique was sinister and tricky, specifically designed to break through protective qi and corrode true qi meridians. Ordinary Xuan Realm martial artists would be in agony and suffer a great loss in combat power if they were touched by even a little bit.

But Ye Chen had exchanged two punches, and the golden light on his fist hadn't been corroded or dimmed; instead, it became increasingly brilliant and solid!

His poison...

...didn't seem to work at all?!

No!

It must be that this kid's cultivation is deep, and he's temporarily suppressing the toxicity!

Poison takes time to take effect after entering the body. As long as he delayed a bit longer, once Ye Chen's true qi circulation became sluggish, it would be that bastard's time to die!

"Die for me!!!"

A fierce light erupted in Nether Spring's eyes, and a low, beast-like growl came from his throat.

He no longer cared about any expert demeanor. His figure flashed like a ghost, instantly circling Ye Chen and striking forty-nine palms!

Palm shadows filled the sky, and poisonous gas crisscrossed!

Every palm was sinister and tricky, specifically targeting Ye Chen's major acupoints and vital joints!

The black poisonous gas was like living tentacles, coiling and biting from all directions, completely submerging Ye Chen's figure!

Ye Chen's eyes were calm and waveless. His footwork changed unpredictably, like a fish swimming through stormy waves, dodging the poison palms at every critical moment.

At the same time, his fists boomed out again and again!

The third punch!

Nether Spring retreated another three steps, his arm bones making a creaking sound!

The fourth punch!

Nether Spring groaned as he fell back six steps. The blood in his chest churned, and a trace of black blood seeped from the corner of his mouth behind the mask!

The fifth punch!

Nether Spring was like being hit head-on by a stampeding bull. He flew backward uncontrollably, his feet plowing two deep trenches into the road. He retreated a full twelve steps before barely steadying himself!

He looked down at his hands—those hands that had practiced the 'Bone-Eroding Nether Poison Palm' for nearly sixty years were actually trembling slightly at this moment!

His palm bones felt as if they were about to split with pain!

The poison condensed in his palms was even being shaken by the opponent's overbearing and fierce power, showing signs of dissipating!

What made his heart turn cold the most was...

...after so many exchanges, not only did Ye Chen show no signs of poisoning, but even his breathing hadn't faltered in the slightest!

What the hell is going on?

Could his poison really be a fake?

"Impossible... this is absolutely impossible!!!"

Nether Spring's face behind the mask twisted, and an unwilling roar erupted in his heart.

He was the chief leader of the Black Prison Dark Crow, a peerless expert at the Early Earth Realm, and the sharpest blade under the Prison Master!

The number of Mystic Realm Peaks who had died under his poisonous palms was no less than ten, and even Earth Realm experts had once died with regret after falling for his schemes!

Today, however, in front of a young brat in his early twenties, he was repeatedly frustrated, and his poison technique seemed to have failed?!

"I don't believe it!!!"

Nether Spring was completely frenzied!

He violently tore open his lapel, revealing a chest as thin as a stick and covered with strange black patterns.

Those patterns began to squirm like living things, and a poisonous gas ten times denser than before erupted from his pores!

The poison gas solidified, forming a ten-foot-tall pitch-black poison demon phantom behind him!

The phantom roared silently at the sky, then merged with Nether Spring's body!

Nether Spring's aura instantly surged, and his eyes shot out sickly green evil light through the mask's eye holes!

"Kid!"

"You are the first to be able to push me to this extent!"

He let out a hoarse roar, and his figure turned into a black bolt of lightning, charging straight at Ye Chen with a world-destroying, violent aura!

Everywhere he passed, the ground was corroded with charred marks by the poisonous gas!

The surrounding Wang family experts screamed in terror and scrambled to flee. A few who were slow were touched by the dissipating poison gas; their skin instantly festered, and they fell to the ground twitching and screaming, dying within a few breaths!

This strike was Nether Spring's trump card, a life-risking forbidden technique that burned his entire body's blood and essence. Its power was comparable to a full-strength strike from a Mid-stage Earth Realm expert!

He wanted to decide the victory in one move and completely erase Ye Chen, this bizarre variable, from this world!