572: Chapter 572 The blood of the Ancient Tomb Sect cannot be shed in vain!

Everyone completely lost their composure.

Good heavens!

This man isn't joking; he's serious!

By himself, he actually! Actually! Actually! Declared war against One Clan, Three Sects, Five Gates!!!

Ye Chen looked at him and continued speaking.

“Over five hundred people of the Ancient Tomb Sect had their blood flow like a river overnight.”

“From the elderly elders to the young disciples, you didn't spare a single one.”

“The blood of those people hasn't even dried yet.”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the group of people behind Zhou Xuanji, his voice gradually turning cold.

“You say that possessing a treasure is a crime.”

“You say that the weak are prey to the strong.”

“Fine, I accept that.”

“But you must also accept...”

“The blood of the Ancient Tomb Sect must not be shed in vain.”

“As invaders, you should pay the price.”

Every word was like a knife, every sentence piercing the heart.

Zhou Xuanji's face turned pale and then flushed with anger.

The Middle-aged Man behind him turned ashen-faced and shouted sternly,

“Ye Chen! Who do you think you are? How dare you lecture the One Clan, Three Sects, Five Gates?”

“If the One Clan, Three Sects, Five Gates say the Ancient Tomb Sect is guilty, then they are guilty!!!”

Ye Chen glanced at him: “You'd better shut your mouth, otherwise you'll be the first to die in a moment.”

The Middle-aged Man felt a chill run through his entire body.

He actually had a feeling...

That Ye Chen would do as he said and kill him first!

That fear of death exploded in his heart!

Zhou Xuanji finally snapped out of it and laughed out of extreme anger.

“Good.”

“What a 'price'.”

“What a 'paying the price'.”

His laughter grew louder and colder, echoing in the night sky, making people's scalps tingle.

“Ye Chen, do you really think you're somebody?”

“In the Kunlun Ruins, you are nothing but an ant!”

“Ants should stay properly in their ant nests!”

“Trying to crawl out and bite an elephant to death?”

“Then die!”

His smile suddenly vanished, replaced by a bone-chilling killing intent.

“Today, this old man will let you know...”

He suddenly took a step forward, and the bluestone slabs beneath his feet shattered with a bang, sending stone fragments flying.

“What the price for being arrogant is!”

Before his voice even faded.

A terrifying aura erupted from within Zhou Xuanji's body, like a volcano that had been dormant for ten thousand years suddenly erupting.

His grayish-white robes fluttered without wind, making a flapping sound.

His hair stood on end, his eyes shot out sharp glints, and his entire body exuded an aura that could destroy heaven and earth.

Early Golden Core Stage!

That pressure was like something physical, crushing down in all directions.

The ground of the port was trembling!

The distant containers hummed and vibrated from the air waves!

The surrounding corpses of the Japanese men were sent flying like trash bags!

Yan Qingwu and the others were like grass in a gale before this pressure, swaying and on the verge of collapsing.

Only Ye Chen stood where he was, completely motionless.

“Die!!!”

Seeing this scene, Zhou Xuanji's eyes turned even colder.

He stomped his foot, and the ground exploded into a crater several meters wide. He moved like a bolt of gray lightning, rushing toward Ye Chen.

His speed was astonishingly fast, leaving a string of afterimages in the air.

Then.

His right hand reached out, fingers forming a claw, his palm covered in a layer of purple true qi. With a force that could crush anything in its path, he struck directly at Ye Chen's crown.

The people from the One Clan, Three Sects, Five Gates all showed excited expressions.

The disciples of the Tianyi Sect were so excited their faces turned red.

“Elder Zhou has made his move! That kid is dead for sure!”

“A full-force strike from the Golden Core Realm—not to mention a junior from the Secular World, even an equal-level expert from the Kunlun Ruins wouldn't dare take it head-on!”

“Hahaha, weren't you acting all arrogant just now? Why aren't you moving now? Scared stiff, aren't you?”

...

In the crowd, a Middle-aged Man wearing traditional Japanese clothing was laughing even harder.

In stiff Dragon Country speech, he shouted in a sarcastic tone,

“Chinamen are just Chinamen; their mouth-work is number one in the world, but when it comes to a real fight, they're just weaklings!”

“Elder Zhou, slap him to death! Let him know that there's always someone better!”

The surrounding Japanese men all began to laugh wantonly, their eyes full of contempt and excitement.

In their eyes, Ye Chen was already a dead man.

They had even begun to imagine...

After Ye Chen was slapped into a pulp, how they would embellish this story and spread it all over the world, letting everyone know...

That the genius of the Dragon Country was slapped to death with a single hand on Japanese soil.

How satisfying!

However.

His smile hadn't even lasted two seconds before it froze on his face.

Because.

Ye Chen moved.

He didn't dodge, he didn't retreat, and he didn't even put up any defensive stance.

He simply raised his right hand.

And then.

He delivered a slap.

It was light and airy.

Like shooing away a fly.

But it was this very slap that arrived first despite starting later. When Zhou Xuanji's palm was still a foot away from Ye Chen's face, it landed solidly on Zhou Xuanji's cheek.

“Slap!!!”

The sound was incredibly crisp.

Like a clap of thunder exploding in everyone's ears.

Zhou Xuanji's body suddenly stiffened.

Then.

His head twisted to one side at an incredible angle.

It wasn't just a twist; he was slapped into the air.

His feet left the ground, and he flew out sideways, tumbling several times in the air like a ragdoll caught in a gale.

He flew over a dozen meters away.

He crashed through the chain-link fence at the edge of the port and subsequently fell into the sea.

“Splash!”

Water splashed up and then fell back down.

The sea surface returned to calm.

Only ripples spread out under the moonlight, proving that someone had indeed fallen into the sea just now.

The entire field was dead silent.

A deathly silence.

Even the wind seemed to have stopped.

Everyone was dumbfounded, frozen in place as if a binding spell had been cast on them.

No one spoke.

No one moved.

No one even dared to take a deep breath.

Their brains had completely crashed at this moment, unable to process everything that had happened before their eyes.

Zhou Xuanji of the Early Golden Core Stage!

An elder of the Tianyi Sect!

A powerhouse who had cultivated for nearly a hundred years!

He was slapped away like a fly???

The Japanese man who had been laughing hysterically just now had the smile completely frozen on his face.

His mouth was still in the position of a loud laugh, but his eyes were wide like copper bells, his pupils full of terror.

“Nani?”

“This... how is this possible?”

He wet himself in fear and instinctively backed away, but his heel tripped on a broken stone slab, and he fell onto his backside.

The disciples of the Tianyi Sect were even paler than paper, their legs shaking like sieves.

Someone instinctively touched their own face, as if that slap hadn't landed on Zhou Xuanji's face, but on all of their faces instead.

Their elder was gone!

His aura had been slapped into nonexistence along with that strike...

But the problem was...

The opponent was a young man!

He one-shotted an elder with a slap. This... how was it possible???

Yan Qingwu took a deep breath to calm herself down.

Well...

She had been mentally prepared for a long time, so she wasn't that surprised.

After all,

This guy Ye Chen never did anything he wasn't sure of!

Shen Qingyi and the others were completely stunned.

They had guessed how strong Ye Chen might be.

But they didn't expect...

That he could slap a Golden Core stage expert to death!

Damn!

What kind of monster was he???

Ye Chen withdrew his hand and shook his head.

“I thought you were so formidable, being so arrogant with me?”

“Turns out...”

“You're just so-so.”

He looked up, his gaze landing on that Japanese man.

The Japanese man shuddered and instinctively shrank back.

Ye Chen looked at him and spoke calmly: “What did you say just now? Say it again.”

The Japanese man's tears flowed wildly as he asked with a sob, “Do you think I... still have a chance?”

“You have a chance.”

Ye Chen looked at him and smiled, “A chance for me to send you to your death.”

Before his voice even faded.

He waved his right hand casually.

An invisible wave of air erupted from his palm like an invisible giant hand, striking toward the Japanese man.

The Japanese man's pupils suddenly contracted. He opened his mouth to scream, but before the sound could come out, the air wave had already hit him.

“Bang!!!”

His body was sent flying as if hit by a truck, his feet leaving the ground as he flew backward.

He knocked over a group of Tianyi Sect disciples behind him and flew over a dozen meters more before slamming heavily onto the ground.

Then.

He stopped moving.

Dead!

Ye Chen, however, looked up and scanned the surroundings.

“Since you're here, then all of you come out. Hiding like rats is so boring.”

As soon as these words came out, everyone was startled.

There are more experts?

Those who had thought the battle was over all widened their eyes and looked around.

Ye Chen stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze calmly scanning the dark corners around the port.

That look was like he was watching a group of rats hiding in the dark.

“What? You still don't dare to come out?”

“Must I drag you out one by one?”

Silence.

After a brief silence.

“Clap, clap, clap—”

A slow and steady round of applause came from the shadows on the east side of the port.

Everyone turned their heads in unison.

From the shadows, figures walked out.

It wasn't just one or two, but a whole group.

They wore various styles of robes—gray, white, green, and black—but every single person's aura was deep as an abyss, and their gazes were like lightning.

The leader was a Middle-aged Man who looked to be only in his forties.

But people in the cultivation world knew that a cultivator's age could never be judged by their face.

He wore a moon-white robe with a black jade belt around his waist. His black hair was loosely tied behind his head with a white jade hairpin, and his entire being exuded a refined aura.

But those eyes...

They were narrow and slightly squinted.

Like a coiled venomous snake, ready to strike at any moment.

Behind him followed over a dozen people, male and female, old and young, but without exception, every single person's cultivation was above the Tianyi Realm.

Ye Chen looked at the group of people walking out, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.

“Oh, you're finally willing to come out?”

“I thought you were going to hide in the dark and wait until I finished fighting to come out and collect the bodies.”