Weiling West House, facing Han Li directly

Nightmare's push on the stone door wasn't loud, but to some attentive ears, it was like a clap of thunder.

Medicine Old Man, who had been paying attention to the commotion, almost immediately walked out of the adjacent room. The moment he saw Nightmare, his cloudy old eyes constricted sharply, flashing with an unbelievable horror. The Nightmare before him had an Aura as deep as the sea. Although he tried his best to contain it, the naturally emanating majesty, which seemed both out of place with the surrounding world yet subtly controlling everything, made his Soul tremble. This was a world apart from the contained weakness he had shown before his seclusion!

"Night... Little friend Nightmare, you..." Medicine Old Man's voice was a bit dry.

"I've gained a little. Thank you for your concern, old man." Nightmare nodded calmly, but his gaze bypassed Medicine Old Man and directly fell upon the isolated stone house at the west end of the village. "It's time to go ask that Hunter Han a few questions."

Medicine Old Man's face changed, and he quickly lowered his voice: "Little friend, think twice! This Han Li is..."

"It's fine." Nightmare interrupted him, his tone calm but with an undeniable decisiveness. "If the hidden danger isn't removed, the village will never have peace. Since I am temporarily residing here, I will not tolerate petty mischief."

With that, he took a step, and without any visible movement, he was already several meters away. Another step, and he was already walking towards the west end of the village. He didn't walk fast, but with each step, it seemed to align with the pulse of the earth, and an invisible pressure slowly permeated outwards from him.

Villagers along the way, seeing Nightmare and feeling the heart-stopping Aura, instinctively stepped aside, lowering their heads, not daring to look directly. They didn't understand what was happening, but they instinctively felt awe and fear.

Stone Tiger was wiping his bone knife at his doorway. Feeling this pressure, he suddenly looked up and saw Nightmare walking towards Han Li's stone house. He was first stunned, then a complex expression appeared on his face, with worry, and also a hint of faint anticipation. He gritted his teeth, grabbed his bone knife, and followed from a distance, but dared not get too close.

Nightmare's steps were steady and firm, his Divine Thought had long locked onto the cold and powerful Aura within the stone house at the west end of the village. The moment his Aura leaked out after he emerged from seclusion, he sensed a violent fluctuation in Han Li's Divine Thought, which contained shock, greed, and a hint of... provoked fury.

He knew that Han Li was waiting for him, or rather, waiting for a suitable moment for a showdown.

And now, he had arrived.

Arriving in front of Han Li's stone house, this house was even more crude and simple than Medicine Old Man's. No grass grew around it, and a faint smell of blood and coldness permeated the air. The wooden door was tightly shut, like the entrance to a Vicious Beast's hibernating lair.

Nightmare did not knock or call out. He just stood silently three meters in front of the door, his Divine Thought activating his Chaos Dao Foundation. An Aura as solid as a mountain, yet imbued with the meaning of annihilating all things, slowly pressed towards the wooden door like an invisible tide.

Buzz!

On the surface of the wooden door, a layer of dark, wave-like light, invisible to the naked eye, suddenly lit up and violently rippled. This was the defensive Restriction set by Han Li, groaning under the pressure of Nightmare's Aura.

"Hmph!"

From inside the stone house came a cold snort, like metal clashing. The layer of dark light suddenly stabilized, and an equally powerful, but even more sinister and malevolent Aura, like a drawn poisoned blade, burst forth from within the house, colliding head-on with Nightmare's Aura!

There was no earth-shattering roar, but the air between the two distorted into ripples, and the dust on the ground silently spread outwards in a circle. Stone Tiger, watching from a distance, felt a dull thud in his chest, as if struck by an invisible hammer, staggering back a few steps, his face pale with shock.

The aftermath of a mere clash of Auras was this terrifying!

"One who hides his head and shows his tail, why do you not reveal yourself?" Nightmare spoke, his voice calm, yet it clearly penetrated the Restriction and entered the stone house.

Creak—

The wooden door was slowly pulled open from the inside.

Han Li's figure appeared at the doorway. He was still wearing his old animal skins, his figure gaunt, but at this moment, he no longer restrained himself. He was like a fully drawn fierce blade, his eyes sharp as an eagle's, filled with naked aggression and killing intent, staring fixedly at Nightmare. Black Evil Qi visibly swirled around him, condensing into various ferocious beast shadows, emitting silent roars.

The energy fluctuations emanating from him had clearly reached the peak of the Middle Golden Core stage, and they were extremely condensed and fierce, carrying an ancient, savage flavor, definitely not that of an ordinary Cultivator!

"Kid, you finally stopped hiding?" Han Li's voice was hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing, "It seems you've gained some Opportunity, and now you don't know your place!"

"Opportunity is hardly the word for it. Just cleaning up some bothersome insects." Nightmare's tone remained calm, a stark contrast to Han Li's ferocity. "You're lurking here, spying on the village, driving wolf packs. What are your intentions?"

A trace of surprise flashed in Han Li's eyes, then turned into deeper coldness: "You know quite a bit. It seems that old Medicine Old Man told you many things he shouldn't have." He licked his lips, his gaze greedily sweeping over Nightmare. "However, none of that matters now. Hand over the secrets on your body, and I might consider leaving you a complete corpse."

He made no secret of his killing intent and greed. The power system on Nightmare, so different from this world, seemed like an unimaginable Treasure Trove to him!

"Just you?" Nightmare's Divine Thought stirred slightly, his Chaos Dao Foundation slowly operating, and his Aura became even more profound. "Or are you relying on that trace of... polluted ancient demon Bloodline on you?"

Upon hearing this, Han Li's face drastically changed! His biggest secret had actually been seen through by the other party with a single glance!

"You're courting death!"

In a mix of shock and fury, Han Li could no longer hold back and unleashed a punch! The black Evil Qi wrapped around his fist instantly condensed into a ferocious wolf head, opening its massive maw, accompanied by a mournful wailing, and lunged at Nightmare! This punch, with its towering Evil Qi, was enough to easily tear apart an ordinary Early Golden Core Stage Cultivator!

Facing this incredibly fierce strike, Nightmare's eyes remained unchanged. His Divine Thought activated his Chaos Dao Foundation, and without dodging, he met it with his own punch! There was no dazzling light on his fist, only a layer of Chaos Qi flowing, as if containing the primordial power of the unformed heavens and earth.

Boom!!!

The two fists collided, producing a dull, thunderous roar! A violent energy shockwave instantly spread out from the two of them, the fence around Han Li's stone house instantly pulverized, and the ground was scraped down three inches!

Crack!

The jarring sound of bones breaking rang out!

The sneer on Han Li's face instantly froze, replaced by extreme pain and disbelief! He felt as if his punch hadn't hit flesh and blood, but had crashed into an evolving Chaos world! That power was not merely fierce; it carried terrifying characteristics of decomposition, annihilation, and all-encompassing absorption! The Evil Qi wolf head on his fist melted like ice and snow, and the bones of his fist itself sent waves of excruciating pain!

"Pfft—" He violently spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, his body flying backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily into the wall of his own stone house, causing spiderweb-like cracks to appear in the sturdy stone wall!

One punch!

Just one punch!

Han Li, a peak Middle Golden Core Cultivator, was utterly defeated!

In the distance, Stone Tiger was dumbfounded, his bone knife clattering to the ground. All the villagers secretly watching fell into a deathly silence.

Nightmare retracted his fist, stood with his hands behind his back, and looked down at Han Li, who was struggling to get up, his eyes as cold as ten thousand years of ice.

"Now, you can properly explain what you, and the people behind you, intend to do in this Shiquan Village?"