Seven young men were killed by Ding Yan in an instant, without any mercy.
The remaining three well-dressed young men finally showed a hint of fear in their eyes.
"Who are you really? Aren't you afraid of the retaliation from Huashen Gate?!"
"Run!"
The last two well-dressed young men directly turned and fled on horseback.
In their eyes, Ding Yan was a complete madman, a demon king who didn't blink an eye when killing.
Ding Yan's eyes were cold, his robe fluttering.
"Do you think you can escape?"
Stepping forward, Ding Yan's body seemed ghostly, and a faint green aura began to appear in his right palm. After the green aura emerged, it quickly coalesced into a talisman and seeped into the ground.
"Wooden Form Talisman, trap!"
The street, paved with blue stone slabs, suddenly cracked, and the slabs rose layer by layer. Ancient withered vines burst forth from the earth, transforming into countless creepers and binding the fleeing two, along with their horses.
"Manipulating the elemental forces of heaven and earth! Are you an immortal?" The startled young man who had not escaped exclaimed.
He couldn't remember where he had provoked this ominous star. In his view, immortals were high and lofty figures who wouldn't bother killing himself for the lowly commoners.
Ding Yan completely ignored the man's question, and with his right hand stretched out, he struck a palm through the air.
As the palm force was unleashed, a transparent palm print directly shattered the chest of the young man on the left, and the force engulfed and crushed his body. At the same time, Ding Yan lifted his hand again and struck towards the young man on the right.
Just as the palm print was about to touch the man's chest, a golden light suddenly shone from his chest, a force erupted and neutralized Ding Yan's palm force.
The young man who had survived by luck, as if seeing a savior, shouted to the sky, "Dad, save me!!"
Ding Yan, with narrowed eyes, murmured, "He actually has a protective treasure?"
For cultivators, treasures like this were very important. Originally, Ding Yan had planned to experience the world of treasures after transcending the mortal tribulation, in order to facilitate the refinement of his own life-saving treasure. He hadn't expected to encounter one now.
"Unfortunately, your cultivation is too weak. Otherwise, I'd need to make some effort to kill you today," Ding Yan casually got rid of the remaining young man, and slowly approached the young man with the protective treasure.
At the same time, a thick earth elemental force gathered gradually within his grasp.
"Earth Form Talisman, this moment, nearly solid!"
The elegantly dressed youth was entwined in countless withered vines, unable to move. Feeling the pressure from Ding Yan's right hand, fear reached its peak in his heart.
Just then, a powerful aura suddenly emanated from the distant horizon.
"Young friend, spare him!!"
A hoarse voice clearly reached Ding Yan's ears.
"Manipulating the air for flight, an immortal?" Ding Yan's eyes flickered.
The reason why Ding Yan hadn't forcefully entered the Divine Transformation Gate was that he knew that within this city, an elder of the Divine Transformation Gate was present, and this elder was a genuine immortal!
Ding Yan's current cultivation, although it had reached the perfection of the Qi Refinement stage, was still not an opponent of the immortal.
This was not a matter of experience and means, but the difference in realm.
A step difference was like a thousand miles away, and Ding Yan, who had been practicing for thousands of years, was very clear about this truth. He remembered that in his previous life, after reaching the Transcendence period, he had single-handedly killed three cultivators in the Solidification phase, which was the difference between realms that could not be made up for by external items.
However, Ding Yan, determined to kill, would certainly not be intimidated by a mere immortal.
Almost in the instant the man appeared, Ding Yan stretched out his right hand, took in the remaining three fingers, and, silent as a breeze, pointed the index finger towards the young man's forehead. At his fingertip was the earth form symbol he had solidified for half a day!
"Stone transformation!" Ding Yan murmured softly.
The earth form talisman touched the forehead of the elegantly dressed youth, instantly turning into a brown energy that spread outwards from the forehead as the center. The youth's body rapidly turned into a brown stone statue, and on his face, the expression of fear from his final moments remained.
"Stop!!"
A powerful aura descended, causing the dilapidated hovel nearby to collapse in a ring of air waves. Standing in the middle, Ding Yan felt the majestic aura pressuring him, making it difficult for him to move a step.
The newcomer was a middle-aged man with sharp eyes, wearing a black long robe with two yin-yang symbols embroidered at the cuff. He wore a purple-gold crown, and his long hair was loose behind him. In his words and actions, he exuded a sense of superiority.
"Jun'er..." After the middle-aged man landed, without even looking at Ding Yan, he flashed to the side of the already petrified youth.
Extending his right hand, he pressed it on the statue, and a purple-blue aura gathered through his palm and flowed into the statue.
Ding Yan, seeing this, slightly contracted his pupils.
He didn't know why, but in the instant the man raised his hand, Ding Yan felt a breath that made his heart palpitate. Even in his past life, when he had reached the Transcendence stage, he had never possessed such a breath.
"That is... an immortal element!?" Ding Yan's eyes flickered as he suddenly recalled the force that had killed him in his past life.
The biggest difference between an immortal and a cultivator was that cultivators cultivated elemental energy, while immortals cultivated immortal elements!
Although initially, the immortal elements in an immortal's body were extremely complicated, with the increase in cultivation and the baptism of heavenly tribulation, the immortal elements would become more and more pure. By the time the impurities within the immortal elements were completely cleared, that immortal would truly step into the realm of immortality.
As time passed, the middle-aged man's face grew increasingly grim. Having infused the immortal element, he had barely saved the life of the elegantly dressed youth; however, it seemed that it would take some effort to revive him.
"Who dares to be so bold as to harm my son? So it's one of the top ten disciples of the Lotus Valley." After retracting his right hand, the middle-aged man's eyes revealed a chilling killing intent.
"Tell me, how do you want to die! Rest assured, I won't kill you in one go..."
Ding Yan glanced at the petrified young man and furrowed his brow.
The power of the immortal element was truly terrifying. It could actually resurrect someone and protect the vital energy of the elegantly dressed youth. It was no wonder that in this world, immortals had such high status; it seemed it was for good reason.
"An immortal's methods are indeed quite distinct," Ding Yan spoke up.
"My methods are not something you can fathom. If that old monster from your Lotus Valley was here, I might still show some fear, but to deal with you... one of my hands is more than enough!" As the middle-aged man's words fell, he reached out his right hand and made a grab in the air.
It was as if he were seizing a child, and he seemed to be planning to capture Ding Yan with one hand.
The dispersed elemental force, under the control of the middle-aged man, turned into a large black hand and moved towards Ding Yan.
Seeing the situation, Ding Yan didn't retreat, but instead moved forward, turning his palm into a fist and striking the center of the large hand with a punch.
The overbearing momentum burst out in an instant, and the clothes fluttered backward!
Almost at the same time, two talismans flew out of Ding Yan's body, one was earthy brown and the other was purple. These two talismans were not the previous illusory techniques, but the actual forms of the talismans that Ding Yan had refined during his half-year seclusion.
"Explode for me!" Without a moment of hesitation, Ding Yan directly detonated the two talismans.
Within these two talismans, Ding Yan had infused the elemental energy at the peak of his power, and now, combined with Ding Yan's full-powered attack, it was equivalent to the combined strike of three completed Qi-refining stage cultivators.
Boom! The terrifying force directly shattered all the bluestone slabs on the ground.
As debris flew and dust covered everything, the nearby poor people's tile houses collapsed, and many who didn't manage to escape were desperately pinned beneath the rubble, wailing.
After the attack, Ding Yan leveraged the momentum to retreat, swiftly disappearing without a trace in three steps.
"If I let you escape, I'll write my name backward!" A horrifying aura diffused, directly dispersing the remaining elemental energy in the surroundings. At the same time, a green light surged into the sky and chased after Ding Yan's escape direction...
By this time, Ding Yan had already fled the city gate.
With a light leap, he evaded the disciples of the Hua Gate below, feeling his body hit a layer of restriction.
"There really is a restriction! Luckily, it's just a communication-type restriction..." Ding Yan raised his hand and effortlessly shattered the restriction in front of him.
After a few leaps, he disappeared outside the city...
Every strike made by Ding Yan appeared effortless, but in reality, they were the accumulation of thousands of years of cultivation from his previous life. Although the middle-aged man with eagle eyes was a loose immortal, his experience was far inferior to Ding Yan's, who had accumulated an additional lifetime of cultivation. Combined with underestimation, it allowed Ding Yan to escape under his hand.
After fleeing for dozens of miles, Ding Yan finally breathed a sigh of relief, but unexpectedly, a terrifying aura instantly chased him, and the direction was right where he was at the moment.
"Loose Immortal's strength is indeed much stronger than I imagined!" Ding Yan was shocked inwardly.
He dared not linger at this moment and leaped once again toward the distance…
The middle-aged man with eagle eyes was burning with anger. In his eyes, Ding Yan was no more than a cultivator at the Qi-refining stage, a creature as insignificant as an ant. This existence had actually caused him to suffer a minor injury, even though it was due to his own underestimation, the thought made him extremely furious.
However, he didn't intend to kill Ding Yan because the last attack before Ding Yan's escape had caught his attention.
"What kind of strange attack were those two things? They could make a Qi-refining stage cultivator unleash such power. It must be an ancient divine technique! I didn't expect this kid to have some extraordinary encounters..." The thought ignited the heart of the middle-aged man with eagle eyes.
...
Inside the city, where the fight just happened, the stone statue formed by the young man in Huafu was quietly standing there. It was not known how long it had passed when a crisp sound suddenly came out of it. Then, countless cracks appeared on the forehead of the stone statue.
Crack, crack...
The cracks extended.
In just a few breaths, the stone statue completely shattered! Countless stone fragments fell to the ground, and in the center, a green vine wrapped around and emitted a faint green light! Within the stone statue, the life aura retained by the loose immortal completely dissipated...
There was no room for mercy in the attack!
This was Ding Yan's experience after a thousand years of cultivation practice, and after paying a deep price, it had become a profound lesson engraved in his bones.
Especially with someone like the young man in Huafu, his inherent nature revealed a disdain for life. Such a person, if not killed, would seek revenge in the future.