Chapter 709: Battle of the Martial Ancestor

Jiang Feng's foot just stepped over the main hall threshold, and the beam of light fell down.

It wasn't from the sky, but from the top of the Old Tower. A pale Golden Light column shot out from the tower's summit, arcing across the night sky and silently landing on the open space in front of the main hall doors.

When the column dispersed, a person appeared on the Ground.

The figure wore an old grey‑white cloth robe, unadorned with any embroidery, its cuffs and hem already frayed to woolly edges.

His hair was Pure White, not a single black silk strand, yet his face showed few wrinkles, features sharply defined, and his skin bore an extremely faint, almost invisible Golden Light sheen.

He kept both hands behind his back, his spine straight as a spear.

He stood there quietly on the open space, emitting no breath, no true‑Qi ripple, not even a hint of his Breath. Yet Jiang Feng's steps halted.

Because he sensed… this person standing there was not like a Mountain, but like an entire sky pressing overhead.

Behind him followed a hunch‑backed elder in a grey cloth long shirt, the Elder of the Zheng Family, once famed as the Zheng Family's top steward, Zheng Yuanshou.

This Half-step Martial Ancestor now stood reverently behind that silhouette, not daring to exhale a breath.

The guests in the main hall, who had been frozen with fear, now revived.

Several aged old Jianghu squinted toward the figure outside the door, suddenly drawing a cold gasp in unison, some not even noticing their Crutch falling to the Ground.

"Is that… the Zheng Family Old Ancestor? Hasn't he been in seclusion for sixty years?"

"The Zheng Family's previous Family Head, Zheng Tianxiong! He's still alive?"

Zheng Yuanshen staggered out of the main hall, and three steps in front of Zheng Tianxiong, fell with a thud and knelt.

"Old Ancestor! The grandson is incompetent, allowing outsiders to insult the Zheng Family's gate and disturb your venerable cultivation. Please, Old Ancestor, intervene and restore the Zheng Family's honor!"

Long Bad Dao stood behind Jiang Feng, his eyes bulging larger than lanterns. He tugged Jiang Feng's sleeve, lowering his voice to a whisper that seemed to spring from his teeth.

"Old Jiang… tell me you're not joking. This person, can you also fight him?"

Jiang Feng gave no reply.

He released Lin Qinghan's hand, turned, and stared at the grey‑white figure before him.

Zheng Tianxiong also watched him.

Their gazes met in mid‑air.

Those nearby who stood close simultaneously felt an invisible force radiating from where the two gazes intersected, as if someone had tossed a stone onto a calm lake, an unseen ripple spreading outward in all directions.

The stone lanterns in the courtyard went out one after another, not extinguished by wind but smothered by the power contained in that gaze.

Then Zheng Tianxiong laughed.

The smile was faint, so faint it was almost imperceptible, yet Jiang Feng saw it.

"Not bad. A young person who can stand before me without retreating, I haven't seen in many years."

His voice was neither high nor low, neither booming nor hoarse, just like any ordinary elder speaking.

Yet each word that fell into the air carried a strange weight, as if every syllable were tempered metal.

Zheng Tianxiong stared at Jiang Feng, his right hand slowly rising from behind.

"Young man, you have two choices."

He extended his fingers, raising them one by one.

"First, put down that Female child, kowtow and admit fault; Old brother can let it go. Second…"

When his second finger rose, the Ground of the entire Zheng Family mansion trembled lightly.

"Old brother will act personally, sparing your life."

Jiang Feng tilted his head slightly, looking at the Zheng Family Old Ancestor whose age of survival was unknown, a hint of smile curling his mouth.

"I don't really like either."

His tone was light, like casual conversation.

"But I'm quite curious, after sealing yourself for so many years, have you discovered any new insights?"

Zheng Tianxiong paused for a breath, then laughed.

That laugh was light and brief, yet everyone in the courtyard who heard it simultaneously felt their hearts squeezed by something, the pain making them bend over.

"Interesting. Truly interesting. When Old brother roamed under the heavens, your great‑grandfather hadn't even been born. Now someone dares to speak to Old brother like this."

His fingers withdrew back into his sleeve.

The extremely faint Golden Light sheen on his body flashed at that moment, dazzling everyone's vision.

Then he acted.

His method of striking differed from everyone else. No Fist Wind, no handprint, no blindingly radiant technique.

He simply stepped forward, his right hand emerging from the sleeve, fingers splayed, giving a vague press toward Jiang Feng.

That was all.

The sky exploded.

The night sky above the Zheng Family mansion was split in two by a Golden Light Slash in that instant.

The Golden Light cracked from the exact center of the heavens, spreading to both sides, like an invisible hand tearing open a black cloth.

In the fissure of the Golden Light, a colossal, indescribable force poured down like the Nine Heavens' Silver River flowing backward.

That force materialized into a Golden Handprint towering dozens of zhang, forcefully descending from the night sky.

All stone slab pathways in the courtyard began to shatter during the half‑descent of that massive handprint.

It didn't split from the middle; instead whole sections pulverized. Each Green Stone floor tile was crushed into dust, the dust pressed into the soil, leaving shallow pits across the Ground.

When Zheng Tianxiong pressed down, everyone in the courtyard simultaneously heard a single word in their minds.

Death!

It was neither fear nor Illusion, but an instinctive reaction forcibly pressed out from the depths of the soul.

Guests whose cultivation fell below the Heavenly Realm found their legs go limp and collapsed onto the Ground, while even those of Heavenly Realm had faces as pale as paper.

Before this Golden Handprint, all struggle was futile.

This is the true Martial Venerable Power.

Half-step Martial Ancestor, before this palm, is not even an ant.

Jiang Feng lifted his head, looked at the Golden Handprint that descended from the sky, his expression as calm as a pool of dead water.

He even stretched lazily, and his Shoulders' joints emitted a few crisp crack‑crack sounds, as if doing a warm‑up.

"Not bad. More impressive than those few just now."

After saying that, he stepped back half a step. His right Foot gave the ground a kick.

It was only a light kick, yet the ground beneath his foot sank into a circular pit three feet in diameter and five inches deep. The Edge of the pit was smooth as if cut by a slicer, with no trace of any fracture.

And Jiang Feng's body, harnessing the power of that kick, transformed into a white streak of light that surged skyward.

He did not dodge the Golden Handprint, but slammed straight into it.

The white streak of light and the golden palm collided together in the high sky.

Time seemed to freeze for an instant, then daylight broke.

A platinum‑white ray burst from the center of the collision. That light was ten times more blinding than the noon sun, instantly lighting the entire sky over Zheng Tian City as if it were broad daylight.

Everyone in the city who was looking up at the sky simultaneously closed their eyes, yet beneath their eyelids remained a blinding white, so painful that Tears streamed from them.

Then came a sound.

When that sound arrived, everyone thought they had gone deaf. It was not a roar, not an explosion, but an extremely low, almost beyond human hearing, vibration.

The frequency of that vibration was so low that they could not hear it, yet they felt their internal organs trembling.

The shockwave arrived only afterward.

A visible white gust of gas spread outward from the explosion's center in all directions, uprooting the trees within a Hundred zhang radius around the Zheng Family mansion and hurling them into mid‑air!