Chapter 723: The Giant's Rage!

Moved.

No one can describe the speed of that movement.

Even that towering Giant Shadow, as majestic as a mountain, had the dark‑red flames burning in its five eyes pause for an instant.

Because at the same instant Jiang Feng moved, the light of that Qi Blade burst from his fingertips, turning into a white pillar of light that pierced heaven and earth and slammed straight into the Giant Shadow's chest.

Boom!

The Giant Shadow's black shell, thicker than rock, in front of the light pillar was like a red‑hot knife cutting into butter, emitting a crack that made one's teeth ache.

The shell shattered.

It didn't just split a crack; centered on the point where the pillar struck, it exploded outward, creating a hole several zhang wide.

Dark‑red fluid gushed out of the rupture, splashing onto the black sand, producing a hissing, corrosive sound.

The Giant Shadow's massive body shuddered violently.

But it was only for an instant.

Then the dark‑red flames in its eyes finally revealed a trace of genuine anger.

A rage born from the deepest part of its soul, provoked by a lower creature injuring its true form.

"Looking for death!"

The two words were no longer a low echo resonating through the shell's patterns, but a genuine roar.

The valley walls on both sides shattered simultaneously.

Countless shards of stone were swept by the sound waves in all directions, forming a rain of rocks in the sky.

Jiang Feng, however, had already vanished from his original spot.

The Giant Shadow's five eyes turned in unison, locking onto the white figure in the sky.

Jiang Feng appeared thirty zhang above the Giant Shadow's head.

He raised his right hand high, the Qi Blade re‑condensed in his palm; this time it was not three chi long but had swelled to ten zhang.

"First strike."

His voice was so calm it sounded as if he were speaking of something trivial.

But when that blade fell, the entire sky was cleaved in two.

The white blade light shot straight down from the Giant Shadow's head, cutting along its skull, neck, and chest, all the way to its waist and abdomen.

The Giant Shadow let out a deep, hoarse roar.

But it did not dodge.

Not that it didn't want to, but that it couldn't.

That blade was too fast.

It was so fast that its five eyes had just captured the blade's trajectory when the edge had already sliced through its shell.

Dark‑red fluid cascaded like a waterfall from the horrifying wound at the center of its body.

Yet Jiang Feng's brows furrowed slightly.

Because he sensed something.

The outer layer of that shell was extremely hard, hard enough to withstand any full‑force strike from a martial saint.

But inside that shell...

It was empty.

No flesh, no bone, no living organic tissue.

Only an extremely thin, smoke‑like black substance seeped outward from the wound.

Jiang Feng retracted the Qi Blade and stepped back ten zhang.

He hovered in the air, watching the Giant Shadow's chest wound slowly healing, his eyes growing ever colder.

"Indeed..."

He spoke, his voice low yet it penetrated every fissure of the Giant Shadow's shell.

"You are nowhere near your peak."

The dark‑red flames in the Giant Shadow's five eyes flickered violently.

It had been struck at a vital point.

"Millennia of Ages, your True Body must have long since rotted away, leaving not even a bone fragment."

Jiang Feng continued.

Each word was like a blade, peeling away the Giant Shadow's terrifying outer shell word by word.

"What remains here is merely a clone. Or perhaps..."

He paused, a mocking curl appearing at the corner of his mouth.

"It is only a fragment of will left behind after your True Body fell into slumber, an empty shell, relying on the meager residual power accumulated over ten thousand years to masquerade as a deity here."

Boom!

Every pattern on the Giant Shadow's shell erupted simultaneously, emitting dazzling dark‑red light.

The lights surged from the cracks, forming a visible ring of dark‑red flames around it.

The flames burned at extreme temperature, the air around them warping into a massive spherical outline; from afar, the Giant Shadow resembled a burning dark‑red sun.

"How dare you!"

This time the Giant Shadow's roar was no longer a mere sonic shock, but wrapped around an ultimate terrifying pressure.

That pressure radiated outward from its center, crushing the gray‑white vine dust in the valley flat against the ground, while the black sand on the surface was pressed down three inches into the earth.

Yet Jiang Feng stood there, his white robes unmoving.

His breathing remained steady, his heartbeat unchanged, and not even a flicker appeared on his face.

It was as if the pressure that could make a Martial Patriarch kneel was merely a gust of wind before him.

Giant Shadow's five eyes opened wide at once.

It was not anger.

It was astonishment.

It was the disbelief that comes after living for Millennia of Ages and encountering, for the first time, something beyond one's understanding scope.

"On your body…"

For the first time, Giant Shadow's voice showed a hint of fluctuation, no longer the aloofness from above.

"Why is there no Origin Seal of the Yunding Secret Realm?"

Jiang Feng gave no answer.

He simply stared at the Giant Shadow, as if watching a trick already seen through.

Giant Shadow fell silent.

The silence lasted only three breaths.

Yet for a being that has lived Millennia of Ages, three breaths of silence said a great deal.

It understood.

The Yunding Secret Realm was a world it created single‑handed; every inch of soil, every breath of air, every strand of Spiritual Energy in this secret realm bore its Origin Seal.

All beings born in the Yunding Secret Realm were marked with this seal from birth.

The seal was neither a shackles nor a Seal.

It was an instinct rooted in the deepest part of the bloodline.

It was an irresistible submission that rose from the deepest part of the soul of every Yunding Being when facing their creator.

Just as mortals instinctively kneel before a deity.

It was not forced, but willing.

Because your soul belonged to him before you were born.

But Jiang Feng did not.

Not at any point, from beginning to end.

Giant Shadow's gaze, powerful enough to make a Martial Patriarch kneel, fell on Jiang Feng, and Jiang Feng did not even blink.

The pressure that could crush any will of resistance, cast by Giant Shadow, enveloped the entire valley, yet Jiang Feng's back remained as straight as a sword planted in the ground.

He was not resisting.

He simply did not feel it.

Because that seal never existed in his body from the start.

"So that's how it is…"

Giant Shadow's voice suddenly turned low and complex, and the dark‑red flames burning in its five eyes dimmed slightly.

"You are not a person of the Yunding Secret Realm."

Its tone changed.

It spoke with an extremely cautious, somewhat scrutinizing intonation.

"What are you doing here?"

Jiang Feng still gave no answer.

He was only smiling.

Yet that very smile made Giant Shadow sense something more dangerous than all the attacks just now.

"Young man…"

Giant Shadow spoke, this time its voice was so low it sounded as if speaking to an equal.

"You are not a person of the Yunding Secret Realm; there has never been any enmity between us. I have slept here for Millennia of Ages, never having stepped out of this valley. Everything that happens in the Outside world is unrelated to me."

It looked at Jiang Feng, and the flames in its five eyes dimmed another notch.

"Regardless of your purpose here… withdraw now, and I can pretend nothing happened."