Chapter 724: Purple Light

The dark‑red flames in the air slowly withdrew their bodies, and the cracks on the shell were healing at a naked‑eye‑visible speed.

The eye‑catching, terrifying wound that Jiang Feng had slashed out had shrunk from over a dozen zhang to less than three zhang.

Giant Shadow's posture shifted from attack to defense, and from defense to a gesture of goodwill.

Getting an ancient monster that has lived for Millennia of Ages to start yielding was, in its long life, a first ever.

But Jiang Feng's answer was only one.

He stepped forward.

That step landed in the air, and beneath his foot exploded a ring of white shockwave visible to the naked eye.

The shockwave spread in all directions, slammed into the mountain wall, shattered countless rocks, and made the entire valley tremble.

"Now retreat?"

Jiang Feng repeated those four words, his voice dripping with sarcasm as dense as unmelting frost.

"When you chose my mother, did you ever ask whether she consented?"

Giant Shadow's five eyes narrowed simultaneously.

"When you killed my mother and forced her to bear a fate she shouldn't have borne, did you ever think of retreating?"

His voice was still low.

Yet every word carried a force that made the very air tremble.

Giant Shadow fell silent.

In its five eyes, the flicker of dark‑red flames suddenly became extremely unstable.

Then its posture changed.

No longer defense, no longer goodwill.

But a ruthless ferocity born of being driven to the brink.

"Young man... you truly are strong. Much stronger than I expected."

Its voice regained that low, drum‑like rumble.

"But you are ultimately mortal. Your power comes from cultivation, from flesh, from the meridians. And I..."

In its five eyes, fierce flames reignited.

"I am the ruler of this land and sky."

"Millennia ago, I already stood at a height you could never reach."

"Even now, reduced to a ruined husk, I can still crush you like an ant—do not overstep your bounds!"

The dark‑red flames on its body erupted again, fiercer, hotter, and more terrifying than before.

The flames spewed from the shell's fissures, coalescing in midair into countless dark‑red fire spears, each tens of zhang long, all tips aimed at Jiang Feng.

Then all those spears were launched.

They rained down densely, like a meteor shower composed of fire.

Jiang Feng faced the sky‑filled fire spears with no expression on his face.

He simply raised his right hand.

His five fingers spread.

A white light brighter than any before burst from his palm, forming a massive Light Curtain that stood before him.

The fire spears struck the Light Curtain, producing a crackling barrage that made one's scalp tingle.

Each spear, upon touching the Light Curtain, exploded into a sky of sparks, like countless fireworks blooming simultaneously.

The sparks fell to the ground, scorching fist‑sized charred pits into the black sand.

Yet not a single spear could pierce that thin Light Curtain.

When the last fire spear burst into sparks before the Light Curtain, Jiang Feng moved.

He stepped out from behind the Light Curtain, appearing before Giant Shadow's face.

Less than three feet from its five eyes.

Giant Shadow's five eyes widened simultaneously.

But there was no time.

Jiang Feng's fist already slammed into the eye at the center of its forehead.

It was not a Qi Blade, not a Light Needle, not any technique.

Purely the force of his flesh.

Yet that single punch sent Giant Shadow's massive body flying backward like a mountain struck by a cannonball.

Its huge back tore through the mountain wall on one side of the valley, burst out the other side, and countless stones rained down from the sky like a torrent.

Before it could hit the ground, Jiang Feng's second punch already arrived.

That punch struck the curved massive horn on the side of its head.

The horn snapped in response.

It didn't break at the base; it was shattered alive by the punch's force.

It shattered into countless fist‑sized fragments.

The fragments flew in all directions, each carrying force enough to kill a Heavenly Person Peak.

Giant Shadow let out a scream of pain to the extreme.

After the scream came the third punch, the fourth, the fifth...

Punch after punch.

Jiang Feng's countless fists battered Giant Shadow like a raging storm.

He knew such attacks still weren't enough to completely destroy it.

Because its True Form is not in this body at all. It is only a wisp of will, only an empty shell; as long as the will does not perish, the shell can be reborn endlessly.

But he doesn't care.

He does not want to destroy it now.

He wants to make it suffer.

He wants this ancient monster that has slept for ten thousand years, thinks itself a god, and treats others' lives as grass, to awaken completely through pain.

Giant Shadow was struck from the valley to the ridge.

From the ridge it was struck to the summit.

From the summit it was struck to Yunduan Zhi Shang.

Its shell shattered and regrew, regrew and shattered, and dark red fluid poured a torrential rain across the sky.

Its roar changed from fury to Suffering, and from Suffering to Shock.

Because it finally realized something.

This young man is not fighting it.

He is crushing it.

With a power it has never seen, he pulls it down from the Ten Thousand Year Altar piece by piece.

"Enough!"

Giant Shadow's voice no longer has any lofty Dignity, only a Trembling that is almost pleading.

"Young man... we can talk! I can compensate for your mother's matter! I can give you the power to reach the heavens! Let you ascend in one step!"

Jiang Feng gave no answer.

The eleventh Fist slammed onto its jaw.

Giant Shadow's lower jaw shell exploded.

"You can have anything! As long as you retreat!"

Jiang Feng still gave no answer.

The twelfth Fist struck its chest.

The chest burst open with a large hole that pierced front to back.

Giant Shadow finally panicked.

That Panic was not the confusion of a battle loss, but a fear after living Millennia of Ages, the first time it realized it might truly die here.

So, as the thirteenth Fist was about to fall, it let out a sound more mournful than all its previous roars combined.

That sound was not directed at Jiang Feng.

That sound pierced the clouds, pierced the firmament, pierced the boundary of the Yunding Secret Realm, and traveled in an unimaginable way toward a direction so distant it cannot be measured by distance.

It was calling for help.

Then the answer came.

A Purple Light.

Flashed across the far end of the sky.

It was so fast that Jiang Feng didn't even see where the light came from.

His thirteenth Fist halted in midair.

Because at the instant the Purple Light flashed, he felt an unprecedented danger that made his heart miss a beat.

Jiang Feng withdrew his fist, turned, and faced the direction where the Purple Light vanished.

His white robe swirled wildly in the wind of the clouds.

A profoundly solemn expression appeared on his face for the first time.