Chapter 70: Duel!

The moment Lu Yang appeared and spoke, Tianjing City turned black and white, and an indescribable wave surged outward in every direction.

Wherever the wave passed, all things in the ten directions were annihilated.

Buildings vanished, pedestrians vanished, everything as if it had never existed—whether a beggar on the street or a martial Heavenly Being, all were treated the same!

"How could this be!?"

A martial Heavenly Being roared in terror, unable to accept it.

Yet no matter how they reacted—whether fleeing, standing dazed, or going hysterical—they could only quietly dissolve within that wave.

There was only one exception: the 'Saint-Heart Scholar' Wang Boyuan. This peerless genius who had pioneered the fourth step of martial arts was, at this moment, unexpectedly calm. He merely gazed up at the sky with a hint of relief: "Observing fortune to gaze upon the heavens... heh, how can a frog at the bottom of a well speak of observing fortune, let alone gazing upon the heavens?"

Long ago, when he broke through to Heavenly Being, Wang Boyuan had sensed something was wrong.

Wang Boyuan had created the "Three Talents Fortune-Gazing Art," using man to calculate heaven, yet when he exhausted all his lifelong learning to peer into heaven and earth, a great upheaval arose.

Because he had gazed out and seen that heaven and earth were flawed!

Though exquisite, they were not self-consistent, like a carefully crafted forgery!

He once thought he had miscalculated, that the Fortune-Gazing Art was imperfect, yet no matter how many times he recalculated, the result never changed.

Could it truly be that heaven and earth were flawed, and the human world an illusion?

From then on, the once elegant and dashing 'Saint-Heart Scholar' became a slovenly man who drank all day and idled away his time.

Now, he had seen the truth.

Only at this moment did Wang Boyuan finally regain some of the heroic bearing of the former 'Saint-Heart Scholar,' gazing at the sky with relief mingled with regret.

"What a pity... if only I could have glimpsed the true heaven and earth, it would surely have been a joy..."

The next second, his form vanished.

The entire Tianjing City vanished from the earth just like that, all people gone without a trace, leaving only the residence of the Yun family ancestor and Lu Yang in midair.

In the blink of an eye, Lu Yang had used his secret realm authority to erase the entire Tianjing City. All living beings had been collected into the deepest part of the Refinement Secret Realm, waiting for the next disciple to unseal them, while the secret realm space where Tianjing City had been was compressed around the Yun family ancestor.

In this way, space became highly condensed, and the Yun family ancestor could no longer flee through the void.

"Lu Yang."

The Yun family ancestor's voice carried wariness and frustration.

Wariness, because Lu Yang's current strength was no longer something he could look down on; frustration, because all of this was actually his own doing!

Without him, even if Lu Yang had cultivated the Sage Thief, it could not have been so perfect!

How could he not be frustrated?

Yet soon the Yun family ancestor suppressed all negative emotions and said in a deep voice: "Erasing Tianjing City—are you not afraid the Sage Thief will lose its support of fortune?"

"Senior, you worry too much." Lu Yang smiled faintly upon hearing this: "Since the Sage Thief has already reached great completion, the world's fortune is no longer important to me. After all, since it is a 'thief,' how could it possibly return anything? Compared to that, senior would do better to concern yourself with your current predicament."

"... Are you threatening me?"

The Yun family ancestor's face grew increasingly grim, his previously restrained aura gradually leaking out, killing intent chilling: "Alone, you dare to speak such wild words to me?"

"A reincarnated Foundation Establishment cultivator—so what?"

Lu Yang met him head-on, yielding not an inch: "I happen to need a Foundation Establishment reincarnated soul to study secret arts. Senior has arrived at just the right time and can perfectly aid my cultivation."

"Brat, you seek death!"

In his fury, the Yun family ancestor also sorted out the current situation, and even felt somewhat relieved that Lu Yang had not left the secret realm but chosen to engage him.

If he had left the secret realm and reported him, he would surely have died.

But now that Lu Yang had come alone, there might still be hope of turning things around!

The Yun family ancestor wildly urged his magic power, and atop his head immediately rose a dazzling golden light, splitting into three colors—gold, silver, and jade—interweaving and in an instant illuminating the horizon!

Taiyi Golden Radiance!

Unlike Yun Miaozhen's half-baked version, the Yun family ancestor's Taiyi Golden Radiance was the complete version long since successfully refined—a true great divine ability!

In an instant, the golden light surged mightily, and wherever it passed heaven and earth followed, sweeping up spiritual energy to raise towering waves, directly sweeping down toward Lu Yang.

Immediately after, Lu Yang felt only a blaze of golden light before his eyes, as if he had been instantly isolated into another world. Then his essence drained, his body withered, his true qi ran dry, his magic power gradually weakened, his spirit scattered, his spiritual sense lost its sharpness—essence, qi, and spirit were all swept away by the golden light!

Yet the next second, Lu Yang raised his foot and stamped down.

Rumble rumble rumble!

In an instant, the entire secret realm seemed to tremble violently, like the shockwave inevitably caused when a person jumps from a height and lands on the ground.

Almost simultaneously, the Yun family ancestor's spiritual sense also jolted violently.

The originally condensed Taiyi Golden Radiance, at the instant Lu Yang raised his foot and stamped down, actually exploded apart in all directions, and the previously swept-away essence, qi, and spirit swiftly returned to Lu Yang's body.

The next second, Lu Yang moved.

He was seen to smile coldly, then spread his sleeves. Countless fireworks rose around him, spiraling and coiling, until from within them exploded a thunderous roar that made the Yun family ancestor's ears and eyes ache with pain. He looked up and saw a magnificent Golden Body rise from the ground, shaped like a mountain, wreathed in the aura of fireworks.

"Steal the world's fortune, forge the Sage's Golden Body!"

Only at this moment did Lu Yang truly bring out his real ability after the Sage Thief reached great completion—'Law' borrowed fortune to take form, and actually transformed into a 'Sage Aspect'!

Seeing this, the Yun family ancestor urgently urged his Taiyi Golden Radiance.

In an instant, the golden radiance filled the sky, splitting into the three lights of essence, qi, and spirit, arrayed in the form of sun, moon, and stars, heavier than mountains, crashing down toward Lu Yang.

But before the Taiyi Golden Radiance could fall, the heaven-pillar-like 'Sage Aspect' extended a magnificent great hand—its palm full and round, crystalline as jade. It simply covered the sky as it descended, and with a clench of its five fingers, it seized the magnificent Taiyi Golden Radiance together with the Yun family ancestor in its palm!

"How dare you!"

The Yun family ancestor grunted, and his Taiyi Golden Radiance kept expanding, growing ever more blazing, nearly transforming into a golden sun, trying to pry open the 'Sage Aspect's' palm.

Yet on the other side, Lu Yang, seeing this, also formed hand seals.

His main body gradually became illusory, while the 'Sage Aspect' behind him grew ever more real, solemn and majestic, and increasingly unmoved by external things.

The Taiyi Golden Radiance the Yun family ancestor unleashed, when it landed on it, could at most scrape away a layer of flesh and blood, but the moment it scraped them away, Lu Yang would regenerate them. The result became a war of attrition—one side consuming magic power, the other consuming qi and blood—and he simply could not gain any advantage.

"Delay breeds change... I must take this man down quickly!"

The Yun family ancestor's thoughts raced, knowing clearly that Lu Yang had gained a great fortune through his hands, and the Sage Thief was near its extreme, already comparable to a great divine ability.

To capture him, only more powerful means would suffice.

At this thought, the Yun Clan Ancestor immediately produced a spherical magic treasure, which was none other than the 'Qiu Tian Yi' bestowed upon him by the Zhang Sect before his reincarnation.

The Yun Clan Ancestor raised this spiritual treasure into the air, then bowed deeply:

"Please, Heaven Lord, lend your hand."

As the words fell, the Qiu Tian Yi instantly began to spin, dragging the surrounding space along with it; up, down, left, right, front, and back were all inverted at once!

Within the range covered by the 'Qiu Tian Yi', all positional changes were thrown into chaos: forward was actually backward, left was actually upward, upward was actually forward—all dictated by the holder's will. Now that it was summoned, the 'Sage Form' instantly lost its tension and power, allowing the Yun Clan Ancestor to break free.

Immediately, he held the 'Qiu Tian Yi' and cast it over Lu Yang.

In an instant, Lu Yang felt a violent tremor through his entire body; the 'Sage Form' seemed fixed by a vast magic power, unable to move, forced to remain in place.

Indeed, the Yun Clan Ancestor had twisted the direction of every one of Lu Yang's movements into 'staying still'.

After fixing the 'Sage Form', the Yun Clan Ancestor did not pause; the Taiyi Golden Flower continued to sweep down, clearly intending to break it open with such a slow-slicing method.

"So strong, too strong..."

Seeing this, Lu Yang smiled in admiration; the Yun Clan Ancestor's strength was beyond doubt, after all, he was a Foundation Establishment reincarnate and held a supreme treasure like the Qiu Tian Yi.

Judging by strength alone, if they dueled a hundred times, he would likely lose a hundred times.

However, magical dueling is not decided solely by strength. Just as a chess player may defeat an opponent on the board, there are also ways to win outside the board.

Meanwhile, outside the secret realm of the Refinement Method, Lu Yang's Primordial Unity Incarnation, without stopping, arrived directly at the cave entrance where the Yinshan True Person was in seclusion.

"True Person! I wish to report someone!"

"There are bad people inside the secret realm!"

(End of this chapter)