Actually, those Japanese samurai had their intel right—Ryan Ling's Purgatory Soul-Suppressing Art, even at its peak first realm, has limits. Breaking the Blood Shark Formation was already pushing it; cracking the Thousand-Corpse Formation was pure luck, relying on his Seventh-Grade Spirit Officer authority to scare the dead. That kind of intimidation works on ghosts and corpses, but not on the living. So if he’d tried to wipe out all the grandmasters on Shark-Hook Island with just his original strength, his odds of losing would've been way higher.
But fate was on his side. After returning from Saint Trace Island, Ryan threw himself into mastering the first move of the Hell Mad Blade Eighteen Styles—Severing Desire. How do you sever desire? He kept thinking about it, nearly splitting his head open, but couldn’t figure it out, because only the dead are truly free of desire.
If you’ve got feelings, you’re stuck in this world—and anyone born here can’t cut off desire completely.
But right at the crucial moment, a line from the Diamond Sutra he’d memorized as a kid flashed through his mind—"If you see appearance as non-appearance, you see the Tathagata."
Suddenly, it was like a bomb went off in Ryan’s head—desire can never truly be severed, but if you treat desire as non-desire, it leaves no mark in your heart. Like flower petals brushing past your clothes, not a trace remains. That’s real 'Severing Desire.'
With that, Ryan had his breakthrough—the first Hell Mad Blade move hit full mastery, just like that.
All hesitation gone, he charged straight for Shark-Hook Island.
At the very last moment, Ryan suddenly made his move, shaking everyone to their core. He literally ran across the waves, sword on his back, killing intent blasting sky-high. For one split second, Ryan basically embodied everything tough and cool any guy could dream of.
On deck, Anqi Chen was so hyped she rushed right to the edge—her heart basically melted. Meanwhile, in the cabin, Hayden Zheng’s heart shattered to bits.
"Artillery support! As soon as Ryan Ling rescues those hostages, blast them—blow those bastards to hell!" In the rear, Gabriel Xue was roaring himself hoarse, his whole body shaking with rage.
All the adjutants and soldiers around were on full alert. At this point, even if it triggered a war between two countries, even if it escalated to a full-blown conflict, Gabriel Xue was ready to pay that price.
If you let this kind of humiliation slide, how can you call yourself a Chinese soldier with any dignity left?
Gabriel Xue clenched his fists, everyone on the ship did too—and right then, almost every grandmaster’s gang-qi on the whole island locked onto Ryan Ling.
Everyone’s hearts tightened, their worry spiking all at once!
On Shark-Hook Island, the Japanese swordsmen facing Ryan Ling weren’t scared at all—in fact, they were full of contempt, sneering nonstop.
"Kid’s got guts, I’ll give him that. But with all this grandmaster gang-qi blasting him, if he pushes forward another five hundred meters, he’s definitely toast!"
"Yeah, he’ll be split open for sure—arms, legs, everything. The Water-Breaker Sword Sect’s specialty is breaking stuff. The killing aura we’ve set up? Forget Jiangdong, even Japan’s top ten kendo masters couldn’t cut through this grandmaster gang-qi array!"
"Exactly. Let’s just wait here and watch—see how long it takes him to die!"
But before the Japanese swordsmen could finish their smack talk, a monstrous saber aura crashed down—instantly blasting apart the wall of grandmaster gang-qi gathered in front of Ryan Ling.
"What... what kind of godlike power is this?" The Japanese swordsmen were stunned—Ryan Ling was wielding a blade, and just like slicing meat, he chopped all that gang-qi clean in two. The scene was so intense, nobody could believe their eyes.
"Die!" Ryan Ling shouted into the air, swinging his blade—ten Japanese heads hit the sand at once, blood spraying everywhere. In a blink, the grandmaster gang-qi covering Shark-Hook Island vanished without a trace.
"Damn, Master’s power is getting so insane I can’t even keep up!"
"Everyone, move! Save the hostages first!"
In seconds, the ship surged forward and every tied-up hostage was rescued and brought aboard.
"Beautiful work—hostages safe, Japanese scum dead, that’s what I call satisfying!" Gabriel Xue cheered from afar.
"Master Ling is just on another level—if Jiangdong can produce a freak like this, how could Shark-Hook Island not fall?" Even the nearby adjutants changed their tune; whatever pride they’d felt before, one slash from Ryan had wiped it clean away.
"Pass my order—fleet advances step by step! Today, we kill every last Japanese invader!" Gabriel Xue nodded, issuing the command instantly.
"Yes, sir!" everyone shouted in unison.
......
"Lord Shigeru Fujita, bad news—the Jiangdong kid’s broken through!" Inside Shark-Hook Island, a blood-splattered Japanese swordsman tumbled into the bunker’s dark chamber.
Right then, Shigeru Fujita, a few Japanese yellow-realm grandmasters, and three mysterious figures were drinking, watching geisha dance—looking smug and totally convinced they’d already won.
But that shout shattered the vibe—Shigeru Fujita sprang up, face stunned: "No way! That was every grandmaster on the island combining their gang-qi for one massive barrier. How did he break through?!"
"Boss, he really did break in—look!" A Japanese swordsman urgently pointed at a surveillance monitor.
Sure enough, the monitor showed Ryan Ling already ashore, a row of Japanese heads behind him. In that instant, nearly every red-realm grandmaster on the island had been killed—half the Water-Breaker Sword Sect’s young stars wiped out. These were guys the sect had spent over fifteen years training, their future successors—and now, gone for good.
"Damn it, get out there and fight!" Shigeru Fujita was furious. As Water-Breaker’s second senior brother and the Shark-Hook Island operation chief, he had to act.