"And what if I insist on coming closer? What can you do to me?"
Ian Song stared at the two Sea Emperor Sect disciples in front of him. Both were outer sect disciples, barely at the fifth layer of Qi-Refining.
"Best case, we break your legs. Worst case, you lose your life!" one disciple sneered, his eyes full of contempt, clearly not taking Ian seriously at all.
"Then go ahead and try," Ian teased, grinning.
Ian's taunt instantly enraged the pair.
"Courting death! How dare you cause trouble at our Sea Emperor Sect? Brother Ye, help me take down these four—break their legs and drag them back to the sect for punishment!"
Cold light flashed in their eyes as they lunged forward. One threw two punches at Ian and Old Ox, who was a step behind; the other leaped up, unleashing a flurry of kicks at Long Jianming and Zhu Shilong.
"Tch!"
Ian flicked his finger, sending out a strand of qi that shot straight into the attacker's body. The one who'd just gotten close to him screamed and collapsed to the ground, twitching in agony.
"You little punk, you've got guts—daring to hit me!"
On the other side, Zhu Shilong slapped Brother Ye right out of the air. With a loud crack, Brother Ye’s body smashed into the stone steps, shattering the hard stone and leaving most of him buried inside.
"Not good! Someone's breaking into the mountain!"
Two Sea Emperor Sect disciples a few meters away saw this and shouted sharply. Two at the top of the stairs rushed inside to report, while the rest swarmed toward Ian's group.
Facing nearly two hundred Sea Emperor Sect outer disciples, Ian and his group stood their ground, unmoving.
It didn’t take long for the crowd to completely surround Ian’s party.
"You little thief, you've got guts! Do you even know where you are? How dare you cause trouble here!" A handsome, high-spirited young man pointed his sword at Ian and shouted.
This was Shawn Han, a rising star among the Sea Emperor Sect's outer disciples. Only seventeen, he was already at the peak of the fifth layer of Qi-Refining, just one step from the sixth layer and qualifying for the inner sect.
Right now, Shawn Han was buzzing with excitement. Guarding the mountain gate was usually boring, and with the Sea Emperor Sect ruling over several provinces like local kings, nobody in their right mind would cause trouble here. Normally, all he did was chase off unqualified wannabe disciples.
He hadn’t expected someone to actually storm the gate today. If he could capture these four, he’d earn serious merit.
"So what, this place is off-limits?" Ian asked with a cheerful grin.
"Silver? That's not enough. What we want is your life—can you afford that?"
"Honestly, just showing up to this dump to admire the scenery is already doing you a favor. Now you want my life too? That's hilarious."
"A dump, huh?"
The kid actually called the Sea Emperor Sect's mountain gate a dump. Vern Xu was fuming, and all the disciples behind him shot Ian death glares, hands on their sword hilts or knife handles, itching to attack at Vern's command.
Suddenly, Vern Xu heard footsteps from inside the mountain gate and his face lit up. He pointed at Ian and roared, "You dare insult the Sea Emperor Sect? Die!"
He hadn't dared attack Ian without backup, but now with reinforcements coming, even if he lost, someone would bail him out.
So the next moment, Vern drew his sword and charged, his wrist flicking to create dozens of flashy sword-flowers. The disciples behind him cheered him on.
But in the blink of an eye, all the cheers died instantly.
A flash of sword light swept by—Vern Xu's head flew off, landing with a thud.
"Outrageous!"
"How dare you!"
Two furious shouts rang out from inside the mountain gate, and two figures—one in black, one in white—shot out. Seeing Vern Xu's headless corpse, both middle-aged men went grim.
Both newcomers were late-stage Grandmasters.
Their eyes swept quickly over Ian and the three masked men.
With their cultivation, they could immediately tell Ian was mid-stage Grandmaster, but they couldn't see through the three masked men's cultivation.
They'd wanted to kill Ian to avenge Vern Xu, but since they couldn't read the masked men's strength, they hesitated.
"Old Ox, clear the way!" Ian ordered, stepping back and giving Old Ox the lead.
"As you command!" Old Ox rumbled, striding forward and swinging out two punches.
The two Grandmasters raised their hands to block, but as soon as Old Ox's fists landed, their faces changed. They tried to dodge, but it was too late.
"Bang! Bang!" Both were sent flying, crashing to the ground and falling silent.
Seeing this, the other disciples were all shocked. To kill two inner-sect elders with a wave of his hand—just how strong was that masked guy? For a moment, the crowd wanted nothing more than to turn and run.