Trapped inside the array, Taber Hawk showed no sign of panic. Instead, he looked down on it, sneering, "You really think such a petty formation can hold me, Song Yan? You're dreaming!"
With a cold laugh, Taber Hawk swung his fist, unleashing a burst of sacred golden fist-light from his knuckles that swept out in all directions.
But to his surprise, the formation didn't shatter as he'd expected.
Taber Hawk's face darkened slightly, and a golden long spear appeared in his hand.
It was a Heaven-grade divine weapon.
With the Heaven-grade weapon in hand, Taber Hawk's confidence soared. He released his divine sense, searching for a flaw in the formation.
But to his annoyance, even with his divine sense spread wide, the space inside the formation was vast—he couldn't locate the array's boundary at all.
"Damn it!"
Cursing, Taber Hawk activated his Heaven-grade weapon, and a faint phantom appeared behind him.
"Dragon-Destroying Spear—break for me!"
The golden spear erupted with terrifying power, thrusting forward into the empty air before him.
In Taber Hawk's mind, with his full strength unleashed, this array shouldn't be able to withstand such overwhelming force—it ought to collapse instantly.
But the result was—
The array remained perfectly intact.
Unwilling to accept this, Taber Hawk launched another round of furious attacks, but no matter how much force he used, he couldn't break the array.
"How is this possible? He's just a Mid-Rank God, so how could he set up such an intricate array?"
Taber Hawk couldn't believe it. He spread his divine sense and flew around inside the array.
But after flying for a full hour, he still couldn't find the boundary of the array.
Frustrated and humiliated, he couldn't help but shout, "Ian Song, if you've got the guts, let me out! See if I don't kill you!"
Outside the array, Ian Song just smiled. "Young Master Taber, aren't you supposed to be so impressive? How come you can't even break an array set up by a mere Mid-Rank God like me? If you've got the skills, go ahead and break it—I'll stand right there and let you kill me!"
"Just you wait!"
Taber Hawk roared and cursed, once again struggling inside the array.
After tossing and turning for two full hours, he finally gave up. He'd tried every trick and technique he had, but none could break the array.
Meanwhile, Ian Song went back inside his house and took out the two God Emperor-grade cultivation methods he'd extorted from Taber.
One was called the Everlasting Undying Codex, and the other was the Deathless God-Emperor Canon. The first focused on body refinement and produced incredibly destructive divine power; the second cultivated the soul, and the divine power it yielded was stronger than that from ordinary God-King-level arts, while also nourishing and strengthening the Divine Soul.
Compared to his own Primordial Chaos Body, though, both methods were worlds apart.
But the Primordial Chaos Body couldn't be revealed—if it ever got exposed, the whole God Realm would hunt him down. So he needed to cultivate a different method as a cover.
After weighing his options, Ian decided to train in the Everlasting Undying Codex. This art had thirty-six layers and was meant to be practiced starting from the Lower-Rank God realm.
Completing the first layer would double a god's physical defense.
The second layer would double both defense and strength.
......
By the thirty-sixth layer, his physique would be thirty-six times that of an ordinary god at the same realm.
With thirty-six times the bodily strength, he could easily suppress his peers in the same realm.
With that in mind, Ian activated the technique and began cultivating.
After an hour, he completed the first layer.
But his body was already freakishly refined—after being tempered by Primordial Chaos power, the Everlasting Undying divine power couldn't strengthen his physique any further.
Instead, the purity and destructive force of his divine power far surpassed that of a Lower-Rank God at the early stage, and could even rival the late stage.
He spent another two hours.
He completed the second layer, but again, his body didn't get any stronger.
The third layer...
The fourth layer...
The fifth layer...
The sixth layer...
In just one day, Ian cultivated the Everlasting Undying Codex up to the sixth layer. Again, his body didn't get any stronger, but his divine power increased several dozen times over.
This indirectly boosted his overall strength quite a bit.
Suddenly, Ian remembered that Taber Hawk was still trapped in the array. He got up and walked outside, finding Taber still cursing and struggling to break free.
"Looks like you're still pretty energetic! Might as well stay in there a few more days!" Ian said with a faint smile.
Taber Hawk hurriedly pleaded, "No! Ian Song, let me out! If my two bodyguards notice I'm missing, they'll definitely come looking for me. Once they arrive, you're dead for sure, so you'd better let me go now!"
"Oh? Are you threatening me now?" Ian shrugged indifferently. "Or maybe I should just spread the word that the mighty Young Master Taber got trapped by a mere Mid-Rank God's array!"
"You wouldn't dare!"
Taber Hawk panicked. If word of this really got out, he'd lose all face. As a late-stage Upper-Rank God, even possessing a Heaven-grade divine weapon, he'd been trapped by a Mid-Rank God's array. If this spread to the Torbach clan, his siblings would laugh themselves sick.
"Why wouldn't I dare? Trapping an Upper-Rank God is a badge of honor. Who knows, maybe I'll even get famous for it!" Ian joked.
Ian laughed.
"If you really do that, I swear I won't let you go!" Taber Hawk threatened.
"Tsk, so you want to threaten me again once you're out? Oh, right!" Ian suddenly thought of something. "If I let you go, you'll just come back to cause trouble. Maybe it'd be safer to kill you here—no one would ever believe a Mid-Rank God could kill you anyway!"
"Kill me?" Taber Hawk sneered. "Sure, your array can trap me, but you couldn't possibly kill me!"
"Are you so sure about that?"
Ian gave a strange smile. Suddenly, Taber Hawk realized there was a powerful vortex beside him, its suction so strong he couldn't break free no matter how he struggled.
At the same time, countless sword-qi appeared all around his body.
Each strand of sword-qi radiated a chilling, murderous aura that made his blood run cold.
In the next instant, the sword-qi shot toward him like lightning.
"Ah! Break for me!"
In a burst of panic, Taber Hawk erupted with dazzling golden light from within, shattering the vortex layer by layer.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Freed, he hurriedly swung his golden spear to block the sword-qi, but there were simply too many, and they were too fast.
As a result, he was still slashed several times, leaving multiple wounds on his body. He looked a mess, but with a quick burst of divine power, the wounds healed instantly.
"Ha! Ian Song, is that all you've got?" Taber Hawk mocked, forcing a laugh.
Taber Hawk laughed loudly, trying to act tough.
"Really? That was just an appetizer," Ian replied calmly.
As Ian finished speaking, hundreds of small vortices appeared around Taber, each radiating powerful suction, dragging at his body.
The sword-qi reappeared, circling around him, ready to strike again at any moment.
Taber Hawk's face turned pale. He didn't dare to act tough anymore.