At this moment, Ryan Ling's eyes narrowed to slits, his gaze dripping with nothing but contempt!
Maybe he’d been a little wary of this so-called "Saint" just now, but the instant the guy’s body started swelling up, Ryan saw right through him: that so-called Nascent Soul power wasn’t his own at all, but a patchwork of power stacked from generations of Confucian saints. No question, he’d gotten the biggest ancestral blessing possible—enough to boost him straight up to the Nascent Soul Ancestor level.
“So even saints can be blind sometimes!” Ryan sighed, then instantly let his own aura balloon outward. For a moment, the whole world’s qi went haywire.
On one side stood Ryan Ling.
On the other, Conrad Kong.
The two locked horns, their powers squaring off—war was about to explode!
Right then, the sky changed color—black clouds blanketed the heavens, wild winds whipped through, and in a flash, a lightning bolt thick as a tree trunk ripped across the night sky between them. As the thunder faded, Ryan and Conrad struck at the same time.
Ryan stomped the earth, throwing a punch straight at Conrad Kong. Other people might fear some saint, but him? Not a chance. Saintly words might work on mortals, even emperors, but they didn’t do squat to him!
Ever since he broke into the Nascent Soul Stage, he’d already transcended human rules—no law or ritual in this world could bind him anymore. And the stuff Conrad was spouting? It was just childish and laughable.
In an instant, rain poured from the sky in torrents, like even the heavens were cheering for this real Huaxia showdown!
But Ryan’s surging punch shattered the curtain of rain overhead in an instant—half of Imperial City’s rainfall was sucked up and swept into his pocket!
“What kind of godlike power is that?” All the top fighters nearby—even Guihai One-Blade and his inner circle—stared wide-eyed.
Back in the day, Guihai One-Blade used to act like Ryan’s master, but now he’d be lucky to qualify as a disciple. This kind of move was way beyond anything martial arts could cover!
Conrad Kong froze, while Victor Hua, Zane Ouyang, and even Elias Jin, the Thousand-Year Lord, all scrambled back a hundred steps, faces drained of color!
The three exchanged looks—clearly none of them expected Ryan to be holding back real power during those fights with the Century Witch and the Living Yama crew.
But this time, Conrad Kong didn’t retreat an inch. Yan Capital was his turf, and he had endless saints backing him up. No matter how strong Ryan’s moves were, he wasn’t scared!
Conrad Kong slashed through the air, turning the rain into a barrage of talismanic seals. Each one was inscribed with the words benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, trust—saintly sayings, all shot at Ryan like a hail of arrows.
As those talismans closed in, they grew larger and larger; voices of ancient saints echoed overhead. From start to finish, Conrad was playing the role of a saint, using his aura to suppress everyone!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The saintly words crashed head-on into Ryan’s punch!
All the rain over Yan Capital was blasted away in an instant—and then, jaw-droppingly, every river and waterway in the city shot up into the sky, forming a waterfall scene straight out of a legend!
A Nascent Soul Stage showdown—totally beyond anyone’s expectations! All the God Realm bigshots, all the foreign ambassadors stationed in Huaxia, everyone watching was left speechless. It was like the whole world had shrunk down to just these two battling it out.
This was Huaxia martial arts on full display—no holding back!
It felt like the era had snapped back to Han and Tang, those dynasties when Huaxia ruled the world!
Everyone watching was fired up, barely able to believe it—but for these two, it was just the opening move. Both were still holding back!
“What the heck kind of technique is that—martial path, ghost path, god path?” All the Huaxia capital’s top cultivators were glued to the action.
“That’s not any mortal technique—that’s immortal path, legendary immortal Nascent Soul!” Finally, an old master nearing a hundred years let out a sigh. He’d lived through ages of upheaval, and seen ancient battles like this before—but only as a kid.
A hundred years have passed, and the immortal path battle is back!
“Holy crap!” Everyone gasped—half the ancient city had already been wiped clean, turned into their battlefield!
“Hell yeah, now this is fun—again!” Ryan roared with laughter. Nobody before had ever made him fight this hard, but Conrad Kong was finally letting him go all out.
But Conrad Kong wasn’t nearly as carefree as Ryan—his face looked calm, but his back was soaked in sweat. His strength didn’t come from his own cultivation, it was all ancestral handouts. Sure, his power was endless, but compared to Ryan’s guts and presence, it was night and day—totally different leagues!
Hearing Ryan talk like that, Conrad scrambled to stack on more blessings—saintly shadows darting around behind him, totally flustered and losing his cool.
Meanwhile, Ryan was smooth as ever—his fist snaked through the air like a dragon, and get this: when he unleashed his punch, bolts of lightning got sucked right in, making his strike crackle with thunder and domination.
Right now, Conrad was borrowing power!
Ryan, on the other hand, was the one everyone else borrowed power from!
With just those two moves, the four onlookers could see the gap was massive!
“Thunder Fist!” Ryan took a relaxed breath, then swung out another punch—full of explosive energy, totally his own creation, made up on the spot just for fun!
Of course, it also mixed in some immortal lightning arts from the Divine Dragon. With the lightning boost, this punch was several times stronger than before—earth and sky trembled, sun and moon spun!
His punch whipped through the air like a dragon, howling straight for Conrad Kong!
Conrad was totally stunned—his pupils dilated, and he instinctively staggered back several steps!
He had the power to fight back, but inside he was scared—so he dodged!
Seeing that, a bunch of people just scoffed outright!
But he was still a saint’s descendant, so a bunch of saintly shadows blasted out from behind him to block the attack!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Suddenly, several bursts of brilliant "fireworks" exploded in the sky!
Several saintly shadows vanished on the spot—that’s what it took to block Ryan’s Thunder Fist!
“Ha! You think you deserve to call yourself a saint? What a joke. Get up and fight me again!” Ryan sneered, eyes full of disdain.
Now, countless eyes were staring doubtfully at Huaxia’s so-called Saint Ancestor!
A moment ago, tons of people were forced to kneel by the saintly aura, but now, seeing him act so cowardly, they all stood up.
Real saints wouldn’t even flinch with a blade at their throat. But here was Conrad Kong, riding his ancestor’s coattails and openly helping the infamous Kunlun League!
At this point, he could spout all the fancy words he wanted—no one would believe him!
“You little punk, how dare you disrespect a saint! I’ll kill you today!” Conrad Kong’s face turned purple with rage. He bit his finger, shouted into the air, “Rise!”
Out of nowhere, a pure white longsword appeared in front of him!
“That’s the Kong clan’s unique Judgment Sword—an actual artifact, holy crap!” Tons of people from Lu Province turned pale at the sight; this sword was way stronger than those saintly shadows!
“Man, forget hard work, it’s all about being born lucky!” Tons of people were insanely jealous seeing that scene.
This divine sword was clearly Huaxia’s supreme treasure. As the Judgment Sword appeared, a white rainbow flashed across the sky—over ten zhang long, its blade-light surging like a tidal wave, sweeping up the power of heaven and earth and carving a perfect arc through the air.
The moment the sword appeared, the world rang with piercing cries. It was way beyond the Dao Artifact level, and the saintly aura was so intense that not just people, but even ghosts and gods dropped to their knees—completely stunned…