In his eyes, no matter how strong a martial arts Grandmaster in the mortal world was, they were nothing but slightly stronger ants.
The divide between immortals and mortals was an ironclad law etched into his very bones.
Jiang Ran did not even deign to look her in the eye. With a casual pinch of his fingers to form a hand seal, spiritual energy surged within his body, and a Blazing Fire Curse went whistling forth.
Boom!
The fist-sized crimson flame expanded rapidly against the wind, transforming in the blink of an eye into a raging sea of fire several Zhang wide. Carrying scorching heat, it crashed down toward Su Yueli head-on.
Jiang Ran had already turned his head, preparing to ride his sword around her. In a cultivator's common sense, this single Blazing Fire Curse was more than enough to burn a mortal, bones and all, to ashes.
However, the expected scream of agony did not ring out.
Standing before the sweeping sea of fire, Su Yueli's eyes beneath her mask remained as calm as still water.
The moment the scorching heat, capable of melting iron and gold, closed in on her, Su Yueli raised her right hand and threw a punch.
A dull impact echoed through the valley.
Jiang Ran snapped his head back, his pupils shrinking violently.
He watched in disbelief as his overbearing Blazing Fire Curse was shattered by that fair fist, dispersing into a harmless shower of sparks that scattered in all directions.
Shattering a spell with pure physical strength!
How was this possible?!
Before Jiang Ran could recover from his shock, the void beneath Su Yueli's feet seemed to explode under her step.
She transformed into a green afterimage, instantly closing the distance to stand right before him!
So fast!
In this split second of life and death, Jiang Ran's scalp tingled with dread. The combat instincts he had honed over years of cultivation and slaughter snapped him completely awake.
This person was absolutely no ordinary martial artist; she was a monster capable of taking his life!
“Mystic Spirit Flowing Light Barrier! Activate!!”
Gritting his teeth, Jiang Ran channeled his internal spiritual energy into his chest.
A magic treasure resembling a small bronze bell instantly flew out, transforming into a golden-yellow protective barrier of light that shielded him at its center.
This was his most prized Fifth Realm defensive magic treasure, which had previously helped him withstand several full-force sneak attacks from cultivators of the same rank.
The glow of the magic treasure illuminated Jiang Ran's contorted face. He gnashed his teeth and roared, “Mortal wench, die—”
Before the word could fully leave his mouth,
Su Yueli's long-prepared right punch slammed heavily onto the golden-yellow barrier of light.
Crack!
The moment it made contact with her fist, the golden light on Jiang Ran's proud Fifth Realm defensive magic treasure distorted violently.
Immediately after, the entire magic treasure shattered like fragile porcelain, exploding into a shower of fragments!
“How is this pos—”
Jiang Ran's eyes nearly split from their sockets. Before he could finish his sentence, the violent Ji Dao hidden force penetrated the shattered magic treasure and slammed directly into his chest.
Pfft!
Jiang Ran spat out a mouthful of blood as his chest caved in, and he plummeted straight toward the ground.
Boom!
He crashed into the mud, his limbs contorting as the hidden force completely shattered his arms and legs.
Lying in the muddy water, Jiang Ran's body trembled uncontrollably.
He could not comprehend for the life of him how a mortal with no spiritual energy and no Bone Talent could be strong to this extent.
Su Yueli landed on the ground.
Jiang Ran turned his head with great difficulty, blood continuously spilling from his mouth. “Who on earth are you?!”
“I am the personal disciple of the Cangyun Sect's Grand Elder! I have no grievances or enmities with you! Why are you doing this?!”
Su Yueli walked up to him and stepped heavily onto his chest.
Crack. His ribs snapped once more.
“Over a hundred years ago, outside Fengling City, on a snowy day.”
Su Yueli looked down at him from above, her voice beneath the mask cold to the bone. “There was a mortal merchant named Shen Qing'an. You swindled his family's entire life savings with a few lies about cultivation, leaving him to freeze to death in the snow outside the city. Do you still remember him, Fellow Daoist Jiang?”
Shen Qing'an?
Hearing the name, Jiang Ran was utterly dazed.
He was deeply confused, frantically searching his mind for the name, but he could not associate it with anyone.
He had been cultivating for two to three hundred years and had lived for far too long.
Along the way, to compete for resources and climb higher, the mortal lives he had trampled and the low-level ants he had exploited were as numerous as the hairs on a cow.
How could the name of a mere mortal remain in the memory of an aloof cultivator?
“What Shen Qing'an... I don't know him! I really don't!” Jiang Ran wailed in agony. “Heroine! Senior! You must have the wrong person! I've never killed anyone by that name!”
“You don't remember?”
Su Yueli's gaze turned ice-cold, and the force beneath her foot abruptly shifted.
Streams of pure Ji Dao hidden force, like dense steel needles, surged along Jiang Ran's damaged meridians and began to crush the remaining bones in his limbs inch by inch.
“Aaaaaah!!!”
A blood-curdling shriek instantly echoed throughout Rocky Valley.
Jiang Ran's face contorted violently from the pain, veins bulging on his forehead as he thrashed wildly in the mud.
This pain was not merely that of broken bones, but the ultimate torture of having his bones slowly ground into powder inside his flesh.
As an immortal master of the Cangyun Sect who was usually pampered and lived in comfort, how had he ever suffered such inhuman torture?
“Think. Think harder,” Su Yueli's voice remained utterly cold.
Driven by the threat of death and inhuman torture, Jiang Ran's desire to survive erupted to its absolute limit.
His soul trembled in agony as he frantically rummaged through his mind like digging through trash, recalling every evil deed he had committed and every mortal he had swindled over the past hundred-plus years.
A hundred years ago... Fengling City... a snowy day... a mortal merchant...
With a mental jolt, Jiang Ran's unfocused pupils dilated violently!
He remembered! He indeed did not recall anyone named Shen Qing'an, but he remembered that item!
When he passed by Fengling City all those years ago, he had indeed swindled a mortal merchant out of his entire fortune using a couple of fabricated jade slips that supposedly taught cultivation.
He did not lack the silver used by mortals; he had only done it back then for amusement.
As for whether the man froze to death after that day, he had taken the item and left immediately, not caring in the slightest.
After so much time, he had long forgotten that ant-like mortal, but he remembered that immortal jade slip very clearly!
“You... you came for that man?!”
Jiang Ran's face was filled with horror and disbelief. “To think you would kill a personal disciple of the Cangyun Sect's Grand Elder for a mortal ant who died over a hundred years ago! You're crazy! You're a lunatic!!”
The common sense of the cultivation world once again made it impossible for Jiang Ran to comprehend. Offending a sect cultivator for a mortal who had frozen to death a century ago was simply absurd!
Su Yueli ignored his shouts, and the foot stepping on his chest exerted force once more.
This time, Jiang Ran could only convulse violently in the mud, a wretched sight as blood mixed with grime spilled from his mouth.
Su Yueli leaned down slightly, her eyes beneath the mask staring fixedly at Jiang Ran. Finally, a monstrous hatred and a century-repressed intent to kill erupted from her gaze.
“Let me ask you another question. Back then in Daliu Village, my parents both died tragically in a pool of blood. Who exactly did that?!”
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