"Release him."
After Iron Evil Man had seized Chu Feng, Aunt Lian appeared as well — except that at this moment, large patches of bloodstains covered her body, and her aura was incredibly feeble. It was clear she had truly been injured.
"Release him? You tell me to release him, so I should just comply? What right do you have to make such a demand? A worthless thing who can't even protect herself — all of you will die today. No one gets to live," Iron Evil Man snorted coldly.
"Beast." Aunt Lian stepped forward, ready to strike.
*Pfft—*
But the instant Aunt Lian moved, Iron Evil Man's palm, sharp as a sickle, sliced directly into the side of Chu Feng's neck. Though it only cut halfway through, a torrent of fresh blood still sprayed outward.
Moreover, a fierce surge of emperor-level martial power flooded into Chu Feng's body. His face instantly flushed crimson, as though his body would explode and he would perish in the very next second.
"Come at me — I dare you. Take one step closer and I kill him right now," Iron Evil Man warned.
"Don't." Seeing that Iron Evil Man was truly prepared to finish Chu Feng off, Aunt Lian hurriedly halted, her face filled with terror.
And since even Aunt Lian didn't dare move, Tan Tai Xue, Nangong Ya, Nangong Baili, and Nangong Moli could only stand there, their faces all tinged with varying degrees of fear. Faced with the prospect of death, they had grown afraid.
Their fear was not born of cowardice or a clinging to life — it was because they could not accept it. They refused to die at the hands of someone like Iron Evil Man.
But the situation before them was exactly that. Never mind that Iron Evil Man was using Chu Feng as a hostage — even without that leverage, they clearly couldn't escape death. Because here, the only one capable of fighting Iron Evil Man, Aunt Lian, was no match for him.
"Hahaha! To think you'd dare oppose me — you should check whether you even have the strength for it." Seeing that Aunt Lian was powerless to do anything to him, Iron Evil Man laughed even more brazenly.
"Dare to touch Chu Feng? And do *you* have the strength for that?" But at that very moment, a voice suddenly descended from the heavens. The instant it rang out, the sky did not shake and the earth did not tremble — yet every single person present felt their heart involuntarily quiver.
The voice did not belong to Aunt Lian, nor to Hong Qiang, nor to Tan Tai Xue, nor to Nangong Ya, nor to Nangong Baili, nor to Nangong Moli, and certainly not to Chu Feng.
Someone else had appeared.
"So there's an accomplice. Get out here and face your death," Iron Evil Man sneered, not the slightest bit concerned about the speaker.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM—*
Yet the very instant those words left his mouth, a boundless wave of oppressive might descended from the sky. The terror of that pressure was so overwhelming that even Aunt Lian's eyes widened in shock.
Fortunately, that oppressive force was aimed solely at Iron Evil Man. Even though Chu Feng, Aunt Lian, and the others were standing close to him, they were entirely unaffected.
*AHH—*
In that moment, Iron Evil Man tried to rally his power to resist — but before he could so much as move, the oppressive might had already crashed down upon him, slamming him from midair directly into the ground.
The tremendous force carved out a colossal crater in the earth, tens of thousands of meters in diameter.
"This…"
Even Aunt Lian was stunned by the sight. Iron Evil Man's severed hand was still clutching Chu Feng's neck, yet his body had been driven into that freshly blasted chasm.
"Chu Feng, are you alright?" Nangong Ya and the others rushed to Chu Feng's side, prying Iron Evil Man's broken arm away from his neck.
"I'm fine." Chu Feng truly was unharmed. Although Iron Evil Man had channeled martial power into his body, he hadn't actually harmed him — merely restrained him as leverage against Aunt Lian.
Now, with Iron Evil Man's arm snapped off and his body buried in the ground, the martial power that had been forced into Chu Feng's body was effortlessly expelled.
As for the superficial wounds, with Chu Feng's mastery of barrier arts, they could be healed in an instant.