"This guy is truly formidable. The martial arts and treasures he commands are far too profound. If not for the spiritual pressure on this fourth layer suppressing his strength significantly, I'm afraid that with my Yuan Martial First Level cultivation, I really wouldn't be his match."
So Chu Feng figured that if the two of them left this place and fought normally, even if he used the power of the golden thunder to boost his cultivation to Yuan Martial Second Level, he still might not be Jie Bufan's opponent.
After all, the other party possessed numerous treasures. Right now he had only drawn the Cold Iron Sword and that treasure of unknown location capable of releasing barriers. As for what else Jie Bufan had, Chu Feng had no idea.
In that moment, Chu Feng couldn't help but feel envious. Although he now had some tricks of his own, they had all been earned through fighting for his life. As for special treasures, he didn't have a single one.
So Chu Feng felt a twinge of jealousy toward those born into powerful families. For them, with their deep family foundations and countless resources, all they had to do was demonstrate outstanding talent and win the favor of their elders to obtain treasures and resources with ease.
Suddenly, a flash of blue light streaked past Chu Feng's left arm. Caught off guard, he took a sword strike.
"Damn it!" Feeling the searing pain in his left arm, Chu Feng knew he was injured. It wasn't serious—just a superficial wound—but he was wounded nonetheless.
"Hmph, this is only the beginning. You'll fall beneath my sword soon enough." Having landed a blow, Jie Bufan grew even more emboldened and launched a frenzied assault on Chu Feng once more.
"You really think you can beat me?"
Struck by the sword, Chu Feng was furious. He channeled Yuan Force through his feet, and a white glow appeared. The instant this glow manifested, Chu Feng vanished—and when he reappeared, he was behind Jie Bufan.
"That guy—what incredible speed!"
"What kind of martial art is that? It's incredibly profound!"
In that moment, both Jie Bufan, who was locked in combat with Chu Feng, and Gu Bo, who was watching from the sidelines, had their eyes light up, their expressions changing dramatically.
They could both see that what Chu Feng had unleashed was a profound martial art, completely different from the thunder beneath his feet before. This time, the glow beneath his feet was clearly much faster—several times faster, in fact.
If the thunder that had previously appeared beneath Chu Feng's feet was already a rare and extraordinary movement martial art, then what Chu Feng had just executed was an exceedingly rare movement art. If what he'd used before was a Fifth-rank movement martial art, then what he was using now was a Sixth-rank movement martial art—and a powerful one at that.
"Chu Feng actually commands a Sixth-rank martial art. Where on earth is he from?"
Gu Bo was shaken to the core. A Sixth-rank martial art, even within his Spirit World Master guild, wasn't something just anyone could practice, and the difficulty of mastering one was extraordinarily high. Yet what Chu Feng had just displayed was clearly a Sixth-rank martial art. This proved two things.
First, that Chu Feng had access to a Sixth-rank martial art to practice meant his background ran deep. Otherwise, it would be impossible to have obtained such a high-level technique.
Second, while having access to a Sixth-rank martial art was one thing, actually mastering it was something ordinary people could never achieve. This spoke even more to Chu Feng's extraordinary capability.
Both points were enough to leave Gu Bo and Jie Bufan stunned. And on top of witnessing Chu Feng remain unaffected by the invisible grand array, unaffected by the spiritual pressure, and able to fight a Yuan Martial Seventh Level opponent without being defeated while only at Yuan Martial First Level—
The two of them had come to a single realization: Chu Feng was a genius. A true genius. A genius whose talent surpassed both of theirs.
Everything Chu Feng displayed left them shaken to their core. But if they had known that what Chu Feng had just used was not a Sixth-rank movement martial art but a Seventh-rank one, who could say what expressions they would have worn?
"I refuse to believe I can't break through your protective barrier!" After evading Jie Bufan's attack, Chu Feng condensed a golden longbow in his hand and unleashed the ultimate secret of the Hundred Transformations Bow.
Swish, swish, swish! Chu Feng's right hand moved like lightning, pulling back again and again. Golden arrows rained down upon Jie Bufan like a torrential downpour, packed so densely there was no room to breathe.
Clang, clang, clang, clang! Jie Bufan swung his Cold Iron Sword frantically to fend off the sky full of arrows, but he simply couldn't block them all. Fortunately, he had the protective barrier—otherwise he would have been turned into a sieve.
"It's useless. This protective barrier is my Jie clan's guardian treasure—an extraordinary weapon my eldest brother lent me."
"With it protecting me, forget about you—even someone in the Xuan Martial Realm couldn't hurt a hair on my head!" Jie Bufan said smugly.
"A guardian treasure? Could that be an extraordinary weapon—the Thorn Armor?" Hearing Jie Bufan's words, Gu Bo was shocked, because he knew exactly what kind of person Jie Bufan's eldest brother was.
If Jie Bufan was one of the younger generation of the Jie clan, then his eldest brother was the foremost genius among them—the most outstanding talent the Jie clan had produced, the representative figure of the clan's young generation.
He had stepped into the Xuan Martial Realm at seventeen. Now at twenty-three, he had already reached the pinnacle of the Xuan Martial Realm and could compete with veteran powerhouses. Even the top experts of the Spirit World Master guild held Jie Bufan's eldest brother in considerable fear.
And because of his brother's extraordinary talent, he had long been designated as the future patriarch of the Jie clan and had been given the clan's guardian treasure—an extraordinary weapon known as the Thorn Armor.
Yet who could have guessed that Jie Bufan's eldest brother would actually lend this extraordinary weapon to Jie Bufan? With such a weapon in his possession, even a Xuan Martial Realm powerhouse couldn't harm Jie Bufan, let alone Chu Feng.
"Brother Chu Feng, stop fighting him! That Thorn Armor is an extraordinary weapon—there's no way you can break it!" Realizing the danger, Gu Bo quickly called out a warning.
"Hmph, unbreakable? I'd like to see for myself whether it's really unbreakable!"
Gu Bo's words only stoked Chu Feng's stubbornness. He casually put away the Hundred Transformations Bow, and with a shift of his will, his entire aura transformed completely.
Roar! A tiger's roar erupted from thin air, and a wave of oppressive force crashed down from above. The sheer impact of the pressure sent tremors through even this fourth layer.
"This—this aura—what is it?"
The sudden change drained the color from Gu Bo's face. He could feel that this aura was emanating from within Chu Feng's body. But this was the kind of aura he had only ever sensed from Xuan Martial Realm powerhouses. Chu Feng was only at Yuan Martial First Level—how could he possibly radiate such pressure?