Jiang Chen's reaction caught everyone off guard. It took them a moment to catch up before they quickly clustered together around his position.
Yan Wanjun asked in a low voice, "Jiang Chen, are you certain someone's there?"
Jiang Chen didn't answer, but his gaze was locked like a vice on that stretch of void. Clearly, he was certain hostile presences lurked within.
At that moment, a sinister laugh drifted out from the emptiness.
"This kid actually has some skill — hiding so well, and you still spotted me?" The voice spoke as a figure slowly emerged from the void.
The emptiness rippled like the surface of water, and a silhouette stepped through, draped in a brown cloak. Its face was an abstract void, like an endless starry sky — utterly impossible to make out any real features.
Yet the instant this person walked out, the sheer weight of their presence told Jiang Chen that whoever this was came from no insignificant background. Even if their cultivation hadn't broken through to the Divine Realm, they were at least a half-step deity.
The figure stood within the void in a way that was almost paradoxical — seeming to be there and yet not there at the same time.
Jiang Chen's Evil Golden Eye shot out a beam of golden light, piercing through the void like an arrow aimed straight at the figure's face.
"Heh heh, little one, trying to hit me with an ocular technique?" The figure's head seemed to shift ever so slightly. A shimmer of light flickered into existence before them, intercepting Jiang Chen's technique on the spot. The two forces collided in the void, producing a blinding flash before dissipating into nothing.
This dazzling exchange left both Elder Shun and Chu Xinghan watching in rapt fascination, their admiration for Jiang Chen's abilities only deepening.
"Who are you?" Jiang Chen felt a flicker of surprise. He had used the Evil Golden Eye more than once or twice, and it rarely failed.
Even when a single strike couldn't turn the opponent to stone, it would at least shatter their focus, causing a moment of dazed vulnerability.
But this mysterious cloaked figure had somehow neutralized the Evil Golden Eye with a Divine Ability of their own. This was a first for Jiang Chen.
Still, he didn't let it discourage him. The Evil Golden Eye was only a probe — far from his strongest attack.
"Heh heh, and who do you think I am?" The figure's voice remained as cold and metallic as ever, giving one an almost frost-bitten feeling.
"You played a part in the Yan family's massacre!" Jiang Chen said icily.
"Heh heh, not a difficult guess." The cloaked figure didn't deny it in the slightest.
This left Yan Wanjun thunderstruck. He blurted out, "You've been hiding here all along?"
The cloaked figure chuckled softly. "That's right. I've been here almost the entire time. You've come by several times, old Yan, and yet it never once crossed your mind. The so-called Supreme Elder of the Yan family — not much to speak of after all."
Yan Wanjun's cultivation had already reached the ninth level of the Celestial realm. To have his strength dismissed so casually as "not much to speak of" left him burning with humiliation.
"You… why didn't you just kill me too?" Yan Wanjun sputtered with rage. "You had the guts to wipe out my entire family — why didn't you have the guts to finish me off as well?"
Yan Wanjun was overwhelmed with grief and fury, and yet a deep unease gnawed at him as well.
"Killing you would have taken no more than a breath. You were part of the Yan family yourself, old man — wiping you out would have been perfectly natural." The cloaked figure gave another soft laugh. "But not killing you — well, there are reasons for that."
Jiang Chen spoke coldly, "You'd better provide a reason for your bloodshed, or you won't be leaving here today. And you might as well call out all your accomplices too."