Chapter 475: One Against Five (Two-in-One)

[The team led by the player with the Honorary Title 'Yi' has encountered the team led by the Honorary Title 'Monarch']

"Here it comes."

"Yan Jing is definitely going to win."

"An objective analysis makes that tough. The rest of Yan Jing's team is a bit weak, and their opponents are the Beast Lord's First Echelon, after all."

"Breaking news: during the war between the three Domains, the Beast Lord's Fourth Monarch defeated Zhou Xian."

"Holy shit, this is going to be amazing to watch."

"If only we could watch it up close."

"If you were up close, you'd be pulverized into meat paste by now—"

The First Ring Domain.

The Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman looked at the text on the ranking board, the corners of her mouth turning up slightly. "It seems this kid's good luck ends here."

"To dare reduce our Xiao Yan to such a state—" She narrowed her eyes.

The man in the T-shirt said nothing. Naturally, he was hoping someone would teach Yan Jing a lesson.

But Zhu Jian's miserable state gave him an ominous premonition.

It wouldn't be so easy for the opposing team to take down Yan Jing.

Unless that First Monarch made a move.

He knew some inside information, however. This generation's First Monarch of the Beast Lord was not a simple figure; rumors said he had once challenged the Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman right in front of him.

And supposedly, he hadn't lost.

"Back away now, and we can pretend we never crossed paths."

Beneath his black armor, Dong Yu's gaze was vigilant. A heavy black spear materialized in his hands, its sharp tip gleaming coldly as it pointed directly at Yan Jing's chest.

—

Yan Jing smiled and cooperatively raised his hands. "There's no need to be so tense, Fourth Monarch."

"I just want to experience the events in this area. Is this staircase only for one person to use?"

Dong Yu's gaze grew a few degrees colder. He flicked the long spear in his hands. Without relying on any weird energy, he forced a blast of fierce wind from the spear tip that brushed past the hair by Yan Jing's ear.

"I'll say it one more time."

"Now, back away with your people."

"This is a warning."

"So there's no room for negotiation?" Yan Jing smiled.

"—" Dong Yu said no more. A black helmet materialized over his head, and his vitality surged violently around him.

The air around him warped directly under the torrential wash of his vitality, his actions answering the question.

Yan Jing smiled and raised a hand, a faint light glowing around him.

"Then come, Your Excellency Monarch."

Before the words had even faded, the two men moved in unison and collided in an instant.

The white jade staircase beneath their feet was nearly ten meters long and two or three meters wide. Logically, it wasn't narrow, but fighting on it was an entirely different story.

Dong Yu had put away his long spear. As their fists and feet clashed, the shockwaves from each blow plummeted into the wilderness below, carving ravines dozens of meters deep.

This was a clash between two prospective Summit experts who had truly mastered the physical body. Their actual power could be described as moving mountains and draining seas; therefore, even the slightest lapse in focus could send them flying back hundreds of meters and off the staircase.

They were already past the two hundredth step. If one were to fall, fighting on equal footing would turn into facing an opponent on higher ground, increasing the difficulty exponentially.

It was exactly because he understood this that Dong Yu fought with a hundred and twenty percent focus right from the start.

Although the Beast Lord faction lacked a method to communicate with one another, as far as he knew, at least three Monarchs were stationed in the cliff valley area to the left. The fact that Yan Jing had walked out of there unscathed was enough to prove his strength.

He hadn't underestimated Yan Jing in the slightest, yet upon clashing, he was still taken by surprise.

His opponent's strength exceeded his expectations by far. With every physical strike they exchanged, half of his body was driven to numbness.

He had only experienced this feeling before when fighting the man with the earrings. He never expected Yan Jing to give him the exact same sensation.

"Boom—"

Finally, after exchanging several blows, he sensed things going south. A streak of blood seeped from the center of his brow and dripped onto his armor. Instantly, the suit of armor began to contract, slowly melting into his body.

Heavenly Artifact—this was the pathway of all his Rituals.

Now, he revealed his true appearance underneath. Wearing only a pair of pants, his upper torso gleamed with a dark cyan luster. Every muscle refracted the light, tightly packed together to present a near-perfect physique.

Beneath his chest, across his exaggerated serratus anterior muscles, ran a row of angular protrusions like a three-dimensional tattoo.

"Bang!" He threw out his right fist again. This time, a staggering force bloomed in front of him.

The air ahead was instantly blown apart, forming a massive vacuum.

A powerful suction force violently dragged Yan Jing toward Dong Yu.

But in the next second, Dong Yu's expression shifted drastically.

The scenario he had anticipated didn't occur. Yan Jing's feet were planted like two iron pillars nailed to the ground; he didn't budge an inch.

Dong Yu stepped forward again, throwing another heavy punch.

This time, he didn't shatter the air in front of him. Instead, it formed a terrifying blast of wind that shot straight at Yan Jing's face.

Yan Jing slightly tilted his head. The wind brushed past his ear and struck the distant Wanyao Cliff.

With a thunderous boom, Wanyao Cliff seemed to split open. A massive boulder, hundreds of meters wide, broke off from the cliff face and disintegrated into powder. It crashed to the ground, kicking up a sky full of dust.

"Very few people can force out my armor state. You are strong."

Dong Yu's gaze was like cold iron, his fists gleaming with a dark luster. If flesh and blood were to be struck by those fists, they would instantly be sliced in two.

His words brimmed with conceit. The fact that Yan Jing hadn't dared to meet his previous punch head-on was enough to prove his point.

Behind him, the blue-lipped woman and the others a few steps up saw this and reined in their restless impulses, their gazes slowly turning calm.

They understood Dong Yu. They knew that once he revealed this kind of expression, he possessed absolute certainty of victory.

But Yan Jing chuckled, then pulled a White Crystal from his pocket. "If you think you're guaranteed to win, throw this away, just like me."

Saying this, Yan Jing opened his hand, letting the White Crystal fall to the ground.

Dong Yu's pupils shrank, knowing this was Yan Jing's psychological warfare.

If he didn't follow suit, he would lose the mental battle.

But if he did—

His thoughts flashed like lightning. Ultimately, he slowly pulled out his White Crystal and tossed it to the ground.

"Excellent." Yan Jing smiled slightly. "I hope that, like me, you have another one."

The moment his voice fell, the faces of the Beast Lord group shifted drastically. A faint white light suddenly flared around Yan Jing, instantly solidifying as a terrifying aura erupted.

It was as if a towering, ten-thousand-zhang mountain loomed before them. The surrounding air seemed to stagnate, a heavy pressure seeping into everyone's breath.

Almost simultaneously, they felt the white jade staircase beneath their feet tremble violently. Amidst this atmosphere, Yan Jing's figure seemed to grow infinitely taller, forcing them to look up in awe.

"If this were earlier, our odds would probably be eight to two."

Yan Jing smiled at Dong Yu, whose forehead was now beaded with sweat. "But now—"

Sensing what was about to happen, the crowd's expressions shifted in unison. They leapt down from their respective steps, desperate to stop it.

But by the time they landed on the step where the two had been fighting, they only saw Dong Yu dangling by the scruff of his neck in Yan Jing's grip. Dong Yu's head hung low, his hair disheveled. A sunken fist imprint marred his face, and his eyes had rolled back, showing only the whites. Beneath his chest, a massive hole had been blown through his serratus anterior, exposing pale bones and gushing blood. It was unknown whether he was dead or alive.

Cold sweat broke out across everyone's backs.

The trace of hidden fear in their gazes intensified as they looked at Yan Jing.

Judging by Dong Yu's injuries, in the split second they had jumped down, the man before them had thrown at least two punches.

One to the flank, rendering Dong Yu completely unable to resist, and one to the face, knocking him out cold.

And this was on the white jade staircase, while enduring unimaginable pressure.

Where did this monster come from—

A wave of sheer terror swept through them.

The posture Yan Jing currently displayed was the spitting image of someone they all knew intimately.

The man with the earrings.

"Sir, whatever the matter, we can negotiate."

The speaker was the Second Monarch, a man in a tailcoat. Looking at Dong Yu pinched in Yan Jing's grasp, he attempted to broker peace.

"But earlier, you were the ones who said there was no room for negotiation."

Yan Jing smiled, glancing around at the four. "What, does everything go exactly as you dictate?"

"Is that what you call a negotiation?"

Hearing Yan Jing's questioning, they only felt the pressure mount further.

Within the Beast Lord faction, they were all ranked in the top six—figures who stood beneath only one and above ten thousand. On normal days, they governed their own territories, indulging in luxuries ordinary people could hardly imagine and enjoying a terrifying amount of resources.

But right now, they felt like ordinary humans.

And Yan Jing across from them was also an ordinary human—but one holding a machine gun.

The pressure was just that intense.

"Sir, we have no intention of making an enemy of you—" The man still wanted to parley, but Yan Jing cut him off. "Then why were you chasing me away?"

"—Sir—"

"Alright, enough nonsense." Yan Jing squeezed the scruff of Dong Yu's neck, then let his body plummet into the abyss below.

"Attack!!!"

The man in the tailcoat roared.

The four of them possessed flawless tacit understanding; they grasped his meaning in an instant.

The Tenth Monarch, a woman who specialized in speed, rode the wind and dove downward, flying toward where Dong Yu had fallen.

Then the Sixth Monarch, also a woman, wearing a short white skirt, clasped her hands together. A force field rippled out from around her, enveloping the entire staircase.

Instantly, they felt the heavy gravity around them vanish. Furthermore, the white jade staircase's suppression of weird energy dissipated as well.

The blue-lipped woman waved her hands lightly. The sound of crashing tides echoed out. Above Yan Jing's head, the Firmament seemed to tear open a massive, several-hundred-meter rift. Pitch-black seawater churned within, and upon finding the breach, cascaded down in a torrent. It swallowed dozens of steps and surged straight toward Yan Jing.

A violin materialized in the tailcoat man's grasp, and a bow appeared in his white-gloved hand. He dragged it lightly, and musical notes instantly reverberated.

An invisible mental attack bore down on Yan Jing's head.

But Yan Jing smiled and snapped his fingers, and then—

The tailcoat man's violin music ceased.

He stared in horror at the strings in his hand. Before he could understand what had happened, a camera shutter clicked— click.

The man swung his violin, struggling to free himself from the mental dizziness.

But Yan Jing's fist had already reached him.

"Forbidden Command!"

The speaker was the Sixth Monarch. She pointed at Yan Jing. "Forbid! Strength!"

The moment she spoke, a flash of terror crossed her eyes, and she immediately screamed, "Hurry! I can only forbid him for thirty seconds—"

But before she could finish, her jaw dropped. The surging seawater pouring from the rent sky washed right over Yan Jing, yet it seemed to cause him no harm at all.

How is that possible—

I clearly used a Forbidden Command.

How could it fail?

She would never get the chance to find out. Yan Jing's unreserved punch smashed squarely into the tailcoat man's face.

The strings of the violin in the tailcoat man's hands snapped violently. This was one of his techniques.

In any Domain, anyone not skilled in close combat possessed at least one life-saving trump card.

This was an unspoken rule.

But now, several strings had broken all at once. Yan Jing's fists were absurdly fast—there was no telling how many punches he had thrown in a single second.

The man's skull fractured completely. His body swayed a few times before plummeting downward.

Then, Yan Jing turned around and looked at the terrified remaining two. He rolled his neck and smiled. "Your turn."

Meanwhile, the speed-oriented Tenth Monarch was clutching the unconscious Dong Yu, staring in horror at the five figures surrounding her.

"You—what are you doing—"

Zhao Dongchuan smiled. "Miss, you seem to have grabbed the wrong thing."

"What you're holding is the item our captain ordered us to bring back."

"Please let go—"

"Your captain—" The woman paused, suddenly realizing.

The other side had ordered these five people to wait down below and "collect the bodies."

Could it be—

That from the very beginning, he had planned to fight one-against-five?

Her face turned grim. She was just about to say something when, as if sensing something, she turned her head.

Thump—

The body of the man in the tailcoat landed squarely in front of her.

"Alright, miss, now you should be able to understand, right?" Zhao Dongchuan said.

"I—I—" Suddenly, weird energy surged violently in the woman's palm.

A Crystal Stone materialized.

She had to run.

At the very least, she had to report this to that esteemed lord.

Perhaps there was still room to salvage the situation.

If their entire squad was wiped out, this joke would have gone much too far.

But—but would going out to tell him really make a difference?

The people outside couldn't get in anyway. Should she—stay and try to fight?

Even she didn't realize the instantaneous shift in her mentality, but in that very instant, Wang Gang pulled a Pocket Watch from her pocket and quickly swung it.

The woman's eyes violently glazed over, and then—

The group swarmed her.

The Surface World.

"Rabbit, if this little guy makes it out, give him to us," the Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman said with a laugh as she watched the text broadcast of Yan Jing and Dong Yu crossing blows.

"Although he's still a bit lacking compared to our prodigy, that one will reach the Summit sooner or later, and we need someone to stay behind and watch the house."

"What do you say?"

—

Beneath the white veil, the figure spoke faintly, "Even if Xiao Yan loses, I won't blame him."

"He is still young, after all. With proper cultivation, he has immense room for growth."

"Once Yi Cheng, Jin Yuan, and Xiao Yi reach the Summit,"

"He will stay behind and continue to guard Yueyin in place of us four."