"The Qianyuan Five Thunder Seal!"
Bai Yuchen’s expression sank completely, because he recognized it at once. The Qianyuan Five Thunder Seal was Lei Xuankong’s strongest offensive spiritual artifact, and the situation was suddenly clear.
Han Juefeng had borrowed three powerful defensive treasures to make himself nearly impossible to injure, and then Lei Xuankong had handed him an equally terrifying offensive artifact. Absolute defense paired with powerful offense, all of it prepared specifically to deal with Li Yun.
"This is ridiculous."
"He already has three defensive artifacts, and now he’s holding the Qianyuan Five Thunder Seal?"
"How many people supplied treasures for him?"
"They really mean to bury Li Yun under a pile of borrowed artifacts."
"This stopped being Han Juefeng’s fight a long time ago."
The whole audience grew restless. Han Juefeng heard the discussion around him and looked even more pleased as he gazed at Li Yun through his three defensive barriers.
"Do you finally understand your situation? These aren’t just my trump cards." He gestured toward Lei Xuankong and the others. "There are many people standing behind me. You might beat one person. You might get past one method. But what happens when five people prepare against you? What happens when ten people want you gone?"
He grinned. "Talent means nothing when everyone around you becomes your enemy."
For several breaths Li Yun said nothing. Then he laughed, not loudly, but with a calm and faint sneer.
Han Juefeng’s expression stiffened.
"What are you laughing at?"
Li Yun slowly raised his eyes.
"You borrowed Qin Fenglie’s bell." His gaze moved to the scarlet armor. "Luo Changye’s armor."
Then it shifted to the surrounding water barrier. "Jiang Haoran’s formation."
Finally he looked at the purple lightning seal. "And Lei Xuankong’s offensive artifact."
He paused briefly.
"You gathered all these people, borrowed all these treasures, and stacked all these layers, and you did it only so you’d have enough courage to stand in front of me."
Han Juefeng’s smile vanished.
Li Yun rested one hand on the hilt of his sword.
"But there’s one thing none of you seem to understand."
His voice stayed calm. "In front of absolute strength..."
His eyes turned indifferent. "...every trick is useless."
Silence settled over the arena.
Han Juefeng’s face twisted with anger.
"Arrogant!"
He hurled the Qianyuan Five Thunder Seal violently into the sky.
"Then let’s see your so-called absolute strength survive this! Qianyuan Five Thunder Seal! Lightning Punishment!"
Boom!
The purple seal expanded rapidly until it was dozens of feet across, hanging above the arena like a small mountain made of thunder, and then all the lightning it had gathered erupted at once.
Rumble!
The sky above the arena turned purple in an instant. One bolt came down, then ten, then dozens, until the entire battlefield was buried beneath a terrifying thunderstorm.
Every bolt carried enough force to tear apart an ordinary genius of the training camp, and the ground blackened wherever the lightning landed while enormous pits were blasted open across the stage.
Finally, dozens of thunderbolts converged.
Boom!
A gigantic pillar of purple lightning took shape in the sky and came down straight toward Li Yun, its pressure alone making the surrounding barrier tremble.
Han Juefeng laughed wildly from inside his three layers of protection.
"Li Yun! Where is your absolute strength now?"
Li Yun lifted his head and watched the thunder descend without a trace of fear in his eyes.
Then something changed. A faint crimson mist appeared around his body, so thin it was almost unnoticeable, and only the strongest people present caught it immediately.
Huang Tianze’s expression shifted, and Bai Yuchen abruptly straightened in his seat. Several sword cultivators in the audience suddenly looked down.
Clang!
The swords at their waists had begun to tremble. Then another sword shook, and then another.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Dozens of swords resonated throughout the audience.
"What’s happening?"
"My sword..."
"Why is it shaking?"
Before anyone could make sense of it, the crimson aura around Li Yun expanded slightly.
Boom!
An invisible pressure swept across the entire arena, and the noisy crowd fell silent almost instantly as a chill sank into every heart. Some of the weaker geniuses suddenly found their mouths dry, while others stopped breathing without realizing it.
For a moment, everyone present seemed to see the same vision. It was a crimson world, a boundless ancient battlefield stretching past the horizon, filled with broken swords, collapsed mountains, rivers of blood, and endless corpses.
At the center of that world stood a single figure holding a sword.
There was no rage in it and no madness either. It was pure slaughter, cold, absolute, and impossible to avoid.
One of the elders rose from his seat.
"Slaughter Sword Intent!"
Another elder stared hard at Li Yun.
"No." His expression grew more solemn by the second. "This degree of source comprehension... 50%."
Those words made everyone nearby freeze.
The elder slowly exhaled.
"His Slaughter Sword Intent has reached 50% source mastery at the Xiantian Stage."
An uproar exploded through the crowd.
"50%?"
"At the Xiantian Stage?"
"This isn’t anything extraordinary but the pressure from his intent is very high!"
Even Lei Xuankong’s expression finally changed.
50% Xiantian Stage Slaughter Sword Intent was not simply a measure of combat strength, since it represented an understanding of the Sword Dao that countless cultivators chased for decades without ever reaching.
What made their faces uglier still was that Li Yun clearly had not released all of it. He had shown only a glimpse, yet that glimpse alone had set countless swords trembling and left geniuses throughout the audience feeling as though they stood before an executioner.
And the most troubling part for Lei Xuankong was that even though his intent had reached the same level, 50%, he couldn’t help but feel a bit pressured from Li Yu’s sword intent.
Han Juefeng’s laughter died in his throat.
The gigantic lightning pillar was already directly above Li Yun, and only then did he draw his sword.
Ssshh.
The sound was soft. He swung once, with no sword technique and no complicated movement, using nothing but Slaughter Sword Intent.
A thin crimson sword light rose toward the sky, looking pitifully small next to the enormous pillar of lightning. Then the two met.

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