The challenge hung in the air, a silent vow of war. Rylan's words, "Come and take me," had been a gauntlet thrown directly at the feet of the Jade Empire. The jade-bearded Foundation Establishment cultivator, whose name Rylan had not yet heard, met his gaze with a look of cold, murderous contempt. The two Qi Condensation (Peak Stage) cultivators behind him sneered, their hands already moving to form complex spiritual seals.
"Such arrogance," the leader boomed, his voice rumbling with power. "A mere Qi Condensation worm dares to challenge the might of the Jade Empire." He didn't move from his position, but simply raised a hand. "I will not even grace you with a physical assault. Be crushed by the weight of your own foolishness."
His spiritual energy surged, pulling the very air from around them. The ground at his feet cracked, and the surrounding trees swayed violently. He wasn't preparing a flashy technique; he was unleashing the raw, oppressive force of his realm. The pressure was immense, a heavy, suffocating blanket of spiritual energy meant to cripple Rylan's Dantian and force him to his knees. It was a humiliating, dominant display of power, a common tactic used by higher-realm cultivators to end battles before they even began.
Rylan bent under the pressure until his knees threatened to touch the earth. He could withstand it for a few breaths by driving his own current outward. Matching Lin in a sustained contest was another matter. He edged toward the trees, needing something other than empty space behind him.
Lin increased the weight of his aura. Rylan's breath caught; then the two subordinates moved, and Lin eased the field rather than crush his own attackers. Rylan used that change. It was an opening in their coordination, not equality between their realms.
"What is this?" the jade-bearded man muttered, his face contorted in disbelief.
Before he could process his surprise, the two Qi Condensation cultivators moved. They had witnessed their leader's momentary lapse and seized the opportunity. One, a man with a scarred face, blurred forward with an inhuman speed, his spiritual blade a silver streak aimed for Rylan's throat. The other, a woman with a braid as thick as her arm, unleashed a storm of shimmering needles from her arcane gauntlets, each needle carrying a lethal dose of poisonous spiritual energy.
He watched the swordsman's shoulder and the angle of the gauntlets. The attacks had to cross the same narrow approach, and neither subordinate wanted to strike through the other. He would have to move before their positions separated.
"Twin Serpent Strikes," he muttered, his body moving with a fluid grace that defied his muscled frame.
He turned the sword with a short edge of projected Qi, felt the impact numb his wrist, and drove himself sideways behind a pine. The needles struck the trunk where he had stood. Poison smoked against the bark. He did not touch a single shaft.
The scarred cultivator followed too closely around the trunk. Mei shifted to regain a clear shot; Rylan struck before she could fire through her companion. He could use their positions once. They would not offer him the same mistake again.
Rylan didn't give them a moment to recover. He closed the distance between them, a cold, focused fury in his eyes. He was a cultivator who had come from the absolute bottom, clawed his way back from death, and now had an entire Empire to prove wrong. He would not just defeat these insects; he would humiliate them.
He raised his foot and slammed it into the ground with the force of his Earth-Shattering Hammer. The ground trembled, a shockwave of spiritual energy rippling outwards. The two Qi Condensation cultivators, caught completely off guard, lost their balance. As they stumbled, Rylan was already upon them.
He moved too fast for the eye to follow, a moving target. His fist connected with the scarred cultivator's stomach, but it was more than just a punch. It was a precise strike imbued with his refined spiritual energy, aimed directly at the cultivator's Dantian. A wet, sickening crack echoed through the air. The man's eyes bulged, a scream of agony caught in his throat before he crumpled to the ground, his cultivation shattered.
The woman with the gauntlets watched, horrified, as her partner was neutralized in a single move. She had been sent to fight a "rogue cultivator," not a ruthless predator. She felt a shiver of fear.
Rylan turned his cold gaze on her, a chilling smirk on his face. This was not a battle for him anymore. It was a spectacle. A message.
"One down," he said softly, his voice carrying the calm finality of a predator to its prey. "Who's next?"
The two remaining Jade Empire cultivators, the terrified woman and the furious Foundation Establishment leader, now saw him for what he truly was: not a defiant upstart, but a looming threat. The battle for Oakhaven had just begun.