"How is this possible?"
Seeing Zhang Fan and the other two standing unharmed at the spot bombarded by the energy storm, the more than a hundred Golden Core realm cultivators wore looks of disbelief.
That was power comparable to what a Nascent Soul cultivator of the Second Tribulation could unleash. How could the mere three of them withstand it?
Nine Swords True Monarch and Heavenly Flower True Monarch exchanged glances, both sensing that something was amiss. Heavenly Flower True Monarch had already secretly transmitted his divine sense, beginning to make arrangements.
"Everyone should be here by now, right?"
Zhang Fan glanced at the hundred or so Golden Core realm cultivators gathered in the distance and broke into a brilliant smile, revealing a row of pearly white teeth.
Upon seeing Zhang Fan's cultivation conclude, Blade Venerable's heart involuntarily tensed.
Although he had absolute confidence in their side's strength, with Nine Swords True Monarch and Heavenly Flower True Monarch presiding, along with himself, Marquis Wen, Sikong Xia, Lin Bu, and nine other top experts below the Heavenly Ranking, plus more than a hundred Golden Core realm powerhouses, such a lineup would not fear even a cultivator who had undergone their first Nascent Soul Tribulation.
However, upon seeing Zhang Fan's imposing figure standing tall, and seeing him flash them a brilliant smile, Blade Venerable felt an urge to turn and flee.
If not for Heavenly Flower True Monarch's telepathic message that somewhat reassured him, Blade Venerable would truly not care about his worthless pride and would have fled to outer space.
Zhang Fan looked up. The Immortal Mansion not far away, after more than half a year, was almost fully emerging. At this rate, it would only take another day or two for it to open.
"Over a hundred Golden Core realm cultivators!"
Zhang Fan sighed inwardly, filled with joy. Cultivating on Earth was already extremely resource-scarce. These hundred-plus Golden Core cultivators, in his eyes, represented not just immense power, but vast amounts of cultivation resources.
"You guys had a good fight just now, it's our turn, isn't it?"
Zhang Fan said softly, his figure suddenly flickering, appearing before Nine Swords True Monarch at an extremely high speed and unleashing a straight punch.
Although he didn't know the identities of this group of Golden Core realm cultivators, he could vaguely discern that they were led by the young man wielding a colossal divine sword.
Since that was the case, Zhang Fan decided to deal with him first, to break their morale.
Nine Swords True Monarch had been observing Zhang Fan's every move since the beginning. Although this young man did not possess an overwhelming aura, Nine Swords True Monarch keenly sensed a fatal danger emanating from him, a feeling he had never experienced even from the top-tier Golden Core cultivators of the Wu Shan Starfield.
Therefore, the moment Zhang Fan moved, Nine Swords True Monarch reacted, but Zhang Fan's speed startled him. Before he could even cast a divine ability, Zhang Fan's fist was already before him.
"Boom!"
At the critical moment, Nine Swords True Monarch could only hold his divine sword horizontally to block.
Even so, with a single blow, Nine Swords True Monarch's body was sent flying like a cannonball, ploughing a hundred-meter-long gash in the snow.
The immense force caused Nine Swords True Monarch's face to turn red, and he couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood.
"So strong!"
Nine Swords True Monarch couldn't help but exclaim. To injure him with a single strike, few cultivators who had undergone their first Nascent Soul Tribulation could achieve this.
"Form the array!"
Heavenly Flower True Monarch, seeing this, cried out in alarm, not daring to hesitate at all.
As Heavenly Flower True Monarch shouted, he also rapidly threw out array plates of various shapes, such as dragon heads, dragon claws, and dragon tails...
The nine strongest cultivators below the Heavenly Ranking, including Blade Venerable, Marquis Wen, Lin Bu, Hu Yanlie, and Sikong Xia, each grabbed an array plate according to Heavenly Flower True Monarch's prior arrangement, held it, and instantly wrapped it with their mana, refining and integrating it into their bodies.
Meanwhile, the moment Zhang Fan made his move, Lin Yun and Xue Jing also moved simultaneously.
Previously, because they had to protect Zhang Fan, both of them could only passively endure the attacks of more than a hundred Golden Core realm cultivators. But now, they were no longer restrained.
Instead of heading towards the nine peak experts who had condensed Second-Grade High-Quality Golden Cores, they charged into the crowd, heading for the ordinary Golden Core realm cultivators.
With Lin Yun and Xue Jing's strength, it would be difficult to kill those nine peak Golden Core realm experts in a short time, but against ordinary Golden Core realm cultivators, their strength could absolutely crush them, forming a one-sided slaughter.
For a time, the sounds of slaughter and wailing echoed across the plateau, blood splattered across the sky, and Golden Core realm cultivators from the Wu Shan Starfield fell one by one.
Zhang Fan ignored everything else. After blasting Nine Swords True Monarch away with a punch, he lightly stamped his foot on the ground, and his figure shot out again, charging towards Nine Swords True Monarch.
"Nine Swords!"
As soon as they engaged, Nine Swords True Monarch discovered that in terms of strength, which he excelled at, he was completely outmatched by the 'Grandmaster Zhang'. Therefore, upon seeing Zhang Fan charge at him again, he unhesitatingly unleashed his Nine Swords divine ability.
A colossal sword shadow rapidly condensed above Nine Swords True Monarch's head.
"Slash!"
A Fourth-Grade Mid-level divine ability cultivated to the perfection stage was indeed extremely terrifying. Even experts like Blade Venerable and Marquis Wen would not dare to confront it head-on.
However, for the current Zhang Fan...
"Myriad Dao Fist! Break for me!"
Zhang Fan clenched his five fingers into a fist, executing the fist technique from the Thirty-Six Forms of the Battle Emperor. With one punch, a powerful fist momentum swept across the plateau, and a massive fist shadow smashed directly into the sword shadow.
The collision of the two phantoms was like a nuclear explosion, generating powerful shockwaves that spread outwards.
With his Nine Swords divine ability, Nine Swords True Monarch managed to block Zhang Fan's punch.
He felt no pride in this, but instead stared intently at the bare-chested youth opposite him, his face grim.
While the divine ability's power was immense, the consumption was equally significant. Even in his peak state, with full effort, he could only unleash the divine ability a dozen times at most.
But looking at Zhang Fan, it seemed that merely executing a single fist technique, for a body-refining expert like him, even executing ten thousand punches would be a trivial matter.
"Interesting. Let's see how many more times you can use this divine ability."
Zhang Fan was somewhat surprised that a Golden Core realm cultivator could cultivate a divine ability to such a level. Fourth-Grade Mid-level divine abilities were generally only mastered by Nascent Soul cultivators.
Although Golden Core realm cultivators could also cultivate them, they could at most reach minor completion. Achieving great completion was extremely difficult.
In that case, it would be better to cultivate a Third-Grade divine ability, which, even at great completion, would not be much weaker than a Fourth-Grade great completion divine ability.
However, Zhang Fan was an anomaly.
During his Foundation Establishment stage, he had cultivated a Divine-grade divine ability, 'Rift Heaven's Horn', and a Sixth-Grade High-level Domain divine ability, 'Thunderfire Divine Eye'.
During his Core Condensation stage, he cultivated another Divine-grade divine ability, 'Chaos Devour', and also advanced 'Rift Heaven's Horn' to minor completion, which was extremely terrifying.
Being able to cultivate two Divine-grade divine abilities at such a low realm was related not only to the cultivation technique 'Ten Absolutes Heavenly God Record' but, more importantly, to Zhang Fan's extremely high realm in his previous life.
Otherwise, he would not have been able to cultivate the Sixth-Grade High-level divine ability 'Thunderfire Divine Eye' to great completion during his Core Condensation stage.
"Again!"
Zhang Fan was full of fighting spirit. Just as he was about to charge at Nine Swords True Monarch again, he was suddenly attracted by a loud dragon's roar.
...