Immortal Martial Emperor

"That Death Ice Bear is ours!"

An arrogant, imperious voice called out.

The sound of six figures whistling through the air echoed as they landed behind Hong Yu and his companions.

"Hm?"

Hong Yu was taken aback.

He didn’t recognize any of the six; they were complete strangers. But each one had a well-rounded aura and powerful vitality.

The arrogant young man in the lead, with his nose pointed to the sky, was particularly strong. His cultivation fluctuations faintly reached the Late-stage Primordial Embryo Realm, and he made no effort to conceal his cultivation, openly displaying his powerful aura.

"Young Master Qun, that Death Ice Bear is carrying a Thousand-Year Cold Crystal!" one of them exclaimed, having recognized the treasure in the beast’s grasp.

A Thousand-Year Cold Crystal was less valuable than a Ten Thousand Year Cold Marrow or a Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Crystal, but it was still priceless, roughly comparable in value to an Early Stage Fifth Grade Primordial Weapon.

A Fifth-Grade Primordial Weapon was extremely precious, even for a Primordial Embryo Realm Powerhouse!

Young Master Qun’s eyes lit up. He then looked down his nose at Hong Yu’s group. "Get out of this young master’s way. This Death Ice Bear belongs to me!"

"Just because you say it’s yours, that makes it yours?" Yeban retorted.

Young Master Qun frowned, his expression turning cold and severe.

One of his underlings, an Early-stage Primordial Embryo Realm lackey, gave a fawning smile before barking fiercely, "Where did you country bumpkins crawl out from? You don’t even recognize Young Master Qun of our Mangya Kingdom? Our Young Master Qun says this Death Ice Bear is ours, so it’s ours! Scram now if you know what’s good for you!"

"Mangya Kingdom? What’s that?" Hong Yu murmured.

As the Sect Leader of the Cyan Nether Sword Sect, Feng Xue Xin had a much clearer understanding of the various kingdoms within the Xiahuang Ancient Kingdom than Hong Yu did.

He whispered, "The Mangya Kingdom is a power no weaker than the Ice Kingdom. I’ve heard they produced a genius this year. He was unknown before, but now he supposedly has combat strength comparable to the top five Unparalleled True Dragons. He’s very powerful."

’Top five Unparalleled True Dragons, huh?’ Hong Yu mused, rubbing his chin playfully.

Young Master Qun saw that Hong Yu’s group remained unmoved. He couldn’t help but frown. All this time, riding on the coattails of that rising new star, his Mangya Kingdom had been in the spotlight.

How had they run into three people with no sense?

Young Master Qun was very unhappy. He snorted coldly. "My cousin, Ye Tian, is an existence comparable to the top five Unparalleled True Dragons! Scram if you know what’s good for you, or don’t blame us for what happens next!"

"Tsk tsk, the top five Unparalleled True Dragons. So impressive!" Yeban said sarcastically.

Feng Xue Xin rubbed his nose. "I’m so scared. Younger Brother Hong, Yeban, are you two scared?"

"..."

Hong Yu just shrugged, looking completely unconcerned.

This sent Young Master Qun into a rage. "How dare you! To so brazenly disrespect our Mangya Kingdom! Get them! Kill them, then kill the Death Ice Bear!"

"Kill!"

The five powerhouses, excluding Young Master Qun, attacked simultaneously.

They hadn’t earned their reputations for nothing; they did have some skill.

Unfortunately for them...

Hong Yu snorted. "I don’t have time to waste on you. All of you, scram!"

With a cold shout, he unleashed his Pupil Technique: Sky-covering.

Blue light gathered in his eyes before shooting out like an unstoppable azure curtain.

Wherever it passed, the light in the eyes of anyone touched by the blue light dimmed, and they lost their minds.

They began to roll on the ground or slap each other’s faces.

Young Master Qun’s lips turned pale and his legs trembled. "..."

Hong Yu glanced at him. "Don’t act tough; those who do get struck by lightning. There are plenty of people in this world stronger than your so-called cousin. If you want revenge, you can have him come find me! My name is Hong Yu!"

With a wave of his hand, a thunderous Palm Light shot out.

Stripped of his previous arrogance, Young Master Qun was sent flying backward, screaming repeatedly.

Yeban then stepped in to kill the Death Ice Bear, naturally pocketing the Thousand-Year Cold Crystal.

Hong Yu laughed. "Yeban, you’ve struck it rich this time. You’re treating us when we get back!"

Young Master Yeban puffed out his chest and declared magnanimously, "Done! When we get back, one piece of stinky tofu for each of you!"

Hong Yu: "..."

Feng Xue Xin: "Go to hell, you damn skinflint!"

"Hehe, I’m just being frugal!" Yeban said with a shameless, beaming smile.

’He got a treasure comparable to a Fifth-Grade Primordial Weapon and all he’s treating us to is stinky tofu? And just one piece each?’

’That Yeban really is a cheapskate!’

The three continued onward, laughing and talking. Traces of battle and the corpses of Desolate Beasts were scattered everywhere along the path.

However, as they ventured deeper into Demon Island, the various powerhouses gradually spread out, and they rarely encountered anyone else.

Hong Yu hadn’t made a move this entire time, so his points were still at zero.

In contrast, Young Master Yeban and Feng Xue Xin’s points had already reached two hundred.

This amount of points was enough to rank them around six-hundredth place on the leaderboard, which wasn’t too bad.

Feng Xue Xin had just killed a Tier Five Desolate Beast. He glanced at Hong Yu, then nudged Yeban, who was excitedly harvesting the beast’s hide. "What do you think is wrong with Younger Brother Hong? He hasn’t made a single move this whole time. We’re already three hundred li into Demon Island, and he still doesn’t have a single point!"

Yeban paused, then said, "From the looks of it, a large part of his consciousness seems to be distracted by something else."

"Could he be lost in thought about something?"

"He’s probably comprehending a Martial Skill or deducing a Secret Technique!"

The two of them speculated.

They weren’t far from the truth. Hong Yu was indeed deducing a Martial Skill.

The *Piercing Void* Spear Technique was a Martial Skill that surpassed the Celestial Level.

Even with the Shadow Martial Space, Hong Yu still hadn’t completely mastered the First Technique of *Piercing Void*.

After Xiahuang Shang’s reminder, Hong Yu understood that the closer he got to the center of Demon Island, the stronger the opponents he would face would be.

’I have to use every second to increase my strength.’

’This *Piercing Void* Spear Technique is only the Upper Volume. It has three techniques in total. The First Technique is ’Unstoppable Sharpness,’ with its essence lying in the word ’sharpness.’ I don’t yet know the meaning behind the second, ’Unrivaled,’ and the third, ’Annihilation.’ However, if I can completely master ’Unstoppable Sharpness,’ my combat power will increase significantly!’

Hong Yu thought to himself.

Inside the Shadow Martial Space, a golden figure holding a long spear repeatedly thrust and struck.

With every thrust, strange spiral fluctuations coiled around the spear’s shaft, spreading to and converging at its tip. A swing would then unleash a terrifying wave of these fluctuations.

BOOM!

A single thrust, incomparably sharp and unstoppable.

This level of power had already increased Hong Yu’s combat strength by nearly fifty percent when wielding the Godslaying Spear, but for him, it still wasn’t enough.

’Something’s wrong. I feel like something is still off,’ Hong Yu thought, extremely frustrated.

He continued to practice, constantly deducing and refining.

He repeated the dull movements over and over, dedicating only a small part of his consciousness to following Feng Xue Xin and Yeban.

As for hunting Desolate Beasts for points?

Hong Yu couldn’t care less.

They had only just entered Demon Island. The real Advanced Desolate Beasts were much deeper inside!

VMMMM!

Suddenly, he thrust his spear. This thrust was full of the essence of spiral fluctuations. It was neither fast nor slow, yet it seemed both at once. The fluctuations themselves weren’t particularly intense.

But Hong Yu had caught a flash of insight.

He was on the verge of success with this thrust, about to truly step into the Realm of Perfection for the First Technique, ’Unstoppable Sharpness’.

But just then...

"Hahaha, so you were hiding here! You really made this young master look for you!"

An arrogant voice, accompanied by intense energy fluctuations, rang out. Hong Yu instinctively sensed a threat to his life and subconsciously withdrew his focus from the Shadow Martial Space, retreating.

Almost as soon as he moved, a blue hammer light slammed into the spot where he had been standing with a BOOM, blasting out a huge crater.

’Damn it...’

Hong Yu’s gaze turned cold.

That single flash of insight he had worked so hard to finally grasp had been shattered just like that.

Infinite rage welled up inside him as he looked up.

A dozen or so people were standing before him.

Among them was Young Master Qun, Ye Qun, the same person who had tried to steal the Death Ice Bear and had been sent flying by his palm strike.

At this moment, standing beside Ye Qun, was a young man holding a Heavy Hammer.

The young man’s surging vitality pulsed like a rainbow. His eyes shone with a brilliant, torch-like light, his hair stood on end like a porcupine’s quills, and a fierce, Evil Qi flickered between his brows.

This was the rising dark horse—Ye Tian.

"Cousin, that’s the guy who injured me and stole my Death Ice Bear!" Ye Qun said, pointing at Hong Yu.

Ye Tian glanced coldly at Hong Yu. "You’re Hong Yu?"

"I am."

Hong Yu suppressed his anger and nodded.

Ye Tian sneered. "I thought it might be someone with the same name, but judging by your strength, you must be the famous Hong Yu who supposedly defeated Zhao Wushuang by taking advantage of his carelessness. Hmph. I was planning to meet you during the True Dragon War. I never thought you’d be so blind as to dare injure my cousin and steal his Death Ice Bear. You’re really courting death!"

"Bullshit! We found the Death Ice Bear first! You’re twisting the facts and playing the victim!" Yeban shouted angrily.

Ye Tian shot him a look. "Who the hell do you think you are? What right do you have to interrupt me when I’m talking?"

"You..."

Yeban was furious.

Hong Yu held out a hand to stop Yeban, his stern gaze fixed on Ye Tian. "What do you want?"

"Not much!"

Ye Tian said arrogantly, "Since everyone says you’re so strong, the king of this year’s dark horses, I’m not convinced. Plus, you injured my cousin and stole his prey. In a moment, I will defeat you fair and square. But don’t worry, I won’t kill you. I enjoy chopping off the limbs of geniuses and crippling their Power, turning so-called geniuses into my playthings. I’ll torture you to death."

"I will let everyone know that the king of the dark horses can only be me, Ye Tian of the Mangya Kingdom!" Ye Tian declared, full of confidence.

"This guy is too damn cocky. I can’t take it anymore," Yeban huffed.

Feng Xue Xin also clenched his fists, ready for a big fight at any moment.

But Hong Yu stopped them once again.

He took a deep breath.

He had finally caught that flash of insight to completely master the First Technique of *Piercing Void*, only for this Ye Tian to ruin it at the moment of success. He was so angry he felt like his lungs would explode.

On top of that, Ye Tian was aggressive, declaring right from the start that he would cripple him to avenge his cousin.

He even twisted the truth, slandering them for stealing his prey.

Every one of these actions had crossed Hong Yu’s bottom line.

He took another deep breath.

His fingers twitched slightly, and with a SWISH, the Godslaying Spear appeared in his hand. He slowly raised his head, his eyes flickering like two sinister, sharp Ghost Fires.

"Senior Brother Feng, Yeban, wait for me on the side."

He stared intently at Ye Tian and said...

"Today, I feel like killing someone!"