Chapter 157 - The Four Families’ Melee! Gu Han vs. Yang Lin!

More than ten people stood on a small hillside in the distance, led by Yuan Gang and Chu Kuang. They quietly watched Gu Han and Meng Xing’s parties confronting each other.

Yuan Gang sighed with emotion. “Indeed. Given the personalities of these two, it’s just like them to do something like this!”

Someone behind him hesitated. “Senior Brother, while they are in a standoff, why don’t we go find that liquid treasure first, it would be better to—”

Yuan Gang waved his hand. “No need to hurry. Let’s watch the show first. That liquid treasure won’t be refined in a short while.”

Beside him, although Yang Ying remained expressionless, his eyes betrayed a hint of worry.

Yuan Gang didn’t fail to notice his unusual state. “What’s wrong? Yang Ying, you seem very concerned about them.”

Yang Ying fell silent for a moment. “He helped me. I owe him a great favor.”

Yuan Gang raised an eyebrow. “

Oh?

So?”

“I want to go help him.”

Yuan Gang went cold. “Junior Brother, the Qingyun Pavilion places the highest importance on rules. If you assist him without my command, don’t even bother coming back.”

Yang Ying said nothing. He knew his position at the Qingyun Pavilion was on the line.

Chu Kuang smiled. “Senior Brother Yuan, don’t be angry. It’s clear that you are a man of sentiment and righteousness, which is truly rare! Still, if you help him, it would be extremely detrimental to our plans.”

Yuan Gang’s expression softened slightly. “Correct! Gu Han is arrogant and unyielding. If we don’t let him suffer a bit, he’ll never know his place.”

Chu Kuang glanced at Yang Ying. “Speaking of which, Senior Brother Yang, you seem quite close to him?”

“Somewhat.”

Chu Kuang’s eyes lit up. “Then why don’t you try to persuade him to submit to us? It seems Senior Sister Murong and Senior Brother Shen Xuan both value his opinion highly. If we can completely subdue him, it would be like adding wings to a tiger[1] for the Qingyun Pavilion!”

After a moment of silence, Yang Ying shook his head. “Making him yield is harder than killing him.”

Chu Kuang’s smile grew even wider. “Is that so? Then I’d like to witness it. Faced with certain death and submission, which one will he choose?!”

As he spoke, he actually started walking toward the battlefield.

Yuan Gang beckoned. “Let’s go accompany Chu Kuang to watch the show.”

***

Within the battlefield, Shen Xuan smiled bitterly at Gu Han’s words.

Dead weight?

Only someone with immense killing power and braveness could say such words.

Meng Xing stared fixedly at Gu Han, silver light blazing around him. “I’ll make sure you die without a proper burial!”

Murong Yan swung her hammer impatiently. “Enough nonsense! I’m gonna smash you, you tin can!”

Just as she was about to make her move, Murong Chong suddenly came from the distance. “Miss Murong!”

He rushed over with seven or eight members of the Murong family.

Murong Yan said irritably, "What are you doing here? Are you here to hold me back too?”

Murong Chong trembled. “No! The old ancestor ordered us! He said that once inside the secret realm, the people from those two families definitely won’t let things go. They might try to harm Brother Gu Han, so he told us to be careful and look out for him.”

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Gu Han felt grateful. “Senior is very thoughtful.”

He hadn’t expected Murong Yuan to be constantly concerned about his safety.

Murong Yan looked disdainful. “

Hmph!

Well, that’s unnecessary!"

On the opposite side, Meng Xing looked at Yang Lin. “Brother Yang, this is perfect. They’re all here, saving us extra trouble!”

The green qi around Yang Lin grew increasingly intense. “Indeed. Let’s deal with them all toge—”

Murong Yan could no longer hold back and was the first to attack. “Eat my hammer!”

She took large strides, leaving footprints several cun deep in the ground. Her hammer swept through the air, kicking up fierce gusts as she charged straight at Meng Xing.

Meng Xing roared angrily, no longer hiding his intentions, “Murong Yan, you always get in my way! I’ll kill you!”

His silver light flared to its peak as his cultivation surged to the ninth stage of the Spirit Profound realm. In a flash, the two engaged in battle.

Bang!

A metallic clang rang out. It was Murong Yan’s hammer grazing the silver light around Meng Xing, instantly sending him flying far away.

For anyone else, that single blow would have shattered tendons and bones, leaving them gravely injured and on the brink of death. And yet, Meng Xing appeared unscathed. He suddenly twisted, both fists gathering boundless silver light as he charged back again.

Deafening booms continued to sound. Both followed a head-on, hard-hitting style of combat, resulting in a huge commotion.

Gu Han could see that they were evenly matched. Deciding victory or defeat in a short time was simply impossible. “Brother Shen, I leave the rest to you.”

Shen Xuan knew Gu Han’s plan and hesitated. “Brother Gu, what about you?”

He knew Gu Han was strong, but Yang Lin was not an ordinary opponent either.

Gu Han slowly raised his sword. “Don’t worry. With his skills, he can’t kill me.”

Shen Xuan relented. “Well... alright...”

He also knew that while his cultivation was higher than Gu Han’s, his actual killing power didn’t compare at all.

Murong Chong asked respectfully, “Brother-in-Law, how should we fight?”

Shen Xuan went grim. “Who told you to call me that?!”

Murong Chong was somewhat puzzled. “Aren’t you and Miss Murong engaged?”

Behind him, several Murong family members nodded earnestly.

Well, an incident happened and Brother-in-Law didn’t marry into the family. Still, Brother-in-Law is Brother-in-Law.

Shen Xuan felt a bit embarrassed. “J-just call me Big Brother!”

Murong Chong seemed a bit reluctant. “Alright then...”

Even though he was three years older than Shen Xuan.

Shen Xuan flickered, transforming into a wisp of gentle breeze. “Enough! Let’s get moving!”

Before his words faded, he had reappeared in front of a Yang family member. A mere fourth-stage Spirit Profound cultivator. Shen Xuan lightly pressed his palm against the opponent, and his cultivation exploded outward.

Unable to react in time, the opponent coughed up blood and was sent flying. Without wasting time, Shen Xuan flickered again and appeared before the next person.

Finally, the three families reacted.

“Quick, attack!”

“Stop him! Kill him!”

“Charge!”

Murong Chong waved his hand. “Protect Brother-in-La—Big Brother Shen!”

“I’ve long been sick of these people!”

“Don’t hold back. Killing one isn’t a loss, killing two means profit!”

The Murong family members were full of mettle, each fearless and ready to die. In contrast, the three families were flustered by their fierce momentum. Although they seemed somewhat panicked, they didn’t fall behind thanks to their superior numbers.

Not far away, Zhi Xuan stood there dumbfounded. It seemed that she had never witnessed such a gruesome scene before. She was deathly pale and trembling nonstop. Obviously, everyone was too busy to pay attention to her.

Yang Lin seemed not to notice at all, his gaze fixed solely on Gu Han.

He slowly asked, “Were you the one who injured Yang Fei?”

Gu Han nodded. “That’s right. That little beast has no manners. I taught him a lesson on behalf of the Yang family.”

Yang Lin’s green qi abruptly deepened in color. “And you seem quite close to that bastard, Yang Ying?”

Gu Han fell silent for a moment. “‘That bastard’? Well, yeah.”

He slowly brandished his sword, his killing intent rising with each passing second. “You also deserve to die!”

In the next moment, he blurred for an instant. When he reappeared, he was already in front of Yang Lin.

“Kill!”

Sword light flickered as a vast killing intent locked firmly onto Yang Lin. Yang Lin’s pupils contracted sharply. At ninth-stage Spirit Profound, with the Green Wood Spirit Physique, he was no weakling. Yet before Gu Han’s sword, he felt like a frog before a snake.

However, he was no ordinary person after all. At the critical moment, his qi transformed into a dark green color. With a flip of his hands, a pair of three-cun-long, dark green double-ended spears abruptly appeared in front of him.

Clang!

Yang Lin was instantly shot backward, before skidding to a halt. His eyes narrowed at the clear sword mark on his weapons. “You really have some skill!”

Despite the metallic clang, the spears weren’t made of metal. Yang Tong had gone to great expense to acquire a thousand-year-old Profound Ironwood Tree, using the hardest part of its core to meticulously forge them. After all, not only were they top-grade profound items, but also extremely compatible with the Green Wood Spirit Physique. For years, the spears had remained without a single scratch. That changed today.

Yang Lin stared fixedly at Gu Han’s broken sword, a trace of greed flashing in his eyes. “You’re dead. That sword will be mine.”

Coiling and twisting, the dark green qi around him seemed to come alive, covering an area within one zhang.

Gu Han’s killing intent surged again. “You want it? Then pay with your life!”

Thinking about it, Yang Lin was actually the first peer cultivator to block his Kill Sword unscathed. Yang Lin was obviously countless times stronger than someone like Yu Hua.

Gu Han did not dare underestimate his opponent at all. “Kill!”

He flickered once again, unleashing all of his techniques.

Similarly, Yang Lin treated Gu Han with full caution. As his spears swung, strands of dark green qi coiled around them, stabbing straight for Gu Han’s vitals.

In the next moment, as if sensing something, they abruptly halted their movements.

1. "Adding wings to a tiger" is a Chinese idiom (

rú hǔ tiān yì

) meaning to take someone or something already powerful and make them even stronger, more formidable, or unstoppable. ☜