Chapter 277: Violently Breaking the Formation! Ferocious God Qin Feng! Turning the Hand to Overturn Cangyan

Chapter 277: Violent Breakthrough! The Fierce God Qin Feng! Overturning the Hidden Smoke Pavilion with a Flip of His Hand, Shocking Feng Zhiyu!

The icy voice seemed not to be transmitted through the vibration of air and eardrums, but directly resounded in the depths of every living being's soul, carrying an inherent and unquestionable majesty.

Within the entire Hidden Smoke Pavilion, whether it was the enslaved Star-level beings or the cultivators responsible for daily operations, all felt a tremor from the instinct of life at that moment.

The air seemed to solidify.

The Seventh Elder of the Hidden Smoke Pavilion, who had just been arrogantly wielding a soul whip and boasting about personally killing the "Fierce God" Qin Feng to claim the reward, had his entire body frozen stiff.

His mental energy surged out like a flood from a breached dam, desperately trying to lock onto the source of the voice and construct layers of mental barriers to protect himself.

This was an instinctive reaction honed through countless years immersed in the assassin trade: first protect oneself, then seek the enemy.

However, after his mental energy left his body by three feet, it vanished without a trace, like a clay ox sinking into the sea. There was no collision, no confrontation—just pure, complete dissolution.

It was as if what he had released was not the mental energy of a Black Hole-level powerhouse, but a handful of snowflakes thrown into molten lava.

An extreme chill shot from his coccyx straight to the crown of his head.

"You... want to kill me?"

The icy voice sounded again. This time, the Seventh Elder heard it clearly—the source was the person before him.

A fear called absurdity overwhelmed him.

He couldn't understand why the target would appear before him in this manner, at this time.

It defied all logic, all intelligence.

The territory of the Tianxuan Ancient Kingdom should be riddled with the eyes and ears of myriad races. How could Qin Feng's whereabouts evade everyone and silently appear in the core of this assassin organization's stronghold?

But at this moment, thinking about these things was meaningless.

"Hello, I am Qin Feng."

A slight curve lifted the corner of Qin Feng's mouth. The smile appeared gentle, yet it made the Seventh Elder feel as if his soul were about to freeze.

"Weren't you going to kill me? Why don't you recognize me?"

These words, like a heavy hammer laden with endless mockery, slammed fiercely into the Seventh Elder's heart.

The pupils in his eyes instantly contracted to the extreme, shrinking into almost invisible pinpricks.

Fear overwhelmed everything.

It crushed the dignity of a Black Hole-level powerhouse, crushed the greed for the bounty, crushed all luck and confusion.

Only one thought remained in his mind.

Flee!

Without any hesitation, without any probing attack.

The moment he confirmed the identity, this Black Hole-level assassin, who had lived on the edge of a blade for tens of thousands of years, made the decision most in line with his survival instinct.

His body became illusory in an instant, the Black Hole power within him churning wildly, the surrounding space beginning to twist and fold violently.

He even burned a portion of his life essence, sacrificing greatly to activate a short-range spatial jump in the shortest time.

This was his last-resort life-saving secret technique, costly, but as long as he could survive, it was all worth it.

However, just as his form was about to fully merge into the spatial ripples, Qin Feng moved.

There was no earth-shattering energy eruption, no terrifying pressure of destruction.

Qin Feng merely raised his right hand slowly, fingers together like a sword, and gently tapped toward the twisted space.

A single move: *Cun Mang*.

A faint golden thread, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, burst from his fingertip.

This thread appeared so abruptly, yet so naturally.

It seemed not to have been "shot" out, but to have existed from the very beginning in every corner of space, in every instant of time.

When Qin Feng's intent moved, it was activated.

"So fast—"

This was the last thought that flashed through the consciousness of the Hidden Smoke Pavilion's Seventh Elder before his fall.

This "fast" had completely surpassed his understanding of speed.

It was as if the moment he conceived the thought of "escape," the outcome of "death" was already sealed.

The golden *cun mang* ignored the folding space, ignored the radiance of all defensive treasures erupting from his body, ignored the energy shield formed by burning his life essence.

It pierced precisely through his twisted brow.

*Pfft.*

A sound so faint it was almost inaudible.

The Seventh Elder's form, about to become ethereal and flee, suddenly halted. All energy fluctuations instantly subsided, and the twisted space returned to normal.

In his eyes, the extreme fear had not yet faded but had already frozen, replaced by a dead, eternal emptiness.

From his brow, a fine crack appeared on his flesh, rapidly spreading throughout his body.

Then, his entire Black Hole-level formidable physique, along with his inner soul and Black Hole origin, silently turned into the tiniest particles in the universe, completely annihilated, dissipating into nothingness.

Qin Feng waved his hand casually, and a gentle mental energy swept over, collecting the spatial ring left after the Seventh Elder's fall and a few fragments of secret treasures not yet fully shattered, all into his pocket.

The entire process, from Qin Feng's appearance to the Seventh Elder's complete destruction, took only two or three breaths.

Those enslaved Star-level beings, including Feng Zhiyu, had their minds blank.

They couldn't even fully comprehend what had happened. They only saw that the Seventh Elder, who held the power of life and death over them, after speaking a few words, abruptly and cleanly... vanished.

Silence.

The silence lasted about a second.

Then, as if a delayed chain reaction had finally been triggered.

*Buzz—Buzz—Buzz—*

A piercing, sharp alarm swept through every inch of the Hidden Smoke Pavilion like a storm.

On the walls, floor, and ceiling, countless blood-red runes flickered wildly. Waves of powerful energy fluctuations were activated from the depths of the ancient building. The entire stronghold's defense system was instantly raised to the highest level.

"A powerful enemy is attacking!"

"Who is so bold as to dare break into our Hidden Smoke Pavilion?!"

"Seeking death!"

Accompanied by shouts filled with shock and anger, several immensely powerful auras surged up from all directions of the ancient building.

Each aura represented a genuine Black Hole-level being.

Their mental energies intertwined like a tidal wave, pressing down toward the scene of the incident.

Among them, one aura was particularly terrifying. Its pressure was deep as an abyss, vast as an ocean, far surpassing the other Black Hole-level beings—it was unmistakably a peak Black Hole-level supreme powerhouse!

"Your Excellency is far too arrogant!"

A dignified and cold voice, like a thunderclap, exploded in everyone's ears.

Before the words faded, a figure materialized out of thin air a hundred zhang ahead of Qin Feng.

The newcomer was tall and imposing, clad in dark, heavy armor, his face hidden behind a ferocious bronze ghost mask, with only a pair of eyes gleaming with icy, murderous light visible.

Upon his head grew a pair of majestic, spiraling, curved black horns, betraying his identity as a member of the demon race.

He was none other than the master of this Hidden Smoke Tower.

The moment he appeared, this master of the Hidden Smoke Tower displayed a caution and sophistication befitting a top-tier powerhouse—utterly distinct from the Seventh Elder.

He showed no trace of underestimation; in the instant of his arrival, several mid-grade Black Hole secret treasures radiating terrifying fluctuations had already encircled his body.

An ancient shield, a floating flying sword, and a circling string of prayer beads each took their positions, forming a secret treasure array that balanced offense and defense.

At the same time, with one hand forming a hand seal, the blood-red runes on the ground and walls of the Hidden Smoke Tower’s headquarters blazed with intensified light.

An invisible yet immense power began to flow, and the air grew thick with a faint, moisture-laden mist.

A protective grand array, nurtured over hundreds of thousands of years, was activated without hesitation.

He knew full well the nature of his trade—countless enemies, a trail of vendettas—and this grand array was both his fortress and his final escape route.

Having done all this, his spiritual power extended like invisible tentacles, cautiously probing the mysterious enemy who had dared to strike on his turf and instantly slay his capable subordinate.

When his spiritual power “saw” Qin Feng’s face clearly, his eyes, hidden beneath the ghost mask—once cold and vigilant—suddenly froze.

Then, a flicker of incredulous astonishment rapidly transformed into a fervent, almost boiling joy.

“Qin Feng?!”

The voice of the Hidden Smoke Tower’s master was filled with barely suppressed surprise and greed.

He recognized him!

This uninvited guest was none other than the “God of Slaughter” Qin Feng, who had stirred up a storm across the entire Myriad Races Battlefield and had a sky-high bounty placed on his head by countless peak races!

He had originally thought that a task like slaying Qin Feng was a “feast” reserved for the prodigies on the Hidden Dragon List and the elite scions of major races—that his own killer organization, operating in the gray zones, could at most provide some intelligence and earn a meager living.

But he never imagined that this colossal stroke of fortune would deliver itself to his doorstep!

“Qin Feng, I never thought you’d come to me of your own accord!”

“Haha… hahahaha——”

A suppressed, hoarse laugh escaped the throat of the Hidden Smoke Tower’s master, growing louder until it became a wild cackle that echoed through the ancient tower.

The laughter was filled with an air of absolute certainty.

“Once you enter my Misty Rain Grand Array, life and death are no longer in your hands! As long as I kill you and take your head, why would I still bother with this murder-for-hire business? I’ll return directly to the demon race, and with this immense merit, the rewards I receive will be enough to let me break through to Domain Lord in no time!”

In the eyes of the Hidden Smoke Tower’s master, the flames of greed blazed fiercely.

Of course, he knew how glorious Qin Feng’s achievements were—even the army led by the demon general Setir had been routed by him alone.

But that was in the empty void of space! What Qin Feng relied on was nothing more than his freakish physical body and spiritual power.

Here, however, was his home ground!

It was the “Misty Rain Grand Array,” painstakingly crafted over hundreds of thousands of years of effort and accumulation!

Within this grand array, space was isolated, speed suppressed, spirit corroded, and energy assimilated.

No matter how fast your speed or how great your strength, once trapped in this formation, it was like a tiger falling into a swamp—if you could bring even thirty percent of your power to bear, you’d be lucky.

The Hidden Smoke Tower’s master had absolute confidence in his grand array.

He wasted no more words, knowing that against a monster like Qin Feng, any delay could breed variables.

His figure flickered backward, and like a ghost, he merged into the slowly rising mist and rain, vanishing in an instant.

In that moment, the grand array was fully activated.

What had been a faint mist now grew thick and impenetrable, obscuring all sight and spiritual perception.

Icy raindrops began to fall from the void, each drop a sinister gray-black, as if containing countless tiny, shrieking runes.

The mist and rain raged, everywhere were the array’s emanations—smoke that blocked all probing, and a downpour that could corrode all things.

These mist and rain were no ordinary substances.

They were the core of the array, refined by the Hidden Smoke Tower’s master from over a thousand cosmic poisons, fused with the resentment secret arts of the undead race, and structured with the demon race’s array runes.

Once touched by this mist and rain, whether spiritual power or flesh, it would suffer a violent corrosion—its effect several times more insidious and domineering than the Thunder Phase Mountain poison mist Qin Feng had once encountered.

Qin Feng stood still amid the mist and rain, raising an eyebrow slightly.

“A fine array!”

He offered a heartfelt praise.

Ever since the Battle of Chiyu Pass, he had repeatedly simulated in his mind how to deal with powerful arrays, especially those restriction and weakening types specifically targeting his speed and formidable physique.

He hadn’t expected to experience it firsthand so soon.

And this was a killing array meticulously crafted over a long age by a powerhouse at the Ultimate Black Hole level.

Golden-red spiritual power spread outward like a tide, but the moment it left his body, it was rapidly eroded and assimilated by the ubiquitous mist and rain.

The consumption rate of spiritual power was more than a hundred times faster than under normal external conditions.

At the same time, those gray-black raindrops fell onto the “Limit” power armor, producing a sizzling sound; the armor’s surface energy shield was visibly weakening.

Though the armor’s material was extraordinary and wouldn’t be damaged in the short term, Qin Feng could clearly feel streams of chilling, venomous energy trying to seep through the armor’s gaps and invade his body.

His flesh—the formidable physique tempered by the [Eternal Singularity]—also began to sense a slight numbness and weakening.

“Spiritual power consumption is extremely fast, and my body is starting to weaken.”

Qin Feng calmly analyzed his condition.

“At this rate, if I’m trapped in the array for ten thousand years without any replenishment, my spiritual power will be exhausted, my flesh corroded away, and I’ll eventually be completely refined by this grand array, turning into a pool of pus and dying utterly.”

This was the most terrifying aspect of the array: it didn’t seek instant death but slowly dragged the trapped into the abyss of death through continuous weakening and attrition.

For anyone caught within, it was a torment enough to drive one to despair.

“However…”

A gleam of insight flashed in Qin Feng’s eyes. “The flaw is also obvious. In its pursuit of extreme corrosion and restriction, the overall structural defense of this grand array is relatively weak.

At least, from my perspective, it’s relatively weak.

Therefore, there is a possibility of forcibly breaking the array.”

Though his spiritual power was heavily suppressed, its quality—being golden-red—far surpassed that of his peers.

Amid this dense mist and rain, he could still barely perceive the weak points in the flowing veins that constituted the grand array.

He “saw” the secret treasures serving as array anchors, and the array patterns woven like spiderwebs from arcane runes.

He understood nothing of the principles behind these arrays.

But he didn’t need to.

Relying on his extraordinary spiritual perception, he could clearly judge which threads on this vast “spiderweb” were the mainstays, unyieldingly tough, and which nodes were relatively fragile.

And those relatively fragile nodes were now emanating the auras of Black Hole-level beings.

They were the remaining elders of the Hidden Smoke Tower, each at their post, presiding over the array’s operation.

Found it!

A cold, mocking curve once again tugged at the corner of Qin Feng's mouth.

He selected a direction closest to him, where the energy fluctuation was also relatively weakest.

The next moment, he moved.

"Kill—"

A thunderous roar, like a divine thunderclap from the nine heavens, exploded across the silent, misty rain world!

Within that voice, Qin Feng's domineering, unparalleled golden-red spiritual force instantly scattered the misty rain for miles around, creating a brief vacuum zone.

Then, his "Limit" power armor erupted with unprecedented, dazzling radiance, pushing the power of the Three Spirits realm of the [Nine Spirit Origin Diagram] to its absolute peak!

Forty times the speed of light!

Boom!

Qin Feng's figure vanished from the spot in an instant, transforming into a golden streak of light that tore through heaven and earth.

Wherever he passed, whether corrosive mist or venomous raindrops, all were instantly vaporized and annihilated by the terrifying force and high-temperature energy erupting from his body.

Within this great formation, centered on "restriction," he forcibly carved a straight-line passage using sheer, unreasonable absolute power!

The Black Hole-level elder responsible for maintaining the formation in that direction was fully focused on channeling spiritual energy to keep the array running.

Suddenly, he felt a terrifying killing intent, enough to freeze his very soul, lock onto him.

He looked up in shock and terror, only to see a flash of gold rapidly expanding in his field of vision.

"Ah—"

A miserable scream was abruptly cut short.

Where the inch of light passed, all things turned to nothing.

This elder, along with the secret treasure at the formation's eye beneath his feet, was pierced and shattered by Qin Feng's spear—man and object alike—utterly reduced to nothingness.

With the collapse of this formation node, the entire Misty Rain Formation's operation suddenly stalled. The concentration of misty rain enveloping the space visibly thinned by a fraction.

"The first one."

Qin Feng's figure reappeared in the distance, his voice icy, devoid of any emotion.

Then, he repeated the process.

The ultimate charge at forty times the speed of light, the perfected [Inch Light] killing technique, amplified by the triple terror of [Eternal Singularity], [Twin Masks], and the Three Spirits of [Nine Spirit Origin Diagram], became the most unstoppable killing machine in this world.

"The second!"

Another scream, another formation eye violently destroyed.

"The third!"

The Misty Rain Formation trembled more violently. Large swaths of mist began to dissipate, revealing the original architectural structure inside the ancient tower.

"No! Master, save me!"

"This is a monster! How can he unleash such speed in this environment?!"

The remaining elders fell into utter panic.

Their proud great formation had not trapped the enemy but instead became a cage that isolated them, preventing mutual support.

Qin Feng moved among them like he was in an empty land, calling out names one by one, hunting them down one by one.

And as these elders fell, the star-level beings enslaved by their branded marks felt the shackles deep in their souls quietly shatter. A long-lost feeling, named "freedom," returned to them.

Deep within the formation, in a core control room.

"Damn it, a monster!"

The Misty Rain Tower Master stared at the feedback from the formation's core. Every flicker of that golden streak of light signified the fall of one of his capable subordinates, the destruction of his formation's foundation, painstakingly built over tens of thousands of years, inch by inch.

He could no longer hold back and let out a curse mixed with shock, anger, and fear.

He had seen countless brilliant formation masters.

Those people broke formations relying on unparalleled wisdom and deductive ability.

Those masters would often stand still in the formation, observe for a long time, then casually, with a light touch, point at some extremely tiny, seemingly unrelated energy convergence point.

That single point was like pushing over the first domino.

A tiny spiritual energy convergence was destroyed, triggering a chain collapse of billions of force fields, shattering billions of runes, and then the shattered runes caused the structural collapse of the entire formation pattern.

Finally, the entire impregnable great formation would, with a soft sound, collapse like dominoes, crashing down.

If he had encountered such a brilliant talent, even if he lost, the Misty Rain Tower Master might have felt a hint of admiration, sighing, "Outmatched in skill."

But now, watching Qin Feng's method of breaking the formation, he felt not a shred of admiration, only a sense of absurdity as his worldview was overturned, and endless frustration.

This guy didn't understand formations at all!

He didn't even bother to grasp the principles of the formation.

He simply relied on his unreasonably tough physical body and absurdly high-quality spiritual power, using the purest, most primitive, most barbaric "force" to forcibly destroy formation nodes one by one.

It was like a shrewd chess player setting up an exquisite, interlocking killing trap, only for the opponent to ignore all chess principles, flip the board, and then beat him to death with it.

Unreasonable!

Completely unreasonable!

"No wonder... no wonder all races call this guy the 'God of Slaughter'!"

The Misty Rain Tower Master roared in his heart.

This guy had zero knowledge but a terrifying amount of brute force!

Watching his formation, painstakingly managed for years, being dismantled piece by piece so easily, the last shred of hope and greed in the Misty Rain Tower Master's heart was completely replaced by fear.

He knew the tide had turned.

Flee!

That was his only thought now.

Without hesitation, he crushed a jade talisman in his hand—the last escape measure connected to the formation's core.

The Misty Rain Tower Master's form instantly transformed into a streak of light the same color as the misty rain, fleeing toward a secret spatial node outside the ancient tower.

But he wanted to escape; how could Qin Feng let him?

The moment the Misty Rain Tower Master's figure vanished, Qin Feng's golden-red spiritual force, which had been locked onto him all along, had already discerned his escape route.

Forty times the speed of light!

Qin Feng's figure arrived after the fact but before the target, appearing like a shadow right behind the Misty Rain Tower Master almost at the same moment he emerged from the spatial node.

The "Star-Swallowing" spear, condensed with endless killing intent, had somehow already appeared in Qin Feng's hand.

Pfft!

The spear, like a dragon, pierced through the Misty Rain Tower Master's formidable body, comparable to a mid-level Black Hole secret treasure.

Then, violent, destructive golden-red spiritual force, like a breached magma river, surged wildly through the spear shaft into the Misty Rain Tower Master's body, instantly annihilating his soul and Black Hole origin completely.

The grotesque ghost mask on the face of the Cangyan Tower Master shattered with a crisp "crack."

Beneath the mask was the face of a demonic being, twisted by extreme terror and unwillingness.

His life force rapidly dissipated.

The Limit Black Hole-level powerhouse, the Cangyan Tower Master, had fallen!

Qin Feng withdrew his spear and swept both the corpse and the scattered secret treasures into his spatial ring.

Thus, the assassin organization "Cangyan Tower," which had terrorized the star regions around the Tianxuan Ancient Kingdom for hundreds of thousands of years, saw all its Black Hole-level and above high-ranking members completely annihilated.

Having done all this, Qin Feng paid no heed to the remaining cultivators—whether they were enslaved or truly working for Cangyan Tower.

To him, whether they lived or died, stayed or left, was none of his concern.

His gaze slowly shifted to a spot not far away.

There, Feng Zhiyu stood frozen in place.

His body still trembled faintly from the shattering of the brand deep within his soul, his eyes filled with bewilderment and shock.

Everything had happened too fast, too unreal.

A moment ago, he was a slave at others' mercy, unable to control even his own life or death.

The next moment, the cage that imprisoned him and the master who enslaved him crumbled like paper before a familiar yet unfamiliar figure.

He stared blankly at Qin Feng before him, at that face from which he could still trace a few familiar features from memory.

That once-green junior, who in the Fearless War Group had needed resource subsidies from him as a senior, had now grown to such a terrifying height that he could only look up to—no, even looking up, he could not see the back of his head!

Everything felt like a dream, a fantasy.

...

The last rune of the Misty Rain Grand Array silently vanished into the void. What had once been one of the hubs of the gray zone in the Tianxuan Ancient Kingdom, Cangyan Tower, was now nothing but a hollow shell with collapsed structures and dissipating energy.

The remaining beings inside the tower either fled in terror or stood dazed, still unable to process the one-sided, devastating massacre that had just occurred.

Qin Feng's gaze did not linger on these scattered remnants for even a moment.

For him, the purpose of this trip had been achieved—even exceeded.

He was no agent of justice, with no interest in judging the sins of every Cangyan Tower member. His actions stemmed from a single name—Feng Zhiyu.

With a flicker of movement, he appeared silently beside Feng Zhiyu, who was still lost in immense shock and disorientation.

His deep, calm eyes regarded his former senior without the pride of a victor or the arrogance of a benefactor—only the serene stillness of the deep cosmos itself.

"Let's go, senior."

Those three simple words jolted Feng Zhiyu awake from the nightmare-like reality.

He shuddered violently, looking at Qin Feng with eyes full of indescribable, complex emotions—relief at surviving a calamity, nostalgia for the past, awe at the terrifying power before him, and an awkward, uneasy sense of not knowing how to act.

Qin Feng said nothing more. With a wave of his hand, a gentle yet irresistible spatial force enveloped Feng Zhiyu.

The next instant, the two vanished from this ancient tower, destined to be erased from the history of the Tianxuan Ancient Kingdom, leaving behind only chaos and countless horrified stares.

Space transformed into a shimmering, colorful tunnel before their eyes. This experience was not unfamiliar to Feng Zhiyu, a Galaxy-level cultivator, but he had never felt such a stable, swift teleportation.

There was no dizziness or discomfort—it was as if they had simply walked from one end of a room to the other.

When the light faded and the solid ground met his feet, the surroundings had changed completely.

This was a planet brimming with life, its air filled with the refreshing fragrance of plants and a perfectly balanced concentration of spiritual energy.

Looking around, the architectural style of the planet and the faces of people on the streets all revealed strong characteristics of human civilization.

Clearly, this was a settlement within the Tianxuan Ancient Kingdom, specifically designated for the flourishing of human life.

From a deadly assassin's lair to a peaceful, harmonious homeland—the drastic shift in scenery was completed in just a few breaths.

This calm mastery over everything elevated Feng Zhiyu's perception of Qin Feng's power to an unimaginable level.

Qin Feng's divine sense had already swept across the entire main city, easily locking onto a location with pure energy and stable aura.

He brought Feng Zhiyu with him, descending like a gentle breeze, avoiding everyone's notice, and finally stopping before a martial arts hall that occupied a considerable area.

The plaque above bore two vigorous ancient human characters—"Zhen Wu" (Revitalize Martial Arts).

Without needing to announce themselves, the two figures flickered slightly, passed through the barrier, and appeared inside a spacious, clean training room.

The room's furnishings were extremely simple. The floor was made of hard black ironwood, polished smooth as a mirror. On the walls hung the characters "Wu" (Martial) and "De" (Virtue). The air carried a faint mix of sweat and medicinal ointment—the familiar scent of a warrior.

The door closed silently behind them, shutting out all the noise of the outside world.

A long silence fell within the room.

This silence was more suffocating than any fierce words.

Feng Zhiyu lowered his head, his hands clenched into fists, his nails nearly digging into his palms.

He didn't know what to say, nor how to face Qin Feng.

Senior?

At Canaan Starry Sky Martial University, he had indeed been Qin Feng's senior.

In the Fearless War Group, he had once acted as a senior, providing Qin Feng with some personal resource assistance.

At that time, though he acknowledged Qin Feng's extraordinary talent, deep down he still harbored the pride and arrogance of a genius one grade above.

He even remembered his aunt, Yue Hong, earnestly advising him to set aside his pride and actively follow Qin Feng, saying it would be the greatest opportunity of his life.

And how had he responded?

"I'll see if he's truly worthy of my, Feng Zhiyu's, following."

Those words now burned like a red-hot iron, searing his soul repeatedly, bringing waves of sharp pain.

Worthy?

How absurd and laughable that question seemed now.

A failure who had wasted thousands of years in the Myriad Races Battlefield, still stuck at the Galaxy level, reduced to a prisoner, branded as a slave, unable to control even his own fate.

And the other—a legendary figure who had long risen to fame, ranked third on the Hidden Dragon List, crowned with the fearsome title "God of Slaughter," who could annihilate a powerful organization that had driven him to despair with a flick of his fingers, effortlessly slaying Black Hole-level experts that he could not even hope to touch.

The difference between clouds and mud was insufficient to describe their gap.

This was the distance between heaven and the abyss.

How should he act? As a senior? Did he still have that right?

As a rescued person, overflowing with gratitude? Could the weight of such a mountain of kindness ever be carried by mere words of thanks?

In Feng Zhiyu's heart, pride, shame, gratitude, confusion, regret—all these emotions wove into an impenetrable net, trapping him in place, robbing him even of the courage to lift his head and meet Qin Feng's eyes.

Qin Feng stood quietly, clearly sensing the violent fluctuations in Feng Zhiyu's mental energy and the deep, soul-wrenching struggle within.

He did not urge him, nor did he break the silence. He gave Feng Zhiyu enough time to digest this sudden upheaval and face this cruel reality.

As for Feng Zhiyu, Qin Feng's memory of him remained clear.

He was a senior with a good nature, even somewhat warm-hearted.

During the days in the Fearless War Group, Feng Zhiyu had shown him kindness, and that kindness, Qin Feng had always kept in his heart.

This was also the reason he struck without hesitation today.

Time flowed, stars rose and fell across the sea of galaxies; once brilliant geniuses might dim, once mighty warriors might fall, yet that bond first forged on campus still held a place in Qin Feng’s heart.

After a long moment, when the air in the martial arts chamber nearly solidified, Qin Feng finally moved.

He stepped forward twice, a gentle smile spreading across his face—a smile that dispelled the room’s oppression and, like a ray of sunlight, pierced the locked defenses of Feng Zhiyu’s heart.

“Senior,”

Qin Feng’s voice was calm and warm, carrying a power that soothed the soul, “Do you need me to use the *Ten Complete Hands* to heal your spiritual wounds? Though the black-hole-level being from the Hidden Smoke Pavilion is dead, when its slave brand collapsed, it must have left many subtle, hidden injuries on your soul’s foundation.”

The address “Senior” was like a key, instantly unlocking the heaviest lock in Feng Zhiyu’s heart.

Qin Feng did not mention the life-saving grace, nor the gap between them; instead, in the most natural and intimate way, he continued their relationship from Canaan.

This was not merely an offer of treatment—it was a silent gesture of respect and reassurance.

Feng Zhiyu jerked his head up, his eyes instantly reddening, his voice hoarse and dry from emotion.

A thousand words clogged his throat, finally condensing into just two.

“…Thank you.”

He did not refuse.

The waves of weakness and stabbing pain constantly reminded him of the severe trauma left by those three thousand years of inhuman enslavement.

“Sit down.”

Qin Feng gestured.

Feng Zhiyu sat cross-legged as instructed, struggling to calm his surging emotions, and released all his mental defenses.

This was absolute trust; he laid bare his most fragile soul before Qin Feng without reservation.

Qin Feng extended his right hand, and in his palm, a soft, radiant golden light slowly emerged.

That light brimmed with the life force of ultimate yang and hardness, yet it was warm as jade, as if it were the primordial life energy at the dawn of the universe.

It was the *Ten Complete Hands*, long since perfected by Qin Feng.

The golden radiance, like a flowing stream, gently covered Feng Zhiyu’s head and slowly seeped into his sea of consciousness, heading toward the core of his soul’s foundation—the “Indestructible Tower” also built from the Canaan Sutra.

In Qin Feng’s spiritual vision, Feng Zhiyu’s Indestructible Tower appeared dim and lifeless.

The tower’s surface was covered with fine, cobweb-like cracks, and some areas showed a strange, necrotic gray-black.

These were the permanent wounds left by the evil power of the slave brand as it eroded the soul upon collapse.

If not cleansed in time, these scars would not only severely hinder Feng Zhiyu’s future cultivation but might even cause his foundation to completely shatter during a breakthrough.

Qin Feng’s expression remained unchanged; with a slight thought, the golden energy of the *Ten Complete Hands* began a meticulous repair.

Where the golden light passed, the gray-black necrotic areas melted like snow under the sun, swiftly purified and dissolved.

Then, the gentle energy transformed into billions of tiny runes, carefully filling and bonding the cracks on the tower.

This process demanded extreme control from the practitioner.

Too much energy would damage the foundation; too little would leave hidden dangers.

But for Qin Feng, whose *Ten Complete Hands* were perfected and whose spiritual power had reached a gold-red quality, it was as simple and natural as breathing.

Feng Zhiyu closed his eyes tightly, feeling an unprecedented warmth and comfort spreading from the depths of his soul.

It was like being nurtured in a mother’s womb; the cold, despair, and pain accumulated over three thousand years of slavery were being washed away and dispelled by this warm power.

He could even “see” his shattered Indestructible Tower restoring its original luster and solidity at a visible rate.

Time slipped away during this precise soul surgery.

After about ten minutes, Qin Feng slowly withdrew his hand, and the golden light faded.

He looked at Feng Zhiyu’s Indestructible Tower; now the tower was as good as new. Though it still seemed somewhat illusory due to spiritual depletion, all hidden injuries and cracks on its foundation had been completely repaired, leaving no flaw.

“It’s done.”

Qin Feng’s voice awakened Feng Zhiyu from that wondrous healing state, “All hidden injuries are cleared; they won’t affect your future cultivation.”

Feng Zhiyu slowly opened his eyes, clearly sensing the change in his soul.

The lingering sluggishness and weakness were gone, replaced by an unprecedented clarity and lightness.

He knew that Qin Feng had not only saved his life but also given him hope to walk the martial path again.

This debt of gratitude was heavier than the sea of stars.

He suddenly stood up, stepped back twice, and performed a grand kowtow to Qin Feng.

His forehead struck the hard black ironwood floor with a dull thud.

“Qin Feng, thank you for saving my life!”

Feng Zhiyu’s voice was firm and resolute, “I, Feng Zhiyu, owe you my life. From now on, this life is yours!”

A man’s kneeling—his knees are worth a thousand gold!

Especially for a prodigy like Feng Zhiyu, ranked in the top hundred of the universe’s genius tournament!

What pride he had!

Yet now he knelt in gratitude!

Qin Feng frowned slightly, his form flickering as he appeared before Feng Zhiyu, a gentle force lifting him up.

“Senior, no need for this.”

Qin Feng supported his arm and pulled him up, his tone turning serious, “I saved you because we were classmates at Canaan, comrades in the Fearless Battle Group. This bond is not meant for you to repay with your life.”

He took a jade bottle filled with top-tier recovery resources from his storage ring and pressed it into Feng Zhiyu’s hand.

“These resources are of little use to me now. Senior, use them to restore your depleted spiritual power. Your foundation has just been repaired and needs nurturing.”

Qin Feng’s tone softened as he added, “As for what happened after we parted at Canaan, we’ll talk once you’ve recovered.”

“Good!”

Feng Zhiyu looked at the jade bottle in his hand, feeling the vast energy within, and the last shred of pride and reserve in his heart completely dissolved.

He nodded firmly, saying no more, for he knew that any words before such a great kindness were pale and powerless.

(The chapter ends)