Four bursts of Qi energy with different properties slammed heavily in front of Ian.
The space there was originally empty, yet an indestructible barrier seemed to manifest out of nowhere. The energy surged and struck before Ian like a stone cast into the ocean, failing to stir even the smallest ripple. The combined attack launched by the Four Madmen, enough to make ordinary outcasts tremble in fear, appeared utterly powerless against Ian.
Looking at their futile struggle, Ian's crimson pupils seemed to flicker with a hint of amusement.
He raised his hand. From the dense cluster of golden portals behind him, a golden longsword of extreme opulence slid out slowly and settled into his palm. He gripped the hilt and casually twirled the blade.
"Clink!"
A crisp sound rang out as the longsword lightly tapped the pink Qi whip Xia He had lashed out with. That whip, which condensed the majority of her internal Qi, actually shattered inch by inch like fragile glaze, dispersing into pink specks of light. Next, the edge of the sword followed the momentum, elegantly parrying the cold Qi energy Shen Chong had sent in a silent sneak attack. Then, with a turn of his wrist, he used the hilt of the sword to knock outward.
"Bang!"
The Qi impact launched by Dou Mei and Gao Ning in tandem was also directly knocked away by this seemingly casual strike, vanishing into the night wind.
The entire process was effortless, as if he weren't facing four notoriously fierce All-Encompassing Heaven masters, but was instead playing with children. The swift and violent offensive launched by the Four Madmen was completely neutralized by him with such nonchalance.
The Four Madmen now realized clearly that if it came down to a pure contest of power and technique, even the four of them tied together were absolutely no match for the mysterious golden-armored man before them. The gap between them was glaringly obvious.
They couldn't keep clashing head-on; they had to find a way to escape immediately!
This thought flashed through all four of their minds simultaneously. They exchanged glances and reached a consensus without needing words. They no longer attempted to strike that invisible barrier with pure Qi energy. Instead, they channeled the remainder of their Qi to activate their respective specialties: attacks targeting the spirit and emotions.
They did not believe that someone of his age could push their physical cultivation to such heights while simultaneously mastering spiritual cultivation.
The Qi inside Dou Mei surged once more, but this time it wasn't a violent impact. The Qi transformed into a sky full of colorless and odorless dust, drifting toward Ian silently like pollen scattered in spring. This was her ability: those who inhaled it would find an irresistible weakness and lethargy growing from the depths of their souls. Their fighting spirit would be ground down to nothing, leaving them slumped on the ground, ready to be slaughtered.
Xia He's soul-hooking eyes grew even more blurred, and the aura about her became increasingly bewitching and sickly sweet. An invisible force of charm radiated outward with her as the center. This power seemed capable of triggering the most primal and secret desires in the human heart, capable of making even those with supreme willpower collapse and sink into decadence, becoming willing captives under her skirt.
Shen Chong pressed his palms forward as a darker, more twisted power than before began to circulate. It was no longer simply about hooking greed, but about directly igniting the madness within one's heart. Those affected would become extremely paranoid and bloodthirsty, completely consumed by their darkest thoughts and stripped of all reason.
Gao Ning took a deep breath of the surrounding air and rapidly formed an incredibly complex seal. The air around him seemed to undergo a bizarre distortion.
Twelve Labors Affliction Array!
Joy, anger, worry, thought, grief, fear, and shock—the seven emotions were forcibly dragged out from the target's heart. Greed, anger, ignorance, pride, and doubt—the five poisons within the victim's body would boil as if set ablaze. Twelve extreme emotions tumbled, churned, clashed, and tore at each other within the target's mind like boiling water poured into hot oil. This array would ultimately shatter the target's sanity, turning them into a puppet ruled by primal emotions.
Four bizarre abilities targeting the spirit, emotions, desires, and will were launched simultaneously, cloaking toward Ian without a sound. Such insidious and ruthless methods would cause even the famous elders of the Ten Masters to suffer greatly if caught off guard. In fact, some of the weaker among them would be no match for the four working together. Unless it was a top-tier outcast with a mind as steady as a rock or someone with special protective measures, it would be nearly impossible to resist.
However, at this moment, the Four Madmen harbored no delusions of defeating Ian. They felt the despairing gap in strength between them. Launching these bottom-of-the-barrel trump cards had only one purpose: to distract Ian. Even if they could only make him lose focus for a split second, or cause the indestructible golden barrier to show a single crack—as long as it created a sliver of opportunity to escape, it would be enough.
As Ian felt those four sinister forces attempting to penetrate his mental defenses, the amusement in his crimson pupils grew even more intense.
"You think this can defeat me? Stop your pointless struggling, mongrels."
He nearly laughed out loud. Back in the day, the combined efforts of those four "professionals" in the Warp, who had spent eons immersed in such arts, couldn't shake his mind in the slightest. Did these minor characters of the All-Encompassing Heaven actually dare to show off their meager skills before him? In that light, their self-proclaimed title of "Four Madmen" was quite fitting. They were indeed mad enough, and sufficiently ignorant.
'Since your ability is to toy with emotions, then let me show you what a true "professional" looks like.'
'Allow me to introduce the Four Madmen of the Warp.'
With a thought, Ian mobilized the vast fragments of information stored within him, sourced from the four Chaos Gods. This wasn't a direct invocation of the four Dark Gods' power—that would be giving these mongrels far too much credit. He was also concerned that even a leaked sliver of such power might contaminate the planet beneath his feet. Therefore, he merely released some recorded "auras" and "concepts."
In an instant, the atmosphere of the entire graveyard shifted abruptly. An indescribable madness and distortion from a higher dimension, more fundamental in nature, descended like an invisible plague.
Facing the essence of this ability, the Four Madmen saw their surroundings blur before transforming completely. The eerie graveyard vanished. Their consciousnesses arrived in a hallucinatory space that made their souls tremble with incomprehensible dread. Terrifying shrieks shattered their eardrums, and maddening whispers rang directly in their brains. They seemed to see countless horrific entities beckoning to them, while a multitude of indescribable little pixies led the way.
Then, at the end of this space, they witnessed a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives. Four unspeakable, majestic figures sat upon gargantuan thrones at the far end. Just by looking at these figures, their sanity snapped. Their physical bodies in the outside world began to undergo certain indescribable changes.
And all of this happened while the four gods were merely informational projections and Ian was deliberately suppressing the intensity.