Unbeatable! Invincible! Unparalleled!

BAM!! BAM!!

BOOMM!!

"Heh, your martial arts are not bad at all!" Patriarch Shen laughed as his elbow and Duan Li's met together to produce the sound of clashing boulders, rattling the entire cave!

"Thank you Patriarch Shen! Your's are extremely formidable as well" Duan Li replied and exchanged compliments. He could not help but to be truly amazed by the martial arts of Patriarch Shen!

Through immersing himself in the numerous martial arts forms and combinations within the wisdom stone that was lent to him by the Principal, Duan Li was already able to create a flexible fighting style for himself. Compounded with the fact that he had subconsciously learnt the Martial True Instinct technique inside one of the compounded space trial back then, his body could already by considered to have reached the apex of martial philosophy!

This was a level where one could clearly discern their own and oppenent's movements at the same time, seeing through the facades and feints to immediately counter anything anytime! In fact, this fighting ability was so powerful that it was supposed to be impossible to obtain without accruing enough experience and insights AFTER one had become an immortal!

But Duan Li was someone that had lived the lifetime of the alternate him. Granted that by now his memories could no longer recall anything other than the major event, but because they had become one, his bodily cells, or specifically, his muscle memory remembers the experience!

Through the tempering from the battle of defeating countless numbers of puppets, when his consciousness fades due to his drained stamina back then, those bodily cells of his was forced to activate and defend themselves by memory. From that process, they eventually matured, and the Martial True Instinct was thus born!

When Duan Li could even defend himself in his sleep while not being aware, it was suffice to say that no one could compare to him when he was wide awake and his attention was heightened to the maximum such as now!

Therefore, he was amazed that Patriarch Shen was able to follow his moves and defended against him appropriately. In addition, all the seven other patriarchs were equally amazing as well!

However, this was but through the perspective of Duan Li. From the perspective of the eight patriarchs attacking him right now...

Duan Li was nothing short but a monster!

One has to know that they were already hundreds of years old, accruing surplus of battle experience from dueling against each other frequently as they have nothing better to do in the cave. This was to say that they have been fighting for hundreds of years!

As for Duan Li? He was only twenty-some years old!

How could someone like him be able to match against ALL eight of them at the same time like this?

This was utterly unthinkable!

Are we the one that are attacking, or you instead?

Why does it feels like we are defending a lot more than attacking when we are the ones surrounding you?

Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?!

Overtime however, their expression became increasingly grim as they realized something.

Duan Li was pulling his punches!

"Forgive me for calling you out like this, but boy, aren't you underestimating us old people a lot?" Patriarch Wang, the person with the largest physique threw Duan Li a straight punch. His arms seems to grow slightly bigger as he flexed his muscles.

BOOMM!!

Immediately, even though Duan Li had already blocked the attack while redirecting majority of the force underground through his feet, the impact still caused him to be flung backwards by three steps!

"Incredible!" Duan Li's eyes widened in excitement. This was the first time he was pushed back using only pure strength!

Shaking his head, Duan Li sighed for a moment before replying, "It seems like I really can't hide myself from you patriarchs."

"But, isn't it the same for everyone as well? I noticed that your attacking formation seems to be purposely sparsed in between to give me just enough time to react, no?" Duan Li pointed out.

In response to this, Patriarch Fei, the one shrouded in darkness from top to bottom seemed to be able to understand the meaning behind Duan Li's words.

"Are you saying that, we all should attack you without breaks? Pardon me for saying this but, while we do acknowledge you to be strong, defending against the full colaborative attacks from the eight of us will be too much for you."

"En, Patriarch Fei is right." added Patriarch Wei, the ordinary looking old man as he smiled at Duan Li.

Young men are still naive after all.

"The combined assault from the eight of us old men could even slay an emperor of the surrounding empires. This was one of the major reasons why they do not dare to invade. The costs would be too much for them to bear, even if they sent another expert to do the job." he said proudly.

It wasn't without reasons that they still lived even until now and chose to isolate themselves from the outside world. While the precognition ability of Patriarch Ding made them do it, another reason was that they wanted to become the deterrence for the Jiu Empire against the other nations!

Old existences like them, were known in the history of the Tian continent as ferocious cultivator that the new modern society could never compare to. Adding to the fact that their exact location remains unknown, who would even dare come to test the water to see if they were still alive or not?

It took a long time for an expert to reach their level, but to come knocking and luring out old fogeys like these patriarchs out from their cave, would render all their past efforts in vain!

It was courting death after all.

"Are you confident?" Patriarch Jiu suddenly said towards Duan Li, alarming all the other patriarchs around him. Clearly they view him to be their leader to some degree.

"Hey, are you getting senile due to old age? He is still young!" Patriarch Shen said to Patriarch Jiu with a displeased tone.

"Patriarch Jiu, the combined assault from all eight of us at the same time would be no different to using skill arts. Didn't we all agree to nurture the Imperial Overseer slowly by exposing him to old fogeys like us so that he could fight people like us one day on his own?" Patriarch Xu that was silent all these while also voiced out her concerns.

Contrary to these patriarchs, Patriarch Ding seemed to agree more with what Patriarch Jiu just offered to Duan Li, "I concur with what Patriarch Jiu has in his mind, to know his limits, we must go all out!"

"Patriarch Ding, are you sure about this?" the others turned to her. Since she was the most senior out of all of them, added to the fact that she was deeply respected for her ability, her words had the heaviest weight to it, even when compared to Patriarch Jiu!

"He will be fine." Patriarch Shi began to change his battle stance as it turns out that he agrees to Patriarch Ding. After all, he was always a straightforward man, even back then when he was still the Supreme Knight of the past Jiu Emperor!

"Don't you guys remember? We had eight transformations to the attack formation altogether, with each transformation being more powerful than before. All we had to do was stop during the phases if he reached his limits." he simply said.

Oh!

Knowing that they had forgotten this important detail, the other patriarchs chuckled for a bit before nodding and changing their battle stance as well.

"We will be going for real now. Prepare yourself!" Patriarch Jiu said with an indifferent tone. In his mind, he still wanted to know the full extent of the capabilities of the young man in front of him who was said to be able to defeat even an immortal!

Whooshh!!

Just like that, their battle aura seemed to peak into a whole new level than before!

While Duan Li felt a little left out from the conversation, as he didn't even get the chance to reply when being asked by Patriarch Jiu before they decided that he was ready, in the end, it doesn't really matter to him.

Hais!

How much physical strength should I use next?

Thirty percent?

...