In Emei, start by obtaining golden attributes.

Chapter 299 Say it again in front of me

The middle-aged man remained unmoved by what Qin Mengyao said.

"So it turns out they had allied with Cihang Jingzhai beforehand. No wonder they were so fearless and acted so domineeringly."

Qin Mengyao said softly, "Today, my Cihang Jingzhai is only here to celebrate the promotion of the Emei Sect. We were unaware of today's events beforehand, but we are simply speaking out for justice."

The middle-aged man raised an eyebrow and said, "Oh? Cihang Jingzhai has a good reputation. Aren't you worried that Miss Qin might trust the wrong person and cause Cihang Jingzhai's reputation to be implicated?"

Qin Mengyao said in a deep voice, "Compared to this person from the Bamboo Forest Gang, Mengyao has more faith in the Emei Sect's traditions and the nuns. If there is any misunderstanding, Mengyao is willing to take full responsibility."

His attitude was neither humble nor arrogant, and his voice was as clear as a babbling brook.

Seeing Qin Mengyao stand up and speak up for the Emei Sect, even Abbess Miejue and Juechen's gazes softened a little.

His feelings towards Qin Mengyao improved considerably.

Only Gu Shaoan remained expressionless, his gaze sweeping back and forth between Qin Mengyao and the middle-aged man, seemingly deep in thought.

At this moment, Abbess Miejue shifted her gaze from Qin Mengyao back to the middle-aged man.

The slightly gentle gaze instantly turned cold.

"Whether you believe it or not, today's matter is between the Emei Sect and the Bamboo Forest Gang, and outsiders have no right to interfere. If you are a guest, this humble nun welcomes you; if you do not believe it, you may leave now."

Upon hearing what Abbess Miejue had said, the middle-aged man's lips curled into a smile. He glanced at Gu Shaoan, who was sitting there, and then spoke slowly and deliberately.

"What if I insist on intervening today?"

Abbess Miejue said in a slightly cold voice, "Then we'll have to see if you're qualified."

No sooner had the words fallen than Abbess Miejue appeared, without needing to speak, Abbess Juechen shot out like an arrow, accompanied by a burst of true energy, and instantly appeared in front of the middle-aged man.

He struck out with his right palm at the middle-aged man.

The palm strikes were swift and ruthless, as brilliant and rapid as the setting sun.

Looking at Abbess Juechen who was slapping him, the middle-aged man's eyes flashed with disdain, and he didn't even lift his eyelids.

When Abbess Juechen's palm was less than three feet away from him, the middle-aged man casually raised his left hand. He bent the other three fingers, but flicked his index and middle fingers lightly, and the two fingers landed perfectly on Abbess Juechen's palm.

A soft, crisp "poof" sound rang out.

Master Juechen was astonished to discover that the moment the middle-aged man's fingertips touched her hand, the profound true energy and sharp palm force contained in her palm were forcibly torn apart by a strange spiraling force.

After tearing apart her palm force and true essence, this spiraling force was not only not dispersed, but instead, like a bone-deep ailment, it rushed back into Abbess Juechen's palm like lightning.

"Um"

As soon as Abbess Juechen changed, she felt her pure and refined true essence being instantly stirred up by this strange force, causing her qi to suddenly become stagnant.

At the same time, her forward momentum suddenly stopped, and her body staggered uncontrollably, flying backward at high speed.

Her inner energy circulated wildly, and after her body spun rapidly in the air several times to suppress the internal energy, Abbess Juechen quickly tapped her feet upon landing.

As his body lunged forward again, his right hand was already gripping the hilt of the sword.

"choke"

A sword cry, like the roar of a dragon, resounded throughout the square.

As the longsword, gleaming with cold light, was drawn, Abbess Juechen moved with it, transforming into a sharp, almost invisible blade, like a bolt of lightning tearing through the sky, once again lunging at the middle-aged man, aiming straight for his acupoint at the center of his chest. The angle was tricky, and the speed was even faster than her previous palm strike.

Despite the sword strike from Abbess Juechen, the middle-aged man remained somewhat nonchalant.

But just as the sword tip was three inches from his chest, two fingers appeared out of thin air and casually pinched the sword tip as if picking a flower.

Master Ren Juechen frantically poured her inner energy into the sword blade, and her two fingertips remained motionless, like divine clamps welded to the spine of the sword.

It was at this moment that Abbess Juechen clearly sensed the aura within the middle-aged man's body.

It was clearly the Gang Yuan that one could only obtain after reaching the level of Condensing Yuan into Gang in internal energy cultivation.

Knowing the identity of the middle-aged man in front of her, Abbess Juechen finally understood why the man had the confidence to speak so arrogantly in front of everyone.

As she gripped the longsword tightly with her five fingers, Abbess Juechen said coldly, "You possess the internal energy cultivation level of Condensing Yuan Qi into Gang. Just who are you?"

Upon learning that the middle-aged man possessed the internal energy cultivation level of Condensing Yuan Qi into Gang, everyone on the Golden Summit Square changed their expressions, their faces filled with astonishment as they looked at him.

However, the middle-aged man had no intention of responding to the question posed by Abbess Juechen. He simply said indifferently, "Heh! The martial arts of the Emei Sect are truly not as good as they sound."

As soon as he finished speaking, the middle-aged man's internal energy surged. He flicked away the sword in Abbess Juechen's hand with his finger, then opened his large hand and slightly bent his five fingers to grab Abbess Juechen's face.

The five fingers, wreathed in a chilling light, were like five sharp steel hooks, slamming down with the force of wind and thunder towards Abbess Juechen's face.

If this grab is successful, the life or death of Abbess Juechen will be in the hands of the middle-aged man.

Just as his five fingers shot out, tearing through the surrounding air and hurtling towards Abbess Juechen, the middle-aged man's peripheral vision suddenly swept towards the main seat.

However, that one glance seemed to freeze the blood in his body instantly.

Out of the man's eye, Abbess Miejue was still sitting upright in the main seat, showing no sign of anything amiss.

However, a seat next to Abbess Miejue had become vacant without anyone noticing.

"Oh? Is that so?" Almost the instant the middle-aged man sensed something was wrong, a cold voice quietly entered his ears.

The middle-aged man quickly raised his head, only to see that Gu Shaoan, who should have been sitting next to Abbess Miejue, had somehow moved above him.

He was less than ten feet away from her.

The sunlight on the golden roof seemed to exist solely to highlight him, casting a hazy and sacred halo around him, his golden and white robes fluttering in the wind.

Combined with Gu Shaoan's commanding view from his elevated position, he exuded an air of arrogance and disdain.

"When?"

Seeing Gu Shaoan, who was less than ten feet away from him and rapidly approaching, the middle-aged man's pupils suddenly contracted.

Before he could think any further, in the next instant, from the wide, rustling gold and white sleeves in the air, a slender, fair hand gently and naturally reached out.

It was as if he were merely brushing away a snowflake that had landed on his shoulder, without a trace of worldly concern.

At the same time, the fierce mountain wind that had been sweeping across the summit of Mount Emei from west to east suddenly lost its direction, as if an invisible giant net had instantly enveloped it, forcibly restraining and gathering the wild wind from all directions before frantically converging towards Gu Shaoan's outstretched fair hand.

The moment the hand entered the middle-aged man's line of sight, a chill ran down his spine.

In that thought, the middle-aged man's right claw, which was about to firmly grasp the face of Abbess Juechen, suddenly retracted. The forceful reversal caused his own right arm meridians to ache and twitch.

At the same time, his left hand rose up with ghostly speed, his index and middle fingers instantly joined together like a sword, pointing at the falling hand in the air, a cold glint gathering as if about to be released.

The middle-aged man's finger gesture was silent and swift.

Despite its lightning-fast speed, the middle-aged man's finger strike was like a cold, lifeless pebble thrown into a stagnant lake, failing to stir up even the slightest breeze.

Gu Shaoan's outstretched hand remained unchanged, but his deep eyes, like still water with a stone thrown in, rippled slightly.

Their fingers and palms collided.

"Boom"

The sound, like a stubborn bubble being popped, suddenly echoed out.

Immediately afterwards, a terrifying burst of energy suddenly erupted from the two of them.

At this moment, Abbess Juechen felt as if she were standing on a lone boat facing a tsunami.

Even though Abbess Juechen concentrated all her true energy in front of her to form a barrier, she still couldn't withstand it and was pushed ten steps away by these energies.

At the same moment, the middle-aged man in the arena felt an unimaginable and overwhelming force crush the finger strength and internal energy contained in Gu Shaoan's hand the instant his fingertip touched Gu Shaoan's palm.

After the energy gathered at his fingertips was completely crushed, an even more terrifying force suddenly surged out from Gu Shaoan's palm.

Under this immense force, the middle-aged man's left arm, which had been held straight up, seemed to make a "crackling" sound.

The life-long inner energy and sinister finger force gathered at his fingertips melted and disintegrated instantly in the face of the vast power in Gu Shaoan's palm, like ice blocks thrown into a furnace.

It felt as if he hadn't crashed into a mountain, but rather faced a collapsing sky.

"Crunch..."

Accompanied by a tooth-grinding sound of bones grinding together, the middle-aged man's left arm, which had been straight as a spear and was resisting the palm strike, finally succumbed to the overwhelming, crushing force coming from above and was forced to bend and retract.

The bending of his arm forced the middle-aged man to withdraw his sword-like fingers that had just been pressed against Gu Shaoan's palm.

Without the sword finger to resist, Gu Shaoan's fair and jade-like hand fell down with an unparalleled force, landing steadily and firmly on the middle-aged man's left shoulder!

"Well!"

The middle-aged man was struck dumb.

He felt as if the hand on his left shoulder was not a palm, but an entire Flying Peak crashing down on him.

The force that had just been acting on his arm now poured out like a celestial river flowing backward or the earth's veins shifting, passing through his shoulder and suppressing his entire torso, limbs, and even every bone and internal organ without reservation.

"boom!"

Under this terrifying gravity, he suddenly sank downwards.

His left knee slammed heavily onto the bluestone slab. The moment his knee hit the ground, the bluestone slab beneath the middle-aged man's feet cracked, and spiderweb-like cracks spread rapidly, sending fragments of stone flying.

At that moment, a mouthful of blood spurted from the middle-aged man's mouth.

The mountain breeze echoed once more above the Golden Summit of Mount Emei, and Gu Shaoan's hand remained on the middle-aged man's left shoulder.

Under the golden sunlight, the sleeves of his long, white robe hung down, his posture was majestic, and his face was calm and expressionless. Only his deep eyes calmly looked down at the middle-aged man kneeling on one knee in front of him, his whole body exuding an air of disdain and arrogance.

Everyone stared blankly at the figure in the center of the arena, bathed in golden sunlight, radiating brilliance.

Even Qin Mengyao, looking at Gu Shaoan who was like an immortal descending to earth, exuding an aura of domineering arrogance, lost her focus for a moment.

It was only after Gu Shaoan struck and injured the middle-aged man with a palm strike that his voice rang out again.

“Say that sentence again, in front of me!”

　I originally wrote a lot about the battle, but after thinking about it, I felt that the protagonist's current strength wasn't enough to make the fight last that long, so I deleted it and redid it. It's a bit late!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)