Chapter 84

Peng Hai's eyebrows shot up, and he looked at Li Yao with some surprise.

Li Yao gritted his teeth, mustered his courage, and met his gaze.

After a moment, Peng Hai smiled, his body relaxing, and he nodded, saying, "Good, you're an interesting little brother. I'll show you what a high-level Foundation Establishment cultivator can do!"

Peng Hai raised his hand, and a semi-transparent spirit talisman flew out from his palm, reaching Li Yao's head and shattering with a "bang," exploding into a shower of flowing light that swirled around Li Yao, forming a transparent protective shield.

Li Yao knew this was a spirit energy shield, which could prevent him from being injured by the spirit energy tide.

"I usually suppress my strength to 3%, the level of an ordinary martial artist, so you don't feel any aura of a powerful person from me. But in just 0.001 seconds, I can transform like this—"

Peng Hai's eyes widened, and he took a deep breath. His entire body suddenly swelled, his muscles inflating as if filled with air, and thick veins like pythons entangled and writhed around his body!

Just a moment ago, he was a tall and slender ordinary person, but in an instant, he transformed into a super muscular man over 2.2 meters tall, with skin that turned a bronze color, reflecting a menacing glow.

Peng Hai's voice became incredibly hoarse and deep:

"Now I'm using about 7% of my strength, pushing my flesh and blood to the limit. This is the peak state that a human body can achieve, the realm of a supreme martial artist! To go further, I must activate my spirit root, absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and further enhance myself with spirit energy, which is known as 'Cultivating Qi'!"

As he spoke, his body suddenly shrank, returning to his tall and slender form, but a faint light flowed across his forehead, spreading out in invisible waves, like a huge ripple centered on his crown, spreading in all directions.

From the 36,000 pores on his body, a faint black mist surged out, swirling around him, forming a grotesque spirit energy battle armor, with a faint bloodlight flickering on the armor.

"This is 12% of my strength. Next is 13%, 14%..."

Peng Hai smiled, slowly increasing his power, the black mist spreading in circles, completely enveloping a radius of several dozen meters. A black falcon rose from the black mist, spreading its wings to cover a sky over a hundred meters wide.

"This is the peak of the Cultivating Qi realm that I unleashed just now—next is the Foundation Establishment realm!"

Peng Hai's eyes widened, and he roared. The black falcon transformed back into a black mist, which turned into black threads and was instantly absorbed back into his body!

Peng Hai's eyes became incredibly dark, like deep, ancient wells, or the sky during a solar eclipse!

His expression became extremely cold and indifferent, devoid of any human warmth, and the ground beneath his feet cracked, forming a vast web of cracks hundreds of meters wide!

Peng Hai's hair grew longer in an instant, and he lifted off the ground, floating in mid-air. His long hair moved wildly without any wind, and a more condensed, darker, and more terrifying black mist re-emerged from his pores, spreading out in all directions.

Even inside the spirit energy shield, Li Yao could feel the overwhelming power surging out of Peng Hai's body, crazily hammering the shield, making it rattle with a "bang, bang" sound!

This earth-shattering power was far beyond what Li Yao could endure at this moment. He had a feeling that without the protection of the spirit energy shield, he would be crushed into a pulp by Peng Hai's aura in half a second!

Peng Hai stood in the air, his eyes completely black, with no trace of whites.

Around him, a pure black spirit energy field had formed, and countless fragments of rock tore from the ground, rising and rapidly orbiting around his field.

A strange smile appeared on Peng Hai's face: "This is the high-level Foundation Establishment realm, but... this isn't my limit yet!"

As he finished speaking, Peng Hai roared, his eyes turning into two black suns, emitting an incredibly dark light.

Li Yao had no idea how to describe what he saw; he never knew that "darkness" could be so "blinding"!

"Crack, crack, crack"!

Countless black currents appeared around Peng Hai, swirling around him and forming a second spirit energy field. His jet-black hair turned dark gold, like a head full of writhing golden snakes, standing on end!

"Crack! Crack!"

In front of Li Yao, cracks appeared in the air, crisscrossing and rapidly spreading.

The spirit energy shield could not withstand Peng Hai's powerful aura and was about to collapse!

"A realm even more powerful than the high-level Foundation Establishment, this is... this is the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm!"

Li Yao was entranced, his fists clenching tightly, his nails piercing his palms, but he was unaware, completely immersed in the spirit energy storm created by Peng Hai!

"I will become such a cultivator, I will definitely become such a cultivator!"

Li Yao roared in his heart, with incredible madness.

Finally—

The spirit energy storm raged for three seconds, and Peng Hai withdrew the field, retracting all his aura back into his body, returning to the form of an ordinary person at 3% strength.

"Brother Hai, you've actually cultivated to the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm!" Li Yao was extremely excited.

"No, I can only occasionally burst out with the peak Foundation Establishment strength, and it can't last for a few seconds. I can't be considered to have reached the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm yet," Peng Hai shook his head.

"But that's still terrifying. The full burst of a Foundation Establishment cultivator's combat power is truly horrifying!"

Li Yao recalled what he had seen and felt deeply shocked.

Peng Hai smiled faintly and said, "Although I unleashed my highest realm, I had no trace of 'killing intent' in my heart. How terrifying is that? On a real battlefield, facing vicious beasts, my killing intent would explode, and even at the same realm, my strength could increase three to five times. Add a divine weapon... that's true terror!"

"Can it increase three to five times?"

Li Yao was speechless, completely stunned, unable to imagine such a scene.

Peng Hai laughed and patted Li Yao on the shoulder, walking towards the teleportation array without looking back: "Train hard, little brother. The path of cultivation is long. One day, you will reach my current realm, and then you will know!"

Li Yao stood there for a long time.

Under the changes in the gravitational field, his breathing alternated between rapid, heavy, and slow.

But in the end, he regulated his breathing.

Li Yao clenched his fist and waved it at Peng Hai's disappearing figure in the teleportation array, a confident smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

"I will, Brother Hai, I will catch up to you soon!"