Chapter 1997 — Sparring With Kelan(3)

"Fuck, I have never met or heard of anyone that’s even close to being as monstrous as you," Kelan muttered after learning that Yuan was barely showing all of his potential but was still able to make a True Immortal feel helpless while only being a mortal.

"You know, you should join... No, I’ll tell you about it later."

Kelan proceeded to take a deep breath before increasing his cultivation even further, stepping into the first level of God Ascension.

"Well? Do you think you’ll be able to handle the God Ascension realm?" he asked Yuan with a provocative smile.

"We won’t know until we try," said Yuan.

"Then here I come!"

Kelan made the first move, and the two of them clashed shortly later. However, despite being in the God Ascension realm, Kelan didn’t use Celestial Qi to directly attack Yuan, only using it to strengthen his own physique.

Yet, even with the power of Celestial Qi, Kelan only found himself on par with Yuan, who was still only using his physique.

"Why don’t we fight seriously now? You can use your full cultivation, and I’ll do the same," Yuan suggested after thousands of exchanges.

"Don’t blame me if anything goes wrong!" Kelan responded as he unleashed his full cultivation at the fifth level of God Ascension realm.

Yuan also no longer held back, and his body surged with Immortal Qi.

Yuan activated God of War’s Astral Arts, perfectly controlling the avatar’s size to be just slightly bigger than his own frame.

Since Kelan fought with his fists, Yuan decided not to use a weapon and continued fighting with his bare hands.

When they clashed again, the sheer force of their blows fractured the very space around them, sending cracks rippling through the air, though the rifts swiftly mended themselves.

"HAHAHAHA!" Kelan roared with exhilaration as he traded blows with Yuan, his eyes flickering with delight.

"This is it! This is the kind of manly fight I’ve been craving!"

Kelan was primarily a body refiner, having honed his physique to the extreme. Few cultivators could rival him in sheer physical prowess, making battles like the one he now faced with Yuan exceedingly rare. And even when such encounters did occur, they never left him satisfied, as his opponents would fall too quickly to offer any true challenge.

"I never imagined I’d experience a battle like this with a mortal! You’re truly something else, Yuan! At this rate, I might really lose myself and try to kill you!"

Yuan smiled at his words and said, "Kill me? I’d like to see you try!"

Yuan and Kelan’s battle raged on for nearly an entire month without pause. In the final days, Kelan unleashed everything he had, fighting with the intent to kill.

Yet no matter how hard he pushed, the most he could achieve was tearing off a few limbs—wounds that Yuan quickly recovered from.

In the end, Kelan lay sprawled on the ground, his chest rising and falling with exhaustion as he stared blankly at the endless white, his expression dazed, caught between disbelief and awe.

Yuan sat on the ground, his entire body soaked in sweat. However, his breathing was calm, and his body was still surging with strength.

While Kelan looked as if he had sprinted through a marathon, Yuan, by contrast, appeared as though he had merely taken a leisurely jog around the park.

"Does the Golden Immortal Physique give you unlimited stamina, as well?" Kelan suddenly asked.

"No, that’s something else."

"Something else...? Just how many secrets are contained within that small body of yours?"

"Who knows?" Yuan replied with a casual shrug.

It might have come off as evasive, but in truth, he genuinely didn’t have the answer.

"Are you two finally done?" Wang Ming called out as he and the others approached.

None of them had left during the month-long battle—they had remained there from start to finish, eyes fixed on every clash and exchange.

And just from observing, each of them had gained insight, advancing their understanding and even strengthening their own cultivation in the process.

"Sorry, I didn’t intend on taking up so much of your time," Kelan said to Yuan.

He shook his head and said, "No, it’s fine. I needed time to adjust to my new condition, too."

"You’ll be staying at the sect, right? I’ll prepare a place for you."

"No need. I can just live with Meixiu or Lulu." He turned to them and continued, "Are you okay with that?"

"Of course! In fact, I was going to make that suggestion!" Chu Liuxiang said.

Meixiu nodded in agreement.

"Okay..."

Just as Kelan stood up and prepared to leave, Yuan suddenly stopped him.

"Wait a minute."

"What is it?"

"Don’t reject this."

Yuan tapped his forehead, drawing forth a glowing orb of light. With a casual flick of his finger—almost as if launching a flicked booger—he sent the orb sailing through the air, striking Kelan squarely between the brows.

Kelan trusted Yuan and didn’t resist the surge of information flooding into his mind.

"T-THIS IS?!?!?!" he cried out, his voice trembling with shock, as if he’d just seen a ghost. His expression twisted with disbelief, eyes wide and filled with utter astonishment.

Yuan smiled and said, "Don’t worry, it’s real. Consider it a gift for taking care of my friends for the last few years."

After taking a moment to process the information Yuan had shared with him, Kelan suddenly dropped to his knees and kowtowed without hesitation.

"Please," he said with deep reverence, "allow me to call you Father."

"What the heck?" Shi Lang and the others stared with wide eyes, wondering what Yuan had given Kelan for him to act like this.

"Rejected." Yuan calmly refused.

"Then, how about Young Master?!"

"No. I don’t want to hear that from you. Just continue treating me normally."

"As you command!" Kelan shouted before jumping to his feet.

He turned to look at Meixiu and the others and said, "I’ll be entering seclusion for a bit. You can train yourselves in the meantime, or take a break. You all deserve it."

Then, like an overjoyed child with a new toy, he skipped away, grinning from ear to ear.