The Arhat Fist Force blasted forward rapidly, with the strong force appearing to have been warped away moments after coming into contact with Hell's Gate. It was as if half its power had been absorbed.

Whoosh!

The sea water beside the gate boiled instantly and a huge storm of spiritual energy emerged from it again. A roar was even produced as the sea became unstable and the waves became turbulent.

"DIE!"

The old man's expression changed suddenly and his voice contained the peak of killing intent. Those silken threads suddenly thrust forward in a straight line, piercing toward Ye Lingchen like a sword.

Ye Lingchen leaned to the side and managed to avoid the danger at the last minute. However, one of the threads had struck him and injured his left arm. The wound felt extremely hot, almost like it was being roasted by fire.

Other than his arm, his calf had also suffered a bloody cut.

However, he ignored everything and once again unleashed another fist into Hell's Gate.

Whirr!

The whirlpool at the gate trembled suddenly and grew at a pace that was rapid and noticeable to the naked eye. Traces of the whirlpool's fluctuations become more and more obvious, and the spiritual energy spurted out like an angry dragon.

Boom!

There was a dull rumbling coming from the sea, followed by the water around Hell's Gate rising up into the sky, forming a huge waterspout!

Splash, splash, splash!

The sea was already extremely unstable, with waves more than one meter high getting faster and more frequent.

Those two punches alone made the gate extremely unstable, and its expansion speed had reduced by a month!

If humans could only barely catch up with it after having three months to prepare, then it was practically impossible if there were only two months left. After all, once the gate was open, humans would then face the savage attacks of the Void Realm creatures.

There was no doubt that the old man's initial plans had been utterly foiled.

"Damn you! Damn you!"

The old man roared, bent his fingers into claws, and grabbed Ye Lingchen's neck with his iron-like claws.

Ye Lingchen smiled slightly and dived directly into the water like a swimming fish. He relied on the Water Spirit Constitution to enter the water like a fish and began wandering around the gate. For a moment, there was nothing the old man could do.

Just as the two of them were in a stalemate, the waves grew bigger and bigger, eventually exceeding ten meters. Wave after wave, Ye Lingchen and the old man were like ants struggling under a storm.

Tsunami!

A tsunami appeared!

The initial equilibrium was shattered after the gate's abnormal expansion and the overflowing spiritual energy resulted in a tsunami. The might of heaven and earth made human strength look trivial and insignificant, even though the old man was a sovereign-state warrior.

"Old Tortoise, let's go!"

Ye Lingchen let out a low cry and retreated quickly with Old Tortoise.

The turbulent environment proved beneficial to them, as the old man appeared slightly at a loss. He could only stand on the water's surface from then onward. His affinity with water was bad, just as Ye Lingchen had expected, and his strength in the sea was greatly reduced.

"Die to me!" the old man bellowed and chased after him with reddened eyes.

The next moment however, a huge wave hit him head on, as though an unyielding force had given rise to a huge slap.

The old man raised his hand and waved it before his entire body tunneled through the waves. The next moment however, another huge wave rushed towards his face with a momentum far greater than that of before.

Ye Lingchen glanced back and a smile appeared in his eyes. The spiritual energy in his body flowed wildly as he used his Water Spirit Constitution to manipulate the sea water and attack the old man.

It was already half a month of cultivation since he upgraded to intermediate level. That half month was probably on par to the hundred or so days of cultivation in the past and it more than doubled the spiritual energy within his body. Paired with the intermediate-level Water Spirit Constitution, it was still possible for him to give that old man a hard time.

"I'm so unlucky! "

The old man's heart began to feel uneasy and his face became increasingly ugly. One could even say that he was very aggrieved. He noticed that there were few, if any, waves on Ye Lingchen's end, and even if there were, those waves were very small. Meanwhile, most of the waves he encountered were huge, strong, and surprisingly big. He was already starting to pant despite his strength. "These waves are so fierce."

He looked at Ye Lingchen, who had already moved some distance away from him, and his expression sank. He stepped on the waves and attempted to increase his speed again.

At that point, Ye Lingchen had entered China's waters. He began to swim deeper and deeper.

Just as he could breathe a sigh of relief, the old man soared suddenly into the air with countless silk threads enveloping his entire body. They twisted and turned, and from the distance it resembled a spider web wrapping all over the old man's body.

Ye Lingchen glanced over and suddenly felt his scalp turn numb. His instinct spurred him to flee even quicker along with Old Tortoise.

The old man stared at Ye Lingchen's figure from mid-air and his gaze was cold and sharp, like a knife.

He slowly spread his hands and gathered the silk threads around his body, forming a dense mat in his palm. After a while, they had manifested into a meter-long scimitar1 in his hand.

"Die!"

The old man's eyes narrowed and he hacked both hands down at once. The scimitar cut through the air like a flash of white light and was heading straight at Ye Lingchen!

The feeling of intense crisis made Ye Lingchen's hair stand upright. His blood curdled, and his scalp felt so numb that it was almost going to crack open.

He could not afford to act carelessly at that moment. The spiritual energy that he cultivated rushed up, causing countless waves to trash against the blade light. He then focused all his spiritual energy into his strongest punch and blasted it toward the scimitar.

Boom!

The scimitar sliced cleanly through everything as though it was slicing a stick of bamboo in half. It broke through layer after layer of mighty waves, as though those waves were like tofu. In the end, it finally collided with Ye Lingchen's fist force.

Boom!

The fist force fizzled off under that deafening roar. The scimitar lost a bit of its luster, but its trajectory nonetheless continued toward Ye Lingchen!

The corners of Ye Lingchen's eyes twitched. He mobilized his body's muscles and could only hope that his Eight Extremities Brute Training could block the blow. Sadly, the chances of him succeeding was rather...minimal.

The situation could be likened to an ordinary person using their mortal flesh to stop a sword. Said person would be extremely lucky to survive the incident.

The blade light cut through the air and blinded his eyesight. The next moment, the scene before him changed slightly and Old Tortoise's huge figure blocked Ye Lingchen from the front. The blade light struck brutally against Old Tortoise's shell and launched it several feet away.

"Old Tortoise!" Ye Lingchen's complexion changed drastically. His sight immediately became blurry as he looked over at Old Tortoise.

A huge wound about three inches big appeared in the center of its thick tortoise shell. The wound looked extremely gruesome and blood flowed down each crack. It was truly a shocking sight.

"I'm fine. Let's hurry up," Old Tortoise said weakly and began paddling with all its might.

Ye Lingchen said nothing and hurried back with Old Tortoise.

There was no time for drama and Ye Lingchen had to rush back to treat Old Tortoise's injury as soon as possible. He could sense that Old Tortoise's vitality was fading rapidly and might not be able to hold on much longer...

We believe that the author meant 3 feet (1 meter) long instead of 3 inches when he mentioned 三寸來長. Here we have translated 彎刀 as scimitar although we are aware that other interpretations are possible.