Just as the standoff had reached a deadlock, a voice rang out behind the crowd, accompanied by the sound of clapping: "Well, well, looks like Wei Zhao has trained you up nicely. Holding your own against—even suppressing—a Golden Core spirit beast with that little strength of yours. Not bad, not bad at all."

Startled, Leng Leng and the others spun around and soon spotted a familiar figure on a tree trunk not far behind them: Xue Jianming.

Seeing the mocking look on Xue Jianming's face, Leng Leng and the others felt their hearts sink straight to the bottom. That earlier sense of foreboding had been right after all—it never rains but it pours. To run into this thing at a time like this!

Without the black mantis, Leng Leng and the others might not have truly feared Xue Jianming. Though he was a skilled practitioner of the early Golden Core stage, he had nearly been toppled by Leng Leng fighting above her level in the last Grand Ancient Trial Tournament. Even now, with Wei Zhao absent, so long as they worked together, they might not necessarily come off worse against Xue Jianming. But the problem was, there was still a Golden Core black mantis right there!

With the black mantis radiating murderous intent in front and Xue Jianming eyeing them like a tiger in back, and both of them at the Golden Core level, their situation was no different from a dead end. Given the bad blood between Xue Jianming and Wei Zhao, no one doubted that this creature would let such a perfect opportunity slip by. Anyone could figure out with their toes that he would absolutely kick a man when he was down!

Leng Leng hastily signaled for everyone to stop moving. By now, a hit-and-run tactic against the black mantis was no longer appropriate. Compared to the black mantis, Xue Jianming was the more dangerous threat, the one they needed to guard against.

At the same time, the black mantis also stopped moving, as if by unspoken agreement. Though it gnashed its teeth in hatred for Leng Leng and the others, at this level it was no fool. It knew the human behind it posed a greater threat. Facing Leng Leng and the others, it could strike or flee as it pleased; but facing Xue Jianming, fleeing might not be so easy.

"Hey, big mantis, this one's a real fighter. I'd advise you to cut and run while you can, unless you want to die with no grave to be buried in," Wu Chengtian said, rolling his eyes.

The black mantis had already been thinking of retreating, but being taunted like that only fired it up. It snarled angrily, "Hmph, hmph! You human trash, stop your boasting! This is my territory—you think I scare that easily?"

"Hey, hey, we're not trying to scare you. Even we can beat you, you big mantis—and now with a Golden Core expert on top of that, how do you expect to survive?" Ying Ziyu and the others chimed in.

"You think a few words will scare me off? Do I look like an idiot?" The black mantis refused to believe it. Before its words had even faded, it went shrieking straight at Xue Jianming. This was no rash impulse—it had thought it through very clearly.

Leng Leng and the others might be tough, but to it they posed no true threat; if things turned bad, it could flee at any moment. But this newly appeared human expert was different. It had to probe his depths first. If he was easy to deal with, it would find a way to wipe them all out at once; if he was truly not to be trifled with, then fleeing at once was the best policy.

Seeing this, the group exchanged glances and smiled, breathing a collective sigh of relief. They did not know the black mantis's specific plan, but this turn of events could not have been better for them. A perilous situation, caught between enemies front and back, had been dissolved with just a few words—pure dumb luck.

Yet their relief lasted only a fleeting moment. In the next instant, their hearts leaped back up, and they were even more tense and panic-stricken than before!

There was no other reason: against the charging black mantis, Xue Jianming did not so much as shift his backside. He simply waited until it was close, then casually delivered a knife-hand strike. The black mantis had no power to resist at all—he chopped it into pieces on the spot with ease.

"God, this stinks!" Xue Jianming's face, however, was thoroughly ugly. He had deliberately acted so cool and casual purely to put on a good show in front of everyone. And indeed, the black mantis had been easily dealt with—but he had not counted on being splattered with its foul blood, leaving him green from head to toe, exactly like a clown fished out of a dye vat.

Unfortunately, Leng Leng and the others were in no mood to laugh at him now. They stared at one another as if they had seen a ghost. This thing had clearly only been at the early Golden Core stage before—how had it suddenly become so terrifying?!

"Golden Core Perfection..." Leng Leng forced out five words with difficulty. Xue Jianming's strike had been clean and fierce; ordinary people might not have seen his true strength, but Leng Leng had at least seen her share of the world in the Ancient Little Jianghu. That was unmistakably the aura of a Golden Core Perfection expert!

Qiu Lingshan and the others were all struck dumb by these words. How long had it been? To go from early Golden Core all the way to Golden Core Perfection in one bound—even stuffing yourself with pills could not produce such heaven-defying results, could it?

By the common understanding of the Ancient Little Jianghu, no matter how gifted one was, going from early Golden Core to Golden Core Perfection should take at least several decades—that was already the limit. Countless people were stuck at this stage for hundreds or even thousands of years. Yet Xue Jianming, counting from the moment he broke through to the Golden Core stage, had spent a few months at most. How was that possible?

Such a horrifying rate of advancement would have shocked even Wei Zhao himself, let alone Leng Leng and the others. Of course, then again, at most he would have been astonished at the means of the Central Plains; as for Xue Jianming himself, in his eyes the man was nothing but a piece of trash, not worth a moment's concern.

"Oh, not bad eyesight. So, how does it feel now?" Xue Jianming still sat leisurely sideways on the tree trunk, watching the group—especially Leng Leng—with a look of smug mockery.

They were both genius disciples of the Snow Sword Sect, and Leng Leng was moreover a renowned beauty. Xue Jianming had long entertained countless designs on her, open and covert, but she had never yielded to either soft or hard tactics. Now, after venturing into the mortal world for training, she had fallen for Wei Zhao—and had even turned the tables on him, nearly making him capsize in a ditch at the Grand Ancient Trial Tournament. This was intolerable!

Now that he had become a lofty Golden Core Perfection expert, his greatest pleasure was to savor the expressions of those who had opposed him. The more shocked Leng Leng was, the more delighted he felt!

Unfortunately, Leng Leng and the others proved rather uncooperative. The shock on their faces lasted less than an instant before it vanished, leaving only a shared hatred of the enemy.

"Sorry to disappoint you. We don't have much of a 'feeling' right now. If I had to say something, I suppose I'm just curious what crooked shortcut method you trained in—don't tell me it's the legendary Sunflower Manual?" Yu Bing shot back.