Despite every screaming instinct in their brains demanding that they turn around and run for their lives, their legs, however, remained completely frozen to the cold stone ground.
Kahn didn’t rush his movements in the slightest. He stepped slowly, closing the short distance to the heavy iron gate that had kept him caged like a wild animal for months now.
He reached out with both hands, his fingers gently wrapping around the thick, rusted iron bars.
With a smooth, terrifyingly casual pull, he simply uprooted the entire gate directly from the solid stone walls.
The heavy iron hinges snapped like dry twigs, groaning loudly before giving way, and thick chunks of rock and mortar rained down onto the floor as the reinforced frame was torn entirely free from its deep foundation.
Seeing this impossible, monstrous feat of raw strength, the two guards gasped again, the sound coming out as a sharp, choking wheeze.
Their bodies started violently shivering in absolute fear, their armor clanking softly as their teeth chattered together loudly in the quiet space.
They were witnessing a waking nightmare unfold right in front of their eyes, their minds completely failing to process how a frail slave could casually rip a reinforced prison gate out of solid rock with his bare hands.
Holding the massive structure of steel and iron as if it weighed no more than a hollow wooden training stick, Kahn pivoted slightly on his heel.
With a simple, effortless flick of his wrists, he forcefully flung the heavy gate backward, tossing it deep into the dark corners of the empty prison cell.
The massive chunk of iron flew through the air before violently slamming into the far stone wall.
The deafening crash echoed like a clap of thunder through the underground passages, sending bright orange sparks flying into the dark, and causing the solid floor beneath the guards’ feet to tremble violently from the heavy impact.
Dust and debris billowed out from the damaged cell, swirling around Kahn as he finally stepped over the ruined threshold.
He walked out of the confinement completely, standing confidently in the open corridor directly in front of the two trembling guards.
The flickering torchlight on the walls cast long, intimidating shadows across his newly refined, aristocratic features, making him look even more menacing as he towered over his former tormentors.
The two men slowly looked up at him, completely dwarfed by his sudden, commanding physical presence.
Their faces were entirely frozen in sheer terror, their complexions drained of all blood until they looked as pale as ghosts.
After several agonizing seconds of suffocating silence, one of the sentries finally managed to swallow the thick lump of absolute dread in his throat.
He dug deep into his soul, desperately summoning whatever tiny shred of courage he had left in his trembling body to speak.
His voice was ragged, shaky, and barely above a pathetic whisper as he stammered, "Who... who the hell are you?"
Deep down, in the most rational corners of their minds, they completely refused to believe that the towering, flawless figure standing before them was the exact same weak, frail Kahn they knew.
Even if some miraculous medicinal pill or forbidden demonic art had somehow completely changed him physically overnight, granting him that pristine white hair and powerful frame, it still didn’t explain the most terrifying aspect of all.
It absolutely didn’t explain the incredibly dense, heavy Qi condensation aura currently oozing out of him, suffocating the hallway.
Moving all the way from a crippled mortal to a true Qi condensation expert in the blink of an eye was a total impossibility in the world of cultivation, completely shattering everything they understood about reality.
Hearing the guard’s terrified, stammering question, Kahn tilted his head slightly to the side.
A dark, amused light danced in his clear eyes as he smirked, the corner of his lips pulling up into a cruel, knowing curve.
He looked down at the shaking men and replied in a smooth, chillingly calm tone, "I’m just... a guy you see."
The casual, dismissive response was the final straw that entirely snapped the guard’s fragile, overtaxed sanity.
Pushed past the brink of terror and driven by sheer, unadulterated panic, the guard suddenly let out a loud, desperate shout.
He abandoned all rational thought and lunged forward, wildly swinging his heavily armored fist directly at Kahn’s flawless face in a frantic, suicidal bid for survival.
But the guard’s desperate attack was painfully, comically slow in Kahn’s newly awakened eyes.
Before the man’s armored fist could even come close to reaching its intended target, Kahn moved with a blinding, explosive speed that a mere body tempering cultivator could never hope to track.
He easily bypassed the attack, driving his own bare fist directly into the guard’s face instead.
The impact sounded like a heavy boulder dropping onto a fragile pane of glass.
The sheer, monstrous force behind Kahn’s punch completely shattered the guard’s facial bones instantly.
The man’s entire body was immediately lifted entirely off his feet and violently flung backward through the air like a discarded ragdoll.
He sailed across the corridor until his head hit the solid stone wall with a sickening, final crunch, his lifeless body crumpling to the floor in a broken heap.
The second guard violently flinched back upon seeing this, his boots scrambling frantically against the floor as he tried to put distance between himself and the monster.
He immediately raised both of his hands high up into the air in a gesture of surrender. He was trembling so hard that his entire demeanor crumbling into that of a pathetic, begging animal.
Even though he had been explicitly ordered by inner disciple Ter to inspect the cells and report back immediately with answers, all thoughts of his duty were entirely wiped from his mind.
In the suffocating presence of Kahn, he felt a primal, deep-seated terror that he had absolutely never felt in his entire life before.
The loyalty he held toward the Raging Bulls sect evaporated into nothingness, completely overwritten by the desperate, overbearing urge to survive the next ten seconds.