Xiao Chen's face grew paler and paler, his lips drained of every trace of color.
Limping, he kept pressing forward.
His mind and will had pushed past their limits long ago.
Gu Li closed his eyes in agony. From beginning to end, this world had not changed in the slightest.
He refused to believe Xiao Chen had not noticed the difference in the flow of time here.
He even suspected that the difference was not just tenfold, but far greater.
If it were merely tenfold, then with so much time having elapsed here, nearly a whole shichen must have passed in the outside world.
Yet a battle between the mortal and immortal realms had never dragged on for so long.
Given the savagery and sheer intensity of the clash, it could never have lasted that long.
The only explanation was that time here flowed vastly faster than tenfold.
Gu Li knew this, and naturally, Xiao Chen could sense it too.
After hesitating for a long time, Gu Li closed his eyes in anguish and spoke slowly, his voice trembling slightly.
"Fourth Brother..."
His voice hoarse, his consciousness slipping, Xiao Chen rasped in reply, "What... is it?"
"Put... put me down."
Suddenly, Xiao Chen ground to a halt, leaning his grievously battered frame entirely upon his spear.
Gripping the shaft with both hands, he rested his head against his knuckles.
"Cut... the bullshit."
"If I put you down... then why... why the hell did I endure all this... from the very start?!"
"I can't... let go... Not one of you... can be left behind."
Gu Li's mouth twisted, his lips quivering as tears spilled from the corners of his eyes.
Ever since he had first met the others, he had never imagined a day like this would come.
Had their roles been reversed, he probably would have given up long ago...
He could not understand how Xiao Chen had endured until now.
Was it sheer willpower?
Or was it the unyielding resolve that none of his brothers would die that kept him going?
Or did he truly believe that Eldest Brother would come to save them?
Xiao Chen lifted his head and resumed his limping trek forward, paying no heed to the roaring beast behind him.
Broken, ragged words tumbled from his lips.
"All my life... I, Xiao Chen... have never been reliable..."
"But... I want to... I want to become someone like Eldest Brother... and Second Brother..."
"Someone... others can rely on... and trust."
The earth shook, and the ground behind them steadily crumbled apart.
Xiao Chen, who had looked thoroughly spent, slowly turned his head.
Through the gaps between his brothers' arms, he glimpsed the monstrous hound's ferocious visage.
Drawing a single deep breath sent a tearing, searing agony through his lungs, as though they were being scorched by fire.
Yet immediately after, his speed surged, and he broke into a limping dash forward!
Gu Li wept uncontrollably against his back, his eyes swollen from crying.
Once, twice, thrice...
Even Gu Li could not count how many times Xiao Chen had dragged them back from the brink of death.
The old man seethed with mounting fury and impatience.
Xiao Chen seemed to possess a bottomless reservoir of endurance.
Every time he teetered on the verge of collapse, seemingly unable to take another step, his willpower would summon a sudden surge of strength.
***
Within the thunderfire domain.
Surrounded by seven opponents, Li Guanqi stood alone with his sword, visibly straining under the pressure.
A gap in cultivation could not be bridged by external strength alone.
Li Guanqi swung his sword with all his might, seeking an opening to slay one of them, yet three mid Ascension Realm experts consistently blocked his strikes.
As a result, he had failed to fell a single foe thus far.
More than ten breaths had already passed since Xiao Chen and the others' auras had vanished.
Frantic with worry, Li Guanqi swept Red Lotus across in a horizontal slash, unleashing an explosion of sword light.
The instant he forcibly repelled the seven enemies, he seized the fleeting opening and formed hand seals with one hand.
In a flash, heavenly thunder ran rampant, and raging fire surged across the world.
A sky-spanning wave of flames crashed downward like the tides of a tempestuous sea!
Thunderous power laced the inferno, hurtling toward the cultivators with world-destroying might!
"Quick! Join forces!"
"Hold the line!"
Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes as tumultuous power of laws saturated heaven and earth.
Thrusting both hands downward, he barked chillingly, "Spirit Incantation 196: Flame Burial!"
*Rumble!*
Heaven and earth burned, and space warped under the heat; even Li Guanqi's own domain could barely withstand the ferocity of the power.
Torrents of fire surged toward the seven from every direction.
The three mid Ascension Realm cultivators took positions on three flanks, pooling their power to erect a primal energy barrier.
Li Guanqi seized this chance to completely unleash the power of the Starfall Cold Lotus sealed within his body.
Immortal primal energy surged within him, and the lightning laws around his body thickened until they nearly condensed into solid substance!
A deep violet light coiled around him like vibrant ribbons of silk.
Suddenly!
Violent shockwaves swept across heaven and earth.
The domain space trembled violently. Startled, everyone hurriedly reinforced their primal energy barriers against the impact.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
Deafening crashes thundered through the air as everyone on the battlefield was caught in the fallout.
Several full breaths passed before the turbulence finally subsided.
The fighting ground to a momentary halt as all present exerted every ounce of strength to hold their ground.
Even so, many suffered grievous injuries the instant the storm of shockwaves tore through the world.
Xu Junlin and the others were flung back ten thousand zhang, slammed all the way to the edge of the domain while coughing up mouthfuls of blood.
A flicker of panic pierced Li Guanqi's thoughts. He had not expected the shockwaves from the battle in the extraterritorial battlefield to reach all the way here!
This meant Grandfather could not completely contain all the enemies' strikes either.
Li Guanqi hastened the pace of his breakthrough, unleashing a torrential surge of immortal primal energy that forced his foes back, preventing them from interfering with him.
The fluctuations of energy around him grew increasingly violent, and the laws grew thicker and denser.
The terrifying aura of the Ascension Realm gradually rippled outward, and the power of Heavenly Dao began to settle upon him.
In an instant, dark clouds gathered and heavenly thunder rumbled across the fractured space of the Seventh Domain.
Dense power of laws filled the void, and Li Guanqi faintly grasped the elusive threshold of his breakthrough.
He spread his arms wide, and in the next breath, thunder lotuses blossomed throughout the entire thunderfire domain!
*Boom!*
A muffled explosion erupted as several figures burst through the wall of flame.
One of them had more than half his body charred black, his breath faint as a thread.
The rest were in an equally wretched state, their garments shredded and their faces twisted with fury.
Yet when they looked upon Li Guanqi, their eyes held nothing but dread, laced with deep apprehension.
To the people of the Immortal Realm, the power of heavenly flames was merely an external tool.
No matter a flame's ranking, in their eyes it was merely the product of absorbing heaven-and-earth spiritual energy and Dao rhythm.
Yet Li Guanqi's fire was different...
It was a half-immortal flame, capable of incinerating heaven and earth!
"Strike! Kill him! Hurry!"
"Hold nothing back—kill him! If he could fight us to a standstill at the peak of the early Ascension Realm, then once he breaks through—"
Without hesitation, they all played their hidden trump cards.
Heaven and earth roared, the void shattered, and the domain teetered on the brink of collapse.
Dozens of attacks converged on Li Guanqi simultaneously.
Yet right at that moment, the corners of Li Guanqi's lips curled upward, and he murmured softly, "Your time... has come!"
*Boom!*
Empowered by the terrifying might of the Starfall Cold Lotus, Li Guanqi's aura shattered through its barrier with a deafening blast.
He stepped into the mid Ascension Realm—and the aura continued to climb without pause, surging straight to the peak of the mid Ascension Realm in the blink of an eye!
Chapter 1538