Showdown

Rumble! Yaoguang gazed into the distance. Deep within the woods, a terrifying roar rolled closer and closer from afar. Accompanied by the continuous snapping and cracking of countless trees being smashed and shattered. This commotion instantly snapped Xie Yushu out of the shock of seeing Mo Guang—who was stronger than him—struck down in a single blow. "The woods?!" He suddenly realized that Mo Guang and the others retreating toward this forest seemed... not to be fleeing at all. Rather, they were deliberately luring them in this direction. To encircle and suppress the Rebirth Society, the Xuelong Empire had gone so far as to use nuclear weapons, acting without the slightest scruple. Under such circumstances, if they were to flee, they should have run toward the urban areas, using the crowd as cover and the dense population to tie Xuelong's hands, making them wary of collateral damage and afraid to launch nuclear strikes in the city. Yet they had acted completely out of character by bolting into the woods... "Heh... You have no idea what a terrifying existence you are facing..." Mo Guang coughed, barely clinging to his last breath, a ferocious glint in his eyes. "It's a trap!" Xie Yushu barked in a low voice. "We pull back first." "It doesn't matter. Wasn't our purpose in purging the Rebirth Society precisely to force the mastermind hiding behind the scenes into the open?" Yaoguang looked calm. "It's time to settle things with the true head of the Rebirth Society once and for all." The moment he sensed that terrifying aura bearing down on them with tremendous momentum, he had already figured everything out. Mo Guang was merely bait. The purpose was to draw him into action and lead him here so the mastermind could kill him personally. The only anomaly was probably that they hadn't expected Mo Guang to be defeated so quickly. If he wanted to leave right now, he could easily withdraw with composure. However... Yaoguang had no intention of leaving. Although he would only grow stronger given enough time, the same applied to his opponent. Being targeted by such a powerful enemy was always an unsettled threat. Rather than living with that, it was better to bring about an end right here. Especially... If the other party dared to ambush him while injured, what did he have to worry about when his own condition was at its peak? With that thought, Yaoguang stilled his mind, attuning his senses to the mountain and earth-vein momentum while pushing the passive effect of Child of the Stars to its utmost limit. In less than half a minute. Under the fearful gazes of Xie Yushu and the others, the trees ahead were abruptly smashed to pieces by a hurtling figure. Immediately after, an aged and senile, yet visibly radiant and spirited figure appeared in their field of vision. He slowly withdrew his fist. Paying no heed to Xie Yushu, who looked as if facing a mortal enemy, nor to the dying Mo Guang, he looked straight at Yaoguang from the very start. "Su Yaoguang." Looking at Yaoguang, an amused expression played on his face. "I told you, that battle wasn't over." "It really is you," Yaoguang said. He had guessed earlier that whoever could possess a Heavenly Being-level figure like Xie Bo'en was certainly no weakling. And as for the Rebirth Society's experts... Leng Tianfeng alone was already formidable enough. If there were a second comparable existence, they wouldn't have needed to tread so carefully in this world. Now, it appeared his suspicion was confirmed. "So... did your true body descend?" he asked. "True body?" Leng Tianfeng looked at Yaoguang. "Now I'm beginning to wonder whether you really came from the same world as us... Otherwise, no matter how botched the descent was or how many problems arose, you wouldn't have forgotten common knowledge like this." He said indifferently, "We... are demons—formless and intangible, shape-shifting and impermanent. When we truly descend upon a living creature, that is our true body." These words tightened Xie Yushu's chest. It was true! In the eyes of the terrifying entity behind the Rebirth Society, Yaoguang really came from the same world as these beings of the Moon Demon Empire? Was this true or false?! "That makes things simple then." Yaoguang beckoned with a hand. "Didn't you want to refine me into your pet? Coincidentally, I'm quite interested in the information you hold as well. In matters between martial artists, the victor takes all while the loser forfeits everything. Come, let's see who will be the final winner." "Interesting. This hunt is finally getting a little flavor." Leng Tianfeng cracked his neck slightly, loosening his muscles and bones, before striding forward in a charge. "Then, entertain me to your heart's content..." Boom! The instant Leng Tianfeng charged, Yaoguang's figure surged forward to meet him. Combining the Child of the Stars trait with Earth Furnace, he seemed like an incarnation of a Star Lord, truly wielding the power to command the stars. As he struck back, his every move was accompanied by the momentum of heaven and earth. This sight caused Leng Tianfeng's expression to change. "Stellar magnetic field... You are a fraction stronger than I imagined. But to think you can defeat me with such methods..." Mid-charge, he violently raised his right hand, and a heavy, majestic force field condensed around him. This field... It was a domain! The power of a domain belonging to the eighth tier of Fiendgod Body Refining: the Heaven and Earth Domain realm! Though Xie Bo'en, whose body he had seized, was only at the seventh tier of body refining, Leng Tianfeng relied on a realm of comprehension that far surpassed the physical vessel. By forcibly utilizing a method akin to a Life Force Field—or rather, a natal star—he leveraged the power of heaven and earth, unleashing might not inferior to a Heaven and Earth Domain, and slammed his fist down at the oncoming Yaoguang. When this punch was thrown, it felt less like a strike of fist force and more like the collapse of heaven and earth itself—the rolling crush of a star against all living things. The sheer momentum contained within the punch alone was powerful enough to induce despair. Even Xie Yushu, a Hunyuan Martial Saint, felt his breath catch and his heart struggle to beat before such fist force. His mind was completely overwhelmed by the fist's momentum. In a daze, he seemed to witness a star hundreds of li across tearing through the atmosphere, ablaze with raging flames, plummeting downward with world-destroying pressure. That sense of an apocalypse... "No!" A shrill, panicked shriek suddenly rang out, jolting Xie Yushu awake. Snapping to his senses, he realized in horror that in that brief instant, his mind had been thoroughly paralyzed by Leng Tianfeng's fist momentum. Just like an ordinary person paralyzed by irresistible terror, he had stood rooted to the spot, awaiting death with closed eyes. In other words... Had he faced Leng Tianfeng's punch directly, he would have had no ability to resist whatsoever! If this was true for him as a Hunyuan Martial Saint, what about Su Yaoguang, who was also a Hunyuan Martial Saint and had not yet fully transformed into a Heavenly Being body?! Filled with terror, he abruptly looked ahead. In the next moment, he seemed to hear a muffled bang that pierced straight into his brain. The noise carried an almost tangible force, sending sharp pain through his head and blurring his vision and thoughts. Before he could determine where the pain and muffled sound originated, a visible ring of violent air blasted outward from the epicenter of Su Yaoguang and Leng Tianfeng's collision. It was as if a heavy 155-millimeter artillery shell had detonated in midair. The destructive force of the shockwave swept outward wildly in all directions, grinding the leaves and soil on the ground into powder with unstoppable force. Vegetation, branches, and leaves within dozens of meters were torn to shreds by the explosive air currents. Two trees as thick as a man's embrace within ten meters of the two men snapped as though struck and sliced by immense force, their splintered remnants hurled dozens of meters away amid flying wood chips. Only then did Xie Yushu realize why his brain felt as though it were tearing apart. The acoustic shockwave generated by the clash of their forces had exceeded what human ears could capture, rupturing eardrums and rattling the brain. Feeling a cold wetness in his ears, he touched them; indeed, blood was trickling out. Just the aftershocks had inflicted such damage on a Hunyuan Martial Saint like him?! Xie Yushu trembled inwardly. "Such power..." Amid the blasting dust, two figures flew backward at the same time. Yet... Astonishingly, the one hurled farther was not Su Yaoguang, who was merely at the Hunyuan Martial Saint level, but Leng Tianfeng, who had possessed a Heavenly Being. A trace of solemnity crossed the Heavenly Being's expression. He evolved too fast! This descender before him... His rate of evolution was simply too rapid. Above all... Like himself, this opponent had already broken through the first major realm of cultivation long ago. In this manner, his own advantage had completely vanished. "Damn it! When I descended into this old man, his resistance was too fierce. Coupled with those natives giving me no breathing room, I still haven't fully refined this vessel to this day. Otherwise... that strike would have severely crippled him!" Thoughts raced through Leng Tianfeng's mind, yet he betrayed nothing on the surface. "Gene liberation technique!" His tactics shifted rapidly, abandoning the earlier frontal brawl in favor of hit-and-run skirmishing. "How long can your host vessel maintain this state?! A few minutes at most, and you will become a dead soul beneath my fists, utterly helpless to resist!" "Didn't you say I should entertain you to your heart's content? Is this all you've got?!" The Thunderstrike Sword in Yaoguang's hand turned into a streak of lightning, thrusting repeatedly. With every thrust, astral qi burst from the blade's edge; even thick refined steel would be sliced cleanly in two before this divine sword. "Come on!" Yaoguang roared, the sword momentum carried by the blade blanketing downward in full force. Leng Tianfeng's expression shifted, but his retreating figure was not the least bit slow. He no longer chose to confront the sword momentum head-on, sneering, "History is written by the victors! Tactics do not matter; what matters is who stands victorious at the very end." "You seem very confident. But can you guarantee you'll be the ultimate victor? Don't forget, a few months ago, fighting a Martial Saint-level avatar of yours took everything I had. Yet now, even after acquiring a Heavenly Being host, you don't even dare to face me head-on!" Yaoguang fully merged the secret technique of Earth Furnace with the Child of the Stars trait. As his Life Force Field leveraged the surroundings, the momentum of the entire earth empowered his body. "So if you cannot kill me today, if you let me turn and walk away to buy more time... when I become a Star Lord..." In everyone's perception, it was as though a towering mountain had risen from the earth, carrying the terrifying, cataclysmic pressure of a landslide and earthquake, completely coalescing into Yaoguang's single sword strike as it slashed down toward the true mastermind behind the Rebirth Society. "By that time, what will you even amount to?!" With a thunderous roar, Yaoguang's sword momentum and fighting spirit surged to a new zenith. The descending pressure completely engulfed Leng Tianfeng's figure.