"Rumble..."
The ground trembled violently, refusing to settle.
Five massive fissures, shaped like lotus petals, split outward from the point of impact, adding another grievous wound to an already ravaged battlefield.
The terrain collapsed, forming pitch-black chasms whose depths could not be seen. Countless soldiers tumbled into the void. The momentum of the formation array collapsed with the terrain, it could no longer maintain its integrity.
The towering phantom of the Black Armor General immediately blurred, half his form disintegrating, barely able to move.
Compared to the distant aftershocks of a Saint's battle in the heavens, this clash, between two Moon-Embracing Realm cultivators at point-blank range, was far more viscerally destructive.
Every strike, every movement, left devastation in its wake.
Yet even this destruction paled before what was now happening in the skies up above.
The heavens had turned eerie.
All around, the skies churned with black thunderclouds, violet lightning slithered like serpents, thunder crashed like dragons, dragon and snake clashing, storm and fury tearing through the heavens like an apocalyptic omen.
Yet at the very center of this maelstrom, the thunderclouds could not gather. Instead, a clear patch of sky emerged.
Within that void, the stars had ceased to move. The astral constellations hung still, and, on closer inspection, those stars had arranged themselves into the shape of a partial go board.
Though it was incomplete, the outcome of the game was nearly certain.
This unnatural silence and stillness was like the moment before a catastrophic avalanche, the final, deceptive calm.
"Huu..."
Chen Kuang exhaled deeply, withdrawing his energy and regulating his breath.
The immense Spiritual Energy he had just unleashed in that final fivefold strike was dissipating rapidly. His cultivation was already sliding toward the edge of the Sea-Cleaving Realm, and it wouldn't be long before he fell into Tower Ascension.
"Cough, cough."
He coughed twice, wiping blood from his forehead, his face pale.
To fight a true Moon-Embracing Realm expert, especially one who was the disciple of a Martial Saint and a top-tier genius, had not been nearly as easy as he'd hoped.
Even though Li Hongling's final strike hadn't landed fully, it was still overwhelmingly brutal.
Right now, his body was riddled with cuts and gashes from the wind force alone. His internal organs were damaged and his qi and blood sluggish like flowing sand.
But fortunately, he had the "Flesh Reishi" passive. With enough rest, he would recover fully, even without any lingering internal injuries.
That was why he had dared to exchange injury for injury, holding off until he could unleash the full fivefold force at its peak.
Li Hongling had said one thing correctly: Chen Kuang did have power but didn't yet know how to use it.
If it weren't for the two cultivation techniques passed on by Huo Hengxuan, he could've burned every drop of Spiritual Energy in his body and still failed to defeat Li Hongling, a woman with twenty years of training and the legacy of a Martial Saint.
Only now did he realize just how valuable those two techniques were.
With just a slight advantage in realm, these techniques had allowed him, a rookie, to defeat a Martial Saint's disciple.
Their depth was beyond words.
And the fact that one of the techniques used the Buddha's entire path to enlightenment as its visualization model...
There was no doubt, it was a true orthodox Buddhist cultivation technique, and of a profoundly advanced level.
It proved that Huo Hengxuan hadn't just given him something random, he had given him everything.
"I wonder... will I ever get the chance to thank that old man?"
Chen Kuang murmured.
He looked toward the distance, to the crumbling ruins of the imperial city, now unrecognizable beneath the wild sword energy.
Beneath the dark clouds, the capital hunched like a dormant beast.
Only the scattered points of firelight, and the bolts of lightning slashing down from the skies, outlined the curve of its spine.
Fortunately, the sigil on his palm, formed from the command tokens of his allies, remained intact.
The cultivators he'd dispatched to the buried firepowder caches were still alive.
That was good.
Because now... they were going to play a very important role.
And if things went as he hoped, some of them might not even have to die.
At least a few could live.
"Impossible... This is impossible. I'm a disciple of the Martial Saint, ranked thirteenth on the Canglang Evaluation. Give me ten more years, I'd have inherited his title and become peerless... Hahahaha... This can't be happening! This can't be happening!!!"
Li Hongling's shrill, broken screams snapped Chen Kuang from his thoughts.
He walked over to her and crouched, watching coldly as her face contorted and she struggled to crawl away.
She wanted to stand. She wanted to escape this living nightmare.
Once, she had been an arrogant general. Now, the lower halves of her legs were mangled beyond recognition, nothing but pulp.
Her back had been shattered completely. Blood poured freely, and beneath the gore, her spine glimmered like jade.
Her body had been cultivated to frightening strength. Even her bones were as tough as a Spiritual Treasure.
But that bone... was now broken.
A minor mercy: at the Moon-Embracing Realm, one achieved the Fasting Body and no longer required food or water. They were considered immortal-like.
So, at least, Li Hongling had not lost control of her bowels.
She'd preserved one last sliver of dignity.
Li Hongling was still trying to crawl.
Chen Kuang stepped in front of her, blocking her path. His voice was kindly:
"General Li, you're heading the wrong way."
"If you want to seek help from your master, the Martial Saint, you should be running away from the battlefield. This direction leads back into Liang's capital."
He smiled. "That way, every surviving Zhou soldier can get a good look at the Flying Phoenix General's elegance."
Li Hongling froze.
Her head jerked up, bloodshot eyes wide.
"You... you know my master is a Martial Saint! And yet you still dared to cripple me?!"
Chen Kuang shrugged and blinked innocently.
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Your master is a Martial Saint. You're not. If you were strong enough, you would've stopped me. Why ask whether I dare?"
"This isn't about courage."
Chen Kuang gave her a mocking smile. "It's because you're just weak, Li Hongling."
A humiliation worse than death.
Li Hongling clenched her fists. Her teeth nearly shattered. Her body trembled violently.
But her desire to survive overcame her rage.
She took a deep breath.
"You can't kill me."
"I lit the Prayer Incense, my master knows what's happened here. He's on his way!"
"If he finds out you killed me, he'll never let you go! Do you even understand what it means to become enemies with a Martial Saint?"
"Think it through. You're still carrying that mother and child. If you flee now, my master will come to rescue me first. You'll still have a chance to escape alive!"
She was desperate enough to start offering advice, for his sake.
Chen Kuang was silent for a few seconds. Then, he sighed.
"You're... not wrong."
He slowly stepped back, then turned to leave.
Li Hongling let out a sigh of relief, her eyes flashing with venom.
But after a few steps, Chen Kuang turned back.
He flashed her a bright, cheerful smile.
"Just kidding."
He shook his head.
"Seriously? That was your pitch? You think I'd cripple you but be afraid of offending a Martial Saint? That ship already sailed, don't you think?"
He stepped forward again, raised his foot, and took a deep breath, his face lit with amusement.
"Next life, remember: don't mess with idiots like me. I don't play fair, and I don't care for courtesy."
"Not that you'll get a next life."
"If your master wants revenge, let him come."
"I'll be right here, waiting for him!"
With that, and with Li Hongling's eyes filled with terror..
Boom!
His foot came down.
Her once-beautiful head exploded like a melon, crushed into a bloody pulp.
Li Hongling was dead!
...
Atop the ruins of the imperial palace.
Huo Hengxuan paused.
Then burst out laughing.
"Good kid!"
"What a mad dog! Ha!"
"But then again... who among us in this life isn't?"
He looked up toward the heavens, eyes blazing.
His voice boomed like thunder, echoing across the land:
"Donghuang! Get down here!!!"
The starry sky above quivered.
And then, it began to shake.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!...
Those frozen stars, suspended in distant space, began to explode, one after another.
Like a chain reaction.
The entire sky was falling.
The Starry Sky Go Board collapsed as half the heavens crumbled.
And from above...
Someone answered his call.
A figure descended from the stars, wreathed in starlight with the demeanor of a deity, majestic beyond compare.
A Saint had arrived.