Yaoguang gazed into the distance. A terrifying roar could be heard, coming from deep within the forest and growing louder by the second. It was accompanied by the sharp "crack" of countless trees being snapped and crushed.

The commotion instantly snapped Xie Yushu out of his shock. He had still been reeling from the fact that Mo Guang, who was stronger than himself, had been killed in a single strike.

"The forest?!" He suddenly realized that Mo Guang and the others had not retreated toward this forest to escape, but to lure them here.

The Snowdragon Empire had even resorted to nuclear weapons to suppress the Rebirth Society, showing a complete lack of restraint. Under such circumstances, if the members wanted to flee, they should have headed for the city. There, they could have used the crowds for cover and the dense population to make the Snowdragon Empire hesitate, fearing the fallout of a nuclear strike in an urban area. Instead, they had acted against all logic by bolting into the forest.

"Hehe... You have no idea what kind of terrifying existence you are facing..." Mo Guang, clinging to his last breath, coughed violently. A savage glint flickered in his eyes.

"It’s a trap!" Xie Yushu barked. "We need to retreat now."

"It doesn't matter. Wasn't the whole point of our assault on the Rebirth Society to force this hidden mastermind into the open?" Yaoguang’s expression remained calm. "It’s time to settle things with the true leader of the Rebirth Society."

As he sensed that aura approaching with such overwhelming force, he had already pieced everything together. Mo Guang was merely a bait. His purpose was to draw Yaoguang into a fight and lead him here, where the mastermind could kill him personally.

The only exception was that they probably hadn't expected Mo Guang to fall so quickly. If Yaoguang wanted to leave now, he could have retreated with ease. However, he had no intention of departing. While it was true that he would grow stronger given enough time, the same applied to his enemy. Being hunted by such a powerful opponent left him feeling unsettled.

He preferred to end it here. Moreover, the enemy dared to ambush him even while injured. Since Yaoguang was currently at his peak, what did he have to fear?

With that thought, Yaoguang stilled his mind. He focused on sensing the force of the earth veins, pushing the passive effects of Stars' Child to the absolute limit.

Less than thirty seconds later, a figure smashed through the trees ahead, pulverizing them before the eyes of the terrified Xie Yushu and his team. The enemy was senile in appearance, yet radiated an extraordinary, vibrant energy. He slowly withdrew his fist. He didn't even glance at Xie Yushu or at the dying Mo Guang; his eyes locked onto Yaoguang immediately.

"Su Yaoguang." He looked at Yaoguang with a playful smirk. "I told you that battle wasn't over."

"It really is you," Yaoguang said.

He had suspected as much. An entity capable of possessing a heavenly being like Xie Boen could never be weak. As for the experts of the Rebirth Society, one Leng Tianfeng was already powerful enough; if a second similar entity existed, they wouldn't have needed to move so cautiously in this world. It seemed like his suspicions were correct.

"So... Has your true body descended?" he asked.

"True body?" Leng Tianfeng looked at Yaoguang. "I'm starting to wonder if you actually came from the same world as us. Otherwise, no matter how much your descent failed or how many problems occurred, you shouldn't have forgotten such common knowledge."

He said indifferently, "We are fiends. We are formless and nameless, without fixed state or permanence. When we truly descend into a living creature, that becomes our true body."

These words caused Xie Yushu’s heart to tighten. It's true! In the eyes of this terrifying existence behind the Rebirth Society, Yaoguang and the beings of the Lunar Fiend Empire share the same origin? Is this actually the truth?

"That makes things simple then," Yaoguang said, beckoning with his hand. "Didn't you want to train me into your pet? It just so happens that I am also interested in the information you hold. In the world of martial artists, the winner takes all, and the loser loses everything. Come, let’s see who emerges as the final winner."

"Interesting. This hunt is finally starting to get interesting." Leng Tianfeng cracked his neck slightly, loosening his muscles. Then, he took a massive stride forward and launched a charge.

"Entertain me with all that you have..." he said.

Boom! The moment Leng Tianfeng charged forward, Yaoguang quickly moved to meet him. The combination of Stars' Child and the Great Earth Furnace made him feel like an incarnation of a star lord, truly wielding the power of the stars. Every move he made was accompanied by the force of heaven and earth. This sight caused Leng Tianfeng’s expression to shift.

"A stellar magnetic field... You are a bit stronger than I imagined. But if you think you can defeat me with just this..."

Mid-charge, he thrust his right hand high into the air. A heavy, majestic force field began to coalesce around him.

That field... was a domain! It was the power of the Heaven-and-Earth Domain possessed by those at the Eighth Heavenly Realm of the God-Fiend Body Refinement!

Although Xie Boen, the man he possessed, was only at the seventh realm of body refinement, Leng Tianfeng relied on his own realm, which far exceeded the physical limits of the body, to forcibly activate a technique similar to Life Force Field. Using methods related to his life-bound star, he leveraged the force of heaven and earth to manifest a power no less formidable than a Heaven-and-Earth Domain, thrusting a punch down toward the oncoming Yaoguang.[1]

As this punch was unleashed, it felt less like a simple fist jin and more like the crushing weight of the world itself or the pressure of a star. The mere force contained within the strike was powerful enough to drive one to despair.

Even Xie Yushu, a unified martial paragon, felt his breath stall and his heart struggle to beat when faced with that fist jin. His psychic mind was completely submerged in the force of the strike; in a daze, he seemed to see a star hundreds of kilometers wide tearing through the atmosphere, wreathed in raging flames, falling toward them with a pressure that could destroy heaven and earth. It felt like the end of the world.

"No!" A shrill, terrified cry suddenly rang out, jolting Xie Yushu awake.

Coming to his senses, he realized with horror that his psychic mind had been completely suppressed by Leng Tianfeng's fist force just moments ago. He had been standing there stiffly like an ordinary person paralyzed by an inescapable terror, closing his eyes to await death.

In other words, if he had faced Leng Tianfeng's punch directly, he would have had no power to resist!

If he, a unified martial paragon, was reduced to this, what about Su Yaoguang, who was also a unified martial paragon and had not yet fully formed a heavenly being's body?

In his alarm, he jerked his gaze forward. In the next instant, he heard a dull thud that seemed to pierce his brain. This sound carried a physical force that made his head ache and blurred his vision. Before he could determine the source of the pain, a visible wave of air exploded from the center of the collision between Su Yaoguang and Leng Tianfeng.

It was as if a 155mm heavy artillery shell had detonated in the void. The jin generated by the shockwave swept out in all directions, crushing the leaves and soil on the ground into fine powder. Vegetation and branches within a radius of dozens of meters were torn to shreds by the exploding waves.

Two large trees nearby, each as thick as a man's embrace, were snapped on the spot as if struck and sliced by a colossal force, their wood chips flying dozens of meters away.

Only then did Xie Yushu realize why he felt that splitting headache. It was caused by the sound waves of the colliding fist jin, which exceeded the frequency the human ear could capture, impacting his eardrums and shaking his brain. He felt a coldness inside his ears; as he suspected, blood was already seeping out.

The mere aftershocks had inflicted such damage on him, a unified martial paragon?

Xie Yushu's heart trembled. "Such power..."

Amidst the exploding dust and chaos, two figures flew backward simultaneously.

But surprisingly, the one who flew further was not Su Yaoguang, who was only a unified martial paragon, but Leng Tianfeng, who had possessed the body of a heavenly being.

The possessed heavenly being wore a grave expression. He's evolving too fast! This descended being is evolving at an incredible speed. Since he has already broken through the first major realm of cultivation, my advantage has vanished.

Damn it! When I possessed this old man, his resistance was too fierce, and those undeveloped natives gave me no time to breathe. I still haven't fully refined this body. Otherwise, that single strike would have heavily injured him! Leng Tianfeng's thoughts raced, though he showed nothing on the surface.

"Gene liberation technology!" His tactics shifted instantly, abandoning the head-on clash for a hit-and-run, skirmishing approach. "How long can your host maintain this state? In a few minutes at most, you will become a defenseless corpse under my fists!"

"Didn't you say you wanted me to please you with all that I have? Is this all you've got!?" Yaoguang's Thunderclap Sword transformed into a streak of lightning, stabbing out repeatedly. Each thrust was bolstered by bursts of augmented qi; even thick refined steel would be cleaved in two by this divine sword.

"Come on!" he roared, the sword force entirely enveloping the surroundings. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Leng Tianfeng's face darkened, and he continued retreating swiftly. He chose to avoid a direct confrontation with the sword force. He sneered. "The winner takes all! Tactics don't matter; what matters is who wins in the end."

"Aren't you quite confident? Can you really guarantee you'll be the final victor? Don't forget, a few months ago, I had to give my all just to fight one of your martial-paragon-tier incarnations. Now, even though you have a heavenly being host, you don't even dare to face me head-on!" Yaoguang said.

Yaoguang completely fused the Great Earth Furnace with Stars' Child. As his Life Force Field shifted, the entire force of the earth was added to his body. "So, if you cannot kill me today and let me walk away, giving me more time... Once I become a star lord..."

In the perception of everyone present, it felt as if a towering mountain had risen from the ground. Carrying the terrifying pressure of a landslide, that weight was funneled entirely into Yaoguang's sword as he swung down at the true leader of the Rebirth Society.

"At that time, what will you be to me?!" With a thunderous shout, Yaoguang's sword force and battle will reached a new pinnacle. The descending pressure completely engulfed Leng Tianfeng.

1. Life-bound star is a concept derived from traditional Chinese astrology and Daoism. It is believed that every living being is born under a specific star that governs their fate. In some novels, it is internalized, becoming something that the cultivator forms in their sea of consciousness. ☜