"Come! Come! Come! Come! Come!"
"Huff… huff… huff… huff…"
Zhao Xuan stood up from atop the small mountain of Life Stones, his face flushed red.
Anticipation.
Ecstasy.
Excitement.
…all of it flooded his heart at once.
He could no longer wait to fight the enemy outside the relic.
No—
More precisely—
He could no longer wait to witness just how strong he had become.
"Still, I can't fight inside here. This is only a small relic space. At most, it can withstand battles at around Seventh-Rank Peak. Anything higher, and it could easily be torn apart."
Zhao Xuan muttered as he looked at the Life Stones covering the ground.
To Zhao Xuan, a relic space the size of a villa was nothing.
He had killed sixty to seventy elite geniuses inside Life City.
Every one of them carried a relic heart.
Inside his desert relic space, there was now a huge pile of relic hearts of all sizes.
The only reason he did not want to fight here was because of the Life Stones.
He had only re-tempered five times.
That meant—
He still had enough Life Energy left to re-temper four more times.
Each re-tempering required 7,000 billion worth of Life Energy.
That meant—
There were still nearly 30,000 billion worth of Life Stones inside this relic.
If the relic shattered in battle, all of that would be lost.
That was absolutely unacceptable.
Without hesitation—
"Step—!"
His figure blurred.
In the blink of an eye, he vanished from the relic, slipping through the entrance crack and reappearing on the deserted island outside.
And—
He ran straight into the Ninth-Rank Emperor from Life Island.
Because of inertia, Zhao Xuan continued dashing forward for some distance.
To the Ninth-Rank's eyes—
Zhao Xuan was clearly trying to escape.
"Run!?"
A cruel sneer appeared on his face.
"You think you can run in front of me? Zhao Xuan, do you really believe you can escape?"
With a roar—
He shot forward in pursuit.
"Run? Who told you I'm running? I'm just putting some distance between us and the relic entrance so it doesn't get caught up in the fight. Hmm… this distance should be enough."
The moment that thought finished—
"ROOOOAAARRRRRRRR!!!"
A roar like something from the primordial ages tore through the sky.
The heavens trembled.
The bright sky dimmed instantly.
The world lost its color.
Dark clouds gathered.
"Woooo—!"
"Woooo—!"
As violent winds howled—
Zhao Xuan had already entered his Dragon-Man Form.
With tenfold amplification—
His physique instantly broke past 150,000!
164,340!
At that instant—
A chilling sense of dread enveloped the Ninth-Rank Emperor chasing from behind.
"Not good!!!"
His face changed drastically.
The arrogance and disdain vanished.
Replaced by pallor and alarm.
Armament Haki and Iron Body activated instantly.
But—
Under the tenfold boost of Dragon-Man Form—
Zhao Xuan had already thrown his strongest punch.
Thunder Bagua · Iron Fist!
"BOOOOOOM—!"
Thunder roared across the sky.
In the next instant—
Zhao Xuan's fist slammed violently into the Ninth-Rank's crossed arms guarding his chest.
Dong!
The dignified Ninth-Rank Emperor was sent flying like a cannonball.
He smashed straight into the small mountain at the center of the island.
"BOOOOOM!!!"
The earth shook.
The entire island trembled violently.
No—
Not just the island.
In this terrifying collision—
Even the ocean within a hundred-mile radius was thrown into chaos.
"Crash! Crash!"
The sea churned like boiling water.
Waves dozens of meters high shot into the sky.
"Rumble—!"
"Rumble—!"
"Rumble—!"
The power contained in Zhao Xuan's punch was simply too terrifying.
So terrifying—
That even space itself was disturbed.
Ripples of spatial distortion spread outward in all directions.
Utterly horrifying.
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