A manic laughter reverberated across the sky, shaking the heavens with unrestrained madness.
Waves of suffocating pressure warped the air itself as Shuhu's aura surged to an unprecedented peak. The countless chaotic blessings that Kanzaki had plundered through the Self-Actualization Aspect Method—after being harmonized and refined by the power of the Ambrosial Arbor—were now perfectly absorbed and assimilated by Shuhu.
In that instant, an ultimate monster was born: a being that fused the strengths of tens of thousands of Abominations, wielding both the regenerative might of the Ambrosial Arbor and the authority of an Emanator.
"Fire! Full power—fire!"
The Zhuming support fleet had only just arrived alongside the Luofu forces. Witnessing the scene, the commander roared until his voice cracked.
Jing Yuan issued his own orders, silently praying in his heart for his Master to arrive faster. They had departed ahead of Jingliu, yet the current battle still lacked the raw combat strength needed to withstand frontal pressure. A direct assault by the warship formation against Shuhu would be far too dangerous.
Hundreds of starskiffs and warships pivoted their cannons in unison. The divine fire of Zhuming—said to be capable of incinerating stars—erupted outward and engulfed Shuhu in an instant.
What followed plunged every Cloud Knight into an icy abyss.
The overwhelming flames swallowed Shuhu whole, yet he simply spread his arms and allowed them to burn. Flesh charred, carbonized, and peeled away in great sheets. Before the ashes could even scatter, new flesh and sinew had already begun to knit together, regenerating at a speed that defied the naked eye. To the onlookers, the Zhuming divine fire seemed utterly ineffective—nothing more than a dramatic backdrop for Shuhu to display his terrifying vitality.
"Damn it! Even the Zhuming flames are useless?"
"Use everything! Concentrate fire!"
Countless high-explosive missiles, disintegration beams, and annihilation rays—each carrying world-ending power—smashed into Shuhu in a relentless barrage. Flames roared skyward. Smoke blotted out the sun.
Shuhu's eyes gleamed with endless mockery.
His arms transformed into thousands of writhing branches that lashed out violently. Most of the nimble starskiffs weaving through the upper atmosphere had no chance to evade. A single strike reduced ninety percent of the warships to fireballs that plummeted from the sky. The survivors were seized by the branches and hurled toward the ground like discarded refuse.
"Bai Heng!"
Seeing her starskiff crash, Yingxing's eyes turned bloodshot. He immediately rushed to her side—only to find her legs completely severed and her left arm missing.
Screams echoed across the battlefield. Countless Cloud Knights lost their lives in that single assault.
"Why are there still short-life species here? How pitiful. Allow me to grant you eternal life."
Several branches burst from the earth and coiled around Yingxing. Their sharp thorns pierced his body, injecting Abundance's power. Teng Xiao's expression changed drastically.
"Stop!!"
Teng Xiao forced every last ounce of strength from his body, even overdrawing his organs to their absolute limit, and merged it with the power of The Hunt. Behind him, the golden Divine General manifested once more—more solid and imposing than ever before.
"Slash!!"
The Divine General's blade descended with world-splitting might, cleaving directly onto Shuhu's head.
Boom!
The earth itself was torn apart. Countless bottomless fissures, thousands of meters wide, ripped open across the battlefield. The planet's core was severed; crimson magma surged upward like a torrent, rapidly filling the cracks and spreading outward in a blazing tide.
At the center of the devastation, the smoke and dust slowly cleared—yet Shuhu's figure had vanished. Only rolling magma remained, devouring the broken land.
"Hoo… hoo…"
The Divine General's colossal form dissolved into golden motes of light. Teng Xiao dropped to one knee in mid-air, gasping for breath.
The surviving Cloud Knights hovered in stunned silence, staring down at the apocalyptic scene below.
"Is it dead?"
"Probably… right?"
If Lord Tianfeng had not raised a wind curtain at the final moment to shield the survivors from the crashed warships, no one on the ground would have lived.
"General's strike… it was like he split the planet in half."
"Even that monster couldn't possibly survive a direct hit like that… could it?"
Everyone scanned the magma sea nervously from the safety of the wind curtain.
Suddenly, the molten surface began to boil violently.
"Watch out!!"
Lord Tianfeng's warning came too late.
Thick roots—ignoring the thousands of degrees of heat—exploded from the magma and shot skyward, instantly entangling dozens of Cloud Knights. Their skin shriveled and wrinkled at a visible rate. Black hair turned snow-white in moments. Many aged into dying elders before being dragged into Shuhu's body and disappearing.
Teng Xiao spat blood, his organs feeling as though they had shattered, and forced out one final sword strike. Sword qi flashed like a rainbow, severing the roots.
But the next instant, more roots erupted from the magma. In the center of the molten sea, Shuhu's intact body slowly rose. He bathed in the magma, his aura not merely undiminished—it had grown even more terrifying.
"How is this possible…"
Teng Xiao's vision darkened. Completely spent, his body swayed precariously.
At that moment, a figure wreathed in flames plummeted like a meteor and crashed down directly in front of Shuhu.
"Yo. Even Zhuming's General made it in time?"
The newcomer gripped a giant flaming hammer. His small frame rapidly swelled, muscles bulging, hair and beard bristling with power.
"General Huaiyan… if you had arrived even a moment later…"
"Lord Tianfeng, take everyone back!" Huaiyan ignored Shuhu entirely. An Emanator-level battle erupted once more.
The aftershocks alone would be lethal to ordinary Cloud Knights. Lord Tianfeng did not hesitate. He immediately evacuated the survivors to a safer perimeter before rejoining the fight himself.
Several streams of light streaked across the sky. The Sword Champion of the Xianzhou, the Zhuming, and the main reinforcements from the other ships had finally arrived.
"Support General Huaiyan!" Jing Yuan ordered calmly.
Dan Feng charged straight into the fray.
Faced with the encirclement, Shuhu remained as leisurely as a cat toying with mice.
"Boring. Before that woman Fu Hua arrives, let me give you all a little gift first."
Shuhu seemed to have grown tired of the game. With a strange laugh, the branches around his body rapidly expanded in scale and hardness. He swatted the unprepared Huaiyan deep into space with a single blow.
Clang, clang, clang—
Dan Feng's spear struck the branches, producing only showers of sparks. He could not even scratch the surface.
"What?!"
Before Dan Feng could react, the branches tore through his protective water armor and coiled around him like pythons. Not only him—every fighter except General Huaiyan was swiftly bound.
"True eternal life and immortality—I bestow it upon you!"
Shuhu's chest split open, revealing a gaping maw lined with razor-sharp teeth. A terrifying suction erupted, dragging the trapped warriors toward that monstrous mouth.
Just as Lord Tianfeng, Dan Feng, and the others were about to be devoured, a sliver of desolate moonlight bathed the battlefield.
The moment the wildly writhing branches touched that moonlight, they froze solid. Thick ice spread rapidly along the roots, encasing Shuhu's giant maw as well.
Countless crescent-moon sword qi rained down from above. Wherever the blade light passed, the impossibly hard branches—strong enough to withstand even Dan Feng—shattered inch by inch.
Everyone felt their restraints loosen and quickly retreated.
Shuhu shattered the ice coating his body and lifted his gaze toward the sky.
Jingliu hovered there, her long sword wreathed in frost. Her expression was… wrong. Her eyes were locked on Shuhu, yet they remained unfocused, devoid of light.
The entire world in her vision had lost all color, reduced to a gray, dead silence. Only this monster stood out—painted in vivid crimson by the aura that clung to him.
That aura… the one she had chased for a thousand years, etched into her very bones.
It was Master's aura.