Is He Falling Behind the Times

Senior Brother! Senior Brother, how are you?!

Su Jiu's anxious cries were laced with sobs.

Because the Soul-Linked state had not been lifted.

She could feel Su Ji's vitality rapidly draining away. That golden stream of heat was frantically destroying his life force, burning it away bit by bit.

Don't... don't come out...

Su Ji gritted his teeth, using all his remaining strength to reply in his mind.

Trembling, he reached out a blood-stained hand and firmly grasped the long spear pierced through his chest.

He couldn't lose.

He absolutely could not lose here.

If he lost, then truly... everything would be gone.

Get... get up...

A low, beast-like growl rumbled from Su Ji's throat.

Leaning on the spear, his legs trembling, he forced himself up from the ground, inch by agonizing inch.

Blood flowed down the spear shaft, dripping onto the ground, pooling into a shocking puddle of crimson.

He stood there swaying, like a withered blade of grass that could snap at any moment in a howling gale, yet stubbornly keeping his spine straight.

He raised his head.

That face, as pale as paper, was covered in cold sweat and grime.

But those eyes...

Those crimson eyes stared dead at Zhao Teng in the distance.

There was no fear.

Oh?

Zhao Teng had already turned around, preparing to first seek out that Crescent Moon.

Hearing the commotion behind him, he paused his steps and turned his head in slight surprise.

When he saw that Su Ji could actually still stand, a flash of genuine astonishment finally crossed his ancient-well-like, placid eyes.

You can actually still stand?

Zhao Teng turned fully around, observing Su Ji with keen interest.

Although I didn't use my full strength for that spear strike, it was enough to shatter the body of an ordinary Golden Core cultivator. Even if it didn't kill them on the spot, it would scorch their internal organs to ash.

Your physique is a bit sturdier than I imagined.

As he spoke, he stepped toward Su Ji.

One step.

Two steps.

With his approach, an overwhelmingly terrifying pressure descended, blotting out the sky.

That pressure felt like countless massive mountains pressing down on his shoulders simultaneously, making his bones creak and his knees weak, instilling an urge to immediately kneel in submission.

Not just his body.

Even his consciousness grew sluggish under this pressure, as if it had been frozen.

Was this... the ending he saw in Glimpsing Fate?

Su Ji's vision began to blur.

In his mind, that image surfaced once more.

A man in golden robes, with a casual stomp, crushing him into the dust like a mere ant.

A biting chill seeped from the marrow of his bones, instantly sweeping through his entire body.

That was the primal instinct of fear toward death.

And also the despair born from this absolute disparity in power.

So, why aren't you dead yet?

What can sheer willpower possibly change?

Zhao Teng arrived in front of Su Ji, stopping just three steps away.

He looked down at Su Ji from his high vantage point. His handsome face carried a look of genuine perplexity.

Just like how many children would curiously observe a dragonfly struggling after its wings had been torn off.

Clearly... if you just close your eyes, you'd be free.

Why... do you insist on standing?

Zhao Teng slowly raised his hand. Within his palm, a ball of dazzling golden light began to condense.

That was a terrifying energy sufficient to completely erase Su Ji from this world.

If you hadn't killed that old thing from my family,

I would have been willing to give you a chance to serve me.

In your next life, remember to keep your eyes peeled.

The golden light flared brilliantly.

Death descended.

The palm print forged of golden light fell at an unhurried pace, carrying a pressure meant to crush everything.

Zhao Teng couldn't even be bothered to watch the result.

In his eyes, this was nothing more than casually swatting a noisy fly on his journey; it didn't even qualify to make him pause for a moment.

It was over.

Boring.

This kind of suspense-less crushing victory truly couldn't rouse the slightest bit of interest in him.

But it made sense.

Ever since he was old enough to understand, no one in the same cultivation realm had ever been able to defeat him.

Let alone someone from a lower realm.

Right at the moment he turned around.

Whoosh—

An extremely soft sound of rushing air rang out without any warning.

The wind picked up.

The golden palm print, which should have smashed that reckless brat into meat paste, bizarrely halted in mid-air.

It was just three inches above Su Ji's head.

But those three inches became an insurmountable chasm.

No matter how the palm print trembled or how brightly its light erupted, it could not advance even a fraction of an inch!

Hmm?

Zhao Teng abruptly stopped his forward steps.

For the first time, a trace of bewilderment appeared on his face, which had always worn a careless expression.

Blocked?

How is that possible?

True, it was a casual strike, but it was still the bona fide power of a Peak Soul Formation expert. Furthermore, due to the unique cultivation method he practiced, this palm was enough to make an ordinary Peak Soul Formation cultivator drink the waters of death on the spot.

A mere Golden Core...

By what right?

Zhao Teng reflexively turned his head back.

The sight that greeted his eyes made his pupils shrink slightly.

Su Ji was still standing there.

He was leaning on that crimson long spear, but the air around him was distorting.

A wave of azure qi was frantically surging outward with him at the center, fiercely resisting that golden palm print.

It forcefully held that sure-kill palm in mid-air!

Interesting.

Zhao Teng narrowed his eyes, just about to say something.

But in the next second.

An unprecedented chill instantly shot up his tailbone straight to the crown of his head!

That was... the scent of death!

Without any wind-up.

Su Ji went from standing completely still to transforming into a bolt of destructive lightning in less than half an instant.

Buzz—

An extremely faint tremor echoed in the air.

It sounded like the high-frequency buzzing of cicada wings on a summer afternoon.

Immediately after.

The world turned red.

A beam of dark red light burst forth from the spear tip.

It was too fast.

So fast that even sound was left behind, and light and shadow were displaced.

Zhao Teng didn't even have time to think about what kind of technique this was; his body's instinctive reaction made a judgment before his brain could.

Dodge!

Wait?

Why dodge instead of block?

The instant this absurd thought exploded in his mind.

There was no time to think further. He completely abandoned his dignified image and lunged violently to the side, even rolling on the ground.

And it was precisely because of this roll.

Sizzle—!

That dark red beam of light brushed right past his scalp.

A few strands of his black hair vaporized instantly upon contact with the light, leaving not even ash behind.

Right after.

Boom!!!

The dark red beam, originally only as thick as a finger, violently expanded the moment it scraped past Zhao Teng!

Without any warning.

The beam of light was like an ancient ferocious beast breaking free from its shackles, expanding wildly against the wind!

One meter, ten meters, thirty meters...

In the blink of an eye, that beam of light transformed into a terrifying pillar of light tens of meters in diameter!

Absurd, dark red heat roared and surged within it.

Wherever it passed, all was reduced to nothingness.

The incredibly hard rock face of the abyss, which had only lost a few surface layers from Zhao Wuji's full-force strike, was as fragile as paper before this pillar of light.

The rocks melted instantly, turning into boiling magma, before being directly evaporated into gas by the terrifying heat in the very next second.

The pillar of light surged ever forward, obliterating everything in its path.

It did not stop until it slammed into the cliff face on the opposite side, several miles away.

"Rumble—!!!"

Only then did the delayed sound of the explosion violently detonate at the bottom of the abyss.

The entire mining area shook violently. Countless shattered stones plummeted from above, as if the apocalypse had descended.

Billowing smoke and dust rose, accompanied by oppressive waves of heat.

The originally cold and damp bottom of the abyss had now become as scorching as an alchemy furnace.

Standing in the distance watching the spectacle was the Pavilion Master of Tingfeng.

He looked at the gradually dissipating, terrifying pillar of light, and then looked at Su Ji.

For the first time, a solemn expression appeared in those bright eyes.

This strike...

It had already surpassed the realm of the Golden Core stage.

It even... surpassed the realm of the Soul Formation stage.

Was he simply failing to keep up with the times?