What now You should end yourself.

Before the dust could even settle, a scalding heat wave was already licking at the skin.

Although that terrifying pillar of light had dissipated, the scars it left behind were shocking to behold.

The hard rock face had been forcibly plowed into a scorched trench dozens of meters wide.

The rocks at the edges had taken on a semi-molten, glass-like appearance, dripping with dark red magma.

Zhao Teng slowly straightened his back.

His luxurious golden robe, a symbol of his status and position, had long lost its original splendor. The hem had been burned away, its edges scorched and curled.

Most importantly, his hairpiece had come undone.

His meticulously groomed long hair now cascaded wildly over his shoulders, with a few strands burnt, emitting a foul, charred odor.

Most glaring of all was the layer of dull grey dust smudged across his usually aloof and handsome face.

It was dirt he had picked up while rolling on the ground like a wild dog, a desperate maneuver to dodge that sure-kill strike.

He was in an unprecedented state of dishevelment.

"Good... very good."

Zhao Teng wiped his face with his hand. Looking at the filthy dust on his fingertips, his mouth twitched slightly—an uncontrollable facial spasm brought on by extreme fury.

"To think a mere ant could force this young master to..."

Zhao Teng violently clapped his hands together.

"Ooom—!"

A ripple of golden light instantly exploded outward with him at the center.

Immediately after.

"To force me to get serious."

"You have earned the right to be proud."

Zhao Teng hovered in mid-air.

He looked down upon Su Ji from above, like a deity judging mortal lives.

"Now."

"You can die."

A terrifying oppressive aura instantly locked onto Su Ji.

Should this strike land, let alone Su Ji, the entire bottom of this abyss would likely be leveled to the ground!

Yet, at this exact moment.

"Woooo—"

An incredibly bizarre howling sound echoed from the bottom of the abyss without any warning.

It didn't sound like the wind; rather, it sounded like the agonizing shrieks of countless vengeful spirits and malicious ghosts being thrown into a boiling cauldron.

The sound was faint at first, as if seeping from deep underground, but in the blink of an eye, it became deafening, even drowning out the violent fluctuations of spiritual energy radiating from Zhao Teng.

Deep within the trench, where solid rock should have been, fine cracks began to split open.

Visible streams of crimson currents were frantically spewing out from those fissures.

Boom—!!!

The scorched trench completely exploded.

A violent crimson gale, like floodwaters bursting a dam, instantly swept across the entire abyss floor with an apocalyptic momentum!

This wind was incredibly eerie.

It lacked the ethereal lightness of wind, instead feeling as heavy as flying mountains.

Mixed within the wind were countless tiny sparks—the result of un-dissipated subterranean baleful aura being compressed to its absolute limit and merging with earth fire.

The moment they touched any object, they would instantly combust!

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"

As the gale passed, all things were incinerated!

The originally cold and damp mining area was transformed in a single instant into a blazing purgatory!

The pale grey rocks rapidly turned red in the wind, then softened, melted, and finally turned into rolling magma that joined the crimson storm. The air was grotesquely distorted by the high temperature, and everywhere the eye could see was a shifting sea of red light.

The fire borrowed the wind's might, and the wind fueled the fire's intensity!

In the blink of an eye, the bottom of the abyss was rendered completely unrecognizable.

Up and down, left and right, in all directions—there was nothing but a churning sea of fire and howling astral winds!

Zhao Teng bore the brunt of it.

The moment his golden protective light came into contact with this crimson gale, it was like butter meeting an open flame, emitting a sizzling sound as it melted away at a visible rate.

Zhao Teng's expression changed slightly. He was forced to abandon his attack and instead channel his spiritual energy entirely into defending against this pervasive, terrifying heat wave.

Yet, right in the center of this destruction.

A figure was slowly walking forward, treading upon the waves of fire.

Su Ji stood amidst the sea of flames.

The terrifying high temperatures around him, capable of melting gold and iron, and the raging tempest of wind and fire that could tear apart the protective spiritual light of an ordinary Divine cultivator, bizarrely became docile when they entered within three feet of his body.

Like stars orbiting the moon, they circled around him, pulsating in rhythm with his breathing.

Su Ji raised his head.

He looked at Zhao Teng through the distorted air.

"Young Master Zhao."

Su Ji's voice seemed somewhat ethereal amidst the howling wind, yet it pierced into Zhao Teng's ears with absolute clarity.

"You just said..."

"You were going to give me a dignified death?"

Su Ji took a step forward.

"And what about now?"

"Kill yourself."

"I will give you a dignified death."

Boom!

Following his movement, the sky-filling sea of fire around him seemed to receive some sort of summons, violently surging upward and transforming into a ferocious flaming behemoth that bared its fangs and brandished its claws behind him.

His originally tattered robes flapped wildly in the glow of the fire, as if he had donned a layer of crimson battle armor.

Dark red spiritual energy and pink streams of light intertwined, forming a massive, distorted force field around him.

Within this force field, Su Ji's shadow was stretched infinitely long.

At this moment, how did he look anything like a Golden Core cultivator driven to a dead end?

He looked like an evil spirit that had crawled out from the depths of hell, returning to the mortal realm draped in karmic hellfire and sin!

Bizarre...

Incomprehensible...

But this absolutely could not be the power of the person standing before him.

However, it was only just that.

Although the momentum was massive, in reality, it was only about fifty percent of his own strength.

It was just that...

Things like this, stepping out of his control...

He disliked them very much.

Zhao Teng forcefully suppressed the inexplicable annoyance rising in his heart.

He attempted to forcibly suppress the surrounding sea of fire.

"You dare show off such insignificant parlor tricks before an expert!?"