All of you... come at me together.

The sky above looked as if it had been viciously slashed open by a knife.

Fierce winds swept up the yellow sand that filled the air, howling as they rushed toward the firmament.

The figures of Liu Kuanglan and that scruffy old Daoist could no longer be seen clearly. Only the teeth-setting, muffled rumbles of thunder echoing from deep within the clouds could be heard.

With every explosive boom, the ground of the Great Desolate trembled violently. Countless shattered stones floated up, defying gravity, only to be crushed into fine powder by the invisible shockwaves.

Because the two had truly unleashed their fiery wrath, the battlefield had to shift to a higher and more distant place.

After all, they still needed to be mindful of the rules and constraints set by the current Great Emperor.

As long as innocent bystanders were not caught in the crossfire, the current Great Emperor probably wouldn't be so idle as to insist on intervening in this matter.

After all, that person was also getting old...

Su Ji watched those two fading streaks of light and sighed.

Wiping away the blood crusts blurring his vision, he cast his gaze a short distance ahead.

There, a lump of charred, mangled flesh was squirming.

"That old geezer is as cunning as a demon. He knows that as long as Liu Kuanglan is here, he can't make a move on me. He was also afraid that when I tortured Zhao Teng, Zhao Teng's dog-like shrieks would distract him, so he simply dragged the battlefield away."

Su Ji grinned, but the movement tugged at the wounds on his face, causing him to hiss in pain.

"He's certain that even though his precious disciple is crippled, I am also at the end of my rope."

"As long as I don't have Liu Kuanglan's protection, there are plenty of people in this Great Desolate who can take my life."

Before his voice even faded.

Around the originally dead-silent mining area, over a dozen mottled spiritual lights suddenly flared up.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The sounds of objects piercing the air rang out in succession.

Over a dozen figures emerged from the shadows in all directions, forming a fan shape that completely surrounded the area where Su Ji and Zhao Teng were located.

After all...

This was ultimately the Zhao family's territory...

Seeing that the old Daoist had pulled the battle away...

In his despair, Zhao Teng could only treat a dead horse as a living one and try anything.

Although he was afraid of people seeing him in this miserable state...

He was even more afraid of dying at Su Ji's hands...

Choosing the lesser of two evils.

Among these people, there were head overseers like Zhao Tianyang, minor overseers like Zhang Kui, and even a few mining slaves who had clearly long since become lapdogs for the Zhao family.

And leading them right at the front was surprisingly an old face that Su Ji was incredibly familiar with.

Old Ghost Li.

That gray-robed middle-aged man who had worn an impatient expression on the reception platform and casually banished him here to mine.

At this moment, this reception envoy, who was usually so aloof and high-and-mighty, was staring with wide eyes. He looked at Su Ji with an expression as if he had seen a ghost, and then glanced at the twitching lump of charred coal in the distance.

"Su... Su Hao?"

Old Ghost Li's voice was trembling.

He never expected that the Golden Core mining slave he could mold like clay a month ago would actually pierce a hole in the sky of the Great Desolate today.

What made his scalp tingle even more was...

That monster lying on the ground, missing arms and legs, charred as black as coal...

That aura... why was it so similar to the usually arrogant Young Master Zhao?

"What are you looking at!"

A hoarse, ugly roar came from that lump of charred flesh.

Zhao Teng's sole remaining eye was filled with venomous resentment and madness.

He struggled to get up, but having lost three of his limbs, he could only wriggle on the ground like a maggot.

"What are you all standing around for?!"

"Kill him! Kill him for me!!"

Zhao Teng's voice sounded like two rusty pieces of iron scraping against each other, incredibly grating to the ears.

"I am Zhao Teng! I am a core disciple of Emperor Court Mountain!"

"I hereby swear a Dao Heart oath, whoever kills this bug for me..."

"I guarantee his entry to cultivate at Emperor Court Mountain! I will reward him with a million spirit stones! I will bestow upon him a high-grade cultivation technique!"

"Although this bug beat me by half a move through a sneak attack, he is already crippled too! He can't even stand steady! Whoever kills him is a benefactor to my Zhao family!!"

"A Dao Heart oath cannot be faked! Kill him and you will be rewarded!"

Under a heavy reward, there are bound to be brave men.

The crowd, who were originally somewhat wary of Su Ji, instantly began breathing heavily upon hearing words like Emperor Court Mountain and high-grade cultivation technique.

Greed instantly overwhelmed fear.

Especially Old Ghost Li.

Having stayed in the Great Desolate for so many years, he had long had enough of this godforsaken hellhole.

If he could climb the high branch of Emperor Court Mountain...

Old Ghost Li's eyes changed.

He stared fixedly at Su Ji, his gaze sweeping over Su Ji's still-bleeding chest and slightly trembling legs.

He really was at the end of his rope.

It was clearly an outburst that had overdrawn his life potential.

"Wealth and honor are found in danger..."

Old Ghost Li licked his chapped lips.

He took a step forward, and the nearly one hundred cultivators behind him also summoned their magical treasures one after another. Spiritual lights flickered, brimming with murderous intent.

"If you want to blame someone, blame your own bad luck for insisting on offending Young Master Zhao."

"When you reincarnate in your next life, remember to keep your eyes peeled..."

"Pfft."

A light chuckle interrupted Old Ghost Li's ruthless words.

Su Ji leaned on his spear, his laughter pulling at his wounds, causing more blood to trickle down the corner of his mouth.

"Are you really in such a hurry to show filial piety to your master?"

Being mocked like this by a dying man, Old Ghost Li's face instantly couldn't hold its composure.

He roared in anger and waved his large hand. "Everyone attack together! This kid is bluffing! Chop him into minced meat and go claim the reward from Young Master Zhao!"

"Kill!!"

Five or six figures suddenly sprang up simultaneously.

Spells of various colors shone like brilliant fireworks, carrying deadly killing intent as they blasted down toward Su Ji, covering the sky and the earth.

These methods, which Su Ji would usually consider unrefined, converged together at this moment to form a torrent of destruction that could not be underestimated.

After all, enough ants can bite an elephant to death.

Not to mention that the current Su Ji couldn't even be considered an elephant.

However.

Facing this certain-kill encirclement.

He merely made an extremely simple movement.

He released his left hand that was tightly gripping the spear shaft.

That hand was already a bloody mess, with the finger bones exposed, trembling violently.

But Su Ji didn't hesitate in the slightest, passing that incomparably heavy Fallen Dragon Spear into his right hand.

Buzz—

The very instant his right hand gripped the spear shaft.

The previously dim and lusterless spear body seemed to be injected with a new soul, shuddering violently.

An incredibly enchanting, bright red light snaked its way up the spear shaft.

The next moment.

Su Ji's knees sank slightly.

Boom!

A muffled explosive boom rang out.

The ground beneath his feet instantly exploded, sending a pillar of sand and dust shooting into the sky.

Under the astonished gazes of everyone.

The figure that was supposed to be blasted into fragments in the next second had actually vanished into thin air!

No!

He hadn't vanished!

Old Ghost Li abruptly looked up, his pupils shrinking to the size of pinpricks.

He saw that in mid-air.

Su Ji's figure was hovering there, defying all logic.

He wasn't riding a sword, nor was he relying on any flying magical treasures.

He just stood quietly in the void, as if stepping on invisible stairs beneath his feet.

Completely ignoring the bindings of gravity.

"What... what kind of movement technique is this?!"

Old Ghost Li cried out in alarm.

But soon, he couldn't make a sound anymore.

Because an aura so terrifying that it made his very soul tremble was frantically surging out from the bloody figure above!

Centered around that Fallen Dragon Spear.

The surrounding air began to twist bizarrely.

Like air baked by extreme heat, the light became grotesque and distorted at this moment.

"Buzzzzz—!!!"

The Fallen Dragon Spear trembled violently, letting out a sharp, ear-piercing hum. The sound was like the roar of some demonic beast, drilling straight into one's brain.

The berserk spiritual energy, exchanged at the cost of shattering his Golden Core, went completely out of control at this moment.

It no longer flowed tamely through his meridians, but transformed into leaping scarlet flames, erupting from every pore of Su Ji's body.

Crackle!

The air was scorched, emitting crisp sounds like popping beans.

Behind Su Ji.

The sky, originally obscured by smoke and dust, had at some point turned a shocking, dark crimson.

It was a color dyed by blood.

And the despair of descending dusk.

The dyed clouds began to surge, gather, and twist madly.

Ultimately, behind Su Ji, they formed a massive, inverted crimson throne!

The throne was made of rolling blood clouds—towering, ferocious, and exuding a suffocating, sovereign coercion.

And Su Ji stood right before that throne.

His tattered, blood-soaked clothes fluttered wildly in the fierce wind as his scarlet eyes looked down at the crowd below.

He looked just like a blood-bathed Asura Demon God.

"Gulp."

Someone, it was unknown who, swallowed hard.

In this deathly silent atmosphere, the sound was exceptionally clear.

The cultivators who had just been clamoring to chop Su Ji to pieces were now like ducks grabbed by the neck, their mouths wide open but unable to make a single sound.

The magical treasures in their hands were trembling.

An instinctual fear made them want to flee, to get far away from this monster.

"Is... is this really the Golden Core stage?"

Old Ghost Li's voice carried the final doubt of his life.

He regretted it.

He shouldn't have been greedy for that little bit of reward.

How was this someone at the end of their rope?

In midair.

Su Ji slowly raised his free left hand.

His movements were very slow, as if inviting an old friend to a banquet.

He gently curled his index finger toward the terrified, motley crew below.

The corners of his mouth curled into an arrogant arc.

"Come."

"All of you... come at me together."

The moment his voice fell.

The long spear in Su Ji's hand swung down violently!

Rumble—!!!

Countless streams of scarlet light, like a falling meteor shower, crashed toward the ground with an aura that could destroy everything!

That light was even more blazing than the midday sun.

This was the bloom of Su Ji burning away everything he had...

His final fireworks.

"No!!!"

Old Ghost Li let out a scream of despair, turning around to run.

But, it was too late.

The meteors crashed to the earth, and all things burned.

In an instant, it transformed into a crimson lotus hell.

...