Not bad, you can survive one blow from me.

Space was trembling.

This was not a figure of speech.

It was a wail in the physical sense.

With that pitch-black altar at its center, the sea of blood stretching for hundreds of miles churned like boiling oil.

Ning Shuangyue hovered above the blood sea.

Ever since the man had appeared, she had long since lost her former bearing.

Her azure sword robes had been stained black by the foul blood surging from the altar, while strange, dark-golden patterns surfaced across her skin.

The patterns writhed like living creatures, forcibly elevating her aura to a level that even the heavens and earth themselves rejected.

A false immortal.

“Since you look down on the mire of this earth…”

Ning Shuangyue’s voice had become layered, as if countless vengeful spirits were speaking through her mouth.

She slowly raised both hands, her fingers hooked like claws, and violently tore at the void.

“Then I’ll drag you down here and let you taste what this mire is like!”

Boom!

The blood sea below exploded.

There was no probing attack. Her first move was already a killing blow.

Nine blood-red rivers, each a hundred zhang thick, surged toward the young man in midair like berserk dragons thrusting their heads out from the depths of hell, carrying a nauseating, bloody wind as they roared.

Wherever the blood rivers passed, the brilliant starlight within the Starsea Illusion instantly dimmed. Space corroded into blackened scars, emitting a sizzling sound.

Faced with an attack terrifying enough to annihilate the souls of every cultivator present, the azure-robed young man did not even raise his eyelids.

He simply stood there, calmly tapping the folding fan in his hand against his palm, a faint and almost contemptuous smile curling at the corners of his lips.

Then he raised his right hand and casually pressed it downward toward the nine blood dragons rushing at him.

“Kneel.”

His words became law.

In that instant, heaven and earth seemed to turn upside down.

A vast pressure beyond the power of words descended from the heavens without warning.

It was not an accumulation of spiritual energy. It was more akin to the suppression of laws from a higher dimension.

It was the submission of a commoner before an emperor—the instinctive obedience etched into one’s very bones.

“Roar—!!”

The nine blood dragons let out unwilling cries. Less than ten zhang from the young man, they came to an abrupt halt.

Then—

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Amid a succession of deafening explosions, the nine arrogant blood dragons shattered in an instant, transforming into a rain of blood that fell back onto the altar below.

Ning Shuangyue’s body trembled violently, and a thread of black blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

“So this is what it feels like…”

She stared fixedly at that spotless figure. The madness in her eyes did not fade; instead, it burned even more fiercely.

“This is the capital you immortals possess from your lofty position…”

“The power controlled by immortals… has already transcended the very foundation of spiritual energy. Ordinary cultivators simply exist on an entirely different level.”

Her gaze suddenly shifted to Su Ji.

“Take that Core Formation ant, for example. How inconspicuous he is among everyone here.”

“But if he were granted immortal status, he could easily slaughter every person present.”

“This difference in essence… truly cannot be bridged by a little cultivation or a great deal of effort…”

The young man shook his head. He could not even be bothered to look at Ning Shuangyue. Instead, he raised his head toward the false starry sky above, obscured by the blood mist.

“Why persist in your delusion…”

“You’re attached to appearances.”

The young man sighed, seemingly bored by a battle whose outcome was beyond doubt.

He slowly extended a finger. A point of pure white light shone at its tip.

At first, the light was faint, no brighter than a firefly.

Yet the moment it appeared, the bloody stench filling the entire Starsea Illusion began to melt away like snow beneath the blazing sun.

“Heaven’s Punishment: Starfall.”

The young man spoke softly.

Rumble—

The blood mist overhead was violently torn apart by a savage force.

A colossal meteor wreathed in pale flames tore through the barriers of space and plummeted toward the altar below, dragging a long tail of fire and carrying with it the will to destroy all things!

This was no ordinary meteor.

It was a solid mass formed from highly compressed spiritual energy, with a trace of true immortal law attached to it.

Before it even touched the ground, its terrifying pressure had already crushed a vast depression into the blood sea below. The defensive formations surrounding the altar, constructed from black bones, shattered layer by layer like paper.

“Ahhhhhh—!!”

On the isolated reef island in the distance, countless cultivators clutched their heads and screamed.

Even from far away, even though they were not the attack’s targets, that suffocating pressure still made their souls feel as if they were being torn apart.

“…So this is the power of a True Immortal…”

Elder Mo Yun collapsed to the ground, his face ashen.

Before this force, so-called Void Refinement experts like them were as insignificant as ants caught in a storm.

However—

Just as the meteor was about to crush the altar and Ning Shuangyue into dust—

“I refuse to accept this!!”

A shrill roar rang out across heaven and earth.

Ning Shuangyue bit through the tip of her tongue and sprayed a mouthful of natal blood onto the altar beneath her.

“With my body as the offering, let my soul return to the Netherworld!”

“Rise!!”

Hum—

The pitch-black altar seemed to come alive.

Countless thick black spikes of bone burst from within it, instantly piercing Ning Shuangyue’s limbs and vital points, nailing her entire body firmly to the altar.

Immediately afterward, boundless blood energy poured into her body.

Her body began to swell and mutate.

Her originally exquisite features rapidly twisted. Her skin split apart, revealing the bright-red muscle fibers beneath. Her back was torn open, and four hideous arms burst from it.

In the blink of an eye—

A hundred-zhang-tall asura giant, its entire body flowing with poisonous blood, stood between heaven and earth!

It raised its savage head toward the meteor descending from the sky and let out a roar that shook the heavens.

Then it swung all six of its arms. In each hand, it condensed a blood-red greatsword formed from resentment. Without dodging or retreating, it slashed at the meteor with an attitude of utter resolve!

“Shatter… for me!!”

Boom—!!!

At the instant the two collided, the world fell briefly deaf.

All sound was swallowed.

All light was distorted.

Then—

A visible white shock wave swept outward from the point of impact!

“Get down!”

In the distance, Su Ji pressed down on Wang Ping, who had been poking his head out in an attempt to observe the methods of immortals. At the same time, he pulled Su Jiu behind him, and a dark-red barrier of light rose around his body.

Boom!

The shock wave swept across the area.

The entire region was like a sandcastle battered by the sea.

In an instant, half of it was shaved away.

Countless cultivators who failed to evade in time were directly blasted into clouds of blood mist.

The seawater evaporated, exposing a cracked and parched seabed.

The very space of the Starsea Illusion groaned under the impact, emitting a series of strained cracking sounds. Enormous spatial rifts spread through the air.

When the smoke finally cleared—

The place where the altar had stood had become a bottomless pit.

The sea in this region had simply been blasted away, leaving behind a vacuum stretching for dozens of miles.

It was not that the power of a True Immortal was limited to this.

Rather, despite the young man’s outward contempt, he had been forced to devote every ounce of his attention to the battle.

A true killing move had to concentrate its power at a single point. There was no need for flashy displays that only diminished its might.

This vacuum zone, stretching for dozens of miles, was merely the result of the shockwaves from the collision of their powers.

The fact that the seawater could not advance even an inch said everything.

As for the hundred-zhang-tall asura giant, only half of its body remained.

Four of its six arms had been severed. Of the two left, the bones of its left arm were exposed, while the right was still more or less intact—but the blood sword it had held had long since shattered.

The young man in green still hovered in midair.

He had merely been forced half a step backward from where he stood before.

At some point, the folding fan in his hand had opened and was now held before him.

A faint scorch mark marred its surface.

“To withstand one of my attacks and survive… not bad.”

The young man closed the fan and looked at the monster below, still clinging to life. For the first time, a trace of surprise appeared in his eyes.

“I’ve already touched the threshold of the Immortal King realm…”

“If another immortal had come here, you might truly have gotten your wish.”

“However…”

His tone shifted, and his gaze turned cold once more.

“This is where it ends.”

He slowly raised his hand. In his palm, a small sword materialized, crystalline from hilt to tip and forged entirely from lightning.

The instant the sword appeared, the surrounding space shattered. Countless tiny black lightning serpents coiled around its blade, radiating a heart-stopping aura of destruction.

“Nine Heavens: Tribulation Lightning Sword.”

The young man spoke in a low voice.

This was the true killing move.

Below, Ning Shuangyue’s enormous asura form was rapidly collapsing.