Taking on four monster phantoms at once was way beyond what I’d imagined; Lixin’s attack spells came like a hailstorm, stinging my skin like sleet.

Frustration gnawed at me before my feet moved; I could only barely slip past phantom claws and Lixin’s magic, hunting for slivers of openings like a fox through thorns.

I flickered aside from a phantom’s hammer-blow with a whoosh; Sword Aura coiled tight in my grip, then I unleashed Extreme Sword · Flash Strike at its head. There was a tearing hiss, like ripping silk in rain, and when my focus snapped back, the phantom crumpled. Three left.

…Stick to this tempo. Counter, don’t cower.

I steadied my breathing, then slid past another phantom’s strike; irritation burned as the barbed toxic vines thickened again like snakes breeding in the dark—my swords in the Sword Domain could no longer press them down without splitting my focus.

If it’s vine, then it burns. My pulse spiked; while dodging the phantom’s clumsy-quick lunges, I forced fire-aligned Sword Aura to bloom. In a heartbeat, a tens-of-meters blade of blazing heat sheathed Shattered Light’s body like a sunrise over steel.

Netherflow · Rage Flame Slash!

I swept the flaming blade in a wide arc around me. The air sizzled; vines melted to ash like frost under noon sun, and the three phantoms were carved clean in half.

Relief rose like a cool tide—then froze. The six halves slithered together, fusing into a single, larger, heavier—monster. Not a phantom anymore. Flesh and wrongness. A body.

Its presence rolled out like a stormfront, and my mood plunged off a cliff. Above me, a dark-violet magic circle bloomed like poisonous nightshade, and from its heart fell a lethal purple thunderbolt.

The monster’s jaw yawned wide, a blood-colored cavern rushing in. No way forward, no way back—no way out.

No choice. All in… Sword Qi Storm!

I dragged every strand of Sword Aura from the Sword Domain into me, then hurled it outward. A golden tornado roared to life around me, a dragon of wind and edge, spearing sky and earth as it spun.

Boom!

Tornado, purple thunder, and monster smashed together; the blast ripped the ground in a web of fractures, the world shuddering like a harp string plucked too hard.

Cough, cough…

I’d blocked the double strike, but my condition was far worse than I’d planned; injuries bit deep, and my limbs refused to listen, drained like a well gone dry.

One mercy: the monster was gone in the blast, a major headache erased—though Lixin could probably summon another with a lazy flick.

Oh? Done already? How dull.

She said it like a yawn, but her hands were merciless; with a lift of her staff, she forged a Dark Thunder Mana Bomb with peak Divine destructive force and hurled it at me like a pitch-black comet.

It’s over…

That bleak thought formed—then a clear, bell-like voice chimed behind me. Aurora · Sacred Guard!

A half-dome of sacred light swelled in front of me, soft as dawn and hard as diamond; it caught Lixin’s dark thunder, and light and shadow chewed each other to nothing. I only ate a taste of the backlash, stinging but survivable.

Whew—made it!

Panting, Lingxiao pulled out a fruit-shaped elixir and pressed it into my hand. Dear Big Brother, eat this Holy Healing Fruit! Quickly!

Got it.

I swallowed the Holy Healing Fruit in one bite; power rushed back like spring flooding a dry riverbed. Saved. Lucky that Lingxiao and Lingsaki had brought a stash of Supreme Divine Spirit Medicine when they left the Central Continent.

Dear Big Brother, let me fight at your side! That woman is too dangerous! Lingxiao’s voice was earnest, steady as a temple bell.

Are Lingsaki and Lixue okay? Fourteen Divine-ranked powerhouses aren’t any easier than Lixin.

Uh…

Lingxiao faltered, words snagging like a sleeve on a nail.

Leave Lixin to me. If you and Lingsaki split up, Dual Daynight Tomes lose bite, and the pressure over there spikes. Not worth it.

I ruffled Lingxiao’s hair, trying to soothe the tremor in her shoulders. As for Lixin—Lingxiao had just caged her with Holy Prison Cage. Lixin worked at it like a cat in a net, slow but inevitable.

…Then be careful, Dear Big Brother.

After a heartbeat’s weighing, she obeyed and handed me a spatial ring stuffed with twenty or thirty Holy Healing Fruits.

So many? Won’t you two be short?

It’s fine. They taste good, so we picked plenty before we left home. Lingsaki’s spatial pouch still has fifty, sixty left.

Good. Go—Lixin’s about to break free.

Mm!

Lingxiao vanished in an instant, teleporting back to the other front as a star flickers from one horizon to the next.

My fingers tightened around the spatial ring; confidence rose like a tide at full moon. In raw strength, I might fall short of Lixin—but in consumables like Supreme Divine Spirit Medicine, she couldn’t outlast me.

The fight resumed.

…

Thanks to the Holy Healing Fruits, I stopped counting costs. I let my blade run, pouring out powerful sword arts without restraint, flipping the earlier disadvantage like a table in a storm.

The way you chomp precious Supreme Divine Spirit Medicine like everyday fruit makes me burn. Ah, so annoying!

Was it my imagination? Lixin’s voice dripped jealousy like poison honey. She raised her staff high; her aura erupted, multiplying several times over like volcanoes waking.

Descend! Thunder Dragon Beast!

Clouds rolled in layers thick with lightning, smothering the sky like bruised surf. Within that thunderbank, a titan’s outline drew itself together stroke by stroke.

Roar!

A wingless drake, scales all violet lightning like storm-forged mail, tore free of the clouds and dropped before me. Its scarlet eyes gleamed with a cold, carnivorous hunger.

Gulp.

I forced down a tight swallow. Through Sword Intent, the beast’s rank hit me like a verdict—it was Lord-God, first tier. Me? At best, early Divine. If I awakened a little of Shattered Light’s power, maybe Divine peak—for a few minutes, and that’s it.

And Divine peak still isn’t the same game. Divine ranks don’t hold complete laws. Lord-Gods do. Even a Sword Wielder like me knows that gulf is a canyon carved by ages.

Worse, Lixin herself was Lord-God. One Lixin was already a near-hopeless fight; add a Thunder Drake like that, and despair claws at your throat.

Nice look. You get it now, right? In the face of absolute strength, no pile of Supreme Divine Spirit Medicine will save you.

She hopped onto the Thunder Drake’s back, looking down on me with bored disdain. Beneath the frost, jealousy still flickered like shadowed flame.

Not necessarily!

I drew in breath, steadied the tremor in my chest, and summoned every sword in my Sword Domain. Myriad Swords Unleashed. Thousands of blades screamed through the air from every angle, a metal storm filling every gap around Lixin and the drake.

No need for Lixin to lift a finger. The Thunder Drake spat a lance of lightning-wreathed light; it shredded every sword like leaves in a gale and rattled the Sword Domain itself till it wobbled, nearly cracking.

That beam carried a complete lightning law—no doubt. Without that, power wouldn’t be this monstrous. No winning line at all. I popped a Holy Healing Fruit, mind racing till it hurt; how do you bridge a gap that feels like different worlds?

Lixin didn’t plan to give me time to think. The Thunder Drake lunged, its talons crackling with currents like caged storms, raking for me with ruthless speed.

Too fast, too sudden; no room to dodge. Then it’s head-on. Under a pressure like a mountain dropped on my shoulders, I raised Shattered Light and swung up, Sword Aura stacked heavy along the edge.

Heavenly Sword · Moonbreaker!

Boom!

Gods, that weight. The ground beneath my feet sank a meter in an instant; the shockwave felled trees in swathes like a reaper’s sweep. A lush forest blinked into a barren clearing.

Huh? You blocked it? Lixin sounded genuinely surprised. Use Extinction Thunder Claw.

Roar!

Dark-violet law thunder erupted from the drake’s talons, pouring like molten night. It chewed through the Sword Aura sheathing Shattered Light as if it were paper.

Blood sprayed hot from my lips. Without Sword Aura’s support, that crushing pressure felt like my bones were grinding to dust—only Shattered Light took most of the weight for me, a pillar in flood.

My consciousness blurred at the edges, snow-fuzzed and slipping. I reached for a Holy Healing Fruit, but the moment wouldn’t allow it; I needed a way out now, or in ten seconds my story ended here.

What a sturdy sword. Not even Extinction Thunder Claw can scratch it. That’s one of the Thunder Drake’s best moves. Lixin watched me from above like a judge. If you want to live, surrender. Have your sisters hand over all Supreme Divine Spirit Medicine. And your sword. My goal is to probe your strength, not erase you. It’s not yet time.

Dream on!

At the cliff-edge of life and death, I slipped into a strange state—nothing mystical, just clarity like winter air. No time to chase it. Move first, think later.

I grabbed that thread of feeling. With the last tatters of strength, I condensed Sword Aura into a temporary blade, bracing it against the drake’s talons to free Shattered Light for a strike. Swapping Shattered Light out dumped the full weight on me like a downpour of boulders—pain worse than death.

No time to suffer. My other hand snapped Shattered Light up, chopping through that clear, sharpened insight.

Reverse Blade · Shadow of Absolute Slay!

What?!

I pushed Shattered Light’s edge to its limits; the blade sheared straight through the drake’s talon like cutting wet bamboo. Then my Sword Intent called back hundreds of freshly reformed swords from the Sword Domain.

Absolute Sword Formation · Heartpiercer!

Hundreds of blades spiraled around the off-balance Thunder Drake, weaving a formation like a whirling constellation, then drove in, piercing scales and sinking into flesh—every sword at once.