This had once been a barren desert bristling with monoliths, a bone-dry sea under a blistering sun.

Now the land looked more war-torn, a scabbed canvas clawed by storms.

Everywhere lay shattered stone and craters punched by some brutal force, like hoofprints of giants.

Its singular landscape had vanished, swallowed like a dune in a sandstorm.

At the desert’s ragged edge, two figures still traded blows, like hawks knifing through dust.

Liqianyu leaned on her body’s hardened defense and wild vitality, circling Birand like a tiger around a bull.

"Hey, damn it, enough already," Birand said, voice like gravel under wheels.

"We're about even. You can't finish me, I can't finish you. Let's split, like waves parting."

He rubbed his aching arm, a branch bent by wind, and glared at Liqianyu’s slightly bedraggled form.

The pounding shook his palms raw, like drums beaten too long.

This woman had used some secret art, smoke behind mirrors.

She looked like only Sacred Rank power, yet weird as moonlight in a well.

He couldn’t keep burning time with her, like a candle guttering in wind.

Urgent now was reclaiming every memory, then retrieving his true body from its shell.

"Then tell me who split and sealed you back then," Liqianyu said, breath like steam in winter.

Her stamina wasn’t infinite; they’d clashed thousands of rounds, like rain on stone.

The strange energy in her core was nearly spent, a reservoir down to mud.

To refill it needed at least five years, a long winter on a barren field.

If she kept fighting, she couldn’t stop this monster; she might die like a falling star.

If he still refused, then the next move would decide life and death, like a coin toss.

She had no other method that worked on this freak, a blade dulled on iron.

Birand shrugged, shoulders loose as ropes.

"I told you it was the Abyss. You didn’t believe, and now you blame me."

He spread his hands, helpless as a bird in rain. "This lunatic woman is terrifying."

If not for a subordinate at his side, he’d have bolted like a fox.

He’d tried to run several times, yet she blocked him like a wall of spears.

He couldn’t ditch that subordinate for now, a weight tied to his ankle.

Otherwise he’d be long gone, smoke on the horizon.

Why wrestle with this sticky taffy, a leech gnawing bone?

Liqianyu bared her teeth like a wolf.

"Impossible. I remember a blue radiance on that person, sky-colored as dawn."

"It can’t be your embodiment of that world’s deepest night, a shadow in a shadow."

"Oh, come on, my lady," Birand said, eyes rolling like marbles.

"If he hired me through someone, how would I know who he was?"

"Are you brain-sick, a bell cracked by thunder? Spare me, big sis."

"No," Liqianyu said, voice like steel under frost. "Think carefully. It's impossible."

She brought her hands together, and her aura shifted like tides under a new moon.

Birand’s mouth twitched, a line in wet sand. "Here we go again."

Every time she joined her hands, she flung out troublesome stuff, burrs in wool.

What is it this time, a swarm of wasps?

"Will you talk or not!" Liqianyu shouted, teeth grinding like flint.

"I %@#&*!... %$#@!... *#@! Say it to your damn—" Birand exploded like a kettle.

"F—! You’ll kill me with anger, you cursed storm!" he spat, sparks in rain.

Liqianyu frowned, a crease like a blade. "You lack all manners."

"I thought, as a former Hero, standing at the front, facing my earnest search, you'd speak high words."

"I didn’t expect gutter talk, mud splashed from a cart," she said, cold as sleet.

"Hah? It’s you, idiot," Birand said, teeth bared like a dog.

"You still tail me like a shadow? Don’t follow me, I beg like a monk."

"Do I have to curse for you to look my way, like lightning catching eyes?"

Liqianyu raised a brow, sharp as a reed. "Silence!"

"Shameless old knave, meat for every mouth under heaven, a boar fit for the spit."

"How dare you wag your tongue here, a crow on a shrine?"

"Hmm? You wanna play that game with me?" Birand said, voice like thunder rolling.

"White-haired cur, hoary-bearded thief," Liqianyu intoned, words like knives on silk.

"You’ll soon descend to the Nine Springs; with what face will you meet—"

"Stop," Birand cut in, a hand like a gate.

"Traitor and turncoat, you wasted seventy-six years— mm, you’re not that young—"

"A life with no merit, dust on a spear," she pressed, breath like wind.

"I said stop," Birand roared, hair flying like a bonfire.

"How did I earn no merit? If I didn’t quell the Demon Race chaos, who did?"

"Keep your memes in check, you bastard," he snarled, a tiger baring fangs.

Liqianyu frowned, memory slipping like sand. What had Eli said then?

Forget it; she snapped the fan shut. "Never have I seen such brazen shamelessness."

"You—" Birand’s long hair flew, a fuse hissing toward powder.

He sensed something, then sighed, breath like smoke. "Trying to wake Eli with this?"

Liqianyu bit her lip, a cherry under frost; looked like failure.

"Alright," Birand said, laughter like ice cracking. "I won’t play."

"Your skill has charged long enough; now let me see fireworks."

His protective energy poured out, flooding the space like a river in spate.

"Come. Let me witness power from the Far East," he said, eyes like torches.

"Bro Jie, don’t—!" someone quipped, a meme like a paper kite.

"Pfft. Quit with the memes, bastard," Birand snapped, a slap to a drum.

"This is..." Eli rubbed his eyes, lids heavy as night, and slowly opened them.

His body felt a vast power flowing nearby, a current through starlight.

He looked around, and found himself drifting among stars, a leaf on a cosmic lake.

The vast power was the mysterious force passing between stars, threads in a loom.

Those stars were unimaginably far, yet they sent energy that pricked the heart like thorns.

He looked at his hand, more void than flesh, and sighed like a dying wind.

In the end, I failed, a candle quenched in rain.

Do you come to such a place after dying, a boat to a silent harbor?

But I died because Birand devoured my soul and took my body, a wolf in my skin.

Shouldn’t I have scattered, turned to cosmic dust and gone, ash on the breeze?

Why am I in this state, a shadow trapped in glass?

Images flashed through his mind, shards of mirror catching moonlight.

No one here would explain, a hall with no guides.

He couldn’t even see the planet where they were, a lamp behind fog.

Eli slowly closed his eyes, lids like falling leaves.

Since there’s no resistance left, then sleep, like snow covering fields.

He let his mind go, and this place felt familiar and warm, a mother’s embrace.

"An illusion, right?" he murmured, and drifted down like dusk.

Near the Miter Empire, in a valley veiled by countless secret arts, mist like silk.

A middle-aged man crushed brown metal into powder, then looked at endless stars and smiled.

"Good. This gets us into the second stage," he said, voice like a low bell.

He stepped into the valley, and a stone statue rose at the mouth like a sentry.

It veiled the entrance, a curtain of rock under the moon.

The valley’s illusions faded, and only a special field remained, shrouded in pure black.

And this place was the Abyss, a pit where light drowns.

"Looks like the outcome rests on this strike," Birand said, smile like a knife.

He watched Liqianyu’s weakening body, and confidence swelled like a tide.

"If this strike fails, you’ll die by my hand, and I’ll refine you to pure energy."

"That should make up my loss," he added, eyes gleaming like a wolf’s.

"Heh. Let’s hope," Liqianyu said through clenched teeth, voice like iron scraping.

Three thousand red energy arms rose behind her, a forest of spears under blood moon.

"Ready, my poor opponent?" Birand shrugged, shoulders loose as ropes. "I’ve waited long."

Liqianyu walked toward him; her energy defied words, a storm eating the horizon.

Gravel powdered under the gale of her aura, dust like smoke.

Clouds began to churn because of her power, a cauldron boiling above.

The world looked like doomsday, a sun dimmed by ash, and Birand thrilled.

From the first moment of gathering, he couldn’t run; it was a suicide-tier forbidden art.

"Heh heh, come on," Birand said, grin like a crescent blade.

"Dragon Burial Rite," Liqianyu said, teeth set like stone.

Her body couldn’t bear such vast power; every part screamed like iron in fire.

Blood seeped from her seven orifices, and her muscles trembled like strings in storm.

Birand chuckled. "Little girl, you’re still too green," he said, voice like cold rain.

"Ahhhh!" Liqianyu’s figure vanished, then shot at Birand like lightning.

Countless fists and shadows slammed into him, a hailstorm on steel.

Birand gritted his teeth, releasing energy to cancel the attack, wave against wave.

"Hmm. The magic array cracked?" he said, watching structures fracture like ice.

"Interesting. As expected of a Far East girl. Wild," he laughed, eyes like sparks.

Boom.

In the next beat, the formation shattered completely, glass under a hammer.

The huge energy stopped being fists; it detonated in place like bombs.

It swallowed the two at the center, a maw closing over prey.

Boom!

Everything seemed to stop in that instant, a paused clock under frost.

Immense power compressed to the limit, a star drawn to a pin.

Then a blinding flash burst, a white sun blooming in sand.

Even sound was swallowed by that force, a scream cut from air.

From far away, you could only see a towering mushroom cloud rising, a night flower.