“Fine. Since it’s come to this, I’ll let you see the true power of Heaven’s Chosen in this world.” Tianqi Yu’s voice fell like a hammer on an altar. His broad hand clenched the empty air, and a golden spear bloomed in his grip like sunrise spearing through mist, wreathed in Immortal Realm might.

“Azure An! Die!” In the Congealed Immortal Hall, Tianqi Yu raised the spear. Immortal radiance streamed off him like starfire on a river. His Spirit Energy surged, vast as a storm-tossed sea.

The spear moved like thunder. A slash of gold flickered, and in a heartbeat it was at Nana Toki’s eyes, bright as a falling comet.

“Damn!” Panic flared first, then instinct. Her Black Great Axe snapped up on reflex, as if a shadow shielded by night.

Boom—! Spear met axe, solid as mountain on mountain. The blast shredded the silence, a sound that clawed at the ear. A heartbeat later, a shockwave of Spirit Energy burst from the pair like a volcano venting fire, centered on the two figures.

Rumble— Rumble— Rumble— The great hall’s stone pillars shook like trees in a gale. Dust rose in towering curtains. Wherever that terrible wave passed, things dissolved into nothing, like ash in a white blaze.

It felt like the world slipped into primordial chaos. The marble floor split like cracked ice on a river. Savage force ran wild, spreading in all directions, a tempest that wanted to swallow the compass points.

“Cough, cough…” Propped on her axe haft, Nana Toki reeled, body trembling from Tianqi Yu’s brutal, unreasonable “logic,” like a bull ramming a bell.

This fantasy plane’s protagonist halo is insane. Her yellow Talisman had burned to ash, vanishing like moths in a flame. She leaned by the great doors, face drawn and twisted, staring at Tianqi Yu who stood there like a god burnt from gold.

At this pace, killing him wasn’t even on the table. If he didn’t kill her first, that would already be a blessing snatched from thunder.

“Looks like that’s your limit.” Tianqi Yu’s snort cut cold, his golden spear flaring to a blinding glare like noon on snow. “Let me send you on your way, Azure An.”

As he spoke, the spearhead unfurled into a massive golden dragon head, scales bright as molten ore.

Whoosh—!

Roar—! He hurled it. A clear dragon’s cry rang from the spear itself, slicing the air like a silver bell in a storm.

Seriously? This guy’s shameless. He tosses ultimates like coins in a street market. The golden spear charged in with thunder’s fury. Nana Toki gritted her teeth, tried to lift her axe, but her arms went on strike. No matter how she forced it, strength wouldn’t rise, like a well gone dry.

Damn it. My hands went numb from that last shock.

The spear was about to punch through her chest. In that razor-thin instant, a small dark figure leaped in from outside the hall, stepping before her like a night swallow. The golden spear drilled into the shadow’s chest; the System stood in front of Nana Toki, hands clamped on the dragon-head tip, yanking with all her might, like dragging an anchor from a black lake.

“Host! Move!” Her voice cracked, thin and high, like glass under strain. She carried a sliver of refined Immortal Realm aura, a single spark in a winter field. But before Tianqi Yu, who stood like a deity, it wasn’t enough. She held for only a few seconds; her small body hit its limit, trembling like a spent bow.

Bang! The explosive shockwave swept the hall again, a stormfront ripping through dust. Nana Toki’s vision flashed white. When it cleared, the System’s figure flew like a kite cut from its string.

“Tsk… Are you brain-dead? Even I won’t hard-tank that ultimate. You just take it head-on? Are you tired of living?” Anger first, worry coiled behind it. She caught the System in midair, body scarred, both arms gone, a doll broken by a careless god. Her face went black as soot. “If you die, who’s going to look after Blue Magpie, you fool?”

Good thing the System isn’t an NPC of this plane. If an NPC tried to tank the Protagonist Lord’s ultimate like that, it wouldn’t end with just two arms.

“Uu…” The System sulked, voice small, like rain tapping a window. I only stepped in because the Host couldn’t hold out. Why won’t the Host praise me, and keeps scolding me? QAQ

“Enough. Don’t feed him free kills. Find a quiet corner and stay put.” She ignored her sulking System. She tossed the tiny body out of the hall, then grabbed her Black Great Axe again and lifted her gaze to Tianqi Yu, who floated above, already holding a second spear like a sun atop the rafters.

“Azure An, you’re not ordinary.” Tianqi Yu had seen it clearly. A being with no Spirit Energy signature had tanked his divine strike with flesh alone, like iron under a meteor. The price was only two arms. Stranger still, he hadn’t seen a single drop of blood spatter from her severed stumps.

“What are you?” In the Three Realms, nothing so bizarre should exist.

“You still don’t get who I am?” Nana Toki wound a fresh yellow Talisman around the axe haft, mocking smile cold as a crescent blade. “I’m the one who came to kill you.”

“Arrogant.” Tianqi Yu’s gaze sank, storm clouds in his eyes. “I’m Heaven’s Chosen. You can’t just decide to kill me, Azure An. Don’t dream. Standing against me is defying Heaven. Keep being stubborn, and death and the end of your path will be light punishments. If you let me kill you now, you’ll be spared a lot of needless pain.”

“Oh? Being your enemy equals defying Heaven?” Nana Toki’s eyes cut to the hall’s roof, punched through to the sky, her grin thin as frost. “Then why doesn’t Heaven drop a thunderbolt and strike me dead right now?”

“Because it’s afraid.” Her ink-black eyes fixed on Tianqi Yu, a blade of winter light in them. “Afraid it can’t kill me, Azure An. So it picked you, the so-called Chosen, to prove its authority. Think about it. If even the Dao of Heaven, the lord of all under the sky, can’t kill me, what can you—a pawn chosen by it—do to me?”

“Shut up!” It was like she ripped the cloth off some shame he hid. Tianqi Yu roared, the sound jagged like a torn banner. He lunged, golden spear in hand, charging like a thunderhead dropping from a mountain.

For a breath, heaven and earth trembled. The Congealed Immortal Hall’s walls cracked like dry clay under a flood, thin lines spidering outward under his tidal pressure.

“Heh. So quick to rage? Heaven’s Chosen has such a small heart.” Nana Toki watched him barrel in with a thousand-jun force, a thunder cart rolling downhill. She lifted her axe and met him head-on. Axe and spear clashed again. The hall’s floor split open into a yawning abyss, black and jagged, bottom lost in shadow.

Two cultivators beyond Upper Immortal clashed hard, force on force. Even the sky seemed unable to bear that collision.

“Azure An! If you don’t die today, I will!” Tianqi Yu howled. Gold flared off him like a sun at zenith. In the hall, thunder snarled and sparks flew. Two pure powers crashed, with a momentum that felt like shattering rivers and stirring mountains. Overhead, clouds pulsed dark and light, as if space itself rippled from the impact.

Nana Toki’s mouth said she wouldn’t lose, but under the full-level, sixfold glory of the Protagonist Lord’s halo, she found little advantage. Worse, the hall kept feeding Tianqi Yu Spirit Energy like a living battery. She could brawl forever, but time pulled the tide against her, inch by inch.

“Die!” His shout cracked like ice.

“—!” A strange flick of the spear, sly as a fox. She couldn’t dodge. In an instant, Tianqi Yu swatted her straight out, clean and merciless.

Boom—!

The spear’s long shaft slammed her waist, a smith’s hammer on a gong. Her whole body flew, tossed like a leaf in winter gale.

Bang! She hit the wall. Stone buckled, a slab collapsing in a roar, rubble rolling like a breaking wave.

“Ugh… cough, cough…” It felt like her organs shifted, each smack like a drum in a storm. Buried in broken stone, Nana Toki hacked blood, bright as pomegranate seeds on snow. Hours of fighting had carved wounds across her body; her once-dashing black robes were now full of cuts, ragged like torn banners.

“Mm… Careless.” Frustration first, then resolve. She fought to free herself from the rubble, fingers clawing like a trapped cat. But Tianqi Yu was already on her again, golden spear howling in his hands.

“Go die!” Spirit Energy surged off him like a rising tide. His spear blazed, tip condensed to a point of ruin, a star of power aimed at her heart.

Then, sudden and clean, a streak of azure light flashed across his path. It flew fast as a serpent, too swift for thought. It struck him square. Tianqi Yu shot backward like a fired shell, smashing into the opposite wall of the hall, stone jumping under the impact.

“Jiejie!” Sister! Dust swirled in the hall like a sandstorm. Nana Toki lay in the rubble and turned her head. At the front doors, Blue Magpie sprinted toward her, small feet quick as raindrops.