No one knew how long they’d been walking, or how many walls they’d broken through.

One person and one beast just kept walking forward, never stopping.

Suddenly.

“Hey, Kitty, look up ahead.”

“Meow?”

“Thump~”

Another strike.

“Quit meowing and hurry up. There’s a light up ahead.”

“Mreow...”

In a world of endless darkness, nothing was more thrilling than seeing even the faintest glimmer of light.

Xiaobai couldn’t help quickening his pace.

Before long, they reached the light.

It was an opening, just big enough for them to pass through.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the pair plunged inside.

“Th-this... where... are we?”

“Meow?”

Even White Tiger, an eight-star Sacred Beast, and Xiaobai, who had already become the Sword God, were stunned by the sight before them.

It was like they’d stepped into another world.

This seemed to be an ancient battlefield. Countless skeletons lay scattered across the ground.

Bones were piled into hills. A few of the corpses still seemed to contain tremendous energy, and their power even resonated with the strength inside Xiaobai.

High mountains stretched endlessly on either side. There wasn’t a single flower or tree on them—nothing at all, just bare slopes. As far as the eye could see, the land was utterly desolate.

Thick black clouds hung over the battlefield. They were sinister clouds formed from endless deathly energy, with purple-black bolts of lightning flickering within.

It seemed they’d sensed Xiaobai and White Tiger’s arrival.

The sinister clouds suddenly grew restless.

Churning black clouds heralded the end of the world, while purple-black lightning relentlessly battered the earth.

The lightning struck everything within a radius of ten thousand li. The power it held was immense and savage.

It made your heart seize up. No—your heart pound.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning shot straight toward Xiaobai. Nothing in its path could stop its charge.

“I just got here! What is wrong with this lightning?”

Xiaobai frowned, drew his black sword, and casually sent out a Sword Qi Wave.

The lightning collided with the Sword Qi Wave, and neither seemed to yield to the other.

Then a massive explosion erupted between them.

The explosion unleashed a tremendous shockwave, brimming with a terrifying force, that surged in every direction.

Xiaobai was fine. At most, his hair got a little messed up. White Tiger, on the other hand, couldn’t handle it.

“Mreow...”

That already-frail-looking little body was now trembling nonstop.

White Tiger deeply regretted coming into this damn cave...

It even silently prayed,

“Lord Black Cloud, my master’s super strong. You two fight—I’ll just leave, okay...? Could you let me go...?”

Xiaobai had no idea Kitty was thinking of selling him out. Otherwise, heh...

Seeing how pitiful Kitty looked, Xiaobai released his power, forming a white barrier that covered both him and White Tiger. White Tiger quickly returned to normal.

But then, the black clouds above changed again.

Seeing that the lightning had little effect on Xiaobai, the clouds turned into a vast black mist, which formed a whip and lashed at him.

Xiaobai didn’t even glance at it. In the blink of an eye, he casually unleashed ten Sword Qi Waves.

The black whip in the sky hadn’t even come down before it split into more than ten pieces and vanished.

The black clouds seemed unwilling to give up. They turned into even more black mist, which formed a giant sword and came chopping straight down.

“Clang!”

The black sword’s blade struck the white barrier Xiaobai had created, sending bright sparks flying.

The white barrier flickered and shuddered, looking ready to shatter at any moment.

“Hey, black clouds, you’re taking this too far.”

“I haven’t even made the first move, and you’ve attacked me again and again.”

“You’re picking on an honest guy here...”

Seeing what was happening overhead, Xiaobai was pretty unhappy.

He considered himself a peace-loving person.

And now look at him: a peace-loving guy getting bullied right over his own head—and this was the third time.

If he didn’t get serious now, wouldn’t that make him look like a pushover?

Xiaobai gathered power in his palm and channeled it into his black sword.

A massive torrent of white particles surged from his palm and poured into the sword. In an instant, the entire blade blazed with dazzling white light.

Compared to the light it had given off on Mountain of Heaven before...

One was a firefly, the other a bright moon. There was no comparison.

“Let’s go.”

With a thought, Xiaobai turned the white barrier into particles of light. They dispersed and flowed back into his body.

Then he raised the white light sword in his hand and slashed diagonally at the descending black sword, now unimpeded by the barrier.

“Shhk~”

The instant it met Xiaobai’s white light sword, the black greatsword was sliced cleanly in two.

The enormous Sword Qi Wave released by the light sword shot straight toward the black clouds.

A white line stretching endlessly across the sky split the black clouds in two.