An Understated Dominance

 “Pffft—!” Dustin was struck as if by an ancient mountain, his entire body and the shattered light barrier thrown violently into the air by the fiery blast. Blood sprayed from his mouth, tracing a crimson arc across the sky. He crashed heavily onto the white jade floor dozens of feet away, tumbling several times before barely managing to kneel, his sword buried into the ground for support. The long sword wailed, its spiritual light nearly extinguished. The strength he had just regained once again scattered in disarray. His chest and abdomen felt frozen by eternal ice, then scorched by hellfire, while his very soul seemed to be torn apart by countless invisible fangs. The agony nearly drowned his consciousness. Aokun’s dual-element mastery of gold and fire worked in perfect harmony — the power was not merely doubled, but transformed into something even more terrifying. “To withstand seventy percent of my Sky-Rending Slash and God-Burning Fist — you may boast of that on your way to t...

 “ Dustin! ” Margaret’s heart twisted like a knife. She could clearly feel the terrifying gulf separating Aokun from the three who came before — an abyss between them. Without a moment’s hesitation, she pulled out a small jade vial she had kept close to her person. It was given to her when she left the palace by that unfathomable old attendant beside her royal father — with solemnity beyond measure, he had said it was the royal family’s most precious treasure, a divine lifesaving pill that even the power of an entire nation could not reproduce — the  Ninefold Rebirth Pill . She rushed to Dustin’s side, ignoring the suffocating pressure that weighed on her chest, and pressed the smooth vial into his cold hand. Her voice was unwavering: “Take it! This is your only chance!” Dustin felt the boundless vitality within the pill — like a vast ocean of stars — and knew at once that its value was beyond imagination. He looked at Margaret. In her eyes, he saw desperate resolve and deep, ...

 Houtu lay limp on the ground, wrapped tightly in the pale-golden cocoon of light like a moth frozen in amber. On her world-toppling face, shock, anger, and disbelief were already set in stone; only those once-vibrant eyes, now losing their light, retained a last scrap of awareness — fixed intently on the white-clad figure leaning on his sword, swaying on the verge of collapse. Impossible… I command the power of the earth — within this palace I am invincible. He’s clearly spent his last breath — how could he still defeat me? Endless regret and venom gnawed at the remnants of her consciousness, but the seal acted like an invisible shackle, pressing her power and unwillingness down into that beautiful body; not even a sliver of spirit could escape. Not far away, Qingmu lay pierced at the shoulder in a pool of blood. In the haze of fading consciousness, he vaguely perceived Houtu’s vast, heavy aura abruptly extinguished. A bone-deep cold, mixed with searing pain, nearly made him black...

 Dustin suddenly felt his body sink, as though he were carrying mountains upon his back — even lifting an arm became nearly impossible. The ground beneath him rolled and heaved, his footing unstable. All around, countless deadly stalagmites and rock walls closed in, sealing off every escape route. Summoning his final breath of true essence, he poured it into his sword. The blade flared with a last clear brilliance; swordlight spun like a wheel, shielding his body. Clang! Clang! Boom! Sword qi clashed madly with stone; shards flew, dust filled the air. Dustin’s sword remained sharp — every swing shattered vast swaths of rock — but the stone seemed endless. The instant he cleaved through one wave, more rose from the earth to take its place. And that crushing gravity field heavily restricted his movement and strength, draining him with every motion. His face turned ghostly pale, breath ragged like an old bellows; the flesh between his thumb and forefinger had split, blood dripping fre...

Xuanming was completely sealed by that pale-golden talisman, frozen upright like a puppet, his face locked in terror and unwillingness. The scene hit the Penglai Immortal Palace like the coldest of cold fronts, instantly sweeping through it and turning the slight heaviness that had arisen after Qingmu’s defeat into a bone-chilling, absolute stillness. The men and women who had been indulging in pleasures had long since collapsed to the ground, their trembling reduced to barely audible shivers; only the pounding of terrified hearts drummed loudly in the silence. The wine pools no longer rippled, the carnal thickets ceased to sway, and even the lascivious immortal music had been cut off — as if the whole palace were mourning the consecutive losses of two “immortals.” The peerless beauty — she called herself Houtu — now had not a shred of flirtation left in her pair of world-toppling eyes. Only a surging storm of shock remained, and a chill she herself refused to admit. Qingmu’s defeat co...

 Dustin let out a muffled groan as his  Xuanqing  true energy burst forth, shattering the ice on his arm. He used the force to glide several meters backward, widening the distance between himself and Xuan Ming. His sword arm trembled slightly, and his face grew even paler. His opponent’s movement and cloning techniques were far too swift and deceptive—impossible to guard against completely. “Heh, not bad reflexes,” Xuan Ming said with a soft, eerie smile as he toyed with the ice crystal sword in his hand, condensed from pure frost energy. “But how many times can you dodge? Within this Immortal Palace, the water essence is endless, and as long as it exists, I cannot die. No matter how sharp your sword is, what can you possibly do to me?” As if to prove his words, the remnants of dark water energy from their earlier clashes—left in Dustin’s wounds by the water dragons and ice spikes—began to stir like living things. They seeped into his body, trying to freeze his blood and ...