An Understated Dominance

Almost at the same moment, the child revealed a radiant smile. His small body erupted with an intense earthy-yellow glow—the most primordial power within him, the core essence of the mountain-spirit he was born from. Without the slightest hesitation, he poured that vast earth essence—accumulated over countless years—into a thick yellow torrent that followed Xuan Chengzi’s azure beam, merging into it and surging forward together. The two streams—one containing Xuan Chengzi’s lifetime cultivation, life origin, and divine soul flame, and the other containing the child’s purest mountain-spirit earth origin—rushed madly and without reservation into Dustin, who was buried beneath the ruins. “No!!” The demonized Ao Kun roared in fury and shock. His dragon claw slammed down fiercely, but only shattered the rapidly fading afterimages that Xuan Chengzi and the child had left behind. Their bodies, after offering up everything, had already turned into pure energy particles and scattered into the w...

 “Careful!” Xuan Chengzi’s face turned ashen. He swung his whisk in desperation, and the hazy Taiji Diagram expanded to its limit, trying to block the incoming claw strike. The child let out a sharp cry and slammed his palms into the ground. In an instant, a massive earthen wall — several zhang thick and glimmering with yellow crystal light — shot up from the floor, standing before the Taiji Diagram as a shield. Dustin gathered every last drop of his strength, pouring all his Xuanqing True Qi into his sword. A cyan sword aura condensed into tangible form — sharp enough to split yin and yang — and slashed straight toward the center of the claw marks! BOOM! The three attacks — their combined full power — collided violently with the demonic claw. There was no stalemate. Only devastation. The child’s crystal earthen wall shattered like paper. The Taiji Diagram twisted violently; the yin-yang fishes spun wildly, trying to dissolve the demonic energy, but it lasted barely half a breath b...

 “Ao Kun, meet your end!” Dustin’s sword pointed straight ahead, his voice cold as ice. Xuan Chengzi raised his whisk, and the Taiji diagram slowly pressed downward. The child cracked his knuckles, eager to strike. But just when everyone thought the battle was decided, Ao Kun’s expression twisted into something grotesque — a grin laced with madness, cruelty, and grim resolve. “Meet my end? By the likes of you?” Ao Kun laughed hoarsely. His gaze swept across the sealed and fallen figures of Houtu, Xuanming, and Qingmu. A flash of naked greed and merciless intent gleamed in his eyes. “To force me to use  this  art… you should indeed feel honored.” Before anyone could react, he spread his arms wide and began chanting a dark, ancient incantation — words that seemed to crawl out from the depths of the Nine Hells. As the chant echoed, the gold and platinum light around him darkened into pure black. A sinister aura — purer, fouler, and more oppressive than any dragon’s malice — ...

 Before his words even fell, Xuan Chengzi no longer bothered to argue. The old man’s figure flickered and appeared beside Dustin. His thin, bony palm pressed lightly against Dustin’s back. A stream of pure, gentle, and endlessly vital azure energy poured continuously into Dustin’s nearly exhausted body, like a mountain spring flowing into a dry riverbed. This spiritual power, belonging to the same Daoist lineage as Dustin’s Xuanqing True Qi, was even older and more refined. It not only rapidly repaired his injuries but also nourished his depleted essence. “Young friend, steady your mind — I’ll help you recover,” Xuan Chengzi said quietly. A warm current surged through Dustin’s limbs and bones. The hidden injuries and soul-tearing pain caused by resisting Ao Kun’s golden fire and metal arts were healing at a startling speed. The exhaustion from consecutive battles vanished; his depleted energy was swiftly replenished. Within mere breaths, his condition had recovered by more than sev...

 “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...