From the far end of the rear route, five figures stepped out of the darkness one after another.
The man in front was far faster than the other four. His body flickered in and out between the Dragonmist Thorn, each step leaving only the faintest trace in the sand before vanishing again. He made no attempt to conceal his peak late-stage Foundation Establishment aura, which spread through the ravine like an invisible pressure and was clearly a level stronger than Ly Vinh's.
The silver flying sword that had just knocked Tieu Dao Sword aside still hovered in midair. The blade was not large, but the spiritual power surrounding it was extremely condensed, its point angled slightly downward as though it still had Hao Nhien locked in place.
The moment Ly Vinh saw the newcomer, the tension in his shoulders finally eased a little. The shock from having nearly died quickly disappeared, replaced by his usual coldness.
"Han Minh, you just saved my life."
He looked toward Hao Nhien, a cold smile gradually appearing on his face.
"That man's chance is gone."
Hao Nhien did not answer.
His gaze swept across Han Minh before shifting toward the four men rapidly approaching behind him. Even without determining their exact cultivation, Han Minh alone was already at the peak of late Foundation Establishment, while Ly Vinh, despite losing his heavy saber and suffering a shoulder wound, still retained most of his fighting strength. On Hao Nhien's side, Lanh Hoa's new injuries had piled on top of the old ones, Luu Tan was in no condition to endure another direct battle, and Hao Nhien himself had already consumed a great deal of spiritual power and Divine Soul power fighting Ly Vinh.
The gap between the two sides had already been enormous.
Now there was almost nothing left to balance it.
Lanh Hoa stepped forward half a pace and lowered the ancient sword in front of him. Hao Nhien saw the older man angle his shoulder slightly, deliberately shielding part of Hao Nhien's position. No explanation was needed for him to understand that Lanh Hoa was preparing for the worst.
If the enemy pressed forward together, he would stand in front.
Hao Nhien looked at Lanh Hoa's back for a moment before turning his gaze forward again.
Berserk was still available.
But he understood its limits clearly. At his current Foundation Establishment layer two, activating it once would almost completely drain the spiritual power in his body. Even if the burst was strong enough to kill another one or two enemies, there were still too many people in front of them. As long as Han Minh or Ly Vinh survived, Hao Nhien would have no strength left for a second attempt.
That path did not lead to survival.
Nothing showed on Hao Nhien's face.
He only swept his gaze across the surrounding terrain before finally settling it on Han Minh and Ly Vinh, who had just stopped close to one another.
An idea appeared.
It was not a plan he had prepared beforehand, but almost an instinctive response that surfaced when every other path had been sealed.
His left hand opened.
A small sphere appeared in his palm.
Ly Vinh saw it and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
Han Minh merely narrowed his eyes.
Hao Nhien flicked his hand.
The sphere flew forward.
It was not fast, and its trajectory was perfectly direct, resembling a final desperate attack thrown out before escape.
Yet almost the instant the sphere left his hand, Hao Nhien had already turned and rushed back toward Lanh Hoa and Luu Tan.
Spirit Wings opened behind him.
Tieu Dao Sword, which had just been withdrawn from the cliff, immediately returned as well, flying low beside him.
Ly Vinh was still watching the incoming sphere with a mocking expression, but when it came within several zhang, Han Minh's gaze suddenly changed.
Inside the sphere, beneath a layer of faint red flame, was a dark purple-black point of light.
It was tiny.
Only the size of a finger joint.
Yet from that speck, an aura that clearly did not belong to the level of this battle was silently spreading outward.
Han Minh's expression changed.
Under his control, the silver flying sword beside him instantly turned and moved in front of his body.
"Back!"
The shout had barely left his mouth when the outer layer of flame was torn apart by the energy within.
The dark purple-black sphere was revealed.
Thunder Burst.
Hao Nhien had never tested one before.
Ever since obtaining the three ancient spheres from the secret chamber of the Heavenly Spirit Merchant Association, he had only been able to determine that each contained an unimaginably condensed amount of Lightning energy. Their range, destructive power, and true level had all remained impossible to judge.
Now, he no longer had the chance to judge them.
The dark purple-black point suddenly expanded.
From the size of a finger joint, it grew to the size of a fist, then continued swelling like an enormous heart beating in the middle of the ravine. Dark purple-black arcs of lightning crawled across its surface, and every flash made the surrounding air tremble.
Ly Vinh finally understood the danger.
His face turned pale.
"What the hell is that..."
Hao Nhien did not look back.
He had already reached Lanh Hoa.
"Come here!"
Lanh Hoa did not ask why.
Neither did Luu Tan.
The moment the two moved closer, Hao Nhien swept his hand outward, and an invisible ripple spread from his Sea of Consciousness.
At that life-or-death moment, he no longer thought about hiding anything.
The Cosmic Ark appeared directly in the middle of the ravine.
From a faint streak of light, it rapidly expanded into an ancient vessel large enough to shield all three of them. The patterns across its hull lit up the moment it appeared, as though the artifact itself had sensed what was unfolding ahead.
Lanh Hoa froze.
Luu Tan's eyes widened even further.
But neither had time to ask.
Thunder Burst was already on the verge of fully erupting. Even before the shockwave formed, the pressure alone forced the sand beneath their feet to slide outward, while the air trembled like a thin sheet of metal about to shatter.
Hao Nhien immediately understood that he had underestimated this thing far too much.
This was absolutely not a weapon meant for an ordinary Foundation Establishment battle.
He placed both hands against the hull and poured spiritual power into his connection with the Cosmic Ark. He had no intention of using his own strength to resist the explosion, because that was completely impossible. He only needed to keep the vessel stable for one more beat, long enough for the entrance to fully open.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
The first wave of pressure reached them.
The Cosmic Ark shook violently.
Hao Nhien's feet slid a long distance across the sand.
The little spiritual power remaining in his body began draining at an astonishing rate. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to maintain the connection, but his hands had already begun to tremble.
Hao Nhien no longer hesitated.
Berserk activated.
The blood throughout his body seemed to boil at once.
Terrifying heat erupted from deep within his bones and spread through his limbs. The muscles across his shoulders and back tightened, veins rising beneath his skin, while his right arm began transforming at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Dark-red scales emerged from cracks in the flesh, gradually spreading down his forearm and across the back of his hand. His fingers lengthened, the nails sharpening as heat rose between the scales.
Hao Nhien gave a low growl and used his partially transformed right arm to brace hard against the edge of the hull.
The Cosmic Ark was still shaking.
But this time, it was not immediately pushed out of position.
The entrance opened.
"Inside!"
Lanh Hoa instantly grabbed Luu Tan.
Luu Tan was too heavily injured to keep his footing, but he still forced his remaining good hand onto the edge of the entrance. Lanh Hoa pushed him inside first, then followed.
Hao Nhien kept the Cosmic Ark stable for exactly one more beat. Only after Lanh Hoa's foot completely disappeared through the entrance did he release his grip, turn, and throw himself inside.
The entrance had barely closed when Thunder Burst detonated on the other side of the hull.
The first sound was nothing like the sharp explosion of an ordinary technique. Instead, an immense low roar crashed through the entire ravine, as though the whole stretch of land had been struck downward by an invisible force from the sky.
A heartbeat later, dark purple-black light swallowed everything outside, while the terrifying shockwave slammed directly into the Cosmic Ark and hurled the entire vessel off the ground.
Inside, Hao Nhien only had time to feel the space beneath his feet tilt violently before his body was thrown against the wall. His back struck the hull, and the force traveled directly into his internal organs, sending blood spilling from his mouth.
Lanh Hoa and Luu Tan fared no better. Both were flung from where they stood and crashed heavily onto the floor, completely unable to keep their balance while the vessel spun within the shockwave.
Heavy impacts continued pounding against the hull from outside. Broken stone, tree trunks, sand, earth, and countless fragments had been lifted by the blast and were now striking the Cosmic Ark from every direction. A massive force hurled the vessel sideways, sending it spinning through the air before it crashed directly into a large rocky outcrop emerging through the cloud of dust.
The collision shook the entire interior violently. Hao Nhien had just tried to push himself up when he was thrown from the floor again, his shoulder slamming hard into the ground. Pain surged through his Sea of Consciousness, meridians, and internal organs all at once, nearly dragging his awareness into darkness.
But just as he was about to lose consciousness, another sense of danger suddenly appeared, powerful enough to force his eyes open.
The space outside was distorting.
This was no longer an ordinary aftershock from the explosion. A strange pulling force had begun to form, causing the Cosmic Ark, which had just been blasted away from the center, to slowly slide back toward it.
Hao Nhien immediately thought of the spatial fractures that had appeared throughout the Western Wastes. This land had always been unstable, and the ancient scars left behind by the old war meant that even Golden Core power, if released too violently, could affect the structure of space itself. Meanwhile, the destructive force of Thunder Burst had clearly surpassed everything he had imagined.
When both forces acted upon a region of space that was already fragile, the result appeared almost immediately.
At the center of the explosion, a black line tore open amid the lingering dark purple-black lightning. At first it was only several zhang long, but every remaining arc of Lightning energy that struck its edges caused it to widen further, drawing sand, shattered rock, and even uprooted trunks back toward it.
The Cosmic Ark was not spared from the pull.
The vessel tilted sharply, sending Lanh Hoa and Luu Tan sliding toward one side of the interior again. Hao Nhien braced one hand against the floor and tried to maintain his connection with the Ark, but Berserk had already begun to fade. Fine cracks appeared across the scales on his right arm, while the explosive physical power from moments earlier was draining away with frightening speed.
He tried to force what little spiritual power remained into the Cosmic Ark, but before he could do anything more, the ancient patterns across the hull lit up all at once.
The light was neither violent nor oppressive. The lines buried deep within the ancient material simply emerged in silence and connected into complex structures Hao Nhien had never been able to see clearly before. At the same time, an extremely faint ripple reached him from the spirit of the Cosmic Ark.
There were no words and no complete thought, only something like an instinctive response to the spatial force pulling at it.
Hao Nhien suddenly remembered what the Cosmic Ark truly was.
It had crossed between worlds before, traversing distances that his current cultivation could not even begin to imagine. Compared with what it had once experienced, the spatial fracture that had just appeared in the Western Wastes might not have been entirely unfamiliar.
As the pulling force intensified, the Cosmic Ark stopped resisting it directly. Its hull tilted by the smallest degree, then gradually adjusted to the current of spatial force, shifting its trajectory away from the center of the fracture.
Hao Nhien had only just noticed the change when another surge of suction violently seized the vessel. The Cosmic Ark turned sideways in midair, but instead of being dragged straight into the black rift, it slid along a curved path around the edge of the strongest pulling force.
The distance between them and the fracture was still shrinking.
Through his connection with the Cosmic Ark, Hao Nhien could clearly sense the violent distortion of space outside. He had no idea whether being dragged into it would throw them somewhere else in the Western Wastes, into a chaotic region of space, or into some endless darkness with no path back, and at his current cultivation there was no way for him to know.
All he could do was maintain his connection with the Cosmic Ark while the spiritual power in his body approached complete exhaustion.
Fortunately, the fracture did not continue to expand.
Thunder Burst erupted only for a very short period of time. As the remaining Lightning energy began to weaken, the space that had been forcibly torn open gradually lost the force sustaining it. The pull diminished little by little, while the last dark purple-black arcs around the edges of the fracture flashed once and then faded.
After several more breaths, space trembled one final time before settling completely.
The Cosmic Ark hovered within the dense layer of dust and smoke. Its hull still trembled faintly, while the ancient patterns across its surface gradually dimmed and disappeared as though they had never been there.
Only then did Hao Nhien finally relax his hand.
Berserk ended at almost the same time. The scales covering his right arm cracked and slowly withdrew, revealing human flesh covered in wounds. Blood ran from his elbow to his wrist before dripping onto the floor.
Hao Nhien no longer had the strength to keep himself upright. He fell onto his back, every breath carrying a deep pain through his chest as though fire had swept through his lungs and meridians from within.
He did not know how much time had passed before he finally managed to push himself into a sitting position.
Lanh Hoa was lying against one wall of the vessel. The wounds across his shoulder and ribs had torn open further after being thrown around inside, one leg twisted at an unnatural angle and clearly broken. His breathing was heavy, but still steady.
Luu Tan lay not far away. Most of one side of his robe had been torn apart, while blood ran down his face from his forehead and the corner of his mouth. His left arm was bent out of shape, white bone exposed through the torn flesh, but his chest was still rising and falling.
Both of them were alive.
That alone made Hao Nhien close his eyes for several breaths.
Only after his breathing had steadied slightly did he open a narrow viewing gap toward the outside. The dust had not completely settled, but the portion of the scene visible before him was already enough to leave him silent for a long time.
The terrain around the rear route had been almost completely transformed.
Most of the Dragonmist Thorn Forest around the center of the explosion had vanished. Nearby cliffs had either collapsed or been scorched black by the heat. The path that had once run between the two mountain slopes no longer retained its original shape, replaced by a massive depression filled with shattered stone, burned earth, and scars torn apart by Lightning energy.
At the center, the ground had been gouged into a vast black basin. Fine cracks still smoked across the exposed rock, while the smell of scorched earth and stone mixed with the dense aura of Lightning that remained throughout the area.
Hao Nhien stared at the scene for a long time, but saw no sign of Ly Vinh, Han Minh, or any of the men who had just entered from the far end of the rear route.
With the destructive power Thunder Burst had just displayed, a Foundation Establishment cultivator caught directly within the core of the blast could hardly survive with physical strength or protective spiritual power alone. Hao Nhien did not need to search for each body to understand the likely result. Whatever remained near the center had probably been destroyed by the lightning, buried beneath the shattered rock, or swept directly into the spatial fracture that had just appeared.
Hao Nhien slowly exhaled, then lowered his gaze toward his hand.
He still had two Thunder Bursts left.
The thought brought him no joy.
On the contrary, after witnessing the consequences of activating one with his own eyes, Hao Nhien finally understood just how terrifying the objects he had taken from the secret chamber of the Heavenly Spirit Merchant Association truly were.
Those three ancient spheres had once rested silently inside an old box without any clear explanation of their grade or upper limit. He had always known they contained an extremely dangerous power, but only now did he realize how shallow his previous understanding had been.
At that moment, a hoarse laugh sounded behind him.
Hao Nhien turned and saw Luu Tan looking outside through the viewing gap. His face was covered in blood and dust, one arm nearly useless, yet the sight of the black basin outside still made him laugh despite himself. The laughter lasted only a few breaths before pulling at his injuries, forcing him into a harsh cough as fresh blood appeared at the corner of his mouth, but the relief on his face did not disappear.
Lanh Hoa slowly opened his eyes as well. He stared at the scene outside for a long moment before giving a quiet laugh of his own, though after only a few sounds he had to press a hand against his ribs from the pain.
Hao Nhien looked at the two of them without speaking at first. After a while, the corner of his mouth also curved upward.
None of them had enough strength left to laugh loudly, and even breathing brought pain, but at least they were still alive to laugh.
For the first time since returning to the Fire Qilin Tribe, Luu Tan was neither standing behind Hao Nhien nor kneeling before him. The man lay beside Hao Nhien and Lanh Hoa, his body covered in wounds, having crossed the edge of death and returned together with them.
No one mentioned how much of his past he had redeemed.
There was no need to put it into words anymore.
Hao Nhien leaned back against the wall of the vessel and closed his eyes for several breaths.
This had not been a clean victory. They had nearly used everything they still possessed and had almost died to the very Thunder Burst Hao Nhien had activated, but in the end, all three of them had survived.
Outside, the wind of the Western Wastes began to sweep across the devastated land, lifting black dust from the basin and carrying it toward the distant desert.
Hao Nhien opened his eyes and watched it drift away.
As long as they were still alive, the flame of the Fire Qilin Tribe had not gone out.