"But where is Zeus?"

A few months ago, Mars and the Martial King had discovered that Zeus had been fighting cultivators in secret.

When they confronted him about it, Zeus hadn't denied anything.

Instead, he had said something strange to Mars.

"You should be able to see it too. Something is wrong with these cultivators. I'm fighting them to confirm it."

Mars hadn't argued back then, but he hadn't fully his words understood either.

He could sense abnormalities, small inconsistencies in how the cultivators acted, but nothing concrete enough to draw conclusions.

Now, standing alone in the open, that unease returned.

Did Zeus run into trouble?

Mars snorted quietly. "If he died while attacking some random cultivator, I'm never letting him hear the end of it."

The thought barely finished forming when Mars tilted his head slightly.

The air beside him cracked.

It wasn't a loud sound. It was sharp and precise, like reality itself being sliced by a thin blade.

"What—"

The voice never finished.

Mars kicked forward.

A Technique Spirit flared around his leg, the energy compact and dense.

His kick didn't strike air.

It sank into the void itself, landing squarely on a figure hidden between the folds of reality.

The Third Step Cultivator was forced into existence as he was blasted away, skidding across the lake's surface before crashing into the far shore.

Mars didn't stop.

His hand plunged into the same distorted space, fingers closing around something solid.

He grabbed the wrist of another cultivator hiding nearby and twisted.

There was a sharp crack.

The cultivator screamed as Mars pulled him out of the folds of reality and threw him aside like debris.

Mars straightened and looked around.

To an ordinary observer, there were only three figures present. Mars, and the two cultivators he had already exposed.

But Mars' eyes saw far more.

"Well," he said lazily, rolling his shoulders, "over a hundred. Did they really send everyone below Fourth Step?"

Shadows rippled across the air as attacks came from all directions.

Blades, talismans, techniques that bent light and space struck toward him simultaneously.

Mars stepped forward.

He moved, dodging some attacks and shattering others with simple movements.

Each strike he delivered was clean and efficient, breaking formations before they could stabilize.

"Seeing how all of you can hide between the folds of reality, you must be practitioners of the Shadow Beyond World Dao."

His tone was almost conversational as he fought.

Third Step cultivators fell one after another, unable to coordinate effectively.

Against someone like Mars, who had already begun progressing beyond Legendary rank Martial Arts, they simply couldn't keep up.

Of course, Mars knew his limits.

He wasn't foolish enough to think he could fight a genuine Fourth Step Cultivator head-on.

That line still existed.

But as long as his opponents were Third Step and below, the outcome was clear.

He kicked one cultivator into the lake, sending shockwaves across the surface.

"I guess disciples from other Peaks are using different paths to approach Neo," Mars said, deflecting a blade with his forearm. "That explains why Zeus and Veydran didn't come here. They are blocking others."

He laughed softly.

Machine God had said only four cultivators were coming for Neo.

That information was clearly wrong.

Either Machine God had been compromised, or the Heavenly Sect had intentionally fed him false data.

Mars didn't care which.

"It doesn't matter," he said.

His expression sharpened, and a savage grin spread across his face.

"Zeus said something was wrong with you people. Since there are so many of you here, this is perfect."

Above him, a phoenix began to form, its outline burning faintly against the sky.

"I can take my time finding out what that is."

Far from the lake, hidden deep within layered distortions, a Fourth Step Cultivator watched silently.

He did not move.

He was waiting for the moment Mars overcommitted.

Waiting to kill him in a single strike.

…

Neo's POV

Neo walked beside Apollyon in silence.

He felt calm.

He knew things were reaching their conclusion.

He glanced at Apollyon, then at the Golden Threads.

They were buzzing with excitement now, their voices overlapping in anticipation.

Neo could understand why they were happy.

Suddenly, two figures moved.

They struck without warning, emerging from hidden locations at the same time.

Their movements were precise, their timing perfect.

Martial intent surged as they aimed directly for Apollyon.

"Elizabeth!" Neo shouted. "Now!"

Neo dashed forward.

Multiple Technique Spirits activated simultaneously around him, each one reinforcing a different aspect of his body and energy flow. He invoked [Resonance], fusing the effects together temporarily, forcing them into a single amplified state.

Power surged through him.

Behind him, Elizabeth moved exactly as planned.

She summoned her own Technique Spirits, merging the body-strengthening one directly into Neo's form while launching long-range attacks with the others.

Blades of condensed force tore through the air, cutting off escape routes.

The two Martial Artists attacked Apollyon, clashing with him.

They were among the top ten strongest Martial Artists of the Righteous Martial Alliance, veterans who had shattered stone and steel with bare hands.

And yet, against Apollyon, they were overwhelmed in seconds.

Neo appeared between them.

He intercepted an attack, twisted his body, and deflected it aside.

That was when Apollyon moved again with full strength.

He struck once.

Neo reacted instantly, raising his arm and meeting the attack head-on.

The collision sent shockwaves ripping through the land.

The ground cracked, the air screamed, and in the distance, an entire mountain was torn apart, reduced to debris that scattered across the horizon.

The two Martial Artists froze.

"…What?"

"A mountain?"

For Martial Artists, destroying walls or uprooting trees was already considered impressive.

Cutting through thick rock placed someone among the strongest.

Blowing apart an entire mountain was beyond comprehension.

Neo was smiling grimly.

Even he hadn't expected that much.

'We all are suppressed in True Blessed Land, and he is still strong enough to blow a mountain.'

'He hasn't even started using his Authority.'

'Fuck this guy.'

He looked up.

Above Apollyon, exactly one thousand golden spirits hovered in the sky. Each one looked identical to Apollyon.

Their light was subdued, as if mimicking the soft glow of dawn.

Neo narrowed his eyes.

'So this is why they call him Thousand Brilliance,' he thought.

And judging by the way no one else reacted…

'Seems like only I can see it.'

Neo raised his hand slightly and pointed above Apollyon's head.

"Is that an Ancient-grade Martial Art?"

At this point, even someone completely ignorant of martial paths would understand that Apollyon's martial art was beyond Legendary rank.

The two Martial Artists from the Righteous Martial Alliance froze.

Their faces went pale. One opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it again. The other swallowed hard, clearly struggling to process what he was seeing.

Neo glanced at them and understood immediately.

They wouldn't be much help from here on.

'Well, I was planning to handle this myself anyway,' he thought calmly.

He turned his full attention to Apollyon.

"Yes," Apollyon replied to his question. His voice was steady. "Are you scared?"

"Hahahah! You can joke too?" He stepped forward and took a sword stance, his posture settling naturally. "Let's start fighting seriously. I don't think there's a reason to drag this out."

Golden rays bloomed around Apollyon.

They weren't bright in a blinding way. They were warm, inevitable, like sunlight that would arrive no matter how long the night lasted.

His Authority manifested.

[Inevitability].

A butterfly formed above Neo, its wings faint and unreal, as if half-existing outside the present moment.

They clashed.

The first collision bent space.

Neo's sword met Apollyon's fist, and the impact rippled outward.

Time stuttered for an instant, then corrected itself.

Reality screamed quietly as the force was contained, compressed into a narrow range so the surrounding world wouldn't collapse.

Elizabeth moved the moment the fight began.

She stayed at range, attacking from angles that supported Neo without interfering with his rhythm.

The two Martial Artists followed her lead, striking where they could, retreating the instant Apollyon's attention shifted.

Neo fought with precision.

He activated his butterfly again and again, erasing Apollyon's attacks from existence before they could land.

Sometimes he erased them completely.

Other times, he twisted their remnants into variants of his own techniques and sent them back.

Once, one of the Martial Artists was caught off guard and killed outright by a stray strike.

Neo revived him without hesitation.

The butterfly fluttered once, and the Martial Artist gasped back to life, confused but intact.

Apollyon adjusted.

He activated his Authority more deeply.

Even when Neo erased an attack through time manipulation, it returned. The strike reappeared from another angle, as if reality itself insisted it must land.

Inevitable.

Those attacks were inevitable. Even if erased, they would land.

Neo grimaced slightly but kept moving.

Thankfully, he had anticipated this.

He intercepted those inevitable attacks before they reached the Martial Artists.

Until now, they had only died to Apollyon's normal attacks, never to the ones enforced by Authority.

The battle escalated.

Neo wielded his pitch-black sword, its edge cutting through space with refined precision.

Apollyon answered with his fists, each strike carrying crushing inevitability rather than brute force.

They moved faster.

Stronger.

The air between them shattered repeatedly, only to stitch itself back together.

Then Apollyon spoke.

"Sunrise."

The thousand golden spirits above him flared.

Their light intensified, no longer subdued. It spread outward, slow and unstoppable.

Elizabeth and the two Martial Artists suddenly felt something and looked up.

For the first time, they could see them.

Not clearly, but enough.

In Neo's eyes, the sight was overwhelming.

The golden spirits shone like the sun at dawn, not blinding, but impossible to ignore. Each one radiated presence, authority, and inevitability.

Apollyon's power surged.

It climbed exponentially.

Neo was struck head-on.

The ground beneath him shattered as he was driven into it, his body crashing through layers of reinforced reality before coming to a stop deep below the surface.

The plain cracked outward, forming a massive crater.

Apollyon stepped forward slowly.

"You are going to lose, Heavenbreaker. The power of Ancient-grade Martial Arts is not something you can counter."

Neo lay still for a moment.

Then he laughed.

"Are you sure?" he asked, his voice echoing from the crater.

More Technique Spirits began to appear around him.

At first, Apollyon didn't react.

A few more spirits formed. Then a few more. They fused into Neo's body one by one, strengthening him through layered Resonance.

Dozens appeared.

Apollyon frowned slightly.

Then hundreds.

Some of them carried the unmistakable weight of Legendary rank.

"You… how?" Apollyon muttered.

The Golden Threads erupted into manic laughter.

HAHAHAHA!

Look at that!

Look at the number!

The Technique Spirits kept coming.

One thousand.

Two thousand.

Three thousand.

Five thousand.

Ten thousand.

All of them fused into Neo's body, operating together through Resonance.

His presence changed completely, no longer sharp and focused, but vast and overwhelming.

Neo rose from the crater, rolling his shoulders.

"If I can't defeat you with quality, then I'll do it with quantity."

…

Several minutes earlier.

As Neo and Apollyon were leaving the Sect, Neo activated his World Energy for a split second.

He had wondered whether Apollyon noticed.

The Golden Threads certainly did.

They buzzed with excitement, laughter spilling over each other.

Heheheheh!

He came prepared!

You're going to lose, Apollyon!

That was because Neo had left a clone behind.

The moment Neo and Apollyon were far enough away, the clone moved swiftly toward the headquarters of the Righteous Martial Alliance.

The Alliance had agreed to help Neo in three ways.

First, they would send powerful Martial Artists to assist in the fight against Apollyon.

Second, they would train Martial Artists from Neo's faction.

And third—

This.

Neo's clone arrived at the headquarters and was led directly to the Martial King.

"I believe Mars has already told you everything," Neo said.

"Yes," the Martial King replied slowly. "But is it really possible?"

"Yes. As long as you agree, I can help all of you grow stronger."

The Martial King hesitated only briefly.

He had seen Mars' character so he knew that if Mars trusted Neo, he was a trustworthy person.

Moreover, if Martial King didn't help here, Neo would be captured by Cultivators, which would ultimately lead to destruction of all Martial Artists.

They had no choice but to help Neo.

If Neo fell, the cultivators would eventually wipe out the Martial Artists entirely.

"Then, let's proceed," the Martial King said.

He opened his palm.

Neo placed his hand in front of it.

The Martial King felt something connect.

Neo's Path of Eternal Transcendence unfolded before him.

A screen appeared, filled with information far beyond what he had ever imagined.

Neo digested the Martial King's abilities instantly, then used the Shadow Core Firmament to create the Martial King's Technique Spirits.

At the same time, the Martial King activated the [Skills] granted to him.

He snapped his fingers.

Fire appeared.

He snapped again.

An icicle formed.

Another snap.

Portals opened and stabilized.

"This… This is wonderful."

He demonstrated his new abilities openly.

Seeing this, more Martial Artists gathered.

One by one, they approached Neo's clone.

Not all of them accepted.

Some refused, saying borrowed strength was not true strength.

Neo did not force them.

Even so, tens of thousands agreed.

All of these Martial Artists connected to Neo's Path.

Neo was rapidly gaining information of countless Technique Spirits.

…

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