From the side view, those watching could see the form of the Thunder Sword more clearly and were struck directly by its terrifying presence.

The disciples of the Yanbao Sect always knew their junior uncle was powerful, but at this moment, the shock he brought them was indescribable. It made them feel as though heaven and earth were diminutive before his small figure—as if the universe was merely a plaything that he commanded with impunity.

Is this truly human? Holding the Heavenly Sword to punish mortals, who could possibly resist? This is already a god!

Xu Anzhang and Youu Mu's eyes widened, their souls trembling under the majestic Heavenly Sword, even though it wasn't directed at them.

It's over. This time, it's completely over. They knew Shi Chun was certainly doomed.

The spectators only saw Li Hongjiu wielding the Heavenly Sword at the apex of the whirlwind, but Shi Chun, hidden within the eye of the storm, was obscured by layers of dense mist. The entire misty tornado was rendered into a massive, glowing, blurry column. They could see within the hazy light pillar an indistinct, floating human figure.

No one else could be inside. They knew that must be Shi Chun.

What was that? Shi Chun felt utterly bewildered; life truly held too many unknowns.

In a flash, images from the Thunder Forest surfaced in his mind. In that instant, a realization dawned on him—he understood why the lightning had targeted him before, why those eerie bolts of lightning had appeared, and why the magical artifacts had been destroyed.

He could never forget the innumerable lightning bolts annihilating countless monsters in the Wuming Forbidden Land. Was that something a human could possibly accomplish?

This bastard can command the wind and even the lightning?

Confusion transformed into terror, and terror sharply twisted into rage—the kind born of desperation and recklessness.

Desperation arose from the realization that evasion was impossible—he was too acutely aware that his escape speed could never outmatch lightning. Even an expert of the Earth Immortal Realm couldn't be confident in their ability to avoid it. In his entire life, he'd never witnessed lightning of this magnitude, let alone lightning shaped into discernible forms. The lightning actually gathered to form a sword—how is anyone supposed to survive this?

There are plenty of bizarre occurrences, but today seems especially packed with them.

The black light emitted by the Three Corpses Mirror burst out only to be immediately shattered by someone—the supreme thunderbolt seemed capable of sweeping away all darkness.

By the moment the Thunder Sword fully took shape and locked onto him, Shi Chun no longer held the mirror in his grasp. The Three Corpses Mirror had already fallen into the Qiankun Bracelet on his wrist while he raised both hands to grip his blade, leaving no room for extraneous thoughts. Beneath the might of the thunderbolt, there was no time for deliberation.

There was no attempt to dodge; his face showed no trace of retreat. His body rose with his blade to meet the oncoming thunderbolt head-on.

At this point, only one thought remained: death was inevitable; at the moment of collision, courage alone would decide the outcome!

Enveloped in the luminous descent of the Thunder Sword, Li Hongjiu caught the masked man's gaze clearly. The resolute bravery and ferocity it held shocked him in that heartbeat—it seemed like the audacious will of an ant striving to shake the heavens.

Before such overwhelming power of the Thunder Sword, the masked man didn't even glance around or show any inclination to evade. His first reaction was to raise his blade and take to the air, with the sheer intent to defy and charge upward against the odds.

Recalling the man's unyielding attitude toward lightning earlier, Li Hongjiu pointed his sword downward to add force. And so, the Thunder Sword that descended showed no deviation, slashing straight to its mark.

He'd initially harbored another curiosity about this masked man, even pondering whether to hold back.

As expected, the edge of the Thunder Sword struck precisely at its target, directly hitting Shi Chun.

In the split second the Thunder Sword met Shi Chun's face, the deflection of his blade allowed him to feel the crushing energy that obliterated everything. He let out an ear-splitting, hysterical roar, "Huh..."

Beneath the twisted visage obscured by his mask, his rage, desperation, and the wretchedness of knowing his life was about to end all erupted in one anguished cry.

Memories surfaced like smoke—his life from childhood to now had never been a joyous one. He had endured endless hardships, living only to pursue the faint glimmers of beauty in his heart. Yet now, his journey seemed to end, and he couldn't accept it. He was deeply, profoundly unwilling.

All the potential hidden within his body exploded and blossomed in this moment, driven by an intense desire to let his mighty opponent know—so what if the world has no place for me? I dare to collide head-on with you nonetheless!

Those watching from the sidelines saw this hazy, dreamlike scene through the spinning mist and light.

The Yanbao Sect disciples were both shocked and exultant, convinced that no one below the Heavenly Immortal level could withstand such a blow.

Meanwhile, Xu and You felt an agonizing despair, nearly letting out mournful cries—this was the end, truly the end for themselves.

But soon, they noticed something wrong. There was no sound of thunder smashing into anything, only an eerie, resonating hum spreading outward. The colossal column of wind seemed to be forcibly halted by some inscrutable power. The rapidly spinning mist instantly shattered, swelling the wind pillar several times in size. Brilliant light pierced through countless gaps of mist-shreds, causing stinging discomfort in the eyes of those shrouded in darkness.

Standing above the eye of the storm, Li Hongjiu, slashing the pillar into emptiness with a single strike, clearly saw the scene within. He froze, followed by a sharp astonishment, his sleeveless and bare figure clutching his sword appearing momentarily forlorn.

He saw plainly that the massive Thunder Sword, upon striking the masked man, not only failed to produce the envisioned thunderous impact but seemed to slice into void itself at the moment of contact.

The Thunder Sword passed entirely through Shi Chun, though the regions it pierced underwent a peculiar change in color.

As the Thunder Sword traversed his body, it seemed to undergo some kind of filtration—the parts it pierced lost the incandescent brilliance of lightning, becoming faint white light instead as it emerged on the other side, still retaining the shape of a tremendous sword.

Beyond this, it appeared to affect Shi Chun not at all. The terrifically charged thunder hadn't even torn his masked attire, nor did it dislodge his veil.

However, it did halt Shi Chun's upward charge.

Simultaneously, it unleashed phenomena that Shi Chun himself couldn't see.

Li Hongjiu, though, witnessed the occurrence clearly; he alone saw the bizarre phenomenon erupting from Shi Chun's body within the vast storm's eye.

Or rather, it seemed the phenomenon had emerged due to the Thunder Sword's strike.

At the instant the massive Thunder Sword struck Shi Chun, it drew forth a surreal manifestation from his body. Li Hongjiu couldn't tell whether it was an illusion.

It appeared to expel a faint, chaotic aura from within Shi Chun, accompanied by a gigantic Green Lotus phantom.

It felt like a lotus born from chaos, its indistinct outline shrouded in haziness that prevented one from counting the seeds on its pod. The overall impression exuded an ancient simplicity.

The chaotic mist surrounding it emanated an inscrutable profundity. As lightning struck, the Green Lotus seemed to emanate vitality, its primal aura intensifying. It swayed gracefully, seeming to dispel the surrounding corruption and filth.

The scene evoked the pleasing imagery of a lotus rising unstained from mud.

Li Hongjiu quickly discerned this was no illusion—it was a manifestation emanating from the masked man's body.

Similar phenomena weren't unheard of. For instance, alchemists sometimes witnessed Dragon and Tiger Phenomena erupting from pill furnaces, symbolizing completion of the pill.

He couldn't fathom what the sudden eruption of such a phenomenon from the masked man meant but found it deeply unsettling.

To Shi Chun himself, he was engulfed by the phenomenon and couldn't perceive its external form. Yet his shocked expression revealed he had indeed sensed a profound disturbance within his body—a chaotic force surged and churned, overturning his very essence.

He couldn't explain it. He only knew that the vast Demonic Qi—or Demon Essence—accumulated within him suddenly underwent a rapid transformation.

Previously, he had drained substantial Demon Essence from Wukang Mountain Elder Xia Fuli upon defeating him. Owing to Xia Fuli's advanced cultivation level, the essence he contained was extremely potent, incomparable to the Demon Essence he'd absorbed from Sun Shigang during the Sky Rain Meteor Conference.

He had taken an extended period just to refine a fraction of Xia Fuli's essence, which even in minimal measure had elevated him to the pinnacle of the High Martial Upper Realm.

While Xia Fuli's Demon Essence was exceptionally rich, its refinement process was agonizingly slow—turning a small portion into cultivation strength demanded a Herculean effort.

In truth, his cultivation progress was impressively rapid, but he remained dissatisfied.

However, the single strike of the thunderbolt had instantaneously refined the accumulated essence entirely, even affecting his physical body. It seemed to seamlessly blend within him, converting all the Demon Essence into cultivation at once.

So suddenly, he was left bewildered. Could this actually happen? Such a meteoric rise in cultivation wasn't merely a matter of refining Demon Essence—it also required physical integration and harmony.

Rushing to cast spells for internal observation, he discovered a shocking rise in cultivation strength compared to before—the surging sensation of power clearly set apart the transformation. His body and essence harmonized immediately, as if it had been this way since the dawn of time. There could be no mistake.

The reason wasn't difficult to deduce—thinking back on what had just transpired quickly revealed the causality. He stared blankly at the electric serpents intertwining above, focusing on the figure of Li Hongjiu. He realized it was the result of Li Hongjiu's Thunder Sword strike. Simultaneously, he noticed that Li Hongjiu seemed equally astounded.

Unsure what had dumbfounded his opponent, Shi Chun could speculate—it was likely disbelief that such immense thunder hadn't claimed his life.

Not that it mattered. Even he felt incredulous; who'd have thought his cultivation of Demon Skills could help him resist lightning? Certainly not Li Hongjiu—and not even Shi Chun himself until now.

No point in overthinking. The battle still raged, and he needed to continue fighting. Given this, he needed to know precisely where his cultivation stood to measure his power accurately—miscalculation could lead to irreparable mistakes.

Quickly assessing his current cultivation realm, he found he remained within the pinnacle of the High Martial Upper Realm, teetering on the edge of Great Success.

This prompted a minor reflection—clearly, the gulf in cultivation capacity between realms was monumental. Even refining all of Xia Fuli's Human Immortal Realm Demon Essence was insufficient to fill the coffers of the Upper Realm.

With Great Success almost within reach, he briefly pondered Xu and Youu's whereabouts.

Still, there was no use dwelling on irrelevant matters—his paramount concern was ensuring his survival within the Divine Fire Domain.

Raising his gaze, his enemy lay directly ahead.

Now confident that he could withstand lightning and bolstered by newfound cultivation strength, Shi Chun's confidence surged. With a leap propelled by sheer strength, he ascended into the skies once more, blade in hand, storming upward to engage Li Hongjiu.

He dared not rely on magical treasures against an opponent of this caliber. If he used one against him, it would merely end up destroyed—as had happened before. Even his Treasure Robe and Treasure Boots left him apprehensive; their survival might have depended on the protective nature of his lightning-resistant Demonic Skills.

The Thunder Sword, transformed into fading Glowing Sword Shadows, dissipated. The Chaotic Green Lotus Phenomenon similarly vanished the moment Shi Chun began spellcasting and attacking. Li Hongjiu shed his puzzled expression, replacing it with resolute vigor as he saw Shi Chun advancing. With an unrelenting spirit, he plunged downward, sword in hand, to meet Shi Chun head-on.

Thunder had failed. Winds had been wasted. Since nothing else worked, Li Hongjiu resolved to take up arms directly, engaging Shi Chun in close combat. He feared nothing and sought a decisive duel!

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