Gunnar’s body lay on the dark blue crystalline ground, his right arm twisted at a bizarre angle.
A mixture of dark red brain matter and blood oozed from the charred hole between his eyebrows.
Ian’s four-meter-tall body slowly shrank. The flowing, rock-like texture and jade-like radiance receded like a tide, returning him to his normal state.
His skin was pale, and beads of sweat slid down his neck.
He dropped to one knee, gasping for breath, a burning pain searing his lungs.
The [Furnace Body Tempering Skill] was still operating at full capacity, repairing the minor fractures and internal injuries within his body.
That final clash of fists had drained nearly all of his stamina.
"Ian, are you okay, gaga?"
Gaga emerged from the shadows and landed on his shoulder, its small eyes nervously scanning his body.
"I’m fine."
Ian shook his head, struggling to his feet.
His gaze swept over Gunnar’s massive corpse.
’A Level Two Body Refining Wizard from the Immortal Heart. Their physical strength was truly terrifying.’
’If not for the Earth Resonance property of the [Rock Bear Potion], which dispersed the impact deep into the platform... If not for the jade-like radiance and self-healing ability provided by the [Furnace Body Tempering Skill]... If not for the faint golden, crystallized points of light in his Sea of Spirit, which maintained a level of cohesion far exceeding Level One even under the suppression of the Rules... he might have truly died here.’
"Loot the body. Quickly."
Forcing himself through his exhaustion, Ian changed into a new robe and began to search the body.
Gunnar’s Dimension Bag was heavy. Inside were forty-two Flawless Magic Stones, seven vials of a dark red potion labeled [Immortal Body Tempering Potion], and a palm-sized, dark red Metal Token.
The front of the Token was engraved with the Badge of the Immortal Heart: a burning heart entwined with chains.
On the back was a line of small text:
[Endless Sea - Magma Islands - Number Seventy-Three]
’A stronghold’s coordinates...’
Ian’s expression hardened, and he tossed the Token away.
He also found a beast-skin notebook containing insights into some of the Immortal Heart’s internal Body Refining Secret Skills, which was quite valuable.
"Killing someone from the Immortal Heart is going to be a huge pain," he muttered to himself.
They were a faction backed by a Level Four Wizard. If this got out, their retaliation would be relentless.
But it was useless to think about that now.
In these ruins, it was kill or be killed. There was no room for holding back.
He looked ahead.
The core area’s entrance—a dark blue rift—was less than twenty kilometers away.
But the "pressure" permeating the air was already heavy enough to make breathing difficult.
It felt as if countless eyes were watching from the darkness, waiting for... the final selection.
’Let’s go.’
Ian didn’t linger. He swallowed a High Level Recovery Potion, made a slight adjustment to his Gravity Field, and shot toward the rift like an arrow.
The final stretch of the journey was more difficult than he had imagined.
The closer he got to the rift, the scarcer the surrounding floating, fragmented platforms became.
In their place were the intact ruins of Star Spirit Race buildings.
Broken spires, collapsed halls, crystallized statues...
Everything was frozen at the moment of destruction.
Turbulent currents of dark blue energy surged like tangible tides, and each wave sent a slight tremor through his Sea of Spirit.
"Ian, up ahead..."
Gaga said suddenly in a low voice, its heterochromatic eyes fixed on a point three hundred meters ahead.
Ten kilometers from the rift, the last platform hovered in the void.
On the platform stood a man.
Bazaar.
His back was to the rift. He leaned on his Blood Blade with his right hand, his left arm hung limply, and three claw marks, deep enough to show bone, were gouged into his chest.
The dark red blood had already clotted into scabs, but the edges of the wounds glowed with a faint dark blue light.
It was a sign of corruption by the Star Spirit Race’s Rule.
Clearly, he too had encountered a Living Corpse Guard or something even more dangerous.
Hearing footsteps, Bazaar turned around slowly.
His blood-red eyes swept over Ian, killing intent surging in their depths.
"You little bastard... I knew you’d come."
He grinned, revealing blood-stained teeth.
Ian stopped, fifty meters from the edge of the platform.
His black eyes watched Bazaar calmly.
As if he were looking at a dead man.
"You actually dared to wait for me here? You’re courting death."
"Courting death?"
Bazaar threw his head back and laughed as if he had heard a joke.
His laugh was like a broken gong, causing the turbulent energy currents to ripple slightly.
"What I want more than anything right now... is to kill you."
He slowly raised the Blood Blade.
Bloody light flowed along the blade’s edge, but it was noticeably dimmer.
Under the suppression of the Rule, the power of this weapon, formed from a Level Two Talent Witchcraft, had already dropped to Level One Peak.
But the killing intent radiating from Bazaar was even more intense than before.
Ian didn’t want to waste time. He raised his left hand, his fingers forming a loose grip.
Above his palm, three black dots the size of rice grains appeared without a sound.
[Gravity Collapse Ball] · Triangular Lockdown!
The black dots shot out in a triangular formation, their trajectories cunning.
One shot toward Bazaar’s brow, another toward his chest, and the third...
...shot toward the very center of the platform beneath his feet.
Bazaar roared, his Blood Blade a blur as he slashed apart the first two black dots.
But the third had already struck the platform.
VMM!
A thirty-meter-diameter gravitational Singularity erupted.
The platform collapsed inward from the black dot at its center. A terrifying gravitational turbulence, like an invisible giant hand, seized Bazaar’s legs!
"You...!"
Bazaar frantically activated his Blood Boiling Domain, trying to break free from the gravitational pull.
But Ian gave him no chance.
He fired a Frost Ash Beam from his right index finger.
With his left hand, he formed a fourth black dot.
Dual-casting, with almost zero delay!
HISS! VMM!
The faint purple beam and the gravitational Singularity struck simultaneously!
Bazaar wildly swung his Blood Blade, its dark red light tearing through the air to clash with the beam.
The Ice and Fire Energy exploded, causing the Blood Boiling Domain around him to fluctuate violently.
And the fourth black dot had already silently attached itself to the armor on his back.
VMM!
The Gravity Field erupted a second time!
Bazaar was violently dragged toward the center of the collapse, and the Blood Blade was torn from his grasp.
His pupils trembled as dark red, scale-like patterns appeared on his skin.
[Crimson Fury] · Forced Activation!
His muscles swelled again as he tried to resist the gravitational tearing force.
But Ian’s killing blow wasn’t finished yet.
In the instant Bazaar struggled,
a fleck of faint golden light suddenly exploded in Ian’s black eyes.
Within his Sea of Spirit, the compressed, liquefied points of light spun frantically.
Thirty-six Floating Crystal Guards shot out, as fast as lightning.
In an instant, they crossed the thirty-meter distance and precisely pierced thirty-six vital points all over Bazaar’s body!
Between the eyes, the throat, the heart, the spine, the joints of his limbs...
PFFT PFFT PFFT PFFT PFFT!
A dense flurry of piercing sounds rang out.
Bazaar’s forward momentum froze.
He looked down, seeing the almost invisible wounds on his body, each one oozing a dark red bead of blood.
"You..."
He opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out.
Ian’s figure blurred as he threw a direct punch.
BAM!
Bazaar’s head exploded, splattering red and white matter everywhere.
The headless corpse crumpled to the ground, twitched twice, and then fell still.
The Level Two Body Refining Wizard, "Blood Blade" Bazaar... was dead.
The entire process took less than five seconds.
Ian slowly exhaled a turbid breath and retracted his right hand.
A faint, burning sensation from the Energy discharge lingered on his fingertips.
"All cleaned up," he muttered to himself, bending down to pick up Bazaar’s Dimension Bag and the Blood Blade.
The Blood Blade was heavy in his hand, and the dark red, bloody light flowing along its edge was slowly dissipating.
Without its master to sustain it, this weapon formed from a Level Two Talent Witchcraft would soon disintegrate.
But the materials themselves were quite valuable.
Ian put everything away and continued flying toward the rift.
Dark blue starlight poured out from the depths of the rift, carrying a call of absolute purity.
"Gaga, we’re going in."
He took a step forward, and his figure vanished into the rift.
The moment he passed through the rift, his vision was engulfed by endless white light.
It wasn’t blinding, but a soft, vast light that carried the final, sorrowful cry of a civilization.
Ian landed in a vast, empty "hall."
Beneath his feet was a translucent silver floor that reflected a brilliant, starry sky above.
The hall was over ten thousand meters in diameter, and its ceiling was too high to see.
The surrounding walls were inlaid with hundreds of millions of dark blue Crystal Stones.
Inside each Crystal Stone was a sealed, blurry figure.
The Star Spirit Race.
They were frozen in poses of kneeling, praying, and gazing upward.
Their faces were masks of final piety and despair.
And in the center of the hall...
...floated a fist-sized "ball of light."
A silvery-white fluid flowed over the surface of the ball of light, and countless tiny points of light drifted within.
It was like a miniature, living starry sky.
’According to the Silver Ring’s intel, could this be... the Flame of Civilization?’
A miniature, man-made plane used by the Star Spirit Race to upload the consciousness of their people.