Just as Fang Senyan was about to aim again, the Iron Blood Arbiter’s still-intact right shoulder cannon unexpectedly fired a high-energy laser, targeting the ground a few meters in front of Fang Senyan.

Instantly, the earth exploded, showering debris three to four meters high and momentarily obscuring Fang Senyan's vision. By the time Fang Senyan lunged forward to reacquire his aim, he witnessed Aldaris, unable to even activate his Blood Escape technique, being launched skyward by the Iron Blood Arbiter’s leaping double-knee strike, only to be impaled through the chest by a spear!

Fang Senyan’s heart plummeted; the Iron Blood Arbiter only needed to press harder to claim another life!

Yet, Aldaris’s reaction was entirely unexpected. He gripped the blood-red battle spear lodged in his chest with desperate force. In his eyes, there was no fear, only a fierce, sharp glint. A series of cracking and snapping sounds echoed as his bones seemed to break throughout his body, and he was immediately enveloped in a blinding, white radiance. Squeezing out a final sentence through bleeding gums, he roared, “Feel my true power, you fool!”

“Light, Radiance, Transform!”

In that instant, the blood-red battle spear grasped by Aldaris dissolved completely, vaporizing! The cryptic symbols etched upon it detonated one after another, yet they could do nothing to Aldaris.

Not only that, but Aldaris’s clothing ignited in a raging, fervent blaze, extending outward from him to form a vast domain of darkness! Those within this darkness felt as if they were plunged into the boundless expanse of the starry heavens, poised to be instantly lost in the brilliant river of stars.

Even more astonishingly, that dark domain began to rapidly contract, as if a great whale were sucking in water, causing the white radiance surrounding Aldaris’s body to become increasingly concentrated, almost forming a dense mist—pure, luminous, and imbued with an indescribable solemnity.

God said: Let there be light, and thus, in the endless dark, a sliver of light appeared. Meaning: only darkness can nurture true light!

When the dark domain finally burned away, Aldaris had transformed into a colossal sphere of light, hovering half a meter above the ground! The sphere was entirely filled with that dense, materialized white radiance. Merely looking at it caused a momentary blindness, akin to staring directly at the sun or witnessing the arc of an electric welder.

Faintly visible within the sphere was a core composed of an indescribably pale blue, humanoid entity.

This was the ultimate power Aldaris had hidden within his body—his final trump card!

The Light Transformation, capable of shifting into the most powerful Progenitor being, allowing him to descend upon his enemies as the Luminary Consul!

Aldaris’s physical body had been forcibly reverted to its ordinary human form, stripped of all previous enhancements. However, it was now protected by an immensely thick plasma shield. At this moment, he was both utterly vulnerable and overwhelmingly powerful!

Watching this scene unfold, Fang Senyan finally let out a sigh of relief, feeling the immense pressure imposed by the Iron Blood Arbiter diminish significantly. Aldaris casually swept his arm.

A white lightning bolt, as thick as a baby's arm, tore across the ground, kicking up earth and gravel as it struck the Iron Blood Arbiter. The Arbiter instantly flashed to evade, but the white lightning pursued like a shadow, finally detonating violently against his frame!

Specks of emerald blood scattered briefly in the air before instantly vaporizing. The Iron Blood Arbiter staggered backward. Although he had endured multiple attacks before, those assaults had been absorbed by his incredibly robust armor. This was the first time he had been injured and drawn blood!

The Iron Blood Arbiter roared in fury. A crystal on his waist flashed—the precursor to his signature spear throw. Such throws of the blood-red battle spear were devastatingly powerful, and more terrifyingly, his throws seemed to create a sense of temporal displacement; the spear would often strike its target before he even completed the throwing motion.

Undoubtedly, this time his aim was fixed on Aldaris, now embodied as the Luminary Consul. But as the blood-red spear struck the Consul’s plasma shield, it was like a moth flying into a flame!

The spearhead began to dissolve upon contact with the plasma shield, yet the tail, carried by inertia, continued to plunge inward, only to be melted away as well—resolved soundlessly, uneventfully.

Such was the might of the powerful plasma shield; given sufficient energy calibration, any attack could be neutralized and absorbed.

Seizing the moment while the Iron Blood Arbiter was momentarily delayed by his spear throw, Fang Senyan raised his Judgment, aimed, and uttered in a tone of final decree, word by deliberate word: “I hereby identify the creature before me as an enemy of the Light, an ally of evil. May the soul of this heretic scream in the purgatorial fires of hell for ten thousand years!”

Then, Fang Senyan calmly pulled the trigger! A brilliant torrent of light erupted from the muzzle of Judgment, instantly engulfing the Iron Blood Arbiter! Although the Arbiter was formidable, against this powerful, evolving Dark Gold weapon, he could not escape his fate!

A bizarre pillar of light descended from the heavens, illuminating every minute detail of the Iron Blood Arbiter’s surface. Wisps of black energy, indicative of evil, spiraled outward. Simultaneously, Aldaris certainly did not let this rare opportunity slip. The Luminary Consul’s attacks were immensely powerful, constituting ranged Holy Damage and area-of-effect assaults; regardless of precise aim, any within the radius suffered full, grievous damage.

After enduring this blow, the Iron Blood Arbiter was bathed in a blinding, milky-white luminescence. The remaining armor fragments on his body burst and disintegrated, and even his mask was utterly destroyed. His scarred body surface was marred with large and small black spots, resembling the yellowing, darkening, and cracking pattern that appears when white paper is scorched by flame.

He let out a muffled groan, still unable to stop himself from spitting out a mouthful of emerald blood, yet the blood evaporated before it could even reach the ground!

Though Fang Senyan’s Judgment only inflicted a mere five seconds of stunning, those five seconds felt like five years to the enraged and panicked Iron Blood Arbiter. He could clearly sense his powerful body being rapidly consumed and destroyed, his life ebbing away at an alarming rate.

This engagement was truly the greatest crisis he had ever faced!

Strictly speaking, this powerful Iron Blood Arbiter surpassed the level of an Awakened Being, sitting a solid two tiers above Fang Senyan and one and a half tiers above Aldaris. Thus, confronting them felt like effortlessly slaughtering stray dogs.

However, Fang Senyan’s formidable equipment had bridged the cavernous gap between them, and Aldaris, after his transformation, genuinely possessed strength that transcended the Awakened level. Only through their combined assault could they inflict potentially fatal damage upon the Arbiter.

In a flash, the armor plating on the Arbiter’s surface was annihilated. Though the Arbiter still looked battered and covered in wounds, his slender form and clearly defined muscle contours gave him the impression of a sleek, ferocious leopard.

Sensing the five-second stun duration was about to expire, Fang Senyan decisively lunged forward. The veins on his left hand bulged like azure serpents, seemingly ready to burst at any second, as a colossal shadow twisted strangely around his hand.

Fang Senyan’s face was contorted, like a war wraith crawling from the depths of hell. He took a deep breath, the veins beneath his feet automatically extended like roots, drawing in spiritual energy from the earth, while his left hand savagely slammed directly toward the Arbiter’s neck.

The Arbiter had just recovered from the paralysis; despite his exceptional agility, he could not escape this blow. He managed to twist his neck, but Fang Senyan’s full-force strike slammed heavily into his shoulder blade! This "Beast of Erosion" attack was driven by all of Fang Senyan’s pent-up frustration.

What appeared to be a simple slap against the Arbiter’s shoulder blade was anything but ordinary. Where Fang Senyan’s skin met the Arbiter’s, his veins burst forth like countless small snakes, burrowing into the Arbiter’s flesh before breaking off like parasitic worms, swimming inward. Simultaneously, the illusion of the Solar Ladder behind Fang Senyan thrust vast numbers of root-like tendrils deep into the Arbiter’s body!

An indescribable sensation shot through the Arbiter’s nervous system. From the area touched by Fang Senyan, foul-smelling black ichor began to flow out, accompanied by massive patches of decay. The surrounding skin became uneven and pitted, like that of a toad. The Arbiter emitted an agonizing, ineffable shriek. The crystal on his waist suddenly cracked and dimmed, and a wave of indescribable, gentle force erupted from his body, flinging Fang Senyan seven or eight meters away. Immediately afterward, before Aldaris’s next attack could land, the Arbiter vanished in a high-speed distortion, leaving several afterimages before disappearing into thin air.

Faced with this turn of events, Fang Senyan’s expression shifted dramatically. He couldn’t help but sigh, “Damn it, I miscalculated one thing. This leaves endless trouble for the future!”