The clash of blade and hammer rained down the Eight Forms of Blood War, relentlessly crushing with thunderous might. The clashing auras twisted and intertwined; Dorata felt the speed of Qian Jin’s decisive countermeasures was too fast, and the impact force of the battle aura was explosively fierce! It was like a legendary giant dragon had stomped down on his warhammer, pinning him with inescapable pressure!

If not for the warhammer’s superior resistance to the aura’s impact, Dorata knew he would have been wounded by that single strike. As the warhammer was pinned, he frantically spun it, attempting to dissipate the crushing force through rotation.

A cascade of sparks, like dazzling sorcery, erupted between the two weapons. Qian Jin’s Jidu Saber looked like a steel saw lined with razor-sharp teeth, physically biting a half-inch-deep groove into the Storm Hammer. Dorata’s aura exploded in violent bursts as he gasped for air, finally wrenching the Storm Hammer free from the saber’s edge.

What level of artifact was this kid wielding? Dorata stared at his Storm Hammer with a pang of heartache. This Level Six Battle Soldier, passed down through his clan, seemed as fragile as tofu against the edge of this young man’s Zabamadao!

Whum! Under the impact of the battle aura, the Zabamadao in Qian Jin’s hand let out a series of piercing metallic shrieks, denying Dorata the time to mourn his weapon. A brilliant blade light, over two feet long, shrouded Dorata’s entire body with a murderous chill, as if a colossal iron bowl had been inverted from the sky upon him.

Dorata felt like a toad trapped beneath an iron basin. If the previous strike could still be evaded, this current one offered absolutely no possibility of escape.

“Afraid of you?!” The shadow of death ignited the savage fury deep within Dorata’s dwarven heart. The Storm Hammer pulsed with wisps of strange magical fluctuations, mingling with his battle aura, enveloping the weapon and emitting a dragon-roar like bellow. From below, it charged upward like a maddened bull slamming into the battle saber.

Clang! The ear-splitting sound of metal striking metal generated shockwaves that formed visible rings of displaced air. The bandits lying on the ground immediately felt as if they were buffeted by a gale, their clothes whipping wildly.

Several bandits who couldn't cover their ears felt streams of crimson blood seep from their ear canals; their eardrums had been instantly ruptured!

Squeak… Grind… Squeak, Squeak… The Zabamadao pressed down upon the Storm Hammer, moving slowly downward. Dorata’s entire musculature tensed; the capillaries beneath his skin were violently torn, and beads of blood seeped through his pores, transforming him in an instant into a blood-soaked figure.

Heavy! So heavy! He had never felt such weight! Dorata felt like a toad being flattened by a massive mountain, utterly immobilized. His two arms began to sink inch by agonizing inch, the thick, bluish-black tendons straining as if threatening to burst through the skin’s confinement.

How? How could this be! Dorata stared at the slowly descending saber, a wave of helplessness washing over his heart. I used the Heavenly God Possession battle technique, multiplying my strength several times over, and I even employed Thunder Strike, a special technique that instantly doubles impact force—yet… yet I am still being forced down by this brat!

The Zabamadao slowly loomed larger in Dorata’s pupils. His shoulders trembled repeatedly, and his thick, pillar-like legs began to buckle, to bend!

Zheng! The Zabamadao, after relentlessly pressing down, was suddenly yanked backward. Dorata’s arms felt the sudden removal of a mountain’s weight; the relief was unprecedented!

Qian Jin flicked his wrist back lightly, his foot grinding against the earth and tearing up clouds of dust, blossoming into a huge, earth-yellow lotus shape. The massive Zabamadao erupted once more with even more dazzling blade light. The keen edge’s radiance was no longer like the tail of a single shooting star, but dispersed! Dispersed! And dispersed again!

The strikes of the Zabamadao transformed into countless slivers of light, coalescing into a gigantic, snow-bright lotus. Dorata seemed to have become the stamen at the heart of the flower, unable to move as he was utterly enveloped within.

Innumerable beams of sword light bloomed into magnificent radiance, raining down like a meteor shower. Dorata felt the shadow of death truly descending from the heavens, completely enveloping him.

Death! Dorata smelled the scent of death he had once encountered on the Man-Demon battlefield—cold, profound, helpless, as if there were no purchase beneath his feet, suspended in darkness, struggling against an unknown foe.

Defeat? Death? Dorata’s eyes dimmed. Under the onslaught of the torrential blade light, his spirit grew utterly calm, so quiet he could clearly hear his own heartbeat. The surrounding flora and fauna seemed to fall under his command, as tangible as the fingers on his hand.

A feeling unlike any before! Dorata felt his battle aura evolving, transforming! Like a butterfly breaking free from its cocoon, his long-unrefined Battle Soul, under the shadow of imminent death, found new development! The battle aura, stagnant for years, was alive once more at this instant!

Wisps of battle aura entangled, intertwined, intertwined! Seemingly reordering themselves into new configurations, returning to the Golden Battle Heart to reform, as if nurturing some new entity. Defeated? Impossible! In a flash, Dorata felt he had found the dawn of survival in the jaws of despair. His sinking heart bloomed like lotus petals, exploding open! His warhammer, which seemed to have fallen into shadow, began to glow again, as if he held a miniature sun in his hand. With a swing, it became dozens, then hundreds of tiny golden suns, which finally merged into one enormous golden orb, charging toward the center of the furious lotus.

Qian Jin’s shoulders twitched slightly. The countless angry lotus blade lights rapidly contracted. They were no longer one massive angry lotus, but a long river! A river of stars piercing the night sky! A river drowning all flames.

Te Jiaofei’s pupils constricted to pinpoints, cold light flashing in surprise. This strike! Its momentum was infinite, as if it truly merged the celestial river of stars into this single blow! It no longer seemed like a blade, but a river of the cosmos! Qian Jin was like the god of this small domain, forging the stellar river with his hand.

A strike approaching creation swept away the giant sun. Blade and hammer fully intertwined, sending countless metallic fragments and sparks flying in all directions.

Dorata’s hammer strike surpassed his previous strongest moment; his entire spirit and aura elevated limitlessly, as if even the distant stars could not halt his ascent, as if he sought to break through the constellations hanging in the sky! The moment the weapons met, the earth beneath Dorata’s feet coalesced and rose up. His clothes shredded completely under the tearing force of the battle aura, revealing his stout physique. The layer of red body hair was entirely shredded by the swirling aura, as if he were engulfed in roaring flames.

“This is…” A sudden tightness constricted Dorata’s chest, as if he had been violently struck by his own warhammer. The rising battle aura, the nearly solidified Battle Soul, was like an egg cracking under the pressure of a collapsing sky, forcing it violently back down. The half-formed Battle Soul ceased its development.

One strike? Two strikes? A hundred strikes? Or was it still just one?

Dorata found he could not distinguish whether Qian Jin’s Star River Blade Attack was a single blow or the impact of myriad strikes. The only sensation was complete suppression, utter subjugation. His world of serenity was annihilated by the tempestuous onslaught.

“Ah…” “Ow…” The nearby bandits, struck by metal shards flying from the warhammer, cried out in sharp pain.

Te Jiaofei tilted his head, narrowly dodging a flying fragment, inwardly relieved. If his reaction hadn't been fast enough, even with his protective battle aura, he wouldn't have withstood the impact of those shrapnel—the fragments of a Battle Soldier, no less.

The dust swirling around their bodies gradually settled. The bandits, unable to clearly see the battlefield, stared blankly at the two figures in the center.

The battle was over, but the manner of its conclusion was unbelievable.

“Damn! He won… How is that possible?” Te Jiaofei rubbed his eyes hard, staring dumbfounded at Dorata, whose neck was now pinned by the Zabamadao.

Lost! Te Jiaofei truly doubted his vision. Only a Demon Purge Warrior could understand just how formidable this savage dwarf was. Even the Bandit King, Ba Huang Wusheng, once claimed Dorata was the foremost figure beneath the Golden Battle Heart!

No warrior who had not yet solidified their Battle Soul could possibly defeat Dorata! Even warriors who had awakened their bloodline power—even two top-tier Bloodline Warriors at the peak of the Golden Battle Heart, even using their Bloodline Battle Form—could not defeat Dorata.

Perhaps warriors from the six great Ultimate Bloodline Families could use the supreme Saint-Grade battle techniques within their lineage to escape, but certainly not win against Dorata.

Such a dwarf had been defeated! Defeated by Qian Jin, who was merely at the peak of the Battle Heart level—a warrior of the Nine Battles of Demon Purge… not even a Demon Purge Warrior!

Defeated? Dorata’s tall body sagged like a deflated balloon, shrinking from his height of over two meters back to his original short, stout form of just over a meter. His two large eyes stared blankly at the warhammer lying on the ground.

This fight was not just a defeat of battle techniques; even his weapon was defeated! The magic enchantment on the Storm Hammer hadn't even been activated before it was cleanly sliced apart by the Zabamadao!

Not just sliced apart! But rewritten! Dorata felt as if he had activated the hammer’s magic, but instead of flying outward with the technique, the magic had surged back through the warhammer and into his own body!

The magic was the same! But the trajectory and direction of its release were completely different! That momentary dizziness spell, completely undefended, blasted directly into his core, causing instantaneous vertigo. In that mere instant, victory, defeat, life, and death were decided. Defeat!

Was it coincidence? Or…? Dorata slowly raised his head, forgetting the Zabamadao resting on his neck, ready to take his life at any moment. The menacing blade left a shallow red mark on his thick neck, yet he felt no pain. He simply gazed at Qian Jin, his eyes filled with speculation.