Yang Ying flashed forward as he raised his sword, stepping before Hardus. His warm, small sword slashed toward Hardus’s front, while his left hand followed up, hacking at Hardus’s right leg.

Hardus raised his light staff to parry, simultaneously blocking both swords before swiftly pulling back. At that moment, the other two Blade Emperors arrived before him, swinging their golden swords at him from the left and right.

"Don't even think about overwhelming with numbers!" The three Ape Masters became instantly enraged upon seeing Yang Ying facing six opponents, and each seized their light staff, charging into the fray.

Swords met staves, creating a cascade of dazzling light as they engaged in fierce combat!

The first Ape Master barely entered the battlefield before being assaulted by the two Blade Emperors on both flanks. Four light swords descended in quick succession. Although the Ape Master did his utmost to defend, he could not compensate for the vast gap in cultivation between the two sides. In an instant, the defensive circle formed by his light staff was broken. First his limbs were severed, then his chest and back were pierced by the light swords, resulting in his immediate death on the spot.

Immediately after, one Blade Emperor thrust a sword from his right hand, splitting the second Ape Master’s light staff. He then extended his left hand and pointed; a flash of lightning erupted, accompanied by sharp crackling sounds, as several streams of bright thunderbolts shot from his grasp. The Ape Master, struck by the lightning, cried out, his body wrapped in chains of electricity, launching him backward like a cannonball. Just as he was about to twist and land, a Blade Emperor had already appeared behind him, casually sweeping his light sword across, instantly severing him at the waist, followed by another strike that diagonally sliced his upper torso in half from shoulder to waist.

The third Ape Master did not last more than three seconds longer. Several light swords descended with the force of thunder, first shattering his light staff, then piercing him until he died.

A surge of fury flashed in Hardus’s eyes. Clenching his light staff with both hands, he executed dozens of techniques—chopping, twisting, thrusting, and parrying—all unleashed in a blinding instant. He danced a wheel of light around himself, seemingly possessing three heads and six arms, unleashing a thousand times refined combat skills upon Yang Ying. As his moves flowed, Hardus’s telekinetic power permeated the heavens and earth. Yang Ying could feel the supreme, unmatched, and utterly dominant spirit contained within his mind.

"Truly worthy of being named alongside Master Kongli, the Ape King Hardus, hailed as the closest to divinity. His spiritual world is strong and resilient; one could even say his will is unbreakable. Even facing six opponents, I detect not the slightest waver in him."

Though he was an enemy, Yang Ying could not help but inwardly express admiration. For Hardus to be the chief of his race and the half-century nemesis of humanity, his fame was certainly not undeserved.

By now, the three Ape Masters were dead. Yang Ying and his five companions, wielding twelve light swords that moved like the wind, completely surrounded Hardus, hacking and slashing without giving him a moment to breathe.

The Ape Masters of the Ancient Legion were renowned for their staff techniques, which were celebrated alongside the swordplay of the Psionic Monks. Undoubtedly, Hardus, as the Legion Commander and foremost master, was the supreme figure in technical skill. Yang Ying and his five sparred with him for several moves and saw that his light staff movements were flawless, his defense impenetrable. Furthermore, the force behind his staff strikes was immense, making a breakthrough through sheer brute force difficult. Although they held an overwhelming numerical advantage, rendering him unable to counterattack for the moment, breaking through his defense was clearly not something achievable in a short time.

Yang Ying understood that the combat skills he had acquired in haste still left a significant gap compared to his opponent. While his combat instincts had compensated considerably, enabling him to perform beyond his usual level, instinct was not omnipotent. Moreover, for Hardus to have achieved his current status, his combat instinct was only a hair's breadth away from that of a Blade Emperor. In terms of both combat technique and psychic strength, Hardus was far superior to his previous opponent, Hras!

This grand battle spanned from the mountaintop to the base, and then up to another peak. Both Hardus and the six members of Yang Ying's group moved with incredible speed; often, a flash of movement meant they were several kilometers away. Hardus was skilled in nearly every form of spellcasting—fire, ice, raging waves, lightning—all summoned effortlessly at a mere thought.

Clearing a ridge, Hardus stomped the ground with tremendous force. A deafening roar shook the earth as the entire slope collapsed beneath his foot, sending hundreds of rocks, large and small, tumbling down. Many were boulders weighing tons, even tens of tons, the total mass easily exceeding ten thousand tons! That wasn't all. Hardus thrust out his hand and piled on, driving the landslide with savage telekinesis like a tsunami, multiplying its power several times over! The unstoppable torrent of rolling stones surged toward the six members of Yang Ying below the slope!

Seeing the stone wave approaching, Yang Ying’s group remained calm, leaping collectively above the surging tide. They suddenly noticed hundreds of smaller stones shooting out from among the larger rocks—some as big as a thumb, others as small as a pill—accelerated by Hardus’s psychic power to several times the speed of sound. They arrived before the six in an instant!

The six of Yang Ying stood unmoving. A cacophony of tinkling and clanging was heard as the small stones violently disintegrated into powder about half a meter in front of them, as if striking a solid barrier. A slightly curved white barrier flickered and vanished...

"What was that?" Hardus’s gaze sharpened, but seeing the six rushing forward again, he dismissed the thought.

In fact, this was the Protoss signature technology: the Plasma Shield. From Carriers down to probe-like Protoss Zealots, and even their structures, all were protected by Plasma Shields. Over the past six months, Yang Ying had completely mastered Protoss technology and spells through the glorious Praetor Cass. Creating a Plasma Shield using mental energy, like an Archon, was something achievable with merely a fleeting thought.

Treading upon the rock tsunami, Yang Ying and his five once more reached Hardus, driving their twelve light swords toward him.

Hardus spun his light staff, fighting defensively while retreating with nimble footwork, preventing the six from encircling him. The battle soon moved into a burning forest. Plants capable of growing on Pluto were clearly not native to Earth, but their exact shapes were impossible to discern due to the intensity of the blaze. Only the bare trunks, appearing jagged like claws in the inferno, seemed to protest their fate of being incinerated to the sky.

This level of fire and radiation could not harm a peak master. Hardus charged into the burning woods without hesitation, and the six of Yang Ying followed.

The temperature within the forest rose several hundred degrees higher than outside, the searing heat washing over them, enough to dry a normal person out in moments. Visibility plummeted as firelight and black smoke obscured the line of sight, yet Yang Ying’s group tracked Hardus’s silhouette, never letting up.

Hardus weaved between the trees. Suddenly, a golden light stabbed in from the left. He parried with a skillful move, knocking the light sword aside. Seeing a second sword immediately follow, he shifted his light staff slightly, deflecting that one too. He then kicked out.

Yang Ying met the kick with a sweep of his own leg—bang—pushing Hardus’s foot away. But Hardus had already rotated his staff halfway, his movement as fast as lightning, the tip aiming for Yang Ying’s chest. Yang Ying rotated his wrists, catching the staff with both his light swords, and leaped into the air, flipping over Hardus’s head. As he passed, he angled his sword tips downward, aiming for Hardus’s shoulders!

Hardus raised both hands, placing his light staff horizontally before the two light swords. Zzzt, he blocked both swords simultaneously. He retreated a couple of steps, not pausing, and flashed backward as he continued to retreat, for behind Yang Ying, the other five Blade Emperors were closing in. Two of them raised their hands, casting two Feedback spells. Although Hardus had never seen the Feedback spell, nor did he understand its exact nature, this did not stop his spiritual sense from sending an alert, making him aware that this was an extremely dangerous spell—one that could lead to fatal consequences if successfully landed.

He parried one wave of the staff, then shifted his footing to evade the other. In the instant he evaded, three Blade Emperors caught up, appearing as if they were about to collide with him.

In that precise moment, Hardus unleashed True Illusion, creating more than a dozen phantoms that scattered in all directions. Yang Ying glanced around, unable to discern the true body’s location, knowing the opportunity was fleeting. Without hesitation, he commanded a nearby Blade Emperor to unleash Psychic Storm.

Instantly, the awesome power of thunder enveloped the entire vicinity. Lightning bolts as thick as barrels tore through the air, effortlessly dissipating the True Illusions. They also scorched a large swath of surrounding trees, causing the great fire to die down; with nothing left to burn, the flames ceased to exist. Hardus’s true body reappeared two hundred meters away!

"Hardus, if you intend to fight me to the death, why flee!"

Yang Ying shouted through mental link, flashing forward to pursue Hardus. Sound could no longer keep up with Hardus’s blinding speed. A Blade Emperor raised his hand and released a bright bolt of lightning toward him, but Hardus casually slung his light staff over his back, blocking the lightning.

"Put aside the futile arguments. Your words cannot move me. At this stage, do you still doubt my will to fight?" Hardus said coldly.

Yang Ying fell silent. Indeed, the Ancient Legion’s Pluto base was shattered; their capacity for war was essentially nonexistent. It could be said that ever since the orbital nuclear bombardment succeeded, the Ancient Legion had effectively exited the solar system stage. The enmity between him and Hardus had accumulated more deeply than that with the Earth forces; there was no room for turning back.

Now, other than battle, there were no more words left for either side to exchange.

The fighting continued. Yang Ying’s six pursued Hardus, playing hide-and-seek in the burning forest for a full fifteen minutes until they finally forced Hardus out into an open plain. Here, one could faintly make out the remnants of a grassland, now scorched to ash. The ground was covered in grass dust, which the scorching wind whipped up into a hazy cloud of smoke and dust. To know what happens next, please log on to [website address] for more chapters, to support the author and legitimate reading!