In the sea of chaotic rocks between the two Dantian boundaries, Yang Ying and Kalagunis each stood upon a separate stone. Mental fluctuations, replacing the shockwaves of air, propagated the wills of the two men through the vacuum.

"Well, the environment here is quite suitable. It makes a fine graveyard for you, Kalagunis. Today is the day you die!" With those words, Yang Ying trembled, his body suddenly soaring, growing to the height of a hundred-meter giant!

A halo of dim, yellowish light descended, solidifying into a radiant canopy that enveloped Yang Ying. "Why have you come to kill me?" Kalagunis roared, even as his own body expanded, becoming a giant of equal height, his hair alight with surging, blood-red malevolent flames that streamed down like an apparition of a demon—ferocious and terrifying.

Both Level Four existences had transformed into bodies as immense as small mountains, their slightest movements carrying devastating power.

"To collect a debt," Yang Ying declared, resolved to send Kalagunis to his death with full knowledge. "You owe me two blood debts. The first I collected on behalf of Earth: you created the Ancient Legion, allowing the apes to harass our planet for half a century, slaughtering billions of Earthlings. The second I collect for the Ancient Legion itself, especially their commander, Hardek. He attained Level Four, yet died by my hand because of the fate you burdened him with. I demand satisfaction for both these blood debts. Take this: Mind Storm."

Rumble!

A sound like muffled thunder—though sound cannot travel in a vacuum—pierced directly into the depths of Kalagunis’s heart, shaking him to his core.

As he roared, under the sweeping, seemingly endless torrent of lightning, countless electric tendrils coiled around him. Kalagunis bellowed, and blood-red malevolent flames erupted from every pore of his body. He charged out of the Mind Storm's reach, wreathed in electricity and flame, unleashing a punch toward Yang Ying!

"Absurd! You killed Hardek, and now you dare demand payment from me?" Kalagunis snarled. "First, I created Hardek. I bestowed his talents, taught him staff mastery and sorcery, granted him authority over the Ancient Legion, and elevated him to Level Four. As the creator, I had the right to demand whatever I wished of him. Second, Hardek died by your hand; the fact that I haven't exacted revenge for that death is mercy shown to your Earth. And yet you seek to collect debts from me?"

"Nonsense! What skill or power do you possess that allowed Hardek to reach Level Four? That is utter fabrication! Why didn't you teach the fierce flames to Hardek? If you had that ability, why didn't Longge, or your other disciples who received far more of your tutelage than Hardek, also reach Level Four? Hmm!"

Yang Ying countered sharply, his form blurring to evade Kalagunis’s punch. He raised a hand, and powerful currents of electricity erupted, striking Kalagunis precisely on the chest, blasting him backward like a cannonball, sending him crashing heavily into a massive asteroid a hundred kilometers away.

Though both were giants of a hundred meters, their movements were as agile and precise as when they were normal height. A slight pivot of the foot could cover hundreds of kilometers, and a combined charge could sweep tens of thousands of kilometers.

"Indeed, those incompetent fools were no match for Hardek, but you cannot deny that without me, Hardek would not exist," Kalagunis’s voice echoed from within the asteroid. Then, deep fissures began to spiderweb across the one-kilometer-wide rock.

Boom!

The asteroid violently disintegrated. Kalagunis burst forth from the wreckage.

"Good. Come then."

Yang Ying flashed forward to meet him, slamming a punch toward Kalagunis’s head!

Excluding the conflict with Hardek, this was his first true life-and-death battle against a Level Four existence. Yang Ying felt no fear of defeat, but defeating Kalagunis would clearly not be as simple as it appeared.

Although he possessed the mental strength of the Level Four Limit, he had only been promoted less than ten days ago. His Higher Spiritual Perception allowed him to glimpse the fundamental rules of the universe, but converting those rules into combat power required time and accumulation.

For things a Lower Level Four existence might fumble over for decades, Yang Ying could grasp in an instant. However, Kalagunis, an Upper Level Four existence whose mental power exceeded ninety million—nearing the Level Four Zenith—had millennia of experience and countless battles under his belt, knowledge Yang Ying could not match in ten days.

The Level Four Limit signified three hundred million mental power, slightly more than three times Kalagunis's strength. It was enough to ensure Yang Ying remained undefeated, but killing Kalagunis would require impeccable execution.

Mental power was the root; application was the branches and leaves. The deeper the root, the more luxuriant the foliage. Yang Ying’s root was deep enough, but the blooming, leafing out, and fruiting all required time.

The best way to compress time, simply put, was to learn and breakthrough in battle—a process of grafting, attaching the branches and leaves of another tree onto one's own. His profound root system was sufficient to nourish these foreign branches without fear of overloading.

And Kalagunis, among the opponents Yang Ying could currently find, was the most suitable opponent—one reason Yang Ying engaged him at all.

What Kalagunis did not know was that the dim, yellowish canopy surrounding Yang Ying was actually the light manifestation of Mind Control technique. However, Yang Ying did not use it to alter Kalagunis’s thoughts, as success in that endeavor was highly improbable.

Any being who attained Level Four must possess exceptional qualities. Even as a scoundrel, Kalagunis was one of great wisdom and tenacity; with such traits, a 'scoundrel' was hardly just a man anymore.

Yang Ying formed the canopy with the light of Mind Control primarily to probe Kalagunis’s thoughts during the fight—a tactic that held considerable feasibility.

By deciphering fragments of thought, combined with observing the external manifestations of universal rules before him, Yang Ying could almost instantly assimilate Kalagunis’s fighting concepts. Yet, he remained outwardly calm, continuing to engage using the divine race’s lightning magic, luring Kalagunis into revealing more of his secret arts.

There were other reasons Yang Ying desired Kalagunis’s death. The two star sectors occupied by the Kustar people were immensely resource-rich territories. If Kalagunis were killed, and an alliance formed with the Gexing people to eliminate the Kustar army, even securing just one of those sectors would yield riches hundreds of times greater than the dozen resource planets orbiting the Solar System.

"Hardek’s debt has long been paid!"

After dozens more exchanges, where malevolent flames and thunder intertwined, shattering countless meteorites into flying debris, Yang Ying suddenly seized an opening. He drove the Great Vortex Spell into Kalagunis’s body, causing his form to freeze momentarily.

A perfect opportunity!

Yang Ying spread his hands, and two dazzling balls of electric light burst forth from his palms. He pressed the light onto Kalagunis’s body, pouring hundreds of millions of volts of power into him, disrupting his vital functions.

As a being at the Level Four Limit, Yang Ying’s current carried the power to truly damage the essence of a Level Four entity. If Kalagunis were electrocuted to death by this current, his spirit and form would be utterly annihilated.

"Aaaagh!"

The ancient warlord, cornered at this critical juncture, utterly refused to die here. His mental power coalesced into a dense, malevolent flame that wrapped around him, transforming into a raging firestorm. Kalagunis made no attempt to control this energy; it lashed out at Yang Ying while simultaneously scorching his own bodily functions—a self-destructive tactic designed to harm the enemy by first harming oneself.

However, Kalagunis’s body possessed a high degree of adaptation to the fierce flames, keeping the damage within his control. Moreover, the technique’s sheer power was extraordinary.

Seeing his opponent resort to desperation, Yang Ying pulled back, simultaneously recording every move and analyzing the techniques and tactics in his mind.

Kalagunis threw his head back and roared, his form expanding again, reaching over a thousand meters high, nearly the size of a large battleship. He thrust out both hands, and the storm of malevolent flames scattered, reforming into a waterfall of fire stretching for tens of kilometers. He guided the cascade toward Yang Ying.

"Hmph, am I the only one who can grow?" Yang Ying scoffed, his body shooting upward like a stalk of bamboo pushing through dry earth. He instantly surpassed fifteen hundred meters, reaching a height where Kalagunis only came up to his chest.

If they stood on the ground in this state, they would resemble mountains.

As the spreading flames surged toward him, Yang Ying used his Eye of Higher Spiritual Perception to instantly analyze the forces composing the waterfall, gleaning some extraordinarily profound rules from it. A smile lit his face. He rubbed his hands together and drove straight into the deep spread of malevolent flames, seizing the entire torrent in his grasp.

"Go!" Kalagunis pushed the waterfall of fire, intending to incinerate Yang Ying. But Yang Ying, clutching the flames, caused the light in his palms to flash brightly, slowly shoving the cascade back.

Under the mutual pressure, the energy contained within the waterfall of malevolent flames accumulated relentlessly. The blood-red color grew brighter and more blinding, seemingly carrying a foul, dizzying stench that made one feel nauseous and restless.

Yang Ying continued to push forward. The light from the flame waterfall intensified rapidly, soon nearing its critical threshold. Then, the red light flashed violently.

BOOM!!!

The surging malevolent flames erupted outward, and the resulting shockwave pulverized every meteorite within a hundred-kilometer radius.

"Huh? He actually fled!"

The explosion tore Yang Ying and Kalagunis apart. Kalagunis seized the opportunity to tear open space and escape.

Yang Ying understood instantly: Kalagunis had never intended a head-on fight from the start. His display of desperate, self-sacrificing ferocity was merely a calculated move to provoke Yang Ying into a direct clash, thereby creating a window for escape.

"Well played, Kalagunis! Living for over ten thousand years, you certainly have your tricks." Seeing the spatial wormhole Kalagunis had opened about to close, Yang Ying instantly transformed his body into a streak of lightning and plunged through.

A chase spanning tens of thousands of light-years had begun.