In the span of just two or three breaths, countless attacks rained down upon True Man Xuanyuan. Even a powerhouse at the Nascent Soul stage could not withstand such relentless bombardment; he was covered in wounds, his vital energy churning relentlessly. Yet, a Nascent Soul cultivator is a Nascent Soul cultivator after all.

Faced with this absolutely fatal predicament, a terrifying life force erupted from him. After surviving the initial onslaught, he regained his senses, shouldering the gravitational pulls from over a hundred Earth Giants, and levitated ten zhang into the air. A mighty wave of aura burst from him, blasting away more than ten reckless Swarm Bugs.

But that was all he could manage. The Earth Giants’ innate Gravity Spell was practically a trump card killer; its continuous effect made him feel as if he were carrying a small mountain on his back. Even spatial teleportation, something Nascent Soul experts excelled at, was countless times harder under this immense pressure, let alone escaping as a streak of light.

Unless he could destroy every single Earth Giant, escape would be nearly impossible. “Brat, you and I die together.” The aloof figures of the Supreme Sect, especially a dignified Nascent Soul expert standing at the pinnacle of the world, being toyed with—even cornered—by a mere Golden Core brat. What an immense humiliation!

Never having suffered such a massive setback, True Man Xuanyuan’s first reaction was to lock his divine sense firmly onto Lei Dong. Ignoring all other incoming attacks, he spat out a mouthful of blood, and a golden light enveloped his body. His form dissolved into faint nothingness, and with an overwhelmingly aggressive posture, he instantly reappeared before Lei Dong, aiming a plain but fierce palm strike directly at his chest.

Strike the horse before striking the rider; capture the king before capturing the bandits. Although True Man Xuanyuan harbored a deep-seated hatred for Lei Dong, wishing to kill him to vent his fury, in this situation, instantly killing the enemy leader would fundamentally alter the future course of the battle. True Man Xuanyuan was, after all, a Nascent Soul expert, his thoughts sharpened to an extreme degree, especially in this moment of mortal danger.

He seemed to grasp a key element instinctively: Look at what surrounds him—Earth Giants, insects, Yakshas, ghosts. For such disparate groups to unite against a common foe, there must be a critical lynchpin. Shatter that point, and the path to survival would open.

Lei Dong’s expression drastically changed. He had ultimately underestimated the strength of a Nascent Soul expert. Though he had defeated the Black-Winged Demon King earlier, he was fully aware of that Demon King’s compromised physical state.

How could any expert who managed to cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage lack a few formidable tricks? Feeling the mountain-like pressure emanating from True Man Xuanyuan, and observing a seemingly effortless punch that was, in reality, as heavy as a mountain—a manifestation of returning to simplicity—Lei Dong perceived an unprecedented danger. His intuition screamed that if that punch even grazed him, his small life would be over.

Indeed, this was the case. True Man Xuanyuan was employing a secret art, allowing him to unleash terrifying potential life energy in mere moments. He was utterly confident that even a peer at the same level would be severely wounded if they took that punch head-on.

“Careless,” Lei Dong thought with a bitter smile. Had his caution waned as his power grew? Or had the decisive victory against the Joyful Union Sect clouded his judgment?

In truth, if he had immediately utilized the Heavenly Cycle Sun-Hiding Art to conceal himself the moment True Man Xuanyuan appeared, hiding in the shadows to direct his army to eliminate the Nascent Soul expert, this situation would never have arisen. Instead, he had insisted on a dramatic declaration. If he were at his peak strength, Lei Dong wouldn't dare take the punch head-on, but dodging it with only minor injury would not have been difficult.

But in this instant, Lei Dong felt a one-in-a-million chance of survival. Death seemed so close, yet it arrived so suddenly and swiftly. Amidst the lightning and thunder, a long-unfelt chill crawled up his spine.

The pressure of death almost suffocated him. Is this it? Is this where my life ends?

All sorts of strange thoughts flashed through his mind like lightning. He constantly chastised himself: with his rising strength and subsequent victories, he had become less cautious. He wasn't some protagonist from a novel with immortal vitality, nor was he playing a game where one could reload after dying.

In this world, he was ultimately weak, surrounded by countless powerful beings who could end his life with ease. What right did he have to be careless? Facing the punch, which appeared mild but contained an incomparably potent, explosive force, it wasn’t that Lei Dong refused to dodge; it was that his spirit sense was rigidly locked down.

Even in this crisis, his Asura Wings faintly shimmered on his back, yet they could not tear open the void to teleport and flee. True Man Xuanyuan had staked everything on this single punch. He even resorted to a secret technique, trading injury for the chance to escape the range of the Earth Giants’ Gravity Spell.

This revealed the fervor of his desire to kill Lei Dong. Just at this moment of near-certain death, a faint black mist seemed to brush past Lei Dong, coalescing into a phantom figure wreathed in black vapors? As demonic energy surged and rolled, the black phantom also threw a punch in return—it happened quicker than thought.

The entire sequence felt as if time had stopped, yet it was over in a mere blink. Lei Dong first saw two immense forces collide, generating a ripple wave that exploded outward like a tsunami. Then came a deafening boom.

Accompanied by the ringing in his ears, Lei Dong was thrown backward by the violent energy. A faint, almost inaudible soft moan sounded near his ear. The tone was so familiar.

He saw the phantom figure tossed away like a broken doll amidst the surging wave. This sight instantly jolted Lei Dong from his shock, and a sudden, inexplicable pang of heartache arose. That phantom was clearly the Celestial Demon.

Why was she by his side? Hadn’t he arranged for her to fight at the Demon Prison Sect? But this was not the time to dwell on that.

Lei Dong suppressed the violent churning in his viscera. The Emperor Demon Seed on his forehead abruptly manifested. True Man Xuanyuan, who had collided head-on with the Celestial Demon, was also far from unscathed; the divine sense that had seemingly solidified around Lei Dong instantly shattered.

This freed Lei Dong to instantly break free of the restraint. With a flap of his wings, he landed behind the Celestial Demon, his hand catching her soft, delicate body. He was on the front line, acutely aware of the terror of True Man Xuanyuan’s life-risking strike.

At such a time, even peer experts would avoid a direct confrontation. The Celestial Demon, despite her formidable power, was only at the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm. In a normal fight, she might have entangled True Man Xuanyuan for a few rounds alone.

To take that blow head-on like that would certainly push her toward the path of death. As expected, when Lei Dong’s divine sense pierced into her body, he immediately turned deathly pale. The rampant, savage energy had completely shattered her meridians and internal organs.

Worse yet, her Nascent Soul in her Sea of Consciousness hadn't managed to escape; it was now pulverized beyond recognition by that immense force. Her life was draining away at a perceptible rate. That overwhelmingly powerful punch had nearly destroyed both her form and her spirit.

Lei Dong hadn't felt this flustered in ages. He frantically poured his most precious elixirs into her mouth, simultaneously injecting his true essence into her body. But it seemed useless.

It couldn't halt the speed at which her life was vanishing; the fragments of her Nascent Soul were dissipating rapidly. This foolish woman, why is she here? Has she been protecting me all this time?

What Lei Dong didn't know was that a woman’s intuition is often terrifyingly accurate. And the Celestial Demon, a powerful mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, possessed a non-shallow understanding of the universe's fundamental laws. Because Lei Dong had ignored his serious injuries to lead the offensive against the Joyful Union Sect, she had silently disobeyed his arrangements, using her Celestial Demon Formless technique to hover invisibly near him.

When Lei Dong encountered this unprecedented crisis, she hesitated not at all in blocking such a tyrannical strike for him. The chaotic aura from that clash had not yet dissipated. In just two or three breaths, the Celestial Demon’s broken Nascent Soul disintegrated into the purest wisps of energy, scattering outward from her Sea of Consciousness to reintegrate into the cycle of heaven and earth.

"Aoooh!" Lei Dong roared furiously, tightly embracing the Celestial Demon’s delicate form. He couldn't believe it, couldn't imagine, that she had died so silently. This wasn't a conventional death; it was the tangible disintegration of her very core.

In his understanding, this was an irreversible death. His eyes were manic yet lost. Impossible.

She is the Celestial Demon, how could she die so easily? She was so powerful, so formidable. How could she be dead?

She didn’t even get to say a final word to me? No, this is impossible. It’s a hallucination.

I must be mistaken. At this moment, Lei Dong was like an ordinary man overwhelmed by panic and heartbreak, having never lost his composure so completely in his life. His sanity slipped into chaos.

"Ahhh! This is impossible!" A desolate, beast-like scream tore from his lungs. “Brother,” a delicate yet horrified voice echoed from the air above.

“Tell me, is time reversing?” A majestic voice resonated from the sky. An utterly miraculous event transpired at that instant. The outward-spreading waves of energy abruptly solidified, then, in an impossibly strange manner, began to contract back toward the point of explosion.

Lei Dong’s movements also reversed in an extremely bizarre fashion, like the tape of a recording being rewound. With a flap and a fold of his wings, he was back at his starting position.