... "Pfft—!" Lei Dong spat out a mouthful of blood, his face deathly pale. With his level of cultivation, he could barely manage to use the Nether God's True Word Incantation. However, the target was a Deity Transformation stage expert, and he was forcing a temporal stasis. Even maintaining the cessation of time for a mere breath or half-breath was an unbearable burden for Lei Dong.

Half a breath is fleeting, seemingly useless, but it was precisely that sliver of time Lei Dong sought to claim. When time stutters, the more formidable the master, the more acute the sensation—a moment of blankness, surprise, shock, or even terror. Any flicker of such an emotion brushing against his mind was the greatest victory for Lei Dong.

While observing the earlier fight, Lei Dong had been secretly and desperately summoning the Great Belly Cannon Ghosts. Though not much time had passed, he had already unleashed several thousand low-grade Great Belly Cannon Ghosts, arranging them into a dense, tightly packed killing array. This quantity of Nether Fire cannonballs formed a barrage as dense as a meteor shower. Individually, the explosive power of a low-grade Great Belly Cannon Ghost's Nether Fire projectile was insignificant, perhaps only equivalent to the full strength strike of a Foundation Establishment cultivator. But in sheer numbers, they could unleash astonishing might. Furthermore, the leading three Great Belly Cannon Ghosts were exceptionally potent: two at the peak Golden Core level, and one at the early Nascent Soul level.

The Insect Emperor proved worthy of his Deity Transformation status. Even though the distance separating them was minimal, his instinct drove him to attempt tearing through space, seeking escape via spatial teleportation. But Lei Dong's half-breath of temporal stasis exerted its maximum effect. Thousands of Nether Fire cannonballs, varying in size, detonated some ten zhang away from the Insect Emperor. Quantity had transmuted into quality. Deep within the waters of the Nether River, the explosion formed an expanding, verdant green sphere, shredding everything in its path. Even space itself was violently contorted and pulverized in that instant. At the very epicenter, spanning dozens of zhang, a dark, swirling vortex opened.

An explosion of such magnitude—let alone the Insect Emperor—caused even Lei Long and Evil Phoenix, locked in their duel a dozen li away, to halt their fierce battle and stare at the scene with vacant shock. The resulting shockwaves of air and water extended for hundreds of li, creating surging crests upon the surface of the Nether River.

Lei Dong, Xiao You, and the retinue of guards had begun their retreat the moment Lei Dong activated the Nether God's True Word Incantation. These cultivators, all possessing Nascent Soul level strength, swiftly deployed their signature evasion techniques and encased themselves in defensive shields. In the blink of an eye, they fled over a li away, narrowly escaping the blast's core.

Lei Dong streaked across the air, leaving behind phantom afterimages, drifting ethereally and at extreme speed. Following Lei Dong’s instructions, Xiao You summoned a plume of black mist, enveloping the three precious Cannon Ghosts that had been consumed in the firing, and then pursued Lei Dong.

Yet, even so, the remnants of the powerful shockwave washed over them like autumn leaves in a gale, tossing them up and down. They were swept back for nearly fifty li before they could finally stabilize themselves. Their shields were shattered, and everyone was severely depleted of vital energy. Looking back at the explosion's origin, the Rán Míng Black Fiend Formation banners had been blown to tatters, lost to sight; the formation was clearly broken. Fortunately, Xiao You had perfected the refinement of these banners; they were connected to her soul, allowing for resonance. With careful searching, they should still be recoverable.

The thousands of slow-moving, low-grade Great Belly Cannon Ghosts had no time to flee. They were utterly pulverized by the shockwaves generated by their own synchronized barrage, leaving not a single survivor.

If Lei Dong's side, the instigators, suffered such losses, the target, the Insect Emperor, must have endured far worse. Of the nearly ten thousand Nine Nether Soul Devouring Worms, only a pitiful few survived the explosion. The massive, imposing swarm of Nine Nether Soul Devouring Worms was reduced to merely two or three near-dead stragglers. The primary target, the Insect Emperor, had only managed to tear open space; he had no chance to flee before being caught dead center by the blast. But a Deity Transformation expert was truly a Deity Transformation expert. Even amidst an explosion of such terrifying power, he managed to employ successive measures to preserve his life.

Woe to the Insect Emperor: his black robe was shredded, revealing his hideous true form—neither fully human nor fully insect. Six of his eight appendages, which could be called tentacles, were severed, and nearly half of his body had been blasted away. Yet, he lived, illustrating that the vitality of a Deity Transformation expert far exceeded human imagination.

“Kid, I will kill you.” Not only was the Insect Emperor’s physical body mostly destroyed, but his Prime Soul—the most crucial aspect for a Deity Transformation cultivator—was shattered. He could only forcibly hold the fragments together now.

With injuries this severe, it would take the Insect Emperor at least a hundred years to recover. But at this moment, the only thing consuming him was the urge to slay that utterly insidious boy.

The Insect Emperor had suffered losses in his life, but never one this devastating. That treacherous brat had appeared utterly unremarkable from beginning to end, hidden among the Ghost King ranks, silent. Yet, he had stealthily laid such a killing array. The intellect of a Deity Transformation expert is keen; with just a moment's consideration of the preceding events, the cause and effect became painfully clear. The Insect Emperor finally understood: from the moment the two sides met, the boy who set up the killing array had been plotting against him, the Insect Emperor, all along.

Being so grievously wounded by a mere Nascent Soul brat, the internal trauma and resentment far surpassed the physical and spiritual damage. The Insect Emperor now harbored a single thought: kill that brat to extinguish the hatred burning in his chest. His mouth half-crushed, the Insect Emperor’s body streaked past, leaving afterimages, and he charged toward Lei Dong in a purely physical melee—the combat style he was least suited for.

Lei Dong was not faring well either, reeling from the backlash of the True Word Incantation. But with his life on the line, he could not afford to dwell on his injuries. He instantly spread the wings on his back and transmitted to Xiao You: “You retreat first. I’ll draw the Insect Emperor away. Have faith in me; don't let me worry about you.” The last two sentences were already drifting on the wind, indicating Lei Dong was moving far ahead.

Xiao You was frantic with worry, but at this critical juncture, she chose obedience and trust in Lei Dong. She led the group of Ghost King guards to flee in another direction.

With no rear guard to worry about, Lei Dong plunged into the profoundly intricate network of stalactite caves at the bottom of the Nether River Valley. Though the Insect Emperor was severely crippled, and though he was poor at close combat, he was still far beyond what a mere early Nascent Soul cultivator like Lei Dong could directly contend with. Lei Dong could only rely on the terrain advantage to stand a chance. Using the Ghost Shadow Evasion Technique, he weaved nimbly and flexibly through the winding, gut-like cavern system, moving so rapidly that he left behind only fleeting, indistinct shadows that seemed both real and illusory.

The Ghost Shadow Evasion Art is renowned for its speed and agility. Such a convoluted environment was precisely where it could showcase its greatest efficacy. The peculiar rock walls of the cavern were also an excellent geographic feature for blocking the divine sense detection of powerful experts. Otherwise, given the sheer power of a Deity Transformation expert's divine sense, in open terrain, even if he fled hundreds of li, he would still be tracked.

No one could have guessed that at such a desperate moment, Lei Dong would still be thinking of that Chaos Golden Lotus they had encountered earlier. Because of the standoff, neither side had a chance to harvest it; both had intended to claim it for themselves, planning to make a move only after the decisive battle between Lei Long and Evil Phoenix concluded...

Relying on the route he had forcefully memorized, Lei Dong carved his way through the spiderweb of stone passages without error. His speed was immense, but the pursuing Insect Emperor was even faster. A Deity Transformation expert, even one unskilled in speed, was inherently superior to the most agile Nascent Soul cultivator. After all, there was a vast, fundamental disparity—a difference in the very essence of their life levels.

But Lei Dong had anticipated this. That Nether Flame Ghost Banner had never been retracted; he still clutched it in his hand. As he fled at top speed, Lei Dong navigated by instinct while simultaneously summoning self-detonating ghosts from the Ghost Banner. Although this summoning method was slow and inefficient, it was precisely what Lei Dong needed: to buy himself time. After summoning every three or four self-detonating ghosts, he would deploy them like hidden mines behind him, setting them to detonate and ambush anything pursuing him. Consequently, explosions erupted continuously in Lei Dong’s wake. Even though the power of a single self-detonating ghost was only equivalent to the full-power strike of an early Golden Core cultivator, it could only offer the Deity Transformation expert a mere tickle.

However, the feeling was entirely different for the Insect Emperor. Already grievously wounded, he was forced, while pursuing his enemy in this intricate environment, to constantly endure harassment from the continuous blasts of the self-detonating ghosts. This left him feeling utterly miserable, compelling him to constantly expend his dwindling power to ward off the ceaseless, albeit minor, explosions. But to cease pursuit was unbearable; the deep-seated rage in his heart could not be quelled. The Nine Nether Soul Devouring Worms that had been blown apart had taken him hundreds of years to accumulate, bit by bit. They were just brought out for a show when they were annihilated down to a few remnants. Regret, vexation, and hatred tormented him, solidifying his vow to kill Lei Dong, capture his Prime Soul, and torture it for decades to finally appease his fury.

Continuously using the self-detonating ghosts to cover his retreat bought Lei Dong considerable time and earned him crucial space to survive. In moments, he darted into the chamber where the Chaos Golden Lotus had been located. Facing the mass of pale-green vortex, Lei Dong had no time to admire its beauty.

He immediately executed a magical seal, summoned an jade box, and simultaneously sealed the Chaos Golden Lotus and the vortex within it. The entire process took less than ten breaths. But it was precisely during those ten breaths that the Insect Emperor finally caught up, snarling as he unleashed two beams of light.

Well-prepared, Lei Dong spread his wings and utilized instantaneous movement, flashing out of the cramped stone room to a wide-open area half a li away with pinpoint accuracy.

... (To be continued)