Everywhere, the sound of wailing and sorrow was thick, a scene of utter desolation. Read easily on your mobile: $\alpha$. Siren, looking as if his parents had just died, managed to pull himself together. It took him a grueling seventy-two hours—three full days and nights without sleep—to barely gather his scattered forces and reestablish his main camp in a small valley thirty kilometers west of the original site.

Siren himself commanded Aridya, twenty-three White-Clad Fighters of the Dawn Squad, three True Innate Fighters, and fifteen Pseudo-Innate Fighters, along with seven hundred and eighty-five martial artists possessing decent internal energy cultivation, and over five thousand four hundred mercenaries. This was the entirety of Siren’s current combat strength. He still controlled several major military assets, including ground-attack aircraft, attack helicopters, and over two hundred maglev combat vehicles. However, with the main camp destroyed, all energy storage had turned to ash, meaning these machines would soon become little more than expensive ornaments.

Standing at the entrance of the crudely erected command post, staring blankly at thousands of demoralized mercenaries, Siren still couldn't grasp how this disaster had befallen them.

How could so many ships have exploded out of nowhere?

About two kilometers from this new camp, perched on the branch of a large tree, Gu Xiechen contentedly gnawed on a roasted mountain pheasant leg, mumbling indistinctly, "Xin Jia, time to work!"

Xin Jia, standing below the tree, responded with a muffled grunt. He raised the cannon in his hands, estimated the direction and distance pointed out by Gu Xiechen with a slight adjustment, and pressed the trigger. A muzzle flash erupted, and a 105mm high-explosive fragmentation shell whistled away. The shell landed precisely among a cluster of Divine Unicorn mercenaries sitting listlessly on the ground. The three hundred and sixty specially made metal pellets inside scattered like a sudden storm, lifting thirty-odd mercenaries into the air with their limbs torn away, blooming a blinding cloud of crimson.

Xin Jia swiftly fired a burst. Twelve high-explosive fragmentation shells sent the Divine Unicorn mercenaries in the valley howling in agony and scattering everywhere. This barrage of artillery fire claimed the lives of over two hundred more mercenaries. Siren and Aridya rushed forward in furious exasperation. Gu Xiechen tossed aside the pheasant bone he was holding, smiled, and timely retreated with Xin Jia.

"If it is an enemy, use every means necessary, at any cost, to kill him before he kills you."

Gu Xiechen softly repeated the warning his father had drilled into him. A chilling, murderous smirk slowly spread across his face. He ordered Xin Jia to abandon the heavy cannon. Once Gu Xiechen estimated Siren had reached the previous shelling point, he led Xin Jia back stealthily to their original location.

Still several hundred meters from the previous spot, Gu Xiechen heard the loud crash of a massive tree falling. Dozens of young women, brandishing long sabers, wildly hacked at the tree. Amidst the 'clink-clank' of blades, tree after tree crashed down, only to be instantly chopped into splinters by the frenzied girls. Siren hovered several meters above the ground, supported by a silver light flowing beneath his feet. He roared heavenward in utter rage, "Gu Xiechen! If you have any manhood, get out here! I challenge you to a duel! I demand a duel!"

"Tch!" Gu Xiechen spat in disdain. He muttered quietly, "I, Gu Xiechen, come from a lineage of merchants. I am a tradesman, not a nobleman. A duel? Am I an idiot?"

Cautiously creeping to within three hundred meters of Siren and Aridya, Gu Xiechen pulled a small remote control from the sleeve of his Taoist robe and casually pressed a button.

Aridya, standing beside Siren, suddenly sensed intense energy fluctuations rising from beneath the ground. Instinctively, she sprang up a dozen meters high, grabbing Siren’s hand and shouting, "Careful!"

Siren's expression changed drastically. A dazzling silver light shot from his brow, coalescing into swirling balls of water-like radiance that wrapped around both him and Aridya.

A full three crates—sixty rounds of 105mm artillery shells—detonated underground. A black-and-red cloud of fire surged up from the earth, precisely enveloping Siren and Aridya. Shrapnel flew everywhere, and dozens of young women dissolved into streaks of light, rapidly retreating back into Siren’s body. Siren and Aridya, encased in silver light, were blasted nearly a hundred meters into the air. The silver barrier flickered, causing ripples, and a column of blood spurted from Siren’s nostrils.

Aridya screamed in fury, twin beams of fierce flame erupting from her eyes. Dozens of fireballs, each about a meter in diameter, materialized around her. In the blink of an eye, these massive orbs compressed down to the size of human heads. The black-and-red fireballs expelled a torrent of violent heat. Aridya swept her right hand toward the dense forest below, and dozens of fireballs roared toward the ground with a dull, thunderous boom.

Xin Jia tilted his head high, grumbling in a low voice, "A tiny glow-worm dares to compete with the moon's brilliance!"

With a slight flick of his finger, dozens of thumb-sized stone pellets materialized out of thin air before Xin Jia's fingertip. Thump-thump-thump-thump, the pellets shot out as if from a powerful crossbow, tearing white shockwaves through the air as they streaked toward the fireballs. The fireballs Aridya had launched were detonated by the rapidly incoming stone pellets just a few meters from their trajectory. Dozens of secondary fireballs erupted around Siren and Aridya. The violent fire cloud consumed the sky, and Siren and Aridya roared as they were hurled hundreds of meters high and hundreds of meters wide again. Siren's protective silver light flickered violently, finally dissolving into a fragile silver gauze that looked ready to shatter at any moment.

Blood poured from all seven orifices of Siren, and thin trickles of blood flowed from Aridya's eyes.

Xin Jia remarked calmly, "Your Excellency, this woman's fire-elemental Dao technique is scattered and unfocused; it does not qualify as high-tier. Although my primordial spirit is damaged and my strength has not fully recovered, this woman's realm is simply too low; she is truly weak."

Siren and Gu Xiechen were astonished that Aridya's formidable fire ability was dismissed as "unbearably weak" by Xin Jia. Gu Xiechen glanced admiringly at the steadfast, mountain-like Xin Jia, then shot forward like a sudden gust of wind. "Xin Jia, I want to deal with this one personally. You stay nearby and provide backup—no more intervening!"

Xin Jia, who had been forming an incantation with his left hand, paused. He respectfully retracted the gesture and followed closely behind Gu Xiechen without taking a single step out of line.

In just a few leaps, Gu Xiechen scaled a colossal tree nearly one hundred and fifty meters tall. Just as he reached the treetop, Siren and Aridya, wreathed in black smoke, plummeted past the edge of the canopy. Siren was clearly suffering from severe internal injuries; the silver flow beneath his feet had dissipated, leaving him unable to float in the air any longer. Gu Xiechen sneered coldly. He leaped into the air, aiming a claw strike directly at Siren's back. Gu Xiechen shouted harshly, "Siren, trying to use me against the Gu family for favors? I will fight you to the death!"

Siren's eyes widened. Gritting his teeth, he slashed at his waist, drawing a finger-thick, four-and-a-half-foot silver rapier. Nearly a hundred points of cold light stabbed fiercely toward Gu Xiechen's heart.

With a light wave of his right claw, Gu Xiechen brutally met the sword's edge with his bare fingers. Siren and Aridya’s hearts soared with elation upon witnessing this. Siren's rapier was a divine weapon custom-made with rare, laboratory-grade alloys, forged through a thousand refinements by a master swordsmith. In the past, a casual wave of this sword could slice through a foot-thick alloy plate with ease. Could Gu Xiechen’s Snow Soul Divine Claw truly match rare alloy?

Chit-chit-chit—after a few almost inaudible crisp sounds—Siren's thousand-times-refined treasured sword was sliced into dozens of pieces by Gu Xiechen's casually waved right claw, as easily as slicing tofu. Siren hadn't even felt the force of Gu Xiechen's claw meeting his sword. This weapon, which almost represented the pinnacle of the Earth Federation's metallurgical technology, seemed utterly nonexistent before Gu Xiechen's right claw.

Siren was stunned; Aridya was dumbfounded. Both had their eyes wide open, nearly popping out of their sockets.

Gu Xiechen chuckled coldly. The power of the Ruyi Gauntlet truly exceeded his own expectations. With a slight smile, and denying Siren and Aridya any chance to react, Gu Xiechen sucked in and then expelled his right palm, his five fingers plunging straight toward Siren's heart. Siren stared blankly, eyes wide, watching the killing blow approach. His mind went blank, filled only with despair.

Aridya grabbed Siren's arm. She exerted every ounce of her strength to throw Siren aside, moving herself into the path of Gu Xiechen's descending right claw. The sharp talon tore through Aridya's silver uniform, then pulled back sharply. The extremely sharp tip even managed to prick a tiny bead of blood onto Aridya’s delicate skin.

Siren, violently thrown aside with ruptured internal organs, turned back and roared, "Aridya! No!" Blood spurted in two intensely bright, piercing crimson streams from the corners of Siren’s eyes.

Gu Xiechen seized Aridya by the collar and casually tossed her aside. Gu Xiechen growled grimly, "Get out of the way! I never lay a hand on women!"

Aridya, however, smiled softly. She looked back at Siren, who was bleeding from all seven orifices, and fiercely wrapped her right palm around Gu Xiechen’s left arm, which had just thrown her. Gu Xiechen felt his left arm seize; Aridya clung to him tightly, preventing him from throwing her clear. Aridya’s left palm then pressed against Gu Xiechen’s chest, and a burst of red light erupted as a fireball formed in her palm.

"Aridya!" Siren was momentarily paralyzed. He completely lost control of his falling body, allowing it to crash wildly between branches and limbs, smashing countless twigs without even noticing. The rough bark and sharp broken branches carved streaks of blood onto Siren's hands and face; he was entirely drenched in his own blood.

"Madwoman!" Gu Xiechen trembled with rage. He knew exactly how powerful Aridya’s fireballs were—they were far more terrifying than heavy aerial bombs. He swung his right palm, intending to crush Aridya instantly, but then he noticed the fanatical intensity in her eyes.

The fireball in Aridya's left palm was still compressing fiercely, but her entire attention was focused on Siren. Her gaze swept over Gu Xiechen's shoulder, fixed on Siren with a look of obsessed, fervent adoration.

Just like the look a young girl gave an elder in days past!

The only soft spot in Gu Xiechen's heart was touched. He grimaced, unleashing True Qi to blast Aridya away, then kicked her sharply in the stomach, sending her flying. The human-head-sized fireball clung almost magnetically to Gu Xiechen’s chest, the black-and-red viscous plasma churning within, clearly on the verge of detonation. Gu Xiechen swept his right palm; a faint stream of light flashed across the Ruyi Gauntlet, and his hand moved like a steel blade, slicing the fireball in half. The fireball, condensed with immense energy, was bisected by his single strike. His right palm moved like the wind, the Ruyi Gauntlet flashing streams of light that wove into a hazy net in the air. Aridya’s terrifying fireball was chopped into nothingness by Gu Xiechen’s chaotic strikes.

Crack! Siren abruptly opened his mouth, his jaw nearly dislocating.

"Impossible!" Aridya, who had fallen heavily and nearly lost consciousness, also stared wide-eyed. Breathing raggedly, she glared at Gu Xiechen with the horrified expression a devout believer reserves for a demon from Hell. A fireball formed from the fiercest, most volatile, and hardest-to-control fire elemental energy—how could it be shredded as easily as tofu?

Reaching out, Gu Xiechen grasped the last wisp of dissipating fire energy and clenched his fist. A thread of faint smoke drifted between his fingers. Gu Xiechen, clad in a flowing Taoist robe and cloak, looking utterly ethereal, slowly drifted down from over a hundred meters high, not disturbing a speck of dust with his feet. Siren and Aridya watched him in horror. Such Qinggong (lightness skill), such movement—how profound was this man's cultivation? Was this truly the same Gu Xiechen who had been running around like a startled dog just a few days ago?

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I refuse to believe this chapter can still cause me errors... Hahaha! Comrades, shower me with recommendation votes! Oh, and remember to bookmark/favorite! Damn, I noticed many brothers have left reviews and sent rewards using Qidian Coins, but my book isn't on their shelves... Don't forget to favorite it... Come on... Recommendation votes, favorites, clicks... None of them can be missing.