Phenom King Carter, trying to persuade Gu Xiechen not to waste his effort on a dying struggle, suddenly saw the colossal object pressing down from above!

It wasn't Gu Xiechen, but a massive, imposing stone block, fifty meters in diameter, its dark greenish-black color immediately signaling crushing weight!

Ducat’s mouth gaped wide, his pupils shrinking to less than a tenth of a pinprick. He roared in fury, "Gu Xiechen, you are utterly shameless!"

It was true that his innate ability was physical strength; true that at the age of three he could lift ten tons; and true that his current physical might was a hundred times that of his childhood. But this fifty-meter behemoth of a rock weighed at least two hundred thousand tons. A weight of two hundred thousand tons would crush even an Iron Man into a bloody pulp!

"Shameless!" Ducat shrieked, frantically. The metal wings on his back shifted their angle at top speed, and the plasma jets on his feet erupted with roaring flames several meters long. His body veered sharply to the right, attempting to evade the crushing weight descending from above. But was it fast enough?

Ducat’s upward momentum was ferocious, and the stone’s downward momentum was equally terrifying. Compounded, Ducat’s body merely brushed the rock’s uneven edges. Just that slight graze was enough; a massive patch of his scale armor immediately buckled inward. A burning heat flashed through his viscera, a red haze swam before his eyes, and a mouthful of blood was sprayed far away.

Gu Xiechen was directly above the giant stone!

Xin Jia stood suspended in the air, iron chains girding his waist, treading upon a thin film of cloud. Gu Xiechen stood upon Xin Jia’s shoulder! Xin Jia’s face was turning a deep, bruised purple. He mumbled incoherently, "Your Excellency, this general's power has been severely depleted! In my prime, I could have conjured this massive stone effortlessly. Now, I can only use the Art of Moving Mountains to heave it halfway up. Alas, this is all I could manage!"

Shaking his head, Xin Jia complained angrily, "In my full strength, I could have used the Law of Shifting Mountains to raise such a boulder tens of li high. Once dropped, it could turn everyone in even a small city into dust. What a waste! I couldn't even crush a single commoner now!"

"That’s enough, that’s enough. You did very well!"

Gu Xiechen wiped the cold sweat from his brow, slightly shocked by the violent language Xin Jia employed. A colossal stone, weighing hundreds of thousands of tons, dropped from tens of li—that power could indeed annihilate the entire populace of a minor city. Had Xin Jia truly done such things before?

"Ah, Xin Jia, when will you teach me this Cloud-Treading Technique!" Gu Xiechen clapped Xin Jia's shoulder hard, then leaped downward.

Thud! The giant stone struck the small island with crushing force, immediately gouging out a crater hundreds of meters deep. Waves taller than ten meters surged around the island, spreading outward in continuous rollers.

Gu Xiechen caught up to Ducat mid-air. His hands moved like lightning and thunder, savagely pummeling the internal organs that had been jarred by the impact.

Crack, crack! The Ruyi Gloves were extraordinary artifacts, after all. Though Ducat's armor had been modified with special alloys left by Gu Xiechen, it was still common material, no match for a sentient item like the Ruyi Gloves. Every claw strike by Gu Xiechen ripped away large swaths of Ducat’s scale armor. Although a silver fluid continuously welled up from within Ducat to repair the armor’s consumption, under Gu Xiechen’s relentless assault, the scales weakened, and the heavy impact of the blows gradually penetrated Ducat’s viscera, causing blood to stream from his seven orifices.

Yet, Ducat was indeed a rare prodigy among the mixed bloodlines of the Romans and Earthlings. A formidable power guarded his core. No matter how much strength Gu Xiechen poured into the assault, he could not inflict truly mortal damage on Ducat.

Boom! Gu Xiechen, raining blows down from hundreds of meters up, finally slammed Ducat straight into the ground.

The heavy impact forced another gout of blood from Ducat’s mouth, his body convulsing violently.

Two arms suddenly burst from the island's surface. These arms, radiating a chilling, malevolent energy, gripped Ducat tightly around his vulnerable flanks. Gu Xiechen’s powerful strikes had shattered the armor here, and the claws, steeped in thick death energy, sank deep into Ducat’s body. His once snow-white skin instantly turned a deep, sickening black.

Peng Hua’s head emerged beside Ducat, grinning sinisterly. "Heh, you mixed-blood mongrel! The challenge explicitly forbids any living person from interfering in this duel, but it never said anything about the dead interfering! I, Peng Hua, have been dead for who knows how many years—an ancient revenant. So my participation doesn't violate the fairness of the duel!"

Ducat felt an extremely sinister, icy power constantly flowing from Peng Hua’s hands into his body, freezing him rigid. Enraged, he roared, "Shameless! Despicable!"

Gu Xiechen landed lightly beside Ducat. He shook his head and sighed, "Nearly capsized in a ditch! Hey, Ducat, tell me, have I violated the terms of the duel? My challenge was crystal clear: no living person could participate. I have no living people here—only a dead man who’s been dead for ages!"

Ducat glared furiously at Gu Xiechen for a long moment before finally sighing, "You won... Indeed, a zombie isn't considered alive!"

Gu Xiechen and Peng Hua exchanged a meaningful glance. Just as Peng Hua prepared to deliver a killing blow to Ducat, a strong sense of mortal danger suddenly struck from the sky.

Gu Xiechen, Ducat, and Peng Hua all registered this lethal threat simultaneously, and all looked up toward the heavens.

A glittering speck of light was plummeting rapidly toward the island. Judging by its trajectory, it was aimed precisely above the three of them.

Peng Hua asked dazedly, "What is that?"

Ducat’s eyes widened. "A meteor?"

Gu Xiechen’s pupils instantly dilated then shrank rapidly. Xin Jia was standing on the cloud cover high above. His sight spanned tens of times farther than any ordinary person. He had already clearly seen the appearance of that 'star' and conveyed it to Gu Xiechen telepathically.

Gu Xiechen shrieked, "Damn it, it’s a ballistic missile! High winds, run for cover!"

Gu Xiechen launched himself sideways in a desperate flight. Peng Hua cleanly melted into the ground, vanishing. Ducat tried to stiffen his body in terror, but he couldn't move an inch.

A slender figure, tinged with a choked cry, leaped out of the seawater surrounding the island, charging toward Ducat at incredible speed.

The slender figure reached Ducat and grabbed his hand forcefully, attempting to drag his body away. But Ducat was powerfully built, and his armor alone weighed several tons. How could this small frame possibly move him?

Fleeing Gu Xiechen glanced back at Ducat amidst his panic. He had heard the sound of the slender figure cutting through the air as she lunged toward Ducat.

Seeing her, Gu Xiechen froze. The Spirit Clan girl named Feifei was pulling Ducat’s hand, tears streaming down her face, exerting every ounce of her strength to pull him up.

"Damn it!"

Gu Xiechen’s momentum abruptly halted.

"I can easily stand by and watch someone die... but... a woman?"

With a long sigh, Gu Xiechen spun around and raced back toward Ducat.

The ballistic missile was less than a hundred kilometers from the island. At its current speed, it would strike the island in mere seconds.

Gu Xiechen sprinted toward Ducat with all the force he possessed.