Gu Ding, Unconscious

To distract Aurora along the way, Liliath changed mounts several times, each time resulting in their demise. The last one was a Black Feather Peng Bird, a two-star level avian demon beast, whose defensive capabilities were among the best. The one Liliath rode, judging from its size, had fully matured, and its defensive abilities were not far from those of High-rank God. However, it was torn to shreds by a single Black Radiance, causing a rain of blood to fall from the sky.

Liliath, who had fallen into the range of Gu Ding Team, also looked quite disheveled, with messy hair and bloodstains on her clothes.

"Are you alright?" With others around these past few days, Gu Ding hadn't been able to constantly monitor Liliath's movements via video, relying instead on the Sea Emperor's relay. Seeing the bloodstains on Liliath, he was indeed somewhat worried.

"It's nothing, it's just the blood of a demonic beast." Liliath is now Demigod Realm, but her body isn't fully energy-based yet, so bleeding from injuries is possible. Therefore, Gu Ding's worries weren't unfounded. Fortunately, Liliath wasn't seriously injured, just a little tired. "That guy is very strong!"

Seeing the Black Radiance that had just engulfed the Black Feather Peng Bird, the two from OP2 were about 80% convinced of what Gu Ding had said earlier, because they knew Aurora didn't actually possess such power. The effect of that attack was at least that of Two-Star High-rank God Combat Strength, or even stronger.

Soon, everyone saw the instigator of that attack. Aurora, dressed in black robes, stood proudly in the void where the Black Feather Peng Bird had been killed, looking down at the crowd below with a ferocious smile on her face.

Clark and Gale both felt a pang of unease. The thing they'd been worrying about for two days had finally come true. For the past two days, they'd kept telling themselves that Gu Ding had said wasn't true. But now the facts were undeniable.

In the sky, Aurora's gaze swept over the crowd, skipping over Liliath, whom he had been chasing, and landing on Elsa, whose life force was the strongest. Having identified his target, he extended his tongue, which had turned black. Thick saliva dripped from the corners of his mouth. His black hair moved without wind, swooping down like a madman.

Gu Ding was the first to move, rushing towards Aurora.

Bigge and the others also made their moves, intending to eliminate their opponents on the spot with a decisive strike.

Gu Ding pushed his speed to the limit, appearing in front of Aurora in the blink of an eye, and unleashing a furious Aurora. But he quickly realized he was terribly wrong, because Aurora's speed was beyond his ability to track, and she vanished right before his eyes.

In the next instant, everyone heard a deafening boom as Gu Ding, who was charging at the forefront, was struck in the chest by Aurora's palm. With several crisp cracking sounds, all the bones in Gu Ding's chest shattered. He spat out a mouthful of blood and plummeted from the sky, crashing heavily to the ground, creating a massive crater hundreds of meters in diameter. After hitting the ground, he lost consciousness.

Almost simultaneously, the translucent blade light from Bigge's longsword clashed with Aurora's Black Sword Radiance. Had he not intervened, Gu Ding would likely have been killed by Aurora's sword.

That terrifying blade light, capable of making even the gods retreat, had little effect at this moment. It was actually extinguished by the black sword light, which continued its relentless attack on Bigge. Bigge hurriedly swung his sword to defend, and the sword light struck the blade with a clang. Bigge felt an immense force, his arm twisting and deforming. The longsword nearly slipped from his grasp, and he was forced back.

His cultivation level was still his biggest weakness. When faced with such an absolute difference in cultivation, even the strongest Blade Intent would have a very small effect. It was impossible for him to counterattack the opponent's crushing defeat.

While Dokter was entangled with Bigge, several cold glints shot out from Dokter's sleeves, aiming straight for Aurora 'Aurora head.

Aurora was too late to parry with her sword, but she made an even more terrifying move: she opened her mouth wide and let out a deafening roar. The sound was completely inhuman, more like the roar of a colossal beast. With that roar, a black sonic wave rippled out, and Dokter's rapidly flying knife seemed to sink into an invisible quagmire, its speed and power drastically decreasing until it finally couldn't advance an inch, failing to harm Aurora in the slightest.

Liliath had been on the run for days, finally erupting now. Her eyes turned a deep purple-gold, and she frantically channeled the Purgatory Fire within her, surging it towards Aurora. The black Purgatory Fire rose from nowhere, surging towards Aurora like a tidal wave. But in the instant before being engulfed by the flames, Aurora merely wore a mocking expression, slashing her sword. The sea of fire instantly split in two, then quickly vanished. Her powerful sword strike had actually extinguished the Purgatory Fire, which possessed a soul-destroying effect.

Liliath spat out a mouthful of blood. Although Aurora's sword strike did not directly attack her, it caused her to suffer a slight backlash from her Pupil Power.

Although Robert wasn't a main force member, he still made a move, his arms transforming into thick cannon barrels, unleashing a series of flashes of white light. Aurora slowly raised her black longsword, the movement seemingly casual, yet it completely blocked Robert's barrage, like an insurmountable giant shield.

Seeing Gu Ding and the others injured one after another, Elsa's eyes turned bloodshot. She raised her giant axe and unleashed a frenzied, earth-shattering strike. This attack concentrated her energy and spirit to the extreme, and a giant phantom even faintly condensed above her head, clearly an extraordinary performance.

But Aurora simply swung her sword, a seemingly effortless Black Radiance that struck the axe shadow with tremendous force. The axe shadow only blocked the Black Radiance for less than a second before disintegrating right before everyone's eyes. The Black Radiance continued its bombardment towards Elsa.

Elsa used her axe as a shield and blocked the attack with the axe blade. Even though she was incredibly strong, she was still blasted back hundreds of meters by the blow.

Aurora had no intention of letting Elsa go so easily. He flashed and appeared in front of Elsa in an instant, grabbing her throat with one hand.

Just then, a red shadow flashed by, slashing a wound on Aurora's arm. Crying in pain, he loosened his grip, and Elsa was snatched away. His attention was drawn to the very thing that had just injured him, and he looked towards his right side, not far away.

Everyone else looked in that direction as well.

It was a small beast, only a little over a meter long, its entire body covered in blood-red energy, with a tail constantly waving behind it. Most striking were its eyes, which had lost their pupils and instead glowed with golden fire.

Liliath and the others could naturally recognize that it was Tagore's transformed state, but for some reason, this time the transformation was much smaller.

Tagore released the tail that was wrapped around Elsa and suddenly said to Elsa, "Go check on Gu Ding. I'll stay here."

Elsa quickly ran away. She knew that this guy named Aurora was nowhere near the level of her group. She would only cause Tagore trouble if she stayed.

This was the first time Tagore had spoken in front of someone outside of the Gu Ding Team, and his words surprised Clark and Lolo Li.

Ordinary demonic beasts only transform into humans and learn human language upon reaching the Third Level of life form. Those that can learn human language before reaching the Third Level must possess extraordinary bloodlines. Tagore, barring unforeseen circumstances, likely belongs to the latter category.

"Roar..." Tagore hissed at Aurora in a low voice, his voice clearly carrying a warning.

Having become a complete sword slave, Aurora naturally paid no heed to such warnings. He raised his sword and slashed directly down at Tagore.

As Tagore's claws swept across, several crescent-shaped black slashes erupted from the void, colliding with the black sword light and annihilating each other.

Almost simultaneously with the disappearance of the two attacks, Aurora and Tagore also vanished.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..."

Explosions echoed continuously in the void. Even with Bigge and the others' eyesight, they could barely perceive the battle between the two. They could only see two figures colliding repeatedly in the void, accompanied by deafening explosions.

This level of combat could be said to have transcended the realm of gods. Among those present, apart from Clark, almost no one else could clearly see the trajectory of the two fighters or the actual circumstances of their attacks.

Clark's eyes also lit up as he stared intently at the battle in the sky.

Meanwhile, Liliath and the others surrounded Gu Ding in the deep pit.

Seeing Gu Ding unconscious, everyone became somewhat worried.

Apart from Liliath having seen this happen to Gu Ding once before, none of the other members had ever seen it before.

Blue kept squeaking anxiously beside him, seemingly trying to wake Gu Ding, but to no avail.

"Everyone, don't worry too much. Gu Ding is not in any danger; he's just unconscious." The Sea Emperor had been observing the changes in Gu Ding's body. Although Gu Ding was seriously injured this time, his life force had not weakened.

Dokter, as the team's doctor, also examined Gu Ding's body. "He has seven broken ribs and his lungs and internal organs have been concussed. There is a small amount of internal bleeding, but his self-healing ability is strong, so there shouldn't be any major problems. He suffered a minor head injury, but there was no concussion. Therefore, his coma is probably caused by pain, and this kind of coma is temporary. He will wake up soon. In any case, I will move his injuries away first and see if he will wake up."

As he spoke, Dokter used his special ability to transfer damage, storing all the damage that Gu Ding had suffered.

But half an hour passed, and Gu Ding still hadn't woken up... (To be continued...)