Bloodbath

As the Tiger Armor Zerg lunged toward him, alarm bells rang in Bai Muye's mind. He knew he couldn't meet it head-on. A few blows would be enough to smash him to pieces.

The difference between a Domain Lord First Stage and a Peak World Lord was immense, even in raw strength alone.

He did everything he could to contract his domain until it covered only the charging Tiger Armor Zerg. Light flared within it, shifting from nets to shields as it tried to hold the creature back.

The Zerg tore through each restraint with its claws, but the repeated efforts still managed to slow it down.

"Good thing this kind of Tiger Armor Zerg doesn't have a domain..."

Bai Muye moved swiftly, dodging again and again as another thought crossed his mind.

It had no domain, and it had no Internal World, either. They were lucky. If it opened its Internal World, it could crush a domain in an instant.

As he dodged with all his might, Bai Muye gradually entered a strange state. He had crossed the threshold of the Lightning Law decades ago. Though he had kept practicing over the years, he hadn't made much progress.

He had always wanted to incorporate the Lightning Law into his movement technique, but with little success. Even "studying" in the Virtual Universe hadn't helped much.

But now, faced with a life-or-death crisis, he cast aside every other thought. All he wanted was to move faster.

During the hundred years of life-and-death battles before he came to the Outer Battlefield, he had absorbed the cultivation insights of countless Universe Rank opponents. Each had something worth learning in their movement techniques, but the ideas were too jumbled. Combining them into one was incredibly difficult. Under this pressure, though, the various techniques he had practiced began to merge, making him a little faster.

The first wave of attacks had badly injured the other Domain Lords, including Zhan Qiu. Even so, they were forcing themselves to keep attacking. Unfortunately, the Tiger Armor Zerg was stubbornly fixated on Bai Muye. It ignored everyone else and kept going after him.

Its claws slashed again and again, tearing apart the domain that bound it, only for the gathered domain to wrap around it once more.

Suddenly, its compound eyes glimmered faintly. A beam of light shot from the palm of its right foreclaw toward Bai Muye's chest and abdomen. At the same time, it swung its left claw down, ripping a gap in the domain wrapped around it as its massive body lunged forward.

The energy attack moved almost at the speed of light. Bai Muye could only twist slightly before it pierced through his left abdomen, leaving a hole straight through his body. Fortunately, the beam was only about ten centimeters across. If it had been any wider, it might have severed him in half.

The attack inevitably slowed him down, and the Tiger Armor Zerg immediately closed in. Its claws reached for him, intent on tearing him apart.

With no other choice, Bai Muye raised the Three-Pointed Double-Edged Spear to block. He tried to redirect the force, but the strength of a Peak World Lord was overwhelming. The impact snapped his wrists and sent his weapon flying.

His body shuddered violently, and blood poured from his mouth. Fortunately, he used the force to retreat and dodged the Tiger Armor Zerg's second strike.

The danger wasn't over. Now that the Tiger Armor Zerg was close, it burst into unprecedented speed and pursued Bai Muye as he fell back.

The third claw came right on cue!

By now, both his arms were broken, his wrists shattered, and his internal organs badly injured. A wound pierced his abdomen. He was nearly at the end of his rope, holding on by sheer will.

Facing those five-meter-long claws, he remained calm. Nearly a hundred life-or-death battles and more than a decade of bloodshed on the Outer Battlefield had left him unafraid of death. If anything, danger brought out his potential.

Just as the claws were about to seize his head, what looked like a spark of lightning appeared in Bai Muye's eyes!

Whoosh!

His movement technique suddenly made a qualitative leap. In an instant, he was like a bolt of lightning, escaping the reach of the Tiger Armor Zerg's massive claws.

His figure flashed along a crooked path, and he appeared like a ghost behind the creature. Avoiding the bone spines on its back, he kicked it.

The kick barely did any damage. It only made the Tiger Armor Zerg stumble forward in midair.

Confusion flickered in its compound eyes. It fought on instinct and didn't understand what had just happened. The tiny human, once as slow as a snail, had become an irritating fly.

Xiao Si sensed Bai Muye's injuries and immediately extended a root. A drop of pale golden liquid dripped from its tip, appearing in the Singularity with a strangely fragrant scent.

"Old Bai, hurry and channel this drop of liquid into your body. It'll repair your injuries in no time..."

"What is this? It smells amazing..." Bai Muye sent a sliver of consciousness into the Singularity, and the fragrance of the pale golden drop nearly intoxicated his soul.

With the slightest guidance from his consciousness, the drop transformed into pale golden energy and spread through his body. In an instant, his internal injuries began healing at a visible rate.

"This is my essence—Spirit Marrow Fat!" Xiao Si said, sounding a little pained. "It's incredibly rare. I've devoured so many souls over the past decade, and only now have I produced a few drops..."

In the space of a breath, Bai Muye's internal injuries had completely healed. Flesh sprouted and interwove across the wound in his abdomen, while the bones in his arms, wrists, and fingers—and the torn flesh around them—began to mend.

He endured the itching all over his body as the wounds healed, flashed to where the Three-Pointed Double-Edged Spear had fallen, and snatched it up.

"Muye, that was incredible..." Zhan Qiu murmured, staring at his elusive movements in stunned disbelief.

The other Domain Lords were just as shocked. Even Peng Donghan, a Domain Lord Ninth Stage, couldn't move like that.

"He's definitely grasped the threshold of a law..."

"It's a shame he's on the Outer Battlefield. Otherwise, having grasped the threshold of a law would make it easy for him to join one of the major powers..." A Domain Lord shook his head regretfully.

"That's a paradox," another Domain Lord retorted. "If he weren't on the Outer Battlefield, if he weren't facing death by a hair's breadth, would it be so easy to grasp the threshold of a law?"

"That's true..."

They kept discussing, but their hands never stopped. They continued attacking the Tiger Armor Zerg with all their strength. The creature seemed almost crazed now. It pursued Bai Muye relentlessly, even when its compound eyes lost track of him.

Bai Muye flashed repeatedly, appearing once more behind the Tiger Armor Zerg. This time, he thrust with all his might. The blade pierced through the carapace, but only went in a little before the force surging within the creature pushed it back out.

Bai Muye was now slightly faster than the Tiger Armor Zerg, which was slowed by the Mixed Domain. If he withdrew the domain, they would probably move at about the same speed.

After a moment's thought, Bai Muye used his speed to reach the top of the Tiger Armor Zerg. He hung headfirst in midair, his body stretched straight. The domain restraining the creature instantly contracted and withdrew into his hand, then wound down the shaft of the Three-Pointed Double-Edged Spear to its tip.

The spearhead in his hand first blazed with unparalleled light. Then all the radiance contracted to its point.

He thrust down!

Crack!

The spearhead pierced through the armor protecting the Tiger Armor Zerg's head. The entire blade sank into its skull. The muscles in Bai Muye's arms bulged as he exerted a hundred times his normal force, driving the entire spear into the creature's head.

The spear shuddered. The domain, compressed to a single point at its tip, erupted inside the Tiger Armor Zerg's skull.

Boom!!

The creature's head exploded, and then its entire body burst apart, section by section!