Descent, Battle Begins.

First, it rippled like the surface of water, then the ripples grew increasingly violent, and finally—a purple fissure tore open out of thin air. The crack was three or four meters high, its edges flickering with blinding light, and a low, rumbling roar emanated from within.

Ning Rongrong's breathing grew rapid.

As the fissure tore wider, large enough for a person to pass through, a foot stepped out from inside.

That foot was twice the size of an ordinary person's, bare, with skin as rough as tree bark. Then came the rest of the body—over two meters tall, shirtless, muscles knotted like rock, bald, and with a face full of savage flesh.

The fissure slowly closed behind him.

He stood in the center of the site, took a deep breath, and grinned.

"So this is the new world?"

His voice was coarse, like stones grinding together.

He raised his right hand, clenched his fist, and then smashed it into the rusted excavator nearby—

BOOM!

A massive dent caved into the side of the excavator, the entire machine skidded three or four meters sideways, and its tracks plowed deep furrows into the ground.

Ning Rongrong covered her mouth to keep from screaming.

Beneath the man's feet, spirit rings began to emerge.

Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black.

Six spirit rings rotated slowly around him, radiating an intensely oppressive light in the night.

Huyan Li.

A direct disciple of the Elephant Armor Sect. A level 65 Spirit Emperor.

His gaze swept across the ruins, and he suddenly spoke: "Little girl of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, I know you're here."

Ning Rongrong's entire body stiffened.

Huyan Li smiled, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth: "Come out. I can smell you."

He stepped forward, heading inside.

Chen Mo gripped Ning Rongrong's hand and whispered in her ear: "Don't move."

Ning Rongrong nodded.

Huyan Li walked very slowly, each step landing heavily, causing the ground to tremble slightly. He walked up to the first pile of debris, stopped, stared at the concrete blocks for a moment, and then threw a punch—

RUMBLE!

The pile of debris exploded, sending fragments flying.

Ning Rongrong almost screamed, but Chen Mo covered her mouth.

Huyan Li looked at the scattered debris, frowned, and continued walking forward.

The direction he was heading was deep into the maze.

Chen Mo counted silently in his heart.

Ten steps... eight steps... six steps...

Huyan Li tripped over the first tripwire—it was made of rebar, buried beneath broken bricks. He stumbled, looked down, snapped the rebar with his foot, and kept walking.

But that single stumble slowed his pace by half a beat.

That half-beat was exactly what Chen Mo was waiting for.

He let go of Ning Rongrong's hand and lunged out from their hiding spot.

Behind him, Ning Rongrong's Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda instantly manifested.

"First Spirit Skill, Power Boost!"

"Second Spirit Skill, Agility Boost!"

Two beams of seven-colored light landed on Chen Mo simultaneously. Utilizing the boosted speed, he reached Huyan Li's back in the blink of an eye, the rebar in his hand thrusting straight toward the man's neck—

Huyan Li didn't even turn his head, throwing a backhand punch!

The wind whistled as the fist flew; Chen Mo dodged to the side, but the rebar grazed his arm—piercing the skin, though it only left a shallow bloody scratch.

Huyan Li turned around, looked at Chen Mo, and his eyes lit up.

"You can hurt me?" He laughed, looking thrilled. "Interesting!"

He threw his right fist out again, this time glowing with spirit power.

Chen Mo dared not take it head-on, using his agility boost to dodge while sweeping the rebar horizontally against the man's side. But this time, it didn't even break the skin, leaving only a white mark.

Huyan Li laughed heartily: "Are you tickling me?"

He reached out with both hands, lunging to grab Chen Mo.

Chen Mo turned and ran, diving into the maze.

Huyan Li pursued him, but his massive frame was too large, and the passages between the debris piles were too narrow, forcing him to take detours. Chen Mo wove through the maze, darting left and right, leading him in circles.

Ning Rongrong hid in the shadows, her Heart Separation Control running at full capacity, keeping the boosts steadily applied to Chen Mo.

But she knew she could not hold on for long like this.

She gritted her teeth and suddenly stood up, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda radiating a brilliant light.

"Third Soul Skill, Soul Power Amplification!"

Another beam of light descended upon Chen Mo.

Huyan Li whipped his head around and spotted her.

"Little girl!" He grinned, abandoned Chen Mo, and charged toward Ning Rongrong.

Chen Mo's expression shifted, and he turned to give chase, but while Huyan Li's speed was slow, that was only relative to other Soul Masters. To a twelve-year-old support-type Soul Master like Ning Rongrong, his speed was still far too fast.

In the blink of an eye, he had reached Ning Rongrong, his massive palm reaching out to grab her—

"Heart Separation Control!"

Ning Rongrong let out a sharp cry as four buffs landed on her simultaneously—she had boosted her agility and defense, but as a support-type, even with the agility boost, she could not outrun a Soul Emperor.

Just as that hand was about to seize her—

A figure slammed into him.

Chen Mo.

He used every ounce of his strength to ram into Huyan Li's side, forcing him to stagger a step, and that hand swiped through the air, missing Ning Rongrong by a hair's breadth.

But Chen Mo himself was sent flying by the recoil, crashing into a pile of concrete with a muffled groan.

Huyan Li steadied himself, turned to look at him, and his gaze changed.

"You are courting death."

He strode toward Chen Mo.

Ning Rongrong wanted to scream, but her throat felt as if it were blocked.

Chen Mo pushed himself up from the ground, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, yet his eyes remained unchanged. He looked at the approaching Huyan Li and suddenly chuckled.

"You said just now," he wiped the blood from his lip, "that it was like a tickle?"

He flipped his right hand and drew a short sword from behind his waist.

The blade was very short, only about thirty centimeters long, and while the surface was covered in dark green rust, it glinted with a chilling light under the moonlight.

When Huyan Li saw that sword, his pupils constricted slightly.

He sensed danger.

But he did not stop; instead, he accelerated his charge, his right fist booming forward with the force of ten thousand jun—

Chen Mo did not dodge.

Gripping the short sword, he met that fist head-on and thrust it forward.

The short sword pierced the skin of the fist, shattered the bone, and punched through the back of his hand—

Blood sprayed.

Huyan Li let out a miserable shriek, retracted his hand, and stared at his mangled, bloody fist in utter disbelief.

"What... what is this?"

Chen Mo did not answer.

He held the short sword tight, staring at Huyan Li, and said word by word:

"A family heirloom, the Fish Gut Sword. Designed to break heavy armor."

Huyan Li's face turned livid.

He looked at his still-bleeding hand, then at the short sword in Chen Mo's grip, and suddenly threw his head back and laughed.

"Good! Good! Good!"

He repeated the word three times, his eyes turning frantic.

"Fifth Soul Skill—"

The fifth soul ring at his feet suddenly flared, black light surging violently.

"Diamond Mammoth Avatar!"

His body began to expand. His muscles bulged, and a golden, horny layer emerged on his skin, growing thicker and brighter until it covered his entire body like a suit of diamond armor.

His stature also ballooned to over three meters in height, and the two teeth in his mouth grew longer and thicker, protruding from his lips like the tusks of a mammoth.

He raised his injured hand and looked at the still-bleeding wound—the diamond armor covered it, sealing the injury inside.

Then he looked at Chen Mo and grinned.

"Now, why don't you try stabbing me again?"

He took a step toward Chen Mo.

With every step, the ground trembled.

Chen Mo tightened his grip on the Fish Gut Sword, staring at the three-meter-tall diamond giant, and did not retreat.

Ning Rongrong watched from afar, her heart hammering so hard it felt like it might leap right out of her throat.

She watched Chen Mo's back, watched his hand gripping the sword, and watched his posture as he faced that giant.

Suddenly, she recalled the words he had spoken—

"If I run, I will take you with me."

She gritted her teeth, and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda manifested once more.

This time, it wasn't just one or two beams.

It was all of them.

"First Soul Skill, Strength Boost!"

"Second Soul Skill, Agility Boost!"

"Third Soul Skill, Soul Power Boost!"

"Fourth Soul Skill, Soul Power Boost Amplification!"

Four multicolored rays of light descended upon Chen Mo simultaneously.

Blood spilled from the corners of her mouth, and her seven orifices began to seep blood as well. Yet, she bit down hard, maintaining the buffs and refusing to let herself collapse.

Chen Mo felt an endless surge of power flooding into his body. He tightened his grip on the Fish Gut Sword, staring at the rapidly approaching Diamond Mammoth Avatar, silently calculating the distance in his mind.

Ten meters.

Eight meters.

Five meters.

Huyan Li raised his massive fist and smashed it toward him—

Chen Mo moved.

He didn't dodge; instead, he charged straight toward that fist.

At the very moment the fist descended, he leaped high, stepping onto the fist to gain leverage, his entire body shooting toward Huyan Li's head like an arrow.

The Fish Gut Sword thrust directly at his right eye!

The tip of the blade pierced through a gap in the diamond armor, puncturing the eyeball—

Huyan Li let out a miserable shriek, blood spraying wildly from his right eye.

But in his death throes, he lashed out with his other palm, slamming it hard into Chen Mo's chest.

The sound of shattering ribs was clearly audible.

Chen Mo was sent flying, crashing into a pile of scrap a dozen meters away and causing the heap of concrete to collapse inward.

"Chen Mo—!"

Ning Rongrong screamed as she ran out, stumbling and scrambling toward the pile of debris.

Huyan Li clutched his blinded right eye, gasping for breath. He looked at the pile of scrap and grinned, his mouth full of blood.

"He... he must be dead..."

Before the words had even faded, the pile of scrap shifted.

Chen Mo crawled out from within.

He was covered in blood, his chest was caved in, and his left arm was twisted at an unnatural angle. Yet, he stood up.

He gripped the Fish Gut Sword, stared at Huyan Li, and walked toward him, step by step.

Huyan Li widened his remaining left eye, a look of fear appearing on his face for the first time.

"You... what kind of monster are you?"

Chen Mo did not speak.

He walked up to Huyan Li and raised the Fish Gut Sword.

Huyan Li tried to dodge, but the Diamond Mammoth Avatar was too cumbersome; he couldn't move fast enough.

The Fish Gut Sword plunged into his throat.

It pierced in from the front and emerged from the back.

Huyan Li's eyes bulged, his mouth opened as if to say something, but he only spat out a mouthful of blood.

Then, his massive body collapsed with a thunderous crash.

The ground trembled.

Dust billowed into the air.

Chen Mo stood there, gripping his sword, looking down at the corpse on the ground as he gasped for air.

Then, he turned around and looked at Ning Rongrong.

Ning Rongrong stood not far away, her face covered in tears and her body stained with blood—it was unclear whether it was his or her own.

He smiled at her.

"Won."

Then, his vision went black, and he collapsed to the ground.

Ning Rongrong ran over, knelt by his side, and held him, sobbing heart-wrenchingly.

"Chen Mo! Chen Mo, wake up! Don't scare me..."

But Chen Mo did not respond.

In the distance, the system's voice rang out in the night sky, but Ning Rongrong could no longer hear it.

She only knew that the person in her arms was ice-cold all over.

It was unknown how much time had passed when Chen Mo's fingers twitched.

Ning Rongrong looked down abruptly and saw him open his eyes to look at her.

His lips moved, his voice so faint it was almost inaudible:

"Don't cry... I'm not dead yet..."

Ning Rongrong froze for a moment, then hugged him tighter and cried even louder.

In the distance, the horizon began to turn a pale, fish-belly white.

A new day was about to arrive.