Above the Void.
Two streaks of light, one ahead of the other, tore across the boundary between sea and sky.
Ji Yuan rode the Star-Treading Wheel. With every step, he crossed dozens of miles.
Beneath his feet, even the Void seemed compressed into a thin layer.
His blood-red cloak snapped behind him, and the tip of the World-Breaking Spear in his hand still bore blood from Chi Kui's neck.
Ahead, the scarlet Flying Boat trailed a long tail of flame, carving a charred furrow through the clouds.
Chi Kui stood at its prow, his blood and qi surging without cease.
Though the wound on his neck had healed, fear he could no longer hide appeared on his bronze face for the first time.
He could not escape.
The figure riding the Star-Treading Wheel behind him was drawing closer, bit by bit.
The gap had shrunk from dozens of miles to barely a dozen, and it kept closing.
Chi Kui knew perfectly well that once Ji Yuan caught him at close range,
in his current state, he had no hope of withstanding the next assault.
His Indestructible Golden Body had been crushed to the brink of collapse by Square-Inch Mountain.
The Blazing-Heaven Fire Net was damaged, its power greatly diminished.
The Formation-Breaking Hammer's chain had been severed, costing him another means of restraint.
Yet Ji Yuan kept pressing closer.
He could not keep running.
Chi Kui drew a deep breath and stamped hard on the Flying Boat.
It stopped abruptly. He turned around.
If he could not escape, he would fight to the death.
He closed his right hand around empty air. The Formation-Breaking Hammer vanished, replaced by a pitch-black Demon-Subduing Pestle.
Barely three feet long, it was densely engraved with blood-red witchcraft runes. A dark-red glow flowed faintly through their