"This is—"
Before Ji Yuan could finish, an enraged roar rang out from beyond the heavens.
The voice seemed to crush down from the highest vault of the sky, piercing clouds and splitting stone, making the entire cave hum and tremble.
"You damned rats, so what if you survived by luck? Instead of hiding properly in your Eternal Fall Continent, you dared come out to court death. How utterly arrogant!"
Ji Yuan recognized that voice at once.
Lei Pojun.
The patriarch of Army-Breaking Hall, the body-cultivation powerhouse who had bickered with Mad Blade and Zhao Changkong outside the Martial God Tower.
Stellar Loose Immortal abruptly rose from the ground. The movement was so swift that it tugged at the wound on his chest, making him bare his teeth in pain. "A Human Race powerhouse! A Human Race powerhouse has come to save us!"
Before his voice faded, another shrill cry came from beyond the heavens.
"The hatred of my Star Beast Clan shall be repaid with your human blood!"
Before the final note of "repaid" had fallen, Lei Pojun's furious shout exploded.
"Courting death!"
Then came another earth-shaking upheaval.
The ringing clash of weapons, the thunderous explosions of spiritual power, the shrieks of the Void being torn apart—all sounds tangled together as heaven and earth trembled.
With a casual gesture, Stellar Loose Immortal summoned the Stellar Measuring Ruler into his hand. He looked back at Ji Yuan.
"Let's go out and take a look."
Ji Yuan nodded, forced himself upright, and followed Stellar Loose Immortal as they shot out of the cave one after the other.
Two streaks of escaping light rose from a crevice in the mountain range, skimming low along jagged ridges for some distance before landing upon a relatively concealed cliff.
The two looked up toward the