The Golden-Winged Peng Bird's chest caved in half an inch.
Shi Hao's punch carried lightning, fire, and the heavy recoil from the Black Pot on his back, smashing straight through the Golden-Winged Peng Bird's protective golden radiance.
Golden Peng flew sideways, crashing through three stone pillars and scattering feathers across the ground.
Shi Hou stood in the distance and glanced down.
"The breast meat's split."
With the Black Pot on his back, Shi Hao wiped the blood from his face and grinned, his teeth gleaming.
"We can still stew it."
The Golden-Winged Peng Bird shrieked in fury. The Golden Crow Fan wheeled through the air, and the Magnetic Peak pressed down hard enough to crack the earth.
Shi Hao stepped forward.
The Black Pot let out a deep clang behind him.
That clang drowned out the Golden Crow fire, the magnetic light, and even the roars of the countless creatures across the Hundred Broken Mountains.
For an instant, everything fell silent around Shi Hou's ears.
Purple Lightning Runes lit up on the Stone Knife in his hand. Deep within the pot's wall, the clump of Black Fire he had collected from the White Bone Forbidden Land flickered too.
The next moment.
The Hundred Broken Mountains receded before Shi Hou's eyes.
The Golden-Winged Peng Bird, Shi Hao, the Nine-Headed Lion, the White Tiger, and the Big Red Bird were all dragged toward the end of the ages by a layer of black light.
He saw far into the future.
Far, far into the future.
The heavens lay shattered, and the sea of stars had turned to ash.
A Plateau stretched across the end of all things. Black fog filled the firmament, and worlds in every direction bled.
Shi Hao stood at the very front.
He was no longer the Little One