"That's..."
Demon Emperor Xuan's enormous body froze. Beneath the golden light of the Sun-Eating Sky-Devouring Dog's nine Battle Marks, even his true form looked small, like a candle flame beside the blazing sun.
The ancient cold around Han Demon Child, cold enough to freeze the void, began to break apart and melt beyond his control, hissing as though in anguish.
The savage grin had vanished from Wang Mie's face. In its place was a tremor born deep in his soul. His whole body shook uncontrollably.
The Chaos Evil Scion stared at the nine dazzling Battle Marks circling Lu Ren like blazing suns. For the first time, fear showed in his eyes.
It was the instinctive, inescapable despair of prey facing its natural predator.
"Nine-Marked Battle Body... How could he... How could he have a Nine-Marked Battle Body?!"
Wang Mie screamed, his voice warped by shock, disbelief written across his face.
Across the long ages of the Immortal Path Great World, only two people had ever possessed an Eight-Marked Battle Body.
Yet Lu Ren, a young junior who had cultivated his Battle Body for only a few thousand years, had reached the legendary ninth mark—a height no one had ever attained.
The shock struck deeper than news that he had achieved a Perfected Dao Fruit, or even entered the Supreme Realm.
A Dao Fruit could still be forced to completion through heaven-defying fortune and peerless talent. But inscribing Battle Marks demanded endless, painstaking tempering at every step. There were no shortcuts.
"Now!"
Lu Ren's voice rang out calmly, yet it seemed to carry the weight of ten thousand jun, pressing down until no one could breathe. "Who," he asked coldly, "has surrounded whom?"
His words fell, and a deathly silence settled over the ruins.
Only the brilliant golden radiance of the