CHAPTER 932: LEAVING THE SECRET DOMAIN

"You...! Die!" Kyle roared, his eyes bloodshot with rage as he thrust his palm forward. From high in the air, a giant palm of blazing purple lightning materialized, crashing down toward Max like the wrath of a vengeful god.

"Hahaha!" Max’s laughter boomed as he faced the attack head-on, raising the Blue Dragon Sword in a single smooth motion. ’Sky Shattering Sword Art – First Form – Unyielding Sword!’ He met the descending lightning palm with nothing but the tip of his sword, his stance unwavering.

The impact was instantaneous and catastrophic.

Bang!

The massive purple lightning palm shattered into countless fragments, disintegrating under the power of Max’s sword strike. Bolts of wild lightning scattered in all directions, striking the mountainside and even grazing some of the stunned geniuses gathered below.

The smell of ozone filled the air as arcs of electricity danced chaotically across the rocks.

"You will die here for sure!" Kyle bellowed, his entire body bursting into a storm of purple lightning. His power surged to its absolute peak as he roared, "Lightning God’s Descent!"

Above him, an enormous figure of pure lightning manifested—a towering humanoid form crackling with destructive energy. Its presence warped the air and sent violent shockwaves across the mountaintop. But before it could fully descend, the ground beneath everyone’s feet trembled violently.

Rumble!

The entire secret domain suddenly began to shake uncontrollably. The ground cracked, the air shuddered, and even the sky above distorted as if about to collapse. The overwhelming power of Kyle’s technique was completely overshadowed by the mysterious, earth-shattering force erupting all around them.

"Kyle, stop it!" A sharp, commanding voice echoed through the chaotic atmosphere, cutting through the rumbling of the shaking secret domain. A figure stepped forward from the crowd—a young man with light blue hair, calm and composed, his presence carrying an unmistakable authority.

His voice was steady, yet urgent, as he spoke again, "Your strength is disrupting the secret domain. This is the very center of the domain, where its laws are the weakest. It can’t handle Mythic Rank power, and your current power-up is already touching that threshold."

He was a genius from the Hunter Association, one who had been observing the entire sequence of events silently until now. He had received explicit instructions from the president of the Hunter Association to observe Max’s situation without interfering, to act only as a silent witness to whatever unfolded.

Yet right now, he no longer cared about those instructions. If the secret domain collapsed under the strain of Kyle’s power-up, they wouldn’t be observing anything anymore—they would all be swallowed by the collapsing space, thrown into the deadly void, or worse, torn apart on the spot.

Kyle froze, his expression twitching as he too sensed the instability in the environment caused by his overwhelming surge of lightning power. He clenched his fists, frustration flashing across his face, but he knew the blue-haired genius was right.

"Damn!" he spat through clenched teeth, forcing himself to calm his aura and withdraw the massive lightning figure looming above him. The trembling in the air began to subside slowly, though the oppressive tension in the atmosphere lingered.

"You’re lucky... for now," Kyle said finally, his voice cold, his gaze fixed on Max like a predator marking its prey. "When we leave this secret domain, that will be the time of your death."

Max sneered, completely unfazed. "Whatever," he replied simply, his tone dripping with indifference. In a blur of movement, he appeared back at the peak of the mountain, sitting down cross-legged as if nothing had happened, as though he hadn’t just killed Arnold in front of everyone and fought off Kyle’s wrath.

His Three Dimensional Body surged outward once again, scanning every presence in the area, mapping their positions and energy signatures in intricate detail. Yet despite his meticulous search, one presence he sought most was still absent.

"She’s not here," Max muttered under his breath, frowning slightly. For the past month, aside from killing monsters and harvesting treasures, he had been searching for Lenavira. He was certain she had entered the secret domain, but he hadn’t encountered her even once.

The one thing that worried him the most was her affiliation—she had joined forces with the members of the Void Soul Tower, and worse, she might not even recognize him anymore.

’I’ll look into her later,’ Max thought, pushing away his concerns for now. He refocused, waiting patiently for the secret domain to open.

Minutes later, the space around them trembled violently, the familiar sensation of shifting dimensions sweeping through their bodies. In the blink of an eye, the scenery around them changed completely—the cold mountainous terrain of the secret domain melted away, replaced by the open skies above the hills and forests of the outside world.

"I’m back," Max muttered, his eyes scanning his new surroundings.

"Max! Come and die!" A loud shout erupted the moment they reappeared outside, and before Max could even turn his head, a colossal lightning fist roared toward him from the distance, cutting through the air like a meteor about to obliterate everything in its path.

Max smiled faintly as the massive lightning fist tore through the air toward him, but before he could even counter the attack, a majestic figure descended between him and the incoming strike. Emperor Hermes appeared, his presence radiating overwhelming authority, and with just a casual wave of his hand, the colossal lightning fist dispersed instantly, vanishing into harmless sparks that dissolved into the wind.

"Master, that Max killed almost half the members of the Thunder Monarch Hall, Void Soul Tower, and Mountain Gods Valley—along with countless others who entered the secret domain!" Kyle shouted in rage, flying forward and pointing an accusatory finger at Max. His voice trembled with anger, but there was also a hint of desperation in his tone.

"Yeah, he slaughtered so many of us inside the secret domain!" another shouted, echoing Kyle’s words.

"He’s a monster! He killed Arnold in front of us without even blinking!"

"He killed them all! Master, I beg you, punish him with death!"

The members of Thunder Monarch Hall and Void Soul Tower erupted with curses and accusations, their voices overlapping in a chaotic mix of rage and hatred. The grief over their fallen comrades and the humiliation they had suffered twisted their faces with venomous anger.