"Plop."

The fleshly body fell to the ground.

The lance was withdrawn from its back.

Withered leaves and sandy soil billowed up together.

Crimson blood, accompanied by dissipating Honkai energy, splattered everywhere.

Destobier collapsed—Fusion Soldiers possessed incredibly tenacious life force, but with very few exceptions, their vital points were no different from those of ordinary humans.

A shattered heart.

Was an absolutely fatal wound.

"Desti!!!"

An enraged roar, with a decibel level far beyond what any human could produce, echoed madly across the dilapidated riverbank.

Destobier's death.

Witnessing this scene firsthand, Trace's final thread of sanity snapped!

"Ahhhhhh—ROAR!!!"

A drastic transformation began, erupting from within.

In that instant, an aura of Honkai, like a tidal wave, poured out from the middle-aged man!

His skin chapped and split open.

But what flowed out from within was not the crimson blood of a human…

It was a deep purple, bordering on pitch black.

His torso and limbs expanded and swelled simultaneously; muscles and sinews, like writhing tentacles, tangled and burst forth from all parts of his body!

In less than two seconds.

Trace's body had swelled to more than twice its original size!

"This is…"

"Man-Made Honkai Corruption."

Lu Xing did not interrupt Trace's "transformation." He was personally witnessing this spectacle unique to Fusion Soldiers: "Man-Made Honkai Corruption."

"ROOOAAARRR!!!"

The roar, reverberating with sonic waves, continued to intensify.

The aura emanating from Trace's body was still climbing steadily.

But!

The middle-aged man's body did not continue to swell as Lu Xing had anticipated.

He actually reversed the process of "corrupting" into the Emperor-class Honkai Beast Ammit! Relying on faith and willpower, he began to transform back towards his human form!

"BOOM!!"

"Haah."

"Haah."

His chest heaved violently.

The man standing there still maintained a human appearance.

The surging, excessive Honkai energy, under his control, was entirely suppressed into the greatsword in his hand—the Soul Steel greatsword, highly resistant to Honkai energy corrosion, transformed into a bizarre weapon, as if embedded with crocodile teeth: a Serrated Scythe-Sword.

And his current state…

———

Name: Trace

Level: 70

Abilities: Omitted.

Equipment: Omitted.

Attack: 244

Speed: 152

Constitution: 190

Evaluation: Poised at the Abyss

———

"It didn't succeed?"

The deep, single eye swept over Trace's data.

This man, who had halted the trend of corruption at the final moment, was already at the peak strength of an Emperor-class Honkai Beast.

In other words.

If the Man-Made Honkai Corruption had truly succeeded.

Then he would likely have stepped directly into the realm of a Judgement-class.

And this was merely from fusing with an Emperor-class Honkai Beast. If it were those Fusion Soldiers who had Judgement-class Honkai Beast factors injected into their bodies…

A slight regret.

However, this experiment had already provided Lu Xing with more than enough intelligence.

Next—

"BOOM!!!"

The man stood motionless on the riverbank.

Behind him, colossal, churning waves connected the water to the sky, as if the entire great river seethed and roiled with his furious emotions.

Trace was a battle-hardened warrior.

Setting aside other factors.

With an attack attribute surpassing Lu Xing's, coupled with the impending strike born of pure rage, this alone required Lu Xing to respond with one hundred percent of his concentration.

"Caw! (Black fellow, interrupt him!)"

Moyuli, nearly bald.

It had finally recovered somewhat from the fierce battle. That it still had the energy to "command" Lu Xing was telling—

It was probably a lost cause.

"Caw! Caw↘… (Hurry up! I don't want to…)"

Moyuli ultimately failed to finish its sentence.

Lu Xing turned his head, an inadvertent glance, and the molting peacock decisively shut its beak.

"Clack!"

The large shield hung at his shoulder. Shesha, sensing the unfavorable situation, quickly "swooshed" and dived beneath the shield.

Lu Xing gripped his lance with both hands.

Flames, frost, and lightning simultaneously swirled and ascended upon the deep blue shaft of the lance—by combining [Frostflame Thrust] with [Electromagnetic Mastery], Lu Xing had imbued the tip of his lance with the power of all three attributes.

Finally.

He would unleash it with the power of [Dawnbreaker]!

This should be…

The most suitable move for the current scene.

"VMMMM!!"

The lance was raised vertically.

The luminous phenomenon stirred up by the energy storm was like a heavenly pillar, piercing the firmament!

Opposite Lu Xing.

Waves and waterspouts tens of meters high surged forth with world-overturning momentum. The gentleness and inclusiveness inherent to water, at this moment, transformed entirely into a cutting edge capable of severing all creation!

This was—

"Sun Wheel!"

"Tidal Wave!"

A swing of the sword, a thrust of the lance.

"—Submit to Death!!"

"—Devour All My Enemies!!"

Vast heavenly might, an aura of utter annihilation; a brilliant flash of incandescent light, and the river of stars itself seemed to dim.

"BOOM!!!"

———

Using the city as a yardstick.

To measure destructive power on such a scale was the hallmark of the so-called Emperor-class.

In other words.

Techniques unleashed by an Emperor-class could easily reduce a city to ruins; and when this level of power attacked with full force, in a mere instant, it could cause all living things and creations to be devoured by a sea of fire.

With the great river behind Trace as the dividing line.

This city, capable of housing tens of millions of people, was more than seventy percent destroyed by that single exchange.

And the greatest victim of this clash between Lu Xing and Trace—

"Wh… why?"

Moyuli no longer possessed any part capable of producing sound.

Its massive body, over ninety percent of it, had been directly vaporized by the attack just now.

Along the trajectory swept by the pillar of light, whether it was its core or its shell, everything was thoroughly reduced to the most basic Honkai energy.

If one were to ask why Moyuli, hiding behind Lu Xing, was so grievously injured?

Because…

Lu Xing's full-powered [Dawnbreaker] had not clashed head-on with Trace's ultimate move. Instead, at the very last moment, as he held it aloft before him, he had abruptly blasted it backward over his shoulder—

A Deceptive Back Thrust (Huimajiang)!

Lu Xing, with a maneuver unbefitting a cavalry lance, had unleashed a Deceptive Back Thrust aimed directly at Moyuli's vitals!

With such power, let alone being struck directly while completely defenseless, even if Moyuli had defended with all its might, it might not have survived.

Lu Xing had done this precisely to give Moyuli no chance of escape!

The authority of the Herrscher of Sentience made Lu Xing wary. It was hard to say if this聒噪 (vociferous) great peacock also possessed similar abilities—if Moyuli, in addition to replicating its cores, also had the ability to transport itself from the physical plane to a network or a mental world, that would be disastrous.

For this reason.

Lu Xing had meticulously prepared this Deceptive Back Thrust for it.

The result was just as Lu Xing had anticipated. Moyuli, from beginning to end, had never imagined Lu Xing's attack would be aimed at itself.

After all…

Taking a peak Emperor-class attack head-on without any defense was not a pleasant experience.

"Crack."

Armor peeled off, his body shattered.

Although Lu Xing's body was not severed at the waist, even with his defensive capabilities, about forty percent of his entire structure was directly blasted into powder.

The remaining parts.

Were likewise not intact anywhere.

"Shing."

The lance returned to the shield. The Black Knight's figure slowly vanished before Trace's eyes.

The grievous injuries were no feint, and his current physical state… was precisely what Lu Xing needed.