The two swords, fully armed and ready, clashed together. The nine dragons formed from three different soul forces roared in unison, coiling and crashing into the merged swords.
Buzz!
A deafening hum echoed through the air as the flames surrounding Lin Qian vanished, revealing the calm and dignified Emperor's robe—black, adorned with embroidered dragons.
Simultaneously, the swords Lin Qian had wielded, the Thunder Night Sword and Cloud Sword, disappeared, replaced by a golden sword three feet three inches long.
This sword was narrower than the Thunder Night Sword but broader than the Cloud Sword. Its golden blade was intricately etched with three black dragons, three white dragons, and three yellow dragons, all vividly alive, with some charging toward the tip.
Golden soul energy emanated from Lin Qian's body, encircling him like a halo, exuding an aura of nobility and power.
The Emperor's overwhelming presence radiated from Lin Qian once more, spreading out in waves of dominating force that seemed to crush everything in its path.
Those who had gathered to witness the battle were visibly shaken. Soul power instinctively surged from their bodies, forming protective barriers against the immense pressure that now bore down on them.
The sheer force of this pressure was so tangible that everyone's expressions changed, their gazes toward Lin Qian filled with disbelief, as if doubting their own eyes.
"Is this really a human?" whispered the elder of the Redhorn tribe, who had just arrived, in sheer disbelief as he looked at Lin Qian standing majestically in the sky.
They had heard rumors of the humans' recent activities, but they never imagined a human could possess such overwhelming power, completely shattering their previous notions.
The person who felt the greatest pressure was, of course, Shen Zhixing. Watching Lin Qian's aura rise once again, he desperately wanted to ask how much more strength his opponent had yet to unleash.
He had been cautious from the start, sensing the immense danger Lin Qian posed. He even burned his life force just to kill him, to avenge his son, and to make him pay for the destruction of his city.
At this moment, Shen Zhixing was using every ounce of his strength to kill Lin Qian.
If he couldn't overpower Lin Qian, he planned to use his race's innate talent to drain Lin Qian's soul power and outlast him.
But from what he had seen so far, it was clear that he was the one at risk of being exhausted to death.
Compared to Shen Zhixing's growing anxiety, Lin Qian was having the time of his life. It had been a long time since he had enjoyed such an intense battle.
Shen Zhixing, with his grandmaster-level strength as an Awakened, had indeed been formidable, even suppressing Lin Qian after burning his life force.
But it was precisely this high-frequency soul power assault that had honed Lin Qian's abilities.
Lin Qian hadn't been in the Awakened stage for long, and the power of dual-armed Thunder Night Sword and Cloud Sword was still unfamiliar to him.
Shen Zhixing had been the perfect whetstone for Lin Qian.
What increasingly pressured Shen Zhixing wasn't that Lin Qian had shown all his cards, but rather that Lin Qian's power had clearly been growing throughout the battle. His ability to suppress Lin Qian was weakening, and in the end, he could no longer control the fight.
At the start, Lin Qian had no way of escaping the high-intensity onslaught of soul power.
It was only by gaining greater control over his strength that Lin Qian was able to break free from Shen Zhixing's attacks and exit the range of his soul power onslaught.
Now that Lin Qian had sufficiently honed his skills, he decided it was time to end the battle.
Shen Zhixing's soul power was waning, his life force almost completely burned out, leaving him on the brink of falling from the seventh tier of the Awakened.
Lin Qian's three soul forces merged into one, transforming into golden Emperor's soul power, which surged from his palm into the sword.
The dragons roared furiously, and the Emperor's overwhelming presence, which had been radiating outward, suddenly condensed. Lin Qian's golden eyes locked onto Shen Zhixing.
Seeing Lin Qian's aura condense, Shen Zhixing's face fell. This was the most terrifying form of his opponent—calm, but about to unleash a devastating attack.
"Get out of here!" Shen Zhixing yelled to his remaining Blackhorn subordinates. "Save your lives and remember to avenge me one day."
Shen Zhixing no longer had the confidence to kill Lin Qian. He urged his surviving subordinates to flee the scene quickly.
If he were to die at Lin Qian's hands and they didn't escape, they too would be eradicated.
If that happened, he would have died in vain, with no one left to avenge him.
Lin Qian continued to channel his soul power into the Emperor's Sword, glancing at the fleeing Blackhorns.
Just that one glance sent a chill down their spines, as they fled in panic, not needing Shen Zhixing's orders.
As Lin Qian's golden gaze fell upon them, the surviving Blackhorns felt as if they had been plunged into an icy abyss, terror gripping their hearts.
"Duancheng, kill them!"
Suddenly, three cold, murderous words escaped Lin Qian's lips, leaving everyone around in a state of confusion.
Boom!
In the next instant, a tremendous crash echoed through the air as an arm-thick arrow tore through the sky, turning the surrounding air into a whirling vortex as it shot out from the dense forest below.
The force of the arrow's launch caused the ground within a thirty-mile radius to collapse, pulverizing the surrounding trees into dust.
The arrow, moving like a streak of pale yellow light, instantly reached its target, exploding the body of the sixth-tier Awakened Blackhorn who had just turned to flee into a cloud of blood in midair.
Immediately after, a tall, muscular man in light armor leaped from the forest below. His hawk-like eyes locked onto the fleeing Blackhorns as he tightened the muscles in his exposed arms, raising a massive crimson bow that was as tall as a person.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Each arrow he shot out created a sonic boom as it tore through the air, the massive yellow arrows hunting down the fleeing Blackhorns.
In just seven breaths, thirty-six arrows had completely obliterated the nearly ten thousand Blackhorns who had survived alongside Shen Zhixing, leaving none alive.
The armored man calmly slung his massive bow over his shoulder, then knelt in midair before Lin Qian, bowing his head. "Your Majesty, I am pleased to report that all enemies have been eliminated!"
"Well done. You may rise," Lin Qian responded with a satisfied nod, not holding back his praise.
"Lin Qian, I'll take you down with me!" Immediately afterward, Shen Zhixing roared in fury, charging toward Lin Qian, his body engulfed in purple flames. His once-black hair had turned gray and brittle, a sign that his life force was rapidly depleting.