The battlefield, which had been a chaotic but manageable grinder, transformed in an instant. The arrival of the second wave was not just an addition of numbers; it was a fundamental shift in the very nature of the war. The disciplined legions of Rank 3 and Rank 4 beasts were a true army, their movements coordinated, their auras a crushing, unified presence.
For the allied cultivators, who had spent six grueling hours fighting for their lives, the sight of this new, fresh, and infinitely more powerful enemy was a hammer blow to their already fractured morale. Cries of despair and terror echoed along the defensive lines as the second wave crashed into them. A Sixth Stage Qi Condensation expert from the Crimson Cauldron Sect, who had been a pillar of his unit, was instantly torn to shreds by a trio of coordinated Rank 4 Saber-Toothed Tigers. The front line did not just falter; it shattered.
It was in this moment of rising despair that a new, profound, and overwhelmingly powerful aura erupted from the heart of the river gorge.
Li Yu felt the breakthrough settle, the universe of new power within him finding its equilibrium. The world, which had been a chaotic storm of sound and fury, suddenly seemed to slow down. He could see the trajectory of every spiritual art, the desperate expression on every disciple's face, the predatory glint in every beast's eye, all with a preternatural clarity. His spiritual sense, now supercharged by his Seventh Stage Foundation Establishment foundation, was no longer just a net; it was a part of the battlefield itself, every ripple in the river, every shift in the wind, an extension of his own consciousness.
He stood in the churning, bloody water, his Star-Iron Rod held loosely in one hand, his aura a deep, calm, and unshakable pillar in the midst of the raging storm.
The Myriad Graves Sect leader, who stood on a high cliff overlooking the gorge, paused in his direction of his disciples. His profound, midnight-dark eyes, the eyes of a Core Formation expert, widened in sheer, unadulterated disbelief as he felt the sudden, explosive surge of power from the young man in the river below. He… he broke through? In the middle of a battle of this magnitude? What kind of monster is this boy?
Li Yu did not have time to revel in his newfound power. He saw the chaos, the collapsing lines, the despair in the eyes of the demonic sect disciples as they were pushed back by a new, terrifying threat. Leading the charge of the second wave into the gorge was a new beast, a true hegemon of the swamps.
It was a Colossal Mud-Titan, a Rank 6 Hegemon Beast. It stood over sixty feet tall, its humanoid body a grotesque amalgamation of enchanted river mud, ancient stones, and the gnarled roots of ironwood trees. Its eyes were two burning, malevolent swamp-fires, and its every step shook the very foundations of the gorge. It was a living siege engine, a creature of immense, unyielding physical power.
"Hold it back!" the Myriad Graves Sect leader roared, but his disciples' Yin-aspected, corrosive arts, so effective against flesh, simply splashed harmlessly against the Mud-Titan's ever-regenerating, earthen body.
Li Yu knew that if that creature broke their line, the entire Right Flank would collapse. He did not wait for an order. He gave one.
"Hu Jian! Lin Tao!" his voice, imbued with the power of his new realm, was a thunderclap that cut through the chaos. "Take the battalion! Form a defensive line with the Myriad Graves Sect! Do not let a single beast pass! I will deal with the Titan."
"Sir Li, you can't!" Hu Jian shouted back in terror. "That's a Rank 6!"
But Li Yu was already moving. He did not fly. He ran, his feet striding across the surface of the churning river as if it were solid ground. He shot towards the advancing behemoth, a single, small figure against a moving mountain.
The Mud-Titan saw him, its swamp-fire eyes glowing with a dismissive, contemptuous light. It raised one of its massive, tree-trunk-like arms and brought it crashing down, a blow that could pulverize a sect's gatehouse.
Li Yu did not evade. He did not defend. He met the attack head-on. He swung his Star-Iron Rod in a simple, clean, upward arc. Rod Smash.
His own profound physical strength, amplified by his 'Leviathan's Unity' physique and now fueled by the immense, qualitative leap of his Seventh Stage foundation, was channeled into the impossibly heavy weapon. There was no time to hide his power. The battle was too critical; he had to end this threat quickly and decisively to stabilize the front.
The two forces met.
There was no deafening explosion. There was only a deep, soul-shaking BOOM, as if the world itself had cracked. A visible, circular shockwave of pure, compressed air erupted from the point of impact, turning the surrounding river water into a fine, atomized mist.
The Mud-Titan's massive arm, which was made of stone and enchanted mud harder than steel, simply… shattered. It exploded into a shower of gravel and sludge from the elbow down.
The behemoth let out a roar of pure, disbelieving agony. It stared at its ruined arm, and then at the small, calm figure floating in the air before it, its swamp-fire eyes now filled with a new, dawning sense of terror.
A wave of stunned silence washed over everyone who witnessed it. A Rank 6 Hegemon Beast was equivalent to a peak Qi Condensation cultivator, but that was a measure of its spiritual energy. Its physical body was a fortress, a hundred times tougher than any human at that level. Even a normal, early-stage Foundation Establishment expert would have to spend hours wearing down such a creature. For this young man to shatter its arm in a single, direct blow was a display of physical power that defied all logic.
Li Yu did not give the creature time to recover. He shot forward, his «Abyssal Dragon's Shadow» carrying him up the creature's massive body in a blur of motion. The Titan roared and tried to strike him with its other arm, but Li Yu was too fast, too fluid. He used his «Flowing Water, Still Shadow» art, not for attack, but for utility. With a single thought, he created a high-pressure jet of water that shot into one of the Titan's swamp-fire eyes. The eye sizzled and went dark, causing the beast to roar in pain and frustration.
He used that moment of distraction to run up its arm, his feet as light as a feather, and bring his staff down in a devastating Rod Slam on the creature's shoulder.
Another silent, concussive boom, and the Titan's other arm was rendered useless, shattered at the joint.
The battle turned into a systematic, brutal execution. The Titan, blinded in one eye and its arms useless, thrashed wildly, its powerful blows sending plumes of mud and water hundreds of feet into the air. During one of these chaotic explosions, Li Yu was forced to block a stray backhand from the enraged beast. The force of the blow, even from a crippled Hegemon, was immense. He was sent backwards, his body thrown back into the muddy riverbed with a tremendous splash.
As he pushed himself out of the newly formed crater, his hand brushed against something hard and smooth buried in the mud. He glanced down. It was a strange, spiral-shelled creature, dormant and covered in mud. His spiritual sense flared. A Rank 5 Earth-Core Snail. A living battery of earth energy. A random treasure unearthed by the chaos of battle.
With a single, hidden thought, a tiny, invisible portal to his sanctuary opened in the murky water. The dazed, confused snail was silently, completely, and utterly devoured. Another specimen for his growing collection.
He shot back into the air and returned his attention to the now-crippled Mud-Titan. It was on its knees, its regenerative abilities failing against the constant, overwhelming assault. It let out a final, desperate roar and opened its massive, cavernous mouth, a ball of condensed, muddy, and incredibly destructive energy forming within, its final, life-or-death attack.
Li Yu simply dropped from the air, landing softly on the ground before it. He looked up at the charging attack and brought his staff back. He channeled the full, terrifying power of his foundation, the abyssal void and the vibrant life energy, into the Star-Iron Rod. The black, unassuming weapon began to glow with a faint, dark light that seemed to devour the world around it.
He did not use a named technique. He simply thrust forward.
The rod met the ball of destructive energy. There was no explosion. The energy simply… vanished, consumed by the void-aspected power of the staff. The rod continued its path, striking the Colossal Mud-Titan in the center of its massive chest.
A web of black, corrosive cracks spread out from the point of impact. The behemoth's swamp-fire eyes flickered and died. The massive, sixty-foot-tall creature of enchanted earth and stone crumbled, its body dissolving into a pile of lifeless, ordinary mud and rock.
Li Yu stood over the remains of his defeated foe, his breathing even, his expression calm. He had just single-handedly defeated a Rank 6 Hegemon Beast.
The entire Right Flank of the battlefield had fallen silent. The disciples of the Myriad Graves Sect, the beast tamers of the Green Mountain battalion, and the demonic beasts of the tide all stared in a state of profound, terrified awe at the young man who stood, unbowed and seemingly un-winded, in the center of the devastation.
The leader of the Myriad Graves Sect looked down from his cliff, his usual, scholarly calm completely shattered, replaced by a look of sheer, unadulterated shock. He had thought he was allying with a talented junior. He had not realized he was fighting alongside a beast in human form.
Li Yu looked at the new, dark line of beasts that was already beginning to surge forward to fill the gap left by the fallen Titan. He took a deep, steadying breath. One down. Thousands more to go.