The night burned like a furnace.
Han Xing planted his feet at the edge of the shattered forest clearing, lightning skittering across his shoulders in ragged sparks. Across the broken ground, the guardian stood wreathed in flame, eyes bright with murder. Between them, Xiao Yueli clung to consciousness, her blood-slicked body sagging against the roots of an ancient tree, breath shallow and trembling.
Flaming serpents howled through the air, jaws snapping like molten whips. Han Xing's halberd spun in desperate arcs, each strike scattering sparks and gouging smoking trenches into the soil. But the serpents kept coming—endless and venomous.
Every swing drained him. Every breath tasted of iron and ash.
Behind him, Yueli coughed, the sound small amid the inferno. Her voice scraped through the roar.
"Han… don't just leave me here and run."
The guardian's laughter rolled over them, cold and delighted.
"Defend boy defend, but all you can do nothing but defend. if you cannot strike back sooner or later you going to die by my hand muahaha!. Pathetic. Stay still so I can watch you burn."
Han Xing's teeth clenched. The serpents were fanning toward her. If I moved to attack will hit her, she would die. it can't be help to face it directly weapon boy art : indestructible shield . The shield erupted in a blinding explosion . He Fall to his knees, "look like I survival .
His thoughts were spare, like a blade pulled clean from its sheath:
"Long-range techniques troublesome. Charge and she dies; defend and I burn to death. Fine. I'll break his array and his pride in one strike."
The guardian sensed hesitation like a predator smells fear and strode forward, arrogance thick as smoke.
"It all useless. you can't protect her. If you stop the pointless resistance I might leave your body intact when you death.
You talk to much. Lightning hissed across Han Xing's skin. The halberd dissolved into a flare of sparks; in its place, a sword of pure crimson thunder coalesced in his grasp, humming like a caged storm.
His face was flat with focus.
"Crimson Lightning Sword Art—First Technique: Crimson King Slayer."
The blade screamed as it fell.
A storm of sword-qi wrapped in lightning cleaved through the guardian's flames and struck him full in the chest. The forest clearing flared white. Blood blew from the guardian's mouth as lightning drilled through ribs, burning flesh to scorched rag. He dropped to one knee, black blood sizzling on the soil.
Han Xing staggered as well, a hot taste of copper flooding his mouth. The recoil tore through his body like knives; veins flamed as his blood fought to carry the technique's cost.
The guardian only grinned, madness bright in his eyes.
"Good… very good! Now you have truly angered me!"
He rocketed skyward, hands a blur of seals.
"Witness my strongest art—Great Fire Serpent's Descent!"
The heavens split with a thunderclap. From the torn sky coiled a colossal serpent of living fire, its burning body forming a terrible ring that blotted out the stars. Within the ring, a thousand smaller snakes writhed, shrieking like molten blades as they spiraled downward.
Xiao Yueli went pale.
"We're—Han, we're going to die—"
Han Xing shoved a jade talisman into her slick hand.
"Protective artifact. It shields one person only."
"No—what about you—" she cried.
"There's no time!" he snapped, the command sharp enough to cut.
Don't worry I won't fall this easily.
"Stay behind it. Don't move."
Thunder cracked like an angry god. Han Xing let the crimson sword blur back into raw lightning. He stomped the fractured earth; jagged arcs of electricity raced outward, cleaving soil to powder. Lightning wrapped his body until he shone like a living storm.
A giant lightning avatar burst into being behind him an armored colossus shaped from thunder, eyes twin suns of fierce light.
Han Xing set his jaw.
"Desolation Fist Art—First Technique: Sky Annihilation!"
The thunder-fist rose and slammed upward.
The world tore open.
The serpent's flaming head hammered into the lightning strike. Fire and thunder collided in an annihilating thunderclap that split the night. The shockwave ripped through forests for miles, flattening trees and shearing mountainsides. Ground split and vomited molten stone. The very air ignited; embers and sparks rained in a calamitous storm.
Far across the ridge, Captain Lu of the Azure Dragon Team skidded to a halt, his squad at his heels. The earth vibrated beneath them; the crimson signal still burned above like a wound in the sky.
"That power… not good," Lu muttered. "Faster! At this rate he won't last long!"
At the central forest, the tempest finally broke. Smoke swallowed everything.
When it thinned, Han Xing staggered from the haze. He coughed blood; his knees trembled. Every muscle screamed. Sky Annihilation had nearly claimed him—if not for the iron tempering of his bones, the technique would have shredded him whole.
Too strong, he thought hollowly. Even my full strength barely holds him back.
A shadow shifted inside the smoke.
The guardian emerged—charred, bleeding, yet maddeningly alive. His skin blistered and cracked, eyes alight with savage fervor.
Han Xing "Hard to kill," That guy as stubborn as a cockroach.
Han Xing forced himself up; lightning sputtered weakly across his shoulders like spent fireflies.
A sharp whistle split the chaos.
Captain Lu descended in a blur of blue light; his team fanned into formation behind him. He landed with a soldier's economy of motion and took in the scene with a single, cold glance.
"Good work, kid," Lu said, voice like steel.
"If you'd come a heartbeat later," Han Xing rasped, "I'd already be dead."
Xiao Yueli stumbled from behind the flickering talisman-borne shield and rushed forward.
"Han! Are you hurt? How bad—"
He could only cough in answer. Blood smeared his lips as she forced a healing pill between them, hands shaking.
The guardian sneered through cracked teeth.
"You dare ignore me—"
His sentence cut off in a silver flash.
Captain Lu's sword moved like a thought.
One merciless stroke. The guardian's head separated from his body before the last syllable left his mouth. Blood fountained across the shattered stones, steaming in the heat.
Han Xing and Xiao Yueli froze.
One strike—clean, absolute. The monster that had nearly killed them fell like a puppet with its strings cut.
Captain Lu flicked blood from his blade and did not look away.
"In this world, hesitation is death."
Han Xing let his gaze drop.
"I'm still too weak."
Lu's expression softened just a fraction, less iron than before.
"You did well. Don't let this failure fester. Inner demons kill cultivators faster than blades."
Xiao Yueli's eyes shone with something like dawning reverence.
"You're stronger than anyone I've met—stronger than nobles and prodigies with better resources. I don't know why you push so hard, but… I see how much you've sacrificed the hand is the hand of someone who has hardened by years of hard work."
Han Xing managed a faint, weary smile.
Finally… someone sees my effort, he allowed himself for a breath.
The heartbeat of peace was brief.
Xiao Yueli "What about the other my Junior are they alright .''
captain Lu "Ho they with the other team member."
Above them, the night wrenched. A jagged crack split the sky, leaking a crushing pressure that bent tree trunks and turned the air to iron. Captain Lu's face, normally unreadable, went hard.
He looked up.
"So," he said quietly, drawing the word out like a blade, "he's coming."
The air trembled, answering the whisper.
The true nightmare was only beginning.