The Lost Triangle spoke, her voice cutting through the panicked clamor without raising its pitch. "All disciples, retreat. Stay away from this confrontation. This is not a clash in which you can participate."
Elders cried out, "Master! We can help! We can do something!" But the Lost Triangle did not even look at them. Instead, her white orbs fixed on Gen. "It is the moment, Gen Jiang, to show how determined you are."
Gen bailed his fist, his gaze locked on Buqu. This was one of the targets he needed to deal with. The time was finally here. "I am ready," he told her, his voice steady.
Buqu's smile only grew wider, a crack spreading across his stone-like face. "Of all the worlds I have destroyed," he rumbled, "never have I met anyone courageous enough to say they could handle me. I love your confidence. All of you." He spread his arms, a gesture of mocking invitation. "You know what? I will take all of you at the same time. Come to me."
His smile widened further as his aura began to spread. It wasn't an explosion; it was a dawn, a terrible, inevitable light swallowing the sky. His Qi poured outward, a tangible, crushing weight that made the mountain floor crack and curve inward. The wave burst so violently that less stable cultivators were blasted dozens of meters away, tumbling like leaves.
Gen and his friends all released their auras, a desperate, combined effort to clash against the terrifying force. Gen felt the weight of a sky falling on him, forcing him to take a staggering step back. He bit his lip as cutting winds, born of pure pressure, blasted against his face. In his mind, he smiled a wry, internal smile. *This will probably be my greatest challenge of the entire year. If we can win against Buqu, it will determine if we have a chance against the other Divine Generals.*
Above them, the Lost Triangle floated into the sky. She stretched her arm towards Buqu. Around him, three beams of intense, white light coalesced from the atmosphere, forming into miniature, searing stars. They rotated around him, locking him in a shimmering, three-pointed prison of light—a triangle of pure annihilation.
The Lost Triangle then clenched her fist.
The three stars moved inward in a simultaneous, crushing collision.
Buqu saw the incoming mass of energy with an excited smile. "The energy in this attack makes my blood boil!" He condensed his Qi into his right fist and caught one of the stellar spheres head-on.
There was no explosion.
The energy didn't detonate; it *compressed*, held in a titanic struggle between his will and the spell. The other two spheres flickered sideways, connecting to Buqu at the same moment as the first, forming a complete, sealing triangle of force. He was forced into a pure defensive posture, his forearms raised in a cross before him.
The impact was a cathartic, silent implosion of light that swallowed him whole, followed by a secondary, outward explosion of force. The shockwave didn't blow things apart; it *sank* the entire northern half of the mountain's plateau ten feet down in one go, sending massive slabs of rock spinning silently into the sky.
Gen and the others, having barely held their ground, now floated into position around the epicenter. Far behind them, Gen could feel the immense, layered power of the woman. The Lost Triangle's technique was about using **Zhidow** to create the stellar orbs, **Jingdao** to give them their impossible density, and **Heidow** to combine them into a construct of unimaginable, focused power. But the real power came from the *intent* giving life to the spell—the **Lost Triangle itself**. A principle where no outside rules held sway, where no foreign power could dominate.
From the center of the settling dust and fading light, a figure shot upward.
Buqu flashed into the mid-sky, shooting straight towards the Lost Triangle. His body was scarred, smoke rising from his divine robes, but he was intact. His smile had only grown stronger, fiercer. "MORE!" he bellowed.
Master Ting, hovering on the flank, acted. He unleashed his **End of the World Finger**. Where Gen had only touched the beginning of the skill, Ting had pushed it to a certain, formidable limit—still far from the Jade Emperor's level, but strong enough to demand a reaction. He pointed, concentrating **Jingdao** to a point where it could literally unmake a piece of the world.
Buqu's figure flickered. He raised his right forearm, and for an instant, the gleaming, divine armor of a General flickered to life—not over his whole body, but only on that single forearm. The protected limb met the annihilating point of the Finger.
***VWOOMP.***
A deep, sucking sound. A sphere of distorted space swallowed the energy, compressing it inward. In the same motion, Buqu shifted mid-air, continuing into a savage kick that landed on Ting's left side. The sickening ***CRACK*** of breaking ribs echoed, despite Ting's **Jingdao**. The old master was sent flying like a broken doll into the distant cliffs.
Buqu's eyes, burning with battle-lust, locked onto the Lost Triangle, who was already summoning the next wave of her stellar orbs. Clearly, she was the only thing that could pose lasting trouble. He needed to take her out. Fast.
"Not so fast!" Lorel's voice rang out. She summoned her **Supremacy Swords**, seven blades of brilliant pink light imbued with the unyielding intent of supremacy. They shot forward in a lethal fan.
Buqu smirked. He let the swords strike his exposed, smoking body. They landed with sharp *ping-ping-ping* sounds, leaving thin, glowing cuts across his skin, one after another. But that was about it. Mere scratches. He caught one of the swords out of the air and crushed it in his fist, the light snuffing into nothingness. "Not bad," he conceded, and kicked forward.
He charged like a bulldozer made of divine will, straight for the Lost Triangle.
Li Fen moved. From the void around Buqu, a dazzling array of dark, iron-hard roots erupted, entangling his legs and forearms, shooting like chains to bind him in space.
Buqu was caught, briefly.
It was the opening Gen needed. He pushed the **Jingdao of the Eternal Body's Second Door** to its limit, his form sheathed in dense, inward-pulled radiance. His fist shot out, a sun-forged projectile aimed not to kill, but to stagger, to slow Buqu's charge towards the Lost Triangle.
Buqu, entangled by Li Fen's roots, seemed almost pleased. "Defeat is always painful," he boomed. "If you think you didn't give your all, you must *give your all*!"
He unleashed his Qi.
It didn't flare. It *burned*. A white, annihilating fire erupted from his body, incinerating Li Fen's roots instantly, burning the very air, the light, the concept of resistance around him. Li Fen, caught by the backblast of the fire, cried out and was forced into a desperate, smoking retreat.
Gen, closing in, was engulfed completely by the rising white inferno. But he didn't stop. He couldn't. His fist, carrying all his momentum and will, landed straight towards his opponent's center.
Buqu simply extended his palm and caught the blow head-on.
***BOOOOOOM.***
The impact was a sonic event that flattened the air in a visible ring, spreading out across the ruined mountaintop. But it did nothing. Buqu didn't budge.
Then, his divine armor flickered to life once more, only around the forearm and hand holding Gen's fist. His Domain Spell activated.
**The Forged Destiny.**
Around his armored limb, Qi swirled and took on life, not as fire, but as a spinning, screaming vortex of compressed stellar energy—a miniature, contained supernova. He poured that concentrated, dreadful force forward, down his arm, and into Gen's trapped fist.
The blow was a one-way trip.
Gen's world vanished into pure, white force. He was ejected from the mountain not like a man thrown, but like a meteor launched. He shot backward, breaking the sound barrier instantly, carving a trench through the mountain stone, then through the open air, and finally into the desert floor miles away. The impact sent a geyser of sand and rock a hundred meters into the air, leaving a smoking crater in the endless dunes.
At the same time, high above, the Lost Triangle had finished her casting. In the sky, mimicking the awful majesty of the Damocles themselves, three new pillars of pure, white light had appeared, converging above her. Her figure turned blinding, her form dissolving into luminescence. She began to move forward, not as a woman, but as a walking cataclysm, a final, desperate principle aimed at the Divine General who had shattered her home and was breaking her guests.
The true battle for the Lost Triangle—and for Gen's survival—had only just begun.