The subterranean cavern fell into a suffocating, deathly silence. Dust and frozen mist swirled through the freezing air, settling on the ruined battlefield. Dawinton, the absolute ruler of this underground domain, stood panting. He looked at the horrific scene before him. Rayn's body was skewered completely through the chest by the massive golden broadsword, hanging lifelessly in the air like a piece of butchered meat on a spit.
When Dawinton saw that the arrogant young bastard had finally died, he didn't throw his head back and laugh. He didn't feel the euphoric rush of victory that usually accompanied the slaughter of a formidable enemy. Instead, a deeply unsettling, heavy feeling settled in his ancient chest. It wasn't happiness; it was the sickening, hollow sensation of watching a heaven-defying, powerful young man turn into a useless pile of mutilated flesh.
With a weary sigh that carried the weight of decades of bloodshed, Dawinton waved his wrinkled hand. The Dao of the Merchant responded to his will. The colossal golden sword instantly dissolved, transforming into a massive, ethereal golden hand. The hand unceremoniously yanked Rayn's pulverized body off the invisible blade and threw it violently to the icy ground.
THUD.
The moment Rayn's lifeless corpse violently hit the permafrost, the absolute Law of Equivalent Exchange concluded its cycle. The towering, majestic mountain of solid gold and sparkling diamonds that had materialized in Rayn's previous position instantly lost its luster. In a mere fraction of a second, the incalculable wealth crumbled, completely turning into a massive pile of worthless, gray ash.
"The transaction is complete. The value is spent, and the gold returns to the void," Dawinton muttered bitterly, wiping a trail of thick blood from the corner of his mouth.
He slowly turned his back on the corpse and dragged his exhausted body toward his contracted beast. The demonic bird was thrashing weakly in a massive pool of its own glowing blue blood, crying out in absolute agony from the bloody stumps where its majestic wings had been brutally amputated. Dawinton channeled his remaining gnosis, preparing to use his heavy-attribute qi to forcibly seal the ruptured arteries of his beast.
But as he raised his hands, his sharp eyes caught sight of Vespera. She was standing at the edge of the battlefield, perfectly pristine, untouched by the chaotic crossfire.
Dawinton froze. A cold shiver crawled down his spine. Vespera was standing there like a cold, unfeeling stone statue. Her face was completely devoid of emotion. Her husband—the man she was supposedly bound to—had just been brutally impaled and tossed aside like garbage, yet she didn't even flinch. There was no hysterical screaming, no explosive release of killing intent, no heaven-shattering rage.
Why the fuck is this crazy bitch so calm? Dawinton's mind raced, a knot of pure anxiety twisting his guts. She should be tearing this entire cave apart to avenge him!
He opened his mouth, about to ask the enigmatic woman to lend her terrifying powers to heal his dying beast. But before the first syllable could leave his throat, the ambient temperature in the cave dropped to absolute zero.
A terrifying, suffocating chill completely seized Dawinton's soul. The very air around him began to warp and distort, compressing into a violent, heaven-crushing Spiritual Vortex. The sheer gravity of the killing intent was so absolute that it physically crushed Dawinton's lungs, making it impossible to breathe.
IMPOSSIBLE!
Dawinton's eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated horror. He tried to frantically tilt his head back, but it was too late.
Materializing directly out of the void, completely bypassing the laws of space and time, Rayn appeared right in front of Dawinton's face. His eyes were burning with a psychotic, demonic crimson light. In a fraction of a microsecond, Rayn lifted his frost-covered sword, aiming a perfectly executed horizontal slash to completely behead the old Town Leader.
But loyalty defies logic. The wingless demonic beast, sensing the absolute peril of its master, let out a final, tragic screech and violently threw its massive, broken body directly into the path of Rayn's blade.
SHHHHLLLUUUCK!
The horrific sound of flesh tearing and bone shattering echoed through the cave. Rayn's icy blade cleaved straight through the thick, muscular neck of the Phase 5 demonic beast. A massive fountain of glowing blue blood erupted like a geyser as the beast's multi-eyed, horned head was cleanly violently severed from its shoulders, spinning wildly into the air before crashing heavily onto the bloody ground.
Using the split-second window bought by his beast's sacrifice, Dawinton immediately exploded backward, putting thirty meters of distance between himself and the monstrous youth. He looked at the decapitated corpse of his beloved companion, but his mind couldn't even process the grief. His brain was completely short-circuiting.
How the fuck is he standing?! Dawinton screamed internally. He had literally felt his golden sword rupture Rayn's heart and shred his internal organs!
Dawinton stared in absolute disbelief at Rayn's chest. The massive, gaping hole where the golden sword had pierced him was rapidly knitting itself back together. Muscle fibers, veins, and bone were visibly reconnecting, completely ignoring the laws of the universe. Dawinton immediately snapped his gaze toward Vespera, entirely convinced that she was using some healing Dao to save the boy.
But she hadn't moved a single fucking inch. She was just standing there, arms crossed, casually watching the slaughter unfold like it was cheap theater. She didn't lift a finger. The healing was coming entirely from Rayn's own monstrous, mutated physiology.
Rayn didn't give the old man a second to breathe. With a bloody, psychotic grin, Rayn exploded forward again, his speed completely breaking the sound barrier. Within a blink, his blade was already pressing against Dawinton's throat.
"FUCK YOU!" Dawinton roared in absolute desperation.
Suddenly, reality completely froze.
Rayn found himself entirely suspended in mid-air, completely paralyzed. The qi in his meridians, the momentum of his body, even the blood pumping through his veins—everything was absolutely locked in place by a terrifying, supreme spatial law.
Dawinton, leaning heavily on his golden sword, coughed up a massive mouthful of black blood and let out a manic, broken laugh. "Do you really fucking think you can kill a Phase 5 High-Stage Lord Merchant that easily, you ignorant little shit?!"
Dawinton's face was completely pale, sweating profusely as he forcefully stabilized his erratic breathing. "I am a Merchant of the Universe! I pay the absolute price to the Heavens to stop you in your tracks, and now, I will pay the price to completely obliterate you!"
As Dawinton spoke, Rayn's crimson eyes darted downward, and he saw the horrifying truth of the Merchant's absolute technique. Dawinton's entire right leg was completely gone. It hadn't been cut off; it had been entirely erased from existence. A massive, horrifying stump remained at his hip, pouring out gallons of dark crimson blood. Dawinton hadn't used qi to stop Rayn; he had sacrificed a piece of his own physical body, trading his right leg to the Universe to forcibly halt Rayn's time and space.
Not wasting a single precious second, Dawinton used the sovereign currency of his domain to plug the catastrophic wound, forming a makeshift, golden prosthetic to stop himself from bleeding to death.
Even while completely paralyzed in mid-air, suspended like a helpless puppet, Rayn didn't show a single ounce of fear. Instead, his bloody lips curled into a terrifying, sadistic sneer.
"Dawinton," Rayn's voice echoed through the cavern, dripping with demonic malice. "Do whatever the fuck you want. Struggle all you want. I am going to completely slaughter you today. I am going to rip your fucking head from your neck, shove it on a spike, and parade it through the streets of your miserable town! I'm going to make pissing on your skull a fucking local tradition!"
Hearing those violently arrogant words, for the first time in decades—for the first time since his beloved wife had died—Dawinton felt a pure, unadulterated, icy terror grip his heart. This was a man who hadn't even flinched when his son had tried to assassinate him. But now, facing a kid who was half-dead, completely immobilized, and entirely at his mercy... Dawinton felt profound, suffocating fear.
If Dawinton unleashed even half of his remaining power right now, he could turn Rayn into a bloody mist. But he was paralyzed by his own internal terror. The feeling rotting in his chest wasn't sympathy, and it wasn't mercy. It was the terrifying realization: What if this monstrous kid somehow survives this? If I fail to kill him here, how is he going to torture me when he escapes?
Rayn saw the hesitation flickering in the old man's eyes and completely lost it. He burst into absolute, maniacal laughter, laughing so hard that fresh blood began to bubble and pour out of his mouth.
"Hey, Dawinton! You sacrificed your own fucking leg to the universe just to freeze me in the air so you could land a killing blow! But look at you! You're just standing there, shivering like a coward, thinking about the consequences! That's exactly why I fucking hate motherfuckers like you! You pretend to be ruthless, but deep down, you always hesitate! You cling to your pathetic kindness and your fear!"
Rayn spat a glob of blood directly onto the icy floor. "Kill me! FUCKING KILL ME, DAWINTON! Because if you don't, the second I break out of this bind, I am going to tear you apart with my bare hands! And just like I promised, I won't let you die easily! I'll keep you barely alive, drag your mutilated, legless body across Ashburg, and show the exact people you tried to protect that their legendary Town Leader is nothing but a pathetic, embarrassing fucking worm!"
Rayn's words were the ultimate insult. They completely shattered Dawinton's remaining sanity. Combined with the fresh grief of watching his beast brutally decapitated, Dawinton's fear rapidly transmuted into pure, apocalyptic rage.
"YOU ARROGANT LITTLE BASTARD! Do you really think you are capable of defeating me?!" Dawinton roared, the veins on his forehead completely bulging out.