At this moment, seeing Ryan Ling go all out like he didn’t care about his life, not just the Silver High Priest—even the Flame Demon God was trembling. Clearly, it wasn’t ready for this, and on the other side, Ryan’s speed was just too fast.
And all of this was thanks to the Imperial Dawn Elixir. That stuff is absolutely top-tier, and Ryan had just swallowed it not long ago—right now the medicine’s effects were peaking. Even if he burned through all his stamina in a flash, the Elixir would refill him instantly. The power boost totally blew Heavenwood Spirit Liquid out of the water.
Of course, the main thing right now is that the ancient Heavenwood is still just a sapling. If it keeps growing—say, doubles in height—Ryan’s stamina would never run dry. But to make that happen, he’d have to go to Japan.
After fighting these Middle Saints from Japan, Ryan could faintly sense a trace of Heavenwood’s aura—and it wasn’t just some random spiritual root, either. That got him seriously hyped. If he could snatch that god-tier artifact in Japan, he’d need to plan it out big time.
Ryan knew perfectly well that would be way harder than grabbing the Imperial Dawn Elixir. But if he actually pulled it off, he’d have the clout to go to Yan Capital and throw down with the World Dominion Society.
For now, Ryan stopped overthinking it and locked all his focus on the Flame Demon God. As he kept attacking like a madman, the demon’s body started cracking open, with waves of energy pouring out. This wasn’t some regular pill-qi—it was pure pill essence, insanely precious stuff!
Nobody knows how many years this Flame Demon God has been alive inside the pill furnace. Every time a batch of pills was refined, it would absorb all the best essence. So basically, the Flame Demon God itself was the biggest, baddest pill of all—and its power totally crushed the Imperial Dawn Elixir.
And honestly, there’s probably nobody else in the world crazy enough to try something like this except Ryan.
“Demon God, fight back now! You can’t let that punk get away with it!” The Silver High Priest’s face was green with panic. Everything happening right now felt like a nightmare—literally.
“Fight back? It’s way too late for that!” Ryan sneered. Just now, he’d unleashed at least three rounds of the Infernal Madblade Style—thirty consecutive slashes hammering the Flame Demon God. Its body was already cracked, its head blasted by thunder, its legs chewed by the Hell Furnace’s Asura Wildflame. It was on the brink. Now, with so many blades going berserk at every vital spot, there’s no way it could hold out.
“Aaaah!” Finally, after a massive scream, the Flame Demon God’s whole body exploded with a bang. Right before it blew up, it locked eyes with Ryan Ling—clearly unable to believe that some kid from Huaxia could hit so hard and last so long.
“Finally did it!” Ryan grinned from ear to ear. First he’d snatched the Imperial Dawn Elixir, now he’d sealed up all the Flame Demon God’s essence—his luck today was just off the charts.
Right then, he didn’t hesitate for a second—he sucked in all the Flame Demon God’s essence in one huge gulp. For Ryan, this was basically a super-boosting tonic, and in a flash his whole body swelled up, like he’d doubled in size.
“Is that guy even human? Or a ghost? How is this possible?” The Silver High Priest was totally stunned. Ryan killing the Flame Demon God was wild enough, but seriously—the Goldridge battle had only happened a few days ago. Back then, if Guihai One-Blade hadn’t shown up, Ryan couldn’t even handle a Middle Saint. Now he’d taken out two Middle Saint onmyōji under the High Priest, and the High Priest himself wasn’t even a match. Even scarier, Ryan had just chopped the Flame Demon God to death—and now he was swallowing it whole!
You gotta realize—the Flame Demon God is a total monster for humans. Anyone who tries to swallow it, even a Great Saint, would explode on the spot. But Ryan not only swallowed it, he came out totally fine. The craziest part? The demon’s essence turned into his own power in a blink. The Silver High Priest was just dumbfounded!
“Ryan, don’t think about anything else right now—transform it! Use that hot surge to break through your realm, every second you wait is wasted!” The Ghost Elder gulped hard inside Ryan’s mind; he sounded even more anxious than Ryan himself!
“Got it!” Ryan nodded fast. He knew exactly what ‘strike while the iron’s hot’ meant. He sat cross-legged on the mountain peak, pill essence swirling all over him—top-tier stuff, the best boost for his Golden Core Stage.
As he kept cycling his breath, the golden core in his dantian started spinning faster and faster, its aura turning even more golden, until it burst out in blinding golden light.
Right then, he’d gone from Forming Core to Nourishing Core in the Golden Core Stage!
But Nourishing Core was nowhere near the end. The Flame Demon God’s essence inside him was still raging like a volcano, and in the blink of an eye his power kept surging, crazily pushing toward Transforming Core!
Right now, Ryan was absolutely buzzing inside!
The Ghost Elder inside him kept cheering him on, too!
Today was just pure dumb luck, no question. By Ryan’s original estimate, it would’ve taken three months, maybe half a year to hit Nourishing Core. But now? He was leveling up like he’d strapped himself to a rocket.
Awesome! Ryan was grinning like a maniac inside, and throwing himself into the breakthrough full throttle. Not a single drop of the Flame Demon God’s essence was going to waste!
Down below, the Silver High Priest was so stunned he was practically kneeling. He’d seen every bit of Ryan’s transformation up close, and the speed at which his power was skyrocketing had him totally floored. Looking at the whole world, not even the most legendary prodigies could level up this insanely fast!
......
While Ryan was going wild with his breakthrough, over at Gabriel Xue’s camp, the calm was shattered by a sudden rush of troops.
[Irrelevant meta line skipped per guidelines.]
“Commander Xue, bad news—something huge is coming! There’s a powerful enemy, heading in from the north!” A brigade commander stationed at the Qianzhou border rushed in, his cap flying off, looking totally wrecked—clearly scared out of his mind.
“What’s with the panic? Where’s your Goldridge Military Region backbone? Stand up and report—clearly!” Gabriel Xue was totally calm. After Ryan killed Liu Qingyang, he’d led Lin Zhan, Harvey Jin, and the others to wipe out the rest of Su Province’s forces. With their Heaven-Tier Void Realm experts and thousands of special forces, Su’s side never stood a chance—they crushed everything, captured loads of supplies, and even nabbed a few Japanese spies. With them around, even if Ryan broke every rule by killing Liu Qingyang and stomping the Saint Banner, it was all good.
On the flip side, with this ironclad evidence of Japanese collusion, they could take it straight to Yan Capital and sue the World Dominion Society—make them lose out big time.
So with a win like this, there was no way Gabriel Xue would be panicking.
But then, the brigade commander’s next words made his hair stand on end.
“Commander Xue, it’s not just me freaking out—this enemy is legit terrifying. It’s a Great Saint from the World Dominion Society. All our defenses outside Qianzhou are useless against him. He even flipped over the warships at Wu Songkou, just like that! When a Great Saint gets mad, forget about us—he could wipe out all of Goldridge in one go!” The brigade commander was shaking all over as he finished.
“A Great Saint? That’s insane—Commander Xue, we’ve got to retreat! Who knew Liu Qingyang had a Great Saint backing him? If that guy shows up, nobody can stop him, not even our boss!”
“Yeah, retreat ASAP! I say we get in touch with the boss and beg him to call in Guihai One-Blade for backup. There’s no other way!”
“No more talking—retreat now! Let those Qianzhou folks go for now, our top priority is survival. The troops we brought are all Goldridge Military Region elites; we can’t let them die here!”
......
Right then, hearing this emergency report, Harvey Jin, Lin Zhan, and the others all called for a retreat. Gabriel Xue was starting to lose his cool, too—but he hadn’t even said the word ‘retreat’ yet.
Suddenly, an overwhelming force swept in...