This wasn't an attack trying to cause direct harm. This was a technique to cage.Lein felt that lattice of energy forming around him and decided that letting it finish forming wasn't an option worth considering.White energy exploded from his entire body at once in one brief burst that had no direction, not focused anywhere, just going outward in every direction from one point.Xiao Wuhen's energy lattice shattered before it finished forming.And that energy wave also pushed Xiao Wuhen back, the first time in this fight the Master had been pushed back not from a direct collision but from a passive wave.The four members of the White Lotus Sect stood at four different points.Xiao Bao had just gotten back up, one hand holding the side of his chest where Lein's palm push had landed. Xiao Feng picked up his sword that had fallen into the sand, gripping it again but his right wrist could no longer close fully the way it had before. Xiao Yun held one dagger, the other already embedded in t

Inside Varek’s command room, Vael Dross stood with both hands braced against the edge of the display table, his eyes fixed on the camera feed still showing the beach.He had already watched two thousand of his soldiers get wiped out in three minutes. He had already seen the four strongest cultivators of the White Lotus Sect—people whose names were known across the Tianlong Continent—fall one after another. He had already seen heavy artillery, rocket launchers, and attack helicopters treated like toys tossed aside on the roadside.And the man responsible for all of it was still standing the same way he had when he first landed on that beach.Vael clenched his fists against the edge of the table.What else could be done? What was left that they hadn’t already tried?Then the screen captured six figures landing twenty meters away from Lein.Vael straightened immediately.Black robes. Swords strapped to their backs.The same figures who had appeared uninvited two weeks ago and nearly brou

The Supreme Leader hit the sand and did not stop there.His body rolled from the momentum of the landing before finally coming to a halt face-down, sand pressed against his face, his sword still clutched in his hand.He pushed himself upward with both arms, but Lein was already standing in front of him.Not running toward him. Simply there already, as though there had never been any transition between the two positions.The Supreme Leader had not even fully risen when Lein’s fist struck the right side of his head.SMACK.It was not a punch meant to kill. Far too light for that. It was a punch designed to send someone flying to the left, and that was exactly what happened. The Supreme Leader was hurled sideways across several meters of sand, his body carving a trail across the surface before finally stopping.He rose again.His sword came up, the Crimson Shackle still glowing, and he slashed forward with a speed that would still have been monstrous by any human standard.Lein tilted hi

“You and the Anthony Family are the reason my father died.”Lein’s voice was flat, but there was something beneath it that had not been there when he spoke to the Supreme Leader.“And in return, the Anthony Family must be destroyed. And it begins with you.”Jonathan had only just managed to lift his head halfway from the sand when he failed to process the second sentence before Lein was already in front of him again.The second kick struck his face at the exact same spot as the first.Jonathan was sent flying once more. Farther this time. His body soared along a longer arc before crashing down and rolling across the sand, finally stopping in a position completely devoid of symmetry—face buried in the sand, one arm trapped beneath his chest while the other sprawled limply to the side.He did not rise immediately.Not because he did not want to, but because his body needed several moments to decide whether it was still willing to cooperate with him.Lein walked toward him.Unhurried.Jo

Eight hours after the surrender siren sounded, the sky above the Varek border changed.Hundreds of Arcturus military aircraft formed a formation that filled the horizon from one end to the other, shadows moving beneath the afternoon sun. Behind them, twenty warships cut through the Velthar Ocean from the west, lights on their decks burning even in daylight, a signal that needed no words to translate.This wasn't a visit.This was an arrival with no departure date.Arcturus forces landed on the beach that eight hours ago had still been packed with twenty thousand Varek soldiers and every best weapon they had ever deployed in a single operation. Now the beach was clear of all of that, except for marks that couldn't be cleaned up in a single day.Within an hour of landing, the Varek Continent's senior officials had been gathered. Vael Dross stood at the front of those surrendering, his face showing no easily readable expression but no resistance in his body either. He was enough of a mil