"If normal attacks won''t hurt it, then we''ll use something that isn''t normal."


    He drew in a deep breath.


    In that instant, the Golden Dragon Bloodline inside him boiled all the way over.


    Golden draconic energy burst out of his body.


    Behind him, it gathered into the phantom of the Five-wed Golden Dragon.


    The phantom was more solid than it had been when he fought Skr.


    Its dragon eyes burned bright, and its pressure rolled outward in waves, as if it were about to tear itself free from the void.


    The golden dragon sigils on the Dragonyer Sword shed like mad.


    Every mark on the de looked like it was burning, like it was roaring.


    This was the absolute limit of what he could do.


    He drove the power of the Golden Dragon Bloodline to its very peak and poured everything he had into this one sword strike.


    "Lydia, hold it down for me," Jared said in a low voice.


    Lydia didn''t hesitate for even a moment.


    The wraithde turned in her hand, and the thick ghostly miasma around it split into countless ck chains thatshed toward the monster.


    The monster was caught in the chains and let out a low hiss.


    Its arms jerked outward, and the chains shattered apart inch by inch.


    But that split-second pause was already enough.


    Jared moved.


    His body turned into a streak of golden light.


    With the Dragonyer Sword leading the way, he shot straight at the monster''s


    chest like an arrow loosed from the bow.


    That one sword strike carried everything he had.


    All his strength. All his will. All his life.


    The sword had not arrived yet, but the sword intent reached first.


    That sword intent came down with the bite of deep winter and the edge of a de.


    It tore open even the air, ripping a ck crack through it.


    The monster seemed to catch the threat.


    For the first time, it made a sound-a low, beastlike roar, thick with refusal and rage.


    It clenched both fists.


    Holy radiance and demonic aura erupted from its body at the same time, gathering into a twisted shield in front of it.


    Half of that shield zed with golden light. The other half was ck as ink.


    Those twopletely opposite forces spun wildly inside it, forming a vortex so strange it looked wrong just to see.


    Jared''s roar tore out of him as he drove the Dragonyer Sword hard into that vortex.


    Boom!


    The instant the sword mmed into the shield, a world-shaking st exploded through the passage.


    Golden draconic energy and that warped mix of holy radiance and demonic aura blew apart at the same moment.


    It turned into a terrifying shockwave that ripped outward in every direction.


    The walls on both sides of the passage were shredded to pieces by the shockwave. Broken stone sprayed everywhere, and dust swallowed the air.


    The rock overhead split with a web of cracks.


    Chunks of stone broke loose and came crashing down from above.


    Jared could feel it in his arm, his shoulder, all the way through the rest of his body.


    His bones were crying out under the strain, shuddering like they were about to give.


    The Dragonyer Sword locked against that shield and held there.


    Neither side could force its way even a step farther.


    The monster was too strong.


    Its cultivation stood far above Jared''s, and even with the Golden Dragon Bloodline burning inside him, he still couldn''t crush it in a contest of raw power.


    Break!


    Jared clenched his teeth so hard his jaw looked ready to crack.


    The light in his eyes had already turned into a sheet of red-gold.


    At that instant, the Golden Dragon Bloodline inside him pushed past its limit.


    The bottleneck that had trapped him for so long shattered apart with a violent burst


    at the very edge of life and death.


    High Immortal Realm Level Five!


    His aura exploded upward in an instant.


    Golden draconic energy poured out of him like a volcanic eruption and gathered behind his back into the shape of the Five-wed Golden Dragon, denser than before and carrying even heavier authority.


    The light zing from the Dragonyer Sword swelled several times over.


    The dragon sigils along the de looked as if they hade alive, letting out a dragon''s roar that shook everything around them.


    Crack!


    A fracture appeared across the twisted shield.


    The crack spread at once.


    In the blink of an eye, it branched out into a dense web across the whole shield.


    Break!


    Jared roared again and drove the Dragonyer Sword forward with a savage shove.


    Boom!


    The shield blew apart on the spot, and the Dragonyer Sword punched straight through it and drove hard into the monster''s chest!


    Roar!


    The monster let out a shriek so harsh it scraped through the passage, packed with refusal and rage.


    Dark golden blood burst from the wound.


    Inside that blood, golden holy


    radiance and ck demonic aura et


    churned together. The two forces rejected each other in the airand gave off a sharp sizzling sound.


    But the monster did not go down.


    It flung its arms in a wild frenzy and smashed at Jared.


    Jared didn''t have time to pull the Dragonyer Sword free.


    He could only let go of the hilt and throw himself backward.


    But the monster''s fist was too fast. One punch mmed straight into his chest.


    Bang!


    The crack of bone breaking rang out clear as day.


    Jared''s breastbone had at least two


    breaks in it, and the hit sent him


    flying like a kite with its string loose. Blood sprayed out of his mouth in a violent rush.


    "Jared!"


    Lydia Wraithmoor''s face changed at once. She shed forward and caught him.


    But the force behind it was too much.


    Even with Jared in her arms, she got driven back more than ten steps before she barely managed to steady herself.


    The monster lowered its head and looked at the Dragonyer Sword buried in its


    chest.


    A low growl rolled out of it. Then it reached up, grabbed the de itself, and yanked


    it free in one savage pull.


    Dark golden blood burst out again.


    But the monster moved like the pain meant nothing. It casually threw the Dragonyer Sword to the ground, then turned and started toward Jared and Lydia


    Its steps staggered, but the killing intenting off it didn''t weaken in the slightest.


    Every step it took stamped a deep footprint into the ground.


    Around each print, the dirt had already been stained dark gold by the blood.


    "It''s still not dead..."


    Jared forced the words out through clenched teeth.


    The pain tearing through his chest had gotten so bad he could barely draw breath.


    Lydia lowered him to the ground, tightened her grip on the wraithde, and stepped


    in front of him.


    "I''ll do it."


    Her voice came out calm.


    The killing intent in her eyes, though, had thickened to the limit.


    The monster kepting.


    Closer and closer.


    Lydia drew in a deep breath.


    In that instant, ghostly miasma around her started churning like mad.


    Behind her, a massive phantom began to take shape.


    It was the outline of a woman in ck robes, long hair falling like a waterfall, her


    face blurred, a giant wraithde gripped in her hand.


    That was her natal ghost form.


    It was the trump card she had cultivated for thousands of years.


    "Wraithcleave."


    Lydia let the two words fall softly.


    Her voice was light, but itnded like judgment rising out of the abyss of Ninefold


    Nether.


    Then she struck.


    This strike was nothing like any strike that hade before.


    In that instant, the ghostly miasma on the wraithdepressed to its absolute


    limit.


    It turned into a de-light ck as ink and shed straight for the monster''s neck.


    Where that de-light passed, space itself tore open into a pitch-ck crack.


    A harsh, piercing screech ripped from its edges.


    The monster caught the kill threat at once.


    It frantically drove the holy radiance and demonic aura inside its body, trying to form


    its shield again.


    But the Dragonyer Sword had already punched through its chest, and its power


    had dropped hard.


    The shield shattered before it could even finish taking shape.


    The ck de-light swept across its neck without the slightest resistance.


    Crack!


    The sound was light, but it carried clear as day.


    The monster''s head flew high into the air.


    Dark gold blood burst from the severed neck like a fountain.


    Its body stayed standing in ce for a full three breaths.


    Then it crashed down and threw up a skyful of dust.


    The head hit the ground and rolled several times.


    That twisted face still held the savage look from the instant before death.


    Everything went quiet.


    Lydia Wraithmoor drew back the wraithde.


    Her face had gone a shade paler, and a fineyer of sweat had beaded across her


    forehead.


    That one strike had nearly drained more than half her strength.


    "Dead..."


    She dragged in a rough breath and looked at Jared. "How bad is it?"