Xuan Li felt his spiritual sea erupt like a volcano. The power of a Peak Spiritual Core, no longer strangled by the Matrix, flooded his limbs. Conversely, Ethan felt the crushing weight of the sudden power shift. He lunged in a desperate attempt to end it, but his movements were sluggish.

Xuan Li leaned back, the blade at his throat missing by a hair’s breadth, and unleashed a single, concentrated punch.

BOOM.

Ethan was launched into the clouds before the Captain blurred, reappearing above him to hammer him back down into the earth. The impact buried Ethan deep into the crust.

But Xuan Li wasn’t done. Consumed by a rage that bordered on madness, he descended like a meteor, his fists becoming a blur of destruction. He began to pummel the ground with everything he had, a rain of strikes so powerful they carved a crater tens of kilometers deep into the bedrock.

"Come out, you son of a bitch!" Xuan Li screamed, his voice cracking with hysteria. "Come out and face me again if you have the balls! You aren’t so brave now, are you, you piece of shit?!"

The ground continued to groan and shatter under the Captain’s unrelenting assault.

Ethan emerged from the depths of the crater like a specter rising from the grave. He was a horrific, bloody mess; crimson ichor leaked from his eyes, nose, and ears, masking his features in a mask of gore. His arms hung uselessly at his sides, shattered beyond immediate repair, and his knees buckled with every agonizing step. He could barely remain upright, his life force flickering like a candle in a hurricane.

Xuan Li hovered a few meters away, his chest heaving with exertion, a cruel smirk playing on his lips. "You have courage, boy. It is a pity you were destined to die on this pathetic rock."

Ethan didn’t respond. He couldn’t. His throat was choked with blood, and his consciousness was drifting. But he forced his head up, his amethyst eyes dull but still defiant.

"Kill me then..." Ethan managed to wheeze through a mouthful of blood. "I’m not afraid of you, you son of a bitch!"

Xuan Li threw his head back and laughed, a jagged, arrogant sound. "As you wish. I’ll make it slow—"

The laughter died instantly.

A spear made of pure, blinding white lightning erupted through Xuan Li’s chest from behind. The Captain’s eyes bulged as the electricity vaporized his organs and charred his spine in a fraction of a second. The change was so sudden that even Ethan, standing at death’s door, blinked in shock.

Xuan Li turned his head with the last of his strength, only to see a terrifying sight. In the shattered sky, a being composed entirely of crackling, violet-white lightning was descending. The pressure it radiated was colossal—a divine weight that made the previous suppression of the World Matrix feel like a summer breeze.

"WHO DARES DESTROY MY DESCENDANTS?!"

The voice shook the very molecules of the air. The lightning being began to inhale, drawing in every lingering lightning dragon and static charge in the atmosphere until it solidified into a towering, semi-humanoid form.

With a casual flick of its wrist, the lightning being jerked Xuan Li upward. The Captain, once a Peak Spiritual Core expert, was hoisted into the air like a ragdoll. Before he could even scream, a blade of electricity decapitated him in a single stroke.

The being then turned its faceless, glowing gaze toward the Invictus.

"Pour everything into the shields!" Elder Xuan Ni screamed from the bridge, his face pale with a terror he hadn’t felt in centuries. "EVERYTHING!"

Elder Open Sky threw the Seeker’s Scepter into the ship’s core, his hands weaving seals so fast they blurred. The runic shields of the ten-kilometer warship flared with desperate intensity. The lightning humanoid launched itself forward, slamming a fist into the barrier. The entire ship rocked violently, the shield undulating like water, but it held.

Seeing the shield withstand the blow, Xuan Ni let out a frantic, high-pitched laugh. "A remnant! I see now! You are nothing but a lingering shadow of the creator of this matrix! Your energy dissipates with every second! In ten, maybe fifteen breaths, you will be history!"

The lightning being paused, its form flickering with ancient, insulted majesty. "It has been a long time since a worm at the Half-step Spiritual Sea spoke to me in such a manner. I shall remember your kind... and what has happened to my descendants shall be visited upon all of you."

The humanoid didn’t strike again. Instead, it began to collapse inward, its massive frame condensing into a tiny, hyper-compressed sphere of blinding violet light.

Then, it detonated.

The explosion was apocalyptic. The sphere expanded with a force that defied the laws of physics. The Invictus’s shields were vanished. The ten-kilometer juggernaut was tossed through the air like a child’s toy in a cyclone, its hull shrieking as it was hurled across the horizon.

Ethan collapsed onto his back, staring up at the scorched sky as the shockwave from the explosion finally dissipated. Despite the agony wracking his body, a jagged, bloody laugh bubbled up from his throat.

"Hah... worth it," Ethan wheezed, the sound wet and broken. "At least... those bastards... are dead too."

He closed his eyes, ready for the darkness to finally take him, satisfied that he had dragged his executioners into the abyss with him.

"You are mistaken."

The voice was like the hum of a high-voltage wire, vibrating right beside his ear. Ethan’s eyes snapped open. Standing over him was the flickering, translucent remains of the lightning ancestor. The being was fading, its brilliant violet light turning into a faint, ghostly mist.

"They did not die," the entity continued, its faceless gaze fixed on the horizon where the Invictus had disappeared. "That vessel is at the apex of Spiritual Sea technology. It even possesses the defensive power of a Golden Core artifact. It will not be destroyed so easily—certainly not by the meager pittance of energy I had left to give."

Ethan’s laugh died in his throat. He looked toward the distant plumes of smoke where the ship had fallen. If they weren’t dead, if Xuan Ni was still breathing...

"I have bought you a moment, child of the Void," the ancestor whispered, its form beginning to dissolve into the wind. "But only a moment. The worm is wounded, but he is still a worm with teeth. You must decide now... will you die in the dirt, or will you crawl?"

Ethan grit his teeth, the metallic taste of blood filling his mouth once more. He looked at his broken hands, then back at the empty sky where the portal had once been.

"I don’t... know how to crawl," Ethan growled, his amethyst eyes flickering back to life. "I only know how to hunt."

--------------------

From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.

Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.

Body Refinement Realm

Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement

Spiritual Gathering Realm

Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation

Spiritual Core Realm

Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)

Spiritual Soul Realm

Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion

Golden Core Realm

Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction

Spiritual Sea Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Dao Manifestation Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Spiritual Transcendence

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??