After slaughtering the tens of thousands of Silver Wing Heaven Devils—most of them nine-vein Emperors, with over ten at the level of half-step Devil Emperors—Long Chen started to pant.

Seeing him panting, the blond man sneered, “Out of breath already? Now how are you going to fight me?”

“Out of breath? What do you mean?” Long Chen countered.

When Long Chen took a deep breath, his aura flared to life, and his breathing steadied. In an instant, his energy returned to its peak.

Seeing this, the blond man quickly realized the truth, and his eyes narrowed. “So you weren’t using your astral energy just now.”

“Why would I waste astral energy on cutting up some corpses?” Long Chen replied disdainfully.

Though Long Chen’s starry manifestation had been active, he’d relied only on the power of his violet and seven-color Supreme Blood. After cleaving through so many powerful experts, he had exhausted those powers, and that was why he was panting slightly.

Now, switching to astral energy, he was once again in top condition. In other words, all that combat had only used his blood energy and some Spiritual Strength.

Long Chen wasn’t an idiot—he understood the blond man’s goal? If the other side wanted to exhaust his power, he’d beat them at their own game. Now, a pile of Silver Wing Heaven Devil corpses rested on the black soil of the primal chaos space.

“Don’t bother to scheme against me. Your schemes are nothing in front of my power. Why embarrass yourself by trying to use your feeble brain against me?” taunted Long Chen.

As Long Chen approached the blond man, his astral energy slowly climbed, transforming the world around him.

“A nine star heir with violet blood and Jiuli blood, eh? That’s a first. You’re a bit stronger than I anticipated, and it might take some more effort to capture you. But do you really think a little Earth Saint is qualified to challenge this Emperor?” said the blond man coldly.

“My goal isn’t to challenge you; it’s to beat you, or better yet, to kill you.” Long Chen smirked, his eyes blazing. “You might have been a Devil Emperor once, but now you exist in limbo—neither dead nor alive, neither welcome in heaven nor hell. Stop bringing up your past glory. That’s already long past. Now, you are standing before the unrivaled, heaven-shaking Boss Long San!”

The blond man threw his head back, laughing. “Unrivaled? Heaven-shaking? A so-called ‘genius’ from this weakened era dares to speak like that? Absurd!”

“Laugh all you want. Soon you’ll have no chance. That’s right, have you ever heard of wooden barrels and their short planks?” Long Chen asked.

“Wooden barrels?” The blond man chuckled, indulging Long Chen. “Of course, I know they’re made of planks. What’s your point?”

Long Chen continued, “Other than the bottom, a barrel is made by joining many planks together. But how much water it can hold doesn’t depend on the longest plank—it’s limited by the shortest one.”

“And?” The blond man looked unimpressed.

“A person’s power is the same,” Long Chen explained, walking forward. “Their physical body, bloodline, magical arts, divine abilities, formations, intellect—these are like planks. Joined together, they form a wall. But not all planks are equal; some are taller, some shorter. Many cultivators focus only on their longest plank, ignoring the shortest, which turns out to be their weakness, their shortcoming. I’m confident in challenging you because I know where my longest plank is, and I’ve spotted your shortest one. Comparing them, I’d say my longest plank is a bit taller than your shortest.”

“And what’s my short plank?” sneered the blond man.

“Rather than telling you, it’ll be easier to show you.”

As Long Chen walked forward, he completed thirty-six steps, leaving thirty-five footprints glowing with starlight behind him. Suddenly, thirty-five phantoms of himself appeared, merging seamlessly with him.

“Waning Moon Heaven Shaking Slash!” Long Chen shouted.

Evilmoon descended like a black river of stars, shaking heaven and earth.

“You’re cheating!” The blond man shouted, realizing that he had been duped.

Long Chen had been distracting him all along and had prepared this attack from the very first step.

Originally, the blond man had been holding a simple golden saber, his other hand forming seals. Now, as the altar rumbled, he drew his saber from it, bracing for Long Chen’s attack.

The altar quivered alongside countless human skulls on it, as if the structure might collapse under the strain. This golden saber was the tool used to suppress these human skulls, so the blond man didn’t dare to use it lightly. However, Long Chen’s thunderous attack left him with no choice but to draw it.

BOOM!

Two divine weapons clashed, unleashing massive saber images that collided with explosive force. The impact tore the void open and obliterated the runes of the ten thousand Daos in the surroundings. Long Chen spat out a mouthful of blood as he was hurled backward.

The blond man was also knocked back, each step he took making the altar beneath him sway dangerously. The whole structure trembled as if on the brink of collapse, held together only by blood-colored threads linking the human skulls. Without those threads, the altar would have already fallen apart.

“I see. When I first arrived, the corpses there were half-step Devil Emperors, but now, they’re mostly nine-vein Emperors. You are absorbing their power to sustain this altar,” Long Chen said, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. After that, he grinned darkly. “Looks like you’ve got more weaknesses than I thought. That last strike was just a warm-up—it doesn’t count. Let’s go again!”

Taking a deep breath, Long Chen slowly closed his eyes and raised Evilmoon toward the sky. A fist-sized star lit up on Evilmoon’s blade. Then a second, and a third...

With each new star, the starry sea behind Long Chen quivered, flowing into Evilmoon. By the time the seventh star materialized, the entire starry sea had merged into Evilmoon.

Long Chen coughed up a mouthful of blood, feeling the immense astral energy coursing through Evilmoon. It started to leak and resist his control.

It’s going out of control!

Long Chen’s expression changed. This attack was a technique he’d devised on the spot. He hoped that it would work seamlessly, but executing it was far more challenging than anticipated.

“Seven Stars, Waning Moon Slash!” he roared, blood spraying from his mouth as he swung Evilmoon downward with both hands.

This was a new technique that Long Chen had come up with by merging the secret art of the nine star line with Evilmoon’s Waning Moon Heaven Shaking Slash. To improve his chances, he’d first used the Waning Moon Heaven Shaking Slash to fully infuse his astral energy into Evilmoon. But now, with the energy unleashed, Evilmoon’s power surged wildly beyond control.

Unable to restrain it any further, Long Chen let Evilmoon fly from his grasp and whirl toward the altar. Not bothering to look at the outcome, he turned and fled.